Computerworld gives Insight Top 5 honors

Computerworld gives Insight Top 5 honors

Dr. Theresa Gillis reviews the patient self-evaluation tool named Insight with a patient. Insight has received two honors from Computerworld magazine for technological innovation.

Christiana Care’s unique patient self-evaluation tool Insight received Top Five recognition in the health category competition from Computerworld magazine at its annual awards ceremony on June 4.

Already announced as a Computerworld Honors Program Laureate award winner earlier this year, a panel of IT executives and Computerworld editors named the software program a finalist in the health category, one of ten classifications that in total received more than 500 nominations.

“This additional honor from Computerworld underscores the vital importance of innovative thinking and collaboration between our clinical and Information Technology staff to improve patient care,” says Karen Gifford, Christiana Care’s director of Information Technology.

Christiana Care’s winning software program enables patients to report the severity of their symptoms and how they affect their quality of life using a tablet-based, clinician-friendly wireless format. Patient feedback helped develop the program.

Cancer patients first used the tool in a pilot program in May 2010 followed by heart failure patients. Christiana Care’s Information Technology team launched a new release this year for a wider patient audience and is now putting Apple iPads in the hands of the patient for the first time.

Seventy-six percent of patients report they like using Insight, with 67 percent claiming the tool better prepares them to speak with their doctor. Doctors use the data to spark meaningful conversations with their patients.

“Insight gives physicians a greater understanding of the symptoms troubling a patient,” says Theresa Gillis, M.D., medical director of Oncology Pain and Symptom Management and Rehabilitation Services at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center who accepted the award for the Christiana Care team. “Patients love the iPad because it is so quick and easy compared to paper and pen. It was truly an honor to have Insight recognized as an important technology by such a prestigious magazine, in a room full of IT designers and industry leaders.”

Other members of the team that developed Insight are Michael Bledsoe, John DiGiovanni, Jon Reynolds, Catherine Burch and Mitchell Saltzberg, M.D.

A detailed case study of Insight and other award winners is available to students and scholars through the Computerworld Honors website.

Founded in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program is the longest running global program that honors individuals and organizations for their use of information technology in innovative ways. Computerworld, with an online audience of more than 3.5 million unique, monthly visitors, is a leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers worldwide.

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