Connectance, Inc., Innovative Medical Diagnostic Software, Products

CONNECTANCE is software that helps physicians and other healthcare professionals determine the most likely diagnosis of a disease quickly and accurately. The software is easy to use and the healthcare professional can access it online. CONNECTANCE can currently diagnose 115 distinct renal diseases with additional medical specialties available within the coming months.

CONNECTANCE requires no change to the way patient history and physical information is typically recorded. Once a healthcare professional inputs patient symptoms and lab results, our proprietary software searches for diagnostic similarities between the patient's clinical features and master maps contained in the program's database. Several possible diagnoses are then presented along with the percentage of similarity between the clinical features and the underlying indications forming the diagnosis. In addition, CONNECTANCE provides: Current consensus on disease treatment. Suggested tests to document the disease. Image and biopsy displays. A disease bibliography from PubMed.

CONNECTANCE was developed to:

	Reduce the number of medical errors - Estimates of errors due to wrong diagnoses vary but recent studies have found that between 15% and 40% of all patients are misdiagnosed.
	Limit unnecessary testing necessitated by the uncertainty of diagnosis and the practice of defensive medicine - A recent study estimates that 8% of all diagnostic testing is attributable to the practice of defensive medicine.
	Provide greater efficiency in health care delivery by reducing the time taken to arrive at an accurate diagnosis and provide appropriate treatment.
	Limit instances of medical malpractice by improving the quality of diagnosis and reducing errors.
	Manage the explosion in medical information by having ready access to the latest relevant medical information.
	Address government pressure on healthcare providers to computerize.
	Support medical education and training.

How CONNECTANCE was developed.

To hasten diagnosis and reduce medical errors, the company developed a proprietary linguistic methodology to aid physicians when formulating a diagnosis. This patented software system involves construction of a map containing all the bits of information that comprise the characteristics of a particular disease. Information with respect to these characteristics is first gathered by specialists from well-recognized publications, medical texts, journals, as well as their own experience. The information is then converted into key words. Patterns among these words are identified which CONNECTANCE converts into a master map. Each disease has a unique master map. Information in the patient's medical record is then scanned. The bits of information contained in the standard medical file - patient history, physical exam, and laboratory data - written as usual by the physician, comprises the user map. The user map is then compared to the master map and the similarities are computed allowing the physician to review the best diagnosis and disease management for a particular patient.