QPID Health Announces Release of Q-Guide

BOSTON, Feb. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- QPID Healthcare, an innovative provider of clinical insights software solutions, today announced the release of the procedure decision support application Q-Guide. Based on the QPID clinical insights platform, the application addresses the need for providers to ensure appropriate procedures in order to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs. The platform was developed jointly by QPID Health, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Massachusetts General Hospital Physicians Organization (MGPO).

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Used during the pre-operative decision making process, the application helps clinicians apply complex guidelines-based decision criteria to each patient's individual profile, and generates a recommended approach and risk score. Measurement of procedural appropriate use is a strategic imperative for providers in an era of increasing provider accountability for improving quality while reducing the costs of care. 

Q-Guide also can reduce the requirement for costly prior authorization, a labor-intensive process in which payers approve procedures in advance.

Piloted by 150 clinicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, Q-Guide has expedited the management of over 1100 procedures during the first 18 months of adoption.  MGH plans to use Q-Guide for more procedures in the future.   The Q-Guide application is available from QPID Health as part of its suite of applications built on the QPID platform. QPID delivers clinically relevant information from the mass of data stored in electronic patient records to expedite care decisions. QPID Health supports thousands of users across multiple departments at Massachusetts General Hospital and other Partners HealthCare hospitals, among other institutions.  Q-Guide can be accessed via a Web browser and is hosted in the cloud or in a client/server configuration.

"We want to ensure that patients treated by our physicians receive the most appropriate care based on nationally-approved guidelines and the patient's own unique health status," explained Timothy Ferris, MD, vice president of Population Health at the MGH/MGPO and Partners HealthCare.  "Physicians can benefit by using a powerful decision support tool and documenting adherence to evidence-based protocols. This is especially important in the context of changing payment models that reward for outcomes not procedures, and under which risk is shared by payers and providers."  

The MGH/MGPO continues to work with their payers to forgo prior authorization requirements for procedures where Q-Guide is in use. Prior authorization, a process in which permission to conduct a procedure is requested of an insurer, imposes a heavy administrative burden for both payers and healthcare providers. Making this step more efficient through systems like Q-Guide cuts costs from both sides of the equation, reducing administrative overhead and overall healthcare costs.

Mike Doyle, CEO of QPID Health, commented, "Through the use and distribution of the QPID platform we help skilled clinicians get access to up–to-date patient insights to make the best care decisions possible.  Q-Guide is an example of a revolutionary clinical application built on the QPID platform that will over the next few years save hospitals, insurance companies and the government millions of dollars in labor costs and time, and greatly facilitate the most appropriate level of care for the patient." 

Q-Guide uses decision-making algorithms that are driven by combining the patient's clinical evidence with the latest guidelines and personalized risk models.  The first release of the software includes guidelines for high cost, high use and resource-intensive vascular, cardiac, and orthopedic surgical procedures.

About QPID Health
QPID is a clinical insights software solution that automatically delivers the most relevant patient information from electronic health records and other data sources into clinical and administrative workflows. With QPID, clinicians are more productive, patients benefit from personalized decisions, and hospitals gain cost efficiencies. The solution was developed at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to address the persistent problem of too much data that is too hard to find.  QPID Health launched in late 2012 to bring the power of the QPID clinical insights platform to health systems nationwide. The company is venture backed by Matrix Partners, Partners Innovation Fund, Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO) and Cardinal Partners. Visit www.qpidhealth.com for more information.

Media Contacts:
Amy Krane
QPID Health
[email protected]
(617) 292-7743

Nigel Smith
Next Step Communications
[email protected]
(781) 308-3317

SOURCE QPID Health