The pulse of healthcare is wireless

COMMENTARY--According to a recent American Hospital Association survey of the 100 "Most Wired" Hospitals in America, top innovations include interactive self-assessment tools, education Web sites, and devices that let X-rays and other medical images be viewed from anywhere. Mobile and wireless technology, combining the WIFI network with care-critical applications and content, makes such innovation possible.

Consider this scenario: patient Jane Doe enters a hospital and is registered via a laptop. A nurse with a personal digital assistant (PDA) does an initial information check at bedside. Sensors that monitor Jane's body functions are wirelessly connected to the hospital network. Doctors in the hospital, at other hospitals, or at home can analyze the data. The doctor uses his PDA to order tests and X-rays, and then investigates drug types, interactions, and then e-prescribes them to Jane.

The X-rays are sent over the wireless patient information system to the radiology department and viewed on computer screens. Jane later goes into surgery, where every item in the operating room is bar-coded and scanned when used. New items are immediately ordered in a computerized inventory system. Jane is later discharged with sensors that continue to monitor her at home and wirelessly relay the data back to the hospital. The result: better, faster healthcare at reduced cost, helping patient, doctor and hospital.

Benefits of mobile heathcare
Mobile medical technology improves both the quality of physicians' work as well as the efficiency in handling administrative overhead. When integrated with the healthcare enterprise IT infrastructure, these technologies support medical professionals by enabling them refer to vast stores of relevant information, make more informed decisions and act on them by conducting transactions right from the device. Benefits of an integrated, mobile healthcare enterprise platform include:

• Safer, Faster Healthcare.
• More Effective Charge Capture.
• Fewer Medical Errors. Cost Saving Increases. • Better Knowledge--Better Care.
• Improved Enterprise Workflow.

One approach--the mobile platform
Deploying a mobile platform as a foundation for a hospital's systems architecture helps hospitals quickly realize benefits of mobile devices. The mobile platform can be tied into enterprise applications, capturing this information and presenting it on the device.

This mobile platform provides support for the organized integration of information from multiple sources to increase decision making efficiency. Integrating transaction and content under one representational enterprise mobile platform enhances medical practitioners by enabling an even more highly efficient cognitive processthinking, referring and acting.

Dr. Sameer Bade at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston uses PDA technology for e-prescriptions. Bade says that the integration of an e-prescription writer with a drug guide and a drug interaction reference provides a solution that is much more powerful than the sum of its parts. When Bade needs more information about a prescription, he instantly launches into a drug guide to validate dosing and then into a drug interaction reference to verify an interaction question. It is quick, easy and performed when the information is needed and without changing the thought process he is accustomed to. The enterprise mobile platform's design enables easy integration of other third party applications with existing hospital technology.

Dr. Eugene Bailey from SUNY Upstate Medical University believes that a new breed of PDAs are revolutionizing emergency medical response healthcare. Dr. Bailey says, “I use my PDA upwards of two dozen times per day for a variety of usesto teach students and residents, diagnose illnesses, determine treatment, prescribe medication, determine drug interactions, calculate dosages, and perform all necessary steps involved with quality patient care regardless of location.”

A mobile platform that supports multiple channels of information enables the practitioner to dynamically access late breaking news such as drug and disease alerts, as well as frequently available information such as drug weeklies and journal subscriptions. Access to intelligent mobile channels keeps doctors and nurses on the pulse of medical technology/healthcare. The channels can carry many types of content (newsletters or journals, databases, Web or custom content) that link together in context providing the best experience and fastest access to critical information. For instance, one channel may provide information on the latest information on SARS from the CDC Web site, another might provide drug alerts from the FDA, while yet another channel may deliver the monthly content from a specialty journal. Channel integration enhances its usefulness.

Time shavings equals hospital savings
PDAs integrated with hospital information systems via the mobile platform provide physicians and nurses instant access to information that can save hospitals time and money while improving care. Physicians surveyed responded with an overwhelming 88% 'Yes' that they are able to provide better care in less time by using a PDA and 76 percent responded that they believe PDA use reduces medical errors by more than 1 percent.

Some examples of return-on-investment on a per task basis:

• Instant access to detailed clinical information and drug databases--saves 5–20 minutes with possible critical care impact and error reduction.
• Instant access to FDA updates linked to the drug prescribed--saves 5 minutes and creates improved prescribing, fewer calls from the pharmacy and reduces prescription errors.
• Ability to prescribe and give orders via the PDA--saves 5–10 minutes and decreases errors and calls from pharmacies.
• Instant access to dosages--saves 5 minutes and reduces errors.
• Ability to enter diagnosis, ICD-9 and procedure codes in HIS--saves 10+ minutes and provides fewer errors and follow-ups and faster payment.
• Instant access to patient history--saves 15 minutes and increases quality time with patient and time to visit others- improving hospital goodwill.

Handheld devices are the tools, but it is the software solutions that will provide the answer to better healthcare. Mobile technology connects medicine throughout the healthcare enterprise. Dynamic information access improves both the quality of care as well as efficiency in handling the administrative overhead that is part of today's rapidly changing business environment. With Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Clinical and Drug References, Patient Management Systems (PMS), Patient Scheduling Systems, e-Prescription writers, and other enterprise functionality more widely available, mobile technology will play an integral part in providing the complete decision making solution practitioners need to practice the best medicine.

biography
Sandeep Shah is founder and CEO of Skyscape, a provider of mobile medical solutions in Hudson, Mass.