Masimo

The healthcare community is only now beginning to fully understand the capabilities and opportunities that remote monitoring will unlock for patient care in the next few years, according to Prof Afzal Chaudhry, director of digital, CIO and CCIO at Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust.

Automated patient monitoring has been central to the digital response of hospitals to the pandemic. Jean-Baptiste Michon, product marketing manager, interoperability and solutions at Masimo, suggests it can also help to drive emerging value-based care models. HITN: What do you see as the current patient monitoring trends, especially those which have been heightened during the pandemic? Michon: I think we all learned a lot during the pandemic! Caregivers need to have real-time information to prevent patient deterioration as early as possible. This is not only in critical care environments. For online management, for continuous monitoring systems, we have seen that innovation and digitalisation of healthcare – screen replication outside the room, mobility solutions, access to the patient’s status – and new ways of collecting data can help. We have seen some changes in the hospitals moving to these kinds of technology. HITN: How critical do you think integration with other systems such as the EMR to continuing this shift? Michon: Very. The trend in patient monitoring is to use more mobility solutions, more tetherless sensors, for the comfort of the patient and the caregiver. This is what we have learned during the pandemic, and it is also part of interoperability, because when you use such sensors you need connectivity to collect the data to your own and other systems. Patient monitoring is at the centre of integrated care but it is also a piece of this puzzle. HITN: How can we overcome interoperability challenges so that everyone on the care continuum benefits? Michon: Apart from the technical challenge, everyone has to know and understand that the solution exists. The second challenge is managing the IT ecosystem and sometimes change management into the hospital, talking about interoperability, continuous monitoring, so we can improve care everywhere. These changes are key, part of how we are able to maximise the value of the patient data collected at the bedside. Interoperability is many things. It focuses on the continuum of care but also we are now moving into value-based healthcare systems. We need to be able to understand and demonstrate the value of interoperability in hospital automation solutions. HITN: What other ways do you think data will play a role in the development of these more streamlined care models? Michon: Today everything is about data, analytics, AI, predictive medicines. If you are talking about early detection, sepsis management, you need this patient data. One of our baselines is “do more with patient data”. We need to have the vision of the full ecosystem and then, with such a medical interoperability platform, to be able to connect, collect, send and integrate the data. HITN: So we are talking about an environment in which patient monitoring data can also be used to improve other aspects of hospital administration and workflows? Michon: Today we are talking about the continuum of care. When we start to look at patient workflows, we are looking more at bringing the hospital into the home. The system begins and finishes there. The patient themselves will be more engaged and involved in their care. In the pandemic, we were also able to provide some solutions to monitor the patient at home. I think this is a great patient experience. It will also simplify the hospital workflow, and the workflow into the hospital. And improve the clinical outcome – but outside the hospital. HITN: How would you define hospital automation in 2021? Michon: For me, you can define it in the rule of four As: Acquisition of data, Aggregation (we are able to apply some algorithm to detect or prevent patient deterioration), Accessibility (so the caregiver has access to the right patient data at the right time), and last but not least Actionable insights. Healthcare IT News spoke to Jean-Baptiste Michon, product marketing manager at Masimo, as part of the 'Summer Conversations' series.  

The delivery of health and care services is undergoing a revolution. Medical devices, wearables, and remote monitoring technologies are being widely implemented, with the support of advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics. By gathering critical data in real-time, connected devices can enable healthcare organisations to have a precise and continuous view of their patients, monitor and adapt care pathways and treatments, and rapidly react to prevent complications. But are health systems and workforces ready for this change? A HIMSS webinar, sponsored by global med tech firm Masimo, examines the challenges and how connected devices could help health organisations reach new levels in digital maturity and improve clinical and financial outcomes. Connectivity during COVID There has been high demand for continuous monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Masimo Product Marketing Manager, Interoperability & Solutions, Jean-Baptiste Michon. “We’ve seen that interoperability and digitisation can really help the daily job of caregivers. A few years ago, we introduced the Masimo Patient SafetyNet solution to offer patient surveillance remotely. We are also able to provide smart view with supplemental or duplicate screen outside the room. In the pandemic it’s been really important to have such technology for isolation rooms.” Mobility solutions have also been deployed to provide clinicians with quick access to patients’ health status during the COVID crisis. These include technology such as tetherless, wearable sensors which can measure temperature or prevent pressure ulcers. “Patients can wear small devices connected using Bluetooth or wi-fi which allow them to walk around the hospital and the data is collected and sent to the caregiver and the monitoring station,” says Michon. Clinicians can use specific handheld devices or mobile phones with dedicated apps, which provide remote access to the monitor and can escalate real-time alerts and alarms. “In this case connectivity is really important because it means that the patient is monitored continuously, even if the caregiver is another room or not in front of the monitoring station,” continues Michon. The ‘human factor’ Healthcare organisations face two main categories of interoperability challenges, which Michon terms the “human factor” and the “technical factor”. “I think the first challenge is the human factor. Connectivity is the link between the BioMed environment and IT environment. In the hospital, the BioMed and IT departments have to work together to succeed. They are not two separate teams,” he says. A further human challenge is supporting clinicians to adapt to the workflow changes that connectivity and interoperability bring. “We need to support them in this change, and that is part of the project management,” says Michon. “A few years ago, we asked clinicians to move from paper medical records to electronic medical records (EMRs). It was a huge challenge for them, but now they understand that the Eis a real plus.” Likewise, he argues it is now important to demonstrate the benefits of interoperability to clinicians. “We’re trying to make their daily lives easier by collecting data automatically. In fact, patients, caregivers, nurses, the IT department and BioMed will all win something in interoperability projects,” he adds. Technical Challenges Healthcare organisations must also negotiate the technical challenge of connecting devices to various systems. “We have many different ways to connect and to collect the data. Platforms like Masimo’s automation solution can help because they are able to connect nearly any kind of device” says Michon. Joining the puzzle pieces If they are to optimise the use of connected devices, Michon believes organisations must move towards value-based healthcare environments. “I like to focus on the budget, on the cost and on the ROI because we need to be 100% sure that today and tomorrow, we are able to connect all the devices in the hospital,” he explains. “Interoperability is not just one product, this is really about creating and providing solutions. It’s like puzzle pieces - all the pieces of the puzzle can standalone, but they can also be plugged together. It’s the same for interoperability solutions and value-based healthcare.” Looking to the future In the future, Michon predicts that continuous monitoring will become standard not just in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), but to simplify the daily job of caregivers in all hospital wards. “Masimo’s interoperability systems can provide a real solution to connect any device, to integrate and to standardize the data. Standards are the way we communicate and how we understand each other.” However, he adds that even proprietary protocols used by some manufacturers can use this dedicated platform to collect and send data in real-time to third parties. “The third party could be an EMR or a PDMS, an alarm management system or maybe a database for analysis purposes or for AI. People are connecting devices both in the hospital and outside the hospital. As a patient or as a consumer for example, I can connect my own medical devices my own sensor to my mobile phone. This is not the future, this is happening today. Connecting devices is standard now.” These topics and more are discussed by health, information and technology experts in the HIMSS webinar. It offers the opportunity to learn about the state of play for the integration of connected devices data into EHRs and clinicians’ workflows, plus strategies and best practices to promote clinician engagement. The webinar also examines the importance of the interoperability of connected devices to build an efficient digital continuum of care and integrate new data source insights into clinical pathways. “Interoperability is key in the hospital environment for IT and for biomed. This is mandatory now. It’s common. It used to be a static frontier, with two different words, we’re now pushing this frontier. In fact, we see that there is no frontier anymore,” concludes Michon. Find out more in the webinar: Connected devices: Pushing the frontiers of interoperability

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Connecting medical devices across the continuum of care is one of the most pressing challenges facing healthcare institutions today. Global medtech firm Masimo provides interoperable solutions to improve patient safety and provide clinicians with accurate data.