The Inflection Navigator Project
"Intensive caring for the outpatient".  Imagine you were told you had a new and serious disorder such as cancer - you didn't need to be admitted to the hospital, but you will need to set up 3 tests, see 2 specialists and read about your new diagnosis on a specialized website - all in the next 10 days.  You probably didn't hear anything after "Cancer".  This is all too often the typical scenario when a patient encounters an "Inflection Point" in their health - a new diagnosis or worsening of their current condition that requires an lot of effort and coordination from both patients and providers in the system. 

NOW... what if your physician told you someone from his team would contact you in the next 24 hours to help you navigate the system - this person would have access to specific protocols for your situation and thus know who you have to see, what tests you need done, and what resources are available to you.  Furthermore, your Navigator will make sure everything is done in a timely, efficient and complete manner - all at no cost to you.  For this project, we are defining the role of the Navigator and creating a web-based tool that will enable them to track patients and access the protocols they will need to have a more efficient and higher quality experience within our system.

iNav, the web-based tool used by the Navigator, is open source and available at: http://github.com/mgurley/inav

For further information about iNav and it's implementation, feel free to contact SHIP directly, or our partners in this endeavor at Northwestern University Biomedical Informatics Center

Recently, the iNav project was featured in a great article in the caBIG LINKS -- the newsletter for the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid. Read the article here: http://cabig.cancer.gov/resources/newsletter/issueXXV/action.asp

Launched Spring of 2009.