Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Smartphones have been in clinicians' pockets for more than a decade. The potential of smartphones opens new ways of communicating about and with the patient. However, concerns have been raised about appropriate use of personal smartphones in the hospital setting. The McGill University Health Center (MUHC) has developed and implemented an innovative application (App) for mobile devices, named VSign, which includes a clinical interpretation/group communication module named the Flow. The Flow module was implemented on two intensive care units in October 2013, and has been used by 245 clinicians. In this demonstration, we will be focusing on the innovative VSign/Flow App capabilities, including the free text messages (named "flows") around a patient, the categorization of flows, and the extraction of flows in structured documents. Moreover, statistics on its use on both intensive care units will be presented, and future development will be discussed. This Demo will help to underline the diverse options for information technologies to penetrate the hospital setting in the hands of users.