Dimension Data, an IT services unit of Japan’s NTT Group, has introduced a platform to help healthcare organizations get a handle on their mobile technologies.
Called the Clinical Mobility Solution, the new Dimension Data product helps integrate multiple mobile applications into clinician workflows. Use cases include alert management, medication management, clinical decision support, access to patient electronic health records and hospital directory services, the company said.
According to Jason Brandt, director of Dimension Data’s healthcare practice, health systems historically have addressed mobility one piece at a time, without a coherent strategy or much interoperability between apps.
“The vast majority of our clients were really, truly not ready to embrace mobile,” Brandt said.
After seeing nurses carrying ancient 10-key phones for in-hospital communication, an executive might decide that the health system should get smartphones. Then the organization shells out hundreds of thousands of dollars for iPhones without much of a plan for how to use the devices or the infrastructure to support them, Brandt explained.
“They say their wireless network is awesome, and it isn’t,” Brandt said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“We’ve developed our own framework,” Brandt explains. Dimension Data provides a list of items customers need to consider in building and executing their mobile strategies, and constantly assesses performance. The company engages end users in developing Clinical Mobility Solution builds,
“Sometimes we revamp their mobile management platform,” Brandt said.
Dimension Data actually has been testing the Clinical Mobility Solution in hospitals for about a year, though the official launch was Tuesday. The company will, of course, be highlighting the product at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference two weeks from now.
At HIMSS17, the multinational Dimension Data also will be unveiling a new interface for its Virtual Patient Observation video surveillance system, the company said.
Photo: Bigstock
