Elsevier’s PathConsult is now available through xPert

Elsevier’s PathConsult is now available through xPert for Pathology - Enhancing pathologists’ ability to confirm diagnosis and improve productivity. 

Click on the image to read about this new solution!

New Product Announcement: mTuitive Authoring Environment Framework

Problem Definition

Evidenced based medicine will never realize its potential benefit until the problem of “noisy text”, a term coined to describe unstructured data, is solved.  Dictation, written notes and verbal orders are all forms of noisy text.  It is the major deterrent to achieving the goals of many healthcare IT initiatives.

Clinical computer applications typically focus on specific tasks or functions which yield pieces of evidence.  The patient record stores patient evidence across disciplines.  Due to noisy text, comparative findings are typically limited to the memory of the clinician.  There is little organization to aggregate diagnostic data that can be reviewed as evidence to improve and create standard practice protocols.

Quality, structured data is required to drive decision support applications and cross disciplinary management of disease.  It is the link between specific patient conditions and the global universe of medical evidence.

Authoring Environment Framework was created solely to solve the problems created by noisy text.  Structured data is captured and validated based on standard protocols at the point of decision.  Organized data from findings are reviewed and protocols are updated and delivered to practicing clinicians.

• Establishes common data requirements
• Captures structured data as a byproduct of completing a task, as opposed to adding additional steps to the workflow
• Provides real-time decision assistance and prevents errors to capitalize on the power of structured data
• Automatically stores structured metadata, improving the data mining process
• Sends structured data to specialized clinical systems to link evidence and derive inferences
• Provides the framework to manage the entire process

Solution

Structured data provides the link between specific cases and the wealth of global evidence that is available and expanding exponentially.  The use of standard, structured data elements in clinical reports enables real time contextual search for reference materials, best practices and protocols.  Clinicians can be continually educated while they practice.  Data they record on patients helps to improve the evidence that develops into new knowledge and standards.

Vision

Utilizing xPert for Pathology as a proof-of-concept, the objective is to extend the use of the mTuitive Authoring Environment Framework to other clinical disciples and diseases.  The more diagnostic data that is captured and can be used for research, the more evidence will be available to improve the protocols in place.

Product Components

Agile Author

Starting with existing protocols, best practices and checklists, the Agile Author creates electronic versions, called templates.  Behavioral logic for decision support, data validation, error checking, and inclusion of dynamic reference material is added through visual commands.

user: Knowledge Engineer.  This is the person who sets the standards for a defined group of users.

task: Protocol and data requirement standards development

xPert Client

Clinicians use the best practice templates (see Agile Author) to follow protocol.  The xPert Client’s easy-to-use user interface utilizes a true expert system to guide the decision, following rules established in the template.  Structured data is captured as a byproduct.  In turn, the structured data enables dynamic access to global evidence, records the results and makes the data available to other disciplines to drive future decision support.

user: Physician or data input person

task: Structured data capture and decision support

Data Repository and Multiple Report Viewer

All data captured via xPert Applications (see xPert Client) is sent to a centralized repository.  The data is available for data mining, searching and research for improving best practices.

user: Researcher or evidence based medicine expert

task: Store report results and metadata (i.e. codes, ontologies)

Knowledge Server software and Administrator toolset

Administrator functions provide for maintenance and management of all users’ rights to xPert Client and templates developed with the Agile Author.  A centralized template management system allows the administrator to assign new templates or groups of templates to a user without ever touching a user’s computer.

user: Administrator

task: Centralized management and delivery of templates and reference material

Integration Services

Data can be viewed by other systems through a variety of integration options, preferabley web services.

user: Integration manager

task: Delivery of copies or viewing rights of data sets to required systems

For more Information go to www.mtuitive.com

mTutive Clinical Workstation

Let clinicians enter notes, orders or reports directly without transcription.  Eliminate paper and dictation by converting to synoptic templates.  Improve communications, efficiency and capture structured data as a byproduct.

Clinical Work Stations for:

• Almost anything written or dictated
• Post operative notes
• Emergency room triage
• Radiology reporting
• Pre-operative or anesthesia notes
• Critical care protocols

Features and Benefits

• No programming required, build your own in minutes
• Rapid payback - eliminate redundancies
• Single step sign out - no transcription
• Stand alone or integrated to EMR
• Simple user interface - touch screen, voice, handwriting enabled

Post-Operative synoptic note

Where Knowledge and Technology meet!

Elsevier’s PathConsult is now available through xPert for Pathology-Enhancing pathologists’ ability to confirm diagnosis and improve productivity.

mTuitive

xPert for Pathology

mTuitive’s xpert for Pathology is an interactive software product for quickly and easily reporting pathologic findings in a structured manner based on standard protocols.  It helps departments comply with the standards of practice mandated by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and also provides flexibility to create reports for non-malignant disease.

Additionally, xPert for Pathology is a powerful decision support tool, providing expert guidance error checks and complete documentation, with the aim of standardizing practices and providing knowledge to the practitioner at critical decision times.  It provides contextual access to a variety of medical literature and images.  Reports are synoptic, in that each data element is labeled individually for the benefit of the clinician, and the data is structured, so that tumor registry and laboratory databases can automatically receive meaningful data for research and aggregate reporting. Ensures compliance and improves efficiency! 

PathConsult

One of Elsevier’s clinical decision support tools, PathConsult provides online access to the latest clinical content, along with thousands of images, in a web-based resource allowing professionals to quickly get the diagnostic information they need, exactly when they need it.  It’s a one-stop resource for making reliable diagnoses and increasing productivity.

Providing diagnostic decision support, PathConsult allows the user to view thousands of high-quality images, organized by type of image and diagnosis, and read bulleted content that makes essential information easy to scan quickly.  Users can also call up differential diagnoses, either database suggested or user-defined, for a given entity; obtain positivity information for immunohistochemistry; and access interactive summary tables and data for key immunohistochemical and molecular genetic information.  A complete expertise in all major pathology disciplines - just a click away!

Learn more about xPert for Pathology at www.mtuitive.com

Learn more about PathConsult at www.PathConsultDDx.com

mTuitive Provides Human Factors Engineering Consulting

Announcing the mTuitive Consulting Practice for

Human Factors Engineering

mTuitive was founded on core principles that revolve around the science of human factors engineering. From the core xPert system technology to the design of the flexible user interface, the science of human factors engineering is engineered into mTuitive applications.  This experience has taught us that while recent, rapid advances in diagnostic technology may provide immeasurable benefit, conversely these advances have exacerbated the need to make them usable by mere mortal human beings, physicians included.  More than ever before, the discipline to apply what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments is needed.

 mTuitive co-founder and CTO, Dr. Mark Law, will head up this new division.  Mark will combine his human factors training and experience to leverage existing mTuitive xPert systems technology to lead this new initiative.  The practice will include the design of all systems having a human interface, including hardware and software with particular focus on system design

      to improve

• ease of use
• performance
• reliability
• user satisfaction
• communications between disciplines

    to reduce

• operator stress
• training requirements
• user fatigue
• product liability
• operational errors

What is a Human Factors Expert or Ergonomics Expert?

The field of human factors is defined as a multidisciplinary applied science aimed at optimizing the relationship between humans and technology.  Human factors practitioners (also known as human factors engineers, human factors psychologists, or ergonomists, depending on the area of specialization) apply data about human behavior, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics to the design of technology, objects, facilities, and environments that people live and work in as well as their tasks and jobs in order to make them effective, productive, safe, and comfortable.  Human factors experts typically have advanced education and knowledge of psychology (perception and cognition) and/or physiology, as well as strong experimental and statistical backgrounds.  In short, they are practitioner/scientists who are well educated in human and/or physiology.

The hallmark of a human factors expert or ergonomics expert is user or task analysis.  In general, task analysis is a broad array of techniques and methods aimed at identifying how users think, move, and behave.  Task analysis can include activities such as interviews, observations, focus groups, usability testing, card sorting tasks, etc.  The aim of task analysis is to understand the user and their tasks in order to aid design and identify flaws in a product or design.

For more information

contact : Mark.Law@mtuitive.com

mTuitive, Inc.

508-771-5800

www.mtuitive.com                                                                    

 

mTuitive Solutions - The Intelligent Patient Safety Checklist

Safety checklists have been proven to save thousands of lives and millions of dollars, but what do you do with all that paper?  Now you can transform your paper checklists into electronic records in minutes.  Convert protocols, best practices, and safety guidelines into user-friendly electronic checklists in minutes.  Don’t wait - you are costing your hospital lives and money.  Build your own checklists and deploy them in minutes.

• eliminate paper
• automatic collection in data repository for reporting
• easy to build
• bar code or RFID enabled for automatic sign in
• compliance audit trail - automatic time and date stamp
• touch screen or tablet PC enabled
• Kiosk, work station, or wall mounted

mTuitive Launches Self Service Kiosk

Looking to enhance efficiency, eliminate paper and accelerate patient flow?

Patient Questionnaires for:

• blood donors
• stem cell or bone marrow candidates
• emergency room triage
• diagnostic procedures, MRI, colonoscopy
• pre-operative, anesthesia
• almost anything

Quick and Easy Setup

• easy to use and modify, no programming required
• simple patient interface
• touch screen or tablet PC enabled
• build your own in minutes
• add introduction, instructions, or tutorials with voice or video
• stand alone or integrated

Four More Hospitals Choose mTuitive’s xPert for Pathology™ to Meet New CCO Standard

Boston, MA—Lakeridge Health, Rouge Valley Health System, The Scarborough Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have selected mTuitive’s xPert for Pathology synoptic reporting solution to meet Cancer Care Ontario’s 2008-2009 CAP/CS aligned data standards for pathology reporting.  Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and North York General are currently undergoing final testing and will soon be in live production.

Standardized pathology reporting increases the availability and consistency of cancer pathology information that is essential for treatment decisions, evaluation, and research.

mTuitive complies with the 2008-2009 CAP/CS aligned data standards developed by Cancer Care Ontario in conjunction with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Cancer Committee, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Joint Committee on Cancer. The CAP checklists1 for breast, lung, colorectal, prostate and endometrium were amended to include the mandatory pathological collaborative staging elements.

xPert for Pathology interfaces with all available Laboratory Information Systems on the market which lends itself to wide use throughout the province.

About mTuitive: mTuitive, Inc. develops data capture and synoptic reporting software to assist health care professionals in recording clinical findings and maintaining compliance with established protocols and guidelines. Our unique method of capturing structured information provides valuable data for pathology, oncology, and cancer staging applications. Established in 2003, mTuitive, Inc. is based in Massachusetts. See us on the Web at www.mtuitive.com.

1. This material includes the Cancer Checklists and Cancer Protocols which are copyrighted works of the College of American Pathologists. Encoded within the Checklists are portions of the copyrighted work of the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization, SNOMED CT. © 1998-2007 IHTSDO. The Cancer Checklists and Cancer Protocols are used with permission of the College of American Pathologists – which has also authorized use of SNOMED CT as encoded in the Checklists.

Welcome to the mTuitive Weblog

Welcome to the mTuitive Weblog.  mTuitive is an industry leader in healthcare information technology.  mTuitive currently offers a suite of software solutions for oncology and pathology.   mTuitive is also the developer of the Agile Author, a software development platform designed to give people with no programming skills the ability to create custom software applications quickly and easily.  This weblog has been created to discuss relevant media and news pertaining to healthcare, snyoptic reporting, procedural compliance, best practices and data capture.