The healthcare companies will drive digital healthcare, including AI-enabled applications, throughout Pennsylvania and communities that Geisinger serves.

By Samantha McGrail | June 9, 2020 | hitinfrastructure.com

Siemens Healthineers and Geisinger recently established a ten-year Value Partnership to advance and support digital healthcare for providers, patients, and communities.

Geisinger, which provides for more than 1.5 million consumers across 13 hospital campuses,

With its expertise in medical technology, Siemens Healthineers will provide Geisinger access to its latest digital health innovations, diagnostic imaging equipment, and on-site staff to support improvements during the length of the partnership.

“By expanding our relationship with Geisinger, this becomes one of the largest Value Partnership relationships in North America and will allow us to work together to improve the patient experience for residents of Pennsylvania and the region,” David Pacitti, president and head of the Americas, Siemens Healthineers, said in the announcement.

“As the recognized leader in digitalizing healthcare, we are excited about this next step in our relationship to transform care delivery.”

Geisinger staff will be able to make decisions and optimize workflows through education and resources. Siemens Healthineers stated that it is dedicated to this “long-term alliance,” which produces impactful benefits for the patients who trust Geisinger for care and community.

“Making better health easier by bringing world-class care close to home is central to everything we do at Geisinger,” said Matthew Walsh, chief operating officer, Geisinger. “This partnership will allow us to continue to equip our facilities with the most advanced diagnostic imaging technology in the market to care for our patients.”

“Healthcare is changing rapidly, even more so now. This strategic partnership between Geisinger and Siemens Healthineers strengthens our ability to identify and respond to health concerns more quickly, resulting in exceptional patient care for the communities we serve in central and northeastern Pennsylvania,” said Michael Haynes, associate vice president of operations, Geisinger Radiology.

Healthcare organizations are constantly looking to improve patient experience, increase data interoperability, and deliver virtual care, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March, a Nutanix report revealed that 68 percent of healthcare organizations found digital transformation to significantly impact cloud adoption across various industry verticals.

Cloud adoption is vital to expand operations, data security, and improve overall patient experience, Nutanix said.

Cheryl Rodenfels, healthcare strategist at Nutanix voiced that cloud models enable IT teams to secure patient data and ensure regulatory compliance, while allowing healthcare providers to continue delivering advanced technological care to extend patient experience to the digital space.

But a survey of physicians and consumers by accounting firm Ernst & Young found that healthcare falls behind other industries when introducing digital technologies, which could greatly damage the quality of patient care.

More than half of physicians surveyed agreed that digital healthcare technologies will become commonplace in the next decade.

Sixty percent of physicians said that digital technologies will enable care teams to remotely coordinate complex care and the same percentage said companies outside of healthcare will enter the industry and bring profoundly different ways of managed care.

Fifty-six percent said that artificial intelligence technologies will be commonly used for diagnosis, medical imaging analysis, and medication management, the announcement said.

Additionally, 55 percent of physicians said that smartphones will become the primary interface in the healthcare system, 49 percent said that precision medicine will be a routine aspect of preventive primary care, and 32 percent said that virtual hospitals with no beds will deliver basic and advanced care.

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