OptoMize - Population Screening
Population based screening programmes can significantly reduce the cost of healthcare
but the solutions implemented to manage the screening process must in themselves
not add to the burden, accordingly the technology must be affordable and therefore
as automated as possible.
Over recent years software to manage the entire patient care journey has been expensive
to develop but that development it is now complete and in widespread use, so the
development costs are already being amortized and as a consequence there is evidence
of both decreased capital costs for solutions and novel deployment methodologies
which provide for a per patient cost rather than up front licensing of the technology.
All of which indicate that for the government or the healthcare provider that sees
the need for preventative programs, the economic and technical risks have now been
minimized and both pilot and full size programs can be readily implemented.
THE PATIENT CAREPATHWAY
Automating the patient care journey requires a very special approach to software
development. Managing a large scale primary care program requires some technology
pre-requisites. This requires much more than a data base that stores and recalls
information from different locations. The approach that Digital Healthcare has taken
with OptoMize uses a "patient state" process which establishes not only the "state"
that each patient is in during their care process but manages the entry and exit
mechanisms to that "state" based on decisions that are taken during the care of
the patient. For example, a patient might be sent a call letter, they may attend
a clinical session, have their potential condition examined, be given the all clear
and then be re-called again in 12 months. Alternatively the patient may receive
a letter but not attend, they may receive another letter and call their GP rather
than the clinical location, they may eventually attend, have their condition assessed
by a specialist who may want to have the patient visit a local clinician, who may
decide that further monitoring is required, and then put them back for a 3 month
recall. OptoMize deals with all eventualities that occur in real life and tracks
and monitors the patient each step of the way.
PATIENT MANAGEMENT
Digital Healthcare has developed a series of methodologies that "capture" patients.
First there is a patient cohort management system that allows data to be drawn from
many sources. Once in the system the patients are validated for uniqueness using
a series of identity resolution techniques. In countries that have no national health
identifiers, or a central register, the use of multiple fields of data to increase
the probability of unique identification is adopted. This includes, the patient
name, date of birth and address. Digital Healthcare has also developed methodologies
for ensuring that patients can enter the system in several ways. They can have a
scheduled appointment, they can drop in as an identified patient or they can be
registered as a new patient at any location on the network.
CLINIC & APPOINTMENT MANAGEMENT
OptoMize contains a clinic management and appointment booking system that allows
administrators to rapidly assign patients individually or en masse to specific clinics.
From this data invitations are sent by post, or other means, to have appointments
confirmed and begin the clinical process. This process is as automated as possible
in order to make the system work effectively on a large scale.
CALL & RECALL MANAGEMENT
Patient data is assimilated into OptoMize from numerous sources and OptoMize generates
a patient invitation letter using appropriate words and languages agreed centrally.
The letters are either sent directly from a central service or uploaded to a web
portal and made available locally to the primary care practice responsible for managing
the patients. The patient letters are sent out a predetermined length of time before
the appointment. All patients called for the screening appointment are entered into
the patient reporting system so that they can be tracked and audited as necessary.
COMMUNICATION WITH PRIMARY CARE ENDPOINTS
Screening programs must communicate effectively with primary care specialists and
Digital Healthcare has developed a number of methodologies that allow primary care
physicians to become fully engaged in the process. This can be formalized such that
the Primary care practice is made responsible for call and recall or can be interactive
where the centralised screening system generates letters and reports that go directly
to the patients' primary care doctor. In recent years there has been a growing need
for primary care providers to have on line access to their patient information,
for this reason Digital Healthcare has developed a "web view" technology. This allows
primary care doctors to log on to a secure web site and see the data and reports
that relate to their patients.
REPORTING & STATISTICAL VALIDATION
It is necessary for a wide variety of reasons to keep accurate records of screening
events. This might be for payment purposes but more likely it relates to clinical
control of the program. A variety of reports are provided in OptoMize for authenticated
users. These include detailed status reports covering the whole program. These reports
are essential for monitoring the process, understanding patient compliance, measuring
screening efficacy and proving that outcomes are beneficially affected. The reports
are capable of drilling down to the individual care record of each patient in the
program.
SECURITY & CONFIDENTIALITY
Patient confidentiality is a critical component of any system. Digital Healthcare
products use systems similar to those used in banking and mission critical applications.
An advanced messaging technology based on HL7 for communicating between locations
and systems and public / private key encryption methodologies to prevent unauthorized
access to the system and the data it carries is utilized.
For more information on OptoMize please contact:
info@digital-healthcare.com