Patient Engagement- A New Buzzword for Providers

Patient engagement has become a new buzzword and a new trend in the healthcare landscape. Patient engagement tools enable patients to be more involved in managing their own healthcare. Also, they are critical in achieving population health management and demonstrating Meaningful Use Stage 2. 

The Saviance iHealthConnect is a comprehensive mobile integrated and cloud based patient engagement software that gives healthcare organizations the power to create active patient communities, and to engage their patients meaningfully. 

This solution gives a bidirectional communication platform to both providers and patients and facilitates an easy interaction between patient community and care team. Saviance’s iHealthConnect does more than provide a website for communication. With iHC, patients can be engaged through a range of activities, as it creates an engaging and vibrant space for the consumers to come together, connect with one another, communicate about their experiences and opinions and advance in a collaborative manner.

Benefits of iHealthConnect:

This solution enables patients to:

1.      Learn more about their diseases

2.      Monitor their progress regularly

3.      Manage their chronic conditions successfully

4.      Reduce their costs of chronic disease management

This solution enables providers to:

1.      Brand building activities

2.      Fund raising

3.      Knowledge repository

4.      Data visualization and analytics

Empowering your patients to take a more active role in their healthcare can help to improve the delivery of care, drive efficiencies, and reduce costs of care in many ways.

To better understand the value of Saviance’s iHC and the capabilities of its patient engagement software, please visit the website http://i-health-connect.com/

Healthcare Software Solutions

In the US, healthcare organizations are currently under tremendous pressure. With soaring healthcare costs, well-informed and demanding consumers, and stringent Government mandates, it becomes difficult for healthcare organizations to meet  their goals effectively. Providers and payers are looking for healthcare software solutions that help in cutting costs while meeting customer needs at the same time and also help to bring clarity in the regulatory compliance. 

In such a scenario, these healthcare organizations turn to healthcare IT service providers who help them to offload the IT and business constraints by offering various healthcare software solutions. These solutions not only help to manage information to provide better health outcomes but also reduce costs. 

ICD-10 Coding System

The solution and services for ICD-10 coding system help healthcare organizations to make a smooth transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Services like, from conducting the initial readiness assessment to educating all impacted people to auditing post-October 2014 effectiveness, help providers to get ICD-10 compliant and more. 

EMR and EHR Applications

To meet Meaningful Use criteria, it is recommended to all healthcare organizations to successfully implement EMR/EHR technology to their healthcare practices. It will not only help patients to be engaged but also improve the quality care and reduce costs.

Information Technology Solutions

To reconcile the rising healthcare costs and revenue limitations from payers, it is recommended to healthcare organizations to implement HIE solutions. More and more, providers as well as payers are relying on digital information and communication system as it helps to successfully bridge the interoperability gap between the two.

The Power of Wireless Medication

With the advent of smartphones, the mobile market has witnessed a surge in mobile apps for healthcare. According to a recent research by Pew Internet, 85% of adults in the US have mobile phones of which 53% were smartphones. In addition, 19% of adults in the US who have smartphones downloaded at least one health app on their phone. It also states that 31% smartphone users were seeking health information, especially those who have had some kind of medical problem. 

According to a new report by Research and Markets, mobile tools are transforming healthcare as more Americans are adopting mobile devices and harnessing the power of wireless connectivity. The mobile health application market is destined for an explosive growth, which has projected that the market will swell by 61 percent by 2017, reaching $26 billion. 

The stupendous growth and innovative uses of mobile digital health technology, has made mHealth an integral part in physician treatment plans. The following statistics show the current trends in mHealth popularity.

1. 247 million Americans have downloaded a health app
2. 95 million Americans are using mobile phones as health tools
3. Mobile health is a $1.3 billion industry and by 2018 is expected to reach $20 billion
4. 42% of U.S. hospitals are using digital health technology to treat patients
5. Remote mobile patient monitoring will save $36 billion in healthcare costs by 2018
6. Wireless pill bottles helped increase medication compliance to over 95%
7. 77% of U.S. seniors own a cell phone and smartphone ownership among U.S. seniors has increased up to 55% in the past year

“Mobile health technology is helping to improve health outcomes for millions of Americans but we are still very early in the digital health revolution,” Mobile Future Chair Jonathan Spalter said. “With increasing smartphone adoption, faster wireless networks and new technologies just around the corner, the opportunities are endless and the mobile future is bright”, concludes Spalter.

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Trends in Mobile Health Technology

The trends in mobile technology are revolutionizing the healthcare industry. A recent survey from the PwC Health Research Institute found that 86 percent of physicians are interested in accessing EHRs wirelessly, 83 percent want to use mobile technology to prescribe medication, and 60 percent want to use mobile technology to communicate with patients.

According to the Manhattan Research, about 72 percent of physicians are already using their smartphones and iPads to access clinical information and perform quick tasks. It is estimated that in coming years, more physicians are expected to use their smartphones for a better patient care, such as sharing medical information through EHRs with staff or other doctors, or receiving clinical data directly from patients. 

A few healthcare settings in the US are using mobile health technology extensively to connect with their patients and engage them in their own health. For example, at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, physicians are using a mobile medical application to treat stroke patients in rural areas. Physicians can access and handle radiology images on their smartphones, as well as connect to their patients in seven rural hospitals.

Meanwhile, the demand for patient centric mobile apps is rising and there is a surge of healthcare apps in the market. According to a survey by PwC, one-third of patients said they would use mobile apps to track and monitor their health, and 40 percent said they would buy a device that sends their medical information directly to their physician. 

Currently, most mobile apps for healthcare come in the form of Rx reminders and alerts via text message. One increasingly popular app is Text4Baby, it delivers free weekly informational text messages to pregnant women and new moms. The Department of Health and Human Services is now evaluating the program for its effectiveness. 

The current mHealth market is based on various comprehensive software and apps which provide a mobile portal for development of a better patient experience and patient centric solutions.