Advocate Aurora Research Institute and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston were selected as recipients of a four-year, $4 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to develop a system to identify clinical diagnostic errors by leveraging electronic data.
The Diagnostic Safety Center for Advancing E-triggers and Rapid Feedback Implementation (DISCOVERI), led by Dr. Hardeep Singh, MPH, of Baylor College of Medicine, will create and implement an electronic-trigger learning and feedback system in which an algorithm in the electronic health record will be tested to automatically identify potential diagnostic errors. This will enhance the efficiency of medical record reviews to determine if an error occurred. The system will then point investigators to the specific part of the diagnostic process that contributed to the errors so that it can be corrected, reducing future errors. The team will also develop a method of informing clinicians of the errors.
"Finding the balance between making a rapid and accurate diagnosis is a challenge for even experienced clinicians and care teams,” said Rachel Zastrow, DNP, Executive Director of Patient Safety and principal investigator for the project at Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care. “Studies show about 1 in 20 adults in the U.S. will receive an incorrect diagnosis every year, and about half of all diagnostic errors have the potential to lead to harm from delayed or incorrect treatment, making improving our diagnostic abilities an absolute priority."
Advocate and Aurora, now part of Advocate Health, will help create generalizable knowledge, tools, strategies and methods for the diagnostic review system that other health care systems can follow, with the goal of ultimately improving diagnostic safety across the country.
“Despite national recognition of the problem, reducing diagnostic errors remains a challenge, partly due to the lack of guidance on how to create and implement learning and feedback systems,” said Eva Chang, PhD, MPH, Associate Research Scientist for the Research Institute and co-investigator on the project.
The Research Institute’s data analytics team will assist with the project. Diagnostic review systems with electronic triggers, or e-triggers, can mine large amounts of clinical and administrative data to more efficiently identify diagnostic errors than voluntary reporting by health care workers.
Part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ funds research that aims to keep patients safe, help doctors and nurses improve quality, and measure changes in health system data.
"As a learning health care system, we have both a unique opportunity and a responsibility to help establish a nationwide culture of learning and ultimately eliminating preventable diagnostic errors,” said Dr. Gary Stuck, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Advocate Health. “We are thrilled to partner with Baylor College of Medicine on this project and believe our researchers, clinicians and safety team members will contribute a great deal to the creation of a model for diagnostic improvement that can be scaled to health systems across the country."
To learn more about our research, visit aah.org/research.
About Advocate Aurora Research Institute
Advocate Aurora Research Institute is a not-for-profit, limited liability company of Advocate Aurora Health. Advocate Aurora has emerged as a national destination for patient-centered bench, translational and clinical research, and the Research Institute unifies the innovative research efforts throughout the health system. Advocate Aurora researchers focus on rapidly translating new discoveries from the scientist’s bench to the patient’s bedside and into the community we serve to improve options and outcomes that change not only the lives of individuals, but transform the health of populations.