Two-Way Data Archive Aims to Control Costs

"We silence the conversation with technology," says Steven D. Freedman, MD, Ph.D, chief of the division of translational medicine and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Now, Freedman is about to begin a clinical trial to change that, and it starts at the very moment that patient meets doctor.

Freedman's initiative, called Passport to Trust, will provide greater structure to doctor-patient interactions through a technology that will ultimate sit on top of any electronic medical record.

It won't be the first time that technology jumped from the financial world into healthcare, this time using technology from NexJ Systems. "Their approach brings together all the different digitized information and data, but leaves the original source at the original database in the hospital, which is very important to hospitals and security," says Camilia Martin, MD, MS, a member of the Passport to Trust team who developed the initial electronic prototype.

"These decision points and the knowledge must be formed around the patient, not so much formed around what the physician, or practice, or hospital, is doing," Martin says.

The trick is to allow the physician, within the workflow of a typical day, to generate a care plan and give a copy to the patient before the end of the visit, while putting a copy of the plan in the medical record, Martin says.