August 24, 2021

Data vs. Insights: Meeting Clinicians and Patients at the Point of Care

Helping clinicians gain relevant insights from complex data for concise decision support

by Jennifer Ennis, MD, Associate Vice President & Medical Director, Clinical and Digital Solutions, Labcorp Diagnostics
Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology

Throughout the past decade, I have focused on developing clinical content and decision support tools to help clinicians identify high-risk patients and deliver guideline-based care, with an emphasis on managing complex chronic diseases, including chronic kidney disease (CKD), cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Laboratory results are critical for diagnosing and monitoring a patient's condition, but my experiences in practice and in talking with other clinicians underscore the need for laboratory insights that offer a clearer picture of a patient's health. There is also a need for corresponding information that enhances patient understanding of laboratory test results to increase engagement and compliance with treatment plans. 

Addressing Clinician Challenges

While there are published guidelines and standards of care for chronic diseases, they are not always well-implemented in practice due to a variety of reasons, including lack of familiarity, competing sources of information and the simple challenge of staying current. CKD is a prime example – it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated despite the availability for more than a decade of common, inexpensive lab tests to detect it, plus established treatment guidelines. Furthermore, patients often have multiple conditions, so the clinician must synthesize multiple guidelines meant to address a population and apply them to an individual patient with unique characteristics. 

Clinicians need real-time clinical decision support delivered in their workflow to provide seamless, evidence-based care.

Our field demands an increased focus on developing clinical content and decision support tools to identify high-risk patients and facilitate treatment plans – at the point of care. Examples include infographics to highlight disease severity plus patient-specific interpretations of results in the context of the patient's condition. Longitudinal views of patient data can help the clinician evaluate trends in the patient's condition over time and their response to treatments, as well as identify care gaps.

Providing Collaborative, Timely Insights

For certain chronic diseases, the collaboration between specialists and primary care clinicians is critical. Efficient data exchange must facilitate that partnership and eliminate silos that lead to communication gaps among the referring clinician, specialists and the patient. With a patient-centric approach, clinical decision support programs can connect information from multiple clinicians, organize and synthesize it into a single report supporting collaborative care. 

Timeliness is also critical in treating patients with chronic conditions. Laboratory results and interpretations need to be delivered as soon as possible. That's why I underscore the importance of clinical decision support being available at the point of care – whether the clinician is with the patient, reviewing data after clinic hours or in discussion with other treatment team members.

Patients need to understand their laboratory results to be better informed about their health status, so we must also deliver content relevant to and formatted for the patient. Such communication can increase patient engagement and compliance with treatment plans. Ultimately, materials that support the patient also support the clinician in delivering care, creating a stronger physician-patient relationship and improving patient satisfaction.  

Leveraging the Right Technology 

We're facing an explosion in available technology today, which often gives clinicians more data, but not necessarily the information they need. clinicians must address increasingly complex patient scenarios with less time and bandwidth. They don't want more alerts; they want technology-based solutions that deliver patient-specific insights. They need the right information at the right time – accurate, relevant, timely and intuitive – within their typical workflow. I see many technology-based opportunities to support clinicians, increase satisfaction and reduce frustration with an overwhelming workload. 

Clinicians go into medicine because they want to take care of patients, but many see their days filled with data entry, paperwork and screen time. By making the review of clinical data more efficient, relevant and actionable, we give clinicians back time with their patients.

When clinicians have information and insights that are distilled and relevant, they can spend more time in meaningful conversation with the patient, addressing concerns or questions and establishing a strong relationship. 

In short, the medical community needs technology solutions that deliver clinician- and patient-centric insights and comprehensive clinical guidance at the point of care. Solutions must be easily integrated into the clinician workflow to increase efficiency, promote clinician and patient satisfaction, and ultimately, enhance patient outcomes.