It’s not as far off as it seems. In fact, it’s at your fingertips.   By Debbie Welle-Powell, Chief Population Health Officer, Essentia Health Digital Care is here to stay.  The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated change to a new model of care; a virtual (digital) model built to deliver care at the right time, all in the comfort of the patient’s home. Health care systems, including Essentia Health, were challenged by the pandemic to deliver necessary care differently. Prior to COVID, we offered limited retail E-Visits and remote patient monitoring (RPM) only to high acuity chronic hear ..read more

By Richard L. Childs, FHFMA, VP RCM, Atrium Health-Floyd Medical Center One positive thing we have learned from the global pandemic is that Revenue Cycle teammates and work can be very effectively accomplished in a remote work environment. I believe it is here to stay in one form or another. Some organizations will stay fully remote, some will have a hybrid model, and still, others will come back fully into the office. To continue to be effective in a remote work environment, we need to strengthen our methods of communicating and keeping our teammates connected and fully engaged. The isolatio ..read more

By Isaiah Nathaniel, CIO, Delaware Valley Community Health March 11, 2020 is when the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic. Since that time, we have witnessed and watched as one of the most resilient sectors of the world kick itself into high gear performing well beyond the normal asks and put oneself-last and others first. In such, Digital Health has been adopted at a rate shocking to most. What used to be a lackluster approach to innovation in healthcare, barriers have been removed, allowing for the thoughtful implementation of digital health too ..read more

By Richard Zane, M.D., Chief Innovation Officer, Sarah Wendel, M.D., Administration, Operations, and Quality Fellow & Adeel A. Faruki M.D., Operations, Executive Leadership, and Innovation Fellow, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus When healthcare professionals at the University of Colorado Anschutz Hospital lined up to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in December and January, some were wearing one of the newest approaches to wearable technology — a coin-sized device affixed with medical-grade adhesive to their upper left chests. The low-cost medical grade device w ..read more

By Raymond Lowe, SVP/ CIO, AltaMed Health Services Before 2020 there had been forward-thinking discussions on the consumerism of medicine, but the pandemic forced providers to focus on patient-centric care through telehealth, chatbots, remote consults, remote patient monitoring, and rich digital engagement tools. Fortunately, all stratifications of health care (payer, Medicare, and Medicaid) have benefited from this transformation. Some health systems saw up to 80% of ambulatory visits delivered by telephonic / telehealth encounters, but how do we ensure that all community members receive the ..read more

By Lance M. Owens, CMIO, Metro Health This happened almost overnight: The federal Centers for Disease Control reported a 154% increase in telehealth visits during the last week of March 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. With hospitals overwhelmed and patients in lockdown, the pandemic flipped the switch to activate a movement that had been building for years. As innovative tools and technology continue to enhance the virtual experience, healthcare systems face new questions. How can we leverage these advances and growing acceptance by patients? How can we take virtual care to the nex ..read more

By Nasim Rezanejad, MD, MS Physician Solutions Informaticisit, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The pandemic has dramatically changed where we work and how we work with one another, with our patients and their families, and with the broader community; including clinicians and researchers beyond our organizations.  The remote monitoring approach and care delivery capabilities extend care beyond ambulatory settings or inpatient settings. Patients know they are not alone; patients know they are apart but together; patients know they can get continuous care; patients ..read more

Dr. Ruey-Kang Chang, CEO What seemed like a page out of a fantasy fiction novel or sci-fi creation is now a reality. Thanks to technology, particularly in healthcare, a significant part has moved to the patients’ homes. The level of care patients receive at the convenience of their homes is escalating since the COVID-19 pandemic. Telehealth and remote patient monitoring (RPM) are not only alternatives to conventional in-person visits for care, but also have evolved into accepted norms of the mainstream practice. In very specific use cases, RPM, such as remote electrocardiogram (ECG) monitorin ..read more

By Dhrumil Shah, CMIO, Compass Medical Healthcare has never been considered an industry easy to disrupt or willing to embrace innovation. It took a global pandemic to change healthcare as we know it today and I am certain that we are only at the beginning of this change process curve, putting one disruption point behind us and a few more to come. We have been working hard over the last few decades, moving past what once was a ‘Sick Care’ and truly focusing on ‘Healthcare’, which promotes our communities’health and well-being. Yet, we failed to prepare adequately to face this pandemic and gave ..read more

By Alka Kohli, MD, MBA, EVP & Chief Population Health and Clinical Officer, Inspira Health While the health care industry has always championed and driven innovation, the COVID-19 pandemic has advanced and accelerated the pace at which many technologies have evolved – even those that were already being used by health care professionals and patients before the pandemic struck. Such is true for remote patient monitoring, an at-home solution that continues to advance the standard of care for many medical conditions. Remote patient monitoring can be defined simply as the use of technology, su ..read more