KP CIO talks mHealth, innovation

BOSTON—Philip Fasano, executive vice president and CIO of Kaiser Permanente (KP), shared the organization’s mobile health strategy during a session at the mHealth + Telehealth World Congress 2013 on July 24.

KP is the largest healthcare provider in North America and HealthConnect—its comprehensive EHR system—provides information to 16,000 physicians and nine million members.

Fasano credited KP’s forward-thinking practices to former leader George Halverson who “believed EMRs could transform the ability to care for patients. He made a substantial bet on the potential of that technology. We had no reason to believe we could do it other than we were very innovative with people and patients and had a focus on health as the best outcome.”

KP decided to integrate all ancillary systems into HealthConnect because “we believed that having all systems connected for the benefit of patients is critical to care.” All information is available in real time for all patients no matter the care setting.

HealthConnect “allows us to do things that many other organizations struggle to do to fully understand the patient and potentially anticipate their needs through data analytics.” Beyond that, all 37 KP hospitals are paperless which “opens the door to tremendous potential to how to care for patients and allows clinicians to practice at the top of their license.”

While the system has not been easy to implement, Fasano said, “my personal belief is that a connected health system is far better than an unconnected health system.”

KP is a system built on innovation, Fasano said, as is the healthcare industry. He said big data has been around for decades but electronic records have made it possible to perform various studies and analyses. KP has designed chronic disease care tools based on data analytics with great results. Fifty percent of their Type 2 diabetes patients have not had reason to go to the emergency department and 70 percent fewer heart patients are dying from their condition, he said. “The outcomes you get are truly transformative for patients. It’s a huge opportunity, in my mind, for healthcare. We’re doing game-changing work for our patients and people who want to manage their health.”

Going forward, the ability to make information available and then make it go away is key, Fasano said. “I can’t build enough data centers… cloud as a set of capabilities has the potential to allow us to do this expansion of analysis and then collapse it with technology. The next generation of technology will allow us to truly harvest massive data and do it in real time and do it for every patient.”

KP has many pilot projects underway, Fasano said. While they have been doing videoconferencing for years, “the technology is now starting to converge where video chats and mobile capabilities are becoming more and more ubiquitous.” He cited concerns that the poor do not have access to that technology, but Fasano said smartphones are getting cheaper every day. “It’s clear to me there's been a sea change in how people interact.” Next up, he said, is a fully engaged, empowered patient. But, those patients want and need to be engaged “on their terms, not ours. Technology tools play a big role in allowing us to connect with patients in a much more proactive, seamless, service-oriented way. Once we’re down to that level, the patient/consumer defines what’s personal to them.”

Fasano also pointed out that the people currently becoming young adults will view healthcare through “a completely different lens than my age group would find acceptable. The needs they are expressing are the needs that will become standard. The entire industry will make a transformation for the better.”

Fasano noted that in his own experience as a KP patient, he was never asked to redo a test. Duplicative tests extrapolated across the country total approximately $500 million, he said. “That’s appalling. In any other industry that would be gone. In this industry, it’s just part of the typical show. There’s an opportunity to completely transform the experience.”

KP’s mobile apps have been available for just over a year and already have been downloaded by more than 250,000 people. “They tend to use it more and more often because it’s always with them,” Fasano said. And, studies have shown that more engaged patients are healthier. “KP members say they would never join another organization that doesn’t offer Kaiser. There’s a level of service they’ve come to expect.”

Fasano said KP and the rest of the healthcare industry will make substantial mobile technology investments over the next two decades. “We’re careful about what we put our name on but I can see us putting our name on partners’ apps because more and more members are finding those convenient.”