In The Know - MEDSEEK News and Expert Opinion on the eHealth Industry

Technology + Marketing = Precision Marketing

Is Your Healthcare Organization Ready?

If you ask most non-marketers what the marketing department at your hospital does and/or the value it provides, you’ll probably get a lot of “uh, umm, uhhhh, not sure” or “spends a lot of money.” I think this video summarizes many people’s perception best.  As an “enlightened stupid marketer” myself, I can recognize the humor and sarcasm in this video, but at the same time it triggers me to think –  how can marketers change this perception?  In particular, since I work in healthcare IT, is there a way that people’s perceptions about healthcare marketing can be transformed? The answer is, YES.  

The retail industry began using precision marketing several years ago with phenomenal results.   The idea behind precision marketing is using predictive analytics technology to personalize the way a consumer experiences your brand based on their individual needs. To put that in healthcare terms – the patients’ needs. According to an article I recently read on MarketingProfs.com, big players like Proctor & Gamble have spent upwards of $15M implementing precision marketing solutions. Obviously, healthcare organizations do not have this kind of dough to sling around, but there is scalable and affordable solution for hospitals of all sizes that is proven to increase Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) by many fold – MEDSEEK’s ecoSmart Patient Precisioning.

The article elaborates on five key points to consider if you are thinking of making the jump into predictive modeling.

1. Good model outputs depend on good inputs
2. Try to be complete
3. Patience is a virtue
4. Be sure your modeling partner is up to date on academic work
5. Look for user-friendly outputs

Check out the full article for more information. Are you ready to take marketing to the next level?

Anna Powell
Product Marketing Manager

What does the "official" delay in Stage 2 Meaningful Use mean?

Today, HHS announced that they are “officially” delaying the requirement for Eligible Hospitals and Eligible Providers to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 objectives until 2014. Under the original plan,  those EHs and EPs that met Stage 1 objectives in 2011 would be required to meet Stage 2 requirements in 2013. Now they have another year.

This is not surprising. In June, an ONC workgroup recommended that HHS delay by one year, as the current system almost discouraged participants from filing for Stage 1 in 2011. If they did not participate in the program until 2012, they could wait to meet the Stage 2 standards until 2014 and still be eligible for the same incentive payment. Now, those who are able to demonstrate they meet the Stage 1 requirements during 2011 can do so and get paid sooner, but still have a reasonable amount of time to prepare for Stage 2.

That certainly seems to be necessary, since the final rule on Stage 2 is not anticipated from CMS until mid-2012.

That being said, even though the final rule will not be identical to the recommendations released from the Policy Committee this summer, it is unlikely to vary significantly – and hospitals and EPs should be preparing to implement their Patient Portal today.

 

Kyra Hagan
MEDSEEK Director, Product Marketing

Pet Portals: Does My Dog Have a Better Patient Experience than Me?

Today I signed my dog up for a pet portal. I didn't know that my vet offered this service until I received a piece of effective direct mail (a postcard with the URL and a blurb telling me I could manage my little lab's health online). As the corporate web manager for MEDSEEK I spend a majority of my day online, so if I come across anything that I can do from my desk that saves me time then I'm all about it.

I logged on to my vet's web site and saw a large information area that told me that from the pet portal I could stay current on my pet's health schedule, request prescription refills, ask the vet questions, receive automatic reminders about future exams and vaccinations and even receive e-cards on my pet's birthday. Wow. Pretty impressive.

I decided to do some comparisons and went to my doctor's web site. I noticed that they had redesigned the web site since my last visit to be more extensive with staff bios, medical service descriptions and practice information (the vet's site had similar offerings). However, in terms of patient interaction the only options I had were to pay a bill online, get directions, download forms or contact the office. A step up from their old web site, but still lacking the user interaction I have come to expect as an active web surfer.

So is it disheartening to realize that I can do more to manage my dog's health online than my own? A bit. It makes me realize how far the healthcare industry has to go to manage people's online expectations. There are tons of ways to manage the patient experience in a robust and effective way online. Physicians and health systems will only being to move in this direction when patients start demanding change.

--Abbi McCollum, MEDSEEK Corporate Web Manager

Why Practices Should Facilitate Continuing Education for Healthcare Providers

Healthcare professionals understand the importance of maintaining an awareness of emerging technologies, biomedical research findings and evidence-based medical practice guidelines. Practitioners are aware that access to this knowledge impacts practice, which influences patient outcomes. It is near impossible for healthcare providers that are heads-down in practice to stay current on every updated guideline and recommendation or to dedicate enough time to conduct their own research. This is where continuing education comes in, and the reason why many states and accrediting bodies mandate continuing medical education (CME) on an annual or other systematic basis for licensure, renewal of licensure and maintenance of certification.

CME is an integral component of continuous professional development and, because the population of healthcare providers is so heterogeneous, it is imperative that CME courses and opportunities target the healthcare provider to whom the content appeals. Specialties such as Cardiology, Endocrinology, and Urology, just to name a few, all have different focuses in order to maintain the utmost knowledge in their area of expertise. It seems reasonable that the state(s) in which the healthcare provider is applying for licensure or licensure renewal set forth the required CME content. Interestingly enough, even the state-mandated CME content varies considerably from state to state.

The time investment, and potential cost investment, associated with CME must be acknowledged by practices and healthcare organizations (HCOs) who are investing in the continuous professional development of the healthcare provider. As one example, MEDSEEK recently partnered with Private Health news (PHN) to enable HCOs to engage healthcare providers efficiently and cost-effectively by streamlining communication and targeting CME credits to the specialty interest of each subscriber. As the trend in HCO-employed physicians continues to rise, strategic physician engagement becomes paramount to attracting and retaining the very best providers.

For practices and HCOs, turnkey physician e-communication programs such as MedNews Plus, as a component of a virtual medical office product, is an invaluable ‘in-house’ tool that makes life easier for physicians by helping them to achieve CME credit requirements within their normal workflow. Therefore, CME offerings should be compatible with the workflow of the healthcare provider. Not all providers have the ability to take time off from practice to attend a conference or continuing education seminar. Practices and healthcare organizations should utilize today’s technology to promote online CME, while allowing healthcare providers to not only receive credits but also equip providers with the most current medical and scientific knowledge to improve care delivery and, ultimately, patient outcomes.

Strategic patient management and engagement is a critical challenge that healthcare organizations must meet as we move beyond Meaningful Use and towards accountable care. Implementing physician engagement strategies, such as making CME credit requirements a part of the daily workflow, allows physicians to concentrate on improving the patient experience and quality of care.

--Daria Byrne, Ed.D, MSN, RN
MEDSEEK Clinical Solution Manager

Further to an article by Carrie Rossenfeld in Medical Office Today, to which Daria Byrne was a contributor. MEDSEEK’s Clinical Solution Manager shares her insights into the importance of continuing medical education.

ACOs are Dead. Long Live ACOs.

Even before the release of the official rules for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) by CMS, there were rumblings of displeasure with the form and format that was being laid out.  Once official, the rumblings became more of a storm of protest from some of the largest integrated delivery networks (IDNs) in the country.  Most notable, the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare and Geisinger Health System were very vocal in their opposition on various complexities, anti-trust and other grounds.  All valid points in my opinion, but is it really just tilting at windmills?

There is no argument that health care costs are spiraling out of control and that current growth rates are untenable in the long term.  A shift of the financial burden has already occurring by employers, and by extension patients, being forced to bear higher premiums and tighter restrictions.  From this new economic reality came the concept of accountable care organizations (ACOs).  At its core, an ACO is a care delivery system where providers are compensated on the care they provide a defined patient population through a series of quality and performance measures and cost benchmarks.  (This is not meant to open a discussion about capitation, HMOs, or any other previous attempt at managing health care costs.  And, for the record, I do think the concept behind ACOs has legs.)

Those legs, however do not necessarily include the ACO in its current form, but rather the concepts of creating long term patient relationships (via patient activation) as a competitive tool and risk sharing as a reimbursement inevitability.  And, if you read the comments by the notable ACO dissenters listed above, you can see that they also agree that the concept is valid and are in fact taking steps to adapt to the new realities of healthcare delivery.

Patient activation is the concept of getting patients engaged and active in managing their own health. Realistically, this can only be accomplished through providing a coordinated set of capabilities and services that draws the patient in and not only continuously provides information, but anticipates that future needs of the patient.  Creating the role of trusted health advisor that is top of mind with patients any time they require healthcare related information is the ultimate goal.  If you look at life from a healthcare perspective, it is a series of care events punctuated by (hopefully) long periods of relatively good health.  Contact with the patient during these periods of good health is crucial to sustaining a long term relationship.  Realistically, this can only be accomplished through the use of information technology tools, notably a patient portal that integrates into an organization’s clinical, education, and messaging systems.

The banking industry is useful analogy.  The more integrated you can make someone’s financial life the harder it will be for that person to move somewhere else to get the same range of services, thus creating a long term source of service utilization and revenue.  Plus it will provide a better overall financial picture for the customer to make better informed decisions.

Integration to multiple systems highlights the challenges of moving into a risk sharing model for patient populations.  For an organization to go at risk, that is confidently state that they can treat a given patient population for a set amount of money, requires tremendous effort in collecting, tracking, and reporting on key quality measures, strong communication and care work flows based on generally accepted best practices – for multiple types of patients across multiple care environments (IP, OP and LTC as examples - and constant monitoring and feedback of patient information, utilization, and messaging.  This requires a huge investment in time, people and capital across an organization, but done right, will yield long term benefits and returns.

So are ACOs really dead?  No.  Much like any new concept there are going to be multiple variations and models that will need to be played out over time to see what works.  With that being said, any healthcare organization that does not think that they will be held more accountable for the quality and type of care they deliver and the meaningful impact they make on the patients they serve are in for a rude shock.  Will this require more work and investment by HCOs?  Yes.  With the ultimate payoff be patient loyalty and, in turn, financial stability?  Absolutely.  The question that remains is how long can healthcare organizations wait to secure their future?  I say sooner rather than later.

--Jim McGregor, Sr. eHealth Strategist

Learn more about MEDSEEK and ACOs.

The Dangers of Self Diagnosing

There was a fresh face in the hallways of MEDSEEK this summer - Luke Wilson, a rising high school senior who interned with our sales and marketing departments. He worked with sales operations to understand the current market place and helped research new marketing campaigns before returning to California to start his senior year. Luke wrote a few blogs from his newly acquired, unique perspective: that of a 17-year-old who grew up in a world that always had email, the internet and cell phones and got an inside look at the current state of the healthcare system. This is the final post of his three-part blog series:

Everyone knows about medical information sites like WebMD.com. In fact, 8 in 10 internet users look online for health information. That makes it the third most popular online pursuit behind following e-mail and using a search engine (according to Pew Internet & American Life Project). So it's no surprise that self-diagnosis is a very common thing.

However, there is a fine line between having access to the right amount of information and making sense of too much information. There is a point when there is so much information out there that we think we can answer any question. To an extent this is true, but when it comes to your health, and the many variations of issues that could cause one symptom, I think it is best to be cautious. Here’s a personal experience that brought me to this conclusion:

I was outside, playing tennis, when I got an extreme bout of dizziness. It went away, so I brushed it off, but when it came back just a few minutes later, accompanied with a dull, nauseating headache, I decided to go look the symptoms up.

• Diagnosis #1: The flu or cold. It was possible that I could have some illness, but I thought I would be getting the chills or some other indicator by now. On to the next diagnosis.
• Diagnosis #2: Diabetes. Yikes! This one was a little scary, but I decided to discard it since I’m active, eat healthy, and have no family members with diabetes. By now I was not only suffering dizziness and a headache, but all I wanted to do was sleep. So I added sleepiness to the list of symptoms in my search.
• Diagnosis #3: Brain tumor. It all matched up. I had recurring dizziness, a headache, some nausea, and was extremely tired. Now I was scared.

I went to my doctor’s and told him the string of events that led me to my self-diagnosis of brain tumor. He checked my pulse, took some blood, and checked my blood pressure, which looked below average. After noticing the low blood pressure, he left the office. Panic began to kick in. One minute later he came in with a glass of water and handed it me. He said, “Before we go through an MRI, try drinking 8 of these a day for the next week, then come back and tell me how you feel.”

… Seriously? I just went through a day of life-threatening panic, and I was dehydrated? Yep.

So, if a conclusion is necessary, sites like WebMD are great for getting information, but I know I will leave the diagnosing to the professionals.

Read all of Luke's Blogs:

• What if People Actually Understood Healthcare?
• The Next Generation of Patients: Healthcare Expectations of a 17 Year-Old

What if People Actually Understood Healthcare?

There was a fresh face in the hallways of MEDSEEK this summer - Luke Wilson, a rising high school senior who interned with our sales and marketing departments. He worked with sales operations to understand the current market place and helped research new marketing campaigns before returning to California to start his senior year. Luke wrote a few blogs from his newly acquired, unique perspective: that of a 17-year old who grew up in a world that always had email, the internet and cell phones and got an inside look at the current state of the healthcare system. This is the second post of his three-part blog series:

As stated previously, I did not know anything about healthcare before working with MEDSEEK. If you’re curious, healthcare to a teenager consists of three things: the emergency room, sports physicals, and shots. So, when a kid says “I went to the hospital,” it can mean anything from the ER to a private practitioner to an actual hospital.

Working at MEDSEEK gave me insight into how a hospital works with private practitioners, and how a hospital system works together, I began to realize very few people actually know how healthcare works. So I began to wonder:

What if… everyone was given a quick overview on how healthcare worked? How their local hospitals make their money, and how hospitals store their data. How many different types of legacy systems hospitals have, and how they have to try and dig data from all of them separately. How many hours physicians and employees spend on the phone, talking to patients and scheduling appointments.

What if… people could then be taught the different laws and regulations hospitals have to follow? How many different – yet similar – pieces of paper patients have to fill out for regulation’s sake. What having insurance means for a hospital and for the government. Why hospitals are just now starting to update their technology. Why it takes so long for hospitals to change. What an ACO is, and how it affects them.

What if… people could learn about the possible solutions available today? That there are ways to fill out all hospital forms online. That it is possible to see your lab results online, and then share x-rays or ultrasounds on Facebook. That you can talk to your physicians securely, and you can set up appointments without ever picking up the phone.

I feel like if the majority of people actually knew all of this, a number of things could happen:

• There would be an even higher demand for some sort of healthcare reform.
• There would be understanding for the long time frames in changing the system.
• There would be more pressure to reduce the amount of uninsured.
• There would be new ideas for reform and improvement.
• More people would be active in their healthcare and understand the importance of preventive care rather than curing existing conditions.

And quite possibly, if it’s true that we hate what we do not know, people would no longer hate going to the doctor’s office.

Read all of Luke's Blogs:

• The Next Generation of Patients: Healthcare Expectations of a 17 Year-Old
• The Dangers of Self Diagnosing

The Next Generation of Patients: Healthcare Expectations of a 17 Year-Old

There was a fresh face in the hallways of MEDSEEK this summer - Luke Wilson, a rising high school senior who interned with our sales and marketing departments. He worked with sales operations to understand the current market place and helped research new marketing campaigns before returning to California to start his senior year. Luke wrote a few blogs from his newly acquired, unique perspective: that of a 17-year old who grew up in a world that always had email, the internet and cell phones and got an inside look at the current state of the healthcare system. This is the first post of his three-part blog series:

I came to intern with MEDSEEK with no prior knowledge of healthcare technology. With few visits to the hospital and no desire to watch the news, I really had no clue of how healthcare works in our country (see my next blog post for more on that). What was strange to me, as I started working with MEDSEEK, was learning how far behind healthcare technology is. I have grown up with technology in my life: I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t able to access the internet, I have always been able to contact my parents through their cell phones, and I build websites and learn coding languages for fun. So when I hear that if I go to the emergency room while I’m here in Birmingham that they won’t be able to find out I’m allergic to penicillin unless I tell them, and that I can’t go online and get my health records from my home-town hospital, and that some hospitals are still storing patient information in filing cabinets with locks, I’m astounded.

Having technology be a part of my entire 17 years of existence has brought some expectations with it. So if healthcare executives are asking themselves (which they should), “what does the next generation of patients expect from us?” let me move you in the right direction:

• I expect everything to be easy to understand. I have never read an instruction manual in my life, and if I come to a website that looks jumbled or confusing, I click that ever-ready back button on my browser.
• I expect to be able to log in to my account and find all my health records. I want to see the X-rays of my broken wrist and even have the ability to share it with my friends on Facebook.
• I expect be able to schedule appointments online. Even the California DMV offers this capability, and they are known for their terrible customer service.
• I expect to be able to instant message my doctor, and have someone who knows my medical history message me back.
• I expect to see one, easy to understand bill that I can pay online.
• I expect to be able to get an estimate of the cost of a certain procedure online. (Yet another feature the California DMV offers.)

… and the list goes on. So, though this list from an interning 17-year-old may not seem too important, it is proof that healthcare needs to quicken the pace and get on track with the times.

Learn more about how MEDSEEK is keeping up with the times with our online patient experience.

Read all of Luke's Blogs:

• The Dangers of Self Diagnosing
• What if People Actually Understood Healthcare?

Regulating Mobile Medical Apps

As of August 5th, when you conduct a search for “medical apps” in Apple’s App Store, over 10,000 results are shown for the iPhone, illustrating the increasing demand for mobile medical apps by today’s consumer. As momentum grows for these apps, it’s inevitable that scrutiny isn’t far behind, whether from consumers or the government.

As such, it comes as no surprise that last month the FDA announced that it is seeking public comments on a proposal concerning the regulation of mobile medical apps. Specifically, the FDA has targeted those mobile apps which are used “as an accessory to a regulated medical device” or “transforms a mobile platform into a regulated medical device”. Just a few years ago, this announcement wouldn’t have been a blip on anyone’s radar, but times have changed. Some estimate that over 81% of doctors have a smartphone[1], which means that regulation could impact many users.

As such, it begs the question “Is regulation really necessary?” Proponents of these apps will cite convenience, particularly while on the go. There’s no better example of this than emergency room doctors, of which 40% are users of mobile devices and content[2]. Opponents will cite concerns over patient safety, even though the FDA has not received any reports of adverse health outcomes connected with these apps[3].

No matter which side of the fence you are on, the decisions to be made concerning this topic will affect us all one way or another.

Learn about MEDSEEK's mobile solutions for consumers, patients, and clinical staff members.

---

[1] Doctors driving IT development with their mobile technology choices by Pamela Lewis Dolan

[2] Emergency room doctors number one consumers of mobile, pathologists last, per report of physician mobile use by Iltifat Husain, MD

[3] mHealth Care Crisis by Torie Bosch

Working in Healthcare IT: A Blessing and a Curse

For me, working in the healthcare IT industry can be a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I get to see firsthand the exciting technology that is the future of healthcare and the amazing advances that are being made for both the patient and physician experience. But on the other hand, I’m a patient struggling to work within the confines of the limited technology options that are currently available in my area. It’s like going to a bakery and seeing a delicious cake and then being handed a plate with crumbs.

Consumers these days are used to websites doing so much for them - from planning trips, to setting up automatic bill pay and to communication with an entire network of users. The patient portal available to me seems to have the right ideas, but upon closer inspection the functionality and workflow are not up to par. I should also point out that, while I do live in a larger metropolitan area, this is the only portal option, so switching – which I would if there was anything better available – is impossible.

My initial intent was to provide a laundry list of gripes I have about what the portal doesn’t do.  While this would be an informative, albeit dry, exercise, the more I thought about it, the real message I wanted to get across was  - if you are going to do something, do it right, even if it offers less than you want or hope to provide.

• Yes, I want to do all the cool things in a patient portal – direct schedule an appointment and get wayfinding information immediately with special instructions on what I need to do to prepare for my appointment.

• Yes, I want to be able to get reminders for preventive care when I reach an age milestone and be provided the explanation as to why.

• Yes, I want to be able to manage my bills and make payments, and ask questions, and get information all online whenever I want.

• Yes, I want all of these things, and I want them yesterday!

But I know that is not realistic.  And, I expect more than the average patient since I am in the eHealth world, so I will cut providers some slack.

What I really want is for the functionality that is available to me now to work easily and as advertised.  To ignore basic usability (dead end links, forcing me to use the phone during the process, not allowing me to manage or delete obsolete listings in MY address book) and not having your own workflows in place (giving me the option for communication method and then ignoring it), not being able to share my basic information between PCP and specialist in the same group (I could go on) does not instill me with the warm fuzzies (read: confidence) that you actually know what you are doing. 

Remember what I said about switching earlier?  Do you really want to lose me, a relatively healthy, well-insured, long term patient to a competitor because your patient portal implementation was bad?  Trust me, when something better comes along (and it will – in the brave new world of risk sharing and bundled payments, patient portals are necessary),  I will switch.  And you will probably not get me back. 

A complete enterprise solution that works with the physician and the patient to create a user-friendly ehealth world isn’t the future. It is here now. It works and is a huge patient satisfier.  Organizations have to start somewhere.  And they have to get the basics right.  This means under promise and over deliver.  Provide key things that people want and need and make it work right the first time.  If people get a benefit they will stick around to see what will happen next.  If they don’t, you have lost their attention and at best their experience will be status quo, manual processes and not benefits in time or money savings for anyone.  At worst you will lose patients to someone else doing it better, and the time and money required to (hopefully) bring them back one day will far outstrip the investment that could have been made up front to get it right. 

It’s time for healthcare systems to understand that they have a limited amount of time, and chances, to get this right. 

Jim McGregor, Sr. eHealth Strategist

Read more about MEDSEEK's eHealth ecoSystem - a 360 degree enterprise solution for employees, patients, consumers and physicians.