Achieving automation through apps

Just like any other busy professional, physicians are always searching for ways to offload and automate tasks that are not their core business—caring for people.

This issue’s medical apps, together with input from end-user physicians, merit your consideration.

Luma Health fills canceled appointments through patient texts

The Luma Health solution is about as significant as the challenges that it solves. Appointment cancellations and no-shows lead to make-shift approaches to scheduling and rescheduling patients: paper lists, Post-It Notes and Word documents.

Not to mention the hours staff members spend calling patients to finalize appointments. This process scales poorly at best. And the larger the practice, the more the chaos.

“Luma Health enables practices to automate appointment workflows and reduce appointment cancellations. It automatically identifies appointment cancellations—filling those slots from a waitlist, no phone calls required. The app reschedules canceling patients as well,” says Tashfeen Ekram, M.D., co-founder of Luma Health.

The Luma Health app and service uses secure SMS messages that meet HIPAA requirements. “Our first point of contact reminds patients about their appointment, providing additional pertinent information such as co-pays and pre-appointment instructions,” says Ekram.

The SMS message prompts the patient to confirm or cancel. The app pulls the real-time message data from the patient and records it for medical staff to access in a centralized dashboard.

Shahriar Heidary, M.D., is a non-invasive cardiologist in San Jose, California, whose practice is part of the South Bay Cardiovascular Medical Group. Heidary was looking for an easier way to fill canceled appointments for office visits and tests when he found Luma Health.

“I enjoy the fact that it is automated, saving time,” he says. “Multiple users can use it. Patients like the app’s streamlined approach. Receiving a text is easier, and the app can send texts in multiple languages.”

It’s also mobile-enabled. “I am able to use it from my iPhone and my Windows PC,” says Heidary.

For future versions of Luma Health, Heidary would like to see expanded text-based communications that include reminders about a patient’s required exercise time, medication regimens and billing payments.

OR TRAX sends surgical schedules to support the operating room

OR TRAX is an electronic medical standard database that enables providers to send surgical schedules to surgeons and medical device vendor representatives who supply products such as implants, instrumentation and support to the operating room.

“The app is free of any PHI (Protected Health Information) and is only accessible to vendors who are credentialed at the given facility,” says Abram Liverio, COO of OR TRAX.

OR TRAX’s database returns time to health care professionals, strengthens HIPAA compliance, and reduces OR expenses that would result from vendor tardiness. It’s unique in that it transmits this information in real time, notifying surgeons and vendors automatically of case time changes, cancellations and reschedules.

Ira Guttentag, M.D., FACS, is the head team physician and medical director for the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. He was looking for a technical solution to keep him abreast of what surgeries he is performing, when and where they will take place and any changes to the cases.

“Prior to adopting OR TRAX, my office staff or PA would coordinate between the surgery centers, the vendor representatives and the hospital staff to set up and change appointments and case times. Then they would relay the information to me,” says Guttentag.

OR TRAX automatically notifies Guttentag of changes to procedures and guarantees that the proper vendor representatives, trays and implants will be available at each case time. “I just wait for the notifiers to come in on my updated cases screen,” he says.

Guttentag’s favorite features on the app include the ability to check case times, locations and particulars anytime, with live updates.

Pingmd builds professional networks for referrals an consults

Kenneth E. Grant, M.D., head of gastroenterology at CHOC Hospital in Orange, California, was used to texting, paging and calling his fellow physicians to make referrals, and was interested in a tool to ease the process.

Then he found pingmd, which secures transmissions of unstructured data—such as messaging content, still images, videos, PDFs and synchronous video chat—in a HIPAA-compliant manner.

“The app enables practitioners and health care providers to build their professional networks to manage care transitions, referrals and consults efficiently,” says pingmd CEO and cofounder Gopal Chopra, M.D.

“It enables patient engagement to manage patient queries, surveys and care management for primary, specialty and chronic care.”

Grant uses the app every day in support of consults and reports enhanced productivity when working on complex decisions that require group interactions in real time.

“Now I benefit from efficient referrals from my external primary care network and the availability of better and more secure communications with my colleagues and care teams,” he says.

His favorite features of the app include the video chats, VoIP, networking, referrals and its ease-of-use when compared with other solutions.