From Day 1 at HIMSS 2010 – Microsoft and Partners announcements
I arrived to Atlanta late Saturday so that I can attend the Microsoft Health Users Group Exchange (Microsoft HUG) event on Sunday. Full day agenda with great conversations and sessions where Customers, Partners, and Microsoft presenters highlighted impressive health products and solutions. Microsoft HUG attendees got an early peak at the Health Community Connect Solution previously known as ‘Miami’ that Microsoft announced at HIMSS today, and at the Clinical Documentation Solution Accelerator that was showcased today and will be demoing Tuesday and Wednesday at the Connected Health Platform station at the HIMSS 2010 Microsoft Booth.
The next Microsoft HUG event will take place in Barcelona Spain on March 15, 2010 ahead of the WoHIT event.
Microsoft’s new health solution, HealthVault Community Connect, is a first-of-its-kind software solution that bridges the island of care from hospital to home to community clinic. HealthVault Community Connect unifies a patient’s electronic health information stored in disparate information and communication technology (ICT) systems within the hospital, and for the first time, makes it available to the patient and referring physician. In addition, patients can view, store and share their medical information from the hospital, and pre-register for hospital visits online.
HealthVault Community Connect is another health solution from Microsoft that aligns well with the theme of the presentation Microsoft is delivering tomorrow at the HIMSS 2010 Interoperability Showcase Booth – Theatre B at 2:45pm with the title ‘Better Health with Interoperability, Outcome Driven Care, and Individual Responsibility’.
Another announcement today from the Cleveland Clinic showing the results of a pilot that started in December 2008. During this pilot, participants with various chronic conditions used monitors at home and uploaded data to their HealthVault account which was also connected to the personal health record application and EMR system used by Cleveland Clinic’s healthcare providers. The project found a significant change in the average number of days between physician office visits for patients. Diabetic and hypertensive patients were able to make doctor’s office visits less often, increasing the number of days between appointments by 71 percent and 26 percent respectively, indicating that patients had better control of their conditions. Heart failure patients, however, visited their doctors more often, decreasing the number of days between visits by 27 percent, indicating that patients were advised to see their healthcare provider in a more timely manner.
teddy bachour
senior industry technology strategist, ww health