The human and economic statistics surrounding the opioid epidemic are staggering. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 11.4 million people have misused prescription opioids, and more than 130 people die daily from opioid-related drug overdoses.Moreover, the Society of Actuaries found that the total economic burden of the opioid crisis in the United States from 2015 to 2018 was at least $631 billion. The organization attributed nearly one-third of that cost to extra
Read More
blockchain
What Will It Take To Build The Uber of Medical Records? 3 Critical Steps to Consider
Our healthcare system has struggled with data silos and clumsy, antiquated data sharing practices forever and a variety of stakeholders will need to work together to achieve anything close to an “Uber of medical records.”
It’s well documented and understood that the healthcare industry has historically been slow to adopt new technology while other business sectors have welcomed it with ease. For example, while most industries abandoned the fax machine in the 1990s, as recently as 2017, fax
Read More
Social Determinants of Health Trends in 2020: The End of the Beginning?
2020 will mark the end of the beginning of Social Determinants of Health (SDoH).
One would be remiss not to give pause and to consider how much time it has taken to get to this pivotal period in US health and healthcare delivery and, focus on the cornerstone “why” healthcare must, with a fierce urgency, step into the twenty-first century of US healthcare delivery. Meaning, it has taken nearly seventy years to go from the World Health Organization identifying the profundity of SDoH influence on
Read More
Medical Blockchain Credentialing -Lead, Follow or Get Left Behind
There is a lot of buzz surrounding blockchain and its potential to solve some of the fundamental issues present with the current medical credentialing processes. Duplication of efforts results in vast amounts of wasted time and money. This waste ultimately increases the costs of medical services to healthcare consumers. Blockchain, like any other new technology, has its nay-sayers: those that take a fatalistic view of whether it can live up to the hype. These nay-sayers believe everything
Read More
Accounting for Inherent Vulnerabilities in Healthcare Blockchain Adoption
In the digital economy, every industry runs on data. In the healthcare industry, there is no greater need than to have total view and capitalization of data. But this need inherits others—the need for security, transparency, and interoperability.
In an industry rife with inefficiencies and systemic vulnerabilities (e.g. counterfeit prescription drugs), the benefits of using blockchain to address these needs cannot be ignored. The application of this technology will provide secure
Read More
How Can IT Support Stay Personal as Healthcare Moves Into A Digital Era?
The widely anticipated expansion of digital healthcare over the next decade is very exciting for many healthcare executives, physicians, IT vendors, and consumers. Potentially transformational IT technologies are already being explored by many hospitals, including new devices and applications designed to streamline healthcare operations, lower costs and enhance the quality of care. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, blockchain, telemedicine, voice search, virtual reality, wearables,
Read More
The Health IT Staffing Shortage Is a Problem Morphing Into a Crisis
Staffing shortages have plagued the healthcare industry for years, and this year hospital IT departments are feeling more pain than ever. The shortfall in physicians and nurses understandably gets the most press attention, but two phenomenons are pushing scarcity of specialized IT workers into the stratosphere: computer and IT jobs across all industries are projected to grow 12% from 2018 to 2028, and healthcare is projected to add 3.5 million jobs during the period, about one-third of all new
Read More
Healthcare Blockchain Startup BurstIQ Nabs $5.5M for HIPAA-Compliant Blockchain Platform
- BurstIQ raises $5.5M for HIPAA-compliant blockchain platform services for on-chain data management, complex data ownership, and granular consent.- The healthcare blockchain-based software company plans to aggressively expand sales, marketing, and network growth.BurstIQ, an Denver, CO-based provider of HIPAA-compliant blockchain solutions for the healthcare industry has raised $5.5M in Series A funding led by Elsewhere Partners. Elsewhere, a growth-stage venture capital firm which invests in
Read More
Can Blockchain Technology Fix Healthcare’s Problems? Not Even Close
Blockchain has been making big waves across healthcare, heralded as the technology that’s going to save healthcare.
The excitement is understandable. Just about every segment of healthcare is fragmented — almost to the point of dysfunction. What better way to bind it together than via a digital ledger that affords the ability to securely, privately, and comprehensively track health records? It’s compelling — and it seems healthcare is ready to move full speed ahead with blockchain.
Is
Read More
3 Ways AI and Machine Learning Are Reshaping Medical Records
Since at least 2012, the world of medical records in both the public and private sectors remains dominated by a push toward interoperable data, and more broadly useful health data. Like everything else in American healthcare, the effort has been only moderately successful despite a price tag in the billions. In a modern digital world, where technologies in so many industries are bringing better insights and next generation efficiency – driven by cloud computing, big data, AI and machine learning
Read More
