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Tag: health care
06/08/2023

Geisel Study Offers New Insights into How Medicare Fraud Has Spread Across U.S. Regions in Recent Years

Article Excerpt: Findings from an innovative study conducted by a team of researchers at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, are providing new insights into how the rapid spread (or diffusion) of fraudulent Medicare home healthcare billing has occurred across the U.S. in recent years. To understand the significant growth of Medicare fraud during the 2000s in just a few regions of the country, the research team examined the network structure of home health agencies (HHAs) and identified a set of characteristics shared by regions where fraud was most likely to occur.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/26r8rymk

Article Source: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine News

03/20/2023

Data-Centric AI is Making Waves

Article Excerpt: With the shift to data-centric AI the industry is seeing a higher priority being placed on the quality of the data used in AI systems, and as a result there is potential for more accurate and reliable outputs, especially within the healthcare context. Healthcare is uniquely suited to a data-centric AI approach. Currently, healthcare is generating the world’s largest volume of data, and it isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. It is estimated that by 2025, 36% of the world’s generated data will be healthcare data and every year we are seeing more than two million scientific articles published. Unfortunately, much of the world’s data remains disconnected, disorganized, conflicting, and unstructured.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/mvpnb67j

Article Source: Fierce Biotech

02/27/2023

Dementia, Substance Misuse, and Social Determinants of Health: American Indian and Alaska Native Peoples’ Prevention, Service, and Care

Crouch MC, Cheromiah Salazar MBR, Harris SJ, Rosich RM. Dementia, Substance Misuse, and Social Determinants of Health: American Indian and Alaska Native Peoples’ Prevention, Service, and Care. Chronic Stress (Thousand Oaks). 2023 Jan 18;7:24705470221149479. doi: 10.1177/24705470221149479. PMID: 36699807; PMCID: PMC9869198.

A qualitative study was conducted to understand the cultural practices and beliefs among American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) Elders about Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD). Interviews investigated the etiology, course, treatment, and cultural meanings of ADRD as well as the social determinants of health related to ADRD and role of substance use disorder. AI/AN tribal Elders are identified as individuals who are designated culture bearers, wisdom holders, and role models in their respective communities. Twelve AI/AN Elders (mean age=73) who speak English participated in semi-structured interviews. The sample was predominantly female (66.7%), Athabascan Tribal heritage (58.3%) and retired (66.7%). All participants had a family member with ADRD but did not themselves have an ADRD diagnosis. Qualitative analyses identified 6 themes of etiology, barriers to treatment, and social determinants: (1) postcolonial distress; (2) substance misuse; (3) distrust of Western medicine; (4) structural inequities; (5) walking in two worlds; and, (6) decolonizing and indigenizing medicine. Findings highlight potential causal factors in disease development and manifestation as viewed by AI/AN Elders. This study exemplified historical and ongoing discrimination and stress in Western medicine and the importance of adopting a holistic view to address cultural health disparities.

12/19/2022

An Audio Personal Health Library of Clinic Visit Recordings for Patients and Their Caregivers (HealthPAL): User-Centered Design Approach

Barr P, Haslett W, Dannenberg M, Oh L, Elwyn G, Hassanpour S, Bonasia K, Finora J, Schoonmaker J, Onsando W, Ryan J, Bruce M, Das A, Arend R, Piper S, Ganoe C. An Audio Personal Health Library of Clinic Visit Recordings for Patients and Their Caregivers (HealthPAL): User-Centered Design Approach. J Med Internet Res 2021;23(10):e25512 DOI: 10.2196/25512

This paper describes the user-centered development of HealthPAL, an audio personal health library for patients to collect and organize clinic audio recordings. Forty participants representative of older patients and caregivers were recruited from community settings. Participants gave feedback during 5 rounds of usability sessions. In the first three sessions, researchers used paper prototypes and focused on features to refine the user interface. In rounds 4 and 5, participants moved to low-fidelity and high-fidelity software versions of HealthPAL. Participants listened to a primary care visit recording before completing a series of typical user tasks (e.g., find where the provider describes a possible surgery). In the final session, patients’ actual primary care clinic visits were recorded. Perceived usability was collected at each session with the System Usability Scale and whether tasks were completed independently, with the assistance of a facilitator, or not completed. Results found usability increased over the rounds and in the final round where participants reported a score of 78.2 on average (range 20-100). By the final round, participants were able to complete most tasks (at least 88%) without any assistance. Participants also reported very positive perceptions of having a curated audio recording of a clinic visit. Concerns reported were related to privacy and computer literacy required to access recordings. Overall, HealthPAL was rigorously co-designed with patients and their caregivers; next steps include further field testing of the first patient-centered app to access recordings of clinic visits. Sharing visit audio recordings with patients is an emerging strategy for the goal of improving transparency and communication in healthcare.

12/06/2022

The Future of Medical Technology: Key Trends in Virtual Care and Telemedicine

Article Excerpt: From Internet of Things (IoT) technology and electronic medical records (EMR) in hospitals, to remote patient monitoring devices, the industry is finding new ways to provide patients with better care. nnovations in virtual care have been explored for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic increased demand exponentially as patients were unable to attend in-person appointments. Whilst face-to-face clinic visits will not be entirely replaced, several key trends are anticipated in virtual care and telemedicine for 2022 and beyond.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/y5vaeazj

Article Source: Medical Device Network

09/07/2022

Medicare’s Annual Wellness Visits Fail to Meet Needs of Older Adult, Study Says

Article Excerpt: Medicare annual wellness visits do not adequately meet the wellness needs of the diverse population of U.S. adults, according to research conducted at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Physicians at the medical school weighed the opportunities gained and lost through the one-size-fits-all approach to Medicare annual wellness visits, according to a Sept. 6 news release. Annual medical visits address disease prevention and the promotion of health and wellness and are an important part of medical care for older adults. Medicare initiated annual wellness visits as part of the program 10 years ago. John Batsis, MD, associate professor in the division of geriatric medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said there is a missed opportunity to use the Medicare annual wellness visit in a manner to optimize quality of life and physical function among the millions of older adults in the United States.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/3yhzpx7d

Article Source: Becker’s Hospital Review

09/06/2022

Doctors Assess Opportunities Gained, Lost through Medicare’s Annual Wellness Visits

Article Excerpt: While medical visits that address disease prevention and the promotion of health and wellness are important parts of medical care for older adults, when Medicare was introduced in 1965, it did not address this important component of health care. Medicare took an important step to correct this deficit when it initiated Medicare annual wellness visits (AWV) ten years ago. AWV’s emphasis on disease prevention and health promotion for older adults was a huge step forward, however the current “one size fits all” approach does not adequately meet the wellness needs of a diverse population of older adults. In their recent special article in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, Patrick P Coll, MD, medical director for senior health and associate director for clinical geriatrics at the UConn Center on Aging at UConn Health, and John A. Batsis, MD, associate professor in the division of geriatric medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues reviewed the need to redesign AWV’s in order to optimally identify issues that are important to each individual patient.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2bxppd3n

Article Source: UNC Health News

06/17/2022

How Technology Can Help Providers Fight Back Against the Opioid Epidemic

Article Excerpt: Healthcare information technology has opened new doors to understanding opioid addiction, but there still are areas where data and innovation can help medical professionals better handle this crisis, contends Reema Hammoud, PharmD, assistant vice president of clinical pharmacy at Sedgwick, a vendor of technology-enabled risk, benefits and integrated business systems. The COVID-19 pandemic is a major health crisis that has taken center stage, but the still-rising opioid crisis is a large-scale epidemic that cannot be overlooked. It is a crisis in desperate need of innovative solutions, and certainly technology can be one sector that provides them.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/58rjxwaz

Article Source: Healthcare IT News

05/31/2022

How Digital Health Can Help Address Issues Of Equity And Access In Behavioral Health

Article Excerpt: On the heels of a pandemic that challenged the mental health and wellness of populations on a global scale, it’s important to recognize that not all populations have experienced the past two years – or the hundreds before that – equally. This is especially true when it comes to behavioral healthcare access and treatment, and the long-standing disparities that continue to plague the nation and our healthcare system… Clearly, the U.S. is in desperate need of continued policy change, education and awareness, and most importantly, lasting solutions to improve health equity and address the wide-ranging health disparities that exist in the country.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/mwt89ra7

Article Source: Forbes