What You Should Know: - In-depth look list of FDA-approved COVID-19 test kits The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offers emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for unapproved products or new uses for approved items in urgent situations where no suitable alternatives exist. Dozens of companies have sought and received EUAs for their testing kits that screen for SARS-CoV-2 — more commonly referred to as COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus. The FDA makes a
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4 Hospitals Leveraging Social Media to Improve Patient Engagement
Social media is an essential online marketing and outreach tool for any organization that wants to connect to the largest audience possible. However, health organizations — like hospitals — can face unique challenges in managing social media, which can make effectively leveraging these tools less straightforward. Many large hospitals have been successful in making social media work for them. As a result, they've provided a template that other healthcare
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3 Healthcare Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in 2020
The healthcare industry frequently struggles with data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents. That's likely because cybercriminals know the value of medical data. It's also problematic that healthcare information often gets passed between multiple parties and organizations, some of which may have insufficient security practices. Attacks from malicious actors aren't ceasing, which means healthcare cybersecurity must remain a priority in 2020. But, what, specifically, should parties
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4 Digital Health Tools for Combating Opioid Addiction in 2020 & Beyond
The human and economic statistics surrounding the opioid epidemic are staggering. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 11.4 million people have misused prescription opioids, and more than 130 people die daily from opioid-related drug overdoses.Moreover, the Society of Actuaries found that the total economic burden of the opioid crisis in the United States from 2015 to 2018 was at least $631 billion. The organization attributed nearly one-third of that cost to extra
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The Growing Emergence of Robots in Healthcare: Key Opportunities & Benefits
Robots are a rapidly growing part of the modern health care landscape. The history of robots in medicine dates back to 1985 when a robotic arm called “PUMA” assisted with surgery for the first time. The operation — a neurosurgical biopsy — was a complete success. Some of today’s health care robots make PUMA look a little primitive by comparison. Advances in sensor and motion control technologies mean robots are more precise and autonomous than ever, and capable of not just assisting, but
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5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Digital Pathology
- As the digital pathology market grows, facilities that rely on digital pathology will start using artificial intelligence (AI) to assist. AI could help health professionals cope with the gigantic quantities of data - Discover why healthcare facilities increasingly realize that AI could help achieve significant impacts with digital pathology.Thanks to approvals from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for applications such as primary disease diagnosis, digital pathology is rapidly becoming
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6 Health System Barriers to Digital Health Transformation
- When CIOs were asked about “significant” barriers to their Digital Health efforts, the top four responses pertained to issues with sponsorship and/or leadership.- Currently, the health delivery industry as a whole is still in the earliest stages of what will prove to be a digital transformation. - 40.4% of surveyed CIOs believe enterprise EHR vendors will play the biggest role in their facility's digital health journey in the next two years. The concept of digital health information was
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7 Supply Chain Management Areas Where AI and ML Can Realize the Greatest Cost Savings
According to a recent report from Syft, health care leaders fail to leverage data analytics in their supply chains. This shortcoming could result in them missing out on millions of dollars. There's an urgent need to optimize supply usage throughout the enterprise and patient care continuum while cutting waste. In addition to the increasing downward pressure hampering revenues, statistics anticipate that supply chain costs will exceed labor-related expenses by 2022. These factors
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3 Major Problems With the Medical Device and Wearables Market in 2019
Technology can improve human life in significant ways and aid in the fight against troublesome illnesses. Unfortunately, no technology is perfect — and newer technologies are especially prone to growing pains.There are three major problems in today's medical devices and wearables market: potential sabotage of the devices themselves, devices as a backdoor into networks and patient data, and device manufacturers taking advantage of regulatory loopholes to get their products on the market.1. Many
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Security Vulnerabilities Detected in ICDs: Addressing Ransomware Risk in Medical Devices
Medical device usage is on the rise, and that reality potentially puts people at risk if those gadgets have security flaws. It's crucial for device manufacturers, industry regulators and health practitioners to work together to ensure safety are paramount as adoption rises.Internal health devices are particularly at risk, especially since patients and providers may not immediately notice issues. The people who use or prescribe them assume they'll work as expected and typically don't have ways to
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