VisualDx Partners with Hitchcock-Dartmouth to Improve Population Health

ROCHESTER, NY [September 8, 2016] – Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care: It provides an explanation of a patient’s health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system is investing in technology to improve diagnostic accuracy. The Lebanon, NH-based academic health system signed an agreement to deploy VisualDx to its clinicians for use at the point of care.

VisualDx is a web-based clinical decision support system that assists clinicians to quickly build a differential diagnosis. With its extensive medical image library, clinicians can easily see variations of disease to arrive at a fast, more accurate diagnosis. VisualDx is accessed through the electronic health record and via mobile devices. Dartmouth-Hitchcock clinicians will also access VisualDx through the Dartmouth College BioMedical Libraries Resources site that offers a suite of evidence-based medical tools for clinicians and students at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. The tool has been proven to enhance diagnostic accuracy and improve patient care.1-2

Dartmouth-Hitchcock has recognized that reducing diagnostic error is an important focus for its efforts to improve population health. The Institute of Medicine’s 2015 report, “Improving Diagnosis in Health Care” is a major driving force for this initiative. In the report, one of its goals highlights the need to “ensure that health information technologies support patients and health care professionals in the diagnostic process.”

“In an increasingly complex health care environment, it is important that patients receive the care they want and need, when well informed,” noted Dr. Robert A. Greene, Executive Vice President and Chief Population Health Management Office at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. “Partnering with VisualDx will enable our clinicians to provide more accurate and timely information to their patients, with the goal of producing better outcomes and better patient experience across the populations we serve.”

“Dartmouth-Hitchcock is national leader in population health and accountable care, and we are excited to bring our technology to the system and its clinicians” said Art Papier MD, CEO of VisualDx. “We recognize that to drive accuracy and patient satisfaction, we have to do better at the point of care. VisualDx allows primary care physicians and clinicians to have access to specialty-level knowledge, and a fast second opinion in seconds.  Referrals and consultations become more appropriate and primary care physicians and patients benefit.”

VisualDx is available both on desktop and mobile devices. The application contains more than 2,700 diagnoses and 40,000 curated medical images, spanning medicine.

 

About Dartmouth-HitchcockDartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) is a nonprofit academic health system serving communities in northern New England. D-H provides access to more than 1,000 primary care doctors and specialists in almost every area of medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, four affiliate hospitals, 24 ambulatory clinics and through the Visiting Nurse and Hospice for VT and NH. The D-H system trains nearly 400 residents and fellows annually, and performs world-class research, in partnership with the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the White River Junction VA Medical Center.

 

  1. Papier A, Allen E, McDermott M. Visual informatics: real-time visual decision support. Poster presented at: American Medical Informatics Association 2001 Annual Symposium; November 3-7, 2001; Washington, DC.
  2. David CV, Chira S, Eells SJ, et al. Diagnostic accuracy in patients admitted to hospitals with cellulitis. Dermatol Online J. 2011;17(3):1.[PubMed].

Subscribe to VisualDx Today

Become a VisualDx subscriber today and gain access to clinical information and medical images of thousands of diagnoses. Your first 7 days are FREE.

Learn More

Related Posts