New app will give docs access to records 'anytime, anywhere'

Doctors soon will be able to look at medical records whenever and wherever they need to--and email or video chat with other doctors about those records--thanks to a mobile application created by Southern California-based innovation leader Palomar Pomerado Health being unveiled this week at HIMSS11 in Orlando.

The app, known as Medical Information Anytime Anywhere (MIAA), gives docs the ability to view records from any number of providers without having to worry about the compatibility of different software systems used, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. MIAA breaks down records into a common format, according to the newspaper.

Orlando Portale, chief innovation officer for PPH, and his team have taken data from four different sources and served it up into a view that runs on an Android operating system, Kathy English, director of healthcare product solutions for Cisco, told FierceMobileHealthcare. The system, according to a PPH announcement, is interoperable with electronic health record systems such as Cerner Millennium, NextGen and the Veterans Administration (VistA) system.

"Everybody wants to do this," Ed Babakanian, University of California San Diego Health System information officer, told the Union-Tribune. "I think the novel element is the extent to which it can integrate information from a number of sources."

Cisco fronted half the prototype development money for the application, which is being designed in tandem with a new $1 billion hospital set to go up in the area. A pilot program for the app in which Escondido-based Palomar Medical Center West will work with Poway-based Arch Health Partners, will start in September, the newspaper reports.

"It's raw," Cisco's English said. "It's real, but it's raw."

To learn more:
- read this San Diego Union-Tribune article
- check out this Palomar Pomerado Health press release