2015: Is the “Year of the Telemedicine” Upon Us?

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Have you texted, web chatted or Skyped with your doctor lately? You may want to, as health professionals and digital health entrepreneurs alike are predicting great things for telemedicine in the coming year. There’s no disputing that telemedicine “went big” in 2014—with provider communication, patient engagement and care coordination products dominating the digital health space, remote care and patient-to-provider telemedicine services proliferated virtually every area of the market. This “boom,” however, is expected to intensify in 2015 with ambitious predictions already circling within the wide and wonderful world of healthcare.

According to a recent article published by VentureBeat, there are several key indicators that 2015 will be the year that telemedicine has a takeoff of epic proportions. Check out the numbers:

• As of 2016, the global telemedicine market is predicted to be $27 billion with Virtual health Services accounting for $16 billion.
• By 2018, 65% of interactions with healthcare organizations will be done via mobile devices.
• Rock Health, a San Francisco-based digital health accelerator and seed fund, estimates that $4.1 billion of new capital in 2014 was invested in digital health—up from less than $1 million in 2011 (Forbes Magazine).

With the aforementioned financial gains on the near horizon, major players in the healthcare space—such as providers and insurance companies—can expect worthwhile benefits:

• Remote patient-to-provider virtual consults have the potential to reduce the need for all in-person doctor visits by up to 93%. This translates into savings of about $103 per primary care visit and $1,067 per emergency room visit. Your wallets will be thanking you!
• 50% of all doctor visits can be conducted virtually and 70% of all electronic health record (EHR) visits can be conducted remotely.

Finally, the patient—posited at the center of care—wins in the grand scheme of telehealth, as on-demand and high quality care becomes a reality. With a vast and continuously growing population of aging Americans, proponents of virtual visits point to the advantages conferred to those lacking easy access to a doctor’s offices, namely the elderly, the frail and those in rural areas. Telehealth is certainly headed in a strongly positive direction. Will predictions prevail? Only time will tell!

SOURCES: VentureBeat and Forbes Magazine 

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.

“Stuck in the 70’s:” Modern Medicine, the FDA and Medical Device Legislation

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Will Congressional bills slated for 2015 review finally bring medical device regulation into the 21st Century?

The year was 1976. Apple was founded, bell bottoms were in, Jimmy Carter was elected President and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began its first regulatory measures on medical devices.  The notion of “tech-savvy” Americans had not yet come to fruition, nor had the ubiquity of iPhones and tablets—in fact, no consumer would have known what to do with such a device during this era. Today, increasing numbers of hand-held devices allow us to connect with providers, manage and track medications and organization medical records. In 2013 alone, the Apple Store reported 97,000 mobile health apps in use and over 60% of physicians were using tablets. With these solid numbers marked in the medical sphere, why is the FDA still stuck in 1976?

In a recent article released by Forbes Magazine, John Graham illuminates the FDA’s continued regulation of novel, cutting-edge medical devices under outdated amendments and what this antiquated authority means for new health tools. According to the FDA’s original amendments, a medical device is an “instrument, apparatus, implement, machine…or related article, including any component, part or accessory…” Technologies of the 21^st century, namely smartphones, smartwatches and tablets, don’t seem to fit within this definition in any regard.

Despite the amendments’ verbose restrictions, the FDA has informed patients and providers alike on how it intends to regulate new technologies. With the final guidance for medical mobile apps passed in 2013, the FDA intends to focus its regulatory oversight on only a subset of mobile medical apps that present a risk to patients if they do not work as intended. In the final guidance, the FDA defined the term “mobile medical app” and Congress defined the technologies subject to FDA regulation.

While it appears the FDA is making strides in the right direction, many find its law-related verbiage unsettling. Early-stage startups remain weary over the FDA’s “enforcement discretion,” which includes the self-perceived ability to withhold smartphones, tablets and more. After much discussion at last week’s mHealth Summit in Washington, DC, the consensus is this: the FDA cannot be expected to generate consistent regulatory standards without appropriate legislation. Fortunately for the medical sphere, this may be resolved in the next Congress with the following propositions:

MEDTECH Act: would legislate that electronic health records (EHRs) and other technologies that only store and communicate information are exempt from FDA regulation.

SOFTWARE Act: would define the term “medical software” as software distributed directly to consumers and not integrated with a drug or device but includes the use of a drug or device. Such software would be subject to FDA regulation. The bill also includes the terms “clinical software” (used by medical professionals) and “health software” (used by consumers to store and communicate data but doesn’t include the use of a device). Both clinical and health software would not be subject to regulation.

SOURCE: Forbes Magazine

For more information on the FDA, legislation and the future of U.S. health innovation, click 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.

Got the sniffles? Tweet about it: The push to share illness data online

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The truth hurts. We’re currently in the throes of flu season with no reassuring end in sight. Whether it’s a fever, the chills, a runny nose or the ever-dreaded stomach bug, recent data trends show that sicklings across America like to share their not-so-pleasant illness narratives on the World Wide Web. According to Boston Children’s Hospital computational epidemiologist John Brownstein, a keynote speaker at this week’s mHealth Summit in DC, we should be thanking these individuals—they’re allowing digital public health companies to capture valuable data to create meaningful insights for users.

Brownstein highlighted several noteworthy collaborations and projects while at the Summit. Boston-based HealthMap currently deploys Google’s “Vaccine Finder,” enabling health consumers to search by location and vaccine type across the United States. In a pilot with UberHealth, HealthMap used Uber cars to help nurses deliver flu vaccines to individuals at work and at home in both New York City and Boston.

Brownstein, one of HealthMap’s chief architects, also highlighted the startup’s cooperation with Yelp to collect reports on food poisoning to track foodborne illnesses—which average about 10,000 cases per year. Through HealthMap’s Outbreaks Near Me app, iOS and Android users can report outbreaks of a variety of illnesses for identification and tracking.

So, to the tissue-hogging, fever-running, congested and unhappy folks out there—keep blogging, keep Tweeting, and keep Facebook posting. HealthMap and other soon-to-be digital public health companies seem to have you covered for now and for the future of illness outbreak tracking.

To hear more from John Brownstein, check out his interview from this week’s mHealth Summit here!

SOURCES: MEDCITY News

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.

From Option to Necessity: The Paradigm Shift in Digital Health is Coming

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Digital health is no longer a futuristic idea, it’s happening in the here and now. As the healthcare industry quickly moves toward full digitization, previously tech-averse clinicians are slowly—but gradually—getting on board with new and innovative technologies. A report recently published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) highlights a telling shift in clinicians’ attitudes toward digital technology, especially when connecting with patients is concerned. And it appears this shift is for the better.

In an extensive survey of over 1,000 clinicians—physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants included—PwC aimed to gain a sense of how these health professionals perceive digital health as it stands today. The takeaways? In most health spheres, clinicians are supportive. Check out some key findings below:

• When it comes to patient engagement tools, clinicians and patients seem to agree that putting diagnostic tools into the hands of the patient is both powerful and reliable. Roughly 42% of physicians are comfortable relying on at-home test results to prescribe medication.

• A large body of physicians also said they believe digital health tools can boost the patient-doctor interaction, with 50% saying telehealth visits could eventually replace more than 10% of in-office patient visits.

• Clinicians view consumer health apps to manage chronic disease and wellness as a good thing, with about 65% saying they would prescribe an app to help patients manage specific conditions. Furthermore, the percent of consumers who say they have a healthcare or wellness app downloaded onto a mobile device has increased significantly from last year and is up to 28% (versus last year’s 16%).

• An overwhelming 79% of clinicians support mobile health applications, stating that mobile devices can better help clinicians coordinate care with their patients.

With these findings in place, what do clinicians have to look forward to in the digital health space? According to PwC’s health information technology practice leader, Daniel Garrett, “digitally-enabled care is no longer nice-to-have; it’s fundamental for delivering high quality care.” The adoption and integration of digital technology within existing healthcare practices has not reached its full potential to transform patient care. Many health experts hypothesize that the next five years will be absolutely crucial.

SOURCES: Healthcare IT News and PricewaterhouseCoopers

To view PwC’s full digital health report, check out the link to their website 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.

Honing in on HealthKit: An App Review

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A few weeks ago, MobiHealthNews rounded up an updated list of the health and wellness apps that connect to Apple’s HealthKit, a health and fitness data exchange that facilitates data sharing between iOS apps. With a total of 137 apps, MobiHealthNews analyzed the ways in which these apps integrate with HealthKit—some only pull data, some only push data and about 20 percent do both. When all analyses were complete, the major point discovered was this: while HealthKit makes it possible to share dozens of different types of health and fitness data, most apps make use of the same few data points. Active calories and weight data are both among the top three most popular data types to push or pull from HealthKit. Take a look below to see the full results!

Number of apps pushing various kinds of data (or “writing”) to Apple HealthKit.

• 34 percent of HealthKit apps (46) are pushing active calories data.
• 20 percent of HealthKit apps (28) are pushing weight data.
• 18 percent of HealthKit apps (25) are writing heart rate data.
• 18 percent (24) are pushing workouts data to HealthKit, even though the Apple Health app doesn’t have such a field.
• 15 percent of HealthKit apps (21) are feeding step count data into the platform.
• 15 percent (20) are sharing walking and running distance data with HealthKit.
• 10 percent of HealthKit apps (14) are pushing out sleep analysis data.
• 9 percent (12) are sharing nutrition data with the HealthKit ecosystem.
• 8 percent (11) are pushing out blood pressure data with HealthKit.
• 7 percent of HealthKit apps (9) are writing cycling distance data.

Number of apps pulling various kinds of data (or “reading”) from Apple HealthKit

• 23 percent of HealthKit apps (32) are pulling weight data.
• 16 percent (22) are integrating step count data from HealthKit.
• 12 percent (17) are using active calories data from the platform.
• 10 percent of HealthKit apps (14) are using heart rate data pulled from the system.
• 10 percent (14) are pulling down blood pressure data from HealthKit.
• 9 percent (13) make use of walking and running distance data retrieved from HealthKit.
• 9 percent (13) are pulling nutrition data from HealthKit.
• 9 percent of HealthKit apps (12) are using sleep analysis data from the platform.
• 7 percent of HealthKit-connected apps are using the platform to pull in a user’s height.
• 7 percent (9) are pulling in a user’s birthdate from HealthKit.

SOURCE: MobiHealthNews

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.

The Med Melee: Medication adherence in the U.S. and where it stands today

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“Take once a day with food. Take once every PM before bed with water—but make sure it’s on an empty stomach.” Instructions such as these are all too familiar to many Americans balancing multiple—and sometimes complex—medication regimens. Whether it be an infection-eradicating antibiotic or a more robust prescription for a chronic illness, most of us (at some point in time) have had to take some form of prescribed medication. But how well are we doing?

A recent article published in Forbes magazine addresses this exact question and the results are bewildering to say the least. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 82% of all American adults take at least one prescription medication and 29% take five or more. Adherence to specific medication instructions is critical, yet there are 700,000 emergency department visits and 120,000 hospitalizations due to adverse drug events in the U.S. every year. It’s estimated that medication non-adherence leads to a U.S. death every 19 minutes and adverse drug events have led to over $3.5 billion spent annually on extra medical costs.

The numbers mentioned above confirm that medication adherence in the U.S. is not where it should be. Unfortunately, this problem is purported to get worse before it gets any better. The CDC estimates that the number of adverse drug events will continue to grow based on a number of factors, namely the development of new medications and the aging American population. With these variables in mind, the concept of medication therapy management (MTM) is more important than ever. MTM evaluates a patient’s prescriptions to identify and resolve issues such as drug interactions, inappropriate drugs or doses and whether a patient is taking the medications as prescribed.

The digital health space is making great headway in the realm of MTM with newly polished apps such as Medisafe and MyMedSchedule, which allow patients to receive personalized notifications from providers or caregivers as scheduled medication times approach. With memory issues, inadequate support and lack of education as potential inhibitors of medication adherence, automated alerting technologies, educational tools and an integrated network of care support are a logical next step to steer American medication adherence in a better direction.

Want more statistics on the current state of medication adherence in the U.S.? Check out the full Forbes article, “It’s 10 PM, Do You Know Where Your Meds Are?” here!

SOURCES: Forbes Magazine and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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.

The Wonderful World of Wearables: Truths and Fallacies

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In today’s health space, there is no doubt that consumer expectations for sensor-laden gadgets are at an all-time high. While the wearables market continues to grow at a rapid pace, Sensoplex CEO Hamid Farzaneh states that there is still plenty of room for improvement. In a recent TechCrunch article, Farzaneh acknowledges the amazing accuracy of high-quality sensors, yet wearable products continue to be clunky and generate poor user experience. To make consumers’ wearable experiences as informative and beneficial as possible, Farzaneh tackles some major myths and misconceptions surrounding the health wearables market:

1. Battery Life 

Buyers of wearables are always looking for newer, sophisticated and accurate sensors that tend to require a lot more power—and consequently, a lot more space. The current state of battery technology means that any wearable with more than an accelerometer will need a decent-sized battery that must be recharged every few days. Such a battery will take up a significant portion of the available space in a wearable device. The more “bells and whistles” associated with a wearable, therefore, will greatly increase its overall size—leading to potential problems for consumers seeking small and sleek wearables.

2. The “Invisible Wearable”

The successful wearable, in the eyes of many wearable advocates, is one that is practically invisible. This notion has fed into announcements (including New York Times articles) about tattoo, stamp-sized or flexible sensors and devices that one can stick onto his/her skin to collection motion or bio-information. The reality is that sensors by no means complete systems—they simply capture raw data. The kind of ultra-thin devices being talked about simply cannot house the necessary batteries to power sensors that accurately provide biofeedback information that consumers are actively looking for.

3. Miracle mHealth Sensors 

Mhealth products are currently among some of the bestselling consumer sensor products today. Eliminating everyday health-related nuisances for many individuals, mhealth products enable consumers to measure blood pressure without a cuff or take blood sugar readings without a finger prick—and they rake in over $10 billion annually. While there is much R&D within this market, there has yet to be an FDA-approved product. Additionally, mhealth products leave room for significant “noise.” For products that measure blood oxygen content and skin conductivity, for example, applications to different wrist sizes and bone structures can result in significant reading variations.

For a full list of Farzaneh’s myths and misconceptions pertaining to the wearables market, check out the TechCrunch article here!

SOURCE: TechCrunch

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.

Apple’s iPad Marks Healthcare Territory

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Among the various verticals that Apple’s iPad now occupies, recent discussions suggests that the healthcare space may be benefiting the most. The topic of iPad use in healthcare surfaced at VentureBeat’s HealthBeat 2014 conference Tuesday, where Drchrono’s Daniel Kivatinos, Direct Dermatology’s Dr. Angela Walker and Welltok’s Michelle Snyder discussed the use of mobile technology like the iPad and Google Glass in today’s medical realm.

According to Kivatinos, Walker and Snyder, the iPad has had a huge impact on medical practices because it can be used for physician-oriented tasks previously restricted to desktop computers. After the official iPad launch in 2010, many doctors soon gravitated towards the device and incorporated its use into everyday medical practices.

Dr. Walker of Direct Dermatology added that she didn’t fully adopt the iPad in her dermatology practice until the iPad mini came out—she liked how it fit nicely in her white coat’s pocket. Welltok’s Snyder then pointed out that Drchrono was the first to create an EHR app for Google Glass. Some questions still remain around the use of Google Glass in the healthcare vertical, as privacy issues are teased out. The benefits, however, seem to be plentiful at the moment.

Kivatinos described Google Glass’ efficacy, in that quickly pressing Glass’ “record” button to capture a portion of a patient visit could be wildly helpful for both doctor and patient. Walker added that Google Glass might also be useful in patient education: “[surgery is] a discipline where doctors’ hands might be busy a lot and Glass can be helpful…In any setting where your hands are tied, it can be useful.” As discussions surrounding iPads and Google Glass in the medical field continue to multiply, one overall conclusion is very clear: mobile devices are changing the way healthcare professionals run their practices.

Did you miss out on HealthBeat 2014? Catch up on some interesting chats and happenings here!

SOURCE: VentureBeat

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.

Telehealth and Ebola: Are they a match?

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As Ebola enters the United States and case numbers continue to rise, the ever-challenging and pressing question among health professionals remains the same: how is one to deliver care effectively without risking disease spread? With the help of Vidyo, a software company specializing in visual communications, a Nebraska medical center may have the answer.

About a month ago, Vidyo’s video conferencing platform was used in the Biocontainment Patient Care Unit at the Nebraska Medical Center—one of only four units in the U.S. equipped to handle these types of cases. It was here that medical professionals were treating Dr. Richard Sacra, a Massachusetts physician who contracted Ebola in Liberia while working in child delivery. The video conferencing unit was used to help doctors treating Sacra interact with the patient and connect him to family and friends. The Medical Center, located in Omaha, NE, has worked with New Jersey-based Vidyo since 2011.

With the Ebola virus becoming a dangerously salient international issue, the ability to remotely treat infectious diseases via Tele-ICU applications—equipped with medical devices like otoscopes, dermatoscopes and labs— is becoming more important than ever. To prevent the spread of infections in sterile settings, Tele-ICU enables hospitals to establish centralized monitoring facilities to address patient needs during overnight hours. Now afforded the option to evaluate a presumed ill patient remotely via video, many healthcare professionals are hopeful that such measures will protect caregivers from exposure, permit a quick response to treatment and protect the public from potential epidemics.

For more information on how digital health is addressing disease epidemics, check out MobiHealthNews’ article 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.

#IceBucketChallenge Meets the Digital Health Sphere

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There is simply no other way to say it— the #icebucketchallenge to combat ALS has gone viral. With over 2.4 million related videos shared and more than 28 million related posts, many are calling attention to the “pure brilliance” of this campaign on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The Ice Bucket Challenge campaign has generated astounding financial gains for the ALS Association as well. Since July 29, the Association has received more than $22.9 million from roughly 500,000 new donors.

The Ice Bucket Challenge is communally increasing support and awareness of ALS across all industry sectors, including digital health. One particular healthtech company with close ties to the ALS cause, PatientsLikeMe, accepted the Ice Bucket Challenge on August 5^th. Five years prior to the company’s founding in 2004, Ben and Jamie Heywood, Co-founders, received news that their brother had been diagnosed with ALS. The search to build a health data-sharing platform that would allow patients to manage their own conditions was born. Today, PatientsLikeMe is a patient network and real-time research platform that provides support for a variety of diseases including Diabetes, Crohn’s Disease and ALS.  Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, PatientsLikeMe is continuing its disease awareness efforts on a daily basis with online patient support communities, patient profile blog posts—and of course, new Ice Bucket Challenge requests.

Sources: Forbes Magazine, New York Times, and PatientsLikeMe

To learn more about PatientsLikeMe’s investment in the ALS cause and to watch the epic PatientsLikeMe Ice Bucket Challenge, check out this recent blog post!

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 has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.