Spok Showcases Interoperability Expertise at IHE Connectathon and HIMSS19

Spok demonstrates potential of interoperable solutions at upcoming international healthcare events

SPRINGFIELD, VA – January 22, 2019 – Spok, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Spok Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPOK) and a global leader in healthcare communications, is reinforcing its commitment to advancing interoperability for hospitals and health systems through leadership roles in upcoming international industry events. Spok will demonstrate the power of standards-based interoperability with its leading clinical communication platform, Spok Care Connect^®, at Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE)’s North American Connectathon, Jan. 21-25, in Cleveland, Ohio, and HIMSS19, including the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase™, Feb. 11-15, in Orlando, Florida.

“Interoperability is much more than a buzzword. It is key to increasing patient safety as well as reducing total cost of ownership for the hospital,” said Vincent D. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Spok Holdings, Inc. “We understand how important interoperability is, and Spok is committed to continuing to elevate the way our customers deliver care.”

IHE North American Connectathon is the healthcare industry’s largest, most rigorous interoperability testing event. Hundreds of industry’s top leaders gather annually to collaborate and test implementations of IHE Profiles and other world-class standards. Spok has participated in Connectathon and in the Patient Care Device (PCD) domain of the IHE on Planning and Technical Committees for over a decade. Spok is currently co-chair for the PCD domain planning committee and a co-lead of the Alert Communication Management profile working group.

At Connectathon, Spok validates its solutions against an increasing number of vendors, including the leading EHR, infusion, physiological monitoring, and medical equipment management systems, for bidirectional interoperability using Health Level Seven (HL7) profiles. Spok has qualified with more than 20 of the top PCD vendors, and expects to add to that number in the coming year. These efforts not only improve patient safety and experience, but they also provide hospital value by diminishing the cost of deployment of Spok solutions.

“Health data is not useful if it cannot be shared in meaningful ways,” said Hemant Goel, president of Spok, Inc. “In addition to the more than 20 PCD interfaces validated at Connectathon, Spok has integrated with more than 300 health IT systems. Bidirectional information sharing is vital to providing the actionable intelligence needed to drive more efficient decision-making for care teams and for improving patient outcomes.”

At HIMSS19 at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, Spok customer University of Utah Health will share how they applied Lean process improvement methodologies and clinical communication technology to one of the most pressing patient safety challenges and most expensive conditions to treat in the U.S. healthcare system: sepsis. University of Utah Health leaders will share how they improved safety and outcomes for septic patients, and also reduced length of stay and total direct costs for the organization.

• Surviving Sepsis: How Health IT Saves One Life Per Week
  Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019: 2:30-3:30 EST (Room W315A)
  Presenters: Dr. Devin Horton, Hospitalist and Assistant Professor, University of Utah Health
  Matt Sanford, MBA, Senior Value Engineer, University of Utah Health