INTRODUCTION
What is Evidence-Based Medicine?
What is Point-of-Care Testing?
What are the Benefits of Point-of-Care Testing?
What is Epocare?
Why Do Hospitals and Clinics Need Epocare?
Disciplines Involved in Creating Epocare
What Is Epocare?
Epocare is the acronym for (Bringing) Evidence (to the) Point of Care. The Epocare system consists of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) packaged with evidence databases for use by physicians at the point of care. There are a number of components currently being developed for Epocare:
i) Evidence Search: a search engine enabling physicians to query databases such as EBOC and Clinical Evidence, find evidence for assessment of a patient's condition and plan treatment. This is the core component of the EPoCare system.
ii) eScript: allows physicians, using only their PDA, to prescribe and order medications for their patients. The software maintains a database of current patients and their prescribed medications. eScript will also be able to cross-reference a potential prescription with current medications, revealing any interaction problems between them.
iii) mEMRi: Mobile Electronic Medical Record Over The Internet. This retrieves physicians’ current patients’ medical records; it may also be used to order laboratory and diagnostic tests/results.
iv) CDSS: mEMRi will include a clinical decision support system (CDSS) which cross-references evidence-based resources with a patient’s clinical data (e.g., test results) for treatment planning. Designing this system is inherently complex; until it has been perfected, the EPoCare team is limiting CDSS to stroke patients on an internal medicine ward. This part of the EPoCare system is strictly for use by physicians responsible for patient diagnoses.
iv) EBRSS: Electronic Bullet Round Support System. "Bullet Rounds" are short, fast-paced meetings of physicians to update their patients’ status and treatment plans. EBRSS produces an electronic report of the rounds by recording audio from the discussions and organizing it on a timeline. Physicians and nurses can then access, on command, relevant parts of the discussion from their PDA.
