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IRIS: A big gamble is paying off

FROM THE CHIEF MEDICAL EDITOR

Larry E. Patterson, MD

Wow, what a difference eight months makes! Back in February of this year, I introduced many of you to the Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) system. (Well, it’s really the AAO that introduced it, but I’ll take credit where I can.) It’s an ophthalmology-specific registry started this year with great hope and promise. What a registry is, and it’s benefits to you, can be found in this month’s cover article on IRIS, written by Joseph Jalkiewicz, starting on page 20.

When IRIS was announced, the program was so novel to most of us that the Academy offered it for the first two years at no charge to the first 2,000 doctors who signed up. Their goal was to have 2,200 doctors and 18 million patients by 2017. My guess is they had no idea how many would actually sign up. A big gamble for sure.

I was among the first 2,000. My experience was nothing less than outstanding! My IT guy found it quite easy to work with FIGMD, the company contracted to do the implementation — not their first rodeo either, it turned out. We were on relatively short conference calls with FIGMD every few weeks as we started tweaking our data entry so that the registry recognized it. Most of it was simple stuff, like changing our description of diabetic retinopathy severity from “1+” to “mild”.

Using IRIS, I now can easily get data on many aspects of the practice divided and subanalyzed in more ways that I could ever imagine or even need. And for skeptics like me, it has already proven beneficial. For example, one of the PQRS measures requires a discussion at least yearly about AREDS supplements with macular degeneration patients. I learned through this process that several of our doctors, including me, sometimes forgot to do this.

So back to “Wow, what a difference eight months makes!” Remember the above stated goals for IRIS? They had to close enrollment in July when they hit 4,000 doctors! There are another 7,000 waiting in the wings to start in 2015. As of September 1, 3,384 doctors have been successfully mapped to 22 EHR systems, which amounts to more than 10 million patient visits for 3.85 million individual patients. We are looking at 38 million patients by 2017. To quote Bill Rich of the AAO, “Talk about big data!”

There are still some hurdles. Some of you are stuck with a certain big EHR system (which shall remain nameless) used by hospitals that seems rather unwieldy for eye docs. That particular system won’t play ball with IRIS or anyone else. I’m assuming pressure from almost everyone will eventually change that.

Otherwise it’s been a big hit. The investment gamble is paying off. The potential benefit to us and our patients is mind boggling. Score another one for the private sector! OM