Vital — AI-powered software in hospital emergency rooms — announces its inaugural development partnership with Emory Healthcare. As part of the strategic collaboration, Emory Healthcare becomes a lead research partner in developing and implementing Vital’s software to improve overall efficiency and satisfaction for patients and clinicians across multiple Emory emergency rooms. Vital was conceptualized and co-founded by Justin Schrager, assistant professor of emergency medicine and ER doctor; with award-winning technical CEO Aaron Patzer.
Vital’s software is the first partnership out of the Emory University Innovation Hub, designed to identify unmet patient needs and find innovative solutions to put the patient at the center of care delivery. Vital’s live track board and real-time predictions of patients are being developed in the Emergency Departments of Emory University Hospital, Emory Johns Creek Hospital, Emory University Hospital Midtown, and Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital. The goal of this pilot program is to measurably reduce wait times and overall length of stay for patients, while increasing patient satisfaction.
“We are overjoyed to have Emory Healthcare as our primary development partner and pilot sites,” said Patzer. “We are impressed with the commitment Emory leadership has made towards technological innovation and tackling truly challenging problems in emergency medicine. Working closely with top emergency physicians and nurses is essential to producing software that meets the needs of clinicians.”
Vital uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to triage patients,, making it easier and faster for providers to coordinate care and prioritize patients with a fast, reliable, and incredibly user-friendly system.
UC Riverside’s Wet Lab Incubator has opened its doors to biotech entrepreneurs throughout the Inland Empire.
The incubator, a 3,000-square-foot space in the Multidisciplinary Research Building specially outfitted to house startups in the life sciences, agriculture, biotechnology, and medical technologies, is the first of its kind in the region. These innovators will no longer have to migrate to other parts of the state to find laboratory space and mentors to help commercialize their ideas.
Rodolfo Torres
“Things are going to change,” said Rodolfo Torres, vice chancellor for research and economic development, at a ribbon cutting ceremony Oct. 21. “We’re going to play a role in shaping how research and development is translated in our area. We’ll be inclusive of those that haven’t had opportunities in the past.”
Torres also said that the incubator is expected to create the kinds of high-skill and high-pay jobs that graduates usually seek in the coastal part of the state.
The new incubator can accommodate about 15 startup companies from UC Riverside and the Inland Empire. Twelve companies have already expressed interest. During the opening ceremony, Jay Goth, CEO and founder of Murrieta Genomics, signed a lease agreement to become the first tenant.
In addition to a panoply of state-of-the art laboratory equipment, residents will have access to UC Riverside equipment across campus, such as a nanofabrication cleanroom, proteomics, stem cell core and plant transformation through a service agreement. Residents will also have the opportunity to interact and collaborate with UCR researchers, faculty and students, attend seminars, access patent research services and entrepreneurial development workshops, and use UCR’s SBIR/STTR Resource Center, which guides applicants through the process of obtaining commercialization development grants from the federal government.
Mentoring and access to capital for incubator residents will be provided by UC Riverside Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept and Innovation Center Small Business Development Center, or EPIC SBDC, a UC Riverside-led program funded by the Small Business Administration and the state of California.
“This is the culmination of an effort started seven years ago when the Multidisciplinary Research Building was designed,” said Rosibel Ochoa, associate vice chancellor for technology partnerships. “It will be a vibrant entrepreneurial space in the middle of the UCR campus where innovators have a place to translate their ideas into companies to benefit the region.”
The wet lab incubator is the latest addition to a vigorous expansion of UC Riverside’s involvement in building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Inland Empire, and is a central asset in Riverside’s new Innovation District. The Office of Technology Partnerships has received more than $17 million in external funding, created the $10 million seed capital Highlander Venture Fund, EPIC, and helps manage the EXCITE technology accelerator in downtown Riverside. This fall, Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars will introduce entrepreneurship training for students. To date, these programs have supported over 2,260 innovation teams, including 376 UCR students and faculty members through the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program.
“We have the whole package, access to capital, specialized mentorship, and a place to grow” Ochoa said.
The incubator is funded by grants from the US Economic Development Administration, the state of California, and internal UC Riverside funds.
There is no denying that plastic surgeries have gained massive popularity over the past few years. In this digital world, almost everyone who has access to smartphones and the internet is on social media. Social media is different from the reality we all have to agree on this. What we see online is completely different from real life. Unfortunately, it has set the beauty standards for people to look a certain kind of way. This is one of the reasons why people consider to take plastic surgeries.
In addition to looking nice and like an Instagram model, there can be a lot of other reasons for people to undergo cosmetic plastic surgery from surgeons like Dr Saber. According to us, this is a great option for those people who lack confidence or those who are dealing with issues, and the solution is these procedures only. This article will take you through a few plastic surgery trends that have created a buzz everywhere. To learn about them, be sure to read this article till the end.
By Ramona Ramadas, Arizona State University graduate student — utilizing the resources provided by the HEALab, she launched New Trails Navigators.
Ramona Ramadas, a graduate student in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation pitches her venture New Trails Navigators at ASU’s Demo Day on April 19, 2019. To date, she’s won more than $60,000 from multiple funding competitions to invest in her health care startup. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
Over the past decade, technology and its applications continue to impact and advance our everyday lives, from things like smartwatch wearables that track our daily activity and wake us up in the morning to 3-D printing of medical models and virtual reality innovations that have the capacity to accurately replicate an automated surgery environment.
Similarly, ASU Online has brought new technology and resources to students like myself pursuing health and health care-related degrees to encourage innovative approaches to coursework and career paths. One of the most impactful resources I’ve seen available to the student community is the Health Entrepreneurship Accelerator Lab (HEALab).
The accelerator, which provides networking, idea-generation support, pitch competitions and proposal prep assistance launched in September 2017 as a health innovation entrepreneurship lab for Arizona State University (ASU) students, faculty – both online and on campus, and the community to cultivate disruptive healthcare solutions. It is a collaborative effort with academic units and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation with the goal of educating health-focused leaders to navigate the accelerating disruptions in healthcare and create new solutions to real-world problems.
As a recent Master of Healthcare Innovation (MHI) graduate, I have been able to leverage HEALab to kick start my peer health program, New Trails Navigators. The award-winning care transformation program I’ve created focuses on serving individuals who struggle to get the personalized care they need due to homelessness, incarceration, addiction or lack of insurance. The program connects at-risk individuals with peer health navigators who are uniquely qualified to re-direct them toward sustainable health and wellness.
The peer health navigators can relate in a way that other support service representatives can’t because they have been in an at-risk situation, themselves. This relatability allows the navigators to connect, build trust and positively impact the individual’s situation. Today, the program is supported by a learning management system that delivers our whole-person peer training. This training is unlike any other peer support program in place today, as an app-based platform allows peers and patients to interact in a variety of ways, ensuring that the patient is supported where they live, work, and play. Over time, artificial intelligence will become a part of the program delivery.
By Dan Potter, vice president of product marketing, Attunity, a division of Qlik.
Data is the lifeblood of every hospital and healthcare organization. Without it, doctors can’t access updated patient records for proper treatment; billing departments are unable to correctly process insurance claims; and research teams are limited in their ability to uncover new findings. Today there are issues with both data availability and access to the right information, for all users in a governed HIPAA compliant structure, that keeps healthcare organizations from effectively scaling the use of data to impact lives.
Data analytics is often discussed as a key element because of its potential to uncover insights that improve operations while also increasing care quality and efficiency. In today’s world of tight budgets and rising costs, its essential that organizations maximize staff time allocated to care and minimize costs. However, even if a hospital provides access to all its data, a lack of data literacy – an individual’s knowledge on how to use and analyze data – could limit data’s effectiveness towards improving care and operations.
Healthcare organizations must find a data cure that will address both data challenges: access to and use of information. The emerging methodology known as DataOps addresses both issues.
DataOps is a new approach to agile data integration that looks at the challenge from a holistic perspective of people, process and technology. It focuses on improved collaboration and automation of data flows across an organization. When done correctly, it results in an overall data set of processes that help the organization manage and use their data in real time to transform patience care and experience.
Fighting the Data Access Challenge
As the amount of data increases daily, one of the biggest issues is how to capture and manage it all efficiently. For healthcare this includes allowing appropriate real time access for all users to that data for analytics – while keeping it protected in accordance with HIPAA. One of the first steps is implementing modern data architectures that can handle the growing data volume. Open architectures based on hybrid and multi-cloud provide the greatest efficiency along with agility to improve patient care and increase operational efficiencies.
The U.S. medtech industry is one of the most profitable in the world. In 2016, the sector was worth $147.7 billion and expected to top $173 billion by the end of 2019. One of the reasons that it is so profitable is that new medical technology can be exorbitantly expensive, especially for small practices or solitary practitioners. How can you save money while still procuring the medtech you need to provide the best care possible for your patients?
1. Opt For Refurbished MedTech
If you needed a new car, would you immediately choose a brand new model — complete with a costly car loan — or would you consider purchasing a used but still functional vehicle instead? If you compare purchasing a new piece of medtech to obtaining a new car, the idea of purchasing refurbished equipment starts to make sense.
Purchasing refurbished equipment gives you access to the same sort of medtech that you’d receive if you’d bought it new, for a fraction of the cost. You may also be able to choose the level of refurbishment — choosing between a machine that’s only been cosmetically refurbished rather than one that’s been reworked on a mechanical level, or vise versa.
There are a couple of downsides to purchasing refurbished medtech, such as the lack of a warranty and the possibility of bringing a “lemon” back to the office, but if money is your primary concern, this can be a great way to save quite a bit while still stocking your office with all the necessary equipment.
By David Shelton, chief executive officer, PatientMatters.
In the past few years, healthcare providers have felt the pain of an industry in transition, as regulations evolve, value-based reimbursement takes hold and costs continue to climb. Rural hospitals face additional, unique challenges. Patient volume is shrinking, healthcare workers are hard to find and, because many patients can’t afford high out-of-pocket costs, hospitals often go uncompensated for the care their providers deliver.
The consequences are sobering. Since 2005, 155 rural hospitals have closed, with 16 succumbing to financial pressures already in 2019. As alarming as the number of closures is the rate of increase. From 2005 to 2012, an average of seven hospitals closed each year. Since then, the average has doubled to almost 14 hospitals per year.
Fast action is needed
The rural hospital crisis in America is not going unnoticed. Several bills to improve payment and delivery models have been introduced in Congress. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) devised a Rural Health Strategy to expand access to care through telehealth, adjust the Medicare wage index to increase payments for rural, low-wage hospitals, and help transition rural providers to value-based payment models. And, advocacy groups continually push for action.
Effecting change in these ways, however, takes time, something rural hospitals do not have. Nearly half are losing money and 21 percent are at high risk of closing unless their financial conditions materially improve. While rural hospitals can do little to accelerate legislation or adoption of national initiatives, there is an area they can impact quickly on their own: uncompensated care.
Uncompensated care: The realities
Rural hospitals have trouble getting paid for many reasons, starting with patients being uninsured or underinsured. Because rural markets are smaller, there are fewer commercial health insurance options and premiums tend to be higher. Even high-deductible health plans with lower premiums can’t solve the problem, as deductibles and cost-sharing requirements push rural Americans’ healthcare costs relative to income higher than their urban counterparts’.
Rural residents tend to be older, sicker and poorer, and many rely on Medicare and/or Medicaid. Particularly in states that did not expand Medicaid to cover more low-income Americans, churn between eligibility and ineligibility can lead to gaps in coverage. Since rural consumers tend to have lower health literacy, Internet access and cell phone connectivity, they have more difficulty finding and understanding insurance and what they may qualify for. As a result of all these issues, more than nine percent of people in rural areas went without insurance of any kind in 2017.
Family finances are another barrier to paying for healthcare. Nearly half of rural Americans say they can’t pay an unexpected $1,000 expense right away. Four in 10 have had trouble paying medical bills in the past and 45 percent didn’t seek healthcare because they couldn’t afford it.
Changing the patient financial experience
Knowing the challenges their patients face, rural hospitals can take steps to both lighten those burdens and increase collections. Perhaps the most important is to improve the patient financial experience by offering services and assistance people are accustomed to as consumers.
Simplifying registration and financial processes to alleviate fear and frustration is key. As providers across the board are doing, rural hospitals should provide bill estimates and confirm insurance eligibility upfront, so patients know what they are responsible for before receiving care. Using financial assessment tools, registration staff can determine patients’ propensity to pay and personalize payment plans to increase the likelihood of collecting the full amount owed.
For many people who suffer from health conditions related to the brain, the prognosis can seem hopeless or difficult. From strokes to tumors, there are all kinds of issues that seem in the darkest moments to have no cure or solution – especially when the diagnosis is chronic, long term or even terminal.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Step forward neuroscience, a discipline designed to improve the way that the brain and its functions are understood. And thanks to technology, neuroscience is moving to the next stage pretty quickly. From the capacity it offers for early interventions and the discovery of problematic illnesses to how it allows the genome to be used to personalize treatments, tech is turning around this scientific discipline and giving it the added clarity it needs to change the lives of those who suffer from brain problems. Here’s how.
Early interventions
One of the most important ways in which technology can improve neuroscience is in the form of early detection and warning systems. Many – although of course not all – of the conditions which affect the brain and its proper functioning occur later in life. Take the example of Alzheimer’s disease: this condition rarely happens in people under the age of 50, but yet it can feel like it has slowly crept up on those who suffer from it.
Now, however, it’s becoming increasingly possible for medical professionals to diagnose Alzheimer’s and other similar conditions early on. One piece of research focused on the presence of amyloid-beta protein plaques, a phenomenon that often heralds the onset of Alzheimer’s. It is now possible to locate the existence of this 20 years before the point at which Alzheimer’s symptoms start to appear – meaning that the disease can be slowed in its tracks.
Research into autism
Autism, in particular, has been at the forefront of neuroscience research in recent years. Professionals including Amy Yasko have been looking into ways in which autism care can be integrated, while others have been researching what might cause it and how its effects can be mitigated from a neuroscience perspective. One such area of focus has been on the role of seizures. There has long since been a suspected link between the way autism plays out and the condition of epilepsy, but it’s only recently that experiments have been carried out in earnest to see what this relationship might look like.
Given that a quarter of autistic kids above the age of 13 have epilepsy as a co-morbidity, recent research has led to all kinds of innovations. A story in The Scientist magazine described how the development of a metal tool that replaces sections of the human skull in those with epilepsy has changed the lives of some young people who experience seizures and has helped them to turn their lives around.
Personalization of treatments
Personalization has become the name of the game in a wide range of industries in recent years. And in neuroscience, it’s no different: in fact, personalization has been the key to understanding how the genome can be used to improve patient outcomes and ensure that any neuro problems can be tackled. By discovering the exact genetic code and make-up of a patient, physicians are quickly able to find the right place to start when it comes to prescribing treatment.
Vital — AI-powered software in hospital emergency rooms — announces its inaugural development partnership with Emory Healthcare. As part of the strategic collaboration, Emory Healthcare becomes a lead research partner in developing and implementing Vital’s software to improve overall efficiency and satisfaction for patients and clinicians across multiple Emory emergency rooms. Vital was conceptualized and co-founded by Justin Schrager, assistant professor of emergency medicine and ER doctor; with award-winning technical CEO Aaron Patzer.
Data is the lifeblood of every hospital and healthcare organization. Without it, doctors can’t access updated patient records for proper treatment; billing departments are unable to correctly process insurance claims; and research teams are limited in their ability to uncover new findings. Today there are issues with both data availability and access to the right information, for all users in a governed HIPAA compliant structure, that keeps healthcare organizations from effectively scaling the use of data to impact lives.
The U.S. medtech industry is one of the most profitable in the world. In 2016, the sector was 
In the past few years, healthcare providers have felt the pain of an industry in transition, as regulations evolve, value-based reimbursement takes hold and costs continue to climb. Rural hospitals face additional, unique challenges. Patient volume is shrinking, healthcare workers are hard to find and, because many patients can’t afford high out-of-pocket costs, hospitals often go uncompensated for the care their 
For many people who suffer from health conditions related to the brain, the prognosis can seem hopeless or difficult. From strokes to tumors, there are all kinds of issues that seem in the darkest moments to have no cure or solution – especially when the diagnosis is chronic, long term or even terminal.