Cloud Computing Could Help Ordering Doctors Make Better Decisions

According to Medicalis, a provider of information-driven clinical and workflow solutions, part of the problem in curbing overutilization of diagnostic imaging is that ordering physicians often lack easy access to the right forms of decision support. The San Francisco-based company aims to solve this using a new cloud computing product called the Decision Support Cloud (DSCloud). The DSCloud is designed to provide access to evidence-based and clinical best practice guidelines as a supportive tool for physicians. It can be accessed through the Medicalis DSCloud portal from a computer, tablet or mobile device, or via secure web services integration to an electronic medical record (EMR). “By moving evidenced-based decision support into the cloud, Medicalis offers providers and healthcare organizations a platform to introduce imaging-based clinical decision support into their practice of medicine,” says Oran Muduroglu, president and CEO of Medicalis. “The DSCloud will allow organizations to better understand how to effectively leverage decision support and supportive policy enforcement tools to allow healthcare providers to manage the costs associated with diagnostic imaging as they transition to or participate in Accountable Care Organizations (ACO).” One of the things that makes the DSCloud different is that it is relatively low cost and it is scalable, Muduroglu explains. This allows physician practices or hospitals to begin using decision support without making a large-scale investment that is not yet supported by the current economics of health care, which rewards doing more testing, not less. "There is great interest across the country to start engaging in Imaging Educational Decision Support, to enable meaningful use and familiarize physicians and their organizations on the technologies heading towards taking on risk, ACOs etc., but, the economic justification does not exist until the providers can start to take on financial risk for their patients," Muduroglu says. "The DSCloud allows sites to take advantage of educational support with close to zero upfront complexity or burden of buying servers, installing software, signing long-term licenses or making assumptions on volume, utilization, etc." Ancillary benefits of using a product such as the DSCloud may include the ability to negotiate an exemption or modification with a Radiology Benefit Manager (RBM), lower utilization for a hospital's own at-risk inpatients, or improve market share through publishing compliance with quality guidelines, Muduroglu says. More information about the DSCloud and Medicalis is available in the company's online newsroom at http://www.medicalis.com/company/newsroom.