Choosing the Right Partner For Your Medical Device EMR Integration Project
A connected medical device is often a long-term investment, and its ability to integrate with your electronic medical record (EMR) is critical. Do your clinical teams know what questions to ask vendors to help evaluate their potential for years to come?
In this article, we will share a list of topics to cover with medical device/EMR integration vendors to help you choose a partner that is positioned for growth and continued innovation with your EMR provider — and with you.
What is medical device connectivity and why is it important?
What is medical device connectivity? There is no singular definition, as the meaning may differ from one organization to another, and even go by different names. Whether it’s called connectivity, integration or interoperability, at a high level, it generally refers to a technology’s ability to share information with other technologies — whether they are designed by the same vendor or a third party.1
Whatever you call it, connectivity methods and philosophies should be discussed early in any medical device EMR integration project. There are many languages and standards that can be used to share data within a connected care ecosystem.2 The right partner’s approach will support your organization’s current state — and your vision for the future.
Five questions to ask
While clinical stakeholders may not need to understand every detail (your IT and Informatics partners should play major roles in these discussions), you should understand how each medical device will share data, as it will directly affect your workflows. The following are key questions to ask connected medical device partners, along with our experts’ insights into each:
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1. How can your connected device help address the problem(s) I am trying to solve? |
You don’t need to jump right to the technical details. First and foremost, establish whether the solution in question is designed to help address your most pressing challenges. Begin with the problem in mind, and keep it at the center of the discussion. Details will follow, but they, too, should be focused around how they help address your problem.
“Let’s take the example of connecting infusion pumps to the EMR,” says Chris Gutmann, Vice President, Enterprise Technology & Value Generation at Baxter. “There are many problems this type of connectivity can help hospitals solve. When the pump can integrate with the EMR to tell it when infusion starts and stops, that is important data from a patient safety perspective. It can help clinicians free up time by removing a manual documentation step. It can even help simplify billing for the finance team with precise data around medication dispensing. It’s not just about sending data to the EMR; it’s about addressing real-world problems.”
Discover four clinical benefits of medical device connectivity
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2. What data sharing/communication protocols does your device support? |
The medical device partner you choose should have a proven track record of supporting your organization’s preferred languages and protocols. Rather than boxing you into certain choices, support for established protocols can help make a solution “open by design,” which can give you more flexibility for sharing data between systems.
“Certainly, from an Informatics perspective, you’ll want to see modern standards like HL7® FHIR®,” says Dipak Sahoo, RN, Director of Clinical Operations at Baxter. “You’ll want to hear from their experts who are proficient in building protocols and understanding how the interactions will need to work in your existing hospital environment.”
What is HL7 FHIR?3HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a next-generation interoperability standard created by the standards development organization Health Level 7 (HL7). The philosophy behind FHIR is to create a set of “resources” that, individually or in combination, can be exchanged between systems to satisfy most common use cases in healthcare. |
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3. Tell me about the team of people we’ll be working with. |
EMR integration decisions involve experts from many different teams. Your hospital’s evaluation committees will likely include stakeholders from clinical, IT and Informatics. Your partner’s team should include these types of experts, too.
“I like to see folks from nursing, IT and Informatics in these discussions together,” says Sahoo. “Say we’re trying to figure out how to handle a certain type of bed data. With these people together, they can work through things like: what does that language look like? How will it translate onto this page? What type of dropdown options do we need? What will verification look like? How can we reduce clicks? Ensure accuracy? All of those steps are important, so the partner you choose needs to bring all these types of expertise in order to understand and support your people in those roles.”
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4. How do you support cloud-based implementations? |
“The cloud” can mean different things at different organizations. Your partner’s healthcare cloud solutions should support your environment, now and in the future.
“Nowadays, the cloud is often defined by our customer,” says Gutmann. “For a small hospital, it may involve purchasing space in Amazon Web Services. At a large system, they may host and maintain their own cloud. They will have specific requirements for how we should connect to it and where data should flow. Your partner needs to be agile enough to support your vision of the cloud — not just their own.”
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5. Show me how you’ve done this before — and your plans for supporting it into the future. |
The languages and standards for a connected medical device supports are important. Equally important is tangible evidence of how they’ve done it before. Ask for examples of hospitals where they have solved problems like yours, and have them walk you through how they did it. Also ask about their future roadmaps, and ensure they are focused on technology not for technology’s sake — but to help your busy clinicians spend more time caring for patients.
“Look for a partner that will be there for the long run, and who can support you in multiple ways,” advises Gutmann. “A small start-up may be able to write a certain script to solve one issue, but a larger partner with broader experience can be leveraged to help address many problems — and you can be confident they will be here tomorrow, still innovating and still supporting you.”
“In terms of roadmap, predictive analytics are likely to be more and more important as we move into the future,” comments Sahoo. “Look for a roadmap that shows how the solution can help analyze data in a way that is forward facing. This kind of automation will never replace clinicians, but it can provide a sort of ‘extra set of eyes’ as they focus on so many other factors. There is definitely power in data there.”
The right partner should be right for all your stakeholders.
Medical device connectivity is not only an IT priority. It matters to stakeholders across the hospital — from the patient room to the corner office. Look for a partner that brings the right blend of clinical expertise, technical know-how and steadfast support to address all your teams’ needs. And remember — we’re here to help. Get to know how we see the future of connected care, then contact us to learn more.
Featured Contributors
Chris Gutmann, Vice President, Enterprise Technology & Value Generation | Baxter
In his current role at Baxter, Chris continues his 20-year mission of integrating medical devices to create and improve healthcare globally. He is continually exploring the possibilities of IoMT in conjunction with... Read Full Bio
Dipak Sahoo, Director, Clinical Operations | Baxter
With over two decades of experience in healthcare and medical technology, Dipak brings a rare and powerful blend of clinical expertise and industry acumen to the table. As a registered nurse, he has a rich clinical background spanning... Read Full Bio
