MED Magazine ~ Midwest Medical Edition – June 2010
The healing touch in medicine may soon become the healing text. With advances in technology, mobile messaging gives healthcare professionals new ways to communicate with each other and with patients. Now a South Dakota company is working on ways of using the technology to make medicine more mobile. 2DigitMedia™, a start-up based in Sioux Falls, gives healthcare providers new ways to use text messaging to communicate.
With this system, clinics can remind patients of appointments. Patients with chronic conditions can receive automatic messages at an exact time telling them when to take medications. Patients can even receive test results directly without the need to call a lab and first responders can be sent critical patient health information onscene in emergency situations.
2DigitMedia™ says, “There are two different products we’re developing. One is an interface that will work with existing clinic appointment and management software systems to send simple, short reminder messages.
” The other, patent-pending system will employ encrypted text messaging which will be HIPAA and HL7 compliant. 2DigitMedia™ says the secure system can also send up to 5000 characters that will be received in a single text. “We can send extensive medical records this way since we’re not limited to the 160 characters in a standard text message.”
Mark Schuler, 2DigitMedia™ Vice President, says healthcare providers using similar systems in Europe have seen a 50-percent drop in the number of missed appointments.
“While some may be concerned about the cost of implementing the system, we believe it pays for itself. Some industry experts estimate a single missed appointment could cost a clinic $250, so avoiding just a few of those in a month covers the investment,” Schuler says.
And Amundson says this advanced technology is not limited to large health systems. “It’s designed to be usable even for a single practitioner’s clinic,” he says.
2DigitMedia™ is working with CellTrust, Inc. of Arizona, the leading company developing secure technology. “For rural areas, text messaging is a good solution because people tent to have their phone with them. There are very few dead spots in South Dakota today, compared to several years ago, since so much has been invested in the past two years for improving towers,” says Schuler.
Once a planned automated state health information exchange is in place, Schuler say their system would allow first responders to log in with their phones and get information about prescriptions or conditions while transporting a patient, possibly several hours across the state. But they know challenges exist.
“Texting is so new to the United States, some people think it’s just for kids and that it is going away,” says Schuler. “But it’s also proving to people it is more than the Internet, and more secure and regulated than the Internet, so it’s a public education process.”
“In the future, mobile technology will be part of the life line for all Americans and we believe healthcare, too,” adds Schuler.
MED Midwest Medical Edition – June 2010
