Even more so, with increasing costs of healthcare provision with age, the picture is clear; healthcare providers could make a sea change if the relevant bodies were to take a lead from banking institutions by offering online accounts for patients to manage their own health that could lead to overall operating cost savings as well as benefits to the patient with long term chronic conditions. I know this is a naïve thought, particularly if one is familiar with current healthcare ICT systems and who would pay for such a thing, but its not far from the reality as the following samples illustrate.

• Indivo
• Wellness Layers
• MS HealthVault
• GroupNos
• SilverCloud Health
• SwiftQueue

[/column]
[/row]These are just a sample and there is a multitude of healthcare apps on the market today (a recent visit to EHI Live proved that), but when there is an array of solutions that sometimes offer the same functionality, a differentiator is required to encourage mass uptake. To achieve "first to market" an avenue worth looking into is health insurance or large medical device companies and I'll discuss this at a later point.

EHRs

It goes without saying that the future healthcare landscape relies on implementing a nationwide integrated EHR system, but this post is focused on personal health as opposed to enterprise systems. OpenApp are strong advocates of integrated EHRs and more information on this can be found by clicking here and filtering for VistA related topics.

Interoperability

I am clearly advocating technology to advance all aspects of healthcare delivery. I am but even more so, I am advocating the advanced form factor wearable monitoring device. But without clean, easy to use software with a single point of access such as an online health platform, the uptake and mass appeal of wearable technologies / medical devices will be limited. Realistically, a truly efficient system is an integrated system, which leads to development of technologies and software with inter-operability at its foundation.

Summary

At OpenApp we are focusing on the collection, management, and communication of health information through our Clinical Assessment and Registry Platform. The system is not an EHR in its traditional definition, it is interoperable at its core and has two views; a patient view and a health profession view. If you’re interested in finding out more, contact info@openapp.ie for more information.

Finally, for anyone that is interested in the current state of wearable technology, the current issues, and the future direction, you should listen to this discussion.