Innovation hub brings clinicians and developers together

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Picture: Kate Reid, New Zealand general manager for Orion Health

eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Orion Health and Southern Cross Hospitals have created a health innovation hub, bringing clinicians and developers closer together to work on things like mobility and user experience.

The hub combines up to 16 health and IT professionals from the private hospital group and Orion Health and is located at Southern Cross Hospitals’ Brightside Hospital campus in Auckland.

Orion Health and Southern Cross Hospitals have been working for some time on an electronic medical record solution, called Clinical Workstation, which is moving clinical processes from paper to digital across Southern Cross’s 10 wholly owned hospitals and four joint-venture hospitals.

A statement announcing the creation of the hub says it will support Southern Cross Hospitals’ goal of a full EMR by 2021.

New Zealand general manager for Orion Health Kate Reid says the hub is a design-led way of working, bringing clinicians and developers closer together.

“The innovation hub creates a significant opportunity for clinicians and developers to work closely together as a dedicated team to develop and deliver solutions for the complex healthcare environment,” she says.

Reid tells eHealthNews.nz that mobility is a major focus for the hub team, as many doctors who work at Southern Cross Hospitals are not employees and need mobile access to the electronic patient information.

“It’s really important to mobilise them so they can access their patient lists and information whilst outside of the Southern Cross setting,” she says.

A newly developed app called Clinical Companion is being deployed for smartphones and will eventually be available on any mobile device.

The team is also working on digitising other parts of the patient journey as part of its paperless 2021 goal. This includes online patient registration to create a more seamless experience for patients, explains Reid.

Another area of focus is around improving user experience for nursing staff and increasing the functionality of the EMR.

Reid says all of Orion Health’s customers are interested in mobility, so the work done in the innovation hub will benefit others.

“We are focused on productising these features into our core product stack,” she says.

Director of nursing and clinical lead at Southern Cross Hospitals Carey Campbell says, “The hub will allow us to tailor future developments to improve the patient experience and create a more seamless work environment for our registered health professionals”.

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