It’s becoming clearer that, while we are all hoping that things are going to go back to the way things were at the beginning of the year, the COVID-19 crisis will result in a new normal. That’s especially true in healthcare, due to four issues that are being wildly amplified by the COVID-19 crisis. Namely:
1. The US government has huge deficits, and healthcare is a major driver of the unsustainable increase in these deficits.
2. Addressing the demand for healthcare as a right (not a
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How A Virtual Therapist Could Help Overcome Mental Healthcare Demands in Uncertain Times
Over the last few months, our hopes and expectations for 2020 have certainly been halted. There was an air of optimism globally as we entered the New Year and a new decade, but now we have been plunged into a world of uncertainty with the spreading COVID-19 pandemic. Future unknowns, both from a human well-being perspective and an economic standpoint are starting to take a toll on many people’s mental health.
Understandably, the situation we find ourselves in is creating concern and worry and
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Consumer Genetic Tests Accelerate Precision Medicine for Some Providers
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests have been on the scene for some time now. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first DTC test on three specific BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer gene mutations more than two years ago. Six months after that, the agency similarly green-lighted a DTC pharmacogenomic (PGx) test to examine 33 variants for eight different genes that indicate how effectively patients metabolize specific medications.
Like many such advances, availability of DTC tests is
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How Direct Digital Fax Can Improve System Usability for EHRs
The lack of EHR usability is a huge concern for the healthcare industry. According to a study conducted by Mayo Clinic researchers, modern electronic health records (EHR) are less user-friendly than Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel, and Google. Using the System Usability Scale (SUS), Electronic Health Records were marked with an unsettling “F” and a SUS score of 45 while Excel received a SUS score of 57 and Microsoft Word received a SUS score of 76. Google search came in on top with an “A” and a
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Big Data Takes on the Silent Epidemic of Undiagnosed Behavioral Health Conditions
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a study found that almost half of Americans will experience an episode of mental illness in their lives, but may never get the diagnosis and treatment they need. In a more recent finding, over 25% of American adults now meet the criteria for a diagnosis of severe mental distress.
The looming impact on our collective mental health is concerning enough, but there are also serious implications for physical health. Left unaddressed, behavioral health issues
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COVID-19 Clinical Trials: How AI-Based Chatbots Can Provide Pandemic-Level Execution
More than 500 new COVID-19 related clinical trials have been registered as of the end of April. The race to find a COVID-19 vaccine is on and the public spotlight is on clinical trials. Strangely named drugs such as Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir have become household names and are featured and debated regularly on the 24-hour news channels.
The pressure to find a cure is intense. The locked-down world does not want to hear that at best, we may find a vaccine sometime in 2021. What
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Telehealth After COVID-19: What’s Next for the Healthcare Industry?
Like the rest of the economy, healthcare has been upended by the coronavirus. Not just emergency rooms, but primary care physicians, specialists, and long-term care facilities, too.
Struggling to continue providing care in a time of social distancing, many have turned to telehealth in record numbers. Even providers who may have previously viewed telehealth skeptically – perhaps because of the technology’s perceived complexity or reimbursement challenges before COVID-19 – have now become
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What’s the Secret to Building the Hospital of the Future? Simplicity.
As the healthcare industry becomes more connected, executives are increasingly looking for ways to digitally transform and provide next-level, life-saving care to patients. But it comes at a cost — and it’s not just monetary. The spiraling complexity of hospital networks is becoming a massive problem for health IT staff, and it’s inhibiting hospitals’ ability to advance. Brought on by years of network technologies and applications being layered onto the existing hospital infrastructure,
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Picking Up the Pace: Healthcare’s Evolution to Social Media
Take a look at the social media feeds of your favorite store or restaurant. For B2C brands, social media is, undoubtedly, a “where-it’s-at” customer service platform as much for networking or advertising as for engaging consumers with a personality and story that captures new customers and builds affinity. Now, imagine this same social care experience from your healthcare payer or provider. Why is this such an unlikely scenario?
Undoubtedly, healthcare has room to grow in providing
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Telehealth Could Be The Solution for a Pandemic, But Are We Too Late?
In the past several months, Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has risen from humble beginnings in a Wuhan farmer’s market to international status: dominating the news cycle, exhausting the world’s hand sanitizer resources, and generally monopolizing the mental real estate of the developed world.
As new cases continue to be identified in the U.S., politicians are giving coronavirus the attention it deserves, responding to initial accusations of inadequacy with proposals for funding and
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