Researchers at the University of Missouri have created a "diabetes dashboard" that enables physicians to coordinate diabetic care on a single electronic health record screen, leading to streamlined and improved care at a lower cost, according to a study published in the Annals of Family Medicine.
Using a dashboard for a complex medical condition such as diabetes allowed physicians to see a patient's vital signs, health condition, current medications and necessary tests all at once, reducing the number of mouse clicks from 60 to three, the researchers found. They also were able to correct identify the data they were searching for 100 percent of the time, compared to 94 percent of the time using traditional EHRs. What's more, use of the dashboard reduced the physicians' time on the EHR, reduced errors, and made it easier to locate data needed to meet Meaningful Use requirements.
"Although EHRs hold great promise for improving clinical care, they sometimes function more as data repositories than as dynamic patient care tools," the authors noted.
Missouri isn't the first university to create such a tool. U.K.-based Keele University's Department of Medicine Management developed a diabetes dashboard this past summer, making it available for free to physicians in the U. K. Vanderbilt University Medical Center also developed a diabetes dashboard.
To learn more:
- read the press release
- here's the study (.pdf)
- check out Vanderbilt University's dashboard
- read about the British version