mhealth healthcare apps and wearables

RightPatient® Hosts #HITsm Tweet Chat on mHealth Healthcare Apps and Wearables

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mhealth healthcare apps and wearables

We have the honor of hosting this week’s @HealthStandards #HITsm tweet chat on the topic of healthcare apps and wearables – two digital health tools that have recently surged in popularity to help patients better manage personal health and contain or prevent chronic disease conditions. Despite the popularity of these mhealth tools, the healthcare industry is just beginning to wrap it’s arms around how to not only aggregate and transfer the clinical, fitness, wellness and nutritional data generated by these devices to a patient’s electronic health record (EHR), but more importantly, how to gain wisdom from the data to ultimately improve both individual and population health outcomes. 

mhealth healthcare apps and wearables

The rise of mhealth healthcare apps and wearables promises to change individual and population health, but what barriers exist to realize the full potential of these tools?

Dig deeper into the discussion of mhealth apps and wearables and you will discover that behind the vendor hype, there are a lot of unanswered questions, unresolved issues, barriers, and “stickiness” problems that have people wondering if these tools will truly have the purported impact on the industry that their designers claim. Some believe that from a design perspective “there is a chasm between the good intentions of the Brand/Company and the needs of the patient.” Others feel that in the absence of a palpable and effective interoperability initiative that actually works and helps with the free flow of data between disparate systems, mhealth apps and wearables will never truly reach their full potential to not only improve individual health, but also allow clinicians to mine data and identify patterns and trends that may lead to radical improvements in population health. 

Recent market developments indicating that mhealth vendors are beginning to ink deals with major EHR providers to aggregate and populate data from these devices into a patient’s health record breathes life into the manifestation of patient generated health data collected by mHealth devices to the clinical record, and according to a recent article on mhealthnews, “lends weight to the argument that wellness and fitness information can be important to the healthcare provider.” Despite the optimism, not everyone is as excited about the surge in apps and wearables, particularly clinicians who feel that burdensome business and regulatory requirements surrounding mhealth are causing undo stress and dissatisfaction. 

Then there is the question of adoption and sustainability for mhealth apps and wearables. Who is most likely to use these tools? How can healthcare providers incentivize patients (especially those managing chronic diseases or part of the emergent risk population) to use them on a regular basis? Will patient demographics such as baby boomers or seniors be as open and willing to use them as millennials are?

Despite the roadblocks and challenges that mhealth apps and wearables present, few people disagree that these tools have a tremendous potential to alter the face of individual and population health outcomes to help better personalize medicine, reduce readmissions, improve outcomes, and drive comparative effectiveness research.

Join us this Friday at 11 a.m. CST for an in-depth chat on healthcare apps and wearables on the #HITsm tweet.

RightPatient receives an award for innovation

RightPatient® Named Top 40 Innovative Company by Technology Association of Georgia

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RightPatient receives an award for innovation
RightPatient® Named Top 40 Innovative Company by Technology Association of Georgia

RightPatient® was named a Top 40 Innovative Technology Company by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG).

We are delighted to report that RightPatient® was named one of the Top 40 Innovative Technology Company by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG). TAG’s Top 40 awards recognize Geogria-based companies for not only their innovation, but also their financial impact and efforts at spreading awareness of Georgia’s technology initiatives throughout the U.S. and globally. The best of the best in Georgia’s technology community, this award is an important benchmark of our innovative and creative technology development to address some of the core patient identification, patient engagement, personalized healthcare, and healthcare intelligence platform needs of the healthcare industry and to reduce costs and liability, improve quality of care, monitor population health, and enhance the patient experience. A link to the news release announcing the award can be found here. 

We are inching closer to the release of our healthcare informatics platform that unifies big data and clinical knowledge in healthcare in an unprecedented way to drive personalized health, decision support, and predictive analytics. Built as a global healthcare ecosystem, this smart health platform aggregates data and uses deep learning and predictive analytics to personalize medicine, reduce readmissions, improve outcomes, and drive comparative effectiveness research.

Thank you to TAG for bestowing this award to us, and congratulations to the entire RightPatient® team for their dedication and hard work on all of our solutions!

TGMC-is-using-RightPatient-to-reduce-preventable-medical-errors-and-increase-patient-safety

Terrebonne General Medical Center Reaps Benefits of Iris Biometrics for Patient Identification

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TGMC-is-using-RightPatient-to-reduce-preventable-medical-errors-and-increase-patient-safety

More hospitals are reaping the benefits of using iris biometrics for patient identification to help:

— eliminate duplicate medical records

— reduce preventable medical errors

— prevent medical identity theft and fraud at the point of service

— raise patient safety levels

TGMC-is-using-RightPatient-to-reduce-preventable-medical-errors-and-increase-patient-safety

Terrebonne General Medical Center recently implemented the RightPatient® iris biometric patient identification system.

Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma, LA. is no exception. After a seamless integration of our RightPatient® biometric patient identification solution into Terrebonne’s McKesson EHR system at their main hospital late last year, the hospital has quickly acclimated the technology as a key piece of their strategy to raise patient safety levels, and reduce preventable medical errors that could result from patient misidentification. Terrebonne’s patients have warmly embraced the biometric patient identification solution with over 99% opting into the RightPatient® system, citing its importance to protect their medical identity and prevent unnecessary medical errors along with it’s no-touch, hygienic nature as a key feature for using the technology. Read more

patient engagement in healthcare free podcast.

New Podcast: Patient Engagement Part II with Dr. Neal Kaufman from DPS Health

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patient engagement in healthcare free podcast.
New Podcast: Patient Engagement Part II with Dr. Neal Kaufman from DPS Health

Dr. Neal Kaufman from DPS Health was our podcast guest to discuss advancements and the impact of patient engagement in healthcare.

Since the topic of patient engagement continues to be a major focus and a topic of burgeoning interest in healthcare to achieve the “triple aim” of – lowering costs, improving the patient experience of care, and improving the health of populations – we decided to schedule a new podcast on the topic as a follow up to our recent discussion with Brad Tritle. A link to our podcast with Brad can be found here. Effective patient engagement is evolving in healthcare, and it’s important to keep our fingers on the pulse of what is working, what isn’t, and how the healthcare industry can improve it’s approach.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Neal Kaufman from DPS Health about a wide range of topics covering patient engagement including: Read more

healthcare apps and wearables are effective for managing personal health

On The Fence About Using Healthcare Apps and Wearables? This May Change Your Mind.

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healthcare apps and wearables are effective for managing personal health

The following post was submitted by Jeremy Floyd, Director of Sales with RightPatient®

If you are still on the fence about using healthcare apps and/or wearables to better manage individual health or if it’s a brand new concept that’s peaked your curiosity but you want to know more, recent survey results may nudge you closer to adoption. Reported by mobihealth news, the survey polled 1,1015 American adults asking if they were interested in using a mobile app to manage their health. Two-thirds of survey participants responded “yes.” Two-thirds! The research report linked to the survey reported that (no surprise) millennials were more than twice as likely to show interest in using a mobile app for personalized health management compared to adults 66 and older.

healthcare apps and wearables are effective for managing personal health

Recent survey results indicate that more American adults are open and willing to the use of healthcare apps and wearables to more effectively manage personal health.

The survey went on to report that survey participants were most interested in tracking :

  • Diet and nutrition (47%)
  • Medication reminders (46%)
  • Symptom tracking (45%)
  • Physical activity tracking (44%)

The overriding point that the survey illuminates is that the era of using healthcare apps and wearables for personalized health management is upon us. No longer just shiny new tools that offer basic functionalities only used by the elite, healthcare apps and wearables are becoming vital tools that encite behaviorial shifts needed to more effectively and proactively manage our day-to-day health regimens.  Couple this with the fact that mobile is the fastest-growing sector of the digital health market, and the new personal health management paradigm isn’t hard to picture. 

Just a few short years ago, the birth of healthcare apps and wearables brought us clunky, rather inefficient tools that focused mostly on data reporting and wellness metrics. However, as the market evolved, the utility and connectivity of these tools matured, and more solutions were built that began to not just report data, but analyzed, shared, and extracted wisdom from it too. Apps and wearables went from “cool” to “essential” for effective health monitoring and data that produces actionable results to improve outcomes. And it seems like, it virtually happened overnight.

It could also perhaps be argued that the psychology of using of healthcare apps and wearables is as critical to the function of the tool itself. As notorious creatures of habit, our society tends to cling to tried and tested methods that have proven to be effective. Few are willing to take a leap of faith and venture into new territory that could otherwise disrupt the status quo, especially when it comes to a topic as sensitive as healthcare. Your health, is after all, your life. But what we are beginning to see as more of these healthcare apps and wearables prove their worth is a shift change in a willingness to try, backed by more physicians, healthcare providers, and peers who stand behind these tools as a necessary and essential part of patient activation in the spirit of improved patient engagement to improve outcomes. More patients are starting to look around and accept that the smartphone and digital health tools just can’t be ignored any longer and must be incorporated into their regimens throughout the patient journey. Now, it becomes a question of choosing which tools (or combination of tools) will be the most effective, based on the unique needs of each patient.

Embrace these new tools. Relish their portability. Talk to your doctor. Discuss them with your family and peers. But above all, give them a chance to make a difference. 

 On The Fence About Using Healthcare Apps and Wearables? This May Change Your Mind.Jeremy Floyd is Director of Sales with RightPatient®. With over 5 years of experience in providing patient safety and patient engagement technical solutions to the healthcare industry, Jeremy speaks around the country to healthcare professionals on the future of health empowerment.