Electronic Health Reporter

James Smith is a blogger with Centra Care, an urgent care center in Tampa.

Healthcare services from across the world are teaming to create better facilities for patients. This is leading to the better and faster provision of seamless patient care with fewer medical errors and improved quality of healthcare while allowing for lower costs.

Accountable organizations are increasingly turning information technology to deliver quality care to patients while ensuring that an unnecessary duplication of services is avoided. Collaboration is key to getting the maximum effectiveness from IT led healthcare solutions, for all stakeholders involved.

Health IT has made it possible for healthcare providers to better accomplish stellar patient care through the safe use of health information while also sharing them confidently.

The evolving protected and private electronic health records are making health information available electronically as and when needed. The result is significant improvements in the quality of care. IT collaborations also help reduce the distances between care providers and patients, improving workflow and services delivered.

Here are the latest IT related collaborations in the world of healthcare.

Medtronic and American Well

Announced in October 2017, this collaboration seeks to bring about an exciting new revolution in telehealth and the way it is used to facilitate chronic, comorbid patients.

Together the companies will provide patient with reliable access to American Well’s telemedicine solutions, using the video-enabled platforms provided by the Medtronic Care Management Services.  Information gathered from these remote patient monitoring systems will also be given to clinicians registered with the American Well service.

All in all, this IT led collaboration aims to enhance patient access to healthcare, and clinicians’ access to relevant information easier.

CVS Health and Epic

This exciting new initiative has a very ambitious goal. When CVS Health collaborates with Epic’s Healthy Planet services, the result is prescribers with more power. The collaboration aims to get access to information and analytics that will give prescribers additional resources to find lower cost drugs for their patients.

The resulting platform also aims to gain valuable information and insights into dispensing patterns and medication observance.

The definitive goal of this collaboration, however, is a lot more versatile. It will enable prescribing healthcare providers to find cheaper alternative medication and figure out if the patient’s insurance covers it. Also, pharmacists will get better information regarding medicines so they can make better-informed decisions regarding patient care plans.

Allscripts and Zocdoc

Another exciting new IT-related collaboration in the field of healthcare happened between the scheduling software maker Allscripts and Zocdoc the online scheduling platform for healthcare providers and clinicians.

The API based integration is making it possible for patients to book appointments online with their preferred physicians. The services are available to new and existing practices that are using Allscripts or Zocdoc.

The result will hopefully lead to maximum effectiveness of the physician’s time. It will also improve the efficiency of the office staff while also improving access to healthcare, creating a more connected and streamlined experience for patients.

The Last Word: “Healthcare IT” Is Here to Stay!

The healthcare industry is evolving to keep up with the rapid developments in the information technology arena, and this is leading to some exciting new events never thought possible. With the adoption of electronic medical records and telemedicine, the momentum is picking up quick!

Collaboration technology is a great way to ensure that all stakeholders get to make the most of this change. The idea is believed to increase the effectiveness of cardiovascular diseases management, mainly heart conditions which are the number one cause of death in the United States.

With physical and environmental barriers, innovative healthcare improvements and increasing costs, providers need to familiarize themselves with quicker and more lucrative means of delivering the best services to those in need. Accepting a brand-new partnership is one vital way that healthcare services can achieve their aims.