Accessing information independently through the intuitive, easy-to-use MDClone Platform.
“Luckily for me, MDClone at our hospital is open for all users. So I can really tap into our goldmine of data and explore a lot of issues regarding patients.”
— DR. SHAY PEREK, RAMBAM
Q: HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT MDCLONE?
To be honest, it was entirely by mistake, but I’m very happy about it. I actually stumbled upon MDClone and heard there was research being conducted with a new platform in our hospital. I went to listen to some lectures regarding some of the work on synthetic data.
I noticed that a lot of physicians had positive feedback once they worked with the system. I wanted to know a bit more so I approached MDClone and one of their representatives came and spoke with me and allowed me to explore the features of their system. To understand its capabilities with regard to research, data, and understanding about the processes in our hospitals and in our community.
Q: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN USING MDCLONE?
I’ve been using the system for about three years now. Mostly for research purposes but also to gain insights into our hospital’s data and to understand if we can optimize various processes in our hospital.
Q: HOW DOES MDCLONE IMPACT YOU AND YOUR ROLE?
In my day job, I’m a physician, and I work in the internal medicine department and the emergency department and these are my fields of expertise. Most of my research questions and things that interest me with regards to the process are from these two departments.
Luckily for me, MDClone at our hospital is open for all users. So I can really tap into our goldmine, which is our data, and explore a lot of issues regarding patients arriving in the emergency department, patients being admitted to our various departments and what happens to them after discharge. If they happen to come back, or if there’s any issues later on with regard to their treatments.
Q: WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO MDCLONE?
First thing that I want to say about MDClone is something that really attracted me early on. It was the ability of me, as a user, as a research physician (not part of the management of the hospital and not part of quality control in our hospital) to access the data in a simple manner without the need for the IT department. Without the need for a lot of explanation on how the system works, it really attracted me from the get-go.
Q: WHAT VALUE HAS IT BROUGHT TO YOU AS A PHYSICIAN?
I like to be independent when I work on research, and I prefer not to rely on other people. Sometimes you have to, but I don’t want to be relying on other people because my time frames are not exactly the same as other people’s time frames.
What I really enjoy about MDClone was the very simple, easy, and intuitive platform. It’s very easy to understand and it didn’t take me long to figure it out. It’s quite simple, it’s quite intuitive, and if you work with data and if you work with patients, you quite easily know how to ask the questions. And what are the questions you want to know and how to ask them. Then how to receive the output from the system.
“I like to be independent when I work on research, and I prefer not to rely on other people. Sometimes you have to, but I don’t want to be relying on other people because my time frames are not exactly the same as other people’s time frames.”
Q: WHAT DOES SYNTHETIC DATA HELP YOU DO?
The second thing that I really, really enjoyed about the platform was the fact that I can work with synthetic data without the need of any other approval. Without the IRB approval, without any need for approvals from the management of departments or hospitals. Basically, I have access to a lot of synthetic data and I can really tailor my query based on my question and see if I have anything with regard to the visibility of the study. So say I have an idea for a new study. I want to check a hypothesis. I can really quite quickly make a pilot with the synthetic data to see if I have something that I can actually run a full trial and research on.
And then I go to the IRB and then I do all the other processes that we need to do to receive the ethics approval. The other thing that also allows me to do is go back and forth to the data and improve it. So, once I start running a query, I can go back and forth and look at the synthetic data to see if I have any issues with it. If I have some missing data. maybe I haven’t asked for the specific data that i’m interested in and I need to make specific corrections.
Q: WHAT TIME SAVINGS HAVE YOU REALIZED?
With our past system, I had to work closely with the IT department, back and forth. This process could take me months and months because these people are all so busy and it’s hard for me to know what data is available. Now I can, with a few clicks on the MDClone platform, actually see what I have and see what adjustments I need to make and make them on the fly. I don’t need to drag on this process for months and months, I can do it in a few hours. And this has really helped me and is the main cause for why I started working with the system.
KEY TAKEAWAY:
MDClone allows me to do sanity checks and visibility checks to see if I have something to explore in our data and also to purify and get the query I need, faster and on my time.
ABOUT RAMBAM HEALTH CARE CAMPUS
Rambam Health Care Campus is a 1000-bed world-class teaching hospital. The patient population is diverse, as Rambam is the major tertiary (referral) medical center for all of Northern Israel, including12 district hospitals and defense and peacekeeping forces stationed in the region. Serving more than two million residents and others referred from all over Israel, the Mediterranean region, and around the world, Rambam is strategically located in Haifa on the Mediterranean coast and plays a critical role in the healthcare of the region’s residents, in addition to making a major contribution to the economy of the north.
