At the 2018 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, Siemens Healthineers showcases the Proactive Follow-up solution as part of its Siemens Healthineers Digital Ecosystem. The application prompts the appropriate physician to initiate a medically necessary response based on care gaps identified. For example, an incidental finding, an abnormality that appears in a radiology report intended for a different screening or diagnosis, can be proactively managed by digitalizing the identification, follow-up, and decision making steps. With artificial intelligence leveraging natural language processing (NLP) and both unstructured and structured data, the solution gives access to customizable, evidence-based guidelines to enable the appropriate physician to determine next steps in a patient's care pathway. This may help to transform care delivery and reduce variations in care for better patient outcomes.

Gaps in care pose multiple challenges to healthcare organizations. For example, approximately 35% of incidental findings that require follow-up do not receive it. 2 Healthcare systems are challenged to decide whether or not findings are useful, how to track and visualize gaps, how to determine which physician should follow up, and, if appropriate, what necessary next steps should be taken.

In addressing these challenges, the Proactive Follow-up application ultimately completes five simple steps to close gaps in care and transform care delivery. First, the application identifies patients with care gaps, which may require follow-up. Second, the application allows the care team to visualize a prioritized worklist of all patients potentially requiring follow-up. Third, Proactive Follow-up provides recommendations for clinical care pathways based on clinical guidelines and best practices customized by the needs of the healthcare organization. Fourth, it enables the physician to determine and take action with appropriate steps in care. Finally, it determines if the gap is closed.

"Artificial intelligence is changing the way healthcare organizations operate to improve and transform care delivery, and Proactive Follow-up from Siemens Healthineers exemplifies that trend towards digitalizing healthcare," says David Pacitti, President and Head of Siemens Healthineers North America. "Ordering physicians, radiologists, and patients alike can attain increased confidence in knowing these care gaps and incidental findings will not go unattended."

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