Small clinics across the country are closing, especially in rural areas, leaving residents without healthcare nearby. Varadraj Gurupur, who is an associate professor of health management and informatics, says the Office of Research recently obtained copyrights to two software systems, offering valuable support to financially-strained clinics.
“It is hard for smaller clinics in rural America to find enough properly-trained staff to do all the documentation work, so having a software that does most of the manual work means a lot to their survival.”
The Source Code for Decision Support Method to Map Hierarchical Condition Categories to the ICD 10 Codes for Depression converts physicians’ notes into more accurate assessments of patient health conditions. Using more detailed, hierarchical codes, the software develops reports that represent the range of complexity in healthcare services. As a result, clinics receive more accurate reimbursement for their services, and with the report’s data, can develop a more robust budget each fiscal year.
The UCF Survey Research Tool provides other valuable data to clinics through its automated phone service that generates synthesized reports of patient feedback. The tool also offers the option to record survey questions in a more familiar voice from the clinic’s office, personalizing the experience.
Gurupur led computer science students Nisarg Chitaliya and Mukul Dang in the development of both software systems in the Decision Support Systems and Informatics Lab at UCF. Mohit Vyas, Shiven Goyal and Justin Barry also contributed to the Source Code for Decision Support Method to Map Hierarchical Condition Categories to the ICD 10 Codes.
As co-director of the lab with Thomas Wan, who is a professor of health management and informatics, Gurupur says much of their work is centered on healthcare. However, more interdisciplinary collaborations are in the works, including one with Marisa Macy, who is a lecturer of early childhood development and education.