Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sophisticated Call Handling with Zoom

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Many electronic health record systems include a rudimentary capability for virtual visits, such as being able to send the patient a link to a Vidyo or Zoom meeting, but what if you need a way to connect a patient with multiple parties, either in parallel (group meeting) or series (hand-off)?

With SBR Health you can do both. A provider can bring in a family member, caregiver, or colleague or interpreter, hold a multi-party call and then hand off the call to one of the providers. Alternatively, the patient can be put in a virtual waiting room until the next staff member is ready for them, e.g. for a receptionist to send a patient to a provider or for a provider to send the call to someone who can schedule a follow-up. The patient just makes one connection while the system does all the work.

The video shows an example of how this works using Zoom. You can also use it with Vidyo.

 

Telemedicine parity enacted in Massachusetts

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On January 1, 2021 Governor Charlie Baker signed An Act promoting a resilient health care system that puts patients first (S.2984) which previously passed the Massachusetts Senate 157 – 0.

The new law contains a number of provisions including several important changes to the use of telemedicine:

  • Expands the definition of telemedicine to include video, telephone, remote patient monitoring, and asynchronous tools
  • Insurance coverage is mandated with no restrictions on the site where care is delivered, e.g. patient at home is now included
  • Payment for primary care and chronic disease management is at parity with in-person services

The requirement for coverage expires two years. The requirement for payment parity expires 90 days after the end of the Covid emergency.

The new provisions have yet to be incorporated in the codification of the General Laws but the text of the Act is available here.

The Act modifies the following chapters of the general laws

  • 118E – DIVISION OF MEDICAL ASSISTANCE (Medicaid)
  • 175 – Insurance
  • 176A – REGULATION OF RATES FOR CERTAIN CASUALTY INSURANCE, INCLUDING FIDELITY, SURETY AND GUARANTY BONDS, AND FOR ALL OTHER FORMS OF MOTOR VEHICLE INSURANCE, AND REGULATION OF RATING ORGANIZATIONS
  • 176B – MEDICAL SERVICE CORPORATIONS
  • 176G – HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS
  • 176I – PREFERRED PROVIDER ARRANGEMENTS

For each of them, it inserts essentially the same language. The exact text for Chapter 175 [Insurance] is below:

Section 47MM
(a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: “Behavioral health services”, care and services for the evaluation, diagnosis, treatment or management of patients with mental health, developmental or substance use disorders. “Telehealth”, the use of synchronous or asynchronous audio, video, electronic media or other telecommunications technology, including, but not limited to: (i) interactive audio-video technology; (ii) remote patient monitoring devices; (iii) audio-only telephone; and (iv) online adaptive interviews, for the purpose of evaluating, diagnosing, consulting, prescribing, treating or monitoring of a patient’s physical health, oral health, mental health or substance use disorder condition.

(b) An individual policy of accident and sickness insurance issued under section 108 that provides hospital expense and surgical expense insurance and any group blanket or general policy of accident and sickness insurance issued under section 110 that provides hospital expense and surgical expense insurance that is issued or renewed within or without the commonwealth shall provide coverage for health care services delivered via telehealth by a contracted health care provider if: (i) the health care services are covered by way of in-person consultation or delivery; and (ii) the health care services may be appropriately provided through the use of telehealth; provided, however, that an insurer shall not meet network adequacy through significant reliance on telehealth providers and shall not be considered to have an adequate network if patients are not able to access appropriate in-person services in a timely manner upon request. Coverage shall not be limited to services delivered by third-party providers.

(c) Coverage for telehealth services may include utilization review, including preauthorization, to determine the appropriateness of telehealth as a means of delivering a health care service; provided, however, that the determination shall be made in the same manner as if the service was delivered in-person. A policy, contract, agreement, plan or certificate of insurance issued, delivered or renewed within or without the commonwealth shall not be required to reimburse a health care provider for a health care service that is not a covered benefit under the plan or reimburse a health care provider not contracted under the plan except as provided for under subclause (i) of clause (4) of the second sentence of subsection (a) of section 6 of chapter 176O.

(d) A health care provider shall not be required to document a barrier to an in-person visit nor shall the type of setting where telehealth services are provided be limited for health care services provided via telehealth; provided, however, that a patient may decline receiving services via telehealth in order to receive in-person services.

(e) A policy, contract, agreement, plan or certificate of insurance issued, delivered or renewed within the commonwealth that provides coverage for telehealth services may include a deductible, copayment or coinsurance requirement for a health care service provided via telehealth as long as the deductible, copayment or coinsurance does not exceed the deductible, copayment or coinsurance applicable to an in-person consultation or in-person delivery of services. The rate of payment for telehealth services provided via interactive audio-video technology may be greater than the rate of payment for the same service delivered by other telehealth modalities.

(f) Coverage that reimburses a provider with a global payment, as defined in section 1 of chapter 6D, shall account for the provision of telehealth services to set the global payment amount.

(g) Insurance companies organized under this chapter shall ensure that the rate of payment for in-network providers of behavioral health services delivered via interactive audio-video technology and audio-only telephone shall be no less than the rate of payment for the same behavioral health service delivered via in-person methods; provided, that this subsection shall apply to providers of behavioral health services covered as required under subclause (i) of clause (4) of the second sentence of subsection (a) of section 6 of chapter 176O.

(h) Health care services provided via telehealth shall conform to the standards of care applicable to the telehealth provider’s profession and specialty. Such services shall also conform to applicable federal and state health information privacy and security standards as well as standards for informed consent.

Mental healthcare without boundaries

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In recent years, video communications (e.g. videoconferencing and telehealth) capabilities have gone from being expensive, hardware-based resources to inexpensive, cloud-based resources. Now, the driver for wide-scale adoption in healthcare is not what this technology costs, but rather how smoothly and seamlessly it can be integrated into existing clinical workflows, IT systems, and business environments.

So how does one get started? Well, the first inclination may be to reach out to your local telecommunications or media services company. However, high-quality video no longer requires special hardware or expertise. You can now get high-quality, high-definition video on devices that you, your organization, or your employees already own (newer smartphones and tablet computers) and which many would-be patients/consumers now have or could readily obtain. As a rule of thumb, any mid to high-level personal or laptop computer sold in the last ten years is probably “video-conference” ready.

Here are two approaches: a “minimal” list of requirements and a recommended “ideal” setup:

Minimal Requirements Ideal Requirements
Computer Any video and audio-equipped computing device or smartphone Laptop or desktop computer  (min. 1.8GHz Pentium i5/i7 processor and min. 4GB memory)
Camera Built- in camera External HD camera (e.g., Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920
Audio Built-in audio External speakerphone or headset such as Jabra Speak 410 or Plantronics Savi w740
Internet DSL or 4G connection (Minimum 500mb/sec. upload/download speed Home-type cable/broadband connection, with  1Gb/sec. upload/download speed and less than 50ms latency

Once you’ve got the requirements in place, the next step is to provision a video conferencing service. (Note: if you’re using a PC, think of the PC as a phone, and the video service provider as the phone company, or carrier.) Generally, you can purchase HD video conferencing from a service provider for less than $50/month. This would provide a fully encrypted, HIPAA-compliant solution. And, because many video service providers will sign business associate agreements,  (check this out—hipaa or CFR?) eliminating privacy and security issues.

One such video-as-a-service (VaaS) provider is Connexus (www.connexusvideo.com), a solutions provider in both traditional as well as “new paradigm” video communications technologies.  Connexus’ president, Jonathan Schlesinger, states that one of the most import issues to consider when utilizing video in telehealth is what happens if a call gets interrupted for technological reasons: What are the patient support and recovery procedures?

“You want to make sure you have good procedures in place in the event a call gets interrupted,” explains Schlesinger. “Therefore, while VaaS providers can get you provisioned with a service and started in virtual healthcare delivery in literally a few minutes, it is important to spend a good deal of time to put together a strategy for urgent psychiatry situations as well as routine therapy use.” Indeed, if a patient says they are suicidal and shuts off their connection, organizations will be liable and need protocols in place to handle situations such as these.

Resources to help

These service providers – and other organizations like them – provide high quality Video as a Service (VaaS), plus needed support.

Company Telephone URL Uniquness
Connexus 800-938-8888 www.connexusvideo.com Self service
ID Solutions 877-880-0022 www.e-idsolutions.com Extensive support options
Quest 800-326-4220 www.questsys.com Full healthcare data services
Yorktel 732-413-1839 www.yorktel.com Custom solutions
Xtelesis 888-340-9835 www.xtelesis.com Cost-effective solutions

From a technology readiness point of view, Amnon Gavish, the SVP Vertical Market Solutions at Vidyo (www.vidyo.com), talks about other important but less known technology related considerations. “One of the things we have seen is that the quality (defined as high definition and low latency) of video is much more important in mental health interactions than in other telemedicine scenarios, as mental healthcare encounters are typically much longer than a traditional 5-10 minute primary care or specialist interaction. These are longer consultations so key factors in the effectiveness of using video are supporting a smooth conversational flow and consistency of experience. If the experience becomes cumbersome and video issues affect the quality of a session, the effectiveness of the session can be compromised causing the physician and patient will lose interest in meeting in this manner.”

Gavish also cautions you need to ensure the patient on-boarding is quick and foolproof. One way to do this is to have the patient bring his or her home computer to an initial session, during which you can ensure it is properly set up to receive a telehealth visit. Another option is to ask your telehealth solution provider if their software can provide a single-click or web-based software installation and test process, so you won’t have to provide user support.

Whenever you’re going to work with a patient at home, Gavish advises that “you need to do an excellent job at teaching them how to select and set up their equipment and ensure they have adequate lighting and privacy to ensure a good-quality experience.” Because it is typical to begin a therapeutic relationship with a face-to-face encounter at the provider’s office, there’s almost always an opportunity to explain important requirements, provide educational materials, and help patients ensure that they’re ready to receive a telehealth appointment.

Utilizing cloud based video visit services minimizes your financial exposure. “There are enormous business advantages with VaaS as you are able to scale up with a very, very low cost,” states Schlesinger. “Putting together the brick and mortar infrastructure for that type of footprint would be cost prohibitive, but if an organization makes that investment later, the virtual practice will help them to determine where to locate based on the volume of calls they have made.”

The Mercy Way with Telemedicine

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St. Louis’s Gateway Arch stands as the iconic monument symbolizing the westward expansion of the United States. Today, it might stand for the nationwide expansion of telemedicine for St. Louis-based Mercy, which is currently in the process of building a $90 million virtual care center along with a new specialty hospital and corporate offices.

At the core of Mercy’s vision for telemedicine is Mercy telehealth services in the Center for Innovative Care. We recently had the pleasure at being introduced to some of Mercy’s telemedicine leadership through a tour of Mercy’s SafeWatch TeleICU, an ambitious implementation across the Mercy healthcare system that connects 10 hospitals and 350 monitored ICU beds. Recognized as the nation’s largest single-hub electronic ICU program, Mercy is demonstrating to the world that telemedicine can and does save lives, lowers costs and improves how we deliver care today.

What impressed us most was that the speed by which the SafeWatch program was implemented, with the majority of the center being up and running in just 12 months and fully operational in 18! Now Mercy’s telehealth program is expanding beyond far beyond SafeWatch, under executive director Wendy Deibert’s leadership, and has expanded to over 75 telemedicine projects that span across the care continuum.

To learn about Mercy’s SafeWatch program and new virtual care center, visit Mercy’s Newsroom.

Healthcare Experience Design 2013 – Improving Communication for Better Health

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Healthcare Experience Design 2013 is just around the corner, and SBR is excited to be back to join some of today’s most innovative designers, technologists, product managers, researchers, entrepreneurs, visionaries and dreamers in the healthcare space. Exploring the intersection of healthcare and design, HxD’s featured speakers include visionary game designer Jane McGonigal, ‘The Happiness Project’ author Gretchen Rubin, Kaiser Medical Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion David Sobel, MD, PatientsLikeMe co-founder Jaime Heywood and many more. All will address their burning mission for health, and the role design thinking plays in improving the quality of health service delivery and helping us achieve better health.

For The Impact of Virtual Health Delivery Networks on Healthcare session, SBR Health CEO Christopher Herot will present a case study on how video communication is being leveraged by some of today’s leading healthcare delivery institutions to support the virtualization of care delivery across health care networks to enable them to increase access, drive down costs and improve outcomes.

 

When: Monday, March 25th, 1:40-2:10 PM EDT                                                           Where: The Westin Waterfront, Boston MA, Commonwealth conference room

Visit the HxD website for more details on Chris’ Monday session, other speakers and the agenda for this year’s conference.

 

How cloud-based video is disrupting healthcare delivery

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Telemedicine has been a market with a bright future for a long time but there are barriers to adoption due to cost, ease-of-use and reimbursement. Christopher Herot, CEO of SBR Health, is an innovator in the telemedicine space, who saw these barriers as opportunities for disruption, and is making it easy to get started and scale e-Visit programs to deliver care more effectively, and with greater operational efficiency. SBR Health’s automated call and skills routing management solutions allow healthcare providers to increase patient accessto care, reduce costs and readmission rates and extend service reach by delivering care virtually through video visits. In this interview, Chris describes how cloud-based video solutions are revolutionizing healthcare delivery by seamlessly integrating into clinical workflows to connect patients with doctors, specialists and membersof the care team in real-time, at any location and using any device.

Q: What role does video play in patient engagement, and how is it being used today?

People have known that patient engagement is key if you want to bend the cost curve in healthcare. The US spends twice as much as the most developed nations in the world on healthcare per capita, and we rank 18th in terms of life expectancy so clearly something’s wrong.

Until recently, there weren’t a lot of breakthrough ideas. One area that holds a lot of promise is applying things we’ve learned with online games and other interactive tools. We’ve learned what motivates people and that there’s no substitution for face-to-face interaction. What’s driving healthcare, more specifically health IT, these days is convenience and usability. With the widespread adoption of easy-to-use and low-cost video communications tools like Skype and Vidyo for both business and personal use, consumers are learning that real-time, interactive face-to-face communication is a very easy to use and efficient way to communicate and asking “why can’t I do that with my healthcare provider?”

Q: There’s a lot of excitement around the telemedicine bill referred to as the ‘Telehealth Promotion Act’ that proposes expanding reimbursement for telehealth services for federal programs and creates a federal standard for medical licensure in telehealth. How will this impact healthcare as we know it?

It’s time. There have been a lot of needless barricades in terms of using communication technology as a tool for conducting doctor patient visits but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The real growth is going to come from transforming healthcare, not just automating, and doing away with the reimbursement, licensing and credentialing issues impacting telemedicine. Our theory is we can have a big impact on outcomes by not just automating traditional on-site visits but allowing people to interact in a more comfortable, frequent and less burdensome manner for both patients and providers.

Q: What have been the major barriers in using telemedicine, and do you think these can be resolved in 2013?

In the past, it’s been the reimbursement and regulatory issues. As far as technology, it’s been a cost barrier. Until late, there hasn’t been widespread consumer acceptance of face-to-face video communications. But now you have a whole generation of consumers raised on technology, and a generation of parents using technology to check on their kids.

Telemedicine has shown a lot of promise but as it’s required expensive equipment and highly trained people, progress has been slow. The future, call it telemedicine or something else, is letting patients and doctors connect with each other, regardless of location or device.

Q: The bill also includes incentives for hospitals to lower readmissions with telemedicine. What impact is SBR having on reducing readmissions? Are there any success stories you can share or relate to?

There was a recent meta-analysis done that looked at the impact of remote monitoring on the health outcomes of patients with chronic heart disease. By acquiring and transmitting real-time patient data to the care team, and creating opportunities for timely intervention, the remote monitoring programs were found to help reduce hospital readmissions and mortality rates, and also improve patients’ quality of life. The analysis demonstrated a high degree of variability with some interventions resulting in better health outcomes than others, so it’s too early to tell what the gold standard for clinical intervention is.

We’re just now at the point where we’re assessing the rate and process, and enthusiasm for adoption. What we do know is that both doctors and patients are looking forward to being able to more readily use these types of interventions.

Q: Do you anticipate more insurers will cover telemedicine in 2013? What is the argument for relaxing reimbursement constraints?

In my conversation with payers, they’re waiting for the data that indicates that they’ll save money or get better outcomes and not just a way for docs to get paid for something they used to do for free. More insurers are willing to pay on an ad hoc basis or to experiment. Everyone is waiting to see for the definitive results.

Q: Progress is slow but steady. As you’re on the forefront of change, what are your hopes and predictions for how telemedicine, particularly virtual visit programs, will help to advance and redefine care delivery today?

If you want to buy an airplane ticket, do your banking or find someone to marry you can use your cellphone, laptop, tablet, etc. The only thing you can’t easily do is use these same technologies to talk to your doctor. What I’m hearing from consumers all the time is that there’s a pent-up demand for bringing medicine into that same on-demand, low latency universe that we take for granted in every other part of your life. What’s been pleasantly surprising for us is a lot of the doctors are looking for ways to be more connected with their patients, and they really do care about providing a good experience for them. Contrary to how people look at doctors, there’s a feeling that medicine has become really impersonal, and what I’m happy to find is that doctors really want to do something about it.

Technology may allow us to deliver a more personal healthcare experience that will both make us feel better and get better.

Q: What is the easiest way to start using telemedicine, and what can I expect in return?

The implications for healthcare by incorporating video into the care delivery workflow are huge. By moving away from the expensive, hardware-based telemedicine systems to cloud-based video solutions that can be customized and require minimal change management, hospitals and healthcare systems are able to improve access to clinical resources, serve hard to reach patients, control costs, and improve patients’ health outcomes and overall experience. The world of healthcare is dynamic, and SBR Health is solving the problem of integrating telemedicine, specifically video, into clinical workflows to revolutionize care delivery to be more efficient and effective.

 

SBR Health Technical Requirements

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SBR Health’s solutions are deployed utilizing a client/server architecture. Here’s what you’ll need to participate in our test Wednesday.

SERVER:

The SBR Health application server runs as a service on any version of Windows (32 or 64 bit) that includes .NET 4.0 or above (Windows 2008 recommended). This ap- plication server can be located on a client’s own premises, on SBR Health’s servers, or hosted by a 3rd party. An instance of MySQL server is also required and can run anywhere — it does not need to be located on the SBR application server but it is highly recommended it be collocated.

CLIENTS:

The client-side applications are Windows based thin client applications. Supported OS’s are XP with SP3, Windows Vista, Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit). Clients will be available soon for Android and iOS devices as separately supported options. The Clients communicate to the SBR Health application server via TCP/IP through port 5501. SBR Health does not dictate any special client side hardware requirements, but since this client PCs must also run a video conferencing client, it is recom- mended that they be at lease 1.6GHz and have a minimum of 2GB of memory. These PCs must also be equipped with a camera, microphone and speakers.

INSTALLATION:

Installing and setting up an SBR Health server is very easy. SBR Health provides an installation program for which installs and configures the application service. This server application is then pointed to an instance of MySQL server. SBR Health also provides a MySQL script that builds the database and all required tables. The build also configures the server to point to the video communication server(s). On the client side MS Installer scripts (.msi) are supplied for installing the SBR Health client applications. These can be staged on a web server so that links can be provided to the users (doctors and patients) so that the appropriate application is downloaded and installed. If any firewall is in use where SBR Health client applications are be- ing utilized, the firewall must be enabled to allow one way communication out through this port as follows: “ALLOW TCP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5501” where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the SBR Health application server.

 

Healthcare, Homelessness and Hope

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SBR Health and a new Boston-area nonprofit, Found in Translation, share an important core value: connecting patients and healthcare professionals through better communication. Found in Translation is the brain-child of Executive Director Maria Vertkin, who thought it would be a good idea to connect homeless, bilingual women with free job training to become medical interpreters, whose average annual salary is over $40,000. In Boston shelters, more than 40% of families identify as Hispanic/Latino (Source: Annual Census Report), and many are bilingual women.

Maria, an Israeli citizen born in Russia, saw an opportunity to help bilingual women by creating a program that offers not only a 12-week medical interpreter’s certification course, but common sense support such as child care and transportation. The Kip Tiernan Fellowship Committee at Rosie’s Place saw the opportunity too, and awarded Maria with a $40,000 start-up grant in 2011. Found in Translation graduated their first class of 21 women, selected from a pool of 164 applicants, in April 2012.

“The potential for women in this job field is tremendous,’ said Maria, who has worked as an interpreter and translator since she was a teenager. ‘Our program participants are looking at a 500% income increase. That not only helps the women and their families, it helps fill a need in the hospital workforce and improves the quality of healthcare for non-English speakers.”

Today, hundreds of low-income, bilingual women are waiting to apply for their next training cycle in 2013, hoping for an opportunity to use their language skills to create a better life for themselves and their families.

The next few months are critical for Found in Translation – additional funds are deeply needed to continue this important program.  Party Around the World is the organization’s first annual fundraiser – a multi-cultural celebration with live Latin, African and Chinese lion dance performances, multi-cultural foods, and world music. It takes place at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA on November 16, 2012 from 6 to 10 pm.  Tickets are only $55 general admission and $25 for students/starving artists. Please buy tickets, enjoy a fun night out and support this great organization!

 

For more information about Found in Translation, please visit their website: www.found-in-translation.org or contact Maria Vertkin at maria@found-in-translation.org

 

Why Innovation Requires Letting Go to Drive Change

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This year’s 2nd Annual Digital Health Conference put the spotlight on efforts to advance healthcare innovation in New York and beyond. While the big apple is home to some of today’s biggest name celebrities like Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, talk of progress on health information exchanges and the secure sharing of data, as well as new mHealth and telemedicine tools, was top of mind at the conference.

Featured over the two-day conference were keynotes with Dr. David Brailer, Chairman of Health Evolution Partners, and often referred to as the ‘grandfather of health IT’, and Stephen Dubner, journalist and award-winning author of Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics, as well as breakout sessions on some of today’s hottest topics in healthcare.

One of the most well attended and thought provoking sessions was the ‘mHealth Innovators Panel’ with Ben Chodor, CEO of Happtique, as moderator and Leonard Achan, Vice President and Chief Communications Officer at The Mount SInai Medical Center; Wendy Mayer, Vice President, Worldwide Innovation at Pfizer; and Martha Wofford, Vice President, Head of CarePass at Aetna as panelists. By addressing the goals, perspectives and challenges of using mHealth for care delivery, this hour-long panel offered key insights on mHealth’s potential to revolutionize the healthcare ecosystem from the key players in the market including hospital providers, physicians, patients, pharma, payers and programmers.

Q: How do you convince the C-suite that innovation is important?

Wendy: My team drives innovation platforms with a focus on transforming digital to support business and develop capability tools across the organization. With digital, you can innovate more quickly. Pfizer is still working towards a corporate digital strategy but has come a long way.

Q: How has innovation changed?

Martha: There’s been an explosion of applications. Now it’s more about navigating the ecosystem and connecting the best pieces brought to market.

Leonard: We’re further along now. Once you get the C-level support and get past the threshold of change, then you build trust and it’s easier to move forward.

Q: What’s the best innovation out there?

Wendy: Accessibility to healthcare beyond the local environment and the global implications of providing care and extending care more broadly.

Q: What’s the best thing about CarePass?

Martha: Allowing people to see a different future with data and get them there. We’re excited about all the things you can plug into mobile. You can revolutionize access to care around the world.

Leonard: The $7 trillion impact of mobile in low and middle income countries across the globe. A lot of more simple technologies will be transplanted from countries around the world.

Q: Why do people say they want mHealth but not everyone is using it?

Wendy: The existence of mobile technology in places where there is no alternative of care allows for quick adoption. Here in the U.S., the alternative is the person, the doctor. We have an immense amount of data from the traditional care delivery approach and less reliable evidence and data to allow doctors to let go and feel more comfortable with mobile. Mobile as a new means of communication is difficult to assess the impact.

Q: What advice would you give to startups?

Wendy: Do your homework around issues that pharma is dealing with. Vendors come in and talk about solutions that don’t connect to our business strategy. We’re looking for ideas that address our challenges and solve real problems.

Leonard: You have to do a lot of research ahead of time. We used to let everyone in. It was a disaster for entrepreneurs pitching to executives and not doing their homework. It’s important to understand the business goals. If you’re going to save lives and money, you have a chance but you really have to differentiate yourself.

Martha: CarePass is attracting developers with new solutions. We’re working collaboratively with other organizations to inspire innovation. We may be further along but not yet attracting the best and brightest. We want to create a community for developers to help us innovate and drive change. https://developer.carepass.com/

 

Innovation Gamechangers

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This past week, SBR had the chance to sit down with Boston Children’s Hiep ‘Bob’ Nguyen, MD, Director of Pediatric TeleUrology, and his research fellow Chad Gridley to discuss some of the projects underway that are innovating care delivery. Bob, recently named a Champion of Healthcare by the Boston Business Journal, is a real game changer who is always at the forefront of revolutionizing care through the utilization of new technologies to better facilitate communication and engage patients.

Q: How is Boston Children’s innovating today?

Boston Children’s is a very forward thinking hospital. They recognize the capabilities of current technologies and are doing a great job of utilizing them. I think they’ve done an especially great job of creating mobile device apps. For example, hospitals are known for being difficult to navigate. The hospital has created a free app that is downloaded to your phone that helps patients and their families get to anywhere in the hospital.

Q: What are the challenges in innovating?

The most challenging aspect is trying to advance multiple projects simultaneously. The hospital has a wealth of innovative staff and given our close proximity to world-class educational institutions, there is never a shortage of startups wanting to collaborate with the hospital.

Click to watch interview

Q: How is video communications shaping innovation in care delivery? Why is this important?

Video communication is bringing patients and healthcare providers closer together than ever before. The process of getting a child ready, driving to the hospital, and sitting in the waiting room can take the better part of the day. For many parents, this is a great burden and sometimes isn’t even an option. By utilizing available technologies, patients can more easily reach their physician from their own home. This has the potential for increasing patient satisfaction as well as increasing patient follow up.