IBM, ActiveHealth unite in the cloud for clinical decision support

IBM and ActiveHealth Management, an Aetna subsidiary, have unveiled a new cloud computing and clinical decision support tool, Collaborative Care Solution, to give physicians and patients access to needed clinical data.

By combining information from EMRs, claims, medication and lab data with ActiveHealth’s clinical decision support CareEngine and delivering it via an IBM cloud computing platform, doctors will be able to deliver decisions about patient care, according to New York City-based ActiveHealth.

With healthcare data and IT resources managed in a cloud environment, the system will enable coordination of patient care among teams. Doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, aides, therapists and pharmacists can access, share and address information about patients from a single source, ActiveHealth said.

In addition, the technology shows trends in how patients respond, for example, to treatment for chronic asthma or adhere to drug regimens, and alerts doctors to conflicting or missed prescriptions.

Collaborative Care provides analytics to help measure performance against U.S., state, or in-hospital quality standards. According to ActiveHealth, hospitals and medical practices using Collaborative Care can:

• Connect, analyze and share a range of clinical and administrative data from disparate systems and sources;
• Automate the measurement, tracking and reporting of clinical quality performance at the patient and practice level using the Active CareTeam;
• Improve patient care through the use of clinical decision support powered by the ActiveHealth CareEngine; and
• Engage patients in their care through the use of the MyActiveHealth patient portal that provides for electronic communications between the health team and their patients.