According to the National Assessment of Adult Health Literacy, only 12% of adults in the U.S. have proficient health literacy skills.
Healthcare is a unique industry because it is wide-ranging yet highly personalized. Health literacy is important for patients, physicians and their communities. Each of these groups comes together to improve health systems and patient care, which is why mutual understanding and clear communication is vital to patient outcomes. Below, we discuss recommendations
Read More
Family Physicians
Primary Care EHR Elation Health Raises $50M to Support Independent Primary Care Practices
What You Should Know:
- Elation Health, the clinical-first technology company powering innovation in primary care, announced a Series D financing round of $50M. The Series D round was co-led by Generation Investment Management and Ascension Ventures with participation from Threshold Ventures, Ascend Partners, and individual investors including Fay Rotenberg and Jonathan Bush. This new round brings Elation Health to $108.5M in total venture funding to date.
-
Read More
Suki Adds “Show Me” Command to its Voice-Enabled Digital Assistant
What You Should Know:
Suki, a provider of voice artificial intelligence (AI) technology for healthcare launches new “show me” commands for its voice artificial intelligence (AI) technology for healthcare.
- The commands allow clinicians to quickly retrieve a wide set of patient information, including vital signs, medications, allergies, and medical and surgical histories -- untethered from the electronic health record (EHR) -- enabling them to be more present with their patients.
The
Read More
Consumer Genetic Tests Accelerate Precision Medicine for Some Providers
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests have been on the scene for some time now. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first DTC test on three specific BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer gene mutations more than two years ago. Six months after that, the agency similarly green-lighted a DTC pharmacogenomic (PGx) test to examine 33 variants for eight different genes that indicate how effectively patients metabolize specific medications.
Like many such advances, availability of DTC tests is
Read More
MassHealth Provides Free Telehealth Services for Women and Families During COVID-19 Pandemic
What You Should Know:
- Maven, the largest telemedicine provider for women’s and family health, announced a new partnership with MassHealth, the Massachusetts, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
- MassHealth will provide free telemedicine appointments for members with COVID-19 symptoms with Maven’s network of obstetric/gynecologists, maternal fetal medicine specialists, pediatricians, family physicians, and general practitioners for women and families in
Read More
Cognoa Launches Pivotal Study of Diagnostic Aid for Autism
- Cognoa launches a pivotal study to demonstrate the effectiveness of its diagnostic aid for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).- The results of this pivotal study will be the basis for the submission to the FDA in 2020. - The Cognoa digital diagnostic aid has the potential to become the first cleared medical device to help diagnose autism intended to be used by pediatricians and primary care physicians.Cognoa, a Palo Alto, CA-based pediatric behavioral health company developing digital medicines,
Read More
Blue Shield of California, Lyft Launches Pilot Program to Provide Rides to Members in Sacramento
- Blue Shield of California and Lyft launches a pilot program to provide convenient rides to its eligible members in the Sacramento area at no additional cost. - To participate in the program, eligible Blue Shield members need an SMS capable mobile phone. Once they call to self-enroll online and agree to the program's terms and conditions, they can receive rideQSM rides to and from pre-approved healthcare appointments as patients of Associated Family Physicians, Inc.Blue Shield of California, in
Read More
Q&A: Dr. Geeta Nayyar Discusses the State of Physician Burnout & EHRs
Before drifting off to sleep, most of us put on pajamas when it’s time to curl up with a good book or binge-watch what’s trending on Netflix—but not today’s doctors.
According to one previous study, physicians spend nearly two hours conducting EHR/paperwork every night at home. This after-hour activity is known in healthcare as “pajama time,” but don’t let the cutesy nickname fool you. Turns out, time spent mired with EHR data is becoming a growing problem for physicians. A subsequent study
Read More
4 Barriers to Implementing Value-based Payment Models
Majority of family physicians indicate their practices participate in value-based payment models and believe value-based payment models will encourage greater collaboration between primary care physicians and specialists, according to a new study. The 2017 Value-based Payment Study was sent to 5,000 active members of the AAFP. A total of 482 surveys were returned, and 386 were evaluated after a screening process. The study found that more and more family physicians are embracing value-based
Read More
