@Point Care founded by current Chief Executive Officer Robert Stern and Chief Medical Information Officer Sandeep Pulim, MD is composed of a team of healthcare professionals and developers. Their goal was to use their knowledge to build a platform that could not only provide clinical knowledge support but also allow patients to share their data with clinicians. Dr. Sandeep Pulim, CMIO, at @Point of Care took the time to give us a little background about the platform as well as explain how it can be beneficial to both health professionals and patients.
According to Dr. Pulim, @Point of Care, which evolved out of the parent company Products in Knowledge, set out to take advantage of the way clinicians as well as patients were evolving and using technology. He discussed the goal of bridging the gap and coming up with a platform where both clinical professionals and patients could interact. The result is a platform that clinical professionals can not only utilize as a decision-making tool but also use to track patients’ symptoms as well as relay valuable information.
Unlike similar clinical decision support apps, @Point of Care uses real-time patient-generated data and provides clinicians with a chance to earn CME or Continuing Medical Education credits. The @Point of Care platform produces medical apps developed by medical faculty experts and editorial teams to produce disease-specific content that not only provide up to date information but are also certified for CME credits. Within each section of the platform is an activity where clinicians can answer questions and perform other activities and earn credits as they go along.
The platform allows healthcare professionals to do things such as search for certain diseases, access drug databases as well as keep up with patient data. IBM’s Watson technology was used to help collect the data and make utilization easier. The patient data that is collected is readily available to the health professionals as well as the patient to enable shared decision-making at the point of care. The Watson technology helps to make the entire process more efficient and allows the content to be utilized daily. IBM Watson’s cognitive discovery engine allows the platform to quickly access relevant and evidence-based disease-specific medical content. Helping to ensure that users not only find the answers or information they need, they also find the best and most up-to-date info available.
The platform can pull up journal articles and even drug trials and other information. Users do not have to waste time scrolling through lists or trying to find the latest information. Health professionals can ask clinical questions, and the answers pop up quickly. Within the app clinicians can click on the “Ask Watson” feature and type ” What are the treatment options for Stage 2 Breast Cancer?” and all of the corresponding information will pop up. Not only can health professionals find the information that they need but they can set up personalized educational content to share with their patients. Patient’s medical information can also be easily accessed by both clinical professionals and patients, enabling both to work together when discussing treatment.
IBM Watson is no stranger to the medical app world and has been used previously to harvest, analyze and apply data as seen with the Nutrino App for expectant mothers. IBM’s Watson Health is making their presence known. They recently announced a new partnership with Under Armour for a health tracking medical app while another collaboration with Apple assists cancer centers with analyzing patients genetic data and help develop the right treatment plan. Their health platform is also being used to analyze data from Healthkit and Medtronic implanted devices. Another project, The Watson Health Cloud, seeks to merge data from a variety of sources including social media resources and create a super data-sharing hub.
Earning Continuing Medical Education credits is a notable feature on the @Point of Care platform. Dr. Pulim detailed how health professionals can get started. Asking questions is the starting point for participation in Category 1 of the CME activity and allows professionals to earn credit. Health professionals continue to learn and earn credit while at the same time seeing firsthand how their continued learning and understanding impacts overall patient outcome.
@Point of Care seems to have found a happy medium between health professionals and patients in the medical app world and showcases the importance of both groups working together towards a common goal. The American Academy of Pediatrics currently has medical apps on the market such as Kids Doc but @Point of Care also developed the AAP Point of Care Solutions platform specifically for them. It provides easy access to well care guides, acute care education, patient education and pediatric coding.
Currently, on the platform, there are 24 disease specific medical apps for nurses and doctors and 15 geared towards patients. Dr. Pulim gave a nice synopsis of the basis of the @Point of Care platform and was very excited about its future within the medical community.
The @Point of Care Medical apps are available to download via iOS on iPhone or IPad, Windows 8 app, mobile devices or standard web browsers.
@Point of Care Health Professional Apps
Advanced Prostate Cancer @Point of Care
Clinical support platform that provides detailed medical information such as diagnosis, treatment and the management of Advanced Prostate Cancer.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Asthma @Point of Care
Michael E. Wechsler, MD, MMSc is the Editor-in-Chief of this clinical support program which provides information concerning the diagnosis, treatment, and management of asthma.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Breast Cancer @Point of Care
Clinical support platform that provides detailed medical information such as diagnosis, treatment and the management of Breast Cancer.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia @Point of Care
Reference platform for clinicians to get information quickly in order to help make better decisions and provide better patient care.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) @Point of Care
Fernando Martinez, MD, MS is Editor-in-Chief of this interactive resource, which provides detailed information concerning COPD.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Cystic Fibrosis @Point of Care
Streamlined reference tool for clinicians to get information quickly in order to help make better decisions and provide better patient care.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Diabetes @Point of Care
Streamlined Diabetes reference tool for clinicians to get content quickly as needed to help make better decisions and provide better patient care.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Gynecologic Cancers @Point of Care
This resource platform features Bradley J. Monk, MD, FACS, FACOG as Editor-in-Chief, and is a clinical support tool that provides detailed information concerning the diagnosis, treatment and management of ovarian and cervical cancer.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Hepatitis C @Point of Care
Streamlined Hepatitis C reference platform for clinicians to get content quickly as needed to help make better decisions and provide better patient care.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Heavy Menstrual Bleeding (HMB) @Point of Care
Clinical support platform that provides detailed medical information such as diagnosis, treatment and the management of HMB.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Hypoparathyroidism @Point of Care
Reference platform for clinicians to get content quickly in order to help make better decisions and provide better patient care.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) @Point of Care
Maria L. Padilla, MD is Editor-in-Chief of this interactive resource, which provides detailed information concerning IPF.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Immuno-Oncology @Point of Care
Jeffery S. Weber, MD, PhD is the Editor-in-Chief of this clinical support platform that provides detailed information on immune-oncology as well as the role of immune-based medicines in treating cancer.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) @Point of Care
This resource platform features Michael E Thase, MD as Editor-in-Chief and is a clinical support tool that provides detailed information concerning the diagnosis, treatment and management of MDD.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Multiple Myeloma @Point of Care
This resource platform features Sagar Lonial, MD as Editor-in-Chief and is a clinical support tool that provides detailed information concerning the diagnosis, treatment and management of multiple myeloma.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Multiple Sclerosis @Point of Care
Streamlined Multiple Sclerosis reference platform for clinicians to get content quickly as needed to help make better decisions and provide better patient care.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) @Point of Care
This resource platform features Jerald Radich, MD, MS as Editor-in-Chief, and is a clinical support tool that provides detailed information concerning the diagnosis, treatment and management of MDS and AML.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer @Point of Care
Clinical support platform that features Mark A. Socinksi, MD as Editor-in-Chief and provides detailed information concerning diagnosis, treatment and management of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
Osteoporosis @Point of Care
Osteoporosis reference platform for clinicians to get content quickly in order to help make better decisions and provide better patient care.
Price: Free
Apple – iTunes
