Over the last several years, integration has been building in the world of health information technology and is most visible in medical centers and healthcare systems.

Visit your clinic doctor, she wants to order lab tests and on your way out you stop by the lab for the blood draw. A few days later you get a message saying your results are now on the clinic's patient portal. This efficient and streamlined workflow benefits both providers and patients.

However, silos of care still exist — especially as innovation and digital health continue their rapid and disruptive evolution.

The newly announced integration of Change Healthcare's Intelligent Healthcare Network with Doctor On Demand's patient geo-location technology is a sign of progress in virtual medicine outside of traditional delivery systems. The goal is to streamline the lab ordering process for telemedicine physicians and give their patients the power to choose the most convenient and cost-effective facility.

Doctor On Demand is a video medicine provider serving health plans, enterprise customers and the direct-to-consumer market. They are now using the Change Healthcare Intelligent Healthcare Network Orders and Results solution to connect laboratory and ancillary services to their providers, producing cleaner orders and lab results and reports delivered directly to physicians. The technology applies Change Healthcare's logic and business rules to aid in smarter decision-making.

Now, when a Doctor On Demand physician sees a patient over a video visit and determines lab work is needed, she is presented with labs geographically and as preferred by the patient's insurance plan. The physician can then confer with the patient to choose a lab that works best for them based on location and avoiding unnecessary costs — before ordering the tests.

When testing is complete, the physician can then send the results directly to the patient — all through the Doctor On Demand application. This allows for a seamless telemedicine experience that fully empowers patients to take charge of their own health and increases satisfaction.

This integration of technology supports telemedicine physicians who are often physically located away from a patient's community. It offers an example of just how integrated technologies can transcend geographic gaps for more seamless experiences between patients, physicians, laboratory and other ancillary services.

Just like healthcare, telemedicine is getting smarter!