When you look at your wrist, you’re looking at the future of medicine. Wrists offer the potential that nothing else in the health technology world can offer: round-the-clock, non-intrusive contact. For people enduring chronic illness and doctors treating it, this can mean, in the near future, a seamless, two-way flow of information about medication use and the circumstances where health events, such as asthma attacks, or hypoglycemic events occur.Children with asthma, for instance, using a smart
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What The Patient Engagement Metrics Aren’t Telling You
The tech industry loves to tout high-level metrics to garner attention for apps: the success of an app is often demonstrated by quoting staggering numbers of subscribers, weekly views, in-app session length, number of downloads, monthly average users, etc. And these statistics are not irrelevant -- they are useful for gauging product performance and often correlate to a successful product. For apps driven by ad-revenue, they are sometimes the most important metrics.But as I address elsewhere,
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Optimizing Revenue Cycle Management – What Will It Take to Get There?
The U.S. healthcare system is undergoing a major transformation, from many freestanding hospitals and individual practices to fewer large, integrated healthcare systems. One motivating factor is the promise of greater efficiencies when it comes to delivering more holistic patient care and improving core operational processes.Revenue cycle management is one process that’s primed for improvement. Poor billing practices can cost hospitals millions of dollars due to lost reimbursement or the
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Does the Fax Machine Still Have A Place in Modern Healthcare?
Fax machines have been a common fixture in medical practices across the country since they reached peak popularity in the late 1980s; the convenience, reliability, and security of faxing meant it was, and still is, the communication medium of choice for the majority of healthcare organizations. But, technology has come a very long way in past 30 or so years, and expectations have changed - what was deemed to be convenient, reliable, or secure two or three decades ago, might not be anymore. So,
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How to Successfully Manage the Staffing Costs of Migrating to a New EHR
Few decisions are as important or as daunting as the one that leads to the implementation of a new EHR. When replacing best-of-breed clinical applications with an integrated EHR, a successful transition involves managing, not just technology but, equally as important, employees across multiple teams. The best and brightest in your organization are asked to focus on this initiative, but this new assignment leaves a gap in the maintenance and management of a healthcare organization’s legacy
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Why The Retailization of Healthcare Begins with Women
The face of consumerism is rapidly changing in the age of technology. Convenience, personalization, and long-term benefits are of paramount concern to developers as consumers increasingly prioritize experience over possessions. The five-star rating format and other consumer-friendly features of sites like Amazon, Yelp, and TripAdvisor have been shaping consumer behavior and expectations for more than a decade. Direct-to-consumer brands like BirchBox, ThirdLove, and StitchFix are revolutionizing
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Bullshit Metrics: Is Patient Engagement Real?
Whether it’s stock trading with a few clicks on a smartphone, streaming new music before the vinyl hit the shelves, or receiving a wardrobe from a personal stylist without ever stepping into a store, technology’s potential to revolutionize the consumer experience is ubiquitous across industries. The healthcare sphere is no exception to this, and in recent years a rash of digital health tools and connected devices have flooded the marketplace, promising cheaper care and better outcomes, all while
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Data Collection Challenges in Healthcare and How to Overcome Them
While each industry has its own regulatory and governance challenges when it comes to data collection, storage, and management, the struggles of the healthcare industry are unique. Often times, the data collected in healthcare is complex and is governed by extremely stringent regulations.Most healthcare providers collect data using a variety of forms such as patient intake forms, consent forms, treatment evaluation and health assessment forms among others. Once this data is collected, it
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The Future Role of Robots and Humans in Caretaking
Visit the research facilities of the Georgia Institute of Technology. You may meet Darwin, a pint-sized robot that helps patients meet physical therapy goals. From enhancing a surgeon’s precision to disposing of medical waste to monitoring health metrics, artificial intelligence (AI) is making a big impact on the sector. Even the pint-sized robots are doing big things in healthcare. It will be fascinating to see where it all goes. As populations age, one area robots could help tremendously is
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3 Ways Automation & Integration Is Disrupting the HIT Status Quo
In the history of healthcare information technology (HIT), there is clear evidence that technology systems have been designed to provide individual solutions, instead of considering a provider’s workflow holistically. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, practice management (PM) systems offered medical practices the opportunity to automate their day-to-day operations. Then the electronic health record (EHR) became mainstream in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, to electronically store patient
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