SmartVU is a new user interface for Vanderbilt’s network application for electronic medical records and clinical workflow, StarPanel.
It currently attracts some 800 clinician-users per month.
“It’s a cleaner, more efficient way to interface with StarPanel. I also find it more compatible with tablet computers like the iPad, which I use as I interact with patients in the clinic,” said Alex Jahangir, M.D., MMHC, associate professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation.
During his busier clinic sessions Jahangir might see upward of 40 patients. “The SmartVU team has been very responsive to me as a user, adapting it to serve our workflow really well,” he said.
Keith Churchwell, M.D., executive director and chief medical officer for the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute, told the SmartVU team that the new interface saves him as much as 20 minutes per day in the clinic.
Todd Peters, M.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry, helps guide development of SmartVU in his role as a customer relationship manager for HITS (Health Informatics Technologies and Services, formerly the Informatics Center).
“StarPanel is a great application but it’s more robust than clinicians may need in their day-to-day work. SmartVU allows users to filter out extraneous information and customize the interface to suit their needs.
Clinicians who favor a particular sequence when reviewing patient charts can easily set up SmartVU to reflect that sequence.
“The thing about it that I like most is the dual screen,” Peters said. This feature allows the user to combine views of, say, past clinical notes or test results, with current ordering or note taking or electronic prescribing.
SmartVU was developed to speed clinic workflow, but a new version now in development will serve both inpatient and outpatient teams.
SmartVU allows users to pull in easily any functionality that may be needed from StarPanel’s full-featured default interface. SmartVU also works with the voice recognition software that Vanderbilt providers use for clinical documentation.
Users accessing SmartVU from their own computers should note that the secure Web version is optimized for the Chrome Web browser.
SmartVU is available to all StarPanel users — look for it in the list of links in StarPanel’s left-hand column — and Peters has created a brief online tutorial.
For more information, contact Peters or Susan Conner via Vanderbilt email.
