< + > Mere digitisation of records won't cut it for a smart hospital

This HIMSS23 APAC speaker will share how Taiwan’s Chang Gung Memorial Hospital transformed into a leading data-driven smart hospital in Taiwan.

< + > VA Palo Alto goes all in with full-spectrum 5G

The private network, powered by Verizon, will enable 3D X-ray vision, augmented and virtual reality, digital twins and other data-intensive clinical innovations for veterans.

< + > Community Health Systems improves chronic condition outcomes with RPM

Remote patient monitoring has helped the health system boost patient engagement, improve patient care quality through evidence-based therapies and reduce clinicians' workloads.

< + > Vendor notebook: Virtual care options on Google Cloud, AR surgical imaging and more

Also: U.K.-based Preventx announces a new Cincinnati lab offering remote STI testing to help American public health agencies manage the challenges of hard-to-reach populations.

< + > Public Health Transparency Leads to Better Outcomes at San Bernardino County

Maps are important tools in infectious disease surveillance. They depict where cases are occurring and where treatment resources are needed. San Bernardino County uses geographic information system (GIS) technology to accurately track the prevalence of specific infectious diseases in their communities. That information is used to raise awareness and to marshal resources to limit the spread.

Healthcare IT Today sat down with Diana Ibrahim, Public Health Program Manager and Umang Sharma, Statistical Analyst at the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health (SBCDPH), to learn more.

GIS technology + Disease Surveillance

GIS technology greatly increases the speed and accuracy with which information on infectious disease cases can be collected and integrated with other location-based data.

With its dynamic mapping capabilities, GIS technologies like Esri’s ArcGIS (used at San Bernardino County), make it easier to analyze the frequency of cases, how the disease is impacted by environmental factors, spatial clustering, etc. When combined onto a dashboard, this information and analysis helps community leaders make smarter decisions on where to deploy resources.

San Bernardino County, for example, is tracking Syphilis and has a dashboard available for internal stakeholders.

“Syphilis is a challenge across the US,” said Ibrahim. “We’re trying to address it by sharing data, being as transparent as we can be, collaborating with people, and being innovative in the way that we share the information. In the past it was very manual to share information. Now with GIS, we can get this information out there quickly so that people can join us in this battle against this disease.”

Ibrahim believes that by sharing infectious disease data through a visual and interactive medium like a map powered by GIS technology, more people will become aware of these diseases. Raising awareness is key to addressing these diseases long-term.

Evolving Use of Maps

The team at San Bernardino look to the success of the data they provided to internal and external stakeholders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Sharma, at first, San Bernardino County used GIS technology to provide information about hospitalizations and deaths. As the public and internal users got used to the COVID-19 dashboards powered by GIS technology, they began asking for more information like vaccination rates and vaccine availability.

The team at San Bernardino feel that their infectious disease dashboards will follow the same adoption path as their COVID-19 ones.

“GIS is helping to build trust,” said Sharma. “It is helping internal teams to collaborate with each other and with the community. These dashboards have really raised the awareness of the important data we collect.”

Watch the interview with Diana Ibrahim and Umang Sharma to learn more about San Bernardino County’s infectious disease work.

Learn more about San Bernardino County at: https://main.sbcounty.gov/

Learn more about Esri at: https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/health/overview

Learn more about GIS for Health at: https://www.healthcareittoday.com/gis-for-health/

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< + > Expanding Healthcare’s Reach on the Edge

The following is a guest article by Adonay Cervantes, Global Field CTO at CloudBlue

Healthcare workers need to respond quickly to patient needs and having information at their fingertips is key. Combining the virtually limitless computing power of the cloud and 5G connectivity with mobile devices is reshaping the way hospitals and clinics manage data. Edge computing can provide speed, scale, and reliable performance, which can help an overburdened global healthcare industry do more with less.

An edge component on a hospital site can process and manage data locally, which helps address security concerns about privacy for large amounts of data. Edge computing can also send push notifications about pertinent information pulled from multiple sources within the hospital. This provides insights, patterns, and trends that can be used for analytics to improve efficiencies and increase productivity.

The pandemic highlighted many of the inefficiencies and inequities of our healthcare system as it was brought to a breaking point. As a result, technology adoption by the healthcare industry has increased and tech innovation is being touted as a way of addressing staffing shortages. The World Health Organization estimates a projected shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030. Connected devices powered by edge computing are being seen as a way of expanding healthcare beyond physical boundaries and eventually transforming patient care. 

Across industries, mobile solutions can help with business growth and efficiency. This article focuses on ways to take advantage of cloud solutions on the edge.

Digital Transformation Equals A Lot of Data  

Technology is being used in new and interesting ways in healthcare. For example, tablets are now commonplace in healthcare facilities with some hospitals providing bedside connected tablets. Patients can use the devices to check their medication, read about their doctors, and even order their meals, freeing the staff to focus on medical care.  

Wearable medical devices can monitor vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure, and health monitors can help with remote care. These wearable wireless devices can also allow for the integration of patient health data points in health profiles, further enhancing and streamlining the value of utilizing electronic medical records through mobile solutions. 

Hospitals need unified communication to allow doctors to consult on cases or check patient messages from anywhere in the hospital, or anywhere in the world, within the time frames needed by the systems and to optimize patient care. The healthcare industry is also using virtual reality to enhance patient care and facilitate training.  

It is estimated that 30% of all global stored data is from healthcare and life sciences. But for all this tech to work efficiently, healthcare systems must handle massive amounts of data closer to the data-gathering devices, such as a wearable device that sends data to a cell phone through Bluetooth. That is where the power of edge computing comes in. 

Edge Computing in Action 

The Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare can refer to any number of devices such as cardiac monitors or thermometers. Hospitals use sensors to monitor everything from the air quality to the number of vehicles in the parking lot. Artificial intelligence (AI) works with these sensors to provide insights, enhancing edge computing because it can analyze lots of data and trigger responses in real-time. Imaging models powered by AI, for example, can detect potential concerns in X-rays and send those images to the front of the line for a clinician to review. 

Smart ambulances are being developed across the globe, giving first responders the ability to communicate with doctors on the way to the hospital via high-definition video and then transmit data over a 5G connection to the emergency room.

Virtual doctor visits surged during the pandemic and now are commonplace. Remote patient monitoring and telehealth services can reach patients that might not have easy access to healthcare.

Edge computing can provide data faster with low latency, making real-time computing possible. Radiology scans, for example, generate a lot of data which can eat up huge amounts of bandwidth and cloud storage. Keeping this information locally is cheaper and more secure for storing sensitive, patient records. 

How to Take Advantage of the Edge

The global edge computing market was valued at more than $11 billion in 2022. For big organizations such as hospitals, universities, or banks, it makes sense to invest in a private network. International corporations need unified communication, for example, to transfer data in a more reliable, secure way through a 5G connection.

This represents a huge opportunity for telcos to transform themselves into Digital Service Providers (DSPs). Today, DSPs have a large number of customers in the small-to-medium businesses (SMB) segment, and for those SMBs, it can be more cost effective to subscribe to a high-speed connection through a DSP and consume a catalog of digital solutions. One of these solutions, for instance, could be a subscription to edge-computing, or to an application running on top of other service activities, such as accounting. Since these applications operate on the edge of the network, they perform better with low latency and without the company having to make a large investment.  

Cloud resources offer flexibility by allowing organizations to scale up if they need more computing power or more memory and scale down when they don’t need to consume so many resources. According to Deloitte, making balanced use of both edge and cloud computing is now often considered a key requirement of designing and building enterprise-scale IoT solutions.

For healthcare, edge computing allows healthcare workers to expand their reach and provide care virtually anywhere. As an overburdened healthcare system struggles with staffing shortages, it is getting assistance from the “edge” of the network to improve efficiency through more reliable, faster, and secure connections. 

About Adonay Cervantes

Adonay Cervantes is a Digital Ecosystem leader, business success enabler, and IT evangelist with 23 years of experience in the industry. He has written articles about the digital economy evolution and has appeared in various publications including Forbes.

Adonay has participated in international technology competitions such as Tele Management Forum (TM Forum) where his company has been awarded for innovation-driving projects.

Today he is serving as Global Field CTO at CloudBlue, where he is responsible for managing and driving value from technology to partners’ businesses while driving innovation and thought leadership within his organization. In previous roles, he has served as Global Sales Director for Strategic Accounts, where he’s got a great track of winning strategic accounts and successfully expanding the global footprint of customers within the Telco, MSP, and Technology Vendors segments.

He has a Master’s in Internet Business and a specialization in International Business. Adonay holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and is passionate about energy, creativity, positivity, and trust. 

< + > CloudMD Divests Non-Core U.S. Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management Business

CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (CloudMD), an innovative health services company transforming the delivery of care, today announced that it has closed the sale of its U.S.-based Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Practice Management (PM), and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) assets for approximately US$6.3 million. The sale was pursuant to a definitive agreement with a subsidiary of N. Harris Computer Corporation (Harris) and follows the sale of CloudMD’s Canadian EMR business in October 2022.

Karen Adams, CEO at CloudMD, commented, “We continue to successfully execute our strategy of focusing on our higher growth and margin businesses while surfacing value from non-core assets in our portfolio. The leadership team’s focus is on growing our core Health and Wellness Services business and executing on our expanded pipeline in our Health and Productivity Solutions business, particularly our remote patient monitoring platform. This will further enable us to deliver on our path to profitability with deployment of capital and resources to high growth opportunities.”

Transaction Details

The consideration to be paid by Harris in connection with the sale is US$6.3 million. Approximately US$5.5 million of the consideration was paid on closing (subject to adjustments for working capital) with the balance held as a customary holdback.

INFOR Financial Inc. acted as the exclusive financial advisor and Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP acted as the legal advisor to CloudMD.

About N. Harris Computer Corporation (Harris)

Harris acquires vertical market software businesses, manages them using industry best practices, and builds them for the future. Through acquisitions, Harris has grown extensively from its roots in the utilities, local government, education, and healthcare sectors to operate over 170 businesses globally across more than twenty industries. Harris is an operating group of Constellation Software Inc. (TSX: CSU), one of North America’s most active acquirers of software businesses.

About CloudMD Software & Services

CloudMD is an innovative North American healthcare service provider focused on empowering healthier living by combining leading-edge technology with an exceptional national network of healthcare professionals. Every day, our employees and healthcare providers live our values of delivering excellence, collaboration, connected communication, and accountability to solve complex health problems. CloudMD’s industry-leading workplace health and wellbeing solution, Kii, supports members and their families with a personalized and connected healthcare experience across mental, physical, and occupational health. Kii delivers superior clinical health outcomes, consistent high engagement, and measurable ROI for payers such as employers, educational institutions, associations, governments, and insurers. CloudMD is also a market leader in workplace absence management through data-driven prevention, intervention, and return-to-work programs.

In addition, the Company sells health and productivity tools to hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare service providers to empower them to deliver better care. Visit cloudmd.ca to learn more about the Company’s comprehensive healthcare offerings.

Originally announced July 4th, 2023