1. RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2012
www.PosterPresentations.com
Using Healthcare Information Technology Improves Care Coordination
of Congestive Heart Failure Patients
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
RESULTS DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Dr. Nauert and all of the supporting staff of the
UT Health Informatics and Health IT Program for their help and guidance
in completing this project.
Figure 2: Benefits of adoption of HIT for use in care coordination 6
The purpose of this poster is to analyze the current and future trends in
healthcare technologies and how they can help in the care management
of Chronic Heart Failure.
Figure 1: Heart Failure Mortality 5
Figure 3: Ecosystem of Connected Health 4
The University of Texas at Austin, Health Informatics and Health IT Professional Education Program , Spring 2016
Swetha Gurajala, BS and Constance Taylor, BA, MBA
METHODS
This project was completed with guidance from Dr. Nauert. We used Google
Scholar and PubMed to locate articles for this poster. We used keywords
Congestive Heart Failure, Chronic Disease, Information Technology,
Electronic Health Records, and Outcome Measures. We reviewed articles
from PubMed, and Google Scholar, and the American Journal of Medicine. CONTACT INFORMATION
PURPOSE
The results of this poster indicate that the adoption of Health – IT Enabled
Care Coordination for Congestive Heart Failure patients is supportive of
information exchanges across all health care teams and makes
coordination of care more efficient in the following ways 2
:
● Provides access to less fragmented patient data at the point of care
● Facilitates remote consultations between clinicians, patients and
caretaker/family
● Increases adherence to guideline-concordant care
● Reduces hospital readmissions, thus decrease health care cost
If adopted, HIT can contribute to the decrease in preventable CHF deaths.
Symptoms such as weight gain, shortness of breath, and high blood
pressure are indicative of worsening heart failure; however, the study
conducted by Gellis found that the use of telehealth resulted in early
detection, treatment and better management of CHF and led to a
decreased number of hospitalizations7
.
More research is required in order to project the results Health-IT on a
national scale and to develop a strategy to implement information
technology without sacrificing quality or causing harm to the patient.
Chronic diseases account for 75% of total healthcare cost, and is responsible
for the majority of deaths in the United States3
. According to the Census
Bureau, the proportion of aged Americans who report having chronic
diseases rose from 86% to 92.2% in 20103
. With the rapid increase of aging
Americans, it is important to note that the prevalence of chronic disease will
increase drastically, and with it, the cost.
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a chronic disease that is responsible for the
most number of deaths in the United States and is one of the top three
causes of hospitalization in patients over 65 years of age1
. It accounts for 1-
2% of healthcare budgets with a projected tripling over the coming years1
.
Care of CHF is enormously expensive because of preventable hospital
readmissions, under-utilization of evidence based therapies, and inadequate
post-discharge monitoring 2
.
Expanding the use of Health Information Technology Systems is expected to
be a solution to increase the coordination of care, enabling timely and
efficient exchange of clinical data. Proactive health service interaction
between specialists, nursing, allied health and primary care providers can
enable the desired management of care to reduce redundant medical
testing, decrease medication errors, and enhance surveillance and
monitoring of the disease1
. Some innovative ways that technology has
helped empower patients to manage their own illnesses are with the
combined use of electronic health records (EHR), integrated telehealth,
telemedicine, and at- home monitoring devices 1
.
1. Iyngkaran, P., Toukhsati, S. R., Biddagardi, N., Zimmet, H., Atherton, J. J., & Hare,
D. L. (2015). Technology-Assisted Congestive Heart Failure Care.Current heart
failure reports, 12(2), 173-186.
2. O'Malley, A. S., Reschovsky, J. D., & Saiontz-Martinez, C. (2015). Interspecialty
communication supported by health information technology associated with
lower hospitalization rates for ambulatory care–sensitive conditions. The
Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 28(3), 404-417.
3. Milani, R. V., & Lavie, C. J. (2015). Health care 2020: reengineering health care
delivery to combat chronic disease. The American journal of medicine,128(4),
337-343.
4. AHRQ, (2014). Reviewed 2016. Emerging Trends in Care Coordination
Measurement. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http:
//www.ahrq.gov/professionals/prevention-chronic-
care/improve/coordination/atlas2014/chapter4.html
5. CDC(Nov2015).Reviewed 2016. http://www.cdc.
gov/media/dpk/2013/images/vitalSigns/heart_disease/img11.jpg
6. AHRQ(2014).ReviewedJan,2016.http://images.slideplayer.
com/18/5709884/slides/slide_28.jpg
7. Gellis, Z. D., Kenaley, B., McGinty, J., Bardelli, E., Davitt, J., & Ten Have, (2012).
Outcomes of a telehealth intervention for homebound older adults with heart
or chronic respiratory failure: a randomized controlled trial. The
Gerontologist, 52(4), 541-552.
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) is one of the most expensive and
preventable chronic diseases in the United States. CHF accounts for an
exorbitant amount of preventable hospitalizations, the leading cause of
the increase in health care costs and mortality rates. Proper prevention,
disease management and care coordination along with advancements in
information technology—including electronic health records (EHR),
telemedicine, telehealth and mhealth - allow for careful and immediate
responses by health care providers. Adopting this multi-faceted approach
will allow for improved communication between clinicians, patients, and
caretakers and with will lead to fewer hospital readmissions, greater
quality of care, and improved health outcomes.
Swetha Gurajala Constance Taylor
gurajalas@gmail.com constancetaylor513@gmail.com
Figure 4: Coordination Domains by EHR-Based Measures 4
Ecosystem in which Information Technology helps to
integrate data while improving the workflow of clinicians,
leading to better care coordination for the patient.
Emerging trends in Care Coordination: Frequency of care
coordination domains measured by EHR-based measures
The adoption of Health-IT coupled with Care Coordination
increased health outcomes for CHF patients of all races
over a 6 year period.
This Figure shows the preventable distribution of deaths
caused by Heart Disease. These statistics highlights the
need for better care coordination in order to reduce
preventable deaths.
Figure 2: Benefits of adoption of HIT 6