How ChristianaCare scored a ‘Most Wired’ award for the fifth time

ChristianaCare has grown into one of Delaware’s most prominent organizations using tech in innovative ways, including its reimagining of doctor’s visits via telemedicine before the COVID-19 pandemic made the practice a commonality for non-emergency medical care.

And now, for the fifth consecutive year, it has earned the “Most Wired” designation in Ambulatory and Hospital Care from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), a professional org for CIOs and other senior healthcare IT leaders.

Some more of the healthcare systems recent innovations include the use of iPads to communicate with COVID-positive patients within the hospital and virtual reality to improve quality of life for cancer patients and train residents to help prevent opioid deaths.

ChristianaCare’s telemedicine program has also gotten a boost with a $714,000 grant, funded by the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program via the federal CARES Act, to expand access to its CareVio care management program to low-income communities.

Randall Gaboriault, chief digital and information officer and senior VP of innovation and strategic development at ChristianaCare, told Technical.ly in December that the healthcare system was in a special position to make big changes to the way healthcare works because of its Delaware location — a small, diverse health ecosystem that in many ways is a microcosm of the United States.

“We have the ability to change and transform healthcare in our backyard in Delaware,” Gaboriault said. “We believe we can move faster than others are moving in their ecosystems. It’s the Delaware advantage.”

ChristianaCare recently launched a COVID-19 monitoring practice using CareVio that uses secure texting to provide care to people who are COVID-19 positive or are awaiting test results, by creating a risk score, elevating people who have a change in their status, and providing in-home or in-person intervention when necessary.

“What’s so powerful about this kind of care is that it doesn’t pause between visits,” said Sharon Anderson, chief virtual health officer at ChristianaCare and president of CareVio. “It’s continual. This is how we’re changing health care through data and technology.”

ChristianaCare has won several other technology awards, including “Best Places to Work in IT” from IDG’s ComputerworldB and the Magnet Prize from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for positive distraction therapy through virtual reality.

“Today, everyone is experiencing telehealth and the use of new technologies to some degree, in ways that they weren’t just a few months ago,” said Gaboriault, in a press release. “But for us, it goes far beyond simply replacing in-person doctor visits with video visits — it’s about reimagining and recreating the entire experience of care. Across our organization, we have implemented new programs and technologies designed to do just that. Our vision is that all care that can be digital, will be digital, and all care that can be in the home, will be in the home, except that which cannot be.”