Paradigm Shift in Health Care Intelligence

Paradigm Shift in Health Care Intelligence

The emerging technologies have brought about changes in every aspect of health care including medical imaging, medical diagnostics and so much more to make health care safer and more efficient. However, it is the Information Technology (IT) that is bringing about a paradigm shift in the way patient care and facility administration is delivered. Health Care IT has resulted in breakthroughs in the way we access information to diagnose, inform and treat human beings while providing information systems & programs to support an institution’s infrastructure to function optimally. Today’s “vertical” solution providers, VARs, IT gurus and MSPs are increasingly specializing in providing various services to health care facilities.

The biggest challenge for health care providers is found in Patient Care and presenting the correct information at just the right time to the right people. Key solution providers like GE, Kofax, Docuware, ABBYY, Equitrac (Nuance), McKesson, Siemens and others are supplying multiple programs and solutions to meet this challenge, including adding intelligence technologies specifically focused on health care. These intelligence technologies provide common tools, common content, common workflow, integrated data management, decision support systems, and Clinical Informatics to enable creation of a one-patient, one record model across care settings. These health care solutions help create a more effective health care system with broader efficiencies, higher overall quality and with fewer mistakes.

Healthcare IT provides solutions to medical centers, clinics, hospitals, physicians, post-acute care & long-term care facilities which not only increase efficiencies they reduce medical errors, meet regulatory requirements, and improve revenue cycle management.

Effective Solutions: Seamless Connectivity
Seamless connectivity between different Health Care entities helps share data across multiple platforms, systems and organizations. This enables health care that is focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection & disease prevention. Solutions: McKesson Relay Health connectivity solutions enable physicians to seamlessly interact with other physicians, providers, patients, payers and retail pharmacies; and GE Assure Point Services enable maintain clinical asset network to support the patients with 24/7 remote service availability; and GE eHealth Solutions provide the technology platform to connect different Health Care communities. Siemens Departmentals enable sharing of patient data across departments with solutions that streamline processes and improve care team communications. Siemens application-independent connectivity solutions help seamless connectivity between physician to patient and department to department.

Electronic Health Record
Electronic Health Records keep patient’s health information in digital format, so it can be shared across different health care settings by network-connected Health Care information systems.  Such a complete record of patient encounters enable automation of the workflow and increases safety through evidence-based decision support. Solutions: McKesson Electronic Health Records (EHR) solutions enable automate the clinical functions of a physician practice which include prescription management, diagnostic order entry, results reporting, encounter documentation and clinical workflow management; and GE Electronic Medical Records enable patient information to be tracked online beginning from the very point of first contact.

Computerized Physician Order Entry
Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) solutions enable timely sharing of communication across all members of the care team. This prevents any miscommunication that can compromise patient safety or cause medication errors. Solutions: McKesson Horizon Expert Orders is a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system that provides physicians and other care team members with up-to-date patient information, helping to promote safe, high quality care; and McKesson computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system eliminates the need for paper prescriptions and provide physicians with easy and secure online access to patient information.

Revenue & Payment Cycle Automation
Automation of complex revenue and payment cycle meets a compelling management and administrative needs of physicians, who can then focus efforts on delivery of health care. Solutions: McKesson Horizon Practice Solutions is a practice management system that helps streamline registration, scheduling and medical billing; Siemens Revenue Cycle Management solutions help maximize business throughput; and GE Centricity solutions provide robust financial and administrative capabilities

IT-enabled Workflow
IT-enabled clinical imaging workflow solutions and clinical documentation workflow solutions include mobile voice capture devices; speech recognition, coding, web-based workflow platforms, and global outsourced transcription. These and technology-enabled solutions help healthcare facilities lower operational costs and increase efficiencies. Solutions include: McKesson Horizon Ambulatory Care, a workflow-driven ambulatory solution that automates the clinical functions of a group practice. It extends the existing clinical infrastructure within the hospital to physicians in their practice and patients in their homes; and GE Imaging IT Solutions for enhanced workflow efficiency for clinical applications.

Integrated Document Management Systems
Documents contain enormous potential that can be unlocked by managing them in an intelligent way. Integrated Document Management Systems enables automation of processes in any enterprise. Solutions: DocuWare IDMS Software can automate business processes by managing any type of document, regardless of format or source, in a central document pool; and DocuWare IDMS supports all forms of electronic signatures. Integrated records management ensures that all access is secure, controlled, and logged. Using the Internet, the central document pool is available around the clock to any authorized user; and also DocuWare IDMS enables automation of processes in any enterprise. DocuWare incorporates all components needed for powerful Enterprise Content Management and is enhanced with workflow functionalities, Web Content Management, and universal integration functions.

McKesson Horizon Care Alerts is a rules-based, computerized nursing documentation system for monitoring patient data against specific conditions to improve health care quality and patient safety; and McKesson Horizon Emergency Care is an integrated patient management, clinical documentation and electronic order entry solution for the emergency department; and McKesson Horizon Expert Documentation is an integrated, computerized nursing documentation system for improving care planning, streamlining workflow and fostering patient safety.

Artificial Intelligence Technologies
Artificial intelligence technologies like Document Recognition and Linguistic Technologies can efficiently capturing, translating, and transforming information into accessible and useful knowledge. Using recognition and data capture artificial intelligence products gives the ability to access information in new, more efficient ways. Solutions: ABBYY software performs document conversion, data capture, and linguistic; ABBYY linguistic products help overcome language barriers and enable clear communication. ABBYY’s recognition technologies help manage the increasing amount of information by unlocking of information from paper and images, automatically acquiring data, and processing and storing valuable information. 

Secure Print Management & Cost Recovery
Print management and cost recovery software solutions enable healthcare organizations to effectively manage their printing environments, reduce cost, and increase document security, and pay-for-print solutions that make it easier for healthcare providers to secure document output, giving access to information wherever needed while reducing print waste. Solutions: Equitrac Office Solutions (Nuance) which can do authentication of users at the printer so as to enable printing of secure documents with confidence; and Equitrac Output Management solution enable recovery of allowable print charges from specific departments and reduce print waste; and also Equitrac Office Solutions provide powerful document output security to HIPAA-compliance framework and ensure the privacy and integrity of patient-protected health information (PHI).

Document Driven Business Process Automation
Document Driven Business Process Automation enables companies to capture, classify and extract data from incoming documents and deliver the resulting images and data in a standardized format to customer workflows and repositories.  This enables automation of Business processes such as accounts payable, proof of delivery, claims processing, loan origination & case management. Such automated capture of information and data from paper, fax, emails and electronic documents into workflows and business applications increases data accuracy and productivity. Solutions include: KOFAX document driven business process automation solutions can transforms business documents into structured electronic information by automatically classifying documents and extracting data from paper, fax, hand printed and handwritten forms, invoices, checks, correspondence and any other document type on a single platform; Kofax Capture provides scan-to-archive capabilities by scanning documents and forms to create digital images, extracting index data for retrieval purposes and delivering the images and associated data to a variety of repositories and applications.

Kofax e-Transactions enable the electronic delivery and capture of documents from a sender to a receiver via secure email; Kofax Front Office Server allows front office personnel to initiate scanning and index data extraction processes at the earliest point of contact, thus reducing latency; and Kofax Communication Server enables the automated exchange of business critical information between devices such as fax and phone systems, media types such as email, SMS, MMS, voicemail, and applications such as ERP and CRM. Kofax Monitor enables real time monitoring of system software and applications, providing real time access to operational information and alerts to facilitate immediate corrective action when necessary; and Kofax Desktop enables users to scan documents into various software including Microsoft Office, Outlook and SharePoint.

Automated Decision Support Systems
Automated Decision Support Solutions (DSS) can collect enterprise wide data and transform it into business intelligence. These consist of a set of software tools that utilize both health care information technology and clinical knowledge for physicians to help determine the best possible clinical diagnosis and treatment plans for patients. Solutions include: McKesson Automation Decision Support, an analytics solution that combines and organizes data from different McKesson Automation solutions, enabling a single source of information for strategic decision-making. McKesson Advance Analytics tool leverage McKesson Automation solutions by analyzing key performance metrics and organizational goals through alerts, business scorecards and graphical views. Collect and analyze the most important data from multiple McKesson Automation Systems, including AcuDose-Rx, Anesthesia-Rx™, Horizon MedComm-Rx, IntelliShelf-Rx, MedCarousel, NarcStation, PACMED, PROmanager-Rx, and ROBOT-Rx

Clinical Informatics
Clinical informatics and patient care provide an actionable patient data to support advanced clinical decision making and simplify clinician workflow. Solutions include: Philips Intelli Space Clinical Informatics Solutions to capture data at the point of care, analyze it & convert it into actionable information that enables clinical decision-making. Philips Acute Care Informatics Solutions provide crucial information to clinicians during the first moments of care and beyond; and Philips ICU Informatics Solutions help in critical care delivery by blending clinical expertise with cutting-edge informatics technology.

Pharmacy Automation/Meds Management
Pharmacy Automation and Medication Management improves patient care by preventing medication errors. These solutions help improve medication management and turn large amount of data generated in healthcare into actionable information. Solutions include: McKesson Horizon Admin-Rx, a point-of-care, bar-code medication administration and scanning application; McKesson Horizon Meds Manager is a comprehensive pharmacy information solution that improves workflow and patient safety; and McKesson Anesthesia Care helps prevent medication errors by streamlining the anesthesia preoperative and intraoperative workflow. CareFusion Actionable Intelligence leverages medical device and Health Care Information Systems connectivity for integrated analytics; CareFusion Infection Prevention provides clinicians with a systematic approach to identify and prevent infections; CareFusion Medication Management protects infusion and oral medication dosage, and CareFusion Procedural Solutions improve clinical and operational effectiveness.

Performance Management
Performance Management Solutions enable healthcare delivery organizations to better measure performance against their quality targets. Solutions include: GE Centricity Practice management solutions to help improve business performance.

Summary
Healthcare Intelligence Technologies are transforming healthcare by providing better information for better decision making, revolutionizing the way institutions provide improved healthcare system performance. This will result in a stronger foundation for the industry’s evolution to information-based precision healthcare.

Dr. Satwant Kaur is a Management & Technology Consultant; book author of “Transitioning Embedded Systems to Intelligent Environments,” and was a platform strategist in the Intel Architecture Group. A former Director of Development at Symantec, she holds a Doctorate in Mobile Internet Protocols. At Satwant.Kaur@gmail.com