We’ve done the research: Check out our top picks for telehealth video plug-ins!

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In building a viable telehealth solution, there are a number of key aspects that must seamlessly combine to create a robust clinical workflow. Among these crucial features are scheduling apps, virtual waiting rooms, clinical charting, audio recording and of course, video conferencing plug-ins. To provide you with some up-to-date and relevant information in the digital health space, we’ve gone ahead and reviewed some of the top telehealth video plug-ins on the market today. Take a look below and let us know what you think!

TokBox (San Francisco, CA)

Website: www.tokbox.com

Previously backed by Bain Capital Ventures and Sequoia Capital, TokBox develops and operates an API Platform, OpenTok, which enables users to add group video chat features to websites or mobile applications. TokBox’s industry leading Video API makes it easy to embed sophisticated and scalable video communications to facilitate consultations, team collaborations and more. From a telehealth standpoint, OpenTok helps healthcare professionals stay connected with patients in a timely fashion. The OpenTok platform can be directly integrated into a new or existing telehealth service and has been known to increase workflow efficiencies among customers. And speaking of customers, TokBox’s telehealth loyalty base includes personal health service Babylon, 2nd.MD and Net Medical Xpress.

Vidyo (Hackensack, NJ)

Website: www.vidyo.com

A venture funded company providing both software-based technology and product-based visual communication solutions, Vidyo offers a leading platform for high-definition video conferencing. Telehealth solutions powered by Vidyo have proven critical both in areas where doctors are in short supply and for routine checkups between healthcare professionals and patients. Expanding across specialties including primary care, teleneurology surgery and critical care, Vidyo’s video collaboration platform is currently integrated with REACH Health, American Well, HealthSpot and California Telehealth Network.

Polycom (San Jose, CA)

Website: www.polycom.com

With more than 400,000 clients nationwide, Polycom provides a unified video communication solution that increases productivity across the telehealth sector. Since 1990, Polycom has established its presence as a reliable video conferencing provider in the areas of education, financial services, government, entertainment, healthcare and more. Collaborative healthcare solutions via Polycom enable organizations to improve care, reduce cost and work together despite physical barriers. Armed with an impressive customer base in the healthcare realm, Polycom currently works with organizations including Clinicians Telemed–California’s largest multi-specialty telemedicine provider–, telepsychiatry-focused Gosnold on Cape Cod and Greater Midlands Cancer Network.

Tely Labs (Redwood City, CA)

Website: www.tely.com

Founded in 2010, Tely Labs has created telyHD, a video calling system that delivers high-definition Skype video-calling to the conference room, healthcare facility and more. With its ease-of-use and security features, telyHD is well-suited for healthcare providers in their endeavors to treat patients in cost-effective ways. The aging American population is currently a major target for Tely Labs–providers can utilize telyHD to remotely diagnose patients, provide ongoing outpatient care and subsequently reduce hospital readmission rates significantly. Current Tely Labs customers include Hospice of the Western Reserve, Cleveland Clinic and St. Croix Hospice.

For more information on each of these hip and happenin’ video consultation plug-ins, we recommend checking out the company websites listed above (case studies, industry news, etc.)!

And don’t forget–once you make your video plug-in selection, DoseSpot is here to tackle the e-Prescribing portion of your telehealth product. We provide a full e-Prescribing API that is easily integratable with any and all healthcare software applications and give you the ability to leverage valuable data including prescription history, medication lists, allergies and more! Download our Tool Kit today to get the full scoop.

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit http://www.DoseSpot.com.

Setting the “Stage” for MU3: Details on Federal Approach Expected Soon

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As the days of March begin to pick up, so do developments in the Healthcare IT arena. Washington insiders recently began speculating that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will release Stage 3 meaningful-use (MU3) rules later this month. Per usual, ideas are already circulating as to what these rules will—and should—include.

According to the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the third stage of the incentive program will have a primary focus on data-sharing, or interoperability (a surefire MU3 “buzzword”). While rules provide adequate guidelines for adoption, many healthcare professionals would like to see actionable results—such as Athenahealth’s Vice President of Government & Regulatory affairs, Dan Haley. In a recent article published in Modern Healthcare, Haley stated that the rules for MU3 should also require the “actual sharing of records rather than merely [setting] standards for how to accomplish interoperability…Providers should be able to see in one place a summary of a patient’s longitudinal health history…Without the need to [access] multiple systems.”

In addition to MU3 implementation suggestions, many healthcare professionals have expressed interest in seeing new tech-savvy “bells and whistles.” Some are pushing for better “unique device identifier” support, which would allow public health officials to track specific devices through the vast healthcare system. Another purported new standard for technology could be the inclusion of “patient-generated health data” from devices including fitness monitors and health-tracking apps, which may help clinicians track the day-to-day lifestyles of patients in innovative ways. Stay tuned for the official release of MU3 requirements towards the end of this month!

SOURCE: Modern Healthcare 

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Taking a Peek at Patient Engagement in Beantown: Beth Israel’s New Pilot Study

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Further initiatives to end incessant EMR entry during medical appointments may now be in place within one of Boston’s own. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) recently received a $450,000 grant from the Commonwealth Fund to solidify a program allowing patients to add to and update their own medical records during visits. This program, called OurNotes, is an extension of the larger and well-known OpenNotes initiative. The idea for OpenNotes began 5 years ago and quickly mobilized into an approach that gives patients access to their physicians’ visit notes. OpenNotes has spread rapidly across the U.S. and is now used by more than 5 million patients and providers nationwide.

Throughout this pilot, Beth Israel will collaborate with a number of health sites and providers across the country, including Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System, Seattle-based Harborview Medical Center, Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative and Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph, Missouri. The OpenNotes initiative started making waves in Boston during the 2012 calendar year, when researchers conducting a survey at BIDMC found that patients with access to clinicians’ notes were more engaged and witnessed more positive health outcomes. Results from this year-long study included data from more than 13,500 primary care patients and 100 physicians.

The OurNotes Pilot will initially focus on primary care, with the intent to later expand into other specialties. Jan Walker, RN, MBA and co-founder of OpenNotes hopes that the pilot will further increase patient engagement and improve adherence to medications. Walker also stated that patients in the OurNotes pilots at both BIDMC and additional sites will have access to other parts of their medical records, including problem and medication lists. After this initial phase of testing, each of the five sites will have the opportunity to develop its own prototype for further implementation.

SOURCES: mobihealthnews and OpenNotes.org

For more information on the OpenNotes initiative, check out Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s official press release here!

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Keeping Up With the Healthcare Happenings

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With the 2014 calendar year coming to a close in just a few months (gasp!), HealthWorks Collective, an online health and editorial community, has released its list of health trends to keep an eye on through 2015. Think your predictions are spot on? Take a look below to see what’s on tap for the U.S. healthcare industry:

1. More providers will be hiring health coaches.
Chronic conditions in the U.S. continue to increase—so will employment. Health coaches fill a unique demand for managing chronic conditions, as they engage with patients one-on-one and keep clinical staff informed about financial or family concerns, marital problems, treatment plan adherence, etc.

2. Healthcare mobile apps on the rise.

With the release of Apple’s new Healthkit along with a slew of other mobile-friendly health apps, this trend is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Patient-centered apps for monitoring aspects of health like calorie-counting and heart rate are gaining popularity at a quick pace and healthcare systems will continue developing and implementing apps to improve patient experience.

3. New care and payment models will expand.

Insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid programs will continue to push for more relationships with accountable care organizations (ACOs). Different payment models will also be proposed—many healthcare professionals anticipate a trend towards “shared savings” incentives with physicians based on lowering cost and improving care quality.

4. Big Data will play a key role in patient care.

Electronic health records and other emerging technologies enable providers to automate processes and capture vital clinical data. These technologies, however, are limited in not being open to innovation. By the end of 2014, expect provider advocacy for making application interfaces open-source so they can be used to create new and exciting programs.

5. Healthcare comes to the home.

Technological advancements and increasing healthcare access will lead to more remote care services. This means that more patients can be monitored and coached to health at any time and place. “At-home healthcare” will increase patient quality of care, improve patient satisfaction, and reduce costs.

6. Increasing transparency.

Expect the level of transparency demanded from healthcare systems to increase, along with the production of tools to help inform patients. The price of treatments, procedures and clinicians along with performance metrics and hospital outcome reports will all be made available for patients to peruse at the click of a mouse.

7. Partnerships for care delivery will expand.

Healthcare partnerships will soon include community-based groups such as social service agencies, gyms and other non-healthcare service providers. As the industry strives to better address population health management, expect more unconventional approaches to healthcare such as church-based group care sessions, outdoor exercise at nature centers, reduced price health care transportation services, etc.

Source: HealthWorks Collective

For more information on the aforementioned trends, check out HealthWorks Collective’s full article here.

About DoseSpot

DoseSpot is a Surescriptsâ„¢ certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

5 Tips To Guide Your EHR Through Meaningful Use Stage 2

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Looking for tips to navigate MU stage 2 requirements?  View one tip on drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks below and visit http://www.dosespot.com/meaningful-use-tips to download all 5 certification tips!

Meaningful Use Stage 2: Tip #2 –

§ 170.314(a)(2) Drug-drug, drug-allergy interaction checks

Objective: In addition to providing drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks, this criteria requires EHRs to adjust the level of interactions based on user roles (ie: administrator).

Tip: Provide an easy-to-use user interface so a user can quickly adjust the interactions. DoseSpot allows the user to turn on and off the drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions as well adjust the severity level display between minor, moderate and major interactions.

Click here for more blog posts at ePrescribing.org on Meaningful Use.

Bear River Mental Health Prescribes with DoseSpot

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About Bear River Mental Health:

Bear River Mental Health (BRMH) provides comprehensive mental health services to more than 3,000 patients annually at their eight locations across Utah.  Delivering mental health services according to the best practice guidelines with respect to appropriate medical necessity for more than 35 years, BRMH offers an array of services including:

• Assessments

• Behavior Management

• Crisis Management

• Medication Management

• Peer Support

• Psychological Testing

• Psychosocial Rehabilitation

• Psychotherapy

• Residential Services

• Respite Care

• Skills Development

e-Prescribing Integration:

“DoseSpot support is second to none” exclaims Thad Hunsaker, BRMH.  All eight of the BRMH offices use DoseSpot, with physicians accessing the e-Prescribing solution from multiple locations.  Thad explains, “Geographic location hasn’t added any difficulty where the service is provided online.” As a mental health organization, BRMH uses DoseSpot for more than just e-Prescribing.  “Patient medication management has long been an integral part of our treatment.  DoseSpot helps us manage this process online” adds Thad.  DoseSpot equips physicians with the capabilities to build a patient’s medication profile and then automatically review any drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions.

For the rest of this Case Study please visit http://www.dosespot.com/bear-river-mental-health.

OpenEMR Integration Functionality and Features

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OpenEMR is an electronic health record (EHR) and practice management application that can be downloaded with the click of a button. OpenEMR has a longstanding reputation as an open-source software (OSS) solution, after first being established 10+ years ago. It is ONC Complete Ambulatory EHR certified and qualifies physicians using the software for meaningful use incentive payments. EHR companies like CureCompanion have successfully integrated a mobile friendly interface layer on top of OpenEMR, running on a secure cloud.

OpenEMR includes a wide-range of features including:
• Patient Demographics
• Patient Scheduling
• Electronic Medical Records
• Medical Billing
• Clinical Decision Rules
• Patient Portal
• Reports
• Multilanguage Support
• Security
• Free Support

What is the only thing missing from OpenEMR? The answer is e-Prescribing. DoseSpot e-Prescribing can and has been integrated into an OpenEMR solution seamlessly and in just a short amount of time. e-Prescribing integration expands on the long list of features to include the routing of new and refill prescriptions electronically, drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking, ability to view a patient’s medication history and check their insurance eligibility and formulary information.

To learn more about DoseSpot e-Prescribing, visit www.DoseSpot.com.

One Touch EMR Prescribes with DoseSpot

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Case Study:

One Touch EMR is designed to be simple and instinctive, allowing physicians to chart as fast as possible on their iPads and desktop computers. What makes their system unique is it was designed and developed by Dr. Robert Abbate, a physician who understands how physicians think and knows what is needed to provide an effective EMR solution that removes complexities rather than adding obstacles. Dr. Abbate designed One Touch EMR to replicate the medical school workflow students are trained in, making the solution more intuitive to physicians with the perks of being affordable and mobile. One Touch EMR is Stage 1 Meaningful Use certified and is used by more than 400 physicians across the United States.

e-Prescribing Integration:

During the planning and development stages of the One Touch EMR app, Dr. Abbate searched for an e-Prescribing platform that would seamlessly connect with his sleek and intuitive user interface. After thoroughly reviewing his options, Dr. Abbate selected DoseSpot because of its quick integration and easy to use user interface.

For the rest of this Case Study please visit www.DoseSpot.com/onetouchemr-case-study .

Doctors Utilize Mobile Devices

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It’s no surprise that doctors are using mobile devices more than ever in the workplace. Pagers have long been replaced by iPhones and tablets, providing doctors with on the go access to:

• Patient medical information and history
• e-Prescribing software including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
• Email
• Medical references including image libraries
• Research resources; and
• A nearly unlimited number of applications courtesy of the Apple App Store

The latest in medical software advancements include telehealth capabilities, allowing doctors to visit with their patients via video conferencing software in addition to phone and email communication. Doctors can also connect with fellow healthcare professionals on their mobile device to discuss a patient encounter or field a question with the click of a button.

Adoption of health information technology continues to grow as organizations go for Meaningful Use certification. A 2013 survey fielded by Deloitte revealed that 43 percent of physicians currently use smartphones or tablets to access electronic health records, e-Prescribing and applications for communicating with other health care professionals. Additionally, 73 percent of physicians surveyed believe that health information technology will improve the quality of long term care provided.

Last year was a big year for adoption of mobile technology in healthcare but 2014 is slated to be the biggest yet. Stay tuned for an upcoming whitepaper on the current telehealth market plus the latest in industry trends and utilization.  Pre-register to receive the telehealth whitepaper at http://www.dosespot.com/telehealth-whitepaper.

DoseSpotâ„¢ Opens the Call for Non-Profit Healthcare Organization Nominations

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DoseSpot, an industry leader in electronic prescribing (e-Prescribing) integration platforms for medical and dental software, today announced that nominations are now being accepted for 501(c)(3) non-profit healthcare organizations engaged in meaningful work and in need of e-Prescribing software. Nominations can be submitted at http://www.DoseSpot.com/doesthrough January 15, 2014 as part of DoseSpot Does, an ongoing initiative to recognize and reward awesome 501(c)(3) non-profit healthcare organizations.

“We are excited for this holiday season’s DoseSpot Does campaign to bring e-Prescribing software to organizations that deliver a lasting impact on their patients,” said Greg Waldstreicher, President, DoseSpot. “I encourage you to nominate any 501(c)(3) non-profit healthcare organization that fits this criteria. Whether you encountered their exceptional work as a patient, employee, volunteer or through word of mouth, we want to know about the experience.”

DoseSpot Does recipients will receive DoseSpot e-Prescribing software, equipped to:

• Safely and efficiently send prescriptions electronically to more than 65,000 pharmacies
• Automatically check for dangerous drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions
• Aggregate prescription history data from community pharmacies in addition to patient medication claims history from payers and pharmacy benefit managers
• Request information on patient insurance eligibility and formulary at the time of prescribing

DoseSpot Does nomination forms are available at http://www.DoseSpot.com/does for electronic submission. The three winning 501(c)(3) non-profit healthcare organizations will be selected based on merit and the number of nominations submitted. Nominations are being accepted through midnight on January 15, 2014. The three winners of DoseSpot’s e-Prescribing software will be announced the last week of January 2014.

For more information and to cast your vote, visit http://www.DoseSpot.com/does. Follow @DoseSpot athttp://www.Twitter.com/DoseSpot for updates on DoseSpot Does.

About DoseSpot
DoseSpot is a Surescripts™ certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, practice management, and telehealth software. DoseSpot has provided affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to more than 45 medical & dental software companies since 2009. For more information, please visit http://www.DoseSpot.com.

Press release available at: http://www.prweb.com/releases/dosespot/does/prweb11411509.htm