Informatics-driven solutions for optimal care delivery in liver transplantation.

Abstract

Clinical informatics, which combines health information technology and clinical expertise, aims to improve health care delivery and outcomes. For candidates and recipients of liver transplants, the complexities of their management are vast. Care often involves significant volumes of data from various sources and multiple health care settings and health care systems. Informatics represents an opportunity to support the care of these patients through this process; however, it has been underutilized to date. Preliminary examples of informatics use exist for this patient population, such as clinical decision support to link patients to hepatology providers, utilization of digital health technologies to track responses to medical therapy, and artificial intelligence to characterize organ donor compatibility. Further deployment of these tools can optimize care delivery for patients with cirrhosis and across the transplant cascade. In this review, we explore the utility of various techniques of clinical informatics mainly within the transplant care cascade, barriers to implementation, and highlight opportunities for future investigation and optimized use. Although barriers to widespread adoption remain such as interoperability, data access and availability, and structured implementation strategies, the integration of informatics and clinical decision support/artificial intelligence-based tools into routine care for liver transplantation represents an opportunity for marked enhancement in how we deliver care to these patients.