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Blockchain in Healthcare is forecasted to save the industry $100B annually by 2025 by reducing operational costs in insurance process and insurance fraud – BIS Research forecast.  Healthcare Blockchain can also play a critical role in overcoming the challenges associated with legacy systems by solving the widespread problem of interoperability and non-standardizations that have created data silos.  Further,  JP Morgan estimates that healthcare blockchain could save up to 80% of the current cost and time invested in physician credentialing.

I am happy to announce that I am now a certified Blockchain Solutions Architect and going to to creating the interoperability solutions needed for the healthcare industry with state of the art technologies

 

One of the major challenges in combating the Covid-19 pandemic has been the inability to share data across the appropriate agencies and organizations.  This is due to issues and challenges around security, privacy, data standards, data interoperability, and infrastructure.

The Health IT Advisory Committee is setting up a corona virus task force to tackle  interoperability issues that are impeding front-line clinicians as they combat the growing outbreak.  The agency has posted recent interoperability guidelines for reporting, exchanging data, record keeping and claims.  The following is the link to the latest guidelines from the different agencies

https://www.healthit.gov/isa/covid-19

More on the CMS’ new interoperability regulations in the next post

 

 

I published a few papers during and right after my first M.S degree all in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its use in healthcare.  For years after that, while working in the corporate world I did not publish.   So its very exciting and gratifying to see that so many papers cite my research.  It tells me that the use of AI is increasing and being utilized more widely in Healthcare.

My next paper will be published this year.

A wise Corporate Strategy professor at MIT said “Strategy without numbers is poetry and organizations are not in the business of writing poems”

Most executives and managers in different industries use dashboards to monitor their top areas of interest a well as keep track of industry news and trends.  As Peter Drucker stated “If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Improve It. ”

In healthcare, patient monitors have been around for years.  Patients are monitored for their vitals signs and the data is also available at the nurses station.  However dashboards that have hospital data or individualized data based on function are now coming of age.

A C-Suite executive at a hospital should have a customized dashboard to monitor Quality, Financial metrics, Re-admission rates and Patients Satisfaction for the hospital on a daily basis rather than wait for the monthly or annual report from the particular department.  The dashboard would have not only descriptive analytics, but also predictive and prescriptive ones providing insights and plans.

Why should the doctor not have a customizable dashboard to monitor critical patients vital signs and trend as well as lab results, clinical plans and pharmacy approvals?  So also the Director of Quality should be able to regularly monitor Quality goals and how the current measures compare to it.

In the era of Medical Interoperability, Electronic Health records and Internet of Things, customizable healthcare dashboards will be more readily available so turn around time on critical issues facing healthcare improves.

All newborns born in the USA are federally mandated to undergo a few different tests within the first 24-48 hours of birth.  These include a blood test taken from the baby’s heel called dried blood spot (heel) test because the blood spots are collected on a special filter paper and then dried before sending the paper to the state appointed lab.  This test checks for developmental, metabolic and genetic conditions.  The other tests are a hearing test and one for congenital cardiac heart disease.

Since these tests are federally mandated, each state has to keep records of the tests conducted.  If a baby is found to have a metabolic or genetic condition (about 10% of  babies need further testing), follow up care is provided by the state to a certain extent.

Only a few states, however, have systems to keep track of all the tests for all the babies born in the state.  In most states, each test is handled by a different system.  Because there is no one system for all the information, these states find it very difficult to get data on percentage of babies born with a particular condition.  If the baby gets adopted or their name changes, the state resources are stretched even further trying to find the baby data.

States need one system (One baby, One record) to store and retrieve all newborn screening records for each baby.  This system needs to be connected to the birth hospital electronically so demographic data can be messaged over, thereby reducing costs and errors of re-entering the information.  And the system needs to be connected to birth certificate records so that each state can be certain that every baby had the necessary tests and are being followed up as needed.