Precision.BI Solution Utilized to Study Improvement of Patient Care After Implementing EMR
Originally published June 2009. Posted 2/22/10.

By Tracy Powell

Tom English is the Director of Research at The University of Alabama Birmingham Huntsville Regional Medical Campus. In 2008 he performed a study, utilizing UAB’s Precision.BI Business Intelligence solution, to determine what the impact of their EMR implementation had on patient outcomes. In his opinion, most EMR research focuses on perceptions and barriers. He wanted to move past that and with his passion for EMR records combined with diabetes research the Precision.BI solution was an ideal platform to do just that.

The study was completed over a course of a year where he identified pre-period EMR implementation and post-period EMR implementation patients. He studied lab results for diabetic patients in conjunction with demographics. There, he wanted to know if the labs were ordered and/or performed. He then wanted to identify the result of the lab.

TIMEFRAME:
In the pre-phase component of the project (prior to EMR implementation), he studied 838 identified patients. This took approximately 15 days of manual labor sifting through charts, documents and records. The post-phase of the project (post EMR implementation) he studied 922 patients. Because Precision.BI was receiving extracts from the University’s EMR system, he was able to perform his analysis in less than a day. This included preparing the queries and running the data.

FINDINGS:
Results of the study are being presented at the 2009 AMIA Spring Congress and are awaiting publication in a peer reviewed journal. Overall the study found that diabetic patients were healthier after the EMR was implemented. His assumption from this effect is that there is something about the layout of the EMR or the fact that people would have to interact with the EMR to begin with.

“Physicians are inputting data and are more conscious about what they are ordering. They also interact differently with the patient than they used to,” states Dr. English.

BENEFITS OF PRECISION.BI:
Based on his experience with the use of Precision.BI for this study, he considers that there are numerous potential clinical applications for it within the University. He can now perform a study and have the data available almost immediately. Physicians can quickly find out who isn’t managing their diabetes correctly or what kids are not getting their immunizations. When drugs are recalled they can figure out in a few moments which patients are taking the drugs and take proper precautions.

“Things like that are very simple with Precision.BI much more than they were in the past. You have to consider how accurate the system is at pulling and analyzing data,” explains Dr. English.

When he had people manually looking at the charts and then compare them to the analysis produced from Precision.BI, the data was perfect. There were never any discrepancies.

Dr. English continues, “This study would have been a no go without Precision.BI. The main benefit is the chart audit time and how quickly I can perform an analysis. The whole success of the study was contingent on Precision.BI. Having an EMR was one thing, but being able to pull the data is a boon to research studies. Now you don’t have to pay someone to go audit charts for a year to perform a large study. I hear a lot of people suggesting that the way medicine is practiced needs to be changed to handle the demand for chronic diseases that is coming with the aging population. EMR’s are a good start but I think tools like Precision.BI are what will really allow the change to occur.”