An open source tool to compute measures of inpatient glycemic control: translating from healthcare analytics research to clinical quality improvement

Abstract

Abstract Objectives The objective of this study is to facilitate monitoring of the quality of inpatient glycemic control by providing an open-source tool to compute glucometrics. To allay regulatory and privacy concerns, the tool is usable locally; no data are uploaded to the internet. Materials and Methods We extended code, initially developed for healthcare analytics research, to serve the clinical need for quality monitoring of diabetes. We built an application, with a graphical interface, which can be run locally without any internet connection. Results We verified that our code produced results identical to prior work in glucometrics. We extended the prior work by including additional metrics and by providing user customizability. The software has been used at an academic healthcare institution. Conclusion We successfully translated code used for research methods into an open source, user-friendly tool which hospitals may use to expedite quality measure computation for the management of inpatients with diabetes.