It’s back to school time, and the healthcare industry is undergoing its fair share of transitions.
Archive for the ‘Health IT’ Category
mHealth: There’s a Grant for That
August 5th, 2011 by Cheryl MillerBy 2015 more than 500 million smartphone users worldwide will be using healthcare applications, research studies show. So it’s not surprising the FDA is taking a closer look at some of these apps, specifically, those whose misuse could endanger its users.
These “medical mobile apps,” as the FDA is calling them, are specific to medicine or healthcare and are designed for use on smartphones and other mobile computing devices and will offer everything from blood sugar monitoring to ECG machines.
As we reported in a previous HBWU issue about IBM, the benefits of these health and medical apps are immeasurable, not just here, but in underserved, frequently rural communities around the globe, especially where patients have no access to doctors, these devices can save lives.
And they can save billions of dollars as well. According to studies from Juniper Research using mobile health, or mHealth, technologies for health monitoring could save from $1.96 billion to $5.83 billion in healthcare costs by the year 2014. So the Center for Technology and Aging (CTA) (techandaging.org), with funding from The SCAN Foundation, has awarded nearly $500,000 in one-year grants to five organizations that will demonstrate the best ways to implement mHealth technologies for older, chronically ill adults, ironically, the population least likely to own a smartphone. The grants will help the CTA to meet its four areas of opportunity that it feels can best transform lives: medication optimization, remote patient monitoring, care transitions, and mobile health. And in a recently published paper the agency discusses how
cell phones, smart phones, laptop and tablet computers, and other mobile enabled devices are being used to help millions of older Americans as well as their physicians and caregivers manage chronic disease, use their medications properly, avoid safety risks (e.g. fall detection), access online health information, and stay well.
With the exploding growth of mHealth technology it seems that smartphones will eventually be used for everything but plain old talking. Hopefully the dialogue between a patient and physician won’t be relegated to a tiny FaceTime screen on an IPhone.
No Place Like a Medical Home for Patients with Diabetes
July 18th, 2011 by Jackie LyonsTwo recent studies focused on diabetes patients reveal that the saying “There’s no place like home” may be true — in this case, it’s a patient-centered medical home (PCMH).
The PCMH model of care has always focused on improving care quality and reducing costs for the chronically ill. Now, the PCMH has been found to increase the percentage of diabetes patients who achieve goals that reduce their sickness and death rates, according to health researchers.
A report from the eHealth Initiative found that using electronic health records (EHRs) in medical homes to coordinate care resulted in numerous process improvements for patients with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease in a medical home.
The initiative reported improvements in provider-patient communications, intra-office coordination, EHR use, care planning, patient coaching, specialist referrals and several other areas. The care plan enabled by the EHR allowed researchers to streamline the care process for the patients and more efficiently track their progres:
At one site, six separate cardiology referral forms were used before the project began. Following the intervention a single form was developed and formatted within the EHR, said Victor Villagra, MD, president of Health and Technology Vector.
In a second study, Pennsylvania researchers say the key of the PCMH is to make physicians not only look at individuals, but at their patient population in general.
In PCMH, medical practices learn to work together as a team, coordinating care centered on the patients’ needs. The researchers report a significant improvement in adherence to evidenced-based care guidelines and in clinical outcomes. In one year, the number of patients with better LDL levels, better blood pressure and or lower A1c levels increased. The number of patients receiving yearly foot exams, eye exams and pneumonia and influenza vaccines also increased, according to a Penn State College of Medicine press release.
Pennsylvania leads the nation in implementing the PCMH, based on the chronic-care model (CCM) of care, which promises to improve health and reduce costs of care. This type of care attempts to move from a reactive approach to a focus on long-term problems in healthcare delivery.
8 Ways EHRs Can Enhance Care Coordination for the Chronically Ill
June 27th, 2011 by Cheryl MillerCare planning, provider-patient communications and intra-office coordination are just some of the ways that EHRs can significantly improve care coordination for the chronically ill in a medical home, finds a new report from the eHealth Initiative. The report based its results on a 12-month project that tracked 119 patients with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease at two test sites. Notably, the EHR systems used at both sites had functions to support care coordination that were not utilized. This week’s Healthcare Business Weekly Update issue provides the details.
Also this week, we report on consumers worldwide who are tightening their belts in response to the current tenous economic climate, according to a new Deloitte Center for Health Solutions’ survey of more than 15,000 global healthcare consumers in 12 countries. In the United States alone, more than a third said they were using generic instead of brand name drugs to save money; one fourth of those surveyed in the United States admitted to skipping doctors’ visits entirely.
Eliminating claims payment errors could help to defray some portion of healthcare costs, says the AMA. According to the association’s fourth annual National Health Insurer Report Card, commercial health insurers have an average claims-processing error rate of nearly 20 percent, an increase of two percent from last year. AMA estimates that eliminating health insurer claims payment errors would save $17 billion annually.
And finally, a significant segment of the healthcare industry is reframing its care delivery structure as an accountable care organization (ACO) or will do so in the near future. You can find out more in our new video, 2011 Benchmarks in Accountable Care Organizations: Healthcare ACO Readiness Assessment:
Sensei mHealth App Coaches Diabetics Virtually
June 10th, 2011 by Cheryl MillerForget Angry Birds. There’s a new app on the market, and it’s promising to be a lot better for your health.
Sensei, Inc., a technology company that designs mobile health, or mHealth solutions, has been awarded a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant for diabetes and prediabetes research in association with the University of Miami, the Miami VA healthcare System, and the Health Foundation of South Florida. Together, they will trial Sensei’s new mobile application for diabetes and prediabetes users.
The application encourages simple lifestyle changes through personalized expert guidance. Users’ mobile devices are transformed into virtual health coaches that personally guide them to better health through healthier nutrition, fitness, weight loss and tips on self management.
Research shows that modest lifestyle changes, including losing weight and increasing activity, can improve or delay the onset of diabetes in almost 50 percent of cases, according to the Diabetes Prevention Program. Participants in this trial will be prompted to measure key biometric data, eat healthier, and learn and practice appropriate self management of diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. There will be daily health coach alerts that teach and create calls to action supplemented by a daily agenda and reference information around the different conditions and wellness.
Mobile Health, or mHealth, the utilization of mobile devices to improve health outcomes, is emerging as an important technology not only for developed countries but for developing countries as well. According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 80 percent of countries across the globe are using mobile phone technology in different ways to improve their health services. In fact, only 19 of the 114 studied countries have no mobile health initiative, although many of the initiatives in place are at the pilot stage. The most popular mHealth programs globally are mobile technology call centers, emergency services management, including toll-free telephone services, telemedicine services like text messaging with pill reminders and health information and transmission of tests and lab results, and managing emergencies and disasters. The survey goes on to state that many of these countries’ citizens have no other means of access to health care.
If this technology can be so beneficial for some of the poorest countries in the world, it isn’t hard to see how beneficial it can be for some of the richest countries in the world. And if users, like the diabetes and prediabetes patients being trialed with Sensei’s app, devote only a fraction of the time, passion and commitment to these kinds of health apps that others do to apps like Angry Birds, then they are sure to be an important resource for healthcare.
To Engage Patients, Meet Them Where They Are — On The Internet
May 9th, 2011 by Patricia DonovanOnline interaction with patients will engage them in health management, setting up healthcare providers for success in patient-centered models such as the medical home and ACOs. That’s one of 10 tips for patient engagement in a new Institute for Health Technology Transformation report profiled in this week’s Healthcare Business Weekly Update.
Health IT also links patients in rural areas to health services they might not otherwise be able to access. CMS’s new telemedicine rule, another featured story this week, simplifies the credentialing and privileging processes among providers to enhance access to telemedicine by remote patients.
Didn’t have a chance to read the results from our 2011 Telehealth and Telemedicine survey? Download the executive summary here.
