New cloud-based application enables providers to create, share, and access clinical guidance 

Tegria's years of experience were instrumental in bringing new and relevant perspectives to the product development process. The resources Tegria brought into the solution delivery team have been exceptional in providing architectural design to make the solution highly scalable and usable for health systems of all sizes. Their industry expertise and technical depth have exceeded expectations.”

Eve Cunningham, MD, Providence Chief Medical Officer, Strategic Partnerships

Background and Challenge  

For many front-line providers, helping patients navigate their unique health concerns means weaving together complex information and guidance across medical specialties. This can lead to frustrating delays for patients and extra administrative work for providers, a factor in burnout for 60 percent of physicians in 2022. 

Providence wanted to help front-line providers offer focused recommendations during patient visits by putting the right information and guidance at their fingertips. “We’ve heard through various forums that a major source of frustration for front-line providers is inefficiency in sharing information and knowledge with each other,” David Kim, MD, Providence EVP and Chief Executive, Physician Enterprise, said in communication to Providence providers. 

A small Providence team began work on a decision-support tool for providers, then decided to take the project further. “Providence had created a proof-of-concept for the ‘AskProv’ bot solution and realized that it was not enterprise scalable,” said Eve Cunningham, MD, Providence Chief Medical Officer, Strategic Partnerships.  

Solution 

Providence needed a nimble, experienced partner with healthcare expertise to bring their vision to life. They tapped Tegria’s Custom Development team to design and architect a scalable, cloud-based application that would enable providers to create, edit, and access clinical instructions and referral guidance at the point of care. Using the app, front-line providers could help patients navigate healthcare decisions and next steps during clinical visits—and patients could leave each visit feeling confident about their care. 

Tegria led design and workflow sessions with stakeholders from Providence to visualize the final product. Tegria’s healthcare technology background eliminated a lengthy discovery phase, allowing the team to deliver ambitious net-new software using future-forward technologies in just six months.  

“Working directly with Tegria offered speed to scale and accelerated the design and development of an enterprise-class solution,” said Cunningham. “Tegria’s ability to immediately bring industry experts into all facets of the project from content, design, architecture, and product management allowed for agility and speed that was not achievable using just our own Providence resources.” 

Results  

Working in an agile environment with Microsoft Azure’s cloud-based technologies, the team designed and built an application offering clear, consistent decision support and guidance for tens of thousands of concurrent users. The effort led to the production launch of the Clinical Knowledge Hub, a modern, feature-rich web application capable of scaling across a large health system, or porting to another organization. 

Key Outcomes 

• The Clinical Knowledge Hub application launched in mid-2022 with over 350 unique pieces of medical knowledge and clinical pathways. 
• The new simplified approach for accessing clinical content resulted in providers reporting improved efficiency and ease with searching for quick answers to their most common questions at the point of care.
• The integrated feedback mechanism within the Clinical Knowledge Hub demonstrated providers reporting enhanced decision making with clinical management and work-up 74 percent of the time and improved navigation of specialty referral navigation, timeliness, and specialist selection 20 percent more often. 

Any tech company can build a web app or a database. Our deep healthcare knowledge allowed us to build a solution that actually impacts patient care. Whether you need help defining your goals, or you need a partner to make your vision a reality, we’re here to help.