Cisco's newExtended Care Solutionenables patient engagement and care team collaboration at any time and from anywhere including home, office and other remote locations.  Cisco Extended Care is a new browser-based health and wellness collaboration solution platform that features ad hoc and scheduled video consults, secure messaging, customizable pre-appointment questionnaires, a video library platform and the ability to manually capture readings from personal wellness devices.

In addition, the solution offers open application programming interfaces(APIs), enabling users to integrate with other third-party applications and environments, such as video workflow, into their existing patient portal solution, thus protecting existing investments.

"Cisco's Extended Care solution offers our customers a new way to cater to patient wants and needs, ultimately providing patients with a better experience and increasing their engagement and involvement with their own care," said David Plummer, general manager, Cisco's Care-at-a-Distance Solutions. "By allowing patients and their care teams the opportunity to connect for both ad hoc and prescheduled video consults, and by providing secure messaging capabilities and online questionnaires, our hospital and clinic customers will be able to operate in a more efficient manner."

A recentCisco survey showed that nearly 74% of the 1,547 respondents were open to sharing medical information online, and the majority of those patients were comfortable with the idea of communicating with doctors using technology instead of seeing them in person. This shift in consumer attitude opens up new opportunities for hospitals and clinics to increase efficiency, while at the same time providing greater continuity of care, driving wellness education and potentially lowering the cost of care delivery. With new lines of communication and an increased dialogue between patients and doctors, hospitals can hope to see lower rates of readmittance.

If you are planning to attendHIMSS14in February, be sure to visit theCisco booth (#1453) to see first-hand how Cisco Extended Care can help your organization streamline and improve patient care.