Technology has impacted every industry in some way, and the health industry is particularly revolutionized by the information technology movement. The chiropractic branch of healthcare has grown over the past decade; this practice focuses on the nervous system and musculoskeletal system and the impacts that these systems have on a person’s overall health.
Typically, disorders in these regions involve back pain, neck pain, and joint pain, and chiropractors take a conservative approach towards pain management and healthcare, which can drastically minimize a patient’s dependence on prescription painkillers. Chiropractors also spearhead rehabilitative and therapeutic exercises and provide lifestyle counseling. With the myriad of benefits offered in chiropractic care, it’s ripe with opportunities for technological advancements. Here’s what you need to know about the evolving tech in chiropractic care:
If you’re in the healthcare technology sector, you already know that business has been booming. Five years ago, the industry was valued at $125 billion. Now, COVID-19 is fueling the fire as health systems invest heavily in technology to care for patients remotely.
Industry growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon, either: With a compound annual growth rate of 13.2%, the healthcare tech market size is expected to balloon to $297 billion by 2022.
Healthcare SaaS companies and those investing in them are invigorated by this growth — and they’re capitalizing on opportunities to solve new problems created by the pandemic.
In parallel with healthcare tech innovation, healthcare itself is also experiencing a shift. The incumbent health systems and payers, representing trillions of dollars in revenue, are shifting away from the old-school fee-for-service economics and into value-based care models. As COVID-related financial pressures on health systems and payers mount, more healthcare organizations will move toward risk-based models to ensure long-term sustainability. This trend was already underway pre-COVID; now, it’s become almost necessary to succeed financially.
According to data from both HFMA and Numerof & Associates, the risk appetite is only going to grow stronger in healthcare. Healthcare SaaS companies can expect that this demand for risk will trickle down, and healthcare organizations will demand more risk from their SaaS partners.
Taking on more risk can do a lot to drive growth for healthcare SaaS companies — especially in light of COVID-19. And with the rapid growth projections in healthcare tech overall, it’s clear there’s a lot to gain for companies that can align their value with risk-based business models.
Risk-based pricing models are the responsible (and lucrative) choice for healthcare SaaS companies today
When a recent study compared clinical and financial outcomes for patients involved in value-based care models to those in fee-for-service models, it found that risk-based contracts achieved their stated goals of providing better services at lower costs. Risk-based pricing models are working for healthcare, as they put a heavier focus on value for patients. Similarly, healthcare SaaS companies can be rewarded for taking on more risk.
What’s more, as businesses across the country teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, it seems atbest inappropriate for healthcare SaaS providers with little to no overhead to shy away from a share of the risk involved in financial contracts. Especially with the growth in healthcare tech, rapidly growing healthcare SaaS companies likely have the cash on hand — or access to venture capital — to enable a smooth transition to risk-based pricing models and better serve their enterprise customers.
But that doesn’t mean risk adoption is a form of charity — not by a long shot. For healthcare SaaS companies, risk can produce rewards and fuel growth in a few ways:
Over the last couple of years, thermal imaging cameras have become a staple for patient care. Thermal imaging cameras are a type of thermographic cameras that work by rendering infrared radiation into visible light so you can analyze an object or environment. These devices are popularly used by firefighters in the US as it allows them to understand their environment beyond the naked eye.
Nowadays, thermal cameras have become popular among medical professionals because of their capabilities.
Another quick way of using thermal cameras for patient care is that it takes measuring our body temperature to the next level. The cameras are able to quickly detect temperature without contact.
In this article, we’re going to talk about why these devices are useful and important for healthcare.
Temperature Screening
One of the best uses of thermal cameras for patient care is that it allows medical professionals to conduct temperature screenings of patients while maintaining social distancing guidelines. Medical professionals understand that knowing a patient’s temperature upon arrival is imperative to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
With the help of thermal imaging cameras, medical professionals now have an effective solution for temperature screening without violating recommended social distancing guidelines and allowing for isolation of individuals that potentially have COVID-19. This is one of the ways technology is being used to enhance patient experience.
Breast Imaging
Infrared technology can be an aid in the diagnosis of breast cancer and other breast ailments. Hospital staff can monitor their patient breast health using a thermal imaging camera in conjunction with a traditional mammogram. With the help of thermal imaging cameras, healthcare professionals can gain a more accurate insight into the overall breast health of their patients allowing them to do their job more efficiently.
By Dimitar Karaivanov, CEO and co-founder, Kanbanize.
Dimitar Karaivanov
As many know, the pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated and specialized, with slow drug-development timelines, strict processes and quality requirements, and rigid silos. Without a direct relationship with patients, the industry also struggles to understand customer desires and expectations beyond what clinical data reveals. These constraints might sound utterly incompatible with Agile methods, frameworks and principles, however, Agile in pharma is on the rise.
In short, agility means quickly adapting to changes in the market. This includes external demands such as new regulations that impact drug development, or internal shifts such as new leadership or changes in processes. In the context of a business, an Agile organization is one that has a strong foundation of established core practices and capabilities, with a high degree of flexibility and ability to make timely course adjustments to address change.
In response to seismic shifts in the industry and digital technological advancements, many pharmaceutical companies are reassessing traditional operating models as the need to drive efficiencies, bring new innovation to market and fuel strategic growth initiatives is paramount. Pharmaceutical companies are responding to this shift and using it as an opportunity to establish cost-competitive, outcomes-focused operating models, centered around Agile principles, to drive profitable growth and competitiveness.
There are several frameworks for “going agile,” but one method in particular that has increased in popularity in the pharmaceutical industry is Kanban. As companies embark on their Agile journeys, one of the main principles that makes Kanban appealing is that it can be layered onto pre-existing processes and operations and does not require companies to reinvent what they are already doing.
Moreover, the focus is on incremental, evolutionary change to foster long-term flexibility and continuous improvements. For an industry that has been historically reluctant to change, Kanban is the perfect method for pharmaceutical companies to become agile and adopt a flexible architecture that allows it to scale across the enterprise in a natural and human-centric way.
Benefits of Agile Adoption
The biggest advantage that the Agile philosophy provides to pharmaceutical companies is the flexibility in delivering value in multiple contexts. This industry involves a lot of communication, daily R&D work, and an innovation-oriented mindset. To accelerate innovation, shorten time-to-market and increase operational efficiency, pharmaceutical companies are adopting Agile practices, leading to significant changes in the way they operate.
Reshaped R&D Departments
Disrupting the traditional waterfall-oriented operation model that is hierarchical and organized by siloed teams that are separated by specific areas of expertise, Agile organizations have smaller, integrated teams that include relevant subject experts and different levels of hierarchy.
Creating a team that is “fit for purpose” starts with strategically identifying who must be on the team and defining clear responsibilities and goals. With an Agile method like Kanban, organizations break the rigid silos and form cross-functional working groups to increase organizational agility, transparency and employee engagement.
Further on, the smaller groups are more flexible, so they can iterate faster and accelerate overall operational efficiency.
Faster Decision-Making
Doing away with unneeded hierarchy, and being informed about where projects stand using a visual workflow representation like a Kanban board, teams are empowered to make decisions within their defined scope, helping to remove bottlenecks, avoid miscommunication and improve flow of work.
To accelerate their development times, some pharmaceutical companies introduce daily progress discussions. Others transfer a big part of the decision making to the team meetings, to shorten approval chains and eliminate progress blockers.
As a proof point, by combining these approaches and extending Agile workflow to more than a dozen different departments, in one year, a pharmaceutical company was able to double its R&D capacity without adding new resources.
Increased Collaboration
Moving away from blindly relying on clinical data, companies are gathering new insights and launching continuous improvement initiatives for their products to meet the needs of all stakeholders. In the pharmaceutical industry, Agile encourages a shift toward decentralized innovation across organizational borders, involving a high level of collaboration between external parties and the in-house R&D department in an agile organization. New R&D models, like “Virtualized R&D,” are also on the rise. With virtualized R&D, pharmaceutical companies can access specific expertise while also minimizing the buildup of infrastructure through collaboration with external partners.
Achieving Agile Transformation
Implementing Agile practices in pharmaceutical companies comes with some challenges. Being a research-intensive industry, a lot of the staff tends to be highly specialized and used to sequential and rigid ways of working. Also, the overall company culture leans towards a focus on stability, pre-defined work and strong process orientation.
When introducing Agile methodologies, there are automated software tools that help companies create a stable workflow, enhance communication and visualize different workflows for initial implementation and for long-term success.
In Agile, a widespread method and tool for work visualization is Kanban. Kanban is focused on continuous, small incremental and evolutionary changes to the current process, without disrupting what is already successfully being done. The teams visualize their project workflow and work items on Kanban boards to ensure a high level of transparency and alignment.
By segmenting the boards to match their specific workflow, teams also unhide bottlenecks and easily discover weak spots in the work process. Optimizing those allows them to increase their efficiency and operational capacity.
The Health Care business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions has announced the results of a survey designed to identify provider data governance decision-makers in provider organizations and understand data governance challenges and their impact on operational efficiency.
The survey shows that while provider data integrity is vital for efficient care coordination, the lack of a designated department responsible for this information serves as a barrier to its effective use.
Information on a provider’s location, specialty, contact information and availability is essential for care coordination throughout the healthcare system. Common errors range from unlisted locations and contact details to whether a provider accepts new patients. The COVID-19 crisis has made the need for accurate provider information more apparent as increased patient volumes require intense and well-coordinated care.
The results of the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Health Care survey, conducted in collaboration with Xtelligent Healthcare Media, show the following:
1. 73 percent of survey respondents from various departments reported job roles directly tied to governing provider data. The departments include Information Technology (IT), Information Systems (IS), Electronic Health Records (EHR), Health Information Management, Population Health and Care Coordination.
IT department was the most common owner of this information, cited by 38 percent; followed by IS department, cited by 35 percent; and EHR, cited by 34 percent. Only 18 percent indicated having a dedicated data governance department in charge of provider information.
46 percent of all respondents identified the lack of a single department or role responsible for provider data governance as the major challenge currently facing their organizations.
2. 63 percent of respondents believe that provider data governance helps improve care coordination and 53 percent believe it helps improve data integrity.
3. Lack of resources to support proper data governance was the second biggest challenge organizations face, according to 44 percent of all respondents.
“Ensuring accuracy and integrity of provider data will reduce pressure on providers and promote better patient care during a time when patient intake is guaranteed to increase,” said Josh Schoeller, chief executive officer of LexisNexis Risk Solutions Health Care. “Having accurate, up-to-date provider details across the healthcare enterprise has positive implications for patient care and organizational efficiency, and the results of our survey highlight the urgency of developing a cohesive strategy for provider data governance.”
The survey results are based on over 100 qualified responses from organizations across the industry, including independent hospitals, teaching hospitals, independent physician groups, and federally qualified health centers. The complete survey results report is available for a free download. [Download survey results.]
Maestro Health, a tech-enabled third-party administrator (TPA) for employee health and benefits, released “The Poor Health of America’s Healthcare System,” a whitepaper that examines why Americans are disengaged with and distrustful of the healthcare system.
The findings are based on a survey of more than 1,000 consumers about the difficulties they’ve faced in navigating the healthcare system and making decisions about the quality and cost of their care.
The study found 70% of respondents feel that today’s healthcare system is difficult to navigate, and 39% said they don’t feel they have the support they need when it comes to understanding their healthcare. Without guidance on which services are covered and which providers are in-network, high-quality and cost-effective, people overpay and put their own health at risk.
Employers must take an active role in educating their health plan members about their benefits to instill confidence in navigating the complexities of the healthcare system.
“The healthcare industry is currently under a spotlight with a lot of players looking to disrupt the way we receive and pay for care. To build back trust in our healthcare system, the average American needs to better understand their own health plan, including what is covered and how to best use that coverage,” said Anne Brunson, CCXP, vice president of service operations at Maestro Health. “Navigating that information alone can be daunting, so employers should play an active role in increasing transparency and educating employees, which ultimately drives down employer costs.”
In addition to uncovering feelings of distrust and a lack of understanding, the survey revealed that the high cost of healthcare is causing people to put their health at risk—61% have been more concerned about the medical bill than their health while receiving care. Other key findings from the report include:
55% said they have avoided seeking out care because of cost.
65% don’t understand their medical bills.
31% don’t know how to tell if a provider is in-network.
36% said that virtual access to their providers, via apps and portals, improved their healthcare experience.
“Given the statistics we found in our most recent report, it’s not surprising that many people struggle with their healthcare today. We know there’s room for improvement, and we want to be a leader in driving change in the industry,” said Craig Maloney, CEO at Maestro Health.
“One of our core missions at Maestro Health is to reconnect people with their health and wellbeing by providing optimal support and removing barriers to access. We do this through a unique combination of data, analytics, care management and claims repricing services designed to empower our members with the resources they need to navigate the system and achieve better health outcomes.”
For more information about how Maestro Health works with employers to administer self-funded healthcare plans, please visit: www.maestrohealth.com.
Science 37, the industry leader in decentralized clinical trials, today launched an electronic health record (EHR) integration feature for more than 10,000 health facilities and 280 million U.S. patients.
With this connection, patients using Science 37’s best-in-class technology platform can easily authorize and share their health record in real time to more effortlessly participate in decentralized clinical trials.
“With decentralized or virtual trials, a critical hurdle for patient participation is securely linking their electronic health record to the study site,” says Chris Ceppi, chief product officer at Science 37.
“Traditionally, when a patient authorizes the retrieval of a medical record, it involves sharing paper documentation, multiple emails, and sometimes using physical drives to transport data. By integrating electronic health records directly into the Science 37 technology platform, we’re delivering a seamless experience, enabling patients to instantly authorize retrieval of their personal health information with study teams. The EHR data, collected automatically via secure and standardized APIs, makes it easier, more timely, and improves confidence in data integrity, privacy, and security.”
Science 37 leads the way in conducting decentralized clinical research, underpinned by its premier technology platform, which was designed to optimize the patient experience and high-quality data collection. The technology platform ensures site teams can orchestrate a decentralized study on a single global platform including patient engagement, eSource data capture, full electronic clinical outcomes assessment (eCOA) capabilities and roles-based access for telemedicine.
Built hand-in-hand with investigators, study coordinators, mobile healthcare providers, sponsors, and patients, the Science 37 technology platform ensures the highest level of usability, reliability, and configurability.
“As we see more of the industry adapt to decentralized or virtual research, we consistently invest in strengthening our technology platform and making sure we continue to lead the way,” said Ceppi. “By adding features such as integrated EHR retrieval, we help to deliver on our promise to accelerate clinical research by putting the patient first.”
By Gary Larson, executive vice president and general manager of HIE solutions, eHealth Technologies.
Gary Larson
The Strategic Health Information Collaborative (SHIEC) Annual Conference took place again, this time as a five-week virtual event from August 17 to September 15.
Having come to grips with my lost opportunity to socialize with several hundred of my closest friends and colleagues, the fact that this year’s SHIEC sessions were spaced out over such a long stretch of time provided an interesting opportunity to reflect on the state of affairs in health information exchange (HIE).
In one sense, the 2020 conference resembled previous years – a gathering of largely the same group of industry representatives who eat, sleep and breathe HIE and reinforce among ourselves what we already know to be true.
We already know that our healthcare system will improve only as health information exchange improves. We already know we will never have a truly efficient and effective healthcare system until:
we are able to acquire, validate, and normalize health records from all points of care
we are able to curate and present records in a meaningful way at the point of care
we establish workable standards for interoperability between systems and networks
we remove the barriers to sharing healthcare information
we provide public health services with comprehensive, high quality health data in a timely manner
These are inarguable truths, yet many of us are frustrated with the painstakingly slow progress we seem to make year-upon-year.
Over the last couple of years, thermal imaging cameras have become a staple for patient care. Thermal imaging cameras are a type of thermographic cameras that work by rendering infrared radiation into visible light so you can analyze an object or environment. These devices are popularly used by firefighters in the US as it allows them to understand their environment beyond the naked eye.
