Method for tracking and optimizing medical clinical performance

Abstract

The present invention relates to a web-based platform to track medical clinical assignments and to link embedded evaluation instruments to procedure type, for the optimization and improvement of medical clinical education and performance for healthcare professions, and in particular for graduate residents, such as surgical residents. This model is the basis for the platform for physician scoring and profiling to determine physician educational and performance competency with a selected medical procedure. The invention provides methods and systems for improving or optimizing performance tracking of a medical professional.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for accelerating the acquisition of a desired skill level for a healthcare trainee, the method comprising:
 acquiring, via a user interface coupled to a server or data storage system, updated data from disparate systems of a preselected set of tasks the performance of which will accrue skill to the healthcare trainee, a list of completed tasks by the healthcare trainee, evaluations of task performance for the healthcare trainee, and a clinical schedule that defines the tasks available to be performed by the healthcare trainee, wherein the updated data acquired is in a non-standardized format;   converting the acquired data into a standardized data format;   statistically modeling the trainee's progress in acquiring the skill level based on the standardized acquired data, the method of statistical modeling comprising:
 performing a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) statistical sampling method calculation from distributions of relevant parameters for each of a peer group of healthcare trainees and associated supervisory healthcare professionals for each task, and based thereupon 
 estimating a posterior distribution of learning curve parameters of each healthcare trainee for each said task; 
   comparing the statistical model of the trainee's progress to a preselected set of standards to rank the healthcare trainee versus the standards and providing that rank in real-time via the user interface;   integrating the standardized acquired data into a workflow that efficiently allocates the tasks available and simultaneously facilitates the acquisition of the desired skill level by the healthcare trainee; and   prescribing a next task to be performed to by the healthcare trainee according to the workflow and the statistically modeled progress of the trainee.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the method is performed with a computer, a server or data storage system, a user interface, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions, software for analyzing the input data and providing an output, and a data array. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the method is performed using a web-based data management platform. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the healthcare trainee is selected from the group consisting of medical students, interns, residents, fellows, doctors, physician assistants, nurses, nurses' aides, and medical technicians. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  involving a teaching situation, including a supervisory healthcare professional and a healthcare trainee subordinate to the supervisory healthcare professional. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the user interface is selected from the group consisting of a graphical user interface, a command-line interface, or a menu driven interface. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the graphical user interface is configured to augment a clinical schedule with case-based actions; the graphical user interface comprising:
 a first element showing a staff assignment for a clinical encounter; and   a second element juxtaposed to the first element and showing a button, a tag, a status label, or an actionable link for an encounter-related activity, such as case logging, performance evaluation, data quality control, and accessing medical educational content.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliant. 
     
     
         10 . A method for accelerating the acquisition of a desired skill level for a healthcare trainee, the method comprising:
 a) acquiring, via a user interface coupled to a server or data storage system, updated data from disparate systems of a preselected set of tasks the performance of which will accrue skill to the healthcare trainee, a list of completed tasks by the healthcare trainee, evaluations of task performance for the healthcare trainee, and a clinical schedule that defines the tasks available to be performed by the healthcare trainee, wherein the updated data acquired is in a non-standardized format;   b) converting the acquired data into a standardized data format;   c) statistically modeling the trainee's progress in acquiring the skill level based on the standardized acquired data, the method of statistical modeling comprising the steps of:
 i) collecting performance evaluations from a group of supervisory healthcare professionals for the performance of one or more selected tasks for a peer group of healthcare trainees; 
 ii) assessing the clinical complexity of each task from step i); 
 iii) compiling and standardizing the evaluations collected from step i) versus predetermined standards for the successful completion of the one or more tasks; 
 iv) determining the prior distributions for relevant parameters for each supervisory healthcare professional and for each healthcare trainee for each task based on steps ii) and iii); 
 v) performing a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) statistical sampling method calculation from the output of step iv) to determine posterior distributions of the resultant learning curves for the healthcare trainees; 
 vi) from the posterior distributions from step v), determining learning curves for each healthcare trainee for each step of the one or more tasks; and 
 vii) comparing the output learning curve for each healthcare trainee from step vi) to that of the peer group to determine the performance and/or proficiency of each healthcare trainee; 
   d) comparing the statistical model of the trainee's progress to a preselected set of standards to rank the healthcare trainee versus the standards and providing that rank in real-time via the user interface;   e) integrating the standardized acquired data into a workflow that efficiently allocates the tasks available and simultaneously facilitates the acquisition of the desired skill level by the healthcare trainee; and   f) prescribing a next task to be performed to by the healthcare trainee according to the workflow and the statistically modeled progress of the trainee.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the method is performed with a computer, a server or data storage system, a user interface, a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer program instructions, software for analyzing the input data and providing an output, and a data array. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the method is performed using a web-based data management platform. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the healthcare trainee is selected from the group consisting of medical students, interns, residents, fellows, doctors, physician assistants, nurses, nurses' aides, and medical technicians. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10  involving a teaching situation, including a supervisory healthcare professional and a healthcare trainee subordinate to the supervisory healthcare professional. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the user interface is selected from the group consisting of a graphical user interface, a command-line interface, or a menu driven interface. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the user interface is a graphical user interface. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the graphical user interface is configured to augment a clinical schedule with case-based actions; the graphical user interface comprising:
 a first element showing a staff assignment for a clinical encounter; and   a second element juxtaposed to the first element and showing a button, a tag, a status label, or an actionable link for an encounter-related activity, such as case logging, performance evaluation, data quality control, and accessing medical educational content.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the method is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliant.