With the PRISM app, patients can report information about their health status, function and quality of life and have it incorporated into their EHR. (Photo: Shutterstock)

A new phone app that allows patients to report on their symptoms and health conditions has won a national award from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The app, called PRISM, was part of a collaborative effort by the University of Minnesota Medical School, the Carlson School of Management, Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services, the Institute for Health Informatics, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, EMF Consulting, and Perk Motivation.

The PRISM app recently took top awards at an AHRQ competition called the Step Up App Challenge, which included 50 different groups competing to create the best digital system for surveying patients and delivering that information to EHRs.

The idea for the app came from an effort at Fairview Health Services to cut down on unneeded urological surgeries by surveying patients about their symptoms. The approach was producing good results, but the paper forms were not easily accessible by electronic health records (EHRs).

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the various partners came together to create an app that would allow the kidney patient input to interact with EHRs, opening up a range of medical applications for the new system.

“I think it's a really good example of how all the different stakeholders in the health care landscape can come together to create an innovative solution,” said Zach McGill, founder and CEO of Perk Motivation in Minneapolis. “We've got people that are clinicians, health care administrators, academics from several different areas of the University of Minnesota, as well as industry, all coming together to create a solution.”

With the PRISM app, patients can report information about their health status, function and quality of life. The information can be used to evaluate the physical, mental and social health in adults and children, according to the University of Minnesota. The app can also show patients how their data compares to the overall population and provide personalized recommendations on how to improve their health. And the information is easily accessible to providers during a clinic visit, which can facilitate timely analysis and discussion of a health condition, as well as help answer questions the patient might have.

“Technological advancements in health care have evolved at a rate that outpaces our ability to apply these new tools in a meaningful way,” said Michael Borofsky, MD, an assistant professor at the U of M Medical School. “Similarly, huge efforts have been made to create instruments that accurately capture our patients' health. However, finding a way to integrate these into daily clinical practice has been challenging. With PRISM, we hope to bring technology and outcome reporting together in a simple-to-use way.”

Following the national recognition of the PRISM app, plans are underway to test it in other settings. The U of M recently announced that the PRISM app will be piloted in nine practice settings affiliated with MedStar Health in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.