Weekly Roundup – February 4, 2023

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

Is a Healthcare Chatbot Explosion on The Way? Given the sudden surge in interest in ChatGPT, Anne Zieger addressed the question on everyone’s mind. Her take: Though chatbots face challenging headwinds – including limited exposure to medical terminology and, critically, a lack of empathy – healthcare should be open to any tools that keep patients better informed and engaged. Read more…

Let’s Give Patients What They’re Asking For. Survey after survey shows that patients are increasingly disappointed with the clinical care experience. While’s it not quite possible to make booking doctors’ appointments as easy as making restaurant reservations, Andy Oram found that pragmatic steps can help organizations offer patient scheduling and pre-visit intake when it makes sense. Read more…

Improving the Patient and the Clinical Experience. But what about the rest of the care experience? Andy highlighted many technology tools readily available today that improve patient outreach, education, and follow-up, all while working with existing clinical workflows. The catch? Providers and payers need to be willing to change. Read more…

Review: Zebra HC Series Tablets. Zebra is known for handheld mobile computing. John Lynn looked at the company’s latest ET40-HC and ET45-HC tablets, which address two shortcomings in typical mobile healthcare devices: A screen that’s bigger than the average smartphone and a shell that’s more rugged than a sleek consumer tablet. Read more…

Measuring Waste for Health Benefits at Home. At CES, Withings introduced a sensor that fits inside a toilet bowl and monitors urine for a variety of metrics, from hydration to hormone levels. John spoke to Julius Dewavrin at Withings about the product’s benefits and its connection to home health. Read more…

Using AI Responsibly and Ethically in Healthcare. AI presents significant potential to healthcare, whether it’s automation or decision support. But Michael Armstrong at Authenticx noted that AI use cases must protect patient privacy and do their best to eliminate bias – and ensuring both will require frequent evaluation of the AI tools an organization has in place. Read more…

Your Best Defense Against OIG Audits. By all accounts, the Office of Inspector General is increasing the scope and scale of its audits. Rebecca Darnall at Episource discussed how quality assurance audits can help prevent, detect, and correct potential noncompliance issues. Read more…

Understanding the Benefits of Modern IT Infrastructure. When IT professionals focus solely on what technology does, they can lose sight of what it enables, said Christian Aboujaoude at Keck School of Medicine of USC. For example, hyperconverged infrastructure is often a matter of virtualizing hardware, when in fact it enables faster software rollouts and keeps clinical care running smoothly. Read more…

Remote Monitoring’s Role in Maternal Care. Eighty percent of maternal deaths are preventable, but 36% of U.S. counties lack birth centers and obstetric providers. Anish Sebastian at Babyscripts said these two stats show the untapped potential for remote monitoring to improve maternal care outcomes, particularly when it comes to mental health and high blood pressure. Read more…

Why Vendor Risk Management Matters. Failure to implement vendor risk management and remediation programs exposes healthcare organizations to unnecessary levels of risk, noted Brian Selfridge at CORL Technologies. With so much at stake, organizations should look to prioritize critical controls such as vulnerability management or incident response. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Enterprise Architect at New York eHealth Collaborative, based in Albany or Manhattan, posted to Healthcare IT Central.

Funding and M&A Activity:

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.

About the author

Brian Eastwood

Brian Eastwood is a Boston-based writer with more than 10 years of experience covering healthcare IT and healthcare delivery. Brian also writes about enterprise IT, consumer technology, corporate leadership, and higher education for a range of publications and clients. He got his start as a professional writer as a community newspaper reporter in 2003.

When he's not writing, Brian is most likely running, hiking, or cross-country skiing in Northern New England. When he needs a break from cardio, he's usually reading a history book.

   

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