Remember – just three short but world-changing months ago – when many of us were at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The date was January 13th, 2020. Coronavirus was a problem in China, of vague interest – perhaps like SARS, unlikely to have a big impact in the U.S. Our community of healthcare executives, investors, and entrepreneurs were once again gathering in San Francisco. And the adoption of digital health? Well, there was still more talk than action.
The arguments for
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How AI-Driven Insight Could Fuel Medicare Advantage Success
Medicare Advantage plans need more than consumer-centric design, payer/provider alignment, and strong connections across the continuum of care to drive value. The high-value performance also depends on their ability to use data to make a meaningful difference in members’ health.
With 11,000 people aging into Medicare daily, proficiency in managing Medicare Advantage populations is critical for demonstrating value in a competitive market. Enrollment in these plans is growing significantly,
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COVID-19 Outbreak: The Opportunity & Importance of Health Informatics
Never before has health informatics played a greater role in public health than during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Health IT industry is certainly challenged due to the overall disruption to the healthcare system, the pandemic undoubtedly underscores the opportunity and importance of health informatics, such as telehealth, remote patient monitoring, patient engagement, AI-based drug discovery, precision medicine, and clinical decision support, but nowhere more pressing than the fields of
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The Technological Ironies of the Current State of Value-Based Care
Even though many think of 2008 as the first time CMS began emphasizing quality over quantity via the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA), the truth is that we’ve been on a 30-plus-year journey to get to this point.
It really started when managed care became a hot trend, but eventually, the friction between payers and providers was too high and patients were caught in the middle. Then came accountable care, which while still important today, ultimately isn’t creating
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Why COVID-19 Underscores The Importance of Social Determinants of Health
Google “Social Determinants of Health” and one will quickly discover a kind of litany of data pointing to a certain definition of “health” defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” and socioeconomic barriers, which may prohibit equitable access to good health and wellness (Healthcare) more completely among diverse populations.
Nevertheless, the heart of the matter
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Value-Based Care’s Story Will Turn in the 2020s
Value-based care initiatives matured in recent years thanks to exciting new technology and influential policy changes. But the coming decade will see transformative changes that will eventually lead to a uniform realization of value-based care across the entire healthcare continuum.
Specialty pharmacy represents one area of healthcare that is wholeheartedly welcoming a discussion about value. With the costs of six-figure specialty drugs and the number of patients using them continuing to
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Health IT’s Vital Role in Controlling The Spread of COVID-19
The healthcare system in the United States is becoming overwhelmed as a result of COVID-19 and there is no doubt that this epidemic will test the limits of healthcare delivery systems from end to end. Of course, at the present moment, everyone’s focus is (and rightly should be) on ensuring hospitals and healthcare workers have the appropriate equipment and protective gear they need to stay safe and adequately treat patients. That said, there are other IT considerations that should be taken into
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5 Lessons from Past Epidemics and Shortages to Help Supply Chains Cope with COVID-19
If we don’t learn from history, are we doomed to repeat it? In 2009, as the H1N1 swine flu swept the globe, U.S. hospitals began to run out of test kits. Some had to set up tents to handle the rush of patients. Supplies of personal protective equipment including N95 respirator masks ran out in many places despite millions distributed from the national stockpile.
Today’s coronavirus crisis is exponentially worse yet eerily familiar. Hospitals in New York, the pandemic’s epicenter, are
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Understanding and Alleviating Social Isolation Among Older Adults
Social isolation and loneliness among older adults are common and far-reaching issues that have been linked to serious health concerns including depression, cognitive decline, and poor physical health. A recent study found 52 percent of older adults age 65 and older experience feelings of loneliness a few times a year, and 21 percent reported feeling lonely every day. With evidence of social isolation and loneliness among older adults being as unhealthy as smoking 15 cigarettes per day, this is
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Examining a Hospital Ransomware Outbreak
Friendly security can save lives – and that’s not just a provocative phrase to get your attention. It’s actually true.
Hospitals are quickly becoming one of the hackers’ favorite ransomware targets. The steady stream of media reports announcing the latest healthcare facilities that were attacked indicates an end to this targeting is not likely around the corner – and that’s only based on the publicized cases.
Now we have new research showing us that at hospitals impacted by a data breach,
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