Delivering Better Patient Experience With Digital Tools – Infographic

Digital tools can help deliver a better patient experience, with improved results, at lower costs. Although the digital health market is still evolving, the infographic below shows the wide range of activity thus far.

This post was originally published on Strategy-Business.com

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The Current State Of mHealth Apps And Where It’s Heading Now

We witnessed a plethora of mobile health enabled devices and wearable technology during the mHealth13 conference. We also found out that the focus towards mobile health is gaining more traction amongst healthcare providers as well as consumers. But one study conducted by Medscape, a networking and informative website for healthcare professionals, shows that while there are plenty of mobile health apps available for consumers, the execution of the applications may still need to be improved upon.

Also see: Patient-Centered Care Biggest Agent Driving Mobile Adoption – Excerpts From mHealth Summit 2013

The study cracked down on the best and most usable mobile apps in the market. The study divided the apps into different categories such as diabetes, oncology, women’s health and prescription compliance. [@HealthITplus]

Upcoming 2014 mHealth Events

There have been a lot of technological innovations and enhancements surrounding the mobile health (mHealth). Mobile health is considered the future of patient-centric care. One of the main factors contributing towards the growth of mobile health is consumerism. Today, consumers are becoming more tech savvy using their mobiles for a variety of stuff, every day. Smartphones and apps for healthcare are changing the way people are living and using apps to participate in healthcare.

mHealth Summit

The e-patient movement is the next big thing in the healthcare industry. Consumers are using multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets, wearable and connected gadgets such as watches, sensors etc. and are seeking new ways to integrate digital health into their day-to-day activities. Mobile sensors are taking more place within the industry. InMedica predicts that the American telehealth market will grow by 600 percent between 2012 and 2017. This would represent an increase from the current 227,000 telehealth patients to reach up to 1.3m patients in 2017. They think this is mostly related to the reimbursement changes in the US. [@HealthITplus]

Top 5 Issues Facing Doctors In 2014

The Physician Foundation released its Physicians Watch List highlighting the five biggest issues facing doctors in 2014. Here’s brief information about the list:

1. Consolidation leading to monopolization. Consolidation concerns made last year’s list, but this year, those worries about more and more doctors joining larger and larger health systems have morphed into anxiety about eroding competition.
2. Continuing growth of regulatory burdens. Nonclinical paperwork already takes up a lot of physicians’ time, but with the deadline for ICD-10 implementation looming, even more time for administrative paperwork will be required of doctors.
3. Confusion. Many private practice physicians have not been educated on how the new health insurance exchanges work and so are unsure how to explain them to their patients. Their own lack of understanding has led them to be worried about whether their reimbursement rates will be less in the exchanges; whether they will be able to control the number of exchange-based patients they will have to take on; and the potential difficulties of collecting out-of-pocket charges from these patients.
4. Health information technology. Doctors are frustrated by the lack of interoperability between electronic health systems and are worried about how HIT will impact how they practice and protecting the privacy and security of patient information.
5. Stalemates. Doctors, too, are frustrated by the seeming inability of Congress to operate. Particular worries associated with lawmaker decisions include the continued struggle to repeal the sustainable growth rate and what will happen if the 24 percent cut scheduled for the start of 2014 is triggered; ongoing deadlock on tort reform; and worries about the fate of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements in federal budget talks.

Source: Healthcare Finance News

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EHR Solutions and a Window of Opportunities for Technology Vendors

The healthcare industry has picked up the pace and is poised to become one of the fastest growing industries. Thanks to Health IT advancements and mobility, the healthcare industry is enabling more efficiency to physicians, better care and enhanced patient engagement.

With the aim to swap paper records with electronic records, EHR seems to be paving its way ahead into it. But there are few loopholes that must be addressed with the successful and faster penetration and adoption of EHRs. One of the major reasons where EHR adoption is affected is its slow processing speed. In some cases, staffs have reported EHRs to be taking more time than paper work. Carolyn Hartley, President and CEO of Physicians’ EHR indicated that the trouble with EHRs is with its user interface. It works on many clicks by user.

Building Patient Compliance through mHealth

A recent whitepaper clearly highlights the connection between enhancing patient compliance with doctors through mHealth

The mHealth industry has seen significant growth in the past couple of years. Thanks to a booming Smartphone and mobile device market, mHealth continues to grow at a rapid pace. Amongst other developments in mHealth, remotely monitoring patient compliance with doctors’ orders has emerged as a significant focus area.

A recent report by Mobiquity stated, “Mobile technology has become a cost-effective and scalable driver of behaviour change in healthcare and other industries.” It goes on to note, “Sensors, mobile alerts and reminders, and cloud-based analytics can be utilized to track when and how often medications are taken and let patients know when they have missed a dosage.” The study note is reported to have estimated the US of $290 billion annually on healthcare costs when patients fail to take their prescribed medications.

3 ways remote care benefits doctors, patients

The healthcare continuum has been undergoing a lot of changes recently owing to the advancement in technology. The steady stream of new devices in the healthcare market has also led us to believe that technology will bring all the improvements we’ll ever need in healthcare. The reality is much more complicated than that.

The basic fundamental objective that drives any market is the identification of gaps in the way its services and solutions are delivered and how to fill the gaps. The same is with healthcare. More often, there is a need to figure out the various underlying issues in the delivery of healthcare and figuring out ways to fill those voids.

Kevin Quinn, senior vice president of sales and account management, AMC Health, says, “Technology is a tool that should be used to enhance the experience of both patients and clinicians.” In other words, technology must be used to alleviate the gaps in between patients and their wellbeing process.

EHRs and Meaningful Use Transforming Patient Care

Since 2011, more than 4.6 million patients have received an electronic copy of their health information from their EHR, according to CMS.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a data stating that an increasing amount of healthcare providers are using electronic health records (EHR) to improve their patients’ care and provide more information to their patients regarding their health.

The data also reveals that more than 50 percent of eligible healthcare professionals and more than 80 percent of eligible hospitals in U.S. have received meaningful use incentives since the program’s inception. Using EHRs, physicians and care providers have been able to provide improved patient care to millions and also boosted their efficiencies and productivity.

Farzad Mostashari, MD and National Coordinator highlighting the benefits and achievements of the program said, “More patients than ever before are seeing the benefits of their providers using electronic health records to help better coordinate and manage their care. These data show that health care professionals are not only adopting electronic health records rapidly, they’re also using them to improve care.”

Patients are demanding Portals, Access, and Engagement [Infographic]

One of the emerging technologies in healthcare is to engage patients and allow them to take part in their own well-being. Engaging patients in the healthcare process not only helps doctors and physicians in improving communication with the patients but also improves the overall healthcare experience of the patients. CareStream, a dental and medical imaging service providers surveyed over 1,000 patients in US with various backgrounds to corroborate the same. The firm partnered with IDR research in order to carry out the survey.

Physicians Continue say Yes to EHR Adoption

According to a recent report submitted to the Congress, an ever increasing amount of physicians are embracing (and agreeing to adopt) electronic health records (EHRs) into workplaces. Along with EHRs, physicians are also looking for newer, more sophisticated ways to interact and stay connected with their patients even when they are away from their workplaces.

Compared to only 48 percent in 2009, in 2012, more than 72 percent of physicians used electronic health records and the count seems to be growing rapidly. Physicians are going forward and demanding increased EHR functionality, with 80 percent having EHRs with computerized provider order entry for medication orders in 2012, compared to 65 percent in 2011, and 67 percent having EHRs with drug interaction checks, compared to 51 percent in 2011.