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5 Health IT Trends in 2017

Robert Scott
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5 Health IT Trends in 2017

2016 was another exciting year in terms of health IT. There were new developments, transformations, and issues across every department. There isn’t a sector that is not making new developments all the time and advancing the way things work. Companies that rely on technology, especially in the digital sector require constant updates to make sure their businesses run efficiently. On top of this, the notion that we need better cybersecurity seems to have started to sink in, and plans were made to implement more secure systems. Like every year, 2016 helped the advancement of health IT, and 2017 will no doubt do the same.  There are a few health IT trends that you can certainly look forward to in the coming year, and five of them are listed here for you to enjoy. A spokesperson for yourhearing.com told us, “IT is not only integral to the running of most businesses, but with advancements in patient care and data, even more so in today’s healthcare industry.”

1. Upgrades

2017 has already been named the “Year Ahead in Health IT”, which is promising for the coming 12 months. Recent surveys showed that many organisations plan to upgrade technology this year, making things faster and more secure than ever. Here are some figures in relation to the sectors that organisations plan on upgrading:

  • 51% analytics
  • 52% security
  • 44% engagement
  • 44% population health
  • 31% EHRs
  • 24% remote patient monitoring

2. Quality

So much of a patient’s care takes place using technology now, and so it is vital that it remains upgraded and of excellent quality. It is used to store medical records, medicine administration times, and can even assist in the rehabilitation of patients. These examples are only a few of the applications technology has in the medical world. 2017 will see the increased implementation of excellent quality, as well as improvement of the current systems. Pushing towards quality will ultimately lead to perfection – benefitting patients and staff alike.

3. New Developments 

It almost goes without saying that 2017 will bring new technologies to hospitals and medical facilities across the globes. As teams work tirelessly to update and advance what already exists, as well as developing new technologies altogether, we are sure to see an increase in new tech across the new 12 months. This is especially true as research and development are becoming more popular fields to enter within the health IT industry.

4. Security

In a way, this branches off from the upgrades. Last year saw a sudden realisation that we need better cybersecurity for health organisations, and in 2017 it is already set to increase massively. There have been several crises in different countries around the world in 2016, and since then work has begun on better and more secure systems. Ones that protect medical records and details with a lot more care and precision than before. Not even a month into 2017, we are already seeing improvements in countries such as the USA, especially after the Ransomware Crisis last year.

5. Patient Experience 

The patient experience is also important in the world of health. It is important that patients have good experiences with their health teams and any technology that may be used during their care. In 2017, an increasingly large number of hospitals and organisations have pledged to work to improve this. It is hoped that the continued implementation of population health systems will help to improve this, as well as the continued use of technology in things like patient rehabilitation.

Health organisations have embraced technology over recent years, and it has become an integral part of their structure. Health IT trends are there to keep things running smoothly, but also to implement and design new and upgraded forms of tech and programs to make things easier as well as more secure. 2017 is set to be an exciting and transformative year for health IT, with a lot of the emphasis on a continued drive for excellent quality as well as better cybersecurity for patients and staff. It will be interesting to see what the next 12 months bring.

How Diagnosis Medi-Tech Could Take the Strain Off OverWhelmed Doctors and Potentially Save Millions of Lives

Erik de Heus
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How Diagnosis Medi-Tech Could Take the Strain Off OverWhelmed Doctors and Potentially Save Millions of Lives

A 2015 Cancer Research UK study found that many people suffering the ‘10 red flag signs’ of cancer –such as a persistent cough, a mole changing size or color, or unexplained weight loss– didn’t visit a medical professional because they thought it was ‘trivial’.

Whether it be due to long wait times, expensive private health-care costs, or just a fear of bad news, Millennials are notoriously bad for seeking medical advice at an early stage, instead choosing to ignore the issue until it gets worse, or leaning on online diagnosis platforms like WebMD.

The problem is made worse by a lack of quick and easy access to medical professionals. In the UK, wait times have been branded ‘a national disgrace’ and a NHS representative described hospitals as being so overwhelmed patients could die. In the U.S. the Affordable Care Act has left doctors struggling to manage their workflow, and patients waiting long periods for essential appointments.

And even when you do manage to see a doctor, a first study suggests that medical professionals might be increasingly missing signs for life threatening conditions like bowel, ovarian and skin cancers due to work pressure. Early detection can dramatically improve the chances of recovery, and the rise of a new generation of digital diagnostic tools will be supportive to both efficiency and accuracy for doctors. Enabling them to handle more patients, and treat them even better. So what are these new tools entering the market?

Triage

Across the world health services have rolled out triage systems to determine whether patients need urgent attention, after conducting a consultation via phone or internet. However a British study which included 42 practices, found that instead of saving time and money, phone based triage actually increased the workload for medical staff.

UK based Babylon thinks it has the answer. The health-tech startup has created an A.I powered app which according to early testing can undertake triage assessment to the same level or better than that of human doctors and nurses.

Babylon’s “Check a Symptom” feature, which uses a set of in-app questions can accurately highlight billions of variations of symptoms and the startup claims its A.I program outperformed both doctors and nurses across 102 mock patient consultations, producing a clinically safe outcome in 100 percent of cases, and an “accurate” triage in 90.2 percent.

Rolling out these apps as part of a national or private healthcare system would allow users to assess themselves from the comfort of their own homes, and massively reduce the strain on healthcare professionals, freeing up time for treatment of real illnesses and injuries.

Breast cancer

Every year, approximately 70 thousand men and women age 15 to 39 are diagnosed with cancer in the US. Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in this age bracket, but according to the Young Survival Coalition to date no widely available breast-cancer screening tool has been released.

3D imaging startup Vayyar has created a tool which could revolutionize early-stage breast cancer screening, using a small handheld device which allows users to self-test by placing the sensor against their own breasts. The tool allows users to scan themselves using radio frequency technology, and in less than five seconds, it produces a 3D image of their breast tissue which can identify early-stage malignant growths.

The tool has not been released on the general market yet, but the co-founder Raviv Melamed stated “The goal was to have a low-cost imaging device that every person can use, instead of just experts and people who understand complex technology.”

Even when women go for a check up, there is a reasonable risk that a growth will not be picked up on a scan. According to UK newspaper The Telegraph, radiologists working in overworked and underfunded NHS hospitals fail to identify breast cancer in thousands of mammograms every year. To combat the element of human error, Zebra Medical Vision has created an algorithm which uses machine learning to identify early signs of breast cancer after digesting thousands of previous mammograms. According to Eldad Elnekave, Zebra’s chief medical officer, the self-teaching A.I program can identify up 50% more cases of breast cancer than human radiologists due to it’s extensive databases.

Lung Cancer

Previously detecting lung cancer required CT scans, which are expensive for hospitals, and normally require long waiting times due to the limited amount of machines available. Lung cancer is not normally detectable until it has progressed to a later stage, by which point it will require serious surgery and treatment, and poses a much higher risk to the patient.

At the Accelerate pitch competition at the prestigious MIT university this May, Astraeus Technologies wowed judges with an amazing creation that can detect lung cancer with just one single breath.

Rather than using expensive CT scans, the startup has created inexpensive ‘L-cards’ and a connected app, which detect the presence of a gas omitted by people with lung cancer. The company is in the process of getting FDA approval for the ‘L-cards’ and the team claim that it will be possible to modify the technology to detect other types of cancer, as these illnesses also lead to the creation of different, detectable gases too.

This new technology is much more affordable and quicker than traditional treatments and could potentially save millions of lives by allowing people to seek treatment at an earlier stage of their illness. Making positive change requires a shift in mentality amongst young people, whereby they become more careful about and active in their own healthcare.

Cervical cancer

Even though the survival rate for cervical cancer has increased by more than 50% over the last 40 years since health services introduced the Pap test, it still poses a big risk for women in their middle ages. While the survival rate is high compared to other cancers, treatment for cervical cancer can often leave women unable to conceive if the illness is detected at a later stage.

Experts state than many young women avoid getting check ups, due to the evasive nature of the screening process, especially in countries with conservative cultures in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Dr Alphonse Butoyi, a gynaecologist at Kanombe Military Hospital in Rwanda states that as many as three quarters of women who attend his clinic refuse to take a Pap test.

To make the screening process more comfortable, and also to dramatically improve the discovery rate, Biop has created an optical probe which can accurately identify and classify precancerous and cancerous lesions in just 90 seconds. According to Biop, more than 30% of invasive cervical cancers are missed when doctors use traditional screening methods.

Biop’s probe uses both imaging and non-imaging optics to accurately map out the cervix to its deepest layer and locate and highlight any diseased lesions. Biop’s technology allows gynecologists to identify cancerous and even pre-cancerous tissues in the cervix, at an early stage of malignant transformation, allowing them to take action before the condition develops, and requires more serious treatment.

Big data, machine learning and what’s next for Millennials

Startups like Biop are also harnessing the power of big data, by compiling a database of images from millions of patients around the world, allowing the system to learn and improve over time. Big data and machine learning A.I is playing a big role in the field of diagnostic medicine, and algorithms are being developed which allow analysts to identify cells which are at risk of becoming cancerous, before the transformation takes place.

Researchers at Brown University, have developed a new machine learning image analysis technique to distinguish two key cancer cell types associated with tumor progression. The researchers have created an algorithm which is able to categorize individual cells as either epithelial or mesenchymal with more than 92 percent accuracy.

The ability to remotely assess whether it is necessary to make an appointment with a doctor will hopefully appeal to Millennials, and motivate young people to get checked officially, and start treatment before it is too late. This new technology will also take the strain off medical professionals themselves, by removing the chance of human error, and ensuring that patients who pass through their doors really need to be there. However, until the technology matures, and is approved by governing bodies, it is always best to play it safe and make an appointment with a real human doctor as early as possible.

Protecting Patient Information in the Age of Breaches (Infographic)

The Healthcare Guys
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Protecting Patient Information in the Age of Breaches (Infographic)

 

UIC’s Online Health Informatics Degree

Healthcare 2017: What Does the New Year Have in Store?

Abhinav Shashank
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Healthcare 2017: What Does the New Year Have in Store?

2017 is here! As much as the last year was packed with surprises for the healthcare industry, a lot of them are expected this year too. President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office, the 21st Century Cures Act is law and MACRA redefines the terms of the healthcare industry. Many will concur, we are headed for significant changes in this year. As 2017 comes, here are some major things to look forward in the US healthcare space:

1. MACRA

MACRA has been, by far, one of the most significant federal legislation in US healthcare space. Physicians and payers alike believe MACRA to be transformative, overhauling the way providers will get paid in America. Since this is going to be the first performance year for Merit-Based Incentive Payment System under MACRA, it is important that physicians are educated, aware, and understand the gaps between what they already do, and what MACRA requires them to do. Although MACRA was supposed to take fully-fledged effect from the start of 2017, CMS has delayed its full implementation and has permitted practices to participate partially in 2017. Major concerns regarding MACRA:

  • Many providers are not aware of MACRA
  • Extending the programs to rural and small practices is a challenging task
  • Implementation of MACRA is itself a challenge as it is a 2400 page long comprehensive document!

2. Future of ACA

Repealing and replacing ACA was one of President-elect Donald Trump’s top priorities. However, as the complete repeal of ACA might not be the best idea due to various reasons. Donald Trump after meeting President Obama has taken a soft tone for ACA, but debating is on whether to repeal it or amend it according to GOP’s plan. The fate of Obamacare is still unclear. People are eager to learn about:

  • What will happen to provisions like pre-existing clause?
  • Will the children be covered under parents’ insurance or not?
  • How many more will be insured or would lose it?

3. Healthcare Costs

Predicted medical cost growth rate is estimated to be 6.5%, same as last year’s but has outrun general economic inflation in the U.S. This rise is primarily driven by the increased access to behavioral health and higher utilization of urgent care centers. 2017 will need new cost-saving strategies as well as overhauling of current strategies.

4. Technological Advancements

Till date finding gaps in care is a tedious task and many providers face challenges in identifying them. Clinical data analysis has helped providers plan carefully, set benchmarks and monitor their performance. A study revealed that the use of data analytics could help save more than $300 billion in U.S. healthcare, apart from making information flow transparent and creating a value chain in healthcare.

Lately, there have been several developments in technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and wearable technologies that have not only been disruptive but also have the potential to change the face of healthcare in 2017 and transform the vision of population health management. Healthcare veterans believe that the road to population health is an unpaved but a long one, and is bigger than anything else. It needs:

  • coordination among healthcare teams,
  • transition to value,
  • disruptive technology changing the way healthcare organizations deliver care.

5. Reorientations in pharmaceutical industry

There have been many regulatory and reimbursement changes for pharmaceutical companies lately, and with the onset of a new presidential term, there would be much more. At times like this, pharmaceutical companies are aiming towards engaging patients to ensure that they are providing the best possible value, combined with sharing of information among themselves and with the patients.

Over years, pharmaceutical companies have increased their spendings in advertising from $3.83 billion to $5.4 billion and were rewarded by an increase in sales from $328 billion to $413 billion. Also, the new federal administration has assured people of several drug reforms, including their import. Moreover, to build trust with patients, healthcare providers, and health insurance companies; drug companies may restrict frequent increases in drug prices.

Moreover, President-elect Donald Trump has focused on a free drug market place, which could bring major changes in the US Healthcare space.

6. Increased partnerships and collaborations

2016 was dotted with news of partnerships and collaborations in healthcare, presenting the importance of working together to survive the shift to value-based reimbursement. 2017 will witness a growth in partnerships, along with joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances and clinical affiliations as well – with a joint goal to shift from pay-for-service to pay-for-performance.

7. Achieving higher value with lower costs

When we talk about value in healthcare, it is all about creating and delivering quality, while keeping costs in check and almost every value-focused agency in U.S. healthcare is working towards that goal. HHS, for example has set a target for 2017 to bring hospital readmission rates to 17.2% and to increase Medicare FFS payments for quality and value through Alternative Payment Models up to 40% by the end of 2017.

Whether value-based care is being achieved through an analytics-driven approach, new payment models or changes in federal regulations, the ultimate goal is to provide higher quality with lower costs that makes use of robust infrastructure and complete clinical skills to provide care services. This is, and will remain the essence of healthcare services.

We are charging headlong into the future, marching towards a new, different world. Healthcare industries need to adapt to these changes driving towards value in innovative ways and setting them as building blocks for upcoming changes. There may be some variables, fate of some issues uncertain; but this year has come with a million opportunities with the aim to deliver the best health outcomes.

ICD-9 vs. ICD-10: 10 Differences to Know

Chris Saviano
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ICD-9 vs. ICD-10: 10 Differences to Know

On October 1, 2015, the ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification) code sets used by healthcare providers in the U.S. to report medical diagnoses and inpatient procedures was replaced by ICD-10-CM (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification) code sets.

The U.S., which implemented the ICD-9 code sets in 1979, was slow to make this transition. Most industrialized countries moved to ICD-10 several years ago. In fact, some countries are already preparing for ICD-11, which is expected to be released in 2018.

But healthcare providers in the U.S. should not start planning for the ICD-11 year. They can expect to use ICD-10 for many years. This is why it is critical to understand the difference between ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes, which U.S. providers used for more than 35 years, and ICD-10 diagnosis codes.

Here are 10 differences to know

1. Number of codes. ICD-9-CM had approximately 14,000 codes. ICD-10-CM, at the time of the transition, had about 69,000 codes for providers to choose from. The increase in number of codes is intended to help providers better capture specificity.

2. Appearance. ICD-9-CM codes had 3-5 digits. The first digit is alpha (E or V) or numeric. Digits 2-5 are numeric. A decimal is placed after the third character.

ICD-10-CM codes have seven digits. Digit 1 is alpha. Digit 2 is numeric. Digits 3–7 are alpha or numeric. A decimal is still placed after the third character.

As an example, let’s look at a femur fracture. There were 16 ICD-9-CM codes associated with a femur fracture, including 821.11 (open fracture of shaft of femur). There are 1,530 ICD-10-CM codes associated with a femur fracture, including S72.352C (displaced comminuted fracture of shaft of left femur, initial encounter for open fracture type IIIA, IIIB, or IIIC).

3. Laterality. With ICD-10-CM, providers can identify laterality — whether a treatment was performed on a part of the body on the left or right side. This was lacking in ICD-9-CM.

The addition of laterality was a major contributor to the expansion in the number of codes, with right or left options accounting for more than 40% of ICD-10-CM codes.

4. Specificity. The addition of laterality isn’t the only new way to more specifically identify health conditions. Providers can now identify etiology, anatomical site and severity.

5. Expandability. New procedures are frequently developed, and new illnesses are frequently identified. ICD-9-CM had essentially no ability to expand to include such necessary additions.

But ICD-10-CM is ready for expansion. Its use of a placeholder of “X” with certain ICD-10-CM codes allows for expansion and/or to fill out empty characters when a code contains fewer than six characters and a seventh character applies.

6. Definitions. Some ICD-10-CM codes redefine definitions used in ICD-9-CM. For example, in ICD-9-CM, a subsequent episode of care for acute myocardial infarction was considered within eight weeks while in ICD-10-CM, it is considered within 4 weeks.

7. Injury identification. In ICD-9-CM, injuries were grouped by type. In ICD-10-CM, injuries are group by anatomical site.

8. E and V codes. In ICD-9-CM, the codes corresponding to V codes (factors influencing health status and contact with health services) and E codes (external causes of injury and poisoning) were separated into supplementary classifications. In ICD-10, they are incorporated into the main classification.

9. “Excludes” notes. ICD-9-CM included a single type of excludes note, but its definition was vague. This placed the burden on the coder to determine which meaning applied. It could have meant that a coder should not use a particular code for a particular condition or that a condition was not included in a particular code. In the first scenario, a coder needed to check other categories for the correct code. In the second scenario, a coder needed to assign both codes when patients had both conditions simultaneously (if applicable).

ICD-10-CM includes two excludes notes, and defines them.

“Excludes 1” indicates that the code excluded should never be used with the code where the note is located (do not report both codes) An example is Q03 – Congenital hydrocephalus; excludes 1: Acquired hydrocephalus (G91.-).

“Excludes 2” indicates that the condition excluded is not part of the condition represented by the code but a patient may have both conditions at the same time, in which case both codes may be assigned together (both codes can be reported to capture both conditions). An example is L27.2 – Dermatitis due to ingested food; excludes 2: Dermatitis due to food in contact with skin (L23.6, L24.6, L25.4).

10. New concepts. There are new concepts included in ICD-10-CM that did not exist in ICD-9-CM. These include blood type, the Glasgow Coma Scale and alcohol level.

Inside the War on Drug Prices

Linda Gimmeson
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Inside the War on Drug Prices

In recent years, we’ve seen the prices of prescription drugs steadily rise. Price for an HIV drug, Daraprim, saw a 5,000% increase after the pharmaceutical company that manufactures it received rights to the drug. The life-saving EpiPen increased from about $100 to nearly $600 in less than 10 years. These quickly became the topic of discussion at the dinner table and the public is taking notice in the raising prices of prescription drugs, but it will take more than just public concern to make a change. There are many problems that are keeping prices the way they are besides corporate greed.

Many lawmakers believe they need to make a change, with Donald Trump as the frontrunner for change. He has promised to make constraints on pricing for pharmaceuticals which will make it harder to raise the prices to ridiculous amounts. But this won’t be an easy feat. Many government officials have already seen the opposition to bills which regulated pricing. In the recent election, California voted on a proposition that was easily turned down by a majority. Trump’s solution only moves the problem from one area to another.

It isn’t just cut and dry like most products which are just manufactured and then sold. Pharmaceutical drugs go through a very influential middle man when being sold to healthcare providers — pharmacy benefit providers (PBMs). PBMs try to find a reasonable price for their customers, but this usually racks the price up. The manufacturers are in competition with each other when they use PBMs to have the biggest rebate, meaning the price of the drug goes up and the manufacturers don’t gain as much money. Many manufacturers, such as chief executive of Mylan, Heather Bersch, say that the PBMs create a program that incentives raising the prices of the drugs for the manufacturers. PBMs deny this and put the blame on the manufacturers.

Another problem that attributes to the increase of prescription drugs is bringing in insurance.  Many of us don’t even pay the price that the big companies decide to charge us. We pay a small portion of it and the rest is covered by our insurance company, who gets a big portion of their money from the government. The true price of a drug is never really known by one party and it makes it a little difficult to keep things straight.

Drugs like EpiPen or Daraprim are life-saving drugs. They are necessary to life and people will continue to buy them no matter the price. If people have to have something, the price can be as ridiculous as $600 and they will get it. The price of prescriptions is worth far more than the alternative. Pharmaceutical companies realize this and they raise the price to whatever they believe will be advantageous to themselves. Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland said drug companies take a couple punches (from dips in pricing) and then continue to do what they have been doing and raising prices because, ultimately, nothing changes. These people still need their drugs to survive and they will come crawling back to buy them.

When the price of the EpiPen went up, many people decided to try to create a generic version of the drug, which is usually what happens when the price of something gets a little outrageous. This creates competition for the brand name product. When there is competition, one is always cheaper, but usually only within the range of a few dollars. So if one brand decides to raise their price, so does the other, making prices of these drugs continue to increase.

The war on drug prices will continue until someone can figure out a solution to the problem. Courses like ACLS recertification give you the information to save a life if something were to happen to someone without one of the lifesaving drugs and generic versions give you a cheaper version. But these alternatives only work for so long. Pharmaceutical companies are stuck in the mindset of continuing to do what they have been doing because they know nothing will change. Unless someone can figure out how to make these companies stand down, prices of prescription drugs will continue to rise.

Why Professional Medical Transcription Services are a Life Saver?

Yeshwanth HV
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Why Professional Medical Transcription Services are a Life Saver?

A shocking 30% of all medical orders are transcribed incorrectly. This is affecting 50,000 individuals annually and causing an accumulated loss of $17 billion to $29 billion to healthcare institutions. As per resect reports, majority of these mistakes are caused due to three major reasons.

The most prominent among these reasons is numerical mix-ups. It is a well-known fact that most drugs that are prescribed to patients do not have a fixed dosage schedule, and it is the doctors who use their intellect to come to a conclusion with regards to the dosage that should be administered to each patient.

Sometimes, due to variety of reasons ranging from difficulty in understanding the accent and dialect to the speed of delivery of dictation, transcribers can misinterpret the dosage prescribed by doctors. This can cause great harm to the life of the patient just like what happened in Alabama. In this particular case, an elderly woman who visited a hospital that was close to her home, rather than the regular one, to get an insulin shot lost her life due to a transcription error. Though the doctor dictated ‘8,’ the transcriptionist interpreted it as ’80’ in the medical records of her previous encounter. Based on these readings, the staff of the current hospital administered a dosage that was ten times higher than her regular insulin shots, which led to the untimely demise of the patient. In another instance, a woman from Massachusetts met the same fate after being administered a dosage of blood thinner that was 30 times higher than it should have been due to a transcription error.

The next reason that is adding to the mountain of transcription errors is the confusion caused due to similar-sounding words. There are a variety of similar-sounding words in medicine such as colostrum and claustrum. Misinterpreting them will mean that the patient will receive treatment for a brain condition rather than an existing breast condition or vice versa. Same is the case with words such dysphagia and dysphasia to hypotension and hypertension; and transcriptionists should be on their feet to get them right every single occasion.

The third most prominent reason that is contributing heavily to medical transcription woes is misinterpretation of homophones, which are essentially words that sound similar but have totally different meanings and spellings. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of such words in medicine.

Starting from radical and radicle, mucous and mucus, pleural and plural, ileum and ilium, the list goes on and on. Inexperienced transcribers can easily get confused while interpreting these words and they may mix them up, changing the entire meaning of the report.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that healthcare practices can’t take refuge in technology to spot or overcome these mistakes. This is because these technologies are still in their infancy and they are not equipped to handle the intricacies of medical transcription. In fact, a study by the International Journal of Healthcare Quality Assurance found, on average, 315,000 errors in every 1 million dictations captured by voice recognition software—a convincing argument that emphasizes that this software is way of the mark. The numbers of online transcription tools are even worse.   

The Way Out

The only plausible way in which you can check the menace of transcription errors without spending a fortune is by hiring a professional medical transcription service provider. In a field where speed and accuracy can mean the difference between life and death, these transcription companies’ leverage their experience and expertise to take utmost care in ensuring that your documents are exactly as you need them, when you need them. Utilizing state-of-the-art dictation technology and industry best practices, they provide well-rounded transcription processes along with personal attention to detail, which is essentially the key to eradicating even the tiniest errors and their heavy costs.

How do Medical Transcription Companies Tackle the Menace of Transcription Errors?

Medical transcription service providers tackle transcription errors on multiple levels. And as usual, their first line of defense is their expert team of medical transcriptionists.

Medical transcriptionists employed by these companies leverage their experience and training to make precise judgments on information that has to be included and excluded in the reports. They use their intuition along with a range of resources starting from dictionaries to drug references to differentiate homonyms, identify discrepancies in medical terms and complete the transcription. And once these transcriptionists are done with the job, the baton is passed on to proofreaders and editors. These professionals ensure that the information, steps, processes and course of action are meticulously detailed and precise. They make sure that there is no transposed numbers, transposed letters, spelling mistakes or capitalization errors. Leveraging their training they ensure that there is consistency regarding the plural forms of medical terms and usage of abbreviations.

Finally, they carry out a thorough review of words that sound similar but have a different meaning and spelling; and take into consideration the nature of the diagnosis to make sure that the end product is of the highest standard and offers utmost level of specificity. All this guarantees the best possible results to the clients.

The Bottom-line

In a cutthroat market, refraining from hiring a professional help may seem like a perfect way to cut corners. But having to pay for it with the lives of innocent people can prove to be much more costly. Unless you want to be the next big joke in the industry, it’s wise to opt for a specialized medical transcription service provider to handle your next medical translation requirements.

FoodSwitch and Similar Applications are Improving Clinical Research and Overall Health (Interview)

George Clinical
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FoodSwitch and Similar Applications are Improving Clinical Research and Overall Health (Interview)

FoodSwitch and similar applications are improving clinical research and overall health. We thus decided to interview George Clinical to learn more about this exciting news.

How can smartphone applications that help users monitor their food intake, exercise, and other health metrics help improve the overall health of users?

There has been a lot of focus from technology companies and app developers over the last few years around what is known as mobile health or “mHealth”. A plethora of applications for smartphones and wearables have been developed to service both general and specific health interests of consumers. What began with activity tracking of steps has grown into an industry projected to be worth $50bn by 2020. This new technology has increased consumers awareness and interest in their personal health and allowed them to monitor their activities or more specific health indicators, as well as providing them with tools to make informed real-time decisions that can positively impact their health. 

Do you think there is an increase in the use of health and fitness applications?

Though healthcare apps focused on chronic medical conditions such as diabetes and cancer management are expected to grow the most rapidly, the general healthcare and fitness apps segment (comprising fitness and nutrition apps, health tracking tools, and weight-loss apps) dominate the healthcare apps market and are expected to continue to grow strongly.

In what way should the user use health and fitness applications in order to gain the best outcome?

The use of health and fitness applications and wearables comes down to the individual needs, interests and priorities of the user. However, there is an increasing awareness with consumers that nutrition based apps that help them understand and monitor what’s going into their bodies may be more interesting than the previous focus on activity monitoring and energy expenditure. Indeed, anyone who has tracked their calorie expenditure can testify to how much work is required to burn of excessive calories! Consumers are increasingly understanding the benefit of choosing foods that combine the right balance of energy and nutrients for themselves and their families. And beyond energy, many consumers are also actively avoiding or lowering their intake of certain ingredients such as sugar or gluten, and health and fitness apps are enabling them to achieve this.

How do you think health and fitness applications could enhance clinical trials?

Health and fitness applications and monitoring have the potential to enhance clinical trials in several ways: to help engage the participants into the trial – using the technology to help give them a more active role and also utilising the data to help the participants visualise and track their own progress, potentially relative to a control or subset of the participants; provide a means for the trial coordinators to communicate directly with the participants via push notification in the app; and give the trial coordinators data on participants both to track their engagement and potentially real-time clinical data that offers the possibility for intervention.

Where do you see the health and fitness applications industry in the next 5-years?

There are many analyses and projections available on the growth of the mHealth market. Generally they expect the market to be worth US$50 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 50% in the 5 years to 2020. The industry will be driven by the continued consumer interest in health and fitness, with the expanding options in technology appealing to new consumer segments. Also, the growing aging population and the rising incidences of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardio vascular disease, and diabetes will drive demand. The development of next generation connected medical devices will enable governments and healthcare providers to offer medical services at lower costs.

What recommendations would you like to give for any company willing to enter this industry?

The advice for those interested in entering the industry is the same for any other sector. Define and understand the opportunity clearly and be crystal clear about your proposition – particularly what’s unique about your offer and who will see the value in it.

How Millennials Can Use Empathy To Drive Innovation in Health Care

Paul Rosen
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How Millennials Can Use Empathy To Drive Innovation in Health Care

Paul Rosen, MD, MPH, MMM, can teach us all something about empathy—especially current and aspiring healthcare innovators. He is a pediatric rheumatologist and Clinical Director of Service and Operational Excellence at Nemours Children’s Health System in Wilmington, Delaware. He is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Jefferson University. A TEDx speaker, Dr. Rosen was named “One of the First 100 Innovators” for his work on patient-physician communication by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

I recently met Dr. Rosen through my participation in the Health for America (HFA) at MedStar Health fellowship, a yearlong innovation fellowship for young professionals based at the MedStar Institute for Innovation in Washington, D.C. The fellowship empowers me and my colleagues to collaborate with a variety of leaders who specialize in health, design, and entrepreneurship. In this interview, Dr. Rosen discusses empathy and how it can catalyze healthcare innovation in the 21st century. This is the first of a series of posts intended to inspire and inform fellow Millennial innovators.

King John Pascual (KP): Let’s start off with the elemental question: Why should physicians care about empathy?

Dr. Paul Rosen (PR): We are in a very privileged position in health care where people come to us either sick themselves or with their sick loved ones. Physicians are given the opportunity to offer peace of mind, relieve suffering, and restore someone back to good health. I believe that physicians should care about empathy so that they can understand the pain, anxiety, fear, and stress patients typically endure. Doing so will aid in the design of better patient experiences that not only improve healthcare outcomes but can also save time, money, and hospital resources.

KP: When and how did you become interested in advocating for empathy? What would be an example of empathic care?

PR: I have had moments in my life when I realized how eye-opening it is to walk in the patient’s shoes. These moments have come to me often when thinking about my own family. When I was a junior attending physician and a new father, I walked into the pediatric intensive care unit and saw a baby lying in a crib on a ventilator. I remember suddenly becoming overwhelmed, which was surprising given that I had just completed six years of pediatric training doing spinal taps on babies, inserting IVs, drawing blood, and being completely surrounded by sick children. During training you had to learn how to set your emotions aside and just do what you had to do.

But in that moment in the ICU when I saw that baby, I thought about the possibility of my own baby getting sick, and it just overwhelmed me. That experience eventually planted the seed that made me think more about how we could relieve pain and suffering when doing procedures on children. At Nemours, we created solutions with the intent of improving the pediatric patient experience. One example of such a solution is administering numbing cream to children getting blood draws. Another is providing them with pet therapy to cope with stressful procedures. There is still much to be done. We need to make sure healthcare environments organically and intentionally allow for the delivery of empathic care to patients from all walks of life.

KP: There is the stereotype that Millennials are an entitled and self-absorbed generation. Given your role as a medical school professor and entrepreneurship mentor, how would you describe the Millennials with whom you interact? In what ways do you see them thriving and/or struggling professionally?

PR: The medical students I teach really get it. They want to connect with patients and ensure compliance with treatment plans. They are very committed to learning about patient engagement, experience design, and being effective doctors. They are facile with technology and use it well to communicate. Unfortunately, many doctors nowadays are facing a major challenge. The national physician burnout rate is greater than 50 percent, which is a symptom of a deep problem in healthcare delivery. It means that the ecosystem is not properly designed so that well-meaning, dedicated healthcare professionals can deliver their best care. But, I tell my students that now is the most exciting time to be in health care. We can now leverage so many advanced technologies and evidence-based practices from sectors outside of medicine to improve the quality, safety, and experience of care.

As for the entrepreneurship mentoring, I actually think it is more like reverse mentoring—I learn more from the students than the other way around. Working with medical students, young entrepreneurs, and the HFA fellows helps me understand more about how we can use innovation, disruption, and design in health care. Moreover, I learn a lot from Millennials who see great value in contributing to a social good and enhancing the user experience.

KP: You’ve provided guidance and mentorship to the HFA fellows over the past three years, witnessing the program’s emphasis on lean-startup and design-thinking methodologies to create solutions with (vs. for) the end user. How do these tools resonate with you as a healthcare professional?

PR: I hope that those of us in health care can learn from startups or at least collaborate with startups to get their nimble, innovative ideas into the healthcare system. In the startup world, there is a lot of designing to optimize the user experience and put the needs of the customer first, and constant reiteration to improve the final product or service as much as possible. Several health systems, however, are now working on continuous improvement models and lean processes that eliminate unnecessary waste in hospital processes.

But to create and sustain a paradigm shift, we would need constant teamwork, flexibility, and innovative thinking across the board. We see this in HFA’s key program components like the simulation phase where the fellows adopt patient personas in order to get a sense of various patient experiences. This is why the medical community is fortunate to have initiatives like HFA. It helps start that paradigm shift by harnessing the energy of bright and motivated individuals with fresh ideas to solve large problems in health care using design-thinking and lean-startup methods. The mission of HFA resonates with me because it encourages healthcare professionals to not only think differently—but to also think empathetically.

Watch Dr. Rosen’s TEDx talk below titled The Next Revolution in Health Care? Empathy.

King John Pascual is a 2016-2017 Health for America (HFA) at MedStar Health fellow. These posts represent his views and those of the professionals he interviews. Follow HFA on Twitter and Facebook. Visit the HFA blog to learn more about the program.

WESTMED Medical Group and Bridge Patient Portal to Improve Patient Engagement: Interview With John Deutsch

John Deutsch
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WESTMED Medical Group and Bridge Patient Portal to Improve Patient Engagement: Interview With John Deutsch

As shown in this press release, WESTMED  Medical Group has leveraged Bridge Patient Portal and mHealth app platform to improve patient engagement. On this regard, we interviewed John Deutsch, CEO and founder of Medical Web Experts and Bridge Patient Portal, to learn more about this exciting news.

Why do you think that WESTMED Medical Group chose to partner with you (Bridge Patient Portal) in order to improve patient engagement?

WESTMED is a large outpatient group that is constantly challenging paradigms and is well-known for leveraging healthcare IT to improve operations. We consider Bridge Patient Portal to be somewhat ahead of its time, and this shows in the type of clients that we attract. From our perspective, WESTMED was simply looking for a next-generation patient portal solution, and to partner with a vendor that could meet their future needs.

How could such partnership improve patient engagement?

Bridge Patient Portal is a very feature-rich and comprehensive solution. Bridge has very advanced interfacing capabilities, which means that we’re capable of making features work that other portals have had trouble implementing in a complex, real-world scenario.  

Bridge is also releasing a new mobile app, which is an integral part of engaging patients. Without a mobile app, web application-based patient portals are severely limited in their ability to truly engage a patient population.

Can patient engagement improve health outcomes? Can you elaborate on that?

Absolutely. Aside from the industry studies that show exactly this, there are specific areas where Bridge Patient Portal and the mHealth App Platform work together to improve health outcomes. For example, Bridge features a robust notifications engine that can route notifications for all types of events to the patient’s device of their choosing via email, SMS text or mobile push notifications. This keeps the patient informed and encourages patient portal logins, which in turn creates a new level of trust and comfort with with the online self-service features. This can then be taken to the next step: providing patient education, care plan tasks, reminders for appointments, etc.

How can your mobile technology improve healthcare?

The mobile app will provide a new level of convenience not yet seen from other outpatient groups. Full access enables patients to make appointments, pay bills, view urgent care wait times, view health summaries, request Rx refills, read relevant news/education and more. These are the features the modern patient wants, and has grown accustomed to in other industries (such as banking).

Where do you see the enterprise patient portal industry in the coming 5-years?

Self-service. Healthcare operations are extremely labor-intensive, and while attempts have been made to create self-service applications, they are piecemealed solutions that don’t integrate with each other. Imagine a patient trying to use separate apps or logins for bill pay, lab results and appointment scheduling. This is a barrier to adoption. In the future, we see all of these self-service functions being offered in a single application.

What recommendations would you like to give to those willing to enter this industry?

The biggest barrier is the development of interfaces to the different EHR and RCM systems. This development is labor-intensive, and a single interface can take as long as a year. Patience and a long-term outlook are very important.

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