At a December webinar sponsored by Roche, Richard Hammer, MD, Vice Chair of Pathology, University of Missouri, Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia, Mo., and Matthew Manley, VP of Digital Healthcare Solutions, Roche Diagnostics North America, discussed the role of digitalization in healthcare.
Three key takeaways were:
1. Digitalization decreases demands for staff resources. While the pandemic exacerbated staffing issues, the pathology department at the University of Missouri hospital was already facing staffing challenges in conducting tumor boards. A single tumor board, where data was pulled from disconnected IT systems, involved 36 people on average, required on-site presence and took six hours3. Multiple tumor boards per week resulted in a huge workload for staff, often causing cases to be postponed.
Working with Roche, the department developed the navify® Tumor Board, a digital workflow solution that integrates all relevant patient data in a single platform. This solution enabled every team member to access information, contribute to the discussion and have a single source for presentation, whether on-site or virtual. Built-in analytics reports capture key metrics essential for accreditation and quality measures, and on the patient side, clinical decision-support apps support personalized treatment decisions.
Integration with the hospital’s EMR auto-populates the navify Tumor Board platform, allowing presentations to be generated at the touch of a button. Because patient lists are created automatically within navify, paper lists are eliminated, reducing compliance risk. This digitalization of the tumor board process resulted in a 30 percent reduction in average prep time, with less variability3. The hospital’s already efficient breast tumor board was able to increase its number of cases per week from six to nearly 11, meaning that in one year the team could address another 250 cases and decrease the postponement rate from 23 to 10 percent3.
The navify Tumor Board had a dramatic effect on staff resource demands. “We didn’t need administrative input from 12 different people anymore,” Dr. Hammer said. “This is now all managed by one nurse navigator, and over the course of the study, we found that she saved 90 percent of her time in preparation of tumor boards by using navify compared to legacy methods.”3
2. Digitalization supports the expansion of care. Using digital technology streamlines both simple and complex processes. Also, being able to connect virtually, from anywhere at any time, improves flexibility for staff and physicians and allows expansion of care to areas that might be underserved or less accessible. For the University of Missouri, the virtual connection enabled by navify provides more options for care. “We did not miss a single tumor board during the pandemic because we had this tool in place,” Dr. Hammer said.
3. Decentralization of care requires a centralized digital system. Care providers must adapt to new challenges of increasing decentralization of patient care. Working with multiple, disconnected data sources requires manual data transfer into EMRs which creates a high risk for errors or omissions. Software in different locations might be running different versions, which introduces the potential for noncompliance or incompatible versions. Managing staff across sites with varying degrees of training, combined with data and device challenges, places more burden on staff.
The Roche point-of-care digital testing solution, cobas® infinity POC, provides complete and centralized management of the entire point-of-care testing program, including user management and information system integrations. Automating data population increases accuracy, implementing a single control console ensures all integrated systems are up to date, and centrally managing certification processes maintain staff training and compliance. “We believe these solutions can improve job satisfaction, as it lets doctors and other health care professionals get back to what they do best, which is taking care of patients,” Mr. Manley said.
Digital solutions offer an opportunity to simplify point-of-care workflows and alleviate some of the burdens that nurses and care coordinators have. With its navify digital solutions, Roche enables confident healthcare decisions and ultimately helps providers drive operational, clinical and financial value.
Sources:
1 REF-31647
2 REF-31971
3 Make a reference from MC–10743
