Hospitals in North West England Have Saved Lives Using Clarity Informatics' Quality Improvement Service

Figures published in today's New England Journal of Medicine by a team of economists and health experts from the Universities of Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham and Cambridge, show significant drops in mortality after using Clarity Informatics' Quality Improvement Service (QIS) in the North West of England.

The results show that this programme was associated with a reduction in mortality of 1.3%. This equates to a reduction of 890 deaths in this population of patients.

Following on from the success of the programme outlined by the independent evaluation team at Manchester University, Clarity Informatics can confirm that the proven trend of quality improvements, cost savings, reduced bed days and lives saved continues from the end of their evaluation period to the current date. Clarity has supporting evidence and data proving significant financial savings from this programme.

QIS is an end to end solution for secondary care which reviews clinical topics and combines proven clinical best practice, data collection, software, analytics and workshops to improve quality of care and clinical outcomes. QIS was introduced to the UK by Advancing Quality and developed further by Clarity from 2010. The solution has been used for over four years in the North West and independent evaluation up to 2010 by the University of Manchester has demonstrated tangible benefits in terms of lives saved.

QIS was developed out of a pilot designed to improve outcomes in secondary care for specific disease areas in NW England, where mortality relating to myocardial infarction and heart failure was observed to be higher than the national average for England. Clarity Informatics, has found that closer collaboration between clinical colleagues results in benchmarked improvements in quality scores. Since the project started, the clinical focus has expanded from five to ten patient pathways (including: acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, dementia and stroke) and new developments have included using NHS SuS linked data sets.

Dr Mark Woodhead, Advancing Quality clinical lead for pneumonia, said: "For adults with pneumonia, we have seen a clear improvement in the standards of care across the North West over four years of Advancing Quality and I look forward to continue working with all the pneumonia teams across the North West to share best practice and build on these excellent achievements."

Dr Scot Garg, Advancing Quality clinical lead for acute myocardial infarction said: "Advancing Quality is a success thanks to the dedication and commitment of all the teams who work together to share examples of best practice across the region. The results for myocardial infarction have improved year-on-year with 98% of our patients receiving the Advancing Quality measures, so we can be proud that the care we provide to patients is of the highest standards."

Mike Farrar, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, who originally worked on the QIS project, said: "My only regret is that this programme did not become national."

About Clarity Informatics
Clarity Informatics is an internationally-renowned centre of excellence in the application of evidence-based health informatics. For further information, please contact Dr Gerry Morrow, QIS Clinical Lead at Clarity Informatics on 0191 287 5803 or Suzie Creighton of Castlegate on 01395 222 793 or 0772 999 3721 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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