“Learning health systems” use electronic health records to “provide more personalized treatment and drive research,” reports H&HN.

Most such  systems use top-down models in which data are integrated from more than one hospital system, “which can be difficult to implement”.

But Nationwide Children’s, in partnership with the Ohio State University, “created a pilot program, called ‘Learn From Every Patient,’ that optimizes the EHR to integrate clinical care, quality improvement and clinical-driven research. This model was tested with a group of 131 children in the hospital’s cerebral palsy program.

”Children treated in the program during a 12-month study period experienced a 43 percent decrease in total inpatient days, a 27 percent drop in inpatient admissions, a 30 percent reduction in emergency department visits and a 29 percent decrease in urgent care visits. It also reduced health care costs by 25 percent and provided a 6-to-1 return on investment.”

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