Keeping up with (and Getting Ahead of) an Ever-Changing Healthcare Model

May 21, 2015

At this year’s annual HIMSS conference, a common topic of discussion was around how to continue to bring the technological and medical aspects of healthcare together to evolve, grow and support one another.

Each semester, I share with my Health IT students the many reasons that it is such an exciting time to be in healthcare. As we transition from a volume-based to a value-based incentive model, healthcare is going to look significantly different by 2020. This transformation is no longer a wish, it is no longer an option; it is our collective future. People who were previously one-foot-in and one-foot-out will be fully planted in the value-based healthcare model.

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Embracing Security Challenges

February 24, 2015

By Eric Venn-Watson MD, MBA

Over the past year, the perception of mobile technology in healthcare has changed dramatically. mHealth is now being recognized as a tool that can help address the challenges our healthcare system is facing, including a shortage of caregivers, an influx of newly insured patients, decreased reimbursements and readmission penalties. Historically, there have always been barriers that kept hospitals from making the leap to mobility – lack of infrastructure, costs, or the fear of security breaches, among other reasons. Yet as mobile technology becomes deeply ingrained in our day-to-day work and social lives, healthcare is following suit and migrating toward mobility as a component of care delivery.

However, concerns about security remain at the forefront. According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), more than 41 million people have had their protected health information compromised in a reportable HIPAA privacy or security breach. Additional data from the 2014 Healthcare Breach Report from Bitglass suggests that 68 percent of all healthcare data breaches are due to device theft or loss and 48 percent of breaches involve a laptop, desktop or mobile device.

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Is Technology Turning Hospitals Into MD Machines?

May 9, 2013

By Matt Patterson, MD

Many of my fellow clinicians see the ongoing health IT movement as a hindrance to the quality of care they are able to provide their patients. When they hear all this talk about “automation,” “streamlining efficiency,” and “mobilizing data,” it can seem that technology is replacing the human side of compassionate patient care with an assembly line that churns out procedures. Some clinicians see mobile technologies pulling them away from the bedside and turning patients into data points. But, if a hospital takes the right approach to this process change, that’s simply not the case. In fact, clinicians should find the exact opposite to be true as these solutions fulfill the promise of becoming a true mobile assistant – always there to improve workflow anytime, anywhere.