Providence's EMR-integrated education and referral platform provides specialist expertise to front-line clinicians at the point of care.
RENTON, Wash., March 11, 2024 – Providers and health systems across the country will soon have easier access to MedPearl, a point-of-care clinical education and referral platform, when it becomes available on Microsoft Teams and Azure Marketplace later this year.
The expanded visibility for the Providence-built platform, which serves as a clinical-intelligence engine, providing front-line clinicians with specialist expertise and guidance on best practices for coordinating patient referrals and workups, is anticipated to optimize clinician workflows on Teams, while improving the customer experience on Azure Marketplace for health systems acquiring the AI-enabled technology.
“MedPearl is a dynamic platform that allows clinicians to be more effective and efficient in treating patients,” said Eve Cunningham, MD, chief of virtual care and digital health at Providence. “As medical knowledge does not live inside the electronic health record, clinicians are navigating between numerous applications and platforms at any given time to access knowledge and information resources.
“Adding MedPearl to Microsoft Teams helps us cut through the noise for front-line clinicians and streamlines workflows, while Microsoft Azure Marketplace provides us a secure platform to offer MedPearl to other health systems."
Built on Azure, MedPearl has been used by some 7,000 front-line clinicians since launching in 2022, logging nearly 200,000 searches and generating overwhelmingly positive user feedback. The product is embedded into Providence’s electronic health record and leverages generative AI to enhance searches for keywords and conditions, making it faster and more accurate for clinicians to arrive at the info they need.
In a pilot involving more than 200 Providence providers with over 14,000 searches, 72% of the MedPearl searches resulted in improved ordering of first-line labs, imaging, and treatment, while 20% of MedPearl searches empowered the clinicians to care for the patient themselves without the need of a specialist referral.
“Ultimately, bringing MedPearl onto Microsoft Teams is going to ease the way of our clinicians, and Microsoft Azure Marketplace provides security validation for customers,” Dr. Cunningham said. “In doing so, we’re hopeful to see an increase in the number of patients who will benefit from this revolutionary technology both here at Providence and across the health sector.”
In addition to Teams making the platform more accessible for providers, Azure Marketplace serves as a way for health systems to securely execute contracts and paperwork, including submitting MedPearl payments.
“Microsoft and Providence’s continued collaboration is bringing innovative technology to health care providers and empowering clinicians to work more efficiently and effectively,” said Nina Somerville, Vice President, U.S. Health and Life Sciences, Microsoft. “The availability of MedPearl on Microsoft Teams and Azure Marketplace allows Providence to meet clinicians where they are, making the platform available to more providers and allowing them to deliver quality care to patients."
About Providence
Providence is a national, not-for-profit Catholic health system comprising a diverse family of organizations and driven by a belief that health is a human right. With 51 hospitals, more than 1,000 physician clinics, senior services, supportive housing, and many other health and educational services, the health system and its partners employ more than 120,000 caregivers serving communities across seven states – Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, with system offices in Renton, Wash., and Irvine, Calif. Learn about our vision of health for a better world at Providence.org.
About the Author
More Content by Providence News Team
