Fighting chronic asthma with predictive IT

DALLAS, USA: Children's Medical Center has announced it has engaged Dallas-based, non-profit research and development firm PCCI on two new projects aimed at keeping children healthier, using predictive modeling and networking technologies.

The first project is focused on helping children with chronic asthma, which is the third-leading cause of pediatric hospital readmissions nationally and a significant cause of return visits at Children's Medical Center. PCCI is building predictive analytic models to help identify children with risk factors indicating a high likelihood for future asthma crises that could lead to a hospital encounter.

"Asthma is the one of the most common chronic diseases among youth, affecting more than 50,000 children in Dallas County alone, and a leading reason for school absenteeism - yet it's a health problem that can be significantly impacted by improving treatment, resources, and awareness of environmental triggers," according to Summer Collins, Children's Medical Center vice president of population health data strategies.

Collins said predictive modeling can be used to assess key information within the electronic medical record (EMR) in real time and identify asthmatic children with higher risk factors, allowing health care and social services providers to proactively address treatments and triggers in a manner responsive to patient and family needs.

"As a physician and parent of a child with asthma, I know first-hand the significant toll asthma can take on children. It's a privilege, and incredibly exciting, to team with Children's on real-time predictive modeling approaches to helps kids in North Texas," said Ruben Amarasingham, MD, PCCI founder, president and chief executive officer.

Dr. Amarasingham said predictive analytics is playing an increasingly important role in health care, with the potential to enhance decision-making, outcomes and efficiency.

Children's and PCCI also are collaborating to develop a virtual network of information exchange between pediatric health care and social services providers, to provide a central source of information to monitor a child's health issues. The network will be fully compliant with health information privacy regulations and available to families who choose to opt in to the network.

By electronically linking the various professionals who provide care and social services, each person in an individual child's support system has the opportunity to coordinate services with other providers, and pursue team-based approaches to supporting the health and well-being of the children we all serve, according to Collins. For example, if a child's prescription has not been filled, the providers working with that child - school nurses, social workers, service agency staff - can coordinate the approach to care and more likely identify underlying reasons for missed appointments and refills, such as limited access to transportation.