by Brett Kinsler | Oct 21, 2017 | Telemedicine
In a forward to a book entitled Snake Oil, British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins stated, “there is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t work.” This was important conceptually because it illustrated that the umbrella of Medicine (with a capital M) encompasses all that is useful in the treatment of patients. Do you remember a time when asking to use someone’s telephone meant they would bring you into their kitchen, hand you a receiver on a coiled wire and make sure you weren’t calling long-distance? Now, if you ask to borrow someone’s phone, they are more likely to reach into their pocket and hand you their portable device. However, we do not necessarily need to specify that we need to borrow a cellular phone or a landline phone — if they work, Dawkins might posit, they are all phones.
Telehealth or telemedicine is the utilization of IT or telecommunication devices to provide health care. The emphasis is on health care — not on the tool used to provide it. In other words, we do not provide stethoscope-type medical treatment. Nobody would ask if your doctor is the blood-pressure-cuff using kind of doctor. Medicine is medicine and the tools used to facilitate it, while integral and vital, do not change the overall category.
Shortly, we will discontinue the distinction between telehealth care and non-telehealth care. It will simply be viewed as a necessary and effective tool used in the usual and customary delivery of treatment to patients. If your organization is ready to embrace a strategy in which this important tool is incorporated into the care you deliver to patients, Strategic Interests can help you develop the strategy, select equipment and vendors, implement and deploy the equipment, and most of all, help your people learn to use these tools to enhance the highest quality of care.
by Brett Kinsler | Sep 21, 2017 | HIT Strategy, Interoperability
The challenge of exchanging information among health care providers goes far beyond programming. Certainly, EHRs that use differing formats and structures increase the task of meaningful and necessary clinical data communication, but needs reach far beyond simply technology issues. Strategic priorities must be established and aligned in order for delivery of patient care to improve and the transition toward value based care to be accomplished effectively. The struggle to provide access to data is real and one that we talk to people about every day. Most patients, and even many doctors, assume all pertinent data is available to anyone who should be granted access. This is simply not the case in most communities.
Public health information exchanges have attacked some of the problems, providing a public utility of sorts to manage the flow of information. And private HIEs close gaps for some institutions, especially following mergers and acquisitions of practices and health systems, but integral to the process of interoperability is stakeholders achieving alignment with goals, plans and initiatives.
In order to ensure the right data is presented to the right people at the right time, and the creation of a truly integrated EHR is available, a course of action can include multiple tools, APIs, options and approaches. For some systems, a single EHR can be used including add-on modules to incorporate data. In other situations, such as when legacy data is required to be accessible from retired EHRs or when many data sources are using a variety of different systems, custom built or customizable off-the-shelf interface engines might be the best choice.
Decisions abound but one thing holds fast — tackling interoperability strategy shouldn’t be done in a vacuum. Using objective strategic advisors to collect requirements, assess cultural implications, evaluate vendor offerings and help to plan the most effective and efficient path will save costs, headaches, and, in the end, lives through the improvement in patient safety and care quality.
by Brett Kinsler | Aug 13, 2017 | Conferences, DSRIP, HIT Strategy, innovation, Interoperability, Quality Care, Transitions of Care
Chicago, August 2017 — Al Kinel discussing care transition IT strategy at Allscripts Population Health University
As part of the Allscripts Population Health University held August 8 – 10, 2017 at Chicago’s McCormick Center, Strategic Interests president, Al Kinel, led a presentation explaining the improvement of care transitions using information technology. As seasoned implementation agents for Allscripts dbMotion product, SI understands first hand how the timely exchange of pertinent information positively impacts transitions of care from clinical, technical and strategic angles.
Kinel was joined by two SI clients who discussed their experience with interoperability and transitions of care: Erik Jacob, Manager of IT Interoperability at Rochester Regional Health, discussed the projects in Rochester from the Community Diabetes Collaborative through the merger of multiple hospitals and practices. Brian Henderson, Director of Physician IT Services at Sarasota Memorial Hospital presented the project connecting ambulatory community providers to the hospital’s health information exchange, SMHxchange. Finishing the talk, Strategic Interest’s Director of Clinical Services, Brett Kinsler, DC presented the methodology used to identify gaps and prioritize data elements to be exchanged to facilitate a Medicaid DSRIP program.
Chicago, August 2017 — Erik Jacob presented Rochester Regional Health’s interoperability process
Overall, the team defined the value of Health Information Exchange (HIE) with specific use case examples and described how innovative solutions can impact organizations and practices, increase care quality, decrease duplication of services, prevent unnecessary readmissions, and enable innovative payment models while attaining strategic objectives and enhancing partnerships among hospitals, LTPACs and community providers.
We appreciate being invited by Allscripts to present a topic we are so passionate about and are grateful to our client partners from RRH and SMH for bringing real life examples and experience to the discussion.
by Brett Kinsler | Aug 3, 2017 | Consulting, innovation, Practice Transformation
According to an AMA/KPMG survey in 2017, only 23% of physicians feel they are “well prepared” to meet MACRA/MIPS requirements. Strategic Interests is working with the New York eHealth Collaborative to assist practices in their adoption and development of quality improvement strategies. Many of these programs are fully funded by government grants. Programs include:
- BHIT: SI helps agencies providing home and community based services to Medicaid patients to select and implement EMRs as part of the NYS DOH Behavioral Health Information Technology (BHIT) Program.
- EP2: SI helps specialists service Medicaid populations with administrative processes to attain Meaningful Use.
- APC: Help for primary care providers in small practices to prepare for payment reform with transformation and ongoing education and support through the Advanced Primary Care Program.
- PTN: SI is assisting doctors and other providers to gain the strategic, business, operational and technical capabilities to prepare for the value based payment environment with the Practice Transformation Network program.
“Reimbursement changes are eminent, even if the specifics of the payment criteria have not been clearly defined and even if they will probably change. Proactive practices are utilizing this program (PTN) to determine their shortfalls and making operational changes to be prepared, regardless of how the specifics end up shaking out.” — Bill Lavoie, SI Project Manager
See the article in WNY Physician for more information: https://issuu.com/westernnyphysician.com/docs/buffalo_vol_3_-_7-13_final/22
Contact Strategic Interests to see if your practice is eligible: nysptn@strategicinterests.com
by Brett Kinsler | Jul 3, 2017 | Consulting, innovation
DayTwo, a leader in microbiome-health management, announced it has completed a $12.0 million Series A round of financing through Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), Seventure Partners’ Health for Life Capital fund, Mayo Clinic, co-founder Marius Nacht, and other private investors.
Strategic Interests has been integral in helping DayTwo create strategy and business plans, connect to their first US research partner, developed Segment-Specific Market Attack Plan (S2MAP), and we are helping to launch the business in the US. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such a talented team, and thrilled to know we helped them reach this significant milestone.
Link: DayTwo Secures $12M Series A Financing Round
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