NexGen Healthcare collaborates with Microsoft for NextGen MedicineCabinet

NextGen Healthcare has signed a partnership with Microsoft to create the NextGen MedicineCabinet, a mobile app for Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. The application is available through the Microsoft app and allows patients to create and update a list of medications, and store, track and share medical data. 

Dennis Schmuland, M.D., Chief Health Strategy Officer of U.S. Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft said, “Windows 8 is providing new ways for healthcare IT developers like NextGen to enable the consumers to use one device to take charge of their own healthcare and well-being.”  

Mr. Michael Paquin, VP of Business Development said, “The tool is not only used for patients to become engaged in their care. The company designed it to also provide reminders and alerts and act as a quick reference medication record to present to physicians. “ He also said, “The new physician can still make an assessment and make sure they aren’t reproducing the same action or prescribing new medications that may cause negative implications to the patient. “ He adds, “It’s one more check and balance to ensure the well-being of the patient.”  Besides, he also said, “My dad is a cardiology patient, and 9 out of 10 times, everyone asks what [his] medications are," he said. "[My parents] bring out a little piece of paper with things scratched on it, and usually it's only things my mother can read. We thought of this and said, 'How can we make that experience better for patients?”

The MedicineCabinet app was developed and will eventually interface with other products of NextGen. Paquin said anything that can keep patients engaged, considering the onset of Meaningful Use Stage 2, is considered valuable, and the thinking behind the MedicineCabinet app was to have something that is "simple and easy to use," he said. "Overall we've had a lot of great interest in it," he said.