Computerworld magazine recognizes Christiana Care software

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

Already announced as a Computerworld Honors Program Laureate award winner earlier this year, the Insight program became a finalist in the health category, one of 10 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.

The winning software program enables patients to report the severity of their symptoms and how these 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 making iPads available to patients for the first time.

Seventy-six percent of patients say that 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,” said 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.”

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