Clean Data Enables Solutions
From the Desk of Julie Smith:
Who would have predicted two years ago that healthcare would be the daily topic of global headlines for over a year? With the COVID pandemic now familiar – though no less devastating – we have all become accustomed to symptom questionnaires, testing positivity rates and vaccine distribution pathways. What makes this possible is healthcare IT: the days of paper screeners, manual data entry and siloed workflows are faded memories.
And the ones most often interacting with that technology? Nurses. According to the State of the World’s Nursing 2020 report compiled by the World Health Organization, International Council of Nurses and Nursing Now, nursing is the largest occupational group in the health sector, accounting for approximately 59% of health professionals. Whether at the bedside of critical care patients, meeting the needs of those in disaster areas or watching over children in schools, nurses can be found sprinkled across the healthcare ecosystem, leveraging technology tools to support members of our communities. From birth to death, we are witnesses to life unfolding. It is no wonder that nurses have rated first for most ethical and honest profession in Gallup’s 2021 poll for the nineteenth year in a row.
As COVID vaccine rates rise, nurses continue to stand at the forefront of care. What started as a sprint for many now feels like an ultra-marathon with glimmers of hope at long last beginning to emerge. Here at InterSystems, HealthShare has engaged with you, our customers, throughout this global phenomenon to facilitate success.
One of those initiatives has involved ensuring nurses have the data they need at their fingertips – giving them access to an individual’s entire longitudinal record in ways that make sense, fit into their workflows and are easy to use. Working with clinicians across the world to better understand needs, we have taken strides to improve usability, access and breadth with easier navigation tools, intuitive screens and expanded data.
Placing tools in hands to better deliver care is what HealthShare is about. In this issue of HealthShare Connections, we offer details on key advances being brought to you in our HealthShare 2021.1 release and spotlight how we continue to strive towards excellence with Meredith Staszak’s work in Personal Community, our patient portal solution. We also take a look at some of the work you have been doing: highlighting an implementation at Baystate Health and an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Healthcare summit we hosted in Germany.
To my colleagues around the world, thank you for what you do.