In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the biomedical community took on the task of developing and deploying critical interventions to address an unprecedented public health emergency. In a remarkable display of collective effort, stakeholders from government and industry came together to produce safe and effective mRNA vaccines as well as therapeutics– a groundbreaking achievement reached in record time. As the biomedical community looks to the future, government agencies have a tremendous
Read More
The Future of Biomarker-Based Therapy for Mental Disorder Care
We are living in a mental health epidemic. An estimated 26 percent of Americans ages 18 and older – about one in four adults – suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. Among mental disorders, cases of PTSD are on the rise. Roughly five percent of American adults suffer from PTSD in any given year and more than 13 million Americans reported PTSD in 2020 – most of whom are women. Standard PTSD treatments most often come in the form of pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy and include
Read More
Barriers Preventing State Medicaid Agencies from Harnessing the Potential of AI
State Medicaid agencies are responsible for health services that touch the lives of every American, making the potential benefits of modern technology tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), enormous. However, despite the promise of increased effectiveness with the same or fewer resources, modernization, and digital transformation do not come easily - or naturally - to many of these agencies. Real and perceived fears in transitioning away from legacy,
Read More
AI-Massage Powered by Robotics: Redefining Healthcare and Wellness
In an era where technological breakthroughs reshape traditional industries, the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics delivers extraordinary transformations in healthcare and wellness. The emergence of AI-driven robotic massage devices is not only revolutionizing the quintessential relaxation experience but also poised to redefine the fundamental dynamics of healthcare practices.
In 2022, the global market for artificial intelligence in healthcare was around $15.1
Read More
Healthcare Organizations Must Focus On Business Value & Not Chase The Technology Pendulum
If you’ve been in the healthcare or technology spaces for any reasonable length of time, you’ve witnessed the tremendous growth spurred by investment as healthcare organizations pursue digital transformation. According to RockHealth, funding for U.S.-based digital health startups topped $29 billion in 2021 – adding to the $23 billion invested in 2019 and 2020 – and the number of new solutions in the market has never been higher.
Such strong investment drives technology adoption but also
Read More
Mitigating Serious Fall Risks and Associated Costs and Injuries with AI-Driven Motion Sensor Technology
Functional balance is a critical health metric. One-quarter of seniors – about 36 million – will fall each year in the U.S. and more than 36,000 of them will die as a result. That translates into one fall every second of every day. The problem is growing, as fall-related deaths among seniors in the U.S. have more than doubled over the past 20 years, according to a research letter in JAMA Open.
It is also an expensive problem. According to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatric
Read More
4 Tips to Alleviate Burnout, Quell the Great Resignation in Nursing
When it comes to the Great Resignation, forget office workers – the real wave of resignation is coming from nurses. For many months post-COVID, nearly every headline, or so it seemed, was about office employees, their career paths, and the return to the office. What was underreported then – and continues to be – is that the Great Resignation came in full force for nurses.
The dynamics in healthcare are always complicated: Costs are going up, margins and reimbursements are shrinking, and
Read More
Digital Capabilities & Emerging Tech Hold The Keys to Surviving Healthcare’s “Silver Tsunami”
The rapid growth of America’s senior population presents unique challenges for the healthcare industry. There are more than 56 million Americans currently over the age of 65, and approximately 85% of them have at least one chronic condition. Caring for these seniors accounts for more than one-third of all medical expenditures in the U.S. and nearly 40% of all in-patient hospital encounters. But the real challenge is that there will be 45% more 60-90 year-olds by 2033 than there are now, and 30%
Read More
How To Fight Candida Auris/Fungal Infections In Hospitals
Concerns about deadly fungal infections are growing nearly as fast as the outbreaks themselves. From popular television shows to recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company, the attention has been swift and breathless.
Unfortunately, lost in the scramble to highlight their potency and develop a cure has been any agreement on an effective strategy for cutting into their spread. Over centuries of fighting diseases, humanity has developed a
Read More
Why Avoiding Costly Coding Mistakes Is More Critical Than Ever
In May 2022, a California doctor was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for his involvement in a $12 million Medicare fraud scheme. His crime: performing unnecessary vein ablation procedures on patients, and using incorrect billing codes to receive larger reimbursements. He received $4.5 million in reimbursements from Medicare over a three-year period.
Compared to this example, most instances of “upcoding” and “overcoding” are not as malevolent or expensive. But even an
Read More
