Patient engagement: the latest development in the healthcare industry, or is it?
You see, patient engagement has always existed. A little well-known term in the business world, “consumer engagementâ€, pioneered the strategies years ago that are utilized to engage customers, create better experiences, and enhance brand relationships to retain customers and increase revenue.
To be quite frank, these strategies have no “wow†factor. Engage with your customers to create brand loyalty and increase sales? Groundbreaking. Engage with your patients to improve health outcomes and lower associated costs? I see a trend coming on here.
While the healthcare industry has long understood the importance of having a patient engaged in their own health, it’s been said that the industry is typically five years behind with technological advancements. Perhaps it’s the resistance to change, the varying patient populations relative to age, or the perceived obstacles with seamless integrations for all pertinent parties, specifically EHRs.
However, one thing is certain: patient engagement technology is a viable solution that patients need, and deserve, to stay accountable and to stay connected in order to better manage their health.
The Benefits of Patient Engagement Technology
Now that patients are becoming more trusting of technology thanks to the Internet and social media, they have easier access to healthcare information at their fingertips. How many times have you googled your symptoms or visited WebMD rather than consulted with a doctor? Don’t be shy, we’ve all done it.
The downfall to these methods, however, is the potential danger involved if patients are self-diagnosing themselves without proper medical intervention. So, why not pair the two together?
The goal of patient engagement technology is to create a better relationship between providers and their patients. It’s also said that patients whom engage as decision-makers in their care tend to be healthier and have better outcomes, especially those dealing with chronic diseases.
Other benefits of using technology for patient engagement include:
The Challenges of Patient Engagement Technology
Though the benefits make sense, there are many challenges these latest tools are faced with. Not only is it new technology, but patient engagement will also require a cultural shift relative to changing behaviors and different communication preferences. Let’s not forget the operational and implementation challenges either.
Before an organization can determine what technology to use, it has to understand its users. Creating these personas will help healthcare technology organizations design better engagement tools with patients in mind, especially for older patients who might be less tech-savvy. It’s no easy feat getting providers and their patients to learn how to use these tools, as getting them up and running is most often viewed as a burden. That’s why there needs to be better integration with clinical workflows and simple-to-use products so providers aren’t wasting time on these technologies.
Furthermore, there needs to be more innovation in patient engagement tools. A glucose meter, an arm band, or a simple appointment reminder just isn’t going to cut it in today’s day and age. Give us substance, give us value, and give us healthier patients.
Other challenges of providers using technology for patient engagement include:
3 Patient Engagement Technology Companies to Watch
With so many patient engagement technologies being introduced to the market, here are 3 innovative companies making waves:
Klara takes collaboration to the next level. It’s not just a messaging application nor just an appointment reminder. Its platform engages all medical professionals for patients in order to be more efficient, more productive, and to work better as a team. They even tell you why “patient portals suckâ€. For more information please visit www.klara.com.
Medelinked encourages patients to manage their health by connecting with the healthcare community around them. It’s a secure mobile and online health platform that allows patients to build their health profile to discover, connect, and share their health and wellness information with their trusted healthcare providers. It not only connects individual patients, but families as well. For more information please visit www.medelinked.com.
AbleTo enables patients, payers, and providers to work together with their impressive behavior health care coordination platform that’s available nationwide to identify, engage, assess, and treat patients dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression. They pride themselves in reducing co-morbid behavioral health issues to improve patient outcomes, decrease the cost of care and help people reclaim their health and happiness. For more information please visit www.ableto.com.
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.
How does digital health affect the circle of life?
Today, a patient’s well-being rests in the hands of multiple healthcare professionals, including primary care providers, specialists and surgeons – and sometimes in their own hands with the latest medical devices and technological advances.
In keeping up with this new delivery model, it’s important to understand how people of all ages, pediatric to geriatric, attribute to the nation’s overall population health, its effects on the healthcare system and the United States’ bottom line, while also understanding how technology can play a major role.
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 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.
As the healthcare industry shifts to a value-based care delivery model, that is, the value equivalent to patient outcomes over cost, more and more initiatives are being introduced as a way to combat the ever-increasing wasted costs our healthcare system experiences. This includes efforts to reduce hospital readmissions, better manage pharmacy drug spend and medication adherence, and broaden access to care, especially for the elderly, disabled and low-income patients.
While many programs are in place to provide services for the above mentioned, one may not realize how transportation costs are attributing to the rising healthcare spend. One may also not view Uberas an innovative solution for reducing such costs, however the company, partnered with Circulation, has recently announced a HIPAA compliant pilot program with certain hospitals that will provide non-emergency medical transportation in urban areas within Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Why does this matter?
In a given year, 3.6 Million Americans, including almost one million children, will miss doctor’s appointments due to a lack of transportation or one’s inability to drive, resulting in wasted spend for the healthcare system. More specifically, Medicaid spends $3 Billion per year on non-emergency medical transportation, with a third of those payments being deemed inappropriate.
How does it work?
Circulation is integrated with existing and on-demand secure healthcare information systems that schedules non-emergency medical rides that are affordable and tailored for patients’ specific needs such as wheelchair accessibility. Patients do not even need to utilize the Uber mobile app or own a smartphone. They can simply call to schedule their pick-up time and after dispatch confirms their eligibility and transport authorization, they will receive a text, call or email confirming the driver’s estimated pick-up time and description of the vehicle to which they are then safely driven to and from their destination.
Research thus far has proven to reduce wait times for transportation by almost 30 percent and cut costs by almost a third, while boasting patient satisfaction at 80 percent.
Uber and Circulation provide more than just a ride – they are creating a seamless experience for patients, providers and hospital staff all from one convenient interface and in real-time. The system not only allows the scheduling of transportation, but also notifies providers when a patient has arrived for their appointment.
With the current unmodernized healthcare transportation system in place, this program proves to be an innovative step in the right direction.
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.
Improving the U.S. healthcare system requires the simultaneous pursuit of three ideals: improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations and reducing per capita costs of healthcare. “Value-based care†after all, does have its reasons behind the term. In keeping up with this new delivery model, it’s important to understand how behavioral health attributes to population health, its effects on the healthcare system and the nation’s bottom line. This is where technology can play a major role.
In a given year, nearly 44 million adults experience mental illness, with a quarter of them living with a substance use co-disorder. Increasing access to mental health professionals via technology is simply a smart solution as more and more individuals grapple with suicide, addiction, and other mental health issues. Unfortunately, the stigma often associated with mental illness is creating a barrier to treatment, but telehealth companies are realizing this enormous growth opportunity and are remaining at the forefront by providing a more convenient and less expensive medical consultation.
Since counseling really only requires the ability for patients and providers to speak via video or phone, utilizing telehealth applications allows patients to receive treatment without judgement in the comfort of their own home. It creates a safe space for mental health dialogue, thus aiming to reduce hospital admissions and its associated costs. Therefore, behavioral health must embrace technology and its ability to bridge the gaps in care to the benefit of patients nationwide.
To expand upon the evolving increase in technological access to care, it’s important to note that less than 50% of Americans who are prescribed medications to treat mental health conditions take them as directed, if at all, according to industry reports. Marrying telehealth and efforts such as medication adherence programs can assist a patient’s road to recovery while reducing the $193.2 billion in lost earnings per year associated with serious mental illness in America.
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.
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 ConnectÂ
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.
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 ResearchÂ
About DoseSpotÂ
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.
For hungry restaurant-goers, we have Yelp. For vacation planners, there’s TripAdvisor. And now, for those seeking medication reviews, behold a new and enticing creation: RateRx. According to a recent article published in TechCrunch, on-demand digital health app HealthTap has gathered drug recommendations from over 500,000 medical doctors and is consolidating them into an innovative initiative for patients across the country. Have we piqued your interest yet? Read on.
Although HealthTap’s primary focus is offering on-demand treatment services, its California-based management team recently recognized the need to offer doctor-recommended drug reviews. In its first iteration, RateRx will be geared towards those “on-the-goâ€â€”patients can access firsthand, U.S. doctor-generated evaluations of medications and treatments from a free smartphone app. Commonly rated treatments for conditions such as acne, arthritis, anxiety, diabetes, headaches and hypertension are anticipated.
In terms of workflow, HealthTap has mapped out the following: RateRx will ask a doctor to rate the efficacy of a certain medication (doctors can only rate medications they have physically used to treat an illness/condition). Doctors are free to add any ancillary comments and all ratings are then polled into an overall “summary†score. Patients are able to see the results of these ratings, along with individual comments. Each provider using RateRx will have a profile complete with his/her credentials and areas of specialty that patients can also view at will.
Through the creation of RateRx, HealthTap hopes to provide consumers with reliable medication ratings, prevent medication mishaps and improve patient care by encouraging physicians to factor online ratings into future patient-oriented treatment strategies. A deeper look into RateRx can be found here on HealthTap’s website.
SOURCES: TechCrunch and HealthTechZone
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.
For consumers looking to track and record personal health metrics away from the doctor’s office, life may have just gotten easier with the help of an Australia-based digital health company. CliniCloud, now making waves on the San Francisco healthtech scene, is showcasing its savvy and uber-compact connected medical kit that may help take patient-to-provider video visits to the next level here in the United States.
Now taking orders for its first product iteration, CliniCloud’s medical kit comprises two main items: a wireless non-contact thermometer and a digital stethoscope that conveniently plugs into a smartphone headphone jack. Patients can use these devices to track and record both stethoscope and temperature recordings or simply transmit them to a doctor during a video visit.
During an interview with mobihealthnews this week, CliniCloud Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Andrew Lin highlighted the importance of the stethoscope and thermometer within today’s realm of medicine, stating: “with the CliniCloud medical kit, we are putting these powerful tools into the hands of everyday users, allowing them to accurately record vital signs that can be shared with…a network of on-demand physicians to determine if a cough is just a cold—or something more serious, like pneumonia or asthma.â€
The CliniCloud app is available for both Android and Apple devices and the medical kit is set to ship this coming July. Check out CliniCloud’s sleek and eye-catching website here for more information—maybe you’ll end up pre-ordering your own!
SOURCE: mobihealthnews
About DoseSpotÂ
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.
Over the past few years, mobile technologies of various sorts have proven vital in hospitals and healthcare centers across America with usage rates increasing rapidly for both providers and patients alike. As profiled in mobihealthnews just this week, Miami Children’s Hospital is continuing this trend with two newly released health-specific mobile offerings.
According to Miami Children’s Hospital CIO Edward Martinez, the hospital has developed a care transition app that aids clinicians in the hand-off of patients between shifts. This app includes a patient-facing option as well, allowing patients to keep track of such staff transitions. There is also a parent-facing component to this app, complete with a video consultation feature to enable Q&A between parent and provider after a child is discharged from the hospital.
Another app Miami Children’s has created is a care coordination product for clinician use. At the end of a shift, this app allows providers across all specialties to quickly enter information about a patient’s condition on a handy mobile device and pass it on to the next clinician. This way, the next attending physician does not miss any critical patient information related to symptoms or condition.
In his interview with mobihealthnews, Martinez highlighted one key observation pertaining to the patients and families that enter Miami Children’s Hospital on a daily basis: the parental generation is more mobile-savvy than ever before. The hospital is capitalizing on this occurrence by engaging parents early on with activities such as texting and video chatting. With 2015 expected to produce yet another boom in the mobile health and telemedicine arena, it is very likely that large hospitals from California to Maine will follow soon follow in the footsteps of Miami Children’s.
SOURCE: mobihealthnews
To see some neat screenshots of Miami Children’s newly released mobile health apps, check out the full article here!
About DoseSpotÂ
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 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:Â 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.
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