The Cosmos Collaborative: A Vendor-Facilitated Electronic Health Record Data Aggregation Platform.

OBJECTIVE: Learning healthcare systems use routinely collected data to generate new evidence that informs future practice. While implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system can facilitate this goal for individual institutions, meaningfully aggregating data from multiple institutions can be more empowering. Cosmos is a cross-institution, single EHR vendor-facilitated data aggregation tool. This work aims to describe the initiative and illustrate its potential utility through several use cases. METHODS: Cosmos is designed to scale rapidly by leveraging preexisting agreements, clinical health information exchange networks, and data standards. Data are stored centrally as a limited dataset, but the customer facing query tool limits results to prevent patient reidentification. RESULTS: In 2 years, Cosmos grew to contain EHR data of more than 60 million patients. We present practical examples illustrating how Cosmos could further efforts in chronic disease surveillance (asthma and obesity), syndromic surveillance (seasonal influenza and the 2019 novel coronavirus), immunization adherence and adverse event reporting (human papilloma virus and measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccination), and health services research (antibiotic usage for upper respiratory infection). DISCUSSION: A low barrier of entry for Cosmos allows for the rapid accumulation of multi-institutional and mostly de-duplicated EHR data to power research and quality improvement queries characteristic of learning healthcare systems. Limitations are being vendor-specific, an "all or none" contribution model, and the lack of control over queries run on an institution's healthcare data. CONCLUSION: Cosmos provides a model for within-vendor data standardization and aggregation and a steppingstone for broader intervendor interoperability.

Using Active Choice Within the Electronic Health Record to Increase Influenza Vaccination Rates.

BACKGROUND: Despite the benefits of influenza vaccination, each year more than half of adults in the United States do not receive it. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between an active choice intervention in the electronic health record (EHR) and changes in influenza vaccination rates. DESIGN: Observational study. PATIENTS: Adults eligible for influenza vaccination with a clinic visit at one of three internal medicine practices at the University of Pennsylvania Health System between September 2010 and March 2013. INTERVENTION: The EHR confirmed patient eligibility during the clinic visit and, upon accessing the patient chart, prompted the physician and their medical assistant to actively choose to "accept" or "cancel" an order for the influenza vaccine. MAIN MEASURES: Change in influenza vaccination order rates at the intervention practice compared to two control practices for the 2012-2013 flu season, comparing trends during the prior two flu seasons adjusting for time trends and patient and clinic visit characteristics. KEY RESULTS: The sample (n = 45,926 patients) was 62.9% female, 35.9% white, and 54.4% black, with a mean age of 50.2 years. Trends were similar between practices during the 2 years in the pre-intervention period. Vaccination rates increased in both groups in the post-intervention year, but the intervention practice using active choice had a significantly greater increase than the control (adjusted difference-in-difference: 6.6 percentage points; 95% CI, 5.1-8.1; P < 0.001), representing a 37.3% relative increase compared to the pre-intervention period. More than 99.9% (9938/9941) of orders placed during the study period resulted in vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Active choice through the EHR was associated with a significant increase in influenza vaccination rates.

Effect of a Financial Incentive for Colorectal Cancer Screening Adherence on the Appropriateness of Colonoscopy Orders.

Performance incentives for preventive care may encourage inappropriate testing, such as cancer screening for patients with short life expectancies. Defining screening colonoscopies for patients with a >50% 4-year mortality risk as inappropriate, the authors performed a pre-post analysis assessing the effect of introducing a cancer screening incentive on the proportion of screening colonoscopy orders that were inappropriate. Among 2078 orders placed by 23 attending physicians in 4 academic general internal medicine practices, only 0.6% (n = 6/1057) of screening colonoscopy orders in the preintervention period and 0.6% (n = 6/1021) of screening colonoscopy orders in the postintervention period were deemed "inappropriate." This study found no evidence that the incentive led to an increase in inappropriate screening colonoscopy orders.

Using active choice within the electronic health record to increase physician ordering and patient completion of high-value cancer screening tests.

BACKGROUND: High value screening tests such as colonoscopy and mammography can improve early cancer detection but are often underutilized. METHODS: We evaluated an active choice intervention using the electronic health record (EHR) to confirm patient eligibility for colonoscopy or mammography during the patient's clinic visit and prompt the physician and his/her medical assistant to actively choose to "accept" or "cancel" an order for it. We fit multivariate logistic regression models using a difference-in-differences approach to evaluate changes in physician ordering and patient completion of colonoscopy and mammography at the intervention practice compared to two control practices, adjusting for time trends, patient and clinic visit characteristics. RESULTS: The sample comprised 7560 patients due for colonoscopy and 8337 patients due for mammography. Pre-intervention trends between practices did not differ. In the adjusted models, compared to the control group over time, the intervention practice had a significant increase in ordering of colonoscopy (11.8% points, 95% CI: 8.0-15.6, P<0.001) and mammography (12.4% points, 95% CI: 8.7-16.2, P<0.001). There was a significant increase in patient completion of colonoscopy (3.5% points, 95% CI: 1.1-5.9, P<0.01), but no change in mammography (2.2% points, 95% CI: -1.0 to 5.5, P=0.18). CONCLUSIONS: Active choice through the EHR was associated with an increase in physician ordering of colonoscopy and mammography. The intervention was also associated with an increase in patient completion of colonoscopy but no change in patient completion of mammography.