Patient Engagement
Patient engagement isn't always about patient portals. "In fact, most of the time it's not," said Pamela DeSalvo Landis, vice president of information services at Carolinas HealthCare System, the second largest public, nonprofit healthcare system in the United States.
Eighty-nine percent of healthcare providers say technology has changed patient expectations, according to a recent EMC report.
Microsoft has been building health-centric features into its stable of products and heading into HIMSS16 is also hoping to tap into the show’s overarching trends: patient engagement, telehealth and wearables.
Acknowledging that Microsoft has historically been known as the Windows and Office company, Microsoft communications manager Greg Ormsby said the company is looking to build on those platforms in healthcare.
"What’s changing are the emerging care scenarios," Ormsby said. "We’re looking to augment that shift."
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At the upcoming HIMSS16, for instance, Ormsby said Team Redmond will be showcasing demonstrations of a partnership that will see MDLive using Skype for Business to conduct telehealth consults between doctors and patients as well as physicians and specialists.
That’s one example. Ormsby said that Microsoft is set to release the Surface Hub this quarter and that collaboration tool will be a key piece of the company’s aim to "transform the hospital room."
"Patient engagement really rests on helping doctors do their jobs more efficiently so they can help patients during the visit," Ormsby said.
On the back end, Microsoft is girding to make the doctor’s experience with any EHR fluid so they can take notes, change apps naturally within a tablet, PC or phone, and access information they need in what Ormsby said should be an unburdensome way.
[What healthcare organizations need to know about Windows 10 and Office 16.]
And while much work remains, by Microsoft and other wearable providers, to determine how endpoint devices can be integrated with healthcare organizations other data sources, Ormsby said Microsoft is seeing partners and customers looking into use cases, such as chronic care — and the devices evolving as well.
"Microsoft Band is a fitness and wellness wearable, we target that stay-fit crowd," Ormsby said. "But one would argue it has the ability to do a lot, like a mobile health app — but that’s to be determined still."
Microsoft will be in booth 3832.
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MedStar Health, the largest not-for-profit healthcare organization in the Maryland and Washington, D.C., region, is collaborating with Uber to increase access to health appointments.
John Sharp sits down with Healthcare IT News to discuss patient engagement as it relates to meaningful use and mobile apps, and shows off his Regina Holliday Walking Gallery jacket painting entitled "Community."
LEARNING CENTER: 2015 HIMSS Connected Health Conference Session Recordings
Participants in the influential group of health IT socializers share their best advice and insights about harnessing the power of social networks.
When Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, California launched an initiative to boost its Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores, the team combined leadership engagement, a comprehensive and ongoing staff education plan, and deployed new bedside technology.
Director of informatics at the University of Southern California says better patient identification tools can reduce risk of incorrect diagnoses and, in certain cases, death.
Lancaster Regional Medical Center said it has seen big drops in readmissions and emergency room returns, with the Pennsylvania hospital giving much of the credit to a referral management platform from par8o.
The Commonwealth Fund has released "Aiming Higher," its 2015 scorecard measuring the performance of health systems state by state.