According to a study published by JAMA – a journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday, obesity rates in children, aged 2 to 5, have decreased significantly over the past decade. The researchers found a 43% decline in obesity rates for children in this group, down from 13.9% to 8.4%. According to the study, Read more…
Health IT
Do we value our physicians?
Sometimes I wonder if we value our physicians, or if we think of them as just another problem? As I take a closer look inside the healthcare industry, it seems to me that the number of people with clipboards has grown outrageously – people who have a lot of control over physicians’ lives and are Read more…
How to ensure cloud data security?
The benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are still being debated. The roll-out of the ACA website, Healthcare.gov, and its subsequent problems provide sufficient evidence for enterprises to consider moving to the cloud in order to ensure data security. However, the Healthcare.gov debacle proves that enterprises cannot move their sensitive data to the cloud Read more…
New year, new stage of Meaningful Use
You heard it right. January 1, 2014 marked the beginning of the first period for providers to attest under Stage 2 of the Meaningful Use program. 2014 is an important year for the healthcare industry, as ICD-10 will kick into action in less than 8 months’ time from now. Therefore, attest for Stage 2 as soon Read more…
Courtesy: A Formula for Physicians to Better Engage Patients
When physicians attend to a patient, they normally try to instill a personal touch in the encounter through eye-to-eye interaction. However, it is not uncommon for patients to get panicked and ask, ‘What’s wrong, Doc? Is it bad news?’ It is concerning that a simple act of courtesy might be so unexpected that patients don’t Read more…
Health gadgets: Shaping the future
To say that technology is helping improve our health would be an understatement. It has had a much bigger impact than that. It is transforming our lifestyles – the way we eat, drink, sleep, breathe, walk, run and even the micro movements we make in our sleep, are all being shaped by technology in a Read more…
Research highlights cures for patient waiting room frustration
Patients are increasingly relying on online reviews to determine doctors’ wait times, prior to making an appointment. According to recent research, the issue plays an essential role in patient satisfaction and retention. Software Advice, a company that reviews electronic medical records, and publishes primary research on its website, surveyed 5,003 U.S. patients to find out Read more…
Privacy and security of health information on the Cloud
As 2014 begins, hundreds of thousands of Americans are signing up for health insurances through the Health Insurance Marketplace initiative. Latest figures suggest that close to 2 million people have purchased insurance plans with the deadline to do so approaching quickly. This influx of new patients means that healthcare providers and professionals will have to Read more…
EHRs Can Reduce the Cost of Care for Diabetes
A recent report found health IT to be one of the biggest contributors in successfully treating diabetes in western New York. The report found that over a three-year period, Electronic Health Records, care coordination and health information technology have been instrumental in reducing hospitalizations for diabetic patients, by 26%. Brief highlights: 50% of the physicians Read more…
Future holds promise for HIEs
The future for Health Information Exchanges is looking better for 2014 but there will be some challenges. Achieving success in this area will require knowledge and the technical flexibility to adapt. Broadly, there are three HIE groups based on technological and operational preparedness. The first group has deferred investments in technology foreseeing low enrollments. This Read more…