Project Type(s):
Clinical Research

UW Medicine has amassed detailed patient treatment and business data in its electronic medical record (EMR). This information is a treasure trove that is not used to its full potential for two reasons: 1) For each clinical encounter, only a fraction of the information in the EMR is relevant, and virtually all of the information a clinician engages remains in a format that obscures patterns and trends; and 2) In groups of patients with the same illness, data from the EMR could be used to discern larger trends in the course of the disease or evaluate the effect of practice patterns on patient outcomes. The EMR currently does not provide a way to access this information in an agile way.

We have developed innovative software, “Leaf,” that allows medical providers to access population-based EMR data in real time. Leaf is now used at several academic medical centers nationally. In this project, we will collaborate with the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center to design and evaluate “dashboards” that visualize how a patient’s history and trajectory compare to other, similar patients. For instance, daily function and cognitive testing data for a person with Alzheimer’s disease, already gathered over the course of several years, could be graphed and compared to the same information from all UW patients with Alzheimer’s disease. We will pilot these dashboards in Leaf and collect patient and provider feedback. We intend to publish our results and make code available as part of the open Leaf platform for rapid dissemination.

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