The Socrates Project for Difficult Diagnosis at Northwestern Medicine.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Singer BD
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7051183 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
The Socrates Project for Difficult Diagnosis at Northwestern Medicine.
Singer Benjamin D BD Goodwin Alexandra M AM Patel Anand A AA Vaughan Douglas E DE
Journal of hospital medicine 20191120 2
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Project description:BackgroundIn primary care clinics, time constraints and lack of exposure to highly complex cases may limit the breadth and depth of learning for internal medicine residents. To address these issues, we piloted a novel experience for residents to evaluate patients with puzzling symptoms referred by another clinician.ObjectiveTo increase internal medicine residents' exposure to patients with perplexing presentations and foster a team-based approach to solving diagnostically challenging cases.MethodsDuring the academic year 2020-2021, residents participating in their 2-week primary care "block" rotation were given protected time to evaluate 1-2 patients from the Stanford Consultative Medicine clinic, an internist-led diagnostic second opinion service, and present their patients at the case conference. We assessed the educational value of the program with resident surveys including 5-point Lickert scale and open-ended questions.Results21 residents participated in the pilot with a survey response rate of 66.6% (14/21). Both the educational value and overall quality of the experience were rated as 4.8 out of 5 (SD 0.4, range 4-5; 1:"very poor"; 5:"excellent"). Residents learned about new diagnostic tools as well as how to approach complex presentations and diagnostic dilemmas. Residents valued the increased time devoted to patient care, the team-based approach to tackling difficult cases, and the intellectual challenge of these cases. Barriers to implementation include patient case volume, time, and faculty engagement.ConclusionsEvaluation of diagnostically challenging cases in a structured format is a highly valuable experience that offers a framework to enhance outpatient training in internal medicine.
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Project description:Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the most important contributors to morbidity and mortality in the elderly. In Europe, over 14 million people are currently living with dementia, at a cost of over 400 billion EUR annually. Recent advances in diagnostics and approval for new pharmaceutical treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common etiology of dementia, heralds the beginning of precision medicine in this field. However, their implementation will challenge an already over-burdened healthcare systems. There is a need for innovative digital solutions that can drive the related clinical pathways and optimize and personalize care delivery. Public-private partnerships are ideal vehicles to tackle these challenges. Here we describe the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) public-private partnership project PROMINENT that has been initiated by connecting leading dementia researchers, medical professionals, dementia patients and their care partners with the latest innovative health technologies using a precision medicine based digital platform. The project builds upon the knowledge and already implemented digital tools from several collaborative initiatives that address new models for early detection, diagnosis, and monitoring of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders. The project aims to provide support to improvement efforts to each aspect of the care pathway including diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and data collection for real world evidence and cost effectiveness studies. Ultimately the PROMINENT project is expected to lead to cost-effective care and improved health outcomes.
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