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8:30 AM - HIMSS Europe
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e-Health 2025 Conference and Tradeshow
2025-06-01 - 2025-06-03    
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
The 2025 e-Health Conference provides an exciting opportunity to hear from your peers and engage with MEDITECH.
HIMSS Europe
2025-06-10 - 2025-06-12    
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Transforming Healthcare in Paris From June 10-12, 2025, the HIMSS European Health Conference & Exhibition will convene in Paris to bring together Europe’s foremost health [...]
38th World Congress on  Pharmacology
2025-06-23 - 2025-06-24    
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
About the Conference Conference Series cordially invites participants from around the world to attend the 38th World Congress on Pharmacology, scheduled for June 23-24, 2025 [...]
2025 Clinical Informatics Symposium
2025-06-24 - 2025-06-25    
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Virtual Event June 24th - 25th Explore the agenda for MEDITECH's 2025 Clinical Informatics Symposium. Embrace the future of healthcare at MEDITECH’s 2025 Clinical Informatics [...]
International Healthcare Medical Device Exhibition
2025-06-25 - 2025-06-27    
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Japan Health will gather over 400 innovative healthcare companies from Japan and overseas, offering a unique opportunity to experience cutting-edge solutions and connect directly with [...]
Electronic Medical Records Boot Camp
2025-06-30 - 2025-07-01    
10:30 am - 5:30 pm
The Electronic Medical Records Boot Camp is a two-day intensive boot camp of seminars and hands-on analytical sessions to provide an overview of electronic health [...]
Events on 2025-06-01
Events on 2025-06-10
HIMSS Europe
10 Jun 25
France
Events on 2025-06-23
38th World Congress on  Pharmacology
23 Jun 25
Paris, France
Events on 2025-06-24
Events on 2025-06-25
International Healthcare Medical Device Exhibition
25 Jun 25
Suminoe-Ku, Osaka 559-0034
Events on 2025-06-30

Events

Latest News

Kidney disease risk score can be built into patients’ electronic health records

chronic kidney disease

More than 26 million Americans have chronic kidney disease (CKD). Primary care physicians who take care of these patients can help reduce the risk of complications and death if they recognize the progression of kidney failure early, but this is often difficult to do – deterioration can be rapid and more than one laboratory test may be needed to accurately predict a patient’s risk. A new electronic health record (EHR) tool could help physicians quickly and accurately flag patients that should be referred to a nephrologist. Designed by Brigham and Women’s Hospital investigators, this tool draws upon recent research that has identified several tests that can be used to calculate an individual’s risk score.

Now, an automatic calculator can be built into EHRs and displayed prominently for a physician to see when they open a patient’s record. The was piloted at ten North Shore Physicians Group clinics this year, and a paper detailing the design and implementation of the application appear online this week in The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

“Retrospective studies of patients who have had to go on dialysis show that being referred to a nephrologist just a few months earlier can have major benefits,” said corresponding author Lipika Samal, MD, MPH, a clinician investigator in the Division of General Internal Medicine. “We want to make it as easy as possible for a physician to quickly access and track a patient’s risk. This tool automatically calculates and displays a risk score within the health record, making it easier for a to spot disease progression and take action.”

The new clinical decision support tool calculates and displays risk based on criteria identified from a large cohort study conducted by Canadian researchers (Tangri et al., 2011). Predictive risk factors that go into the calculation include serum and urine tests that collected during routine care. If test results for any of these predictive measures have not been collected and are not in a patient’s record at the time of a visit, the tool will display a recommendation to order the tests. Otherwise, the tool will display a five-year kidney disease , and if the risk is high, a recommendation for a referral to a nephrologist.

The tool was deployed outside of the EHR in a way that would allow it to be used with different EHRs by utilizing interoperability standards called continuity of care documents (CCDs). The tool extracted the necessary tests from this interoperable document.

The research team validated the tool in 255 patients and subsequently deployed it to 10 primary care clinics. The team made improvements and updates to the tool based on feedback from physicians. In the course of the pilot, they processed more than half a million CCDs to diagnose CKD and to generate risk scores for patients with CKD.

Because of the interoperable nature of the tool, the team sees an opportunity to deploy this single application across multiple EHRs. They plan to implement it in eCare at BWH later this year. Samal also envisions applications for support tools beyond CKD.

“One of the positive things about EHRs is that there is now a wealth of data that can be used to help us better predict an individual’s risk, especially for chronic and progressive diseases, like CKD,” said Samal. “We have the opportunity to use EHRs to improve patient care- tools like this one can help us seize that opportunity.”

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