A bi-directional mobile software solution created for hospital systems is being touted as "a giant leap forward for healthcare IT."
Validus Medical Systems, Inc., a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based health IT company, launched the Validus inTouch software system developed by a team of physicians, software engineers, tory/cloud-computing" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">cloud computing experts, and network security specialists with the goal of improving the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare.
Validus officials said the new system will help eliminate the incidence of costly test duplication, medical errors, and prescription oversights that lead to medical misadventures.
The inTouch software suite is designed to be used from any browser using a smart phone, tablet PC, desktop, or laptop. Validus officials listed off some of the core features of this network-based suite of tools that include: comprehensive computerized physician order entry, real-time patient information, speech recognition, customizable order sets, complete end-to-end medication reconciliation, discharge document creation, integration with electronic medical records, and support for existing paper workflow.
"We talked with a lot of doctors and hospital CIOs, and heard a lot of horror stories and frustration with current IT solutions," said Validus founder and CEO David Kashtan. Basically, if physicians are savvy to Google, downloading or ordering a book on Amazon, said Kashtan, they can learn how to use inTouch.
San Ramon Regional Medical Center and Los Alamitos Medical Center, both members of the Tenet Healthcare system, were early adopters of the solution suite.
“Validus is solving problems that other companies don't seem to be able to solve, and doing it in a cost effective way,” said San Ramon Regional Medical Center CEO Gary Sloan.
“The typical approach is to force doctors to adapt to the hardware and software provided by the hospital," said Los Alamitos Medical Center CEO Michele Finney. "The Validus approach has been to adapt to the devices the physicians already use in their medical practices and personal lives."
Validus officials said the software suite meets HIPAA privacy standards and best practices for data security. The end result is that doctors can access a patient's medical history, order lab tests and results or medications, and communicate in real-time with other team members without putting patient information at risk, officials said.
