Centric creates a solution that allows both healthcare consumers and healthcare providers to be aware of the list of medications a patient is taking.
A team from Centric Indianapolis spent the weekend of April 23-24 participating in the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Standard (FHIR) Connectathon in Indianapolis, IN. The event, organized by Indiana HIMSS Chapter, Eskenazi Health, and Epic, aimed to build the next generation of integrated, interoperable and innovative solutions utilizing the Epic FHIR sandbox.
Centric participants included:
- Wade Minzlaff – Web Services Engineer
- Michael Specht – Mobile Architect
- Matt Williams – UI Engineer
- Shawn Windler (Indianapolis Mobility Practice Lead) – Solution Architect
- Tim Zack (Indianapolis Healthcare Lead) – Digital Strategist
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What is Epic FHIR?
FHIR® – Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources is a next generation standards framework created by HL7. FHIR combines the best features of HL7’s v2, HL7 v3 and CDA product lines while leveraging the latest web standards and applying a tight focus on implementability.
Centric’s Solution
Centric’s idea attacked the issue of medication reconciliation by creating a solution that allows both healthcare consumers and healthcare providers to be aware of the list of medications that a patient is taking. The solution involved several components including:
A patient-facing solution that took the form of both a responsive web application and a mobile application. These applications integrated into Epic’s FHIR sandbox to retrieve a patient’s Medication Orders and allowed the user to record each administration of the medication.
A provider-facing solution that took the form of a native iOS mobile application. The application allowed a provider to view all of his or her patients and the list of medications. The medication administration data recorded from the patient-facing solution was presented to the provider as well. The application also provided a bonus feature, allowing the provider to subscribe to a patient’s record, alerting the provider when a new Medication Order was prescribed for that patient.
As the team worked on the applications, more ideas and innovations came to life with some making their way into the solution:
- Track all components of a patient’s Care Plan, not just the Medication Orders, including Nutrition Orders, Provider Visits and Scheduled Procedures, among others.
- Track external health data, including from FitBit, Apple HealthKit and Android Fit.
- Medication Administration local notifications and alerts. Based on the dosage prescription and instructions, the application would schedule notifications for the user as a reminder to administer their medication.
- Proactive medication refill notifications, prompting the user to order a refill of medication before they run out.
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Wrap Up
Thirty-six hours proved to be not enough time to implement all of the features that the team would have liked to incorporate into the solution. Over the course of a weekend, Centric Consulting, along with 15 other innovative teams, demonstrated the possibilities that are opened up with the sharing of healthcare data through the FHIR standard. The Centric Indianapolis team looks forward to developing further innovative solutions along the entire care continuum.
Special thanks to the organizers and sponsors of the Connectathon, including the Indiana Chapter of HIMMS, Epic, and Eskenazi Health.