Stress doesn’t discriminate by age, but its impact can be especially profound for seniors.
Chronic stress has been linked to everything from weakened immune systems to cognitive decline. Yet, solutions often fall short of addressing the unique needs of this demographic. Enter biofeedback devices: wearable tools that measure physiological responses like heart rate variability, skin temperature, and muscle tension to provide real-time insights into stress. These devices hold immense
Read More
The End of the Guessing Game: Why Primary Care is Finally Ready for Pharmacogenomics
Pharmacogenomics, also referred to as PGx, is the use of a patient’s genetic makeup to guide safer, more effective medication choices and dosing in everyday clinical practice, including primary care. Although it has emerged as an essential and evidence-based tool in the primary care toolbox, its widespread adoption remains slow.
After more than 30 years in family medicine, I’ve watched every major clinical innovation face early skepticism – from electronic medical records to laparoscopic and
Read More
The Great Unbundling is Over: Why Healthcare’s “Point Solution” Era is Dead
We have reached point solution fatigue. The future of health care transformation depends on integrated platforms.
Have you ever wondered what happens once a patient’s insurance card is scanned at their doctor’s office? The answer: a lot.
Each time a patient visits a doctor, it sets off a cascade of behind-the-scenes work. These critical “back-of-house” tasks include patient
Read More
Why Value-Based Care Will Fail Without a Dynamic Tech Stack
Value-based care (VBC) is a fundamental shift from volume-based, fee-for-service models to outcome-driven healthcare delivery. It characteristically requires providers to be far more dynamic about patient care, assessing risk and working collaboratively with other providers for individual patient-centered goals. However, at its full extent, this ask of providers is likely beyond what the average health organization technology stack can facilitate.
VBC providers must manage risk, improve
Read More
Hepatitis B Reform Should Start with Maternal Care
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ decision to move away from recommending the universal hepatitis B at birth is being framed as a scheduling change, but it exposes a deeper problem: for more than 30 years, the United States relied on vaccinating millions of low-risk infants instead of building system that identified and cared for the small number of women who along with their babies were truly were at risk. This was performative compassion—a universal policy that looked equitable
Read More
Why Social Capital is the Missing Lever for 2026 Healthcare Efficiency
My grim (and not-so-bold) prediction for the year ahead: Cost challenges will dominate leadership meetings throughout the year. My recommendation: Don’t let cost reduction be the only response. Instead, consider how building social capital can help organizations improve efficiency while also improving quality.
The financial pressures on organizations throughout healthcare are already intense, and only likely to worsen. Many providers and payers are running financial
Read More
Why Patient Understanding is the Most Important Metric You Aren’t Tracking
Health systems are drowning in metrics. We can tell you how many portal messages were answered within 24 hours, how many patients closed a care gap, and how many clinicians are using ambient AI in their notes. But there is one question our dashboards rarely answer:
Did the patient actually understand what we told them well enough to act on it?
We have turned “patient education” into a checkbox: an after-visit summary printed, a link to an online library, a line in the note that says,
Read More
From Fragmentation to Clarity: How Ambient AI Powers Value-Based Care
As healthcare organizations deepen their investments in value-based care, one obstacle continues to stymie progress: incomplete visibility into the patient’s health status. The problem isn’t limited to a single source, such as claims data, though claims are often blamed. Rather, it’s the fragmented nature of healthcare data itself. Patient information is dispersed across a patchwork of systems—EHRs, HIEs, scanned documents, specialist consults, diagnostic reports, lab results, payer files, and
Read More
When the Zebra Hides: How AI Ends the Rare Disease Diagnostic Odyssey
Doctors are taught a simple rule early in their training: When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. In other words, the most common explanation is usually the right one. But for the roughly 300 million people worldwide living with a rare disease, that rule can turn into a trap. Their symptoms often look like something ordinary – until years later, when someone finally realizes it was a zebra all along.
The problem isn’t the doctors; it’s the data. Every symptom, lab result, scan, or
Read More
The $32B Leak: Why Digitizing the OR is the Only Path to Financial and Workforce Resilience
In recent months, headlines on both sides of the Atlantic have told the same story. U.S. hospitals are cutting back surgical schedules because they simply don’t have enough staff, while NHS figures show more than seven million people still waiting for treatment in England. A regrettably high number of procedures are cancelled on the day because the workforce is stretched too thin.
For patients, the consequences are deeply personal - longer waits, worsening conditions, and avoidable
Read More
