Health IT, Hospitals, Startups

Diagnotes CEO highlights need for flexible communication tools to adapt to changing care coordination needs

Among other applications, Diagnotes is designed to be used for care coordination, remote consults, documenting clinical activity remotely.

MedCity News has partnered with BioCrossroads to provide coverage focused on Indiana’s next generation of growth and innovation in life sciences.

Digital health companies that can support HIPAA-compliant communication so that healthcare professionals who shun pagers can use their own mobile devices securely have been in demand for some time. One of those companies providing the means to do that is Indianapolis-based Diagnotes. It recently updated its platform to help physicians track their activities to support patients with chronic care management in order to qualify for CMS reimbursement.

In an interview with MedCity News, CEO Dave Wortman said one of the things that differentiates it from rivals is that it’s not designed to solve a single problem. “I see a lot of point solutions in healthcare communication rather than holistic, integrated solutions like ours. We didn’t build this with an eye to the tech side but to bring value to healthcare.”

Wortman said it views its technology as a complement to electronic health record systems. Among other applications, it is designed to be used for care coordination, remote consults, documenting clinical activity remotely. He said it was designed to fit easily with the workflows of physicians and other healthcare professionals. But he also noted one interesting development — increasingly, care teams are including patients in their communication coordination.

The ultimate goal of Diagnotes is to avoid communication problems that can lead to poorly handled hand-offs which can result in inefficiencies , re-admissions or worse — medical errors.

The company doesn’t have a single target customer. Wortman said the platform can easily scale to large organizations. Asked to describe some examples of the different ways its platform is used, Wortman mentioned one client that uses it to ensure that care coordinators are alerted when a patient is discharged. It automatically delivers relevant information about the patient to the care coordinator.

Wortman’s background includes experience both as an entrepreneur and investor. In addition to Diagnotes, which he started in 2011, he is also a partner with Spring Mill Venture Partners. The business invests in life science, technology and digital health companies.

Photo: Flickr user Janitors

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