There’s a lot of interest in the impact medical peripherals on iOS mobile platforms can have. Used properly, properly designed apps could help catch diseases earlier and make lives of patients easier. As the blogger covering health IT and medical software for Software Advice, I decided to see what it would take to design three apps myself. Disease Risk Calculator:Since proteins found in blood can be used as biomarkers to diagnose diseases from type 2 diabetes to cancer to HIV. Using tests that detect specific biomarkers of diseases long before clinical symptoms arise can lead to earlier treatment, saving lives.A user ...Read More »

The final healthcare law recently announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is slated to become effective from January 3, 2012. Under the new law healthcare information will be available to consumers and employers to make informed decisions about the care they need. It will allow patients to compare options enabling them to choose what suits them the best. A Good Step ForwardFrom now onwards, seniors with chronic illness would be eligible for a major portion of the direct federal contribution compared to the health plans available to their healthier counterparts. Also, seniors with low income and having ...Read More »

The Obama Administration coined the Partnership for Patients Program (PPP) in early 2011. Aim – bring in qualitative changes in healthcare for all Americans by providing better care at lower costs and introduce a new order in public-private partnership in managing healthcare. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has already set the standards for rewarding Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) for providing beneficiaries with better health outcomes. BackgroundAccording to estimates, one in five Medicare patients discharged from hospitals is re-admitted within 30 days because of an ‘adverse event’ (injury resulting from medical management within three weeks of discharge). Also, one in ...Read More »

The HITECH act has gone through many deliberations over the year with regards to changes and adoption of different healthcare technology. Alongside the legislative aspect of things, the ever-growing focus on data security of medical records and allied patient information is turning to be more and more critical by the day. Managing medical data and securing medical records have always been a matter of great concern for the U.S. healthcare industry. Faced with the ever changing technology, the industry today is more concerned about safety and security of data transfer in lines with the regulatory compliance alongside the cost parameters. Impact ...Read More »

The arena of Primary care in the US is all poised for a complete makeover. Suddenly it seems to have discovered the lost ground - thanks to government regulations and compliance standards such as the ICD-10 and allied. Role of EHRs:Past trends have portrayed the field of Primary care involving a physician and a patient. That situation has changed with the explosion of new medical knowledge, technological breakthroughs and ever-growing number of specialties.  An important technology innovation within primary care is the emergence of electronic health records (EHRs) paving the way for maintaining patient data in digital forms and simplifying referral ...Read More »

The arena of healthcare technology is currently seeing array of development, not only within the technical side of things, but also on the legislative front. This article reflects on the administrative side of healthcare, incorporating the employees and support staff working at different levels across different institutions. The healthcare law recently announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has come at an opportune time when the American business and industry, including the healthcare industry is toying with the idea of using preventive care management for improving overall employee productivity. The ImpactWith the final draft of the law in ...Read More »

As a part of our continued focus on Electronic format of medical records and allied healthcare technology, this article dwells into the ‘patient facing advantages and limitations of this mechanism. The rapid growth in innovation and technology has spurred development of mobile medical applications and several computationally powerful and user-friendly mobile platforms. With that emerged the patient-centered healthcare, an e-health model that contributes towards preventive medical care. Different Approaches:With the emerging trend of Tele-health, patient care practices have undergone a massive change. Tele-health enables clinicians and hospitals access patient data at the point of care and on ...Read More »

Most physicians and doctors are unaware about the various software services that can make their task of transcription easier. Some of them seem to be extremely confused about what tool can come to their best aid – will a simple digital dictation solution be viable or is Dragon a better alternative? If they go in for Dragon, should they go on to use a digital voice recorder or use a simple microphone attached to their computer system? The options are endless, but the best fit meeting the need of the hour holds key. At the end of the day the ...Read More »

In the year 2009 the Obama Administration decided to insert a provision for medical funding of end-of-life choices in the U.S healthcare Act. This provision authorized doctors to provide the kind of care patients would like to have once the latter becomes ineffective to make medical decisions. However, stiff opposition from several quarters including bio-ethicists and intellectuals had forced the Administration to withdraw it. Later, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a similar mechanism through regulation but that too met with the same fate. Many had thought that end life planning was a code language for forcing ...Read More »

The paradigm of needing to have various health indicators measured at the surgery, by a physician, is set to change. How quickly that will happen is yet to be determined, however smartphone and app designers are already creating medical devices and programs that can record diagnostic data and upload it to existing health records.What are the benefits of self-administered diagnostic apps?The ability for a patient to have their phone linked to their healthcare records and for it to track medical metrics will have massive repercussions. Medical apps and devices will allow patients to take home what they could once only ...Read More »