Reflexion Health has updated its FDA-cleared procedure prep and recovery product for hip and knee replacement as it works on a new indication designed for back, spine and shoulder surgery. The updates include new additions geared for patients and on the provider side.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
The remote monitoring business has also added services in response to interest from workers’ compensation companies.
The digital health company’s Virtual Exercise Rehabilitation Assistant or VERA enlists an avatar to guide users through the prescribed exercises to support their recovery remotely.
VERAHome does more in the way of helping people get their homes ready in the runup to a procedure, even simple things such as ensuring they have a walker or cane ready when they need it. Joe Smith, Reflexion Health CEO, said in a phone interview that customers asked the company to bring patients through a set of timely instructions so the providers could deliver additional context between what was happening to patients with the procedure and tasks patients needed to do based on each day of the rehab program.
On the flip side, VERAClinic offers greater data-based insights so providers can review the progress of their patients on predicted trajectories of recovery. Smith said the company also hopes to help quantify which rehabilitation exercises are helping people get better faster and which regimens are associated with more rapid recovery.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“By recording everything that happens all the time with these patients and linking it back to the database…we should be able to help institutions figure out the best way to get therapy done based on patient outcomes,” Smith said.
Moving ahead, the company has added physical therapists in-house in response to a growing customer base, not only those in rural areas but also for ambulatory surgical centers looking for remote monitoring services that it can provide externally, according to Smith.
It is also attracting insurers and their feedback, alongside self-insured employers, is one reason for the company’s plan to add back, spine and shoulder surgery, which can take a year to recover from, to its platform. A Stand Tall program aimed at seniors is geared to improving balance to reduce falls.
Another emerging customer for its technology is worker’s compensation insurance companies.
“They want to keep workers in the habit of coming to the workplace by doing their therapy there and going home…even if people are off work because they need to recover,” Smith said. The goal is to keep people engaged with a company even when they are off for an injury.
Despite the new administration’s lack of interested in bundled payment programs the Obama administration rolled out, Smith noted that the company’s approach helps support the shift o value-based care.
“Although our early success was around bundled payments, it also supports the shift to value-based care. “We are selling this to organizations that have an integrated, capitated model.”
By guiding people through rehabilitation from home or at work, it helps providers understand when tasks have not been completed which could call attention to problems on the patient side. But it also has the ability to reduce the need for face to face visits with clinicians which could reduce medical costs.
