By Dr. Chris Hobson, chief medical officer, Orion Health.
Dr. Chris Hobson
Health information exchanges (HIEs) represent a key piece of health information technology and are ideal tools to assist providers and managers in flattening the COVID-19 case count and fatality curves. HIEs were designed from the start to enable “right care to the right patient at the right place.”
Getting real-time, complete clinical information to where it’s needed, when it’s needed assists clinicians in the delivery of individual patient care. By virtue of the high-quality data held on every patient across a population, HIEs are also rapidly becoming essential tools in population health management. Real-time, high-quality data is essential for clinical and public health decision making.
The emergence of COVID-19 illustrates how high-quality individualized data can be leveraged to help a population level effort.
COVID-19 offers the challenge and opportunity to apply HIE capabilities in a flexible way to the management of a novel infectious disease where public health measures of social distancing, contact tracing, testing and isolation are so far the only real options for management.
A range of HIE functionalities and capabilities add value here. One is the ability to generate configurable notifications to providers based on new information arriving in the HIE. The first notification type tells providers when their patients have tested positive. This can be achieved easily based on the arrival of a positive test for COVID-19 into the HIE. Providers can subscribe to alerts for specific patients, or all of their patients.
Technology has taken over the world we live in today. If you take a closer look at your surroundings, it is not wrong to say that technology has penetrated every area of life. The education system has adopted technology, and e-learning is replacing traditional teaching methods.
Different devices are making it more convenient for everyone to be more efficient and productive. It is the technological advancements that introduced artificial intelligence. Moreover, globalization is also the result of technological betterments.
When you take a look at the healthcare industry, it is surprising to see the massive changes this sector is facing due to technology. The betterments have made it simpler to conduct complex treatments, and development in pharmaceutics is breathtaking.
Today’s health-conscious society must be blessed to have advanced technology available for assistance. Where one lacked the confidence to work out and improve, is now in the best shape due to feedback from smartwatches. There are many benefits to involving technology in your lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle seemed a difficult task to achieve. However, the technology significantly helps in achieving the goal.
Are you eager to learn about the contributions technology can make to a healthy lifestyle? Here is what you should know.
Keep Track Of All Your Activities
As unbelievable as it sounds, technology helps you to keep track of all your activities. The number of steps you walk every day, your heart rate, and blood pressure do not require appointments to the clinic anymore. Your smartwatch has all the features or applications that help you keep these things recorded. In case you have high or low blood pressure, the watch can warn you immediately. It is incredible to know that a small gadget on the wrist can track all these significant health contributors. Moreover, you can control your disturbed sleep cycle too.
An electrocardiogram (ECG), also abbreviated as EKG, is a portable monitor that measures, records and shows the electrical impulses of the heart. It is a machine that measures and assesses the rhythm of the heart along with its blood flow, muscle thickness, and chamber size including the structural problems with heart valves. The purpose is to verify whether the heart is functioning accurately or not.
The doctors who use this electrocardiogram machine are considered as the arrhythmia team. They are supposed to evaluate and identify disturbances of the electrical system of the heart such as heart attacks, heart diseases, inaccurate blood flow, etc. The arrhythmia team connects to meet expectations in order to manage the cardiac arrhythmias including:
Arrhythmias
Artery diseases
Cardiomyopathy
Congenital heart diseases
Electrical heartbeats and signals
Heart attacks and failures
Valvular heart diseases
Types of Electrocardiograms
Basically, there are a few types of EKG machines that doctors use to check for a variety of cardiac and pulmonary conditions that are mentioned below.
Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET)
Cardiopulmonary exercise testing is considered a non-invasive method to evaluate and assess the performance of the heart and lungs. Mainly, this test focuses on detecting diseases related to cardiac and pulmonary conditions.
Exercise Electrocardiogram (EKG)
An exercise electrocardiogram, abbreviated as EKG and ECG, is a special kind of test that examines an individual’s heart rate and heart health while they exercise. The purpose of this test is to determine any heart problems, while the patient walks or pedals a monitored machine to make it easier for symptoms to become visible to the doctor.
This test is also called a stress test or a treadmill test as symptoms become visible while exercising. This can detect coronary artery disease to suggest heart surgery or safe levels of exercising.
Holter Monitor
Holter monitor is a type of electrocardiogram test that is used in order to monitor the ECG tracing for a longer period of time, mainly for 24 hours in a continuous cycle. In this test, small patches of plastic, called electrodes, are supposedly placed at certain body parts including chest, arms, and legs to connect them with the machine through lead wires. Then for further interpretation, the electrical ability of the heart is examined and measured to be printed out for the physician.
Resting 12-lead Electrocardiogram
The resting 12-lead ECG is a type of electrocardiogram that is used for standardized testing of the electrical functionalities of the heart. This test is performed with the patient lying while the machine records the heart’s activity through the help of 12 electrodes. These electrodes or leads are attached to the chest, arms, and legs of the patient just like the holter monitor.
This machine is also used as a part of routine check-ups for a lot of patients for the screening of their heart.
Signal-Averaged Electrocardiogram
This is considered as a handheld monitor that is used for multiple ECG tracings over a time period of 20 to 25 minutes. The purpose of this is to capture and measure the abnormal heartbeats continuously that may occur at irregular intervals.
Research found one in 10 hospital patients suffer from a healthcare-associated infection. Housekeeping in hospitals is critical to reducing the spread of disease so patients don’t succumb to new infections.
If you need tips on adequate housekeeping in hospitals, you’ve come to the right place. Here are our nine best tips.
Cleaning and Disinfecting
Hospital cleaning procedures and methods must include cleaning and disinfecting the entire room. When you clean a surface, dirt particles are removed but bacteria may still be present.
Microfiber cloths are fantastic for picking up dirt and germs on a surface. Staff must damp them with clean water or a commercial detergent so it’s effective.
Then, staff must use a disinfectant spray to kill bacteria lingering on the counters and walls. It’s easy to be complacent and only clean large surface areas, but it’s the housecleaning staff’s responsibility to disinfect the hard-to-reach places as lives are at stake.
Housekeepers must follow cleaning label instructions so the hospital room is thoroughly disinfected. If the staff skips any steps or doesn’t wait long enough for the cleaning agent to work, harmful bacteria will still be present.
Staff must also change microfiber cloths frequently to prevent the spread of bacteria throughout the hospital. When cleaning a patient’s room, if a blanket or pillow falls onto the floor, replace them immediately.
Plus, hospital staff should advise patients not to bring too many items into the room like flowers. Remind them that excess clutter could bring in bacteria which could risk the patient’s health.
Choose the Right Disinfectant
When choosing hospital disinfectant products, consider how effective the cleaning agent is, its safety profile, and whether it will damage surfaces.
Housekeeping staff must determine whether the product’s dwell time will realistically be achieved within the cleaning process. Staff must also have a system with single-use cloths or wipes to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
For centuries, walkers and wheelchairs have assisted those with mobility impairments move from one place to another. While their functions are still essential, advancements in technology have led to the introduction of mobility chairs like this, which are more adaptable and convenient for their users.
Mobility chairs are easy to maneuver, especially for seniors who need a device to get around but can’t afford, or don’t want to invest in, an expensive electric wheelchair. Before you make a purchase, here is everything you need to know about mobility chairs.
What is a mobility chair?
A mobility chair offers technologically-advanced solutions to indoor and outdoor mobility issues and helps its users move about freely. With its easy-to-use features, this device offers a level of independence to those typically restricted by their mobility limitations.
Mobility chairs can be manually-driven, pushed, or powered. The most attractive feature of these devices is their level of maneuverability and their ability to effortlessly fit in tighter spaces and pilot around sharp corners, making them perfect for home-use. They are also adjustable and customizable for users of every height, weight, and type of mobility restriction.
Why is a mobility chair better than a normal wheelchair?
One major similarity between mobility chairs and standard wheelchairs is that both are designed to help individuals with limited mobility maintain a sense of independence. The two differ in elements of design, which creates a significant impact on their functionality. Here is why a mobility chair may be a better fit than a standard wheelchair.
It’s more affordable
One of the greatest incentives of purchasing a mobility chair is its level of affordability when compared to the everyday wheelchair. Its operation and maintenance costs are minimal and with its simple design, the only running cost is your energy output.
A decade back, your marketing strategy would include simply putting up an ad in the local newspaper and distributing pamphlets with your organization’s details on a busy street corner. However, as digitalization is increasing its footprint in every aspect of all industries, marketing for healthcare organizations has also witnessed a drastic change.
If you want to compete with the topmost healthcare companies, you’ll have to stay ahead in the game and acquire as many customers as possible. This can only be done if you have a strong digital marketing strategy. Here’s how you can make one:
Use SEO extensively
A major source of information about your hospital is your official website. Most of the people who schedule an appointment will do so after learning about you through a web search. This makes it important to have a web page that can be displayed as one of the top results in most searches related to the facilities your hospital offers. You will require Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for this.
It’ll help you get an idea of the keywords patients often use while looking up for something. You can then include these key phrases in the content you post on your site along with some tags and your website will be displayed as one of the top results. This will help a lot of new patients learn about your services.
Create Video Content to attract people
With so many things to surf at once, the attention span of the human mind is considerably decreasing. This leads them to lose focus when reading long articles. When you upload content on your site, you must keep in mind that many people won’t be interested in going through the written blog posts, no matter how informative. In order to provide them with the same information in a manner that they’ll actually pay attention to it is to create video content.
Uploading videos will help spread word about your hospital spread quite fast as in a video, you can catch the viewers’ attention by providing them with information while also getting the chance to give them a firsthand look at your hospital.
However, you’ll have to invest quite a lot of time and energy into creating a video than in creating a blog post. Though in the end, all that effort will be rewarded in the form of your organization gaining new patients.
Keeping yourself regimented and in a good state coming out of this necessary lock down is important. That’s why we’ve compiled a short list with tips of things you can do in three key avenues to stay on track, and perhaps even develop some new strategies when you come out of the other end of this pandemic. Read on to find out more on managing physical, financially and mental well-being from home in 2020 and beyond.
Managing your physical well-being
Keeping fit and healthy when stuck indoors can be a difficult task, as nearly all gyms are closed and you’ll naturally do a lot less passive exercise. To help make up for this deficit and keep on top of your health, there are a couple of different things that you can try. Aside from getting that much-needed break from screens to clear your mind, a daily walk, run or bike ride will be a great way to get the circulation going, and should be the first thing you consider as part of this new temporary routine.
If you live in a modern apartment building then you might be lucky enough to have an on-site gym facility that’s available for you to private use, but with gyms closed for the foreseeable, most of us are locked out entirely. A lot of people are having the same idea, so it might be a little bit difficult, but why not try getting some gym equipment for the home? This way you can do some of your workouts while stuck inside.
By Mark Gross, senior principal product manager, Kofax
Mark Gross
When it comes to data security, healthcare organizations are stuck between a rock and a hard place. To provide proper patient care, their staff needs access to the right information, and quickly. At the same time, the law requires them to protect the sensitive data included in electronic medical records (EMR).
A wide array of devices are used to collect and transmit patient data – including computers, mobile devices, IV pumps and X-ray machines. Today, all of these are connected to the internet, the hospital network and other medical technologies, even though many of them have few, or no, security protocols in place.
The situation’s made even more complex by the public nature of hospital environments. Many connected devices containing sensitive data are left unattended, leaving the entire network exposed. The result’s an increase in cyber and data security threats.
Right now, nearly all healthcare organizations are facing an added challenge brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Many healthcare workers aren’t working in their normal environments, they’re helping in other departments, hospitals and even pop-up field hospitals. With all the displaced healthcare workers, their normal print and capture workflows are left behind with their devices—and the security of the patient data contained in documents printed or scanned elsewhere may be at risk.
Healthcare organizations need a comprehensive security strategy to protect against a breach. The best of these is a systematic approach that tests all connected devices for vulnerabilities. Once identified, security threats should be prioritized so the most severe can be addressed quickly. Regular software updates and patches are just as important, as is replacing outdated equipment with new devices that have security built in.
Because they don’t stand out as threats, multifunction devices, printers and imaging devices are often overlooked during security reviews. In reality, however, both of these handle a lot more data than people realize.
Technology has taken over the world we live in today. If you take a closer look at your surroundings, it is not wrong to say that technology has penetrated every area of life. The education system has adopted technology, and e-learning is replacing traditional teaching methods.
A decade back, your 
