I wish to explore whether the right kind of investment is being made in the field of healthcare information technology. There are many different ways to approach the issue, but I will focus on one: ROI, or Return on Investment. In order to do this, I am going to relate a personal experience and the conclusions I have drawn from it.

At the American HIMSS congress, a conference was held which was intriguingly entitled the “The Story of the Successful Implementation of an Electronic Health Record; Five Years’ Experience.” I attended along with a colleague, but when the speaker arrived we were confused, thinking that we had got the wrong room, as the person speaking was the Financial Director of a North American hospital chain of thirteen hospitals.

We checked the program and it was indeed the correct conference. The stand out points we took away from his forty minute speech were as follows: The organization’s objective was to make savings of 45 million US dollars over five years. So they chose a packaged information technology system and created a managerial committee to which a member of the financial department was assigned to help with the economic management. Of course, the committee also had representatives from different clinical and technical areas. 

During the conclusion of his speech the finance manager presented the final balance of the project, which, it turned out, had saved 65 million US dollars rather than 45. Examining the accounts we noticed that a portion of the expenses was allocated to a one-time bonus for every health professional who could show everyday proficiency in EHR use and that 20% of the total costs were allocated to training (during questions he explained that on average 150 people worked in this area throughout the project with highs of up to 500). 

Nearly 1 in 8 Americans are aged 65 or older, with higher percentages in countries such as Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. To serve the rapidly-growing elderly population, Independa last week announced a strategic relationship with Zenith, the U.S. R&D subsidiary of LG Electronics, to deploy technology that will provide residents of elderly care facilities with an industry-first suite of video calls, messaging, reminders and other services that will enable them to keep in touch with professional and family caregivers.

Under the agreement announced at the 2012 International CES in Las Vegas, the companies plan to offer Independa’s cloud-based Angela™ application on LG Electronics’ Pro:Centric™- enabled commercial televisions designed for the unique needs of communities for the elderly. The Independa Angela social-engagement platform enhances independent living by providing single-click access to multimedia communication and social interaction.

With Angela, seniors can conduct video calls with loved ones, review shared photos, access email and Facebook, browse the Web, play games and receive medication and calendar reminders – all directly through the TV and all without any computer knowledge. Angela is a touchscreen application running on tablets and desktops, offered to consumers through channel partners, such as home care and home health care providers. This agreement extends Angela for the first time to televisions specifically designed for long-term care facilities.

Supported by and fully incorporated with Independa’s Integrated CloudCare platform, Angela allows the elderly care recipients to enjoy connectivity and social interactivity even as they change residences. For example, they can easily take Angela with them as they move between a private home, a retirement community and an assisted living facility. The cloud-based design also provides facility management with a turnkey solution for uploading events, reminders and other information to their residents via Pro:Centric televisions.

“People are spending more time in their cars, and with the tremendous growth in mobile healthcare solutions, Ford is dedicated to understanding the value of being able to connect to health and wellness-related services while driving,” said Gary Strumolo, manager of Infotainment, Interiors, Health and Wellness at Ford Research and Innovation. “Our connectivity platform – Ford SYNC – provides easy, voice-controlled access to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, and therefore it makes sense to research areas that are important to our customers.”

Customer research and societal trends suggest there’s a strong business case for Ford to explore opportunities in health and wellness technology, Strumolo said.

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