For a long time, healthcare in the United States was functioning in a well-defined manner. There were some cracks, some patchwork, but we made it work. And then COVID-19 struck. As the pandemic swept across the U.S., the way providers care for patients evolved in a matter of days. It evolved for the people staying at home as well as patients and providers began connecting with each other virtually. Observation: There’s still plenty of room for innovation in healthcare,
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Public Health
Why Remote Medical Solutions Are More Than Just A Pandemic Response
The health industry has increasingly emphasized convenience these past few decades, with methods developed to seamlessly integrate health management into our daily routines. Gone are the days in which people needed an entire day off just to see the doctor. This same focus has taken on extra meaning as of late, with the pandemic creating a need for treatment options that work around the constraints of social distancing. As a result, a host of digital-based solutions began appearing, providing
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Raising the Bar for COVID-19 Data Integrity and Disease Surveillance
Just a few weeks ago, the mood among technologists in the Coronavirus pandemic remained cautiously optimistic about reopening society with the help of testing data, contact tracing apps, and other IT-enabled resources. But the recent spike in illness – 1.9 million new US cases in July, more than double any other month – is a sobering reboot on a crisis we now understand needs far more IT and data coordination than previously recognized. The emerging consensus among epidemiologists is that
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AMA Approves 2 New CPT Codes to Support Response to COVID-19
What You Should Know: - The American Medical Association adds two new CPT codes to streamline the reporting of innovative tools and services now available to help reduce the COVID-19 disease burden. - The two new codes 99072 and 86413 have been approved for immediate use. The American Medical Association (AMA) published an update to the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code set that includes two code additions for reporting medical services sparked by the public
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How the Simple Telehealth Visit Will Revolutionize Care Delivery and Disease Management
The impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare industry’s ability to innovate has been stunning. We have seen FDA emergency authorizations and relaxed regulatory guidelines enable the development of radical new ventilator ideas, accelerated timelines for vaccine development, and an extraordinary transition to telehealth services. Many of these actions were a response to the exposure of weak spots in our healthcare system, but even as those weaknesses have been shored up (in large part due to public
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Blue Shield of CA Launches Digital “Neighborhood Health Dashboard” for Public
What You Should Know: - Blue Shield of California and mySidewalk unveil innovative “Neighborhood Health Dashboard” to help improve community health across the state. - The Neighborhood Health Dashboard uses data intelligence from dozens of sources to create a comprehensive picture of a community’s health including health outcomes, preventative health care, utilization and access, health behaviors, social risk factors, and environmental and economic health conditions. Blue Shield of
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Report: Modern Revenue Integrity Solutions Driving Payment Performance
What You Should Know: - New Chilmark Research report on revenue integrity in healthcare reveals a transitional market making strides to address the new burdens of modern care economics. - The ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency underscores the imperative need for automation and reduced administrative costs even clearer. Revenue cycle has and continues to be one of the most difficult challenges in healthcare. These issues manifest in the claims process of submission,
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9 Ways UX/UI Design Can Improve Digital Health Adoption for Seniors
Seniors have the lowest reported usage of telehealth of any age group. As many healthcare providers are increasing the use of telehealth, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of new tools and technologies could impact seniors. In my experience, this doesn’t indicate that older adults aren’t tech-minded, or that they are not using tech products currently. In fact, studies show that seniors use smartphones at the same rate as younger groups. Over 80 percent of
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Cerner Technology to Support COVID-19 Testing for HBCUs Nationwide
What You Should Know: - Cerner announces a commitment to help expand COVID-19 testing at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the U.S through a partnership with Testing for America. - As part of the partnership, Cerner will serve as the national technology partner for a return to school effort led by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) and The United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The strategic initiative aims to support HBCUs in their COVID-19 testing of
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Multi-Vital Ambulatory Monitor for COVID-19 Patients Launches in the U.S.
What You Should Know: - VivaLink launches a new multi-vital ambulatory monitoring solution for infectious respiratory diseases is being debuted in America and Western Europe. This monitoring solution is currently deployed in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East to help monitor COVID-19 patients. - Built upon VivaLink’s proprietary ambulatory medical wearable sensor platform, the solution can easily be set up and scaled in hospitals, nursing homes, and remote environments. Even pop-up
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