Thursday, August 28, 2014

Healthcare and Life Sciences

An overview and a brief description Drug, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology constitute the main constituents of Healthcare & Life Sciences field. Since the area caters to the lives and existence of humans, it is a matter to strict regulatory mechanisms needing dedicated expertise in knowledge processing, with enhanced quality, and devotion to international standards. Hence, it has become a chief thrust zone for the worldwide giants in the IT industry and also for corporates involved in investigation and development of new products.IT solutions for healthcareIT solutions for healthcare aid improve healthcare delivery and patient results by facilitating the respective solution providers being more capable, price effective, and inventive.Complemented with comprehensive partnerships and established know-how, the IT solutions aid you to:• Allow clinician movement through unified, safe access to acute Windows, web, mobile, and custom applications, along with file sharing services and collaboration tools, on their own device of preference• Accomplish functioning competences and quicken time-to-value for acquisitions and healthcare consolidation by offering IT as a cloud service• Guarantee confidentiality of individual health facts and guard sensitive data wherever, however and by whomever it is gained access to• Strengthen patient-focused care and advance outcomes across locations and specialisms through, telemedicine, mobility, and social allianceHealthcare IT solutionsHealthcare IT solutions make over healthcare IT with the help of desktop, enterprise mobility management, application virtualization, data sharing, societal collaboration, remote support, and cloud networking. The solutions help transmute healthcare IT with safe access to apps, information, and data to provide best care.
The innovative and all-inclusive clinical information solutions are the need of the hour for the Healthcare industry.


Healthcare solutionsHealthcare solutions increase the clinician contentment, develop care team competence, generate higher-quality clinical documentation and, finally, drive patient protection care. Healthcare & Life Sciences solutions aid the experts regain control over paper-intensive clinical, billing, supervisory, and managerial procedures.The healthcare solutions aids healthcare experts accomplish extraordinary competence along with noteworthy cost savings, greater safety, enhanced traceability, and improved productivity.Life science solutionsLife science solutions aid relevant companies respond effectively to challenges. Offering cohesive end-to-end Healthcare not just caters to the apparent needs, but brings about an assimilated change.Healthcare solutions and services cover the complete Healthcare & life sciences value chain right from corporate to back office operations. Henceforth, they aid you to streamline costs, improve operational efficacies, and develop business agility all across all significant business procedures. Innovative solutions made help the industry to meet its dynamic requirements.Healthcare firms can leverage societal business to improve productivity, grow insights into customers, and nurture novelty.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Electronic Healthcare Records: Protecting Patient Privacy Through Secure Digital File Transfer

Electronic healthcare records have revolutionized the healthcare industry with respect to how care is delivered and compensated. The benefits of electronic healthcare records abound - care providers can improve the quality and convenience of patient care along with diagnostic accuracy and health outcomes, increase patient participation in their own treatment, facilitate care coordination and increase practice efficiencies.Successful EHR implementation hinges on two key factors. First, care providers need a solution in place to digitize and store the records safely. And second, they need a way to share files with one another without compromising patient privacy.When confidential patient files exchange hands digitally, it's important that the right protocols are in place to protect privacy. And with physicians sending electronic healthcare records to each other via email to coordinate treatment, it's critical that these documents are encrypted and secure.Secure document delivery solutions ensure that confidential electronic medical records remain private and protected during the digital file transfer process. Physicians can coordinate care more efficiently and effectively if they can quickly and comprehensively communicate with each other without putting patient privacy at risk.For instance, if a patient suffering from chronic back pain is referred by a primary care physician to a specialist, the primary care physician's observations and recorded notes provide invaluable context and detail to the specialist. And when the specialist refers the patient to the physical therapist, the chain continues, but the history is lost - unless the secure file transfer occurs.


Patients are human beings - they can't be expected to provide consistent and robust accounts of their symptoms, treatment history, and health risks. However, the track to better treatment outcomes is a clear path when communication between practitioners is timely and comprehensive.Beyond the detailed history that a patient can provide, there are risk factors that must be managed across practitioners that can be life threatening. Conditions, medication interactions, allergies and other treatment nuances cannot be addressed without full purview into a patient's medical record.From a physician's perspective, the ultimate priority is always providing the best possible care to a patient. The ability to provide this high quality care is predicated on complete visibility into a patient's health history - conditions, medications, allergies and any and all other pertinent factors affecting a physician's ability to provide sound counsel.Full visibility is better for the patient and better for the practitioner - the fuller the picture, the better the care.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

What Type Of Cancer Treatments And Services Are Available?

There are different types of cancer, but in order to diagnose and treat these diseases, early detection and treatment is very essential. The success of treatment also depends upon the experience of the doctor and the type of clinic you choose. Today, advancement in the field of medical sciences and hi-tech equipments has made it possible for doctors to make accurate diagnosis and provide timely cancer and lupus treatment to patients. The nature of disease, its diagnosis and treatment is not only different but a little complicated compared to other medical treatments. Therefore, when it comes to treating cancer, it is very important to approach the experts.Different Types of Cancer TreatmentA disease like cancer will need prolonged treatment and care, so you need to approach a facility that will provide you the right care and treatment. A majority of the cancer treatments are designed to result in complete remission of the diseases. However, it depends on the level of spread of the disease, age and health of the patient, personal characteristics, etc. The most common treatments for acute myelogenous leukemia and other types of cancer are chemotherapy, radiation, steroids, surgery and biological therapies. Sometimes the treatment is combined with one another based on the diagnosis.Importance of Early Diagnosis


In some types of cancers, symptoms are not clear or they don't present themselves at an early stage but show up when the cancer has fairly spread. Some cancer symptoms can merely mimic other ailments and hence most individuals do not take them seriously until much later. Therefore, it is very important for every individual to undergo annual medical tests to rule out any kind of diseases and avail immediate treatment. If diseases are detected early, cancer or hepatitis C treatment can be simpler, less painful and also less expensive. Early diagnosis and treatment can also save your life by helping you make some lifestyle changes for better health.Services to Look For In Cancer CentersDoctors generally recommend several tests to identify a disease and evaluate its exact location and affect within the body. When it comes to diagnosing cancer or fatty liver treatment, several medical professionals are involved in the entire process and several equipments are used to perform the tests. Therefore, make sure that you look for the following services in your chosen cancer center. Ultra sound, lab to perform blood tests, facilities for physical examination, MRI equipment and x-ray machines are some of the common services the clinic should provide. Treatment facilities should include chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

What Types of Gases Should Medical Gas Equipment Support?

There are a growing number of different types of medical gas equipment utilized within any hospital or professional medical setting. While there is little need in certain rooms of the building for every type of gas to be available, it is essential the overall medical gas system includes the necessary equipment to support all of the hospital's medical needs. The only way to determine if this is being accomplished is by looking at all of the different types of gases the internal equipment must support.The most common gas used is oxygen. While it is primarily used for respiratory therapy and anaesthesia, many sections of a hospital will be pumping fresh air with a higher than normal oxygen level on a regular basis. It is important to note that while oxygen supports life it also supports combustion. Oxygen is non-flammable, however materials that burning and are will burn much faster and create higher temperatures in oxygen enriched atmosphere. Gas equipment must not only support oxygen but be able to control how much is being delivered at any given point in time.Another common type of medical gas is nitrous oxide. It is typically used for producing the first and second stage of anaesthesia in medical settings. Nitrous oxide is sometimes combined with oxygen to provide additional benefits in an oxygen enriched atmosphere.


Over the years, gas systems have been designed to create "medical air". Medical air is a combination of gases, primarily oxygen and nitrogen, used exclusively for human respiration and the calibration of devices for respiratory application. As a result, this specific form of medical areas typically found in areas of the hospital which are involved with respiratory therapy. When choosing gas equipment, it is important to consider the local ambient air to ensure the proper compressors and vacuums are utilized.Another form of gas which medical equipment must support is nitrogen or instrument air. Nitrogen is commonly used to power instruments unrelated to human respiration. This includes surgical tools and ceiling arms. It is important to note that medical air and instrument there are two distinct and separate systems because they are used for mutually exclusive applications.To ensure gases are properly supported, there are a number of key pieces of medical gas equipment found in every hospital. They include automatic gas manifolds, DRE gas wall outlets, nitrogen control panels, gas ceiling outlets, and a zone valve box. A variety of compressors and vacuums will be found as well based upon the needs of specific locations within a hospital.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

What the ACA Means for Small Business Owners

The Affordable Care Act is complicated for entrepreneurs and you may not know which regulations you need to pay attention to. It's time to start watching closely, if you haven't already. You may be asking yourself a lot of questions: Am I suddenly going to have to shell out a lot of money for my employees' health insurance? Will my premiums go up? Will I be able to afford it? How do I know whether I can use the healthcare marketplace and whether I'm eligible for subsidies as a sole entrepreneur?If you are a small business owner or self-employed, the Affordable Care Act probably has you scratching your head. In addition, the regulations keep changing and deadlines for some phases of the employer mandates have been pushed out even farther. With constantly moving targets it's no wonder you're confused.If you are a small business owner who has employees, the trigger isn't how much you make but how many employees you have. If you employ less than 50 people, you are not required to offer health insurance to your employees. Small business owners with 50-99 employees will be required to provide affordable health care to cover essential services, including many preventive care services. Affordability is a critical factor and you can be penalized if your plans aren't affordable for your employees.The date for this to go into effect has been moved to 2016, but now is the time to start tracking employees' hours. These numbers will be used to categorize companies later so you need to know who is full time (working at least 30 hours per week) and be able to support your data. If the coverage doesn't include essential services or is too expensive (more than 9.5% of household income) and an employee purchases health insurance on the exchange and gets subsidies, the employer will be penalized.Because health insurance providers are now required to provide essential care for many people who may have pre-existing conditions, premiums are going up. While the Obama administration hopes that having employers providing healthcare coverage will help to keep these costs reasonable, many insurance companies have already raised their rates. This has caused some small businesses to rush out and renew their plans early to avoid higher prices down the road. According to a study conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) Research Foundation, 66% of small businesses are cutting into their profit to pay for cost increases and 40% have deferred investments to cover the premiums. The projected increases may mean some small businesses will continue their employee plans only through 2014 and then drop them when it's time to renew and the costs are too high.


If you are self-employed and you are the only employee in your small business, you will need to have a pretty clear estimate of how much you earn to determine whether you are eligible for tax subsidies. If you purchase healthcare on the health exchange you will have to provide some estimate for your income. If you make more than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) ($46,000 for an individual or $94,000 for a family of four) you will end up paying full price on the exchange. If your income and your business are stable this is simple enough, even if it's more than you want to pay.Does your income fluctuate? Some months you make more than others and you don't know how much you will make? You will need to estimate what you think you might make and then use that to determine whether you are eligible for subsidies. If you make less than the FPL, under $11,000, you should apply for Medicaid. There is good news for those who think they will be eligible for subsidies: If you end up not making enough to qualify for health insurance through the marketplace and should have been on Medicaid, you won't be penalized for getting subsidies. Unfortunately, the reverse is that if you make more than 400% of the FPL during the year, you will be required to pay the subsidies back.The Affordable Care Act requires that we reach deeper into our pockets to pay for our healthcare, both small businesses and individuals. Get smart about how you spend your healthcare dollars. Small businesses need to think long and hard about whether they want to foot the bill for their employees' health in coming years. If you have coverage through a small employer, enjoy it while you can, and start planning your healthcare budget for checkups and medical tests. If you are a small business owner, start planning for ACA changes so you are ready for stringent healthcare regulations and your business thrives in the long haul.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Provider Solutions

A brief overviewHealthcare today more and more requires collaboration that improves the delivery of care and attentions on value above volume. New models of population health management need new technology and a proficient partner to aid navigate these intricacies while decreasing expenses and delivering effectual care association.Provider Solutions benefit you to:
• Get paid precisely and rapidly through smart revenue cycle management
• Change from volume- to value-based care with liable care
• Attain unified payer-provider association and information interchangeHealthcare provider solutionsHealthcare provider solutions offer fiscal, billing, compensation, and clinical consulting to the home healthcare and hospital industry. The core services comprise billing and collections, medicinal recovery projects, clinical, and billing education through symposiums, teleconferences, webcastings, and newsletters.Healthcare solutions get the most out of the experience of highly qualified experts. They are dedicated to a standard of fineness that gets them distinguished from others in the home healthcare and hospice industries.Their aim is to offer the uppermost quality of products and services to healthcare providers allowing them to make the most of their talent in operations and improve reimbursement. Healthcare provider solutions illustrate devotion and teamwork by constantly surpassing the customer anticipations.Electronic medical recordAn electronic medical record (EMR) is a digital form of the customary paper-built medical record for an individual. It either initiates from an electronic arrangement or is transformed from hard copy to an online form. An EMR comprises information about a certain patient, counting:• Patient communication information, counting crisis contact(s)
• Vitals, for example weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and body temperature
• Previous and future medical facility appointments
• Physician orders
• Prescriptions
• Medical evolution and surgical notes
• Agreement to release information forms
• Allergies
• Previous medical history
• Billing information, for instance insurance
• Discharge synopses and treatment strategies


EHR rewards are many. A crucial reason is the idea that EHRs can protect lives by decreasing human mistake. For instance, if doctors and nurses have crucial electronic medical information at their fingertips, fewer deferrals are likely in emergent treatment and acute care. EHRs are also suitable to patients, with the removal of the recurring procedure of divulging medical histories to new caregivers.
Value-based careIt emphasizes on prices, quality and, most significantly, consequences. The healthcare provider's experience in constructing successful networks between physicians, health schemes, health plans, and employers leads to effectively accomplishing value-based care goals.Clinical Integration: Value-based care helps you comprehend and advance performance by building a clinically integrated network that serves as the starting block for transformation initiatives and formulates your organization for the upcoming of healthcare through prophetic analytics and quality measures all across the care field.Financial Risk Management: Value-based care also aids you advance both the price and excellence of care by bringing into line and handling fiscal incentives between healthcare stakeholders through proficient monetary insights, as well as risk modeling and supervision for all dynamic payment models.Population Health Management: Value-based care offers you with tools and analytics to prophetic model, mend quality of care, and offer care management maintenance of patients with prolonged disease, recognizing high-risk patients, and checking clinical results.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

How to Effectively Manage Significant Changes in Your Practice

The situation: a team at your site has developed a new process or program at your site that will lead to improved outcomes for your patients or your practice itself. Examples of these are improved care of patients with chronic diseases, improved copay collections, and implementation of ICD-10 coding and billing. Change, whether dictated from external regulations or created as part of a cycle of continuous improvement of patient outcomes, seems to one of the constants at most care sites. What should you do to effectively implement the new processes or programs? Let me share with you what I have found to be some elements of successful implementation of programs and processes.Champion. Choose a champion to oversee the implementation of the program or process. The champion should be a member of the team that designed the new process or program. That way, he or she would have a good understanding of the details of the goals and elements designed by the team. The champion should be supported by a clinician (if he or she in not one) with enough authority at the site to enable the champion to effectively carry out the implementation. There are several traits that the champion as leader should possess:

Communication skills

Coaching skills

Empathy

An ability to put things in context

Emotional intelligence
An example of a champion at work is a nurse who is a member of a team seeking to improve the outcomes of patients with coronary artery disease. The nurse communicates to the clinicians and support staff that the team wants to collect data on the percentage of patients with coronary artery disease who take a low dose aspirin each day. The goal of the team is that at least 75% of patients will do this. She also communicates the plan to raise the percentage over time.Communication. Effective communication to all staff affected by the changes is vitally important. Before any changes are effected staff should know what changes will occur and a timeline for implementation of the changes. Staff should also be informed of the reasons for the changes and the expected outcomes of the changes. Communication of these can be the responsibility of the champion or a communication committee if the practice is large enough.To effectively implement new ICD-10 coding it will be necessary to inform billing and coding personnel what training they will be expected to take and where, to inform clinicians what are the expectations of them in detailing diagnoses and procedures as well as audits of these along with feedback. Communication with staff using patient management systems will also be necessary.Training. To correctly implement new processes or programs it will be necessary to train those affected. It will be necessary to set aside some time for training. I suggest that training can take place before the workday begins if feasible. It may be necessary to have some temps substitute for staff if training takes place off site. Also, funds should be set aside for training.


If a site wants to have patients get their lab work done before appointments it will be necessary to train staff how patients will be contacted with information about getting the labs done and how to track the percentage of patients who do get their labs done ahead of time.Auditing. Along with training staff on new processes or programs it will be necessary to occasionally audit the staff to see if they are adhering to their training. It is very easy to fall back into old habits and not follow through with training. It will be up to the champion or a designee to carry out the audits. If a staff member(s) are found not to be compliant the auditor should point out the deficiency and inquire as to why the staff person is not performing his or her task according to the training. It may be that the staff person did not clearly understand some of the training information. For example a physician may not understand that it is necessary to indicate laterality when possible for ICD-10 coding.Another component of auditing is collecting data on the metrics that were defined to be used to measure the success of the implementation. For instance, in a coronary artery disease program designed to improve the lives of patients with this disease a metric might be the percentage of patients who exercise vigorously at least four times a week. Results of the metric audits should be posted for all affected staff to see.Modify. As the implementation proceeds the champion may find that the outcomes are not what were expected. That is, the goals of the changes may not be attainable with the newly implemented processes. Then, it may be necessary to modify the new processes or the program so that it will be possible to attain the project goals. For instance it may be necessary to modify the contact method being used to notify patients of lab work that needs to be completed before their appointment.Celebrate and maintain. After a successful implementation, the team and rest of the staff should acknowledge and celebrate the achievement. At the same time it will be necessary to put into effect a plan to monitor the metrics used in implementation so that best outcomes can be maintained. This may be the time to design an improvement of the newly implemented program or process that leads to even better outcomes and that adapts well to the skills of the staff at the site.As you can see, it is not enough to just design a new process or program. Great care should be taken to implement the program according to the design team's specifications. It will take a lot of effort from the champion or team to oversee the implementation using the components detailed. Careful adherence to the implementation will enable a careful analysis of the progress as well as point out directions for future changes. Successful implementation is a win for both the patients and the practice.

Monday, August 4, 2014

5 Effective Solution to Lose Weight and Also Reduce Your Cholesterol Level.

According to Dr. Chauncey Crandall ''Three main causes of heart attack are fats, Sugar, Stress''. Fortunately unlike the risk factors, you may be able to lower/reduce your LDL cholesterol level, if they are already high, or prevent it, because it's being said that prevention is better and more economical than to cure. So whether you want to prevent your LDL cholesterol level from increasing, or reduce it, this method has been proven to help.(1)REDUCE 40% OF FAT INTAKE: Reducing your fat intake is not that easy for those that are used to fried and fat foods, eg cheese, butter, whole milk, beef, fried rice burger and whole lots of them. Products made from them are high in saturated fat. But considering your health issue, its a measure you need to take (health first).Alternatives there are milks in the market that are low in fat, olive oil is also good for frying, not only will it give you a good taste, also its good for your heart. If you're complaining about weight gain, this is your first step in reducing it.(2)EXERCISE: Exercise is not only good for losing weight, but also help lower your cholesterol level especially the" bad" (LDL), and also keep you fit for the rest of your life, Aerobic exercise like running, jogging, swimming, biking, Seem to benefit most by lowering cholesterol about 5% to 10%. Don't always be on AC because it's not helping matters. Once in a while warm up your self. Exercising intensively for 2 hours once every fourteen days has no value. Conversely some who exercises 20 to 30 minute a day can also gain from the various benefits of exercise to human health.


(3)MODERATE CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL: Although moderate consumption of alcohol will significantly raise HDL cholesterol level, it also can lower LDL cholesterol by around 4 to 8%. Moderate consumption means 3 to 4 a week, but if you're not an alcoholic, you have no business to take any just to lose weight. Study also showed that drinking more than 4-5 bottle (depending) a day can really increase your chances of getting heart problems. So the best option for the sake of your health is moderate consumption, or if possible Boycott it.(4)SUPPLEMENTS: This is the most effective way of losing weight and also leveling your LDL cholesterol. Having a high body mass index (BMI) can be a mind boggling, also can increase knee/ankle inflammation. There are diets known to increase your metabolism and also improve the digestion of fats in your body. this process will help in weight loss, keep you healthy, fit, and most especially reduce your LDL cholesterol level.(5)WATER: Through the day drinking water as much as you can, helps your body system a lot. Through water our body regulates temperature, eliminate unnecessary metabolic products, and carries nutrients and oxygen to cell. To avoid water is one of the most common mistake people do in weight loss diet, thinking that it will result to more weight, while on the contrary it helps to burn fats. Research has indicated that adult who drink 8 or more glasses of water per day burn more calorie than those who drink less.