At Partners Health 6th Annual Connected Health Symposium in Boston, during a presentation by Verizon's VP and Managing Director Rajeev Kapoor, the carrier distributed marketing materials that laid out the carrier's healthcare offerings and highlighted a number of the carrier's wireless health partners, which included a number of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion's healthcare partners.
Verizon breaks down healthcare into four key categories: Home care, patient monitoring, prescription and electronic medical records. For home care Verizon highlighted its partner Xora's OnCare application for home health care workers that it claims can increase revenue by increasing patient visits thanks to increased efficiency and time saved. OnCare also reduces costs because it accurately tracks mileage and reduces paperwork, Verizon said. For patient monitoring Verizon did not disclose any partner companies' names, but the photo appears to be one of Verizon partner LifeWatch's solution, which is for remote cardiac monitoring through smartphones and sensors connected exclusively to Verizon Wireless' network. For drug interaction, e-prescribing and EMRs, Verizon has Epocrates and Thompson Reuters Clinical Xpert Navigator app highlighted.
It's worth noting that Verizon seems intimately tied to BlackBerry for its health solutions as a number of the key partners listed are shared between Verizon and RIM. Here's a rundown of a few of those listed: Wallace Wireless' WIC Pager application for BlackBerry devices. Xora's OnCare home health care worker application also for BlackBerry devices. Thomson Reuters Clinical Xpert Navigator for BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Mobile devices. The app provides clinicians with access to medical databases and repositories as well as patient records and histories. Clinicians can view results, treatment history and procedure, patient tracking, prescription lists, billing information and more, according to the company. Epocrates products work with most BlackBerry Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices (understandably they did not include the iPhone on that list, because the phone is exclusive to AT&T.) The software maker highlighted its Epocrates Rx with MultiCheck, which susses out drug interactions for 30 different drugs at once, according to the company. The app also includes national and regional health care insurance formularies, tables and calculators and more.
Verizon also lists its telemedicine offerings as: conferencing, unified communications/voice over IP, wireless communications and devices, contact center solutions and third party offerings, including: MedAptus, which is an app that helps clinicians find patient information, code, dictate, write prescriptions and manage revenue at the point of care.
Throughout the booklet, Verizon points to various metrics that point to the need for healthcare IT solutions like the ones they offer: IT healthcare solutions and services can help organizations save close to $165 billion annually, according to the carrier. The carrier also cites a report from the Insight Research Corporation that estimates $800 million per year could be saved if more treatment was shifted from physician's offices to home health visits.
For more, check out this podcast Verizon put together about its Connected Health group.
