Health Matters | May 2014
8 YourObserver.com
Alive Sciences launches life-saving index for patients Ten years after his mother’s death while recovering from surgery in a hospital, Steven Rothman returns to Sarasota with the Rothman Index to transform health care, one patient at a time. BY HARRIET SOKMENSUER For 10 years, Steven Rothman has been charting a new course for health care. What started as a way to help doctors and nurses monitor a patient’s health is now known as the Florence Rothman Patient Monitor Index (Rothman Index). And, soon, it will be available to the public. The index, named after Rothman’s late mother, allows doctors to visualize an overview of how their patient is faring; the index is created based on electronic medical records that measure a patient’s condition. Rothman was spurred by the death of his mother, who died in 2003 while recovering in a hospital after an operation. After their mother’s death, Rothman and his brother, Michael, wanted to create a better monitoring system for patients. The two created the index. The index is an algorithm that displays each patient’s condition on a continuous line graph by extracting information from electronic medical records and using health indicators to form an easy-to-use composite score. In addition to data from existing
standard medical assessments, vital signs and lab results, the index uses information garnered from 13 questions that medical staff can enter into a system. Questions include whether a patient has a regular pulse, whether the patient verbalizes “no,”has difficulty eating, chewing or swallowing and whether a patient is oriented. The index displays longitudinal trend lines of a patient’s
condition and includes customized alarms based on change of points on the index. “By analyzing the electronic medical records, we can improve the patient’s outcome,” he says. In layman’s terms, the Rothmans created a line graph doctors can use to assess a patient’s health from the time he walks in to the hospital to the time he leaves.
Duncan Finlay, chief medical officer with Alive Sciences and past SMH CEO, Darlene Arbeit, chief operating officer for Alive Sciences, and Steven Rothman, president and CEO of Alive Sciences Courtesy photo
The graph was originally designed for general medical and surgical patients but is becoming part of a long-term monitoring system. Doctors are able to sign in to their collection of patient indexes, called a “quilt,” which nurses update throughout the day, before they see their patients. They can see an overview of multiple patients at one time. “I wanted to take the data nurses were entering and make it useful by drawing a simple image of the patient’s condition,” says Rothman, a former MIT think-tank analyst. The index, which was piloted at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, has been implemented in more than 30 hospitals nationwide, including Yale-New Haven Hospital and University of Florida Shands Hospital. This year, Rothman joined forces with Alive Sciences, the company behind introducing the index to non-acute practices, such as assisted-living communities, general practitioners and consumers. Darlene Arbeit serves as chief operating officer of Alive Sciences, and Duncan Finlay, past Sarasota Memorial Hospital CEO, is chief medical officer.
The company is working with retirement centers, nursing homes and home-health care agencies to close the communication gap between hospitals, practices and homes. That way, doctors can track a patient after he is discharged from the hospital. “We want to create a continuum of information,” says Rothman. The index is currently in development at Sunnyside Village, The Pines of Sarasota and Plymouth Harbor, although it is not yet available to the public. “We are excited about it,” says Diane Marcello, administrator at Sunnyside. “It’s going to be extremely helpful to our staff, and it’s going to make a difference in long-term care.” Rothman wants to expand the index outside of hospitals so individuals can track their health for themselves. By taking a four-and-a-halfminute questionnaire over the phone — answering questions regarding food intake and respiratory patterns as well as psychosocial responses— participants update their index as many times per day as suggested. The information then becomes accessible to family members, doctors and participants online or via a smartphone. “It’s just a line graph. Anyone can understand it,” Rothman says. Self-monitoring allows participants to remain independent while loved ones and doctors have access to an up-todate gauge of their health. “We’re not just delivering a graph, we’re changing the system of providing medical care,” Albeit says.
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