Critical Information Sharing for Healthcare

**Managing Information Sharing During Pandemics **

The fast and efficient flow of information is vital for the healthcare sector to offer life-critical services and patient care. Seamless communication, real-time updates, and putting the crisis response plans into action with minimum activation time are some of the key factors for successful crisis management during a pandemic or other urgent healthcare situations.

In pandemic situations, characterized by a large scale outbreak of diseases over a wider geographical area, the bi-directional sharing of critical information between various healthcare agencies and institutions located in different cities and states becomes even more important.

Effective communication and collaboration between frontline healthcare workers, physicians, non-profit organizations, hospitals, federal healthcare institutions for disease control, medical insurance, pharmaceutical companies, and government authorities is the key to create a**“shared situational awareness** ”, and develop a “common operating picture” to efficiently fight such crisis situations.

Information Sharing Model for Healthcare Systems

Delivering a Coordinated Response to Healthcare Emergencies

Quickly Get the Right Information Delivered to the Right People

During crisis situations, every second matters but sharing critical information in real-time with the right people matters even more. Healthcare systems must ensure that frontline healthcare professionals are not inundated or overwhelmed with ambiguous or conflicting information. Furthermore, given the intricate nature of the healthcare system, the engagement and information flow has to take place across multiple locations. Therefore, to provide clarity and ensure information is relevant, prioritized and put into action, urgent alerts must be shared based on certain parameters such as state or country, or specific types of roles like physicians, nurses, pharma staff, researchers, ER personnel, or administrators.

The sharing of information and alerting can also be done based on the nature of organizations such as hospitals, insurance, and pharma companies, and multiple non-profit organizations that are helping with crisis management and response.

Update Crisis Teams with Critical Information from the Front Lines

Information sharing during crisis situations should not be one-way traffic. Instead, to effectively communicate during a pandemic or other urgent healthcare situations, continuous calibration of the crisis strategy is required. Calibration is possible only when crisis teams are sent real-time continuous updates from the front lines. The crisis management teams and the front line healthcare workers must engage in bi-directional sharing of information which should also mandate reporting of new medical cases (confirmed and under-testing) and updates on existing cases.

Put Crisis Plans into Action with Real-Time Sharing of Critical Healthcare Alerts

During pandemic situations, healthcare organizations must be able to reach individuals or crisis managers directly. The crisis management teams must be able to put their response plan into action within seconds and update impacted individuals in real-time with life-saving critical information. One of the quickest ways of doing this is by leveraging the various features of mobile phones such as apps, emails, voice calls and short messaging services (SMS).

**Receive Open-Source Healthcare Alerts **

Keeping a track of the latest developments during pandemic situations is of utmost importance. Often, the information keeps on coming from multiple sources - making it difficult to collect, process and analyze it. Healthcare organizations should be able to receive open-source healthcare alerts in real-time, process and analyze them in a systematic manner without getting fatigued or overwhelmed. Furthermore, they should be able to deduce actionable information that can be operationalized by sharing ahead with physicians, frontline workers or key government officials for decision making or action taking.

How Can National Healthcare Systems Implement Such a Level of Information Sharing?

National healthcare systems can leverage the Cyware Situational Awareness Platform (CSAP) to implement this intricate and effective framework of health information sharing. CSAP is a real-time information sharing and communication platform that enables organizations to systematically share accurate and actionable alerts and crisis information with key stakeholders based on their role, location, or organizations. CSAP’s unique mobile capability is the underpinning for a powerful “on-the-go” availability of information and platform access that empowers healthcare and government employees to take action in real-time or warn front line healthcare workers and key decision-makers of an immediate crisis.

In its effort to give back to the community as a responsible organization during the pandemic situations, Cyware is offering CSAP to healthcare organizations on a pro-bono basis for a period of 6 months.

Email us at community@cyware.com to get started.

An Essential Overview

• Share information with healthcare workers at one or multiple locations
• Alert physicians, administrators, and ER personnel based on their role
• Inform hospitals, non-profit organizations, law and order authorities in real-time
• Kickstart frontline crisis management with targeted real-time alerts
• Collect open-source healthcare alerts and information from healthcare workers
• Report new cases and share updates on those under treatment
• Provide easy access to daily medical bulletins and standard operating procedures for healthcare professionals