Between The Charts

2014 Most Wired Hospitals | Meaningful Use of Health IT

Great article, some key take aways:

“We see leaders thinking about business intelligence tools. We also see consistency among hospitals’ delivering quality metrics to clinicians,” says Chantal Worzala, director of policy at the American Hospital Association. “The question is, ‘Can we give them time to build out better analytical tools?’ ”

Most Wired hospitals also are ramping up activities around patient engagement, which will prove vital in a value-driven health care economy. The focus isn’t just on kiosks and electronic bill pay, although those aren’t insignificant. Rather, there’s considerable activity around all aspects of patient engagement, including chronic disease monitoring and mobile health applications. For instance:

• 82% of Most Wired hospitals allow patients to check test results via a portal.
• 53% of Most Wired hospitals offer patients with chronic conditions self-management tools via a portal.
• 58% of Most Wired hospitals offer an mHealth app that provides access to the patient portal.
• 40% of Most Wired hospitals offer secure messaging.

Medicine

July 21, 2014

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Direct-to-Consumer Telemedicine: Has its time come?

The cHealth Blog

Fast-forward to 2014. Dermatologists share digital images via email and a number of social networks thousands of times a day. If the specialty is cheapened, I can safely say it is not due to this activity. So far, we’ve not created any ‘cutaneous radiologists’ which was another fear of nay sayers at the time. In fact, the American Academy of Dermatology has an officially sponsored software application that members can use to provide volunteer teledermatology services to underserved clinics, and is planning on promoting this concept in the coming year. What a difference 15 years makes!

I use this story to set context for a thoughtful discussion on one of the most controversial telemedicine questions of our current time. Is it safe and effective care for providers to evaluate and prescribe for patients that they’ve never met face-to-face?

Join me in thinking through this question.

1. Most health care requires…

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April 10, 2014

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Bryan Roberts: Health care venture capital’s billion-dollar man

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March 20, 2014

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The Digital Transformation of Healthcare

Michael Fitzgerald, contributing editor at MIT Sloan Management Review, talks with WellPoint executive Lori Beer. Read more…

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April 27, 2013

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Remote Patient Monitoring will Lead Value-Based Healthcare

The Digital Health Corner

Traditional health insurance reimbursement to providers (though payment is a more appropriate word) for healthcare services and products is at the root of our healthcare crisis. Our traditional fee for service system in the USA rewards hospitals and providers for doing more (and more costly) procedures to patients. Some interesting findings from a study from Harvard Medical School were that the higher the cost of surgery, the greater the likelihood of complications and the more out-of-pocket a patient with Medicare or private insurance paid, the more complications were reported. In addition, if a patient paid for the surgery fully out-of-pocket or through government-funded Medicaid, the likelihood of complications was lower. The Affordable Care Act, which introduces newer payment models including bundled payments, is creating an economic environment which is conducive to the widespread use of remote patient monitoring (RPM) for recently discharged hospital patients and those with chronic…

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April 24, 2013

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3-D Printer Builds Structures From Microscopic Water Droplets!

For more information, go to http://cenm.ag/drop. 3-D printers don’t build only solid objects anymore. They also build liquid objects, thanks to a research team at the University of Oxford.

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April 9, 2013

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Classification of technology enabled behavior modification programs

In thinking through how to classify technology enabled behavior modification programs, found this to be helpful.

Health-oriented behavior-change programs can be divided into five categories based on their relationship to clinical settings. The participant and clinician expectations are different for each approach.

1 Direct to consumer: No relationship to clinical setting.

2 Clinically referred: Clinician/system suggests a patient tries a particular solution (e.g., why don’t you try a commercial weight loss program?).

3 Clinically sponsored: Clinical setting has decided on particular solution(s) and offers it to the patient (for free or for a charge) (e.g., linked directly from clinical website to clinic-branded site with direct-to-consumer application/program, e.g., dLife, WebMD).

4 Clinically linked: Clinical site refers patient to specifically approved approach, provides information to the program and receives feedback about the patient’s performance. Clinician is expected to encourage participation, identify barriers, support patient’s choices, etc.

5 Clinically integrated: Clinical site provides branded experience in which clinic-based clinicians are part of the approach (e.g., there is a group-based experience run by the clinic staff and an Internet-based experience in which a clinician coaches the patient).

Neal Kaufman. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics. February 2013, 15(S1): S-60-S-74.

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health, medicine, technology

March 24, 2013

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Touchscreen T-Shirts only a few years away

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Great to see Buddy helping others!

Health Communications and Health Advocacy

Ever talked to your dog and wished she would talk back? Well, now there are some seniors who are talking to their dogs and getting an answer. It’s all because of the hard work and dedication of an MIT Mechanical Engineer, now entrepreneur with a big idea.

GeriJoy is the brainchild of Victor Wang and it was born out of concern for his own grandmother. Alone, homebound and isolated from family and friends in Taiwan, Wang’s grandmother started talking about suicide. Wang started working.

Wang is no ordinary grandson. At the age of six, Wang was programming role-playing games for MS-DOS.. He received a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of British Columbia, majoring in Mechatronics Engineering and minoring in Commerce, and was awarded the Wesbrook Scholar designation. After working in environmental research, aerospace manufacturing, particle physics, medical robotics, and being an officer in the military, Wang won the…

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February 1, 2013

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Digital health, key for improved doctor patient communication!

Mind The Gap

The basic premise of the Accountable Care Organizations is simple enough. By incentivizing providers (physicians and hospitals) to assume financial responsibility for coordinating the health care of a defined patient population, it is possible to increase the quality of care while decreasing the cost of care delivery.

For ACOs to succeed, experts tell us that 3 things are required: 1) health information technology is needed to track and manage patient populations, 2) redesigned care delivery processes are needed to support patient care coordination, and 3) the right set of provider financial incentives must be in place.

But The “Experts” Have Overlooked Perhaps The Most Important Requirement

The improvements in quality and cost effectiveness in large part are predicated upon providers being able to engage patients with the goal of changing their health behavior.

The problem is that most physicians lackthe patient-centered communication skills needed to engage patients in…

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January 19, 2013

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