Valerie Press, M.D., M.P.H.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is among the leading causes of early hospital readmissions. In response to this, U.S. hospitals have begun implementing COPD readmission reduction programs. However, these programs use costly resources without clearly effective strategies and a lack of tools by which to personalize interventions. Due to the poor success of these programs, we aim to develop highly accurate tools to identify high-risk COPD patients and target the most effective interventions to the appropriate patient populations. We will do this by reviewing current research to identify factors that contribute to patients’ readmission and to identify current interventions that attempt to reduce readmissions among COPD patients. We will then use complex modeling techniques and a variety of patient data to develop a risk score that can be used at the bedside to inform a patient’s care during their hospitalization.

Update:

We are currently conducting systematic reviews to identify risk factors for COPD readmissions and effective interventions. Additionally, manual chart review of the electronic health record is ongoing. Finally, we have begun to lay the groundwork for stakeholder interviews and have approved our protocol with the University of Chicago Institutional Review Board. The preliminary prediction models in use are an administrative data set where the cohort is defined using billing codes and a chart review data set where the cohort is defined using gold standard definitions of COPD exacerbations.