healthcare technology Archives - Page 4 of 5

Vitamin C and OBMedical Company

August 31, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Vitamin C and OBMedical Company

00:00 / 01:04:28

Vitamin C and OBMedical Company

On this episode of Health Connect South Radio we hosted the CEO and co-founder of Vitamin C and President/CEO of OB Medical Company. These two companies are creating technology innovations that help two distinct groups, physician practices and expectant mothers in the birthing process, respectively.

Vitamin C’s Osama Hashmi realized that increasing focus on population health management measures meant a need for greater engagement with particular patient groups. In order to effectively manage chronic diseases such as diabetes or even regular wellness follow up, practices often need to interact with patients to get these visits scheduled. In many cases, patients won’t take initiative to schedule them themselves.

Hashmi and his colleagues decided to create a platform that interfaces with existing EMR’s that allows providers to ID target populations and create a variety of pre-created content for distribution to patients. In some cases, it’s a pre-recorded automated phone call that can encourage the scheduling of a follow up visit. In others, it may be an automated call that queries the patient for particular data such as vitals or blood sugars, quantity of exercise, etc.

In still others, it may be a text or email generated that goes to the patient. In this way, the providers are able to more effectively “scale” their resources to be able to reach what is often hundreds or even thousands of patients with necessary contact to facilitate follow up. The end result is better patient outcomes as well as increased revenue for the practice due to scheduling of necessary, yet high-Revenue visits (based on time/acuity).

OBMedical Company saw an opportunity to improve upon monitoring technology used in the OB delivery room. As I spoke with President/CEO, Weaver Gaines, he explained the technology for the fetal heart rate, contraction frequency/intensity, etc. have not really changed in roughly 40 years.

Today, mothers are tethered to a monitor by wires leading to sensors that are held in place by elastic velcro straps that encircle the mother’s abdomen. They are challenging to keep in position and can provide limited accuracy in cases where the mother is particularly obese.

OBMedical Company has designed a monitoring device that uses wireless electrodes that measure electrical current through the patient’s skin rather than having to rely on skin tension. This allows the mother to be able to ambulate in the room during labor while continuing to be monitored. Additionally, it allows for greater accuracy when the mother is obese.

Osama Hashmi, CEO/Chief Product Officer, of VitaminC

Doctor of Medicine, College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University
Master of Public Health, University of Georgia
Previous Policy Director, Roosevelt Institute, University of Georgia
Former Research Assistant, Stanford University

Weaver Gaines, President/CEO of OBMedical Company

Juris Doctor, University of Virginia School of Law
Director and Treasurer, Dance Alive National Ballet
Chairman, Board of Directors, Florida Research Consortium
Adjunct Professor, University of Virginia School of Law

Center for Health Transformation

August 26, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Center for Health Transformation

00:00 /

Center for Health Transformation

I hosted Steve Fraime, Director of WellStar’s Center for Health Transformation on this episode. WellStar is rather unique in its investment in an internal center for health innovation—that’s a department typically seen at academic medical centers. The WellStar health system engages with their providers to uncover ideas for opportunities to innovate that will improve patient outcomes and patient experience, as well as ideas that will improve work environment for the system.

Steve explained how the Center for Health Transformation initially got its start as a think tank designed to pull together leaders from 20 health systems to identify best practices and facilitate innovation among them. As the initiative got going, it became evident that often, participants were reticent to share information that was perceived to give a particular organization some measure of market advantage.

Ultimately, WellStar decided they would pull the concept within their borders to focus on internal innovations that will improve their overall performance. From there, the organization worked to regularly interface with physicians within the system, along with folks in leadership roles to get suggestions for processes that could be improved upon.

Steve talked about two projects that were suggested by providers. One project that was brought by orthopedic surgeons was to explore the possibility of developing a more reliable means of producing a cast for fractured extremities. Another was to address the challenge for patients to navigate the large, multi-site, multi-building campuses that constitute the WellStar health system.

The Center for Health Innovation chose to collaborate with the Georgia Tech Capstone project.

Special Guest:

Steve Fraime, BSN, Director of WellStar Center for Health Transformation

Previous Assistant Manager, Emergency & Trauma Services, WellStar Paulding
MBA, Georgia State University J Mack Robinson School of Business
Masters of Healthcare Administration, Georgia State University
BSN, Georgia State University

Innovative Health Technology

August 17, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Innovative Health Technology

00:00 /

Bailey Ernstes, Jake Kazlow, and Jim Sullivan talk innovative health technologies

Innovative Health Technology

On this episode of Health Connect South Radio we featured two Atlanta companies developing innovative health technology. We hosted Monitor Med Solutions and HealPros to learn about the respective problems their solutions solve.

Monitor Med Solutions was founded by several Georgia Tech students to create a device that would use bluetooth technology to give hydrocephalus patients real-time monitoring data regarding their intracranial pressure via their mobile devices. Bailey Ernstes and Jake Kazlow, two of the co-founders, joined us to talk about their project.

As Bailey shared, as many as 1:500 babies are born with hydrocephalus, an abnormally-high intracranial pressure caused by a disruption in the normal flow of cerebral spinal fluid. These patients require that a shunt be implanted that will facilitate modulation of the intracranial pressure and prevent the numerous neurological problems and even death that can occur when pressure rises or falls beyond certain limits.

The challenge for these patients and their families is that the shunt technology itself has not evolved much since its inception. And, the shunts fail at a rate of roughly 40% of the time, typically due to occlusion. In most cases, the only way the patients discover there is a problem is when they begin to show symptoms of increased pressure.

Monitor Med Solutions, an Atlanta-based start-up has developed a device that interfaces with the intracranial shunt and contains a bluetooth transmitter. This enables the user to get pressure readings via an app on their mobile device, potentially allowing them to seek care before neurologic symptoms occur and/or preventing unnecessary ER admissions to seek care.

Jim Sullivan is CEO of HealPros. This company saw a need for closing the gap in preventive care for patients with diabetes. The diabetic population is at risk for blindness due to retinal damage that is caused by chronically-elevated glucose levels. It can take years of asymptomatic progression of the retinal damage for visual changes to occur. Because of this, many patients do not bother to seek out the recommended annual exams that could identify problematic changes early enough to do something about it.

HealPros utilizes teleimaging capabilities coupled with on-site technologists who can do exams in a physician’s office or even a patient’s home. The company partners with health plans and physician offices to coordinate visits with patients and conduct the necessary eye exam.

They then communicate results to patient, doctor, and health plan company and can help facilitate getting access to appropriate advanced care if an abnormality is found.

Special Guests

Bailey Ernstes, CEO of Monitor Med Solutions

BS Biomedical/Medical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
National Merit Scholar
Campoamor Study Abroad Scholarship Recipient
Previous Research Assistant, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Jake Kaslow, Co-founder and CTO of Monitor Med Solutions

BS Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jim Sullivan, CEO of HealPros

BA, MA, Economics & Finance, State University of New York at Binghamton
Business Professionals Course, Linguistics and Business Philosophy, The Aji Network
Former Analyst, Goldman Sachs
Previous Owner, Medical Imaging Specialists

Facilitating Clinical Trials

August 9, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Facilitating Clinical Trials

00:00 /

Facilitating Clinical Trials

Since we started Health Connect South Radio we have featured several research organizations who are doing research to uncover solutions to several illnesses such as Ebola, HIV, mitochondral diseases, diabetes, and others.

This week we featured two companies who are facilitating clinical trials through their respective solutions. Bethany Bray, CEO of AutoCruitment and Ryan Jones, CEO of Florence Healthcare joined us to share how they are working to help new medicines and devices become available more quickly to the community.

AutoCruitment is a technology platform that interacts with a variety of internet search platforms to acquire particular analytics data. The platform is able to identify internet users who are seeking clinical trials or even ones who appear to be seeking new physicians.

Bethany shared that as much as 40% of the cost of a trial comes from efforts to put out information about the study and recruit appropriate patients for it.

Once a potential patient is identified who might be a match for a clinical trial, AutoCruitment is able to display ads on healthcare related sites that individual visits that will alert them to the availability of the trial. The algorithms work to position the advertisements in what would be contextually-relevant places to avoid the “stalker” feel some cookie driven ads take on.

From the point the patient follows the ad, the process of providing their information and getting linked up with the prospective trial is straight-forward and elegant, making it simple for the patient and the respective trial.

Many clinical trials involve multiple sites for data collection as well as analysis. In spite of the technological advancements around patient data over the past decade, in clinical trials, much of the research data is collected or reported on paper documents.

The process of transmitting this data to the other sites that need to access it to move the study forward is cumbersome at best. In some cases it means analysts and study overseers must physically travel to the study locations to get access to or evaluate the data. In others it means shipping literally truckloads of paper documents to another site.

This logistical logjam is one of the greatest reasons why it can take as long as it does to complete a study, as Ryan explained. Florence Healthcare is working to tackle this problem by developing a secure technology platform that uses existing hardware such as faxes and scanners to be able to quickly and securely convert the paper data to digital forms that can be readily transmitted to the other study sites or evaluated by study reviewers.

Special Guests:

Bethany Bray, CEO of AutoCruitment

Master’s, Translational Medicine & Neuroscience, Merit, Imperial College–London
MBA, Georgia Institute of Technology
Previous Scientific Consultant, Protokinetix
Former Oncology Research Specialist, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University

Ryan Jones, CEO of Florence Healthcare

MBA, Berkeley Haas School of Business
Young Leaders Council, Atlanta Beltline
Mentor, ATDC
Former President, Pubget

Sleep Technology

August 3, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Sleep Technology

00:00 /

Sleep Technology

This week we focused on sleep and sleep technology. Lloyd Sommers, General Manager for ReST Performance came by to talk about how their company is addressing what is essentially an epidemic of poor sleep across our population.

The Better Sleep Council cites CDC data on the quality of our sleep, stating that poor sleep contributes to depression, weight gain, more disagreements with partners, and more.

ReST has developed what they call the world’s first smart bed, that uses technology to enable adaptation to the user. The bed is made with a high-tech fabric that is able to detect where there is pressure, how much pressure it is, movement, and temperature. The bed also connects with a mobile device to provide data regarding sleep quantity and quality, allowing users to track their progress toward improved sleep.

The ReST bed uses multiple air cells within the mattress powered by ultra-quiet pneumatic pumps. When a person lays on the mattress, it senses where there is pressure and adds or removes pressure in the various cells, allowing the mattress to minimize pressure. This means the user will be less inclined to need to change position frequently, allowing for longer periods of deep sleep.

Additionally, the ReST bed can interface with smart thermostats such as the Google Nest. So, when the bed senses rising temperature, it can signal the thermostat to decrease the room temperature.

We were amazed by the technology of the materials in this bed as well as the variety of tech features it employs to facilitate more effective sleep patterns. The ReST bed will be coming to retailers across the country over the coming months.

Special Guest:

Lloyd Sommers, General Manager, ReST Performance

MBA, Marketing, Management, & Organizations, Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management
Former Analyst, CBIC World Markets
Previous Marketing Manager, Titanium Technologies–North America, DuPont
Former President, TERRECON

Health IT and Accelerating Innovation – Top Docs Radio

July 29, 2015 by angishields

Top Docs Radio

Health IT and Accelerating Innovation - Top Docs Radio

00:00 / 01:02:23

Health IT and Accelerating Innovation

This week I sat down with experts from the healthcare IT sector. John Mamon is the CEO of mPoweredIT, an outsourced IT company that devotes expertise to the small to mid-sized medical practice, helping them manage their computer hardware, infrastructure, and software needs for far less than it typically costs to employ someone dedicated to these functions within the practice.

John talked about how often, in an effort to save money, small practices place responsibility for managing these facets on a practice manager, a clinician within the office, or even the doctors themselves. Clearly this can take away from the core function of the office—taking care of more patients.

He shared a number of important concerns that can expose these offices to risk such as HIPAA requirements, downtime of equipment, ACA compliance, and others. Each of these can create significant cost or loss of productivity when small offices attempt to handle things on their own.

mPoweredIT is able to scale their services to the needs of the practice, providing the full suite of IT management or taking over particular elements on behalf of the practice. The company also partners with several other health experts who can provide additional support in areas such as billing/revenue cycle management, EMR selection, and others, to allow their clients to maximize productivity and profitability at the same time.

John introduced us to Harvey Shuster, of Emergence, a Georgia Medical Accelerator. Harvey, a multiple-time entrepreneur, was one of the founders of Peachtree Software among others. He and his team work with emerging healthcare technology companies, helping them to commercialize and bring to market their devices/technologies more quickly.

Harvey brought along Osama Hashmi, CEO/Founder of VitaminC. This company adds an additional layer of automation and engagement to EMR systems. Their software allows providers to contact patients and encourage follow-up visits where appropriate to facilitate care/outcomes while at the same time helping the practice to maximize its potential for seeing patients in need.

VitaminC integrates well with numerous EMR systems and has proven valuable to primary care doctors and specialists such as dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and others.

Special Guests:

John Mamon, CEO/Founder, mPoweredIT

Associates Degree, Information Technology, Bryant and Stratton College
Previous VP, Professional Services, BMC Solutions
Former Executive VP, CDI Managed Services

Harvey Shuster, COO, of Emergence Georgia Medical Accelerator

MBA, Finance, Drexell University LeBow College of Business
Bronze Star Recipient, US Army
Published Author
Co-founder, Southeast Medical Device Association

Osama Hashmi, CEO/Chief Product Officer, of VitaminC

Doctor of Medicine, College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University
Master of Public Health, University of Georgia
Previous Policy Director, Roosevelt Institute, University of Georgia
Former Research Assistant, Stanford University

SkyTherapist

May 14, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

SkyTherapist

00:00 / 01:00:39

SkyTherapist

This week we sat down with the co-founders of SkyTherapist. Sky Therapist, Inc is a virtual platform for mental health support addressing the major complaints of patients in their course of treatment. They offer integrative solutions for intelligent patient-therapist matching, quick initial assessment, and continuity of care.

CEO, Afshan Ali, and CFO, Keith Jones, shared their story about how they decided there must be a better way to provide patients in need with access to a mental health professional such as a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Keith talked about how as a teenager, he was present when his father died, causing him to experience great anxiety and emotional pain. He was hospitalized for a few weeks but felt he did not receive very effective mental health care while he was there.

Afshan discussed how she developed an interest in neurology and mental health during her years in medical school before changing career paths. The two of them looked at the landscape of how mental health is delivered and felt there was an opportunity to create a new platform that could help people in need find the therapist best suited for them.

As they got to work on building their virtual platform that incorporates telemedicine technology, they felt that a key element that would set them apart was going to be a matching algorithm, paired with carefully-chosen intake questions for the patient-to-be. The purpose of this design is intended to make the process of linking up with a professional that is experientially suited and a fit personality-wise.

We talked about the fact that for persons in crisis, the process of trying to find that personal fit that allows them to be able to be open and get the most of their therapy can be overwhelming. Having to go through talking about what the reason is for seeking help over and over to professional after professional, trying to find a fit can often cause patients in need to give up on finding help.

SkyTherapist is able to quickly provide several professionals for the patient to talk to who are much more likely to be a good fit for the patient. The platform also provides for some communication through correspondence with their provider between sessions. It also has a component that allows provider and patient to agree upon self-care activities such as exercise or others and actually track their compliance.

The company will be focusing much of its early launch (July 2015) on providing services to businesses with Employee Assistance Programs. This will give them ability to scale more quickly while providing their client companies with much more effective and cost-efficient care to employees who need access to a mental health pro.

When you have the chance to hear how/why these experts built this healthcare platform it’s clear they are dedicated to insuring patients in need of professional mental health care, SkyTherapist is clearly providing a promising solution.

Special Guests:

Afshan Ali, CEO/Co-founder of SkyTherapist

BBA, Management Information Services, Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business
Former Senior Consultant, Deloitt Consulting
Active Healthcare Consultant
Speaks English, Hindi, Urdu

Keith Jones, CFO/Co-founder of SkyTherapist

Managing Partner, HarCap Commercial Funding
Former Owner, Eclipse Investment Group
Multiple Successful Entrepreneurial Ventures

This show brought to you by:

Telemedicine

March 12, 2015 by angishields

Health Connect South

Telemedicine

00:00 /

Telemedicine

This week I sat down with the founder of MedZed, a hybrid telemedicine platform that enables parents with sick children to receive care for their child with an in-home RN who establishes a remote link with a physician. Today, there are a growing number of urgent care centers available, along with after-hours pediatric care centers. These care centers are typically better options than being seen in an emergency room where wait times and exposure to very ill patients are a concern.

However, urgent care centers also frequently come with a long wait and exposure to numerous sick persons in the waiting room as well. Telemedicine is a health care delivery model where patients interface with a provider via phone and/or face-to-face video conferencing platform that allows patient and doctor to see each other. This week’s guests joined us to talk about how they are innovating with this technology to deliver quality health care in a patient’s home.

With the MedZed platform (and soon a mobile app) parents with sick children can request an in-home examination of their children. After a phone triage conversation, a registered nurse or nurse specialist is dispatched to the home to conduct the exam. The in-home clinician links up with the patient’s physician (when that practice is a MedZed participant) or a thoroughly-vetted, experienced pediatrician on the MedZed medical staff (when the patient’s physician office is NOT a MedZed participant).

Once in the home the nurse establishes an internet connection using either the family’s connection if available or by cellular wi-fi if in-home internet is absent or inadequate. Via the communications link, the physician is able to view the results of otoscopic exams, listen to their stethoscope, and see vitals all in real time. This portal also gives the patient and family the ability to also see what is being visualized by the exam, offering educational opportunities and a decreased measure of anxiety.

We talked about the fact that as more diagnostic equipment such as radiographic devices become more mobile, the scope of care that will be able to be delivered in the home will expand dramatically. This will serve to reduce use of ER and urgent care for more acute, complex complaints. The service is offered as fee-for-service—patients pay using credit cards when the care is delivered. In some cases third party insurors will reimburse for part or all of the visit, depending on plan.

Special Guests:

Scott Schnell, CEO, Co-founder of MedZed

BGS, Accounting & History, University of Michigan
Former CPA
Previous SVP/ CFO of Simply Floored
Previous Chairman/CEO of Pike Family Nursing

Tiffany Holland, RN at MedZed

Katarina Quinterno, Parent, MedZed client

AirWatch – Top Docs Radio

December 27, 2014 by angishields

Top Docs Radio

AirWatch - Top Docs Radio

00:00 /

AirWatch by vmware

This week on TopDocsRADIO we sat down with Paul McRae of AirWatch by vmware. Healthcare is evolving. As information technology advances and our health laws change, greater importance is being placed on electronic health records. Today, digital data is flowing between departments in a hospital, to physician offices, to practitioners in the patients’ homes. The result is greater efficiency in coordination of care, easier collaboration across multi-specialty teams, and an increased risk of compromise of sensitive HIPAA-protected information.

AirWatch by vmware provides technology that allows healthcare organizations to protect sensitive data across their enterprise, including mobile devices and laptops that may be in use outside the confines of the building or campus of the health company. With their solution, the enterprise can determine whether certain data elements can be accessed by a given device (including BYOD), attachments can be included in outbound emails, and more.

If your organization is working to take advantage of the benefits of digital platforms and mobile devices then get to know AirWatch by vmware. You’ll give your company the strengths that come with digitized information coupled with the confidence your information will meet compliance requirements and stay safe in the hands of those its meant to be seen by.

Special Guests:

Paul McRae, Director of Business Development – Healthcare Solutions, AirWatch by vmware