Commercial vs. Self-Developed Considerations for Mobile Apps Mobile applications are the foundation of digital solutions. As the healthcare industry transforms to a digitally focused healthcare delivery system, the ability to design and develop mobile solutions that support operational interactions will be critical for driving organizational efficiency. Community hospitals are unlikely to have the technical programming resources to design and develop mobile applications specific to their oper...

Supporting the Last Mile of Patient Focused Care Some chronically ill patients may not have the ability or resources to trek to an urgent care center or a medical clinic to receive more advanced care that can be provided via telehealth. The US also has a reimbursement issue relative to in-home care reimbursement,[1] but this could be eliminated as the COVID-19 service/outcomes analysis identifies benefits of the approach. Being able to treat people in their homes is a key foundation for pati...

The Problem: Teleheath Visits without Supporting Patient Vital Signs I’ve conducted two telehealth visits with my care providers over the last month. My annual physical visit started with a nurse validating my medications and any current health challenges. The PCP then reviewed my health status with me to determine whether I had any issues. I didn’t, so the next step was to complete my lab orders by visiting a reference lab. Once lab tests were completed, I received email notifications of...

The Problem: Looking for Healthcare Support in Many Places Consumers looking for healthcare information and guidance generally have to access several different sources to find what they are looking for in order to manage and maintain their health or the health of their family. Many of these sources may not be trustworthy. COVID-19 misinformation has been spread on several social media sites, even with close inspection of site content by the social media vendors.

The Problem: COVID-19 Demonstrates Care Delivery Gaps in Current Model COVID-19 as a threat to the US population has demonstrated clear weaknesses and gaps in the current care delivery model. State and federal regulations that limited the ability to use telehealth for evaluating patients in their homes or in rural areas of the country have been exposed as indefensible in most cases, and those uses are now being reimbursed by CMS.