healthcare technology

Patients who don't show up for their scheduled medical appointments drain health care providers' time and resources, reducing appointment availability, increasing wait times, and reducing patient satisfaction.

In an effort to solve this problem, a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins University's Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare has developed a new algorithm that can reduce no-show rates and increase appointment availability.

The model, in use by two JHCP clinics since September 2017, has already provided helpful insights into which factors play the biggest role in no-show appointments.

For example, it indicates that patients who visit emergency departments more frequently are more likely to fail to attend scheduled appointments.

In contrast, patients who use the online patient portal to schedule their own appointments are more likely to keep appointments.

read the original unedited story at https://hub.jhu.edu/2018/10/04/algorithm-predicts-patient-no-shows/

A survey conducted by Nielsen on behalf of the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP) finds that, at most, 52 percent of primary care physicians have recommended that their patients use an mHealth app or device to track their health. Yet only 4 percent to 5 percent of consumers surveyed say their PCP has made such a recommendation

This means that either physicians are making the effort but their patients are ignoring the advice, or patients are looking for that guidance but it isn’t coming from their doctors.

the survey reached a familiar conclusion in how each generation perceives mHealth and telehealth.

It found that consumers rarely use video visits (only 5 percent total), but those age 34 and younger are twice as likely to use and want them than those age 65 and older.

The same discrepancy was seen in the use of text reminders for medication and health measurements and online scheduling tools.

more at : http://mhealthintelligence.com/news/do-doctors-patients-take-mhealth-seriously

A lot of startups are starting to offer mobile tools to serve as “first lines of defense” for concerned consumers. A natural extension to patient education, they serve as the first line of diagnosis.

Dermatology is a particularly attractive area for this because of a national shortage of dermatologists in the United States.

Clinical decision support tool maker VisualDx officially launched Aysa, its first consumer-facing app, last month at Health 2.0 in San Francisco. The app allows users to upload pictures of skin lesions or rashes, enter some additional information about themselves and receive suggestions of what condition they might have and what actions to take next.

VisualDx stands out as a company that’s moving from provider-focused clinical decision support into the consumer world, which should lend it more credibility to its platform.

The app uses machine learning to identify skin conditions and make treatment suggestions.

services like this are crucial, even acknowledging their limitations, because people are already looking online for medical answers, so they might as well have the best ones possible.

CEO Dr. Art Papier in conversation with MobiHealthNews said 

“We know that everybody searches Google with their symptoms or they go to WebMD and use a symptom checker,” he said. “So the real question is how do you develop something that’s an educational symptom checker that’s safe? The art of this is to do a better job of educating so people know on a weekend, do I need to run to urgent care on a weekend, or can I get some better information that will help me make some decisions and then I’ll see the doctor later if necessary.”

read the original story at https://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/visualdx-launches-aysa-consumer-facing-dermatology-app

A recent international survey by the McKinsey & Company consulting firm addresses some myths about consumer use of digital healthcare services.

Many healthcare executives believe that, due to the sensitive nature of medical care, patients don’t want to use digital services except in a few specific situations. Decision makers often cite relatively low usage of digital healthcare services. Results of this survey however reveal something quite different. 

The 5 myths debunked by this survey are as follows

Myth 1: People don’t want to use digital services for healthcareMyth 2: Only young people want to use digital services

More at http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/gallery/5-myths-about-consumer-use-of-digital-healthcare-services-48388-1.html