Mobile health

How to overcome telemedicine’s biggest obstacles

Physician
March 20, 2023

The global health care sector has undergone a digital revolution, with telemedicine at the forefront of this transformation. Telemedicine offers promising opportunities to enhance patient care, reduce costs, and expand access to health care services. However, its widespread adoption faces several challenges that must be addressed for its full potential to be realized. This article discusses the barriers to telemedicine adoption and provides strategies for successful implementation by health care …

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Telehealth takes the stage: How virtual visits are revolutionizing health care [PODCAST]

Podcast
February 26, 2023
YouTube video

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Join us for an insightful conversation with Lyle Berkowitz, a physician executive, as he discusses the growing trend of telehealth and its impact on patient care. With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the use of virtual visits, consumers …

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Myths and misconceptions about virtual primary health care

Tech
December 27, 2022

Virtual primary care, unlike virtual urgent care, involves doctors who take the time to get to know their patients, creating (and nurturing) trusted doctor-patient relationships. Virtual primary care requires that doctors be consistently available for providing ongoing care to their patients.

Can doctors who meet their patients via video form an effective doctor-patient relationship, and does that relationship lead to appropriate and needed primary care?

The answer is a resounding “yes” on …

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The time is ripe for virtual care solutions in COPD

Conditions
December 26, 2022

There’s a burgeoning crisis taking hold in the COPD management space; there are simply not enough pulmonologists, respiratory therapists, or pulmonary rehabilitation facilities to treat the growing number of COPD patients. This has left our field with an urgent window of opportunity to implement digital innovation into traditional treatment paradigms. Ironically enough, it was a respiratory disease that led to a global pandemic more than two years ago, which …

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The most valuable health care companies of tomorrow will be technology companies

Tech
November 29, 2022

I’ve always been curious about the top 0.1 percent.

Their mindsets, backgrounds, upbringing, perceptions, skills, and behavioral traits that got them there.

After living through the Dot-com bubble, 9/11, Enron-WorldCom, the 2008 financial crisis, the meteoric rise of technology (search, e-commerce, social media, sharing economy), and the rise of a new class of billionaires, I intuitively sensed that there was a disconnect between what was going on in the real world, and …

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Medical innovation: a serendipitous step toward gender equity

Tech
November 23, 2022

There has never been a better time to be a woman entrepreneur. With ever-growing numbers of venture funds specifically for women and nonprofits dedicated to advancing women in tech, the next Apple is ripe for the picking. However, there remains a wide chasm to cross. Currently, startups led by women command less than 3 percent of venture capital investment dollars.

Upon diving deeper into this disparity, a 2020 paper published by …

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The evolving role of physicians in health care

Physician
November 1, 2022

Health care has changed dramatically in the last decades, from the introduction of electronic medical records to the COVID-19 pandemic serving as a catalyst for telehealth and virtual care options to the increased familiarity with digital therapeutics, etc. Just as the industry has transformed over time, the physician’s role has similarly evolved.

Traditionally, those of us who attended medical school have had just a handful of career options to choose from …

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Telemedicine is not medicine

Physician
October 16, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in many insidious handmaidens among its foul equipage. From Zoom meetings and school closures to masks and lockdowns, our world was torn asunder and, eventually, rendered anew into a place where almost everything has been changed, by large degrees and small, perceptibly and imperceptibly. It will come as no surprise that medicine is foremost among the more obviously perceptible areas of life that have been irrevocably …

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Why expand telemedicine for arthritis patients?

Tech
September 29, 2022

One in four Americans carry a diagnosis of arthritis, a significant cause of limitation from basic life activities to disability. One in ten adults has to limit their activities due to pain caused by this disease. Yet, a massive shortage of specialist physicians and geographical and licensure barriers restrict access to specialized medical care, especially in rheumatology offices. Also, the cost of arthritis is 303 billion dollars yearly …

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Is your smartwatch smart about your health?

Tech
September 20, 2022

Your smartwatch talks a lot but may not say as much as you believe with regard to health. Constant data collection from wearables claims to improve medicine at large. Is the “quantified self” the next evolution or a gimmick for patients?

Imagine your sleep and heart data beamed straight to your medical record. Your care team might notice a red flag and schedule a virtual appointment immediately. Health care wearables, meaning …

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Video visits as clinical touchpoints to improve older adult mental health

Tech
September 2, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a profound toll on older adults, isolating them physically and emotionally from their communities and families. Mental health has suffered across generations and, as a practicing geriatric psychiatrist, I have had a front-row seat to the unique conditions older adult populations are facing. Despite rising rates of depression and anxiety, infection control measures have accelerated the adoption of digital health, including telehealth, opening myriad new …

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A physician mom’s take on telemedicine

Physician
May 29, 2022

I know most of us have started adapting to the new way of life in our practice. However, some of us are still skeptical. I’m hoping to reach out to the skeptical ones among us.

The reason I say that is I was in your shoes as I started my career in a brick-and-mortar practice. In 2017 when my twins were born and after a short parental leave, I returned to …

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Virtual care is convenient, but is it better for everyone?

Physician
April 23, 2022

Through all the changes that we experienced in the past two years, two trends became quite popular: staying home to binge-watch television and getting medical care over your phone. Interestingly, neither are new, and both have been around for 20+ years in various forms. Both have become mainstream by the common denominator of COVID-19. This pandemic has allowed for many device-based conveniences to become top of mind, from Instacart and …

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If we better manage diabetes, can we better manage COVID?  

Conditions
April 1, 2022

Over their lifetimes, adults in the United States have a 40% chance of developing type 2 diabetes. And the likelihood for Latino adults is 25% higher. Even worse, Latinos develop type 2 diabetes when younger, and experience more severe complications and higher hospitalizations.

The stark disparities of type 2 diabetes reveal how cultural and social factors affect disadvantaged populations. As a case in point, managing diabetes is more difficult for patients …

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The latest plague of the pandemic: a smartphone app

Physician
March 7, 2022

Just as we begin to exit the latest surge of the global COVID-19 pandemic another challenge to health care is appearing—the efforts to combat physician burnout.

One example of a proposed solution is the Clinician Experience Project, which is now marketed to improve health care organizations’ patient satisfaction scores. In the midst of the worst global pandemic in 100 years, it is widely recognized that physician burnout is a widespread problem. …

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Break the rules of health care with technology

Tech
February 23, 2022

In the 21st century, all but one U.S. industry has used information technology (IT) to cut costs, increase access to products and services, and improve quality.

Health care is the lone exception. For decades, medical costs have risen faster than inflation — with spending now above $4 trillion annually. For patients, accessing medical care is both time-consuming and burdensome. Meanwhile, U.S. health …

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How telemedicine ruined a physician’s career

Physician
December 29, 2021

Doing side gigs is in vogue now. I want to tell you my story. It has to do with how one of the leading telemedicine companies ruined my career. I hope that my story will help many of you navigate this tough economy, especially those who are coming out of residency.

I started working as an independent contractor about ten years ago when it first came to the forefront. I worked …

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How digital therapeutics can strengthen the provider-patient relationship and improve behavioral health outcomes

Tech
November 2, 2021

Research shows that early intervention in mental health conditions is critical for achieving better outcomes. Left unaddressed, conditions tend to progress. The depression will worsen. The anxiety will escalate. The disorder can intensify to the point where a child or teen can’t function, won’t get out of bed, may start self-medicating – and the list goes on.

Even though it could change the trajectory of an adolescents’ mental health condition, providers …

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Expanding health care access and equity through telehealth

Policy
October 22, 2021

The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) has been an amplifier and catalyst for numerous issues. The pandemic has impacted health care delivery significantly, and inequities for the Black community are more apparent. Federal and state rules for telehealth compliance/reimbursement were relaxed to preserve health care access during the PHE. While we are still in the data collection and observation phase, some concepts are clear: Telehealth positively impacts health care access, …

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