Recommended Read: Latest Innovation in Healthcare 2019

E-prescriptions have gained tremendous popularity and are growing rapidly not because of the technological advancements, but because of the significant benefits it delivers to caregivers and patients. Though still at its nascent stage, e-prescribing is at its highest in the United States. Some controlled substances prevented physicians from e-prescribing, but after DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) implemented rules for e-prescribing of controlled substances, the physicians and pharmacists started utilizing the same.

Many hospitals and healthcare establishments have switched to e-prescriptions for patient treatment. Initially, e-prescriptions were termed as a no-brainer, as it was computer ordered and people were doubtful whether they could read a physician’s handwriting. The records and reports lead to a net positive effect of e-prescriptions; as they fulfill medical adherence. Lucidity is one of the most critical element of e-prescriptions that delivers an expansive patient safety advantage.

Evolution of E-Prescriptions

In the beginning, e-prescriptions were designed to assist pharmacies to save the delivery time of staff and other overhead costs along with fast & easy medication process. But gradually, it seemed that electronically filling of prescription forms, and sharing the same through electronic medium proved valuable in streamlining efforts and enhancing process operations at the pharmacy. As soon as these benefits came to the knowledge of the pharmacists, they were quick to adopt health-related IT solutions that manage e-prescriptions.
It was by the year 2008 that the pharmacies were open to e-prescriptions.

Conversely, care providers were at a backhand to embrace e-prescriptions, as the process did not seem quite effective for them as it was for pharmacies. But looking at the decision support and timely care features offered by e-prescription solutions; physicians too made their mind to adopt the same.

E-prescriptions evolved as it offered providers with enhanced patient safety by making better clinical decisions, reduced costs, and an improved workflow. The World Health Organisation reported that more than 50% of patients around the world do not complete their prescribed medication, which had a negative impact on patient health contributing to prolonged hospitalization, re-admissions and even leads to patient death.

Introduction of e-prescribing has managed less legwork for patients making it convenient for them to get their prescription. E-prescriptions have improved medication adherence of patients.

Benefits of E-Prescribing

E-prescriptions can either be standalone applications or platforms for ambulatory care units or can be integrated with the existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. The reason many healthcare providers consider the integration of e-prescriptions with EHR is that it contains patient data such as clinical information, lab orders & pathology results, and clinical decision support system. If an e-prescription is a part of EHR, it becomes convenient for physicians to access all patient information and at the same time, he can share e-prescription with the pharmacist, ensuring efficacy and accuracy of treatment.
Enlisted here are some of the many key benefits of e-prescribing.

1. Prevents medication errors
   Many times it has happened that pharmacists tend to dispense wrong medicines due to incorrectly reading the handwriting on prescription and the pharmacists delivered medicines which sounded familiar to one mentioned. For example, Brillinta and Brintellix are different drugs but sound familiar, while the former is used for the coronary syndrome, the latter treads depression.
   
   If these two are confused, may lead to patient death or any severe symptom. E-prescriptions in such cases are of a positive impact. E-prescription can eliminate medication errors that occur due to handwriting mistakes. Also, e-prescriptions allow physician and pharmacists to access a patient’s previous medication and reduce the chances of dispensing wrong medication.
2. Automates Clinical Decision Support
   Almost all the drugs available in the market comes in multiple forms and in various strengths. Traditional prescriptions always suggested the combination of drugs and the dosage details. However, e-prescriptions caregivers are prompted to fill in the complete form which includes details like, dosage, strength, route, and frequency of medicine intake. The e-prescription form also provides a drop-down list with a dictionary of standard drugs and standard parameters to select from; to check dosage and additional therapy alerts.
   
   E-prescription applications assist in lessening the risks linked with filling & generating prescriptions; helping in better clinical decision making. Genomics is the best example of a robust clinical decision support system. Genomics determines the effectiveness of a prescription of any patient based on their genetic codes. Tools like this also perform disease profiling through which it is easy to identify any patient who is at risk of developing a particular symptom. This helps physicians to make informed decisions at the point-of-care.
   
3. Speed Up Medication Process
   Traditional prescriptions or paper-based prescriptions may tend to lose medication history, making it difficult for clinicians and physicians to track medication details. Also, the entire process of tracking medical records was manual which made it difficult to reconcile medication information. With e-prescriptions, a patient’s medication history can be instantly accessed. Every drug to drug interaction is saved in application memory. E-prescription applications fetch data from pharmacy benefit management and EHR platforms, to speed up e-prescribing.
   
4. Instant Notification & Medication Alerts
   E-prescribing assist physicians in gaining full visibility of the allergies and previously prescribed drugs; as everything is documented & stored within the application. E-prescription also provides alert to the providers if the newly prescribed drugs may cause any severe symptoms. Instant notifications through e-prescribing help physicians to provide alternate medication, suggest substitute therapies and treat any allergies on time.
   
   Recommended Read: How is Technology Transforming Healthcare at Home
   
5. Track Complete Medication
   As mentioned at the beginning of this article, traditional prescriptions do not guarantee patients are completing the prescribed medication. Handwritten prescriptions provide no effective method to track if the prescription is fulfilled. Some other reasons could be patients have lost the paper, cannot afford any prescribed drug, forgot to fill the prescribed form or might have started feeling better and hence stopped medication.
   
   E-prescribing helps physicians to track whether patients have filled prescription forms and if in case it is not done, the providers can counsel on medication management. Also, e-prescriptions allow providers to understand the frequency of filling prescriptions for any particular controlled drug so as to stop possible drug mishandling.
   
6. No Delays as No Lost PrescriptionWhen patients receive prescriptions from the doctor chances are that they may forget to fill their medication intake, may never fill details or may have lost the paper. In such cases, the patient needs to, either revisit the physician to rewrite the prescription or visit the pharmacy to get the details from pharmacy management data. With e-prescribing, the prescriptions are directly sent to pharmacy leaving no chances of errors from the patients.
   
7. Greater Patient Satisfaction
   E-prescriptions allows expediting the filling in prescriptions and reduced visits to pharmacies. Since refills are faster, there is less waiting time for patients to hear from physicians, and thus improving process satisfaction.
   
8. Single Workflow Prescribing
   Traditional prescriptions never spoke about controlled drugs in single-paper prescription history and required a separate prescription for controlled substances, that went to special mail-order pharmacies or retail outlets. The entire manual process of managing prescribed controlled drugs and conventional drugs was very tedious.
   
   E-prescribing software allows providers to send e-prescriptions to special mail-order pharmacies, through the same workflow as the regular drug pharmacies. The single workflow interface makes the process more efficient, enhance patient satisfaction, support medical adherence and create patient convenience.
   
9. Better Utilization of Staff Time
   Prescription refills requests are a burden for the healthcare staff. The clinical staff and physicians had to send several follow-ups to patients for a prescription refill, taking a lot of time to and fro. Sometimes, despite these efforts, the staff does not receive filled prescriptions and end up creating new ones. E-prescription enables healthcare providers to review, verify and share as many refill information within seconds. Also, the e-prescriptions allow staff to perform an emergency refill in case the patient is in transit and left with no medication.
   
10. Reduced Re-hospitalization
    The notifications and alert feature in e-prescribing software make healthcare provider track any adversarial reaction of drugs on any patient that leads to hospitalization. E-prescribing reduces re-hospitalization as it ensures timely filing of prescriptions.
    
11. Enhanced Medical Adherence
    Medication adherence is the proper conception of treatment by patients. Patients tend to stop taking medications once they feel better or may end up reducing the dose of prescribed medication. E-prescribing enables faster filling of prescriptions increasing better medication adherence.
    
12. Faster Verification of Medical Insurance
    Traditional prescriptions and outstanding medical bills need to accompany together for insurance claims. Manual verification of prescribed drugs and billing invoice of similar drugs takes a lot of time and effort. E-prescribing software tallies the prescribed drugs and pharmacy invoice and authorizes the purchase for insurance claims.

E-Prescription Adoption & Considerations

There has been a significant increase in e-prescribing adoption over the past few years. In case any healthcare organization has still not implemented e-prescribing solution,
Almost all the hospitals and clinical systems that already have EHR will go with the decision of e-prescribing solution implemented so that they can connect with pharmacies in their network. There are some questions that hospitals and other healthcare providers should consider while looking to implement e-prescribing integrated with their EHR:

1. Will the physicians use e-prescribing along with EHR?
EHR allows the physicians to update patient medication details. However, it cannot transfer the same information to the pharmacy for faster treatment. Thus, clinicians & providers are less likely to use e-prescribing.
But if e-prescription software is integrated with the EHR system, the caregivers will definitely intend to e-prescribe as it enhances the quality of patient care.

2. How secure is the health information network?
This is another critical question to check with the software network provider about system and security. It is extremely essential that the network is compliant to HIPAA and other regulatory compliance so that sensitive patient information is kept protected.

3. Which security network is used by pharmacists?
Since the pharmacies, retail and mail order outlets are the external elements for hospitals and healthcare givers; it is essential to keep a tab on the network they are connected through. E-prescribing is sharing of sensitive drug details pertaining to specific patient-id. Hence one should ensure secured network for implementation of EHR and integration of e-prescription solution with same.

4. What is the acceptable transaction fees for any payment done on a platform?
When a patient receives medication from pharmacy through e-prescribing, some networks charge for transactions done on platforms or directly charge medi-claim providers for the same. One should clarify the charges before implementing e-prescribing with EHR.

5. What are the steps to suggest e-prescription to patients?
The elderly population is less likely to go with e-prescriptions as they are more comfortable with paper-based prescriptions. It is essential for the caregiver to train the elderly patients about the e-prescription use and benefits.

Wrapping Up

Even if the above considerations are taken care of, there still lies a debate on the usefulness of EHR if e-prescribing is added as a vital functionality. The healthcare staff feels that the utility of EHR may reduce with the arrival of e-prescriptions.
But since it is about improved patient care and quality health services; the hospitals and clinics have thoroughly adopted e-prescribing. The collaboration of pharmacists and healthcare providers have engaged the patient as an essential component. E-prescriptions shared with patients via email and other channels; provide patients with more flexibility to shop from a pharmacy of their choice.

There has been a significant gap in healthcare practices due to non-adherence. With e-prescribing, the system builds a bridge between providers and pharmacies to improve the overall process and ensure patient safety. E-prescription processes also provide transparency in the price of the prescribed drug and re-routes a prescription to some other pharmacy if the patient is not satisfied with pricing.

E-prescribing makes the medication management process effective and improves ambulatory care workflow. E-prescribing is changing healthcare delivery by reducing prescribing errors and saving on healthcare costs.
EngineerBabu has a track record of designing and developing numerous healthcare products. We have been able to successfully automate 120 hospitals with our solid expertise in this domain.
Check out our portfolio, how we developed an App to automate 120 Hospitals! 
Consult us, if you are looking for a tech-partner who can take your product to the next level. 

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1. Healthcare or Medicare providers such as doctors, caregivers, social workers, and nurses go through a lot of situations where the lack of communication puts them in trouble. According to estimates, the statistics state that around 30% of healthcare malpractices in the period of 2009-2013 are a straight result of communication gap. 
Though there’s no reason for the providers to do this intentionally, the number of growing healthcare requirements, increasing patients and cases, complex information recording systems as well as the inability to interact is making the overall ecosystem suffer for the worse.

2. Competitiveness among the hospitals is leading to a lack of information sharing which leads to miscommunication and sometimes even no communication at all.
According to an Accenture report, in U.S. hospitals, a loss of around $12 billion a year occurs due to poor communication. These numbers do not even include the extra costs that are incurred in follow-ups and second opinions on the treatment of the patients after leaving the hospitals.

3. Medicine and healthcare highly depend on quality research. It is the study, research, hypothesis and practical implementation of solutions that have taken the medical field this far.
However, due to the lack of a secure and a shared common communication channel, researchers aren’t able to share their work correctly.

These statistics and data if appropriately shared could lead to a lot more progress regarding the understanding of what’s working and what is not, and eventually, practical methods and procedures can be implemented properly. In such cases, researchers need to come forward and communicate their ideas openly, to make people aware of the latest advancements.

4. Healthcare is a sector that needs a considerable involvement of government and its authorities in one way or other. However, reaching out to people who can be a bit intimidating, as in most cases, the authorities are mostly too busy to focus on every general healthcare issue.

Sadly, for the spectrum of broader issues and chronic diseases doesn’t get the attention that they need due to this system. Solutions and research that could get funded by authorities and lead to better outcomes go unnoticed most of the time. This creates negativity amongst health experts and researchers involved, as their efforts are not appreciated.

5. Another vital facet where communication suffers is the EHR vendors and companies. High-edge businesses and competition don’t run well hand-in-hand so to keep the competitive edge on their sides; the EHR vendors refuse to share data. Moreover, considering the interoperability factor, hospitals don’t share their records too as they have a fear of risking their significant incentives if they do.
Additionally, EHR vendors also wish to protect their proprietary technology at substantial levels, and since they are accountable to hospitals and not to patients, they find no value in revealing data or communicating openly from a patient’s betterment perspective.

What Exactly Is Care Coordination?

Care coordination refers to the process of synchronizing a patient’s healthcare data and communicating it effectively between providers, specialists, and vendors. Coordination, as the word suggests, is to keep the details and updates in a manner that every member of the process is on the same page. And when it comes to healthcare, care coordination plays a significant role as many people are involved in the overall treatment of a patient, and when all these people are not sharing data as well as understanding, everything can quickly turn into chaos.
Coordinated health care aims for improvement of the standard of health outcomes by making sure that the information and care from disparate sectors are delivered seamlessly, thus reducing the overall healthcare costs by removing useless and repetitive procedures and tests.
Following are the five major elements of coordinated healthcare:

1. Smooth accessibility concerning healthcare providers and services
2. Effective care plan implementation methods
3. Data transitioning between providers
4. Dedication towards a patient’s healthcare needs
5. Easy and understandable information

Since coordinated care plays a vital role in the healthcare ecosystem, healthcare providers are implementing it in all aspects. Primary as well as long-term care is being embedded with options of coordinated care for better treatments.
Here’s how care coordination is working on improving all the levels of healthcare:

1. Rise of Primary Care Coordination

Patients with chronic diseases like diabetes and high cholesterol need special care. To accomplish this, some providers have already adopted a new approach called Guided Primary Care. In this model, an expert registered nurse works with the patient for care and coordination purposed. These nurses are specially educated to deal with patients having multiple chronic diseases or conditions.
In the guided primary care approach, the specially educated registered nurse assesses the patient at the most basic level and develops a care plan with the primary care providers according to the patient’s care requirements. The nurses also coordinate with specialty care and ensure that no aspect of required patient care is missed or taken lightly.
The model of this research was developed by researchers at the John Hopkins University to address the need for elderly American patients. In a study, this kind of coordination care method was responsible for decreasing the healthcare costs by 11%. Moreover, such approaches have also shown good results in achieving a reduction in hospital readmission records.

2. Acute Care Coordination

Another care coordination approach that speaks for itself, is the acute care coordination approach. This is suitable for patients with acute health issues such as a stroke or heart attack as such patients are in dire need of additional care, as the problem in most of the cases is unpredictable. Emergencies like heart attack or strokes can happen anytime and anywhere, and in such cases, patients are often taken to the nearest hospitals rather than the ones that are in their regular network.
The risk of data redundancy, communication breakdowns as well as errors is highly escalated in such cases. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to ensure better-coordinated communication and healthcare for such patients. Acute care coordination that focuses on communication between provider-handoffs is an essential factor for success according to studies.
In such a process, the patient gets care even after he/she is discharged from the care facility. Moreover, the coordinators performing acute care ensure proper and smooth care transition in the form of follow up calls and visits, updating prescribed medications with patient’s pharmacy, etc. Once the patient is released from the hospital, acute care coordinates continue to follow-up on a regular basis to keep a close eye on the patient’s progress. Acute coordinated care is aimed to help the patients and reduce the rate of hospital re-admissions etc.

3. Long-Term Care Coordination

Rehabilitation recipients might often require moving along between long-term care and post-acute care facilities regularly, as per the necessary level of care according to their condition.

According to an AHA study,” A majority of patients admitted to post-acute care are later transferred to a second post-acute setting.” The patients in such cases are mostly are seniors with memory issues, mental health problems including physical ones too in some cases. Therefore, long-term coordinated care is the right solution in such cases to update care plans and manage medications and transfers.
With the success of this model, many licensed social workers or care coordinators work with patients who need this kind of coordinated care. They understand the patient’s condition and care plans while ensuring that the patient is cared for to meet the effectiveness of the treatment. Moreover, the coordinators also ensure to provide referrals and support according to the facility for the patients, in order to give them the best quality of life treatment.

Current State of Coordinated Care

As per the NEJM Catalyst Care Redesign Insight Report, the healthcare organizations are utilizing the coordinated care practices at different rates. Some of the statistics concerning care adoption are as follows:

• Patient’s care was fully coordinated between healthcare settings- 7%
• Mostly coordinated- 30%
• Somewhat coordinated- 53%
• Not coordinated- 10%

Despite the continuous implementation of coordinated care initiatives by healthcare providers, challenges such as lack of uniformity, communication gaps among providers, etc., remain. For care coordination to work effectively in healthcare, team support and communication is highly valuable. Proper infrastructure, resources and a supporting culture with synchronization between different teams and people are what makes coordinated care successful.

How Can Technology Improve Care Coordination

In the current medical and healthcare practice, the doctors and experts are used to working in silos. Nobody holds any clue of what the other person is doing, which leads to loose communication and medical haphazard. Since the approach is fragmented, it also turns out to be more expensive and inefficient for the well-being of any patient. A solution to all these problems is simply coordinated care. And to achieve that, systematic changes in the inside system need to be implemented.
New and updated technology solutions can help achieve this as they can quickly provide information, such as, which doctor is assigned to which patient, and the medical records of the patients as well. This could be more beneficial for senior citizens who often need someone reliable to take care of their health.
Here are a few ways in which technology can improve coordinated healthcare.

1. Electronic Health Record System (EHR)

An EHR is taken as the basis of any coordinated care effort. It is a system that allows caregivers and providers to work smoothly through integrating and organizing the patient’s health-related information while ensuring proper and timely distribution among doctors and practitioners.

The technology embedded in EHR systems allows it to run and operate on its own without the requirement of any human being. Once the system is set up and commanded to perform, it has the power to distribute information automatically, at the same time ensuring the data privacy of the patient. For senior and elderly patients, this turns out to be more useful particularly as they might need to visit multiple doctors for different purposes. Care coordination allows the patient to get all the details in one place and saves them from recalling all the reports while visiting different doctors.

2. Computerized Provider Order Entry

Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) is a technology system that is designed in a manner to replace the paper-based ordering system of hospitals. These systems allow the people to write all orders, maintain online records for medicines and review the changes for every order with ease as they are stored electronically.
CPOE also provides safety alerts in case of entry of unsafe orders such as duplicate drugs. The technology behind these systems provides the physician with the ability to enter medication orders along with other procedures, and tests into a directly communicating system.
The CPOE systems can also perform the function of ensuring coordination amongst caregivers and doctors by checking the consistency of orders between different doctors and how these orders are working out for patients. It also allows automation to take gear in the process and ensures better and safer medicine.

3. Interoperable solutions

Interoperability in healthcare refers to the ability of different systems to communicate and synchronize with each other. These solutions apply to multiple technologies which allow practitioners, doctors, and nurses to conduct open communication. Currently, medical records sharing systems don’t offer the best value when it comes to data sharing as they were not built for that purpose initially.
Interoperability may include multiple policies, services, technology standards or compatibility of software. Aligned adequately with technology, it leads to, more efficiency, time-saving, malpractice risk reduction, increased care coordination, improved research and fewer unnecessary tests. With care coordination improving with interoperable systems, healthcare, on the whole, can lead to better satisfaction for patients and easy management for the providers.

Benefits of Care Coordination

Coordinated care is highly beneficial from providers angle as it allows them to achieve all three goals, namely, better patient care, low costs, and improved community health.
Care coordination benefits providers in the following manner:

• It allows them to operate at top of their credential. Doctors can get more quality time to care for their patients, as patient care coordinators (PCCs) can handle or help the doctor’s care team with a wide range of patient care related tasks.
• Help them with better management concerning team utilization. Care coordination provides doctors as well as other care members of the team to focus on proactive care, rather than react to high-charged acute care episodes.
• Allows patients to participate in their self-care. Patient care coordinators can participate with the doctor as extensions and stay in close connection with the patient. Communications on a regular basis allow patients to engage better and focus their attention on preventive actions for better health.
• Allows providers to participate in value-based contracts with higher confidence. Most of the value-based healthcare models demand providers to showcase and prove the ongoing quality improvement, satisfaction levels of patient and reduction in costs. With coordinated healthcare, these goals can be achieved with better structuring.

The Way Ahead…

If healthcare organizations are looking to improve the quality standard of the services provided while reducing the care costs, it is high time to consider care coordination as the key element. Care coordination is the most effective strategy to achieve the three primary goals of the industry – improvements in care, reduced cost, and patient satisfaction.
Not only is it effective for better outcomes but also for improving the overall practices for value-based payment models. Though the current technology still needs more advancement to experience smooth care coordination among the systems, the first step is to initiate the process at the initial level and accept it for the betterment of the overall ecosystem and the patients.

With an extensive portfolio of developing several successful products in the healthcare domain, we have proven our mettle numerous times. 
That’s precisely why we understand the ins’ and outs’ of this realm and how to scale your business to tremendous heights.
So, if you are on the lookout for developing a cutting-edge technology product then look no further, contact us asap!

Recommended Read: 

• Innovations in Healthcare
• How is Technology Transforming Healthcare at Home 
• Top 10 Healthcare Companies in the US

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Top 10 Innovations in Healthcare to watch

1. Internet of Medical Things

IoMT, as a part of IoT, refers to a collection of medical devices and applications that connect to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks. Medical devices connected with Wi-Fi allow a machine to machine communication which stands as a base to the IoMT.
Some of the ways in which IoMT can help the healthcare industry are:
1. Remote monitoring of patients with chronic symptoms.
2. Easily tracking down the medication orders of patients.
3. Location of the patients admitted to the hospitals.
4. Allows communication with medical experts even in remotest places.
5. Increased operational efficiency.
An excellent example is a partnership of Salesforce and Philips which have collaboratively created a platform to enable smooth functioning of medical devices in conjunction with complex sets of data.

2. Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence has played an integral role in transforming the healthcare industry in unimaginable ways. From managing day to day data and medical records to be up-to-date with personal data, artificial intelligence has been successful in bringing the legal changes in the workings of this industry.

Apart from that, artificial intelligence can also help with managing the medication, monitoring the health of patients, the creation of drugs, the list is endless.
Here’s how AI is changing the dynamics of the healthcare industry:
1. Managing medical records and data: Health industry cannot do away with this very first step. What lies at its heart is analyzing and compiling the information. Robots help to store, collect, trace and re-format data to provide faster access.
2. Doing repetitive jobs: Mundane tasks of the day can easily be managed with the help of robots. Radiology and cardiology are two disciplines where the amount of data to analyze can be time-consuming. Hence, artificial intelligence can help in minimizing human efforts.

3. Treatment design: Selecting a customized treatment plan becomes more comfortable with AI as it can analyze data relating to a patient’s previous history records, clinical expertise, external research and more.

4. Digital consultation: Apps like Babylon have been very helpful in giving valuable advice to patients based on medical knowledge and personal medical history. It has succeeded in breaking barriers between doctors and patients. Users can easily report their symptoms in the app by using speech recognition feature to compare against a base of illnesses.

5. Virtual nurses: Digital assistant who helps people to do follow up treatments by monitoring patient’s condition. It uses machine learning techniques to support patients.
6. Health monitoring: Health trackers like Garmin, Fitbit, and others can help one keep a check over the activity levels and heart rate. They can provide useful information to doctors regarding the regular habits of the patients. Doctors can then prescribe a proper medical treatment based on such crucial data.
For example, Oncore Medical aims to help in cancer treatment especially radiation therapy. Radiation oncologists can now access, collect and organize medical records electronically through an integrated digital database. Also, it can help doctors design treatment plans for patients.
Similarly, Sentrian is another remote patient intelligence company wants to bridge the chasm between doctors and patients by using smart algorithms. It allows easy prediction of whether patients will become sick even before they experience symptoms. Also, its remote patient monitoring technology enables it to collect patients’ data from various biosensors and then deal with this data by continually detecting problem areas.

3. Centralized Management of Hospitalized Patients

Managing a vast number of patients can be cumbersome for the management of large hospitals. Hence, some of the critical tasks can easily be decentralized by relying on advanced technology. Easy monitoring is possible even without the doctor-patient interaction on day to day basis. With the use of sophisticated equipment like HD cameras and sensors, regular monitoring of the patient’s heart rate, blood pressure, and pulse oximetry can be carried out without any hassles. Thus, it eliminates the need for the physical presence of a doctor and can be extremely helpful during actual emergencies.
Apart from that, it also enables patients to book appointments online, receive test reminders and updates regarding appointments, and communicate doctor through chat features and more. Such technological changes have played an active role in managing time and money resources effectively. If such things are executed properly, then they can allow patients to have easier access to scheduling, reduce stress for staff and lead to increased revenue as all critical conditions will be managed appropriately.

4. Patient Engagement Technology

Digital patient engagement techniques are aimed at providing patients with access to clinical and administrative support in a personalized manner. These engagement tools have helped patients to connect using remote patient monitoring capabilities. Patient engagement is the first step to getting better clinical outcomes by improving communication between care providers and patients. They allow timely access to healthcare by enabling efficient illness management.
The ultimate goal of adapting this technology is to improve the quality of healthcare by reducing costs. In spite of various barriers like a fragmented end-user market, substantial investment requirements and more, patient engagement technology makes use of innovation to the fullest. The need to make healthcare more customer-centric has been realized in the recent past. Hence, the use of patient engagement technology is bringing about an overall positive change in the experience of patients.
For instance, Welvu helps healthcare providers to customize patient education content which includes disease illustrations, treatment plans for each patient and personalized medical photos. Also, mobile-based platforms can read information directly from record visual features, EHR and share educational video for review.

5. Hybrid Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery System

This is an essential technological advancement in the medical field especially for the people who suffer from Type 1 1 diabetes. In this condition, the body is unable to produce sufficient insulin which leads to day to day suffering. Hence, keeping a check on blood glucose levels becomes necessary several times in a day. Taking insulin injections in proper dosages at fixed intervals is thus essential. A hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery system is the perfect solution to this problem. Currently, the MiniMed 670G is the only licensed hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery system in commercial use. The next step in healthcare technology innovation is developing a full proof automated delivery system that allows constant monitoring. However, it comes with its share of risks which include its failure to reach out to the patients at a broader level. Its use is to monitor the glucose level with a pump for delivery of insulin in the right manner. This will eliminate the need for those who are suffering to test and manage their insulin levels by themselves.
For instance, in the year 2016, Ochsner Health Systems provided its hypertensive patients with wireless blood pressure cuffs. This resulted in better control of hypertension of patients as this device successfully allows secure transmission of data to the medical experts.

6. Payer-Provider Analysis and Software

Claiming insurance money for treatment has always been a very tiresome process. It comes at the cost of disrupting the mental peace of patients who don’t have enough time to indulge in various complicated paper formalities. Such situations can lead to bitter experiences in case of emergencies in case the person fails to arrange the money needed for treatment and recovery.
Hence, bridging this chasm is the need of an hour for the healthcare industry.
Innovation in the field of healthcare has helped increase the efficiency of insurance companies as they can now quickly access data about the patient as well as reliable service providers.

This benefits both the payer and the provider because they no longer have to be dependent on online reviews like Google and Yelp. With factual data and detailed information, one can be assured of connecting with the right provider. The easy access to in-depth analysis has helped to evaluate the credibility of providers in the market. The information is more reliable as compared to hard facts. The ultimate goal is to improve safety for individual patients and improve the quality of care. The coordinator between the patient and the specialist will have all the information about the specialist, ranging from experience, affiliations, and network to even the proximity with the patient. The coordinator can now even rank the specialist for further reference.
Referral MD is one such carrier that provides complete analytics and referrals to enhance workflow and optimize the decision-making process in the healthcare system.
One such instance is the successful partnership between Granite Health and Cigna. Both have claimed improvement in their cost scores and quality which can be attributed to process improvement for providers and payers.
Some of the significant changes that occurred after this development:
Advanced imaging was shifted down to 7%.
Medical costs were recorded to be 1.2% lower.
ED was measured 4% lower.

7. Non-Invasive Diabetes Monitoring

People with diabetes need to regularly check their blood glucose levels to keep track of the fluctuating levels and the prescribed medications to use. This monitoring is usually done with a finger prick blood test. Undoubtedly, this test is very much accurate, but at the same time, it can turn out to be pretty inconvenient and messy. Also, many patients feel that they are unable to test themselves as frequently as they should be. Hence, a pain-free, non-invasive and straightforward method can work as a significant improvement in diabetes care. Some of the advantages of this useful technique are:

• Continuous glucose monitoring can indicate the direction and magnitude of change in glucose levels
• Enhanced metabolic control
• Improved quality of life due to reduced hypoglycemic levels.

8. Gene Therapy for Inherited Retinal Diseases

While children share their parents’ genes, they also inherit diseases by default. Scientists are now developing technologies that would directly treat the genes of the parents so that the child does not inherit these diseases and leads a healthier life. There are very few cases of inherited retinal diseases, but there is extensive research going on for the specific genetic etiology that might restore vision loss in patients. This technology can treat retinal diseases caused by biallelic RPE65 mutations.

9. 5G Mobile Technology

With increased dependence on online methods to reach out to doctors, there has been a dire need for 5G network technology. 5G mobile speed holds the potential to enhance hyper-connectivity which can ultimately lead to quick service. This technology also paves its way into your virtual world, wherein you don’t have to travel to meet the doctor. Reaching out to the doctor online can thus become easier. All he will do is analyze your condition and provide a personalized solution immediately. These are some of the advantages of 5G network technology on healthcare market:

• Effective and efficient handling of patient’s data
• Offers an opportunity to gather all networks on one single interface
• Extensive broadcasting data can support more than 60k connections
• Uniform, consistent and uninterrupted connectivity across the world
• Eliminates the need for physical presence of the doctors
• Easy and comfortable treatment for patients who are located in remotest parts of the globe

For instance, recently, Nokia was involved in a multi-partner research project with Oulu University Hospital which is situated in Finland. Its motive is to convert it into a 5G hospital to test and develop advanced healthcare use cases.

10. Big Data Analytics

Big Data has changed the way we can leverage, analyze and manage data in the healthcare industry. It holds immense potential to predict outbreaks of epidemics, reduce costs of treatment, improve quality of life and more.
Its applications which can be adopted in the healthcare industry are:
• Patients predictions for improved staffing:
One of the biggest challenges which are faced by the healthcare sector revolves around availability of staff to manage the patients. If there will be too many workers, then the hospital will have to bear unnecessary labor cost. At the same time, also few workers can profoundly impact the customer service outcomes. In such cases, big data can help to solve the problem where data can be analyzed to come up with hourly predictions of the number of patients which can be expected at each hospital.
Using “time series analysis” techniques, one can use machine learning to predict future admissions trends. Hence, big data can be used to reduce waiting time for the patients and ensuring better healthcare facilities.

• Electronic Health Records:
It is one of the most sought-after applications of big data in medicine. Every patient has its digital record which includes detailed information relating to medical history, allergies, demographics, laboratory test results and more. Doctors can implement new changes without paperwork procedures and data replication.

• Enhanced Security and Reduced Frauds:
According to studies, the healthcare sector is most vulnerable to data breaches than any other industry. It is 200% more likely to suffer significant consequences. As personal data is precious, organizations have now started using analytics to prevent security threats by identifying changes in network traffic or reflecting on other suspicious activities like a cyber-attack.

The Advantages of Innovation:

• Digitization of Data Records:
Proper maintenance of data is essential for the smooth functioning of healthcare industries. From filling patient treatment histories to analyzing diagnostic reports, healthcare facilities need to maintain plenty of records. Thus, the introduction of Electronic Health Records has brought about a positive change in eliminating paperwork. It has been a game changer for healthcare professionals as everything can now be managed through a centralized digital system. Input information relating to a patient’s weight, vital symptoms, and test results can now easily be tracked on a single interface. Apart from that, scheduling appointments, submitting medical claims, updating patient records with diagnostic codes have become more comfortable with digitalization.
• Increased Efficiency and Easier Workflow:
Managing things in an organized and systematic manner becomes hassle free with feeding data into a computerized system. It is less time consuming and leads to increased efficiency due to the replacement of paper-based methods. Also, it reduces the risk of human errors while maintaining financial details and patient data.
• Lower Healthcare Costs:
The transition to electronic health records has the potential to reduce the cost by 3%. According to the researchers, this can lead to savings of up to$5.14 per patient each year.
• Better Treatment Options:
New technology has helped to provide new machinery and equipment and improved medicines which has, in turn, led to the improvement of the quality of life of people.
• Improved Communication:
It can be challenging to get in touch with doctors due to busy schedules and limited timings. Technological advancements have facilitated in bridging this chasm between doctors and patients. Some of the exclusive options like translation software allow easy conversion of a doctor’s spoken words into another language. Also, social networks provide a collaborative platform for doctors who can easily interact with each other. This increased communication has helped the industry in a significant manner.
• Remote Monitoring:
It allows patients to access the records from the comfort of their homes. Usage of home monitoring systems can help to save a lot of cost and time associated with frequent visits to hospitals for regular check-ups. This specially designed device allows doctors to detect specific medical issues with the patients. Also, this device enables health specialists to analyze data of their patients and forewarn them in case something doesn’t seem right.

Concluding View

Healthcare industry holds the potential to grow leaps and bounds. The need of the hour is effective and proper utilization of available technological resources to bring about that positive change. These are some of the baby steps which have been taken to enhance the overall functioning of this promising industry. Due to improved connectivity through consumer demand and mobile technology, the healthcare sector is touching new heights every single day.
Statistics state that about 90% of the healthcare executives are investing in building telehealth programs for the overall well-being of their patients. Also, these innovations are exponentially on a rise as distance health technologies are becoming popular with time.
The ultimate aim is to provide personalized services to patients in a hassle-free manner.
Hence, in a nutshell, innovation in the healthcare sector can be a blessing in disguise as it can easily displace traditional practices which are becoming obsolete in this changing world. Apart from that, the need of the hour is to adopt rigorous evaluation methods to find new ways of incorporating technology in healthcare. Evolution is necessary to meet with the increasing requirements of patients. Thus implementing these solutions is integral to the workings of the healthcare sector.

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The world today;
Is experiencing a dramatic change in age demographics. Considering America as a prime example, it is estimated – In the year 2019, the group of people of age older than 65 will outnumber the group of those younger than five.As life expectancy increases, the number of people living with different chronic conditions and functional impairments, for instance, dementia, diabetes and the inability to manage household chores with growing age are further increasing.
People belonging to the “old age” group are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases and require more care and attention. In such times, the need of the hour is to discover and develop solutions that ensure people’s healthcare expectations, preferences as well as their needs. This leads us to envision the potential of ‘healthcare at home services’ that can benefit people of all age groups to take care of their medical situations independently with ease.
With rapidly progressing technology, the potential for transforming healthcare at home will also grow tremendously. Healthcare organizations and institutions will be able to provide exceptional levels of patient care along with the comfort of home. This will promote greater patient satisfaction and improvement of cost control in healthcare services. As per M&M, home healthcare is expected to reach $349.8 Billion from $227.5 Billion by 2020 globally, at a CAGR of 9.0% during the forecast period.

Elderly and ailing patients might not have the resources and energy to visit doctors every now and then, which consequently leads them to choose the option of healthcare at home. Due to this, healthcare companies are always competing with each other in the race to adapt to the increasingly digitized world.
Specifically talking about the US, the healthcare organizations are well aware of the issues prevailing such as the need for increased care for home treatments of the aging population, mostly due to mobility and budget issues. The only savior that can aid in such a situation is technology, given that it is implemented correctly.
While working with technology, it is vital for home healthcare organizations to choose the right option to achieve the desired results, such as increasing efficiency while providing patients with the utmost care and affordable solutions.

What Constitutes the Spectrum of Home Healthcare?

Other than providing healthcare services for the elderly, healthcare at home is also useful for patients who need constant medical care and treatment once they get back to their homes from the medical facility or hospital. Home healthcare makes it possible for people to receive a variety of medical services in their homes. Healthcare at home can be beneficial for people dealing with different conditions. Whether the patient is an individual recovering from an illness after a hospital stay or someone who is disabled, old or suffering from a chronic disease, healthcare at home can be the right option in such situations.
Healthcare at home allows people to get any kind of treatment available; be it therapeutic or nursing or even routine medical assistance. According to a survey by Canadian Home Care Association, with the aid of healthcare services at home, there has been a decline of around 72% in emergency department visits, this has also resulted in the reduction of hospital admission rates.

Healthcare at home comprises of the following factors:
• Home Assistance
The primary focus of healthcare at home is for people to get medical support at home rather than spending time in a medical facility. Healthcare at home allows people to get the freedom of staying at their residential facility rather than opting for long-term nursing care at hospitals. With home assistance, medical professionals can assist patients who are incapable of conducting daily activities with help for tasks like food preparation, basic housekeeping, and emergency measures. This can be done until the patient can do all such tasks by themselves.
Home assistance also allows medical professionals to take care of medical and psychological assessments while allowing individuals to learn about pain management, disease education, and physical therapy, etc.
• Home Care Agencies
Home care agencies keep their focus on providing medical expertise in the form of healthcare professionals at a patient’s home. In such cases, medical professionals or doctors are sent to a patient’s house to treat their injuries or illnesses. Once the health condition of the patient is restored, the need for medical professionals end and their services are discontinued thereafter.
• Home Health Care Workers
Other than expert doctors, there are certain cases where other medical professionals are involved in home healthcare programs such as nurses, physiotherapist, nutritionist, occupational therapist, etc. The demand for such professionals is expected to significantly increase in the next decade as people of all age groups are growing more conscious of healthy lifestyles.

Benefits of Healthcare at Home

Healthcare at home can be beneficial for many reasons including but not limited to the following ones. Even when the patient is not in a condition to visit the hospital, home healthcare professionals can be of great help. They are specially trained and qualified to provide treatment while assessing the safety as well as risks at the patient’s home itself. They can also offer simple suggestions and corrections for the patient’s well-being, such as the medicines to keep in handy for emergencies or recommendations for immediate ambulance assistance etc.

1. Activities of daily living are supported in-home care too. These activities can include any basic necessity such as bathing, medicine reminders as well as grooming, etc. Such facilities allow elderly patients to get regular help along with their personal care requirements while maintaining a high quality of life for them.
2. Expert nursing care at home is one of the significant benefits of healthcare services at home. Skilled medical professionals can carry out specific critical medical procedures at home with the help of supervised nurses who are certified and hold knowledge about technically advanced medical equipment. Healthcare at home allows your loved ones to get the personalized care that they need at their doorstep.
   
3. Dietary and nutrition support is a part of home healthcare. Patients who suffer from certain diseases and are discharged from the hospitals after treatments, often grow very weak as they lack nutrition. Their problems can worsen with ageing, illness, and injury. Healthcare at home may include dietary and nutritional counselling along with home-cooked meals that can prevent your loved ones from lack of nutrition.
4. Multiple medical prescriptions can turn to be confusing. Home healthcare experts can help your loved ones to consume the right medicines at the right time to control their medical conditions and prevent the intake of wrong drugs.
5. When home care is provided to patients with chronic health issues such as diabetes or pneumonia, clinical trials have turned out to be better with fewer complications according to researchers. Healthcare at home can result in better health outcomes. Moreover, home healthcare allows patients to get treated in a better manner as it provides one-on-one support for individuals. Such personalized and skilled care strengthens the bond between healthcare professionals and their clients.

What’s Driving this Change in Home Healthcare Services?

Companies focusing on providing home healthcare services rely on automation heavily as it allows to ensure that the technology used in the process remains invisible and will enable them to deliver the best care for the users. Due to this factor, more and more home healthcare providing companies are discovering the potential value of automation and optimization as they need to stay competitive in the field.
Automated appointment scheduling is one of the examples of automated processes that result in increased efficiency. Leading technologies like Artificial Intelligence can help healthcare businesses in providing better organized patient-centric services.

For instance, medicines and equipment required by the patients can be determined in real-time with technology. Along with this AI can allow the feature of predictive caregiver scheduling and appointment duration along with predictive routing for travel in case of emergencies. It can also improve customer service through predictive cancellation to avoid no-show appointment prevention.
The whole purpose of automation in home healthcare is to streamline the overall processes such as scheduling and providing services as and when needed, along with all the necessary equipment, thus, improving the patient care at an accelerating pace. This way, all the hassle of fixing random appointments can be eliminated while increasing the productivity of the overall system.
Recommended Read: Blockchain in Healthcare: Opportunities, Challenges, and Applications

The power of the latest ground-breaking technologies like Blockchain and AI can change a lot in the healthcare sector as by resolving current issues and helping patients to get the best experience when it comes to home healthcare. Healthcare organizations are getting aware of the benefits that technology can provide them such as finishing basic tasks and saving time.

5 Technologies Reforming Home-Healthcare

1. Sensors
According to Kalorama information, sales for remote patient monitoring was estimated to around $29.7 Billion in the year 2014 out of which a good part of the demand was accounted for home healthcare facilities and services. Eldercare providers have picked up interest in the home healthcare treatments rather than shifting people to another treatment facility.
As per the trend, sensor technology could be placed in home premises, around doors, windows as well as the patient’s appliances and equipment. These sensors can provide alerts to caregivers in case of any abnormal activity.
They can also track and send notifications if the patient misses their meals. This can be particularly important for patients dealing with diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Such patients can remain at home, and their activities can be monitored via mobile healthcare apps as well as sensors.
2. GPSIn cases of emergency, such as when senior citizens are away from home for a long time, GPS tracking can help their families, healthcare workers or law enforcement bodies to locate them quickly. Technologies with features such as mobile alert services also allow these devices to follow a hybrid approach that enables people to find the elderly even in places where GPS might not be available such as garage parking and indoors. It can also help by automated calling for assistance in case users fall.
Moreover, in need for emergency health services, there can be a difference of life and death concerning calling the closest emergency squad and rapid dispatching. GPS tracking becomes and much-needed option in emergency business service.
3. Remote Monitoring Tools
Regular health monitoring is not an option but a necessity when it comes to elderly patients. Many devices are available these days which can be connected to smartphones to help reduce the costs as well as the time that is consumed when it comes to doctor visits in endangered health situations.

Technology has enabled different options in the form of fitness bands that can keep a regular track of sleep, diet, number of steps, etc. Along with these, there are many other devices which can be used for the purpose of tracking and measuring glucose and blood pressure levels along with heart rate monitoring and other measurements. Such tools allow the patient’s family members as well as nurses and doctors to keep a detailed track of their daily healthcare needs and eliminate the need of calling a doctor time and again.
4. Big DataHome healthcare relies highly on the data available from multiple resources and its analysis to gain vital insights for the right kind of treatment. Some home health services analyze data in massive amounts and use their outcomes to take preventive measures even before a medical situation can turn into a problem.
Big-data enabled sensor can detect the regular activity levels such as sleep patterns etc. and inform the caretaking authorities to take immediate action concerning any abnormality.
5. TelehealthTelehealth systems are a boon to the healthcare industry as they provide people with the ability to use phones and other digital systems to connect patients with doctors and specialists. Moreover, the promising advances in these systems can help the disabled or elderly citizens from traveling to-and-fro to healthcare facilities. Devices such as smartphones and iPads with a simple internet connection can make it easier for the people to implement telehealth and make results easier to understand. They allow doctors to monitor patients from different places and share the outcomes in real time.

3 Applications Driving Healthcare Innovation

Constantly evolving mobile technology has led us to implement new and improved ideas to reality. Healthcare mobile apps are a big revolution in the industry as they have made our work more accessible and improved the rate of efficiency.
Following is a list of some of the healthcare applications that are rapidly transforming the healthcare industry for good.
1. Doctor-On-Demand:
Doctor-on-demand is a mobile application that allows the patient to get a consultation with their doctors through video calling. The application uses the concept of telemedicine to provide the patients with an on-demand doctor in situations of urgent care.

Certified physicians offer their services for urgent care, chronic conditions, preventive medicines, medical advice, etc for both medical care and mental health.
The app could also be helpful in non-emergency situations like flu and cold, respiratory issues, allergies, back pain, and UTI.
2. HealthTap:

The application allows a patient to fix a virtual medical appointment with a doctor or to get some answers to their questions. It provides a convenient way to access healthcare from real doctors for 24*7, through consultations via video, voice or text. The app also has a knowledge library of around 700,000 topics and articles for people to read and learn about healthcare on their own.
It uses an AI-powered symptom checker for one-to-one recommendations and guidance.
3. Microsoft HealthVault:
Microsoft HealthVault is a digital service as well as a mobile app that offers a patient the freedom to keep their medical records updated and safe. The patients can also share these records with digital professionals securely in the time of need. The system is exceptionally suitable for patients with chronic diseases as they can keep a proper track of their routine health metrics.

It also allows patients to set healthcare goals, track progress, and discover health trends.

Concluding View

Healthcare at home sure has a lot of potential but it can only be leveraged if the technologies are utilized in an effective manner.

Crucial data such as patient history should be managed properly and researched for insights and understanding without compromising its security.

People need to believe in technologies in order to adapt and use them in daily lives. Trending names like Blockchain and Artificial intelligence can bring a revolution in the healthcare industry with emerging use-cases and a proper understanding on how they can be used at their best for patients, doctors as well as the overall healthcare ecosystem.

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