Though a seemingly recent development, hospitals have been trying to connect medical devices and information technology since the 1980s.
Originally developed in the areas of diagnostics, surgery and the ICU, connectivity solutions began blooming since then, to include, as they do today, the remote monitoring of patients, exchanging patient scans with colleagues over mobile phones – even allowing physicians to stay in touch wherever they are, around the globe.
But while some of those applications remain static, the challenge today is automating fluctuating workflows, like medication administration or medical device interoperability, where devices must automatically adjust to a patient's changing clinical condition, according to Frost & Sullivan.
The fourth Annual Medical Device Connectivity Conference & Exhibition will feature experts on these subjects, and will take place Nov. 1-2, 2012 at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass.
The research firm added that the acute care (hospital) market is the principal focus of the event, “although the extension into ambulatory markets from acute care is a growing trend that will be discussed.”
Devices that track a patient’s vital signs are becoming omnipresent in healthcare organizations these days because they provide a crucial record of a patient’s health, minute-by-minute.
But even more important, they allow hospitals to cut down on readmissions, and endless doctor visits, notifying healthcare providers of interventions when needed, and eliminating the need to see patients when they’re doing well.
But how these devices, and the data they transmit, affect workflow is a new challenge for healthcare providers today, especially as they’re tracking how the patient’s condition changes from minute to minute.
Workflow has always been tracked for activities like coding and billing, patient registration and back-office administration. But healthcare IT is now moving in the direction of monitoring workflow as it relates to our new medical devices.
Edited by
Braden Becker
