Because the data capacity for flash drives and secure digital memory card storage increased immensely over the past two decades, mobile phones have gone from simple handsets used for text messaging, phone calls, and the occasional game of Snake, to sophisticated devices that support high-fidelity music libraries, high-definition videos, high-resolution photos and elaborate video games.Consumer expectation for data storage has also grown over those two decades. The rapid development of new
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Post-HIMSS18: Where are the Interoperable Killer Apps in Healthcare?
In his HIMSS keynote address, Alphabet’s former executive chairman and now current technical advisor Eric Schmidt warned attendees that the “future of healthcare lies in the need for killer apps.” But he also cautioned that the transition to a better digitally connected health future isn't just one killer app, but a system of apps working together in the cloud. He also advocated transforming the massive amount of data held in EHRs into information and knowledge.Schmidt is correct in his
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Why Networks Are Essential for Real-Time Healthcare
Healthcare systems around the world have embraced the vision of highly connected, digitally enhanced, patient-driven care. But today those systems are handling more data than ever before, which is pushing IT operations to their limit. Overcoming the key challenges — reliability, quality of service (QoS), security and scalability — requires evolving to a real-time healthcare model. By using the latest digital and cloud technologies, clinicians and patients can connect, communicate and collaborate
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7 Things Healthcare Organizations Need to Know About GDPR
Since the arrival of HIPAA more 20 years ago, healthcare organizations and professionals have become painfully aware of the price for not safeguarding private medical information.In fact, more than 171,000 privacy rule complaints have been recorded since 2003, resulting in millions upon millions of fines. Three data breaches in 2013 cost Advocate Health System $5.5 million, while New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University paid a combined $4.8 million to settle charges from a 2010
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Revenue Cycle: Why Patient Segmentation Is Key to Mitigating Financial Risk
With technology continuing to advance, making healthcare internet platforms easier to navigate, patients are becoming savvy consumers who increasingly are shopping for the healthcare they want to receive. Emerging trends, such as higher insurance deductibles and regulatory requirements for upfront estimates, are driving this trend, underscoring the role of patient access to move beyond the “one size fits all” mentality to address these fundamental changes.Traditionally, patients have had limited
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Four Use Cases to Apply Blockchain in Healthcare
There is a lot of buzz around Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency as a new kind of payment technology and how it can change our future. I am going to take a different spin on what is really interesting about cryptocurrency. There is much more behind cryptocurrency and Bitcoin than being a new way to make a payment. The technology that Bitcoin is built on is extremely interesting and has many other applications. The underlying tech that drives cryptocurrency is called blockchain which is a
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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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6 Ways Online Medical Courses Are Impacting the Healthcare System
The medical field is changing, from the way people seek emergency medical care to how they find a primary care physician. These changes have had some positive effects on the healthcare system, but one of the most startling is how online education for the medical and healthcare field has caused an influx of qualified and certified individuals in many sectors. A recent study showed that almost 80 percent of students are learning online, and these classes are having quite an impact on how patients
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Why Artificial Intelligence Could Fail Healthcare Providers in 2018
Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds tremendous potential to transform care delivery by automating, augmenting and amplifying human labor in repetitive cognitive tasks. Just like any tool, however, it can be leveraged with improper or incomplete strategies and create more harm than good. This harm translates not only into mistakes that can impact an organization's bottom line, but also the lives of the patients that the organization serves.As we approach the start of HIMSS 2018 we can expect to
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