Last week I was in Chicago for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Conference (HIMSS). This is an annual show encompassing every aspect of technology in healthcare. Many of the major players were in attendance to show their latest wares including Allscripts, GE Healthcare, McKesson among others.
Walking the show floor, I started to notice a trend. Increasingly, healthcare is becoming mobile. Virtually all the vendors either had a mobile offering or were in the process of planning one. Admittedly, using the term mobile is very broad. For some companies it means having mobile tablets that Doctors can carry around, while to others it means having access to patient information on a BlackBerry or iPhone.
The motivation to go mobile goes beyond a simple desire to increase productivity and efficiency. The Federal Government is offering incentives for providers to implement electronic health records (EHR) which is adding fuel to an already burning fire. Not only do healthcare providers want access to real-time data anytime from anywhere, but they also want the additional subsidies from the US government for doing it. My contact at a well known healthcare company explained that 40% of costs come from administrative tasks and implementing an EHR solution can reduce those costs by 50%. That’s significant.
Implementing an electronic health records system is just the first step. Providing users with patient information regardless of their location or type of device is another. No wonder why most of the EHR providers are looking for technologies to mobilize their applications. With each provider and device that accesses EHR, the return on investment increases. If a Doctor accesses a patient record from a PC, that’s a certain dollar saving, if the doctor gets that same information from an iPhone or Windows Mobile Device, that’s an additional saving. It was clear from the show floor in Chicago that everyone understood mobilizing healthcare applications is a winning strategy.
Look for more information on Healthcare and Mobility on:
http://www.navara.com/en/work_order_software/mobile_healthcare
Tags: Allscripts, EHR mobile, EHR solution, GE Healthcare, healthcare mobile, healthcare mobilit, himss, McKesson, Mobile Healthcare Solutions, mobilizing healthcare applications, oem partners in mobility