CMS Posts Star Ratings for Medicare Dialysis Facilities Online

CMS has posted the first round of star ratings to its Medicare Dialysis Facility Compare website as part of a broader federal effort to increase transparency and help Medicare beneficiaries compare providers. However, some providers have taken issue with the new rating system. Modern Healthcare, AP/U.S. News & World Report. Read More

Two Little-Known Mega Trends That Are Shaping the Future of Digital Health Care

• Context: Working to ensure that technologies are optimized to have a real impact on the various factors influencing health and well-being, or the social determinants of health, and are seamlessly aligned with people's activities, perceptions and objectives.
• Convergence: Seeking to combine a range of digital technologies such as big data, predictive analytics and mobile health in complimentary ways that improve their reach, adoption and impact.  

Data, software and know-how are coming together to rapidly shift how people think about, understand and receive health and medical care. While there's much to learn, there's still time to participate in and shape the future -- if you're willing to make the leap.   Read More

E-patients need e-doctors. Here’s why.

Patients need doctors. Doctors need patients. Let’s find a way to value both.

Patients deserve to be empowered
Health is more than not being ill. The World Health Organization definition puts the full range of patients’ needs first: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
How can patients achieve the health they deserve? Only if they’re empowered. The “e” in e-patient can mean many things, but if health is a basic human right, then empowerment is the only “e” ensuring that right.
Being empowered means being able to meet certain fundamental needs, ones that need to be in place before we can make accurate, informed decisions about health. Here’s what we need for empowerment- Read More:

Most Patients Willing To Have Online Video Doctor Visits, Survey Finds

A Harris Poll survey finds that 64% of patients are willing to use an online video to consult with a physician. However, the survey shows about 88% of those willing to have an online video visit would prefer to select their physician rather than be randomly assigned one. MobiHealthNews et al.  Read More

Mobile Overcomes Communication Challenges

An Accenture survey has found mHealth is key to alleviating communication problems in healthcare organizations, especially for nurses. 
The latest report from Accenture, Overcoming Communications Challenges in Hospitals, outlines the biggest hurdles to communication in healthcare and ways for providers to overcome them. According to mHealth News, nurses can be considered “pioneers” of mHealth; before the time of smartphones and tablets, they were on the frontline of the mobile technology with pagers attached to their hips.  Read More

Telemedicine may be the key to concierge medicine's succes

A continuous care telemehealth model will help improve outcomes....Based on the frequent capture of key biometrics (blood pressure, glucose, activity, weight), such a telehealth model allows providers to actively monitor their patients and make incremental adjustments to treatment plans that will result in better patient outcomes and keep patients from needing care that is more expensive to deliver. It goes without saying that such a level of care is better for patients...  Read More

Patient Portal Adoption: Baby Boomers vs. Millennials

This intriguing infographic shows how Baby Boomers and Millennials are embracing healthcare portals in their own way. Do any of these stats surprise you? http://bit.ly/1DAC9fv

Patient Portal Adoption: Baby Boomers vs. Millennials Infographic bit.ly

Infograpic illustrates the differences between Millennials and Baby Boomers when it comes to patient portals from results of Xerox’s 5th annual EHR Survey Read More

Telepsychiatry: the New Frontier in Mental Health

How technology is helping 'bring' psychiatrists to people in underserved areas.

Like telemedicine, telepsychiatry relies on technology to bring clinical medicine to patients, rather than the other way around. Patients typically videoconference with doctors using computers or videoconferencing equipment. Telepsychiatric services are growing, and the advantage is that such technology opens access to care, particularly for those in remote areas where there are fewer psychiatrists.
The disadvantage, Benjelloun says, is that the human touch is missing. “A caring touch or handing a patient a tissue can never be possible,” she says, adding that this can also lead to missed cues on her part. “I am unable to clearly see self-inflicted wounds or tears.”  Read More

Infographic: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Change How do you go about changing the world?

Infographic: An Entrepreneurial Approach to Change by RWJF on RWJF.org

PwC predicts “DIY Healthcare” will be the top trend of 2015

“Do-it-yourself healthcare”, including mobile apps and consumer medical devices, is set to be the top healthcare trend of 2015, according to research and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC announced its top 10 predicted healthcare trends of 2015 in a webinar promoting their new report, and their top three are mobile health-related trends, with mobile and digital playing a role in several more. Read More

Topol: Digital Health Tools Are Revolutionizing Health Care

In a Wall Street Journal essay, Eric Topol -- a cardiologist and the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla, Calif. -- writes that smartphone applications and other health IT are giving patients more control of their health care. He argues that some health IT tools eventually could replace some aspects of medical care. Wall Street Journal. Read More

New N.Y. Law Requires Insurers To Reimburse for Telehealth Services

Under a new state law, insurers in New York now are required to reimburse some providers for telehealth services. Meanwhile, several other states are expected to consider measures to expand telehealth services, including Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee. Healthcare IT News et al. Read More

E-Learning Is Effective for Health Care Workers, Report Finds

A new report commissioned by the World Health Organization finds that electronic learning methods are as effective as -- or better than -- traditional training for undergraduates studying to become health care workers. The report suggests combining the two methods to increase access to such education, particularly in underserved areas. Reuters et al. Read More

Text4Baby: How mobile campaigns can reach underserved populations

An article in the American Journal of Public Health discusses the development and execution of Text4Baby, a text messaging program for pregnant and new mothers. The program focuses on women from lower-income backgrounds who don't have access to traditional care.

Patients enrolled in the program received three messages a week with health information ranging from breastfeeding tips to the effects of tobacco and were timed to the mother's stage of gestation or infant's age.  Read More

Health IT Trendspotting: What’s on the horizon in 2015?

The past year has been a notable one for health IT, which leads us to believe 2015 can only bring a slew of new achievements. In the spirit of embracing the New Year, HIMSS15 Views From the Top speakers divulged their insights on what we can expect in the coming year and beyond. These individuals are leaders in their healthcare roles with real-world experience from which they glean their predictions. Looking ahead, they see the following trends taking center stage in health technology policy, process and innovation:

1. Patient-to-patient social media collaboration – Mary Beth Mitchell
2. App-driven data liberation – Patrick Conway
3. Traction on ‘care without boundaries’ – Laura J. Wood
4. Customized personal health analytics – Judy Murphy
5. Continuation of tech-enabled patient engagement – Roy Rosin
6. Streamlined patient-to-physician mobile app data – Alan M. Muney

Explore these trends in greater detail: http://ow.ly/H5hqF

Knowing that the healthcare ecosystem is a complex one, what trends would you prioritize? Are these leaders on-point with your professional experiences? What trends are you noticing?

Walgreens moves into telemedicine with MDLIVE deal medcitynews.com

Walgreens deepened its healthcare services in a deal with MDLIVE that will bring telemedicine to its customers through the drugstore chain's app. Read More

Practice Guidelines for Live, On Demand, Primary and Urgent Care

The American Telemedicine Association recently released Practice Guidelines for Live, On Demand Primary and Urgent Care. The document provides guidance on specific clinical applications, practice, benefits, limitations, and regulatory issues ...

American Telemedicine Association Releases Practice Guidelines for Live, On Demand Primary and... americantelemed.org Read More