If you hurt yourself in another city and go to hospital, your personal doctor back home won’t be able to access those records – not easily anyway. Even information from healthcare centres within the same town may not be openly shared. In fact, you can accurately assume that every different person you see throughout the healthcare system will not be able to access any of your medical information without specifically requesting it.
It’s frustrating having to repeat your medical history to countless nurses, doctors, and specialists, isn’t it? Often patients will get sick of it and end up glossing over important details. This can lead to suboptimal medical care and inefficiencies in the system.
The ideal solution would be to have all your medical data in one system. Not just medical history and hospital reports either, but real-time medical information like we discussed previously. When compiled together, this data can help to provide a complete view of a patient’s health as well as streamline provider’s internal processes, two incredibly important benefits.
With such a high quantity of data being aggregated, there are many software hurdles for developers to overcome.
A notable event, such as an emergency department admission, is often comprised of a series of several smaller events – all of which contain potentially vital information. So, while it’s becoming increasingly important for clinicians to have access to this real-time health data, notifications for every single aspect of the healthcare cycle can often be too much.
Integration engines need to be proactive enough to envision potential risks and developers need to have enough experience within the industry to factor in the potential for human error. This spans further than the initial software development though and, from a professional services perspective, it’s essential that developers continue to engage with key stakeholders within an organisation. This is necessary to effectively manage the implementation of the new processes and convey the importance of transparency and communication when navigating IT issues.
Relying on a system which requires ongoing communication between stakeholders may be far from a perfect process but it is effective. Creating a chain of contacts within an organisation to manage business transformation, such as a ‘middle man’ or broker, and explaining the importance of communicating internal IT changes can mitigate any future issues.
A strong partnership and on-going collaboration with internal IT is an essential foundation in the success of real-time data platform and will allow all stakeholders to benefit from the new technology. From a wider clinical care standpoint, this also opens new avenues for securely sharing crucial medical information between providers.
As the technology further evolves and integrates with new data, such as device data, the next generation of APIs and apps will be able to provide even greater benefits to providers, clinicians, and patients.
To learn more about managing real-time healthcare data, download the white paper now!
