Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1034012
60 Executive Briefing Microsoft is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We believe in what people make possible. Elements of effective care monitoring include: • Personalized patient health data • A "next best action" digital prompt for every care team member that interacts with a patient • A mobile-accessible patient portal • Provider alerts based on care gaps • Workflows furthered by event triggers, such as the recent availability of test results Additionally, providers should not treat technology platforms as passive, record-keeping instruments in care delivery, but as tools that facilitate information-sharing and teamwork. Teams of providers should be able to look at the same data and communicate insights about the same patient — all in one place. These solutions bolster a culture of support and collaboration, and ultimately allow for the continual improvement and personalization of care through the open sharing of best practices. For a comprehensive approach to personalized care to be truly successful, providers need to be supported. Streamlining care coordination can help unburden clinicians, allowing them to better serve patients. The real-life benefits of digital patient engagement Just as providers need to be supported, patients need to be activated. For personalized care plans to succeed, health systems must prioritize digital patient engagement. Patient engagement is more than just a healthcare buzzword, it's a means of improving outcomes and thereby reducing costs, especially among chronic disease patients. In a comprehensive analysis of previous research published in the journal Health Affairs in 2013, researchers found engaged chronically ill patients were "more likely than those with lower levels [of engagement] to adhere to treatment; perform regular self- monitoring at home; and obtain regular chronic care, such as foot exams for diabetes." When looking for a patient engagement solution, it's important for healthcare organizations to find technology that allows for the continuous engagement of patients and encourages them to actively collaborate in their own care. Girish Shirali, MBBS, a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., has witnessed the benefits of digital patient engagement firsthand. His hospital used patient engagement technology to improve care for infants born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a form of single ventricle heart disease. These infants often require multistage surgical interventions and, on average, 20 percent of infants die before the second surgery can be performed. At Mercy, parents would be sent home with three-ring binders, in which they would record vital signs. The parents would return to the hospital once a week with these binders for clinician review. "If the team is doing weekly evaluations on Monday, then maybe a baby's chance of surviving is better if something happens on Sunday versus Tuesday, which is a really sad issue in the care paradigm," Dr. Shirali said. Dr. Shirali decided to implement a digital approach to the at- home care of these patients in hopes of improving outcomes. Dr. Shirali collaborated with a software architect to create a Cardiac High Acuity Monitoring Program, which allowed the infants' vital signs to be documented digitally from home. CHAMP was implemented at Mercy in 2014. Over the course of the following three years, all 70 of the hospital's single ventricle heart disease patients survived the interstage period between surgeries. A call to action for personalized care The current challenges facing the global health system — rising costs and increasing incidence of chronic disease — require improving the overall health of patients. Prioritizing patient engagement and care coordination while empowering providers with actionable analytics and genomic data can help achieve the aspirations of the quadruple aim: improve both the patient and provider experience, improve the health of populations, and lower the overall cost of care. Microsoft healthcare technology solutions were designed with these aims in mind. These solutions are built to help healthcare organization evolve toward a more personalized approach to care. Personalized care is not simply the application of precision medicine in tandem with a dash of patient engagement. Personalized care is a comprehensive approach to medicine, executed with the help of emerging medical science and technology and underpinned with a value-based ethos. Many providers today already embrace different aspects of personalized care disparately, but how many providers simultaneously prioritize genomics, clinical analytics and leading-edge patient engagement solutions? It's time healthcare got a little more personal. n