AirStrip Adds EHR Connectivity To Mobile Platform

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AirStrip Technologies Inc., which has developed software apps such as AirStrip Ob, AirStrip Cardiology, and AirStrip Patient Monitoring, recently announced that it has expanded its platform to include electronic health record (EHR) connectivity.

Previously, AirStrip's mobile apps gave doctors access to specific medical information in medical devices. For instance, AirStrip Ob let them see on their tablets and smartphones the data that was on a fetal monitor sitting at the patient's bedside. The new platform now gives docs not only access to bedside data but EMR data as well, so they also can see medication lists, medical diagnoses, and lab test results.

"We currently offer mobile applications that provide direct access to the Cerner Millennium and VA VistA EHR systems," Alan Portela, CEO at AirStrip Technologies, told InformationWeek Healthcare. "Adapters are being developed for other leading EHR vendors starting with those vendors currently installed at our customer partner medical centers."

Portela said that patient data systems at most institutions are unwieldy and underused, incompatible with one another, and difficult or impossible for busy physicians to access and read any time, anywhere.

[ To find out which medical apps doctors and patients are turning to, see 9 Mobile Health Apps Worth A Closer Look. ]

"For example, it can be very difficult and cumbersome to support patient care transitions from one location to the next with all the necessary information and documentation needed. Providers at the post-acute facility do not have access to the hospital information, and this can create gaps in care," Portela said. "With the new AirStrip EHR tool, for example, providers will be able to generate a Continuity of Care Document (CCD) from one EHR system and quickly and easily send it to another physician or provider via NwHIN DIRECT." NwHIN is a set of standards, policies and services that enable simple, secure transport of health information between authorized care providers. "This is a very useful feature for ACOs and the Medical Home, as it enables more informed transitions of care," he said.

Palomar Health, a public health system located in North San Diego, initially developed the AirStrip platform expansion. Orlando Portale, chief innovation officer for Palomar Health and co-inventor of the Medical Information Anytime Anywhere application (MIAA), said the platform is designed to be agnostic of a particular mobile operating system and the architecture uses a common standards-based API for AirStrip's native mobile applications.

"In terms of accessing legacy EHR systems, our mobile platform includes adapters for providing real time access to various EHRs," Portale told InformationWeek Healthcare.

Airstrip offers the expanded platform as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model on a subscription basis. So far it does not have a product name and is only being referred to as an expansion of the Airstrip platform. Other key features include:

-- Consolidated patient summary that allows providers to review patient information.

-- Real-time access to clinical information such as allergies, medications, laboratory results, medical images, clinical documentation and vital signs.

-- Cross-organizational view of patient information helps integrate care coordination, which in turn supports emerging ACOs and medical-home facilities.

-- Clinical context messaging, video, and voice integration that facilitates collaboration across mobile care teams.

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