Healthcare data security has been a growing concern for CIOs for the last year or so, as hackers are increasingly targeting health information. Now, with a global pandemic forcing a shift to telemedicine and remote work, and new rules from the ONC and CMS introducing more regulatory burden, healthcare CIOs have more to manage than ever. Fortunately, it is possible to roll out new capabilities while simultaneously improving cybersecurity by following these three rules:
Rule 1: Think Like an
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Patient-First Model: High Tech Meets High Touch for Individuals with Rare Disorders
Industry experts state that orphan drugs will be a major trend to watch in the years ahead, accounting for almost 40% of the Food and Drug Administration approvals this year. This market has become more competitive in the past few years, increasing the potential for reduced costs and broader patient accessibility. Currently, these products are often expensive because they target specific conditions and cost on average $147,000 or more per year, making commercialization
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3 Common Missteps for Manufacturers to Avoid When Securing Medical Devices
Over the last several years of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of global medical device manufacturers. Recently, I have also started working with some new organizations that are not yet global in scale. A theme that I have discovered is that these organizations haven’t yet established true ownership for security within the organization, even though there is increasing regulatory pressure for building security, evidenced by updated FDA guidance and recognition of
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Gaps in Clinical Communication, Document Exchange Lead to Gaps in Care
Communication problems and inadequate information flow are two of the most common root causes of medical errors. The potential for miscommunication and faulty exchange of information in healthcare is substantial.
Consider: patient information is dispersed among multiple providers and payers along the continuum of care. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other clinical systems do not capture patient information or format medical documentation in a standardized manner. In an environment with
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How The Internet of Things (IoT) Can Be Used to Monitor The Elderly
Shelter-in-place orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic have exaggerated the social exclusion and loneliness of many elderly and vulnerable individuals, thereby increasing their chances of experiencing critical health complications. This trend—combined with societal shifts including reduced inter-generational living, greater geographical mobility, and less cohesive communities—has placed the elderly at heightened risk of being isolated and, consequently, in harm’s way.
Fortunately for senior
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For Better Patient Care Coordination, We Need Seamless Digital Communications
A recent Advisory Board briefing examined the annual Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Readmission penalties. Of the 3,080 hospitals CMS evaluated, 83% received a penalty for payments to be made in 2021, based on expected outcomes for a wide variety of treated conditions. While CMS indicated that some of these penalties might be waived or delayed due to the impacts of the Covid pandemic on hospital procedure volumes and revenue, they are indicative of a much larger
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COVID-19 Exposed The True Vulnerability of Healthcare Infrastructure
In 2019, 41 million patient records breached in 572 reported incidents at an average cost of $1.8 million per breach. These statistics are far from surprising with healthcare records selling for a reported average of $45 on the dark web. Unfortunately, the year 2020 aggravated these issues as COVID-19 exposed the true vulnerability of the healthcare infrastructure. Organizations not only had to manage the medical and financial impacts of the pandemic but also the security risks inherent in the
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Why Some COVID-19 Testing Protocols Aren’t What You Think
While countries around the world continue to flounder with regards to COVID-19 testing, everyone is wondering how national governments could get things so horribly wrong. It’s true that governments have acted incompetently, leaders can make poor judgment calls, and optimistic testing targets are rarely achieved.
But the claims of various ambitious big pharma companies—about their ability to deliver on capacity and accuracy alike—have created a smokescreen for decision-makers, one that has
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Vaccine Safety Expert Shares 5 COVID-19 Vaccine Facts to Protect 2021
Now more than ever, public confidence is key. It's our job as medical professionals, the FDA's job, and public figures' job to convince the population to vaccinate by presenting the real results of studies.
The current vaccine hesitancy, which might result in a large proportion of people refusing vaccination, will leave us with an ongoing global crisis, even with the best vaccines ever made. A vaccine only works if it is actually administered.
Five Vaccine Facts to Protect
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Medical Device Design: 4 Ways Designers Can Create Medical Devices That Work for Everyone
Medical device design has been going through sweeping
changes over the last decade. Ten years ago,
medical device companies weren't concerned with delivering consumer-level
design: Devices that are both attractive and intuitively easy to use by a wide
variety of users. Then the Affordable Care
Act was passed, and adherence and healthy behavior change became a
regulatory requirement.
Our firm, which has been a long-time proponent of the
“consumerization” of medical
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