News Release [PDF]
Contact: Ms. Megan Young, PearlDiver Technologies – 202.683.1294
meg@pearldiverinc.com
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (June 30, 2009) – PearlDiver Technologies Inc., creator of what is believed to be the largest, fully HIPAA-compliant, publicly available and searchable database of patient records in the nation, is pleased to announce the completion and distribution of the company’s initial Healthcare Database White Paper. Regional Differences in Healthcare Charges was edited by PearlDiver’s Washington, D.C.-based associate Megan Young, and features the work of PearlDiver’s team of in-house analysts.
Regional Differences in Healthcare Charges supports recent independent findings that spending more on healthcare often results in similar or poorer patient outcomes than less costly care. This paper examines regional patterns of spending more for poorer care by measuring large variations in charging data for a defined group of medical procedures. By comparing regional charging differences within PearlDiver’s current database of 145 million patient records, analysts found almost $9 billion of prospective savings every year within just ten of the most common orthopedic procedures.
These findings point toward an opportunity to use data mining and reporting tools across the continuum of care to end the decoupling of what we pay for healthcare and the outcomes achieved. Using these tools, our nation can improve the delivery of healthcare while decreasing costs. The report concludes with a call to use data tools to recouple cost and patient outcome to ensure the best and most cost-effective care.
“There is a sea of information available regarding diagnoses, procedures, outcomes and charges, but as a country we still suffer from an inability to use that information in meaningful ways – specifically to improve healthcare and contain costs,” said Mr. Robin R. Young, PearlDiver co-founder and CEO. “The release of Regional Differences in Healthcare Charges is consistent with our mission at PearlDiver – to aggregate sometimes very different databases and other forms of medical data and turn that collective body of knowledge into actionable information. We’re excited to be releasing the first of an ongoing series of white papers to share that actionable information with policymakers and others.”
Regional Differences in Healthcare Charges is available at no cost at PearlDiver’s web site (www.pearldiverinc.com) or by direct request to meg@pearldiverinc.com.
About PearlDiver
PearlDiver Technologies Inc. aggregates medical information from a wide variety of sources including private and public payors, hospitals, surgery centers and specialty physician practices, PubMed, manufacturers and others to create a seamless and timely flow of searchable intelligence about medical products in the marketplace, patient outcomes, adverse events, procedure charges, and comparative effectiveness for a wide variety of patient populations. PearlDiver organizes and cross-references data from many sources in order to create valuable longitudinal patient, product and market tracking data. Customers include surgeons, hospital administrators, product manufacturers, analysts, regulators and other key healthcare constituencies. PearlDiver’s data and data tools are available by subscription, through its consulting or Strategic Advisory services, and, to a certain extent, for free, at www.pearldiverinc.com.
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