The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has evolved far beyond traditional cybersecurity responsibilities, especially in healthcare organizations. Today, a CISO must be positioned as a vital connector, aligning business goals, operational efficiency, and security needs. This strategic role is essential not only for breaking down siloes between security and operations teams, but also for fostering organization-wide adaptability, strategic thinking, and a holistic understanding
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Adopting Uniform National Provider Directory Standards Will Promote Interoperability
The concept of interoperable care centers on the ability of providers to share patient information. Still, providers continue to find navigating the exchange of patient data difficult.
A 2019 data brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology underscores the interoperability challenges that clinicians face:
85% find it challenging to exchange data with EHRs that aren’t theirs73% use multiple systems or portals to exchange data71% of referral partners
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Balancing User Experience and Technical Complexity in Surgical Software Design
In healthcare, the impact of well-designed medical devices reaches far beyond their physical form. When these devices are thoughtfully crafted with the end-user in mind, they become catalysts for efficiency and accuracy in diagnoses and treatments. A symbiosis of clear interfaces, intuitive controls, and an overall positive user experience not only propel healthcare professionals toward optimal care delivery but also alleviates the challenge of navigating cumbersome
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The Road Ahead for Healthcare Finance Leaders: Navigating Challenges in AI Adoption & Data Quality
The road ahead for healthcare leaders continues to be fraught with challenges. According to a recent McKinsey survey, health system executives see digital and AI transformation as crucial to overcoming ongoing challenges such as rising costs, workforce shortages, aging populations, and increasing competition from nontraditional players. While AI, traditional machine learning, and deep learning are projected to result in net savings of $200 billion to $360 billion in healthcare spending, 75% of
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The Imperative to Stay the Course on Value-Based Transformation
Is value-based care still the right strategy to reduce U.S. healthcare costs? Or is it time to move to what comes next in the generation-long battle to constrain total medical spending?
The question is being increasingly asked and with good reason. For 2024 medical costs are projected to rise 7.0% year over year for Individual and Group markets. That is greater than the medical cost trend in 2022 and 2023, which was 5.5% and 6.0%, respectively, and adds to a decade-plus of at least 5.5% per
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Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Hospital Staffing
Matt Dane, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Hallmark Health Care Solutions
The healthcare labor market is in the middle of a fundamental shift. Healthcare workers are looking for greater flexibility and balance when it comes to their working arrangements, which poses significant challenges for nurse recruitment and retention. At the same time, traditional staffing models employed by large healthcare providers, which have heavily relied on staffing agencies to fill labor gaps, have
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Small Language Models vs. Large Language Models: Which is Better for Healthcare?
Large language models (LLMs) use AI to reply to questions in a conversational manner. Our friend ChatGPT is an LLM. It can reply to an uncapped range of queries because it taps into one billion or more parameters of data. Small language models (SLMs) are their pocket-sized cousins.
An SLM specializes in tasks associated with smaller, more focused datasets. For instance, a hospital could leverage an SLM to enhance clinical documentation. How? By training the SLM on the patient’s
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3 Ways Post-Acute Placement Solutions Improve Transitions of Care
For patients, every transition of care to a different facility brings the risk of complications.
When a patient is transitioning from a hospital to a post-acute care facility, for example, essential patient information relating to medical history and medication lists may be lost, overlooked, or not shared, resulting in delays to treatment and suboptimal care.
Like many things in life, successful transitions of care often start with strong communication. To match patients to the
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Centering The Patient in Value-Based Care Benefits
Forty years ago, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, HIV researchers and physicians discovered that simply treating the symptoms of the disease was not enough to provide lasting improvement for patients. Other factors like unstable living conditions, drug use, the public stigma over AIDS and HIV – known today as social determinants of health – all require attention in addition to a traditional treatment plan. This holistic view of the patient and caring for their symptoms, treatments, and the
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Strategic Cost Management Ensures ACO Viability
For ACOs to remain relevant as leaders of Value-Based payment models, they must step up now to generate more cost savings for Medicare patient care. Budget cuts for Medicare are once again under discussion by conservatives as political pressure mounts to lower governmental spending. Meanwhile, CMS is expanding risk in Medicare value-based payment models, moving quickly away from Fee-for-Service reimbursement. The new ACO PC Flex model is designed to create per-patient reimbursement for
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