Intermountain and MDClone pairing saves money as both patients and populations are better understood

Photo: Courtesy Intermountain

Intermountain's pairing with MDClone has resulted in significant improvements for patients with chronic kidney disease and end stage renal disease.

The collaboration revamped the way Intermountain did kidney care, said Intermountain's Dr. Michael Phillips, chief for clinical and outreach services. It decreased admissions by about 90% by getting patients on a care path that allowed them, for instance, to have dialysis at home.

"All in all, it produced savings of $30 million in the year-and-a-half we've been doing it," Phillips said. 

The backbone of MDClone is a data lake that organizes patient data in a linear timeline and allows the health system to add virtually any information with a timestamp. This includes EHR, insurance and lab data, and factors for the social determinants of health.

Most people who have kidney disease don't know they have it, Phillips said. The IT platform was able to identify patients and their conditions earlier.

MDClone, based in Israel, offers a technology platform and a query system that works as what the company calls "self-service data analytics." Answers to questions can be obtained on the same day, without a wait of six to eight months.

"Instead of seven months, it's that morning," Phillips said. 

One of the key factors about transitioning from seven months to seven minutes is that caregivers have gotten reengaged. When there's a long delay between requesting data and getting it, folks stop asking, he said.

Intermountain is able to publish data on patients as synthetic data around population sets without compromising personal health information. Third parties can access this data and pool it with other information around the world to better understand populations.

"Our goal is to share data with outside health systems and in academic publications," Phillips said. "It democratizes data. Synthetic data is a huge opportunity we haven't had before. It is sharing data across large groups of folks: One is directed towards caring for individual patients; the other is looking at how populations behave. Understanding those populations is key to understanding how much money it takes to care for them."

WHY THIS MATTERS

The bottom line is that good care is cost effective. The savings are in better health outcomes and fewer hospital admissions.

Intermountain is able to close gaps in care by identifying risk, to make care less expensive, Phillips said.

"Many of the savings are gifts that keep on giving," he said. "It's slowing the progression of kidney disease, avoiding admissions. Patients go home for dialysis. They tend to do better at home. There's fewer interactions with the health system, urgent care and ERs. By involving people in their own care they just do better."

THE LARGER TREND
Intermountain started a venture fund two years ago to invest in companies that would move it forward in its mission.

MDClone fits that criteria. The company has been deployed at Intermountain for several years, said MDClone Chief Commercial Officer Josh Rubel. MDClone is used in other systems in the United States and elsewhere.

More growth is expected in the platform at Intermountain. Work has continued with cardiovascular patients and others, Phllips said.

Intermountain has about 65% of its patients at full risk. 

"It's all about getting people on care paths," he said, "and getting the kind of care they should get. The information system that is the backbone allowed us to focus on delivering care the way we needed to. MDClone helped us." 

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com