Decision Support

Google Product Manager Jonathan Sheffi on how Google Cloud makes it easier to ingest and process genomic data at scale to run analytics that provide intriguing insight.

At the HIMSS Machine Learning & AI event, Dr. Anthony Chang, chief intelligence and innovation officer at CHOC Children's, cleared up some common misconceptions.

It will be the first and most comprehensive data hub in multiple myeloma designed to speed the delivery of precision-based treatment to every patient.

Many illnesses are easy to treat if caught in time. New EHR studies show how optimizing data can spot problems clinicians might overlook.

The National Neuroscience Institute (NNI), the national specialty centre for the management and care of neurological diseases in Singapore and Iota Medtech, a local medtech company specialising in AI and surgical robotics, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a system to sort brain scans of head injury patients in order of urgency. What’s it about Currently, there is a significant waiting time for head injury patients requiring urgent treatment, especially when scans were received after radiologists' working hours. The 70 to 100 brain scans received daily are interpreted by radiologists in chronological order. The development of the priority sorting system will help ensure that patients requiring immediate medical attention receive the care they need. Radiologists will be able to interpret brain scans faster and their work will be more efficient. NNI will develop the algorithm to sort brain scans using a “triage system”, with each scan labelled red, amber or green according to the urgency of medical attention. The system will also be tested in a clinical setting, with its accuracy compared against that of radiologists in NNI. Before being implemented in hospitals, it will have to go through regulatory approval processes by the Health Sciences Authority, the national regulator for health products, which will take some time. In the future, the system developed by NNI and Iota Medtech can be modified to treat other common conditions such as stroke and glioma (a type of brain tumour).  On the record “Head injury was chosen as the initial focus of the system in accordance with current patient demands”, said Mr Benjamin Hong, CEO of Iota Medtech in a statement. Associate Professor Ng Wai Hoe, medical director of NNI said, “Iota Medtech's algorithm has already passed laboratory tests for accuracy and NNI will be providing data of brain scans to continually increase the accuracy of the system. The sharing of the data will be in accordance with guidelines in the Personal Data Protection Act.”

Given the increasing complexity of clinical care and massive amounts of data being collected through different medical devices, healthcare professionals can end up spending excessive amounts on time on documentation and often, have a lot of critical information but in a fragmented or siloed manner.  Fragmented data creates information gaps, which can potentially impact decision-making, coordination, and workflow. One way to address this challenge is to bring together the disparate sources of data onto an integrated platform, and this is where Ascom’s Healthcare Platform comes in. The modular approach of the platform means that healthcare organisations can begin their process of data consolidation regardless of their stage of development. Due to its built-in interoperable features, existing hospital information systems and devices can also be integrated into the Healthcare Platform. One practical use case of the Platform is that of patient alerts – with Ascom’s ability to analyse, filter and channel alerts to specific clinicians, they do not need to ‘chase’ the data and can respond more appropriately based on the nature of the alarm. This results in fewer needless interruptions for the clinicians.  Sengkang General Hospital is one of the first hospitals in South-East Asia to have implemented the end-to-end suite of Ascom Healthcare Platform solutions. “We are pleased to be working with the Ascom Telligence Nurse Call System as part of our integrated solutions under the new hospital infrastructure. Having the ability to bridge the information flow seamlessly with various business applications has helped to drive towards greater workflow coordination and productivity for our staff particularly in current times of manpower constraints” as shared by Lee Puay Chuan, Deputy Director Strategic Projects, Sengkang General Hospital, Singapore.  Purpose-built devices for care delivery While an integrated platform can bring about better healthcare data visibility and actionable insights which are beneficial for both clinicians and patients, the hardware or devices must also be up-to-task in terms of providing access to vital information, as well as facilitating the communication between clinicians and care teams. The Ascom Myco™ 2 is an example of such a purpose-built device which connects its users with colleagues, patients, labs, pharmacies, porters, cleaners, medical devices, patient monitors, and nurse call systems. Crucially, it merges data from these multiple sources and displays it as meaningful information to help frontline staff make the best decisions while on the move. Designed for the delivery of personalised care, the recently released Ascom Myco 3 is a versatile purpose-built Android™- device which features multiple care delivery and monitoring functions. It works with apps to integrate with nurse/call alert systems, wander management and monitoring solutions and data collection systems. To facilitate more efficient care at the bedside, the Myco 3 allows the user to perform single-entry registration of vitals to EMRs/EHRs, barcode scanning of patient IDs and point-of-care access to and management of clinical information.  Users can choose from using either the Myco 2 or Myco 3 on their own or even combine the use of both purpose-built devices within the same facility. Regardless of the device use combination, they can be easily integrated into the Ascom Healthcare Platform, enabling seamless access, sharing and tracking of information across care teams and locations. Android is a trademark of Google LLC.

Technologies to give physicians the ability see PDMP data within their EHR workflows are enabling them to spot doctor shoppers and make smarter prescriptions, says KLAS.

Inland Empire Health Plan and Preveon clinical pharmacists use review system to achieve a 50 percent drop in drug-drug interactions, a 50 percent drop in duplications, and two meds discontinued per patient, on average.

Its new InterQual 2019 technology offers support for "hospital at home" care models, the company says.

Health application developer Clarigent Health is teaming up with The Children’s Home of Cincinnati to complete a pilot study using Clarigent’s artificial intelligence-powered mobile decision support app. The platform works by analyzing linguistic and vocal characteristics of sessions between therapists or physicians and patients to provide a near real-time assessment of a patient at risk for suicide or mental health conditions. WHY IT MATTERS Clarigent’s application uses advanced algorithms to analyze linguistic and vocal characteristics collected during therapy sessions from clients of The Children’s Home, a provider of education and mental health treatment for children. In the pilot, titled Classification and Assessment of Mental Health Performance Using Schematics, or CAMPUS, 20 therapists working in multiple elementary, middle and high school settings across southwest Ohio will deploy the mobile app to record regularly scheduled sessions with students. "This technology has the potential to change how mental health services are administered on a global scale,” Children’s Home President and CEO John Banchy said in a statement. While previous clinical studies have tested the technology in hospital and emergency room settings, with results published in peer-reviewed journals, CAMPUS marks the debut of the app in a school environment. Participation in the pilot and recording requires the consent of the student and parent or guardian, and the schools have also granted consent. The research team hopes to obtain 400 to 600 recordings in this initial phase, before progressing to a larger study in the fall involving several thousand students. Clinicians, who make the ultimate decisions on treatment, can use the app's assessment and recommendations to help inform and guide them. The goals for the pilot aim to show the app can be integrated into a normal therapy session without interfering with the session, and to ensure the app can receive audio of sufficient quality in a school setting to enable analysis by the app. The fall study will include control participants from the general student population in addition to screening for a more diverse set of behavioral health conditions. THE LARGER TREND While initially focused on suicidality and mental health, Clarigent is looking at other areas – both inside and outside of healthcare – where its technology platform can also be leveraged. In addition, Clarigent intends to conduct and publish additional studies supporting and underlying the rationale for the recommendations provided by the app to better enable clinicians to independently review the basis for the recommendations. ON THE RECORD "This technology was invented in response to a need expressed by medical professionals who work with young people in crisis,” Clarigent Health CEO Don Wright said in a statement. “This study is an important first step in moving the technology from the hospital and research bench into the real world where kids are every day." .jumbotron{ background-image: url("https://www.healthcareitnews.com/sites/hitn/files/u6245/digital%20transformation%20jumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Digital Transformation in Healthcare In May, we'll talk to experts and professionals on the front lines about what's really happening today with the digital transformation in healthcare and what hospital executives need to be doing right now. Twitter: @SullyHIT Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.  Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin. Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com Twitter: @dropdeaded209  Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.