In the case of Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School billed as the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox, disparate data sets had taken a toll on patients and physicians alike. “When we look at our healthcare system, it’s generally unidirectional—from provider to patient,” explains Steven Freedman, M.D., a Beth Israel gastroenterologist. Freedman leads the development of the digitized Passport to TRUST program, which powers bidirectional data flows between patient and doctor through software provider NexJ’s Connected Wellness platform. “If your doctor tells you something, we know that eighty percent of the time, you won’t remember what [he] said. Why can’t we help that? Look at Amazon.com. When I go on the Web site, it’s easy. I order something. I can check where it is in the tracking system. A week later, it arrives at my doorstep and Amazon sends me an email asking, ‘Are you happy?’ And, by the way, ‘Here are some other things we thought you’d like.’”
It was that logic that inspired the program, which will be implemented over the next six to nine months and then undergo a year of clinical trials…