Monthly Archives: December 2020

Top 5 Healthcare Tech Predictions for 2021 in a Post-COVID World

The coronavirus pandemic jumpstarted the digital health tech market with solutions that bring a stronger connection between patients and doctors. More physicians are turning to new innovations that can improve the patient experience and raise the level of care necessary as we navigate these new times. Here’s my take on what’s ahead in health tech in 2021 and beyond.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)

RPM is going to be a big part of our future due to COVID-19. RPM tools allow physicians and medical professionals to remotely monitor patients in real-time tracking a patient’s well-being. Medicare and Medicaid as well as other insurance companies are now receiving reimbursement for RPM. Additionally, Internet-connected blood pressure cuffs, scales, and the like can be used for RPM. IoT devices are also part of the RPM future, such as IoT glucose meters for diabetic patients, IoT thermometers, and sleep monitoring devices. By adding RPM from providers such as KeepWell,100Plus, and MD Revolution, practices can focus on patient care and have access to real-time patient data and remote staff support. With more physicians turning to virtual care, telehealth and EHRs that manage this critical patient data are proving to be the lifelines to modern healthcare going forward.

Telehealth & Telemedicine

Telehealth visits are going to supersede in-person visits as time goes on. Because of COVID-19, the world changed and Medicare and Medicaid, as well as other insurers, started paying out for telehealth visits. Telemedicine will continue to grow at a very quick rate, and verticals like mental health (psychology and psychiatry) and primary care fit perfectly into the telemedicine model, for tasks like administering prescription refills (ePrescribing) and ordering labs. Hyperlocal medical care will also move towards more of a telemedicine care team experience. Patients that are homebound families with young children or people that just recently had surgery can now get instant care when they need it. Location is less relevant because patients can see a provider from anywhere. 

Machine Learning

Machine learning will become an even bigger part of healthcare in 2021. For example, machine learning combined with telemedicine will give more insight to a physician in a remote setting reading voice intonation and facial expressions for a patient’s mood, pain, or depressional flags and the like. ML will be able to indicate and provide mood data to the physician in real-time and will allow the doctor to take any immediate action. ML-powered medical copilot scribing can help write a draft chart as the patient and doctor chat via telehealth. A lot of information is exchanged quickly, and having a real-time scribe will save time for the medical community. Companies like Diagnoss ML Medical Coding Assistant are partnering to provide ML-based scribe services. There’s also ML for early diagnosis, for example during a telemedicine appointment if a patient has a consistent cough or drop/change in tone of voice is detected, this can also be flagged to the provider to ask more questions to a patient. Practices can accelerate their business during the pandemic and integrate solutions like Holly by Nimblr.ai. This virtual assistant is vastly improving a practice’s operations and efficiencies by managing inbound and outbound scheduling calls, telehealth workflows, reducing no shows, and filling canceled slots.

Mobile Health

Apple rolled out a series of new products and features over the past few months that will greatly impact healthcare and bring more benefits to physicians and patients. Apple is one of many players in the industry making the investment and committed to bringing the latest innovations to healthcare. Here are just a few of Apple’s exciting announcements:

  • Apple’s new Blood Oxygen sensor in the Apple Watch Series 6 can change the way consumers monitor their health. 
  • The new iPad Air features more power and functionality such as an all-screen display, a smaller Touch ID sensor, new cameras, and a redesigned speaker system that will help medical staff expedite log-ins, run apps more efficiently, and review X-rays and other images. 
  • Picture in Picture is new allowing a provider to watch medical videos while multitasking.
  • HomePod mini can read off reminders and texts to a medical professional from home.
  • iPhone 12 now has 5G with improved performance and speed. The Phone 12 Pro video camera enables providers better than ever medical video. Also, when complex medical scans need to be reviewed, this new technology can allow physicians the ability to download images faster than ever and could be lifesaving.

The Pop-Up Testing Clinic

COVID-19 has ushered in a new way of testing that has never been seen before across the country. The white tents scattered around parking lots and connected to medical facilities have proven that this new way of testing is working. Furthermore, the data that is being collected, stored, and reported at the pop-up testing clinics and then shared with various local, state, and federal public health databases is critical. Companies are creating integration tools to help share and analyze this data.

If you haven’t already, take a look at some of these new developments in digital health tech to see how they can improve your practice and ultimately enhance the patient experience. Take the time to research and determine the solutions and partners that are the best fit for your practice and patients’ needs.

Original article here:

https://www.physicianspractice.com/view/top-5-healthcare-tech-predictions-for-2021-in-a-post-covid-world

2021 Medical/Healthcare API Hackathon, 15k in Prizes

DrChrono’s First Virtual Healthcare Hackathon 2021 Invites Developers to Build New Applications on the DrChrono API

Submissions are open for DrChrono Hackathon 2021; Over $15,000 awarded in cash and prizes

DrChrono Inc., the company developing the essential platform and services for modern medical practices, today announced that it will host its first Virtual Healthcare Hackathon 2021 inviting developers and designers the opportunity to leverage the DrChrono API to build new and original applications and tools for the healthcare industry. To celebrate the most innovative projects in each category, DrChrono will be giving over $15,000 in cash and prizes. COVID-19 has made a noticeable impact on the healthcare landscape and the needs of patients and doctors can benefit from new apps that can address doctor/patient data exchange, health analytics and online scheduling to name a few.

“We believe the best solutions in healthcare are built with technology prowess and an innovative spirit, not just from clinical expertise. We’re excited to see tech-forward developers put themselves in the shoes of a doctor, patient, or medical staff and build something that will bring their practice into the modern age of healthcare and also for practices that are managing the changes brought on by the pandemic,” said Daniel Kivatinos, co-founder and COO of DrChrono. “Whether a developer builds with a primary care physician, cardiologist, or urgent care clinic in mind, they can make an immediate impact and build cutting edge tools on the DrChrono API.”

DrChrono Virtual Healthcare Hackathon 2021: How it Works, Requirements and Criteria:

  • Requirements and what to submit: Entrants will need to sign up and obtain access to the required developer tools from DrChrono and complete a project as described in the official Hackathon rules and requirements. Entrants will be required to create an app and share a link to the application designed, a list of technologies and data sets used, a brief explanation of how the tech was used, a slide deck, and a 5 minute video that includes footage that explains the project’s features and functionality through a comprehensive demonstration.
  • Criteria: Overall appeal, patient usefulness, physician usefulness and visual accessibility.
  • Categories: Founder’s Choice, Doctor’s Choice, Patient Experience, Modern Health Solutions and Engineer’s Choice.
  • Dates to remember: Submissions will open on December 1, 2020 and the deadline to submit is January 12, 2021. Winners will be announced on January 29, 2021.
  • Judges: Michael Nusimow (CEO and Co-Founder of DrChrono), Daniel Kivatinos (COO and Co-Founder of DrChrono), Dr. Ali Sadrieh, Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (Founder of evo Advanced Foot Surgery), Lyndsay Donhoff (Vice President of People and Culture at DrChrono), Shahram Famorzadeh ( Vice President of Engineering at DrChrono) Marjon Harvey (Vice President of Sales at DrChrono), Angie Morales (Director of Marketing at DrChrono), and Steve Goldberg (Director of Engineering at DrChrono).
  • Prizes: More than $15,000 in cash and prizes including Apple iPads, Apple Pencils, Apple gift cards and Amazon gift cards.
  • To register and learn more about DrChrono’s Virtual Healthcare Hackathon 2021 in more detail visit, DrChronohackathon2021.devpost.com.

About DrChrono

DrChrono develops the essential platform and services for modern medical practices to make care more informed, more interactive, and more personalized. The open platform powers electronic health record (EHR), practice management, medical billing, and revenue cycle management solutions for thousands of physicians and millions of patients, and is fully extensible via a robust API and marketplace of applications and services. The platform is facilitating millions of patient appointments and is processing billions of dollars in medical billing. For more information visit www.drchrono.com.