Enhancing an existing clinical information system to improve study recruitment and census gathering efficiency.

Information technology can improve healthcare efficiency. We developed and implemented a simple and inexpensive tool, the "Automated Case Finding and Alerting System" (ACAS), using data from an existing clinical information system to facilitate identification of potentially eligible patients for clinical trials and patient encounters for billing purposes. We validated the ACAS by calculating the level of agreement in patient identification with data generated from manual identification methods. There was substantial agreement between the two methods both for clinical trial (kappa:0.84) and billing (kappa:0.97). Automated identification occurred instantaneously vs. about 2 hours/day for clinical trial and 1 hour 10 minutes/day for billing, and was inexpensive ($98.95, one time fee) compared to manual identification ($1,200/month for clinical trial and $670/month for billing). Automated identification was more efficient and cost-effective than manual identification methods. Repurposing clinical information beyond their traditional use has the potential to improve efficiency and decrease healthcare cost.