ProCare Research Launches PRISM Patient Management System at American Academy of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting

PRISM the only comprehensive clinical outcomes tool in the field of pain management.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 30, 2011—ProCare Research, LLC, a physician-led medical research organization focused on value-based approaches to healthcare with an emphasis on the relationship between quality and cost, is set to unveiled its PRISM Patient Management System at the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) 2011 Annual Meeting, March 24-27 in National Harbor, Maryland. The PRISM System is a clinical outcomes tool for capturing patient data and helping physicians to better understand, evaluate and clinically manage individuals and populations of patients suffering from chronic pain.

The PRISM System offers a number of clinical and business benefits for physicians and their practices with the overarching goal of providing high value to chronic pain patients, with value defined as the health outcomes achieved per dollar spent. For patients, the system gives physicians the tools to support data-informed decision making for more efficient and effective care. For physicians’ practices, it makes available patient report cards that can enhance the physician-patient relationship, aid in referral development, and differentiate practices from the competition with benchmark results.

“Ultimately, the PRISM System empowers pain management physicians by providing the means to harness the power of their practice and have a voice in their future as we usher in a new era in American healthcare,” explained Fred N. Davis, MD, a nationally renowned pain specialist and principal of ProCare Research.

Preparing For a New Era of Medicine
In a December 2010 article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled, “What is Value in Health Care?”, Michael E. Porter, Ph.D., writes: “Value — neither an abstract ideal nor a code word for cost reduction — should define the framework for performance improvement in health care. Rigorous, disciplined measurement and improvement of value is the best way to drive system progress. Yet value in health care remains largely unmeasured and misunderstood.”

As evidenced by the intensifying debate in Washington, the healthcare industry has reached a point which it can no longer extract savings through reductions in reimbursement for specific treatments in a fee-for-service environment. In order to achieve further efficiencies in health care delivery, it is becoming necessary to better manage the process of care itself.

As Porter explains, managing the process of health care delivery requires a better understanding of the relationship between quality of care and cost of care. This relationship represents the formula for value and is the foundation for value-based medicine, the next evolution in the healthcare industry. Value-based medicine allows for the most effective use of healthcare resources to help the most people receive the highest quality of healthcare delivery possible for the resources expended.

“Despite continued medical breakthroughs and technological innovation, the missing link in healthcare has been access to real clinical outcomes to improve the quality of patient care,” said Davis. “The evolution toward a value-based care delivery model is inevitable and there is growing consensus in the healthcare industry that clinical outcomes-based decision making will define best practices in the future.”

Breaking New Ground
In preparation for this new era, ProCare Research began developing the PRISM System nearly a decade ago. The computer-based platform contains a number of survey tools and measurements that allow for the evaluation and tracking of individuals and populations of patients from a number of different clinical perspectives.

“We created PRISM to serve as a valuable clinical and business tool for physicians, their practices, and their patients,” added Mark L. Gostine, MD, principal of ProCare Research and a published researcher on the relationship of Vitamin D deficiency, pain and other chronic diseases. “It assesses how effectively doctors perform with patients and how well treatments affect the patient’s overall functionality, well being and quality of life.”

The PRISM System is centered on two key components of data capture:

1.   Patient Assessment Matrix (PAM)

Scoring system that compares characteristics common to patients with pain from a variety of conditions

Determines overall pain disease severity score

2.   Pain Health Assessment (PHA):

Provides a multi-dimensional view of the way pain affects the individual

Administered at first visit to establish a baseline, and subsequently over the course of treatment, to measure clinical outcomes

The data collected is analyzed in real-time and displayed in a highly visual PRISM Summary Page that groups the results into functional, psychosocial, quality of life and patient satisfaction indices that can be used to track progress and assist with data-informed clinical decision making.

With over 30,000 data sets currently in the database – and several thousand more to be added by the end of the year – the PRISM System is being used to:

  • Form the basis for quantifying the subjective nature of the pain experience, thus paving the way for optimal management and best practices
  • Facilitate clinical decision making
  • Determine properties that are shared among various pain patient populations
  • Help practices and insurance companies to place patients into broad-based categories
  • Determine specific treatment modalities that work best for individuals and distinct patient populations
  • Better communicate and collaborate with insurance companies and government agencies to establish value-based health care policies
  • Develop recognized standards of care in the field of pain medicine
  • Improve patient care and add value to the fabric of healthcare

About ProCare Research, LLC
ProCare Research, LLC was created with the mission to develop tools that can better assist physician’s understanding of the pain experience and how patients respond to treatment. The company is responsible for the creation of the PRISM Patient Management System, a unique digital toolbox that gathers clinical data from patients, and uses it to assess disease risk and track outcomes through the course of treatment. The PRISM system is the outgrowth of clinical outcomes research which has been underway since 1996. The principals of ProCare Research, LLC have been practicing pain medicine physicians since 1984. For more information, call (616) 940-0660 or visit  www.procareresearch.com.