Products :: Product FAQ

THERAPYEDGE-HIV :: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Q: Is TherapyEdge-HIV a full EMR? Can we use it with non-HIV patients?

A: You can store all of your HIV and non-HIV patient information in the comprehensive medical record. Most TherapyEdge sites stop using paper records after a transition period. Benefit: Use of a medical record system has well documented return on investment (ROI) based on availability of accurate and up to date information.

Q: What is the Rapid Capture module?

A: The Rapid Capture module is a two screen module and paper form combination that speeds the transition from paper to computer system. The Paper form is printed when the patient comes in. It shows the primary HIV care data for the last three patient visits. There is then a space to select/circle/write in information for the current visit. version 1 of this tool has been tested at two sites in Africa. The paper is given to a data entry person at the pharmacy and the data is entered while the patient waits for the prescription to be fulfilled. Rapid Capture is not as extensive as the full version of TE, so it can be used during transition from paper to electronic systems or for sites seeing large numbers of patients on a daily basis.

Q: What is the Comprehensive Reporting Module?

A: You can store all of your HIV and non-HIV patient information in the comprehensive medical record. Most TherapyEdge sites stop using paper records after a transition period. Benefit: Use of a medical record system has well documented return on investment (ROI) based on availability of accurate and up to date information.

Q: What are Alerts? Is there any evidence they help improve patient care?

A: Alerts have been shown to reduce medical costs associated with adverse events. TherapyEdge-HIV provides extensive alerts for HIV care givers based on published treatment guidelines, drug interactions, HIV co-morbid conditions, allergies, lab values and more. TherapyEdge is considered an advanced decision support tool in that it provides most of this feedback in real time while the system is being used.

Q: What is Therapy Evaluation? Is there any evidence it can improve patient care?

A: Therapy Evaluation is a tool HIV care givers can use to review an Anti-Retroviral Therapy against the individual patient profile. Drug resistance, treatment guidelines and all the alerting criteria are included in the comprehensive report along with a review of the resistance profile if available. This report is based on much of the same criteria as the alert system so there is evidence for clinical value. To what degree this superset of information provides value has yet to be studied.

Q: Can therapyedge-HIV receive data directly from our laboratory provider?

A: Yes, TherapyEdge-HIV can communicate with laboratory information systems (LIS), pharmacy systems, other medical records systems, database reporting tools and statistical analysis packages. TherapyEdge uses two common standards (HL7 and XML) for data communications. Importing of Lab data will reduce data entry times and eliminate redundant recording of data for many sites by storing all of the data in one system.

Q: What is HL7 data integration?

A: HL7 is the standard protocol for data communications between medical systems. With this module, TherapyEdge-HIV can talk to your lab system or almost any other medical system Using HL7 or XML.

VIROSCORE SUITE :: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Q: Why is the ViroScore Genotype report better than what I use now?

A: The ViroSore report is superior because it provides a clear indication of resistance and all relevant mutation information. It does not require pages of text to explain like geno/phenotype database reports. Based on this simplicity we think it helps clinicians of all levels prescribe the most appropriate HIV ARV drugs. Genotype guidance has proven to be a cost effective decision support tool for HIV management and is reimbursed by medical aids (insurance) in the US and France and by government programs in most other countries combating HIV.

Q: Is there any proof that using your 6 algorithm report is better than using a report available from one of the current genotype providers?

A: There are many papers comparing the 6 major algorithms. One, from Andre DeLuca in Italy, shows that, depending on the case, the CHL, ANRS algorithms are the best at predicting the clinical outcome. (This paper is one of many listed in the publications section of our website.) But we provide the physician with the option to choose any combination of the 6 that they like. By the very nature of the fact that the algorithms differ on the resistance levels of some drugs inherently gives the clinician more information. We are very open to collaborate for research to show that comparing multiple algorithms helps improve trwatment options for patients with 2 nd and 3 rd line virologic treatment failure.

Q: What is the ViroScore +Plus Historical Genotype Report?

A: ViroScore +Plus is a historical resistance report that takes into account all of the past sequences to create a more accurate assessment of how a patient may respond to a new therapy based on past drug pressure. This can improve the quality of care for patients developing HIV drug resistance.

Q: Why do I need a database to store sequences?

A: The ViroScore sequence database will help you organize the data for research and program/clinical outcomes analysis. It also enables you to perform the historical genotype report, (ViroScore +Plus) which has shown to be more accurate than single genotype reports. Our database is compatible with FDA approved sequencing platforms and kits.

Q: What are your “Open standards” for sharing data?

A: ABL believes that you should own your clinical data and be able to collaborate with other clinicians as easily as possible. We include many tools to help you import and export data in most of the common sequence formats such as fasta, txt, and XML. ABL authored the most widely used XML format for sharing resistance data.

Q: Can I use SAS or other reporting tools to analyze the sequence database?

A: You can query the database on sequence, mutation and clinical data using built in query tools, reports or other database analysis tools like SAS or Crystal Reports. Tools for asking common reseach questions are already built into the database. Use the HIVLIb or EpiVisor Analysis tools to make detailed searches and reports. Or export the whole database for analysis using .CSV or XML formats.

Q: Can the ViroScore system accept and understand IUPAC since most sequence that come out from trugene will retain the ATGC and W R, etc?

A: Yes we handle ambiguous codons in ViroScore Suite (Trugene or any sequencing platform). We generate all possible amino acids and use them for resistance interpretation. We were the first to do it in online HIV resistance interpretation in 2001. Mutations coming out from ambiguous codons are indicated with * in the list of mutations of the ViroScorer report.

Q: What is the Data Mining Module?

A: The Data Mining Module contains tools that help you make queries of the database. It lets you ask very specific questions such as how many male patients are taking RTV and have hyperlipidemia? Queries can include clinical and sequence criteria. Future versions of this module will make these query tools much more advanced and will include some statistical analysis. Our goal is to let the average clinician ask very advanced research questions without needing statistical staff.