Graduate students from Binghamton (N.Y.) University have created an android-based mobile application designed to help hospitals reduce 30-day readmission rates and save money by avoiding penalties.
The app, Post Discharge Treatment and Readmission Predictor, determines whether a patient is at high risk for readmission with an algorithm influenced by hospital readmission research conducted by assistant professors of systems science and industrial engineering at the university. It also features a direct line of communication from patient to provider.
"For this app, predicting the readmission rate is only one part. The other part of this app is instant communication between the doctor/nurse and the patient," said one of the app's creators, Amirhosein Gholami. "The patient can send information directly to the healthcare provider and, based on the new information, the provider can predict the new readmission rate and send some instructions to the patient to take this medicine, to do this, etc."
The app garnered second place accolades in the nationwide 2016 Institute of Industrial and System Engineers CIS Division Mobile App Competition. The creators of the app believe the product has high levels of commercial viability.
"I don't see anything similar to it on the market," said Mr. Gholami. "If it can help to prevent even just 10 percent of patients from being rehospitalized, it's big money."
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