Clinical Informatics

Current Projects

Computerized Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs)

2001 - Present
cprohealth.org (cPRO)
This open source platform, which we make available on github, and which we've been using and developing continuously since 2001, is foundational to our PRO work. cPRO projects include clinically-relevant, remote and point of care PRO assessments, and both self-management and behavior change interventions built on those assessments. Lots more details and examples at the cprohealth.org site

Patient-Reported Outcomes for HIV Care

2018 - Present
progresshivcare.org
In partnership with ViiV Healthcare, we make available to clinical partners an HIV-focussed Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) system to elicit and assess the patient’s experience of clinically important issues, using brief, validated questionnaires. PROs provide the patient perspective of the effects of disease and treatment on well-being, function, symptoms, satisfaction with (and preference for) treatments, risky behaviors (such as substance abuse), and other outcomes.

IRONMAN (Movember)

2017 - Present
ironmanregistry.org
TrueNTH (true north) is a program funded by the Movember Foundation. TrueNTH brings together men, partners, caregivers, clinicians and researchers to:

   - Test new care interventions and then scale them nationally and internationally
   - Implement national & international clinical quality initiatives that will significantly reduce variation in
     treatment quality & outcomes

One of the products that Movember has developed and implemented as part of the TrueNTH program is the electronic collection of patient reported outcome measurement surveys (ePROMS). This product is now being provided to all sites participating in IRONMAN to enable the collection of patient surveys globally.

Personal Patient Profile - Prostate Cancer

2002 - Present
p3p4me.org
P3P is a web-based program to help men prepare for making a decision, with their doctors, about how to manage a diagnosis of early stage prostate cancer. A recent national study* showed that using P3P reduced the amount of conflict experienced by men while making a decision. This newest version of P3P (2017) has been developed in collaboration between the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the Clinical Informatics Research Group at the University of Washington in Seattle. The content of P3P was last updated in May, 2016 with the input of clinical professionals at:
   - Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
   - Duke University
   - Emory University
   - Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MUSIC)
   - Moffitt Cancer Center
   - University of North Carolina
   - University of Washington

Mobile Post-Operative Wound Evaluator

2015 - Present
mpowercare.org
A mobile application using photos to enhance post-discharge communication between patients and providers. Developed in collaboration with Heather Evans since 2015, patients use mPOWEr as a diary of post-operative healing and a patient-centered communication tool with their care teams. Clinicians use mPOWEr as a longitudinal assessment tool for potential surgical wound infections, and as a platform for team communications.

TrueNTH USA Movember

2013 - Present
us.truenth.org
A collaborative program funded and created by The Movember Foundation. With the mission to improve the prostate cancer journey for men and their partners and caregivers, by bringing their voices together with doctors, researchers, and volunteers.

A national collaborative network was established among 15 institutions to design and implement solutions, which are integrated into a holistic program for men and their loved ones. The approach has implemented the various interventions at selected institutions across the larger TrueNTH network as well as making some available on us.truenth.org. Design and feasibility piloting took place within each project (varying by design), once completed there has been a demonstration phase focused on ongoing implementation and delivery of TrueNTH USA. An Advisory committee overseeing the project consists of national and international experts in prostate cancer, health systems and health care evaluation.

Past Projects

Hodgkin's Disease self-management at Dana Farber Cancer Institute

2000 - Present
survivorship.cirg.washington.edu
Survivor Wellness: Hodgkin's Disease is a web-based program to help survivors of Hodgkin's Disease who received chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy three or more years ago learn how to care for themselves after their diagnosis and treatment is completed. The focus of the website is to provide general strategies and access to resources that other survivors have found useful to promote wellness and health as well as some medical information about recommended follow-up care. Topics covered include risks for secondary cancers, care for your heart, emotional well-being, and additional resources. The information provided is not meant to replace care by our doctor or medical team. It is an additional resource to help obtain information.

Personal Health Records

2004
The UW PcHR is a Patient-centered Health Record application used in a research setting. It is an online application developed to understand the needs of both patients and health care providers, in the context of information sharing through a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO). It allows patients to store information such as health history and conditions, medications, allergies, immunizations, test results, procedures, emergency contacts, and health care providers; the information that matters to patients, stored the way they prefer.

UW Cores - Computerized Rounding and Sign-Out

2003
Physicians, particularly housestaff at academic centers, benefit from accurate exchange of clinical information, particularly around transfers of care. The UW Cores project evaluates patterns of patient information gathering, use, and communication among inpatient clinicians; it then implements tools for daily rounding and sign-out that are closely coupled to the enterprise clinical information systems, and improve care continuity and clinician efficiency.
Funded through the UW Department of Surgery, UW Medicine ITS, Harborview and UW Medical Centers' Offices of the Medical Director This project is partially supported by an NLM Training Grant, as well as funding from: UW Department of Surgery, UW Medicine ITS, Harborview and UW Medical Centers' Offices of the Medical Director.

eHealthSurveys Applications Evalutation

2003
Currently, there are no benchmarking tools that exist for users to evaluate and identify applications appropirate for their web-based health survey. This project aimed to identify key features that should be found in most web-based health survey applications and propose a methodology to assess eHealth survey applications.
Funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health e-Technologies Initiative.

Quality of Life and System Assessment

2001
Collecting Quality of Life (QoL) data from cancer patients undergoing radiation oncology treatment, and making those data available to clinicians and researchers, may improve care for these patients. CIRG is working on a database driven web application to support systematic collection and presentation of this data. The infrastructure can also be expanded to support generalized survey delivery for future clinical and research purposes.
Funded through a grant from the Oncology Nursing Society Foundation.

Survey Markup Language

2002 - 2003
SuML is an XML-based survey markup language for creating surveys. It is built on open sources standards and is one piece of a larger system for posing a survey and capturing the resulting data set. The AsthmaNet project was developed for the Child Health Institute (CHI) and is a web-based patient self-reported data collection and patient education tool, based on the Survey Markup Language (SuML).

Image Annotation Project

1999 - 2001
A standard markup language, and a set of open source tools, for structuring and manipulating graphical annotations to images. These tools were used in a demonstration system, the Personal Annotated Image System. This work was funded under an Extramural Fellowship (F38) from the National Library of Medicine.