Click Symptoms - The Health Professional's Diagnostic Decision Support Tool

Much research has been carried out over the years in the UK and USA into the prevalence of both patient misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment plans. Some years ago The National Safety Foundation reported an estimated misdiagnosis rate ranging between 8-42%. In 2008, Drs Berner and Graber reviewed over 300 papers on misdiagnosis citing research by Professor A Elstein that 13-15% of clinical medicine was misdiagnosed.

In a 2012 paper entitled "How Do We Heal Medicine?", the prominent doctor and writer Dr Atul Gawande reported that 40% of Coronary Artery Disease has incomplete or inappropriate treatment plans with 60% of Asthma and Stroke patients suffering in the same way.

Using a network of leading medical consultants and specialists we have gathered medical data to develop guided diagnostic and referral pathways. These consultants and specialists understand condition-specific traits so DDx is far more than a series of yes/no filters. Our team have analysed condition specific symptoms, statistical data and patterns to derive the most likely condition based on symptoms, age and gender.

DDx is flexible so that users can explore multiple pathways with their patients to reach the most likely diagnosis, request the appropriate tests, initiate treatment and refer to secondary medicine where appropriate. Users can start the diagnostic process either by typing in the patient’s broad symptom or by clicking on the symptomatic area on a visual body map. The body map will aid consultations where there are language or other communication barriers.

Through DDx’s guided diagnostic pathways and their inbuilt questions, the system will guide the user in going quickly and efficiently from the patient’s broad symptom to associated differentiating symptoms leading towards the most likely working diagnosis. At any time the user can leave a guided pathway to crosscheck alternatives if needed. The system will “red flag” high risk conditions.

If the user is confident that they have identified the most likely condition without using the DDx pathway they can enter it into DDx which will then produce the most appropriate tests, work ups, primary and secondary care strategies. You can find out more about the DDx system by viewing the DDx Introduction Video.

What's so Unique about DDx?

DDx is dynamic, not static: it improves with use. Patient data is at the heart of it, but no-one’s data will ever be compromised. It offers the most likely conditions based on the symptoms your patient presents, taking account of age, ethnicity and gender.

DDx is a powerful differential diagnostic and referral platform utilising the knowledge and expertise of a team of prominent consultants in an innovative and accessible way. The software and content have been developed from scratch, with medical information, symptom mapping, diagnosis and referral pathways created by DDx’s own team of medical and IT professionals.

DDx gives the most likely diagnosis and automated referral in just a few clicks saving time and money for GPs and delivering improved patient outcomes. The DDx team believe that no other system delivers an automated GP support tool taking the patient from a broad symptom through to most likely condition, tests, work ups, primary and secondary treatment strategies and onwards to referral.

DDx supports its users to deliver speedy, accurate diagnoses, and appropriate tests, work ups, primary and secondary care treatments. DDx automates referrals into secondary medicine to further save time and provide faster patient treatment. It is simple, cost effective and delivers improved quality.

GPs have said:

• DDx relieves pressures on GPs by accurately supporting patient consultation and ongoing treatment.
• DDx reduces the risk of misdiagnosis and potential litigation by “red flagging” potentially high risk conditions.
• DDx improves GP productivity, allowing improved patient contact time.
• DDx improves patient experience by reducing the time from initial presenting symptoms to intervention.
• DDx builds ‘Big Data’ – it learns as you load. The more you use it the better it gets. DDx addresses and impacts positively on areas of real concern to the NHS and government:

DDx addresses and impacts positively on areas of real concern to the NHS and government:

• The estimated NHS and social costs arising from patient misdiagnosis runs into 100s of £millions per annum;
• NHS Litigation Authority has set aside £26.1 billion to cover current and future legal liabilities [3];
• An estimated NHS deficit of up to £30 billion by 2021 [2];

The DDx model lends itself to a mobile application to help alleviate the pressure on the medical profession and improve patient outcomes.

DDx is a software programme which has been built using the collective knowledge and experience of leading medical specialists. DDx always responds in the same way to the data that is put into it, so its results are always consistent. Health professionals can use DDx to help deliver the same quality and consistency in their patient work.

Click Symptoms’ team of consultants are leaders in their fields of medicine and it is their specialist knowledge and expertise that gives DDx such unique integrity. It offers condition-specific symptoms, symptom analysis and dynamic pathways.

As the system further gathers statistical evidence about the efficacy of treatments it will offer smarter, quicker, more effective solutions, specific to your patients’ needs: hence healthier and happier patients spending less time in the GP surgery.

The system will build data that will enhance evidence-based medicine and further assist diagnosis and referral quality.

“A doctor would need to read 160 hours every week to keep up with relevant new literature”.[4]

DDx can help by;

• User friendly differential diagnostic and referral support tool
• Accurate medical reference
• Accurate, quick diagnosis
• Better quality referrals
• Less time in consultation and care
• Better patient outcomes
• Speedier patient journey
• Better value for money

Starting with evidence-based medicine our software has been developed in an intelligent algorithmic form and is continuously updated to highlight the efficacy of recommended patients’ treatments.

DDx learns from the data submitted to build anonymised patterns of patient data based on geography, age and gender.

We use servers hosted in Microsoft data centres which meets a broad international and industry-specific compliance standards, such as ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, SOC 1 and SOC 2, as well as country-specific standards UK G-Cloud. Rigorous third-party audits, such as by the British Standards Institute, verify Azure’s adherence to the strict security controls these standards mandate.

All data to and from the data centre is encrypted with the latest version of TLS security. User access is controlled via industry standard password procedures and policies. We conduct regular penetration testing to improve our security controls and processes.

All patient data is anonymised, therefore offering the highest level of patient protection from data intrusion. No patient-specific data is ever held by Click Symptoms Ltd.