Inherited Coagulopathy and Hemoglobinopathy Information Portal

This award was formally named “Living with Illness”. Our Excellence in Quality category names changed in 2020 to reflect the updates to our BC Health Quality Matrix. Visit our Categories and Criteria page to find out more.

Inherited Bleeding and Red Cell Disorders (IBRCD) are rare, chronic and life-threatening conditions affecting approximately 800 people in BC. IBRCDs are very costly and complex to treat, primarily because of their significant blood and blood product utilization. In 2014/15 alone, blood products for this population amounted to $27 million.

Many patients with IBRCD administer their own treatment within their prescribed treatment protocols, typically at home. In order to provide quality and timely patient care, clinicians need to review patients’ infusion records. As patients are able to administer treatments at home there is a crucial need for accurate information regarding treatments and management of product inventory.

In order to improve the evaluation of patient outcomes and the utilization of blood and blood products, the BC Provincial Blood Coordinating Office developed the Inherited Coagulopathy and Hemoglobinopathy Information Portal (iCHIP).

Launched in July 2014, iCHIP is a first of its kind web-based software application in North America designed to improve and advance patient care, specifically for IBRCD patients. iCHIP lets patients track their home infusions and bleeding records electronically while helping clinicians provide comprehensive care. The overall goal of iCHIP is to improve patient care outcomes while supporting utilization and optimization of expensive blood products.

Prior to the launch of iCHIP, there was no integrated way to track IBRCD patients’ treatment or the resources they were using, making it difficult to plan and optimize treatments. At times this resulted in wasted products, unnecessary hospital visits, and inconvenience to the patients and their families.

Patients directly enter their own health information into the portal, which allows clinicians to see, in real time, how they are self-treating at home, as opposed to waiting for a bi-annual or annual visit. This proactive and improved approach to patient care is an improvement to current practice, and helps enhance efficiency in the health care system by improving clinical workflow.

This application has already seen significant achievements: in addition to outstanding qualitative feedback from patients, it has already translated into more than $470,000 in cost savings to the BC health care system.

The team at the BC Provincial Blood Coordinating Office plans to use its $2,500 award to continue enhancing the capabilities of iCHIP to enable further patient care improvements.