Healthcare Economy: Disease Management Archives

Improving the patient experience with Social Media

In the recent past we have seen a paradigm shift in application of social media to healthcare industry. Studies in this area show optimum utilization of social media can help improve the patient experience. However, there are equal numbers of challenges in adoption of social media tools in healthcare industry (in particular - healthcare providers). Some of the challenges in successful implementation of social media in hospitals include: lack of IT/social media awareness amongst the healthcare providers, need for IT infrastructure, time and resource crunch.

Having said that we also have some of the world class examples in United States of America where social media is revolutionizing the patient experience.

Here is a brief note from Mayo clinic center for social media: "The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, a first-of-its-kind social media center focused on health care, builds on Mayo Clinic's leadership among health care providers in adopting social media tools, which began with podcasting in 2005. Mayo Clinic has the most popular medical provider channel on YouTube and more than 175,000 "followers" on Twitter, as well as an active Facebook page with over 50,000 connections. With its News Blog, Podcast Blog and Sharing Mayo Clinic, a blog that enables patients and employees to tell their Mayo Clinic stories, Mayo has been a pioneer in hospital blogging. MayoClinic.com, Mayo's consumer health information site, also hosts a dozen blogs on topics ranging from Alzheimer's to The Mayo Clinic Diet".

The stats on application of social media in hospitals/healthcare providers look very impressive:

1,188 Hospitals have adapted social media and following is the channel-wise distribution:

· 548 YouTube Channels

· 1018 Facebook pages

· 788 Twitter Accounts

· 458 LinkedIn Accounts

· 913 Four Square

· 137 Blogs

There are close to 4000 hospital social networking sites.

(Source: ebennett.org, data as on June, 2011)

The future of social media application in healthcare is definitively very promising and some of the very obvious benefits of application of social media in hospitals include:

Improved doctor - patient interaction

Connect

Collaborate/Co-Create

Collective Wisdom

Patient Centric care

Community/Forum

We have to wait and watch the revolution happen in healthcare industry through application of social media tools and techniques.

Posted by Raghavendra Hunasgi at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Disease Management- DMOs way forward

Disease management is an approach to manage chronic illnesses through prevention, patient centricity, evidence based practice guidelines and outcome based with an emphasis to improving the overall health. Traditionally heart diseases, diabetes, pulmonary diseases and asthma are considered in this.

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Posted by Siva Nandiwada at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Wellness Revolution!

I attended the employer healthcare congress conference this week in Los Angeles. The conference was divided into 4 separate sub conferences - Self Funding employer (Healthcare and workers comp conference), corporate wellness conference, Volunteer benefits conference and National healthcare reform conference. I was amazed to see such a big gathering of Wellness technology and service vendors. One thing that was very clear was that the wellness revolution will continue. The wellness industry has evolved from being "nice to have" and an attaché to the large disease management and care management programs to being a solution for controlling the rising healthcare cost globally.

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Posted by Amit Shukla at 7:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Saying No to Disease Mongering

I recently read a very interesting book called Selling Sickness by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels. The book brings to light a unique issue related to patient enablement namely disease mongering - a term coined by medical writer Lynn Payer to describe the process of widening the boundaries of illness that require medical intervention for personal gains. Patient enablement is all about educating and empowering patients to proactively manage their health but passing on improper information, educational or marketing material to patients will encourage them to seek medical help and resort to medications for conditions which can be managed much more efficiently with lifestyle changes. This is what disease mongering is all about.

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Posted by Seema Pandey at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Observations from our Booth at HIMSS

Many of you will find it surprising that I am not putting together a status report but rather blogging about my observations from the Infosys booth at HIMSS. Well for starters the blogs are easier to write and are just my own opinions. This time the HIMSS was all about complex ideas about making healthcare simpler, cheaper and better. But looking at the X-ray machines which some of our co exhibitors were presenting and the cost of the same for so little additional benefit was kind of counter intuitive – in the name of connectivity and at the cost of adding a chip to the machine we are probably going to end up making the diagnostic process so complex that it would be hard to counter argue about the cost reduction and at the end of the day can even end blaming the machine or the user for a wrong decision. This I believe the providers are learning well from the Payers and the politicians!

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Posted by Anirban Majumder at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Patient Centered Medical Homes: RHIO déjà vu

Regional Health Information Organizations (RHIOs) gained limelight in 2004 when President Bush called for Electronic Health Records for every American by 2014. The primary objective of RHIOs was to create an interoperability and information sharing infrastructure so that 360 degree view or complete medical history of patient’s health records can be made available for healthcare decision making. The desired outcomes were improved quality of care, prevention of clinical errors, elimination of redundant tests or care, prevention of adverse reactions, better care coordination and reduction in healthcare costs. The concept of Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs), also called Medical Homes, goes back to its introduction by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1967. However this primary care model has gained popularity over last one year as President Obama rolled out healthcare reforms. Patient Centered Medical Home is a care model where primary care physician is responsible for complete care coordination of the patient. Primary care physician collaborates with other physicians and care organizations based on the care needs of the patient and also educate the patient on self-health management. PCMHs share the same goals as RHIOs in terms of improved quality of care, better care coordination, better clinical outcomes and reduced healthcare costs.

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Posted by Seema Pandey at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Patient enablement via technology

Physicians, nurses and case managers spend time with patients to educate them on self-health management; however, technology is increasingly playing an important role in enabling patients lead a better quality of life. Two key dimensions of patient enablement are:
• Access to care at the right level and the right time
• Access to information that helps them manage their health
Technology is addressing both the dimensions of patient enablement. E-Consultation is enabled via internet, IP TV, kiosks and mobile devices which gives patients anytime, anywhere access to care for certain conditions that do not require physician office visit. E-Consultation can happen in synchronous mode over video/web chat or in an asynchronous mode over email. Some payors are reimbursing for eConsultation making this form of care a viable option for their members.

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Posted by Seema Pandey at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Can informed and enabled patients contribute to better outcomes?

Yes, I believe so. Earlier patients were not well informed about their conditions, disease progression, medications, their side effects and the onus was entirely on the physicians to extract necessary information from patient and care-givers for treatment related decision-making. Extracting clinically significant information was a challenge in with language/cultural barriers coming into play or a patient who is inarticulate or unobservant about relevant signs and symptoms. With information explosion in the wake of internet wave, now a large number of patients visit physicians with prior research on their signs and symptoms as well as treatment options.

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Posted by Seema Pandey at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Patient centric Disease Management

The most prominent model of disease management today is the payor-driven disease management which aims to reduce costs of high risk patients. Other models are pharma-sponsored disease management which promotes usage of drugs from that pharma or employer-sponsored wellness program targeting improvement in productivity and higher employee satisfaction. None of these models have primary objective of making a significant difference in the quality of life of chronic patients through disease management services.

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Posted by Seema Pandey at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Chronic Disease Management scene in India?

In India, a leading hsopital conceptualized the program to lead Outpatient chronic care market and to some extent, extend brand in outpatient care – By offering a comprehensive chronic care model. Here is the evolution of disease management in India:

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Posted by Venu Tirumala at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)