The Gage Awards for COVID-19 Innovations recognize inventive practices, projects and programs related to the pandemic. This temporary category captures creative solutions within the hospital or in its community for the current or potential future pandemics.
UTMB was recognized for pioneering “a novel platform to deliver standard, expert COVID-19 decision support.”
"To help physicians and patients interpret test results for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) pathology faculty developed a compendium of expert interpretive commentary.
“Initially deployed in October 2020, the compendium grew to include more than 170 comments that describe different patterns of polymerase chain reaction, immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin M test results. The supporting application observes all patient COVID-19 test results, considers the patterns of each patient’s testing history, matches results to an expert interpretation and delivers the interpretation and diagnostic summary to the patient with their test results. UTMB revised the compendium four times to incorporate emerging literature; new testing types, including antibody test results; and vaccination status.
“In 13 months, UTMB completed more than 325,000 test interpretations and monitored COVID-19 outcomes to assess whether better distribution of COVID-19 test results reduced diagnostic ambiguity and improved outcomes. UTMB had:
- a mean length of stay of 6.5 days, compared with an 8.3-day regional average and 9.1-day national average;
- a 4.4 percent rate of escalation to the intensive care unit, compared with a 22.6 percent regional rate and 23.3 percent national rate; and
- a mortality rate of 7 percent, compared with a 10.1 percent regional rate and 12.7 percent national rate.”
The prestigious Gage Awards recognize hospitals and health systems for successful projects to improve the quality of care and population health. The awards promote the spread of best practices and innovative programs to other organizations and support the America’s Essential Hospitals association’s research, policy and advocacy work by sharing member success stories with external audiences. Learn more about the Gage award.