(PI-023) How “Suite It Is”: Using Digital Interactive Clinical Pathways to Facilitate Swift Clinical Information Dissemination Among a Portuguese National Wound Care Society

Catherine Milne, MSN, APRN, ANP/ACNS-BC; Tânia Santos, MSc, Nurse – UCSP Albufeira ,Faro, Portugal; Lourdes Muñoz-Hidalgo, MSc, Nurse. – USF Cruz de Celas,Coimbra, Portugal; Kátia Furtado, PhDs, Nurse – Outpatient Department – Hospital of Portalegre, Partalegre, Portugal; Tiffany Hamm, BSN, RN, ACHRN, CWS; Jeffrey Mize, RRT, CHT, CWCA

Introduction:

Background:
Information overload makes it difficult for clinicians to stay current with evidence-based practices, leading to potential knowledge gaps and suboptimal patient care.^1,2 Paper-based pocket guides are traditional solutions to facilitate decision-making at the point-of-care quickly become outdated.¹ To address these problems, a Portuguese national wound care association* sought to convert their printed guideline library into a searchable suite of interactive digital pocket guides, facilitating swift information dissemination.

Methods:

Methods:
Using the Design Thinking methodology(3), a suite** was developed using a module within a decision support web-application***

      ●    Nineteen paper-based pocket guides, previously developed by the association’s educational committee were transformed into interactive digital pathways
●  For each pathway, decision nodes were enhanced with videos, interactive checklists, and documentation templates to facilitate decision-making
●  Suite was made accessible to the society’s members, usage patterns analyzed and feedback incorporated

Results:

Results:
The suite is a cloud-based, mobile-responsive, HIPAA-compliant solution with nineteen digital interactive clinical pathways specifically designed to meet the needs of the organizational membership. Leg ulcers, wound bed preparation, and infection assessment/management have been the most accessed.

The suite allows members to:

      ● Receive guidance on each step of clinical decision making, through a multimedia/interactive approach engaging all types
   of learners
● Quickly find/focus on relevant information
● Efficiently justify decision making with automatically generated documentation
● Quickly access a library of evidence-based, always current pocket guides from their mobile devices

 

Discussion:

Discussion/

Conclusions:
A printed guide library was transformed into a searchable suite of interactive digital pocket guides, facilitating swift information dissemination and updates. Benefits to the Society include the ability to quickly update and distribute content, analyze aggregate data, evaluate which interventions are tied to better outcomes in the real world, and license out algorithms for institutions to customize them. The searchable suite of interactive pathways is applicable to additional societies/organizations.

Trademarked Items: Trademarked Items
* ELCOS - Sociedade Portuguesa de Feridas (Portuguese Wound Society)
** Pathways Module, CliniPaths by Wound Reference, Inc., San Francisco, CA
*** CliniPaths by Wound Reference Clinical Decision Support Web-App, Wound Reference, Inc., San Francisco, CA

References: References
1. Pantoja T, Grimshaw JM, Colomer N, Castañon C, Leniz Martelli J. Manually-generated reminders delivered on paper: effects on professional practice and patient outcomes. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Dec 18;12(12):CD001174.
2. Parra-Medina LE, Álvarez-Cervera FJ. [Information overload syndrome: a bibliographic review]. Rev Neurol. 2021 Nov 16;73(12):421–8.
3. Ferreira FK, Song EH, Gomes H, Garcia EB, Ferreira LM. New mindset in scientific method in the health field: Design Thinking. Clinics. 2015 Dec 10;70(12):770–2.