In one way or another, almost every person is depending on technology for something. Technology has improved almost every aspect of our lives, including our health. It has made a huge difference in the health sector today. The use of technology has improved diagnosis and how treatment is administered into our bodies. The following are ways you can use technology for the improvement of your health:
Monitoring your health
Instead of making doctor visits every other time, the doctor can remotely monitor your health. You can use software, such as flexispy, to exchange information regarding you with your doctor. There are wearable health tracking devices that take information about your health and sends it to your doctor. The doctor can send it back and advise you on how to go about it.
Helps track your food and nutrition
Food and nutrition are very important for your health. Tracking what you are eating is sometimes very challenging. You can use software and devices to track what you are eating on a daily basis. You can use these devices to track if you are exercising enough, to inform you what to eat or remind you when to take your medicine. Additionally, you can use these devices, to track the amount of rest you take each time and suggest how to sleep better.
Cancer research appears to be at an inflection point as we swing toward immunotherapy. It’s a time of great promise for patients, physicians and researchers, but also of great frustration. Too often patients are unable to access treatment options that could save their lives.
In the United States, more than 600,000 people are expected to die of cancer this year, according to the National Cancer Institute. At the current rate, a third of people diagnosed with cancer today will die within five years driving a deep sense of urgency for those in the clinical trials field.
Breakthroughs in biotech and personalized medicine could change these dire statistics, but it can’t happen soon enough for the 1.7 million Americans who will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and the millions more already living with it.
Data has the potential to make cancer research and treatment far more effective and efficient. That’s why institutions across the spectrum – from public hospitals to private practices and research facilities – have become far more sophisticated in collecting data.
The next great healthcare challenge
But making the structural changes needed to put this data to work is another matter. Our next great challenge as a healthcare community is how to deploy all of this information to improve clinical care, and how to get organizations big and small to communicate in a way that opens the full spectrum of treatment options to all patients.
This means connecting pharmaceutical companies and research organizations to the physicians and facilities that are treating patients. Right now, these two worlds exist in separate spheres – they each maintain massive data silos that have no way of continuously communicating with each other.
Researchers are left to rely on a few trusted providers – mainly major research hospitals – for their trials, and it leaves physicians elsewhere struggling to find treatment options when the list of more traditional options has been exhausted. It leaves millions of patients missing out on opportunities to access potentially life-saving care.
We have the technology to bridge this divide – it’s now a question of committing to creating a shared and always HIPAA-compliant database that allows researchers to expand and enhance their search for the right patients on one side, and allows physicians to see a global picture of current trials on the other.
We are quickly moving to a patient-centric world in healthcare where treatment is coming to the patient, the patient is treated more like a customer, and medical facilities of all types must use technology from the business sector. Business sector software designed to improve the customer experience can now be used to improve the patient experience. No technology is driving this shift faster than artificial intelligence (AI). AI is propelling us into an increasingly digital medical experience where patients expect personalized experiences that take into account their individual needs and values, and empower them to get information fast and accurately.
Prescription drugs are ground zero for AI innovation
Although AI has been touted for everything from diagnosis to automating medical imaging to drug discovery, we believe that ground zero for AI innovation in patient-centric healthcare is prescription medicine. Prescribers and patients are suffering in countless ways from the complexity and associated errors in prescriptions.
A single drug has hundreds of factors that must be considered by a doctor or a pharmacist when prescribing or dispensing a drug to a patient. We examined 50 of the most popular drugs and found that the average number of considerations for a single drug is enormous:
Mental health affects everyone at some point in our lives. A commonly quoted statistic in the UK is that one in four people suffer the impact of mental ill health. In the U.S., 80 percent of workers experience stress at some point every day, and anxiety and depression cost the world $1 trillion in lost productivity annually.
Once taboo, mental health is talked about more frequently and openly than ever before. From Hollywood celebrities to the British royal family, the impact and treatment for the global mental health crisis we are currently living through is rarely out of the news.
Young men, in particular, are being encouraged to talk more openly. Poor mental health, when it goes unchecked, can have a serious impact on overall well-being, physical health, relationships, work, productivity, absenteeism, money, and it can result in suicide. In the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45.
As a result, governments and healthcare providers need to find new ways to deliver mental health services. Digital healthcare solutions, including smartphone apps, are some of the most common ways to support those who need and want to access more help and support.
During her trip to HIMSS19, Center for Medicare & Medicaid Service administrator Seema Verma spoke with registered members of the media to preview her keynote speech and answer questions about her department’s newly released proposed interoperability rule. The rule dictates that data generated by patients while in the scare setting is theirs to own, transfer and share with caregivers. It also would require healthcare providers and plans to implement open data sharing technologies to support transitions of care as patients move between these plan types.
In a statement released prior to her meeting with the media, Verma said that ensuring patients have easy access to their information, and allowing that information to follow them on their healthcare journey “can reduce burden, and eliminate redundant procedures and testing, thus giving clinicians the time to focus on improving care coordination and, ultimately, health outcomes.”
During her meeting with the media at HIMSS, Verma started by discussing CMS’ “why” — why CMS is moving toward enhanced patient empowerment – as well as her and the administration’s focus on the improving the sustainability of the healthcare community.
Patient empowerment remains front and center for the agency, she said. For example, from the patient perspective, everyone has their own experience of going to the healthcare system and not being an empowered patient, she said, and not having access to data decreases patient engagement. CMS is working to change that, now.
When people understand their health and participate in their health, this has the ability to improve care outcomes, she added, and through complete access to their healthcare records, patient care can be more complete. Ultimately, she said, with every detail of a person’s health information in one place — and accessible to the patient — will kick start the digital health data revolution.
By Jennifer Lockman, freelance journalist and blogger.
If you know a student who will soon be graduating with a degree in any kind of medical discipline, this article is for you. Young people thrive in environments where they feel supported and valued. The help you give can make the difference between making the right career choices and not. It’s a big responsibility and one that can help shape someone’s future career.
What kinds of help does a college grad or soon-to-be graduate need when transitioning into the job market? We have a few examples that you may or may not have already considered that we believe are among the most important at this pivotal time.
Deciding on a career path
Not all medical degree programs require transitioning into post-graduate work. Many colleges offer degrees and certificates in everything from laboratory technology to radiology to medical billing. The student’s career path will depend on the type of training he or she received in college and the types of jobs that one can realistically pursue based on his or her significant and existing practice.
Some medical careers require or encourage internship programs, and some of those programs are unpaid. You might be able to best help students in those situations by providing a place to stay, a hot meal, or a place to stay. Things as basic as that could actually make it possible to take an unpaid internship in the first place. Guidance and support are essential if your goal is to help a young person be successful.
Primary care physicians are at the frontlines of our nation’s health. The average family doctor cares for 2,300 patients with visits varying from acute conditions to chronic diseases. Treating patients with the highest quality of care is a fundamental goal of every physician. However, with a very high volume of patients, limited in-office time and space, and restricted patient availability, doctors actively seek innovative alternatives to meet patient needs. More and more physicians see telemedicine as the solution and are now offering consultations through virtual devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, to their patients.
Our primary care practice, the Kaufmann Clinic that has been around in Atlanta since 1954 and has multiple locations and multiple providers, recognized the need to incorporate telemedicine into our traditional, brick-and-mortar practice. Here are the ways telemedicine has benefited our practice:
Telemedicine optimizes our practice’s capabilities. A physician can only examine a limited number of patients in office due to administrative time, severity of cases, and number of exam rooms. By using telemedicine our practitioners can now increase the number of patients they see in a given day. Seeing less acute patients virtually enables us to be more efficient and effective overall. Not only remote visits, but also in-clinic visits are optimized.
Care transitions, such as pre- and post-admissions and pre- and post-surgery, are pivotal points for ensuring adherence to the care plan and improved outcomes. However, organizations have historically struggled to keep patient engaged and compliant with the care plan during these transitions – leading to costly re-admissions and poor satisfaction. Virtual care can be applied in these settings to provide an efficient and convenient way to keep the lines of communication open during these pivotal transitions, leading to increased adherence and better outcomes.
Importance of transitional care
A carefully considered transition of care strategy is critical to enabling the safe and timely movement of patients throughout the care continuum. Each transition stage should include the communication of a comprehensive care plan that ensures continuity and coordination of care across points and providers of care. Points of care include hospitals, rehab centers, skilled nursing facilities, long-term care facilities, and even the patient’s own home. Providers of care include clinicians, specialists, nurses, home health workers, in addition to pharmacists, nutritionists, interpreters and transportation assistants.
According to the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, sub-standard transitions may result in delay of treatment, inappropriate treatment, adverse events, omission of care, increased hospital length of stay, avoidable readmissions, increased costs, inefficiency from rework and other minor or major patient harm. According to JAMA, failures of care coordination can increase costs by $25 billion to $45 billion annually.
If you know a student who will soon be graduating with a degree in any kind of medical discipline, this article is for you. Young people thrive in environments where they feel supported and valued. The help you give can make the difference between making the right career choices and not. It’s a big responsibility and one that can help shape someone’s future career.
