Modernizing health infrastructure to improve experiences

As part of our National Health IT Week blog series, we are concentrating on modernizing health infrastructure, with a particularly focus on the impact to patient, clinician, and IT experiences. We will look at how the consistent and systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data can be used to change how care is experienced, delivered, and managed.

To understand the role of health IT infrastructure, let’s take a look at one patient’s journey through the health system:

At the soccer field

Meet Morgan. Unfortunately, he got hurt. He took a bad fall while playing in a soccer game, and his parents are worried that he might have a concussion. It doesn’t seem like it’s an emergency, but his dad wants some expert advice on what they should do.

Morgan’s dad logs into his healthcare provider’s patient portal and messages with an AI chatbot that is connected to his healthcare provider’s virtual triage contact center. After a brief evaluation, the contact center agent recommends Morgan go to the nearest urgent care clinic for further evaluation. An open appointment is found and made for Morgan. To help make this as easy experience as possible, Morgan’s dad receives a text with directions from the field to the clinic.

See how Mercy is using the contact center to triage patients

At urgent care

Morgan has some tests done to assess his condition. Using collaboration technology, his doctors are able to get a tele-neuro consult using Webex Teams. Instead of having to go to multiple places to understand his condition, Morgan, his family, and his care team at the clinic can come up with a plan for Morgan.

See how vRad is using collaboration technology for live video diagnosis

The physician overseeing Morgan’s care communicates with the rest of the care team using a mobile application on her iPhone. This clinical communication and collaboration interaction is enhanced by the Cisco and Apple partnership.

See how Parkview Medical Center is using wireless technology to improve clinical communications

In the end, Morgan gets to go home and rest. After he has recovered, he is ready to get back on the field for the next game.

The IT operations experience

The care Morgan has received may seem simple, but what is happening behind the scenes can be complex. From managing the contact center, to deploying telehealth, to securing clinical communications, to making sure all these solutions stay connected at the clinic – depends on a strong IT infrastructure foundation. All your systems – Network Transport, Wireless Mobility, Collaboration, Security, Data Center — need to work together seamlessly to support the future of care.

These are the ways that your healthcare organization can deliver care to one person at a time… And to all your patients at once.

Digital transformation with Cisco

At Cisco, we have a unique perspective on digital transformation. We see an industry perspective across 10 different market segments. We wrote two books on digital disruption because we are at the center of it. And, we’ve created tools like HIMSS Analytics Infrastructure Adoption Model (INFRAM) – a maturity model that defines your technology needs based on a healthcare systems roadmap.

To learn more about how digital transformation is evolving the healthcare experience, take a virtual tour of a clinic.

Check back for the rest of our National Health IT Week blog series to learn more about IT strategies that can help:

• Expand access to broadband and telehealth
• Improve public health and population health
• Address social determinants of health
• Accelerate workforce development

When you think technology in healthcare, you think_____?

Open any news website or social media channel and you’re bound to see headlines about big technology companies making inroads in healthcare. For many, it’s a welcome trend. The healthcare industry is ripe for disruption, with many challenges to solve.

As new tools to power patient care are developed and introduced, it’s tempting for healthcare organizations to jump in and start taking advantage of new technology as quickly as possible—especially in today’s hyper-competitive environment.

But first things first.

Everything you do today and tomorrow — from telehealth, to IoT medical device security and management, to AI decision support depends on a strong IT infrastructure foundation. Analysts advise starting with getting an understanding of your infrastructure so you cam plan for the future. Do you have a strong, modern network? Cutting-edge collaboration tools? A secure mobility strategy? A solid grounding in these essentials is a must in order to fully reap the benefits of emerging healthcare technology.

That’s where Cisco healthcare solutions can help. As a leader in healthcare transformation, Cisco has the innovative, highly secure, and trusted technology solutions you need to deliver patient-centered care. We’ve been in healthcare for more than 20 years. As a result, we and understand what you need to power a successful healthcare operation, because we’ve been there.

Experience counts — and it’s one of the major reasons healthcare organizations turn to Cisco. But it’s not the only one. Check out our infographic to learn more.

 

Discover what’s possible – Introducing the interactive Healthcare Portfolio Explorer

It’s an exciting time in healthcare. New tools. New technologies. The opportunities for improving care for patients and optimizing how clinicians, IT, and hospital administrators do their jobs may seem endless.

With all the possibilities out there, how do you know your investments in new technologies are going to have a real impact? Taking those next steps all begins with understanding where your efforts can have the biggest impact – for patients, clinicians, administration, and IT.

Seeking medical care can be overwhelming and confusing. With in-person and virtual services, it’s possible to deliver 24-hour care that’s easy to access and navigate, increasing patient and caregiver engagement and satisfaction.

Think about the last time you needed to make a doctor’s appointment. For example, a trip to the doctors can mean making a call, waiting on hold, and repeating information you know your doctor already has. Then, you have to pick an appointment date and time possibly weeks in the future. What if your plans change, and you can no longer make the appointment? You start the process all over again.

But there is a better way. Population Health Outreach and EHR-Integrated Telehealth capabilities can help improve the experience. One example is Luma Health. They’ve built a telehealth bot that’s integrated directly with Webex Teams. So when a patient cancels an appointment, Luma Health determines if they are eligible for a telehealth visit. That decision is based on appointment type, characteristics (diagnosis and procedure), and provider preference. If a patient qualifies and agrees to a telehealth visit, then the patient and provider can join a private room. Finally, when the visit is complete, the room is deleted to ensure privacy.

Technology should help staff provide care, not create barriers. From preventive to specialized care, solutions that help clinicians communicate and stay connected boost effectiveness and efficiency. As a result, this improves care team coordination and collaboration.

For Parkview Medical Center in Colorado, the answer to a better clinical experience was mobile technology. For example, it frees clinicians to focus on the more meaningful work of patient care. Since implementing Clinical Communications and Collaboration solutions, the organization has experienced a 60-minute reduction—per nurse, per shift—in the time spent on documentation and coordination. Less time on documentation means each nurse has one hour more each shift to spend at the patient bedside.

Additionally, the benefits of mobility solutions aren’t just limited to clinicians. Parkview has seen a 210% increase in their HCAHPS score (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems), which measures the patient’s view of their care experience.

On the road to a better bottom line, IT should serve as a facilitator, not a bottleneck. Transforming healthcare operations can help increase efficiency, reduce waste, keep costs down, boost staff productivity, and automate your network.

Meander Medisch Centrum (Meander Medical Center) in the Netherlands needed to be ready to support any new technology to transform how patient care is delivered and help save lives. In an effort to deliver new services and capabilities, they rolled out Next Generation Data Center capabilities.

By expanding their underlying data center infrastructure, Meander was able to be more flexible, and easily manage their systems to support innovation. As a result, they accelerated the deployment of new services for patients and clinicians by 400 percent. Also, Meander has reduced IT management time by up to 75 percent, while increasing server utilization by 40 percent.

Healthcare is more connected than ever. As a result, there are new opportunities but also new vulnerabilities. As cybersecurity threats grow increasingly sophisticated and frequent, organizations need to find innovative ways to provide IT security and meet regulatory requirements.

Ensuring Network and Micro-Segmentation and creating a holistic, effective device security strategy should be priorities organization-wide. For Sentara Healthcare that means doing more with less and providing a highly secure, digital care environment. With 300-plus care sites, this is a constantly moving target. In order to protect connected administrative and research networks, medical devices, guest wireless, and more from cybersecurity threats through network segmentation, Sentara completed a full network refresh.

During that process, Sentara secured 140 physical locations and 45,000 endpoints in just 14 months. That result would have been impossible with their old approach. For example, they can now segment and control access to critical-care devices, points-of-sale, building control systems, and other high-risk endpoints. As well as secure high value data, including protected health information and payment card details.

With the interactive Healthcare Portfolio Explorer, you can delve into each use case across patient experience, clinical experience, security and compliance, and operations. Through this tool, discover case studies and see technical overviews that show the technology that brings these solutions to life.

Let’s do more good, together

Our goal: Positively impact 1 billion people by 2025

1 billion?! That is a pretty big number to strive for, but it is something Cisco committed to back in 2016. And, as of the end of fiscal year 2018, we’ve already had an impact on a cumulative 445 million people worldwide.

“At our core, we have always been about solving problems, connecting people, and striving for positive outcomes,” Tae Yoo, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and CSR, Cisco. Helping people and using technology to improve people’s lives is a part of our DNA. It’s just who we are.

Global Problem Solver Challenge

As part of our work, we seek to inspire and empower a generation of global problem solvers who will not only survive – but drive and thrive – in our increasingly digital economy. With the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital technologies connecting more devices and data than ever before, good ideas now have the ability to make a difference more quickly than ever before. And we’re here to help.

Our third annual Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge aims to recognize new business ideas that leverage technology for social impact from student entrepreneurs around the world. The Challenge is open to students and recent alumni from any college or university.

In order to be eligible, solutions need to incorporate IoT or other digital technologies. They also need to have a social, environmental or economic impact (e.g. health, education, accessibility, critical human needs (food, water, disaster response/recovery, safety, etc.).

After all the submissions were reviewed, $300,000 USD in prize money was dispersed to help accelerate the adoption of breakthrough technology, products, and services that drive social, environmental or economic impact.

2019 healthcare winners

Of the 10 winning organizations, three directly focus on improving health outcomes. Check out the 2019 healthcare winners:

Calla Imaging (2^nd runner up, $25,000)

Cervical cancer affects the lives over 500,000 women annually, with over 80% in low-and middle-income countries, and 50% of these women die. This is due to a lack of affordable, accessible, and accurate screening. Our vision is to democratize screening through 1) imaging technology that community health providers or women themselves can use for screening; 2) automated algorithms for accurate diagnosis without an expert; and 3) mHealth app for patient data storage and communication for follow up.

Learn more >

Neurobots: Exobots (3^rd runner up, $10,000)

Stroke is the disease that causes most motor disabilities in the world, 16 million cases each year, 1 each 2 sec., and 87% of survivors are unable to perform daily activities. Common methods has low efficience to treat stroke patients, mainly when they have more than 6 month since stroke (chronic stage), when recovery its almost imperceptible. With Neurobots Method its possible reabilit even the chronic patients with a average hand recovery of more than 30% in just two weeks.

Learn more >

REALDRIP by TREPLABS (3^rd runner up, $10,000)

Manual infusion treatment leads to the death of 500,000 babies and 76,000 pregnant women annually. 1 in 4 people dying from conditions caused by blood clot. Also, 1 in 5 people on blood transfusion and drip have suffered complications because they were given too much or too little fluid, with hundreds potentially dying.

REALDRIP device monitors blood transfusion and drip to prevent blood clot and complications during drip treatment by continuously monitoring flow rate and automating the process.

Learn more >

Check out how Cisco is improving lives around the world

Explore our Public Sector Digital Transformation Map, highlighting our efforts in just a few of the 120 cities, 180 countries, 30,000 education institutions, and 17,000 healthcare organizations around the world.