Various clinical departments at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai have announced they are leveraging a software as a service (SaaS) platform to integrate previously unavailable patient-generated data directly into their electronic medical record (EMR).
The platform, which officials from Hoboken, N.J.-based healthcare data SaaS company Noteworth attest is interoperable, will aim to enable physicians and care teams to more seamlessly collect, analyze and visualize essential patient health data between office visits, allowing for more comprehensive levels of health data clarity for patients outside of the clinic. For the partnership, the vendor will work with the obstetrics and gynecology department, the Heart Institute, and the Anna and Max Webb Family Diabetes Outpatient Treatment and Education Center (DOTEC), all at Cedars-Sinai, over a three-year span, according to the organizations’ agreement.
To preserve the clinical staff’s existing workflows, Noteworth integrated into Cedars-Sinai’s electronic medical record in a one-month timeframe. Now, when a participating physician wants to know about their patients’ health when they are outside the clinic, they simply place an order from among a wide array of biometric (blood pressure, blood glucose level, weight, etc.) and behavioral data (medication adherence, mood, activity, etc.) directly within the EMR, officials say.
Noteworth then curates a set of FDA-approved at-home medical devices matching the data order, delivers it to the patient’s door and provides support for patient onboarding and continuing device use, all via the Noteworth App (iOS and Android). Once a patient begins taking readings, their HIPAA-compliant data is delivered directly back to the EMR in actionable, clinically relevant reports and optional, customizable notifications that care teams can implement, officials explain.
The three programs will aim to allow Cedars-Sinai to better manage a wide variety of patients: the Heart Institute program will help patients with hypertension, congestive heart failure and other cardiovascular conditions; the DOTEC collaboration will address patients who have diabetes, thyroid disorders and other endocrine diseases; and the partnership with the obstetrics and gynecology department will focus on maternal fetal medicine patients who have high-risk pregnancies and related conditions such as gestational diabetes, according to officials.
“Providing healthcare is no longer just about seeing the patient when he or she comes to the office. Noteworth is improving how we deliver care, giving us a way to continuously engage and monitor our patients,” said Joan August,, vice president, service line operations at Cedars-Sinai. “They have tackled an issue that has application for patient populations with chronic diseases to stay healthy while potentially reducing utilization and readmissions.”
