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Crowded Plates: For CIOs, Policy Mandates are Piling Up

August 28, 2013 by Gabriel Perna
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Just how many policy issues are healthcare IT leaders facing?

If you put the industry’s best-known thought leaders in the same room, they might not agree on much.

They might differ on whether or not the attestation timeline should be extended or even be delayed for Stage 2 meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. They might differ on whether the transition to the ICD-10 code-set can be done by October 2014. They might even differ on the color of the wall.

mHealth: Patient Engagement’s Knight in Shining Armor (Infograph Inside)

July 30, 2013 by Gabriel Perna
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Infograph. Click to enlarge.

Take your cell phone out of your pocket, stare at it, and put it back.

It doesn’t really matter what kind of phone it is, whether it was a smartphone, a dumb phone, or a phone that has an average IQ, that little thing is going to change how patients engage with their healthcare provider. Sure, it’s not something I expect to happen overnight, but eventually healthcare organizations are going to realize it’s too sensible to ignore.

The Promise of Mobile: Connecting to Underserved Populations

July 29, 2013 by Gabriel Perna
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How are healthcare providers, advocacy groups, vendors, and other stakeholders attempting to engage patients in underserved populations? Check your phone.

If it hasn’t arrived already, the era of mobile health (mHealth) is certainly on the way.

Like a garden in the early days of spring, the market for mHealth apps, devices, and platforms is ripe with potential and possibilities. In many cases, patients are monitoring their health through smartphone apps and wearable health monitoring devices. In other instances, providers are using mobile technology to better connect with various populations of patients (see related story on page 8).

Podcast: The Excitement is Building around Mobility

July 31, 2013 by Gabriel Perna
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For this month’s cover story package, Healthcare Informatics Editor-in-Chief, Mark Hagland and Associate Editor, Gabriel Perna, teamed up to write a pair of pieces on the impact of mobile health (mHealth) is having on both the patient and provider side of the spectrum.

Hagland covered how providers are handling the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon, and the demands for connectivity on the part of physicians. Perna covered how providers are using mHealth interventions to connect to underserved patient populations for disease management and education.

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