Mad*Pow’s Center for Health Experience Design and Health 2.0 Advocates announce a design challenge, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for the health and design communities to envision solutions that would reshape everyday life to be healthier by default. The focus of this Design Challenge is to imagine how, in the near future, technology might be used to make health a part of our daily routines.
Amy Heymans
“Our systems have made it hard to be healthy, and our healthcare system can’t keep up. The United States spends far more on healthcare than any country in the world but achieves disappointing results in comparison,” said Amy Heymans (Cueva), Mad*Pow founder and chief experience officer. “How might we design the systems we use every day so they support us in being as happy and healthy as possible, instead of worn down, stressed out, and sick? This Design Challenge seeks the most creative minds to imagine solutions that improve health, not just by focusing on healthcare and medicine, but also by taking a new look at the fundamentals of our daily lives.”
Design Challenge entries should include ideas that are feasible in five to ten years, change the environment to a healthier default, and incorporate multiple technologies or components. A Q&A webinar is scheduled for May 29, 2019, at Noon ET.
Interested participants should register by May 27, 2019, to receive more information about challenge requirements, criteria, rules, and deadlines. Final submissions will be due on August 31, 2019 by 11:59 PM ET. A panel of judges, including Vanessa Mason from Institute for the Future, Judith Anderson from Mass College of Art & Design, Stacey Chang from Dell Medical School, Allison Arieff from SPUR and the New York Times, Jeff Rison from the Gehl Institute, and Amy Heymans from Mad*Pow, will choose two winning solutions: one design that targets specific healthy behaviors and one design that envisions broad, systemic change. These two winning entries will be announced on Oct. 16, 2019, and will share up to $10,000 in prizes.
“Many of the tech industry’s early attempts to encourage healthy lifestyles rely on prompting people to make healthy decisions in the moment, while doing nothing to address the underlying infrastructure, norms, and culture that guide our behavior,” said Stephen Downs, chief technology and strategy officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “This Design Challenge will encourage creative thinkers to envision how technology could shape our everyday routines in ways that make healthy lifestyles the default.”
With more than 4 million nurses, the largest segment of the U.S. healthcare sector, nurses have indisputably demonstrated an ability to improve healthcare outcomes. We are just beginning to utilize Healthcare IT data and AI to improve patient outcomes. One of the key benefits of AI will be the ability to leverage the data from nursing care plans and nursing diagnoses to perform work load balancing for nursing staff. This is a key solution to future management of the problem of the shortage of nurses.
Another problem that needs attention is the possible disconnects which can result from nurse to nurse hand offs with the use of virtual nurses who remotely monitor patients. They enter data into their own EHR system – not the same one in use by the hospital where the patient is located. We will discuss here the nature of the data, technologies and frameworks, the nursing information model and the structure of the data elements needed to provide care needed to implement solutions for staffing, interoperability and workflow improvements.
The National Academy of Medicine’s committee background report on the Future of Nursing 2020-2030, Activating Nursing to Address Unmet Needs in the 21st Century, found the worsening health profile in the United States requires “more than a traditional medical response.” As professionals in the care team, nursing documentation requires a standardized framework to achieve consistent data quality in healthcare communications about the work of nurses. This standardized framework recognized for professional nursing documentation is the American Nurses Association (ANA) Nursing Process. This ANA framework is essential to nurses for managing and improving healthcare outcomes, safety and reimbursement as proposed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
In most electronic health information record systems, the standard nursing data implemented (sometimes called the system terminology, data dictionary, or nomenclature) is proprietary with a pre-existing data structure/framework. The proprietary framework acts as a barrier to nursing documentation by constraining the available concepts for nursing documentation and the nursing care plan fields.
Without interoperable electronic data concepts available for documentation, nursing care notes become unstructured free-text and are not included in coded health information exchanges. Due to the highly structured design of EHR systems, nursing practice is determined by the system’s terminology and ontology framework configuration. If nurses do not select the ANA framework; nursing care data takes on the sedentary shape of the local proprietary data structures, rather than nesting in a flexible, portable and universal tool to enable nurses and other episodic care providers to improve future nursing interventions, practice and care outcomes.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) describes the common nursing framework of the documentation of professional nursing practice as the Nursing Process. The Nursing Process is the foundation for the documentation of nursing care. Yet, in the EHR, nursing documentation is reused during the patient’s stay, over and over, with the documentation being done from the nursing assessment as if the documentation was a template. The Nursing Process is the framework and essential core of practice for the registered nurse to deliver holistic, patient-focused care.”
Producing effective EHR systems for nursing requires a deep understanding of how nurses create and conduct cognitive documentation as well as task-oriented documentation. Most EHR systems dictate rather than adapt to nursing workflows and nursing information is not organized to fit the ANA model of care. The EHRs often assume a nursing care delivery model that is represented as algorithmic sequences of choices, yet nursing care is iterative with reformation of patient goals, revising interventions and actions and updating care sequences with individual patients based on encountered condition changes and constraints. In the dictated workflow of EHRs, nursing data is collected as care assessments with nursing diagnoses, interventions and actions in formats used to create single patient encounters.
To help professionals in skilled nursing facilities (SNF) prepare for the largest payment reimbursement change for their industry in 20 years, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) collaborated with the American Health Care Association (AHCA) to provide in-depth coding and clinical documentation improvement (CDI) training programs.
Beginning Oct. 1, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will change the reimbursement model for SNFs to a new, value-based Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) that will require CDI skillsets and knowledge of ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes in order to accurately support the qualifying stay and demonstrate the need for care and treatment best suited for each patient.
AHCA enlisted AHIMA to help develop in-depth coding and CDI education courses to help prepare SNF providers for the major payment overhaul. The courses include two options: the first provides webinars for coding in ICD-10-CM and requirements in CDI case studies and concludes with a 50-question assessment. The second option is a shorter course for non-coders that includes a webinar with a high-level review and basic information on ICD-10-CM coding guidelines to provide an introduction to the PDPM reimbursement model. Both courses offer AHIMA CEUs and CNE contact hours. In addition, the non-coder course offers NAB continuing education credits.
Wylecia Wiggs Harris
“To stay up-to-date with the ever-changing healthcare industry, it is critical that professionals have the resources they need to continue to provide exceptional care,” said AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE. “This is why we’re happy to work with AHCA on this important training program, which will equip professionals working in skilled nursing facilities with the knowledge and understanding of ICD-10 needed to thrive under the new payment system, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.”
“ICD-10 is a driving force behind the new PDPM payment system for skilled nursing care,” said Jennifer Shimer, AHCA/NCAL COO and senior vice president, member services. “AHCA partnered with AHIMA to develop the best ICD-10 curriculum possible to prepare our members for this massive Medicare payment change.”
CDI is at the core of every patient encounter and through this collaboration, AHIMA and AHCA will help SNFs understand ICD-10-CM guidelines for coding and reporting and how to apply the guidelines to coding for the PDPM Medicare reimbursement. The courses will also help SNFs assess coding and diagnostic perspectives when identifying high quality clinical documentation and classify SNFs into appropriate clinical categories as defined by the PDPM.
Just like a book, a website is a mode of communication through which the owner tries to communicate to the larger audience. So, it is imperative that the site should be as catchy and as informative as possible. This website should do all the talking for you. The same goes for the medical website. Sites related to the medical field needs to be more should be out of the box. It does not need to be catchy with fancy themes and designs. It can be plain and simple yet be different.
We need to remember that it is the home page that is the most critical section of a website. Similarly, you have got only 20 to 30 seconds to impress your client or prospective client. If the so-called first impression is lost, then half the battle is lost and so is the purpose of having a website.
When it comes to websites related to medical and healthcare it is noticed that more often than not them chose and the information provided are the same. There are many themes attractive and different ideas presented in WordPress.
Let us have a look at some of the different WordPress themes that are there to be chosen from. WordPress themes are the cheapest way to make a website.
The healthcare system seems to become better every day. The growth and development of digital platforms have provided a unique dimension for this particular industry to grow tremendously and provide an excellent service to the seekers. In this context, Apple, the most reputed smart phone and electronics manufacturer in the world, has launched a brilliant personal health record (PHR) platform in beta-version. This new version of PHR is released as part of iOS version 11.3.
This Apple health news is the beginning of a new era where the patients can easily share their personal health information with the entitled service providers. This step can be initiated by hospitals and other healthcare related firms so as to provide the best and safest treatment solutions. An iOS App Development Company will not become sufficient to provide such elegant applications that will maintain the industry standards and meet with the specifications of the contemporary healthcare system.
Apple’s new venture
For the very first time, the world’s largest manufacturer of smart phones, Apple has launched the beta version of a personal health record application. Currently, it has incorporated this application in iOS version 11.3. It has developed this unique platform based on the specifications provided by Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) constructed by HL7, a non-profit standard developing organization. It is considered to be the new face of health records app. This application is being developed and advanced in collaboration with 12 hospitals such as Cedars Sinai, Penn Medicine, Geisinger Health System, and John Hopkins.
Jeff Williams, the COO of Apple, said that the prime motto of this particular application is to aid the consumers spread across the world to lead a better and safer life. The healthcare organizations have provided immense insights and professional aid to make this Apple health records epic better and more efficient. The biggest challenge is to keep these records safe in the cloud system so that any service provider related to this process can access them without any hassle. This PHR can be easily carried on the phone and can be shown to the entitled professionals for better and faster treatment response. The news and rumors of Apple to launch Health Records system have now surfaced and the consumers are hoping for a better day in the future.
Features of Apple health records app
This app will be the first of its kind that will maintain the FHIR standard of specifications fabricated by HL7. This particular smart phone application will carry personal information such as medications, allergies, present condition, ailments, immunization records, etc. In fact, the interoperability feature of this application will also allow the medical professionals to access the information and also to check electronic health records for lab results and other information. The Apple health records app is currently released as a beta version to find out the reaction of the users and its compatibility. All the information enlisted in this app will remain encrypted to keep it safe.
Apple announces Health Records platform and is currently developing a better platform for all the consumers that can be accessed by the entitled professionals as well. As per the plan, this information can be availed by the following professionals or organizations:
Nearly two-thirds of healthcare providers rate themselves as being behind the curve on their digital health initiatives, citing clinician resistance and interoperability of legacy systems with digital/mobile technologies as the top barriers, according to new research from Unisys Corporation.
On behalf of Unisys, HIMSS surveyed 220 IT decision makers/influencers at U.S. hospitals and health systems and asked them to rank their organization based on how they are leveraging digital and mobile technologies to improve the patient experience, lower the cost of care delivery and improve clinician/staff efficiencies. They were then rated as being ahead of the curve (early adopters/early majority) or behind the curve (late majority/laggards).
Of those surveyed, 64 percent rated themselves as being behind the curve, including 20 percent who were rated as laggards. Notably, only 11 percent of organizations were rated as early adopters when it came to adoption and implementation of digital technologies.
When asked about the barriers to advancing digital health initiatives, “behind the curve” respondents cited challenges starting with clinician resistance to adopting new solutions (51 percent) and difficulties integrating legacy systems with new digital/mobile technologies (50 percent). Availability of skilled IT staff (48 percent) and the identification/remediation of cybersecurity threats (45 percent) were also highly cited as challenges.
Jeff Livingstone
“These survey findings cannot be taken lightly, as we believe that being on the high end of the digital health continuum is positively correlated with reduced costs, improved efficiencies and most importantly, improved patient outcomes,” said Jeff R. Livingstone, PhD, vice president and global head, life sciences and healthcare, Unisys. “The survey also demonstrates that healthcare information technology needs to adopt modern technology platforms that have interoperability, transparency and efficiency at their core. Legacy healthcare systems do not easily meet these objectives and are costly to implement and operate.”
The survey also looked at the key initiatives that digital health technologies support. Notably, only 16 percent of laggards had a comprehensive data governance plan, and only nine percent of laggards said their organization was able to successfully apply data to determine the best course of action, compared to 83 percent and 78 percent of early adopters, respectively. Additionally, only 13 percent of laggards said that their medical devices could securely communicate with electronic health records.
“Access to real-time data is critical to healthcare providers and patients today. In many cases, providers can work with trusted vendors capable of offering both healthcare information technology and security strategies to help them better utilize and protect their patients’ data,” said Livingstone.
For more information on the study results, please click here.
Despite ending 2018 with a slow Q4, the outlook for technology services in healthcare remains strong, with opportunities in the provider space, robust M&A activity, newly introduced U.S. operations by India heritage firms, and more. The WITCH Report is a comprehensive review of the financial and market performance of global technology firms in healthcare and transaction insight of the sector’s biggest consulting firms.
Damo Consulting announces the annual review of major global technology consulting firms in healthcare. Titled “The WITCH Report” the report includes a comprehensive review of the financial and market performance of 11 global technology consulting firms in healthcare. The report provides a detailed review of market performance metrics, insights and dealings of major global technology firms, including Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant Technology Solutions and HCL (WITCH).
Aspects covered in the WITCH Report include financial performance, mergers and acquisitions, customer wins, strategic partnerships, new product initiatives and leadership announcements.
“Our annual review of 11 publicly held global technology consulting firms indicates a soft Q4 in 2018, with HLS business growth dropping below overall company growth. One firm continues to be an exception, growing at an impressive 18.56 percent on a YoY basis,” said Paddy Padmanabhan, CEO of Damo Consulting and author of The Big Unlock: Harnessing Data and Growing Digital Businesses in a Value-Based Era.
“The HLS business of all companies covered in this report contains a mixture of offerings, from infrastructure and applications services to business process services and in a couple of cases, IP and platform-based services. While the provider segment has long been a challenge for global IT consulting firms for a variety of reasons, we believe there are emerging opportunities in the provider space from digital transformation initiatives and cost reduction pressures, leading to IT operations outsourcing.”
The WITCH Report also provides additional insight on each featured company’s growth strategy. M & A activity continues to be robust. DXC, Cognizant and HCL have been the most active in the space. Many India-heritage firms have also set up operations centers and innovation hubs across the U.S. to be closer to customers with local talent and the need to tap into scarce skills such as design thinking which are important for digital transformation programs.
“The demand outlook for healthcare remains strong and broad-based. Most firms in this report are deriving their revenues currently from the payer and pharma segments, leaving a huge untapped opportunity in the provider space. As providers start to embrace outsourcing and invest more in digital transformation, global IT consulting firms will see a significant growth opportunity,” says Paddy Padmanabhan.
NTT DATA Services announces that it has acquired Cognosante Consulting, LLC, the consulting division of Cognosante. Cognosante Consulting provides IT strategy, planning, quality assurance and project management for state HHS agencies undergoing large-scale Medicaid and related human services IT and business transformation programs. The company has nearly three decades of experience working with 48 states and the federal government, developing, managing, and executing large, complex health information technology implementations.
As a result of the acquisition, NTT DATA Services will add more than 250 specialized consulting resources, as well as intellectual property currently supporting IT transformations, including those specific to Medicaid in more than 20 states.
Bob Pryor
“The acquisition of Cognosante’s consulting practice immediately establishes us as a leader in a growing health and human services market and enhances the value we can deliver to our clients in the public sector and healthcare,” said Bob Pryor, CEO, NTT DATA Services. “This acquisition is the latest in our ongoing strategy of growth by strategic acquisitions that augment our specialized industry expertise and geographical presence.”
“Cognosante Consulting has built an unmatched reputation supporting IT projects for state HHS departments and other state agencies. Combining our team with the resources and expertise of NTT DATA will enhance our ability to serve clients as they continue to modernize their IT systems to support business transformation,” said Jim Joyce, general manager of Cognosante’s consulting practice, who will continue to lead the organization and serve as senior vice president with NTT DATA Services. “As states revamp their legacy systems and business models, there is significant opportunity for NTT DATA. We are excited to be part of their long-term strategy to support successful state IT implementations.”
As part of NTT DATA Services, the consulting practice will be focused on client IT strategy, project management, quality assurance and Independent Verification and Validation services.
“Cognosante Consulting has been one of the building blocks of Cognosante,” said Michele Kang, founder and CEO of Cognosante. “We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished for our clients, while also increasing both top line revenue and the number of employees by about 500 percent since 2010. This growth of scope and reach, however, began to create conflicts with Cognosante’s core business, requiring us to look for divestiture opportunities.
“We could not have found a more perfect home than NTT DATA Services to align with Cognosante Consulting’s overall mission and company culture. Both Cognosante Consulting clients and employees will benefit tremendously from this combination. We are confident NTT DATA Services will take Cognosante Consulting to the next level while Cognosante continues to focus on its core mission of transforming the nation’s healthcare through innovative technology and solutions.”
Just like a book, a website is a mode of communication through which the owner tries to communicate to the larger audience. So, it is imperative that the site should be as catchy and as informative as possible. 
