The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that telemedicine is essential for keeping the healthcare system running during a crisis. How can virtual critical care keep improving to help providers manage future emergency events?
In early 2020, as the nation’s healthcare system almost buckled under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic, providers searching for a way to stay connected to their patients turned to telemedicine. Primary care providers and specialists embraced virtual care, thanks to a
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Mental Health Awareness is Everywhere. Why Shouldn’t Virtual Care Be Standard?
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which for years has been a platform to increase understanding about mental illness and advocate for better mental health care. Now more than ever, you don’t have to look too hard to see that mental health is a daily fixture in the national conversation. Unfortunately, mental health issues have become far too common for people of all ages and in all walks of life.
An Influx of Demand from Pediatrics to Geriatrics
We know that children are in dire
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Raising Clinical Outcomes and Engagement Through Healthcare Equity: What Health Plans Need to Know
Structural racism and poverty are correlated with a higher incidence of obesity among Black Americans (49%). Social drivers of health, which impact a disproportionate number of non-white Americans who live below the poverty line, account for as much as 90% of individuals’ health outcomes.
These are just two examples of data that highlight the need for equity.
Health plans are well-aware that shifting this dynamic and boosting clinical outcomes is possible through better,
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How the Life Sciences Industry Can Boost Diversity and Inclusion Efforts
Although it is well established that diversity improves outcomes and drives excellence, implementing diversity lags behind in many industries, including life sciences and healthcare.
Diversity is lacking across the entire field, from academic research to clinical work, composition of the workforce, and medical practice. This leads to worse health outcomes and fewer professional opportunities for underserved demographics, such as racial and ethnic minorities, women, and people with
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Can Automation Drive Health System Outcomes?
The United States spends about $1 trillion per year on healthcare administration. 95% of healthcare workforce growth since 1990 has been administrative. But adding administrative staff hasn’t helped health systems stay on top of the increase in manual work queues, and it certainly hasn’t been improving outcomes for patients. So when asked if automation can drive better health system outcomes, through my work in healthcare technology, I know for a fact that it already is.
Research has
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What’s The Role of Digital Health in Public Health?
To a certain extent, the national conversation about the importance of a robust public health system has been happening for the last couple of years in the context of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, rather than discussing how the system can be strengthened and expanded, we’ve instead largely limited it to what the government can and cannot ask the public to do, as though the necessity of a public health system is still in doubt.
For those who work in the arena, this is not an
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3 Keys to Eliminating Data Breakdowns in Life Sciences
Across life sciences, experts boldly predict that data is the new currency—and that mobilizing data from clinical trials, wearable devices and even social media will ignite innovation in 2022. But leveraging data for innovation depends not just on data analytics, but also access to the right data and timely analysis.
As the amount of data that life sciences experts have at their fingertips explodes, with leaders tapping into real-world evidence from smartphone apps, wearable devices and
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3 Predictions for Post-COVID Clinical Trial Decentralization
Prior to COVID, major technological transformation initiatives were already underway at many clinical trial sites, sponsors, and contract research organizations (CROs.) But the move to decentralized trials accelerated dramatically in 2020 and 2021–and it’s not slowing down.
Survey data from WCG Avoca shows that research sites and sponsors expect 89% of clinical trials to qualify as a hybrid, with a mix of decentralized technology and in-person visits.
But what will these
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3 Steps to Approach & Tackle Digital Transformation in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to save the US healthcare economy $150 billion by 2026. Replacing legacy systems and changing standard operating procedures, hospitals are moving to capitalize on technology and the ways it can change a historically hesitant to change sector. The big question is how fast teams are going to implement changes.
Healthcare leadership recently reported that their organizations are 60% through their digitalization journey. IT leaders must be leading
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How Automation Can Help with Healthcare’s “Messy” Data Problem
Efficient data processing and data sharing are essential functions across healthcare—from patient care, clinical research, and health services planning to billing and government reporting for funding and research. But most of the data that the industry is processing is human-generated, meaning it’s messy and riddled with errors, and often manually inputted from Excel spreadsheets into various disparate platforms and technology systems. In some cases, our healthcare system is running on
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