The current NHS waiting list has hit 7.3 million in the UK, increasing monthly. A recent survey conducted by the NHS revealed only 21.3% of staff reported that there is enough headcount available for them to do their job properly and 44.8% admitted to witnessing errors, near misses, or incidents that could have hurt staff or patients. The same frustrations exist in the US healthcare system. In a letter sent in March to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the American Hospital
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Why We Cannot Wait Any Longer: The Urgent Case for AI in Healthcare
In Handel Jones' literary alarm, "When AI Rules the World," we are drawn to envision an age where AI doesn’t merely complement but dominates every strand of our societal fabric. One domain in dire need of this revolutionary touch is healthcare — a sector where the United States, alarmingly, trails behind in the global AI adoption race. When nearly one-fifth of our GDP feeds a system that sees Americans facing graver health outcomes than other high-income nations, it’s clear: our approach needs
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Not Just a Bill: The Importance of Empathy and Clarity in Healthcare Billing
When you leave the doctor, you’ll have a plan of care in hand. For instance, when you break an ankle, you may get instructions for the next 24 hours, a prescription, a follow-up appointment, a number to call if something goes wrong and a picture of what your next six weeks might look like. These plans are comprehensive and consider things like your activity level, the specific way your bone is broken, your ability to make it to appointments and any medication allergies.
This level of
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How Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Revolutionizes Clinical Trials
In the healthcare ecosystem, automation and data intelligence continue to gain momentum as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are integrated to streamline and accelerate processes.
The clinical trial space is one area where pharmaceutical companies are leveraging these technologies to improve operations, in particular, data processing. A typical clinical trial generates over 13,000 documents in various formats, including text, audio, video and images, making it
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HIPAA Enforcement is Changing. Providers Must Too.
Healthcare delivery organizations and those working with them that are still in business are either well aware of their duties under HIPAA, work with managed service providers that understand the law well, or…are lucky to have made it this far. Even for organizations that have steered clear of both cyberattacks and regulatory fines, vigilance is essential to maintaining a clean bill of (cybersecurity) health.
With HIPAA guidance and enforcement practices shifting increasingly quickly right
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3 Compelling Reasons — Beyond the Law — to Expand Consumer Access to Personal Records
Rules and regulations protecting consumer data often burden businesses, no matter your industry.
Rigorous consumer protections bog down financial institutions, e-commerce companies and educational organizations. These safeguards become even more demanding as consumers and government agencies call for increased transparency and access to personal data.
Healthcare is no exception. Our industry has undergone several iterations of consumer data protection rules — starting in 1996 with
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Supporting Youth Mental Health and the Critical Role of an Upstream Approach
By providing scaffolding to help build psychological flexibility among young people, we can not only support good mental health for life but reduce the mounting cost of mental healthcare.
Mental health is the defining public health crisis of our time. According to the CDC, 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless that they could not engage in their regular activities for at least two weeks in 2021, an increase of 50% from 2011. The amount who seriously considered
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Healthy Data Management: How IT Assists Healthcare Institutions
To obtain test results today, there's no need to visit the hospital. Simply open a mobile app and download the report to your smartphone. Doctors remotely manage patient data without being tied to a specific medical facility. They also handle large volumes of data effortlessly within their hospitals. This became possible thanks to electronic health records, telemedicine, and cloud solutions. However, along with advancements, challenges in digital healthcare are increasing. Let's discuss how to
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The Limitations of 2D Barcodes for Surgical Documentation
As the healthcare sector embraces technology to tackle slow, time-consuming workflows, one task targeted for an innovation makeover is surgical supply data collection.
The capturing of every reportable item used in surgery is vital from a patient safety and business perspective.
In this article, we look at the evolution of surgical supply documentation tools - and in particular, assess the current transition from traditional 1D linear barcodes to 2D.
We investigate whether the
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Healthcare’s Guiding Light: How FHIR Is Ushering In A New Era
Data is a crucial pillar of healthcare. But more than just the data itself, the flow of data between all stakeholders is what enables everything from care coordination to quality measurement, payment efficiencies, risk management, and other key goals. Yet, the healthcare industry has historically struggled with data exchange due to the lack of aligned interests caused by a third-party payer system and the predominance of proprietary technology. Additionally, data privacy, which all would
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