Curtis Hanson, M.D., hematopathologist and Chief Medical Officer of Mayo Medical Laboratories at Mayo Clinic, was interviewed by Healthcare Analytics News to discuss CareSelect Lab™—a decision-support tool that aggregates clinical knowledge around a comprehensive menu of conditions and translates that knowledge into best-practice recommendations.
The tool, a collaboration between Mayo Medical Laboratories and National Decision Support Company, aims to use analytics and interoperable capabilities to reduce the number of unnecessary lab tests. Announced in late September, the system will integrate with hospital electronic health records (EHR) systems and weigh data against more than 1,500 Mayo Clinic-curated care models to enhance physicians’ ability to order the right tests for their patients.
“There are three components. Making sure that you’re ordering the right test, [having] the analytics at the back end to make sure you’re getting more complete information for the patient, and understanding populations of patients so you know better what to do," said Dr. Hanson.
To Dr. Hanson, clinical decision-support systems are poised to change how lab work gets done. “Laboratories have been great at generating data, but we have done a really poor job of owning that data and understanding how to use that data in aggregate to help clinicians,” he said.
CareSelect Lab will provide real-time guidance in a health care provider’s normal EHR workflow in addition to benchmarking and analytics tools to compare test-ordering patterns and identify gaps in care.