Multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation IBM, US, and ActiveHealth Management, an Aetna subsidiary, have unveiled a new cloud computing and clinical decision support solution. IBM and ActiveHealth Management worked together to create the Collaborative Care Solution that gives physicians and patients access to the information they need to improve the overall quality of care, without the need to invest in new infrastructure. The solution is built on combining IBM's Health Information Framework, IBM Initiate Exchange and advanced health analytics from Cognos 8 Business Intelligence and predictive analytics from IBM Research with ActiveHealth CareEngine clinical decision support and the Active CareTeam.
Patients often have to carry their health history information with them from visit to visit. Doctors don't always have the information they need when they need to quickly make patient care decisions. The Collaborative Care Solution addresses these issues by gathering patients' health data from multiple sources to create a detailed patient record.
The solution employs advanced analytics software to provide an innovative approach to patient care in which physicians can easily access and automatically analyse a patient's condition. By combining information from electronic medical records, claims, medication and lab data with ActiveHealth's evidence-based clinical decision support CareEngine and delivering it through an IBM cloud computing platform, doctors will be able to deliver more complete and accurate decisions about patient care. Further, this solution can help reduce spending on ineffective treatments and unnecessary tests. According to a recent study by Thomson Reuters, approximately $800 billion is wasted each year in the U.S on health care considered ineffective. It can also help provide better insight for treating patients with chronic conditions such as coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure and diabetes, which account for 80 percent of all healthcare costs.
With all healthcare data and IT resources managed in a cloud environment, the system will enable the coordination of patient care among teams, so doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, aides, therapists and pharmacists can easily access, share and address information about patients from a single source. The solution can also show trends in how patients are responding, for instance, to treatment for chronic asthma or adhering to drug regimens and automatically alert doctors to conflicting or missed prescriptions.
For one fixed monthly fee, healthcare organisations will have access to all the tools and services without having to make significant upfront investments - avoiding the challenge of updating systems when clinical guidelines or reporting requirements change or when patient loads grow. Additionally, the solution provides advanced analytics that help physicians or entire healthcare organisations measure their performance against national or hospital quality standards.
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