In this time of crisis, the U.S. healthcare system has struggled to safeguard lives and suppress the COVID-19 virus, while buckling under financial strains, low consumer confidence, and the burden of persistent clinician burnout. And yet, the industry is experiencing an unprecedented digital transformation. Between regulatory changes and billions of dollars of investment into new disruptors, the stage is set for transformative change.
In the midst of uncertainty stemming from the pandemic,
Read More
4 Ways Health Systems Need To Reinvent Themselves to Compete
For about a decade, digital health has been slowly winning the battle against healthcare’s slow pace of change. Digital found an unexpected ally in Covid, as the pandemic forced health systems to adopt virtual solutions wholesale.
As we start to come out on the other side, though, some health systems are contemplating returning to the status quo, especially as they’re feeling acute financial strain.
The majority, however, understand that the pandemic constitutes a sea change in the
Read More
Advance Care Planning: The Need for Racial Equity in End-of-Life Care
National Minority Health Month presents a critical opportunity to address the huge gaps that exist when it comes to race and healthcare quality in the United States. While there are a variety of factors that continue to play a role in creating this inequity, its impact leads to limited access to healthcare services, increased presence of certain diseases, and poorer health outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities. These fundamental issues around disparities in healthcare are also often
Read More
Top 3 Ways to Justify Interoperability Spend & Power Your Physician Alignment Strategy
For decades, interoperability has been a dirty word for hospitals and health systems. No matter how much they have worked at it, paid for it, and thrown IT resources at it, return on investment has been difficult to prove. This has been especially true when executing a community physician alignment strategy to expand care collaboration with unaffiliated physician groups to drive new referrals and revenue into the hospital.
The first step in many physician alignment programs is to formalize
Read More
Streamlining Biospecimen Procurement: Avoid These 8 Common R&D Mistakes
Long before a clinician administers a drug or runs a new test, there is the arduous R&D cycle. Unfortunately, it’s rarely as streamlined as the one that just delivered COVID-19 vaccines in record-shattering time.
For most Americans, vaccines and drugs seem to spring wholly formed from clinical trials, which are becoming part of America’s everyday conversation. But before any vaccine or therapy hits the market, the less-visible pre-clinical research and development must be performed – from
Read More
3 Reasons Why Mobility Matters for Surgery
As the computer form factor shrank from the size of a room to a laptop, computing “mobility” finally became a reality as devices could be transported anywhere. For over a decade, the laptop continued to shrink while increasing in performance and lowering in price. Mobility became synonymous with portability. However, with the advent of the smartphone, mobility now transcends a single product category and has morphed into an experience. Over a short five years, mobility has become synonymous for
Read More
3 Strategies to Up-Level Medicare Advantage Enrollment Before it is Too Late
With a new administration looking to reshape healthcare policy and additional special enrollment periods already underway, now is the time to ensure Medicare enrollment systems are ready for the unpredictability, and potential opportunities, ahead. While Medicare is the fastest growing segment of the healthcare industry, it is also highly competitive, expensive to operate in, and riddled with complexities and regulations to navigate. Health plans don’t have room to make a misstep when it comes
Read More
Decentralized Clinical Trials: Surviving & Thriving in the Clinical Research World of COVID-19
As with so many aspects of our daily lives, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinical trials was both widespread and monumental. Thousands of trials—an estimated 80% of non-COVID-19 trials—came to a halt or were interrupted by the pandemic, which challenged the ability to conduct trials safely and effectively and was complicated by the reality that trials often deal with the populations most at risk from COVID-19 exposure1.
In response, clinical researchers turned to a range of
Read More
What Will It Take for Hospitals to Survive the Pandemic?
On New Years Eve, just as the Covid-19 outbreak in Los Angeles was at its worst, all 451 of Olympia Medical Center’s exhausted employees learned they would soon lose their jobs. After 74 years, the hospital closed for good on March 31st, leaving residents of the surrounding community — poor and mostly people of color — without a place to see a doctor.
And it isn’t the only hospital closing.
At least 47 hospitals have closed or filed for bankruptcy in the last year, and there will
Read More
PHINs: Addressing the Fundamental Flaws that Have Broken Healthcare
The fundamental problem with healthcare can be summed up in one sentence: We expect healthcare services that cater to our individual needs, yet the health care system operates under a one-size-fits-all, trial-and-error model. It is a model that results in missed diagnoses, protracted illnesses, and even premature death and wastes $935 billion annually.
The financial toll of this outmoded approach pales in comparison to the human toll. More than 128,000 people in the U.S. die each year
Read More
