Overview
China Medical University was founded in 1958, and its affiliated hospital was founded in 1980. The core value of China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) is “treating patients with respect, treating employees as a priority, and treating the hospital with pride.” China Medical University Hospital is an important cornerstone of Taiwanese medical circles in both clinical research and as a teaching hospital.
In order to achieve its goals, China Medical University Hospital implemented DynaMed, a clinical decision tool from EBSCO Health. By combining DynaMed with the university’s digital teaching and learning platform, CMUH helps medical students develop as evidence-based care providers. Since introducing the tool in 2016, CMUH has become one of the Top 10 users of DynaMed in the world.
Challenges
As Vice Superintendent of the China Medical University Hospital and former director of the medical teaching and education department, Dr. Chia-Der Lin is engaged in the development and promotion of medical learning tools. To help physicians become more efficient in their work, Dr. Lin and his colleagues sought a mobile-friendly online tool that would empower them to quickly find clinical information, increase their clinical knowledge and improve the quality of patient care.
Dr. Lin, along with University Librarian Mrs. Shih-Nuan Lin and Manager Mrs. Li-Mei Cheng, evaluated DynaMed, EBSCO Health’s evidence-based clinical decision support tool. After careful consideration, they agreed that DynaMed offered the most cost-effective, user-friendly solution with rich content and clinical guidance. In addition, EBSCO provided hands-on contextual training around the tool.
Solutions
Available online and via a mobile app, DynaMed is a convenient tool in both teaching and clinical settings. Topics are presented in a clear, concise and useful way. Furthermore, DynaMed’s simple Level of Evidence rating system makes it easy for users to quickly understand the quality of the evidence being reported and the primary rationale behind each rating.
“DynaMed provides clinical evidence, reliable content, and clear definitions that help physicians and medical students overcome a wide range of challenges and become more confident in their decision-making,” said Dr. Chia-Der Lin.
Additionally, DynaMed saves time, especially when physicians need to make complex medical calculations. The tool’s interactive calculators provide a fast and efficient way to input patient data and calculate a variety of relevant scores and indices. DynaMed calculators are developed and updated by EBMcalc. EBMcalc references hundreds of medical journal and textbook articles comprising a wide array of medical equations, clinical criteria sets and decision trees. The calculators can be accessed from the tool’s primary navigation and via links in relevant DynaMed topics. They are also available on the DynaMed mobile app so medical staff can perform calculations anytime, anywhere.
DynaMed is also a valuable resource for CMUH pharmacists, who are responsible for tracking adverse drug reactions in patients. Micromedex content in DynaMed includes summary level drug information, drug dosing information, single interaction information, evidenced related to off-label use, dosage adjustment recommendations, and IV compatibility.
“If I encounter an unfamiliar symptom, I turn to DynaMed first,” said Pharmacist Yung-Hsin Huang.
Promotion
To promote widespread use and adoption, CMUH integrated DynaMed with the hospital’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, so that doctors can quickly find relevant information when consulting with patients.
In addition, EBSCO’s customer engagement team also participated in CMUH Library Week, an event held every semester to attract readers to learn about library resources. EBSCO targeted different user groups, such as library users, medical students, pharmacists and others to demonstrate DynaMed’s benefits and answer questions. The customer engagement team also worked with marketing to provide promotional materials such as take away guides and help sheets.
Benefits and Results
DynaMed meets the needs of clinicians at different stages of their medical journey. According to Dr. Yin-Yi Chang, Director of Evidence-Based Medicine at CMUH, DynaMed has been instrumental in guiding young clinicians. Its bulleted format is easy to read, and the left-hand navigation facilitates quick access to the content. In addition, the decision tree allows young doctors to better understand how to communicate with patients, from the diagnosis stage through the treatment process.
Interns Dr. Wen-Wen Tsai and Dr. Hui-Hsuan Chuang agreed, saying that DynaMed “bridges the gap” between the classroom and clinical practice. Both said DynaMed has given them the confidence to answer the attending physician’s clinical questions during medical rounds.
Dr. Yin-Yi Chang said DynaMed is also a very useful tool in medical research and academic speech preparation because of its rigorous empirical review process. Users can start their research with DynaMed and gain a better overview of the topics. Then they can refer to the full-text link provided by DynaMed at the end of each bullet point and link to PubMed or the full-text journals CMUH subscribes to.
Dr. David Ray Chang, a nephrology fellow for two years who has been using DynaMed for more than six years, said DynaMed is more practical than other tools.
“DynaMed is a fast and convenient tool for EBM, clinical decision support and shared decision-making,” he said. “I often recommend DynaMed to my younger colleagues or new clinicians. It’s the definitive source for evidence.”