AMC Health Introduces Innovative Technologies to Improve Patient Engagement, Experience

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- HIMSS Conference, Booth #8265, Kiosk 47 -- AMC Health, a leading provider of end-to-end telehealth solutions, today announced it will be previewing three new technologies at HIMSS14 in Orlando that will help providers drive better outcomes for patients in remote care settings inside and outside the home. The company will be showcasing these innovations in booth 8265, kiosk 47, which is located in the Intelligent Hospital Pavilion, Hall E.

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The new technologies include a mobile platform built on the Android operating system, a revolutionary telehealth conferencing system that allows clinicians to initiate more meaningful interventions with patients via voice and video, and an extension of its cloud strategy that is designed to improve the patient experience as well as engagement. All are supported by AMC Health's proven clinical expertise and services which allow the company to deliver a much deeper, richer patient experience than can be created with technology alone.

Enhancing AMC Health's already robust interventional telehealth solutions, the new mobile platform has been created to give patients and providers more options to use for their interactions – especially patients who are not bound to a single location. In the past, devices monitoring the health status of the patient were connected to AMC Health through a modem that transmitted information via a cellular provider network, limiting them to a single location.

With the new mobile platform, this same information can be delivered over an Android smartphone using standard wireless carrier networks. As a result, patients can travel to the grocery store, attend their grandchildren's soccer games or visit friends in other areas with confidence that they are always connected with their provider or clinician. Initially, smartphones will be given to patients by their providers, although AMC Health plans to extend the mobile platform to work with user-owned devices, including those on Apple's iOS and Windows OS, as the platform grows.

"Our new mobile platform is a tremendous step forward for patients, especially those leading more active lives," said Lloyd Mangnall, CHCIO, the newly installed CIO at AMC Health. "There is no interruption in the care they're receiving because it can now follow them as they change locations. We chose to build our platform on the Android OS because its openness and flexibility allows us to start bringing the benefits of a fully mobile care system to patients more quickly. In addition, the low cost for an Android smartphone makes it more practical for clinicians to provide devices to patients who either don't have one or don't have good coverage in their area."

Kevin Fickenscher, M.D., CPE, FACPE, FAAFP, new Chief Medical Officer at AMC Health added, "By virtue of having served more than 60,000 patients in the last decade, we can surmise that we already have the largest store of in-home patient data in the country. Using the mobile platform to continue collecting data even when patients are away from home will not only help us serve their immediate needs better; it will give us a broader base to draw from in order to create better patient outcomes."

Video and Voice Conferencing to Initiate Interventions

Another new capability AMC Health plans to preview at HIMSS14 is an extension of the new mobile platform that enables video and voice conferencing across those same smartphones and tablets. Rather than the usual focus on patients contacting providers and clinicians for consultations, however, AMC Health's video and voice conferencing technology will allow clinicians to initiate patient interventions when needed. Nurses or other interventionists will be able to see and speak live with patients whose monitoring systems have triggered alerts in order to perform more thorough assessments.

"While the vital signs and data are important, they don't always indicate the full severity of an event," Dr. Fickenscher said. "For example, a sudden spike in temperature or blood pressure may indicate the possibility of a stroke, but it could also be the result of other conditions. A visual and voice intervention can help the clinician make a more accurate diagnosis and, if a stroke is in progress, get patients the help they need faster, improving the ultimate outcome of the event. This outreach capability is also valuable in further assessing the medical state of patients who have not taken their medications as-prescribed or who have missed an appointment, especially if they have recently been discharged from the hospital."

AMC Health is integrating the new video and voice conferencing capabilities into CareConsole™, its FDA-approved web portal for clinicians. CareConsole, which was designed by clinicians for clinicians, works with an organization's existing system to make real-time information and reporting securely available to everyone who needs it. It integrates with multiple types of monitors and third-party EMRs to provide a single source of comprehensive information about a patient through diverse, real-time information (including biometric data, medication adherence data, self-reported symptomatic and behavioral data, and live data). Integration of video and voice conferencing into CareConsole will make it easy for clinicians to contact patients from within the system rather than having to use a separate technology.

Using the Cloud to Change Outcomes

These latest innovations are part of AMC Health's larger strategy to use the cloud not just to monitor health but also to take an active role in changing the outcomes.

"We are one of the few technology companies that is totally focused on care and care outcomes rather than the device or the delivery mechanism," said Mangnall. "That's why our platform is designed to work with any device today, as well as devices that haven't even been invented yet. Getting remote patients engaged in their own health care is a worthy endeavor, but we don't want to stop there. We also focus on how technology improves the patient experience. That is a vision that Kevin and I share. We don't want to just change how health care is delivered. We want to changes lives."

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About AMC Health
Headquartered in New York City, AMC Health is a leading provider of telehealth solutions that provide customized, scalable, cost-effective programs that assist organizations serving at-risk populations and those conducting clinical trials. A proven combination of technology and end-to-end support services enables safe, dependable monitoring at home. AMC Health's remote patient monitoring programs deliver clinically actionable information that enhances care coordination, improves patient outcomes, improves the quality and reduces the cost of clinical trials, and reduces the overall cost of healthcare. For more information, visit www.amchealth.com.

Contact: Jodi Amendola
Amendola Communications for AMC Health
[email protected] 
480-664-8412 ext. 11

SOURCE AMC Health