Spectrum Health Adds Mobile Access to Patient Portal
Cambridge, Mass.-based InterSystems Corp. announced that Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health has launched a new smartphone app that provides fast, easy access to personal health information via the health care provider's MySpectrum Web-based patient portal.
The InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration and development platform enables the data aggregation and gathering of patient information across the Spectrum Health system for delivery to the portal.
With corporate offices located in Grand Rapids, and a footprint that covers the entire state, Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit system of care dedicated to improving the health of families and individuals. Recognized nationally as a leader in top-tier care delivery, Spectrum Health was named one of the nation's top 10 health system by Thomson Reuters in 2010.
The smartphone app is the latest evidence of Spectrum Health's organizational focus on improving patient care delivery by increasing the level of engagement between patients and physicians, according to Kim Gordon, integration solutions manager.
"The MySpectrum portal was a major step in that direction," she said. "MySpectrum is a patient-centric Web portal that combines patient and consumer functionality, allowing Spectrum Health to offer patients electronic access to their medical records. The portal is based on a patient-centric philosophy with Ensemble used to integrate data across the enterprise to ensure a seamless clinical experience for patients wherever they may access or receive services."
All Web services, data, data maps and transformations are delivered to the portal via Ensemble, which is used to integrate six disparate systems and multiple information repositories.
"With Ensemble, our solution also provides a dashboard and control mechanism for the HL7 integrations involved in MySpectrum. This makes it possible to monitor, stop, start, and visualize data as it flows to and from the portal," Gordon said.
Patients can use the portal for activities such as pre-registering for treatment, requesting an appointment, paying bills, checking an outstanding balance, viewing test results and discharge summaries and receiving messages. And, the new smartphone app now makes it possible for mobile healthcare consumers to:
* View wait times at Spectrum Health's five urgent care centers
* Access lab test results and appointments securely through their MySpectrum Web site account
* Get phone numbers, addresses and maps for Spectrum Health locations
* Find a physician
* Check symptoms.
"We view MySpectrum as a resource for valued health information that provides patients with the information they need when they must make informed health decisions," Gordon said. "And, from a business perspective, MySpectrum will increase patient loyalty and grow market share. Ensemble provides the rich set of capabilities and solid development platform we need to orchestrate data from rapidly changing and expanding data repositories and to continue the evolution of MySpectrum in order to achieve Spectrum Health's goals for next-generation health care."
Said Paul Grabscheid, InterSystems vice president of strategic planning: "Spectrum Health's ability to leverage sophisticated technology for information delivery is a good illustration of the breakthrough solutions being delivered by the end-user organizations and application partners using our advanced technologies."
