LinkousThink

DECEMBER 28, 2009

What a year. After months of grueling debates, public clamor and hundreds of legislative proposals, national health reform legislation for the United States is almost here. The House and Senate versions of the legislation will be reconciled and a final bill will be signed by the President early next year. Some have predicted a quick resolution of the differences between the House and Senate bills but my guess is that there will be several sticky problems forcing the debate to drag on for a few m

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Telemedicine Accountable Care Leadership Medicare 28

LinkousThink

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

ATA recently announced new telemental health practice guidelines. Such guidelines and associated efforts to create Standards of Care for telemedicine are important from several perspectives: Payer Acceptance Private insurers, employers sponsoring their own employee health insurance plans, government agencies and consumers are all payers of health care.

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Telemedicine 28

LinkousThink

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

The road from hype to real is bumpy. Many telemedicine applications are, finally, now on that road, some ahead, some far behind. To shepherd the applications along some tough decisions needs to be made. Gartner, a consulting firm has created a “hype cycle,” a graphic representation of the sudden growth, adjusting dip and final adoption of specific technologies.

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LinkousThink

OCTOBER 13, 2009

Car owners can now get a text message of their car’s health. Why can’t we get something similar for ourselves? The Ford Motor Company offers an option for car owners to develop and track a VHR – Vehicle Health Report for several of its models. The data links to a website, [link] using the customer’s Bluetooth-paired and connected mobile phone. A comprehensive report is generated from the vehicle data that includes system information and uses diagnostic software to generate recommended actions fo

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Colington Consulting was established in 2013 and helps organizations achieve HIPAA compliance and ensures clients stay current with the latest enforcement trends. We provide a full range of HIPAA compliance services and consulting. What separates us from our competitors is our knowledge of HIPAA compliance regulations and their application to each of our client’s particular scenarios and requirements.

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LinkousThink

OCTOBER 11, 2009

In many parts of the world, large segments of the population still fervently believe in the powers of supernatural healers, a shaman, witch doctors and the like. This causes problems when modern medicine starts to be introduced into a culture with a history of such beliefs. In remarks at a recent meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, ATALACC President Silvio Vega recounted a story where telemedicine ran up against such a case in the indigenous community of Hato Chami in Panama.

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LinkousThink

OCTOBER 5, 2009

An important question that was asked at the first meeting of the ATA’s new Institutional Council was whether any of the institutions provided telemedicine as part of the employee benefits for their own organizations. Scott Simmons of the University of Miami reported on their progress in extending telemedicine for employees of the University’s Medical Center.

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LinkousThink

OCTOBER 5, 2009

ATA was originally formed with an intention to be a medical society. Members were expected to submit their credentials upon joining ATA. This quickly changed as ATA's membership expanded to include both individuals and companies. In addition to individual and corporate membership categories, a new category, institutional membership, was created for hospitals and other non-profit healthcare organizations by then ATA President Ron Weinstein.

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mHealth Telemedicine Telehealth 28

LinkousThink

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

For several years ATA has been drawn into controversies surrounding the online prescribing of medications. Some issues in this area are clear but many others are murky and have become even more blurred with biased statements by groups on both sides with an obvious self interest. Over the past few years, ATA worked with Senate and House staff and related regulatory agencies on limiting online access to controlled substances.

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LinkousThink

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This week, the United States Senate Finance Committee announced its proposed health reform bill. This is the last of five proposals in Congress (two in the Senate, three in the House) to come forward. The proposals in the House are being combined into one bill and the same will probably happen in the Senate. Although it has already come under attack by many groups, the Finance Committee proposal, put forward by Sen.

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Telemedicine Telehealth Medicare Nursing 28

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Effective collaboration among all care team members is critical to delivering better patient outcomes. A key element to achieving effective collaboration is through the implementation of a clinical communication and collaboration platform. In a fast-paced, high-stress and critical environment, people tend to do whatever gets the job done. Therefore will scramble and use the systems, people, or processes around them to get an outcome more quickly - which can often be at the expense of quality.

LinkousThink

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

Over the past few months you have heard a lot from ATA about the various machinations going on with national health reform. Starting out with high hopes we have witnessed the usual highs and lows of the legislative process. ATA has promoted a broad expansion of governmental support for telemedicine, only to have parts of it dashed by a few parties that refuse to consider what telemedicine can do for cost savings and improved quality of care.

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LinkousThink

AUGUST 24, 2009

If I had a nickel for every time I was asked this question. There are some interesting facts that have recently come out about the telemedicine market (explained below). However, much to the consternation of many reporters and entrepreneurs, there is no single answer to this question for four good reasons: Transparency - Telemedicine is not a separate specialty.

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LinkousThink

AUGUST 18, 2009

Another study documenting savings from remote monitoring – how many more do we need before change is made? A study just published by the Journal of Medical Internet Research (J Med Internet Res 2009;11(3):e34) looked at the use of home-based telemonitoring on a group of patients using mobile phones. The study, conducted in Austria, was based on a group of 120 randomly selected CHF patients divided into a control and “tele” group.

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LinkousThink

AUGUST 11, 2009

The world of telemedicine, is changing rapidly and radically. ATA is also undergoing significant change. I want to share a couple of these changes with you and explain why they are occurring. Building on the foundation of programs and services established over 17 years, ATA is realigning our activities, our structure and even our look to ensure that the organization continues to be current, healthy and a change agent for the use of telecommunications technology in healthcare.

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Ambiq®, a leading developer of ultra-low-power semiconductor solutions that deliver a multifold increase in energy efficiency, introduces HeartKit, its latest addition to neuralSPOT. This optimized AI model enables running various real-time heart monitoring applications to help users and their healthcare providers quickly identify any irregular events to take necessary actions.