By Kelly Brassil, PhD, RN, director of medical affairs, Pack Health.
Kelly Brassil
While the world has come to a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing that does not stop is the presence of chronic conditions. This is particularly true of cancer where many individuals are navigating the cancer continuum during the coronavirus pandemic.
An estimated half million individuals have been diagnosed since the first confirmed case of COVID in the United States earlier this year. Unlike other conditions that can be managed primarily at home, cancer often requires in-person, and sometimes, experimental treatment.
For over a decade, I’ve worked as an oncology nurse, supporting individuals across cancer diagnoses. For those who are newly diagnosed, in treatment, or in survivorship, I’ve compiled some commonly asked questions along with suggestions and tips.
Am I at higher risk for COVID and its complications?
Preliminary data suggest that individuals with cancer or a history of cancer, especially those in active treatment, may be at higher risk for severe complications of COVID-19. The best way to reduce your risk is to practice social distancing. This also applies to members of your household or your primary caregiver. If you or your caregiver must leave the home, always use precautions like wearing a mask and frequent hand washing to reduce risk of transmission.
Will I still be able to receive treatment and access care?
Health systems are exploring ways to reduce risk of transmission. One way is to reduce the number of individuals coming into hospitals. This can result in changing the timing of in-person treatment or type of treatment you receive. They are thoughtfully coming up with safe, creative ways for individuals to access care and receive treatment, ranging from implementing telehealth to provide a platform to connect with your oncology team, to transitioning to treatment that can be taken orally or infused at home.
If you are receiving care at a facility far from your home, your care might transition to a nearby cancer provider. In some cases, treatment may need to be held or postponed, particularly if you have symptoms or a confirmed case of the virus. You may be asked to undergo COVID-19 testing prior to a procedure or treatment. Your caregiver may not be able to attend your hospital visits or visit you in the hospital. All of these decisions are made to protect you—ensuring you have the strongest possible immune system and reducing risk of COVID-19 transmission.
For the past month or more, doctors in the US have had their hands full with the rapid onset and spread of the coronavirus. Affecting thousands of citizens each day, it’s all hands on deck to try to treat patients in need.
With an increased attention on patients suffering from this deadly virus, however, many doctors worry about their non-coronavirus patients. From those fighting off the flu or some other virus to those with preexisting conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, lots of people aren’t getting the care they should be.
Some patients are afraid to come forward out of fear they’ll contract COVID-19, others hold off on contacting their doctor to avoid taking up precious time or available hospital beds for those they feel are in greater need right now. In any event, the concern is that there could be a lot of people out there suffering in silence. If you run a healthcare practice and have some of these same concerns, know that there are some effective solutions to help you treat and support your non-COVID-19 patients.
Telehealth
Many healthcare facilities across the country have implemented telehealth options. It is a digital platform that allows medical professionals to provide care and treatment to their patients remotely. Not only can this type of platform be instrumental in helping you to pre-screen potential COVID-19 patients, but it can be used to help non-coronavirus patients as well.
Advising your patients to utilize this application when in need of medical attention allows you to meet with the patient virtually and assess their health status. You can prescribe medication, provide self-care tips to treat their problem at home, or, if necessary, advise them to get to a healthcare facility or hospital for immediate attention. This prevents them from coming in the office unnecessarily (saving thousands of lives), but still provides them with an option to get medical care if they need to.
Hospitals across the globe are experiencing a demand incomparable to any event that most of us have experienced in our lifetimes. Providers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic tirelessly and courageously dedicate countless hours and immeasurable amounts of energy to combat this virus, all while compromising their own safety and the safety of their families.
This strain on the health care system stretches far beyond patients with COVID-19, as people with chronic diseases such as diabetes, Crohn’s, cancer and their providers struggle with the best way to manage their illnesses. With few medical resources available and the risk of exposure to the virus, a new way of providing care is desperately needed.
The Case for Telehealth
One might ask how these patients receive the care they need if they are unable to physically visit their provider and support team. Many are being forced – or choosing – to wait indefinitely until the risk of exposure and provider demand declines. As the United States and every country moves forward and learns from this crippling pandemic, it is apparent that there is an absolute need for a bigger emphasis on remote patient monitoring and telehealth services to provide effective care. The need is so significant that legislation is being passed to support the uptake of remote treatment options and to ensure health care facilities have high quality internet connections.
Telehealth services allow patients to be seen by a provider through video calls, giving the traditional face-to-face feel that many experience in general appointments with their providers. However, the extent of the personal interaction may end with the action of the provider, such as a prescription or advice on at-home care options.
Remote Monitoring: From Improved Workflow to Empowering Self-Management
Remote patient monitoring typically includes a support platform that allows a patient to monitor and manage their disease, often with the support of their health care team, remotely and over a period of time. The term telehealth is often wrongfully used interchangeably with remote patient monitoring. The two work together, but are not the same. Telehealth interactions are often part of a larger, ongoing remote patient monitoring system.
There are various types of remote patient monitoring platforms. Some are created with the intent to enable easier workflow and patient management for the physician, others are created to support patient self-management. Some cardiology devices such as pacemakers and ICDs use remote patient monitoring directly by sharing data on the performance of the device and the heart’s response with the physician.
By Mark Homer, senior vice president corporate development and head of global customer transformation, ServiceMax.
Mark Homer
Anyone who supplies and maintains equipment to the healthcare industry faces some challenging months ahead. Despite reports from Deloitte that budgets will increase on average by five percent over the next three years, a catalogue of impacting factors is likely to mean there will be little change left in the pot.
Understandably, the healthcare industry is once again looking at doing more for less. Expanding and aging populations, increasing numbers of people with chronic, long-term conditions, staff and specialist skills shortages and costly infrastructure are all having an impact. Brace yourself as this will only continue and become more acute. This is why digital transformation is so important and why suppliers need to re-think how they deliver and maintain equipment.
According to Deloitte’s 2020 Global Healthcare Outlook, digital technologies are reshaping healthcare for the future. One of the main catalysts driving this is the need for predictive and preventive care, as well as cheaper, precise, and less invasive treatments and therapies. Patients are also demanding it. People want greater personalization of care – and healthcare providers need to confidently deliver these services without compromise.
So, what does this mean for medical equipment suppliers? Essentially, to help healthcare organizations ride the waves of digital change and ensure they are delivering quality services, there needs to be a change in service culture. It will no longer be sufficient or efficient to focus on specific products. Healthcare organizations will soon demand (and suppliers should deliver), outcome-based contracts, which will require a range of products to deliver those outcomes.
For example, a hospital may want to ensure its imaging department sees every patient within a certain time frame. To achieve that, it will need to know that none of the critical equipment is going to break and therefore reduce its chances of meeting waiting time targets. Suppliers will need to provide the hospital with an outcome-based deal, such as committing that every X-ray machine and MRI scanner will be online as and when they are required or will at least achieve a pre-agreed number of scans.
For medical equipment providers this means two things. First that they will need the right tools to access machines in real time and analyse their condition, and the second they will need to deliver outcome-based services as part of a trusted ecosystem. As an Asset Finance International report, Focusing On Customer Outcomes Through Servitization, says“collaboration is key to its [servitization’s] success, not competition. A partnership approach with different entities working in an ecosystem will be the most likely model to succeed in many sectors.”
Understanding the condition of machines will of course be critical. By using IoT networks to determine the health of machines in real time, manufacturers can start to use predictive maintenance tools to alert service teams before serious problems occur. Field service management and asset service management tools can combine to monitor equipment through conditions monitoring, an automated service which constantly checks the condition of equipment. This analysis can predict potential failure quickly and alert service teams in real time to any potential problems.
Being sick isn’t an enjoyable experience. It often means calling in to work and missing out on fun things you would rather spend your time doing. Unfortunately, getting sick isn’t uncommon, especially during cold and flu season.
You may not be able to stop every illness from striking, but there are things you can do to get over it faster so you can get back to your normal, everyday life more quickly apart from some get well soon wishes from your loved ones.
Catch Symptoms Early
One of the best ways to get a handle on your illness as fast as possible is to catch symptoms early. Not only will it help prevent you from spreading the illness to others, if you do some of the other things on this list as soon as the first symptom strikes, you can expect to get over your illness much quicker.
Additional cold and flu signs to be on the lookout for include a stuffy or runny nose, a sore throat, or a headache.
Visit the Doctor, If Necessary
One of the best ways to know what you’re dealing with is to visit the doctor. In some cases, they can prescribe you medications that will help you get over your illness. That’s especially the case if you have a bacterial infection, like strep throat.
However, that doesn’t mean every sign of an illness means you should drop everything and head to your doctor’s office. It is important to think through your symptoms and decide if you should self-treat or go to the doctor. Viral illnesses, like the cold and flu, can’t be treated with prescription medications, so you’re often better off spending your time resting at home.
There are times when symptoms become severe enough that you should see a medical professional, even if you have the cold or flu. If you are unsure of whether or not you should visit the doctor, try calling a nurse. Based on your symptoms, they can tell you what steps to take next.
Virtual visits help providers increase productivity by adding revenue and reducing travel to different clinical settings. However, despite these obvious advantages, 2019 saw an abysmally low utilization rate of less than 10%. Things have monumentally changed. As a local physician characterized telehealth today, convenience is the new quality. Love it or hate it, telehealth is here to stay.
The primary care collaborative conducts a weekly survey of physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants working in primary care on how their practices are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. Over 80% of respondents indicate their patients accept telehealth visits and nearly half of the respondents plan to continue using telehealth after the COVID-19 crisis is controlled.
Prior to the pandemic, telehealth was seen as convenient and time efficient for patients. It also showed promise for providing access to care for various underserved populations. Today we’ve gone beyond convenience as telehealth has become a necessity for both patients and providers. Increased utilization has been made possible by the relaxation of rules and requirements by both government and commercial health plans. Notably, the use of telehealth had been restricted by design.
Health plans wanted to control how and where telehealth was offered along with who could provide the service. For the duration of the COVID-19 health emergency, most health plans are allowing telehealth to be used in place of in-person encounters. Many are waiving patient cost share and paying providers the same rate as an in-person visit.
Medicare has made the following changes effective during the COVID-19 health emergency: telehealth can be used with both new and established patients, telehealth via telephone will be reimbursed, and providers are allowed to treat patients across state lines. In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is waiving HIPAA violation penalties for utilizing technologies such as FaceTime or Skype.
The alcohol addiction problem has been there since forever. But with today’s stressful lifestyle and extra exposure, this problem has increased significantly. Many people suffer from this problem. And most of them are teenagers and young people. Also, these people are scared of accepting that they have a problem. They usually live in denial until the problem is clearly visible to everyone around them.
Earlier, people did not have the proper knowledge and information about addiction. So even if they were suffering from it, they would not have known it. Now that people are becoming more aware of things, they know when they have an addiction problem. While the number of people asking of help has increased in the last few years, there are still many out there who do not seek any help. The main reason for them not asking for help is that they are scared of going to a rehabilitation center. But as times have gotten better now, so there are many options for them to choose from.
For a start, they can opt for a home detox plan. These plans help them in getting safety detox from alcohol while living with their family. But this is only possible for the people who have a mild addiction. As their bodies can cope without alcohol easily. But this is not the case with people who have a strong alcohol addiction. They need to be admitted to a rehabilitation center, to receive proper care and treatment.
They can choose from a public program and a private rehab center. Though both of them are equally effective, there are several benefits that one can receive in a private rehab. Some of them are:
Better attention from doctors
As private rehabs have a limited number of patients, so they provide better attention to each one of them. They also customize various treatments and plans according to individual patients. So that each patient is able to recover better and fast. They even examine the patients’ drinking history in order to provide them with a better treatment plan.
Although we know that medical professionals are trustworthy and discreet, some health conditions of a personal nature mean that you just don’t want to talk to someone else face to face about it.
There can be a wide range of reasons for this to happen and they don’t all necessarily mean that you might be embarrassed about the condition itself. Sometimes it can be that the problem is something that you don’t feel warrants the time or expense involved in going to a medical facility because it is something that you know can be dealt with at home.
Today there are many ways to treat yourself and also to seek advice without having to go through a stressful personal examination. However, if you are unsure about a health problem or are concerned that it might be something serious, you must always do your best to seek out the correct medical intervention.
Discretion
The basic idea of ‘patient confidentiality’ means that your relationship with health professionals across the spectrum should be on the same basis as you would expect from a lawyer or attorney. So if the basis of discussions with a doctor or other medical expert means that discretion will always be taken for granted, what is there to be worried about?
For many, health problems can be an intensely personal thing which they don’t want to share with anyone else, and that can include doctors who might know them quite well. Thankfully, there are ways that you can treat a condition at home without too much fuss.
Digital doctors
As with so many other areas of day to day life, the internet has revolutionized healthcare. This means that engaging with doctors online is now common practice and is becoming increasingly popular from both sides of the equation.
For healthcare professionals themselves dealing with patients and clients online can lead to faster results, less reliance on time-consuming appointments and it also, of course, lowers the risks of infections for all concerned.
When it comes to patients who are worried about privacy or discretion, dealing with a doctor online can make things a lot easier and be much less embarrassing than having a physical examination.
For the past month or more, doctors in the US have had their hands full with the rapid onset and spread of the coronavirus. Affecting thousands of citizens each day, it’s all hands on deck to try to treat patients in need.
Being sick isn’t an enjoyable experience. It often means calling in to work and missing out on fun things you would rather spend your time doing. Unfortunately, getting sick isn’t uncommon, especially during cold and flu season.
Virtual visits help providers increase productivity by adding revenue and reducing travel to different clinical settings. However, despite these obvious advantages, 2019 saw an abysmally low utilization rate of less than 10%. Things have monumentally changed. As a local physician characterized telehealth today, convenience is the new quality. Love it or hate it, telehealth is here to stay.
Although we know that medical professionals are trustworthy and discreet, some health conditions of a personal nature mean that you just don’t want to talk to someone else face to face about it.