Medecision’s Aerial platform makes virtual care a greater possibility.
By Rick Koloski, Group Senior Vice President, Chief Architect, Engineering, Architecture & IT Operations
In a recent webinar with Modern Healthcare, Medecision president and CEO Deb Gage shared why making virtual health a possibility is a personal mission—and how helping her father age comfortably at home with virtual assistance has helped her lead Medecision in accelerating technology advancements in the face of COVID-19.
Deb shared how she used her skills and capabilities to create an entirely digital health environment for her father—using devices like blood pressure monitors, an Apple watch, a digital scale, and even a Nest camera to monitor his gait and motion. As the CEO of a healthcare technology company, Deb has the skills and connections to implement this type of monitoring system—but this type of innovation isn’t always easy for the average person.
Healthcare data is often siloed. Deb was able to take data and information from different sources to get a full-picture look at her father’s health. But pasting these things together can be complex and costly. An Apple watch might monitor your heart rate, how much you sit or move, and your blood oxygen level, but you need an entirely different device to check your blood pressure and another device to check your weight. There’s no guarantee that synergy among these devices and data sets is even possible.
The idea that all of our data and intelligence both informs and benefits us isn’t new. For example, what happens if you search for patio furniture online? When you subsequently log in to Facebook, you’re going to see strikingly directed advertisements that include the products you search for, alternatives to those products, and families of things that relate to what you searched for. We need a similar infrastructure in healthcare—where data is shared in order to ensure the best possible healthcare—but the technologies also need to ensure that there is no misuse of data and that privacy is not compromised.
At Medecision, we want to make data and information accessible across all platforms and channels—but also to keep it safe and secure. We want the information that’s gathered from our at-home devices like blood pressure monitors and smartwatches to help inform care management plans. We built Aerial to do just that—to provide a connection point among all the different modalities and bring information and data from different devices together to give a longitudinal and holistic look at an individual’s health and care.
Aerial helps care managers connect with individuals to manage health, reduce costs and drive efficiency. Aerial InCircle, a social-mobile personal health record, connects healthcare consumers with their care manager, care team and caregivers with real-time access to their full health history and health risks. It allows the individuals to be an active part of the equation in their own care, along with care managers, providers and other people on the care team.
We’ve been working on the Aerial solution for more than a decade. But, in the face of COVID-19, we think the moment is right for this solution to become a reality for everyone.
