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.
Telemedicine is a booming industry. Hundreds of companies are providing virtual physician visits via videoconferencing technology to individuals at home, at school and in the office. A segment of this market consists of companies that provide telemedicine services to hospitals, so patients can get virtual bedside care from physicians and specialists round-the-clock—a big advantage, especially in rural hospitals hit hardest by the physician shortage.
This telemedicine sector is booming, too. How is it working for hospitals?
Very well. Hospitals report they transfer fewer patients to tertiary care facilities because they have ready access to specialized expertise no matter where they are located. Physicians report they have fewer burnout issues because telemedicine doctors can cover night shifts and fill in other staffing gaps. Patients and their families report widespread satisfaction with this new model of inpatient care.
Nevertheless, there are ways to do it wrong and do it right. When a hospital or health system decides to consider telemedicine, the selection process can be a complicated one. Whether you’re dissatisfied with a current provider and considering a change or looking to start a new telemedicine program from scratch, here are three things to look for to be sure you get the telemedicine partner that is right for you.
Determine how care is delivered by telemedicine physicians.
Some telemedicine companies might have dozens of physicians on call across the country to serve the range of their hospital customers. The problem isn’t that they are well qualified. They probably are. The problem is that patients in those hospitals might never see the same telemedicine physician twice during their stay. How does that work?
Nurses have told us that when telemedicine companies furnish “a different doctor a day” or “a different doctor for every call,” it makes it difficult to build a long-term relationship, get to know them and drive better patient care forward. Nurses are an invaluable cog in the wheel of any hospital inpatient program. It’s best to listen to them.
Look for companies that assign a small team or “pod” of six to eight virtual physicians exclusively credentialed for a particular site. Over time, they all become an integral part of a hospital’s clinical team, deeply familiar with a hospital’s specific services, its procedures and its people. The result is more consistent, more personalized care.
This smaller team helps speed the credentialing process, easing the administrative burden for hospitals wanting to start a telemedicine program. It can be a headache credentialing a roster of physicians who might only have a few sessions with patients at the hospital. There’s little return on investment there.
By Steeve Huin, vice president of strategic partnerships, business development and marketing, Irdeto.
The Internet of Things (IoT) market is booming, with IHS Markit forecasting there will be 73 billion connected devices in use around the world by 2025. IoT technology has moved beyond speakers and smart fridges and is increasingly being utilized for critical applications across the healthcare industry, such as pacemakers, insulin and infusion pumps and medical imaging systems.
This Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is subsequently opening up a new world of possibilities to improve upon patient care, while also improving operational productivity and effectiveness. However, as the proliferation of connected and complex medical devices grows, healthcare providers are more susceptible to cyberattacks.
The key challenge is that cyber criminals often operate as businesses themselves and will focus on targets that will provide the greatest return on their hacking investment. Therefore, as the healthcare sector becomes increasingly connected, we could see an extremely costly impact of IoT-focused cyberattacks, if security is not prioritized. Insecure devices, and potentially companion apps, present a variety of risks to safety and privacy in a critical industry such as healthcare.
The IoMT Threat Landscape
Unfortunately, cyberattacks are already an all too common reality for many organizations in the healthcare space. A recent survey by Irdeto of security decision makers in the healthcare, transport and manufacturing sectors, found that 82% of healthcare organizations have experienced an IoT-focused cyberattack in the past year, with 30% of attacks resulting in compromised end-user safety.
IoT devices are often targeted by cybercriminals as they are much easier to compromise than businesses’ more sophisticated perimeter cyber defenses. The problem is that growth in the use of IoT has far outstripped the increase in trained professionals emerging. As a result, healthcare organizations often don’t have the expertise internally to ensure the connected devices they are using within their organizations are secure.
The research also emphasized this point, revealing that only 6% of healthcare organizations have everything they need to tackle IoT cybersecurity challenges, with an urgent requirement for increased skills and more budget for security identified. In addition, the research found that 98% of respondents in healthcare organizations believe the cybersecurity of IoT devices could be improved and one in four manufacturers of IoT devices for healthcare only update the security of devices they manufacture while they are in warranty.
These alarming findings, combined with reported cyber incidents to critical connected devices in the last few years, make for worrying reading. For example, in the last two years we have seen pacemakers recalled to install a critical patch to update firmware against cybersecurity issues, as well as cybersecurity warnings for insulin pumps from the FDA and Health Canada.
Data analytics is the next step in the evolution of healthcare as it uses data-driven findings to predict and address health issues. Healthcare data analytics can also help to keep track of inventory and access methods and treatments faster than conventional systems. Data analytics is often paired with health information exchanges (HIEs) to provide safer and more personalized care based on patients’ medical history, chronic conditions and medications. Healthcare data analytics software extracts, translates and synthesizes vast amounts of data to reduce costs, involve patients more in their own health and wellness and improve patient outcomes.
Opportunities and practical applications of data analytics in healthcare
Data analytics in healthcare relies on big data (vast quantities of digitized information) that gets consolidated and analyzed. The application of data analytics in healthcare has life-saving outcomes as it uses data of a subset or a particular individual to prevent potential epidemics, cure diseases and cut down on healthcare costs. Here are a few of the opportunities and practical applications of data analytics in healthcare.
Predictive analytics for personalized treatments
Predictive data analytics is the process of using historical data in order to make predictions that are personalized to each individual. Typically, analytics tools use information from millions of patients to help doctors make data-driven decisions and improve the delivery of care. Predictive data analytics helps to identify individuals who are at an elevated risk of developing chronic conditions based on lab tests, biometric data and patient-generated health data. Physicians can provide insight on lifestyle changes, wellness activities and enhanced services that can help patients avoid long-term health problems. This is particularly useful for patients with complex medical histories and suffering from multiple conditions,
Data analytics to advance telemedicine
Data analytics and telemedicine go hand in hand as it helps to empower physicians and patients and offers opportunities for remote patient monitoring and remote clinical services. Smart devices are the future of telehealth monitoring as they monitor a patient’s vitals in real-time and communicate with other devices and cloud health information systems based on data analytics to alert physicians about potential problems and provide analysis on possible interventions. Data analytics in telemedicine can help to predict acute medical events – this doctors to alter medication dosages to avert negative outcomes and prevent deterioration of patients’ conditions. Telemedicine also cuts down on costs, reduces the need for hospital visits and allows patients to live healthier and more comfortable lives.
Data analytics for real-time alerting
Hospitals have started employing clinical decision support (CDS) software that analyzes medical data on the spot and provides health care experts with suggestions as they make prescriptive decisions. However, in cases where patients are unable to make frequent hospital visits, doctors recommend wearables that collect patients’ data and send it to the cloud continuously. This data is analyzed continuously so that the system can identify potential problems and send real-time alerts to physicians. Doctors can then contact patients immediately to administer medications to prevent problem escalation.
AristaMD, an innovative telehealth platform that delivers primary care providers timely and documented specialist insight, announced today the launch of an app allowing its providers to easily transfer images as part of the eConsult platform. The new web-based AristaMD Photo App is an easy-to-access, streamlined, and HIPAA-compliant solution that further enhances electronic consultation efficiency and effectiveness for cases needing visual references—most commonly the dermatology consult.
AristaMD, which launched in 2013, aims to improve healthcare outcomes by connecting its thousands of participating payers and providers to specialists through eConsults. It is already proven to deliver cost-effective, more timely access to specialty care. Providers simply use their mobile phone to take photos through the app, which are automatically and securely saved exclusively to the AristaMD platform, then continue to process their referral order and eConsult as usual.
There are fewer practicing dermatologists in rural regions. Geographic barriers compound the issue of long wait times for specialist appointments. According to a recent report,“since 2009 patient wait times for a dermatology appointment have increased by 46 percent, or from an average of 22.1 days to 32.3 days in 2017.” Timely access to care for dermatological issues can have a significant impact on patient health, as conditions include life-threatening and quickly progressing conditions such as skin cancer. Researchers have found “providing specialty treatment to a potential melanoma within 14 days of diagnosis could improve a patient’s prognosis by 20 percent.”
Use of AristaMD’s eConsults have proven highly effective with 81 percent of dermatology consults replacing a face-to-face visit with a dermatologist. The Photo App will continue improving patient access to this specialty care for even more case uses.
“Currently, patients are waiting anywhere from two to four months for a specialist appointment, but the reality is that a large portion of those specialist referrals are not needed,” said Brooke LeVasseur, CEO of AristaMD. “The new AristaMD Photo App will help PCPs continue to significantly reduce unnecessary face-to-face referrals in even more cases needing visual documentation. This marks one of many product innovations my team has been working on to expand the benefits of eConsults to as many patients as possible.”
In response to the rapid rise of community-based healthcare programs around the country, Graphium Health is leveraging its history in developing intelligent software for healthcare professionals to launch FieldMed, a dedicated community health software platform. The new software is the first of its kind to offer paramedics readily accessible, accurate and HIPAA-compliant data capture capabilities to better serve patients in community health programs.
Community health paramedicine is community-based healthcare that utilizes certified paramedics to facilitate non-emergent response resources and treatments in the home of patients. Created in an effort to close the gap between 911 emergency response and home healthcare, community health programs provide efficient and effective patient care, while reducing emergency calls, hospital readmissions, and overall costs to cities, fire departments, hospitals and patients. Programs are currently active in over 500 cities nationwide.
Through FieldMed’s intelligent software, community health programs are empowered with in-depth patient data and trends, such as vitals and labs, food and shelter needs, and environmental risks, allowing paramedics to know and understand their patients better than ever before and deliver focused care for the patient’s unique needs. With FieldMed’s reporting capabilities, community health programs can provide enhanced patient care, while reducing lost hours and resources for paramedics, city fire/EMS departments and hospitals.
“Having served as a community health paramedic, I’ve seen the need for this software first-hand, as it allows paramedics to track data points that previously didn’t exist in other EMR systems,” said Daniel Frey, co-founder and vice president of business development at FieldMed. “FieldMed is delivering a groundbreaking advancement for community health programs, now empowering paramedics to access and track patient data to provide the best possible care. Instead of an automatic trip to the hospital, paramedics can now better track the root of 911 calls, particularly for non-emergent needs, such as food, shelter, environmental risks, and more.”
FieldMed was created by a team of experienced paramedics alongside the founders of the healthcare software provider Graphium Health, who developed intelligent anesthesia technology that advances how practices operate by providing automated data capture, MACRA-compliant reporting, and billing integrations.
Daniel Dura
Daniel Dura, co-founder and CEO of FieldMed and Graphium Health, added: “Through our work with Graphium, we saw an immediate need in the healthcare industry for a software platform to streamline community health patient care. FieldMed is transforming community healthcare by creating technology that allows providers to capture rich data which, in turn, helps them to prioritize patient care. This leads to better patient outcomes, better use of city and hospital resources and overall creates better communities.”
Randy Barker, co-founder of FieldMed and Graphium Health, continued “In our work, we want to create real solutions that make a lasting difference for not only the healthcare providers, but ultimately for the patients. Community health programs are revolutionizing emergency responses for both paramedics and patients, and coupled with FieldMed’s innovative software, the opportunities to enhance patient care and reporting capabilities are endless.”
FieldMed is now available nationwide and offers a variety of pricing structures based on specific program needs. To learn more about FieldMed and the software’s capabilities, visit www.fieldmed.com.
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?
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.
Telemedicine is a booming industry. Hundreds of companies are providing virtual physician visits via videoconferencing technology to individuals at home, at school and in the office. A segment of this market consists of companies that provide telemedicine services to hospitals, so patients can get virtual bedside care from physicians and specialists round-the-clock—a big advantage, especially in rural hospitals hit hardest by the physician shortage.
The Internet of Things (IoT) market is booming, with IHS Markit forecasting there will be 
Data analytics is the next step in the evolution of healthcare as it uses data-driven findings to predict and address health issues. Healthcare data analytics can also help to keep track of inventory and access methods and treatments faster than conventional systems. Data analytics is often paired with health information exchanges (HIEs) to provide safer and more personalized care based on patients’ medical history, chronic conditions and medications. Healthcare data analytics software extracts, translates and synthesizes vast amounts of data to reduce costs, involve patients more in their own health and wellness and improve patient outcomes.
AristaMD