Human API CEO on Unifying Health Data
In an interview with InformationWeek, the CEO of Human API, Andrei Pop, discussed his vision to move beyond simply using APIs for health devices to including integrations with every type of health data. Get Real Health partner, Human API, is a universal health data platform that enables developers to build the next generation of healthcare applications.
Pop explains that, “Our health data is stored in a lot of disparate datasets. Due to very difficult technical challenges, we rarely get the opportunity to pull it all together and create a clear, quantitative picture of an individual’s health. Over the years many have proposed that an answer to freeing health data might be to let patients control it and make sharing decisions directly. That’s the basic idea behind Human API.”
Pop said Human API has been surprised by the demand from application developers for their product and they are continuously hiring to keep up. Pop is confident that Human API have a significant impact in the future, “We want to be the easiest way to integrate health data from anywhere.”
Source: InformationWeek Healthcare, 11/5/14
Steward’s ACO Focuses Patient Engagement Efforts on 4% of Covered Lives
Steward Health Care System’s President Dr. Mark Girard, discussed patient engagement at the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit in Boston this week. Dr. Girard spoke to how Steward’s uses digital health tools to manage their patient populations, “We have to earn patient engagement. We have to drive good outcomes, we have to drive quality.”
Dr. Girard explained that Steward is focusing its patient engagement and population health initiatives around the 4-5% of patients who account for 50% of the organizations medical expenditures. He claims the entire economic viability of Steward’s ACO program hinges on how they manage that 4-5% of patients. These patients are high risk and typically see eight different types of doctors a year. To combat this challenge, Steward developed a population health program where these patients are designated a nurse care manager with whom they can communicate.
Source: MobileHealth News, 11/4/14
CMS to Pay Docs for Care Coordination, Telehealth
Late last week, CMS issued final rules on Medicare reimbursement changes. Included in the new rule are payments for Medicare care coordination, wellness and behavioral health telehealth visits. As proposed earlier this year, Medicare will cover wellness and behavioral health telehealth visits starting in January. Doctors will also be able to bill Medicare $42.60 per patient per month for care coordination for patients with multiple chronic conditions. These new payments are for non-face-to-face services.
The rule also included big changes to Medicare payments tied to quality under the health reform law. In 2015, Medicare payment to all physicians will be adjusted by quality performance under value-based payment modifiers. Before, quality-performance penalties excluded small practices and were limited to larger groups. Furthermore, there will be new quality standards for the Medicare Shared Savings Program and the rule eliminates the reporting exemption under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act for indirect financial ties between industry and physicians.
Source: Modern Healthcare, 10/31/14
Health Wearables Going Big In 2015; Questions Loom
Wearables and sensors are largely known as effective fitness tracking tools, however the true value of these devices lies in their revolutionary impact on healthcare management. In fact, the wearables market is expected to dwarf fitness with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual sales.
Wearables allow users to constantly record all kinds of vital statistics and enables physicians to stream the recorded data to make faster, more comprehensive healthcare decisions than they would otherwise be able based on bloodwork and office visits.
What wearables should you look out for in 2015? Sensoria is rolling out “smart socks” and other sensor-equipped clothing equipped with both healthcare and fitness applications. Be sure to also look out for Force Impact Technologies’ (FIT) Fitguard, which is a sensor-equipped mouthguard designed to measure the force of hits to the head to aid concussion detection.
Source: InformationWeek Healthcare, 11/4/14
