Yannis Paschalidis, professor at Boston University, teamed up with William G. Adams, MD, to devise a software flagging patients at increased risk for medical emergencies by using data from the patients' electronic health records, according to BU Today.
Here are eight things to know:
1. The software goes through records of patients who were previously hospitalized and learns which risk factors might have been red flags for these hospitalizations.
2. The software's algorithm uses those red flags to warn of potential future hospitalizations. The software currently focuses on heart-related conditions.
3. Dr. Adam educated Mr. Paschalidis and his team about medical terminology so they could better understand the clinical language used in the software.
4. The software collected the EHRs of more than 45,500 patients from Boston Medical Center. The system can correctly predict up to 82 percent of heart-related hospitalizations.
5. The analysis will help medical professors better monitor patients in addition to shedding light on disease risk factors not previously detected by physicians.
6. Dr. Adams and Mr. Paschalidis will interview physicians in the next year to decide the best way to use the software to yield results for hospitals.
7. Mr. Paschalidis intends to eventually expand the software to predict other, non-heart related hospitalizations.
8. Mr. Paschalidis is teaming with BMC's surgery department on software that will flag patients at risk for readmission within 90 days.
More on practice management:
2014's 8 top earning physician specialties
The possibility of changing healthcare: 5 notes on the cloud
Alvarado Hospital opens spine, joint institute: 5 key concepts