Dan Verel writes about how hospitals and health insurance companies are leveraging cutting-edge technologies to transform the industry -- from health IT to telemedicine to healthcare social media.
Previously, he was a reporter at the North Bay Business Journal, where he covered healthcare, insurance, HR and employment, law and hospitality and tourism. His byline’s also appeared in the Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He is based in San Francisco.
Follow him on Twitter @DanVerel.
There have been numerous efforts, or at least discussions, to get hospital physicians and staff to better communicate via text messages and away from widely used but somewhat antiquated pagers. But so far, it’s largely been problematic because people would use their own devices, potentially opening themselves and their hospitals up to HIPAA violations. So […]
In an effort to bring more useful data into its EHR, eClinicalWorks today said it will integrate data from wearables and fitness trackers from its wholly owned subsidiary healow. The data from the devices will be directed into a consumer’s personal health record via healow.com and the healow mobile application. It will also be available […]
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
After the ACA passed more than five years ago, a number of critics and skeptics warned that physician offices would be flooded with new patients who were substantially sicker – and thus more complex – leading to longer wait times and increased costs. It turns out neither happened, at least not over the last year, according […]
While dozens of companies and organizations are working to increase pricing transparency in healthcare, OKCopay has reemerged to address pricing in the often-opaque worlds of dental billing, cosmetic surgeries or vision wear. Those areas are typically either separate from health insurance or not subject to the same scrutiny as areas of care that fall under […]
German software giant SAP recently fixed two potentially dangerous flaws in a mobile medical app that could have allowed malicious hackers to upload fake patient data, Computer World reports, a development that underscores the serious security issues at hand for healthcare, no matter the scale of the organization. SAP was able to fix the issues […]
Proscia, a Baltimore-based startup, is looking to use machine learning and cloud-based technology to combat cancer, launching a new software platform aimed at pathologists that provides storage for multi-gigabyte digital biopsies, while simultaneously harnessing what it calls “second-opinion collaboration technology.” The cloud-based program, according to Proscia, offers “large-scale management, analytics, access and collaboration” for whole […]
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
The uses of telemedicine seem to be growing by the day, with the latest application coming in the form of treating children with ADD or ADHD in under-served areas, according to a recent study from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The study, first reported in Medscape (subscription) found that telehealth, or more […]
MedaCheck, a Cincinnati-based startup that has developed an alert system for seniors and medication adherence, has raised $1.15 million in a Series A round. The funding was led by Queen City Angels and joined by individual investors, the company said. The $1.1 million is more than initially reported in February. Led by CEO and founder […]
News of the hack that occurred at Premera Blue Cross in Seattle and which involved the medical records of some 11 million members spread quickly over the last two days, and appears to be strikingly similar to the major attack that Anthem suffered barely a month ago. Anthem’s hack involved a staggering 80 million members, […]
After swift backlash to the ridiculously labeled article on the health concerns of wearable technology, the New York Times is at least addressing reader concerns in a column by Public Editor Margaret Sullivan. She notes that the original print headline was not, in fact, the alarmist and absurd “Could Wearable Computers Be as Harmful as Cigarettes,” […]
We will highlight Build My Health's revenue practice management tools, which could help physician practices add up to $250,000 to their practices.
There has been significant chatter in the EHR and health IT space about the recent spat between dominant vendor Epic and the CommonWell Health Alliance, which consists mainly of other EHR vendors who compete with Epic but also advocate for interoperability. Here’s a break down of recent events and some context. Peter DeVault, who heads […]
Are wearables and smartphone apps, and the doctors who espouse potential benefits when applied to healthcare, akin to the thankfully forgone days of doctor-recommended cigarettes? Is this an absurd question and comparison? Yes. Yes it is. But Nick Bilton of the New York Times’ Style Section makes the link, although the over-arching point is that “some researchers […]
While the politics of Obamacare remain as a divisive as ever, the Affordable Care Act has helped usher an entire new health economy that has led to the creation of at least 90 new companies since 2010, centered primarily around consumer-driven innovations, according to a new report. The report, from PwC, lists five key reasons following […]
Yet another healthcare entity has been hacked, this time Premera Blue Cross in Washington, which today said it was the target of a “sophisticated cyber attack” that may include medical and financial information on some 11 million customers. The health plan, based just outside of Seattle, said it discovered its IT systems were breached on […]
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, better known as CHIME, is launching a $1 million challenge effort to help spur the creation of a national patient ID, which it says will help with online security and accuracy. “There is a growing consensus among payers and providers that a unique patient ID would radically reduce […]