Many organizations have been working towards making affordable technology that can be implemented for improving the current health sector.  It is estimated that the MedTech industry as a whole would grow to 594 billion USD by the year 2024.

Europe is the second largest region after the US which has shown substantial growth in the field of MedTech. There were more than fourteen thousand patent requests in the continent which is one the strongest reason for MedTech to grow.

Numerous companies have emerged, working in different directions to name some, there is Neo-Medical which deals in the solutions that enable spine surgeons to limit stress overload on patients’ spines. All this is possible because of “Assist AI”, which helps surgeons in performing surgery and gives real-time guidance.

In the field of eye care technology, Remidio has made exceptional growth with its handheld, nonmydriatic fundus camera designed for quick and easy image capture. Scewo has developed a motorized wheelchair that is not only capable of moving on any kind of terrain but can also climb a staircase.

These companies are focused on making lives better with their innovative ideas, however, none of this would have been possible without the right financial support. Boundary Holding, founded by Rajat Khare an investment firm based in Luxembourg has supported many such organizations that are working in the field of MedTech.  He believes that the growing digital world would not be limited by any sector, MedTech in the growing digital world would be full of possibilities with AI artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cloud storage, and augmented and virtual reality.

Similar beliefs can be seen by other investment firms and leaders. At Deloitte Switzerland, Michel Le Bars oversee mergers and acquisitions in the life sciences and healthcare sectors. Le Bars said that “Switzerland holds a leading position in the medical technology sector with its high density of manufacturers and industry-specific suppliers, often a diversification element for the precision manufacturers.”

The Vice President of strategy and commercial development for EMEA at Medtronic in Switzerland is Charity Kufaas. She believes for Medtronic, Europe is a strategically important and forward-thinking continent. Meeting new collaboration partners in the field of Cardiology, medical-surgical, neuroscience, and diabetes is something they look forward to. It can be including MedTech SMEs and investors.

The future is definitely more exciting for MedTech; we can see more developments not just in terms of research but new ideas being turned into reality. This could not have been possible without positive support from various financial institutions.

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Private Practice

The first model is private practice. This is when a doctor or other healthcare professional operates their own business. They may have employees, or they may work alone. Private practice is the oldest form of healthcare organization. It is also one of the top options in the home care franchise system, and it has some clear benefits. First, the doctor or healthcare professional has complete control over their business. They make all the decisions about pricing, services offered, and how they run their practice. This gives doctors a lot of flexibility and freedom to do things the way they want. Second, a private practice offers opportunities for personal relationships with patients. Doctors can get to know their patients well, and this can create a strong bond between doctor and patient. Patients often appreciate the extra attention they receive in a private practice setting. Third, private practices tend to be more affordable than other models. The doctor sets the prices, so there is no need to pay a middleman. This can be a big advantage for patients who are on a tight budget.

However, there are also some drawbacks to private practice. First, it can be difficult to attract new patients without a large advertising budget. Second, it can be challenging to compete with large healthcare organizations. Third, doctors in private practice may have to do a lot of the administrative work themselves, which can be time-consuming and frustrating.

Overall, private practice is a good option for doctors who want complete control over their business and want to build close relationships with their patients. However, it can be difficult to attract new patients and compete with larger organizations.

Corporate Practice

The second model is corporate practice. This is when a doctor or other healthcare professional joins an existing healthcare organization, such as a hospital or clinic. Corporate practices have become increasingly common in recent years as healthcare organizations have grown larger and more complex. There are several benefits to joining a corporate practice. First, doctors have access to a large pool of patients. This can be helpful for doctors who are looking to expand their practice. Second, corporate practices offer a lot of administrative support. Doctors in a corporate practice don’t have to worry about things like billing and insurance reimbursements. This can be helpful since it can be difficult to keep up with the ever-changing healthcare regulations. Third, corporate practices often have better resources than private practices. This includes things like advanced medical equipment and a larger staff. This can be helpful for doctors who want to provide high-quality care to their patients.

However, there are also some disadvantages to joining a corporate practice. First, doctors may lose some control over their business. They may not have a lot of say in how the practice is run, and they may not be able to make all the decisions they want. Second, doctors may have to work long hours. Corporate practices can be very demanding, and doctors may not have as much free time as they would like.

Overall, corporate practice is a good option for doctors who want to join a large healthcare organization and have access to a large pool of patients. However, doctors may lose some control over their business and may have to work long hours.

Managed Care

The third model is managed care. This is when a doctor or other healthcare professional joins a managed care organization. Managed care organizations are companies that contract with healthcare providers to provide treatment for their members. There are several benefits to joining a managed care organization. First, doctors have access to a large pool of patients. This can be helpful for doctors who are looking to expand their practice. Second, managed care organizations often have better resources than private practices. This includes things like advanced medical equipment and a larger staff. This can be helpful for doctors who want to provide high-quality care to their patients. Third, managed care organizations often offer more flexibility than other models. Doctors can usually choose the services they want to offer, the prices they want to charge, and how they want to run their practice. This gives doctors a lot of flexibility and freedom to do things the way they want.

However, there are also some disadvantages to joining a managed care organization. First, doctors may have to change the way they practice. In order to stay competitive, most managed care organizations require doctors to use evidence-based treatments and meet certain quality standards. Second, doctors may have less control over their business. Managed care organizations often dictate how doctors can run their practice and what services they can offer.

Overall, managed care is a good option for doctors who want to join a large healthcare organization and have access to a large pool of patients. However, doctors may have to change the way they practice and may have less control over their business.

So, what legal model is best for the growing healthcare business? That depends on your specific needs and goals. If you are looking to start your own practice, a private practice may be a good option. If you are looking to join a large healthcare organization, a corporate practice may be a good option. If you want more flexibility than either of those models offers, a group practice may be a good option. No matter what model you choose, make sure you do your research and understand the pros and cons of each option.

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What is a medical malpractice suit against doctors?

A medical malpractice suit is filed against doctors by patients who have been harmed by the negligence of these health care professionals. Malpractice suits are especially common in cases where a patient has suffered injury or harm due to substandard treatment.

Medical malpractice can be anything from surgical errors, misdiagnoses, birth injuries, and more. However, it’s important to understand that not all mistakes made during your doctor visit will result in you filing a lawsuit – only those which led to some kind of physical or emotional damage on your part should qualify for this path forward. You may also need a medical malpractice law firm for this process if you aren’t sure how much compensation would be reasonable based on your situation, working with one ensures that no legal fees will accrue if you choose to drop the case. If you think that your doctor has made a mistake that led to physical or emotional harm, make sure that this is documented in your medical records before filing an official malpractice suit against doctors.

This will help prove your claim and increase the likelihood of recovering damages from those responsible for causing pain and suffering through their negligence. It’s important to know what kind of compensation would be reasonable based on the damage done during treatment so that no one accuses you of asking for more than necessary if they do not agree with the amount claimed by way of settlement.

How much does a lawsuit cost?

Once you have filed a medical malpractice suit against doctors, it will go to trial. If the judge determines that your doctor did commit malpractice and is liable for any harm or injuries that occurred because of this negligence, then they may order him/her to pay damages.

This can include lost wages from time off work due to injury, pain, and suffering awards which provide compensation based on how much emotional distress was caused by negligent treatment, as well as reimbursement for all medical bills accrued during care. In most cases of medical malpractice suits against doctors where there are no complications with the claim being made (such as a long history of issues in past patient-doctor relationships), these lawsuits tend not to be too expensive – especially when compared to high profile cases like the one filed against the actor, Ryan Phillippe.

That being said, it’s important that you hire a lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice law if you want your claim to be taken seriously by both the court and other lawyers working on behalf of doctors (who may attempt to discredit or devalue your case). This ensures that any costs involved with filing this type of lawsuit are reasonable so that they don’t interfere with your ability to recover damages for pain and suffering caused by negligence during treatment.

The process of filing a medical malpractice lawsuit

The first thing you need to do is write down everything about your experience which led up to, during, and after treatment so that it’s available as evidence if you do end up filing a lawsuit against your doctor.

You should also make sure that the medical records from this appointment are available and include documentation of whatever mistake was made during treatment that led to injury or harm caused by negligence on the part of doctors, such as surgical errors, birth injuries, misdiagnoses, etc.

Include any receipts from lost wages due to time off work at doctor’s appointments or other expenses related to seeking out care after mistakes were made by doctors who treated you during visits in question. If these costs are covered under health insurance, also list the amount paid by you towards them so that it can be deducted from whatever compensation is awarded.

Once this has been taken care of and any supporting evidence gathered (including patient records), then you’ll want to file official documents which outline why exactly doctors were negligent during their treatment and caused harm as a result – such as birth injuries, misdiagnoses, surgical errors, etc.

Who can sue for medical malpractice?

Although you may be the one who is filing a medical malpractice suit against doctors for your pain and suffering caused during treatment or surgery, there are some instances where this type of lawsuit can also be filed on behalf of someone else – such as infants with birth injuries whose parents have to take time off work to care for them.

In these cases, it’s important that any attorney representing injured patients understand what kind of compensation would be reasonable based on their age at the time they became ill or injured due to negligence by doctors.

This ensures that no one accuses you of asking for more than necessary if they do not agree with the amount claimed in settlement negotiations that lead up to trial. At this point, most lawsuits involving medical malpractice suits against doctors where there are no complications reach a settlement and the plaintiff agrees to drop charges.

If this doesn’t happen, then your attorney will find out what kind of compensation was awarded for similar cases in which negligence led to injury or illness as well as the potential costs associated with a trial before deciding on how much you should ask for when filing official documents that outline why exactly doctors were negligent during treatment (birth injuries, misdiagnoses, surgical errors).

In conclusion, a medical malpractice suit against doctors is not an easy process to go through. It will take time and money. You have to decide if it’s worth the risk of going forward with your case or taking the settlement offer from the doctor involved in your injury.

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Before you purchase a particular supplement, it is good to learn about the benefits of its ingredients. For example, if you want to buy a supplement for better skin health, make sure it contains ingredients that are good for the skin. Sometimes you’ll come across supplements with sugars and other additives that work counterproductively to what the supplement is supposed to remedy. Make sure you avoid all supplements with sugars, chemicals, and other unhealthy filler ingredients.

Here are three good examples of quality supplements with all-natural ingredients.

Organic Multivitamin

Multivitamin products are everywhere. You can find these products on the shelves of virtually any drug store or supermarket. However, most of these over-the-counter multivitamin products contain fillers and additives. It is rare to find an organic multivitamin product consisting of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and antioxidants.

Mary Ruth’s Liquid Morning Multivitamin fits this profile perfectly. Rather than being in tablet form, this organic multivitamin comes in liquid form. Just take the dosage amount recommended on the label of the bottle. Think of it as taking cough medicine from a bottle. The only difference is that it is a liquid multivitamin from a bottle. Say goodbye to swallowing huge pills.

The organic multivitamin is vegan-friendly with no sugars or GMOs. It contains 100% organic ingredients that are easily absorbable in the body. The product even comes in multiple flavors to make it easier to taste and swallow. The three main flavor choices are raspberry, strawberry and fruit punch. The flavors are produced naturally too.

There is no better way to consume a multivitamin. You’ll get a nice balanced blend of essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants with each serving. That is what you should look for in any multivitamin supplement product.

CBD for Sleep

The endocannabinoid system produces specific neurotransmitters to manage various biological processes in the human body, such as immune function, stress, mood, appetite, sleep, inflammation, and pain. Unfortunately, endocannabinoids are not naturally produced quickly enough to reduce feelings of pain, stress, insomnia, and anxiety. The body needs additional endocannabinoids from an outside source, such as hemp and cannabis.

Do you have trouble sleeping? If so, CBD for sleep could be the solution. Some medical studies suggest that CBD can help treat numerous sleep disorders, such as insomnia and daytime sleepiness. It all depends on which cannabis strains produced your CBD oil. Some strains are known to help you sleep, while others will help you stay awake.

When you research CBD supplement products, pay attention to the origins of the CBD. Find out which cannabis strain produced the CBD extract. Some good examples of strains that help you sleep are ACDC, Harlequin, and Remedy. But if you want to target your sleep problem strongly, find cannabis products with high THC levels. Just make sure you live in a state with legalized recreational marijuana because THC is illegal in some states.

USP Label

There is a federal non-profit organization called USP (United States Pharmacopeia). It sets the public standards for the quality of dietary supplements, food ingredients and medicines.

If you find a supplement product with a USP Verified Mark on the front label, it means the product’s quality has been tested and verified. This verification gives consumers extra confidence and protection when shopping for food and supplement products.

Here is the quality assurance that comes with the USP Verified Mark:

• The product contains all the ingredients listed on the label, including the state potency levels.
• Well-controlled manufacturing procedures were implemented, complying with the Food and Drug Administration’s Good Manufacturing Practices.
• No harmful amounts of contaminants.

Nature Made is one popular supplement brand with the USP Verified Mark on its products. It creates supplements for just about everything, including vitamins A-K, folic acid, biotin, B vitamins, B complex, calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, amino acids, herbs, fish oils, and more.

If you find supplements without the USP Verified Mark, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad supplements. It just means they haven’t been tested for their quality. Please keep that in mind.

Conclusion

Now you should have a good idea of how to find the right vitamins and supplements. It requires you to check the nutritional labels and study the ingredients carefully. If you know which ingredients are good and bad, it is easier to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy supplements.

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1. Big Data
2. Analytics Automation
3. Alert-based Action

Data, Data, and More Data

Optimizing pharmacy benefits requires data, lots of data preferably received on a daily basis. The more sources of data the better. At a minimum, claims data received monthly is crucial to boosting pharmacy benefits performance. Other data sources Include drug data, PBM contract data, demographic data, and benchmark data-rich with insights across all KPIs.

“Big Data” is a term being consistently thrown about by healthcare stakeholders in recent years. Although the term seems simple enough (large amounts of data), most experts suggest the real definition of the term goes well beyond the quantity of data:

“Extremely large and diverse datasets that may be analyzed to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, that could lead to better decisions.”

Put this way, Big Data offers an opportunity to make an immediate and lasting Impact on the cost and quality of pharmacy benefits by leveraging it to “reveal patterns, trends, and associations” that could result in “better decisions to boost pharmacy benefits optimization.

Why focus on Al when we haven’t embraced automation?

“Artificial Intelligence” or Al is another buzzword floating around healthcare, but the term is a distraction to the real opportunity of fully leveraging analytics automation. The old PBM playbook suggests we task an army of trained experts to manually run and analyze reports to identify a few trends to present to clients. This Is process Is extremely Inefficient, time-consuming, and expensive, and it rarely happens more than annually due to the difficulty and complexity of analyzing detailed reports for every client.

Today we can leverage tech-enabled solutions to automate the extremely difficult task of analyzing hundreds of thousands of circumstances and trends every single day in order to identify the exact moment an opportunity to boost pharmacy benefits optimization presents itself…not 15 months later. This is equivalent to running an extremely comprehensive plan review comprised of thousands of reports, metrics, and analysis for every client and having it reviewed by the best financial and clinical experts…all on a daily basis. This is the new playbook, one with rules-driven by tech-enabled solutions.

Action now versus action later

Whether Improvement comes through lower cost, more appropriate utilization or other ways depends largely on our ability to use the data and Inferred trends to make better decisions today. However, If we continue to make decisions a year after the opportunity presents Itself then the benefits gained by making change pale In comparison to the benefits from acting Immediately.

Consider the following results from a poll conducted by Genela/National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions:

► 97% of employers believe that advanced analytics is essential for making benefits and/or wellness program decisions and 90% said that near-real-time data is Imperative to realizing costs savings

Nearly all employers surveyed feel that making benefits decisions to effectively manage their programs requires real-time use of massive amounts of data. However, they also struggle with the ever-growing massive amounts of data and their Inability to quickly make informed decisions. Put another way, they can see the Intended results of Big Data but are seeking automated analytics and alerts to effectively use it.

How to boost pharmacy benefits optimization?

All the necessary ingredients for a valuable transformational market change is at our fingertips that will enable us to more fully optimize pharmacy benefits through Big Data, Automation, and Alert-based action:

1. We have mountains of healthcare and pharmacy data at our fingertips that continue to accumulate at an accelerating pace.

2. We have access to comprehensive analytic automation tools that will enable a careful analysis of the vast sea of data on a daily basis to Immediately Identify trends and patterns in cost and utilization.

3. We have near real-time alerts enabling pharmacy experts to make Incredibly Informed decisions that boost pharmacy benefits optimization on a daily basis resulting in the greatest opportunity to improve performance.

Despite the relatively complicated nature of Big Data, leveraging it within health benefits to achieve desired results is within our grasp. The big opportunity for pharmacy benefits is for employers, brokers, consultants, health plans, administrators, and PBMS to begin working together to expand our collective ability to deliver optimized pharmacy benefits performance by fully embracing Big Data, Automation, and Alerts.

xevant

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The data helps improve diagnosis and can help analyze numerous issues, including symptoms, pharmaceuticals, and dosage. Without this data, it will be difficult for medical professionals to come to the right conclusions.

Some of the Advantages of Big Data in Healthcare are mentioned below:

• Enhanced Performance for Activities
• Patient Advance Care and Treatment
• The Right Treatment to Discover Diseases
• Personalized and Inclusive Communication
• Reinforced Access to Key Information

The hurdles to big data analytics in healthcare lie beyond the opportunities. Healthcare Big Data has its features, including heterogeneity, insufficiency, promptness and durability, anonymity, and management. These features introduce several challenges to data storage, mining, and sharing to facilitate health-related science. 

Some of the Complexities of Big Data in Healthcare are:

• Due to the lack of efficient data governance procedures, data collection is one of the biggest obstacles for healthcare organizations. It needs to be clean, accurate, and correctly formatted to use data more efficiently to be used across different healthcare systems. 
• These days, most patient records are kept in a centralized database for quick and easy access, but the real issue is when this data needs to be shared with outside healthcare professionals. 
• Data security is one of the top obstacles with constant hacking and security breaches for most healthcare providers that need to be handled regularly. 
• The healthcare industry must be very cautious when dealing with susceptible data and even patient data, which is significant. Not only can data leakage prove costly to healthcare companies, it is also unethical to disclose it without prior authorization.

Conclusion

Although data analysis brings a lot to the table, healthcare organizations need to make sure that their data is used correctly. Key points to remember are providing appropriate employees with the resources to access the data to enable them to make data-driven choices independently and ensure that the data they obtain is as close as possible in real-time. Big data and data analytics are compelling. It just requires individuals with the knowledge of how to use it behind the wheel of control.

The output of health data is expected to increase in the years ahead. In reality, healthcare reimbursement models are changing; meaningful use and pay for success are emerging as significant new factors in today’s healthcare environment. Profit is not and must not be a prime concern. Healthcare organizations must acquire the resources, infrastructure, and techniques available to leverage big data effectively. 

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• COVID-19: 2020 is the year that has shaken the globe in every way possible. In addition to taking a toll on human health, COVID-19 has struck the economy way too hard. The only positive thing worth noting is how AI found its way into building models, developing new therapies, and vaccine development.
• Patient Flow Optimization: The worst scenario when visiting a hospital is when patients in critical condition keep waiting for hours. Either to get access to an ICU, get the surgery performed, or just for consultation purposes. The situation, though slowly, is changing, but there is a change seen now. The AI-based software platform aims to solve these operational issues, especially those relating to emergency rooms and patient safety. This automated platform prioritizes critical patients, monitors the waiting time, and maps the fastest ambulance routes as well.
• Appointments: It is very typical to worry about our health, even when there’s a small shift in the way we feel. But what people tend to forget is that, unlike certain apparent situations that will not see much change unless seen by a doctor. Not all cases require seeking an appointment. AI is coming to the rescue here. Several AI apps scan patients’ survey responses and then prescribe either a virtual check-in or a face-to-face appointment. It thus saves time and prioritizes critical patients as well.
• Maintaining Records: Gone are the days when it used to be a tiresome job to record patients’ records. All was done manually, and this alone sheds light on the fact that this job would have been tedious. Thanks to AI, it is now possible to maintain and have access to electronic records as and when necessary.
• Personalized Healthcare Strategies: Now, it is possible to prepare customized healthcare plans with AI, taking into account patients’ health records. When you think about manually doing it, this takes a lot of time.
• Prediction: With AI in place, predictions have become more straightforward than ever (that has a lot of importance in the healthcare sector). AI aims to predict the chemical and pharmaceutical properties for drug design and development of small-molecule candidates. Those days when complex molecular structures could be expected in weeks and sometimes even in months are now stories of the past. It is now possible to do the same thing within a matter of days. Artificial intelligence can also assist in the prediction of financial and operational risk in conjunction with big data. The collected data serves many purposes, and it is possible to predict a lot with AI, etc.
• Robots Assisting in Surgeries: With technological advancements, we have now entered a point where, with the aid of robots, doctors conduct surgeries. Cameras, medical instruments, and electric weapons are equipped with robots. Surgeons could not access a magnified 3-D look from the eyes. But this is no longer a dream that is far from reality with these robots.

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence, in every way possible, has fulfilled the needs of society. Today, we see ourselves asking what it would have been if it had not been for this outstanding AI execution in our lives. All sectors have benefited from it, with healthcare having far more AI implementations than any other industry.

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Care Providers will need to give patients access to their medical record information too. In addition, these new expectations prohibit information blocking and require health IT developers to support data access through standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Payers and Providers must ensure their information systems can communicate with third-party app users, including consumer health apps.

The new regulations aim to give patients full access to their health information as a catalyst to move the healthcare system towards greater efficiency and effectiveness. Although the 1/1/2021 deadline for ceasing information blocking and offering new standard APIs has been extended due to COVID-19 until 7/1/2021, the industry is mobilizing to meet these ambitious deadlines. Compliance with these new regulations promises to accelerate information exchange across the healthcare ecosystem.

Impacted organizations are working quickly to understand the rules and establish their strategy. As IT budgets are being reconsidered and new priorities are being set, many organizations are seeking to capitalize on the opportunity to deploy new technology that improves care coordination while reducing administrative burden, and creates a better patient experience and better health outcomes while reducing the cost of care.

Giving consumers easier access to their health data via secure, self-service apps and digital tools may significantly change the way healthcare works. Extending traditional care management programs to include on-demand scheduling, home speaker integration, remote monitoring, and programs that address social determinants of health will expand the care management ecosystem. Relationships between payers, providers, and patients may change through new levels of connectivity and information sharing.

While planning and budgeting are necessary and strategizing imperative, meeting compliance dates are the top priority. Many organizations are seeking available technology that can be deployed more rapidly, reduce the cost of development, and minimize the cost of ongoing maintenance. They are seeking technology partners with knowledge of the specifications and experience deploying API solutions.

Given the widespread impact of the mandates, organizations that do not move quickly may face a shortage of resources and unwanted delays that put implementation and testing deadlines at risk. Thinking backward to establish milestones, if an API needs to be implemented by July 2021 then it needs to be in deployment by June 2021 at the latest, tested and validated by April 2021, developed by January 2021, architected by November 2020, and planned out in October 2020.

Picture

Logically that means the time to act is now.

Leveraging the 21^st Century Cures Act-ready technology is the best bet for organizations seeking to meet these aggressive compliance timelines. Starting from scratch is too risky and too slow.

MaxMD offers technology built with valuable deep industry experience and leading-edge standards-based knowhow.  Utilizing solutions such as these will enable Payers to meet compliance requirements and leapfrog the competition.

The Clinical Gateway Solution is an information-sharing solution that effectively manages and directs data flow with external parties. It is an on-off ramp that lets clinical data flow in and out of the payer’s existing data environment to rapidly achieve interoperability readiness.

The Clinical Gateway Solution automates clinical data validation with customizable data quality requirements to reduce data quality issues and minimize administrative burden for both payers and providers. It includes a rules engine to automate workflows that reduce the administrative burden associated with acquiring high-quality clinical data.

The MaxMD App enables patient/members app to request health records through these new APIs making information exchange easier, faster, and cheaper to accomplish. It gives access to claims, encounter, and clinical information for patients and it opens new channels of communication for payers and providers to interact directly with patients to enhance the patient’s experience, lower the total cost of care, and deploy strategic capabilities that go beyond simple compliance to create meaningful market differentiation.

Contact MaxMD today to learn more about the technology and know how you need to make meeting Cures Act compliance mandates a valuable part of your strategic plan and a pathway to improved future performance for your organization.

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The pain is unequivocal. This dreaded COVID-19 has not only resulted in a precipitous drop in an ambulatory (i.e. non-emergent) care traffic – the true bread and butter of healthcare provider systems – but it has resulted in a precipitous drop in the services designed to treat and manage costly conditions (such as cardiovascular, pulmonary, and psychiatric disorders, as well as cancers, renal diseases and high-risk pregnancies that represent nearly $1.2 trillion in the U.S. alone) and prevent the catastrophic exacerbations they lead to. These conditions have not disappeared during the pandemic but represent a ticking time bomb of hundreds of millions of dollars in preventable and unplanned care that will go off not now, but 6, 15, or 24 months from now. In short, we are in a crisis of care access.

So, what do we do? We have no choice but to seek out a new framework for care access. This means virtualization, or what has been colloquially come to be called ‘Telehealth’. Telehealth is far broader than a live interaction between patient and health care provider via video-conference for the purpose of remote evaluation, treatment, and peer-to-peer consultation. Telehealth also encompasses the entire spectrum of automation and analytics as applied to remote care delivery. This can include daily and real-time, automated collection and analysis of patient biometrics and data on symptoms and behavior, as well as automated and focused health coaching and education.

Indeed, COVID has forced our hand to incorporate telehealth and real-time data from patients’ homes into clinical best practice. But this is a good thing, and it’s unfortunate that it took this pandemic for us to finally reach for these transformative tools. It’s also inevitable; it makes absolutely no sense that healthcare, which represents a fifth of our economy, hasn’t yet embraced virtual technologies, IoT (Internet of Things), and real-time data that have transformed many other industries such as retail and banking.

At our backs is an unprecedented alignment of incentives occurring simultaneously that are pushing payers and providers toward these virtual care innovations. The truth is, COVID-19 only accelerated the healthcare paradigm shifts already gaining momentum. First, of course, are the obvious demographic realities of an exploding chronic disease problem in the U.S. This isn’t just a result of the graying of our nation, but also the price we pay for the sedentary and unhealthy lifestyles we’ve been living for decades. At the same time, we are seeing a major paradigm shift in healthcare away from the reimbursement for each service provided to reimbursement based on the outcome of the care (Accountable Care). We are also witnessing a major paradigm shift from getting patients to clinical expertise, and instead of getting expertise to the patients (put another way, making home and workplace effective loci of care). Lastly, we are (finally) seeing momentum on effective reimbursement for employing these tools. Never before have these incentives aligned so dramatically, and entrepreneurial vendors are uniquely poised to take advantage of these opportunities. COVID-19 did not create these opportunities. COVID-19 was just the cold water thrown in our faces to wake us up.

But does telehealth work? It does. And it works not just because of the care access it affords when patients cannot be physically in front of a clinician, but because it addresses those pre-emergent situations identified far enough upstream of a tipping point that you can steer that patient to a timelier, less intense intervention, either by addressing a gap in care, changing medical management at home or altering the toxic trajectory by having the patient come into the office (even virtually so). Equally important, these virtual tools compensate for what realistically cannot be done in the physician’s office or outpatient clinic, namely take the necessary time to thoroughly evaluate root causes (including psycho-social causes) based on real-time data wherever the patients may be and effectively educate patients. It is a time-consuming process that physicians cannot accommodate (it has long been estimated that doctors would have to spend an additional 7 hours of their day just to ensure that patients receive all recommended preventive services and counseling^[1]).

We find ourselves at an unprecedented convergence of need and real-time technological capability. Hopefully, when this terrible pandemic is a bad memory, we will be reaping the fruits of our embrace of these tools, creating an opportunity for these exciting innovations that will remain unsated.

[1]Yarnall, K. et. al. 2003 Is there enough time for prevention in primary care? American Journal of Public Health 93, No. 4 (April): 635-641.

Nesim Bildirici
Chief Executive Officer
AMC Health
45 Broadway, Suite 1250
New York, NY 10006
Ph: Phone: 877.262.2240

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Preventive Health outcomes are even worse

Lifestyle disease used to affect the population that came into a bit of wealth with access to calorie-dense diet and sedentary lives. That’s not the case anymore with the cost of calories dropping precipitously in the past few decades. The well-educated and relatively wealthy are in better health than ever before, as they have the time and resources to invest in preventive health.

Technology has been a great leveler

The improvements in human longevity and comfort have been made possible by technology more than any policy prescriptions. The richest, even 100 years ago didn’t have the quality of life that is available to most people around the world with modest means – vaccines, electricity, cars, air travel, mobile phones, and air conditioning. This doesn’t mean that policies are not important, but they need to harness the potential that technology offers, especially to reduce the disparity in health outcomes.

Preventative health is an analog hell hole

Intuitively, it makes a lot of sense for Healthcare to be analog — after all, it’s an industry that’s predicated on patient-physician interaction. This makes sense as someone who’s sick needs to be seen by a Doctor or a healthcare provider. Unfortunately, this embedded thinking goes way beyond treating sick patients. It is a pervasive solution to every problem, especially preventative health.

Preventative health is the ugly stepchild of the system that focuses on treating the sick. So, it’s not surprising that traditional methods used to treat the sick are prescribed to solve this problem.

Preventative health is an asynchronous problem

Life is asynchronous and so is everything that drives it, especially health. Preventative health is a 24/7 problem and it makes sense to use a 24/7 solution.

Healthy living that is needed to prevent diseases like diabetes and other chronic illnesses is driven by a complex interaction of genetics, stress, sleep, food, exercise, gut health, and environmental factors like weather, traffic, etc.

Inducing healthy habits to people who may not have exercised for decades, gotten used to eating without thinking, sleep-deprived, and unable to cope with stress requires Asynchronous creativity.

If cars can drive themselves?

Then why can’t a fully digital solution drive you to better health? The answer is, off course, it can, and it will! The era of true digital solution to Healthcare problems is upon us, especially around preventative health.

The confluence of readily available medical & genetics data live data stream from IoT (wearable devices, biosensors, activity trackers), combined with ubiquitous smartphone usage, cloud infrastructure, and increased digital literacy will lead us to a truly digital future.

The answer is A.I. Health

For the first time, not only do we understand complex interactions that drive human health, we have the ability to put to good use the data and improve health outcomes.

With the availability of such data, we can start offering to consumers, for the first time, the ability to let their data be used (with their permission) to better manage their health.

This is an inflection point for consumers. On one hand, is the promise of technology that can deliver long-lasting benefits, and on the other hand, is the issue of trust that technology companies have failed time and again. One way to restore trust is to change the financial dynamic of the relationship between consumers and technology. Nothing is really free, and when consumers get “free” stuff, they end up giving up their data and privacy.

A.I. Health, if offered at a fair price, can solve this paradox. By paying for a service, consumers can drive what and how much data they want to share. They will also have rights and protection that they give up when getting “free” apps.

Advanced technology now offers an opportunity to deliver cost-effective preventive health to a large swath of the population that has been left out, either due to socio-economic conditions, exclusionary policies, and locational constraints.

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