1. Telstra Strives To Improve Information Sharing
We’ll start the week down under in Australia, where Get Real Health was featured in an article about Telstra’s plans for healthcare. Telstra Health has developed a strategy to bring new products to the market that link all healthcare sectors together for better information sharing.
Telstra Health’s mission is to introduce a mechanism that will make information sharing in aged care, general practice, and pharmacy software systems easier. Telstra Health’s two community care leads, Bronwyn Pike, former Victorian minister for health, and Michael Boyce, former Australian Home Care Services CEO, plan to achieve this with the help of technology from the companies they have taken a stake in. These companies include:
- Pharmacy market leader Fred IT
- Community and primary care software vendor DCA Health (now known as HealthConnex)
- Acute care vendor Verdi
- Personal health record vendor Get Real Health
Another part of the of Telstra Health’s mission, according to Pike and Boyce, is to develop devices that will allow for home monitoring, telehealth and information sharing with ease. Even though there are products like this on the market already, Telstra strives to be different because of their goal of making independent living more affordable and sustainable.
Source: Pulse IT, 7/24/14
2. Patient-generated data is the next key in healthcare
Patient-generated data is back in the news, this time with industry leader John Halamka, CIO at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Halamka explains how patient-generated data is the “next key frontier in care coordination, population health, and clinical research.”
Halamka uses the Withings bathroom scale and Pulse O2 wearable monitor as examples of how patient-generated data is clinically relevant. He thinks that these devices will become mainstream because even though they are cheap, they can track weight, body mass index, fat percentage, sleep pattern, activity level, heart rate, and pulse oximetry measurement. In addition, they are a useful tool for Accountable Care Organizations for monitoring patients between doctor visits. Lastly, Halamka thinks patient-generated data is going to become more popular because Meaningful Use will make it mandatory to include in electronic medical records.
Source: FierceHealthIT, 7/24/14
3. New York-Presbyterian increases technology efforts
New York-Presbyterian Hospital announced that they are renting space at Blueprint Health LCC, a NY-based accelerator. NYP plans to use Blueprint as an innovation space where they can run computer systems and introduce new technology, according to a recent announcement from the hospital.
CIO Aurelia Boyer notes that they “need to develop forward-thinking technology and build applications that are both sustainable and scalable.” Specifically, the hospital plans on doing this by developing a software that will allow for inpatients to communicate through instant messaging and video chat, and by having patients use tablets to reach out to family and hospital staff. NYP is not the only healthcare provider that is starting to get more involved with technology. According to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers’s Health Research Institute, technology startups are beginning to collaborate more and more with companies in the health industry.
For New York-Presbyterian Hospital, this is just the next step “to consistently deliver[ing] the best care for patients,” according to Boyer.
Source: FierceHealthIT, 7/22/14
Graphic of the Week: Wearable Landscape
Source: Circle Square & Rock Health