Also known as the Kennedy–Kassebaum Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) defines and regulates individuals’ medical records and other individually identifiable health information, collectively known as patient healthcare information (PHI). HIPAA aims to protect patient privacy, safeguarding their entire medical history, information about medical services and treatments they may seek, and other related data. HIPAA also limits how this information is used
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Diabetes Management in 2023 and Beyond: A Tech-Enabled Partnership Between Patient and Doctor
While the pandemic has slowed, there appears to be no end in sight to the diabetes epidemic. The number of individuals diagnosed is projected to keep growing over the next decade. What’s more concerning is that 75% of patients don’t meet guideline-based goals for A1C, blood pressure, and cholesterol control. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to serious complications like heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, and even amputations.
Thankfully, more patients are embracing technology-based
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Addressing Point-of-Care Ultrasound’s Shadow IT Problem
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is taking hold across healthcare, and for good reason. By administering ultrasound technology at the point of care, whether that be the patient’s bedside or an ambulance, POCUS prevents patients from being sent to another facility for imaging or waiting for a radiologist. That, in turn, enables more efficient workflows and faster diagnoses and treatment.
Multiple studies, from The Nurse Practitioner and the Annals of Medicine and Surgery, identify POCUS
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The Medical Library: A Hospital’s Most Underappreciated Asset
The impact of medical librarians is well-documented. In one experiment, a group of primary care providers had the opportunity to send clinical questions to a rapid-response medical librarian. They received their replies in an average of 14 minutes, and 86 percent were described as having a positive impact on care. Two studies indicated patient length of stay was reduced when clinicians requested medical library searches related to a patient's
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The Self-Driving Clinical Trial: Optimizing Research with AI and ML
The power and potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the healthcare industry are unparalleled. The use of automated technology systems like digital workflows, orchestration and storing of data digitally is helping to shape their application, enabling far greater personalization of treatment for patients and greater efficiency and speed of clinical trials.
As the amount of health data increases, the possibility of establishing a self-driving clinical trial is
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Why Accurate Data is a Lifeline to Care in the Medicaid Redetermination Cycle
During the pandemic, Medicaid enrollment grew by nearly 30% to cover more than 93 million Americans, due in large part to COVID-19 provisions that included continuous Medicaid enrollment. With the unwinding of these pandemic emergency orders, annual cycles of Medicaid redetermination have returned. As a result, states have removed close to 4 million Americans from Medicaid to date. The ongoing redetermination process is likely to expand health inequities across the nation, including in
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Can Artificial Intelligence Replicate The Human Touch in Healthcare Provision?
Anyone who recalls the ‘turbo’ trend of the 1980s will have a foreboding sense of déjà vu about the sudden ubiquity of artificial intelligence in every aspect of our lives.
What began with the Swedish motor manufacturer, Saab, unveiling its 99 Turbo Coupé in 1977, suddenly had manufacturers scrambling for their own version of the latest technological buzzword in everything from alarm clocks to hairdryers.
The craze reached its apotheosis with the spoof launch, by Viz magazine, of the
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From Reluctance to Resilience: Embracing Cloud Adoption in Healthcare
While digital transformation has been on the rise across industries, results can be difficult to see and adoption can take time. Adopting digital solutions is innately important but doing so successfully requires identifying needs and adopting the right approach. Through all the technology transformation that drives innovation in the healthcare industry, the one that underpins it all is cloud adoption. With 7 out of 10 healthcare IT professionals saying their organizations have moved to the
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How Emergency Departments Can Drive Better Outpatient Care for Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke
Today’s hospital emergency departments (EDs) face formidable challenges as they strive to deliver high-quality care to more and more patients. A shortage of newly trained physicians, nurses, and support staff, and high burnout rates among existing staff, are making it increasingly difficult to maintain staffing levels at those needed to meet patient demand. Without changes to care delivery, they could even diminish the quality of care. Patients are also presenting in the ED with ever-more
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Leveraging API Infrastructure to Avoid Healthcare Data Silos
Healthcare providers depend on comprehensive patient data to make fast, informed decisions. Unfortunately, our existing healthcare ecosystem has evolved into a collection of data silos that have, over the years, multiplied because of legacy healthcare systems that have stacked on top of one another. These silos of data were constructed around intentional business decisions to hold data, making it harder for new entrants - both EHR platforms and practices.
Over the years, these silos have
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