COVID-19 will likely impact and strain healthcare systems for many years to come — possibly even forever. As its attention wanes, we need technology to step in and tell us when and how to act next. What if there was a way to predict the next COVID-19 surge months before it affected operations? How many beds will be available? PPE? Where will you need to allocate additional resources and staff? What other seasonal uptick of disease will it align with? Will our revenue take a
Read More
Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
When Innovation Isn’t Enough: Pharma’s Next Frontier
I met Mark Cuban once. Our conversation didn’t last very long.
It was at a medical conference a few years ago. Cuban felt like a great guy to approach with an idea for a healthcare startup. We were both investors in an automation software startup called Zoba, and I of course knew him from his role on the popular entrepreneurial reality TV series Shark Tank.
A few seconds into our conversation, Cuban paused. “Healthcare is hard,” he sighed. That was his way of politely telling me: for that
Read More
Popular Social Engineering Cyberattacks and How to Prevent Them
Did you know, in the first half of 2022, there were 817 cases of data compromises in the United States, and over 53 million individuals were affected?
A multinational hospitality group faced an attack that caused their IT system to shut down for 2 consecutive days. After tricking an employee into downloading a malicious piece of software through an email attachment, this hotel chain’s attackers obtained extremely sensitive information that included the password to their internal password
Read More
How My Telehealth Company Used Revenue-Based Financing – not VC – to Get Mental Health Services to Underserved Seniors
Beyond just the impact of COVID-19, the need for tele-mental healthcare and telepsychiatry services continues to expand, especially for rural communities. With the unpredictable venture capital market, startups offering telehealth services increasingly find themselves evaluating alternative financing options.
I’ve noticed a number of alternatives have emerged in the last several years. These can be especially helpful for startups that need quick decisions and have predictable revenue growth
Read More
Tackling the Senior Mental Health Crisis: The Role of the Primary Care Physician
One in five people over the age of 55 has at least one mental health concern, such as anxiety, or depression. As people age and their physical health declines, they can experience feelings of sadness, worry, and even panic. Moreover, debilitating chronic conditions can lead to less independence and more limited social interactions, which can exacerbate mental health challenges. If left untreated, negative thoughts and feelings can intensify, and in some cases lead to suicide attempts or
Read More
EMRs Are Outdated, but Big Tech Is Not The Answer
Over a decade ago, the “meaningful use” clause in the United States Affordable Care Act incentivized Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption. The purpose of this directive was to improve the transfer of laboratory data to point-of-care clinicians to help us make better, more informed decisions for our patients.
In the years that followed, EMR systems have proliferated globally; countries like New Zealand, Norway, and the Netherlands are reporting EMR usage rates above 90% for primary care
Read More
3 Types of Data Are Transforming Clinical Care Through Cellular-based RPM
As the healthcare industry continues to embrace new technologies, remote patient monitoring (RPM) is becoming established as a way to help chronic patients remain in their homes with health supervision to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and visits to the emergency department, urgent care facility, or physician’s office.
RPM has been known for its ability to monitor a patient’s vital signs in near real-time and provide quantitative data to their care team over
Read More
AI/ML Used for Clinical Trial-Site Identification Simultaneously Improves Enrollment Rates and Diversity
Ethnic and racial minorities are commonly underrepresented in clinical trials. This problem is so severe that in April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded upon existing guidance to further emphasize recommendations to sponsors developing treatments to increase enrollment from underrepresented populations in the U.S., including African-American, Hispanic, Asian and other persons of color, in clinical trials. In the updated guidance, the FDA provided details on what sponsors
Read More
Minding the Gaps: 4 Traditionally Non-IT Roles Necessary for IT Success
As healthcare continues to digitally transform, integrating health data among various IT stakeholders demands much more collaboration than our predecessors could have imagined. Once focused intensely on preventing fraud, waste, and abuse and ensuring high-quality patient care, the compliance department is tasked with maintaining programs that meet the regulations and laws of numerous government bodies pertaining to various areas, especially electronic protected health information (ePHI).
Read More
If You Are Not Using AI for Medical Coding, You Are Not Doing Your Job
A quick, efficient, and well-managed revenue cycle creates a solid foundation for a profitable medical organization. That’s why if you’re responsible for ensuring the health of your organization's revenue cycle and you are not using AI for medical coding, you are not doing your job.
Let me explain.
Some RCM professionals may see medical coding as a small portion of the revenue cycle; however, its reach is wide. The quality and accuracy of medical coding can either negatively or
Read More