HealthDecision, LLC Launches Breast Cancer Screening Software Tool to Predict Patients' Personalized Risk

Madison, Wis., Jan. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthDecision, LLC, a software producer of tools integrated into the doctor – patient workflow to enable shared decision making (SDM), today announced the launch of the Breast Cancer Screening tool. This tool provides patients a personalized risk analysis for developing breast cancer in the next 10 years and the benefits or harms associated with mammogram screening.

SDM focuses on patient-centered care by encouraging conversation that combines patient values with clinician expertise to reach a mutual decision on clinical treatment.

The tool was tested and currently is used within UW Health, a healthcare system in the upper Midwest serving 600,000 patients each year with 1,400 physicians and 16,500 staff at six hospitals and 80 outpatient sites.

The Breast Cancer Screening tool is the result of a 2013 WI Partnership Program grant received by the UW Madison Department of Radiology and a joint effort with HealthDecision, LLC to create a SDM tool that could be used at a routine appointment within a doctor's office. The project grew out of the controversy and confusion about breast cancer screening, and its multidisciplinary team included members from surgery, engineering, psychology, communications, primary care, vascular surgery research and decision making.

HealthDecision is unique in that it is embedded within the electronic health record (EHR) system and considers the patient's healthcare data and history to calculate personalized risk. Risks associated with mammogram screening include over-detection and the subsequent effects of anxiety; possible overtreatment with surgery, radiotherapy and sometimes chemotherapy; cost; and additional impacts on quality of life.

"Healthcare guidelines can be confusing to patients as well as doctors, especially when there is conflicting information in the public domain," said Sarina Schrager, MD, UW Health and professor in the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. Along with Beth Burnside, MD, UW Health, who was the principle investigator on the grant, Dr. Schrager was heavily involved in the development of the tool, educating other primary care clinicians and driving the implementation strategy within UW Health primary care. "HealthDecision aids my conversation with the patient to better educate and explain the harms and benefits of a mammogram and its possible outcomes. The visualized risk analysis has been key for patients to better understand their personalized risk and increases their confidence to make better informed healthcare decisions for themselves."

Jon Keevil, MD and founder of HealthDecision, remarked, "As news and usage of HealthDecision has spread, I am gratified to see clinicians reach out to us for creating additional SDM tools, including the breast care team at UW Health, with whom HealthDecision collaborated to create the Breast Cancer Screening tool. Survey data has shown higher satisfaction rates for both patients and doctors using HealthDecision, an important metric reviewed by administrators. In this era of patient-centered care, SDM tools are an important method of empowering patients to take ownership of their healthcare."

The Breast Cancer Screening tool joins a suite of three other HealthDecision shared decision making tools that provide a patient's personalized risk for the various healthcare options available:

• The Atrial Fibrillation tool demonstrates a patient's risk of stroke or bleeding from anticoagulant medications.
• The Cardiovascular Risk tool evaluates a patient's cholesterol and their risk of various statin medications and smoking cessation.
• The Lung Cancer Screening tool considers the risk for chest CT scans for patients who smoke or have smoked.

About HealthDecision, LLC

HealthDecision develops a medical software platform of "shared decision making" tools enabling focused, clearer clinician-patient discussions exploring the benefits and harms of medical options. Built by physicians for physicians and their patients, the HealthDecision software suite currently contains tools that improve decisions about cardiovascular risk, atrial fibrillation, and lung cancer and mammogram screening. The Company collaborates with leading medical specialists and institutions with deep expertise to develop new tools. The HealthDecision platform is integrated into the clinicians' standard workflow within the EHR; incorporates the latest medical guidelines and performs complex risk calculations; and documents shared decision making, which is increasingly required for reimbursement. HealthDecision is based in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, please visit www.healthdecision.org.

Media Inquiries:
Joleen Rau
Chief Marketing Officer
HealthDecision, LLC
[email protected]
(608) 209-0792

SOURCE HealthDecision, LLC

Related Links

https://www.healthdecision.org