3 real-world use cases to inspire your next initiative

The Innovation Opportunity in Healthcare IT

You’ve seen them. The next-generation healthcare IT solutions.

They’re futuristic and awe-inspiring.

Yet seemingly out of reach for all except the leading healthcare groups.

In truth, these innovations are within your grasp today.

Game-changing technology is now obtainable for many.

Forward-thinking teams are using smart infrastructures and endpoints to improve patient experiences.

What can you do with more connected patients, providers, and staff?

How can patients benefit from video, mobility, and more?

Questions like these are sparking inspiration for healthcare leaders.

For healthcare, it’s innovation time

The goals of healthcare IT innovation

Improve patient experience

Enhance quality of care

Increase productivity

Increasing engagement

through video

Inspiration: What’s possible today Let’s look at a few real-life use cases that you can use to help enhance your care strategy.

Along the way, you’ll gain insights from those who helped pioneer these applications.

Sharing information via mobile devices

Enhancing safety with

environmental sensors

Increasing engagement via videoWhen you picture telehealth, what do you see?

For many, it’s the traditional model. Patients at home, speaking via video with care providers.

However, many are using video throughout the entire patient experience.

Such as the team at Atlantic Health System in northern New Jersey.

“We’re trying to map virtual care technology to the entire patient care continuum. From admitted inpatient to the general population,” says Pat Zinno, director of IT infrastructure at Atlantic Health System. “When patients are in the building, the engagement is really high. We want to continue that through the entire care experience.”

He has a point. Consider how many areas video can be applied to.

At Atlantic Health System, Zinno and his team deployed many tele-services, including the e-ICU, in-room patient-provider communication, telestroke, and telepsychiatry.

In the e-ICU, they’re using live video to keep a close eye on patients. A constant video feed keeps the caregivers aware of what’s happening. And it helps ensure that patients feel looked after and receive prompt care. The result is a constant sense of connection.

“[Patients] like the sense of the camera, someone being at their bedside,” Zinno says. “Thinking out of the box and thinking big about the enterprise are the keys to rounding out virtual care.”

Potential telehealth applications• Specialty care: Pediatrics, behavioral health dermatology

• Emergency triage

• Telestroke

• Urgent care

• Provider to provider

• Medical education

• e-ICU

• Provider to patient

Enabling technology

• Cisco Unified Communications

• Cisco Webex and virtual care

• DNA for Healthcare

Learn more about Cisco telehealth solutions.

Sharing information via mobile devicesOver the course of a visit, patients can feel confused about medical terms.

And with many staff members involved in their care, they can feel lost in the shuffle and unsure of what’s happening next.

Not two feelings you want in your patient experience.

Today, organizations are using mobile devices to keep patients, doctors, and nurses connected and informed.

At Oschner Health System in southeast Louisiana, CTO Steve LeBlond and team, led by chief clinical transformation officer Dr. Richard Milani, have created a program called Optimal Hospital. All nurses have smartphones, while both patients and providers are given iPads.

Nurses receive alarms and can message with providers. Physicians use their iPads for messaging with nurses and entering notes. The enhanced collaboration helps ensure patient needs are met quickly and allows clinicians to work on the go.

Patients can review their treatment plans and access more information about their conditions—while they’re wearing wireless vital sign monitoring technology that’s designed to reduce interruptions. It’s about reducing stress and keeping them involved in their treatment. Since they never feel lost or uninformed, they find their visit to be more comfortable and less confusing.

The mobility initiative also extends to home care. A new mother’s program allows women to skip routine OB appointments by monitoring basic vital statistics at home using connected devices. Reducing the required travel helps reduce inconvenience, too.

Enabling technology

• Mobility in healthcare

• Wireless

• Apple and Cisco Fast Lane

See how we’re helping transform the patient experience.

Enhancing safety with environmental sensorsThe more data your organization has, the more ways you can find to enhance your operation.

For many, environmental sensors are capturing critical information. And helping keep patients in the know.

At Nicklaus Children’s Health System (formerly Miami Children’s Health System), Ed Martinez and team are using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to gather detailed location data.

“With BLE, we can track within one to three inches of accuracy, at a cost of less than two dollars per tracking device,” says Martinez.

The team is exploring how real-time information can provide extra peace of mind to patients.

For instance, using sensors to track hand hygiene.

“Imagine being able to understand when a provider walks into a room, accesses a geofenced environment, and clicks on the dispenser,”

says Martinez. “And now imagine that an LED light in the room turns from red to green. So the patient and family know that the provider they are about to interact with will have clean hands.”

Nicklaus Children’s Health System is also planning to use BLE to protect patients. “We all look at fall prevention. But that’s no good when the patient has already fallen,” says Martinez. “What if the patient we’re tracking moves into an area where a fall can occur? We can notify through the electronic medical record that the patient may be at risk of falling. Or, what if patient walks into the bathroom and they are there way too long? Now we can track and know we have a problem.”

The team’s ideas for implementing sensors are creative. It makes you wonder: How else could environmental sensors be used?

With the right infrastructure in place, you’ll find a lot of potential.

Enabling technology

• Connected Mobile Experiences

• DNA Analytics and Assurance

• Meraki Location Analytics

Find out more about location analytics and wireless solutions.

The innovation has only just begun

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Here’s the best news of all.

While the examples we’ve shared are groundbreaking, there are already many more on the horizon.

Technologies such as AI, robotics, and smart voice assistants are emerging quickly. Whole new frontiers for care enhancement.

The key to enabling both today’s and tomorrow’s IT applications?

A network that’s up to the task.

Traditional networks lack automation, intelligence, and agility. They can’t keep up with the needs of connected healthcare.

And innovation is more essential than ever to your competitive edge. You’ll soon need a new kind of network to stand out.

That’s why Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA) makes networking simple, intelligent, and automated. It’s an intuitive foundation for innovation. And it can help you make your own groundbreaking use cases possible.

“ The old network was like the circulatory system, pumping blood to and away from the heart using a series of pipes. The next-generation network will work more like the nervous system, taking in sensory information, learning from it and changing its behavior based on its sensory environment.”

Barbara Casey Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences, Cisco

Learn more