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HealthPartners Research Foundation team to study role of electronic health records in reducing heart disease riskBLOOMINGTON, Minn. --(Business Wire)-- A HealthPartners Research Foundation team has received a National Institutes of Health research grant to develop and implement an electronic health record (EHR)-based clinical decision support system to help reduce patients' risk of heart attack or stroke. The team, led by Patrick O'Connor, MD, MPH, senior clinical investigator, HealthPartners Research Foundation, received $3.7 million to conduct the five-year study, 'Prioritized Clinical Decision Support to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk.' "This is the next generation of personalizing care with decision support that's meaningful to care providers and patients," said O'Connor who is also an assistant medical director at HealthPartners Medical Group. "HealthPartners Medical Group physicians and clinics have been pioneers in this area and this new project will likely lead to further improvements in care for thousands of patients," he said. The team, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, will engineer a point-of-care system that identifies and prioritizes evidence-based treatment options for patients at moderate to high risk for a heart attack or stroke within 10 years. With HealthPartners physicians, they will test its effect on risk in a randomizedtrial that includes 18 primary care clinics, 60 primary care physicians and 18,000 patients. If successful, this approach will reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke for about 35 percent of adults in the United States and maximize the clinical return on investment for electronic health record systems. It could also be a model for using electronic health record technology to deliver personalized medicine in primary care settings. HealthPartners began implementing electronic medical records in 1997 with success. HealthPartners Medical Group uses electronic medical records to make sure patients with diabetes are receiving all of the care they need and to proactively reach out to patients who need care. As a result, the number of patients who have all risk factors controlled for diabetes more than tripled between 2005 and 2009. HealthPartners and Regions Hospital have a total of 3.5 million electronic medical records that can be accessed at all HealthPartners Clinics, Regions Hospital, five HealthPartners Urgent Care clinics and other locations. Disclaimer: The project described was supported by Award Number R01HL102144 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute or the National Institutes of Health.
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