Demonstrated Effectiveness
Overlook Software, Inc. designs, develops, produces, markets, distributes and supports innovative computer software solutions specifically designed to
help healthcare providers monitor and enhance
diabetes outcomes. Our flagship product, DiaTrends®,
is having a major impact on diabetes care across the United States. Designed by practicing clinical endocrinologists, it's a quality improvement tool for
diabetes care providers. It successfully bridges the gap between the availability and the practical application of diabetes care
guidelines. Overlook Software is devoted to providing physicians, diabetes
educators and their staff with state-of-the-art, user-friendly, focused software to enhance the processes of diabetes care in an effort to produce the best possible outcomes for diabetes patients.
The last few decades have produced an exponential growth of information in the field of medicine. There has been enhanced understanding of how and why diseases occur and how best to prevent, control and treat them. Unfortunately, the methodology to deal with such an overwhelming amount of information and bring it to practical application
so as to improve the quality of life and cost-effectiveness of treatment has lagged far behind these advances. Efforts to bridge this gap between the availability and the practical application of medical information has led to the emerging fields of "disease state management" and "medical outcomes analysis."
Endocrinology, the medical specialty that deals with hormonal and metabolic disorders, has seen a tremendous growth of
knowledge, particularly in regard to causes, treatment and outcomes of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes remains one of the major causes of morbidity, mortality and healthcare expenditures in our society.
An estimated 20.8 million children and adults in the United States (7% of the
population) have diabetes, with projections indicating that the proportion of
the population that is afflicted with diabetes will continue to increase
dramatically for the foreseeable future. The average cost for caring for a
diabetic patient has been estimated to be about four times greater than the
average health care costs for a nondiabetic patient. Data from the National
Diabetes Information Clearinghouse shows total costs estimated at $132 billion
(U.S., 2002), with $92 billion in direct medical costs and $40 billion in
indirect costs (e.g., disability, work loss, premature death). Most of the costs
associated with diabetes are related to the management of its chronic
complications.
For example, adults with diabetes have heart disease death rates about 2 to 4
times higher than adults without diabetes. Diabetes is the leading cause of new
cases of blindness among adults aged 20 to 74 years, and the leading cause of
kidney failure. More than 60 percent of nontraumatic lower-limb
amputations occur among people with diabetes. Working together, people with
diabetes and their health care providers can reduce the occurrence of these and
other diabetes complications by controlling the levels of blood glucose, blood
pressure, and blood lipids and by receiving other preventive care measures in a
timely manner.
Implementing effective treatments known to prevent or minimize the chronic
complications of diabetes has the potential to greatly reduce long-term costs. Recent advances in the understanding of diabetes and the mechanisms by which its complications occur have given diabetes care providers the opportunity to deliver more effective management. Yet numerous studies have shown that diabetes care is often far from optimal. Management tends to be fragmented and inefficient, falling far short of adherence to published guidelines. In
today's healthcare environment, it's inherently difficult to translate
the vast amount of current knowledge into the labor-intensive actions required to achieve good diabetes outcomes.
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In the absence of a systematic approach to data tracking in relation to targets, it is difficult for the busy physician or other health care provider to maintain each patient's care at the optimal level, let alone to determine effectiveness in achieving management goals for a patient population. Very few diabetes care providers have significant data on their overall performance, but they will increasingly recognize the need for such data in order to remain competitive in today's healthcare market. Information is power.
As the costs to Medicare, managed care and other health insurance companies
dramatically increase, healthcare providers are coming under intense pressure to reduce costs and improve quality. Targeted goals and compliance with guidelines based on evidence-based medical principles will be the most efficient method of providing quality diabetes care. Managed care was founded to manage the cost
and quality of medical care.
While progress has been made toward controlling costs, the other half of the equation
- quality - has remained more elusive.
DiaTrends systematically tracks the processes and outcomes of care in people with diabetes. It's
robust reporting features are the ideal tool to demonstrate quality.
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DiaTrends is a quality-enhancement tool based on the simple but vital principle that "what gets measured gets done."
It helps the diabetes care provider maintain an efficient and systematic
approach to the processes of diabetes care. It serves as the cornerstone of a
targeted approach to good metabolic and risk factor control. Upon reviewing
aggregate, real-time data for key indicators, there is an added incentive to
optimize each patient encounter, namely the opportunity to incrementally improve
overall indicators. DiaTrends monitors the progress toward specific,
measurable user-defined quality improvement goals.
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Since 1997,
DiaTrends has been shown to lead to systematic improvements in the care of patients with diabetes. For example, HbA1c and lipid levels have shown significant improvements, treatment of hypertension has become more targeted and aggressive, more patients have microalbumin levels done and more have been treated with ACE inhibitor
and antiplatelet therapy. All parameters of quality diabetes care have improved as a consequence of actively monitoring individual and aggregate indicators of the processes and outcomes of diabetes management, and using this data to develop systematic approaches to quality improvement.
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