By D’Arcy Gue – In a world where only the wealthy suffered from addiction, we wouldn’t have to worry so much about the effectiveness of treatment or who was going to pay for it. But most people don’t live in Malibu or have access to Betty Ford, so efficacy matters.
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By John Smithwick – In the past few years, knowing what happens to patients between visits or after acute episodes hasn’t been a priority for provider organizations. As more and more reimbursements are tied to quality measures and outcomes, organizations are finding it vital to know the health status of their populations so they can spot problems earlier and intervene sooner to prevent the need for costly procedures.
By Jonathan Draper – Every day, hospitals and health systems across the country struggle with exchanging patient data between electronic health records, PACS and other health information systems. In a recent survey, for example, accountable care organizations (ACOs) cited lack of interoperability as their number one challenge to achieving improved, patient-centered care.
By Robert Rowley MD – The way we pay for healthcare is changing. The transition from fee-for-service (“fee for volume”) to value-based care is beginning to take shape, and will do so increasingly in the next few years. Federal pressures as well as private industry pressures are driving this change, as reviewed nicely in a white paper by Houlihan Lokey, “Value-Based Care.”
By Art Gross – Last month a hospital in Hollywood, CA was a victim of a ransomware attack that left computers unusable for over a week. According to a ZDNet article, the Southern California hospital was unable to practice its usual day-to-day operations.
By Andy Slavitt & Karen B. DeSalvo – The great promise of technology is to bring information to our fingertips, connect us to one another, improve our productivity, and create a platform for the next generation of innovations.
By Julie Appleby – Medicare plans to test new ways to pay for prescription medications given in doctors’ offices and hospital outpatient centers — moves likely to win praise from some policy experts, but opposition from facilities and practitioners.
By John Halamka MD – Every year I walk the HIMSS floor and speak at HIMSS events with the hope that I can distill the conference sensory overload into a few key themes. In the recent past, big data, interoperability, personalized medicine, population health, and wearables were buzzwords in every booth. This year, the buzzwords were replaced by one overarching concept – providers and vendors must innovate or die.
By Mike Sutter – Several different ‘flavors’ of telehealth have developed over the years, with varying degrees of popularity and adoption. Some hospitals have telehealth systems in an emergency room, allowing ER physicians to communicate directly with physicians at another site. Other hospitals have specialty physicians who leverage telehealth visits from one health facility to another.