Problem-Knowledge-Coupler Corporation (PKC)

PKC is working to create a future in which people are given knowledge tools for making health care decisions. Patients and providers will use these tools to evaluate problems more efficiently and reliably than can the unaided mind working under the time constraints of everyday practice.

Situation

Healthcare practitioners are required to recall, match, process, and apply large volumes of complex information at the point of care. Utilizing this medical knowledge consistently and reliably is beyond the capacity of even the best human mind, given the time and resource constraints of the healthcare environment. Any mature industry looks for tools to assist with this sort of dilemma. Consumers of healthcare services are logically being encouraged to accept more responsibility for their healthcare decisions, but without easy-to-use aids they lack the clear and personalized information needed to take on that responsibility.

Solution

Problem-Knowledge Coupler Corporation (PKC) is working to create a future in which people are given knowledge tools for making healthcare decisions. Patients and providers will use these tools to evaluate problems more efficiently and reliably than can the unaided mind working under the time constraints of everyday practice. These tools serve as an intellectual loom for weaving together patient-specific information and medical knowledge from every specialty into the fabric of care. They will free us from the predictable limitations and errors of the unaided human mind.

PKC bridges this gap between the vast world of medical literature and well-informed medical decisions with its medical guidance software tools called Problem-Knowledge Couplers, or simply Couplers. PKC Couplers are software tools that prompt both the patient and provider to input all the relevant data for a problem (utilizing the patient's time and knowledge of the problem details). For over 100 separate health topics, Couplers ask an extensive list of relevant questions that the consumer/patient can easily answer. These personalized answers, along with physical exam and lab information added by a healthcare provider, allow the PKC system to instantly assemble very specific and up-to-date medical guidance and a full range of the patient's options. The patient and provider are then equipped to make the best and safest decisions. Couplers are the ideal communication tools for patient and provider, and the most thorough encounter documentation system ever.

Better Health & Lower Costs

A basic requirement for a mature healthcare industry is the adoption of tools like PKC Couplers. They will extend the mind of the provider much like the x-ray extended the eyes and the stethoscope extended the ears. A second requirement will be a more sensible division of labor where the patient's time is leveraged and tools like Couplers permit non-physician providers to do far more of the work, thus optimizing the physician's time and expertise. The DoD has embedded PKC tools into their new Electronic Medical Record (CHCSII) and licenses the PKC tools across their entire medical enterprise.

In conclusion, having the knowledge in the tools saves time and money and helps avoid dangerous and costly mistakes. For example, the Veterans Administration tested the PKC tools and found them a far better alternative for managing chronic disease. Their study extrapolated a savings over four years of $800,000 in a population of 38 chronic diabetics. Another separate study of a group practice using PKC Couplers found a single primary care provider with two nurse practitioners could profitably manage a panel of over 4000 patients with high patient satisfaction.