Another Day, Another App, Another Satisfied Customer

How might health care providers use technology to turn customers' mobile phones into information displays and ordering devices? A few years ago, the NY Times outlined how retailers are doing it...

"(Designer Norma) Kamali is at the forefront of a technological transformation coming to many of the nation’s retailers. They are determined to strengthen the link between their physical stores and the Web, and to use technology to make shopping easier for consumers and more lucrative for themselves.
...

Cisco Systems, the supplier of networking equipment and services for the Internet, is also a leader in the field. The company’s Mobile Concierge system is capable of connecting customers’ smartphones to retailers’ wireless networks — so a shopper could type “Cheez Whiz” into a cellphone, then pinpoint its location in the store."

Ms. Kamali's boutique installed a technology called ScanLife, "allowing people to scan bar codes on merchandise and obtain details about the clothes through video."

Potential health care applications? Let's see. It could go like this...

Perhaps cancellations and other snafus are making it difficult for your CT department to maintain a full schedule. Time is money as the hum of an empty scanner proves. Encourage patients needing a CT scan - those with flexible schedules - to download an app announcing their willingness to respond to a "We've just had a cancellation. Can you be here in 10 minutes?" message.

Now the patient arrives, lost and disoriented from the long trip in from the parking garage. Where am I? Good question. Waving her phone in front of a bar-coded icon on the wall sends a map and location to her phone.

Now the PATIENT knows where she is. You might also benefit from knowing.  And of course your CT department is also interested in smoother workflow and improved customer service, so...

Create an app to give the department a 10-minute "heads-up" prior to the patient's arrival. Patients who sign up and download the app can be detected as soon as they set foot in the hospital. Their paperwork is ready before they walk in the department's door. They're greeted by name.

What if she gets lost on her way to CT? Create an app that recognizes her current location in the facility and delivers turn-by-turn directions on her phone. Sort of a private-label, in-house MapQuest.

Need to deliver just-in-time teaching information or post-procedure instructions? Scan the appropriate procedure or diagnosis bar code and download a short teaching video to her phone.

You know when the patient arrived, now use that same app to track when she leaves, generating "time-in-the-door to time-out-the-door" data as important additions to your productivity and patient satisfaction metrics.

Once the system flags the patient's departure, send an alert to the referring physician saying something like "Thanks for your referral. Your report will be ready in 30 minutes."

As a thank-you to the patient for keeping your schedule full, send her a real-time electronic coupon for a free latte at your in-lobby Starbucks. The bar code allows for instant redemption and tracking.

Your patient needs reminders for follow-up visits, vaccinations, mammograms, cancer screenings? Apps, apps and more apps.

And of course nothing in a hospital would be complete without a committee to discuss it all. Wondering if this conference room is available for an impromptu meeting and for how long? Point your phone at the room number and and the embedded bar code will tell you.

And so ends another day at "Point & Click Hospital."

Developers include Cisco Systems with its Mobile Concierge system and I.B.M with a product called Presence.

The Sam's Club division of Wal-Mart, Crate & Barrel, Kerr Drug and Disney stores are among the retailers deploying mobile technology, with major roll-outs starting as far back as 2011.

11:46 AM

An App That Tries to Predict the Future of Cities

From TheAtlanticCities  "The Harvard Graduate School of Design released the new Ecological Urbanism app last month. The interactive app, available at the iTunes store, adapts content from the GSD book of the same name, which explores how designers can unite urbanism with environmentalism. Combining data from around the world, the app "reveals and locates current practices, emerging trends, and opportunities for new initiatives" in regard to the future of cities." Imagine something like this for predicting the future of health systems and hospitals, combining measures of community health, strategic trends, financial viability, with experts from around the world adding data and context. Hmmm.

12:32 PM

I'm An Entrepreneur!

Buy this print here.

9:08 AM

Just me being creative!

Somewhere in Texas, I think.

12:19 PM

Your Next Health Coach May Be...

...your car.  From Edmunds Inside Line:

"Ford cars and trucks may soon be able to tell you when to take a puff on your asthma inhaler or test your blood glucose level, as the Dearborn automaker is poised to take its Sync communications system far beyond infotainment.

"The Dearborn automaker offered a tantalizing — if somewhat disconcerting — look on Wednesday at the potential for a vehicle to be your partner and coach when it comes to health and wellness.

"Ford said it was intent on demonstrating a paradigm shift in the way its Sync communications system is used. In the not-too-distant future, a car could let you know the UV index so you could apply the proper amount of sunscreen, monitor your food choices at McDonald's, or check your calendar to see whether you'll be playing sports that day and may need an extra puff or two on your asthma inhaler.

'"We're not trying to turn the car into a medical device," said Alan Hall, a Ford spokesman in a phone conversation with Inside Line. "We're a conduit for healthcare to become mobile."'

As they roll out their own health coaching strategies, do physicians and hospitals see Ford as competition? Maybe they should. And I'll bet Ford gets there first. 

Actually, turning the car into a medical device is fine with me. I'd much rather deal with my mechanic than my HMO or some clinic's wretched appointment scheduling system.  My mechanic only charges an arm and ONE leg.

7:32 AM

 Randy Lewis writing in the LA Times, discusses a little-known aspect of Steve Jobs' legacy: 

"Stevie Wonder said Thursday that he sought Jobs out late in his life to express his gratitude for matters that went well beyond what he and his company did for music.

"The one thing people aren't talking about is how he has made his technology accessible to the blind and the deaf and people who are quadriplegics and paraplegics," Wonder, 61, said. "He has affected not just my world, but the world of millions of people who without that technology would not be able to discover the world.

"His company was the first to come up with technology that made it accessible without screaming out loud 'This is for the blind; This is for the deaf.' He made it part of the actual unit itself. There was application inside the technology that allowed you to use it or not use it.

"The iPhone, iPad touch, iPod touch, all these things, even now the computer, are accessible to those who are with a physical disability," the 25-time Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter and instrumentalist said."

9:36 AM

Doctors Learning to Speak "Iowan"

From Iowa Public Radio: Doctors Learning to Speak Iowan at Mercy Medical Center in Mason City, IA.

"Learning to speak English is one thing, learning to speak Iowan may be something else entirely. Iowa, especially in its more rural areas, has many foreign-born physicians practicing in clinics and hospitals. On today's program, we’ll find out about an innovative program in Mason City that helps doctors understand our state with courses like "Topics for Small Talk with Iowans." We'll talk to the teachers in the program at Mercy Medical Center North Iowa, Univ. of Northern Iowa professors Mark Grey and Michele Devlin. We'll also hear from the man who devised the program, Dr. David Little, and Family Medicine Residents Dr. Sreevalli Dega and Dr. Anileen Prabhakaran."

10:22 AM