A short case study that shows what Big Tech–and attuned clinical IT people–can do under pressure. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a Harvard Medical School affiliate, had at the start of the Covid pandemic limited and multiple telehealth systems for 1,400 physicians. They quickly adopted systems such as SnapMD, Google Meet, Zoom, Doximity, and Doxy.me. They were not interoperable nor did they interface well with their EHR. While this was going on and in parallel, BIDMC’s tech team developed and deployed a new integrated telehealth system using Amazon Chime on the existing AWS platform. This integrated video conferencing into workflows with telehealth tools such as multiple participants, security, EHR integration, live translation, and chat equipped with Google Translate. Despite this, BIDMC physicians at the virtual peak of 66% in March-April 2020 were still conducting 73% of visits telephonically. By June 2021, video visits as a percentage of total telehealth were 50% in June, with 65% of the video visits done on the new platform. HealthcareITNews.
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