// By Emily Kagan Trenchard // We’re lucky enough to live in an era when design is no longer viewed as decoration. We understand it as a core principle that shapes our everyday interaction—from how we answer the smartphone in our pocket, to how we pay for things with a swipe of a card. We Read More
Mass General’s Healthcare Innovation Lab and White Rhino’s Addictive Health Lab explore consumer-centric apps and technologies with the goal of delivering a higher level of personalized service, satisfaction and a better overall patient experience. // By Shawn Gross // “As patients behave more like consumers, healthcare organizations need to deliver a higher level of personalized Read More
eHealthcare Pulse The HIMSS15 Patient Engagement Symposium, one of 10 all-day pre-conference sessions, featured an impressive—and passionate—lineup of leaders representing government, providers, technology innovators, patients, and caregivers. #givememydamndata The central theme of the symposium, stressed throughout the day, was that patients need access to their clinical records to actively participate in their own care. But Read More
By Mark S. Gothberg The demands of healthcare reform and an increasingly competitive environment have led to accelerated digital innovation. During last year’s eHealthcare Leadership Awards program, I clearly observed that organizations have made major improvements in their websites and expanded social media. They are also using mobile applications to engage current and prospective customers Read More
The cornerstones of healthcare transformation are patient engagement and coordinated care, facilitated by electronic health records (EHRs) that offer a comprehensive and shared view of patients. But who controls the information contained in EHRs—patients or providers? Patient privacy advocates believe patients should have control over who can access their EHRs, using the principles of Fair Read More
Getting patients engaged in their health is a priority of healthcare transformation, and the patient portal is a big part of the strategy. But the portal experience can leave you cold. Shawn Gross, Chief Digital Strategist at White Rhino shares, “I appreciate the communications I receive from my provider’s patient portal, but the interface experience Read More
Ask the Expert, with Shawn Gross PwC’s healthcare group recently commented, “As patients behave more like consumers, healthcare organizations need to deliver a higher level of personalized service, satisfaction and overall experience—or risk losing business to the competition.” If you’re a healthcare marketer driven to deliver the best possible patient experience, wouldn’t you love to Read More
eHealthcare Pulse In 2010, 100 primary care physicians affiliated with three health systems agreed to explore the impact of sharing clinical notes with patients in a project dubbed OpenNotes. The total panel for the initial trial was 20,000 patients from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, and Harborview Medical Read More
As if there weren’t enough pressures on providers and health systems, now they have to worry about competition from retail health clinics. Attention-grabbing headlines like this one from Forbes makes you wonder where all this is leading: “Healthcare for $4: Are You Ready For Wal-Mart To Be Your Doctor?” Health clinics operated by drugstore chains Read More
by Brian O’Neill Healthcare providers and payers have intrinsically known for years the importance of effective communication to high-quality care. But, truth be told, the system hasn’t always worked as well as it should. Primary care physicians have their challenges in communicating with specialists (including hospitalists). Physicians and nurses don’t always talk to each other Read More
by Brian O’Neill With healthcare reform bringing millions of newly insured patients into a system that already sees shortages in primary care physicians and select specialties, the industry is being pressured to become ever smarter about how providers, insurers, and patients themselves communicate and interact. Fortunately, affordable electronic communication tools are available today that support Read More
by Jane Weber Brubaker Cleveland Clinic was an early adopter of Epic’s electronic health record (EHR) beginning in 2000. In 2012, Cleveland Clinic launched MyPractice Healthcare Solutions, a branded version of the Epic EHR platform, to share best practices with other organizations. “Part of Cleveland Clinic’s mission is to share its experience and model of Read More
// Ask The Expert, with Daniel E. Ansel // It’s a commonly accepted maxim that it costs five times more to recruit a new customer than to retain a satisfied one, yet when I ask hospitals and health systems if they’re concerned or think about tracking the “lifetime value” of a patient, they usually don’t Read More