New research was published this week analyzing how AI can be used to better manage medications for senior patients with polypharmacy — meaning they use multiple medications simultaneously to treat various conditions.
It found that the technology holds potential to improve patient outcomes among this group. This is welcome news, given that the U.S. healthcare system’s flawed medication management protocols result in 275,000 deaths and more than $528 billion in avoidable costs each year.
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston published a paper in the American Journal of Managed Care evaluating the efficacy of the AI platform sold by FeelBetter. The startup’s AI engine pinpoints patients at high risk of deterioration and preventable hospitalization due to suboptimal medication management.
The researchers found that FeelBetter’s platform delivered correct medication warnings in 89.2% of cases.
The study also found that the warnings would be helpful to clinicians for making decisions to optimize their patients’ medication therapy in 97.3% of cases. Two pharmacist reviewers and one physician reviewer independently assessed the appropriateness of the platform’s warnings and recommendations.
These findings of the study demonstrate that the FeelBetter algorithm can successfully incorporate a wide variety of data from the EHR to accurately stratify risk among polypharmacy patients, declared Dr. Adva Tzuk Onn, the startup’s chief medical officer.
FeelBetter, based in Tel Aviv and Boston, was founded in 2018. The startup is designed to address a growing public health concern among senior patients — the fact that many of them have been prescribed multiple medications for simultaneous use. This paves the way for poor health outcomes, the increased use of health services and rising care costs, FeelBetter CEO Liat Primor told MedCity News in April.
In addition to flagging patients at high risk of deterioration and preventable hospitalization, FeelBetter’s AI platform also helps clinicians monitor patients’ progress and measure the impact of clinical interventions.
The warnings and recommendations produced by FeelBetter’s AI engine often lead to clinicians changing their patients’ care plans, Dr. Tzuk Onn noted.
“Our system, for example, may catch a patient who had a recent bleed while under dual antiplatelet-anticoagulant therapy or may identify a patient as having no indication at this time for dual therapy, leading the clinician to discontinue one of the medications,” he explained.
Today, most provider organizations lack the resources needed to review complex medication regimens of polypharmacy patients in a timely manner, Dr. Tzuk Onn added.
With FeelBetter’s platform, providers can identify which polypharmacy patients are at short-term risk of deterioration and then allocate clinical resources to interventions that will prevent hospitalizations and emergency department visits, he declared.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is working on fully integrating the FeelBetter platform into its Epic EHR. Other FeelBetter customers include Atlantic Health System and Americare Senior Living.
Photo: Stas_V, Getty Images
