David Wortman

Malaz A. Boustani, M.D., MPH, sees a future where theEskenazi Health Center Healthy Aging Brain Center and Healthy Aging Brain Care Medical Homecan bring its innovative Aging Brain Care program not just to the 5,000 patients it hasserved since 2008 in Indianapolis, where the center is located, but to the more than 100,000Alzheimer’s patients throughout Indiana and the millions beyond. 

Boustani sees a future that offersvirtual care to the many patients who cannot travel to the Eskenazi Health Center Healthy AgingBrain Center for treatment.He is associate director of the IU Center for Aging Research and director of the ABC,which uses an interdisciplinary team approach to identify, assess and manage thebiopsychosocial needs of patients with cognitive or mood disorder such as Alzheimer diseaseand major depression, and their family caregivers. 

If you have a team of care providers, you need to have a safe, effective, optimized communication platform to ensurethey provide coordinated care. Boustani believes his team has found that platform with the help ofDiagnotes, Inc., an Indianapolis-based health IT company. He believes our elegant mobilesystem provides the next step in allowing the ABC to provide virtual care across the state andbeyond. 

Based on implementation science and cutting-edge research at Indiana University’s Center forAging Research, the ABC program is an evidence-based program that provides patients withguideline-level care and improved care coordination, fewer contraindicated drugs and healthcomplications and less time in hospitals and emergency rooms. 

Working with the patient’sprimary care physician, who retains final decision-making authority, the experts at the EskenaziHealth Center Healthy Aging Brain Center diagnose and treat memory and mood problems.Doctors, nurses and social workers offer care that addresses the individual patient’s needs andsupports family caregivers. 

Our Diagnotes team – developers of the Diagnotes HIPAA-compliant clinical communicationsystem – worked closely with Boustani and his colleagues to configure our secure mobilecommunications system to monitor admission, discharge and transfer events as reportedby member institutions throughout the state to the Indiana Health Information Exchange  and Eskenazi Health. 

The Diagnotes system identifies ADT events for all Healthy Aging Brain Center patients and goesinto action to immediately alert the assigned care coordinator. The system pulls the patient’smedical record from the Eskenazi Health Center Healthy Aging Brain Center’s electronic medicalrecord system and sends a summary of that information along with the alert to the carecoordinator’s mobile device. 

The coordinator is fully informed and able to notify appropriatecare team members to respond to the immediate situation. Team members don’t need to be inthe hospital, or even in an office, to receive the alert; the information is delivered to theindividual’s preferred mobile device – smartphone, tablet or laptop – and available forimmediate retrieval. 

Diagnotes technology allows real-time tracking of patient encounters and program-relatedprocess measures. The data are frequently reviewed by the leadership team to determinewhether the strategy for management of the population’s health requires adjustment.

The Diagnotes team is dedicated to providing mobile health communications solutions that areHIPAA-compliant and designed to address the specific needs of our partners. Our five-component model embraces secure texting, provider scheduling, EMR integration, clinicaldocumentation and answering service automation. 

David B. Wortman is Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Diagnotes, Inc., developer of the Diagnotes® HIPAA-compliant clinical communication system. Available on smartphones, tablets and PCs, Diagnotes gives medical groups the tools to improve communication among providers, patients and staff. For more information, click here.