ORLANDO, Fla. — Imagine going to the physician and discovering out earlier than you permit the examination room how a lot your prescribed drug will price, avoiding sticker shock on the pharmacy.
Or what in case you may put on a tiny machine on the prime of your again that might gently nudge you to perk up everytime you stoop.
How about not having to signal by hand a raft of hospital registration papers — as an alternative, doing all of it on-line — and utilizing a laptop computer laptop throughout your keep for well being training functions?
Innovations like these geared to assist shoppers have been on show right here this week on the nation’s largest well being know-how convention, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society meeting — popularly recognized at HIMSS. More than 40,000 well being business professionals gathered on the Orange County Convention Center, one in every of only some within the nation giant sufficient to deal with the convention.
How massive was the assembly?
Attendees may use a 10-minute bus experience to get from one aspect of the mile-long heart to the opposite. Just touring the exhibit corridor was a full-day affair — not counting sitting in on the handfuls of instructional classes meant to spur transactions amongst well being companies.
The exhibit corridor had greater than 1,300 firms showcasing their newest and biggest merchandise. Traditional know-how stalwarts akin to IBM and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have been available, however so have been Uber and Lyft. Microsoft, Google and Amazon have been promoting companies amid start-ups, too. Countries — akin to Israel — had their very own areas.
Most of the know-how on show was geared for the insurers, hospitals and docs who command greater than $three trillion in annual U.S. well being spending.
Terms like synthetic intelligence, machine studying and predictive analytics dominated the day right here as a lot because the stuffed animals, sweet and different knickknacks attracting guests. Who knew there have been Chrome- and Google-themed socks?
But in case you appeared nearer you would see new units and programs geared towards altering the buyer expertise — whether or not within the house, physician’s workplace or hospital.
“Alexa, I’ve burned my hand what should I do?” requested an exhibitor from the Intelligent Health Association into the Amazon-owned machine. “Is it a major burn or minor burn?” Alexa replied, then cited recommendations on how you can deal with the hand, akin to working the wound below chilly water.
A tabletop robot called Pillo confirmed how shoppers may hook up with a well being coach through video conferencing, submit their newest blood strain readings electronically to their docs and dispense that day’s drugs.
Around the nook, Surescripts, out of Arlington, Va., was exhibiting how its know-how allowed docs to faucet right into a affected person’s medical health insurance data to see what the copay can be for remedy — and uncover if a cheaper different existed. Tens of hundreds of docs already make use of the function, though that represents barely 10 p.c of all suppliers, a Surescripts consultant mentioned.
Google had an in depth exhibit exhibiting it may supply a wide range of its merchandise, starting from an indoor map that might assist sufferers navigate by means of large medical facilities to an internet registration instrument utilizing Google Cloud that might pace the sign-in course of at hospitals. The hospital may then supply a Google Chromebook to offer medical training and different leisure throughout a affected person’s keep.
One of the merchandise promoted by Google was an internet registration instrument to hurry the sign-in course of at hospitals. Upright, an Israeli firm, displayed a 2-inch posture coach that attaches to customers’ backs and gently vibrates once they slouch.
One function being supplied by Microsoft would attraction to anybody whose physician spends extra time typing notes into a pc throughout sufferers’ visits than listening to their issues. The firm was showcasing a brand new speech-to-text program that would convert the whole affected person go to into simply readable medical notes. “This has [the] power to save doctors hours of work — each day,” a Microsoft engineer mentioned.
Nearby, Upright Inc. was one in every of 20 start-up firms on the Israel sales space. For $80, it was promoting a 2-inch sensor that folks may placed on their backs, and it could gently vibrate when the person assumed poor posture. An app can present every day knowledge on posture — name that the slouch price?
As comfortable hours kicked into gear within the exhibit corridor — free mimosas, wine and beer to associate with all of the free espresso, fruit slushies and cookies — I believed it could be nice if solely I had the indoor Google app to seek out my means out of the conference heart to my automotive.
One client well being profit from the convention already kicked in. My Fitbit confirmed I had walked almost 15,000 steps.
