mHealth apps for coordinated care, secure messaging, telehealth and remote monitoring are increasingly being adopted by hospitals and other healthcare organizations. Studies documenting their impact on patient satisfaction are also becoming more widespread.

• Three hospital system, Inspira Health Network, reduced overhead pages from 150 a day to less than three a day— immediately increasing its HCAHPS scores—by utilizing Practice Unite’s secure texting mobile app for clinicians. (Source: HIT Consultant)
• Telehealth is rapidly rising in popularity with primary care physicians. 15 percent of PCPs who participated in a recent national survey indicated that they are using telehealth tools to increase access to care. Within this group of early adopters, nearly 1 in 4 are using telehealth 20+ times per year to offer chronic pain management, real-time video consultations, diagnostic and treatment services, and more. (Source: Telecare Aware)
• 84% of providers in this recently released report are using mobile devices to remotely monitor chronically ill patients. What’s more, the majority of the surveyed hospitals and health systems are also developing BYOD options for patients who already own wearables and activity trackers. (Source: Healthcare Informatics)

Interoperability continues to be a significant challenge for hospitals, ACOs and other provider organizations. mHealth solutions like ours that use FHIR are already being utilized to resolve the systems interoperability trends highlighted below.

• KLAS recently released report on the interoperability of EMR systems conveys what many have speculated for some time now. The healthcare professionals interviewed as part of this study agreed that EMRs are technically capable of supporting interoperability, and that the setting of information sharing standards is the biggest hurdle to interoperability. (Source: PR Web)
• Both clinical and data interoperability are essential for care coordination. mHealth solutions that use FHIR to integrate clinical data systems, and enable clinicians to communicate and coordinate care can support both forms of interoperability. (Source: Medcity News)
• New report highlights doctors’ need for tools that can help them better manage the documentation process. As it stands, some patient assessments can take as many as 537 mouse clicks and 2 hours to complete! Luckily mHealth apps that extend EHRs onto the mobile devices of physicians and clinicians can speed the patient note-taking process. (Source: Healthcare Informatics)