ORTEC.
U-Prevent
Personal advice for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases |
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Worldwide, cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death, both in developed and developing countries. Many people use on medication to prevent cardiovascular disease. The risk of developing cardiovascular disease and the effectiveness of treatment differ from person to person and depend on personal characteristics. In order to calculate the risk for individual patients and to provide tailor-made care advice, UMC Utrecht and ORTEC developed the website U-Prevent.nl, which can be used to predict how many extra cardiovascular disease-free years a person can expect by taking measures such as lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure or quitting smoking.
Interactive model
Using an interactive model on the U-Prevent website, you can calculate your individual risk of cardiovascular disease and the expected effects of interventions such as lowering your blood pressure, taking anticoagulants, lowering cholesterol, lowering glucose intake or quitting smoking.
“For physicians and patients to be able take decisions together, they need access to accurate, personal health information”, explains Frank Visseren, founder of U-Prevent, internist and professor of vascular medicine.
“During a consultation, it can be very useful to know how medication or lifestyle changes will affect the patient. U-Prevent helps physicians discuss cardiovascular risks and interventions with their patients in a more accessible way, so that both parties can make a decision together.” The algorithms used by the calculators on the website are driven by the same underlying principles as the 2019 Dutch Guidelines for Cardiovascular Risk Management and the corresponding guidelines published by European Society of Cardiology.
“For physicians and patients to be able take decisions together, they need access to accurate, personal health information”, explains Frank Visseren, founder of U-Prevent, internist and professor of vascular medicine.
“During a consultation, it can be very useful to know how medication or lifestyle changes will affect the patient. U-Prevent helps physicians discuss cardiovascular risks and interventions with their patients in a more accessible way, so that both parties can make a decision together.” The algorithms used by the calculators on the website are driven by the same underlying principles as the 2019 Dutch Guidelines for Cardiovascular Risk Management and the corresponding guidelines published by European Society of Cardiology.
Link to patient information system / Electronic Health Records
The U-Prevent website is linked to patient information systems or electronic health record (EHR), so that it can be used in hospitals and general-practitionar surgeries. For this purpose, ORTEC Logiqcare has developed an application that retrieves the parameters for cardiovascular risk prediction from the EHR. Prof. Dr. Folkert Asselbergs, Professor of Cardiology, adds: “Because U-Prevent is linked to EHRs, it can automatically retrieve data and interpret it on the basis of the model, giving instant insight into the patient’s risk profile and the potential effects of the treatment." U-Prevent’s goal for the future is to stimulate awareness, engagement and therapy compliance among patients and to support physicians in providing personalized care. Frank Visseren: “U-Prevent will help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and prevent suboptimal and unnecessary treatment, thus cutting healthcare costs.”
Clinical decision support
Big data applications are becoming increasingly common in healthcare and have started proving their added value in several ways. John Jacobs, Data Scientist at ORTEC: “Data analytics provides insight into how clinical guidelines are translated into practice. In addition, research on the collected data helps improve healthcare with new clinical decision support tools. With these tools, medication and interventions can be tailored even more closely to individual patients, taking their specific comorbidity, conditions and risk factors into account. U-Prevent is an example of such a tool that synthesizes patient data from various disciplines in order to draw up an accurate risk profile of the individual patient. When combined with scientific research, data science offers myriad opportunities for making healthcare better and more affordable in the future.”
Personalised care with data analytics
U-Prevent was developed in the context of the Applied Data Analytics in Medicine program, or ADAM for short. This program is an initiative by UMC Utrecht to develop clinical applications based on data analytics that contribute to more personalized care. ORTEC Logiqcare is involved in several ADAM projects for medical data science research.
Information on U-Prevent on youtube
ORTEC in healthcare
ORTEC provides data science services and data-driven decision solutions for many different fields, including healthcare logistics and medical care. In the medical sector, ORTEC Logiqcare works closely with highly specialized medical experts. In medicine, like other businesses, ORTEC combines the triangle business, mathematic and ICT for the best results. These can be used to support medics with clinical-decision making tools, support for medical care and scientific research.
ORTEC blogs
The original blog was written by a team at ORTEC including myself
John Jacobs is the Product owner of U-Prevent at ORTEC
ORTEC Health leverages data and mathematics for medical value.
John Jacobs is the Product owner of U-Prevent at ORTEC
ORTEC Health leverages data and mathematics for medical value.
John Jacobs, 2019-2020
