HIMSS23: Clinical history data key to quality care

Photo: Al David Sacks/Getty Images

Is big data too big? Next month, Kristen McLaughlin and Nitin Gupta will attempt an answer.

Both are directors for application support at the NYS Office of Mental Health. During their upcoming session at HIMSS23 in Chicago, "When Big Data is Too Big: Creating Succinct Clinical Summaries," they'll talk about how big data presents an opportunity to integrate massive volumes of clinical history data – which can provide critical information for treatment providers and has the potential to improve quality of healthcare.

The catch, said McLaughlin, is that to be useful at the point of care, key information in clinical decision-making tools needs to be rapidly scanned within a fast-paced clinical treatment environment.

To address this need, the NYS team conducted a focus group study to systematically gather feedback from users of a web-based platform for sharing Medicaid and EHR data to support clinical decision-making and quality improvement initiatives. The goal of the study was to define the design of a clinically meaningful – and very brief – patient treatment summary that condenses five years of clinical data into a single page. That page includes key information on mental health, substance use, and medical inpatient and outpatient data.

Focus groups were conducted with super, moderate and new "naïve" users. The team identified four themes related to content, labeling, sorting and time period for querying patient data in the clinical summary for rapid comprehension and ease of use. The results of the focus groups informed the development and implementation of a brief clinical summary of Medicaid and EHR service data.

According to McLaughlin, the results also "yielded specific recommendations about content, layout, labeling, sorting and … ease of use."

The session will attempt to summarize clinician and quality management feedback on content and design on a brief patient overview report. It will also examine the role of focus groups in the iterative design and development process of a brief version of a web-based patient clinical treatment record, and describe the "technical methodology to create the record," said McLaughlin.
 

Kristen McLaughlin and Nitin Gupta, directors for application support at the NYS Office of Mental Health, will offer more details during their HIMSS23 session, "When Big Data is Too Big: Creating Succinct Clinical Summaries," scheduled for Tuesday, April 18, at 2 p.m. CT in Room S104 of the McCormick Center, South Building, Chicago.

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: Jeff.Lagasse@himssmedia.com