Researchers at Geisinger Medical Center recently received funding totaling more than $44,000 from a Geisinger Health System (GHS) – NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC) collaborative project focusing on personalized healthcare.

The grant, titled “Expanding Comparative Effectiveness Research in Orthopedics by Capturing Uniform Measures of Patient-Reported Functional Outcomes at Two Institutions”, will permit Geisinger to administer electronic questionnaires to patients with osteoarthritis (OA) via new, touch-screen monitors in its orthopaedic clinics. Results from these questionnaires will allow physicians to track patient-reported outcomes, which are critical in developing evidence-based protocols in OA management.

“There is an urgent need to create evidence-based guidelines to assist health care providers in managing osteoarthritis. By integrating an electronic questionnaire into patient visits, we can collect valuable data regarding the effectiveness of our treatments and use that feedback to determine what’s working well and what we can improve,” said Wade Smith, Chairman, Orthopaedics, Geisinger Health System.

By partnering with NYULMC, data will be collected from two very divergent populations, allowing for interinstitutional research and collaboration. Both institutions will integrate the data into electronic health record systems.

“Our ultimate goal is to include patient-centered outcome data as an automatic part of the medical record here at Geisinger,” Dr. Smith said. “This grant is the first step toward realizing that goal, which would be a transformative change in our ability to continually improve how we care for osteoarthritis patients.”

Source
Geisinger Health System