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Customer stories | Kaiser Permanente

Anywhere, anytime patient care

Kaiser Permanente is exploring ways to provide care to its patients in the most convenient place for them—often their home. The health organization is also looking at ways to improve connectivity between hospitals, clinics and medical devices to enable secure, remote real-time access to patient data.

Working with Cognizant, a leading provider of IT solutions, Kaiser Permanente created a remote patient-monitoring system prototype based on Microsoft Azure Internet of Things (IoT) services. The system connects to smartphones and devices such as blood pressure and glucose meters in patients’ homes, and integrates the data with an existing analytics program used in Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics.

Kaiser Permanente welcome entrance.

The solution:

Empowered care

To enable easy and convenient access to patient care, Kaiser Permanente is piloting a way to give patients—such as expectant mothers, diabetics and people with Alzheimer’s disease—the choice to participate in remote monitoring in their homes. This could be a more comfortable way for patients to access care, and could enable clinicians to gain better insight into health conditions through real-time access to data. Kaiser Permanente could empower clinicians to provide adjustments to instructions based on alerts and updates in real time, for better, more proactive health care.

“Basically, you are reducing the cost of care, because there’s far less expense in having the patient record their vitals remotely from home, instead of coming to the clinic where a nurse or doctor physically collects the data,” said Mehul Shah, associate director of product engineering, Cognizant Technology Solutions. “And because it’s easier for the patients, they’re more willing to participate.”

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Hallway at Kaiser Permanente.
Hallway at Kaiser Permanente.

A patient-centric system

Working with IT solutions provider Cognizant, Kaiser Permanente is testing a solution based on Azure IoT services that connects medical and health devices such as blood pressure monitors, glucose readers and wearable “bracelet”’ monitors, to smartphones. Functioning as gateway devices, the smartphones send data to the secure cloud for integration with an existing analytics and data visualization program that could run in a Kaiser Permanente data center. Clinicians can access this data via a central dashboard for a holistic, near-real-time view of a patient’s health and activities.

The business impact

Challenge

Kaiser Permanente, the largest integrated healthcare provider in the United States, wanted to increase patient engagement and convenience while enabling more efficient tools for clinicians by using mobile technologies to provide remote monitoring choices for patients in their homes.

Solution

Working with Cognizant, Kaiser Permanente is testing a remote patient monitoring system based on Azure IoT services that securely connects to smartphones and devices such as blood pressure and glucose meters in patients’ homes, and integrates the data with a program prescribed by a clinician.

Benefits

  • Enhances patient care and safety through near-real-time, remote monitoring of vital signs and automated alerts
  • Expects to reduce outpatient visits for routine checks and reporting of vital signs
  • Provides better insight into patient data, improving efficiency and workflow for nurses, dietitians and other staff

Transforming patient care with IoT

Microsoft Azure IoT services enable better patient care, better access and lower costs in health organizations.

Microsoft’s Internet of Things blog

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