Visit the AMA’s IHMI at HIMSS Booth #6891 to request a demo of the HealthSteps platform.

HealthSteps is partnering with the American Medical Association (AMA) to implement their newly announced Integrated Health Model Initiative (IHMI) for the first time on a mobile health platform [press release]. The IHMI serves as the next step in healthcare evolution by providing a validated way to collect patient reported health data in a way clinicians can access and act on–bridging the gap between big data and clinical utility.

According to the AMA press release, “The Self-Measured Blood Pressure (SMBP) Data Model was created by IHMI’s first collaboration between the health and technology sectors to tap into important health information that has often gone uncollected, unanalyzed, or unshared, opening potential to improve health outcomes. This successful collaboration has helped speed product integration as the first medical technology companies have adopted the IHMI data model for use in the field.”

Patients can use the HealthSteps mobile platform, which can integrate with wireless blood pressure cuffs to validly measure, collect, store and securely transmit the data to a designated cloud based provider, and then onto the EHR. HealthSteps will demo the integrated SMBP on its mobile platform at the HIMSS conference in Orlando, FL this week. HealthSteps CEO Benjamin King says, “Development of a common data structure with AMA’s IHMI data model is a giant leap forward for healthcare. We are excited to work with the AMA’s IHMI and its collaborator community to advance this first release, and deploy this technology to improve care for millions of patients.”

Visit HealthSteps at DIA Global 2018 booth #2820

HealthSteps was selected as one of eight finalists to present their solution at the AMA/Google Health Care Interoperability and Innovation Challenge at Google’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 28. The challenge requested submissions of mobile solutions that demonstrate how patient-generated health data is used in meaningful ways to have maximum impact on improving physician workflow, improving clinical outcomes, or reducing cost in the health care system. HealthSteps was selected out of 38 possible submissions to present as a finalist in Cambridge. “This is very exciting news for our team” says HealthSteps CEO Benjamin King. “HealthSteps represents the evolution of patient engagement and we are honored to have been selected as a finalist. We look forward to presenting in Cambridge.”

This challenge is an AMA-led effort, with sponsorship from Google.

Five years ago when my mother, Sophia, was diagnosed with a brain tumor, I had no idea I would eventually be creating a mobile app to help others in the same situation. I experienced first-hand the breakdown in communication and coordination between family members, last minute runs to the pharmacy, and uncertainty about when she last took her chemotherapy. This motivated me to develop a solution that could intervene, so I developed HealthSteps-a mobile application that contains a digital care plan with built-in medication reminders, a symptom tracker, and the capability to share and sync care plans between family members and caregivers. This vision has become reality through a collaborative project between HealthSteps and the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at UF Health.

For the past 6 months UF Health clinicians have enrolled several pediatric leukemia patients in the first-ever pilot project using HealthSteps to manage care plan activities. Clinicians using the HealthSteps web portal can visualize real-time data showing patient compliance and symptoms. HealthSteps will use feedback from the pilot project to further improve the app and user-experience, to help parents better manage their child’s care. To build on this study, the HealthSteps team plans to continue its collaboration with UF Health to evaluate the impact of HealthSteps on pediatric health outcomes. “We are looking forward to working with HealthSteps to determine whether or not using the app helps reduce readmissions and improve patient outcomes,” said William Slayton, M.D., Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at UF Health.

My mother Sophia is no longer with us, but I know she would be very proud of what we are accomplishing. I am honored that UF Health is the first in the nation to use the HealthSteps mobile platform to help these children and their families manage complex care. To learn more about our collaboration, see the UF Health press release and the video feature of our platform in action. Thank you.

Benjamin King
CEO and founder of HealthSteps