“We believe consumer health technologies — apps, wearables, self-diagnosis tools — have the potential to strengthen the patient-physician connection and improve health outcomes,” said Dr. Glen Stream, Chairman of Family Medicine for America’s Health. It is this sentiment that will perhaps shape tech adoption in healthcare through 2021 and beyond, the keywords being accessibility and connectivity.
As the world reels from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we look to medical advances that will shape the future of healthcare. Emergent healthcare tech must connect a socially-distanced world to offer greater healthcare solutions for a greater portion of the population. Through cloud data and artificial intelligence, these solutions are increasingly possible.
Consumer-focused, accessible technologies are transforming the healthcare industry, with impacts likely to be felt as we move into 2021. COVID-19 quickened this transformation, and now healthcare professionals and patients alike look to benefit from the connective devices and technologies of the future.
Entering the Matrix through Digital Healthcare
A few years ago it might have seemed absurd to entertain the notion of increasingly virtual healthcare. The coronavirus changed that. Now, state and local governments are breaking down barriers to allow for novel, digital treatment plans that can take place over a smartphone video call. This has been a groundbreaking shift in terms of healthcare accessibility.
Telehealth innovations are emerging that offer everything from cardiology to infectious disease treatments all through virtual platforms. Care providers are even cutting costs through tele-paramedicine, which allows emergency patients to speak with specialists before they even make it on an ambulance. In turn, unnecessary transportation can be avoided for cost savings for patients and providers alike.
Throughout 2021, we will likely see vertical growth of telemedicine as more and better data analytics, paired with smart software, build a matrix for remote healthcare possibilities.
Alexa, Track My Medical Records
The digitization of healthcare is trending into smart home systems. These hubs of living room convenience are making waves in at-home healthcare, offering care coordination for chronic disease management. In the landscape of COVID-19 concerns, such innovations offer the kind of safety and accessibility needed for vulnerable patients.
Programs designed with Amazon’s Alexa in mind have made possible the tracking of diabetic information, blood pressure, medication compliance, and more for the benefit of at-home users. The online nature of these devices offers physicians the ability to experience real-time metric tracking alongside wearables to better monitor patient health.
Many healthcare professionals are now providing telemedicine calls and video conferences as an option to their patients due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this is a wonderful tool for both patients and doctors, many people have not taken full advantage of the easy access they now have to their doctors. In addition, doctors have not yet understood the full scope of benefits that this form of communication has to offer.
Unfortunately, many hospitals are fearful about the HIPAA compliance, technological advancements, and legal implications of using this form of care. There are expert lawyers that are trained to handle CA telemedicine violations if a client believes that their privacy was violated. After the legal requirements are adhered to, there are a few reasons why telemedicine will improve your pipeline of business.
1. Patient Loyalty
Often, patients visit a doctor once every few years, with little to no contact in between consultations. When you only see your doctor every few years, it is difficult to develop a trusted relationship. Without a relationship, you are likely to prospect other doctors that have more flexible schedules or cheaper services. When you provide telemedicine capabilities to your client, you can begin a loyal relationship. This relationship will help the customer develop trust for your services and loyalty to your organization.
2. Cost Savings
When you use telemedicine, both the doctor and the client save money. For patients, it is expensive to visit the physician every time you have a question or concern. For hospitals and offices, it is cumbersome to reapply hygiene essentials and conduct routine examinations for each and every patient. By having certain consultations that can be completed over video conferencing, both parties will save time and money.
Living through a pandemic these past few months has been grueling on the mind and body. Whether you contracted the coronavirus, lost a loved one, or had to deal with the stresses associated with changes to everyday life, chances are you’re exhausted. Despite the circulation of vaccines, the journey towards normalcy is an uphill battle. Ultimately, if you’re going to have the physical and mental strength to weather the storm, you’ll need to prioritize your health.
Trouble Making Change
Most people are aware of the importance of good health. Some even make steps towards improvement. Unfortunately, learning new concepts and applying them to your life isn’t as easy as it sounds. From a lack of motivation to setting unrealistic goals, several factors impede progress. Consequently, you revert to old ways and fail to meet your mark.
Technology Can Help
The integration of technology in the health and wellness industries has resulted in the development of innovative platforms. When used effectively, these resources help users reduce roadblocks and distractions that prevent them from being their best selves. From goal setting and lifestyle management applications to virtual healthcare services and online support groups, here are some of the most popular resources to adapt.
Fitness Trackers
If the goal is to improve your diet and exercise habits, fitness trackers can help you stay on the right track. Users can set nutrition and fitness goals and monitor their daily progress. Using this platform provides accountability, motivation, and support as you strive to reach your goals. With daily notifications, real-time monitoring, and regular progress reports, users can access data that can help them improve their health.
At the moment, conditions of the lockdowns that swept the nation from March 2020 to the end of last year have started to ease up in some places, making it possible for people to get out and about and try to start resuming their normal lives.
For some people, however, they’ve finally started managing the physical, financial, and mental struggles of being locked down, and they’re now having a problem getting back out into the real world. For some, life after lockdown has them feeling anxious and unsure. Are you one of those people? Read on below to find out the signs and symptoms that you may be suffering from post-lockdown anxiety and what you can do about it.
Symptoms of Post-Lockdown Anxiety
For many people, the thought of going back into the real world and being around crowds when there’s no cure for COVID-19 can leave them just as anxious and worried as the COVID-19 virus did to begin with. Some signs and symptoms of this anxiety are listed below.
Stomach cramps
Fatigue
Problems concentrating
Shortness of breath
Sweating
Your heart is racing
You’re worried about the future
Problems sleeping
While these symptoms could be from a variety of different things, if they continue you should see your primary healthcare provider to see if you’re suffering from post-lockdown and anxiety so that you can set up a treatment plan. It is nothing to be ashamed of, as many people are having this problem now that the restrictions are being lifted.
By Christopher Maiona, M.D., SFHM, chief medical officer, PatientKeeper, Inc.
Christopher Maiona, M.D.
After all that transpired in 2020, it’s understandable if people are reluctant to make predictions about what will happen in 2021. I suspect some prognosticators retired their crystal balls, or at least are finding the view a bit hazy right now.
And yet, in the healthcare IT domain, I’d argue that the major trends entering 2020 continued – some even accelerated – during the unpredicted chaos of last year. The movements in health IT toward greater mobility, interoperability, and remote care capabilities all manifested themselves in profound ways during the pandemic. Each will remain a priority for provider organizations in 2021, and I predict (warily) will see progress in the coming year.
Mobility Plus
Even as mobile devices have become more commonplace in healthcare settings, provider organizations still face challenges in realizing the full potential of these platforms. While there is utility in the ability to view clinical results or send messages (hopefully HIPAA-compliant ones) to colleagues, the real value is to integrate these features into a larger bundle of capabilities central to common provider workflows. Doing so places the entire technological ecosystem in the palm of a clinician’s hand. I predict we will see continued feature growth in the mobile space to better facilitate a provider’s ability to deliver care in the moment, wherever and whenever that moment may be.
To highlight where this evolution of mobility is leading us, consider this scenario. A provider reviews a concerning test or lab result on their phone. Without waiting to address this on a desktop station, they can utilize CPOE on their mobile device to order a follow-up study, and request a notification be “pushed” to them when the study is completed (or there is no result in timely fashion). They can query their fully-integrated messaging feature to identify the appropriate specialist on call and immediately send a secure text, which automatically incorporates a link to the patient’s full chart and all relevant data, and offers the user the ability to add a few lines of text to clarify the reason for consultation. The attending can confirm consult receipt and may further discuss the care plan. The consultant in turn may enter preliminary orders while the attending can message the larger care team (nurse, case manager, etc.) with an update before dictating a quick note.
With the continued advances in NLP and note automation, I anticipate the provider component of note generation will once again focus on pertinent positives/negatives, thought process and the plan, leaving the more administrative documentation to the system. Taken together, these advances will help free the provider from the constraints of the desktop terminal and facilitate the advancement of care. I don’t expect all of this to come to fruition in 2021, but we will take initial steps along the path.
Finally, on the mobile front, I would expect to see continued development of virtual assistants, which will one day move us from simple screen navigation to CPOE and touch-free engagement.
Following a year marked by one challenging headline after another in 2020, news in the fight against COVID-19 will likely turn better in 2021 thanks to improved treatments and the arrival of effective vaccines. From a Health IT standpoint, however, both the good news and the bad are together fueling a steady growth in data volumes and complexity that will require new levels of IT coordination and data management.
The reason for this is that medical professionals now have a year’s worth of health metrics on the spread of COVID-19 and reams of structured, unstructured, and behavioral data on treatment regimens and patient outcomes. At the same time, a similar avalanche of data is growing around the administration and efficacy of newly-approved vaccines. Taken together, these factors present challenges of both complexity and scale.
Let’s take a look at three resulting trends we’ll likely see in 2021 as data-driven professionals seek to address these challenges through better ways to leverage information for insight and action against the global pandemic.
Trend 1: Enhanced adoption of common health IT data standards – Whether it’s through the ANSI-accredited Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) schema or similar frameworks, we’ll see a push to standardize health-related data across mobile phone apps, cloud communications, EHR-based data sharing, server communication in large institutional healthcare providers, and more. The goal is to break down silos between these disparate data sources and platforms. And there’s a cultural component to the silo-busting as well, in that common standards and definitions for data can also help technologists and business users collaborate more efficiently. That can be a challenge in any domain area; but in the case of COVID-19, success around seamless, secure, and proactive analysis of data can literally save lives.
The pandemic has made us all a little more aware of our health. We overanalyze every cough and sniffle. Is that just a sore throat, or the end of the world? Does a little shortness of breath after a run mean I should quarantine for 10 days? What about that new strain from the U.K. I keep hearing about?
With the hospitals at or over capacity, emergency rooms are closed to casual queries. You might find it a little difficult to make a doctor’s appointment because they have their hands full. Beyond COVID-related questions, there are other diseases and injuries that still need attention. We are not experiencing any fewer cases of heart disease, diabetes, strep throat, and broken arms.
Babies are still being born. Auto accidents are still occurring. Kitchen accidents still cause cuts and infections. Serious burns still need immediate medical attention. Yet we have fewer medical professionals with the bandwidth to attend to these needs. The average person with no medical training is expected to do more. We are all going to have to take more ownership of our medical care. If you can’t or won’t go to the doctor for treatment and advice, here is the next best thing:
Do Home Testing
There are many tests available that you can do yourself from the comfort and privacy of your own home. Even if the results aren’t perfect, they can give you some idea of whether or not you should insist on seeing a doctor. There are even products you can buy for your pets that serve a similar purpose.
2020 is behind you, and it’s the season to roll up your sleeves, pull out your documents, open your checkbook, and work to choose the right health insurance plan to meet your needs for 2021.
While there are many healthcare trends and predictions floating around for 2021, the one thing that remains the same is the fact that you’re going to need high-quality health insurance to see you and your family through the bad times and the good. If you’re like most Americans, you’re at a loss when it comes to knowing how to pick the best plan. Read on below for a few tips to help you make the right choice.
Consider Your Health
If you have any medical conditions that require ongoing care, such as heart disease or diabetes, you want to choose a plan that provides you with lower copayments and lower deductibles, as you’ll be visiting your doctor more than you would if you were in excellent health. The same holds true if you’re expecting a baby in the next year, as you’ll have more frequent appointments and a big hospital bill coming after the birth. While you’ll pay a higher premium for your health insurance plan, your out-of-pocket costs should be quite a bit lower.
The one thing you don’t want to do is just pick a health insurance plan from only a few options. Instead, check out different medical quotes, then go with the one that offers you the most coverage for your money.
Do the Math
When searching for the right insurance provider, most people focus on how much their monthly premium is going to be. In reality, you should do the math and go with the lowest deductible, instead of the lowest monthly payment, especially if you anticipate having to visit your doctor often.
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