Power Platform: Enhancing Clinician-Patient Interactions for their diabetes research initiative
Industry

University Medical Center

Technologies Used

Microsoft Power Platform

Azure Health Data Services

Key Outcomes

FHIR Implementation

Customized app to enhance clinical-patient discussions

VNB Health leveraged Microsoft Power Platform and Azure Health Data Services to assist an university medical center in implementing a solution with an app that enhances clinicians' discussions with their patients.

Customer Profile

The customer is a prominent healthcare insurance provider serving a vast population. With a rich history in the industry, they are committed to delivering comprehensive healthcare solutions and enhancing member experiences. The organization operates in a highly regulated environment, necessitating robust and compliant systems. Due to the sheer volume of transactions and complex nature of healthcare data, the customer handles a significant workload, demanding efficient and reliable IT operations. 

Customer Situation

The customer handled 270/271 Healthcare Eligibility Benefit Inquiry transactions to verify patient healthcare eligibility, coverage, and benefits. The customer relied on custom API interfaces built on Microsoft BizTalk Server to connect with multiple insurance payers. This complex integration environment, characterized by high transaction volumes and frequent changes, was prone to instability. Updates to one payer’s interface often disrupted connections with others. To mitigate this risk, accelerate development and ease the build, deployment and testing process, the customer sought an automated solution that would enable continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) with robust automated testing.

Customer Profile

The customer, a University Medical Center with nearly 200 years of history in innovation and research, is renowned for its strong focus on undergraduate education alongside its research endeavors. Ranked among the top universities in the country, especially in the Southern region, the university continues to excel in both academic and research excellence. 

Customer Situation

The customer sought an application for their clinicians to support a diabetes research initiative. They required the app to extract machine learning-modeled data collected from various sources, such as doctors’ observations and lab records. The goal was to provide targeted results for patients based on specific research-defined goals and parameters. This would enhance clinicians' discussions with patients and offer tailored care recommendations for their health issues.

VNB Solution

After analyzing the customer’s requirements, VNB Health Apps and Integration team proposed a solution using Microsoft Power Apps. Given the customer's infrastructure was not compliant with FHIR standards, the team also suggested leveraging Azure Health Data Services (AHDS) FHIR service as the repository for storing patient data. 

The team developed a solution to retrieve machine learning-modeled data outcomes from the customer's system, along with patient details. This solution triggers a Power Automate flow that maps and transforms the necessary details, connecting to the AHDS FHIR service where the data is converted into FHIR resource standards. 

Additionally, the team created an app using Microsoft Power Apps that fetches patient details directly from the FHIR repository. This implementation helps the customer achieve FHIR standard compliance. 

Customer Benefits

The solution enabled the customer to implement the FHIR standard, ensuring the secure exchange of critical patient information across different systems. 

The Power Platform-based app facilitated better discussions between clinicians and patients on specific aspects such as life expectancy, predicted risks, and optimal health goals.