Online tool boosts chronic disease and preventive care

A web-based tool that extracts information from the electronic medical record is helping physicians provide better care for patients with diabetes and heart disease, according to a new Kaiser study.

A separate study showed the technology, called Panel Support Tool, also helped doctors provide better preventive care. The Kaiser Permanente studies are the first to examine the effectiveness of a population care tool in a large, diverse patient population. The Panel Support Tool (PST), devised and implemented by doctors at Kaiser Permanente, is a Web-based tool that helps primary care physicians to manage care for individual patients, groups of patients or their entire panel. It does this by comparing the care the patient is receiving to the care that is recommended by national guidelines. For example, doctors can query the PST in advance of a patient visit to find out if that patient needs a screening test or vaccine. They can ask the PST to display a list of all of their patients who are overdue for a mammogram or colon cancer screening test, or a list of their diabetic patients whose blood sugar levels are too high, or those who need a foot or eye exam.