Creating a data management strategy that supports sophisticated analytics
To become better at two key capabilities–saving lives and saving money–American healthcare providers will need sophisticated analytic tools to guide the transformation. To use those tools will require that providers build the...
When is a mobile app a medical device? The future of healthcare may depend on the answer
I’ve spoken before on how mobile health apps and devices can expand the ability of healthcare providers to customize treatment for patients. An important part of making that happen is the ability of app developers to quickly get...
N=1: How automated tools will help lower costs by personalizing healthcare
While it may seem a contradiction in terms, digital automation tools may make possible a new level of personalization in medical care.
Over the past several years, there has been a growing movement toward customizing medical care...
BYOD and the Internet of Things bring unique challenges for hospital CIOs
There are two trends in healthcare that should give hospital IT professionals pause: BYOD and the Internet of Things. The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is certainly not new, but hospitals are still figuring out how to navigate...
Caution: Untested mHealth apps proliferate, but few good ones work well
There are more than 43,000 healthcare apps available through the Apple iTunes App Store. That sounds like a wealth of useful apps, but the truth is that only a handful of them are actually being used. According to a survey...
Why integrating EMRs and digital images is an ethical and practical imperative
We've all been there. Following an injury, you or a family member gets an X-ray or MRI but when you follow up with a specialist a few weeks later, he or she can't access the study (unless, of course, you made a special trip to pick...
Too few primary care providers? Med-mail, videoconferencing kiosks, and web portals to the rescue
One of the likely effects of the Affordable Care Act will be much higher demand for primary care physicians. Over the next few years, approximately 30 million previously uninsured people will become insured, many of whom have no...
Breaking the code: The potential of the $100 genome
In 2001, the cost to sequence an entire human genome was $100 million. Since then, cost has moved swiftly downward, hitting $1 million around 2007 to sequence the genome of James Watson (a co-discoverer of DNA’s double-helix). The...
IT and the promise of patient-centered collaborative care
Imagine that you are 55 years old, a former smoker with Type 2 diabetes. Today, you are seeing your primary care physician about a sore throat and a very itchy rash on your lower leg.
Now we depart from current reality. Your...
Welcome to the stone age of healthcare analytics
The Institute of Health Technology Transformation recently released a report which identified data analytics for population health management to be one of the critical capabilities for a successful accountable care organization...
Social analytics provides an Rx for the pharmaceutical industry
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The pharmaceutical industry on the whole has been cautious about its use of social media and mobile technology, but the pace is rapidly picking up. Case in point: the Mobile Pharma BizTech...
Right digital strategy can lower costs, increase customer satisfaction for health plans
In my last column, I discussed the value of information in the consumer-driven health insurance market that starts in January 2014. In this new world, those insurers that strike the right balance of managing costs and connecting...
Shaping information potential in healthcare: Data catalyzes change
By Richard Cramer
Healthcare delivery in the United States is high cost and suffers from inconsistent quality. A primary cause of these issues has been the reliance on antiquated, paper-based clinical records. These paper records...
The power of information in the new consumer health insurance market
While the insurance provisions in the Affordable Care Act will change many aspects of the healthcare industry, one of the most dramatic changes will be the growth in individual coverage as a percentage of the health insurance...
Fulfilling the promises of health information technology
In my last blog post, I wrote about the unfulfilled promises of health information technology based on recent studies and articles that have received a lot of attention. In this post, I want to pick up where I left off and provide...
Measuring health care on the mobile curve
It’s becoming clear that more consumers than ever before are accessing health care information online. A recent Pew study found that users under 50 are more than four times as likely to use their smartphone to look up medical...
The unfulfilled promises of health information technology
A 2005 RAND report predicted that widespread use of electronic health records technology would save the US healthcare system at least $81 billion per year. At the time, the vendor-funded report helped drive substantial growth in...
The four rungs of the healthcare IT value ladder
Being a health IT professional can be an incredibly rewarding job. I’m proud of the role my peers and I play in building and innovating the future of healthcare. Especially because the ultimate goal in the work that we do is to...
4 top trends that will shape digital health
This was a big year for digital health transformation, especially for advances in personalized and connected care. Looking back at 2012, these are the four trends that I think will ultimately have the greatest impact on the...
Sparing Medicare: Savings to patients and providers
By Keith Dayton
Every four years, America gets embroiled in divisive political debate. One presidential candidate claims the other wants to raise taxes. The other retaliates by saying the first doesn’t care about the middle...
