IMS MAXIMS launches vital signs mobile application
Fully-interoperable app provides hospital staff with life-saving alerts on patient care
IMS MAXIMS is launching its fully-integrated vital signs application at eHealth Week this week in London.
Delegates will be the first to use the app, designed to improve patient outcomes by enabling staff to respond to a patient’s condition from anywhere in the hospital before it becomes life-threatening.
The application uses physiological observations such as blood pressure and heart rate to calculate the severity of a patient’s condition and gives staff crucial decision support.
Using clinical scoring protocols such as National Early Warning System (NEWS), it recommends how often to monitor a patient, issues reminders if observations aren’t completed on time, and importantly provides early detection, alerting, and escalations to senior members of staff if the condition deteriorates.
Users have the added advantage of integrating the data into the hospital’s electronic patient record, as the app harnesses APIs that have been developed with open standards.
Interoperating with other clinical systems and NHS’ web portal, the Spine, means the information is incorporated into every element of the patient’s care pathway.
Staff can make accurate clinical decisions based on all the facts and in real-time. Earlier intervention and treatment – enabled by recording and monitoring these vital signs electronically, and automating parts of diagnosis – will also help hospitals reduce mortality rates and serious complications such as sepsis, dialysis and cardiac arrest.
Michael Thick, chief clinical information officer and chief medical officer at IMS MAXIMS, said: “Mobile apps can provide vital support to healthcare professionals that are already under great pressure to meet service demands.
“The 24/7 monitoring system and vital decision support make it quicker and easier for staff to observe a patient’s condition and prevent them from getting any worse.
“Crucially, being fully integrated with an enterprise-wide solution, doctors and nurses only ever have one version of the truth.
“This is particularly important when changes to a patient’s condition are harder to manage and can be fatal, for example during clinical handovers and ward transfers.
Ensuring the app suits the specific needs of its users, IMS MAXIMS worked in partnership with its customer Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust on the design and functionality.
It subsequently addresses a common pitfall of existing clinical apps - alert fatigue - which can lead to clinical alerting being missed or turned off.
The MAXIMS solution gives staff tailored alert support, avoiding the send-to-all approach of other solutions.
The new app forms part of IMS MAXIMS Bedside mobile health solution, which will include further releases this year.
The Bedside module includes additional functionality such as bed management, clinical handovers, clinical noting on ward rounds, order communications and the detection and management of life-threatening conditions such as sepsis and acute kidney infection.
Neill McAnaspie, solutions director at IMS MAXIMS, said: “Mobile health is the natural next step on the journey to ensuring our healthcare system can meet the needs of its patients and those that care for them.”
