What You Should Know: - Colorado Access has deployed a text message program to its Medicaid members to quickly distribute basic facts on COVID-19 and health risk information, as well as resources for people who might be struggling with their mental health during the pandemic and information on where to get food and unemployment support. - Through its partnership with Welltok, the health plan sent more than 700,000 texts over three weeks in English and Spanish. Using Welltok’s data
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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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Big Data Takes on the Silent Epidemic of Undiagnosed Behavioral Health Conditions
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a study found that almost half of Americans will experience an episode of mental illness in their lives, but may never get the diagnosis and treatment they need. In a more recent finding, over 25% of American adults now meet the criteria for a diagnosis of severe mental distress. The looming impact on our collective mental health is concerning enough, but there are also serious implications for physical health. Left unaddressed, behavioral health issues
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COVID-19 Chronic Condition Patient Population Report
What You Should Know: Wellframe report finds patients want access to virtual solutions to help manage their chronic conditions amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant effect on the chronic condition population by delaying access to care and exacerbating mental health challenges. Wellframe, a provider of Digital Health Management solutions, announced the findings of its COVID-19 Chronic Condition Patient Population Report
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Evidation Health and HHS to Develop Predictive Algorithm for COVID-19 Detection
What You Should Know: - HHS’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is partnering with Evidation Health on research to develop a predictive algorithm for symptoms of COVID-19 by monitoring first responders to understand susceptibility to infection. - The research will use de-indentifed data self-reported from survey participants and collected from wearable devices to track symptoms of COVID-19 in high-risk individuals. - The goal is to better understand their
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COVID-19 Clinical Trials: How AI-Based Chatbots Can Provide Pandemic-Level Execution
More than 500 new COVID-19 related clinical trials have been registered as of the end of April. The race to find a COVID-19 vaccine is on and the public spotlight is on clinical trials. Strangely named drugs such as Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir have become household names and are featured and debated regularly on the 24-hour news channels. The pressure to find a cure is intense. The locked-down world does not want to hear that at best, we may find a vaccine sometime in 2021. What
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Sharecare Acquires Evidence-Based Behavior Change Apps MindSciences
What You Should Know: - Sharecare announced the acquisition of Boston-based MindSciences, an evidence-based behavior change suite of apps focused on mental health (anxiety, stress management), smoking cessation, and weight loss/binge eating, and more. - The acquisition rounds out Sharecare’s portfolio of mHealth-based therapeutic programs improving chronic disease risk and overall health outcomes by targeting varying aspects of well-being. - Based on the work of Dr. Judson Brewer, now
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Telehealth After COVID-19: What’s Next for the Healthcare Industry?
Like the rest of the economy, healthcare has been upended by the coronavirus. Not just emergency rooms, but primary care physicians, specialists, and long-term care facilities, too. Struggling to continue providing care in a time of social distancing, many have turned to telehealth in record numbers. Even providers who may have previously viewed telehealth skeptically – perhaps because of the technology’s perceived complexity or reimbursement challenges before COVID-19 – have now become
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Telehealth Claim Lines Increase 4,347% Nationally from March 2019 to March 2020
What You Should Know: - Telehealth claim lines increased 4,347 percent nationally from 0.17 percent of medical claim lines in March 2019 to 7.52 percent in March 2020, according to new data from FAIR Health's Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker. - The data represent the privately insured population, excluding Medicare and Medicaid. In an indication that the growth was related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase was even greater in the Northeast, where the pandemic hit
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Telehealth Could Be The Solution for a Pandemic, But Are We Too Late?
In the past several months, Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has risen from humble beginnings in a Wuhan farmer’s market to international status: dominating the news cycle, exhausting the world’s hand sanitizer resources, and generally monopolizing the mental real estate of the developed world. As new cases continue to be identified in the U.S., politicians are giving coronavirus the attention it deserves, responding to initial accusations of inadequacy with proposals for funding and
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