I have dedicated my career to clinical research and making strides to advance modern medicine. In the work I do as a clinical researcher, we are addressing racial and gender biases that exist today in clinical trials. For example, in cardiovascular disease—my area of study—we know that women’s symptoms present differently than men and yet their symptoms have often gone undiagnosed or dismissed by physicians.
It is well documented that communities of color have historically been mistreated by
Read More
Lessons Learned: The Impact of COVID-19 on Infusion Center Scheduling
Over the past year, COVID-19 brought new stresses to hospital scheduling, given limited resources, physician availability, staffing challenges and physical materials. Beyond the obvious struggles with ICU capacity, COVID-19 also put a heavy strain on every step of the chemotherapy patient journey – from navigating new scheduling protocols to pre-screening to delays in diagnosis to reconfigured, socially distanced waiting rooms and treatment chairs. As we continue to navigate the pandemic, many
Read More
How Medical Reference Platforms Can Enhance Clinicians’ EHR Experience
In healthcare technology, there’s no such thing as a silver bullet solution, and each technology has its benefits and its limitation. Electronic health records (EHRs) are no exception.
On their own, EHRs provide insight into a patient’s visit history, medical background, and more, but when used in combination with other innovative, user-friendly technologies, clinicians’ experience with EHRs will only improve. One of the easiest—and most significant—ways
Read More
Healthcare Executives’ Guide to Data-Driven Holistic Care for LTSS Populations
As healthcare leaders reflect on lessons learned during the pandemic, the need for more tech-driven and proactive care models is taking center stage. It has become clear that organizations that invested in robust technology infrastructure early on were better positioned to not just survive a global pandemic – but thrive--growing their reach and supporting their patients.
The Importance of Holistic Care Strategies
Read More
Why Healthcare IT Must Embrace Full-Stack Observability for an Increasingly Digital Future
Long before the pandemic, digital applications were already incredibly important to healthcare organizations, but over the last few years, they have become essential. Applications can assist with scheduling appointments, virtual doctor visits, accessing medical records and conducting tests down to the most complex AI-powered technologies such as medical imaging. As COVID-19 fundamentally transformed the way industries operate, healthcare has been the world’s focus as physicians, nurses, EMTs,
Read More
Healthcare at the Crossroads: Value-Based Care and Interoperability
Amid the difficulties of the last year, a bright spot has emerged that may provide a strong indication of renewed movement toward the transformation of the healthcare industry that we know today. Value-based care, a model that rewards better patient health outcomes, has experienced a surge in interest amid heightened consumer awareness and among payers seeking to lower costs and stabilize reimbursement. This interest, along with the recent mandate from the Centers for
Read More
Why Family Caregivers Need Help from the Healthcare Establishment
I recently spoke with a woman whose husband contracted a serious, chronic illness that requires long-term use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) line.
As her husband’s primary caregiver, this woman is responsible for cleaning and flushing the PICC line three times a day. And while she knows how to carry out these functions, she nonetheless remains fearful of inadvertently introducing bacteria into the line and the consequences that could result.
For this woman, the
Read More
Taking a Platform Approach to Drug Pricing Issues Can Help Unify Adversarial Sides
Healthcare is a notoriously complex industry with a multitude of stakeholders, many of whom find themselves in adversarial positions, simply due to the way the market operates. Ultimately, there is a shared goal of providing the best care to the patient. But as stakeholder relationships grow more complex, there can also be conflicts that drive wedges between parties and hamper successful collaboration.
We see this dynamic playing out in many areas of healthcare, but particularly in drug
Read More
6 Steps for Securing Patient Information in Healthcare
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) strive for innovations in healthcare technologies that drive down costs and improve the patient experience. One big step forward is the 21st Century Cures Act passed in 2016, putting patients in charge of their own health records.
Then in 2021, both the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Information Blocking Rule went into effect, which aims to drive
Read More
4 Ways Hospitals Benefit From Improved Surgery Scheduling
Hospitals rely on elective surgeries as a source of up to 50% of all revenue, allowing them to take losses on a range of high-cost service lines to remain profitable. The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the impact of reduced surgery volume, with hospitals suffering immediate revenue loss and negative profit margins.
As surgical service lines return to pre-pandemic volumes, it’s imperative for hospitals to have the right technology tools and best practices in place to maintain safe, accurate, and
Read More
