Deloitte – The Health Care Blog

The Internet of Medical Things Gold Rush (And My Grandfather’s Wooden Leg)

Nov 12, 2018• 5

By MICHAEL MILLENSON

The most intriguing aspect of the recent Connected Health Conference was the eclectic mix of corporations claiming cutting-edge expertise in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).

HP, a legend in computer hardware, was touting a service that scoops data from Web-enabled home devices such as bathroom scales up into the cloud and then manages the information on behalf of your doctor. This presumably fulfills their corporate vow to “engineer experiences that amaze.”

Verizon, not content with deploying its cable TV clout to “deliver the promise of the digital world,” is connecting to a chip on the lid of your pill container that can monitor whether you’re taking your medications.

Even Deloitte, rooted in corporate auditing, has translated its anodyne assertion that “we are continuously evolving how we work” into a partnership with Google. DeloitteASSIST uses machine learning to translate verbal requests from hospital patients into triaged messages for nurses.
Continue reading…

Bringing a Complex Health care system Into Alignment

Nov 19, 2015

By BRETT DAVIS

Ask the chief medical officer of a major health system about the issues that keep them up at night and he or she will talk about the need to understand outcomes in complex populations, the need to engage in new business models, novel collaborations with other stakeholders, and engaging “customers” i.e. patients in new ways, all while addressing increasing cost pressures and safety concerns.

Sit down with a franchise leader in oncology at a pharmaceutical or biotech innovator and ask the same questions, and the response will pretty much be the same.

The convergence of business imperatives is largely driven by two factors: 1) the shift to value based healthcare reimbursement from volume, and 2) our rapidly advancing understanding of the causes of disease and health that holds promise to accelerate further because of the proliferation of electronic health information coupled with continued scientific innovation.Continue reading…

HIT Newser: The Not-So-Big Meaningful Use Stick

Feb 17, 2015

By MICHELLE RONAN NOTEBOOM

This Year’s Meaningful Use “Sticks”: Not that Big

CMS reports that the majority of physicians who will be penalized this year for not having met MU requirements will lose less than $1,000 of their Medicare reimbursement; 34% of the penalties will be $250 or less, while 31% will exceed $2,000.

The adjustments will impact approximately 257,000 eligible providers. While no one likes losing money, the CMS penalty “stick” is pretty small compared to the overall cost of implementing an EHR.

Mayo Provides Dr. Google with 2^nd Opinion

Google consults with the Mayo Clinic to expand its healthcare information for 400 medical conditions.

Given that 20% of all Google searches are related to health conditions, the change will no doubt shake up what Americans find when searching for medical information. The update includes the addition of illustrations for each condition, plus a full list of search results from sites such as WebMD and Wikipedia.

Healthcare.gov and the History of Failed IT Projects

Apr 3, 2014• 14

By Niam Yaraghi

Many years before the creation of Healthcare.gov, President Obama embraced data analytics during his early years in the Senate.

In 2006, he and senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) successfully sponsored the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, which resulted in creation of usaspending .gov, “a significant tool that makes it much easier to hold elected officials accountable for the way taxpayer money is spent“.

A History of Failed Federal IT Projects

A considerable amount of taxpayer money is spent on federal IT projects, but in contrast to the aspirations of Obama in his early years in the Senate, it is not spent responsibly.

According to the Standish Group report, from 2003 to 2012 only 6% of the federal IT projects with over 10 million dollars of labor cost were successful.

52% of them were either delayed, went over budget or did not meet user expectations. The remaining 41% of the IT projects were abandoned or started from scratch. Perhaps most troubling is that healthcare.gov is just a one example among many.