The United Arab Emirates’ Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has become the first healthcare authority in the country to integrate Wolters Kluwer’s clinical decision support (CDS) resource, UpToDate with an electronic medical record (EMR), it has been announced.

In a statement released by the US-headquartered information services and solutions company, the UpToDate integration allows doctors, nurses and pharmacists from 18 DHA sites to access it via the authority’s Salama EMR to “make evidence-based clinical decisions for their patients and keep their medical knowledge up to date in a more seamless way.”

As well as being accredited by the DHA, UpToDate also enables clinicians to gain Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits while applying their learnings from searches during clinical practice.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

According to Wolters Kluwer, UpToDate – reportedly used by over 1.9 million clinicians around the world – is the “only clinical decision support resource associated with improved patient outcomes and hospital performance.” 

It continued in a statement: “Over 100 independent studies evidence the benefit to patients, clinical teams and healthcare systems in terms of improving length of stay, efficiency and patient outcomes, and reducing error rates and healthcare costs.”

In 2018, a study published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics found a “significant association” between use of UpToDate CDS and reduced diagnostic errors, with physicians using UpToDate encountering a “significantly lower rate of diagnostic errors compared with a control group without UpToDate”.

Denise Basow, managing director, president and CEO for Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer – Health stated: “We are delighted to support DHA in their vision to provide world class healthcare across Dubai. 

“Providing evidence-based clinical decision support in the clinical workflow is critical for driving consistent, standardised and high-quality care throughout a patient’s care journey.”

ON THE RECORD

Meanwhile, on his part, Younis Kazim, Dubai Healthcare Corporation CEO of DHA said: “Patient Safety is DHA’s number one priority and our goal is to be at the forefront of healthcare innovation that delivers significant benefits to patients.

“Making UpToDate accessible through the Salama EMR will support busy clinicians at the point of care to drive consistently high-quality care, minimise errors and improve hospital efficiency. We are pleased to partner with Wolters Kluwer on this mission.”

DHA’s Medical Education and Research Department Director, Wadeia Sharief added: “As a resource for medical education and daily practices, UpToDate at the point of care for all DHA healthcare professionals can be accessed through the library platform and smart devices.

“Integrating UpToDate into Salama showed light after great efforts from the library and Salama team to obtain and gain return on investment in patient care.”