The public sector, finance, and healthcare are three distinct areas where the regulated nature of the world in which organizations in these sectors operate means that the uptake of new technologies tends to be slower. This is a shame because healthcare, in particular, is a sector where modern technology approaches can really pay dividends. All too often, however, the looking realities of the HIPAA regulations mean that healthcare organizations are forced to stick with legacy technologies.
So I’m always interested to hear good wins in these areas for vendors pushing new technology approaches and recently MuleSoft was able to tell of such a win – in their case with Mount Sinai, New York’s largest integrated health system. The Mount Sinai Health System is one of New York City’s largest integrated delivery system, which includes approximately 7,100 primary and specialty care physicians; 12 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices and 31 affiliated community health centers.
For those who haven’t come across them before, MuleSoft is an integration vendor. Essentially they make it easy for organizations to connect disparate applications, data, and devices. MuleSoft offers an Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) a class of platform that is seen as an ideal way for existing organizations to unlock the value of both legacy, and newer, technology products. MuleSoft’s version of an IPaaS is labeled the Anypoint Platform but suffice it to say it is an API-driven integration fabric.
Improving care and cutting costs
Mount Sinai is leveraging MuleSoft to allow richer data sharing beyond the confines of its own hospitals. A raft of different community organizations such as the Salvation Army and Meals on Wheels will be able to both send and receive welfare data to and from Mt Sinai. As an example of what this will enable, organizations like the Salvation Army will be able to leverage data to identify diabetes patients who need to be reminded to take their medication. Volunteers will be able to prevent unnecessary trips to the emergency room and reduce costs by going door-to-door to remind patients to take their medication.
In terms of the internal value proposition to Mt Sinai, the idea is that doctors will have far greater coverage of a particular patient’s medical history. Previously, when a doctor would see a patient, they would need to piece together the patient’s medical history by manually navigating an average of five different systems. By developing and managing Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) APIs with MuleSoft, Mount Sinai can now orchestrate data across Electronic Health Records (EHRs), data warehouses and ERP systems. The integration will deliver real-time, unified access to patients’ medical histories, medication records, lab results, and past treatments across both web and mobile applications. ]
The start of a deeper API-driven initiative
The project is the first step in a wide-ranging initiative aimed at delivering better patient outcomes. Mount Sinai is creating an interoperable health data platform in which traditional care providers can access critical patient data and exchange insights with non-traditional care providers, such as care workers and community organizations. By enabling these diverse care teams to access and exchange data securely through an API-led connectivity approach, Mount Sinai expects to improve patient care while driving down costs by reducing ER visits, reducing avoidable hospital readmission, and driving preventive care measures. Comments Kash Patel, Vice President, population health and analytics, information technology, Mount Sinai Health System:
For most patients, the vast majority of their time is spent outside of the hospital, but providers have little to no access to this portion of their patient’s history. By building an application network in which all systems and stakeholders can securely communicate with one another, we can offer patients a higher quality of care and facilitate preventive measures that reduce costs to taxpayers.
MyPOV
A great win for MuleSoft who is obviously very eager to show examples of how API-led integration can deliver real value, even in traditionally conservative sectors. On a broader level, however, and given current instability in the US healthcare system, this is a good story about how the system as a whole can leverage technology to deliver better outcomes at lower cost.
