Data-powered consult service shown to help doctors diagnose illness, guide treatments

September 15, 2021 — Stanford Medicine highlighted our team’s work that was recently published in NEJM Catalyst.

Key highlights are below and click here for the fully story:

When a doctor submitted a question, the team translated the request into code that a search engine would process. The search engine then scoured the deidentified medical records for matching information, such as medical histories, vital signs, lab results and prescriptions. It winnows the results until only individuals who are medically similar remain. Then the data analysis. They parsed the records’ specifics, such as disease history or the effects of different prescriptions, and finally, they summarized the findings. The team typically returned results to doctors within 72 hours.

The consults turned up all sorts of information: A deep dive into sleep apnea treatment revealed that those who used continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, to help them breathe at night were more likely to experience cardiovascular, neurological or endocrinological complications compared with those who had surgery to treat sleep apnea.In more than one instance, the findings from the consult guided the treatment regimen for a patient. In one case, a child suffered from mononeuritis multiplex, a condition that inflames the nerves of the hands and limbs. “This condition is very rare in children, and the doctors had initially planned to do a handful of somewhat expensive and invasive tests — spinal taps, MRIs and such — to try to figure out a course of treatment,” Shah said. The consult uncovered more than 100 similar cases that showed children with this condition were effectively treated with a steroid. “When the health care team saw the results, they decided to hold off on the extensive tests and opted for this treatment option instead.” The child recovered with no complications found during a follow-up visit.