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Category: Health System Redesign

Is Poor Diagnosis a Leading Cause of Inefficiency in the Health System?

Is Poor Diagnosis a Leading Cause of Inefficiency in the Health System?

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Much of the load on the health system is the consequence of the poor performance of current diagnosis processes.  Of GPs who think that their instinct is better than it actually is.  Of wild stabs in the dark based on prejudice, assumption and the couple of questions that GPs have time to ask in a six minute appointment.  Yes, I know that some things are hard to diagnose.  But for God’s sake, we have to get better at this if our…

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Health Innovation at #WISH2016

Health Innovation at #WISH2016

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This week I’m in Doha, Qatar, for the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) 2016.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to be part of the Lifeguard Health Networks team, presenting their solution as part of the Innovation Showcases. I’ve been to a lot of health conferences in my time, but I must say that I’m blown away by the calibre of delegates, the level of engagement and discussion, and the range of innovation that is on show.  From…

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Open Your EMR To Patients – Let Patients Help

Open Your EMR To Patients – Let Patients Help

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… I now believe that the only way to significantly improve clinical data quality is by opening up EMRs and Clinical Information Systems to patients and caregivers, allowing them to read all that is written about them, and to flag incorrect data.  In addition to the transparency of knowing what is being written about them, patients and their caregivers are a vital line of defence in protecting against medical errors that arise from poor quality data.   As I work with…

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Health Care Homes – A Patient’s Role in Continuity of Care

Health Care Homes – A Patient’s Role in Continuity of Care

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To achieve change, however, we need to see changes in behaviour from patients, not just health providers.  No amount of technology can ever replace the deep value of a long-term healthcare relationship between patient and doctor…   In recent weeks I’ve written a lot about the urgent need to drive deep change into health systems across the world, with the tools provided by Digital Health offering great opportunities to develop new, innovative models of care.  I remain convinced that much of…

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Why Telehealth Won’t Make Healthcare Sustainable

Why Telehealth Won’t Make Healthcare Sustainable

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Telehealth (i.e. video conferencing) does nothing to change the fundamentally flawed current architecture of healthcare.  In fact, it serves to reinforce the view that healthcare is about face-to-face appointments, albeit via video conferencing.  Telehealth does nothing to improve sustainability by allowing patients to interact with health information, but merely digitises an existing construct.   Underlying our largely broken health system lie a number of faulty assumptions.  Chief amongst these is the idea that healthcare only occurs when a patient meets face-to-face…

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FHIR and the Real Challenge of Health Data Interoperability

FHIR and the Real Challenge of Health Data Interoperability

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… I think the hype risks misunderstanding the problem that we’re solving here.  Ultimately we’re not just sharing healthcare information between computers, but between people.  We must be able to share data between people and organisations, and be confident that we know what others meant when they captured or authored that data.   I spent the week before last at the HL7 International Working Group Meeting in Baltimore.  It’s an exciting time in the life of HL7, the international health standards…

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Digital Health = Globalised Healthcare

Digital Health = Globalised Healthcare

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Why does my GP or specialist need to be in the same country as me, the patient?  If I’m already paying out-of-pocket to see a GP (which some of us are) or a specialist (which most of us are), and I can undertake that appointment online, why wouldn’t I go with a service that has high quality, immediate availability, is easily accessible and affordable?  If that happens to be in another country, does that really matter?   Much is made by…

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Our Journey: How Digital Health Communities Got Us Through Tough Times

Our Journey: How Digital Health Communities Got Us Through Tough Times

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So I want to take you back to 2007, and tell you about the epic journey that my wife and I had through the health system… Now the stereotype of pregnancy is that it is a wonderful, happy time, and of healthy, glowing expectant mothers.  Well, not so much. When my wife was pregnant with our two beautiful children, she suffered from a terrible condition called hyperemesis gravidarum.  Severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.  But this wasn’t just morning sickness.  She was…

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Patient as Aggregator: The Logical Conclusion of Patient Owned Health Data?

Patient as Aggregator: The Logical Conclusion of Patient Owned Health Data?

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The recent announcement that HealthKit in iOS 10 will support the storing and viewing of CCD / CDA documents has got me thinking.  Are Personal Health Records on a path to possible disruption of health system operated Electronic Health Records? More specifically, if we believe the growing rhetoric of the health system that “patients own their data”, then we need to stop and ask some further questions.  If I own my own health information as a patient, why is it…

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The Healthcare Reformation

The Healthcare Reformation

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What sits behind the rise of Digital Health is not ultimately about technology.  It goes far deeper.  Fundamentally, we’re seeing a significant cultural shift in healthcare, driven by patients and carers.  Through the internet, mobile devices and Digital Health Communities we’re seeing the democratisation of medical knowledge. Knowledge that was previously only available to and understandable by health providers (an educated elite) is increasingly being opened up to health consumers, many of whom are capable of understanding and synthesising large…

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