Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.
News and Studies
A survey from digital health platform Babylon found that 46% of Americans have gone into debt from their medical bills, while 34% are currently struggling to pay their medical and insurance bills. In addition, 10% of Americans said they wouldn’t be able to afford any out-of-pocket expenses in the event of a health emergency, while 22% could only afford to pay $100 or less. Only 38% of Americans have a dedicated savings fund for healthcare emergencies.
The latest patient engagement survey from Stericycle Communication Solutions found that nearly half of patients have booked appointments online (48%) or sought care from a non-traditional provider (45%) in the last year, with half of those patients using retail care and one-third using virtual care. While 95% of these patients said they’d seek care from these types of providers in the future, 41% said the experience felt disjointed. (Learn more about the survey, and the role of automation in supporting patient scheduling, communication, and engagement, in the recent Healthcare IT Today interview with Stericycle’s Matt Dickson.)
A survey of Medisafe users found that 51% of patients say accessing mental health support is one of their primary health challenges, with women and younger patients more likely to express concerns about their mental health. In addition, 28% of patients – including 55% of those ages 18 to 24 – said they experience isolation in dealing with their physical and mental health.
Partnerships
- Patient engagement and behavior change platform CareCognitics is now available on the athenahealth Marketplace.
- Haleon is using the the Microsoft Seeing AI app to provide more detailed labels on more than 1,500 of its consumer health products.
- Post-acute care EHR PointClickCare is now integrated with Net Health, an EHR designed specifically for wound care.
- Virtual care platform Memora Health launched a pilot with Mayo Clinic to extend care to postpartum patients.
Products
- Solera Health launched its Women’s Health Network and announced its first five partners: Frame Fertility (fertility), Origin (pelvic floor physical therapy), Pacify (infant feeding), RestoreBalance (menopause support), and Visana (virtual care).
- ixlayer launched self-testing kits for Vitamin D, Lyme disease, sexually-transmitted infections, and thyroid function.
- Research published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience validated the use of Linus Health for assessing biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.
- Clinical pharmacy service provider Aspen RxHealth launched its payer platform.
- Patient relationship management platform Equiva unveiled its Connected Home Health Hub.
- NextGen received 2015 Edition Cures Update Health IT certification for its NextGen Office EHR and practice management software.
- DoseData released an RFID-tagged drug database to help pharma companies monitor drug supplies within hospital inventory systems.
Sales
- Cohere Health expanded its relationship with Humana, which will now use the vendor’s tools to support cardiovascular and surgical service prior authorization.
- New Jersey-based health system AtlantiCare has implemented Orbita virtual assistant and conversational AI technology.
- The Israeli Air Force has started using XRHealth AR and VR technology to evaluate pilots for possible neck injuries.
- Arizona-based HonorHealth went live with Strata Health care transition software.
Awards
- Canada’s Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network announced its annual awards, with patient engagement tool SeamlessMD named company of the year and PointClickCare and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton receiving the Network Award.
- Social care platform Eviset was selected for the Amazon Web Services Health Equity Initiative.
People
- Teladoc Health named Laizer Kornwasser as president for enterprise growth and global markets; he is the former president and COO at CareCentrix.
- Point-of-care clinical workstation manufacturer Altus appointed Jeremy Spinney as CEO.
If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo.
Happy Halloween!