$5 Million Award to Study Precision Monitoring

With a $5 million award from the Department of Veterans Affairs www.va.gov, to help researchers and clinicians at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center www.indianapolis.va.gov, the Regenstrief Institute www.regenstrief.org, and the Indiana University School of Medicine http://medicine.iu.edu study how precision monitoring can be used to transform healthcare.

This new VA award will fund the five year multi-site “Precision Monitoring” (PRIS-M) program that will use existing VA electronic health data to implement timely personalized monitoring to generate further data.

A great deal of data resides in the VA’s EHRs but it is often hard to access. However, it is very important for the staff to understand the clinical and technical aspects of the data. The PRIS-M project hopes to develop and test tools and then implement strategies to make the data in the EHRs accessible and beneficial when and where needed.

Projects will take place in various healthcare environments including emergency departments plus inpatient units and outpatient units. In addition to studying the technical solutions to precision monitoring, investigators will study how actionable data can be used to activate healthcare providers and teams to improve patient care but at the same time, not drown in information overload.

The new grant funding supports four precision monitoring projects to include:

  • Nationwide implementation of electronic quality indicators for inpatient stroke care
  • Use of patient-specific data and telehealth technology to facilitate improvement in caring for veterans with transient ischemic attack
  • Remote monitoring of continuous positive airway pressure for patients with sleep apnea
  • Reducing inappropriate carotid artery imaging orders