Intermountain Healthcare, today announced it is teaming up with Israeli healthcare IT company MDClone to increase caregivers’ ability to transform patient data into information they can use to help people lead the healthiest lives possible. As part of the collaboration, MDClone will share a new approach to healthcare data access, analytics, and research with Intermountain. The new partnership will further transform its existing rich data sources into more meaningful information that will enable caregivers to deliver the best care possible to patients.
Integrating Intermountain Healthcare’s data with MDClone’s Sandbox
The critical part of the process will involve loading Intermountain Healthcare’s data into MDClone’s Sandbox within the walls of Intermountain, then evaluating the data longitudinally — looking at the patients’ complete medical histories from start to finish in one place — to understand critical decision points in a patient’s care. MDClone’s Sandbox includes unique safeguards to protect patient privacy that produce synthetic data without risk of exposing patient identity. Altogether, the system allows caregivers within Intermountain to ask and answer important questions on demand to better manage patients while protecting patient privacy.
Clinical Priorities that will Enhance Patient Care
As chronic and acute conditions continue to drive up the cost of healthcare for many patients, Intermountain and MDClone have already identified several clinical priorities that will enhance patient care and reduce treatment costs. Examples include chronic heart failure, kidney disease, and stroke care. The first focus of the Intermountain/MDClone collaboration will explore kidney disease and end-stage renal disease, which can cost the average patient $250,000 a year or more.
That effort will allow Intermountain to leverage MDClone’s ability to analyze medical records over the short- and long-term to identify groups of patients with all stages of kidney disease with the ultimate goal of treating and preventing their progression to end-stage renal disease. “Not only will this help us keep patients healthier by identifying diseases before they advance, but it will also spare them the burdensome costs of treating those conditions as they progressively worsen,” said Titte R. Srinivas, MD, a nephrologist in the Intermountain Transplant Clinic.
“We look forward to the opportunity to engage this approach to keep our patients healthier in partnership with MDClone,” he said. “This technology will help us to identify trends and key decision points in treating kidney disease and apply that knowledge to help prevent patients from progressing to end-stage renal disease. It’s a game-changer for the delivery of safer, more cost-effective, higher-quality care.”