How clinical decision tools improve healthcare and potentially reduce malpractice risk

Last year, we shared how MagMutual partnered with UpToDate® to embed real-time malpractice risk guidance directly into clinical workflows. This effort integrates our risk insights into UpToDate, one of the most widely used clinical decision support (CDS) tools in healthcare. That held promise, and now with strong physician engagement, we’re following up with results and announcing a full integration with our risk library, along with an expansion to mobile.

What began as a forward-thinking collaboration has become a real-time support system that meets physicians where decisions happen most—at the point of care.

In this follow-up, we’ll explore what our early data reveals, how physicians are using embedded risk content in practice and how we’re continuing to evolve this integration to better serve clinical workflows.

What the data shows: Physicians value embedded risk support

Since integrating MagMutual’s risk insights into UpToDate, we’ve seen strong early indicators that physicians value the content and are using it to guide their clinical decisions. Recent survey results show that including malpractice risk guidance alongside clinical guidance makes it easier for physicians to recognize risks, adjust care plans holistically and improve outcomes.

Key findings include:

• 75% of respondents have either already taken action or are likely to act on the MagMutual risk mitigation content.
• 79% agreed that integrating MagMutual insights would help them better understand and mitigate clinical risks.
• 65% believed the insights would help improve patient care.
• 66% liked how the content was being presented.

These metrics demonstrate the value of embedding CDS tools in healthcare settings where clinical decisions are made in real time. This growing engagement signals a strong alignment between how physicians seek out clinical information and how they prefer to receive malpractice risk support—seamlessly, at the point of care.

Improving the experience

MagMutual provides specialty-specific risk guidance to help physicians reduce exposures. And because we know everyone learns differently, it is fundamental to provide tailored risk education in a variety of formats and accessible in multiple ways like, MagMutual’s Healthcare Insights and the Learning Center for policyholders.

“People learn differently,” says Mark Poling, MagMutual’s Chief Customer Officer. “If we can deliver information in different formats, we can start to learn what works for different segments of our population.”

And we’ve seen it work. Reviewing data from policyholders who accessed our online risk content and claims insights, we saw a correlation with a lower malpractice loss cost over time. These results showed us that both content and delivery matter. But to improve their impact even further, we needed to understand better what physicians wanted next.

Supporting physicians in how they actually work

Even though we saw positive results from our online risk content and claims insights, we recognized a need to be more proactive.

So, in 2016, we asked our physicians directly: What tools would help you reduce clinical risk?

The answer was clear. Policyholders specifically asked for access to UpToDate to help reduce clinical risk. In response, MagMutual began sponsoring subscriptions, helping ensure providers could access UpToDate.

“It was a decision that was driven by our policyholders and the explicit need they communicated to us,” explains Brandie Szuda, Chief Medical Informatics Data Officer. “They told us, ‘We think UpToDate will help us reduce clinical risk,’ so we partnered from there.”

What we learned—and what’s next

In 2023, we launched two initial experiments integrating MagMutual content into UpToDate searches. Within the first 90 days, over 100,000 searches surfaced our embedded risk content.

Since our pilot launch, we’ve seen not only consistent engagement, but also growing favorability in how physicians perceive the integration’s value:

As we continue expanding this integration, we’re also enhancing the user experience. Survey feedback is helping us fine-tune when and how the content appears, making it even more useful at the point of care.

“The pilot integration focused on a few malpractice risk drivers that correlated to our heaviest UpToDate searches,” says Szuda. “Now we’ve mapped those drivers by specialty, procedure and diagnosis. That gives more relevant, precise, and targeted risk mitigation advice.”

In August 2025, we launched a full integration between UpToDate and our proprietary risk library, linking thousands of search terms to hundreds of malpractice risks, making the MagMutual content accessible through both the UpToDate desktop and mobile applications. Because many physicians rely on mobile tools during rounds, consultations, or between visits, this expansion ensures they can access MagMutual’s trusted risk support and UpToDate clinical decision support exactly when and where they need it. In addition to getting complimentary access to UpToDate, our policyholders now get full integration with our risk library.

“The more actionable and relevant we can make this content at the point of care, the more we can help physicians improve outcomes,” adds Poling. “That’s why we’re combining analytics, technology, and physician-centered platforms like UpToDate. It’s about meeting physicians where they are and making risk support part of how they practice.”

Learn more about how MagMutual supports physicians with embedded risk insights at magmutual.com.