SBIR-STTR Award

Physicians, no matter how well prepared, generate an average of two clinical questions per every three patient encounters. In 2009, the 1.3 billion visits to physicians' offices, hospital outpatient departments, and hospital emergency departments produced roughly 867 million questions. Answers to such questions likely exist, typically spread among several content sources. However, up to 70% of the questions went unanswered, potentially affecting the quality of care for 405 million patient visits. The questions remain open in part because it is so time-consuming to log on and search the various databases that contain relevant information. A critical part of the solution to this problem is a search engie keyed to physicians needs not only for specialized content but also for speed and location at the point of care. The MedSocket Search Engine offers physicians seamless access to the best curated clinical content sources. It uses a single search box providing access not only to medical resources, but also to organization-specific information, and personal knowledge stored in electronic documents. This project will integrate MedSocket into the electronic health record (EHR) system to further increase physician efficiency and improve care. Because no single source can answer all clinical questions, physicians need a search engine that searches multiple information sources simultaneously and aggregates the results. Better information aids clinical decision-making and the practice of evidence-based medicine. Unfortunately, current search engines are not effective at retrieving clinical evidence from high-quality sources and are not integrated into the EHR, which is the principal information technology that physicians use at the point of care. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to enhance physicians' access to needed information from high quality resources at the point of care with MedSocket, an innovative medical search engine with a patent-pending ranking algorithm. This project will integrate MedSocket into the University of Missouri's EHR system, measure its impact and create a commercialization and feasibility plan. By integrating MedSocket into the EHR, we will be able to conduct a substantial multi-dimensional evaluation of its effects and lay the groundwork for research, product development and enhanced evaluation measures for health information technology.

Public Health Relevance Statement:


Public Health Relevance:
In order to treat patients as effectively as possible, physicians working at the point of care need quick access to high-quality, specialized information from varied sources (clinical, organizational, and more). However, such access does not exist, and so physicians have many questions that go unanswered, which may increase costs, and diminish decision-making and patient outcomes. This project proposes to integrate the innovative MedSocket Search Engine into an electronic health record system to provide point of care access to disparate content sources. Development of this health information technology has the potential to improve healthcare decisions, enhance efficiency, decrease healthcare costs, and improve patient outcomes.

NIH Spending Category:
Bioengineering; Clinical Research; Health Services; Networking and Information Technology R&D; Patient Safety

Project Terms:
Accident and Emergency department; Address; Affect; Algorithms; Area; base; Boxing; Businesses; Capital; Caring; Client; Clinical; clinical decision-making; commercialization; Community Medicine; Computer software; cost; Data; Databases; Decision Making; design; Development; Electronic Health Record; Electronics; Elements; Ensure; Evaluation; Evidence Based Medicine; Family; Family Practice; Feedback; Goals; Habits; Health; Health Care Costs; health information technology; Health Services; Health Services Accessibility; Health system; Healthcare; Hospital Departments; Hospitals; improved; Information Resources; Information Retrieval; Information Retrieval Systems; Information Technology; innovation; Institutes; Investments; Knowledge; Lead; Legal patent; Location; Measures; Medical; meetings; Missouri; Modeling; Online Systems; Outcome; Outpatients; Patients; Phase; Physicians; Physicians' Offices; point of care; Process; product development; public health relevance; Quality of Care; Questionnaires; Recruitment Activity; Research; Resources; Risk; Services; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Solutions; Source; Speed (motion); success; Surveys; System; Systems Integration; Technology; Testing; Tigers; Time; tool; Training; Universities; usability; Vendor; Visit; Work; Writing

Modern clinical practices represent a prototypical information-intensive, distributed and collaborative environment, where physicians struggle to find the right information at the right time to make effective clinical decisions. The situation is exacerbated not only by federal guidelines and policies regarding compliance to clinical quality metrics and meaningful use, but also by fragmented information networks of hospital information systems, library resources and organizational intranet. As a result, physicians are often left with several unanswered questions that may affect the quality of care they provide to patients. In this application, we describe the deployment and evaluation of 1-Search, an electronic health record (EHR)-integrated, federated medical search engine that enables physicians to search, filter and retrieve both clinical and organizational information at the point of care. We will integrate 1-Search into the EHR at University of Illinois Health Science System (UI Health) academic medical centers at Chicago and Rockford. After deployment, our preliminary evaluation will focus on pilot testing with a small group of physicians to fine-tune 1-Search for use at a large academic setting. The purpose of this preliminary evaluation is to develop a consistent feedback loop to incorporate insights from users and also to fine-tune 1-Search within specific clinical domains and specialties. The second phase of the evaluation will involve in-depth analysis of search logs, search patterns and search efficiency. We will also conduct a user study with a sub-group of physicians to characterize their interactions with 1- Search and their perspectives on its use. This multi-phased evaluation will help us develop comprehensive insights on the deployment, use, sustainability and adoption of 1-Search that can be translated for other commercial deployment efforts.

Public Health Relevance Statement:


Public Health Relevance:
Access to information at the point-of-care can help clinicians in their decision-making leading to potentially improved patient outcomes. In this project, we propose to expand on the results from a Phase I project by deploying MedSocket's medical search engine, 1-Search, in the Electronic Health Record of a large academic medical center. A multi- phased evaluation will be conducted to develop a consistent feedback loop to incorporate insights from clinicians, and also to fine-tune 1-Search within specific clinical domains and specialties that can be translated for other commercial deployment efforts.

NIH Spending Category:
Clinical Research; Health Services; Networking and Information Technology R&D; Patient Safety

Project Terms:
Academic Medical Centers; Access to Information; Adoption; Adverse event; Affect; Architecture; base; Chicago; Clinical; clinical practice; clinical research site; Cognitive; collaborative environment; commercialization; Communities; Decision Making; design; Development; Electronic Health Record; Environment; Evaluation; evidence based guidelines; Face; Feedback; flexibility; follow-up; Future; Guidelines; Health; health information technology; Health Sciences; Healthcare; Healthcare Systems; Hospital Information Systems; Hospitals; Illinois; improved; Information Networks; Information Technology; innovation; Inpatients; insight; Insurance; Intervention; Interview; Intranet; Knowledge; Learning; Left; Libraries; Link; Medical; medical specialties; Memory; Outcome; Outpatients; Patient Care; Patient Education; Patient-Focused Outcomes; Patients; Pattern; Perception; Phase; Physicians; point of care; Policies; public health relevance; Quality of Care; Recruitment Activity; Research; Research Personnel; Resources; Sampling; search engine; Semantics; success; System; Testing; Time; tool; Training; Translating; Universities; Use Effectiveness; Visual; Work