The consumerization of healthcare is upon us. As retail pharmacies expand their reach and giant tech companies such as Apple and Amazon enter the market, we are transitioning from patients to healthcare consumers with more options and more purchasing decisions to make.
Whether this shift will prove beneficial to overall health remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: patients are being faced with an increasing number of decisions to make that have immediate effects on health and wellbeing.
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Healthcare M&A: How Carestream Will Change Philips Strategy in Imaging Informatics
Earlier this month, Philips Healthcare announced it had signed an agreement to purchase the IT business (HCIS) of Carestream Healthcare for an undisclosed amount. The deal, expected to close in the second half of the year, is one of the largest M&A moves in the imaging informatics market for some time. While it was one of the worst kept secrets in the industry that the owners of Carestream were looking for a buyer, the decision to split off the HCIS business of Carestream was more of a
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The Rule of 40 in Health IT: Should your Company Prioritize Profitability or Growth?
George Bailey, Associate at Healthcare Growth Partners (Left)Laura Gama, Investment Banking Analyst at Healthcare Growth Partners (Right)
Among the venture capital and growth equity community, a common rule of thumb for software companies is the “Rule of 40”. The rule simply states that a healthy software company’s net profitability + revenue growth rate should exceed 40%. This rule provides a guideline to balance the trade-off between revenue growth and profitability, a question many of
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Impact of Patient-Generated Health Data From A Cancer Perspective
Thanos Komidis, Co-Founder & CEO at Care AcrossPatient-generated health data (PGHD) contains entire datasets which, contrary to electronic health records (EHRs), are collected based on patient input. This data may be directly entered or provided by patients (e.g. via quality of life questionnaires) or may be generated indirectly (e.g. via wearable devices).Patient-Generated Health Data in A Shifting Healthcare ModelIn healthcare, the biggest focus has traditionally been mostly around EHR
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Technology Behind Innovative Screening for Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
The American Liver Foundation estimates that over 30 percent of the U.S. population has some degree of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the most common type of liver disease in the Western world. This can impact other factors of overall health, given the link between NAFLD and diabetes, obesity, insulin resistance, and other metabolic risk factors.One of the key issues in NAFLD patients is the differentiation of NASH from simple steatosis and identification of advanced hepatic
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Why Robotic Surgery is the Future of Urology
The evolution from open surgeries to minimally invasive procedures is in large part due to the development of robotics. Robotic technology allows surgeons to provide more precise, efficient outcomes for their patients than the traditional approaches used in open surgeries. From the first robotic-assisted procedure in 1985 (neurosurgical biopsy) to the invention of the da Vinci Surgery System for general laparoscopic surgery in 2000, the advancement of robotic surgery has continued to skyrocket
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How Our Texas ACO Saved Medicare $14M with Population Health Approach
Only about a third of the accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) qualified for bonuses in 2017. Our ACO, the Rio Grande Valley Health Alliance (RGVHA), was one of them. In fact, we’ve generated enough MSSP savings to net bonuses for five years in a row.
In 2015, RGVHA saved Medicare $14.2 million, of which our providers received half. In 2016, our ACO’s first year in Track 3 of the MSSP, we received 75% of the $8.5 million we saved. And in 2017,
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4 Pillars of Value for AI in Medical Imaging
At ECR this year, there were over 25 independent software vendors (ISVs), many of them start-ups, showcasing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for medical imaging within a dedicated space. Additionally, with established imaging vendors foraying into the AI space, what was once the hype is now in the early stages of market maturity, and, it appears, AI within medical imaging is here to stay.
The question has now shifted to what clinical value AI solutions can provide, rather than if AI is
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The Blueprint to Scaling Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Data Collection
In the value-based care world, cost-effective treatment, quality of care, and patient outcomes determine payment. Social determinants of health (SDOH) represent the economic, psychological, educational, environmental and social barriers that limit healthy behaviors, access to care and adherence to treatment resulting in poor health outcomes. Many stakeholders in health care are trying to address social determinants as part of their value-based care strategy. However, many organizations are
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3 Health Markets Ripe for Disruption to Watch
There are two constants in the healthcare industry. First: the field is dynamic to the point of perpetual change; innovations inevitably kick old practices to the curb. Second: patients will always need high-quality care from their medical providers, even as those practices and the medical landscape shifts under their feet. Investors in the field are perpetually on the lookout for ways to take advantage of the opportunities that arise in this dynamism, and to find ways to disrupt stale
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