UH Seidman Cancer Center to design, launch Epic symptom management tools

Cleveland-based University Hospitals will design and integrate electronic patient-reported outcome tools within its Epic EHR as part of an initiative with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, according to a May 8 news release from the health system.

In two recent studies, patient-reported outcome programs improved cancer patients’ survival rates and quality of life, and reduced emergency department visits by 6%.

Ethan Basch, MD, director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at Chapel Hill-based University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and chief of medical oncology at UNC School of Medicine, told Becker’s that patient-reported outcome programs can also prevent symptoms from going unchecked. 

“If we’re missing people’s symptoms and side effects, we can’t intervene,” Dr. Basch said. “Those things will then get worse, leading to unnecessary, preventable suffering and also to downstream complications, like people missing their treatments, missing their appointments, going to the emergency room, being hospitalized or even catastrophic medical outcomes.”

University Hospitals’ electronic patient-reported outcomes monitoring program will be led by Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, chief quality and clinical transformation officer, and Melinda Hsu, MD, a medical oncologist at UH Seidman Cancer Center, according to the release. 

“Currently the project will include 10 locations, including UH Cleveland Medical Center, and it’s intended to reach more than 10,000 patients across Northeast Ohio,” Dr. Pronovost said. “Anything we can do to lessen the suffering of patients going through cancer treatment is a worthy endeavor. “

Other hospitals participating in the PCORI initiative are:

Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health, now part of Advocate Health; Grand Rapids and Southfield, Mich.-based Corewell Health; Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System; 

Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger; Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health; Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health; Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy Health; and Gainesville, Fla.-based UF Health.