Delivering the Best Patient Care Possible

Military Health – From Volume to Value

The digital world is driving us to act as both patients and consumers of healthcare information. For example – wearable devices, such as Fitbits, provide users with personalized data and the insight required to make more informed lifestyle decisions.

IoT_HealthcareAt the same time, healthcare providers are shifting to value-based care – from “pay per pill” to “pay for performance” and “pay for outcomes” while working to meet meaningful use goals. Comprehensive patient and population health data, and data collection opportunities enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) can provide opportunities for healthcare providers – including military – to attain new insights and deliver the best care possible.

In a recent article in Health IT Analytics, EMC’s Roberta Katz writes, “In the current accountable care environment, where electronic health record documentation is being prioritized, this new realm of patient generated data can build on a caregiver’s clinical expertise and augment hospital protocols…With the use of IoT tools and sensors, we can review our own data in real-time, from the number of steps we are taking, cardio output, sleep cycles, blood pressure, and even mood, to become an ‘empowered’ patient.”

Modern tablet showing medical diagnosisWorking toward a transformative goal to achieve, among others, the results stated by Katz show that the Military Health System (MHS) http://www.health.mil/ is undergoing a disruptive application migration from the current system (AHLTA) to the new Cerner-based  MHS GENESIS – targeted for launch at the end of this year. Their goal: the ability to share health records electronically and document the complete continuum of care between MHS locations, private providers, and possibly Veteran Affairs.

Centralized data collection and analysis as part of an extended Electronic Health Record (EHR) system can provide a picture otherwise impossible to obtain – bringing together disparate information that alone does not raise an alert, but pulled together, can signal a need for intervention.

EMC is proud to participate in the Defense Health Information Technology Symposium (DHITS) 2016 on August 2-4 – and will focus on supporting the MHS Transformation. Please visit us at booth 401 to learn more about how Big Data analytics and data lakes are transforming military health.

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About the Author: Barry Morris