Population and Public Health

Expanding Medicaid coverage in Oregon increased the use of care services and improved overall health while diminishing financial strain on patients. Here’s what healthcare executives and policymakers around the country can learn from the experiment.

The hospital's multidisciplinary care teams track patients in real-time and can mount interventions to correct lagging performance. And Mass General’s clinical director of population informatics Adrian Zai, MD, said that doctors like the program.

Experts contend that healthcare providers are starting to catch on to the importance social determinants of health play at the individual and patient population levels and that, increasingly, the factors will inform how they can ultimately improve care.   

Healthcare IT News conducted a post-HIMSS17 survey to gauge real implementations of the conference’s big buzzwords. Respondents also revealed their favorite part of this year’s conference. 

Looking at 400 accountable care organizations, University of Texas researchers found that ACOs can use health IT to improve overall efficiency by coordinating care and providing better services.

Convene every stakeholder. Identify cross-department linkages. Understand patient sub-populations. Don’t forget long-term care and behavioral health. And hold ACOs accountable.

West Virginia delegates approved a telehealth bill on Monday with a vote of 95-4 that would expand access to mental and behavioral healthcare medications in rural areas. The bill now heads to the state senate for another vote.

This year's conference hit on many healthcare trends, including machine learning, analytics and population health. And then there were Dan Rather, Ginni Rometty, John Boehner and Michael Leavitt. Here are the high points, all in one place.

As part of a population health program, telemedicine technology requires new assumptions and strategies as well as technology, clinicians and finance all working together, Palmetto chief value and informatics officer Tripp Jennings says.

By changing the way it previously treated the majority of patients, the hospital can help prevent many of them from moving into the most expensive cohort, senior director Kamal Jethwani said.