Perhaps you’ve heard the terms “eHealth app” or mHealth app” before. Maybe during the pandemic, you have experienced one yourself. More doctors and hospitals are now using them, and many patients say they enjoy them.
With eHealth apps, there are certainly drawbacks as well as positives. Let’s look at some of those right now, starting with some potential disadvantages you shouldn’t ignore.
Misdiagnosis Chances
The first and probably most significant problem with eHealth apps is that if you’re using one to see your doctor, you’re not there in the office with them in-person. Because of this, they can’t physically examine you. If you’re having a problem, you can describe it via the eHealth app. You can point to the body part that hurts. However, the doctor can’t put their hands on you, nor can they test some of your vital signs.
Life as we know has it changed in many different ways, and one of the biggest factors is how we go about our daily lives and how we may operate businesses in the future. The threat of COVID-19 has not gone away, and there are things that we need to start thinking about now that lockdown is easing and restrictions are being lifted. However, what can you do to better conform to the changes and this transition period we are in?
The truth is, technology can help. As this has a lot to do with health and wellbeing, for you personally and also the customers that you may have, is there anyway that technology is helping to make this easier? The answer is yes.
From applications that you can use, to help handheld technology that makes life easier, we wanted to highlight some of the ways technology will help businesses to thrive during this pandemic and for the future as we face this new normal.
Technology enhancements to help within business
There are a lot of things that you might need to think about when it comes to your business aspects and embracing new applications and technology enhancements will help you to succeed in your business and move forward. Applications for tracking and tracing. Apps for collecting customer data and also thinking about making things contactless.
This might be contactless technology for payment or logistics with delivery methods. There is a lot to think about when it comes to your business and technology can help you sail through this strange period. This is when you may need to think about seeking advice from experts in technology business consulting could be a great move as your business needs to navigate contactless sales and also manage customers in a different way. This will only help you to understand the levels of technology that could be implicated within your business to help it thrive now.
Keeping customer details up to date
It is now more important than ever to have the right data of customers stored and to keep these things secure. Which is why software that can help with customer relationship management could be a big plus point for your business now.
Not only is it good for business to have something like a CRM system in place, but with there being more focus on understanding and analyzing where people go for the safety of communities, having this information can be really helpful in the future.
A CRM system is also a useful tool to have the details of your customers to help with marketing. Now more than ever you need to encourage customers to deal with your business and to also help them understand how they can purchase from you and move forward.
Track and trace apps to understand the spread
The government is wanting to try and understand the spread of the virus in the very best way that they can, and this might mean that they need to look at tracking and tracing people’s whereabouts. For example, if your business had 10 people turn up in a day, then a few days later one of those people tested positive for covid-19, then they would need to inform other people in the vicinity that may have been in close contact with that person, including yourself. Track and trace help to manage the spread, and using applications for your business to collate and collect the data is important to help your business to continue to work effectively.
Delivery apps for contactless delivery methods
Another thing that you may need to do is to consider using delivery applications. If your business provides products that can be delivered, then it may be a good idea to focus on tactless delivery methods. This is when using delivery app services and courtiers who have come up with solutions to combat this would be a great help.
It enables the customer to track their parcel, allows them to do things such as provide a safe place or drop off location, and then avoids them having to get in close proximity with them. It might be a small change for you as a business to implement this sort of technology and process, but it could mean a great deal to your customer to feel extra protected when dealing with you as a business.
Understanding ecommerce and making more of it
Another thing that you might need to think about now as a business is the ecommerce and digital side of things. Perhaps during lockdown you reverted to an online system so that you could continue to maintain orders, but a shop is likely not going to be the first choice for people moving forward. Understanding the ecommerce side of things is important to help your business to thrive.
Diversifying the way you have done business during lockdown may have opened your eyes to the possibilities and also expanding your customer reach. A great tip would be to spend some time enhancing the digital aspect of your business. Such as a new website. You could also use this opportunity to link it to social media platforms and work on a strategy to keep them updated. After all, so many are seeking information in the online world that you need your business to adapt, and quick.
Digital thermometers
Finally, if you do have a business location that is opening up then you may want to invest in a digital and contactless thermometer. These are handheld devices where if you wave it in front of the year do for someone it will tell you their temperature.
As a high temperature is a huge factor in the symptoms of covid-19 this could be an essential to help you keep you and everyone in your business safe. Before people enter the business, customers and staff, they could use this handheld device to ensure that their temperature is where it needs to be.
Let’s hope these suggestions help you when it comes to technology in your business.
Seeking professional help in the healthcare industry has become much easier than it was before. Thanks to technology that enabled us to lead a healthy life through healthcare mobile apps.
In recent times, there has been a great increase in these healthcare apps as they save doctor’s and patient’s time and also help healthcare workers to make some extra money in their leisure time.
A healthcare app should have the latest features based on the trend in the healthcare market. Before continuing reading we recommend viewing a post about how to create a health app on Riseapps blog. It will help you find out more about the medical app market, development process and costs.
In this article, we will talk about the five latest trends in the healthcare apps market that will make your app stand out among all the other healthcare apps.
McKinley County, New Mexico, is the namesake of the assassinated 25 U.S. President William McKinley. Many locals, particularly those Native Americans of Navajo decent living on reservations, have also been the victim of assassination, but in character in addition to physical attacks. Three decades ago Gallup, New Mexico, which borders on the Navajo Reservation, was known as “Drunk Town, USA.”
For many years Northwest New Mexico’s Gallup ranked number one nationally in the number of alcohol-related deaths. This reputation also killed many resident’s spirits, contributing to addiction, joblessness and homelessness, further highlighting the need for behavioral health care in this region. Native American youth have the highest rates of alcoholism of any racial group in the country, according to the National Institutes of Health.
McKinley County Is One of Poorest in U.S.
There are many stories like this. Addiction’s partner is the adjunct poverty of McKinley County, one of the poorest counties in the U.S. In Gallup there is a large population of Navajo and Na’nizhoozhi Indians. It is the most populous city in the county with 22,670 residents and is situated between Albuquerque and Flagstaff with 61 percent living below the federal poverty line and unemployment at 8.4 percent.
The Indian Health Service (IHS), an operating division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the principal federal health care provider for Indians. Its mission is to raise their health status to the highest possible level. However, there are still issues such as the life expectancy for Indians being approximately 4.5 years less than the general population of the United States, 73.7 years versus 78.1 years.
Data from a 2014 National Emergency Department Inventory survey also showed that only 85% of the 34 IHS respondents had continuous physician coverage. Of these 34 sites surveyed, only four sites utilized telemedicine while a median of just 13 percent of physicians were board certified in emergency medicine. Another behavioral health related disease afflicting the territory is diabetes. In 2016, diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death for New Mexicans and the seventh leading cause in the U.S.
RMCHCS Hospital Fights Addiction with Behavioral Health Apps
Despite the drumbeat of bad news and discouraging statistics, organizations such as Gallup’s Na’ Nihzhoozhi Center Inc.’s (NCI) has 26,000 admissions every year and is the nation’s busiest treatment center with many repeat customers. The detox center was the result of an effort 30 years ago which began when more than 5,000 people marched from Gallup to Santa Fe to demand assistance from state lawmakers and received a $400,000 for a study to build a detoxification center. The hospital then received two-million-dollar ongoing yearly federal grant out of which NCI was born.
The leader of that effort in the ’80s and ’90s was David Conejo who returned in 2014 as the CEO of Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services (RMCHCS) where he leads the fight against addiction with traditional tactics, but also behavioral healthcare innovations that have captured the attention of the healthcare industry.
Turing the Tables on Addiction
When he became CEO of RMCHS a few years ago, he took a financially failing hospital and turned it around with the help of William Kiefer, Ph. D who is the hospital’s chief operating officer. Recognizing the root cause of the region’s health problem was addiction, Conejo revitalized a former rehab building on the hospital’s grounds and with some fundraising he launched the Behavioral Health Treatment Center.
The center is operated by Ophelia Reeder, a long-time healthcare advocate for the Navajo Nation and a board member of the Gallup Indian Medical Center. Bill Camorata, a former addict, is the behavioral special projects director. He opened “Bill’s Place,” an outdoor facility where he and hospital volunteers treated the homeless with meals, clothing and medical triage as part of Gallup’s Immediate Action Group that he founded and serves as president. The center has treated more than 200 addicted residents since the center opened in 2015 and has a staff of 30 who manage resident’s case work, provide behavioral health services and are certified in peer support.
By Donald Voltz,MD, Aultman Hospital, department of anesthesiology, medical director of the main operating room, assistant professor of anesthesiology, Case Western Reserve University and Northeast Ohio Medical University.
Dr. Donald Voltz
In his HIMSS keynote address, Alphabet’s former executive chairman and now current technical advisor Eric Schmidt warned attendees that the “future of healthcare lies in the need for killer apps.” But he also cautioned that the transition to a better digitally connected health future isn’t just one killer app, but a system of apps working together in the cloud. He also advocated transforming the massive amount of data held in EHRs into information and knowledge.
Schmidt is correct in his assessments. There is a need for interoperable “killer apps” for new health IT priorities and procedures. The apps need to deliver better patient outcomes by integrating and optimizing patient data while driving healthcare facility financial incentives such identifying cost savings and streamlining insurer payments. These types of needs are accelerating convergence in the health care sector for interoperability across clinical, financial, and operational systems, not simply EHR connectivity.
One of the cloud “killer apps” that is a strategic component of convergence and hospital growth are Annual Wellness Visits (AWVs). First introduced by private insurers and then by CMS in 2011 as part of its preventative care initiative under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), AWV’s are designed specifically to address health risks and encourage evidence-based preventive care in aging adults.
The typical visit requires a doctor or other clinician to run through a list of tasks like screening for dementia and depression, discussing care preferences at the end of life, asking patients if they can cook and clean independently and are otherwise safe at home. Little is required in the way of a physical exam beyond checking vision, weight, and blood pressure.
On its own merit, some could argue that while this app can greatly contribute to better patient care, it does not significantly impact hospital and clinic growth, but when integrated with other apps, it becomes a key healthcare growth catalyst with its treasure trove of patient data. That data, when streamlined, can enable expedited payments to government and private insurers, help lay the foundation for AI and other knowledge initiatives as cited by Schmidt.
Chronic Care Continuum App
Another “killer app” is the care continuum integration of treatment for chronic diseases ranging from diabetes to dementia and behavioral and mental health issues such as the U.S. opioid epidemic, heroin addiction, alcoholism and suicide. The ECRI Institute released its “Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for Healthcare Organizations” in March 2018 and cited the management of behavioral health needs in acute care settings as the 6th highest ranked safety concern.
“Organizations should consider working with other partners, such as psychiatrists, behavioral health treatment programs, clinics, medical schools and teaching programs, and law enforcement,” says Nancy Napolitano, patient safety analyst and consultant, ECRI Institute. “Being able to communicate remotely and seamlessly, assessing risk and complexity, as well as delivering high-quality connected care are critical. Relationships and partnerships are what get you what you need.”
Guest post by Lucas Vogel, principal consultant, Endpoint Systems.
Lucas Vogel
Imagine being a software developer at a company where your job description involves building HIPAA-compliant apps and services. As you onboard with your new company, you receive some formal basic training and learn about the privacy, security and breach notification rules, and after some additional training on various topics about your job, you enter your department and get acquainted with your work environment. This is the point where you find out what you’re really getting yourself into.
There is a direct correlation between the maturity level of applications developed in your organization and the quality of your work life. For example, if you walk into a developer role for a healthcare provider, you’re likely walking into a large and well-established IT group with many old and new technology platforms deployed, where you’ll take your place with a department that’s existed for several years and does fairly predictable work on prebuilt systems. But let’s say you’re working at the more cutting edge of healthcare technology, at a startup straddling innovation with compliance. In that case, understanding HIPAA compliance can feel incredibly daunting, especially as you may essentially be learning as you go with little guidance.
The good news is that it’s never been a better time to work on HIPAA-compliant healthcare apps. Advances in identity and access management (IAM) and consent frameworks make it easier for apps to authenticate, authorize and audit users, logging who is performing what within your application; advances in machine learning make it easier to parse these log streams, detecting threats and anomalies to application use, among other countless benefits. Further advances in application architecture, cloud and API technologies, database and container platforms (not to mention containerized database platforms), and development methodologies over the past decade have dramatically changed the way companies build applications and deploy platforms, culminating in what is known as the “twelve-factor application.”
Guest post by Cassie Phillips, an online security blogger, who writes about the best Internet privacy apps.
Cassie Phillips
App technology is revolutionizing the world. The sudden rise to popularity of the smartphone and tablet has put more power in our hands and more information at our fingertips than ever before. This has opened up a world of opportunities in many different fields, and medicine is no exception to that rule.
For health professionals, the vast quantity of ever-changing knowledge required to do the job properly has always been one of the most trying elements of the work. Now, there are many apps available that allow quick and easy access to a wealth of information at the push of a button. Here are just seven of the many offered.
Medscape
Designed and brought to you by the creators of WebMD, this app has been hailed as one of the best for reference and diagnosis assistance. Available for free download for both Android and iOS, it is an incredible tool with many features including drug identification and information, in depth patient care tutorials, disease and condition referencing and up-to-date medical education courses. This app is a vital medical resource for medical students and professionals alike and has a huge part to play in the electronic modernization of healthcare.
3D4 Medical
This clever piece of software allows you to explore anatomy like never before. With intricate on-screen models of all parts and elements of human anatomy, this is a valuable tool that gives healthcare professionals a chance to take a look inside the body. It’s completely anatomically accurate and uses impressive 3D technology.
Alongside this, it has features to customize body parts and add labels, which makes it a perfect assistant for keeping track of cases. It also offers tutorials and introductory anatomy lessons, which are great for medical students or anyone wanting to refresh their knowledge.
ReferralMD
When working in healthcare, it’s not just the patients that you have to worry about. All treatments come at a cost and as much as many of us would like that not to be the case, it’s a fact that isn’t going to change anytime soon. Trying to balance treatment costs can be a nightmare but ReferralMD is a great app that cuts your budget dramatically through one simple idea—optimizing referral communication. By moving all referrals to this app, a vast amount of money is saved through paper and fax machine expenses. It also ensures immediate processing of the request, which avoids handling costs.
In a nutshell, ResearchKit makes it easier for researchers to create iOS apps for their own research, focusing on three key things: consent, surveys, and active tasks. ResearchKit provides communication and instruction for the study, in addition to pre-built templates for surveys that can be used to collect Patient Reported Outcomes. Plus, ResearchKit can collect sensor data (objective patient activated outcomes) on fitness, voice, steps, and more, all working seamlessly within Apple’s HealthKit API, too, which many users have on their devices already. This allows researchers to access relevant health and fitness data (passive patient outcomes).
Five months after its launch, I’d say, in no exaggerated terms, that ResearchKit has proven to be game-changing for researchers, leapfrogging patient reported outcome studies into a “mobile first” world. However, the current framework certainly doesn’t cover the full gamut of what is needed to build a patient-centered, engaging, scaleable digital outcomes solution. If you’re planning piloting a solution around ResearchKit, here’s what you need to know:
ResearchKit offers up important benefits for medical researchers, especially when it comes to recruitment capability and the speed at which researchers can acquire insightful data to speed medical progress.
The MyHeart Counts app has been arguably the most successful example of ResearchKit use to date — it’s a great example of the recruitment capabilities provided by ResearchKit. In just 24 hours, the researchers from MyHeart Counts were able to enroll more than 10,000 patients in the study. Then they clocked an unprecedented 41,000 consented participants in less than six months (even before entering UK and Hong Kong markets). As most researchers know, recruitment can be one of the biggest challenges in building a study. But with ResearchKit, scientists are able to grow their number of participants into the thousands very quickly; it would have taken the MyHeart Counts researchers a year and 50 medical centers around the country to get to 10,000 participants.
Additionally, ResearchKit also increases the speed at which researchers are able to find the insights they’re looking for. This is mostly because people use their mobile devices constantly (most Americans clock more than two hours per day), which means that the accumulation of mass amounts of subjective (surveys), objective (sensors/active tasks) and passive (background) data happens quickly. The Asthma Health app is a great example of this, as it combines data from a phone’s GPS with information about a city’s air quality and a patient’s outcomes data, all to help patients adhere to their treatment plans and avoid asthma triggers — study participants told researchers that the app was also helping them better understand and manage their condition. The app is also assisting providers in making personalized asthma-care recommendations.
Perhaps you’ve heard the terms “eHealth app” or mHealth app” before. Maybe during the pandemic, you have experienced one yourself. More doctors and hospitals are now using them, and many patients say they enjoy them.
