Mobile technology is natural fit for nurses who travel to patients. And according to Steven Landers, MD, CEO of the New Jersey-based Visiting Nurse Association Health Group, mHealth options fit right into the group’s ongoing efforts “to make sure that best information is at the fingertips of the nurses.”
During the "Using Mobile Anytime, Anywhere" session at the HIMSS Media mHealth Summit, Landers will explain how his organization has used mHealth to enhance its services. While noting that “operationally, we still have a ways to go,” he points to a number of uses of mHealth that the organization has incorporated into its workflow. These include the deployment of its clinical information system via tablets, using social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook for patient education, and the use of mobile technology to enhance continuing education opportunities for staff members.
He also pointed to VNAHG’s involvement in video nursing pilot projects, as well as the hiring of its first-ever CMIO, as indications of the organization’s intention to expand its use of mobile health technology.
Given his organization’s work with hospitals and other provider groups, Landers has developed a fairly wide-angle view of how, or whether, the healthcare sector is embracing mHealth technology.
In recent years, he noted, “the EMR adoption surge has been the focus (for many hospitals), and that initiative hasn’t really emphasized mobility.”
That said, Landers added, as care coordination becomes more important, in the form of ACOs and other new alliances, mobile solutions have become more logical. In that respect, visiting nurse organizations can play a key role in mobile adoption.
After all, he said, having adopted a mobile platform as the foundation of its own work, VNAHG is in a good position “to encourage hospitals and physicians to at least be open-minded about mobile health.”
With a background in both general family medicine and geriatric medicine, Landers said he’s particularly interested in how mobile health can be applied to the needs of an aging population.
For example, “most hospice patients are cared for at home, and this is another area where I think we can better address the needs of both families and caregivers using mobile health concepts.”
More information on the HIMSS Media mHealth Summit can be found at http://www.mhealthsummit.org/program-details/overview.
