Post Author: David Lee Scher, MD

Do patient portals increase patient engagement?

Tech
January 22, 2013

Wikipedia defines patient portals as “… healthcare-related online applications that allow patients to interact and communicate with their healthcare providers. Some patient portal applications exist as stand-alone websites and sell their services to healthcare providers. Other portal applications are integrated into the existing web site of a healthcare provider. Still others are modules added onto an existing electronic medical record system. What all of these services …

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Mobile health technology adoption depends on insurers

Tech
December 14, 2012

Insurers will also play a pivotal role in the development and adoption of patient-focused mobile health (mHealth) technology adoption for wellness as well as for the management of chronic diseases.

1. Payers hold the purse strings.  Insurers will be the ones paying for the use of mHealth for chronic disease management for the vast majority of patients.  They have a vested interest …

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4 reasons why doctors need to drive health care technology

Tech
September 25, 2012

The physician’s role is drastically changing.  More and more physicians are becoming institutional employees.  More patient encounters are performed via non-physician providers.  The increasing regulatory demands on physicians are consuming an inordinate amount of their time. Stress and burnout are universal to some degree. Both the financial and emotional rewards of practicing medicine have greatly diminished. They are becoming more quality control officers than healthcare providers.  However, physicians will never …

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Why health and medical apps should be certified

Tech
July 28, 2012

A draft of standards for a health and medical app certification program was released recently by Happtique.  As a matter of disclosure I am proud to have been the Chair of the panel that drafted these standards.  The standards are in draft form and are open to public comment until August 17, 2012.

While some might say that these standards add even more barriers to the commercial adoption of these technologies, there are …

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5 reasons that prevent doctors from using mobile apps

Tech
July 15, 2012

The Jackson Coker Special Report on Apps, Doctors, and Digital Devices, originally published in October 2011, was featured in a recent online article with the headline “80% of Doctors Use Smartphones and Medical Apps in Everyday Medical Practice.”

If one delves a bit more into the facts, the 80% quoted in the Jackson and Coker report is derived from yet another study by Aptilon reported in April, 2011 by mobihealthnews stating that …

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Could mobile apps replace doctors?

Tech
June 21, 2012

A recent post in the DailyDealMedia caught my attention. It was titled “Uprising in Mobile Health Care: Could Medical Apps Replace Doctors?”

The theme of technology versus humanistic aspects of medicine has been the subject of debate for many decades, obviously predating the advent of medical apps.  I find it interesting that the introduction of the referenced PwC study highlights the fact that “Solutions, not technology, are the key to success.”

Another piece on this subject …

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Young physicians will become the champions of technology

Tech
May 30, 2012

“Generation C” has recently been defined by Nielsen as adults between 18 and 34 years old, who are entrenched in digital technologies.

They are indeed the connected generation and use technology by choice in all facets of life. It is part of their fabric.  Those entering the field of medicine would logically desire and expect to carry that over to their professional lives.  However, there are multiple barriers to the continuity …

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Why mobile health devices need FDA oversight

Tech
April 19, 2012

Everyone has heard of a recall of a consumer product such as a component of an automobile, child’s toy, or an over the counter medication.  A recall of those types of products often implies taking them off the market as well as replacement or repair (in the case of device or car components).

During my 20 years as a practicing cardiac electrophysiologist, I witnessed firsthand the evolution of how implanted medical …

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Cardiac device patients should lead patient portal adoption

Tech
March 13, 2012

I have previously focused on issues specific to patients with implantable cardiac rhythm devices who deserve to access their device’s own data directly via patient portals or PHRs.  What I would like to suggest is that if this PHR becomes a reality soon, that it will lead to widespread adoption of patient portals in general. Remote monitoring of implantable cardiac rhythm devices was the first widespread use of remote …

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Cardiac device companies should want patients to have their data

Tech
March 2, 2012

I have been touching on multiple issues involved in cardiac patients and the data derived from their implantable defibrillators and pacemakers, which is heretofore unavailable directly to them.  I have not fully discussed the viewpoint of device companies for a few reasons. I wanted to explore the multiple aspects of the problem and give the patient’s view first.  It is a complex issue that needs technical, regulatory, and workflow …

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Why physicians don’t want patients to have their cardiac device data

Tech
February 22, 2012

There is a groundswell of discussion concerning patients demanding to have direct access to data derived from their implantable defibrillators and pacemakers. I have discussed in other articles why patients deserve their data and the benefits derived thereof.  There are no substantive arguments against this practice, and I always thought, throughout my 12 years of remotely monitoring patients with these devices, that they not only were entitled to the …

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There is a patient attached to that implantable defibrillator

Tech
February 9, 2012

As a follow-up to my post on why patients with implantable defibrillators should have access to their device’s data, I am going to talk about what your physician looks for when a device is interrogated.  Many times this happens in silence or with few words, and some pushes of a button, when done in the office, and when done with remote patient management, is accomplished either automatically or with …

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Why patients with implantable defibrillators deserve their data

Tech
February 2, 2012

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was signed into law on February 17, 2009.

The objective of Measure 12/15 of Meaningful Use regulations of the HITECH act which refer to electronic health records, states that eligible professionals “provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information (including diagnostic test results, problem lists, medication …

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Why I miss practicing medicine

Physician
January 8, 2012

I recently left medical practice in order to pursue a career in mobile health technologies, for which I have had a passion for many years. I had wanted to become a physician since I was very young.  The intellectual challenge and curiosities of the natural science and the human body stirred my intellect like nothing else.

What I will surely miss most are the priceless personal interactions I experienced on a …

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Mobile health and the globalization of medicine

Tech
December 14, 2011

The term globalization loosely refers to the increasing unification of order.  It has been traditionally applied to the economic sector.  As the world is progressively intertwined from financial and cultural perspectives, it is not surprising that it is occurring in the medical arena.  There have been international professional medical societies for many decades, and the medical device and pharmaceutical industries have consolidated on a global scale.

However, the way medicine is …

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5 reasons why physicians will love mobile health

Tech
November 28, 2011

1. Mobile health technology will increase patient engagement. Most patients do not take the responsibility they should for their own health. They are likely preoccupied with all the stresses of everyday life and might therefore take the ‘I feel good, so I must be’ approach. They possibly mutter these words after wiping their faces, hurriedly walking out of McDonald’s for lunch. Or is it because of mistrust of their physician …

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How mobile health can help child abuse victims

Tech
November 19, 2011

There has not been a more horrific scandal in the world of sports that I can remember than the child abuse scandal surrounding Pennsylvania State University.

Let it be said that I am very impressed with the reaction of much of the student body which is one of shock and disdain for the administration charged with covering up alleged abuses of children by a former assistant football coach. According to the …

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How the crises of healthcare and education are related

Policy
November 12, 2011

There are two crises in America, both of which have a profound effect on the economy.  The cost of healthcare is eating away at our ability to finance other needy areas.  Poor performance of our educational system is weakening our international competitiveness. Both healthcare and education are at the precipice of complete collapse.  They both deliver glaringly inferior results with prohibitive expenditures.  The performance of our healthcare system relative to …

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