Telehealth technologies can connect patients and providers across miles, but some wrinkles still persist. Healthcare systems’ telemedicine devices often come in a slew of different makes and models, and a physician’s standard workflow can introduce a myriad of delays throughout the connection process.

At this year’s HIMSS18 conference in Las Vegas, telehealth platform provider Avizia said that it will be showing off a new module designed to streamline the connection process, allowing providers to connect with far-away patients or colleagues quicker and more easily than before.

“Sometimes when the patients are presenting there may be a workflow process. Sometimes the workflow process is not necessary — there’s an urgent need, and we just need to enable point-to-point video,” said Webster Brehm, director of integrated marketing at Avizia. “Maybe that’s through a telemedicine cart or another video device, and the Connect Module allows the remote provider to immediately call that device without having to jump through a workflow or anything like that.” 

The Avizia Connect module is a software add-on that is now available to anyone using the company’s telehealth platform. Designed to accommodate the company’s various hardware offerings as well as the health care system’s EHRs, the company claims that the module will cut down the hassles of initiating a video consultation.

“We’re looking to complement the existing workload that providers and clinicians have in the health system,” said Tycene Fritcher, chief marketing officer at Avizia. “It is a software mechanism that connects a video consultation to promote the encounter, to expedite that process.”

Fritcher said that the new module will be showcased alongside a handful of other updates the company has made to its platform to better enable teleconsultations.

“We are going to be showing advanced point-tilt-zoom on our more flexible mobile cart, as well as far-end camera control, which allows the remote provider to have an enhanced ability to zoom in [and] focus on their patient,” Fritcher said. “It’s an advancement for provider efficiency, usability, an immersive experience [that] enables the encounter to be as close to person-to-person as it can be via telehealth.”

Avizia will be in Booth 2869.

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Email the writer: dave.muoio@himssmedia.com