By Ari Naim

A new Moody’s Investor Service report predicts the healthcare industry of the future will rely heavily on outpatient care – a shift that underpins the evolving standards of care needed in both traditional hospitals and outpatient facilities.

The report explains that traditional hospital bed space will be dedicated strictly to chronically ill, high-need patients. As such, the demand for outpatient services will increase exponentially, as it will be utilized for less severe health issues that arise more frequently. This forecasted transformation is a response to the growing dilemma of nursing and physician shortages. By approaching outpatient services with this end goal in mind, there are investments to be made that could potentially deliver greater efficiencies at a lower cost, while also improving access to physicians.

In order to create an outpatient care experience that meets this growing demand and improves care quality, it’s critical that the healthcare industry adopt even more technological solutions that help to facilitate the entire process. [Read more…]

In the wake of the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, data and personal privacy matters have come to the forefront of consumer’s minds. When an organization like Facebook falls into trouble, big data is often blamed, but IS big data actually at fault?  When tech companies utilize and contract with third party data mining companies aren’t these data collection firms doing exactly what they were designed to do? 

IBM markets its Watson as a way to get closer to knowing about consumers; however, when it does just that, it is perceived as an infringement on privacy. In lieu of data privacy and security violations, companies have become notorious for pointing the finger elsewhere. Like any other scapegoat, big data has become an easy way out; a chance for the company to appear to side with, and support the consumer.  Yet, many are long overdue in making changes that actually do protect and support the customer and now find themselves needing to attempt to earn back lost consumer trust. Companies looking to please their customers, publicly agree that big data is the issue but behind the scenes may be doing little or nothing to change how they interact with these organizations. By pushing the blame to these data companies, they redirect the problem, holding their company and consumers as victims of something beyond their control. 

For years, data mining has been used to help companies better understand their customers and market environment.  Data mining is a means to offer insights from business to buyer or potential buyer.  Before companies and resources like Facebook, Google, and IBM’s Watson existed, customers knew very little about their personal data.  More recently, the general public has begun to understand what data mining actually is, how it is used, and be aware of the data trail they leave through their online activities.  [Read more…]

By Adam Darkins

Future-Proofing Primary Care

Primary care is the linchpin for the transformation of health care services for aging populations of patients with high incidence/prevalence of chronic conditions eg, obesity, diabetes, heart failure, and anxiety/depression. Services that were previously physician centric are now pivoting toward primary care team (PCT)-based care for patients in the least restrictive settings. PCPs are adept at individualizing care in the most appropriate setting. But, ever more complex treatment options, and informed patients expecting equal participation in care decisions, have increased the number and complexity of primary care referrals to specialty physicians. In order for primary care to meet patient expectations of accessing the right care, in the right place at the right time, health systems must establish more robust primary-specialty care connections.

Extending the PCMH Model with Technology

PCMH is an evidence-based, patient-centered care model that supports patients with complex needs in non-institutional settings.  It fosters patient engagement, self-management and care coordination by interdisciplinary teams when holistically addressing biopsychosocial issues that would otherwise result in avoidable emergency room visits and hospital admissions. Specialist physician input often needs feeding into primary care team (PCT) deliberations so diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis can be fully factored into the broader care management process. For PCTs to assure access to high quality, comprehensive, patient-centric and coordinated care, they have to be able to communicate across the care continuum and “in-reach” into specialty care. New health information and communication technology projects make this is possible. But can they routinely deliver “at scale”, and to underserved populations? [Read more…]

By Kam Reams

As a knowledge-driven industry, health care relies on steady access to information to enable accurate decision-making and drive rapid problem-solving. Yet health care professionals are often overwhelmed with the volume of new information and are challenged to incorporate it into their daily work, if it has not been explicitly curated.

Accordingly, the need for knowledge management in health care is greater than ever, especially amid exponentially increasing amounts of data, regulations, and clinical and non-clinical information that health care professionals must consume. For nearly three decades, knowledge management, the process of creating, managing, sharing and using information to drive organizational objectives, has been recognized as a distinct part of business strategy in health care.

How and where does your organization stand with its knowledge management program? Have you assessed the current state of knowledge management in your organization and determined your goals for a future state program? The following steps will help you determine the best path forward for improving your existing or implementing a new knowledge management program.    [Read more…]

By Eric V. Holtzclaw 

Selecting preferences is commonplace in our digital world. Users subscribe or unsubscribe from email lists, request notifications from their favorite brands, and update their privacy settings on social media networks. It’s a win-win for both parties; consumers are supposed to be given a voice for their likes and dislikes in the marketing they receive, and how frequently companies interact with them through preferred communication channels.

Marketing teams are granted first-hand insight to unique customer characteristics and product interests- the ultimate opportunity to give customers exactly what they want and enhance relationships. Many organizations recognize the need to collect preferences, and even more so, customers now expect it; especially in lieu of strict regulations including GDPR, e-Privacy, TCPA, and CASL. While preference collection is important, how a business manages that information is critical to maintaining compliance. Unfortunately, many brands still miss the mark.

Executives must understand their needs before debating whether to build or buy a preference management solution. Not all preference management platforms are created equal; yet many companies try to take the easy way out, choosing to leverage an existing system (e.g.. ESP) that is not designed for the need at hand. A survey by DeviceBits found 55% of marketers collect data but aren’t analyzing patterns of behavior during customer service, and 16% even said they do not collect any data at all. This means that 70% of marketers and brands are driving their customer experience with blinders on. They are unaware of the risks they assume and opportunities forgone by relying on with a simple preference collection webpage.    [Read more…]

By Patrick Knight

An email may look innocent, perhaps from a trusted colleague, and bearing an innocuous subject line. Many people wouldn’t think twice about opening it and clicking on a link inside to a known website or to download a work-related file. Unfortunately, appearances can be deceiving, and that email may be an attempt at spear phishing.

Spear phishing attackers are using increasingly sophisticated methods to target organizations around the globe. Attacks against healthcare organizations are usually conducted to steal patient information, like social security numbers and billing details, to sell on the black market. Recently, UnityPoint Health became the victim of a spear phishing attack that compromised 1.4 million patient records. It was the organization’s second breach in 2018 and the largest health data breach of the year in the U.S. Perhaps more concerning are reports that UnityPoint didn’t know about the attack until nearly a month after it happened. [Read more…]