Summary:
UCLA researchers in the Department of Cardiac Surgery have developed a program that facilitates data entry of patient information and simplifies integration with the requirements of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) that is user-friendly, quick, and robust to human error.
Background:
The Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) requires data submission for clinics that seek denotation as centers of excellence for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO). ECMO is an extracorporeal technique of providing prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are unable to provide the adequate amount of gas exchange or perfusion to sustain their lives. Currently, centers utilize paper forms or excel spreadsheets to collect data on the performance of ECMO. Usually, initial data collection is entered in a web-based Graphical User Interface in an ELSO registry. However, this current method of data submission requires intensive work and is prone to human error, because of the sheer amount of clinical data that is required by the organization. In addition, ELSO has provided the opportunity to submit data through XML files, however, this file format is generally outdated. Therefore, there is a need to facilitate the data collection, storage, and submission of patient data on ECMO to the ELSO registry in a user-friendly and efficient manner.
Innovation:
UCLA researchers in the Department of Cardiac Surgery have developed a program to facilitate a clinic’s ECMO data collection, storage, and submission to the ELSO registry. The team developed a comprehensive RedCap survey that stores all the demographic and clinical data of every patient who requires ECMO support from a center. The data is categorized by multiple logic rules that prompts and directs data entry. In addition, data entry choices were standardized and created multiple error checking points to minimize erroneous information. The RedCap survey is integrated seamlessly with the XML template file, allowing clinics to efficiently collect data ready for ELSO submission. The program would allow clinics to easily access patients’ records for their ECMO needs without any delay on their approval for disease treatment. Ultimately, the innovation provides a robust solution to the manual data entry problem that many ECMO centers face when collecting large amounts of patient data for submission to the ELSO registry.
Potential Applications:
• Partially or fully captured data of medical records
• Records on equipment needs
• Data repository and network access on same or across separate networks
• Data upload on new information from electronic medical records
Advantages:
• Easy data access
• Error checks
• Fast data entry and sharing
• Easy data entry
• Secure records
• Integration with XML template files
Development to Date:
First successful demonstration of the invention