FEATURED HEALTH IT NEWS

Making Strides Toward Greater Success In Virtual Care

A well-known proverb posits that necessity is the mother of invention. And while telehealth slightly predates the worldwide COVID-19 calamity, we were sure glad — and relieved — the technology was available when the pandemic threatened in-person care.

• Bridging The Digital Divide: Virtual Care Accessibility Options For Everyone
• Eye-Tracking In Healthcare: Medical Diagnostics, Health Equity, And The COVID-19 Response

• COVID-19 Communications: Meeting Patients Where They Are

  There’s been a spate of good news in recent weeks on the COVID-19 vaccine front that is cause for hope and optimism in the war against the coronavirus. The pace of vaccine production and distribution by the U.S. government has been accelerated, making more doses available to more people sooner. In many states, the prioritized rollout has transitioned from healthcare workers and long-term facility residents to vaccinating adults 70 years of age and up. President Joe Biden has set a goal to administer 100 million shots of the vaccine in his first 100 days in office.

• Health System CIO Priorities—Changes Ahead Due To Covid-19

  In February of 2020, one month before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, health system CIOs participated in a College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) survey to identify their top IT priorities and barriers to progress. A summary of this CHIME survey revealed that optimizing EHR/EMR services was the top IT priority, followed by patient engagement and consumer technologies—telemedicine, interoperability and analytics. Operating costs pressure was cited as the biggest barrier to making progress with these various health IT initiatives.

• New Communication Methods Can Help Ring In New Year Of Greater Patient Engagement

  Telehealth will continue to prove valuable, but it’s not enough. Though we’ve seen rapid adoption of telehealth platforms over the last year, our end goal is sustainable patient satisfaction. That means across the entire health interaction—not just at the point of care. To develop greater hospital-patient engagement, organizations need to view telehealth as only one piece of the entire puzzle.

• COVID-19 And Physician Burnout: What Hospitals Can Do To Help

  The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified physician stress and burnout. Healthcare teams have had to adapt quickly to overcome new challenges and limitations to care delivery, often while operating with reduced financial and human resources. As providers grapple with patient surge and exposure mitigation, support of our physicians has never been more paramount.

• Setting The Facts Straight: 3 Common Misconceptions When Applying Automation To The Revenue Cycle

  After an extremely difficult year – one where health systems now face losses projected to exceed $323 billion due to COVID-19 and as much as $200 billion in administrative waste as a result of revenue cycle inefficiencies – providers, now more than ever, are feeling enormous pressure to reduce costs and effectively manage finances. Many organizations are turning to automation technologies to navigate healthcare’s operational challenges and improve outcomes at a lower cost – however, many may be taking a misguided approach that is preventing them from reaching widespread efficacy and justifying the initial cost of investment.

• Predictive Analytics And AI Trends Impacting Healthcare IT In 2021

  Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics continue to make transformational changes throughout the business world. While healthcare IT is seeing some impacts from AI and machine learning, it lags behind other industry sectors in fully adopting this emerging technology. However, necessity is sometimes the mother of invention, as evidenced by the Coronavirus pandemic still ravaging the planet.

• Why COVID-19 Is Forcing Us To Axe The Fax And Embrace Technologies Enabling Better Communication Between Providers
• Looking To 2021: Why We Need To Focus On Virtual Care
• 2021 Healthcare IT Landscape: 5 Predictions For Voice And Chat
• Redefining Healthcare – How COVID-19 Brought Digital Medicine To The Forefront
• Driving Successful Aging In Place With Remote Technologies And Services
• Addressing Misinformation In Healthcare Through COVID-19 And Beyond
• Ensuring Telehealth Providers’ Virtual Care Dollars Make Sense
• Reduce Costs And Improve Outcomes By Measuring Individual Physician Care
• Talking Tech And Natural Language Processing – Making It Work In Healthcare
• Digital Transformation Of Healthcare: Best Of Breed Supply Chain Technology Vs. ERP