Health IT Summit: Health IT tools drive patient engagement, better outcomes
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -“The power is there, it’s coming into the hospitals in peoples’ pockets,” Sean Kelly, MD, CMO at Imprivata and emergency physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said on the importance of mobile technology to drive patient engagement. In light of privacy and security challenges, “we need way to find ways to make technology work for us rather than against us,” he added.
Kelly made his comments during a panel discussion on patient engagement and how to make data meaningful and secure for patients at the Boston Health IT Summit hosted by the Institute of Health Technology Transformation on May 8.
Up until recently, text messaging with protection, security and encryption features has been unavailable. But now, secure and reliable technology is driving more efficient care. “I have patients who take pictures of their own rash" for diagnosis purposes, Kelly said.
Patients are more than ready to access their personal health records and move some of their healthcare experience into the digital space, said Jennifer Covich Bordenick, CEO at eHealth Initiative.
Bordenick said she was “surprised” to learn through research that Medicaid and Medicare populations are “some of the most advanced technically.” That being said, she said simple technologies like text messaging and email can play a huge role in communicating to patients. “We get so caught up in fancy technology that we forget what we’re trying to do: get information to and from patients.”
Dan Martich, MD, CMIO, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), said use of patient authentication tools led to a rapid increase in the number of patients accessing their health records through online portals. “Since turning that on, we’ve had a 65-75 percent success rate and our numbers jumped,” adding that currently 14,000 patients use health record apps on their smartphones to access their information.
Due to its relationship with University of Pittsburgh, Martich said UPMC staff do “push alerts” to patients with certain conditions—as identified through physician coding—to enroll them in one of 7,000 clinical trials that occur at the school. The alerts discuss a variety of clinical trials, thus “we don’t identify the exact illness and we try to target patients in a nonthreatening fashion,” he said.
Other alerts sent out at UPMC include birthday alerts reminding patients of annual physicals and other preventative services including mammograms, colonoscopies and pap smears.
Kelly said personal health information accessed through portals could potentially spur patients toward healthy behavior if information is presented in a compelling manner. For example, if a patient’s hemoglobin level is dangerously high, the record could convey risk of death and prompt someone to take charge of their health.
“I think that’s where they take that leap, I think that’s very exciting,” he said, adding that this is where personalized data can make a true impact.
Patients also want personal relationships with providers that are private and easy, said Susan Woods, MD, MPH, associate professor, Oregon Health and Science University and director of patient experience, connected health at the Veterans Health Administration. She also encouraged healthcare record systems to be practical and allow for transactions, such as prescription refills or appointment setting, to have true value to a consumer.
“I can’t tell you how many patients I don’t see because we communicate by email,” Woods said. “If we treat people as we want to be treated, they rise to the occasion.”
Martich added that UPMC’s electronic visit program has yielded more prescriptions, however the cost of care decreased and there was no greater prevalence of follow-up visits. He said patients avoid additional testing that is done in the office, which lowers cost.