The Sequoia Project, a nonprofit dedicated to solving health IT interoperability for the public good, is launching a new workgroup for the Interoperability Matters cooperative focused on information blocking. Launched in October 2018, Interoperability Matters is a public-private cooperative, with member and public events focused on addressing the key remaining issues that hinder nationwide health IT interoperability. The initiative is open to broad private and public sector participation, and this new workgroup will collectively discuss, evaluate and comment on the information blocking requirements and exceptions outlined in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC) proposed rule published in the Federal Register on Monday, Mar. 4, 2019.
Mariann Yeager
“We’ve seen a seismic shift towards greater interoperability in the past three years. True, meaningful interoperability is expanding and hospitals and health systems across the country are beginning to share health records at an unprecedented level. But we can’t declare victory yet considering there are still barriers, including the practices that are perceived to impede information sharing,” said Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project. “We’ve reached a tipping point where discussions of interoperability – and the remaining interoperability challenges – are now mainstream and everyone wants a seat at the table. We’re happy to make room for more voices.”
Hundreds of volunteers came forward this winter to offer their expertise from across the entire healthcare continuum, including many organizations that have not previously worked with The Sequoia Project. The expansive interest illustrates the wide impact that the information blocking issue and associated regulations have on health systems, payers, technology vendors and patients.
A resume is an important document; its main roles are to distinguish candidates for the job position and a record of skills and achievements you have gained so far. If you are tired of sending your resumes all through different places without success, it’s time to change the strategy. Seeking help with resume writing is as important as seeking help with thesis writing for it to get you results. Do not be surprised by the fact that maybe nobody has seen your resume so far. A resume should secure you an interview or better still, a job.
Tip 1: Are you what they are looking for?
Before you apply, go for the position go through the specifications of what they are looking for exactly. This will guide you on how to structure your CV. At a glance over your resume, the potential employer should be able to see that you are a potential candidate for the job.
Tip 2: Use keywords
Most employers are using applicant tracking systems to sort out resumes. To ensure that your resume gets past the system, you need to use keywords that are essential to the physician position you are applying for. The best place to find suitable keywords is by using the same terminology used in the job advertisement. Use these words to describe your experience in the field and also use them at the top of your resume.
By Danielle K. Roberts, a Medicare insurance expert and co-founder, Boomer Benefits.
Danielle Kunkle Roberts
The telehealth revolution gives health providers the opportunity to assist patients in remote or rural areas; the same kind of care that they give to patients in person. It saves money on travel and improves efficiency in healthcare as well.
While telehealth options in healthcare are helpful to individuals at any stage in life, they can be particularly helpful in treating older adults with chronic illnesses. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have recognized this and have put together guidelines for primary care physicians who treat patients in geographical areas where it may be difficult for those beneficiaries to otherwise gain access to certain specialists and medical experts.
Telehealth services are made available to these Medicare beneficiaries who have signed up for Medicare Part B. Here’s how Medicare covers telemedicine for these people.
Medicare outpatient coverage for telemedicine
Medicare has two original parts: Part A hospital coverage and Part B outpatient coverage. Telehealth services fall under Part B. Medicare Part B will cover a telehealth consultation whenever a consultation is medically necessary, and your Medicare doctor follows the guidelines in arranging the consultation.
The specialist must conduct your teleconsultation using two-way interactive communication that must include both live audio and video feeds. Fortunately, with the prevalence of digital technologies and telehealth platforms, this has become common practice for most healthcare organizations.
The Medicare beneficiary needs to live within designated rural areas, and the video conferencing call must be held at a designated originating site. Approved originating sites include your physician’s office or rural health clinic. Calls can also be conducted from within a federally qualified health center, a skilled nursing facility, inpatient hospital, critical access hospital or community mental health facility.
Visit any hospital, and you will likely see signs reminding care providers and patients alike to wash their hands after using the restroom, before mealtime, and following contact with any potentially contaminated surfaces. While hand washing remains the most critical step in combating the spread of infectious diseases, it just isn’t enough in healthcare facilities that are often the breeding grounds for dangerous and even deadly bacteria.
Technology has entered our hospitals to increase the ease of access and specialization of care. With the rise of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), the healthcare industry is turning to tech companies for new methods of cleaning, disinfecting, and monitoring compliance of infection-prevention policies.
HAIs by the numbers
HAIs are infections patients get while receiving medical or surgical care. These conditions are preventable when infection prevention techniques are used by nurses, doctors, and other care providers. However, it’s estimated that about one in every 25 patients contracts an HAI. Every year HAIs cost between $35 billion and $45 billion for acute-care hospitals alone. While progress is being made to prevent some HAI’s, more work needs to be done, especially with germs that have gained resistance to powerful antibiotics.
More than 23,000 Americans die yearly from infections caused by germs that no longer respond to medications. The CDC released a new report in April 2018 regarding nationwide laboratory testing that uncovered more than 220 instances of germs with “unusual” antibiotic resistance. These germs cause hard-to-treat or even untreatable infections each day in the only place many people feel can heal them.
Modern medicine utilizes many invasive procedures to prolong and even improve the lives of patients across the country. We are able to transplant organs, repair devastating traumatic injuries, and replace joints that were once considered irreparable. However, these procedures bring the risk of infections.
Surgery isn’t the only department susceptible to hospital infections. Patients in any type of inpatient and outpatient unit can come into contact with deadly germs in their rooms, on surfaces, and on the hands of those who care for them. The most common types of HAIs include surgical site infections, Pneumonia, Clostridium difficile (an intestinal infection), bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
The importance of cleanliness
Keeping patient care areas clean is critical to patient safety and wellness. As more data becomes available about the risks of HAIs and the subsequent cost to the healthcare system, more administrators, physicians, and policymakers are turning to the technology industry for solutions. However, it’s essential to note that cleaning in a hospital or another facility-based setting isn’t a simple process. It requires a multi-modal approach to remove soil from surfaces and healthcare equipment, as well as organizing an environment that is optimal for patient safety.
Facility policies must focus on controlling contamination along with the health and wellness of patients and staff. Using harsh chemicals poses significant risks to environmental services personnel who touch and breathe in these chemicals. The process of cleaning a patient room or other direct-care area is time and labor-intensive too. All of these factors have caused the industry to search for new methods of cleaning and surveillance.
In the age of technology, many aspects of our daily lives have increased in ease, efficiency and even effectiveness. In other words, tasks are less complicated or difficult and we can do things faster and better than ever before.
Since we can use smartphones to communicate, research, navigate, and play in ways our forefathers couldn’t have imagined, why not apply the same resource to our physical health? The app store offers a couple of million applications, many of them free, including fitness apps.
Just like there are apps that track your social media followers, calendar, and sleep (among other things), there are also apps that track your health. Whether you’re a runner, cyclist, or weight lifter, there are apps that can improve your workout experience.
Our friends at Bestow picked the 12 best fitness apps, all of which have high ratings on the App Store. Read the infographic below to learn more.
In today’s world of smart devices and advanced monitoring software, the field of healthcare is one of the main beneficiaries. Monitoring a patient’s activity and state as accurately as possible could be considered one of the pinnacles of modern healthcare, and there is plenty of technology on the rise to help us get there.
One such contributor is Qolty, a Los Angeles startup emerged from the functional web of the Conduct Science network. Conduct Science works to pool together the best providers of healthcare equipment and give them a platform to distribute their equipment to doctors worldwide.
Qolty has been one of the main partners of Conduct Science since 2016, and it is not hard to see why. Offering technological solutions ranging from digital e-consent to the ability to let your healthcare provider know instantly if you check into an emergency room or similar.
Instead of relying on paper surveys which could get accidentally destroyed or misplaced, Qolty sends surveys and questions to patients over a HIPAA compliant platform. This means that it is tailored to the required levels of patient data protection.
The healthcare industry is enormous. It’s one of the largest industries in the world. It also happens to be more complex than most industries. To begin with, the amounts of data collected are mind boggling. Around the world, 16,000 hospitals collect patient data while nearly 5 million patients use remote monitoring devices that collect even more data. The estimated compound growth rate of these patients that use such devices is 18 percent per year, according to an article from Essaywritingland.com.
Needless to say, there is rapid development and progress in the industry, with specialists looking for new solutions that are more effective every day. A lot of the time, the latest technology will be considered in the search for these solutions. In the case of big data, the most efficient solutions are the ones that make it possible to tap the data and use it to gain insights that will ultimately help improve the healthcare industry.
The impact of big data on healthcare is huge. Healthcare providers are doing their best to utilize it to improve health services, and some of the solutions are quite fascinating.
Healthcare for high-risk patients
Complications and costs in healthcare always go up when a large number of patients seek emergency care at the same time. The problem is that the outcomes do not improve as the costs rise, which means a change in the emergency department is in order.
The digitalization of health records is a good place to start. Patterns in patient conditions can be identified faster and more effectively. Health institutions that have used predictive analytics have seen significant reductions in their ER visits. The reason is that they were able to identify patients who repeatedly resorted to emergency services from them for crises. They were then able to identify the chronic issues they had and provided appropriate treatment plans to correct them. That led to a reduction in emergency visits.
With the help of big data, it is much easier to create a healthcare program centered on patients that checks for those with high-risk health issues and ensures more effective and appropriate treatment can be administered.
In a world where everything has gone tech-savvy, even seniors are looking for ways to manage their health and safety through technological advances. Although tech gadgets are great for helping your elderly parents be safe in their own homes, there are a few things that you can get to prevent slips and falls as well, some high-tech and some low-tech. Read on below for a few of those gadgets to be revealed.
A stairlift
There are many common causes of slips and falls among the elderly, with falling down the stairs being among the most common. While this is an expensive safety precaution, having a stairlift installed in your parent’s home can go a long way towards preventing them from taking a spill down the stairs. If it is possible to move their stuff to the ground floor, then that is an option, but most seniors want to be able to go up the stairs in their own home, and a stairlift can help them do this safely while maintaining their independence.
Visit any hospital, and you will likely see signs reminding care providers and patients alike to wash their hands after using the restroom, before mealtime, and following contact with any potentially contaminated surfaces. While hand washing remains the most critical step in combating the spread of infectious diseases, it just isn’t enough in healthcare facilities that are often the breeding grounds for dangerous and even deadly bacteria.
In a world where everything has gone tech-savvy, even seniors are looking for ways to manage their health and safety through