A discussion of technology and the Medicaid population inevitably raises the topic of the digital divide — that is, the gap between people who have access to modern information and communications technology (ICTs) and those who don't.
“We can’t deliver internet-dependent solutions to Medicaid enrollees because they don’t have access to the internet.” Or so the argument goes.
But this is an outdated and manifestly untrue statement that relies on a very limited definition of
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Aligning Primary Care with Behavioral Health is Critical to Patient Outcomes
There is increasing recognition across the healthcare continuum of the link between patient behavioral health and clinical outcomes. Unfortunately, alignment between primary care physicians and services for mental health issues, substance use, and other social determinants of health (SDoH) too often range from poor to nonexistent.
“Behavioral health factors have an outsized influence on morbidity and mortality, and are the source of a large portion of family physicians' frustrations
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WannaCry Wasn’t Enough: Why Healthcare Still Struggles with Cybersecurity Communication
According to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), cyber incidents in health care are on the rise. From 2018-2022, there has been a 93% increase in large breaches reported to OCR (369 to 712), with a 278% increase in large breaches involving ransomware.
Ascension, a healthcare provider with 140 hospitals across 19 states, recently suffered a cyberattack that disrupted multiple critical systems. Another significant breach occurred earlier in February, impacting Change Healthcare and affecting
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3 Strategies to Develop A More Flexible Healthcare Workforce
A recent survey by the American College of Healthcare Executives revealed that workforce issues topped hospital CEOs' concerns for the second year. The ongoing challenge of staff shortages, nurse turnover, and high vacancy rates continues to increase reliance on costly contract labor, eroding hospital margins and contributing to clinician burnout.
Work preferences are also changing in healthcare. Nurses and other clinicians are prioritizing work-life balance, turning to flexible staffing
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Uncapping Capacity: Solving for Technology Overload in Clinical Trials
The clinical trial landscape has greatly benefited from technological innovations over the past few decades. Innovation has expanded remote monitoring capabilities, patient recruitment tactics and the decentralization of clinical trials. However, one of the greatest hurdles that clinical researchers are currently facing is a deluge of disparate solutions across the clinical trial workflow. For example, surveys reveal that 60% of clinical research sites are using up to, and over, 20 systems on a
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Healthcare Identity Crisis: How CIAM Saves Lives in the Digital Age
In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, the shift towards digital services isn't just about convenience; it's crucial for effectively maneuvering patient care and saving lives. But it’s easier said than done given the unique challenges healthcare organizations have to deal with in managing patient identification and data access. Moreover, the introduction of new regulations and the demand for sophisticated digital solutions, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have put further
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Why Precision Medicine Demands a Completely New Type of Database
Precision medicine is revolutionizing healthcare - by optimizing the efficiency and therapeutic benefit for particular groups of patients, especially by using genetic or molecular profiling. This approach enables a range of health disciplines, including disease prediction, prevention and the resulting treatments, diagnostic screening for prenatal and newborns, and screening for rare diseases and cancer types. For life sciences, the ability to peer into high-resolution molecular profiles has
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The Crucial Role of Patient-Level Data in Elevating Healthcare Outcomes
In today's healthcare landscape, patients are more informed than ever before, thanks to easy access to online resources and a growing focus on patient education. This shift has transformed how healthcare is communicated, fostering a new era of personalized care and stronger connections in the industry. Taking center stage amidst such advancements is patient-level data that is being increasingly leveraged for enhanced care quality and strengthened patient-provider
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AI Nurses: The Solution to the Nursing Shortage and Beyond
The healthcare sector is rapidly adopting AI to help improve disease detection and patient care along with delivering efficiency gains. The technology’s potential is fueling an array of investments and innovations in everything from cancer diagnosis to AI nurses. With respect to AI nurses, many believe this application is the only way to ease the industry's staffing shortages.
With the nursing labor gap expected to exceed 10 million by 2030, coupled with the imperative to improve
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Could Amazon or Google Hold the Key to the Future of Public Health Diagnostics?
Anyone who works in medical technology knows that the industry is currently focused obsessively on two prime targets – maximizing the availability of self-testing and playing its part in the common goal of achieving net zero. To those can now be added a third priority – attempting to find a way to make those twin targets mutually achievable rather than, what seems increasingly to be the case, of them canceling each other out. In the evolving landscape of MedTech, biotech, and life sciences, the
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