Featured Content

  1. 3 Ways Digital Innovation Is Reinventing Care Delivery 9/21/2018

    Record investments in digital health startups are just one sign of the hunger for digital innovation in the healthcare industry, with $3.4 billion in digital health deals recorded in the first half of 2018 alone. Non-traditional investors are also taking bold action, including the recently announced $375 million invested by Google in Oscar Health. The momentum of such advancements is reinventing care delivery, with high-touch, high-tech patient touchpoints that deliver better value and outcomes.

  2. Data Analytics Becoming The New Stethoscope Thanks To Automation And AI 5/11/2018

    As databases and analytic platforms accelerate and improve, specifically through automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), these systems will transcend decision-making support for individual patients and make much more far-reaching predictions about patient populations.

  3. Getting Beyond The Telehealth 'Stop Gap' Mentality 9/15/2020

    Since COVID-19 emerged as a major health threat, virtual care has taken off. As many as 46 percent of patients reported in late April that they had used telehealth to replace a canceled healthcare visit in 2020, while 48 percent of physicians said they had started using telehealth to treat patients.

  4. From Value-Based Care Goals To Realities: 4 Steps To Your Desired Destination 12/9/2015

    It’s one thing to have a destination circled on a map, quite another to actually get there and put your feet on the ground. Case in point: Health and Human Services (HHS) has set a goal of tying 30 percent of traditional, or fee-for-service, Medicare payments to quality or value through alternative payment models, such as Accountable Care Organizations or bundled payment arrangements by the end of 2016. HHS is also aiming to tie 50 percent of payments to these models by the end of 2018. With such a clearly defined landing, the fact that healthcare is moving toward value-based care is indisputable. The big challenge heading into 2016 and beyond, then, lies in figuring out exactly how healthcare organizations will achieve this ambitious goal — and that’s where thinking needs to move outside the box. Following are four innovative steps healthcare organizations can take to succeed under these emerging value-based care models. By Clyde Wesp, Jr., MD, MAOM, Executive Clinical Strategist, Jacobus Consulting

  5. Keeping Patients Top Of Mind: Connected, Informed, And Educated 5/21/2021

    More and more, the same holds true for our healthcare communications. Increasingly, providers are shifting to more efficient patient communication channels that emphasize accessibility, convenience, and haste. Though syncing communication preferences is always the first step to being on the same wavelength with patients, best practices reveal that some mediums are better than others when speed and timing are must-haves.

  6. Shortage Of Primary Care Providers And Access To Care Driving Nurse Practitioner Scope Of Practice Changes 10/13/2020

    There is a shortage of primary care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants) in the U.S. In California, the shortage has been troublesome, especially in rural areas. The government recommends 60-80 primary care providers per 100,000 population; in California, the number is down to 50 in urban areas and even lower in rural areas. In addition, 2.5 million Californians who previously were uninsured, have gained insurance through the Affordable Care Act and are now eligible for coverage.

  7. Automate And Audit Access Rights In A Healthcare Environment 3/3/2017

    Access to critical data is paramount criteria for success in today’s electronic world. Physicians and caregivers need access to patients’ records to insure proper delivery of care, but encumbering employees and internal stakeholders with too many restrictions to systems or complicated access methodologies can have catastrophic consequences.

  8. Knock Down Barriers And Achieve CIN/ACO Success 9/26/2018

    A CIO of a large health system, that includes a payer, shared the following frustrating reality. While Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) allowed ACO executives access to their claims data, CMS refused to send that same claims data to the independent delivery networks (IDNs) within the health system. Why? All due to the lack of access controls at the IDN level. For the CIO and C-Suite team, this makes for a significant data challenge. A health system that owns an CIN/ACO and faces this common situation, hits barriers in strategic planning and data IT support across the network.

  9. The Magic Of Breakthrough Technology: A Case Of Disrupting The Pediatric Space 7/3/2019

    Children have entirely distinctive needs as compared to adults. Care is delivered to them in a manner entirely different from adults by care teams that hardly ever double-up as providers for the elderly. In fact, we hear numerous stories of organizations that transformed their care delivery by fabricating children-specific strategies and have been really successful in doing so. However, very few experts ever discuss how little thought we put when it comes to developing healthcare technologies tailored to the specific needs of pediatric organizations.

  10. 5 Reasons Clinical Data Analytics Are Worth The Effort 6/16/2015

    Recent survey results by CDW Healthcare found more than two-thirds of healthcare decision makers say analytics is one of their organizations top three priorities, while other recent survey results from KPMG found only 10 percent of organizations are using advanced tools for data collection with analytics and predictive capabilities. This incongruity is not surprising. With all the health information technology (HIT) projects occurring at healthcare organizations right now: optimizing electronic health records (EHR), increasing electronic health information exchange (HIE) and expanding and securing wireless networks for mobile devices and hospital equipment, HIT professionals are understandably preoccupied with other projects. By M. Evan Hétu, SVP, data & analytics, Altegra Health