Healthcare Patient Apps
KardiaMobile by AliveCor: AliveCor's mission statement is "to save lives and transform cardiology by delivering intelligent, highly personalized information about the heart to clinicians and patients, anytime, anywhere" (2020). AliveCor company has an application for smartphones or tablets to record cardiac measurements from the FDA-cleared, clinical grade personal EKG monitor, KardiaMobile, attaches on your personal device. In just 30 seconds, the Kardia sensor will detect Atrial Fibrillation, Bradycardia, Tachycardia and Normal or Irregular heart rhythms just by placing two fingers from both hands on the sensor. The benefits of the Kardia sensor is that it is affordable, portable, and will track data over time or email medical-grade recordings directly to your doctor for review (2020). The website listed below will provide more detailed information on the sensor cost and customer support.
References
Peace of Mind in your Pocket. (2020). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from
BlueStar Diabetes by WellDoc: WellDoc, is passionate about helping people living with chronic diseases. They have an unique opportunity that allows the team members to see the direct impact that their work makes in patients lives (n.d.). In the United States, a person with diabetes will spend on average 8,760 hours per year managing their blood glucose levels and diet; while only spending 28 minutes a year with their physician who is responsible for their treatment regimens and recommendations (Elflein, 2019).
BlueStar, is an application powered by WellDoc, is a digital health solution for people aged 18 and older with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes (n.d.). This application works by the patient entering their blood glucose level and in real-time, WellDoc’s system analyzes the data, and offers a personalized coach to help patients manage their medication and general health. The benefits of BlueStar provides nutritional and physical activity advice, medication reminders, connected monitors help log the highs and lows of blood glucose levels, and interaction with the BlueStar team on your progress (n.d.).
References
Elflein, J. (2019, August 9). Amount of time U.S. primary care physicians spent with each patient as of 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/250219/us-physicians-opinion-about-their-compensation/
Scaling Impactful Digital Health. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from
Heal Telehealth and House Calls: Heal, Inc., a provider of in-home medical care and remote monitoring, today announced the "expansion of its application to cover patients of all ages in California, New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Virginia, Washington, Maryland, and Washington D. C., making telemedicine available to 102 million Americans" (Dotson, 2020). Heal, a home healthcare service (limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic), now provides teleheatlh services by licensed Heal physicians that engage with patients through live video chats and phone calls. The Heal physicians are available from 8am to 8pm, 365 days a year, for the same day or appointments can be scheduled in advance (2020).
Heal services are covered by many insurance plans, including: Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, Health Net, Humana, United Healthcare, and many other private plans. They also accept Medicare and Medicare Advantage PPO plans. Unisured persons are charged a flat fee of $79.00 for telemedicine services and around $159.00 for house calls. Please refer to the website listed below to check for Heal services in your city or call (844) 644-HEAL.
References
A better way to see a doctor. (2020). Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://heal.com/
Dotson, K. (2020, March 24). In-home healthcare network Heal launches telemedicine
app for 102 million Americans. Retrieved May 15, 2020, from https://siliconangle.com/2020/03/24/home-healthcare-network-heal-launches-telemedicine-app-102-million-americans/
Washington HIE
HIE: Health Information Exchanges (HIE) allow health care professionals, providers, health systems and public health to securely exchange clinical or business information. According to Balgrosky (2015), "the goals of HIE are to improve access to and retrieval of clinical data or other information relevant to a patient's care to reduce waste, and to provide better and more timely care" (p.263).
References
Balgrosky, J.A. (2015). Essentials for Health Information Systems and Technology. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
HIE Implementation: In February 2010, the HealthCare Authority (HCA) with the approval of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology begin to implementation phase of the State Health Information Exchange (HIE) Cooperative Agreement. The HCA was awarded $11.3 million from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 (Masters, 2010). This federal stimulus program helped to improve the healthcare outcomes of Washingtonians and to have use of health information technology (HIT) to share health information among healthcare organizations (HCOs).
References
Masters, H. (2010, December 10). Washington State to implement Health Information Exchange (HIE). Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://xpiohealth.com/washington-state-to-implement-health-information-exchange-hie/
OneHealthPort: OneHealthPort, Washington's lead HIE organization, collaborated with the HCA to develop HIE strategic and operational plans to ensure the program met with the ONC's governance, technical, financial, policy, and operational requirements (Masters, 2010). Today, OneHealthPort (HIE) is the "hub" for single connections to over 300 contracted organizations in the state. Data from the sending organizations to the HIE is then sent to the Washington State Department of Health Systems (n.d.). Once connected, unlimited exchange of communications can occur in the HIE community. Currently, 120 organizations representing over 2,000 facilities are submitting data in the State of Washington (n.d.).
References
Health Information Exchange. (n.d.). Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://www.doh.wa.gov/ForPublicHealthandHealthcareProviders/HealthcareProfessionsandFacilities/PublicHealthMeaningfulUse/HealthInformationExchange
Masters, H. (2010, December 10). Washington State to implement Health Information Exchange (HIE). Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://xpiohealth.com/washington-state-to-implement-health-information-exchange-hie/
Key Players in WA HIE: Under the leadership of State Coordinator and Director of Policy at the Washington State HCA, Richard Onizuka, Ph.D. manages the collaboration of a variety of HIT and HIE initiatives in communities and organizations across the state (n.d.). Medicaid, Public Health Departments, the HIT Regional Extension Centers, the Beacon Community of Inland Northwest, and the Regional Community College Consortia are part of the collaboration with the state HIE and have received funding from the ONC. The HIT programs at these organizations are closely aligned and coordinated through the Washington State eHealth Collaborative Enterprise (eHCE) Project Team (n.d.).
References
Health Information Exchange Strategic and Operational Plan Profile. (n.d.). Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/wa-state-hie-profile.pdf
HIE Accomplishment: Misuse and abuse of prescription opioids is a nationwide epidemic.Washington State Department of Health has been focusing on this problem since 2008 and in 2011 it implemented its prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). At the time providers did have have time to log into this system or have ease of access to check prescription drug usage during their short appointment times with the patient (Baumgartner, 2016). In 2013, Washington State Department of Health began work with the state HIE program (OneHealthPort) to electronically connect the PDMP to the Emergency Department Information Exchange and the Epic electronic health record (EHR) system (Baumgartner, 2016). After working through some barriers to connect with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the ONC, and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS); SAMHSA provided a grant to Washington State Department of Health to build the connections to the HIE. Today, integration of these data systems improves workflow and productivity by streamlined background automation with inquiries to be over two million just from the emergency department care settings (Baumgartner, 2016).
References
Baumgartner, C. (2016). Washington State’s Success with its Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Retrieved May 16, 2020, from https://www.astho.org/Programs/Informatics/Washington-States-Success-with-its-Prescription-Drug-Monitoring-Program-PDMP/