The COVID-19 pandemic has been the catalyst for accelerating many changes in the healthcare industry, hastening new innovations and putting a national spotlight on the need to improve care, vital health infrastructure, and transparency in how data is collected, stored and used.
Many experts believe 2021 will be the year of patient controlled-health and digital-first care, as consumers at-large shift from needing telehealth, virtual care and digital wellness tools to fully embracing them as part of their lives. These changes, born out of necessity, are poised to pervade all aspects of care and impact stakeholders across the industry. From doctors incorporating smart watches and apps into routine care to a complete overhaul of data practices and a renewed emphasis on price transparency, we’re in store for some sweeping changes in the year ahead.
Despite its incredible tragedy, the pandemic has brought to light many challenges the industry has been facing for years and forced us to address them head-on, with the hope that this year will bring solutions to those problems to light, as well. Electronic Health Reporter talked to 11 industry experts to get their thoughts on what’s to come. Here’s what they had to say:
2021 will be the year of patient controlled-health – Dr. Salvatore Viscomi, Chief Medical Officer,GoodCell
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the realities of a global-scale health event – and our general lack of preparedness to address it – to the forefront. People are now laser focused on how they can protect themselves and their families against the next inevitable threat. On top of this, social distancing and isolation accelerated development and use of digital health tools, from wellness trackers to telehealth and virtual care, most of which can be accessed from the comfort of our homes. The convergence of these two forces is poised to make 2021 the year for patient-controlled health, whereby health decisions are not dictated by – but rather made in consultation with – a healthcare provider, leveraging insights and data pulled from a variety of health technology tools at people’s fingertips.
Knowing your susceptibility profile will become part of the standard of care – Trevor Perry, Founder and CEO,GoodCell
While the pandemic is turning our concept of vulnerability on its head, knowing your susceptibility profile will become part of the standard of care. We’ve witnessed otherwise healthy people succumb to the virus or experience long-term ramifications as a result of infection. This is changing people’s expectations around routine care and creating renewed interest among patients to know potential health challenges and have greater control on actions you can take to approach those challenges. We’ll witness tangible steps in 2021 toward democratizing these data and their ability to inform proactive care and disease management.
Healthcare and wellness will be inextricably linked post-pandemic – Dr. Salvatore Viscomi, Chief Medical Officer,GoodCell
Economic uncertainty, childcare concerns, burnout at work and social isolation, among many other factors, has brought stress and its impacts to the forefront of the health care conversation. Normally, society has served as an alleviating force, with evenings out and vacations offering a respite from work and home stressors. With those comforts stripped away, people are finding it harder to simply “get by.” 2021 will see an even greater emphasis placed on sleep, mindfulness and other mental health strategies. Subsequently, we’re poised to see an uptick in adoption of the digital tools and services helping people manage these areas of their lives and general wellness, as people strive for a sense of control amid so much uncertainty.
Data will help signal value-based care as the future of health plan offering – Kris Fitzgerald, CTO, NTT DATA Services
Quality metrics for health plans – like data that measures performance – was turned on its head in 2020 due to delayed procedures. In the coming year, we will see a lot of plans interpret these delayed procedures flexibly so they honor their plans without impacting providers. However, for so long, the payer’s use of data and the provider’s use of data has been disconnected. Moving forward the need for providers to have a more specific understanding of what drives the value and if the cost is reasonable for care from the payer perspective is paramount. Data will ensure that this collaboration will be enhanced and the concept of bundle payments and aligning incentives will be improved. As the data captured becomes even richer, it will help people plan and manage their care better. The addition of artificial intelligence (AI) to this data will also play a huge role in both dialog and negotiation when it comes to cost structure. This movement will lead to a spike in value-based care adoption.
Healthcare professionals will embrace digital tools as part of their assessments and guidance to patients – Dr. Salvatore Viscomi, Chief Medical Officer,GoodCell
Acceleration of telehealth and personal health devices, a trial-by-fire of their capabilities through wide-scale adoption, has increased comfort levels with these concepts and reliance on these tools. This also goes for medical professionals themselves. 2021 will see healthcare professionals getting more comfortable with these data, and factoring wearables and at-home testing kits into their assessments and guidance to patients.
In the age of data democratization, companies must prove they deserve our data – Craig Eisler, Chief Technology Officer,GoodCell
Perceptions of medical data will shift dramatically in 2021, motivated by increased awareness of consumers’ medical information and how it’s shared. The pandemic has brought medical research into the public eye like never before. It has also left many wanting to know more about their own health and how their medical data could be used to help others. However, an inherent lack of trust in companies’ abilities to keep data safe remains an industry-wide challenge. In the coming year, health and health technology companies will not only have to demonstrate they are deserving of people’s data, but also communicate the value that data can provide for the greater good if they are able to access it.
Covid-19 will continue to compromise patient data, setting back efforts to fight the virus – Theresa Kushner, Senior Director of Data Intelligence and Automation, NTT DATA Services
COVID-19 is an assault on privacy in the absence of data governance. Privacy regulations and protections of personal health data have been thrown out the window, along with the pandemic response playbook, as the public sector and healthcare industry scramble to aggregate as much data as they can on COVID-19 through personal health records and contact tracing – rendered as public information. Similar to other crises in history, regulation, privacy and governance fall by the wayside during reconnaissance. I believe the lack of regulation and governance around healthcare data will result in setbacks to overcoming the virus in the next several months, not to mention that it’s compromising patient data.
Elective services will return – but they’ll be competitive – Kyle Raffaniello, CEO of Sapphire Digital
Healthcare shopping activity for elective services will increase in 2021 as patients begin to feel more comfortable re-entering medical settings. The desire to shop around for these services and research costs ahead of time will also increase given the financial impact of the pandemic on many Americans’ wallets. According to a recent study, 68% of U.S. adults report that they would research costs of health care procedures prior to going for care if there was an easy way to view the total medical cost for the procedure or their personal out-of-pocket costs. Spreading awareness of the resources available to compare care services will be vital to helping patients choose and receive high-value care in the new year.
2021 is a clear year for healthcare price transparency – Kyle Raffaniello, CEO of Sapphire Digital
Over the past year, healthcare price transparency has been a key topic for the Trump administration in an effort to lower healthcare costs for Americans. In recent months, COVID-19 has made the topic more important to patients than ever before. Starting in January, we can expect the incoming Biden administration to not only support the existing federal transparency regulations, but also continue to push for more transparency and innovation within Medicare. I anticipate that healthcare price transparency will continue its momentum in 2021 as one of two Price Transparency rules takes effect and the Biden administration supports this movement.”
Consolidation of digital healthcare companies can’t stop, won’t stop – Kyle Raffaniello, CEO of Sapphire Digital
This year has seen the consolidation of digital healthcare companies as new entrants look to move into and expand within healthcare. Big names like Amazon, Google, and Apple, have begun taking on larger roles in patients’ lives and in the healthcare industry. This shift is likely to accelerate in 2021 as patients view their health as a more holistic part of their lives and look for tools that support them in every step of their healthcare journey.
From Economic Hardship Emerges Patient-First, Digital Based Care — Dr. Justin Graham, Chief Medical Officer, GYANT
The rapid development of a COVID-19 vaccine is a monumental achievement, but it does nothing to address our extremely fragmented healthcare system. In 2021, policy makers must create and extend incentives to providers to work together to keep patients healthy rather than maximize profit. The pandemic has devastated the traditional fee-for-service budgets of many healthcare systems, and it isn’t clear they will ever be able to catch up without additional federal or local funding, or succeeding with radically different business models. Fortunately, this time of difficult budget decisions and value-based care models coincides with an explosion in growth of digital health tools that are being readily embraced by patients that are happy to see healthcare providers adopt technology familiar to them in other settings. This convergence of demand for technology and innovation by health systems and patients will enable providers to be able to reach new populations while continuing to serve their communities that have been impacted by the pandemic.
The past year presented a number of unprecedented challenges for hospitals and health systems. The COVID-19 pandemic placed significant strain on providers, causing a demand for care that their systems were simply not built to handle.
Thankfully, we live in an age of digital health technology, with an array of innovative tools ready to meet multiple hospital needs during this time. Seamlessly deployed across the board, digital health solutions helped ease the burden on hospital resources, providing much needed relief for frontline workers and systems struggling with strained resources.
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the U.S. with vaccines rapidly coming to market, the single biggest challenge in 2021 will be managing the demand, deployment and administrative requirements of the vaccine.
Vaccine Approval
With COVID-fatigue plaguing the nation, individuals everywhere are anxiously monitoring vaccine availability in hopes that they bring us one step closer to ending this pandemic. Now approved by the FDA, COVID-19 vaccines will be in high demand across the country. What’s more, patients are going to have questions – what is the distribution plan in my area? Am I eligible? Where and how do I receive vaccination?
The COVID-19 vaccine will be available in a phased approach, with priority populations varying state-by-state, and in some cases by zip code. It is expected that, in most states, frontline workers and the most vulnerable populations will be first to receive immunization. Considering the approval, providers need to be prepared with digital tools and infrastructure to manage the huge onslaught of patient inquiries and vaccine demand along with ongoing support for booster, side effects, and follow-up interactions.
Virtual Assistants for Vaccine Distribution
Technology can provide that infrastructure, helping providers avoid becoming overwhelmed by the demand while also ensuring a safe and seamless experience for patients, which in turn will help accelerate widespread immunity protection.
Across the country, well over 100,000 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and these numbers continue to climb along with rising positivity rates. Similar to the earliest days of the pandemic, this surge in patients is filling hospitals to capacity and beyond.
The resulting shortage of beds and clinicians threatens to compromise quality of patient care and even raise the specter of rationing care in some hard-hit communities.
Increasingly, hospitals are recognizing that telemedicine provides a powerful tool for stretching limited resources by preventing and better managing overcrowding.
Telemedicine can make a critical difference in three key ways:
Telemedicine enables rural hospitals to treat patients with complex needs, reducing or eliminating the need for transfers. For critical access hospitals without specialists such as cardiologists or pulmonologists on staff, managing patients with complex or high-risk medical needs – whether COVID-19 related or not – typically requires transferring them to a tertiary facility. By providing virtual access to experienced board-certified specialists as needed, telemedicine allows rural hospitals to diagnose and treat many of these patients right in their own facility.
For example, consider a patient admitted to a rural hospital presenting with elevated biomarker levels. Through telemedicine, a cardiologist can remotely evaluate whether the patient is having a heart attack or displaying COVID-related organ stress. The specialist can then collaborate with on-site care providers to determine if the patient can successfully be cared for internally.
Telemedicine can also play a valuable role in critical access facilities when patients admitted with COVID-19 begin to suffer increased respiratory stress. A pulmonologist can remotely evaluate whether intubation is required. If it is not, the specialist can also help continue to treat the patient safely in place, avoiding the need for transfer.
In addition, telemedicine can provide or supplement hospitalist services, including rounding and admission coverage, for rural hospitals. This capability stretches limited resources and supports local physicians’ ability to provide quality care for all patients in-house.
By Rahul Varshneya, founder and president, Arkenea.
Rural communities, often located amid isolated yet beautiful landscapes, are a defining feature of much of the United States of America. But those same landscapes can, at times, make it arduous for people to gain access to something as basic as a healthcare facility.
In these regions, patients are often tens of hundreds of miles from the location of their nearest caregiver. Community hospitals, with limited budgets and low volumes, generally don’t have specialists. And even if they do, there are too few to ensure constant coverage.
Telehealth is transforming these situations to everyone’s advantage.
A recent study of Intermountain’s neonatal telehealth program evaluated the effect of video-assisted resuscitation on the transfer of newborns from eight community hospitals to newborn ICUs in Level 3 trauma centers. The service produced a 29.4% reduction in a newborn’s odds of being transferred, which corresponds annually to 67 fewer transfers — and estimated savings of $1.2 million for affected families.
By leveraging telehealth, patients can receive expert treatment locally without the added cost and risk of transfer to a bigger hospital. Local hospitals retain vital revenue and ameliorate their services. Community members get better care that’s based on evidence-based best practices. Health care is far better overall.
1) Bringing Patients and Care Providers Closer for Better Outcomes
Most patients in the rural or suburban settings of the southwest, like the ones living in the remote terrains of Nevada, lack the necessary resources to travel to a healthcare facility.
Even for patients living in the urban areas, public transportation can be grueling and tedious. Less mobile or older patients might also not always have family or acquaintances who can be their caretaker and take them for frequent clinical visits.
Telemedicine can help such patients feel more independent. One study found that the use of a specific home-telemedicine strategy for care coordination improved functional independence in non-institutionalized veterans with chronic conditions.
Not only does telemedicine adoption help patients manage their conditions, it is equally beneficial for healthcare providers too.
Hospitals, clinics, public health offices and private practice healthcare providers in the southwest have been receiving free technical assistance for implementing or expanding their current telemedicine programs from various government authorities for quite some time now.
Since laws governing telehealth and reimbursement greatly differ by state, various Telehealth Research Centers (TRCs) spread across the country help providers discover the latest telemedicine and telehealth laws and regulations that apply in the state where the provider’s practice is based.
TRCs are also helping providers – generally free of charge – in developing a business model for telehealth in their healthcare setting, selecting the appropriate telemedicine platform as well as equipment, and providing education to patients alike on how to leverage telemedicine technologies to improve health outcomes and access to healthcare services.
The internet, online websites, and mobile applications have simplified our lives. It is no longer an option but has become a basic necessity for leading a comfortable life. Therefore, as the world is advancing, more and more sectors are entering the digital market. The medical industry is not an exception.
Today, medical applications have enabled users to access medical facilities from their homes. Thanks to medical apps, people can now keep tabs on their health-related data and take necessary actions to fight diseases even before their first symptoms start showing themselves. It has proved to be beneficial for serving the people living in inaccessible areas.
Now, the clinics’ administrative duties are easy to complete, and it also takes less time. It is easier to maintain and organize files, search for old records with doctors, share the documents with other clinics, and make/cancel appointments.
Biological psychiatry is a type of psychiatric that analyzes mental disorders from chemical, neurological, and physical viewpoints and in which psychiatrists prescribe treatment protocols accordingly. The approach also is known as biopsychiatry.
Biological psychiatry brings various scientific disciplines from several sectors, including biology, genetics, neuroscience, and psychopharmacology, with the overwhelming intent of understanding mental illness as a product of the nervous system’s biological functioning.
Biological psychiatry traces its origins to the Greek physician Hippocrates. During the last 150 years, physical factors have been studied to determine possible hooks into developing antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.
Therapies, including imipramine and Thorazine, which encouraged biological processes and healthy chemical operation, profoundly impacted the study of the nervous system’s relationship with mental illness. Most research related to it is focused on bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease by way of brain imaging, medication management, and diet and exercise plans.
We have turned a page to the next chapter in healthcare for the US. At its core is a new delivery system in which we leverage all available tools to allocate our precious resources, and the patient is at the center of it all.
We have a severe shortage of providers in the U.S. and must utilize the right tools at the right time to match patients to the right resources in the right place. In addition, healthcare needs to be more consumer-centric, as we are witnessing a rising demand of patients seeking options like telehealth that deliver high quality care faster, more conveniently, and affordably.
Lastly, as we adapt our care deliver models in the future, we need to keep an eye on reducing the stark inequities that have become glaringly apparent during this pandemic. Modalities like telehealth hold the promise to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate access to care through expanded networks and to help close gaps in care and address social determinants of health.
Telehealth solutions can be used to optimize the efficiency of healthcare delivery and ultimately improve patient experience. One mode of telehealth, eConsults, ensure that patients are treated by the right provider in the right setting, by facilitating effective peer collaboration that can support all providers to operate at the top of their license. What that means in practice is that primary care providers can get guidance from specialists to help design care plans, and that in-person visits to specialists can be reserved for those patients with more complex issues who cannot be treated virtually.
The emergence of technology is rampant nowadays. From the convenience of the person using it allows reduction of legwork in a few touches of the smartphone. In order to run a business-like Gym Management Software, here are some things you need to consider:
Registration of Gym members online
Automation of monthly payments
Upgrade software for the weekly program
Progress tracking thru online
Sell Retail Products
Registration of Gym members Online
One of the most important parts of having a digital support such as gym management software is to have the proper registry of the aspiring members. It inculcates the need of modernizing the demography of the registrant such as age, weight, height, and identification if there are some health hazards and limitations upon joining the membership in the gym. It reduces the risks of exposing the information through the online way of information safekeeping.
Since it is essential to a person’s health monitoring, a start-up based on demographics is equivalent to proper training and nutrition. This will be the guide on how to provide the training programs and online registration identifies the situation and physical analysis of a member. This keeps the proper track and improvements of the member. Thus, the indication of improvement of an individual is registering online with correct demographics.
