Business Productivity
How Physician-Facing mHealth Technologies Add Value to Healthcare with Workflow Efficiencies
This is a guest blog written by Kimberly Sanders, PharmD, Director Medication Management, Product Management at MEDHOST. The content and opinions in this post are those of the third-party author, and AWS is not responsible for the content or accuracy of this post.
The mobile phone has become the preferred way for most consumers to facilitate both personal and business interactions. As a result, we are seeing a massive increase in the demand for mobile healthcare tools that match the everyday experiences of both patients and their providers. According to a report from Grand View Research, the global mobile healthcare, or mHealth, market is expected to grow by 17.6 percent from 2021 to 2028.
Most of this growth is predicted to come from consumer mHealth solutions. However, mobile apps that will allow physicians and other healthcare professionals to spend less time at workstations, and more time seeing patients, will have incredible value as care delivery creates more digital interactions.
A survey of physicians shows that 80% use mobile devices in their day-to-day practice. More than half of the respondents in another study of 186 physicians agreed that mobile health apps and devices helped promote healthy lifestyles. They also agreed that mobile integrations allowing the user to upload patient data to an EHR, providing updates on patient care would have the most significant value.
In this blog, we will discuss how collaboration between Amazon and MEDHOST is helping to develop mHealth solutions that enhance and build more efficiency into physicians’ workflows.
Meeting the Needs of Mobile Healthcare Environment
As part of MEDHOST’s mission to provide community hospitals with appropriate healthcare IT tools and resources, MEDHOST is working with Amazon to develop a new physician-facing mobile app to add to our existing suite of mobile solutions.
Constant feedback from end-users working in various healthcare environments shapes each of MEDHOST’s mobile solution’s design and development. The catalog of MEDHOST mobile solutions currently includes MEDHOST Mobility YourCare Everywhere and Support Groups, and most recently, MEDHOST Mobility Physician.
MEDHOST Mobility YourCare Everywhere is designed to empower patients with mobile tools to manage their health data. Users have a customizable dashboard as a single hub for connecting, consolidating, and managing health data and CCDs from providers.
To help ease the many burdens that come with managing chronic conditions, MEDHOST Mobility Support Groups offers both patients and their caregivers a private, safe, online environment to connect 24/7. Managed by a hospital specialist, it leverages social interaction between patients with shared conditions. Support Groups also provide regularly updated content with helpful care guidelines and tips.
Other target features of YourCare Everywhere and Support Groups promote improving the patient-physician dynamic. Both mobile solutions help support improved continuity of care, benefitting both patients and their providers. An extension of the healthcare experience, the YourCare® suite of mobile resources allows clinicians and healthcare consumers to access healthcare data and information from wherever they may be.
While YourCare Everywhere and Support Groups are focused on the patient experience, MEDHOST Mobility Physician targets physicians and their daily workflows. This physician-facing app, scheduled to be released by the end of 2021, will offer physicians the flexibility they need to maintain patient care on the go. Core benefits of the platform include features that help ensure providers receive the most up-to-date patient data without having to return to a workstation or be present in a healthcare facility to access a patient’s chart.
Additionally, MEDHOST will offer messaging functionality, Secure Communications, in the physician mobile platform in 2022. By using the Amazon Chime SDK, MEDHOST can supplement the app quickly and easily with secure messaging capabilities that can significantly impact the communication and coordination of care.
How Physician-Focused mHealth Apps Elevate Healthcare
There is a wealth of research concerning the value of patient-facing mHealth solutions. However, applications designed specifically to meet the workflow demands of physicians and caregivers are an area still primed for growth and opportunity.
The mobile MEDHOST physician solution integrates many of the same capabilities users see from a static workstation within a dynamic mobile environment. Physicians can access their patient list and retrieve patient data in real-time, such as lab results, vitals, medication orders, allergies, home medications, problems, and clinical notes from wherever they are. The freedom to manage their workflow on the move will help physicians streamline rounding and add efficiency to routine tasks that often take them away from time spent with their patients.
The ability to communicate securely with colleagues is one of the most significant values physicians will derive from a mobile app designed to eliminate inefficiencies from their workflows. Using the Amazon Chime SDK, users will receive notifications from wherever they are and be able to connect with clinicians via a HIPAA-eligible messaging solution.
Why MEDHOST Chose Amazon Chime SDK
Security is a top priority when it comes to protected health information (PHI). Built around an already robust security framework, the Amazon Chime SDK provides features that help protect PHI and help MEDHOST easily scale with changes in healthcare demand and a provider’s workflow.
The use of Amazon Chime SDK messaging will expand MEDHOST mobile users’ ability to send messages to a single user, multiple users, defined groups, and patient care teams. More importantly, in a growing landscape of healthcare consumerism, Amazon Chime SDK will help MEDHOST users improve the patient care experience and thus provide a better quality of care by filling gaps in communication and reducing delays in care.
Additionally, the HIPAA-eligible messaging solution easily integrates with the existing MEDHOST cloud solution.
Amazon Chime SDK also offers MEDHOST simplicity in supporting the integration. The high level of support manifests in a single solution for text, voice, and video communication, allowing for future expansion of the mobile app’s Secure Communications functionality. Behind the capabilities allocated to MEDHOST’s Secure Communication platform is a rich set of API access with fine-grained access control.
Amazon Chime SDK provides the flexibility to integrate with AI solutions such as:
- Amazon Transcribe Medical (real-time transcription)
- Amazon Comprehend Medical (Natural Language Processing) to derive meaningful discrete health care data
- Amazon Rekognition (image analysis)
Each Amazon integration amounts to a rich set of AI functionalities that will help improve patient care and reduce physician burnout.
Learn More About MEDHOST and Amazon Chime
The past decade has widened the digital doorway for consumer healthcare. As the consumer-facing mHealth market grows, so will the demand for mobile applications that help free physicians from their workstations.
In this collaboration, Amazon and MEDHOST help provide physicians with the capabilities they need to practice with more freedom and mobility. In the end, that freedom will allow healthcare providers to more efficiently deliver a healthcare experience that holds the most outstanding value as a priority.
Please visit our website for additional details related to MEDHOST Mobility