The technology media is talking about it. The American Medical Association is talking about it. Mobile technology is changing the way doctors and hospitals manage patient care. From handheld to portable devices, this sea change is being fueled by improved accuracy and increased communication capabilities for busy medical professionals on the go.
David E. Bradshaw, chief information, planning and marketing officer of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston, Texas, said it very well: “Healthcare is a 24/7 business. Patients move, nurses move, doctors move. Mobile computing plays a very key role.”
In identifying the top-10 consumer mobile applications for 2012, the research organization Gartner, Inc. said, “Mobile health monitoring is the use of IT and mobile telecommunications to monitor patients remotely, and could help governments, care delivery organizations and healthcare payers reduce costs related to chronic diseases and improve the quality of life of their patients.”
Applications are the key when it comes to which devices hospitals and physicians are utilizing to access patient records, review test results, research medical information, and share data, among other functions.
A Company in the Forefront of Mobile Healthcare Applications
One of the companies on the leading edge of hand held software is AirStrip Technologies, which has a suite of products in various stages of development for mobile devices, including smartphones. According to Dr. Cameron Powell, AirStrip president, co-founder and chief medical officer, AirStrip Remote Patient Monitoring, or 'RPM,' is a platform that “serves as the backbone for a collection of robust, state-of-the-art software solutions giving physicians the ability to remotely access real-time and historical waveforms and other critical patient data using a mobile device.” This platform evolved from the company’s desire to improve the speed and quality of healthcare communication.
AirStrip OB, designed for use by obstetricians in hospital labor and delivery units, was first introduced in 2006 and is now in use in nearly 150 hospitals throughout the United States. It is the first FDA-cleared solution built from the AirStrip RPM platform. Powell, pictured left, said that this software “enables remote monitoring of critical medical data from patients within a hospital’s labor and delivery unit. The solution allows a physician or nurse to read a patient’s real-time and historical waveform data — including fetal heart tracings and maternal contraction patterns as well as nursing notes, vital signs and other critical data — from anywhere, via a smartphone, laptop or other wireless connection.
Technology for the Secure Transfer of Real-Time Data
The AirStrip system securely delivers a large quantity of data to mobile devices without compromising overall cell phone performance or battery life. The platform works through integration with existing patient monitoring systems, pulling that data and securely sending it directly to the doctor or nurse’s mobile device client … while at the same time protecting that information with the strictest security solutions and HIPAA compliance standards.
Additional products in the pipeline from AirStrip Technologies include AirStrip Critical Care, AirStrip Cardiology, AirStrip Imaging and AirStrip Laboratory.
Patient, Doctor and Hospital All Benefit
Powell says that AirStrip OB was created with three primary healthcare goals in mind — improving patient safety, strengthening communication among healthcare providers, and enabling busy physicians to monitor their patients from anywhere, reducing risk.
As an OB/GYN who was practicing until just a few years ago, Powell said, “a doctor’s attention is pulled in a hundred different directions at once. Much as they’d like to, doctors simply cannot be bedside 100 percent of the time. We hear a lot from doctors and nurses that AirStrip OB is a godsend … and plays a key role with challenging deliveries. They can closely monitor their patients anytime, anywhere … and often are seeing things on the strip and calling the hospital before the nurses have even had the chance to respond. That is changing the face of healthcare in a positive way.”
Powell reported that “communication errors are the primary cause of patient injury in a hospital. And, as any doctor will tell you, waveform data is inherently visual information. The strongest analysis comes when you can actually see the data.
Trying to describe the data over the phone is challenging and hampers the ability to make truly informed decisions about care. AirStrip OB addresses this concern head-on by allowing doctors to see that strip … not just the real-time version, but also historic data that offers a full perspective on the patients’ condition.”
“Labor and delivery is a highly litigious area for any healthcare provider,” Powell said. “Hospitals and insurance companies are recognizing that AirStrip is setting a new standard of care and can help lower that litigation risk.” He added that some insurance companies are now even offering premium discounts to those who use AirStrip OB.
In the Words of One Doctor Using It Now
Dr. Marco Giannotti, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital, has been using AirStrip OB for one year on his iPhone, and tells us that it has changed the way he cares for patients. “I am able to instantly access patient information, including vital signs, nurses notes, medications, and most importantly the fetal tracing and contraction pattern … live. This improves overall care because I am able to instantly gather and assess information that is vital for my patient from any location. Whether I am in the hospital or at home (or anywhere else for that matter), I am able to keep an eye on any aspect involving the care of an antepartum or laboring patient on the labor and delivery unit.”
Linda Kallman is a freelance writer/editor and communications consultant. To read more of her articles, please visit please visit her columnist page.
Edited by
Michael Dinan
