At Partners HealthCare, we’re constantly looking for ways to use technology to improve the patient experience. Systems like electronic medical records and patient portals make it easier for us to efficiently deliver uniform high-quality care to our patients.

Patient portals are online tools that give patients an opportunity to interact with their physician’s office and access important information from their medical record. No longer do patients have to play “phone tag” with their doctor’s office to get lab results; they can simply go online and get those results for themselves. And for those helping to coordinate care for a child or an elderly parent, a patient portal can link their online account to that family member’s doctor and allow them to better manage their family’s care. We believe that the widespread adoption of patient portals will streamline care for both doctors and their patients, providing a convenient way for patients to better understand and manage their health.

Read more...

Here on Connect with Partners, we often discuss the various efforts that Partners HealthCare and the rest of the marketplace are making to help slow the growth in health care costs. Today, Martha Bebinger of WBUR conducted a wide-ranging and insightful conversation with four of the region’s leading health care experts in an attempt to take stock of how the market is doing. The piece – “As Health Costs Rise More Slowly, How Low Can We Go?” – weighs the various innovations taking place in the Massachusetts marketplace and their impact on health costs over the long term.

Stuart Altman, a Brandeis University professor and nationally known health care expert, pointed in particular to some of the efforts underway at Partners. Altman states, “Partners has done some amazing things to lower costs.”

Read more...