Providence preparing to spin off clinical decision support tech MedPearl

Dr. Eve Cunningham is group vice president and chief of virtual care and digital health at health system Providence and founder of MedPearl. And Providence is getting ready to spin off MedPearl.

MedPearl is a platform designed to support clinicians at the point of care by providing them with next-best actions and curated patient data. MedPearl's primary function is to enhance clinical decision-making, specifically in the care transitions between primary care and specialty care.

The technology is particularly valuable, Cunningham said, in managing the referral process to specialists, which often is fraught with complexities and inefficiencies.

The problem MedPearl aims to address is the overwhelming amount of information clinicians are expected to manage. With medical knowledge doubling approximately every three months, the volume of information can be paralyzing.

MedPearl is there to help with this "too much information" problem by presenting relevant data and actionable insights at the right time – enabling clinicians to make informed decisions more efficiently, Cunningham said.

Healthcare IT News sat down with Cunningham to talk about the spin-off and the future of this powerful healthcare information technology.

Q. You're gearing up to spin off MedPearl from Providence. How is this process going, what do things look like? Do you have a timeline?

A. MedPearl has been in use at Providence since mid-2022 and is proving tremendous value to our clinicians and patients. MedPearl significantly reduces clinicians' cognitive load and administrative tasks, notably through cutting down after-hours work by two hours monthly.

This increase in efficiency gives clinicians more time for direct patient care, thereby maximizing productivity and cost-effectiveness within Providence. Because of this, we are exploring the idea of commercializing this technology to make it broadly available to all health systems in the future. We have a terrific team working on this avenue and I'm sure we'll have more to share on this topic over the coming months.

Q. What are the goals of the spin-off?

A. The primary goal of any of our Providence commercialization efforts is to direct free market dynamics and associated funding toward solving the most pressing barriers to health system transformation. Our model is to innovate, create and use new technology within Providence. And once proven, make it available broadly through commercialization.

This enables the industry as a whole to gain the benefits of this innovation – and it spreads the costs associated with continued innovation across many.

Commercialization enables innovative technology to be available not only to large systems like Providence, but within all types of care delivery environments – particularly those who support underserved, rural and vulnerable communities. It's just so aligned with our mission.

Q. From your expert position, how do you see clinical decision support evolving into the future?

A. Technology like MedPearl that supports clinical decisions at the point of care can revolutionize the quality of care through standardization of information for clinicians. Clinical decision support is providing a huge opportunity to improve healthcare quality and standardization, filling a gap that has existed for far too long.

With the advent of new technologies, we now can look forward to more development in this space, which is incredibly exciting. At the same time, this must be done safely, taking into consideration various risks and regulatory requirements, such as those set by the FDA for software as a medical device.

A good analogy for this is the evolution of technology in aviation. Pilots once managed all aspects of flying manually, but now pilots rely heavily on technology for decision support. Similarly, clinicians will increasingly depend on advanced technologies to manage the large amounts of data they encounter.

We still need pilots, and we will still need clinicians. Technologies like MedPearl will support decision making at the point of care, and we can expect to see similar advancements aiding surgeons and other healthcare roles. Clinical decision support tools will continue to supercharge clinicians in their work.

Q. And what are some trends for workflow optimization, moving forward?

A. Today, clinicians, patients and caregivers face the challenge of toggling between multiple applications, which complicates workflows. Future efforts will focus on integration to address this issue. The goal will be to stitch together disparate applications and workflows, reducing the need to switch between multiple platforms to optimize workflow efficiency.

Workflow optimization will become increasingly critical as health system leaders begin to think strategically about how different technologies interact. For example, ambient technologies, clinical decision support systems, electronic health records and patient engagement platforms will need to be seamlessly integrated.

This strategic, systematic approach is an opportunity to ease the way for everyone involved in healthcare delivery. This will take a lot of hard work as well as input from people on the front lines, who are doing the work, to provide the feedback that is needed to create the ultimate workflow machine.

We believe MedPearl has a huge opportunity to optimize clinician workflows to ease the way and ease the burdens that clinicians are under today.

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