From the PRM Pro 6/20/18

Why Every Medical Practice Should Make the Leap to the Cloud
By Jim Higgins

Jim Higgins is the CEO and founder of Solutionreach in Lehi, UT.

Just over a decade ago, the only cloud we knew about was that big, white, fluffy thing in the sky. Since around 2006, however, “the cloud” has changed life as we know it. We use the cloud to binge watch Netflix. To create a work report via Google Docs. It enables us to protect and save pictures through apps like Dropbox. We use the cloud to connect with loved ones on Facebook or Skype. And — without question — cloud computing has completely changed the face of business. It is estimated that by 2020, 60-70 percent of all software, services, and technology spending will be cloud-based.

While healthcare traditionally lags behind the rest of the business world, research shows that cloud computing is making its mark here as well.

• Ninety-two percent of healthcare providers see the value of cloud services.
• Sixty-seven percent of healthcare offices are currently using SaaS applications.

Moving to cloud-based applications has a number of advantages for medical practices. The top reason people in the industry like cloud computing is because it saves money. But beyond the financial advantages, there are many other reasons every practice should consider moving to the cloud:

1. Improved patient satisfaction. The cloud gives patients unprecedented access to their own medical information, keeping them informed and engaged in their own care. And they like it. In fact, the majority of today’s patients say that they would choose a doctor that uses the cloud over a doctor that does not.

Today’s patient platforms (powered by the cloud) make it possible for patients to “meet” with their doctor virtually. For those patients who live far from healthcare facilities, have a strong fear of the physician’s office, or don’t have readily available transportation, this option can be the difference between being seen or not. The growing desire for cloud-based virtual visits is backed up by research that shows three out of four patients (77 percent) say that they want access to virtual care and telehealth.

In addition, the cloud gives physicians unparalleled access to information about a patient’s potential condition, based on data from thousands of patients with similar symptoms — all accessed via the cloud. As doctors are able to more accurately diagnose disease in their patients, patient satisfaction rises.

2. Disaster protection. A few years ago, one of our clients experienced a devastating fire that destroyed their entire practice. Fortunately, they had all of their appointment information set up on the cloud. This meant that they were able to know which patients were scheduled to come in that day and easily shoot off a text letting them know about the disaster.

Using patient communication through the cloud keeps you in contact with patients no matter what your situation (even if the only problem is a power outage). In addition, when patient files are stored on the cloud, they are easily accessible if you move to a temporary facility while rebuilding. In the case of a large-scale disaster, where the patients have been impacted as well, the cloud gives patients access to their own medical information—making available everything from important prescriptions to a full health history.

3. Better collaboration. It is generally agreed upon that collaboration is one of the most important aspects of effective healthcare, indicated by the 96 percent of executives that say a lack of intra-office collaboration or poor communication leads to mistakes. Cloud computing is a great way to improve communication and cooperation between doctors, staff members, and office managers.

By allowing professionals to communicate instantly via the cloud, everyone in the office can have the information they need — wherever they may be at that moment. If something unexpected pops up during the course of a regular day, cloud-based applications make it possible for the entire team to handle the change without needing to hunt each other down.

4. Reduced burden on everyone. More than half of all practices say that using systems via the cloud reduces the burden on staff or allows them to function with fewer staff members. In addition, 68 percent of patients say they feel relief when their provider offers the ability to complete tasks through the cloud. The cloud moves some of the burden from staff to patients — giving them a feel of more control over their care at the same time.

By moving many administrative tasks to the cloud, practices also leave the window open to growth. Administrative tasks that once took up a large part of a practice’s day can now be taken care of without any work required by staff. A majority of patients say they have paid their bill over the cloud via a patient portal. And 77 percent of patients say the ability to schedule appointments online is important to them. The cloud allows practices to be flexible and scalable when it comes to adding new patients.

Simply put, cloud computing is no longer just a nice-to-have option for healthcare practices. It is critical to the future growth and competitiveness of every office. By moving to the cloud, you can maximize your resources all while making patients happier. It’s become a no-brainer.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 6/18/18

Top News

Walgreens will open a new office in Chicago next year to accommodate its growing Technology Excellence Center, which includes the company’s retail pharmacy technology, digital, mobile, and e-commerce groups. The 20,000 square-foot facility will eventually employ 1,800, including 1,300 who will relocate to the city where Walgreens was founded in 1901.

Webinars

June 21 (Thursday) noon ET. “Operationalizing Data Science Models in Healthcare.” Sponsor: CitiusTech. Presenters: Yugal Sharma, PhD, VP of data science, CitiusTech; Vinil Menon, VP of enterprise applications proficiency, CitiusTech. As healthcare organizations are becoming more adept at developing models, building the skills required to manage, validate, and deploy these models efficiently remains a challenging task. We define operationalization as the process of managing, validating, and deploying models within an organization. Several industry best practices, along with frameworks and technology solutions, exist to address this challenge. An understanding of this space and current state of the art is crucial to ensure efficient use and consumption of these models for relevant stakeholders in the organization. This webinar will give an introduction and overview of these key areas, along with examples and case studies to demonstrate the value of various best practices in the healthcare industry.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Announcements and Implementations

Marin County in California selects care coordination technology from ACT.MD to serve as the case management hub for its new Whole Person Care initiative. The program will focus on providing healthcare and social services for Medicaid recipients, particularly the chronically homeless, through data sharing between county departments and community service organizations.

Athenahealth integrates Brightree’s referral management software for home medical equipment with AthenaClinicals.

Aledade partners with population health management company Emtiro Health to launch an ACO for independent primary care practices in North Carolina. North Carolina-based Emtiro will serve as the frontline point of contact, while Aledade will supply technology, analytics, and regulatory insight.

People

Innovaccer CMO David Nace, MD joins the Population Health Alliance’s Board of Directors.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

In Connecticut, the City of New Haven partners with venture capital firm HealthVenture, and accelerators Bridge Innovations and Origami Innovations to open Health Haven Hub. The nonprofit incubator will offer early-stage health IT companies workspace, funding, and mentorship.

Telemedicine

True Nature Holding opens for business with telemedicine service lines for both humans and pets. The Atlanta-based company, which has tapped Jay Morton (Local Pet Rx) as president and interim CEO, plans to develop additional patient engagement, care coordination, and remote monitoring technologies.

Other

Family physician Daniel Dwyer files a $200 lawsuit against Apple after the company refused to revert his iPhone back to its previous operating system. Dwyer’s litigious act was prompted by an operating system update that occurred without his consent and while he was on the phone with the local pharmacy on behalf of a patient. “… I couldn’t use my phone until the update finished,” Dwyer explained. “It was a devious trick that they did, and it’s not fair. They interrupted my business. Thank goodness it was not a life-threatening situation, but it could have been.”

Independent physician practices in Vermont say enough is enough after patients complain of exorbitant lab fees charged by University of Vermont Medical Center. They have stopped sending their labs to UVMC, despite better access to lab results within the health system, and have instead turned to significantly cheaper labs that are out of state or handled by companies like Quest Diagnostics, which provides an on-site phlebotomist and digital results in 24 hours.

DNA testing kit company Dante Labs mistakenly sends five customers used saliva kits, blaming the error on its third-party fulfillment partner. It’s not the first black eye for at-home genetic testing companies: Orig3n DNA failed to recognize that one of its customers was in fact a dog, while several of the more well-known companies sent the same customer extremely different results – all of which makes me think results should be taken with a grain of salt (or ounce of saliva).

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 6/13/18

Top News

New Mexico-based oncologist Barbara McAneny, MD takes the presidential helm during AMA’s annual meeting, while Atlanta-based psychiatrist Patrice Harris, MD becomes president-elect. Both women – the association’s fourth and fifth female presidents, respectively, have strong ties to health IT.

As the co-founder and CEO of New Mexico Oncology Consultants, and founder and manager of the New Mexico Cancer Center, McAneny has spearheaded the use of health IT like NantHealth’s clinical operating system as part of community oncology medical home programs. She has vowed to propel AMA forward in its work with data scientists and tech innovators to bring value to digital breakthroughs in medicine.

Harris has been active on AMA health IT committees and will continue to head its opioid task force. She is in private practice, serves as an Emory University professor, and consults on healthcare delivery services and trends.

Webinars

June 21 (Thursday) noon ET. “Operationalizing Data Science Models in Healthcare.” Sponsor: CitiusTech. Presenters: Yugal Sharma, PhD, VP of data science, CitiusTech; Vinil Menon, VP of enterprise applications proficiency, CitiusTech. As healthcare organizations are becoming more adept at developing models, building the skills required to manage, validate, and deploy these models efficiently remains a challenging task. We define operationalization as the process of managing, validating, and deploying models within an organization. Several industry best practices, along with frameworks and technology solutions, exist to address this challenge. An understanding of this space and current state of the art is crucial to ensure efficient use and consumption of these models for relevant stakeholders in the organization. This webinar will give an introduction and overview of these key areas, along with examples and case studies to demonstrate the value of various best practices in the healthcare industry.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Announcements and Implementations

White Oak Pediatrics (MD) goes live on patient portal software from EClinicalWorks.

The American Podiatric Medical Association taps MyMipsScore to develop an app for its members, giving them access to its MIPS Calculator, MIPS eligibility status, and related analytics.

People

Gamil Kharfan (Claro Insurance) joins ACO and MSO company Genuine Health Group as its first chief growth officer.

DuPage Medical Group (IL) hires Nick Martin (Optum International) as CTO.

Telemedicine

Physical therapist Richa Kohli launches TheraNow, a Web-based physical therapy platform that includes virtual consults, in 14 states.

Other

That’s fear you smell: Researchers in Italy find that dental students perform better when conducting exams on mannequins outfitted with shirts previously worn by students during class lectures, as opposed to offering checkups to mannequins wearing shirts worn during more stressful exams.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Alert Fatigue – Striking a Balance (Culbert Healthcare Solutions)
• Increase reimbursements with voice recognition software (AdvancedMD)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 6/11/18

Top News

Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD recounts in The New York Times her personal and professional struggle to get to the bottom of lead-induced illnesses that were plaguing her patients after the city of Flint, MI switched water sources in 2015. She’ll release a book recounting the experience, the effects of which are still impacting the community, in the coming weeks.

A few snippets:

“Most of my professional life as a pediatrician and medical educator had been pretty predictable. Clinics, meetings, presentations, red tape, training sessions and lots of talking with faculty members and residents and patients. But I’d always seen my work through the lens of social justice. To put it simply, health is justice, especially for the youngest among us.

Now I was coming to see that my work couldn’t stop with treating patients and training other pediatricians. I was becoming something new — an activist, and a detective.

So, along with a growing team of doctors and scientists, I held a news conference to release our findings and demand action. It was an unusual thing for a local pediatrician to do. But that’s what you do when nobody’s listening. You get louder.”

Webinars

June 12 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Blockchain in Healthcare: Why It Matters.” Sponsor: Quest Diagnostics. Presenter: Lidia Fonseca, CIO, Quest Diagnostics. Blockchain technology is gaining traction in many industries, including healthcare. It’s not only a hot topic, but is also showing promise with real-world applications. This webinar will share how blockchain may play a key role in the future of healthcare IT by helping to solve some of the industry’s challenges, distinguishing the hype from reality by discussing how it works, how it can impact healthcare providers, and its future application in healthcare IT.

June 21 (Thursday) noon ET. “Operationalizing Data Science Models in Healthcare.” Sponsor: CitiusTech. Presenters: Yugal Sharma, PhD, VP of data science, CitiusTech; Vinil Menon, VP of enterprise applications proficiency, CitiusTech. As healthcare organizations are becoming more adept at developing models, building the skills required to manage, validate, and deploy these models efficiently remains a challenging task. We define operationalization as the process of managing, validating, and deploying models within an organization. Several industry best practices, along with frameworks and technology solutions, exist to address this challenge. An understanding of this space and current state of the art is crucial to ensure efficient use and consumption of these models for relevant stakeholders in the organization. This webinar will give an introduction and overview of these key areas, along with examples and case studies to demonstrate the value of various best practices in the healthcare industry.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Announcements and Implementations

Kareo announces GA of Engage, practice and patient relationship management software that includes online patient intake and scheduling, secure messaging, reputation management, and analytics.

Chicago-based direct primary care practice ImagineMD leverages Best in Class Care’s online referral and transparent pricing network.

Government and Politics

In California, the Long Beach Dept. of Health develops an online reporting system for food-borne illnesses. Local health officials hope that new system will result in better oversight of eateries, and help them to understand just how many patrons end up seeking medical care for their symptoms. Its previous telephone-based reporting system averaged just 72 calls a year.

Research and Innovation

Researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center in Holland find that breast cancer patients can recall their health data with remarkable accuracy up to 18 months after surgery – a boon to patients and the physicians who want to foster shared decision-making during follow-up care. Researchers also point out that such recall can help cut down on time spent on explaining procedures, and can benefit researchers by helping them “decide which information to obtain from patients or medical records.”

Telemedicine

Epic Health develops Carie, a mobile app that offers virtual consult and in-office scheduling capabilities.

Other

In Australia, a media outlet calls out online physician scheduling and review website HealthEngine for tampering with patient reviews. Media analysts found that over half of the nearly 48,000 reviews had been edited in some way, with many being changed to more positive wording. HealthEngine Chief Executive and GP Marcus Tan at first defended the company’s practices, pointing out that it publishes only positive reviews to “celebrate” the art of medicine. He quickly recanted after the news broke and has vowed to launch an internal audit of review editing processes.

The beta version of Apple’s latest software update, iOS 12, will give users the option to turn their AirPods into hearing aids via the new Live Listen feature, which amplifies sound through built-in earbud microphones and an accompanying Made-for-iPhone hearing aid device.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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News 6/6/18

Top News

Athenahealth President and CEO Jonathan Bush resigns as past behaviors come back to haunt him amidst pressure from Elliott Management and other investors to put the company up for sale. Mr. H shared the cut-and-dry details in an early-morning post. Readers were quick to offer more colorful commentary.

It seems the cult of personality Bush built around himself – one that no doubt has to some extent helped the company stand out amongst competitors, prospects, and customers – has ended up overshadowing the far less clickbait-worthy blood, sweat, and tears he shed in building the company from the ground up.

Webinars

June 12 (Tuesday) 2:00 ET. “Blockchain in Healthcare: Why It Matters.” Sponsor: Quest Diagnostics. Presenter: Lidia Fonseca, CIO, Quest Diagnostics. Blockchain technology is gaining traction in many industries, including healthcare. It’s not only a hot topic, but is also showing promise with real-world applications. This webinar will share how blockchain may play a key role in the future of healthcare IT by helping to solve some of the industry’s challenges, distinguishing the hype from reality by discussing how it works, how it can impact healthcare providers, and its future application in healthcare IT.

June 21 (Thursday) noon ET. “Operationalizing Data Science Models in Healthcare.” Sponsor: CitiusTech. Presenters: Yugal Sharma, PhD, VP of data science, CitiusTech; Vinil Menon, VP of enterprise applications proficiency, CitiusTech. As healthcare organizations are becoming more adept at developing models, building the skills required to manage, validate, and deploy these models efficiently remains a challenging task. We define operationalization as the process of managing, validating, and deploying models within an organization. Several industry best practices, along with frameworks and technology solutions, exist to address this challenge. An understanding of this space and current state of the art is crucial to ensure efficient use and consumption of these models for relevant stakeholders in the organization. This webinar will give an introduction and overview of these key areas, along with examples and case studies to demonstrate the value of various best practices in the healthcare industry.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.

Here’s the recording of yesterday’s webinar titled “Increase Referrals and Patient Satisfaction with a Smarter ‘Find a Doctor’ Web Search.”

Announcements and Implementations

The United Physicians of San Antonio ACO chooses Stratus Interoperable to develop data integration, usability, and reporting software for its 38 participating practices.

Urology of Indiana selects UroChoice EHR and practice management technology from ISalus Healthcare.

HealthLynked develops an iPhone app to help network members more easily access their health data and communicate with providers.

Advocare will replace its GE Centricity software with EClinicalWorks. The physician group employs 600 providers across 183 facilities in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Points Group announces GA of TriageTrak, software designed to help practices better direct patients to best-fit physicians and locations from call center, website, and front office.

People

HIE operator HealthlinkNY promotes Staci Romeo to executive director.

Brandon Goldstein (TereHealth) joins Koan Health as chief revenue officer.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

EHR and CRM integration startup Bridge Connector raises $4.5 million in a seed funding round led by Axioma Ventures. The company has hired Johsua Douglas (D2 Health) as CTO and Andy Harlen (Virsys12) as VP of sales.

Venture capital company NEA acquires DaVita’s Paladina Health chain of employer-based primary care clinics for $100 million.

Government and Politics

CMS launches a state-based scorecard for Medicaid and CHIP programs, offering taxpayers insight into quality metrics related to well child visits and children’s preventive dental services, mental health conditions, and other chronic health conditions. The agency plans to add metrics related to opioid and home and community based services, plus the ability to compare spending patterns.

Other

Meditation app Calm adds 30 minutes of highlights from GDPR legislation, as read by BBC broadcaster Peter Jefferson (already well-known for his sleep-inducing nighttime maritime forecasts) to its “bedtime stories for grownups.” As Calm’s advert states, “New laws aren’t meant to be exciting – but this one could sedate a buffalo.”

Sponsor Updates

• EClinicalWorks will exhibit at the Value-Based Summit Series Telehealth 2018 June 7-8 in San Diego.
• Nordic is named to Inc. Magazine’s “Best Workplaces” list.
• AdvancedMD will exhibit at Masters in Ophthalmology June 8-10 in Orlando.
• Aprima will exhibit at the NJMGMA Practice Management Conference June 6-8 in Atlantic City.
• Intelligent Medical Objects will exhibit at the NextGen Large Client User Group Meeting June 6-8 in Chicago.

Blog Posts

• AdvancedMD Certified Great Place to Work (AdvancedMD)
• Helping NYC Youth Reach Their Potential (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk.

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Contact us online.
Become a sponsor.