Business Strategy Regulation of Mobile Healthcare and its Impact on Convergence in the US
Alan W Portela, Hon Pak, MD, FAAD, Nancy Hudecek, RN, BSN, MS, William Cameron Powell, MD, FACOG and Tom H Karson, MD
Alan W Portela serves as Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of AirStrip Technologies Inc., a leader in mobilizing medical devices throughout the continuum of care. He has more than 25 years experience as an information technology strategist and executive. Mr Portela drove the selection and deployment of electronic medical records (EMRs) throughout the entire US Military Health System and a large portion of the Veterans Health Administration. He is recognized as an industry expert in the virtual intensive care model, having pioneered the concept of remote intensive care unit coverage using a decentralized approach that brings relevant clinical data from EMRs to care-givers via mobile technology.
Hon S Pak, MD, FAAD, is Advisory Board Member of AirStrip Technologies Inc. A healthcare IT leader with more than two decades of industry experience, he most recently served as Chief Information Officer in the US Army Medical Department’s Office of the Surgeon General. As a senior advisor, Dr Pak was responsible for the design, deployment, training, and sustainment of all clinical information systems. Dr Pak previously headed the Advanced Information Technology Group within the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, a US federal agency focused on public/private partnerships and developing research on mobile health (mHealth), medical training systems, and health informatics. He is also past president of the American Telemedicine Association. Dr Pak currently sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Telemedicine and e-Health and is a member of the George Washington Health IT Advisory Council.
Disclosures: The authors are affiliated to AirStrip Technologies Inc., a San Antonio-based manufacturer of mobile medical applications. The company develops smart phone-based remote patient monitoring (RPM) software that allows clinicians to monitor waveforms and other physiological patient information when they cannot be at the bedside. Current Food and Drug Administration-cleared applications are marketed under the names AirStrip OB
TM , AirStrip CARDIOLOGY , and AirStrip PATIENT MONITORING . These TM TM
software applications promote patient safety, reduce healthcare costs, and give physicians an innovative means of providing patient care. Correspondence:
alanportela@airstriptech.com
Citation: iHealth Connections, 2011;1(2):114–8
Healthcare in the US is undergoing a historic transformation. The key factors contributing to this momentous shift include a growing demand for improvements in patient safety, quality, and access to care; evolving patient demographics; emphasis on cost containment and value delivery; and changes in the labor force. The emerging model is consumer-driven and patient-centered and, within this new construct, technology enablers—particularly convergent mobile health (mHealth) capabilities—are central to safe and efficient outcomes for both patients and care providers. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates medical device data system products and has recently focused on mobile medical applications in an effort to ensure their safety and efficacy.
Clinical, sociocultural, technological, and financial transformation in healthcare is well under way, and this rapid convergence is clearly evident on the event horizon. Hospitals and care providers are facing new operating challenges in an increasingly tight regulatory environment, and only the knowledgeable and nimble will survive.
To thrive, organizations will need to understand and embrace the drivers of change, avoid the regulatory pitfalls, and learn how to effectively leverage technology to deliver better care to more patients in entirely new ways.
Shifting Payment Systems
Major drivers of reform are efforts to prevent and manage chronic diseases while reducing costs. Approximately 75 % of the US population
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has at least one chronic disease, with cardiovascular diseases representing three of the top five diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, chronic heart failure, diabetes, and stroke).1
To achieve effective healthcare reform and restrain the growth in costs, we must strike a balance between improving the efficiency of healthcare delivery, and aligning financial incentives to reward more effective and efficient care. The two approaches are complementary; incentives are needed to change behavior, but improvements in processes, organization, and culture are also required.
The move away from fee-for-service, episodic care toward an outcomes improvement model consisting of bundled payments and incentives goes into effect in October 2012 as part of the US healthcare reform legislation
© TOUCH BRIEFINGS 2011
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