Archive for the ‘Innovation’ Category

Lisa Crymes, Guest Blogger for Elizabeth Richards

Innovate or Die. Companies (and industries) which embrace innovation and creative thinking are typically more dynamic and more successful than those that don’t. And, that dedication to innovation can be the difference between success and failure.

We have all heard of companies such as Eastman Kodak and Research In Motion (RIM) which were once market leaders but failed to embrace innovation. Then, there are entire industries such as railroads or some manufacturing facilities which were committed to “business as usual” and were intent on continuing down the same path. Because of their commitment to the status quo, they missed the opportunity to innovate. And, as a result, these industries were ill equipped to deal with new and emerging competitors in the marketplace.

Healthcare has not typically embraced innovation in many areas and now must innovate or die. Which healthcare players are at risk of becoming extinct? Which …

Continue reading Innovate or Die: Why Healthcare Must Embrace Innovation »

Improved access to healthcare was one of the main selling points of federal health reform. ObamaCare places a great deal of importance on expanding coverage with a special focus on advancing health wellness, preventative services and primary care.

However, there is an underutilized healthcare resource which is available to everyone … now.

That underutilized and often untapped healthcare resource is your community pharmacist. In Georgia and most other states, pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professional.

From Dade County in the mountains of northwest Georgia to Camden County on the Georgia coast and from Maine to California, pharmacists are an untapped resource. Unlike physicians and hospitals which are usually located in more populated cities, community pharmacists are located in virtually every one of Georgia’s 159 counties and in most small communities throughout the US.

And, pharmacists are very knowledgeable healthcare professionals. After college, …

Continue reading Pharmacists: An Answer to the Health Access Problem .. and More »

I’m sure most of you have heard of Twitter, the microblogging social media service that allows users to send and view up to 140 characters.  Unless a “tweet” is protected (whereas only registered users of a certain group can see the information), “tweets” are otherwise public and available real-time to anyone.   Once you sign up for a Twitter account, you can “follow” people, organizations, government offices, and even the White House.  Some of you might have heard of Twitter being used by celebrities to put forth information about their “excursions” . . . while others might have heard how effective of a tool it was during several recent Mid East revolutions (in Egypt and Tunisia, for example).  Suffice it to say, Twitter also actually has several implications in healthcare.  In fact, as a free platform that is easily accessible and managed in desktop and mobile environments, Twitter has several diverse applications within an organization.

As a healthcare marketer, I’ve found …

Continue reading A tweet here, a tweet there . . . many uses of Twitter in healthcare »

NOTE:  Written by guest columnist, Marcus Gordon, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Atlanta Medical Center

If 2011 was the year of the mHealth “Revolution” then 2012 will become known as the year of the mHealth “Evolution” – that is, the actual deployment of mobile (and wireless) devices on a mass scale to track, monitor, and influence health decisions. The tipping point has arrived. . .

Evolution can be defined as “a motion incomplete in itself, but combining with coordinated motions to produce a single action, as in a machine.” The confluence of players and participants in the game – physicians, patients, providers, payers, technology companies, device companies, etc. – have all come together for a singular purpose – to make it easier and more effective for a patient to take control of their own health. The ubiquity of mobile devices in a healthcare setting has fostered the rapid development of a wide variety of initiatives aimed at allowing patients to track their …

Continue reading The Year of the mHealth Evolution »

I spent some time last week at the mHealth Summit in Washington DC and walked away with an incredibly favorable impression.  Unbeknownst to most consumers and even some industry experts, a quiet revolution is occurring in the world of mobile technologies in health. 

Last month I spoke of the value of telehealth in my blog post.  Telemedicine has an incredible opportunity to improve health outcomes and change the way health is delivered to the patient.  The use of the cell phones for health, in particular, is proliferating and producing break-throughs at an unbelievable pace.   

Eric Topol, MD, a keynote speaker at the conference, noted several examples of where cell phones are changing the way medicine is practiced today.  Specifically, he noted one mobile application (Zeo) that measures how you sleep at night and the amount of REM you are actually getting.  Another mobile application (AliveCor) can use an iPhone to diagnosis a heart attack.  Even for him as a doctor, he …

Continue reading The Quiet Revolution »

The delivery of U.S. healthcare services is going through a profound change. Yet this change is occurring in the background and not apparent to the general public. The driving force behind this change is payment reform to healthcare providers for medical services delivered. The underpinning of this change is the reduction of cost in the delivery of healthcare services to make it more affordable. The initial step of payment reform has been the reimbursement models of Bundled Payments and Accountable Care Organizations. These new forms of reimbursement are forcing healthcare providers (hospitals, physicians and other care delivery services) to re-examine and redefine the delivery of services and working relationships. The changes being initiated are positive and took something extreme like payment reform to push organizations to look at how healthcare is delivered and make changes in the manner business is done. The outgrowth of these changes will be positive for our society by …

Continue reading The Direction of the U.S. Healthcare Services »

At the Center for Health Transformation, we are working hard to create a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that can save lives and saves money for all Americans. However, it seems like every time we make a little progress, we must overcome a new challenge.

Take electronic prescribing and electronic medical records (EHRs).  Both rely on cutting-edge technology to provide better healthcare for patients.

We know that e-prescribing and EHR systems are safer and more cost effective than paper prescriptions and paper health records.  The state and federal governments are even creating incentives for doctors and hospitals to move away from traditional paper.

And, it is working. We are seeing more and more physicians making significant investments of time and resources as they embrace electronic systems.  According to Surescripts which provides the infrastructure for e-prescribing, by the end of this year, more than half of the prescriptions issued in our nation …

Continue reading Creating 21st Century Solutions in Healthcare »

Healthcare Reform is missing the mark to reduce a key driver of healthcare cost, chronic diseases. It does not contain a strategy or approach to control or reduce the costs associated with chronic diseases. A chronic disease is a medical condition that cannot be cured and usually lasts a lifetime. An example of a chronic disease is Diabetes. The CDC estimates that seventy five percent of U.S. healthcare costs can be attributed to chronic diseases and is responsible for seven out of ten deaths. There is also the associated cost of disability with chronic diseases that takes productive people out of the workforce. When this occurs, a financial burden is placed on their family and subsequently the U.S. healthcare system.

Healthcare reform under the stewardship of the current administration and Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Administration (CMS), are testing various healthcare delivery models and forms of payment such as an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) and Bundled …

Continue reading Healthcare Reform is missing the mark to reduce a key driver of healthcare costs »

The challenge of reducing healthcare costs in the U.S. is analogous to our country trying to be energy independent. Both are complex, achievable, will take time to solve and require a combination of solutions. Until we discover technological breakthroughs that cost effectively meets the market demand, challenges can be overcome with existing resources.

A foundational component to reducing the cost of healthcare is a reimbursement model for hospitals and physicians called “Bundled Payments”. This form of reimbursement addresses one of the underlying reasons for the escalating expense of healthcare. This is the misalignment of how hospitals and physicians are compensated. For example, hospitals are paid a set fee by Medicare for patients with a specific diagnosis. So regardless of how long a patient is in a hospital or the number of medical tests performed, the hospital is not compensated any more than the specified amount. Therefore, hospitals are incentivized to deliver high …

Continue reading A Foundational Component to Reducing Healthcare Costs – Bundled Payments »

Whether the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (a.k.a. Obamacare) is upheld or repealed, the undercurrent of change is underway. Not the type of change where government mandated healthcare insurance is overseen by a new regime of government bureaucrats and the tax payers ultimately pay the bill. I am referring to a positive change that is the reengineering of healthcare delivery. If you are thinking this is code for the rationing of healthcare, you’re wrong. It is a fundamental change in the thinking of how healthcare delivery can be improved while reducing costs and making it more affordable. Like any business, decisions are made based upon how we are compensated. As any company wants to drive a business in a strategic direction, they need to align the goals and compensation across an organization. Revision in compensation for healthcare services is one of the catalyst’s that is creating this alignment in rethinking the delivery of healthcare. 

Historically the …

Continue reading Change is underway and there are positive signs »