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A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH to optimizing care for popula- tions at risk for conditions such as diabetes, chronic pain, heart failure and ischemic vascular disease, the WellSpan Medical Group's Physician Dashboard is helping provid- ers transform the delivery of care to the community. Ava ilable to a ll prov iders using WellSpan's electronic health record (EHR) system, which supplies the data, the Physician Dashboard also provides the opportunity to identify successful strategies implemented by one practice and incorporate them system-wide. "It enables us to look at data as a tool that describes a specific situation and provides a real opportunity to improve our practices," says Brian Pollak, MD, Associate Medical Director for Quality and Innovation, the WellSpan Medical Group. "It shows which methodologies are successful so that we can elevate the quality of care throughout all of our practices." Among other benefits, the Dashboard heightens providers' awareness of patient groups indicated for routine screening and preventive care. For example, physi- cians can readily determine how many of their female patients between the ages of 50 and 74 had a mammogram in the past year. With this information, physicians can assess how effective they are at fostering patient cooperation, and By Michael Ferguson THE WELLSPAN MEDICAL GROUP'S PHYSICIAN DASHBOARD PROVES THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS. Mining a Rich Source of Data to Enhance Care ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++ + +++ + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ DATA-DRIVEN INNOVATION if necessary, reach out to patients who are overdue and mutually seek the best means to facilitate their screenings. In addition, patient partners bring the voice of the patient to WellSpan's improvement efforts. The WellSpan Medical Group's Quality Improvement Teams use data gleaned from the Dashboard, along with the invaluable perspective of our patient partners, to continuously improve. Those efforts have realized significant success in elevating pneumonia vaccination rates and controlling blood pressure among people with diabetes whom the WellSpan Medical Group serves. The Dashboard informs the perfor- mance-improvement process from the earliest stages. "It helps us study a problem before we attempt to solve it," Dr. Pollak says. "Healthcare providers want to find solutions, and this tool equips us with a fuller understanding of the problem. The Dashboard gives us the ability to identify poorly controlled patient populations and tailor performance-improvement projects with more precise knowledge of the patients we're working for." For example, based on data mined from the Physician Dashboard, smoking-cessation programs were recently targeted as areas for improvement. After brainstorming possible reasons why conventional strategies are often ineffective, the physicians took the question to patients. "We expected the number one response would be habit," Dr. Pollak recalls. "But in fact, our patients responded that anxiety — about their jobs, relationships and other things — was the primary reason they kept smoking. This changed our approach. Our smoking-cessation classes now focus more heavily on anxiety." "That's how the Dashboard transforms our approach to medicine," he adds. "We drill down into the data to learn about an at-risk patient population's barriers and needs, and then we address those issues to improve care." For more inf or m at ion ab out ho w WellSpan i s t ran sfor ming care, vi sit www.WellSpan.org/TransformingCare. ■ M D N E W S . CO M ■ MD NEWS South Central Pennsylvania | 1 5