The following appeared a few days ago:
AMIA: Regenstrief pumps up its clinical decision support
By Neil Versel
Created 11/06/2012
CHICAGO – Regenstrief Institute was a pioneer in clinical decision support, but its system was aging. Most noticeably, the interface in its famed "Gopher" computerized physician order entry system looked the same in 2010 as it did in 1984.
After two years of redesign, the venerable Indianapolis institution unveiled an update last year with more than just a modern look, Regenstrief researchers pointed out Monday at the annual American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) symposium.
The new Gopher features a graphical user interface that looks like a single, integrated system, but the complex display is generated from multiple layers and plug-ins, research scientist Jon Duke, MD, said. More importantly, it supports a new, multifaceted approach to clinical decision support, featuring order entry, research and results viewing capabilities.
"We recognized that improving quality of care was a priority," Duke explained. "We wanted to promote provider efficiency."
Duke and two Regenstrief colleagues touted five advances in clinical decision support the new Gopher provides over the original:
- Dynamic alerting, or the mechanics to change alerts based on clinical relevance to a specific patient's needs. Programmers built in 10 theoretical alerting levels, though Duke said the informatics team decided to activate four alerting zones on the screen for now. "Every alert in our system … had a baseline relevance level which determines its display location," Duke said.
Read about the other 4 improvements here:
Smart people these. Make the underlying system smarter while not disturbing the users by making things look different.
Again, of course, we need this in our clinician systems. The lack of such capabilities just makes the spending of money on the NEHRS even sillier than it already was.
David.