Palomar Health Cardiologists Become First In Healthcare Industry To Employ State-Of-The-Art Mobile Technology

Hospital system launches AirStrip ONE after helping to develop new communication software.

Palomar Health continues to advance its role as a pioneer in innovative, digital technology with the recent rollout of AirStrip ONE at its inland north county hospitals. The advanced communication solution allows physicians instant access to patients’ near real-time clinical data from their mobile phones, iPads and other digital devices.

In this initial implementation of AirStrip ONE – the industry’s first complete enterprise-wide mobile interoperability solution – Palomar Health’s medical staff members are able to access patients’ EKGs in a matter of seconds.

Mikhail Malek, M.D., Palomar Health’s medical director for cardiac services, was one of several physicians at Palomar Medical Center and Pomerado Hospital who tested the new technology for nearly two months prior to its release.

“I find it very useful in my practice,” states Dr. Malek.  “As a cardiologist, I can access my patients’ EKGs anytime, anywhere from my iPhone or iPad.  It will also notify me when I am on-call and a patient needs my attention.  This new technology gives cardiologists like myself, the opportunity to make clinical assessments and respond to our patients in a minimal amount of time, without having to wait for an image to be sent, which is extremely important in minimizing damage to the heart.”

AirStrip Chief Executive Officer Alan Portela explains this initial functionality for accessing  the EKG module or “tile” of AirStrip ONE  is the first to be tested and activated in a hospital setting,  and will be followed by the release of additional tiles for obstetricians, critical care physicians and the general medical staff. 

“AirStrip ONE will help enable Palomar Health to break down the geographic and technological barriers to data access across the care continuum,” states Portela.  “The new technology, which is FDA cleared, allows us to represent information from disparate medical record systems through a uniform, intuitive interface.”

According to Ben Kanter, M.D., Palomar Health’s chief medical information officer, the healthcare system partnered with AirStrip in developing the cutting edge product after first devising MIAA – Medical Information Anytime Anywhere – a technological platform which created mobile access to electronic health records (EHRs).  AirStrip had previously created software that allowed mobile access patient monitoring including cardiac and fetal waveforms.

“By working together and combining the two technologies, we are providing a complete package of resources and applications for our physicians,” states Dr. Kanter.  “As we incrementally roll out additional features, I anticipate that in the very near future our physicians will be able to view almost all of the information contained within our electronic health record, but completely redesigned to take advantage of the smaller screen sizes and unique features of mobile devices.  With AirStrip ONE we have taken a major step forward, improving our abilities to manage healthcare for patients both inside and outside the hospital.  Palomar Health and AirStrip have created a way for physicians to access a wide variety of medical data anytime, anywhere, to help them make the right decisions at the right time.”

AirStrip was co-founded by a Texas obstetrician who wanted to see his patients’ fetal waveforms without having to be in the hospital.  The first mobile application developed by AirStrip can improve the safety of babies who might be in distress.  Today, one in six babies born in U.S. is monitored using AirStrip ONE OB, covering well over 1.5 million births to date.

According to Dr. Kanter, “Mobile health is definitely one of the hottest topics in medical technology, and it holds great promise for improving the safe, efficient delivery of care to patients whether they’re at home or in a hospital.  We look forward to releasing additional elements of this software in coming months.”

About Palomar Health
Palomar Health is the first and only member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, is the largest public health-care district by area in California and the most comprehensive health care delivery system in northern San Diego County.  It is governed by a publicly-elected board of directors, and its primary San Diego County has more than 500,000 residents.

Palomar Health has several facilities, including hospitals and skilled nursing facilities in Escondido and Poway as well as Palomar Health expresscare health centers in Escondido, Rancho Penasquitos, San Elijo Hills in San Marcos, all in North San Diego County, and in Temecula, Riverside County.

Palomar Health provides medical services in virtually all fields of medicine, including primary care, cardiovascular care, emergency services, trauma, cancer, orthopedics, women’s health, rehabilitation, robotic surgery and bariatric surgery. For more information, visit www.PalomarHealth.org.

About AirStrip
AirStrip provides a complete, vendor- and data source-agnostic enterprise-wide clinical mobility solution, which enables clinicians to improve the health of individuals and populations. With deep clinical expertise and strong roots in mobile technology and data integration, AirStrip is empowering the nation’s leading health systems as the industry continues to evolve to new business models, accountable care and shared risk. Based in San Antonio, Texas, AirStrip allows health systems to unlock the full potential of their existing technology investments with a complete mobility solution that provides access to critical patient data across the care continuum. AirStrip is backed by investments from Sequoia Capital, Qualcomm, Inc., Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) and the Wellcome Trust. AirStrip’s base of visionary customers includes HCA, Texas Health Resources (THR), Dignity Health and Ardent Health Services. For more information, visit www.airstrip.com.