FAQ

How do I engage with your company on a project?

2010-07-14T13:41:40Z

Typically, we set up an initial meeting with our clients either in person or over the phone to discuss the project score and details. We then sign a contract agreement that contains the Statement of Work. After the agreement is signed, we proceed to determine the best strategy to obtain the necessary data from participating clinical sites. Conditions at the sites vary greatly, thus we use an individualized approach for each site that we first discuss with the client.

If you are interested in further details or have a project for which you would like to use our help, please contact us at:

CTInformatics, Inc.
4915 West 35th Street
Suite 200
Minneapolis, MN 55416

Telephone: (240) 414-1616

Do you only support clinical trials?

2010-07-14T13:37:10Z

No. We help with identifying patient candidates all types of clinical studies (e.g., clinical trials, cohort and case-control studies, etc.).

How do you protect patient privacy?

2010-07-14T13:17:49Z

We make every effort to protect patient privacy and keep medical records secure. In addition to strictly following the HIPAA regulations, we implemented a number of additional measures to ensure that all information is safe and accessible only to authorized personnel within our company.

All access to records requires login and password and is monitored and logged
Physical access to server room is limited and is logged
All individuals with access to PHI have completed HIPAA training
Data at rest outside of our server room is encrypted using strong encryption algorithms (e.g., AES-256bit)
Data in motion is encrypted using VPN, SFTP, SSL and PGP technologies
All electronic data is destroyed immediately after completion of project/contract using multi-pass secure erase technology
All data on paper or optical media is destroyed using cross-cut shredding

Why not just use a code search?

2010-06-08T14:35:30Z

Q: We usually search our EMR, how is the CTI process any better?

A: The CTInformatics ACTRIS automated pre-screening records review process has several advantages over typical 'EMR Code Search' approaches:

Cast the net wider

Because of the efficiency of the automated search process we are able to cast the net wider than by selecting ICD9 codes alone. In the heart failure domain this is a particular advantage as prior research has shown that ~15% of patients are likely to have HF but are not diagnosed. Additional patients may be diagnosed in the clinical narrative, but not coded, or mis-coded. By looking at all patients receiving cardiac care services the automated system is able to include some of these eligible patients into the selection.

Find 'invisible' data

In many clinical settings there are conditions, symptoms, procedures, and lab results that are documented in the clinical narrative text, but not included in a structured database field. This is common when outside labs are cited into the narrative, and when for mentions of certain symptoms. By using a combination of rules and statistical natural language processing tools we are able to annotate otherwise invisible (without manual review) values of interest.

Make final selections easier

Automated exclusions can make final selections easier and more targeted. For example, in a diastolic heart failure setting, using a code search to find HF patients with EF>40 and BP>130 is often easy to do. It is much harder to find which of those patients meet the broader range of inclusion/exclusion criteria for a study. For example, CTInformatics ACTRIS system can Auto-Exclude on:
- ulcerative carotid arterial plaques,
- serum creatinine > 2.5 mg/dL,
- being treated with dialysis,
- not hospitalized related to heart failure in the past year,
- late-stage kidney disease,
- known or suspected baroreflex failure,
- autonomic neuropathy,
- prior surgery, radiation, or endovascular stent placement in the carotid sinus region,
- significant uncontrolled symptomatic bradyarrhythmias,
- infiltrative cardiomyopathy or a systemic illness known to cause infiltrative cardiomyopathy,
- pericardial constriction,
- solid organ or hematologic transplant.

Automate Pharma Expertise:

Keeping in mind all the alternative medications available to treat a given disorder is a daunting task, even for domain experts. For one of our studies a review of antihypertensive medications was required. Our system automatically evaluated for over 150 antihypertensive medication formulations to identify distinct medications given to patient. The system has awareness of combo meds and treats each component as a distinct medication. This allows for rapid and comprehensive screening for patients receiving 3+ antihypertensive medications.

Minimize manual chart review:

By selecting a highly targeted set of patients the amount of manual chart review time is reduced. Because the screening is automated it produces consistent results across large data sets. It reduces the amount of training, review, and Q/C time needed. It allows reviews of very large patient populations without overwhelming clinical research staff.

Comparison of Structured and Unstructured Data

2010-06-07T13:59:22Z

CTInformatics can leverage the advantages of both: