Healthtech Solutions, Inc. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NLM

Description

Organ transplantation is a complex process requiring effective coordination and communication amongst a highly distributed network of providers within a short window of time in order for a successful transplantation to occur However Fewer than of authorized donated organs are transplanted successfully and over patients in the US are waiting for a transplant with patients dying every day Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network OPTN data Failures to transplant a larger percentage of authorized donated organs result in part from a medical professionalandapos s lack of access to secure timely and accurate information required in order to determine viability of donated organs and coordinate their successful recovery These discarded organs amount to significant waste and could be used for a variety of impactful applications dependent on viability Discarded organs could be used by transplant centers medical researchers and pharmaceutical companies to increase life saving transplants translational research drug discovery testing and cells for new and innovative therapies To address the need for an improve communications system to help improve transplant patient outcomes and the number of viable but unused organs that could be successfully transplanted Organizer Inc has developed ORGANIZER a mobile application for secure team communication to improve organ transplant outcomes for deceased organ donation cases The proposed project is designed to test and quantify the improvement of the donor management coordination process and patient outcomes proving commercial feasibility using ORGANIZER for medical team communication If successful the approach can be extended and disseminated to all organ procurement organizations OPOs and Transplant networks The results of this research will determine whether ORGANIZER can be adopted as the communication andquot best practiceandquot for organ procurement and transplant organizations during donor management and coordination Organizer Inc will partner with Relational Coordination Analytics RCA Inc to introduce and deploy a hybrid relational and process improvement methodology aimed at assessing the impact of Organizer Inc andapos s mobile application on outcomes for donor management coordination for organ procurement and transplant patients Develop and deploy beta software prototype Prove feasibility of the Organizer Inc communication system through robust validation testing Successful completion of this SBIR Phase I study will result in a functional validated communication software system that meets or exceeds preliminary performance and user satisfaction metrics resulting in improved transplant patient outcomes Information asymmetry and poor communication between medical providers hospital systems and patients has long been identified as barrier to quality health outcomes This issue is particularly problematic in regards to scaling the efforts of care coordination which has been shown to be effective in multiple studies at reducing cost of care This project attempts to provide patients with the information they need to make the best choices for themselves utilizing a self service chat software application that also offers the ability for a trained care coordinator to intervene when the software unable to assist the individual patient thereby scaling care coordinators influence and effectiveness across a broad base of patients