While it may seem an ignorant question, understanding psychiatry is more complicated than one might think. Yes, it’s the practice of helping individuals define, understand, and categorize mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Still, these same healthcare professionals also determine the best treatments for individuals experiencing mental health issues.
In simple terms, “psychiatry” is the medical specialty that expands and experiences the human brain’s complexity challenges. Still, they also research a broad spectrum of mental conditions, correlated treatment options, and contribute to the new approaches and fields of study.
What Does A Psychiatrist Do?
Psychiatrists are mental health professionals. Mental disorders cover many categories, including:
Mood disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder;
Anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, among others;
Personality disorders;
Psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia; and
Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
Psychiatry is always changing as approaches to care, and medication responses evolve. In the not-too-distant past, mental health conditions and those afflicted with them often experienced a stigma or public disgrace. This is becoming less and less true.
Psychiatrists should not be confused with psychologists. Psychiatrists require more schooling. They are medical doctors, not just providers with a master’s or a doctorate. They also can prescribe medication.
Treatment of patients
Psychiatrists must address several questions about their patients’ struggles, such as:
The best and most helpful ways to classify mental disorders
Determining what is “normal”?
How treatments designed for categories of people are tailored to individuals
Current medical diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions rely on tools ranging from neuroimaging to transcranial stimulation. Psychotropic medications remain the most commonly sought and prescribed treatments, but the psychiatric landscape increasingly includes more than drugs and pharmacotherapy.
If you’re a man in your mid-40s or older and have not undergone a prostate exam, you should consider doing so as soon as possible. To understand why such testing is critical for men in these age groups, we only have to look to a study published by the American Cancer Society. According to the study data, by the end of 2021, roughly 250,000 men are likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Of those, an estimated 34,000 are likely to lose their life to the disease.
The data further notes that these new prostate cancer cases and associated deaths will consist primarily of men in their 40s and older. While we are on the topic, it seems only appropriate to note that prostate cancer is the second-most-common cause of death among men in the United States when it comes to cancer-related deaths, lung cancer being the first. Colon, pancreas, and liver cancer make up the third, fourth, and fifth of the most deadly cancers among men, respectively.
Who Is Most at Risk of Developing Prostate Cancer?
Before delving into what prostate cancer is and why it is so common, let’s take an even closer look at just how prevalent the disease is in America. In terms of scale, the over 34,000 men expected to die from prostate cancer by the end of 2021 is about the same number of people that could fill a Major League Baseball stadium. And that averages out to roughly 91 deaths each day or about one man dying every 16 minutes. Of course, this is all based on future projections. Currently, some 3 million men in America are reportedly living with this life-altering disease. While all men are at risk of developing prostate cancer as they get older, the risk is higher for some than others. And several things go into explaining why this is the case.
Firstly, some men never undergo a digital rectal exam (DRE), which can help detect prostatic nodules that sometimes turn into cancer. Second, prostate cancer can be hereditary for some men, which means that they have inherited gene mutations that make it highly likely that they will fall victim to the disease. And this is backed by a study published by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which revealed that 5 to 10 percent of all men diagnosed with prostate cancer inherited gene mutations that predisposed them to the disease.
Along with inherited gene mutations and forgoing routine prostate exams, a man’s race can also increase their likelihood of developing prostate cancer. Studies show that African-American and Hispanic men are at a higher risk of developing and ultimately dying from prostate cancer. Asian men, when compared to their Caucasian counterparts, African-American, and Hispanic men, are less likely to develop or die from prostate cancer.
What Is Prostate Cancer and Why Is It So Common?
The long and short of it is that prostate cancer, aside from targeting the prostate gland, specifically, is not too dissimilar from other cancers in that it occurs as a result of changes in DNA, which is precipitated by cells within the prostate dividing uncontrollably. Along with age and race, hormone imbalances can trigger this out of control cell division that ultimately gives way to prostate cancer. For example, a study published by Science Daily revealed that men over 40 with high testosterone levels, meaning 1,100 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL) and above, are at risk of developing prostate cancer. High testosterone levels in men can result from any of the following:
The quality of personal health is more important to patients than any other thing. This is why most hospitals prefer scheduled or periodic follow-ups with their patients. However, for large hospitals, this may come with some challenges as the number of patients to be handled may be bigger than the health care teams. Besides, hospitals also face stiff competition as patients easily find alternative health care providers who offer better treatment options.
To be able to beat the competition, many hospitals develop more effective marketing outlets. These web-based outlets help patients with answering health care questions before they can proceed to seek treatment. In fact, according to Creatio, of all the health questions, three-fourth of them begin in search engines. This is why hospitals need healthcare CRM. But what is a healthcare CRM? Let’s begin with the definition.
Healthcare CRM
This is a software in the healthcare industry that allows medical centers to manage all the patient’s data together with other health information more efficiently. Healthcare CRM comes with significant components some of which are similar to other CRM systems. The general modules of healthcare CRM are:
Communication: this feature helps hospitals in scheduling, initiating and monitoring all communications with their patients. Besides, it includes features that support appointment confirmation as well as setting reminders for the scheduled activities.
Reporting: healthcare providers use this feature to generate patient reports such as those that track ROI for all marketing campaigns.
Task management: this CRM module makes it possible for healthcare staff to add tasks, assign tasks to staff members, view tasks, update tasks, track progress, set priorities, deadlines and completion.
Patient management module: this module is specific for healthcare industry. It is used by healthcare users to add patient records, update them, segment patients based on their conditions as well as communicate with patients more effectively.
These modules are very specific for the health industry and provide great support to the health provision process. However, not everybody will benefit from a healthcare CRM. See who can benefit from a healthcare service industry CRM:
Hospitals
Urgent care centers
Primary care officers and physicians
Retail health clinics
Emergency departments
Outpatient centers etc.
4 Key Benefits Of Healthcare CRM
Mailing and marketing campaigns
Healthcare CRM helps healthcare providers to know their patients, understand what they are looking for or what they need to be able so that they are able to improve quality of services and improve relationships with patients. This tool is able to track the satisfaction of patients as well as check their likelihoods of referring other patients to the facility. Besides, this software helps you to efficiently filter patient contacts. You therefore get a targeted list of patients with more interest in upcoming products or offers.
Improves Personalization
Apart from just storing private healthcare details of a patient, this system also stores information about birthdays, gender, age, profession among other personal information. The tool will therefore help you send personalized messages or emails to inform patients about discounts, congratulate them on birthdays, remind them to take pills or attend to appointments and many more. All these personalized actions show patients that you care for them and help them recover even faster.
Eliminates Errors
Manual reporting increases chances of administrative errors. Research shows that over 70% of patients repeat cases after the same cases are reported to several other doctors. Besides, many patients are forced to retake tests after initial test results are lost.
However, as the quality of service become more important to the industry, healthcare providers must shift to offering patients increased quality as it affects their revenue directly. By informing healthcare providers about patient information that should be entered and storing all that information, CRM system solves the problems of lost patient interactions and minimizes time spent serving the patients. This eliminates administrative errors and increases customer satisfaction.
Tracks Referred Patients
The process of transferring patients to specialists is not easy to track without CRM. It is not easy to track whether the patients actually visited the specialists or whether they got quality healthcare. Patients are lost as a result, and that also means that profit is lost.
Healthcare CRM helps staff to store referral information as well as track their progress to ensure quality service is offered. If there is an interrupted service, the system communicates with staff and such cases are resumed easily.
By Daniel Frey, vice president of business development and co-founder, FieldMed.
Daniel Frey
Such as we experienced this past year with the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis can strike at any moment. Frontline workers such as paramedics know this better than anyone. As those on the frontlines of emergency responses, paramedics also know the importance of having the right tools immediately available. Customized ePCR (electronic patient care reporting) software helps first responders quickly adapt to any crisis situation with limited interruptions in the field.
3 Benefits of ePCR Software Customization
In an emergency situation, these customized forms and templates are precious commodities. With a customizable ePCR software, responding to real-world crisis scenarios becomes less stressful and more streamlined.
Adaptable fire department record management software provides first responders with three major benefits, including:
Optimized templates and forms
Improved Metric Analysis
Interagency Consistency
Optimized Templates and Forms
Customized ePCR forms and templates make a paramedic’s job easier. By tailoring EMS charting software to a specific situation, first responders waste less time on data collection and documentation. This allows for first responders to focus their time and resources on what matters most: treating patients. Customized ePCR templates and forms can be crafted — even on the fly — to seamlessly follow along with a paramedic’s workflow. There’s no more scrolling past long blocks of text or data entry points that aren’t germane to the situation. First responders are able to focus on delivering and documenting treatments, resulting in the overall improvement of patient care.
In non-emergency situations, ePCRs can be adjusted to meet a department’s specific needs, whether it’s responding to a common situation, such as a car crash, or treating a specific population, such as veterans or specific issues, such as mental health matters.
The healthcare sector in the United States is growing at a rapid pace. The combination of an aging population, an ongoing pandemic, and growing numbers of retiring healthcare workers mean that the demand for skilled personnel is at an all-time high.
One particular area that is also burgeoning is healthcare administration. These individuals play a vital role in ensuring that the daily running of a healthcare facility is efficient and working according to standards. If you’re interested in a career in this field, below is a short guide about what it involves.
Description
Healthcare administrators oversee the day-to-day operations of a hospital or healthcare facility. Otherwise known as healthcare managers, these individuals ensure that a medical facility is adhering to the best and most efficient practices. They are often required to plan and supervise all services as well as monitor budgets and update health records. The average salary for a healthcare administrator is $99,000 per annum.
Requirements
If you’re interested in becoming a healthcare administrator, there are a few requirements that you’ll need:
Relevant degree: it’s important to study for a degree in areas of health care administration or business administration. A bachelor’s in this subject area is a start, but to make yourself even more employable, a master’s degree such as a TUW MHA Degree will take you even further.
A minimum of 5 years’ experience in hospital administration.
In-depth knowledge of the healthcare regulations and terminology.
Proven experience with accounting or administration.
Outstanding written, verbal, and communication skills.
Excellent problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and organizational skills.
Responsibilities
The responsibilities of healthcare managers can vary depending on their specialization and on the clinic, hospital, or facility they’re working in. Generally, though, healthcare managers are responsible for the following:
Designing budgets and establishing rates for services
Keeping detailed records of medical and office supplies
Ensuring departments comply with existing regulations and healthcare laws
Streamlining financial and operational practices
Specializations
While healthcare administrators can work in general regions of healthcare management, they can also specialize in a few key areas. These include:
Human Resources: this requires developing retention and recruitment programs, building relationships with nursing and medical schools, and meeting with other members of staff within the organization to ensure that everyone is looked after.
Health Policy: this area involves extensive research into current healthcare policy and regulation, as well as statistics and data gathering. Individuals specializing in this area will likely spend time drafting proposals or pitching ideas while working with clinicians.
Logistics and Equipment: individuals working in this area will be responsible for forecasting, overseeing supplies, and tracking shipments. This is a vital and important role for hospitals, as was evidenced by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the need for crucial PPE equipment.
Healthcare Marketing: healthcare marketing is an important specialism that involves conducting patient surveys, analyzing industry trends, and working with copywriters and media creatives to promote an organization’s services.
Heading into the backend of 2020, we’re witnessing radical change at each level of the healthcare system. Beyond the dedicated amount of care and attention given to each coronavirus-positive patient, tight budgets and limited resources create new challenges each day.
From the frontline caregivers to CTOs to vendor partners, COVID-19 has forced all parties to reevaluate how to best strategize and deliver world-leading treatments in the face of a global pandemic – not an easy task.
When reflecting on lessons learned from the pandemic (and looking forward) – a major priority that stands out is the need to better organize and unite the different departments, or “personas”, existing in the hospital, namely the C-suite, biomed / clinical engineering and IT.
While these departments are often forced to collaborate by crises, too often does the segmented nature of the health system result in siloed operations, i.e. ones where the departments rarely interact with each other. Each of these departments have their own specific requirements and objectives and, if there is an overlap, then there can be a struggle over whose priority is more essential.
While this hierarchy worked in pre-COVID times, it’s now clear that the challenges of the new healthcare system are too complex and urgent to tackle in a piecemeal fashion. Instead, we must bring together the separate departments and arm them with the technology, data and insights to make joint decisions – whether this is relocating critical medical devices to patients in need, shoring up cybersecurity attack surfaces, or completing asset procurement orders based on urgent demand.
Bridging the Departments
When looking at the responsibilities of the different “personas” in the hospital, it is fairly easy to see why silos occur. At the top, the C-suite is focused on high-level operations and business imperatives, which makes it difficult to gain a granular view of what’s most needed by the different departments. In comparison, the biomed or clinical engineering teams are operating on the ground level and tasked with maintaining all the equipment or services in the hospital – a task made exceedingly difficult by the explosion of medical and IoT devices on a hospital’s network.
IT’s role intersects with all the aforementioned areas – leveraging the C-suite to obtain the funds and approval to advance operating systems needed to keep the hospital on the cutting-edge of medical innovation, as well as collaborating with the biomed team to coordinate security procedures across all the equipment they must maintain.
By Tara Mahoney, head of healthcare practice, Avaya.
Tara Mahoney
COVID-19 has forever changed the U.S. healthcare system with the acceleration of digital transformation and remote collaboration. As 2020 past us now, we’re getting a clearer picture of what post-pandemic healthcare in the U.S. will look like (or rather, require). Based on my industry background at Avaya, here are four predictions as we continue into 2021:
Prediction #1: Telehealth is here to stay and it’s forcing us to reimagine current care models. It must and will evolve.
The pandemic thrusted organizations into the inevitable telehealth revolution, but it’s not likely COVID-19 will push the timetable forward as much as some claim. Telehealth is about much more than “just” video-based physician visits. It will evolve to cover many workflows where patients and care teams cannot be together, including virtual rounding, remote patient monitoring, bedside consultation. It’s about being able to seamlessly coordinate across the entire health organization in a way that positively impacts key measures of clinical quality – all while addressing information security concerns and abiding by HIPAA regulations.
It’s about the use of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) for collecting important healthcare data in real-time to enable proactive, remote care delivery. It’s about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data analytics to make critical predictions about patient diagnoses, treatment side effects, staffing, and expenses. It’s a complex journey, only made more complex by historically slow-to-change industry policies.
Health systems pulled together in 2020, but that’s not enough for sustainable digital transformation. Organizations will take their time navigating the complexities of digitization and remote collaboration as they embrace a new future of operations and patient care. We will see current care models change, albeit incrementally.
Well before the world was forced to go remote, there was a transformation taking place in the medical sphere that held the keys to a whole new way of serving patients. A myriad of connected devices and digital workflows were being developed in healthcare that would streamline manual processes and improve efficiency for both patients and providers alike.
When in-person visits for relatively healthy patients proved too risky beginning in the spring of 2020, Medicare temporarily waived restrictions on certain telehealth initiatives predating the smartphone era, and patients and providers didn’t hesitate to buy in. This transformation has stuck, as providers and patients have largely found a comfortable balance in meeting each other digitally.
Siemens Healthineers, for instance, found that while many of their healthcare provider customers felt strained adapting their services at the beginning of the pandemic, new remote strategies that were put in place as stopgap measures, like having workers who aren’t directly involved with patient care log on remotely, proved to solve a slew of chronic challenges.
Digitally-delivered remote care can also have a substantial impact on patient experience even when caregivers and patients are in the same building. Just as non-critical-care health professionals (ie. Patient Administration) can access office work from home, nurses and doctors who may be in the same building as those in their care can treat patients at a safe distance by leveraging a bevy of remote working tools.
The three primary benefits of remote care and telehealth on the short and long term include:
Ensuring patient and worker safety: While limiting human exposure to viral infection is an immediate concern that telehealth addresses, we’re learning lessons today that we’ll apply across the board when it comes to patient and provider safety via telemedicine. For instance, providing care becomes less hazardous at a distance when doctors and nurses aren’t exposed to radiation during cardiovascular treatments. Telehealth also limits the need for time-consuming hygiene protocols when there’s less physical interaction between patients and caregivers.
Solving resource and capacity limitations: While there were many reports about a lack of ventilators during the first peak of the pandemic in the US, there was also a dearth of professionals available to actually operate this machinery. Remote healthcare solutions can be implemented in times like this to connect experienced operators with staff-strapped hospitals to share their expertise, all while monitoring a patient’s vital signs from afar. Many patients also find it more convenient to schedule telehealth appointments with their providers as this offers more schedule flexibility since travel requirements hinders their ability to visit the provider’s office.
Improving efficiency and care quality: When non-critical workers in the healthcare field don’t have to worry about exposure to the stresses (and viruses) of the doctor’s office or hospital, there’s a significantly lower risk of burnout. This has the potential to, in turn, lower the incident of treatment errors, while increasing productivity and morale.
However, the rush to remote care and away from the doctor’s office isn’t going to represent a total reversal overnight on how the industry operates, even though it succeeded in times of stress. For many healthcare providers centered in more ISP-rich population hubs, reaching rural communities involves ensuring the delivery of traffic across a bevy of stakeholders (local ISPs, transit networks, etc.).
