Sutter Health awarded $1.2 million by California Initiative to advance precision of care for multiple sclerosis

The not-for-profit Sutter Health network was awarded $1.2 million by the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine to support patients with multiple sclerosis—and help improve how we target and treat health matters across the entire state.

Sutter Health's Research & Development team and colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco will jointly develop a software application called MS-SHARE. The neurology practice application will be used to improve the precision of care for multiple sclerosis (MS). It will be used by patients and doctors during appointments and by patients between appointments. MS-SHARE will bring the latest findings from precision medicine, along with information from the patient and their electronic health record (EHR)—right to the doctor's fingertips. This app will organize both the patient-reported data and the EHR data in a way that allows doctors and patients to easily view it together to support their decision-making about care plans. In this way, MS-SHARE has the potential to change how doctors and patients spend their time during appointments. Instead of "data finding and gathering," doctors and patients can devote more time to conversation about how the care is working and how it needs to be changed to meet patient needs.

"In the digital age, we are in a position to take research findings and more quickly apply them in the doctor's office—supporting patients and their health care teams today," said Walter "Buzz" Stewart, Ph.D., vice president and chief research officer for Sutter Health and MS-SHARE project lead. "Through the app, care teams will immediately see what's working or not working for patients based on the data and evidence. This empowers care teams and patients alike to make informed decisions together with the benefit of the timeliest, most applicable information."

MS-SHARE also addresses limitations experienced with similar apps. MS-SHARE can easily add new data sources and updated knowledge as they become available and can quickly scale to new users and locations —enhancing its value and potential for impact.

During the 18-month demonstration project with the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, Sutter Health will build the app with input from Sutter doctors and MS patients, and focus on short-term outcomes like patient and doctor use of the app and enhancing the patient experience. The long-term goals of MS-SHARE are to improve patient outcomes, including disease progression and symptom control. Progress and findings from Sutter Health's innovative project can reach far beyond improving care for multiple sclerosis patients; it can help to lay the groundwork for how to influence care and treatment for other neurological diseases as well, such as Parkinson's Disease, seizure disorders, and migraine headaches.

Precision medicine aims to use data driven tools and analysis to develop new diagnostics, therapies and insights into disease. The winning teams receiving CIAPM funding will join forces to utilize data across research, clinical, environmental and population health settings to better diagnosis, treat and even aim to better manage and prevent disease.