Healthcare Platforms Integrate More Devices, Data as Sector Rushes to Modernize

Healthcare is leaning further into platform models as device and app proliferation and new technologies upgrade a system long in need of digital transformation.

In one of several recent developments, General Electric (GE) announced March 15 the coming debut of its Edison Digital Health Platform, described in a press release as “a vendor-agnostic hosting and data aggregation platform with an integrated artificial intelligence (AI) engine.”

As hospitals confront legacy technology and payments issues exposed by the pandemic, what’s emerging is the need to bring more tech and data together in environments that parse medical information accurately and swiftly, leading to better outcomes faster, including lower costs.

“Edison Digital Health Platform is being designed to enable healthcare systems to have a single platform on which to host and integrate apps into clinical workflows,” GE Healthcare Chief Digital Officer Amit Phadnis said in the release.

The connected trend is gaining velocity as patients, health systems and insurers see more seamless solutions to everything from initial diagnosis to final payment.

“A lot of healthcare in this country hasn’t been [focused] on wellness and preventative care,” Wheel Founder and CEO Michelle Davey recently told PYMNTS. “With virtual care, we’re seeing a lot of that evolve. We’re seeing health and wellness companies add virtual care offerings to their platforms or applications so that the patients who are pre-patients — they’re just consumers at that point — are getting access to care from clinicians.”

Read also: Healthcare Payments Get Patient-Centered Overhaul in 2022

GE noted in its release that platforms give providers a cost- and labor-efficient way to speed up digital innovation while growing revenue and improving patient and employee experience. The company added that it is recruiting providers and ecosystem participants “to help evaluate the platform in a production setting.”

See also: ‘Telehealth 2.0’ Will Blur Lines Between Virtual and in-Office Care

Digital Healing on TV

In other connected healthcare developments, LG Electronics and telehealth platform Amwell announced March 10 they are teaming up on an ambitious project to bring greater connectivity inside and outside hospital settings by expanding platform capabilities.

“LG will develop a healthcare platform to host services from Amwell’s digital health platform — Converge, Converge-integrated and other third-party services, leveraging LG devices and peripheral technologies,” according to a press release.

In related news, Samsung is partnering with cloud-based medical data platform ShareSafe for new in-room video technology that will eventually have in-home applications.

According to a March 15 press release, the company’s latest Smart Healthcare TV line integrates with ShareSafe’s mobile app to integrate electronic health records (EHRs) and other content, allowing clinicians to display information from multiple sources onscreen.

“We believe our mobile-to-Samsung Smart Healthcare TV integration not only optimizes the real estate on the large screen, but creates an entire new canvas for improving patient care,” ShareSafe CEO Robert Hanson said in the release.

PYMNTS research found that 2.1 million more consumers accessed healthcare products and services online in December than one month earlier, and 2.8 million fewer consumers booked in-person medical appointments in December than in November.

Read more: Consumers Rush Online to Shop and Stay Well