Hope you are safe & healthy wherever you are. Last Friday, I was an attendee & company sponsor(!!) at the Johnson Women in Tech conference in NYC. The more intimate conference setting led to in-depth discussions between attendees & panelists about tech topics & career growth, and I also received a request to focus on digital health trends this week.
#TECHTOPIC
Not surprising that health is top of mind for many right now. I see two larger themes right now in the realm of digital health-related to patient access & personalization of care. (I’ll focus on access this week, and tackle personalization next week.)
Within patient access, access to care & access to records stand out right now.
Telemedicine is seeing a huge increase in usage within the past few months as patients seek care but are avoiding hospitals or physical waiting rooms. While there are limits to what telemedicine can diagnose, it can and should alleviate stress on the hospital systems and increase access to care for those in more rural/remote locations. It has also become an employee benefit, with Maven doing amazing things for women's health.
Access to electronic health records (EHRs) continues to be a hard problem to solve. Patients lack true portability for their records between doctors or hospitals (often records are still faxed!) While a new interoperability standard was just announced this week, lots of debate continues between the EHR vendors on execution. We need to solve this -- in a crisis, this lack of cohesive & comprehensive data sharing can have adverse effects on a patient’s health or diagnosis.
Learn more:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/03/coronavirus-could-be-boon-for-telemedicine-to-stop-hospital-crowding.html - Virtual services could keep the so-called “worried well” from flooding hospitals.
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/onc-interoperability-rule-garners-mixed-reviews-from-stakeholders - Highlights the debate on interoperability regulations that will hopefully spark cooperation among the top EHR tech companies and healthcare providers
https://www.tableau.com/covid-19-coronavirus-data-resources - great collaboration between a tech company & a university to share data widely on the pandemic trends in an easily digestible, visual format
#NEEDASMILE?
Adorable puppy video alert!
MIT Admissions released a fantastic video to let prospectives know decisions will be made on Pi Day (3/14). Baby Yoda makes an appearance.
