Bridgecare® – Interoperability Solution for Systems and Equipment in Hospital Environments
Digitalization is increasingly present in the daily lives of companies, improving processes and worker productivity. The healthcare sector is no different, and the benefits directly impact the well-being of users, promoting the decentralization of exams and consultations through telemedicine.
However, in hospital settings there is a growing demand for managing information from diverse data sources, a factor that hinders unified communication, increases system load, and generates incompatibility between information.
In an attempt to optimize the flow of internal processes, all data management goes through the HIS (Hospital Information System), which integrates other systems, the main ones being:
PACS: Picture Archiving and Sharing System – is a system used to store virtually all files related to diagnostic imaging exams. This allows any member of the internal team at the clinic or hospital to search for this information and retrieve more data from specific exams at any time in an organized manner.
RIS: Radiology Information System – This software acts as the "brain" of an imaging center, helping the clinic or hospital team maintain control over all examinations performed on all patients in an organized and standardized manner.
LIS: Laboratory Information System – is a computerized system that records, manages, and stores data and information for clinical analysis laboratories.
Integrating these systems within the HIS is often complex, and for IT teams, the task has become even more challenging with the inclusion of IoT sensors for clinical engineering telemetry and new medical equipment connected to the systems. And when we consider different vendors of these solutions with customized systems (HIS/LIS/PACS), the integration and management of information becomes a real headache.
Telemedicine has also been integrated into the HIS system. This new modality of medical care has grown exponentially worldwide. In Brazil, one of the largest diagnostic medicine networks reported a 226% growth in teleconsultations in the first two months of 2022.
The effect of this increase is directly related to the health crisis; however, industry experts believe in the continued growth of this consultation model even after the pandemic.
Research conducted by Mordor Intelligence indicates that the telemedicine market is expected to grow from the current US$38 billion to US$168 billion by 2026. In Brazil alone, the telemedicine market closed 2022 with revenues of US$2.82 billion , according to Statista, a company specializing in analyzing market and consumer information.
Data interoperability in the hospital environment
The digitalization of medicine also means bringing more technology into hospitals, requiring administrative managers and hospital IT staff to pay closer attention to the use of systems and data collection.
As described earlier, data management in a hospital environment is a major challenge in itself. The variety of existing systems and the consequent need for interoperability make point-to-point connection in care and organizational environments impossible.
The problem worsens when the healthcare organization has several decentralized service points and bases, resulting in multiple registrations and lost information.
To help healthcare organizations overcome this challenge, Above-Net Bridgecare® solution . This platform integrates information from various distinct systems into a single central repository, sharing it in multiple formats and protocols, thus bridging the gap between diverse technologies.
Bridgecare® natively integrates with systems used in the hospital environment (HIS / LIS / PACS), connecting information to the central repository in a sanitized manner. The platform monitors the database for duplicate records, homonyms, and information conflicts in a customized way.
This also provides greater security and allows for monitoring of the patient's life within the healthcare system, regardless of the unit or legacy system in which they were treated.
The solution utilizes modern transmission protocols such as HL7 (Health Level 7) or even text file format for legacy systems. Through proprietary technology, equipment locations are automated. Bridgecare® acts as a central repository for all information; furthermore, the platform integrates equipment, measurements, and sensors, providing visibility and integrated management for clinical engineering for hospital maintenance and management.
Process optimization
The Bridgecare platform offers support for optimizing IT processes, improving the quality of organizational information, for example:
Unified Login Service: With encryption for employees who use all the institution's systems, where only one username and password is used, regardless of the access system;
Configurable intelligent sanitization: There are over 40 intelligent and configurable rules that allow for the identification of duplicate historical or real-time connection records and an interface for resolving pending record issues.
Terminology Service: Offers flexibility for linking terms and standards between any system with versioning records that allow for independent evolution via connector.
Command Center: IoT for infrastructure, clinical engineering and equipment – monitors cold rooms, medical gas systems, medical IT, power, water and air conditioning systems, and equipment using Above-Net , providing predictive analysis of the vital infrastructure of hospitals and care centers.
The Bridgecare platform is a success story used by one of the world's largest cities. Thousands of points of care integrate data and manage information from over 25 million patients, handling more than 200 million interactions securely and reliably through the use of communication protocols and integration methods employed in the industry's most demanding applications.
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