Rock Health, the healthcare startup incubator, released its 2013 midyear digital health funding, which shows continued and expansive growth of more than $849 million invested in 90 different companies, a jump of more than 12 percent more money and 25 percent more deal volume than this time last year.
For perspective, here’s a graph from Rock Health that puts the activity into perspective:
According to Rock Health, “digital health has been outpacing traditional healthcare, where investments have dropped precipitously. Medical device funding is down 29 percent and biotech is down 2 percent in the first quarter.”
Guest post by Sreekanth Ravi, founder and CEO, Tely Labs.
Ravi
Once largely restricted to the largest urban hospitals, telehealth is gradually expanding beyond its city confines. According to estimates from the American Telemedicine Association, about 10 million people a year now receive some form of telemedicine service. Fueled by multiple converging dynamics — including rising consumer demand as people live longer, breakthroughs in medical science, the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, and recent technological advances that make remote and online healthcare more feasible and affordable – rural and remote hospitals are likely to be the chief adopters.
Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico, is a case in point. Because they don’t have neurologists on staff, until recently they had to transfer stroke patients to El Paso or Las Cruces. Now, patients in need of neurologist care are far less likely to be transferred from Alamogordo.
Even given the news that the majority of practices and hospitals have made the change to EHR, this continues to be a tumultuous time in the land of electronic health records. In fact, several entities have proclaimed 2013 the year of the great EHR switch.
With that, and because I am not brand loyal, I think it’s a great idea to keep an open mind and acquire as much information as possible in the event a change is needed or you’re one of the few practices to not make the transition to electronic records.
There are no shortage of quality sources with excellent tips and information available, but I think there’s always room for more. I recently came across a white paper from Tech Target that intrigued me. The topic: 10 Critical Steps for Selecting an EHR.
Guest post by Kristin Russel, senior director product development and marketing, Omnicell, Inc.
Interoperability, one of the most commonly heard terms in the healthcare IT landscape today, is essential to the success of any modern healthcare facility. New federal interoperability rules and the growing need to share disparate pieces of information outside a hospital’s four walls have made the ability to leverage information between separate health IT systems a critical success factor.
Today’s healthcare providers must share information regarding everything from nursing notes to financial data to medication and supply inventory across the continuum of care. This translates to both a tremendous opportunity and need for improved interoperability. It is estimated that 90 percent of hospitals use at least three different devices that could be integrated with electronic health records (EHRs) [1]. The efficiencies healthcare systems are looking to obtain through integration primarily relate to efficiency improvements in the clinician workflow. Large health systems that maintain a variety of points of care (e.g. long-term care facilities or walk-in clinics) are becoming more prevalent and the need for technologies that do more than pass flat files back and forth is becoming more critical.
Guest post by Ken Perez, senior vice president and director of healthcare policy, MedeAnalytics, Inc.
Chase scenes—usually involving cars, motorcycles or speedboats—are an adrenaline-producing staple of the Bourne movies, which are some of my favorites. In these scenes, one party, the villain, pursues another party, the hero. The chased tries to evade the chaser by choosing a circuitous, complex route, and often, some sort of distraction or unexpected intervention—such as a train or crowd—prevents the chaser from catching the chased.
Implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) can be likened to a long, long chase scene in which significant segments of the public are being asked to chase after the law, i.e., comply with it. But the ACA’s route has certainly been circuitous and complex, and there have been numerous distractions that may ultimately leave some of the populace in the dust of ignorance and nonparticipation.
One can’t blame the public. The ACA is complex, multidimensional in scope, and it features a lengthy, multi-year rollout. A product of two enormous pieces of legislation—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act—the ACA totalled, before consolidation, over 2,400 pages and contained more than 450 sections.
The NSA and federal government spying dragnet has filled the news cycle and brought to light the government’s programs that spy on U.S. citizens. Effectively, the feds are collecting every American’s data, from emails, phone calls, Tweets, Facebook pages, Google search and whatever else they can get their hands on, which begs the question: If the government is freely collecting the data of every citizen of the United States – the FBI recently admitted to spying on American using drones on American soil – why them would the data collection stop with these communication methods? Why not continue the collection of data that’s gathered through our medical records through that’s being collected through several efforts, including the meaningful use program.
All of that aside, more information than we can fathom is going to be collected about each of us once Obamacare takes effect next year, which will be siphoned off through several agencies to ensure we’re vetted for the new national healthcare program.
Guest post byPierluigi Stella, co-founder of Network Box USA.
I live in Houston and have an EZ-tag in my car, so I can “zip” through the toll booths without stopping. Should I be concerned that my driving speed is being recorded and, perhaps, some day shared with my insurance? Yes, federal law says that it can’t be done, but the Constitution also says the government can’t spy on us!
I visited a specialist recently for a minor procedure. He then proceeded to share the results thereof with my family doctor via EMR. In fact, all my health records are stored electronically. Should I be concerned that my medical insurance may be able to see things I wouldn’t necessarily like them to see? Maybe they can’t, but then again, see above!
Browsers download tracking cookies on my computer so companies can better “tailor” advertisements based on my browsing habits. Which literally means they WILL share that information, though they never asked me if they could even plant that cookie in the first place. Should I be concerned?
An amazing level of detail from a new SearchHealthIT infographic that summarizes what health IT activity, resources are available, from tools to improve HIE and meaningful use audits to the final installment of the HIPAA omnibus rule and updated certification standards for EHRs.
Some of the most eye-opening information offered in the piece is that most practices will make the biggest investment HIT investment this year, and the HIE are their biggest priority this year.
Other bits of useful info here is the CMS audit information reflected; up to 10 percent of pre-payment audits for providers who attested in January 2013. Expect that number to jump dramatically for the foreseeable future as CMS seeks to vet the program and stifle criticism about its validity.
