Health IT Roundup—University of Michigan launches health data study using Apple Watch

University of Michigan launches data collection study using Apple Watch

The University of Michigan has launched a three-year research study to understand if data collected through the Apple Watch, along with other health information, can provide insight into patients’ health, wellness and disease, according to a press release.

The study, called MIPACT (Michigan Predictive Activity and Clinical Trajectories), is already underway, with 1,000 participants enrolled. It aims to enroll thousands more patients of Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center, over the next year. 

Sachin Kheterpal, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology at the medical school, said researchers want to explore how to integrate knowledge gained across participant surveys, medical records, wearables, genomics and lab tests to better understand daily experiences and long-term health. (Release)

Partners HealthCare fully integrates with state opioid monitoring tool

Partners HealthCare has fully integrated the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ opioid monitoring tool, called prescription awareness tool (MassPAT), directly into its EHR system, becoming the first healthcare network to do so.

The integration demonstrates a significant step forward in the state’s efforts to reduce opioid overprescribing and align healthcare providers across Massachusetts on a common platform to monitor opioid prescriptions, the health system said in a release.

In 2016, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed legislation that created MassPAT, marking Massachusetts as one of the first states to impose a seven-day limit on first-time prescriptions of opioids. The state also mandated that all prescribers check the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) before prescribing Schedule II or III substances.

Partners’ integration of MassPAT into its EHR system will assist prescribers by making a patient’s controlled substance prescription information immediately available to them within the patient’s electronic clinical chart. (Release)

Cleveland Clinic launches new center for AI

Cleveland Clinic has launched a center to advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. The Center for Clinical Artificial Intelligence will focus on developing innovative clinical applications of AI and leveraging machine-learning technology in hopes of improving health care delivery in areas such as diagnostics, disease prediction and treatment planning, according to Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Launched by Cleveland Clinic Enterprise Analytics, the center aims to foster collaboration and communication between physicians, researchers and data scientists, and conduct research in several areas of medicine.

Some projects are already underway, using a cohort of more than 1 million patients admitted to the clinic. These include building models to identify patients with high risk of death during admission and predict inpatient length of stay and readmission risk with a higher degree of accuracy than existing models. (Crain’s Cleveland Business)