Software tool for rheumatologists receives patent

A patent has been awarded for JointMan, a software platform tool that allows rheumatologists to clinically follow patients with rheumatic disease through standard and new measurements, according to product developer Discus Analytics Inc.

The software also tracks biologic and disease-modifying antirheumatic drug therapy through a point-and-click, color-coded scale model of the body, according to a news release. The product suite provides support for rheumatologists in five platforms: clinical decision support, reimbursement and patient access support, clinical trials and patient recruiting tools, reputation management, and population health registry and practice dashboards.

“With this patent decision, JointMan software may become the new standard of care for tracking patient outcomes and quality metrics in real time,” Sergio Schwartzman, MD, chief medical and research officer for Discuss Analytics, said in the release. “There is a significant need in rheumatoid arthritis for accurate, scalable, precise and cost-effective methods of capturing quality-outcome measures of treat-to-target disease activity.

“JointMan allows rheumatologists to capture and trend joint counts at each visit while aggregating, analyzing and presenting data in a concise and actionable format. … Rheumatologists … can bring about significant change in patient care through successful collaboration at the local, regional and national level.”

The platform “can build the bridge between electronic health records and practice management systems that may lack the versatility needed to comply with the upcoming shift to outcome/value-based reimbursement,” the release stated.