Today, Cigna announced it will be the first global health service company to offer a skill aimed at personalizing and simplifying health benefits information with the launch of “Answers by Cigna,” a skill for Amazon Alexa. “Answers by Cigna” is designed to educate and engage people about health care by providing instant and easy-to-understand answers to more than 150 commonly-asked health care questions.Nearly half of Americans are utilizing voice enabled devices and has the potential to change
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Digital Health | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Why Medicaid Needs to Lead the Charge in Remote Patient Monitoring
In a system that is straining under the pressure of an increasingly sick and aging population, the benefits of digital healthcare are indisputable. Technology has played a crucial role in the industry’s continued transition to value-based care, driving costs down while increasing access to personalized care.[1] But despite the rapid gains that technology has affected, policy-makers have been slow to catch up. Until recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) enforced rules
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Using Telephonic Nurse Advice to Reduce Avoidable ED Visits
Delivering care in the right setting at the right time is a well-accepted tenet of value-based, population health management. Directing patients or members to the most clinically appropriate level of care promises not only to reduce costs but also to improve the member experience. Take, for instance, the emergency department (ED). While EDs are vitally needed facilities that save countless lives, the experience can be stressful for patients given that ED staff are often rushing to care for
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Report: Automated Patient Experiences Will Transform the Delivery of Care
World Business Research (WBR) and Conversa Health have released a new report, “Healthcare 2020: How Automated Patient Experiences Will Transform the Landscape”. Based on direct interviews and survey responses from 134 leading healthcare executives, the report explores how healthcare executives view automated healthcare technologies, their use cases and planned adoption.Survey respondents reported wide-ranging benefits related to automated healthcare, uses of patient generated health data, and an
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Survey: 4 in 5 Physicians Believe Patient-Generated-Data Improves Care Quality
More than four in five (83%) physicians believe that increased consumer and patient-generated data from connected devices would benefit the overall quality of care and enable more personalized care plans, according to a new nationwide poll released by Ernst & Young LLP (EY).The report reveals both consumers and physicians are eager for increased digital engagement. More than half (54%) of consumers surveyed indicate a comfort level contacting their physician digitally, and express interest
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Microsoft and Apollo Hospitals to Build AI-Powered Cardiology Network
Apollo Hospitals, India's leading super specialty hospital has inked a partnership with Microsoft to create an AI-powered cardiology network to predict heart disease. The partnership is part of Healthcare NExT, a Microsoft initiative which aims to accelerate healthcare innovation through artificial intelligence and cloud computing.Together, Microsoft and Apollo Hospital will be developing and deploying new machine learning models to gauge patient risk for heart disease in hopes of preventing or
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HIMSS18 Day 3 Coverage Highlights & Summary
Health Insurer Cigna to Acquire Express Scripts for $67 BillionCigna Corporation has acquired Express Scripts Holding Company in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $67 billion, including Cigna’s assumption of approximately $15 billion in Express Scripts debt. The acquisition is expected to be completed by December 31, 2018.The combined company will be named Cigna. Cigna’s headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut, will become the headquarters for the combined company, and
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PeriGen Unveils AI-Powered Fetal and Maternal Early Warning Solution
PeriGen, an innovator of perinatal early warning systems unveiled their new artificial intelligence powered fetal and maternal early warning solution, Periwatch at HIMSS18. PeriWatch™ Vigilance is a new early warning platform for obstetrics that automatically identifies patients whose conditions are worsening, facilitating more timely interventions.Vigilance augments currently installed fetal surveillance systems, providing a critical layer of patient safety without requiring a hospital to "rip
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Get Real Health Announce Winner of “Flip the Patient” Challenge
Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance), a HIMSS organization, and WEGO Health, the world's largest network of patient leaders, today announced digital health startup Get Real Health as the winner of its first "Flip the Patient" Challenge. The award was announced in the PCHAlliance Connected Health Experience at the 2018 HIMSS Global Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas. Get Real Health was chosen as the winner of the challenge by an independent committee comprised of select
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Philips and Samsung Partner to Connect Samsung’s IoT Platform to Philips HealthSuite Digital Platform
Philips and Samsung announced plans for a strategic partnership to connect Samsung’s ARTIK Smart IoT Platform to the Philips HealthSuite Digital Platform. This collaboration will ultimately allow the Samsung ARTIK ecosystem of connected devices to safely access and share information with Philips’ cloud platform. Healthcare application developers will be able to realize interoperable connected health solutions using integrated data sets and innovative HealthSuite services such as advanced health
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