According to Grand View Research, the global artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare market size was valued at USD 15.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.5% from 2023 to 2030, to reach an estimated USD 208.2 billion. That’s an impressive growth rate, indicating the expected value delivery to a mostly early-phase adoption of AI in the healthcare marketplace. With such aggressive predicted growth, many health industry professionals may ask themselves why they are not investigating AI yet.

AI deploys applications that mimic human-level intelligence, while machine learning (ML) is the subset of those applications that are not explicitly programmed or learned. Together, these rapidly evolving technologies are driving efficiency and productivity across a wide range of industrial manufacturing. 

For pharmaceutical and healthcare manufacturers, AI offers deep predictive and data analytics capabilities, and those implementing AI in their manufacturing processes stand to benefit from improved productivity, higher efficiency, and faster production of life-saving drugs or medical devices. The use of AI technology enables, for example, manufacturers to analyze patterns in data sets to understand the implications, benefits, and success rates of new drugs before launching them into the market. Applications such as process modeling enable manufacturers to develop new insights and deliver predictive quality values before measurement information is available, predictive maintenance to eliminate unplanned downtime, and intelligent machine monitoring to eliminate equipment-driven production deviations. Customers can run manufacturing design scenarios and extrapolate from small experimental design cases to optimally determine the next predicted step for more successful test cases. AI, when properly designed, is expected to merge human and machine intelligence to accelerate innovation.

Applications of AI Technology

Imagine equipment essential to producing an in-specification insulin pump (something a large population, and I, rely on). Such equipment is monitored during the production of each pump with classical regulatory measurements and control systems. Today, with modern intelligent AI monitoring, known deviations or anomalies can be detected for any measurements outside normal ranges. Medical device companies know that using and evaluating leading-edge technologies can identify failures earlier within a significantly less costly time frame. This change in technology can dramatically impact manufacturers and end customers.

Modeling predictive control uses mathematical models to drive performance to maximize yields, productivity, and energy efficiency in drying, fermentation, distillation, crystallization, filtration, and other processes familiar to healthcare manufacturing. One relevant focus for healthcare and validation is AI ‘explainability,’ or the ability to understand what drives action and how adaptive/ intelligent applications respond to different conditions. Inexplicable applications seem much less favored in healthcare and life science, as understanding assists AI evaluation and validation. ‘Black box’ closed solutions are less likely to meet the requirements of this set of needs. To be clear, validation is defined as assuring a specific system will consistently meet the requirements and intended use, these are significantly easier to specify and verify compliance with explainable and not black box AI.

Implementation Considerations

Before applications scale to hundreds of use cases in each facility, industrial customers will want to understand the cloud strategy and start to adopt a cloud management infrastructure. While local access has excellent benefits, having shared-cloud management and application control access from the cloud can be essential to provide quick and specialized data science oversite or support whenever needed. A single cloud infrastructure that can monitor and oversee hundreds or thousands of applications simplifies tracking what is working, and what is being used, and identifying any applications that are turned off, failed, or need attention. The cloud can mean a local private cloud or a secure public cloud. Still, the fundamental value proposition is a browser, distributed access to information, and connection of the stakeholder to data to support decision-making. Cloud-based strategies create efficient and distributed environments that can push technology or security updates automatically to many systems. In the IT to OT world that is developing IT system management practices, this will be desired before too long.

This use case inherently takes data, learns to develop a digital twin of the system of interest, and leverages an adaptive digital twin running in parallel to manufacturing to evaluate and support intelligent decision-making. 

So, what are some of the use cases that this can lead to in the future? 

Many come to mind. Users will be more connected to product maintenance and design teams. The connected world means users who are better informed about their product experiences and motivated to get something more valuable and straightforward in the future, will want to provide medical device manufacturers with feedback on product issues. A direct connection and cloud data store of standard input from many customers can drive early and/or ongoing device updates. This means improved device ownership and more compliant usage, alongside updates that improve user alerts and experiences. This will become important in the early days of, for example, closed-loop blood sugar to insulin pump control, but I do not anticipate that decreasing in the later stages of adoption. Imagine a future where continuous blood glucose monitoring is becoming more and more integrated with insulin pump control.  Users currently familiar with adapting their own dosage to carbohydrate intake and activity levels will have “hands-free” adjustments but also discover their own expectations of necessary information levels to be comfortable and be able to accept these new automatic adjustments.  As more devices become more connected to the manufacturer, this can promote extended utilization and more active device checkups/check-ins, if needed, from device alerts.

Predictive Maintenance

In both manufacturing and medical facilities, the investment required in equipment is significant. The cost of a high-end MRI machine, for example, can be north of $3M, no small change. On a larger scale, the time and capital investment required to build a pharma manufacturing facility is considerable. Construction can take between 5 and 10 years and cost up to $2B. 

The common theme here is that to recoup investment as quickly as possible, optimizing equipment use is key to operational efficiency. More patients can be treated. More devices or therapeutics are produced. That said, equipment failure is a fact of life. Disruptions cost money. Patients must rebook appointments. Manufacturing is delayed. 

Remote maintenance has been the accepted model of support for almost three decades. Performance parameters are set and monitored, and deviations are flagged so that technicians can assess necessary maintenance, order replacement parts and so forth. This all takes time, and it’s reactive. As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure,” and it’s here that AI and Machine Learning (ML) are starting to play an increasingly important role as equipment connectivity to direct monitoring networks moves into the mainstream. 

Capital equipment manufacturers are now able to partner with customers, to minimize potential downtime through predictive maintenance. ML learns from past system data and experiences to identify normal and deviated operational patterns which support intelligent predictions with minimal need for human intervention. By collecting enough deep device data AI algorithms can define and model failure modes and predict when a potential failure event becomes more likely. A lot of the investments are being made in collecting data from equipment out in the field and being able to draw insights from that, whether in terms of predictive maintenance, better performance, and efficiencies. The data can be so detailed that equipment manufacturers know where and what components are prone to failure, depending on the usage pattern, and the frequency of use, so they can proactively schedule service calls or advise customers of potential issues, based on that data collection, to ensure action is taken to maximize uptime.  

Future Opportunities

Given customer approval, treatment success metrics can be aligned with broader populations, and dosing can be improved via connection to health devices that are becoming more sophisticated. This data can be monitored with duplicate anomaly detection and alert mechanisms used in IT systems to provide early hack detection. In the case of medical impacts, it is personally critical and valuable, however, in the manufacturing plant, sets of AI applications will integrate to provide both local and holistic oversight. The health of the line or plant can be monitored to provide information on decisions such as sanitation or contamination risks, or safety issues when things like systemic anomalies are detected. In addition, production planning and scheduling switchovers can be coordinated and optimized to efficiently manage the site or line activity, maximizing production runs with quality.

It’s still being determined whether these opportunities will happen sooner or later. However, the value achieved and expected from digitizing operations with learning engines and human staff augmentation is exciting. Decision support from helpful, intelligent agents will maximize the value of feedstock, equipment, people, and products.

About Michael Tay

 Michael Tay is the Platform Lead at Rockwell Automation, a global leader in digital transformation and industrial automation. Michael’s been working in the area of modeling and AI for more than thirty years with seven patents in the areas of Model Predictive Control and Real-Time Optimization across a variety of industries. His current focus is on democratizing and simplifying successful ML in helping to drive manufacturing performance.

How do you solve a persistent and growing problem like claims denials?

It’s been a hot topic for revenue cycle management professionals for years that’s only getting hotter with the increasing pressures of staffing shortages, challenges with staff turnover and training and ever-changing policies and protocols at the government and payer levels. 

On the macro-economic level, denials contribute mightily to the growing problem of uncompensated care in America, currently estimated at $43 billion a year, and a recent survey of provider organizations found the rate of claims denials increasing year-over-year at a 10%-15% clip due to gaps created along every step of the patient’s financial journey – from scheduling to access and registration to coding, billing and collections. 

What’s driving denials? According to those same survey respondents, the Top 5 drivers are authorizations (48%), provider eligibility (42%), code inaccuracies (42%), incorrect modifiers (37%), and failure to meet submission deadlines (35%).

But hope rings eternal among caring, compassionate, creative revenue cycle management professionals across the country at health systems large and small. 

Case in point: Altru Health System, which serves the northwest Minnesota/northeast North Dakota community, where Stan Salwei, Director of Revenue Cycle, has flipped the narrative about the role of his department by reducing Altru’s bad debt by 184% over the past decade, plus contributing a net new $2 million in revenue deduction improvements to the system.

“I’ve changed the thinking at our system that we’re a revenue-generating function,” says Salwei. “The way our leaders are thinking about it now is that we can actually improve the reimbursement rate, and that has actually impacted some of the budgets we’ve been able to secure, and the ways we implement our tools and our workflows.” 

Key to that new narrative is Salwei’s framing of the problem as well as the solution. For Salwei, data equals patient satisfaction and cash, and he believes that success is based on how fit your data is to make informed decisions. That being the case, Salwei says, revenue cycle management is just a derivative of information management. Yet as a general rule of thumb, health systems pay people more to correct their data upstream than they do to make sure quality data gets entered right the first time. 

Stan’s Three Ps: Patient, Payer, Provider

“When we talk denials in my shop, strategy-wise, the patient is the new payer,” Salwei says. “Some people are only thinking about insurance denials, but I’m adding self-pay into that because what we have found using some of the tools we use is that we’re weaving in charity and bad debt opportunities due to some people having insurance already in which they didn’t present it to us, did not know about it or understand that they were eligible for federal, state and local coverage or marketplace enrollment.” 

As an example, both states that Altru serves have retroactive Medicaid policies in place, meaning people can receive coverage for health services received three months prior to filing for a Medicaid application if they met the eligibility requirements at the time, which is critical considering many people who are uninsured apply for Medicaid just after a major health event.

“Here’s the challenge we all have,” Salwei says, “we’re trying to teach patients the basics of healthcare and healthcare insurance. Patients rely on us to do our jobs right. The reality is, the majority of people who work in the health system don’t even know their own insurance and benefits, so it’s no wonder we have people coming into the health system that often doesn’t know their coverage, so we’re here for the patient to help them in this journey.”

Altru’s claims denial prevention funnel leverages various tools and workflows to:

– Get it right as early as possible (through real-time eligibility, coverage discovery and claims denial alerts)

– Automate the identification, correction and submission of denials corrections

– Keep payers accountable for their contracts

They’ve also created real-time dashboards, based on a set of adjustment codes, so that practice managers can actually go in and see their denial rates, percentages and write-offs. 

“Now that we have this data we can show it to our clinical areas and say, here’s the corrective action that we need to work together on,” Salwei says. 

Data and Technology are Key

Once viewed as a threat, the promise of automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning now have hospital revenue cycle teams viewing such technologies as a way to address staffing shortages, improve job satisfaction and retain talent. 

A 2022 survey of revenue cycle professionals across the country found that more than half (53%) say staff shortages continue to slow claims and resubmission of denials, and of those:

– 40% say they’re concerned this impacts cross-checking claims for errors 

– 38% aren’t confident in an accurate information exchange at registration

– 48% say patient estimates are accurate 48% or less of the time, and 

– 33% say the No Surprises Act will further complicate the claims process and negatively impact payor reimbursement

It’s no surprise, then, that the same survey showed a whopping 3 out of 4 say reducing denials is their highest priority, with 74% saying they expect to invest in more claims technology and innovative ways to reduce friction as well as increase efficiency in claims management, the causes of which are most often cited as:

– Insufficient data and analytics (62%)

– Lack of automation (61%)

– Lack of staff training (46%)

– Lack of in-house expertise (44%)

– Dated technology (33%)

It’s also no surprise, then, that health systems now find themselves in need of both proactive and reactive solutions as well as partners with the healthcare data and workflow expertise to help. 

On the proactive side, health systems can leverage new technology to identify claims with a high probability of denial and analyze claims adjudication for each payer. That same technology can provide systems and their revenue cycle professionals with reactive insights about where to place human efforts around denials so their time is spent working claims with a higher propensity to be paid versus chasing claims with a lower propensity to be paid.

Perhaps even more critical, though, are solutions that can be easily adopted, that integrate into existing workflows and that provide health system-specific modeling that can adapt in real-time to changes in payer reimbursement policies and deliver customized triggers that help staff identify and correct issues before claims are submitted. 

There’s no denying the disruption that claims denials cause for providers and their patients. The good news is, disruptive technology solutions that can be implemented in non-disruptive ways are being designed and deployed as we speak.

About Clarissa Riggins
Clarissa Riggins is the Chief Product Officer at Experian Health, a provider of revenue cycle management, identity management, patient engagement and care management. Clarissa Riggins is an experienced product management and product marketing leader with an extensive background in conceptualizing and building online software products and services from soup to nuts. Clarissa has a B.A. from Duke University and is a holder of 2 patents in software technology.

What You Should Know:

– Portfolia, the world’s most powerful community of women investors, has officially announced a significant investment in Xandar Kardian from the firm’s Active Aging I and Active Aging II funds. Portfolia’s investment represents a core contribution to Xandar Kardian’s $10 million Series A Funding round.

– Portfolia sees Xandar Kardian’s impact extends well beyond the traditional hospital room, with impressive potential growth opportunities into a wider breadth of long-term care subcategories in the coming years – including assisted living, independent living and active adult living communities.

Digital Automation with Radar Accuracy

Founded in 2017 as a US Delaware C-Corp with international operations spanning South Korea, Canada and the United States, Xandar Kardian is led by CEO and founder Sam Yang with a mission of deploying reliable and high-accuracy cleantech, smart building and healthcare solutions worldwide. Xandar Kardian’s XK300 became the first continuous, autonomous radar-powered health monitoring system to achieve FDA 510(k) clearance as a Class II Medical Device for non-invasive monitoring. The product’s sensors provide critical early deterioration detection in healthcare settings by measuring 6000+ RHR (Resting Heart Rate) & RR (Respiratory Rate) readings a day, as opposed to a traditional hospital setting, where these vital signs are measured manually only 4 to 6 times a day.

The Xandar Kardian XK300 Autonomous Health Monitoring Solution achieved 510(k) Clearance by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in April 2021, paving the way for a new era of accurate and reliable healthcare technology. With 23 patents granted and 11 pending, Xandar Kardian’s technology has received more than 25 accolades and awards over the last few years – among them being inclusion on TIME’s Best Inventions of 2022, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2022, and 11 CES Innovation Awards.

Through years of disruption and advancement, the retail industry has evolved tremendously to meet the increased demands of a broadening consumer base. However not every industry – and most notably healthcare — has progressed with the times and buyers’ needs.

The healthcare supply chain specifically must expand beyond its antiquated roots to better serve buyers. Just as in retail, where the U.S. has seen exponential growth over the last 20 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the healthcare supply chain must, too, adopt a new model. A model with technology integration has been tested in retail to show improved efficiencies and experience for buyers.

Below are a few key lessons from the retail industry that healthcare supply chain leaders need to adopt in order to move their model forward: 

1. A Better Customer Experience

The retail space has grown exponentially through the number of brands and products on the shelf compared to 20 years ago and through the advent of Amazon. The buying process has become consumer-driven, rather than through in-person ordering with a salesman. Consumers are more inclined to choose a simplified shopping encounter like that of the Apple App Store, which has created an instantaneous, click-of-a-button shopping experience. This innovation has provided significantly more convenience and set new customer expectations. 

Healthcare companies can follow suit to reduce friction in a similar way, meeting the demand of an emerging spectrum of customers – from hospitals to individual patients – for an increasingly automated purchasing environment.

2. Automation and Cost Savings

The retail industry has redefined the shopping experience through artificial intelligence and warehouse automation, making it a prime example for what other industries can implement to drive better customer interactions. 

The healthcare supply chain, on the other hand, has been widely left out of digital transformation. By taking a more modern and flexible approach, it can improve the buying process through incorporating technology pioneered outside of healthcare.

With technology and economies of scale, prices for goods can be driven down. Those cost savings can be passed along to the customer and invested into the company to further implement technology. 

3. Price Transparency and Data Tracing

Tools that allow price transparency and data tracing create peace of mind for both the customer and organization. Large online retail marketplaces provide an easy example of structured ordering and tracking. This model creates trust and provides on-demand purchase details, along with shipment tracking information. The healthcare industry has an opportunity to take those lessons and apply them – particularly when it comes to the purchasing of medical supplies Examples like UberEats, with its well-established processes, allow for swift delivery and accessible tracking and customer services.

Buyers from the healthcare market don’t have access to the same receipt details or order history, as the process still widely involves third-party catalog shopping. This results in extra red tape, requiring buyers to contact customer support for issues that could be automated.

Incorporating consistency and transparency into the healthcare supply system will improve the purchase experience while reducing customer service costs. 

4. Commercialization and Digitization 

The retail industry created an incredibly successful model for online purchasing and engagement. The healthcare supply chain lacks that kind of proven system. 

For an example, look at vaccine patents. When vaccines (or any drug for that matter) are accessible to the public market, it allows for many companies to bring the not-so-secret formula to life, empowering commercialization. With more competition, and a better backbone of a system, the price for the vaccine or drug plummets.

Envision a future where all healthcare supplies are accessible in online marketplaces — no more needless time wasted flipping through catalogs. Through commercialization and the digitization of systems, buyers can find everything they need online.

The retail industry has undergone seismic shifts to meet changing demand. The days of department store browsing have long been in decline, as evidenced by a decrease in revenue from brick-and-mortar stores. To meet this challenge, the integration of technology has vastly improved the consumer experience. As the Amazon model illustrates, consumers’ demands and urge to shop remains, but there is a need to shift that experience.

To advance, it’s essential that the healthcare marketplace remains adaptable to meet the demands of the consumer experience and be a part of the online marketplace revolution. Leveraging the lessons from the retail industry, healthcare marketplaces can improve the buyer experience. This will enhance care and reduce spending costs across health verticals. 

About JT Garwood

JT Garwood is the CEO and Co-founder of bttn, a Seattle-based technology company transforming medical supply chain distribution through e-commerce and digital solutions. Garwood is a two-time marketplace founder, angel investor and active advisor to U.S. startups.

The material cost of COVID-19 has been at the center of public discourse since the early days of the pandemic. In 2020, growth in federal government spending on healthcare increased 36 percent, compared to the 5.9 percent bump in 2019. While the distribution of vaccines has allowed for a version of pre-pandemic life to resume, hospitals are still not recovered from the high rates of hospitalizations that occurred in March 2020, and the indirect costs of the pandemic continue to loom over the American population as a result of strained health systems. 

During the early days, the cost of hospitalizing a patient seemed obvious: the sheer volume of long stays, expensive ventilators, a lack of one-size-fits-all treatment solutions, and the pause of elective surgeries. Now, Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc on our health systems, but in a more covert way. With only 4% of Americans fully boosted as we move into this winter’s ‘triple-demic’ – and long covid impacting the lives of as many as 16 million people on a daily basis – it’s clear that public health officials need to do more in order to support the American population and our struggling health systems. 

The Cost of Healthcare Provider Burnout 

Across the country, healthcare providers are reporting extreme rates of burnout. It is important to underscore that healthcare providers and hospital systems were stressed prior to Covid-19, but the pandemic has exacerbated it. Employment across healthcare is down 1.3 percent, or 223,000 jobs, from pre-pandemic levels. Over 90 percent of nurses said they are considering quitting their jobs by the end of 2022 in a survey, with 72 percent of nurses stating they had already experienced burnout before March 2020. In addition, the increased stress that doctors have experienced is resulting in worse patient care – with 28% of doctors who reported burnout sharing that the quality of care they are providing has significantly declined. 

We are amid a mass healthcare provider exodus, and, according to estimates, each instance of physician turnover costs healthcare organizations at least $500,000, and each instance of staff registered nurse (RN) turnover costs $46,100. Without proper staffing, hospitals are at risk of closure and patients’ health is at risk of worsening. 

The Cost of Hospital Closures 

Before the pandemic, hospitals closed for several reasons, including insufficient staffing, lack of funding, and/or having a large uninsured patient population. Since March 2020, 21 hospitals across the United States, predominantly in rural areas, have closed. Health systems are still recovering from the significant loss of revenue from canceled appointments – according to a report from The Chartis Center for Rural Health, 82 percent of the rural hospitals surveyed said suspension of outpatient services resulted in a loss of at least $5 million per month. 

So, what happens when hospitals and health systems close? 

Rural areas experience more Covid-19-related deaths than urban communities and public health experts attribute these deaths to the rampant hospital closures, as well as a general lack of healthcare providers. It is a vicious cycle: Covid-19 strains hospital systems, healthcare professionals leave, hospitals close, and more patients will die from infectious diseases like Covid-19, the flu or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – not to mention the other reverberating public health complications that come as a result of these closures. Vaccinations have helped these hospitals stabilize, but to keep up with covid fatigue and the ever-evolving variants we need a variety of treatments in our arsenal. 

More Covid-19 Treatments Will Bolster Struggling Health Systems  

Increasing the number of vaccinated individuals around the world, in addition to broadening access to effective non-vaccine treatments, such as antivirals and monoclonal antibody therapies, will significantly lessen the impact of the disease on individuals and lessen the burden on the healthcare system. Antiviral treatments have proven to reduce hospitalization, but diversity in treatments is essential to keep up with the ever-evolving Covid-19 variants. Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah Health, was quoted on the effectiveness of antivirals: “If there is anything we know about viruses and antiviral drugs is that eventually, we will see some sort of resistance.” For the time being, antivirals are effective – this is not a call to leverage one type of therapy over another – this is a call to help patients and our health systems survive by equipping healthcare professionals with as many treatments as possible. 

One such treatment that has proven highly effective when applied properly are neutralizing monoclonal antibody therapies. Like antivirals, monoclonal antibodies reduce hospitalization, the risk of death, and shorten the length of the infection – resulting in better patient outcomes and stronger health systems. 

According to Yale Medicine, it is estimated that about three percent of the United States population, or up to 25 million individuals, is considered moderately-to-severely immunocompromised, making them more at risk for serious illness if they contract Covid-19, or other viruses. Monoclonal antibodies are a highly safe and efficacious treatment, which is extremely important for this vulnerable population, especially as a complement to vaccines for prevention. An infusion can reduce the risk of hospitalization by 80 percent or more in a high-risk person, and unlike antivirals, monoclonal antibodies target specific parts of the virus spike protein leading to fewer side effects and interactions with other drugs. 

Collaboration between the government and the biotech industry will be essential for creating a portfolio of therapies to treat a variety of patient profiles who experience a range of Covid-19-related health issues. With our healthcare systems in such a precarious state, investing resources in the development of these treatments will prepare hospitals for future variants that threaten the health of our nation. The hope is that by bulking up our Covid-19 hospital response strategy, our already volatile health system will have a chance to recover, increase individuals’ access to quality healthcare, and ensure a healthier population. 

About Eugene Y. Chan, MD 

Dr. Chan is a physician-inventor. He is currently Chairman, Co-Founder of Abpro, CEO of rHEALTH, and President, CSO of DNA Medicine Institute, a medical innovation laboratory.  He has been honored as Esquire magazine’s Best and Brightest, one of MIT Technology Review’s Top 100 Innovators, and an XPRIZE winner. His work has contributed to the birth of next-generation sequencing, health monitoring in remote environments, and therapeutics. Dr. Chan holds over 60 patents and publications, with work funded by the NIH, NASA, and USAF.  Dr. Chan received an A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College summa cum laude in 1996, received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School with honors in 2007, and trained in medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  He is one of few individuals who has been in zero gravity. 

Inflation continues to be a burden – food, gas, holiday spending, new year’s goals

This past year has been especially challenging as inflation costs continue to touch all aspects of daily life, leading to tough choices for many consumers as we finished the holiday season and look to goals and planning for 2023. In fact, two out of five (40%) survey respondents said inflation changed the way they shopped for the holidays. 

As consumers adjust their spending habits, many are finding ways to strategically adapt to this economic challenge. And after the past few years, the need to “normalize” the holiday season may have overridden the requirement to be frugal. What is also likely to suffer this year? Our health. Many are choosing to defer necessary medical care including preventative screenings. This temporary, short-term trade-off, however, often leads to a higher long-term cost as health issues go undetected and untreated.  

Inflation affects consumers when deciding to move forward with their healthcare 

Cost concerns are replacing pandemic concerns as the top reason Americans defer healthcare. Specifically, 31% of consumers said they deferred healthcare in 2022 because of costs, and 26% chose not to fill a prescription. Adjusting spending patterns is not in and of itself bad, but when it leads to poor or delayed medical decisions, it can incite a different type of epidemic.

Regardless of how creative consumers become in the next month, they certainly are not going to end the year in a better financial position as 70 million Americans feel unprepared to pay for health care costs next year. For those living paycheck to paycheck, decisions between housing, transportation, prescription drugs, or necessary medical care can impact their health and quality of life.

Four ways to manage healthcare expenses in times of Inflation

Navigating healthcare with changing transparency laws and rising deductibles has already become burdensome and overwhelming for most consumers. Adding inflation to the mix has only exasperated the situation. Some of this is structural and will not change anytime soon, but we can help people navigate this season by providing education on ways to make better healthcare choices.

Four strategic tips for consumers include: 

1. Be informed. Gather information about the procedure, the risk of delaying or not receiving care, and of course all associated costs. Do not fear asking questions and insist that costs are provided in writing and, if possible, seek information from multiple sources. Making an informed decision based on facts addresses the emotional turmoil associated with a significant medical decision. 

2. Consider cash-pay options. This may seem counter-intuitive but paying cash for care can be a more affordable option as compared to one’s current medical plan and coverage. From the associated providers to the surgical centers, there are cash-pay options that may be best in the long run. According to Consumer Reports, a review of pricing options offered by healthcare providers, hospital networks, and treatment centers are touting big discounts for patients who pay cash upfront and forgo using their insurance. So, never be afraid to ask. 

3. Take advantage of bundled pricing options. This may be a new concept to consumers when it relates to medical care, but bundled services are becoming more popular and can benefit both the patient and the provider. When healthcare services are bundled, this creates a single, comprehensive bill that covers all services and practitioners involved in an episode of care. Patients receive one bill instead of many and a better understanding of total costs to plan for financially. Using bundled payments has also been shown to lead to better coordination of care between providers, as well as a reduction in low-value care services and the overuse of care.

4. Consider saving for medical expenses as part of your monthly budget. Research shows that healthcare costs are one of the top five expenses for consumers. After housing, transportation, food, and insurance costs, the next highest line item is typically healthcare – which is why it may be a good idea to set aside money for medical expenses if you aren’t already. Building a budget isn’t about limiting yourself to only spending money on essentials. Instead, it’s about allocating your money in a way that can help alleviate financial stress in the short and long term. Additionally, if you are able to put money into a Health Savings Account (HSA) or a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), those are some tax-advantaged ways to save for healthcare expenses.

There are a lot of difficult decisions to make for every individual and family when it comes to paying for medical care—especially during seasons of inflation and tough labor markets. However, with a little planning, you’ll be better empowered to make decisions that are good for your health—and your wallet.

About Paul Ketchel

Mr. Ketchel is the founder and CEO of MDsave. He has been a healthcare entrepreneur and actively engaged in healthcare public policy for over 25 years. Prior to founding MDsave, Paul served as Chief Operating Officer for Diagnostix Network Alliance, a healthcare biotechnology sales organization that achieved over $25 million in annual sales in year one. Before that, he served as Vice President of Elanex Pharmaceuticals, one of the nation’s first startup biopharmaceutical companies, which was acquired by Baxter Healthcare in 2001. Paul began his career as a Legislative Aid in the United States Senate covering healthcare and technology issues. As CEO of MDsave, Paul has helped author 22 patents focused on healthcare payment bundling and processing while expanding the organization to over 320 hospitals across 43 states.

References

1. https://www.cnbc.com/select/how-inflation-changes-holiday-shopping-and-how-to-save-money/

 2.https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221107005051/en/Rising-Costs-Replace-Pandemic-Concerns-As-Top-Reason-Americans-Defer-Healthcare

3.https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/70-million-americans-feel-unprepared-to-pay-for-health-care-costs-next-year

4. https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/70-million-americans-feel-unprepared-to-pay-for-health-care-costs-next-year

5. https://www.consumerreports.org/healthcare-costs/how-paying-your-doctor-in-cash-could-save-you-money/

6. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/2020/apr/bundled-payment-models-around-world-how-they-work-their-impact7. https://www.bankrate.com/banking/how-to-make-a-monthly-budget/#how

What You Should Know:

– Valencell, the company whose optical heart rate technology enabled the ability of wearables to accurately measure cardiovascular vitals during exercise, today announced plans to launch its own branded product line in the digital health sector as it concentrates efforts to bring solutions to market to manage chronic diseases.

– The company’s first product candidate being showcased at CES is focused on helping people monitor and manage hypertension by combining an intuitive app with an innovative over-the-counter device to accurately measure blood pressure (BP) from the finger without a cuff or calibration.

Pioneers of biometric technology enter the digital health space, developing own-branded solutions for chronic disease management

Founded in 2006 with a vision to help people live longer, healthier lives, Valencell’s proven inventions, sensor technology, and algorithms can be found in tens of millions of wearable and hearable devices, in over 90 products, for companies such as Samsung, Suunto, Bose, Jabra, Huawei, and Sony. While Valencell was established as a technology provider in consumer sports and fitness wearables, its foundational technology has the potential to realize the dream of seamless chronic disease management through easy-to-use, high-compliance digital health solutions. 

Pending FDA Clearance, the launch of the Valencell fingertip device will further the company’s vision of bringing life-changing digital health solutions to consumers and is a strategic evolution for the company. Having developed solutions for some of the world’s leading wearable companies, Valencell is now driven to bring its own portfolio of digital therapeutics to market. Powered by its patented biometric sensor technology, over 150 patents, proprietary AI models, and analytics that have been clinically validated using thousands of datasets over many years, it begins with a focus on hypertension. 

“Having spent sixteen years perfecting the ability to capture health data from multiple areas of the body and developing solutions for third parties, I am excited for Valencell to embark on a new chapter. In reviewing our company strategy, we concluded developing our own solutions was the most effective way to get to market faster since the lion’s share of the regulatory and research development already falls upon Valencell,” said Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, President, and co-founder of Valencell. “Beginning with the number one silent killer, hypertension, Valencell is developing digital health solutions that take out all the friction and barriers to capturing and acting on health data to help make it easier for people to take control over their health, live longer, healthier, and more productive lives.”

Meeting Demands Under Pressure

Valencell’s first chronic disease management solution aims to help those with hypertension better and more regularly measure blood pressure and maintain treatment compliance. The device is being designed to measure blood pressure in less than a minute using a small probe on the middle finger without the need for bulky or painful cuffs.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors within the device use reflected light to measure blood flow patterns. Proprietary AI algorithms, developed from PPG datasets comprising more than 7,000 patients, will be used to process this information with physical characteristics (age, weight, gender, height) to calculate a blood pressure measurement. Diastolic and systolic results are then displayed on the device’s built-in screen and transmitted via Bluetooth to the app. Unlike other technologies, the Valencell BP technology will not need to be calibrated to a BP cuff, a capability that has so far eluded the industry.

Valencell’s solution is expected to be the world’s first cuffless, calibration-free blood pressure monitor in a fingertip form factor, with the company targeting FDA Clearance in late 2023. Altogether, this has the potential to enable the world’s first over-the-counter cuffless BP monitoring solution. Although the device has been designed as a stand-alone blood pressure monitor, it has the potential to become a powerful tool to help manage hypertension when paired with its accompanying app. The easy-to-use mobile app has been designed to track and store readings and allow users to set reminders to take their blood pressure.

Users will also have the ability to view trends over time, track the frequency of their measurements, and download and share data. Valencell will soon expand the app’s capabilities to enable seamless hypertension management. After providing users with a baseline of their current blood pressure profile, the app will help coach users, through targeted diet and exercise plans, towards improved cardiovascular health, followed by ongoing health maintenance.

A further upgrade will enable integration within digital healthcare platforms used by healthcare providers to improve physician-directed care.  While designed for individual use, the Valencell solution is expected to be CPT Eligible, meaning health professionals and practices using it for Chronic Care Management and/or Remote Patient Monitoring will qualify for reimbursement.

The Problem

Globally, more than a billion people suffer from hypertension, and it accounts for approx. ten million deaths per year, yet often hypertension has little or no symptoms and is difficult to manage on an ongoing basis. According to the CDC, hypertension affects nearly one-third of Americans, or 75 million people, aged 18 or older. Additionally, for approximately one-half of adults with hypertension (nearly 35 million people), it is uncontrolled, costing $131 billion a year in healthcare costs in the US alone. 

Critical to managing hypertension and saving lives are regular and reliable BP measurements, yet in a nationwide survey, 62% of Americans with hypertension only measure their BP a few times a month or less, far below expert recommendations of twice daily. However, in a study of consumers that monitored BP at home, 80% of respondents stated they would increase the frequency of measurements using a fingertip device. “The ability to accurately measure blood pressure is essential in ensuring those with cardiovascular conditions adhere to treatments and lifestyle changes their physicians recommend. Anything that makes this easier for people to do can save lives, dollars, and time,” commented Dr. Bill Kraus, Professor of Medicine, Duke University of Medicine. “The rise of digital health solutions and coaching apps are a welcomed trend but are only as good as the data that goes into them. Using the Valencell device that is as simple and painless as pulse oximeters could improve treatment adherence and outcomes and would be a welcomed solution to a largely unmet clinical need.”

The Future of Digital Therapeutics

With new algorithms, form factors, and clinical data, blood flow patterns have the potential to measure health statistics ranging from respiratory rates, oxygen levels, cardiac efficiency, and blood pressure. The ability to place these capabilities into ubiquitous, everyday objects that are so intuitive they make it easy for consumers to manage their own health brings the promise of genuinely personal, preventative medicine close to reality.

In the future, Valencell plans to extend its hypertension management offering towards passive blood pressure monitoring in popular wearable form-factors, leveraging its technology. Additionally, the company is investigating how its foundational technology can be applied within these form-factors towards managing diabetes, kidney disease, and coronary artery disease.

Inflammatory skin conditions such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, vitiligo, hidradenitis suppurativa and others impact a significant portion of the U.S. population. In fact, nearly half of all visits to primary care physicians include some level of dermatological indication. Many of these dermatologic conditions are accompanied by pain and severe discomfort for affected patients, and the resulting morbidity of the condition may have a negative impact on mental health, self-esteem and overall quality of life. 

As the prevalence of various inflammatory skin conditions grows, more non-invasive, precision-based approaches for diagnosis and treatment are critical for improving patients’ lives. 

Existing Methods of Diagnosis and Treatment

To diagnose most dermatological indications, physicians traditionally rely on the combination of visual assessment, a patient’s description of their symptoms and other disease-associated markers. For example, the presence of red, itchy lesions and increased allergen sensitivity is traditionally used by physicians to confer the diagnosis of atopic dermatitis. 

These evaluations are subjective to each physician’s own medical training, experience and opinion. In some instances, inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis may present with similar symptoms and visual markers. These factors can make correctly identifying an inflammatory skin condition very difficult and outline the need for additional objective measures.

This traditional diagnostic process often leads to a trial-and-error treatment approach.  More specifically, under this approach, patients cycle through a list of therapeutics until they find one that works best for them.  While the armamentarium of approved therapies continues to grow, the therapeutic benefit for each one varies which leads to the cycling of therapies. The lack of appropriate treatment may be associated with an increased disease burden and/or financial impact. In some cases, administering the wrong therapeutic to the wrong patient can lead to a worsened condition, increased infections within the skin and even hospitalization.

Precision-based diagnostic and treatment approaches in dermatology may allow physicians to interpret skin conditions on a more granular level. We are seeing the tangible benefits it can have for both patients and physicians, and demand is increasing.

Benefits of Non-invasive Technology 

Many clinical trials in dermatology incorporate a skin sample collection to learn more about how therapy works in a skin disorder. While skin biopsies are considered the “gold standard” for many researchers, a host of challenges accompany this practice such as wound repair, skin infections and the general aversion to skin biopsies amongst patients. In fact, less than 20% of patients enrolled in dermatology-focused clinical trials typically volunteer to participate in optional skin biopsy collections. 

In contrast, non-invasive skin sampling is a highly attractive alternative to skin biopsies and can serve as a surrogate for biopsies. 

 
The Potential of Personalized Approaches

The integration of precision-based approaches is driving medicine toward continued innovation and development in dermatology. Furthermore, non-invasive, precision-based approaches to diagnosis and treatment will undoubtedly make medicine more personalized leading to improved outcomes and patient success. 

By understanding the underlying biology of common inflammatory skin conditions, diagnosis and treatment will become more objective and, therefore, more effective. 

About Michael Howell, Ph.D. & Chief Scientific Officer at DermTech

Michael Howell, Ph.D., is an immunologist with more than 20 years of experience in the government, academia, and the biopharma/biotech sectors. Prior to joining DermTech, Dr. Howell was a faculty member at National Jewish Health and held increasing positions of responsibility at Boehringer Ingelheim, MedImmune/AstraZeneca, and Incyte Corporation. Dr. Howell has previously led research and development teams dedicated to the discovery of novel therapies for dermatology and the integration of novel biomarker approaches including adhesive tape strips into clinical development. His efforts have led to the approval of multiple therapies, novel diagnostic approaches to patient treatment, and have been highlighted in more than 50 publications and numerous patents. Dr. Howell received his Ph.D. in Immunology from West Virginia University and completed his post-doctoral training at National Jewish Health

One of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic has been that healthcare facilities need to scale up operations quickly to respond to a public health emergency and that doing so is a significant challenge. In the early days of the pandemic, hard-hit cities like New York and others had to set up mobile hospital units or access additional capacity through military hospital ships. 

In an emergency like the pandemic, staffing shortages remain a persistent problem, but expanding facility infrastructure and deploying the devices that healthcare providers need to provide modern medical care can also be extremely challenging. Healthcare providers face the same challenges when natural disasters like hurricanes strike — the need for medical care can quickly outstrip healthcare providers’ ability to deliver it. 

Medical professionals use a number of digital tools in the course of giving patient care, including handheld scanners, devices that monitor vital signs and other electronic equipment. The infrastructure required to support the use and sterilization of these devices — a sufficient number of electrical outlets to accommodate all the devices, for example — make scaling up difficult. 

Wireless power can help alleviate the problem by simplifying device deployment. It also has the potential to transform the practice of medicine by untethering devices and opening up new possibilities in device design. 

Wireless Power Enables Innovation in Device Design and Deployment

For many decades, the deployment of devices inside healthcare facilities has been dependent on wired power sources or battery power. An infrastructure to deliver wired power is difficult, time-consuming and wildly expensive to scale up quickly. Battery-powered devices are more scalable but require frequent charging or battery replacement, and battery-powered devices are difficult to sterilize between uses. Charging and replacing batteries in medical devices also cause downtime, misplaced devices and lost productivity for staff and patients.

Wireless power technology that is capable of safely delivering power to devices at a distance (whether or not people are present and whether the device is mobile or stationary) can help healthcare providers solve this problem. By untethering devices from a plug and eliminating the need to place devices on a charger to power up, real wireless power is a game-changer for device design. It can enable instruments to be developed lighter in weight and with a longer expected lifespan, ultimately reducing waste.

With wireless power technology, healthcare providers can use hermetically sealed devices that don’t have to accommodate charging ports or battery doors. This enables device designers to create smaller devices that can be sterilized like any other medical instrument without compromising the device — while staying powered up at all times. 

Wireless power technology will also enable healthcare facilities to deploy more connected devices, which can help with patient care and facility scaling. Healthcare professionals can deploy more wireless devices to monitor the health of patients with complications affecting multiple systems (i.e., heart rate, glucose levels, blood pressure, etc.) without the discomfort bulky wired or battery-powered devices can cause. Wirelessly powered devices can also help by monitoring patients in hallways and other temporary quarters while awaiting triage. 

Wireless Power Enables the Medical IoT 

Conventional power methods (wires and batteries) are keeping the Internet of Things (IoT) from reaching its true potential. It’s true that in industrial and logistics operations, wired and battery-powered IoT devices have given users insights into the operational status of equipment, the location of goods and equipment and much more, but the expense and infrastructure demands of traditional power sources limit deployment. 

Real Wireless Power can transform the IoT across applications, including the medical IoT. With wirelessly powered devices, healthcare organizations can deploy more sensors to gather data not only on patients but also on complex medical equipment location and status, ambient conditions and much more, all without additional infrastructure investments or battery purchase and maintenance expenses.

This type of application isn’t theoretical. FCC-certified wireless power has already been adopted in retail and logistics operations by some of the world’s largest brands. Wirelessly powered devices like electronic price tags and asset trackers are changing the way retailers gather data and respond to evolving demand. Wirelessly powered sensors are currently deployed in factories and supply lines to monitor critical equipment, and forward-thinking healthcare organizations are exploring use cases in the medical field. 

The Transformative Effect of Wireless Power

It’s easy to overlook the transformative effect of a novel power source like wireless power — to assume that the processes and equipment in use today will continue with a more ecologically friendly and easy-to-deploy source of power. But that point of view significantly underrates the transformative potential of wireless power. Think of how untethering computing power from hard-wired devices transformed so many industries and unleashed so much innovation. Wireless power can be similarly transformative. 

In addition to applications that enable more rapid scaling of hospital capacity and the deployment of more devices to generate better data, healthcare applications include wirelessly powered medical devices that don’t limit patient mobility within a hospital room or at home, which can result in better compliance rates. These applications are incredibly valuable as standalone benefits.

But one of the most exciting aspects of real wireless power is its capacity to drive innovation. As connected, wirelessly powered devices become smaller, lighter and more self-contained, it will open up new possibilities in the medical device industry and enable new standards of patient care. It will impact our society, economy and environment positively, eliminating up to 3,600 miles of hazardous battery waste and avoiding over 300,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. And as more healthcare facilities deploy wireless power, they’ll be building a healthier future.

About Hatem Zeine

Hatem Zeine is the founder, president and CTO of Ossia. An avid inventor and proven technologist with more than two decades of technical development experience, Zeine founded Ossia in 2008, invented and developed the wi-fi-like wireless power technology Cota and launched the company in 2013. He now completely manages Ossia’s global team of engineers who are responsible for both the vision and execution of Cota. Prior to founding Ossia, Zeine was a director/principal engineer at Microsoft, leading PM, Development and Test initiatives. He holds a BS in physics from the University of Manchester in the UK and is a recognized expert on wireless power and its potential. He holds tens of granted patents globally related to Ossia’s Cota technology and beyond. 

What You Should Know:

– Rockley Photonics Holdings Limited, a global leader in photonics-based health monitoring and communications solutions, recently announced that it has developed what it believes to be the world’s first micro-transfer-printed (mTP) silicon-photonics-based laser for commercial applications.

– This groundbreaking achievement is expected to allow Rockley to further increase the density and reduce the size of its high-density spectrophotometer chips — which are already the world’s smallest for broadband infrared wavelength laser spectrometry (covering 1000 nanometers of spectrum) and are smaller in area than LED-based solutions currently used in wearables.

Data-Driven Advances in Wearable Health Monitoring

A global leader in photonics-based health monitoring and communications solutions, Rockley Photonics is developing a comprehensive range of photonic integrated circuits and associated modules, sensors, and full-stack solutions. From next-generation sensing platforms specifically designed for mobile health monitoring and machine vision to high-speed, high-volume solutions for data communications, Rockley is laying the foundation for a new generation of applications across multiple industries.

Rockley believes that photonics will eventually become as pervasive as micro-electronics, and it has developed a platform with the power and flexibility needed to address both mass markets and a wide variety of vertical applications. This advancement could potentially have a significant impact across a wide range of applications, including the design of exceptionally small wearable devices for the detection and measurement of multiple biomarkers. New silicon-photonics-based biosensing chips using mTP technology are expected to be available in the first half of 2024. The new chip technology should have no impact on the upcoming launch of Rockley’s Bioptx™ biosensing band nor on any current-generation products that Rockley and its customers are developing.t

With this breakthrough in the mTP of silicon-photonics-based lasers, Rockley has dramatically increased the laser density of its photonics integrated circuits (PICs) for biosensing, creating what it believes to be the world’s highest-density broad-wavelength laser spectrophotometer chip, surpassing its own previous achievements. Moreover, the mTP process is expected to reduce manufacturing costs and enable thinner, smaller footprint and higher-density chip designs. These attributes are powerful benefits for use in consumer and medtech devices and could facilitate the integration of Rockley’s biosensing technology into future tiny wearables.

Leveraging the mTP process, the new PIC technology will integrate a laser-generating “membrane” with a thickness of only 4 microns. The potential applications for this higher-density and smaller-footprint chip technology extend beyond biosensing and health monitoring into other areas, such as ultra-small wearables, clothing, or XR/VR/AR headsets and glasses. This mTP breakthrough is the direct result of Rockley’s multi-year partnership with the Tyndall National Institute at University College Cork in Ireland, X-Celeprint Limited, and the Irish Photonics Integration Centre (IPIC), with funding support from the Irish government’s Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). The project started five years ago with a focus on developing a custom mTP process for Rockley’s silicon photonics platform and has involved a multidisciplinary team of world-class engineers and researchers. This technology, along with many other Rockley innovations, is backed by a robust multidisciplinary patent portfolio of over 200 issued patents and 295 pending patents in total.

“Applying the micro-transfer printing process to the production of integrated lasers is a huge breakthrough that we believe will have a tremendous impact on wearable biosensing and on the photonics industry as a whole,” said Dr. Andrew Rickman, chairman and chief executive officer of Rockley. “We arguably have some of the most sophisticated photonics technology in the world, and this unprecedented level of miniaturization raises the bar even further. By creating biosensing chips that are smaller, lower-cost, and more efficient, we can continually improve our wearable biosensing products and deliver novel, relevant, and more powerful ways to monitor our health.”

For healthcare facilities, real-time location services (RTLS) were initially established on premise for patient safety to later become a priority in mainstreaming operations, improving patient care and experience and employee satisfaction. 

Originally introduced to the industry as a security-centric measure to protect newborns, and prevent infant abduction, RTLS was a simple solution that has been effective, and facilities began to see a number of additional benefits. But it required a lot of infrastructure around it. 

As these facilities expanded the use of RTLS to meet their specific needs, they found that they were stuck using the same expensive and complex infrastructure. Fast forward a decade and executives began asking whether the system they were sold is actually doing everything they were promised. Expectations were high and performance low. What exactly is the ROI for RTLS?  

I think the three paragraphs above need to be rewritten. 

Addressing Facilities Management Pain Points

Healthcare facilities have the same common pain points and are always looking for solutions to solve these challenges, and not often are they affordable. This leaves facilities managers weighing options and unwilling to take an expensive risk to deploy a system with no guarantees of performance and often with a high cost of upgrades. Lack of affordability, deprives facilities managers from considering potential solutions for their existing/real problems

In healthcare specifically, RTLS has been proven effective at improving patient care coordination, patient engagement and improving overall operations management. 

Care Coordination – Reports show that nurses and staff can spend up to an hour trying to locate key items and supplies for patient care. RTLS provides an ease of asset tracking – supplies and equipment – that can reduce that time and, instead, help staff focus on patient care. Moreover, it can provide more safety to staff who may be in duress with a patient.

RTLS can also help nurses provide better care by tracking food orders, tests, etc. from the nurse’s station to ensure that the patient’s needs are being met, and if they’re not they can take the immediate steps to do so.

Patient Engagement – As healthcare institutions and systems grow in physical size, these facilities can improve the patient experience in several ways using RTLS,

– Indoor wayfinding to help patients reach their destination inside the building while

– Patient tracking within an ER can provide valuable data on the length of patient wait time and how long doctors spend with a patient. 

Overall, RTLS improves the patient experience and also their sentiment on the facility/system overall, which can lead to positive online reviews, crucial to communications and marketing managers.

Operations Management – RTLS can offer building and facilities managers tremendous insight into the needs of the facility, how it operates, what problems need to be addressed and ultimately lead to better decision making and operations efficiency. 

For example, RTLS can,

– Provide information on temperature and dust within a facility and track water leaks, while giving managers information on what repairs are being made and when

– Provide asset utilization points and make purchases for what is exactly needed and only when needed, thereby reducing the cost of purchasing unnecessary equipment and supplies

– More accurately track assets and inventory within the facility which is useful for stakeholders such as nurses and biomedical engineering (e.g., during periodic maintenance check-ups)

– Reduce missed patient appointments rates by issuing reminders that take current location into account

These are just some of the benefits of deploying a RTLS.

Current Solutions and Widespread RTLS Adoption

Today’s RTLS solutions are expensive systems using both customized hardware and software. They are pricey to install, require extra time and money to train staff and can degrade over time, leading to expensive upgrades. 

While healthcare facilities and systems managers understand the value of RTLS, and its impact on operations, productivity, loss prevention and employee and consumer satisfaction, the budget to deploy it won’t budge, leaving facilities without deep pockets to choose between what pain point to budget for today. This reduces the industry’s overall ability to promote widespread adoption of the technology for the benefit of all.

But there is a solution. 

By rethinking today’s RTLS from hardware and software to simply software as a Service (or SaaS) the doors to widespread adoption will fling open. Facilities that see RTLS as “a luxury” or “something nice to have” yet have concerns over the return on investment can now afford to subscribe to RTLS software rather than take on the expense of a custom-built infrastructure. An expense that must then be returned to patients.

RTLS as SaaS for Widespread Adoption

In truth, every healthcare system has different needs. The debate over hardware versus software, and the tradeoff between the combination of these, comes down to different systems for different facility needs.  In many healthcare facilities, software that lives entirely on the building’s current infrastructure, or requires a minimal infrastructure add-on, can provide tremendous value versus not having the benefits of RTLS at all. 

With a focus on software, the cost and maintenance of a facility’s RTLS is far less with software upgrades happening automatically and at no additional expense. Whereas highly custom-built RTLS can require ongoing maintenance and upgrades that add on to the original cost of the system. It can even require its own onsite team to keep the system running smoothly. 

The affordability of software-centric RTLS is further supported by using off the shelf radio tags – including RFID and Bluetooth Low Energy – over custom tags designed for a specific proprietary system.  Most importantly it provides an ease of use that any nurse, patient or facility manager can intuitively understand and adopt.

One of the major concerns about RTLS using off-the-shelf infrastructure is that it is less accurate or reliable than a custom-built solution, but that is untrue. Machine learning (ML) approaches and access to inexpensive computation horsepower offer unique and novel ways to solve problems that were once difficult or required more infrastructure in the past. 

As an example, GPS fails to propagate well inside buildings; thus, indoor wayfinding represents an ongoing frustration for staff and patients. Until now, there has been no way to provide accurate service without a significant investment. Now, a combination of beacons and ML can substitute service within buildings. 

Rethinking RTLS using modern technology, opens the door to all healthcare facilities to access and reap the benefits of affordable and accurate wayfinding and indoor tracking leading not to just better operations, as noted, but also improved patient care and experience and employee satisfaction, which can also play a part in retention. 

Conclusion

In the past, if a facility wanted RTLS, they had to invest in both hardware and software, and they were stuck with that system even if it didn’t work as expected after three years. Whereas Software as a Service It lives and works on a facility’s current infrastructure, providing flexibility and affordability. It is Location as a Service with an annual fee, free upgrades, strong accuracy and easy to deploy. 

Widespread adoption of RTLS throughout the healthcare industry is real and accessible, and it will happen quickly. Using today’s technology and rethinking the key to RTLS as software means that thousands of healthcare facilities can now afford to deploy RTLS and enjoy its many benefits to facility, patients and staff. Making it as easy as subscribing to Microsoft Office. 

About Mohammed Smadi

Mohammed Smadi is the managing director of PenguinIN, where he leads the business and technical development of opportunistic, managed indoor positioning solutions. Prior to PenguinIN, Mohammed founded Karmatix, a telematics-based loyalty program where he coined the term “road-as-a-service”. He was also a principal researcher at BlackBerry driving Quality of Experience over WiFi and co-founder of ErgoWiFi: technology provider for solar-powered WiFi mesh access points. Mohammed holds +25 granted/pending patents in addition to authoring several refereed papers and book chapters. He has a PhD, M.A.Sc and B.Eng. & Mgmt. from McMaster University’s ECE where he is currently an adjunct assistant professor. 

What You Should Know:

– Today, an International Trade Commission (ITC) judge issued an Initial Determination that Apple infringed AliveCor’s valid patented technology – a finding that may result in a limited exclusion order that will prohibit the import of infringing Apple Watches into the United States.

– AliveCor initially filed its complaint with the ITC in April 2021, alleging that Apple infringed AliveCor’s patented technology. Based on the judge’s recommendation, the ITC will undertake a review and is currently scheduled to issue a Final Determination by October 26. 

– “Today’s ruling is a strong validation of our IP and underscores that patents matter and even an influential company like Apple cannot simply violate them to stifle innovation,” said Priya Abani, CEO of AliveCor in a statement. “Since the start, our focus has been on our customers and providing them with strong choices to help monitor their cardiac health, including KardiaBand, the first-ever FDA-cleared ECG device accessory for Apple Watch.”

January 2022 marked two years since the outbreak of COVID-19, with the healthcare system still working to adjust to a very challenging new reality. However, these challenges have served as a catalyst for important shifts within the healthcare industry, some of which are poised to be a significant part of the 2022 infusion landscape.

Similar to 2020, there were increases in demand in 2021 for infusion pumps to treat COVID-19 patients. Initially, infusion pumps were requested for Covid patients connected to ventilators. Earlier last year, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for monoclonal antibody treatments bringing additional needs for infusion treatments in many alternate care settings. In addition to treatments from within hospitals and clinics, CMS approved infusions of monoclonal antibodies by home care providers for COVID patients. 

Treatments like these in alternate care settings are key to understanding how the infusion industry will likely evolve in 2022.

Homecare Will Become a Common Infusion Setting

The trend to care at home was seen globally as a result of the pandemic. With emergency rooms overpopulated, doctors overwhelmed and hospitals crushing under pressure, a shift to home hospitalization proved vital. Even before the pandemic, Hospital at Home (HaH) was being implemented in hospitals around the world with a clear benefit to patient’s mental and physical health by keeping them in familiar surroundings, with the dangers of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) far away. 

In 2022, we can expect this shift to continue and strengthen with the expansion of RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) reimbursement codes. Expected to go into effect on January 1, 2022, the new RTM (Remote Therapeutic Monitoring) codes may facilitate homecare in three main areas: by allowing the reporting of non-physiologic data; by allowing self-reporting when using FDA-defined medical devices; and the expansion of billing providers to include nurses and others.

Furthermore, many patients have, since the start of the pandemic, pushed off treatments within hospital settings for fear of contracting COVID, making care from home an appealing option. Indeed, with the increased use of telehealth technologies, also a result of COVID, patients are increasingly asking what may be possible to do from home in terms of their medical care.

COVID, has in many ways, given the healthcare industry permission to finally implement the many technologies that will enable the home to become an extension of the hospital, including for infusion treatments previously only delivered in hospitals and clinics. 

Connected Infusion Technologies, A Solution to Patient Adherence

As homecare treatments rise in importance in 2022, providers are going to need additional layers of support to ensure that their patients are receiving optimal care in the home environment. Increased home-administered infusion therapies will necessitate the implementation of connected infusion devices to help maintain the lines of communication between patient and provider.

Providers need to know if patients are receiving the infusions they need, and through smart pumps they will be able to determine infusion compliance and intervene when necessary, rather than simply cold calling an entire patient list, providing a new efficiency in home-based patient management. Additionally, connected devices can alert attending medical personnel of any pump malfunctions, potentially improving the quality of care for infusion patients.

New Infusion Data Will Optimize Care 

With the increase in home infusions through connected devices, device manufacturers may have greater insight into how these devices are used in the home, what the biggest challenges are for patients, and what could help improve patient compliance. Additionally, data analytics may reveal hidden patterns otherwise inaccessible, potentially contributing to the entire health ecosystem. These data can be tapped into by both the infusion and pharma industries to better understand how treatments are tolerated in the home environment.

For example, providers may find that patients taking parenteral infusions at home regularly receive less medication than prescribed. This may inform prescribing patterns and provide pharma with greater insight into certain patient groups.

With More pumps in the Field, Connectivity will be Essential for Fleet Management

A challenge that healthcare providers may face as more infusion treatments are delivered in alternate care settings will be the ability to manage their fleet of infusion pumps. Locating and retrieving infusion pumps from patient homes can be both expensive and time-consuming. Lost pumps are a common and expensive problem for providers which can be addressed with cellular and Bluetooth tracking capability.

Down-time due to annual maintenance requirements can require additional pumps, which can be a significant cost. Some smart pumps have automated rapid testing capabilities, which allow pumps to be serviced and tested and recertified in a few minutes, potentially improving fleet efficiency.

The infusion industry is constantly evolving as our healthcare system shifts to meet new demands. It is incumbent upon the infusion industry to ensure that it not only advances but focuses on the way in which care is delivered to provide better, safer and more effective treatments.

About Roger Massengale

Roger Massengale is the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Eitan Medical, a developer of future-ready infusion therapy systems for hospitals, ambulatory & home settings, as well as wearable solutions for easy self-administration. Roger has over 100 patents and has launched products that have generated over $1 billion in medical device sales.

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are widely expected to serve as a cornerstone technology that drives the delivery of modern patient care. 

But can the EMR alone support all the informatics capabilities required by an ever-evolving healthcare industry? The rapid growth of precision medicine, particularly the use of genetic and genomic information during clinical decision making, is a compelling example that functionality beyond the EMR is required. Not only does genomic data represent a category of information used differently than traditional clinical knowledge, but the volume of data generated through molecular testing alone also requires informatics and management of a higher magnitude than previously required.

The EMR is designed to reflect a snapshot (or collection of snapshots) in time: clinical summaries, annotated lab and test results, operation notes, etc. These are mostly stored as isolated documents, loosely coupled with the rest of the patient chart. They need to remain available for reference over time, in some instances, so providers can chart and contextualize ongoing trends and chronic conditions. However, these views are anchored in time and represent limited actionable value during clinical decision-making months, years, and decades later.

Genomic information, on the other hand, represents a patient’s life signature. DNA rarely changes over the course of an individual’s lifetime. This means the results from germline testing – a patient’s molecular profile – conducted early in life are relevant, meaningful, and actionable during clinical decision making far into the future. They can also deliver insights exposing heritable proclivities that may be life-changing or life-saving for family members as well.

This recognition in and of itself alerts healthcare leaders that they need to adopt an advanced, more sophisticated strategy for data governance, management, and sharing than the approach traditionally applied to other clinical information systems, such as EMRs. 

To be successful, healthcare organizations need an accelerator external to the EMR that is built on a data model unique to the management of molecular knowledge so test results and genomic insights can be used and shared across clinical specialties and care settings, as well as overtime. In addition, the rise of precision medicine requires an agile informatics platform that enables the cross-pollination of genomic data with clinical insights and ever-advancing discoveries in genomic science.

Consider these examples of how EMRs fall short of expectations for optimal use of genomic intelligence:

1. Studies have found that, despite ubiquitous availability of molecular tests, providers consistently fail to identify patients most at risk for heritable diseases. The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) recently released research showing that half the women meeting national guidelines for genetic screening are not getting the tests they need to determine their breast and ovarian cancer risk. 

The reason? “The full story of a patient’s risk for heritable cancer within their record often does not exist in a single location,” says the JAMIA article. “It is fragmented across entries created by many authors, over many years, in many locations and formats, and commonly from many different institutions in which women have received care over their lifetimes.” In other words, no matter which EMRs they use, health systems routinely miss opportunities to improve care for patients they see. To achieve greater success, providers need tools that exceed EMR functionality and span multiple clinical systems.

2. Shortly after birth, Alexander develops a seizure disorder. The neonatologist orders a germline test to help her arrive at a precise diagnosis and begin targeted treatment. This approach is successful and Alexander thrives. In addition to genomic variants identifying the cause of his seizure disorder, the test results also contain information about other heritable risk factors, including cardiovascular disease.

Decades later, in the 70s, Alexander sees his primary care provider (PCP) with a rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath. After doing routine lab work, the PCP diagnoses congestive heart failure (CHF). If, however, the PCP had access to Alexander’s genomic test results – which remain as relevant and accurate as when he was an infant – the PCP would have noted a variation that indicated the CHF was due to dilated cardiomyopathy, requiring a different treatment regime.

It is vital that health leaders immediately begin to plan an informatics strategy that accommodates genetic and genomic data while empowering providers to leverage these insights at the point of care as they make routine, yet critical, clinical decisions. As they evaluate their approach, they would do well to ask the following questions:

– Which providers in my organization are already ordering genomic tests on their patients? How are test results being stored and managed – and can they be easily shared with and accessed by others in the health system?

– As the volume of genetic and genomic testing accelerates – and it will – how will we manage the volume of data generated? How will we apply consistent governance to the ordering process? How can we ensure results will be consumed as discrete data so our organization can optimize its value now and in the future?

– What steps do we need to take so our precision medicine strategy remains current with changing science? Which informatics tools deliver access to up-to-date knowledge bases and clinical guidelines to ensure optimal medical decisions are made?

The advent of precision medicine represents a new standard of care for healthcare providers from coast to coast. Genetic and genomic information supplies a new data set that can be used to arrive at more accurate diagnoses sooner and more effective treatment faster. This, in turn, supports better outcomes, higher patient (and provider) satisfaction, and competitive differentiation for the health system adopting precision medicine first in its market.

But to capture this value, healthcare leaders must look beyond their legacy EMRs, recognizing that they were not developed nor do they have the capacity to properly handle the upcoming data revolution. Instead, industry innovators are looking for platforms agnostic to individual EMRs and integrated with molecular labs to address the next-generation demands of precision medicine.

About Assaf Halevy

Assaf Halevy is the founder and CEO of 2bPrecise, LLC, leading an international team dedicated to bridging the final mile between the science of genomics and making that data useful at the point of care. He joined Allscripts as senior vice president of products and business development in 2013 when the company acquired Israel-based dbMotion. An initial inventor and co-founder of dbMotion, Halevy helped develop the leading clinical integration and population health management platforms in the industry today.

With 13 patents pending in the areas of actionable clinical integration, interoperability, and precision medicine, Halevy leverages his industry expertise by evaluating strategic alliances and partnerships for U.S. and international markets. Halevy was invited to participate in several U.S. government activities and contribute to an HHS privacy committee task force. In 2016, he was part of a small selective group of executives invited to the White House by Vice President Joe Biden to discuss the future of interoperability.

What You Should Know:

– Innovators’ “NuvaWave™” launches a medical-grade, intelligent handheld UVC device that can kill the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in two seconds.

– Initially, the founders created it for hospitals but it’s going on the market for commercial use – offices, gyms, hotels, airlines, voting booths – everywhere it’s needed so we can get back to life.

UV Innovators, an ultraviolet technology company has unveiled NuvaWave, one of the most advanced tool in the fight against deadly pathogens. NuvaWave is a UVC handheld device that is used to disinfect any high touch surface. This product release is timely as all businesses, schools, municipalities, airlines, cruise ships and other commercial ventures need to have a solution to protect their employees, students, customers, and family from COVID-19. 

NuvaWave Development

Initially, the founders created it for hospitals but it’s going on the market for commercial use – offices, gyms, hotels, airlines, voting booths – everywhere it’s needed so we can get back to life. NuvaWave was tested at Texas Biomed, an independent, nonprofit research institute whose mission is to protect our global community from the threats of infectious diseases through cutting-edge research. The results from the rigorous study completed at Texas Biomedical Research Institute demonstrated that NuvaWave killed >99.9% of the live virus in just two seconds.

For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Institute has delivered high quality and reliable scientific data, spanning basic discovery through preclinical development,” explained Dr. Cory Hallam, Professor and Vice President for Business Development at Texas Biomed. “The scientists at Texas Biomed know how to handle the live virus in their biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) lab and to use protocols to safely mimic real-world conditions that helped us document the effectiveness of NuvaWave,” added Dr. Nicholas Medendorp, CEO of UV Innovators. “NuvaWave .

NuvaWave handheld device only weighs 1.5 pounds and provides 5,000 hours of disinfection.  UV Innovators’ break-through technology changes the paradigm in making hospital-grade technology affordable. UV Innovators is announcing the NuvaWave Fleet Program starting at $199 a month that enables infection control teams a simple and affordable monthly payment.

Key Features

– Distance feedback to aid user in optimal placement

– Continuous system performance monitoring

– Embedded computer sensors for intelligent safety shut-off

– Uniform UVC light across disinfection area

– Ergonomically balanced design

– Visible light indicators of active disinfection

Why It Matters

“In order for people to feel comfortable getting back to normal, they must feel confident that the places they go are clean and free from infectious pathogens. NuvaWave is a commercial-grade solution for those who are disinfecting high-touch surfaces,” added Dr. Nicholas Medendorp, Jr., a technology leader with over two decades of LED experience and 115 patents and CEO of UV Innovators. “NuvaWave has undergone rigorous testing with accredited third-party laboratories to gauge its efficacy in killing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.,” added Dr. Medendorp.