The coronavirus pandemic accelerated telemedicine exponentially as patients and doctors switched from in-person visits to remote consultations. Health providers rapidly scaled virtual offerings in March and April and traffic volumes soared to unprecedented levels, with practices “seeing 50 to 175 times the number of patients by telehealth than before the outbreak,” according to McKinsey. By early August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expanded the list of
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PHI
Getting Beyond the Telehealth ‘Stop-Gap’ Mentality
Since COVID-19 emerged as a major health threat, virtual care has taken off. As many as 46% of patients reported in late April that they had used telehealth to replace a canceled healthcare visit in 2020, while 48% of physicians said they had started using telehealth to treat patients.
While a shift in care models was necessary to address business continuity amid the pandemic, these trends also represent positive movements as a growing body of evidence supports the real-life benefits of
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Amidst the Pandemic, IT Teams Turn to the Cloud to Protect Patient Data
The challenges facing healthcare during COVID-19 are more than biological. Healthcare providers are weathering a perfect storm as hackers take advantage of the commotion and ramp up their attack frequency and sophistication.
This isn’t surprising for those familiar with the hacker playbook, as cybercriminals typically go after victims that are the right combination of vulnerable and profitable. And right now, the valuable troves of personal health data held by providers, focused on battling
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New Attacks, Regulations, and Stakes Call for New Security Strategies
The amount of data generated by the healthcare industry is staggering—and constantly increasing. Healthcare data encompasses the personal information of patients, doctors, nurses, and administrators. It includes diagnostic information, test results, ultrasound images, x-ray images, and of course insurance and financial information. With so much sensitive patient information there for the taking, it comes as little surprise that the healthcare industry—perhaps more than any other sector—has
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Telehealth and COVID-19: Overcoming New Challenges for Providers and Payers
Telehealth has quickly transformed the healthcare industry. Rather than scheduling an appointment, waiting up to a few weeks, and going to a doctor's office or another healthcare facility, we can now access many types of care from the convenience of our smartphones.
However, telehealth has also brought in its own set of new challenges that must be overcome for it to be successful in the long term. Below, we explore five of the biggest issues telemedicine faces and offer insights on how
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Telehealth and Cybersecurity: What You Should Know
Healthcare providers are seeing between 50 and 175 times (1) more patients via telehealth than before. Telehealth platforms* offer solutions for a wide array of different healthcare issues. An estimated 20 percent of all emergency room visits and 24 percent of routine office visits and outpatient volume could be delivered virtually via telehealth.
Telehealth is a win-win for providers and patients. It both increases the availability of care while also reducing costs. However, telemedicine
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Microsoft Releases Public Preview of Azure IoT Connector for FHIR to Empower Health Teams
What You Should Know:
- Microsoft released the public preview of Azure IoT
Connector for FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), the latest
update to the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.
- The Azure IoT Connector for FHIR makes it easy for
health developers to set up a pipeline to manage protected health information
(PHI) from IoT devices and enable care teams to view patient data in context
with clinical records in FHIR.
This week, Microsoft released the preview of
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How to Implement HIPAA-Compliant Video Conferencing for Healthcare Providers
Video-conferencing software like Zoom has been getting a lot of attention of late as more and more people turn to digital tools to communicate remotely, whether to stay connected with loved ones, keep work flowing, or communicate with clients.
Healthcare is certainly no exception. A global FICO study found that around 80% of people want to use their mobile phones to interact with doctors and other healthcare providers.
Digital healthcare solutions were already on the rise
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How Direct Digital Fax Can Improve System Usability for EHRs
The lack of EHR usability is a huge concern for the healthcare industry. According to a study conducted by Mayo Clinic researchers, modern electronic health records (EHR) are less user-friendly than Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel, and Google. Using the System Usability Scale (SUS), Electronic Health Records were marked with an unsettling “F” and a SUS score of 45 while Excel received a SUS score of 57 and Microsoft Word received a SUS score of 76. Google search came in on top with an “A” and a
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Healthcare Data Infrastructure Security Cannot Be Ignored During a Pandemic
The rapid advancement of technology has inspired hope in the healthcare industry, promising to employ artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-based data platforms in life-altering ways. Surgery assisting robots and miraculously accurate AI-based cancer diagnosis methods are a few preliminary examples of what the industry can expect. With all these great technological strides being taken, however, compliance can easily be left in the dust. And with COVID-19 pushing the limits of healthcare systems
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