Patient engagement and mHealth #HIMSS13

I am here at the 2013 HIMSS conference and today I spent time at the HIMSS/AMDIS Physicians' IT Symposium. The afternoon session was titled, "The Future of Patient Engagement is in the Palm of Your Hand."

Dr. Kate Christensen from Kaiser and Dr. Geeta Nayyar (@gnayyar) from AT&T gave the presentation.

Within the Kaiser network, over 4 million patients (out of the 9 million) are using their patient portal PHR. They have a very engaged patient population. Their patients are connected and they also have access to secure messaging with their health care providers. Members who use secure messaging have better clinical outcomes in diabetes, cholesterol management, and blood pressure management.

Here are some 2012 stats from the Kaiser network:

• 13 million emails were sent by patients
• 33 million test results were viewed by patients
• 3 million appointments were booked online by patients
• 12 million refill requests were sent by patients

Currently, 22% of their patient portal traffic comes from mobile devices. By 2015, mobile will be dominant in this patient population. After all, everyone has a mobile phone and they also have access to texting capabilities, even if they don't own a smartphone.

Kaiser Permanente Joins Rock Health

In case you missed this last week, it's exciting to see that "Kaiser Permanente Joined Startup Accelerator Rock Health to Support Digital Innovation in Health Care."

Here's a brief snippet:

“As the largest integrated health care system in the United States and with 64 percent of our eligible members using digital health tools such as My Health Manager on kp.org, Kaiser Permanente is excited to support technology that empowers people to more effectively and conveniently manage their health,” said Wendy Lee, senior vice president and CIO chief of staff, Kaiser Permanente Digital Health Technology and Strategic Initiatives. “We look forward to partnering with Rock Health to further explore how we can bring health care into the digital age in ways that enhance the patient-clinician relationship.”

Kaiser Permanente joins Rock Health’s partners, which include the Mayo Clinic, Kleiner Perkins, Mohr Davidow, Aberdare Ventures, General Electric, Genentech, United Healthcare, University of California, San Francisco, Harvard Medical School and Nike.