Software innovation in healthcare round up
The healthcare sector is benefitting immensely from going digital. Recent eHealth announcements show how cloud-based solutions and collaborative platforms are pushing future medical discoveries, cross-border healthcare, and patient care into the
21st century.
Cloud-based open source platform inspires genetics research collaboration
Writing in Wired, Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, Robert M. Califf, MD, discusses a new open source R&D portal called precisionFDA, where “nearly
2100 individual members from 568 organisations are sharing and comparing data, software tools, and testing methodologies on the site.”
Designed to spur collaboration among next-generation sequencing (NGS), an advanced DNA testing process, researchers, the cloud-based portal will accelerate NGS technology development, increase collaboration, and ensure the medical community can develop data collectively rather than individually, reducing the need for duplicative clinical studies.
Another benefit “besides helping to accelerate the development of NGS technology, [is] it puts the agency at the centre of ongoing discussions, allowing us to stay up to date on issues and breakthroughs in the field,” Califf wrote.
NGS technology will be able to chart almost all of a person’s genome in a single run, much quicker and more economical than current methods. Genetic markers for diseases can help inform prevention efforts and improve diagnoses.
Common IT platform connects rare diseases specialists across the EU
In similar news of online collaboration, Dublin-based software company OpenApp has announced its software will aid 24 European Reference Networks to connect over
370 hospitals and nearly 1000 specialist rare disease centres across 25 EU Member States.
The Irish eHealth firm will develop and manage a common IT platform to support the ERNs.
The platform will allow teams of multi-disciplinary medical specialists to meet as a virtual clinical board. Some 30 million patients across the EU suffer from rare diseases, and will now be able to benefit from specialist diagnostics and suggest treatments wherever they are in Europe.
“Seeing this embedded in a pan-European effort to address rare diseases is exciting and will revolutionise equity of access to high-quality care.” commented Professor Alan Irvine, Crumlin Children’s Hospital Ireland.
Investments in diabetes management software
Atlanta’s Grady Health System, operator of Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital and numerous health centres, has begun implementing Glytec’s eGlycemic Management System® (eGMS), a personalised diabetes therapy management solution.
The diabetes management software system is made up of a set of modules that helps healthcare professionals better regulate insulin dosing for the care of patients with acute diabetes, hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.
eGMS is integrated with Grady’s Epic electronic medical record (EMR), allowing users direct access from a patient’s chart without the need for a separate login.
Also included in the software systems is a surveillance solution, which the hospital relies on for rapid identification of patients in need of insulin therapy. GlucoSurveillance® interfaces with Grady’s laboratory information system to perform continuous real-time surveillance of blood glucose values, flagging patients who meet
pre-defined criteria for persistent hyperglycemia.
“Our rate of hypoglycemia among critically ill patients was not at a level we were comfortable with,” said Dr. Robert Jansen, Grady’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief of Staff. “As we worked to improve our care model, the clinical research conducted by
Dr. Umpierrez using the Glytec system showed that the system has real merit. We were unanimous in our decision to use eGMS.”
[Source:- softwaretestingnews]
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