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KMS Technology: Redefining Touchstones for Quality Patient-Driven Healthcare
Kaushal Amin, CTO and Patrick Gardner, CEO, KMS Technology The promise of healthcare interoperability has been long overdue. All along, it has been championed for ameliorating the standard of patient experiences. On an equal footing, healthcare interoperability has also been touted as the ultimate solution to put an end to the chaotic manner in which information is shared between different departments across the healthcare landscape. However, one of the most essential prerequisites to providing quality healthcare has also been one of the most difficult to achieve. No matter how hard the industry tried to bring in a sense of interoperability to get over disparate vendors and complex processes, it hasn’t had much success. Taking note of this, KMS Technology is on a quest to change this narrative forever. “In this age of patient-driven healthcare, our goal is to help accelerate the evolution of the digital experience of patients through healthcare interoperability,” states Patrick Gardner, CEO of KMS Healthcare, as he reflects on how the road leading to true interoperability hasn’t been one without its share of bumps and hurdles.
It all goes back to the time when the 21st Century Cures Act was signed into US Law—giving voice to the patients and their opinions while advocating numerous innovative strides around enhancing the overall patient experience. Among several transformative ideas, it brought forth the significance of healthcare interoperability standards in upping the ante of quality healthcare services. Ever since, the industry at large has made significant progress in defining interoperability standards with the prevalent HL7 transaction protocol for system-to-system messaging. But owing to inconsistencies related to its development and implementation, it has failed to help organizations attain true interoperability.
Therefore, as an alternative data exchange standard, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) gained prevalence in improving interoperability and fostering communication efficiency compared to previous standards. Still, there remains a catch! Owing to its strict compliance measures and continuously evolving regulatory mandates in the wake of the 21st Century Cures Act, it is really hard to find appropriate resources with adequate expertise in dealing with this revolutionary data exchange standard. And this is precisely where KMS is moving the needle on interoperability.
The Atlanta-based company is heavily investing in education and training of FHIR API development to bridge technology and knowledge gaps around FHIR APIs and SMART on FHIR APIs. Their services enable providers, payers, life sciences, and health IT vendors to develop integrated applications that deliver on the promise of healthcare interoperability—while staying compliant with the evolving regulations.
Being an industry veteran with over 28 years of experience, Gardner has held senior leadership roles across several organizations including companies that focused on the conversion of paper-based health records to digital and clinical documentation improvement solutions based on accurate and compliant diagnosis with the appropriate level of reimbursement. All his previous experiences have culminated to this point where Gardner, along with KMS Healthcare, aims to drastically upgrade healthcare interoperability standards and encourage value-added healthcare for patients.
Building on FHIR Expertise
As a leading consulting and software development partner, KMS helps healthcare technology companies build, test, and sustain cutting-edge platforms that drive healthcare forward. On that front, the company not only offers standard software development services but also helps accelerate the development process.
Since the process starts with data acquisition, KMS has developed a solution called KMS Connect, which leverages FHIR Server technology and provides API connectivity to providers and payers to meaningfully exchange data.
Leveraging KMS’ deep domain knowledge of FHIR, healthcare solution providers can now develop robust applications to share patient data among teams more efficiently and speed up decision-making processes. On an equal note, health plan companies can supplement claims data with clinical data to better assess risks and curtail costs. And finally, patients can also take greater control of their health by accessing medical information through consumer-friendly apps running on smartphones, tablets, and wearables.
In this age of patient-driven healthcare, kms healthcare’s goal is to help accelerate the evolution of the digital experience of patients through healthcare interoperability
Alongside, KMS Connect offers data services that deal with identity management, data aggregation and enrichment, offline processing of transactions, and connectivity to endpoints, enabling caregivers to seamlessly carry out their business transactions at all times. Data interoperability gaps may still exist between a multi-vendor solution, which is why KMS Connect offers a configurable low code integration solution that can enable business process individuals to complete this gap.
The White-Glove Touch
Apart from spotlighting its expertise in helping healthcare technology companies develop patient-centered mobile applications, it is equally important to elucidate the top-notch white-glove support service that sets KMS apart from its peers. Whenever health IT vendors are trying to bring connectivity and interoperability into their product roadmap, KMS works in cooperation with them to understand the ‘workflow triggers’ that launch downstream workflows in systems. Being mindful of this fact, KMS starts working inside the confines of the EHR implementation to determine the points within workflows that trigger events in external systems. Once the trigger event occurs, KMS captures that message through an interface and pushes it forward to the vendor so that they are aware of the time their workflow needs to commence. “This is when we start consulting with the vendors to productize that specific workflow and help them build end-user applications to improve the time to market,” says Gardner. As soon as the workflow is finalized, KMS captures the output of vendor workflows and manages the payload delivery back to the EHR. Based on that interface, KMS provides end-user applications that healthcare IT vendors can leverage in a meaningful way.
With All the ‘Hot-Cakes’ On the Plate
With an impeccable line of services that help various healthcare leaders deliver innovative solutions and stay ahead of industry regulations, KMS works with emerging and the most sought after technologies right now, such as conversational AI, ML, voice, and emotional sensitivity.
The company is delivering an innovative tech-enabled experience that providers and patients have come to expect, and the greatest testament to this assertion lies in one of the company’s memorable success stories in the domain of behavioral health. Most recently, KMS developed an application for enhancing patient experience in oncology.
Generally, as patients advance through the oncology treatment plan, a huge part of the success or failure of that treatment depends on the patient’s mental state. This gives rise to questions such as how well the patients are enduring the impacts of oncology treatment with chemotherapy or other regimens. To that end, one of the solutions that KMS worked on was using speech recognition in text-to-speech technology. Instead of oncology patients accessing their iPhones, tablets, or Android device using the touchscreen, they could navigate the entire application vocally. It utilized text-to-speech technology where questions could be versed to the patient in a verbal format. The application used AI and ML algorithms to determine the patient’s mental state based on their responses and pushed a mental-state scorecard to the oncologists who then adjusted their treatment plans accordingly, all to improve outcomes. They also analyzed how well patients were responding to the treatments, which depended on the things they said, and how they said it to better understand the patient’s progress at each step. The application pushed the mental state score card to the oncologist’s EMR system via FHIR to provide full visibility. “The use of wearables through Fitbits and Apple Watches to collect the patient-generated health data was incorporated into the application for generating more comprehensive reports of patient outcomes,” avers Kaushal Amin, CTO, with a hint of enthusiasm.
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There is going to be a lot of focus on the use of aggregated data and this is where kms healthcare will make a huge difference in the foreseeable future
Generally, as patients advance through the oncology treatment plan, a huge part of the success or failure of that treatment depends on the patient’s mental state. This gives rise to questions such as how well the patients are enduring the impacts of oncology treatment with chemotherapy or other regimens. To that end, one of the solutions that KMS worked on was using speech recognition in text-to-speech technology. Instead of oncology patients accessing their iPhones, tablets, or Android device using the touchscreen, they could navigate the entire application vocally. It utilized text-to-speech technology where questions could be versed to the patient in a verbal format. The application used AI and ML algorithms to determine the patient’s mental state based on their responses and pushed a mental-state scorecard to the oncologists who then adjusted their treatment plans accordingly, all to improve outcomes. They also analyzed how well patients were responding to the treatments, which depended on the things they said, and how they said it to better understand the patient’s progress at each step. The application pushed the mental state score card to the oncologist’s EMR system via FHIR to provide full visibility. “The use of wearables through Fitbits and Apple Watches to collect the patient-generated health data was incorporated into the application for generating more comprehensive reports of patient outcomes,” avers Kaushal Amin, CTO, with a hint of enthusiasm.
The Stairway to the Future
Envisioning KMS as the ‘pebble in the pond’ that will revolutionize the healthcare technology industry in years to come, Gardner wants to capitalize on the industry’s growing sentiment that reflects a need for customized solutions advocated by various healthcare providers. On this note, the company is also delivering solutions rapidly with the ability to quickly and easily change the application behavior through various iterations. It is meant to help health IT vendors build robust applications to get to the heart of the patient or the clinician value chain with relatively low investments.
Besides, the company is also enhancing its consulting expertise to help IT vendors align their digital transformation strategy with their organizational goals and strategic imperatives. Standing at this auspice of digital transformation, Gardner believes a few disruptive technologies are set to reform the way the healthcare industry will consume applications in the future. “There is going to be a lot of focus on the use of aggregated data— now going to be accessible through interoperability within applications—and this is where KMS Healthcare will make a huge difference in the foreseeable future,” concludes Gardner.
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Company
KMS Technology
Headquarters
Atlanta, GA
Management
Kaushal Amin, CTO and Patrick Gardner, CEO, KMS Technology
Description
Atlanta-based KMS Technology is heavily investing in education and training of FHIR API development to bridge technology and knowledge gaps around FHIR APIs and SMART on FHIR APIs. Their services enable providers, payers, life sciences, and health IT vendors to develop integrated applications that deliver on the promise of healthcare interoperability—while staying compliant with the evolving regulations. Alongside, KMS Connect offers data services that deal with identity management, data aggregation and enrichment, offline processing of transactions, and connectivity to endpoints, enabling caregivers to seamlessly carry out their business transactions at all times. Data interoperability gaps may still exist between a multi-vendor solution, which is why KMS Connect offers a configurable low code integration solution which can enable business process individuals to complete this gap
