WORCESTER, MA – UMass Memorial Health Care aims to improve the care of its patients with diabetes while at the same time cutting costs by providing better remote care.

 

UMass Memorial, clinical partner of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is the first in the country to integrate MyCareTeam Clinical, a new Web-based diabetes management system, with the Allscripts electronic health record system that UMass Memorial's physicians use in their offices.

 

As David Harlan, MD, sees it, today’s care delivery model of periodic patient visits to their doctors does not lend itself to the regular, disciplined self-management and care required for successful treatment of diabetes.

 

Harlan, co-director of the UMass Memorial Health Care Diabetes Center of Excellence and professor of medicine at University of Massachusetts Medical School, says, "Integrating MCT Clinical with the Allscripts EHR revolutionizes our care for patients with diabetes and provides efficiencies not previously possible. Not only is it easier and faster than other meter upload systems, but the EHR integration gives us a comprehensive view of our patients' health status and enables better population health management."

 

UMass Memorial has enrolled more than 1,000 patients and enabled them to upload their blood glucose meters from home or from within UMass Memorial outpatient offices. The data is easily added to the patient's medical record, says Harlan.

 

The UMass Memorial diabetes care team says it has observed significant improvements in clinic patient flow and greater efficiencies within the clinic as a result. They expect the program will improve long-term diabetes management by making it easy for an interdisciplinary team of primary care providers, nutritionists, endocrinologists, diabetes educators and family members to collaborate.

 

"I like knowing that when I contact them, my entire care team at UMass Memorial can now access my health records and from those records, also see my 'real time' blood glucose meter data, which I can easily upload from home," says Michaella Conlon, a 17-year-old from Leominster, Mass. "The fact that my care team can now access all my diabetes relevant data to advise me gives me peace of mind, and my healthcare team seems happy about it, too."

 

"We all feel more empowered by this new system," says Michael Conlon, Michaella's father. "It makes assisting her with the management of her diabetes so much easier."

 

The Allscripts-MyCareTeam integration is a part of Cornertone, UMass Memorial's multi-year, multi-entity corporate initiative to implement common patient clinical and financial systems and to reduce variability in processes and workflows across the system.

 

"Managing care for patients with diabetes is truly a team effort," says Ronald Adler, MD, a family medicine physician, director of primary care practice improvement at UMass Memorial's Center for the Advancement of Primary Care and assistant professor of family medicine and community health at University of Massachusetts Medical School. "This integrated approach promotes the view that patients are the most important members of the diabetes care team and the idea that some of the most important management of diabetes occurs between visits.  

 

Adler says the opportunity to communicate efficiently between visits adds tremendous value for patients and the healthcare team while also avoiding unnecessary office visits.

 

MCT Clinical is a new software platform that was specifically integrated with the Allscripts EHR and can manage other chronic diseases, such as weight management, blood pressure and in the future, asthma. 

 

Jim Mingle, CEO of MyCareTeam, says MCT Clinical’s integration with the Allscripts EHR will help provide better overall health outcomes."

 

"This innovative partnership demonstrates yet again UMass Memorial Health Care's leadership in finding opportunities to provide better care to their patients and include them as a part of the entire care process," says Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, who also serves on the International Board of Directors of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the world's largest research organization devoted to finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes. "Active self-management paired with health monitoring by a care team are two of the most critical aspects of controlling diabetes and preventing long-term complications,” he says.