Xerox Delivers: The Future Of Healthcare

Innovation and collaboration bring hope to the healthcare community this week with the focus on new concepts, discussions and optimism coming from TEDMED 2013. As a sponsor, Xerox shares its solutions and innovations on how the company is helping simplify healthcare. 

“TEDMED attendees and healthcare players share the same goal – delivering quality, accessible and affordable healthcare – and Xerox is behind the scenes with solutions that simplify the business of healthcare so providers can focus more on this goal,” said Lynn Blodgett, president of Xerox Services. “With more than 25 percent of our services business serving the healthcare industry, we're applying Xerox renowned innovation in areas like data analytics to enable improvements in how healthcare is delivered around the world.”

Zero defects
One way to improve healthcare is to take better advantage of the massive amounts of patient data collected by doctors, insurance companies and others, and apply analytics to predict future health outcomes.

For example, Xerox’s Midas+ solutions track patients through a hospital’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system and use predictive analytics to improve care and make progress toward charging for value, not procedures. This information can help reduce readmission rates and improve monitoring of in-home aftercare.

Xerox believes healthcare needs a “zero defects” policy – just as the aviation industry has. Human error and bureaucracy can make this difficult, but tools like Midas+ get hospitals closer to this goal by giving providers something to look at (easily accessible information), something to follow through on (predictive and prescriptive recommendations) and something actionable (a plan with measurable results). 

Improving lives
Xerox brings its strong history of innovation to healthcare with technologies that help free practitioners of paperwork so they can focus on care, spend more time monitoring patients’ health, prevent complications and help patients understand their healthcare choices. New Xerox technologies helping to save lives include:  
• In India and the U.S., researchers at the Xerox Research Center in Webster, N.Y., are helping protect infection-prone premature infants by monitoring their vital signs with video streams instead of putting electrodes on fragile skin or attaching sensors to an ear or fingertip. The new system trains an overhead video and thermal camera on the infant to obtain accurate pulse, breathing and body temperature readings.
• The Xerox Research Centre Europe in Grenoble, France, is developing a system to analyze medical records and search for specific terms, sequences of facts, drug names and how they are linked to determine if a patient may have contracted an infection. It then alerts hospital staff of the risk.
• Xerox is working on a “smart” medication packaging to help patients more easily manage their daily pill regimen to lower the risk of adverse drug interactions and coordinate information between doctors, specialists, pharmacists and patients. Using innovations in personalization, data collection and packaging, the system organizes medication, provides personalized instruction and tracks if a patient is adhering to doctor’s orders.
• Xerox’s Digital Nurse Assistant is helping increase efficiency and patient interaction. When a nurse enters a patient’s room, the patient’s data is displayed in real-time on a bedside monitor and on the nurse’s mobile device. The information is gathered through a digital tag worn by the nurse that determines if the patient needs close monitoring or medications. This eliminates the need for the nurse to search for information, medications, supplies and support staff.

The patient
Xerox helps the healthcare industry create a patient-centered experience, by using mobile, consumer-powered technology to deliver health and insurance information to patients and to provide caregivers the insight to decide on treatment. It’s a system that grows more effective and cost efficient daily by emphasizing wellness and well-being over diagnosis and treatment of symptoms. It’s making healthcare easier, simplifying back-office work to improve interactions and patient outcomes. 

“With the smart use of patient data and innovation, we’re seeing patient care improve, but it’s just the beginning,” said Will Saunders, senior vice president and group president of Government Healthcare Solutions, Xerox. “Through innovation, technology and the automation of business processes, caregivers and patients will have the actionable information and resources they need to make informed and collaborative decisions that ultimately lead to superior care.”

About Xerox
With sales approaching $23B, Xerox is the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management. Its technology, expertise and services enable workplaces – from small businesses to large global enterprises – to simplify the way work gets done so they operate more effectively and focus more on what matters most: their real business. Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox offers business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing services, including data processing, healthcare solutions, HR benefits management, finance support, transportation solutions, and customer relationship management services for commercial and government organizations worldwide. The company also provides extensive leading-edge document technology, services, software and genuine Xerox supplies for graphic communication and office printing environments of any size. The 140,000 people of Xerox serve clients in more than 160 countries. For more information, visit http://www.xerox.com.