Healthcare and SmartToys: Together at Last?

 There are interesting synergies going on in healthcare. Large healthcare organizations such as Sutter and Kaiser are among the leaders in institutionalizing patient care technologies at a systems level, through the use of systems such as Epic.

That’s all well and good, but real progress in realizing the potential of smartphones and tablets on the ground has been slower to take hold.  Doctors, nurses and staff use phones and tablets for email and messaging, but their use for sophisticated diagnostic and data/information input and output has the potential to significantly impact mainstream medical practice. An article by Ken Terry in Information Week titled “Strategy: How Mobility, Apps and BYOD Will Transform Healthcare” (http://tinyurl.com/bylrm58) discusses how this is happening. 

Home monitoring technology has been an accepted part of medical practice, and it can be a factor in the medical community’s acceptance of smart technologies. Another factor is the increasing use of mobile healthcare applications by patients; the article notes that there are between 20,000 and 30,000 such apps.  Some of these are standalone (heartrate monitoring and other fitness tools), while some expect collaborative communication between medical staff and patients. Diabetes Manager is an application that enables users to enter blood glucose ratings into their phones and receive feedback from a “virtual” coach. A trial of the application showed a significant decline in blood sugar levels among users, compared with non-users.

In upcoming entries, we’ll discuss some of the other trends in Smarttoy use in healthcare. The article will be our touchstone. Have a read, and feel free to comment.

Healthcare and You

It’s no secret that the healthcare industry is changing. Note the word “industry.” As patients, we don’t like to think of healthcare as a depersonalized macro-system, but it is, and changes in the industry environment are banging on us as well as our doctors. . . or providers, as we’ve come to know them.  

There’s serendipity here. New data capabilities exist, and healthcare legislation is forcing the development and use of data-driven systems, which can provide not only new efficiencies but new capabilities for the analysis of massive healthcare datasets, as they address legislative requirements such as “meaningful use” of Electronic Health Records systems.

Those changes bring about opportunities for employment in the healthcare field. The article titled “Lack of Healthcare IT Workers Slows Tech Progress” (http://www.cio.com/article/730167/Lack_of_Healthcare_IT_Workers_Slows_Tech_Progress?page=2&taxonomyId=3147)

discusses the lay of the land in healthcare employment. The article discusses a PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute report, that makes several relevant and thought-provoking points. First, a shortage of healthcareworkers means that providers are using tech specialists from other skill areas.But there’s more happening than just talent shortage. For IT people, this means opportunity.

 Daniel Garrett of PWC says,

It's also a shortage of people with the skills to marry technological savvy with business strategy as healthcare becomes more connected, coordinated and accountable . . . Despite billions of dollars spent investing in HIT, the lack of qualified professionals could slow progress toward quality and efficiency. The benefits of HIT will not be realized until organizations can ensure information is unlocked and integrated in a way to best inform critical business and clinical decision-making. (p. 1)

I urge you to read the article and do some research on your own. Many of us in IT are concerned with our professional development and employment, and the healthcare field is fertile ground.  Garrett concludes,  

The IT organization remains the critical connector to delivering real-time data and metrics to make smarter business decisions," Garrett said. "Despite differing IT priorities, general IT staffing needs across the industry reflect a shared goal of improved health outcomes - particularly as payment shifts from a fee-for-service model that rewards value over volume. (p. 2)

That means us. Opportunities are there, and we have the educational and personal resources to make the most of them.