Healthcare technology is constantly evolving, at an ever-increasing pace. Between communication platforms, payment software and electronic health records, hospitals are getting more tools to reduce the strain of bureaucracy and get to what's actually important: helping patients. Below are some of the top articles from the past week that document some of the newest advancements.
A new healthcare app going by the moniker of BetterDoctor has made quite the show, especially because it marks the first health app to integrate Medicare provider information and payment data. Additionally, the app helps consumers find the correct doctor that meets all of their needs, from having the right experience as well as the correct price and compatibility with insurance. Too often this task is a headache for Medicare beneficiaries, but the easy search functions provided by BetterDoctor make this task relatively simple.
BYOD policies within hospitals have also done wonders for efficiency, as nurses and doctors who can supply their own mobile devices to interact with hospital networks are doing more than just saving money on equipment but are also saving the time needed to get familiar with a new system. Of course, one of the biggest threats from BYOD policies is in security. However, a new security analysis at DOTmed revealed that not only do BYOD policies benefit nurses more than any other healthcare professional, but that nurses are also very responsible with their device usage. Ultimately, the study recommended that data encryption is still a necessary policy in order to prevent hackers from stealing patient records.
One method of secure messaging for hospitals comes from a platform called TigerText, which was recently chosen for use in the Boston Children's Hospital. TigerText already serves more than 4,000 different facilities with a BYOD compatible messaging service that accelerates staff communications while keeping a lid on security and making sure that only medical professionals are seeing the transmitted information. Such reliable security settings mean that medical professionals have to spend less time ensuring that their transmissions are effectively encrypted, and more time actually servicing their patients' needs.
Finally, a recent startup known as AbacaRX has sprung up on the crowd-funding website Indiegogo in order to deliver a telemedicine solution for connecting patients with physicians who can evaluate their needs for medical marijuana. The company found that many patients who could benefit from the controversial medicinal therapy are uncomfortable or embarrassed when speaking with their regular physicians, and noted that patients who communicate with doctors over video clients are much less likely to feel this level of discomfort. By connecting prospective patients with licensed and professional doctors within the field, they can ensure that patients who need the medicine can get it while simultaneously ensuring that they are speaking to doctors who can recognize when somebody is just looking to scam the system in order to receive marijuana for recreational usage.
