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Blockchain: Opportunities for Healthcare

November 7, 2022/1312 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

How is that exciting if the data is recorded as a distributed database? Yes, with the assistance of Blockchain you can do this task quickly. This distributed database is known to be a block. The Cryptography technique joins these blocks together to store the recording in digital format. A famous currency Bitcoin is managed according to this block-chain technique. Because it protects the transaction terms.

Yes, it is impossible to cheat, hack, and change the recorded data once information is added to it, but there are different ways to structure the data. Each “block” has a massive amount of information. Specific storage is kept for an individual block. When the storage capacity is filled then that block is closed. At that moment the locked block connects to the previously sealed one. Through this process, the network chain is formed as a blockchain. When new information is added, new blocks are formed and included in the chain.

Scope

Blockchain technology is being used to solve problems in many fields, including healthcare.

It protects the patient’s data and general involvement in the patient’s health. Also can decrease costs. Blockchain provides the benefit to transfer the patient’s records from one hospital to chemist’s organizations, surgeons, and other laboratories for problem-solving.

It plays an important role in the medical field by saving the life of any patient by identifying the serious disease. So, Blockchain technology is considered one of the best for protecting, medical data sharing, and enactment in the field of healthcare.

It increases the rate of awareness in the analysis of medical issues. Mainly, this technology reduces the patient’s fear of coping with their medical data as it provides the highest level of security system.

For accessing the data, the system offers interconnection, verification, adaptability, and answerability. Patient issues like sugar level and blood pressure data can also be determined and stored by attaching some useful devices and also with the help of things on the internet.

It is very helpful for the doctor whose patients require these values at a normal level. The exchange of health information gives more security and enhances the healthcare quality consists of some main steps.

Information about the health of the patient.
Monitoring systems and things on the internet provide the ability to collect more data.
Increases the advocating through electronics.
Messages are kept with complete security.
It claims full medical assurance.

Benefits

For protecting the data, blockchain encodes all the data.
It uses the highest level of security to guard each sort of data.
Virtual and real-world value can be held because of its digital system.
The term transparency gives the benefit to get ownership of any company.
Blockchain is a much cheaper, faster, and better option for the care of patients.
This system updates from time to time for sharing the data between the provider and patient.
Smart deals always maintain the balance in the data.
Most efficient system.
It decreases the mistakes and scams that occur in clinical trials.
Organizations and researchers get the inclusive spectrum of data without any interruptions.
This technique explores the disease timely which helps to eradicate the origin of the disease.
Blockchain also shields information about DNA (genomic data).
In blockchain networks, electronic medical records (EMRs) guard the data and send it to other medical centers with full safety.

Applications

Effects analyzer of the specific process: Patient’s recorded secure data provides the opportunity to analyze the effects of specific problems or diseases. After identifying, it is easy to accomplish the disease. Blockchain provides the capability of storing data and making the results faster. You can straightforwardly collect significant data in case of surgery or any other crisis.

Clarity and welfare: Some patients’ diseases take a long time with the doctors. This system gives security and honesty for a long time. In case of any erratic ailment, it also offers the tracks for clinical terms and support in cure. Transparency allows exchanging of medical data between some physicians and medical laboratories to recognize the issue speedily without anxiety.

Antiseptic evaluation: Blockchain technology is used to check the results of clinical experimentations. It explores whether the desired result is matched with the analysis result or not. This useful system can also allow suggestions for reasonable medicines by monitoring the chain.

Decreases the extra and needless expenses: Blockchain gives the biggest opportunity to complete the whole treatment from verification of problems to cure with nice time management. This benefit saves the patient’s life, time, and also money. Many problems of clinical treatment like report completion, interoperability, failure, and theft of data all are resolved by time management property.

Information about origin: For any problem solution, finding out the origin of the problem is the main and essential step to eradicating the issues. That’s why blockchain is considered the most valuable and most used mobile app. It gives the display key points about any medical issue of high quality. This would increase the better medication options. Clinical trials, medicinal products, vaccines, and medications are all factors that become well in their sector by this wonderful system.

Keeping records about health: In the world of medicine, keeping health records is pleasantly done in blockchain coordination. Assurance supervision, allocation of records for healthcare, keeping the healthcare data by electronics, and performing the task for management are all applications in the medical field by the system of the blockchain.

Conclusion

Blockchain is the system in which we can store information by making the blocks. These blocks are interconnected with each other. No one can hack, change or copy the recorded data. This process is used worldwide in fields. The healthcare sector is one of the important parts. Blockchain saves the patient’s data with full protection. You can exchange data with other medical laboratories to diagnose without any fear of missing, copying, or changing the saved data. After studying the above benefits and opportunities, you can understand how important blockchain technology is in the healthcare center. For any curing of the disease must select blockchain technology to save life and money.

How Technology Is Transforming Patient Care

November 7, 2022/1089 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

Technology has been successfully utilized in many industries over the years to benefit people’s lives, with healthcare being no exception. One of the most notable milestones in the relationship between healthcare and technology has been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an exponential rise in the use of telehealth as patients and medical providers sought new ways to safely access and deliver healthcare.

Digital devices, apps, and remote monitoring are some of the ways patients stay in touch with their medical providers to receive the care they need. According to estimations by McKinsey, telehealth adoption showed a sharp rise from 11% in 2019 to 40% in 2021. This acceleration could result in up to $250 billion of current US healthcare being potentially virtualized. This article will explore the field of telehealth and its benefits for patient care in more detail.

What Is Telehealth?

Telehealth, also known as telemedicine, is the delivery of health services through the use of telecommunication technologies such as computers, tablets, and smartphones to facilitate the provision of healthcare from a distance. Rather than in-person visits, telehealth allows patients and providers to do the following:

Schedule appointments, order medication, and communicate over the phone or via video conferencing.
Send and read messages through secure and reliable means.
Check symptoms or vital signs through remote monitoring devices, allowing healthcare providers to check on the progress and status of their patients from home.

In this way, telehealth solutions offer increased flexibility and convenience for both patients and healthcare providers.

Many healthcare providers can even ensure accurate patient identification remotely with touchless biometric patient identification platforms like RightPatient. When such a platform is implemented, it ensures that the patient receives treatment according to their EHR, ensuring patient safety and preventing medical identity theft in the process.

The Benefits of Telehealth

The digitization of many healthcare practices can improve patient experience in a number of ways as outlined below.

Better access to healthcare: As it is offered from a distance, telehealth offers the ability for more people to access medical care. This enables those who previously may not have had such access, such as the elderly, disabled people, or those without the means of transportation, to the healthcare services they need.
Less risk of infection: Without the need for in-person contact between patients and healthcare providers, the risk of contamination or spread of infectious illnesses is also significantly reduced.
Easier for patients: Without the need to travel to see a doctor, take time off work or wait in a waiting room, telehealth makes it easier for people to receive the care that they need. Such services eliminate the need for sick, disabled, or medically vulnerable people to have to travel to their appointments, and patients who require in-home care such as those at Husky Senior Care can also find this of particular benefit.
Better follow-up care: With regular alerts, automated messaging, and other consistent means of communication offered through technology, medical providers are better able to monitor their patients’ progress reducing the risk of any adverse consequences following surgery, medication, or missed appointments.
Access to specialists: Telehealth makes it possible for patients to receive healthcare from medical providers in specialist fields who are based in other cities or other countries.

With all of the benefits outlined above, it seems that telehealth is here to stay and will continue to grow, enabling healthcare providers to deliver services to their patients remotely.

A Guide To The Future of Electronic Health Records (EHR)

October 28, 2022/1062 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

Administrative tasks in the healthcare industry are essential, but they can also be labor-intensive, extremely time-consuming, and dangerously prone to human error.

So, it isn’t surprising that, since their introduction in the 1970s, Electronic Health Records (EHR) have played a pivotal role in transforming the healthcare industry – both in terms of efficiency and quality.

While these systems are still in their infancy and not entirely faultless, they have the potential to propel the healthcare sector into the future. Discover how below.

Electronic Health Records: An Overview

Electronic Health Records (EHR) refer to the digital counterpart of a patient’s paper chart. Typically used in hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities, these digital charts offer a collection of systematized information about a patient or the local population.

Since these records are often stored in internal cloud infrastructures, they can be easily accessed, shared, and recovered by different authorized healthcare providers and facilities.

Just after their invention in the late 1960s, EHRs existed in rudimentary infrastructures, and they were mainly used in academic inpatient and outpatient medical facilities.

However, thanks to the technological advancements that took place in the 1990s and 2000s, digitized patient data became more popular, and they underwent significant upgrades between 1992 and 2015. By 2011, nearly 60% of clinics were regularly using EHR technology in combination with paper charts.

How EHRs Affect the Healthcare Industry

Over the past 10 years, the crucial role played by EHRs became evident and, according to estimations by Nature, 96% of hospitals and 86% of physicians’ offices in the US now use digitized medical records.

There are many reasons for the mass adoption of electronic health records that took place in the past years, and most of them are connected to the benefits this technology offers to most medical facilities.

Thanks to EHRs, clinics can now reduce the risk of human error, transfer critical patient information to other providers and facilities, and update a patient’s health record in real-time. What’s more, EHRs are user-friendly for both healthcare providers and patients, and they can be integrated with other systems within a certain healthcare setting (including billing and scheduling systems).

In terms of boosting the efficiency of clinical settings, EHR has played an essential role in helping the healthcare system boost automation and deal with the unprecedented demand fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic and the aging population.

Adoption of EHRs: Challenges and Benefits

Undeniably, the implementation of electronic health records can boost the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system, reduce paperwork, and even put patients in control of their health. What’s more, EHRs have helped clinics streamline patient management, build relationships of trust, and make better clinical decisions.

However, most clinics using EHRs today do so in combination with traditional paper charts, mostly due to the adoption challenges this technology is facing today.

Some of the greatest concerns hindering the widespread adoption of EHR include patient data security, physician error, data breaches, and loss or damage due to poor software infrastructures. The cost of use, training needs, and the limited tech abilities of less tech-savvy physicians are additional minor challenges.

The Future Potential of EHRs

Since their introduction over forty years ago, electronic medical records have evolved drastically. Thanks to EHR optimization and improvement strategies, physicians are now able to seamlessly access and consult real-time patient data, monitor at-home care, and schedule appointments.

What’s more, as emerging technologies become more affordable and widespread, EHRs gain new, powerful functionalities, including:

GPS technology can provide patients with remote assistance and greater security levels.
IoT devices can monitor vital signs and deliver personalized reminders (i.e.: medication alerts).
Greater levels of interoperability allow for greater ease of use and access
Enhanced patient safety when touchless patient identification platforms like RightPatient are used.
Live video streaming platforms support remote communication with patients and telehealth services.
Greater levels of integration with billing, appointment scheduling, and patient management software will allow for more streamlined workflows.
More ad hoc EHR solutions that fit the specific needs of a certain clinic, hospital, lab, or facility, also through app extensions and customized functionalities.
Customized user experience for patients and healthcare providers
Faster EHR adoption and cycle times to deliver consistent and integrated data in real-time across multiple facilities.

While it is impossible to foresee the exact extent to which EHRs will change the healthcare industry, it is already evident that this technology will play a crucial role in helping the global healthcare industry cope with the unprecedented demand for quality, affordable, and accessible care.

Best Practices for Healthcare IT Resilience & Reliability

September 20, 2022/1198 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

We might think of cyberattacks as mostly targeting big businesses and individuals, but over the last few years, there have been multiple attacks on healthcare IT infrastructures. Cyberattacks have been aimed at medical, educational, research, and public health organizations and many attacks have shut down critical systems and attempted to steal important data. Such attacks can create chaos in healthcare organizations and can potentially create delays to care. Therefore, it’s crucial that organizations working in the healthcare sector utilize best practices to improve the resilience and reliability of their IT systems to prevent cyberattacks from happening.

Here are some of the top methods your organization can use to enhance its IT resilience and reliability.

Select the Right Framework

First off, it’s important that healthcare organizations select a cybersecurity framework to help them measure and understand the effectiveness of their IT infrastructure and thereby prevent catastrophic cyberattacks, such as ransomware attacks, from happening. With the right framework, organizations can understand and map their abilities to fight threats. Armed with a comprehensive initial assessment, decision-makers and others can then take the right precautions to stay protected against future cyberattacks.

Utilize Visibility Engineering

To develop more resilient systems, healthcare organizations need to focus on visibility engineering, which refers to the design and implementation of mechanisms that capture and report data about assets. Your organization can then gain key insights into things like its applications, server, and data.

In order to determine which of your key assets are worth protecting, you need to first establish the value of your assets. You can do that by mapping out and monitoring your key organizational assets that are required to deliver critical healthcare services. It’s easiest to develop and deploy visibility engineering practices in the cloud rather than on-premises. Using cloud APIs and analytics tools, you can collate and produce reliable data that can give you invaluable insights into your assets. In turn, you can effectively tighten your IT resilience and reliability.

Use Threat Modeling

Using the above methods, you can strengthen your IT resilience and reliability, but it’s just as important that you know how to improve your operational stability to improve resilience further in the face of cyber threats. Therefore, you should make use of threat modeling in both your on-premises and cloud workflows. You can then understand precisely how specific threats could affect your operations and take the appropriate action to prevent attacks from happening. Your healthcare organization should regularly use threat modeling for daily operations. You should also use threat modeling when onboarding service providers and new technologies. By doing so, you can identify the most important tactical security priorities and stop vulnerabilities that threaten your organization’s IT resilience.

Conduct Tabletop Exercises

Even when your healthcare organization uses the right methods to prevent cyberattacks and threats from happening in the first place, your entire organization still needs to be prepared for responding to cyberattacks should they happen. You can do that by using tabletop exercises. The exercises should be carried out by leaders in the organization and your technical response teams, but they should also be carried out by non-technical providers such as clinical teams and people who work in public relations. When you utilize tabletop exercises effectively, you can highlight your organization’s risks and vulnerabilities and know what actions to take should a cyberattack occur. Tabletop exercises should be regularly scheduled.

Establish Antifragile Mechanisms

Antifragile mechanisms enable organizations to learn from failures and make rapid improvements to their systems to be better protected against future cyber threats. The most well-known antifragile mechanism is purple teaming, which is a collaborative exercise that’s performed between people attacking and people defending the attacks. So, purple teaming is a kind of fire drill. Doing the exercise with the utmost realism is a crucial component of purple teaming. The exercise involves observers as well as participants. By simulating actual threats, healthcare organizations can get a much better idea of how resilient and reliable their IT security measures and protocols are and adapt as required to improve their systems.

Another popular type of antifragile mechanism is autonomic security operations, which identify threats using advanced data analytics and use automation to take appropriate actions against those threats.

Make Sure All Elements of Your IT Infrastructure Are Resilient Against Threats, Such as Service Desks

Lastly, it’s important that your healthcare organization uses a secure and modern IT service management solution in order to eliminate barriers to employee support services. That means using a service desk that acts as a point of contact for service requests, configuration changes, and problem management. As with all other components of your organization’s IT infrastructure, it’s vital that things like service desks and help desks are reliable and resilient against threats.

Final Thoughts

With the right approach toward your healthcare organization’s IT resilience and reliability, you can better ensure your IT infrastructure isn’t affected by cyberattacks and threats. So, make sure you introduce the above best practices.

Why Seniors Are Targets for Medical Identity Theft

August 5, 2022/1392 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

No one likes to think about their sweet and caring grandfather being the target of identity theft. Unfortunately, criminals often cherry-pick the elderly as unwilling accomplices for their crimes. Medical identity theft, which is on the rise, is frequently the tool criminals use to commit fraud and theft using the names and personal information of the elderly.

So, why are older people so vulnerable to the threat of medical identity theft? There are many reasons criminals prefer to target seniors in their attempts to scam people and profit off of the identity of others. Here’s what you need to know to keep yourself or your loved ones safe.

What Is Medical Identity Theft?

Everyone knows what identity theft is — someone steals your personal information and pretends to be you for a specific purpose, such as using your credit card or opening an account in your name. Medical identity theft is a specific kind of identity theft that involves insurance fraud for financial gain.

To commit medical identity theft, a criminal begins by accessing someone’s personal medical information. If they have access to that person’s name, social security number, and other important details, they can use it to bill insurance companies for procedures that the person did not receive. Even caregivers and family members of seniors who can no longer care for themselves full-time have been known to commit medical identity theft.

Medical identity theft can be hard to prevent. Data breaches are common in the healthcare industry and most people have had their information exposed. It’s a very profitable form of identity theft fraud due to the difficulty of catching criminals and the high costs billed to insurance companies.

Seniors Often Have Chronic Health Issues

One reason seniors are frequent targets for medical identity theft is that they often have chronic health issues. This makes it relatively easy to bill for treatments and procedures that never actually happened. It’s more believable for a senior to have ongoing health issues that require treatment than it is for a person who is young and healthy.

Older People Can Be Less Tech-Savvy

Another problem that tends to make seniors disproportionally targeted for medical identity theft is that older people are frequently less tech-savvy than younger generations. A senior might not know how to protect their privacy online and they might not monitor their healthcare billing regularly, since that could involve accessing an online portal.

There are, of course, seniors who have embraced technology and know how to use it well. However, that doesn’t always protect them from medical identity theft. If their data was exposed during a breach at a major health organization, it could be used for fraud purposes.

While there are major benefits to digital health storage, such as the availability of biostatistics to boost public health initiatives, electronic records also open people up to the theft of their sensitive health information. It’s important to help seniors protect their information if they don’t know how to follow best practices themselves.

The Elderly Are Often More Trusting

Although people do gain wisdom as they get older, some people also become more trusting. They might provide their personal information to someone without realizing the risks of doing so. Unfortunately, that often leads to unscrupulous people targeting and taking advantage of aging people who are excited to create new social bonds with people they believe to be friends.

They Want to Maintain Their Independence and Can’t Risk Speaking Up

When seniors discover that they have been victims of medical identity theft and other scams, they are often embarrassed or worried about what will happen if they speak up. If the perpetrator is a relative, they might not want to get that person in trouble with the law. This makes it harder to catch people who commit medical fraud.

Or, they might be worried that their relatives will worry about their ability to care for themselves and insist on moving them to an assisted living facility. Most seniors who still live independently don’t want to give that freedom up.

Ways Seniors Can Help Prevent Medical Identity Theft

It’s not always possible to prevent medical identity theft, but there are steps seniors and their loved ones can take to reduce the chances of becoming a target. These include:

Securing important documents in a safe or similar location
Shredding documents containing personal information (including prescription labels) when they are no longer needed
Being skeptical of phone calls, emails, and texts that ask for insurance information
Monitoring healthcare billing notices for fake charges
Be careful about clicking on links, especially those sent in emails
Know the laws surrounding patient data

Sadly, family members cannot always be trusted. Many people steal from elderly family members. Seniors need to be extremely careful about who they trust with their personal information and decision-making power. By taking these simple steps, older adults can reduce the chances that they will become victims of medical identity theft.

Moreover, healthcare providers also are proactively combating medical identity theft using various tools – one of which is RightPatient, a touchless biometric patient identification platform. During the registration process, patients only need to look at the camera – the platform attaches photos to the appropriate medical records. Whenever a registered patient returns for a visit, the platform matches the live photo with the saved one, effectively preventing medical identity theft. If a fraudster comes in and tries to impersonate the patient, RightPatient will red-flag the individual in real-time.

Tips for Maintaining Patient Health and Well-Being with Tech

July 20, 2022/1614 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

Technological advances are creating seismic changes in virtually every industry, and healthcare is no exception. Providing effective patient care can present a number of significant challenges that have historically plagued the healthcare system at large.

These issues have incurred severe costs over time in the form of wasted resources, care failures, and even lives in many cases.

Applying technology to solving these problems can fundamentally change the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare system. One area of healthcare that is experiencing particular innovation is that of patient health and well-being. Thanks to technological trends and advances over the past five years, our capabilities in this area have skyrocketed.

In this article, we’ll explore the top areas where tech is revolutionizing patient care.

Why Maintaining Patient Health and Well-Being is Vital

It could be argued that maintaining patient health and well-being is the single fundamental purpose of the healthcare system at large. However, there are several practical and operational ways of understanding this concept that help distinguish patient health and well-being from other systems within healthcare. Maintaining effective protocols for ensuring patient health and well-being is important in a few ways.

Patient health and well-being directly contribute not only to patient outcomes (e.g. the ultimate effectiveness of the treatment or care they receive) but to the patient’s experience and perception of the care they receive. Ultimately, not only the individual patients but healthcare providers, friends and family, and other stakeholders all benefit from favorable patient experiences.

Mitigating lawsuits, decreasing workplace stress for medical professionals, and increasing long-term engagement with healthcare are just some of the advantages the healthcare system can experience when it prioritizes patient health and well-being during the care process.

Tech Trends Continue for Patient Health and Well-Being

These technological trends and more will continue to develop and will be increasingly implemented to improve patient health and well-being in the coming years. Other technologies that are currently in embryonic or experimental stages will continue to emerge as well that will continue to shift the way tech is applied to healthcare.

It’s important to stay on top of technological solutions that are available now, as well as keep an eye on the technological horizons for significant developments that are sure to come.

6 Key Advantages Of Custom Software For Health Facilities

July 4, 2022/1325 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

Health facilities are looking for ways to optimize their operations and improve patient care as the healthcare industry becomes increasingly complex. If you’re one of these facilities, you might need to use cutting-edge technology to your advantage—and customized software is one way to do that.

Custom software is designed to meet the specific needs of a healthcare facility rather than being a one-size-fits-all solution. So how does this innovative technology help healthcare facilities? Let’s take a look at some key advantages:

Improve Patient Data Management

It’s no secret that patient data management is critical in healthcare. From patient records and medical history to billing information, you’ll need to keep track of a lot of data. Custom software can help you manage this data more effectively, so you can spend less time sifting through paperwork and more time providing quality patient care.

You can find healthcare software development services that can create a system tailored to your needs. Whether you need an electronic medical records system or a patient portal, these tech professionals can develop a solution to make it easier for you to store, access, and update patient data. As a result, you’ll be able to deliver excellent patient satisfaction without worrying about losing important details.

Automate Admin Tasks

Managing a healthcare facility is no easy feat. Many administrative tasks must be taken care of, such as scheduling appointments, handling insurance information, and billing patients. These tasks can be tedious and time-consuming, but they’re necessary to keep the facility running smoothly.

Custom software can automate some of these admin tasks. For example, you can utilize an appointment scheduling system to automatically schedule appointments and send reminders to patients. A billing feature can help streamline the invoicing and payment process. This approach can free up your staff’s time to focus on more important tasks, such as providing quality patient care.

Enhance Communication and Collaboration

In a healthcare setting, effective communication is key. It’s an industry where time is of the essence, and every second counts. That’s why it’s crucial to have a system that allows you to quickly and conveniently communicate with your team.

Custom software can help you enhance communication and collaboration within your facility. For instance, you can use a secure messaging system to share sensitive patient information without risking any data breaches. You might also want to utilize a video conferencing system to hold virtual meetings with your team. Whatever your needs, there’s a custom communication solution provider that can help you interact with your team efficiently.

Better Inventory Management

Healthcare facilities must deal with many inventories, from medical supplies to medications. It can be challenging to keep track of everything, even more so when you’re running low on supplies.

Custom software can be your best solution for inventory management. You can integrate a barcoding system to scan and track items as they come in and out of your facility in real-time. And since it’s customized, you can also include features specific to your needs, such as setting up low-stock alerts. It allows you to monitor what you have in stock at all times to avoid any disruptions in your facility’s operations. And more importantly, this system can manage your inventory more accurately, so you don’t have to worry about human error.

Increased Security

Security is always a top concern in the healthcare industry. With all the sensitive patient data floating around, it’s critical to have a robust security system in place to protect against potential threats.

Custom software can help you increase security within your facility. For example, you can set up access control features that restrict certain facility areas to authorized personnel only. You can also utilize data encryption to protect patient information from being hacked. This will give you peace of mind knowing that your facility has the latest security features to keep all the data safe and secure.

Scalable And Flexible

Healthcare facilities are constantly growing and evolving. As your facility grows, so does the need for new features and functionality. In other words, you’ll need a software solution that can grow with you and meet your unique preferences.

Custom software is highly scalable and flexible, which can easily accommodate your expanding needs. You can add or remove software features and functionalities without requiring a major overhaul. And since it’s tailor-made for your healthcare facility, you won’t have to worry about compatibility issues as everything will be designed to work together seamlessly.

Conclusion

No doubt, custom software can be a game-changer for healthcare facilities. By utilizing the right solution, you can improve the overall operations while providing better patient care. And with all the benefits that custom software has to offer, it might be time to evaluate whether this technology is the right fit for your healthcare facility. If it is, make sure to work with a reputable software development company that understands your specific needs.

How Mobile Health Tech Fuels Data-Driven Health Companies

July 1, 2022/1282 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

Mobile healthcare technology provides enormous quantities of data. This information is being used all across the country to not only improve patient outcomes at the individual level but also to identify and interpret trends that are taking place at the societal level.

It’s more than just a trend. It’s a new way of providing patient care.

In this article, we take a look at how mobile health tech fuels data-driven health companies, and improves the outcomes for the communities that they serve.

What is Mobile Health Tech?

Mobile health tech includes data-taking technologies like cell phones and wearable health devices. These items range from the very common (like Fitbits and other step trackers) to the more specialized.

For example, modern pacemakers fall into the category of IoT-driven wearable health technology because they allow patients and their physicians to monitor the wearer’s heartbeat and get up to the second updates on their status.

Other wearables include glucose monitors or devices that check blood pressure. These devices have proliferated over the last decade thanks both to the increased demand for the technology—IoT-powered devices grow by the billions each year—and their relative accessibility.

The devices are affordable, particularly when insurance companies help, and they can serve as a high-quality supplement for preventative care.

Naturally, they are also great for taking data.

Identifying Trends

The study of data is really nothing more than the recognition and analysis of patterns. No matter the field, data technicians are always trying to find repetitions and interpret what they mean. In healthcare this is particularly important, allowing physicians the opportunity to better understand the needs of the community that they are serving.

For example, data is what allowed scientists to quickly understand that Covid-19 posed a most significant threat to older people or those with preexisting conditions.

In the case of wearable health technology, it can detect patterns of heart disease or other issues that often occur in large numbers across a community.

This allows physicians to identify factors that might be causing the large occurrences of disease, and help control them.

For health companies, this may mean bringing a new product to market or tweaking the features of an existing product to serve its user’s needs better.

For the individuals within the community, it may alert them to problems they didn’t even know existed.

More Personalized Care

Without personalized data, the healthcare system relies primarily on generalities. For example, when a 28-year-old white male weighing 150 lbs walks into a doctor’s office, he may be informed that he is in good health and that he should keep up with his healthy diet and exercise.

If that same person has been using wearable health technology, however, the recommendations could change. The doctor could notice that the patient has heart palpitations, or that they, in fact, don’t exercise very much.

Not only can this help catch problems early, but it also empowers doctors to provide significantly more impactful preventative care.

Sharing Information

Data-driven healthcare environments also make it much easier to share information between doctors and even hospitals. Whereas once hard copies had to be passed from location to location, data can be shared through a link, giving whoever needs it a detailed report in seconds rather than hours or days.

Not only does this help the entire healthcare system move more fluidly but it also improves patient outcomes by helping people get the care they need quickly.

Maintaining a Data-Driven Culture

Just because the technology is available does not necessarily mean that every healthcare system in the country is using it to its full effect. Data integration, like any technological adoption, requires a lot of hard work, often from people who are already working hard enough as it is.

For data integration to happen in the healthcare system it needs to start from the top down. This means that hospital administrators and higher-ups need to prioritize it for themselves, and for the doctors and nurses that use the technology regularly.

It’s worth noting that periods of technological adjustment often lead to high rates of turnover. Employees feel frustrated that they are being given additional responsibilities without additional compensation, and they look for employment elsewhere.

High turnover rates can be avoided by:

Give your staff ample time. Technological adaptions can take months to begin to work. Be patient, and provide your staff with as much time as they need to understand their new responsibilities.
Provide them with the resources they need. This could include specialized training or even updates to your tech stack that accommodate the feedback you are receiving from your staff. It can expensive to accommodate employee requests but it is usually cheaper than turnover.
Be receptive to feedback. The “my way or the highway” routine is a lonely route to take. Listen to what your employees are saying and try your best to respond to their feedback.

4 Benefits Of Keeping Electronic Health Records

June 17, 2022/1781 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

Keeping electronic health records can ensure timely and accurate exchange of vital information between providers. It can also enhance patient care through 24/7 access to a complete record. It also allows greater continuity of care by allowing access to patient records and lower error rates compared to paper-based systems.

What Are EHRS?

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are digital records of a patient’s health information. This includes their medical results and notes. EHRs are used to manage and track the medical history of patients electronically. This can be done by uploading a patient’s file to a server, where it is accessible by doctors who want to access the information they need. Most reputable doctors, including concierge MD Erin Reese, swear by this system.

Benefits of Maintaining Electronic Health Records

Minimal Errors

Keeping electronic health records can help you avoid errors in patient care and save time by digitizing your records. When you use electronic health records, you can see all your patient’s health information in one place. This means you will not have to search through paper files or go back and forth between different locations to get all their information. In addition, these systems allow for faster communication between providers and patients. This is because they can electronically send information back and forth.

Better Access

Many doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals say that electronic health records (EHR) offer better access to patient information. This can be important for patients who find it difficult to get in touch with their doctor or cannot visit their primary care physician.

When EHRs are used properly, they allow medical professionals to keep track of a patient’s history. They can even watch any changes in their condition. This can help them make better decisions about treatment options for each patient.

Simplified Billing

Keeping your electronic health records up-to-date is important for several reasons. You may not have thought of the benefit it provides to your medical practice’s billing department.

As you know, keeping your EHRs up-to-date allows you to make sure that each patient has an accurate record. This can be especially important for patients who have recently moved and changed insurance plans. These patients will need their files transferred over to their new providers. You will also find that it makes it easier to provide services to your patients and bill their insurance companies.

In addition, by keeping your records up-to-date, you will find out which patients need follow-ups. You can also check who has upcoming appointments scheduled with other doctors.

Better Patient Medical History Record

Keeping electronic health records may seem like a hassle, but there are many benefits to it. One of the biggest is making your patient’s medical history much easier to keep track of.

When dealing with paper records, it’s easy to lose track of what has been done with them and where they are. With an electronic record system, though, you’ll always know where your files are. You can even set up alerts so that you’ll be notified of any changes that have been made or if new documents need your attention.

This can help prevent mistakes during treatment and ensure that the most up-to-date information is always available for doctors who are treating your patients.

However, many healthcare providers are using touchless patient identification platforms like RightPatient to ensure patient data integrity and reduce patient mix-ups. Not only does it help ensure that accurate data is being fed to EHRs but it also ensures patient safety as patients receive the appropriate treatment required.

Conclusion

In the end, it is electronic health records that can benefit patients and doctors alike. Without them, there could be inevitable delays in care. We hope this has provided some insight into what electronic health records are and how it works to benefit all parties involved.

How Advanced Practice Nursing Impacts Patient Care

June 7, 2022/1747 views / 0 Comments/in Guest Blog Posts /by Guest

Nursing is no longer limited to merely a supporting role in healthcare. Nurses can chart a career path in many specialties and at different seniority levels. As a result, more nurses are completing advanced nursing degrees, such as a master’s or doctor of nursing practice (DNP).

This increase in advanced practice nursing benefits the sector in many ways. Here’s how advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) impact patient care.

Nurse practitioners can act independently

As nurses progress up the education ladder, they gain more skills. Nurse practitioners (you reach NP status when you have a master’s or doctor’s degree) can act with more autonomy than registered nurses who hold a bachelor’s degree.

The scope of responsibilities differs from state to state. In states where nurses have full practice authority, they can:

conduct physical examinations
order diagnostic tests
make certain diagnoses
put together treatment plans
manage chronic conditions
prescribe certain medication

In reduced practice states, nurse practitioners can order tests and diagnose but may require physician oversight to prescribe medication. In restricted practice states, nurse practitioners must perform all tasks under physician supervision or with physician collaboration.

They can provide greater support in emergency care

Emergency and critical care facilities are often under strain during times when there is an influx of patients. Because nurse practitioners have advanced medical training, they would be able to treat patients at low to mid triage levels, allowing doctors to focus on more urgent and life-threatening cases.

They can fill the gap in the shortage of healthcare workers

Globally, the healthcare sector is facing a skills shortage crisis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there will be a shortage of 18 million healthcare workers by 2030 and an additional 9 million nurses and midwives will be needed to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3.

Additionally, the Association of American Medical Colleges expects a shortage ranging between 46,900 and 121,900 physicians come 2032.

These stats are alarming and to make matters worse, many healthcare workers quit the profession during the COVID-19 pandemic or are planning to leave soon. Thus, there will be an urgent need for healthcare workers with advanced skills in the future.

Nurses who complete a master’s or doctor’s in nursing practice program today can step into this vacuum so that patient care isn’t compromised in the future.

They can open their independent nursing practice

In full-practice states, nurses can operate their independent nursing practice without physician oversight. This offers patients an alternative to seeing a doctor for preventive healthcare, to treat minor health issues, and manage chronic conditions. It also alleviates the caseload for physicians who are stretched to capacity.

Nurse practitioners must meet the following educational and licensure requirements:

Have completed an advanced nursing degree program, such as a doctor of nursing practice program.
Passed a national certification exam with a recognized certification board, such as the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
Have a valid state license.

To continue practicing, most states require that nurses renew their certification every five years and their license every 2 years.

They can specialize

Nurses, just like doctors, have the option to specialize. Nurses who complete an accredited doctor of nursing online program can choose a concentration in pediatrics, adult-gerontology, midwifery, and mental health, to name a few.

Nurses who specialize can act as a second set of eyes to the physician. Their focused training means they could spot changes in a patient’s physical or mental health or catch early symptoms that a doctor may have missed.

They can influence policy

Nurse practitioners who wish to move into leadership roles in healthcare can complete a Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree or a Ph.D.

A DNP is more clinically focused while a Ph.D. is more research-focused. Both will allow a nurse to rise to a more prominent role, one in which they can influence policy, advocate for improvements in patient care, and champion patient safety rights.

They can shape future nurses

Nurse educators are in big demand and are likely to become more sought after to help train a new generation of nurses. Training isn’t limited to clinical practice but also to new technology, techniques, global healthcare trends, and the policy environment.

The healthcare industry is changing and so are patients’ expectations. Nurses will need an understanding of concepts such as health tech, telemedicine, data analytics, artificial intelligence, integrative medicine, and personalized medicine.

In conclusion

A career in nursing no longer needs to follow one linear path. With the right training, there are hundreds of nursing specialties to pursue. Advanced practice registered nurses are at the forefront of serving the patients who require specialized care.

Posts

Scope

Benefits

Applications

Conclusion

What Is Telehealth?

The Benefits of Telehealth

Electronic Health Records: An Overview

How EHRs Affect the Healthcare Industry

Adoption of EHRs: Challenges and Benefits

The Future Potential of EHRs

Select the Right Framework

Utilize Visibility Engineering

Use Threat Modeling

Conduct Tabletop Exercises

Establish Antifragile Mechanisms

Make Sure All Elements of Your IT Infrastructure Are Resilient Against Threats, Such as Service Desks

Final Thoughts

What Is Medical Identity Theft?

Seniors Often Have Chronic Health Issues

Older People Can Be Less Tech-Savvy

The Elderly Are Often More Trusting

They Want to Maintain Their Independence and Can’t Risk Speaking Up

Ways Seniors Can Help Prevent Medical Identity Theft

Why Maintaining Patient Health and Well-Being is Vital

Top Technological Solutions Raising the Bar for Patient Health and Well-Being

Leveraging the Power of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Patient Identification Tools

Implementing Biotech Tools for Better Monitoring and Data Capture

Utilizing Highly Viable Telehealth Options

Increasing Medical Professionals’ Access to Databases and Resources

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics into Surgeries and Diagnoses

Tech Trends Continue for Patient Health and Well-Being

Improve Patient Data Management

Automate Admin Tasks

Enhance Communication and Collaboration

Better Inventory Management

Increased Security

Scalable And Flexible

Conclusion

What is Mobile Health Tech?

Identifying Trends

More Personalized Care

Sharing Information

Maintaining a Data-Driven Culture

What Are EHRS?

Benefits of Maintaining Electronic Health Records

Minimal Errors

Better Access

Simplified Billing

Better Patient Medical History Record

Conclusion

Nurse practitioners can act independently

They can provide greater support in emergency care

They can fill the gap in the shortage of healthcare workers

They can open their independent nursing practice

They can specialize

They can influence policy

They can shape future nurses

In conclusion

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