Scroll to top
Tag: health care providers
03/15/2023

ONC: Majority of Office-Based Physicians Used Telehealth in 2021

Article Excerpt: A report from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology found that telehealth use grew noticeably over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, with high rates of not only provider adoption but also satisfaction. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it became apparent that telehealth was an effective method for providing and receiving care. However, as the severity of the public health emergency diminished, questions surrounding telehealth and its continued use arose.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/4cru2w4c

Article Source: mHealth Intelligence

03/06/2023

Opioid Prescription Decision Tool May Be Feasible Option to Curb Overprescribing

Article Excerpt: A new report shows that an app designed to help clinicians make better opioid-prescribing decisions following surgery can be a useful tool, although not all clinicians said they would continue using it. The study, published in BMJ Open, highlights one potential strategy to help curb the overprescription of opioids, which is believed to be a major factor in the current epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States. The study investigators said persistent postsurgical opioid use is a common problem that occurs in about 6% of opioid-naive patients who are given the drugs. In about 15% of cases, patients are discharged with opioid prescriptions that are inconsistent with their opioid usage while in the hospital.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/yhxbwnc2

Article Source: AJMC

02/28/2023

MHT Delivers New Technology for Measuring and Improving Mental Wellness

Article Excerpt: Mental Health Technologies (MHT) offers a rapidly growing cloud-based platform primary care physicians and mental health professionals use to screen and test for mental health disorders, including depression and substance abuse. MHT helps providers identify areas where their patients are struggling and refers them to the proper behavioral healthcare professional…SmarTest is a tool that uses intelligence and historical data to define when-and how-a patient should be tested for various mental health conditions. It can base its decisions on patient information, such as age, gender, or other demographics.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/6ruxh22t

Article Source: Accesswire

11/21/2022

Use of telemedicine for opioid use disorder treatment – Perceptions and experiences of opioid use disorder clinicians

Riedel L, Uscher-Pines L, Mehrotra A, Busch AB, Barnett ML, Raja P, & Huskamp HA. (2021). Use of telemedicine for opioid use disorder treatment – Perceptions and experiences of opioid use disorder clinicians. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 228, 108999–108999. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108999

Researchers conducted a national online survey to assess clinician use of and perspectives about telemedicine for opioid use disorder (OUD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicians, including psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, primary care providers, and physician assistants, were recruited from WebMD/Medscape’s online panel (N=602). The survey focused on the use of telemedicine to treat OUD in the last month. Questions included clinician training, patient population served, OUD visit delivery, barriers to telemedicine, and opinions on effectiveness of telemedicine. Findings showed that on average 57% of visits were via telemedicine. The majority of clinicians (63%) reported telemedicine was as effective as in-person care. Ninety percent said they were comfortable using video for clinically stable patients and 49% said the same for clinically unstable patients. Seventy percent of clinicians preferred to return to in-person care following the pandemic, but 95% wanted to continue to offer telemedicine in some form. Significantly higher comfort levels were found among clinicians with at least 30% of their patient caseload composed of those with OUD compared to clinicians with fewer patients with OUD. Further, clinicians with at least 60% Medicaid and uninsured patients were significantly more likely to have conducted visits via audio-only methods and also preferred to continue using telemedicine after the pandemic compared to those with fewer Medicaid patients. These findings could inform how telemedicine is used for OUD treatment moving forward; however, there remains uncertainty about the use of audio-only visits and reimbursement levels.

11/10/2022

Digital Therapeutics Summit Held at Dartmouth

Article Excerpt: Nearly 175 people representing the digital health and pharmaceutical industries, health care systems, clinicians, scientists, investors, Dartmouth students and faculty, and government officials representing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gathered on Dartmouth’s campus November 2 for daylong discussions centered on digital therapeutics. Hosted by Geisel School of Medicine’s Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) and Dartmouth’s Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship, the program provided an overview of the science and clinical practice of digital therapeutics, the current and anticipated paths to their global deployment, and a vision for the future. This is the first time these groups have come together in conversations hosted by an academic institution about the digital health landscape and may well be viewed as a seminal moment in the rapidly developing field.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2fnhbyxa

Article Source: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine News

09/22/2022

Dartmouth-led Research Team Receives $3.3 Million Grant to Test Efficacy of Adding Audio Recordings to Clinic Visits with Older Adults

Article Excerpt: A Dartmouth-led research group, including investigators from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), has received a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute on Aging. In this NIH stage III ‘real world’ efficacy trial, investigators will compare the impact of sharing visit recordings to care as usual over 12 months in older adults with diabetes. According to previous studies, up to 80 percent of clinic visit information is forgotten by patients immediately after seeing their healthcare provider. This presents a significant barrier to their ability to manage their conditions, especially if they are older and have comorbidities that lead to poor health outcomes. “After visit summaries can improve recall, but concerns still exist about their readability, accuracy, and low patient usage,” says Paul Barr, PhD, an associate professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, and Center for Technology & Behavioral Health (CTBH) at the Geisel School of Medicine.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/54fuf7f4

Article Source: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine News

09/15/2022

Developing Trust in Healthcare AI, Step by Step

Article Excerpt: A new analysis examines how artificial intelligence in medicine can impact clinical decisions and identifies the steps that could build more trust in machine learning models from doctors and patients… As the usage of artificial intelligence in healthcare grows, some providers are skeptical about how much they should trust machine learning models deployed in clinical settings. AI products and services have the potential to determine who gets what form of medical care and when – so stakes are high when algorithms are deployed, as Chilmark’s 2022 “AI and Trust in Healthcare Report,” published September 13, explains.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/3fv7mczs

Article Source: Healthcare IT News

09/14/2022

Physician Adoption of Digital Health Tools Is Accelerating, AMA Research Shows

Article Excerpt: The American Medical Association’s digital health research released today shows increased rates of digital health adoption among physicians over the last six years and provides insights into their expectations. “The AMA survey illustrates the importance physicians place on validated digital health tools that improve health while streamlining the technological and administrative burdens faced each day in medicine,” said AMA President Dr. Jack Resneck Jr. in a statement. “These technologies also must be designed and deployed in ways that advance health equity,” he added.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/ykvhp5jz

Article Source: Health IT News

07/26/2022

Research Team Receives $7 Million Funding Award to Study Most Effective Way of Sharing Clinic Visit Information with Older Adults

Article Excerpt: A Dartmouth-led research group, including investigators from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, and Harvard Medical School, has received a five-year, $7 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Their project will assess the effectiveness of visit information provided to older adult patients and caregivers—as an audio recording compared to reviewing the physician note of the visit using the patient electronic health portal—on quality of life… “Providing written summaries of office visits through online patient portals is a widely adopted approach to close this information gap,” explains Principal Investigator Paul Barr, PhD, an associate professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, and Center for Technology & Behavioral Health at the Geisel School of Medicine… “But it hasn’t been clear if this is the best way to share information,” he says. “Visit audio recordings have emerged as another evidence-based strategy to share information. This has resulted in a decisional dilemma for patients and healthcare leaders who ask the question, ‘What is the most effective approach to communicate healthcare visit information to older adults living in the community?’”

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/shmbd3pt

Article Source: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine News. Also posted on News-Medical.Net.