“Getting the Bedside View:” UK Virtual Reality Project Puts Clinicians in Patients’ Shoes

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From the hospital to the pediatrician’s office, providing compassion and patient support is a top priority for most providers in the modern healthcare era. New initiatives to improve these metrics are constantly in the works, as evidenced by South Devon Healthcare Foundation Trust’s (England) teaming up with innovative software developers to create a firsthand virtual reality simulation of the patient experience.

Meet PatientVR, the brainchild of South Devon’s innovation team and spearheaded by PhD student Nick Peres. Initially, Peres and team were building out a “patient-esque” mannequin that could blink, breathe, bleed and speak—with the goal to develop a more accurate and realistic training tool for medical personnel. When considering the importance of what a patient feels and sees, however, ideas soon migrated to the topic of virtual reality.

PatientVR runs on a headset and chronicles a patient being transported to the ER with chest pain. Originating in the ambulance, said patient is stabilized, examined, informed that he is having a heart attack and then rolled into the operating room where pre-surgical risks are voiced via a team of surgeons. The video is seven minutes long and comprehensively captures the patient perspective along every point of the care delivery process. Oh, and did we mention that Peres filmed the video himself with the help of seven GoPro cameras?

A recent article in HIStalk Connect gathered feedback from a number of clinicians currently piloting PatientVR, including anesthesiologist Tod Guest. When asked about PatientVR’s efficacy, Dr. Guest praised the tool for “[reinforcing] the need to be sensitive to [patients’] needs and their ability to understand the information you’re [giving] them. Their vulnerability and emotional state is important, especially if they are suddenly taken ill with something serious.” If funding is secured in time, PatientVR will be rolled out across a number of UK-based health systems this year. Fingers crossed that Peres makes it over to the states as well!

SOURCE: HIStalk Connect 

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.

Talkin’ Bout Big Bucks: Wireless Health and Fitness Device Market to Hit $1.8B by 2019

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Even though the year has just begun, financial predictions are already out for the wireless health and fitness device market. According to a recent article published in mobihealthnews, Juniper Research, a UK-based online and digital research firm, is predicting revenues of $320 million by the close of 2015. While this number is certainly promising, the real “head turner” is the four to five year outlook: Juniper also foresees a sixfold increase from 2015 to 2019, with the market reaching a whopping $1.8 billion in annual revenues.

With these statistics out in the open, there’s no denying that a wireless health and fitness device “explosion” is upon us. As far as the experts are concerned, however, there are a few key points to keep in mind as the healthtech arena moves forward. In order to succeed, says connected fitness and health author James Moar, a market shift from hardware to software must occur: “People want to interact with the devices at the app level [beyond merely collecting biometric data]. Because of this, and the omnipresence of sensors, the importance of the hardware will diminish at a much faster rate” than other segments of the consumer electronics market.

Juniper predicts that major growth in the wireless health device market will be driven by the “freemium model,” or a paradigm that offers a basic app and (potentially) device for free and then charges for more sophisticated add-ons. Consumers will be able to track personal fitness and health data for free, but will pay for apps and services that go a step further—interpreting and analyzing the data to make it meaningful. In all, 12.9 million users are predicted to be engaged with these paid service platforms by 2019—will you be one of them?

For more information on key findings, check out Juniper Research’s full press release here!

SOURCES: mobihealthnews and Juniper Research 

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.

E-Prescribing 101

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Electronic prescribing is not just the ability to send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies. E-Prescribing can also increase care quality in a number of ways:

• E-prescribing makes sure that the prescriber is providing enough specific information for the pharmacist to fill the prescription, including the name of the drug, the dosage, its physical form, the route, and the physician’s instructions.
• Electronic prescribing software eliminates the time and effort of trying to understand the prescriber’s handwriting, as well as the chance of an error in that translation.
• E-prescribing significantly reduces the chance that the prescriber’s intentions are misinterpreted.
• E-prescribing is often used in conjuction with clinical decision support to ensure that any drug to drug interactions or drug to diagnosis issues are found and reported to the physician before the prescription order is completed.

Electronic prescribing is considered one of the most important areas of Healthcare IT, which is why Medicare created payment incentives for physicians who use a qualified e-prescribing system. In 2009, the incentives are an increase of 2% in revenue for each patient when e-prescribing is used. Due to the 2009 HITECH Act, electronic prescribing is required as part of any EMR (EHR) which qualifies for Medicare reimbursement in 2011.