Patient Access
CMS announced the first mandatory test of shared-risk, outcomes-based payment model and the first initiative to make hospitals financially-responsible for patient recovery, 90-days after a knee or hip replacement surgery; it goes into effect April 2016.
John Showalter, MD, is chief health information officer at the University of Mississippi. He spoke to Healthcare IT News about the ways "dirty data" can still help with population health, the criticality of patient engagement and how analytics are "the antibiotics of our time."
Health IT is moving toward a consumer engagement focus to fuel population health. But despite a growing patient demand for electronic access to personal health records, technical and political barriers often limit the amount, value and accessibility of data.
The trick is in helping people make their own decisions without being overly prescriptive.
As part of the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, HHS will dole out $685 million more to help health networks, group practices and other providers drive IT-enabled care coordination, quality improvement and cost reduction.
Lowell General Hospital, a community hospital near Boston, and ClinicalBox, are poised to go full blast into care coordination. "Time is of essence," says its chief nurse executive.
Of the 165,000 apps residing in Apple and Google stores, a surprisingly minute number comprise 50 percent of all downloads. And those that connect to providers are considerably smaller than that in number.
In a new healthcare era, where "patients and their care partners participate actively in decision-making and priority-setting," FDA plans to gain better perspective through its first-ever Patient Engagement Advisory Committee.
Looking to move forward with a patient engagement initiative? Best to talk with the folks who have been ahead of the game for some time. Geisinger Health System's Chanin Wendling is one of those people.
The latest mHealth innovation may also be the most cuddly.