According to Statista, in 2019, U.S. drug store and pharmacy sales totaled nearly 297 billion dollars. While there has been a big focus on pharmaceutical companies and their sky-high prices in the media, including previously released drugs that were passed on to new owners and led to abruptly increased prices, the majority of a pharmaceutical company’s revenue is derived from a steady increase in prices of drugs that have been available on the market for quite some time.
There are multiple factors that go into pricing those medications, whether it’s Adare Pharmaceuticals or another company.
The Effectiveness of the Drug
When pricing medications, pharmaceutical companies consider whether they have the potential to change current medicine practices used to treat conditions that they target. They must also consider if the drug can prevent surgeries and other procedures or certain medical treatments. Drug companies generally price drugs higher if they can extend or have the potential to save lives. If they can reduce the number of pricey surgeries and doctor visits, they’re usually priced higher due to the savings they provide those who need to take them.
Of course, drug companies primarily price drugs to generate the most revenue possible, which frequently includes facing competition that will help lower the prices before enacting increases over time.
With vaccinations underway, it’s becoming possible to envision the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel; however, the post-COVID world will have some notable differences. One such example is the likely requirement of “immunity passports” to do any number of things: have elective surgery, attend college, or travel internationally.
The European Union, China, Israel and Japan are among the nations that have launched or plan to unveil such programs. In the U.S., states will be in charge of developing their programs with federal support as required. Given the partisan differences surrounding the pandemic response and economic recovery, this is likely to introduce numerous challenges in and of itself. But political concerns aside, the emergence of more coronavirus tracing apps and programs also brings some serious security challenges.
As PBS’ Laura Santhanam recently put it, “Unlike the physical [vaccination card used to track Yellow Fever], there are growing concerns about data privacy as documents verifying COVID-19 vaccination would exist and generally be accessed digitally.” In fact, these concerns are so pressing that a new Forrester report includes the vulnerability of COVID-19 apps as one of the five major problems which could impede post-pandemic progress in 2021.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the chief vulnerabilities and what governments and businesses alike should be cognizant of as these apps become more mainstream.
Improper Access Controls. Hospital administrators. Physicians. Insurance adjusters. Claims specialists. Pharmacy techs. The list of potential roles that could access vaccination data is massive, and that’s just within the healthcare setting. When you expand to other industries, the list is virtually endless. In order to protect sensitive data, it’s important that all COVID-19 apps and programs are designed with strong role and event-based access controls.
For example, a doctor may require “Write” access in order to edit or add information pertinent to a patient’s immunity or reaction to the vaccine. However, this permission should be the exception rather than the norm as hackers could wreak havoc should they be able to manipulate data within these apps and programs.
Furthering your education as a nurse can benefit you and your career in many ways. It can expand your skills, the quality of care that you administer, and your earning potential. Unfortunately, many nurses lead a busy lifestyle and most adults have responsibilities such as rent, bills and a family to take care of. This can make it hard to find the time and money to commit to a degree. However, there are other options that you can consider, such as online learning. To help you understand more about this way of learning, here are some of the pros and cons of online courses for nurses.
Create Your Own Schedule
Nurses have unpredictable and busy work schedules, which can make it hard to keep on top of a course when you have to study on-site. Fortunately, studying online is fully flexible as students have the privilege of setting their own class schedules. There are no fixed class times and as long as you have an internet connection, you have the choice to take a class from any location. This is one of the main reasons why working adults choose to get qualifications online. The ability to work at convenient times for you means that you can learn at your own pace and you don’t have the pressure of tight deadlines.
Can Consider More Schools
When you choose to complete a course online, there are no limitations to which school you decide to study with due to the unlimited reach of the internet. This means that you can consider more reputable learning facilities rather than choosing schools based on their location and how convenient they are. This is especially beneficial if the schools in your local area don’t have the best reputation or the course that you are interested in studying is unavailable. It is also good for people who live in rural areas or struggle with transportation. Online learning will save time and money in the long-term too. You can choose from a range of CCNE accredited nursing schools, without having to relocate or commute.
You Will Save Money
Online classes are normally cheaper than classes that require you to study on-site. You also won’t be subjected to the additional student fees that are charged for studying on campus, including student activity fees, technology fees, and athletic center fees. You will also save money on living costs that are required for student accommodation and travel. Most of the course material that you will need may be accessed online, so you will save money on textbooks. Cash that you do require for online education will be made up through your wages as you will be able to continue working around your degree.
We’ve already seen the way brain injuries are diagnosed and treated improve significantly over the years. But what’s next on the horizon when it comes to brain injury technology?
A brain injury can cause someone’s life to be flipped upside down in an instant. A traumatic brain injury can lead to issues with mobility, coordination and cognition, with the most severe cases even leading to forms of paralysis.
It goes without saying, then, that diagnosing and treating brain injuries in the right way is absolutely critical. The correct approach, and the help of a brain injury solicitor, could mean the victim is able to move on with their life swiftly and with no further complications.
The complex and intricate nature of the brain means that sophisticated technologies are constantly being produced to tackle the issue of diagnosing and treating injuries. As you’ll soon find out, there are plenty of brand-new technologies that are currently in development. Take a look.
How are Brain Injuries Currently Diagnosed?
Currently, the process for diagnosing a brain injury is fairly simple. Anyone attending A&E with a suspected head injury will be given what’s known as a CT scan. A CT, or computerised tomography, scan uses X-rays and a computer to put together detailed images from inside the body.
The CT scan for a head injury produces an image from inside the head and shows whether there is any bleeding or swelling on the brain. Healthcare professionals then use the Glasgow Coma Scale (CGS) to assess the individual’s condition.
The CGS assesses someone on their verbal responses, physical movements and how easily they are able to open your eyes.
How are Brain Injuries Going to be Diagnosed?
While CT scans certainly have their benefits – primarily due to the short amount of time they take and the high-quality images they produce – there are ways in which the general diagnosis of head injuries can be further improved. Here’s how:
Black Box Biometric Sensors
One example of a technology that can improve the diagnosis of brain injuries is from Black Box Biometrics. They are developing advanced sensor systems that can instantly measure the unseen impact of concussive forces that cause traumatic brain injuries.
One of their innovations is the Linux Impact Assessment System (IAS), which is a wearable device that fits in a headband or skull cap that monitors athletes. IAS measures how hard and how many times an athlete suffers an impact to the head, with data being sent to a paired smartphone or tablet for analysis.
Individual Cell Analysis
Scientists have been exploring the potential of simultaneously assessing individual cells and genes. Using mice, a sequencing technique is used to analyse the gene activity of a cell, with a particular focus on cells in the hippocampus, the region involved in learning and memory. This means scientists can pinpoint which genes need to be treated with specific therapies.
At a recent doctor’s appointment, I found myself in an uncomfortable situation, one that will probably seem familiar to you.
Before my appointment, I filled out a bunch of paperwork online—but when I arrived, there were still more forms to complete. Although the check-in process is typically annoying at best, this extra hassle during a pandemic made things even worse.
The care I received was great. But the administrative experience—which included using a communal pen and clipboard, and standing in the waiting room to keep my distance from others—was clunky and stressful. On the way home, I found myself searching online for a new (and more modern) provider.
It’s been said that your best experience anywhere inevitably becomes your baseline expectation everywhere. Didn’t Amazon change how you shop online forever? Likewise, healthcare has had to adapt and deliver consumer-friendly experiences that mimic those in patients’ daily lives.
The need for transformation in digital health has only been accelerated by COVID-19, with people seeking virtual care to avoid exposure, or even delaying care and cancelling appointments—which can increase morbidity rates for chronic and acute health conditions.
If consumers can order grocery deliveries with the touch of a button, why can’t it be as simple and convenient for patients to engage with healthcare providers at a time and place that’s most convenient for them? Why can’t we deliver a patient-centric experience by meeting them where they are?
Leading retail companies have set the bar so high that exceptional end-to-end digital experiences are now just table stakes. Patients are consumers, after all, and consumers increasingly expect an end-to-end journey that’s cohesive, seamless, and safe. They deserve a connected experience that better meets their needs. So, how can providers exceed patient expectations in the new normal and beyond?
Ever-Changing Expectations
According to Cedar’s second-annual Healthcare Consumer Experience Study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, the future of healthcare must be transparent, touchless, and personalized. It’s that simple. Sixty-eight percent of study respondents emphasized the importance of having a customized experience with their healthcare provider—how they communicate, pay, and so on—not unlike how Chipotle remembers that you like extra guacamole with your burrito bowl when you order through its app.
In fact, nearly half the respondents wished that the digital healthcare experience was smoother and more intuitive, similar to experiences with Amazon, Netflix, or Uber. Companies offering best-in-class digital experiences have become the yardstick against which all other companies are measured—and healthcare is no exception.
Imagine if connecting with your provider was as easy as queuing up your next binge-watching session: an app could navigate you through scheduling an appointment, completing check-in forms, and pre-paying your copay, all within minutes. Imagine having an outstanding patient experience before you even walk into a doctor’s office.
Drug-related problems (DRPs) are an “unspoken pandemic.” Serious DRPs are directly responsible for 6-10% of hospitalizations. About 25% of the population will suffer from at least one serious DRP during their lifetime, ending up with severe morbidity, hospitalization, or even mortality.
Although DRPs are often associated with the elderly population and the concomitant use of several medications, DRPs can occur while taking a single medication at any age.
Typically, medications are prescribed for specific indications with the benefit substantially outweighing the risk associated with the treatment. This risk-benefit ratio can be altered by several factors including the following:
(1) Patient-drug interactions – Some people can suffer serious and even fatal reactions to their medications due to individual vulnerability to develop serious adverse effects or lack of drug efficacy. The patient-specific factors that govern such outcomes include diet, genetic profile, smoking status, lab results, and concurrent disease states, among others.
(2) Drug-drug interactions – When patients are exposed to more than one drug, an interaction between the drugs may occur and can often be very serious. A common example is where one medication substantially increases or decreases the concentration of another medication in the body. Combinations of drugs can also lead to an increased toxic effect (e.g., hypotension, hypoglycemia, hyperkalemia), a synergistic harmful effect of medications on various body organs/functions (e.g., blood pressure, cardiac rhythm, bone marrow suppression, cognitive functions) and/or reduce the therapeutic effect of one or both drugs.
The emergence of serious DRPs in patients is often linked to the lack of appropriate alerting of clinicians to the potential risks. With the large number of drug therapies available, healthcare providers need assistance to assess potential DRPs and relevant management options.
Elderly, lower income and rural individuals frequently lack easy access to mental health services where they live, but technological advances and the burgeoning field of telemental health hold out the promise of bringing these services to them.
Telemental health provides its own set of challenges for mental health professionals. But there are currently few opportunities for these professionals to obtain relevant training in how to address those challenges, as well as applied training in telemental health best practices.
A new online graduate certificate program from Purdue University represents a leap forward in addressing that training deficit, as well as enabling professionals in the field to enhance their careers or practices.
“This program doesn’t really exist anywhere else,” said Kelly LeMaire, assistant director of the Purdue Psychology Treatment and Research Clinics and a clinical assistant professor and licensed psychologist.
The new Telemental Health Counseling Graduate Certificate, a collaboration between Purdue’s College of Education and College of Health and Human Sciences through Purdue Online, also stands out for its focus on serving diverse populations, including those who traditionally don’t have good access to mental health services.
“We have a whole class that’s entirely focused on that area,” said Rachel Ploskonka, director of the Purdue Counseling and Guidance Center, a clinical faculty member for Purdue’s counseling psychology doctoral program and also a licensed psychologist. “We’re definitely more comprehensive.”
“If not done well, we are seeing that telehealth offerings can actually amplify disparities,” said Bridgette Kelleher, associate professor of psychological sciences. “It’s really important that we are building telehealth services in a way that addresses the specific needs of diverse communities, particularly those with lower technology literacy, historic experiences of discrimination, or challenges related to access.”
To complete the Telemental Health Counseling Graduate Certificate, students will take four online courses encompassing 12 credits:
The financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are generally considered to be secondary to the health crisis, but there’s more overlap between them than you might think. A viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association cites the challenge of running a financially solvent hospital in the face of staffing shortages, overwhelming demand, and a pause in the outpatient and elective procedures that often make up the bulk of a hospital’s revenue.
While the situation looked dire when the article was published in May 2020, the health crisis across most of the country has only intensified. For health systems themselves to survive the pandemic, they’ll need to take a hard look at revenue cycle management best practices and implement new efficiencies whenever possible.
A proven way to inject much-needed efficiency is to rely on technologies such as artificial intelligence to automate tedious manual processes and improve the speed and accuracy of humans as they perform complicated tasks. One of those complex areas is clinical documentation.
Clinical documentation has always been a bit of a black box, with every provider documenting patients’ clinical issues differently and using shorthand that only they understand. This information is critically important, but it’s all stored in the form of unstructured data, and 56% of healthcare professionals believe it’s obstructing clinical workflow optimization.
Now that almost all clinical documentation lives in an electronic health record, the goal of standardization is pushing facilities to evaluate the documentation that accompanies each encounter. Payers are adding to the pressure, denying reimbursement to providers that fail to adequately prove the necessity of services. New payment models that incorporate risk scoring have also made it critical for providers to document underlying issues during visits, creating an additional layer of complexity — and an additional opportunity for solutions that can facilitate the process.
Elderly, lower income and rural individuals frequently lack easy access to mental health services where they live, but technological advances and the burgeoning field of telemental health hold out the promise of bringing these services to them.