At the end of December 2020, Philips announced the planned acquisition of BioTelemetry for $2.8 billion in cash.
- BioTelemetry was formed in 2013 after a series of acquisitions from the initial founding company CardioNet, Inc.
- CardioNet, Inc. based in San Diego, USA was initially founded in 1994.
- After a multitude of acquisitions in recent years, BioTelemetry has established itself as a leading cardiac powerhouse, specializing in mobile and wireless medical technology. After this
Read More
3 Ways Hospitals Can Improve Employee Communication—Now and Beyond the Pandemic
This year and the coronavirus pandemic brought new challenges to hospitals and healthcare facilities across the globe. And while the first phase of vaccine distribution has put a light at the end of the tunnel, many regions are still handling surging cases as a result of the holiday season.
As we navigate combatting the latest surge and distributing the first rounds of the vaccine, hospital and healthcare system leaders should use lessons learned from this year to ensure the doctors,
Read More
Telehealth Helped Me Beat COVID-19, But It’s Just A Start
I was the voice of social distancing, a proponent of mask-wearing from the very start. Still, after months of keeping distance from loved ones, the idea of a quick, safe, outdoor family gathering on a beautiful fall day, even if we weren’t going to be wearing masks, was too good to pass up.
A week later, I was sequestered in my bed, with a 103-degree-fever that didn’t break for 12 days, unrelenting migraines and aches, and what felt like an impossibly heavy weight on my chest, making
Read More
Virtual Care in the Post-COVID World: How to Prepare Your Healthcare Environment
As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated telehealth adoption, many patients and providers supported the remote-friendly technology. While the big spikes of usage may slow, adoption is still far ahead from where it was pre-pandemic, and we expect that to remain. In fact, the global telehealth market is projected to reach $559.52 billion by 2027, and estimates indicate that up to $250 billion of the current U.S. healthcare spend could potentially be virtualized.
Organizations were forced to
Read More
A Patient Engagement Strategy Needs to Deliver a Holistic Experience
Researchers from Johns Hopkins published a study in October on the impact of the pandemic on health care delivery. Among its findings, the data show a 21.4% decrease in primary care visits in Q2 of 2020, compared against the average volume of Q2 visits for the previous two years. By contrast, there was a sharp increase in telehealth engagements, accounting for 35.3% of all provider visits in Q2 this year, compared with 4.1% in Q1 and 1.1% in 2018-2019.
Despite the shifts in healthcare
Read More
Treat in Place: Protecting Nursing Home Patients From Hospital Readmission
A night doctor’s dilemma
Five years ago, I was practicing medicine in a rural hospital in North Carolina as a nocturnist, when I received a call from an Emergency Room (ER) doctor. “Hey, it’s Blake. Room 7. Demented. UTI,” he says, and hangs up.
I was struck by the abrupt and sparse communication—no detailed report. Not even a name. Charged with admitting and caring for patients, I head downstairs and find myself in room 7 where an elderly woman with a blown IV and no family around is
Read More
Healthcare Metadata Management: 3 Critical Capabilities to Creating A Unified, Automated Approach
The healthcare industry, like many others, has become a data driven industry collecting data from patients, doctors, labs, and payers that are all crucial to patient healthcare diagnosis and outcome. When it comes to research, data can be useful in creating emerging healthcare technological innovations, pharmaceutical discoveries, as well as other advances in the market but it also is accompanied by strong regulatory compliance, like stringent HIPAA laws, that dictate that this data is kept
Read More
The Combination of 5G and AI Will Transform Healthcare in 2021
Not many will disagree that the global pandemic has accelerated the use of technology in healthcare. With a healthcare system stressed to a breaking point, medical professionals have had to prioritize critical cases and increasingly turn to technology tools such as telemedicine and remote patient monitoring to manage the needs of their non-COVID patients.
As we begin to look beyond the pandemic, we will not only have the lessons of this time but improved tools to support the delivery of
Read More
A New System to Fit A New Economy: How Healthcare Can Recover From COVID-19
We are at a watershed moment. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to reevaluate our priorities both economically and with regard to public health. Living with a healthcare system that was created in response to an emergency measure during World War II, US consumers have struggled for more than a decade to control and understand the rising cost of healthcare. Unfortunately, employer-based health insurance and government-subsidized care continue to be the major drivers of cost and policy.
As
Read More
Why CMS Will Lead the 2021 Kidney Care Revolution
After an unprecedented year, kidney care providers, including nephrologists, dialysis facilities, and care extenders are expecting 2021 to follow suit. We will see an overhaul in reimbursement and major industry shifts, partly led by CMS, that will require providers to advance their capabilities in a way that will usher in more widespread innovation. These new models encourage a shift in treatment approach that will deliver earlier interventions and better outcomes.
The following are
Read More