Picture this: you are a first-year nurse with an unusual case that you and your colleagues have never seen at your hospital. To expedite the formulation of a treatment plan, you turn to a private Facebook group for nurses to which you belong. Since joining the 8,000-person closed group, you’ve witnessed your peers share information - with important details withheld - as to not break privacy laws, but as a means to generate group think on analysis and recommendations. You’ve seen first-hand how
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
You Want Patient Engagement? Make The System Navigable
Last month, New York Times reporter Robert Pear died at age 69 from complications of a stroke. The name was unfamiliar to me, and I guess that’s to be expected, given what I’ve learned of the man since.
Turns out Robert Pear was a thoughtful, unassuming reporter who wanted the accuracy and validity of his work to speak for him. This approach engendered much respect among his peers in the 40 years that he primarily covered healthcare policy.
“Robert was an exacting reporter,” writes
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4 Areas in Consumer-Driven Healthcare Ripe for Innovation
Consumer-driven healthcare (CDH) has become pervasive over the last decade as a powerful tool to help address the cost crisis in the American healthcare system. The success of CDH in reversing the cost trend – together with the recent rise in health savings account (HSA) adoption – confirms that CDH will continue to thrive into the future.
Despite its success, CDH, as we know it today, is far from perfect. Employers struggle to effectively design a CDH program (the combination of the health plan
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Healthcare M&A: Agfa to Consider Selling Health IT & Integrated Care Business
Last week Agfa announced its Board of Directors would investigate the sale of part of Agfa HealthCare, specifically, the business tied to its EMR and integrated care offerings. The facts are:· In March 2019, Agfa initially stated that it would further extend the independence of Agfa HealthCare.· It has now expanded on what this could potentially look like, stating it will explore selling is Hospital IT and Integrated Care solutions.· In terms of its reportable business this is largely the
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Top 5 Roadblocks to Population Health Management Adoption for Providers
The healthcare system is undergoing a transformation to restore the patient to the center of their care and to provide all patients with the highest quality care at the lowest possible price and with the best possible experience. Frequently the patient’s health journey is fragmented between multiple providers, an issue which must be addressed as a key part of any successful value-based care model.
Population health management (PHM) is an umbrella term that incorporates the multitude of payment
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Why Playing Political Games Does Not Improve Patient Care
Now that it is the political season where divisiveness rules the day, the bevy of President wannabes’ interest in maternal health is suspect. After all, none of them have joined the many maternal health advocates who praised the President for signing into law the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act which gives grants to the states to help identify the causes of maternal mortality.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black and American Indian/Alaska Native women are about 3
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3 Challenges of Healthcare Internet of Things (IoT) Performance Testing
There’s no doubt that the internet of things (IoT) creates a new technological ecosystem in healthcare, helping organizations manage bottlenecks in care and bridging the gap between patients and providers. The list of applications for connected devices in hospitals keeps growing from real-time staff tracking across facilities to ensuring preventive equipment maintenance and 24/7 patient vitals monitoring in ER and resuscitation departments.But care delivery doesn’t stop after discharge. A range
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As More Americans Suffer from PTSD, Digital Health Solutions Offer Hope
With deadly attacks in our communities and schools becoming more commonplace, increasingly more common natural disasters, and a number of military conflicts in the last decade, it’s no surprise that 70 percent of U.S. adults have experienced a traumatic event in their lifetime. Of those, twenty percent go on to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health disorder that affects a person’s thoughts, emotions, and even physical wellbeing.
PTSD—which occurs when people experience
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5 Ways Health Plans Can Motivate Medicare & Medicaid Members to Complete Their Annual Wellness Visits
Despite the fact that Annual Wellness Visits (AWVs) have been offered as a benefit to Medicare Advantage and Medicaid members for several years, less than one in five members actually receive one. That number is even more surprising when you consider just how important AWVs can be for health plans, providers, and most importantly, consumers.
For example, Medicare Advantage members who complete an AWV are 4.2 times more likely on average to complete other high-value health care activities, such
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Improving Social and Cultural Determinants of Health Through Technology
In a perfect world, every individual would have equal access to adequate healthcare services regardless of socioeconomic status or cultural background. In the real world, both play a significant role in the level and quality of care a person might receive. It is critical that the healthcare industry as a whole remains cognizant of social and cultural determinants as it continues to innovate and transition towards value-based care models.
We have long been aware of the care challenges faced by
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