Welch Allyn Announces EHR Integration Agreement with Greenway EMR
Welch Allyn announced today that they've inked a deal to provide integration between their medical devices and Greenway's EMR, Practice Management, and Managed Care software products.
Welch Allyn devices with Greenway's software will allow providers to
transmit patient data directly into electronic files that can be
transferred to an existing EHR–eliminating the need for manual data
entry by providers, increasing efficiency and alleviating the risk of
transcription and latency errors. Data that can be collected and
transmitted automatically includes multiple vitals parameters, as well
as, more complex cardiopulmonary diagnostic testing images, data
measurements and clinician test interpretation.
The thing to note here is that medical device integration with clinical information systems is substantially different from integration done in an acute care setting (i.e., hospitals). Physician offices have no IT departments and probably haven't ever heard of HL7. In this market, device vendors provide an SDK (software development kit) that software vendors like Greenway integrate into their products (with the device vendor's help, of course). This type of integration is done on a per vendor basis, and provides “plug and play” integration. Welch Allyn has built up quite a roster of EMR vendor's who have incorporated their SDK.
Medical device integration in hospitals is done using HL7, which is decidedly not plug and play. Although there is an exception to this – Philips recently introduced a line of low acuity patient monitors with HL7 straight out the Ethernet port. (You can read a brief write up from the AAMI meeting here.) This has never been done, and if you don't have the largest market share in patient monitors I wouldn't advise it.
More Disaster Response Wireless Connectivity
Entree Wireless has packaged the Kyocera mobile router (previous post here) in a rugged, self-contained battery/charger/equipment package to provide a portable Wi-Fi hotspot.
enclosure provides an internal plate for mounting a Kyocera KR1 EVDO/Wi-Fi
router, or
similar electronic device. It includes room for storage of cables and other
small devices and provides an internal 12V battery power connector for use
with standard vehicle power adaptors. For typical applications, such as to battery power the Kyocera KR1 router, the
84 watt-hour WBP will
operate for 20 hours on a single charge and can be recharged in less
than 3 hours via the built-in multi-mode charger. There are several
options for extending the range of the EVDO/Wi-Fi.
Very cool. This is just the thing for a temporary triage area to support wireless computing devices, patient monitors and other wireless medical devices.
Grand Rounds 2:42
Grand Rounds is up today at donorcycle, an interesting blog written by the Queen of all Transplants (a kidney transplant coordinator). Enjoy!
