Healthcare IT News From HIMSS 2012

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference and exhibition is being held this week in Las Vegas and several companies made announcements from the event.

New joint mobile solution for Healthcare industry. Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Motorola Mobility and BoxTone announced a collaboration to develop a comprehensive mobile solution to help satisfy the unique security, reliability and usability requirements of the health care industry.  Using Motorola devices and Verizon's 4G LTE network the phones and tablets make use of BoxTone's automated Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) software platform. The joint solution highlights the Android platform and proactively addresses mobile security and privacy by incorporating a new layer of data protection with automated mobile device and application management. "This solution underscores the important role mobility is playing in transforming health care," said Dr. Peter Tippett, vice president and chief medical officer, Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, the company's health IT practice group that is part of Verizon Enterprise Solutions. "Mobile devices and health care apps represent one of the biggest IT opportunities of the decade to improve and transform care delivery. Working with Motorola Mobility and BoxTone, we have brought together complementary capabilities to create an easy-to-deploy and manage mobility solution for our health care customers."

HP announces healthcare alliance program.  Hewlett Packard (HPQ) announced a new healthcare affiliate program that combines offerings from independent software vendors with hardware from HP so hospitals and healthcare organizations can better deliver cost-effective, efficient and high-quality care. HP will offer a wide range of hardware and specialized equipment in combination with software from HP Healthcare Alliance program partners. Alliance members will be showcasing solutions at HIMSS 2012 such as MedWeb's picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) viewer on the new HP Slate 2, ACR 2 Solutions risk management software, and Status Solutions' Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA) solution on HP workstations. "The Healthcare Alliance program is testament to the relationship we’ve delivered with HP in the past several years," said Richard Mahoney, president, MedPlus, and vice president, Healthcare Information Solutions, Quest Diagnostics. "Combining our easy-to-adopt Care360 EHR solution from Quest Diagnostics with one-stop shopping for HP’s hardware and services has given physicians an easy path to EHR adoption that allows them to take full advantage of its benefits to achieve better patient care, capitalize on meaningful use incentives, and improve efficiency for their practice."

Avaya showcases new Healthcare innovations.  Avaya is showcasing new innovations in healthcare communications and collaboration systems and services at the 2012 HMSS conference. Products and solutions include advancements in mobility, social media and videoconferencing that help improve patient experiences through better care coordination, streamlined access to healthcare professionals, and faster patient response times. Avaya Mobile Activity Assistant is a forthcoming product that helps healthcare staff improve workflow through secure 'closed-loop' HIPAA-compliant communications. A new tablet solution, Avaya Flare for iPad, is an application for secure, unified communications over Wi-fi and 3G networks. Avaya's Telehealth and Home-Care Delivery solutions use video communications to enable home care nurses and rural hospital workers to gain fast access to specialists and physicians located anywhere using video. Parkview Health, northwest Indiana's largest healthcare provider, is using Avaya Mobile Activity Assistant on 60 iPhones, with plans to expand to 670 iPhones by March 2012. "Avaya Mobile Activity Assistant accelerates our communications, and ultimately improves patient satisfaction," said Paul Jones, director of technology services, Parkview Health, Inc. "By giving our nurses a way to consolidate all of their alerts in one device—and display them in an organized and prioritized way—they can attend to critical issues first, and then communicate directly with patients if necessary. This is a vast leap ahead of the days when most communications was handled via the nurse station, slowing things down."

HIMSS 2012 events and insights can be tracked via Twitter hashtag #HIMSS12.