| Description |
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) cases are complex and inherently time sensitive. Clinicians often base treatment decisions upon their individual experiences, training, and many other factors. Prognostic calculators can help enhance the clinician's understanding of the patient's prognosis. Stand-alone, internet-based TBI prognostic calculators exist, including a website developed based on the International Mission for Prognosis and Analysis of Clinical Trials in TBI (IMPACT-TBI) [1,2]. An electronic health record (EHR) integrated prognostic calculator that provides the expected probability of favorable and unfavorable outcomes for an individual patient could make treatment planning for TBI patients more efficient, accurate, and standardized, with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes. The IMPACT-TBI calculator was integrated with the Epic® EHR and made available to clinicians at the University of Utah Health system in Salt Lake City, Utah. The use of the tool was monitored and analyzed to support the providers and improve care. The calculator was used 346 times over 17 months. Trauma service providers were most likely to use the tool, and there was a significant increase in tool use after a demonstration was given to providers. An IMPACT-TBI prognostic calculator was successfully integrated with a major commercial EHR system. The integration provided insight into strategies for better integration and adoption of advanced clinical decision support tools in the future. |
