The latest report from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) reveals a concerning trend: HIPAA violations and data breaches are drastically increasing.
According to the report, HIPAA violations surged by 39% between 2017 and 2021 and the number of large healthcare data breaches (those affecting 500 or more records) rose by 58%. More than 5,000 incidents were reported, compromising more than 382 million healthcare records and surpassing the population of the United States by 1.2 times. Small
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
TikTok Reveals Consumers Want Engaging Healthcare Content
Technology has drastically changed the way we consume information in our daily lives. That goes for healthcare information, too. Dated, static educational pamphlets featuring dense explanations of illnesses and medical procedures just won’t cut it anymore. Most patients now have a smartphone and the internet right in their pocket or readily accessible at home, and patients expect, and deserve, to receive healthcare information that speaks their language, both literally and
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Why Health Tech Firms Must Hire Chief Medical Officers
The health tech industry is driven by innovation and is constantly in a state of change. Yet it’s clear that post-pandemic investors and consumers are a lot less comfortable with decision-making that is purely made by technology gurus without senior medical expertise in the room.
From the outside looking in, it might seem obvious to have a medical officer on your leadership team, but research shows this is often not the case. According to CB Insights’ most recent ‘Digital Health 150’, it was
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Value-Based Care Versus Fee-for-Service: Understanding the Key Differences in Healthcare Models
Value-based care and fee-for-service are two kinds of healthcare reimbursement models for pricing healthcare services. While the fee-for-service model is more traditional, the newer value-based care model has been gaining popularity in recent years.Historically, value-based care has been harder to implement in behavioral healthcare due to difficulty measuring outcomes—it isn’t as simple as physical health. But, lately, this has been changing with the help of technology. This has had an impact on
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Combating Hospital Waste to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
With the growing concern around the current climate crisis, industry leaders everywhere seek new ways to reduce their carbon footprint. The healthcare industry alone accounts for 8.5% of emissions in the United States, with medical devices and products contributing to a significant portion of the 5.9 million tons of healthcare waste each year. However, healthcare leaders are ready to make a change. In 2022, 61 of the largest U.S. hospital and health sector companies joined the Health Sector
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Why Innovation Management Matters in Healthcare
When we think of innovation in healthcare, what comes to mind? For many, it may be fancy diagnostic machines or breakthrough drug therapies. But sometimes, it can be as simple as a 3D-printed cover for an insulin pod. A product, or an improved process, that solves a need. While medical settings like hospitals and clinics are good at managing patient care, it can still be challenging to create and manage a culture of innovation.
According to Stanford
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Health Tech UX – Why We Must Keep Physicians Top-of-Mind
The shortage of physicians in America is a growing concern, with serious consequences for our nation’s hospitals. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates a shortage of between 21,000 and 77,100 non-primary care physicians by 2034, including surgical and other medical specialists. Already, 50% of hospitals are short coverage for three or more specialties, and 90% are short at least one. Half of the nation’s hospitals ended 2022 in the red, and for many Americans, getting
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With A Recession Looming, Here’s How Practices Can Ensure Minimal Revenue Loss
Healthcare systems driven by insurers fronting most of their members’ healthcare bills have allowed hospitals to be relatively immune to economic downturns in the past. However, this dynamic began to shift as consumer-directed health plans hit the mainstream. Exaggerated by the rise of the current consumer mentality, even more, patients will be vulnerable to healthcare financial responsibility due to the prevalence of high deductible plans (HDHPs) as consumers embark on the looming bust.
To
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VP Shares 5 DEI Tips for Health Systems During PRIDE Month
In honor of PRIDE month, Dr. Rhae-Anne Booker, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with the University of Michigan Health-West, shares five key DEI tips on why it’s important for health systems to have a plan for treating patients with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities:
Understand and respect patients' sexual identities, preferences and preferred pronouns
Respecting someone’s identity is one of the quickest and easiest ways to help patients feel
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Regulators Force Medical Device Manufacturers to Protect Against Cyberattacks
There is a fine line that connects the cars we drive and the medical devices we occasionally use. Both connect to the internet, and as such, are exposed to cyberattacks that could compromise consumers' safety. These are not theoretical risks: Bluetooth vulnerabilities exposed millions of vehicle users to cyberattacks; a 19-year-old teenager remotely infiltrated 25 Tesla vehicles in 13 countries switching the engines on and off; Medtronic insulin pumps were hacked remotely by Whitehat
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