services will reduce stress, improve
productivity and, ultimately, give
more time back to the physician.
Health systems that optimize
the use of these types of tools
and services will have the best
clinical outcomes and will be more
successful at attracting and retaining
physician talent. Systems that rely
solely on the individual physicians
risk creating huge amounts of
performance pressure, leading to
burnout and increased errors. Our
view is that adopting a strong culture
regarding the use of workflowsensitive
November 2018 Dallas Medical Journal 25
that addresses both the clinical and
social determinants of health for
social service providers and hospitals.
It features seamless referrals,
comprehensive and customizable
reporting, and is Homeless
Management Information Systems
(HMIS) compliant.
Patients with social determinants
of health, such as food or housing
insecurity, in addition to medical
conditions are at greater risk for
poor outcomes and excess hospital
utilizations. Much of the data about
social determinants of health are
hidden within massive amounts of
unstructured text within the health
system electronic medical records
(EMR). Identifying and addressing
these social determinants can help
hospitals and health systems achieve
far better patient outcomes, while
combating excess length of stay,
unnecessary Emergency Department
visits, and avoidable readmissions.
Pieces Tech has been championing
this work in Dallas and is working
with communities in Illinois, Arizona
and Colorado to implement similar
community health networks.
Uncovering patient insights from
EMR data and sharing this data with
hospitals and community-based
organizations allow coordination
of care among service providers,
which ultimately promotes patient
wellness.
Our EWS (early warning system) &
Sepsis module offers an automated
early warning system to help identify
sepsis and inpatient deterioration as
early as possible. Sepsis accounts for
nearly $24 billion in annual
costs — the most expensive condition
to treat in the entire US healthcare
Anand Shah, MD,
oversees Pieces
Technologies’ clinical
activities and data
analytics teams. He
is responsible for
driving engagement,
collaboration and
innovation throughout the partnerfocused
approach. In addition to
practicing emergency medicine at
Parkland Health & Hospital System, he is
an expert in identifying and developing
key decision support modules, products
and clinical workflows. piecestech.com
system; sepsis hospitalizations are
70 percent more expensive than
the average stay. Pieces DS for
EWS & Sepsis has outperformed
nonautomated models and unaided
clinical observation, leading to
improved care and patient safety. In
fact, one hospital customer that uses
the tool decreased sepsis mortality
by 15 percent, and Pieces software
found one critically deteriorating
patient every two weeks, who was
otherwise not identified by clinical
staff. AI can analyze massive volumes
of data and alert caregivers — in our
case, up to 48 hours before the rapid
response team is needed.
SIMPLIFIED CLINICAL
DECISION-MAKING
For those who fear the potential
future of AI, we are far from what
you may see on a movie screen. The
objective is not to have AI replace
human clinical decision-making.
Instead, the goal is to give clinicians
more time organizing systems of
care, and supervising the patient
relationship and complex care
journey. Physicians of the future will
need to be comfortable managing
this type of technology interface,
taking the information from these
tools and developing the best clinical
pathway.
AI simplifies clinical decisionmaking
by being able to evaluate
enormous amounts of data and
comparing that to countless
other historical diagnoses. This
will enhance care delivery and
coordination, and help clinicians
focus their attention where it is
needed. More importantly, the
utilization of these tools and
We transform billions of data points into warning tools
that can save lives and strengthen communities
inside and outside hospital walls.
technology and innovation
ultimately makes clinicians more
successful and eases some of the
burden that comes with the demands
of medicine today. DMJ