Wednesday, 19 November 2014

What Stalls Widspread Adoption of Telemedicine

web based EMR/EHR development, develop Electronic Medical Records, hire healthcare software developersReduced amount of night time admissions into hospitals may possibly discover a chance for benefiting telehospitalist doctors to provide inpatient services while at that time, a latest study posted in the Telemedicine & e-Health finds. Night time is probably the most important period to use telemedicine, research experts suggested, because telemedicine is best suited if employed wherein doctor help and the advice is limited, patient care is usually time sensitive & service volume could be delivered around a network. With regard to the study, the analysts researched the Florida's state hospital discharge data set to evaluate the actual industry for the night time telehospitalist service. It was discovered 19% of the usual Hospitalist admissions taken place around 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., along with the variety of admissions for every night only around zero to 10 patients. 80% of admissions taken place before midnight. The research authors stated that night time medical care is extremely challenging for the Hospitalist practices providing round the clock care. Manpower is normally minimized starting at 7 in the evening, whereas night attention is much costly compared to day attention due to reduced amounts of billable services.

Disparity within the quality regarding night time compared to daytime care will be unsatisfactory, the authors stated, and in that respect depends the possibility for the high-performing telemedicine service which is a potential source regarding patient care. Those who are living in rural parts, finding required accessibility for healthcare could be difficult, however, hospitals throughout the America and also Canada are choosing telemedicine to resolve this difficulty. Within the Canadian region in Manitoba, Trever Strome, who is making use of telemedicine to bring down the unwanted visits in emergency room. Strome, is an Assist professor in the University of Manitoba, in Department of Emergency Medicine informed Healthcare Informatics that, he looks in the way departments of emergency can make use of telemedicine to receive specialized consultation services in the night as well as during weekend hours. Making use of telemedicine during the night can perhaps be the most valuable solutions to use the technology, as indicated by the authors of the analysis posted in the month of March.

For The St. Vincent Healthcare based in Billings, at Montana, the technology helps paediatric patients to get much better care. A director of telehealth services, Doris Barta, in Partners with Health Telemedicine Network for the hospital, tells Healthcare Informatics. As there are just 17 licensed pediatricians within the state, St. Vincent increased its tele emergency care, she reveals. Barta mentioned that they are only the one who provide the 24/7 staffed paediatric intensive care unit throughout the state. She also mentioned that they believe sharing this particular expertise has lowered the amount of transfers of the paediatric emergency section patients in order to tertiary hospitals.

Nancy Vorhees, the chairwoman at NRTRC (Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center) based in billings and also the CEO of INHS (Inland Northwest Health Services), has informed Healthcare Informatics, that she notices lot of improvements in telehealth in the future, particularly with federal reforms concentrating on improved care of patient at low expenses. She informed that quite often, telehealth is perfect for follow up visits and several kinds of consultions. Besides offering improved care to the patients within the underserved places, telemedicine may also save American organisations huge amounts of dollars, as mentioned in the study by the Towers Watson, a worldwide professional service company. Unfortunately, adopting the technology even now is delayed. Approximately 60% of physicians mentioned that they have not been thinking about choosing telehealth technologies, as indicated by a Physicians Practice Technology Survey 2014. To get maximum benefits of mHealth, you may consider hiring services of a web based EMR/EHR development company.

We develop Electronic Medical Records. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Steps to Select the Right Ruby Web Development Framework for a Startup

ROR development, Rails widget development, Expert Ruby on Rails developersDespite being an interpreted programming language, Ruby is simple, dynamic and powerful. But the programming language is not designed as a dedicated technology to develop websites and internet applications. So web developers rely on Ruby frameworks to create large and complex internet applications within a stipulated period of time.

Each enterprise has option to choose from a number of Ruby web application development frameworks. Unlike the large companies, a startup has to consider several factors while comparing Ruby frameworks for web development. As the level of complexity and size of individual Ruby frameworks vary, it becomes essential for startups to choose the right option for their projects.

How to Pick the Right Ruby Framework for Your Web Development Project

Understand Different Ruby Frameworks: As noted earlier, a small enterprise can choose from a number of Ruby web development frameworks including Sinatra, Ramaze, Padrino, Nancy, NYNY, Cuba, Grape and Camping. But it must consider using open source frameworks to bring down the overall project cost. Also, the size and features of individual Ruby micro-frameworks differ. So the project manager must spend some time in understanding the size, features and complexity level of different frameworks.

Consider Using Ruby on Rails: As an open stack web application development framework written in Ruby, Ruby on Rails (ROR) helps businesses in developing large and complex internet applications within a shorter span of time. The open source framework supports model-view-control (MVC) architecture. So the developers have option to keep the business logic and presentation separated. A company can further curtail the development time and cost by deploying a distributed team. So a small business can always consider ROR as a powerful framework for its web development project.

Compare Ruby Frameworks: As the business has option to choose from several Ruby frameworks for its web development project, it must compare the features of each framework. Despite being simple and lightweight, some of these frameworks come with all the tools and features required for creating complex internet applications rapidly. However, a business also needs to ensure that the Ruby framework allows developers to accomplish common tasks without writing lengthy cod, and deploy the application without putting any extra time and effort.

Check if the Framework is Viable for the Project: While comparing the features of different Ruby frameworks, the enterprise must check its viability. There are certain large Ruby frameworks that can e used for accomplishing simple tasks. But the large framework will consume additional resources to accomplish the task. At the same time, some small Ruby frameworks are effective in complementing all needs of complex web application development projects. So there are always chances that the developers have to put extra effort to make the framework viable for its project. That is why; the Ruby framework must be viable with the project to save both time and cost.

Avail Expert Advice: A project manager can refer to various online sources to gather information about different Ruby web development frameworks. Some websites even evaluate and compare the features and functionality of the latest version of Ruby frameworks. So a startup company can always refer to the reviews posted by both users and experts to pick the right framework for his project. Likewise, it can also read the comparison of these frameworks to decide if the Ruby framework complements the project’s specific needs.

On the whole, the small companies and startups have option to choose from small, medium and large Ruby web application development frameworks. So it must evaluate the pros and cons of each framework according to the nature and requirements of the project. A startup company can refer to various online sources to compare different Ruby frameworks. To get maximum benefits of Python development, you may consider hiring services of a ROR development company.

We provide Rails widget development services. If you would like to talk one of our expert Ruby on Rails developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Will mHealth app development become simpler with Apple's Swift ?

mobile health app development, iPhone healthcare app development, iPhone medical app developersSwift, Apple's latest programming language, likes to have coding mobile applications simpler for all which includes mHealth developers too. According to Apple's senior VP in software engineering Craig Federighi, Apple assures their latest programming language, Swift, is likely to develop apps for the OS X and the iOS of all types, starting from games to health and fitness, simpler and quicker than before.

Dr. Chuck Thornbury, CEO & Founder at meVisit, stated that they do not notice a strategic drawback by Swift, however being a fresh language, it keeps the possibility of worldwide adoption. Swift is pretty new and readiness is one area which needs to be considered; that is very valid for those features such as mix-and-match and also interoperability with the old (legacy) code. One thing you need to keep in mind is the reason why this is that big deal on a developer's understanding. Mac and iPhone-based applications are usually made out of an old language known as Objective-C which was started in the year 1983 and has taken over by Apple devices from those initial days. Though being an older language, Objective-C is actually arguably not the perfect suited to many latest computing apps. Basically, it has been introduced at the time while all the computing power of smartphone would take up an entire desk. Thornbury further stated that, Swift has several great features that were discovered from different programming languages. It gives a very similar syntax than many other major languages particularly, those which are script-like, powerful languages. The mix-and-match amongst the Objective-C and the Swift could be likely to interest developers to start developing in Swift soon, since they would not be believed of having issues about the legacy code in theObjective-C.

According to Ned Fox, a software engineer at AliveCor, it would be most beneficial for the developers to work with Objective-C along with Swift. Fox further said that, he will stay with Objective-C for some time and apply features of the Swift. Although he includes there are latest features in Swift which could accelerate application development greatly. One particular feature known as Playground, that enables developers to check individual snippets of code without the need to test the whole app at a time. Fox added saying that, HealthKit is a very excellent step, which will make it simple to gather health data and bring data out. In case a campany is looking at hardwae they could target on hardware and transfer all this data.

Yet there are certainly contradictory stories regarding the positive results of Swift. As stated in an article by InfoWorld Swift performed considerably slow out of standards when compared to some other developing languages, Objective-C is included in that. Then again Swift just has been introduced in beta therefore it is not clear just how important these standards are in this aspect, especially as Swift and Objective-C needs to co-exist in the meantime. This month, Google is likely to announce Google Fit, their own digital health platform much like Apple's HealthKit. For the hardware brands like AliveCor platforms such as these could be important materials enabling companies to go to the market swiftly. Apple has definitely advanced in correct way about inspiring future app development it's going to be the developers by themself to finally choose where industry is going. Finally, coders |need the biggest audience possible and they will go with whatever tool available to get it. To get maximum benefits of mHealth, you may consider hiring services of a mobile health app development company.

We provide iPhone healthcare app development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified iPhone medical app developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Friday, 6 June 2014

Healthcare Data Analytics Undergoing Rapid Transformation

Medical Software Development, Develop Electronic Medical Records, hire healthcare software developersA in a report released last year, it was mentioned that the clinical data analytics industry is going to get red hot. Because of the change in the direction of new payment models along with large extent of clinical data stored in electronic health records, progressively healthcare groups looking to analytics options for population health management. Chilmark Research carried out the clinical analytics industry report, explains a comparatively unformed, then again it's a strong industry for the clinical analytics solutions, driven mainly by big challenge of population health management. Healthcare groups now are accepting variety of solutions to deal with their analytics requirements which includes combining claims with clinical data. As providers more and more aim to lower the threat of the patient populations, this claims-based legacy is going to be both, the start point and a diversion from evaluating even richer clinical data out of clinically-housed sources.

Cora Sharma, lead analyst of the Chilmark reported during a news release, it is impossible along the fact that clinical data analytics can play an important role in promoting PHM efforts. High-touch care management processes in the past will not be enough because the size of the issue is quite big, resources not enough as well as patients also are many. Although, along with the exception of payers, the healthcare industry in general, is delayed on analytics game. Medical centers and health systems can benefit more through the information as long as they progress in knowing the analytic developments, instead of only looking at the straight facts, stated by George Zachariah, a consultant in the Dynamics Research Corporation in Andover, Massachusetts. He further mentioned 5 best steps which hospital systems could best use health analytics to be able to receive the most from the information. Use analytics that can help reduce administrative costs, use analytics for the clinical decision support, use it to reduce fraud and abuse, use it for the best care coordination and use analytics for the enhanced patient wellness.

Almost 50% of healthcare organizations addressing a new research state they're experiencing a positive revenue in data analytics and reporting technology. The survey, by TCS Healthcare Technologies along with the Case Management Society of America and also the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians, discovered the situation improving rapidly from similar measures taken back in 2008 and 2010. 56% stated positive ROI, compared to 14% which reported a negative return, as per an announcement. 30% of respondents reported stratifying healthcare information to promote population-based screening, and to recognize candidates for the case management. On the other hand, only 25% reported working with predictive modeling applications, whereas 35% reported doing it 2 years before. Excel (39%), Crystal Reports (20%) and Access (17%) continue to be the best used applications.

Users reported the significance of dashboard and visualization abilities, naming among their main concerns the capability to manipulate reports and data provided and also to see developments for individual patients and also for major sets of data. Applications for population health management which incorporate claims and clinical data are solution to the success of responsible care organizations, an IDC Health Insights report discovered recently, stating lots of organizations have discovered that depending on EHR information only is not sufficient. Although tools which help organizations with case management were recognized with their capability to enhance care, as New Jersey-based primary-care practice Vanguard Medical Group experienced, it isn't about the technology. A Kaiser Permanente study found readmission-prediction software was not precise enough for it to switch manual summary of cases. Medical software development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We Develop electronic medical records. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Friday, 30 May 2014

New Telemedicine Policy - a Boon or a Bane?

healthcare software development, develop medical billing software, hire healthcare software developersDisregarding previous recommendations of the American Telemedicine Association, representatives of Federation State Medical Boards (FSMB) has approved new guidelines for the use of telemedicine without making any further changes. Federation State Medical Boards (FSMB) said in an announcement that the Model Policy on proper Use of Telemedicine Technologies within the Practice of Medicine, implemented from the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), offers necessary guidance as well as a road-map which state boards may use to make sure that patients are protected against harm in a fast-changing healthcare delivery environment.

Dr. Humayun J. Chaudhry, Managing Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of FSMB said telemedicine provides great tools to help increase treatment solutions for the patients, especially in providing care in remote areas, reducing costs and assisting support preventive care efforts. However since telemedicine has expanded, that also, have the necessity for clean, common-sense rules which help healthcare providers switch to the interesting new situation in the safe way. The latest guidelines are made to give doctors freedom in use of technology like telephone, email interactions and videoconferencing, provided they follow the well known standards of patient care, Dr. Chaudhry stated.

Amongst its main provisions, the model policy mentions that the similar standards of care which have traditionally protected patients while in-person medical encounters should apply to medical care provided electronically. Care providers working with telemedicine should set up an excellent “patient-physician relationship,” making sure that patients are well examined and treated which providers follow strong principles guiding privacy and security of personal health information, informed consent, safe prescribing along with other key aspects of medical practice.

Roy Schoenberg, MD, Chief Executive Officer at American Well praised the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and said this policy is really a strong move to a the fact in which all patients can have access to quality care regardless of duration, place or location. Since the Federation did its job as leaders, we expect states to carry out the same - accept this model policy, and thus make sure just safe, secure and appropriate care could be delivered with current telehealth technologies, he stated. And Randy Parker, Chief Executive Officer at MDLive stated in an article in Medscape Medical News , that a standardizing telemedicine policies throughout is an positive move.

ATA contends the policy, moreover it has set the bar raised for telemedicine, even the policy aims in creating a telemedicine visit comparable to that of an in-person consult. Although the policy aims in creating a telemedicine visit comparable to that of an in-person consult, the ATA contends the policy rather it sets the bar raised for telemedicine. ATA objected on necessity that of physicians get licensed within the same state in which the patient is based. It had asked for changes in the policy, along with the description of telemedicine being a videoconferencing or store-forward technology and would like to include telephone and email consults too. From the Center for the Telehealth and e-Health Law (CTEL), that represents most of the nation’s top telemedicine providers, Greg Billings, Executive Director, stated that CTEL appreciates the FSMB's guideline attempts as an initial step to help put a meaning to safe telemedicine.

Lets have a glance of the policy - standards of care which safeguard patients while in-person medical interactions relate similarly to medical care offered electronically. Providers with telemedicine must set up a very good “patient-physician relationship” and make sure their patients are appropriately evaluated and treated. Providers must follow strong principles guiding confidentiality and safety of records, informed consent, safe prescribing along with other crucial aspects of medical practice. Healthcare software development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We develop medical billing software. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Telemedicine A Global Demand

Telemedicine is a fast growing application regarding healthcare treatment wherein healthcare details are moved across the phone or even the Internet and quite often to different networks meant for consulting, and often distant medical procedures or perhaps check-ups. Telemedicine technology is definitely building healthcare industry a lot more interactive simply by implementing the most advanced technology along with telecommunication by offering healthcare services. The market is observing colossal growth because of enhanced remote monitoring of patients. The main idea of telemedicine is to try and abolish the distance aspect in offering life saving medical healthcare. Telemedicine is quite an effective use of communications and also information technologies for any delivery with proper clinical care.


Telemedicine could be categorized on the basic upon technology along with services utilized. Telemedicine could be split into three categories remote monitoring, store-and-forward and interactive services. Telemedicine is quite easy for two health care professionals dealing with any case over the phone, or perhaps complicated just as utilizing satellite technology along with Video-conferencing device in order to carry out any instant consultation among the healthcare professionals in two different nations. As per an announcement by the University of California-San Diego Health System the telemedicine pilot program which they launched will decrease wait time in emergency room for the patients. The program is designed in such a way that whenever the ED happens to be busy, it is possible for the doctors to view through video. Cameras will be utilized to carry on-call physicians who will be away from the hospital for the patient in need of help. In such situation, off-site doctors tend to be paged who perhaps remotely link to a telemedicine station to view patients. The telemedicine physician has the ability to examine patient's eyes, ears, nose, throat and skin, and additionally the doctor will be able to listen to heart and lung sounds with this module. Moreover, laboratory and imaging tests could be ordered and results can be reviewed. According to Adam Darkins, M.D.at M.P.H.M, in VA netwoks "there are around 90,000 veterans have chronic health condition. However, they lead their lives independently at home due to the support of telemedicine.

The use of telemedicine during the nighttime could probably be the most beneficial occasions. It is very ideal when used in which physician help and advice is hard to find. Patient care is actually time sensitive as well as service volume might allocated throughout a network. Nighttime telemedicine services are really encouraged by telemedicine within the emergency unit and also in the ICU. Nighttime coverage is generally very challenging for the hospitalist practices providing care around the clock. Hospitalist programs, among a couple of physicians doing work at the same time through the day time, usually minimize staff or man-power during the night starting from 7:00 p.m. Nighttime coverage is normally higher priced or more costly compared to daytime coverage as a result of reduced amount of billable services.

A survey by the 2011 Society of Hospital Medicine-Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), revealed that medical expense rise to 30% during nighttime. A lot of hospitals have a problem with nighttime coverage since staff-to-patient proportion tend to be inefficient. In specific circumstances, the quality of care during the nighttime has also reported to become less compared to daytime care. These types of instabilities are definitely unsatisfactory. Rotating shifts starting from days to nights are dissapointing a lot of physicians quite often. Telemedicine is quite often the effective use of communications and also information technologies for any delivery with proper clinical care. Healthcare mobile app development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide medical software development services. All of our healthcare developers have cleared industry certifications. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Saturday, 10 May 2014

Is the ICD-10 Delay an opportunity to organize things right?

It is merely a simple statement posted in the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) website. Then again, it creates an impression that CMS has disclosed the fact regarding ICD-10 implementation postpone to October 1, 2015. However, the website still carries the transition to ICD-10 on October 1, 2014 as due date. The U.S. Senate passed a bill which extends the ICD-10 due date to at least October 1, 2015. The bill, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, mostly handles the delay of any reimbursement cuts to doctors under Medicare's sustainable rate of growth formula. The bill guards doctors from the 24% reimbursement cut was scheduled to take effect from April 1, 2014 until about the end of March 2015, and it is the 17th short-term legislative solution for preventing SGR cuts Congress has passed since 2003.

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What really is keeping CMS away from a conclusive declaration date regarding the new ICD-10 due date is the procedure for providing a compliance date. Because the implementation due date is dependent on congressional language approved by the House and Senate and marked into law by President Obama on April 1, CMS should start think of its alternatives on the method as how to make up the legislative procedure along with its own regulating procedure. Despite the fact that this is the second time in almost two years that the ICD-10 consistence date has been pushed back, this time its activity by Congress not CMS that has been taken. The delay will probably be disruptive and excessive for the healthcare delivery innovation, payment reform, public health, and healthcare investing, and doubt regarding the implementation date just raise the interruption and cost, as stated in 11 April letter to CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner, the Coalition for the ICD-10 urged that the delay for the code switch over due date not stretch past Oct 2015, and therefore CMS declare October 1, 2015 as the latest implementation date for the ICD-10 as quickly as possible.

Kathleen LePar, VP of key administrations at strategic services at Beacon Partners, stated in a latest blog: "We have been hearing for the previous two years, 'I had enough time to implement ICD-10 effectively.' "Well, now you have the chance to do it right." LePar mentioned some beneficial examples for the stakeholders should take advantage of ICD-10 compliance due date is delayed until 2015 by Congress. Now the issue is how can healthcare organizations justify the budget to carry out the following initiatives on an extended period of time? If one makes few sound functional modifications, increase your revenue cycle procedures, recognize and minimize risk, you will definitely enjoy the economic and compliance benefits eventually. You are likely to recognize better billing performance and output by recording all services supplied properly for compensation. Industry reports project about 30% to 40% drop in cash after the transition. For those who spend the money and time, now to consider many of these measures, you would be better placed minimize the possibility of the substantial effect on cash flow.

Since Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) continues to be a critical component to quality reporting and enhancing cash flow, it has an important effect on making the most of your reimbursements both before and after the transition, regardless if it’s Oct 2014 or Oct 2015. Irrespective of the delay decision, you need a way to maintain and encourage coders. When you have spent money training them, you must have an excellent plan to ensure that they're at huge demand. Losing coders might be a acute problem despite having a delay. The delay has an advantage to execute a “deep dive” which will discover and enhance current work flows to improve performance and productivity to push bottom line enhancement along with constant risk analysis. You may take an advantage of the delay to judge the way a CAC option can really help reach transition goals while reducing expenses and growing coder productivity. Implementing CAC correctly needs time to work and practice to achieve the most productivity results. A Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) Program will help you to improve the benefits of CAC. The delay gives an opportunity to determine the possible risk areas and issues within ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. You can find the areas for extra training after the final results of dual coding. Earlier it was challenging for a lot of organizations to operate within the pressurized time schedule. Since it is delayed now, the additional time can be used to get a more complete plan to make sure each IT systems as well as partners have the capability for receiving and producing ICD-10 codes for billing and internal/external reporting reasons. Healthcare software development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide healthcare IT services. All of our healthcare developers have cleared industry certifications. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Is the Meaningful Use program making the expected progress?

The Medicare and Medicaid EHR or Electronic Health Care Record Program is designed to provide a variety of incentive payments that are meant for eligible professionals, hospitals, as well as various Critical Access Clinics or Hospitals. These programs adopt, upgrade, implement as well as demonstrate various meaningful use of the certified EHR technology.

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More categorically speaking, Meaningful Use (MU) can be defined as a set of conditions or criteria that are used in the EHR systems for improving the quality of patient care services that are offered by the clinics, hospitals as well as other healthcare providers. This concept was for the first time developed by NQF or the National Quality Forum. The ideas that are included within Meaningful Use include incorporation of improved health for the population, a proper coordination of care, improved health care safety or security, proper as well as safe patient engagement. Generally, there are two types of MU or EHR programs. While one is the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, the other is Medicaid EHR Incentive Program. Both the programs have similarity with each other though there are certain differences as well.

These incentive medical programs are specifically designed for supporting an increased adoption as well a use of EHRs. The ultimate objective of these programs is to improve the outcome of patient health care systems. Such has been the progress of these programs that more and more healthcare clinics are vying to adopt them. However, the healthcare service providers need to attain a certain extent of eligibility before they can implement the programs. Of late, the Meaningful Use Program is making substantial progress, both in terms of proper participation as well as meeting their objectives. So much has been the progress of the program that over 93 percent of the eligible health care service providers, while 82 percent of the eligible health care professionals are now registered to conduct the program.

Meanwhile, more than 334,081 providers have already received payments for successfully attesting and the rate of successful attestation is a whopping 99.9 percent and it is growing all the time.

The objective of the program is met in more than 50 percent of occasions, while the actual average threshold has been to the tune of 90 percent. Riding high on the successful implementation of the MU program and its rate of success, new hospitals are constantly joining the ranks of those who have effectively achieved the objectives through use of the program each month along with reaching the important program milestones.

As per the recent statistics, by the end of July 2013 about two third of the clinics as well as hospitals have successfully achieved the first stage of “Meaningful Use” while another 16 percent of the clinics have received mecicaid incentive payments to adopt the certified HRT technology. Taking into account the stakes along with the fast changing healthcare scenarios this can well be said that the Meaningful Use programs have made substantial progress. Here is a brief account of the progress made by the program.

Amongst the 17 percent of the clinics or hospitals, that have still not qualified for incentive payment, over 50 percent have either opted to register for Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive curriculum or have enrolled in the Regional Extension Center (REC). This clearly shows their awareness for the incentive programs. Besides, it is also an indication that they are slowly but steadily working towards adopting the Meaningful Use.

Till date, the small rural hospitals have shown the highest MU achievement rates. As per the statistics, 76 per cent of the small rural hospitals, 72 percent of the medium scale hospitals, while 77 percent of the large scale hospitals have implemented and successfully adopted the program. Comparatively, rates have been found to be slightly on the lower side, when it comes to Critical Access Hospitals and the small urban clinics and hospitals. 61 and 56 percent of them respectively, have so far adopted the program. Touch base with a healthcare software development firm to develop medical practice management system.

We provide healthcare software development services. All of our healthcare developers have cleared industry certifications. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Monday, 21 April 2014

mHealth market flourishing worldwide

Europe, the quickest mHealth segment, has been caught up with making ventures in health department and creating proactive government-financed mHealth attempts, said by the BCC Healthcare Analyst Cheryl Barton, author of BCC Research report, "mHealth (Mobile Health) Technologies and Global Markets." However, the worldwide mHealth business sector is expected to hit $21.5 billion in four years, with an annual develop rate of 54.9%, another review likewise uncovers North America's days as the largest market may be numbered. The European Commission intends to provide an mHealth greenpaper in 2014 to secure how quality and transparency could be created within the mHealth industry. Europe has already been proactive in creating government-subsidized mHealth projects and lot of prominent non-profit companies, for example, the European mHealth Alliance, European Health Forum Gastein and European Connected Health Alliance have already been founded to improve the profile and also study the possible importance of mHealth throughout Europe.

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A group of decision-makers approach by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for handling mHealth applications and devices and making strategy and administrative action that works in light of concern for all the parties associated are required. While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expressed that new mHealth devices (think iphones being utilized as endoscopes) will fall under federal medical equipment regulations, it hasn't yet authoritatively issued such a presentation for mobile health software regardless of expanding influence (both pro and con) by lawmakers, industry sections and medical experts. Six lawmakers sent a letter a week ago to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg persuading the FDA for more transparency and clarification and looking for particular reply to inquiries, for example, how the federal agency figures out which software capacities needs FDA audit. In the meantime, couple of lawmakers have called a bill named Preventing Regulatory Overreach To Enhance Care Technology Act of 2014 (the PROTECT Act), that might put the National Institute of Standards and Technology accountable for technical standards with respect to clinical software. Anyway the mHealth Regulatory Coalition is doing combating that proposal. Recently, few renowned medical professionals published a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association demanding for an unbiased review and certification process that physicians could securely recommend mobile applications as a major aspect of treatment and to guarantee patients such instruments are reliable.

The U.S. hasn't yet made a list of organization to associate mHealth adoption and utilization. However the U.S. is appreciating balanced stream of mHealth device innovations. A research uncovers patient monitoring devices, since 2012, was the best segment for U.S. mHealth accounting for 70% of deals which is $420 million. According to the news the U.S. is currently struggling with regulatory decision making with respect to mHealth applications devices, a problem which could impede government's mHealth industry development. "Immense possibilities continue to exist in the U.S. for the advancement of remote monitoring applications, especially taking after the positive shift in insurers' attitudes to mHealth technologies as well as its potential effect on extended healthcare cost savings," said Barton, noting that in 2013, Bluestar (an interactive remote monitoring application for diabetic patients) had become the first ever FDA authorized or approved mobile application for being reimbursed by the health insurance providers. Barton stated yet another strong-growing U.S. mHealth segment consists of diagnostics, education and training programs, that are actually being sparked on through increasing mobile device use by healthcare professionals and also the common people. Barton stated profits are expected to reach around $1 billion in 2018, because of a yearly development rate of 55.5%. Mobile health app development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide offshore mHealth development services. All of our healthcare developers have cleared industry certifications. If you would like to hire mobile medical app developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Saturday, 19 April 2014

How prepared are insurers for ICD-10?

ICD-10 is the tenth version of revision done by the ICD or International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. It is actually a list of medical classification that is done by the WHO or World Health Organization that codes various diseases, their signs as well as symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints along with social circumstances, external factors causing diseases as well as injury.

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ICD1-10 that is set to be implemented on and from 1st October 2014 is likely to surpass the 1999-2000 Y2K issue buzz that had rocked the world. However, all the insurance service providers are getting prepared for the deadline and are confident to get ready to face the new format of claim processing.

However, before we discuss the preparedness of these insurance service providers let us briefly discuss how the changeover is likely to affect the proceedings. This changeover, that can be compared to the Y2K system upgrades way back in 1999-2000, will make it imperative for the health insurance plans to deal differently with various business processes along with staffing.

In short, the new format will have more technical improvements that will make the life of the policy holders easier and the process less cumbersome. Plans will demand more accuracy and will have a wider breadth of the health related data that will help the insurers, gather more health related information about the policy holders. It will help the insurers to break down the information for increased targeted interventions. Now the question is what the health insurers will do to face it? Some of the suggestions are:

  • Reviewing the existing technology for understanding various affected areas.
  • Conducting a typical operational assessment for seeing the business processes that will be affected by this trend.
  • Conducting an assessment for taking stock of the people who will need ICD-10 training.
  • Conducting strategic assessment for determining the way the company will adopt when it comes to handling ICD-10 along with reviewing the efficacy of each option.

Now coming to the extent of preparation by the insurance service providers to counter ICD-10, certain recommendations have been framed by the AAFP or American Academy of Family Physicians. In order to comply with their recommendations, the insurers are in the process of taking the following precautionary steps or better to say, steps of readiness.

  • They are going to confirm that the evaluation of internal products and the processes thereof are complete.
  • They will be acknowledging that the ‘upstream’ testing of the data as well as processes that are incoming from the clearing department and other health related IT companies whom they have entered partnership with. At the same time they will guarantee that the process is complete and foolproof.
  • The will identify the number of provider groups that have submitted or have planned to submit claims for testing the ‘downstream’ process.
  • Share problems and issues that the testing or evaluation has revealed.
  • Guarantee the availability as well as the feasibility of the contingency plans that have been chalked our to take care of the problem areas.
  • Provide various opportunities of multiple testing of the claim testing practices.
  • Reveal multiple plans to resolve various intricate post-implementation issues.
  • Identifying the touch points of the current system as well as the work processes that are currently using the ICD-9 codes.
  • Discussing with the Vendors of PMS or Practice Management System regarding ICD-9 code recommendations.
  • Discussing plans of implementations with all the clearing houses and billing services to guarantee a smooth transition.
  • Discuss with the payers about the way ICD-10 will or may affect the contracts
  • Assessing the need of staff training.

So a majority of these insurers is coming up with a series of webinars to be able to answer questions raised by the physicians. They are also restructuring their infrastructures to make sure that the facilities along with the brick and mortar offices would take care of any issue(s) pertaining to the at-risk claims. Healthcare it development teams can help you build projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.


We provide healthcare IT services. All of our healthcare developers have cleared industry certifications. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Friday, 11 April 2014

Ambulatory Care Grows Abruptly and Rapidly

In 2000, an aggregation of specialists assembled by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reported that, despite the fact that significant medicinal blunder and harm was happening in the ambulatory setting, next to no examination had been carried out to comprehend the reasons why. To address what they distinguished as a genuine issue, this master board made 11 particular suggestions that were proposed to invigorate scrutinize around there. Fast forward to the present and, as with such a large number of value change endeavors, practically none of these proposals have been implemented and the issue persists.

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Because of developments in technology, healthcare experts now perform more methods securely on an outpatient groundwork. This new capability spares both time and money, as patients don't have the overhead of investing extra time in the medical. Ambulatory care consideration alludes to an extensive variety of therapeutic administrations and systems that are led on an outpatient support.

Wandering forethought could be given at a doctor's facility, specialist's office, or ambulatory surgery center (ASC). Systems directed at these offices incorporate blood tests, X-beams, endoscopy, some biopsies, catheterizations, minor surgery, childbirth, plastic surgery, eye care and substantially more. Freestanding birthing centers are likewise getting to be more prevalent, with offices that can oblige mother and kid for up to 72 hours. In rural areas, MACCs can serve as a alternative for medicals. In any case, the MACC drivers must pick their areas precisely dependent upon physical area, population and demographics. There has been a trend toward efficient services with better utilization of space. In order to make the most profit, ACSs have cut overhead costs by reducing the amount of unneeded space and supplies in their facilities. A few evaluations assert 60 to 70 percent of all surgical techniques in the US are carried out on an outpatient grounds, and incomes from ambulatory care are considered to developing more quickly than those from inpatient care. There are some explanations behind the increment in ambulatory care programs:

  • Changing interest for health services
  • Moving preference of third-party payers and controllers
  • Aggressive impacts
  • Enhancement of risk

Race for healthcare industry share is very aggressive. As Medicals are spreading their range to pull in patients they are acting so right in order to competing with contenders by developing ambulatory facilities straightaway nearby a contender's main yard. By giving a full extend of administration lines, a contending medical is planning to secure piece of the pie by heading off straight to the community. As the pattern is moving to outpatient methods, business savvy medicals and doctor aggregations looking around the potential need are evaluating their businesses to check whether these services are a right fit.


A 2010 RAND Corp study inferred that around 17% of patients looking for care in a medical's ED could be cured at an emergency care or retail center. That is a generous market that any medical or doctor team could help provide to. With urgent care fetching around $250-450 for every square foot, contrasted with around $600 at the normal cost for every square foot for doctor's facility space, these types of establishments are proficiently run and cost effective improvements. Not just offering significantly lower co-pays, which make it less demanding for easier salary patients to get care, however these types of outpatient focuses offer fast and helpful treatment. Should patients not have the capacity to see their consistent specialist, or are looking for medication throughout nights and weekends, urgent care clinics and satellite EDs are very popular and valuable alternatives. They are both of the ambulatory facility class, and considered, have seen the best development throughout the last one decade or so in terms of new medical real estate improvement. This is happening for a number of reasons, around them: convenient, effective and competitive. Touch base with a healthcare software development firm to develop ambulatory healthcare system.

We provide healthcare IT services. All of our healthcare developers have cleared industry certifications. If you would like to hire healthcare software developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

Emerging Technology for Population Healthcare

North Georgia Physicians Group (NGPG) has minimized the AIC levels of its patients suffering from diabetic by 1.6 points and remarkably subsided ER visits with a view to acquiring insight into its patient population by utilizing leveraging data analytic technology.

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Without seeing the rewards delivered by the digital Transformation of health data, a group of health providers unscrupulously question about the value of IT. In fact, these providers construe that the adoption of EHRs and supporting technologies are nothing bt sheer wastage of valuable time and heavy expenditure of money although it provides a little bit of immediate boost of short-term fame for their organizations and patients. They often demand for the vivid evidence of the health IT, which simultaneously projects the curtailment in costs and improvement of patient care. But the NGPG, where a good number of 180 learned physicians are working, has a befitting answer to the cynical question raised by the healthcare providers. The transition to EHR technology was undoubtedly an important procedure to digitize and standardize the patient data as it facilitates the basic foundation for data accumulation and automation. Population health management technology has an impact on patients health and business resources. Needless to say that these data analytic devices facilitate the electronic data which lies in EHR (or throughout many disparate EHR) to explore serious tendencies in patient population tendencies which health providers can work on. In this context, NGPG has set an example in using the data intelligence facilitated by a population health management solution with a view to making it more popular and convenient in the patients and commercial sections.

By implementing the Allscripts Enterprise platform since 2006, NGPG has been using EHR for a pretty long time. At present, the physicians Group has risen upto 100% without using paper-work from the perspective of a charting calculation.

It came into the limelight when it was awarded with a Transform MED grant from the esteemed Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMM) which has initiated the experiment with population health management in technology. In order to find out any flaws or short comings in the existing caring system or trends in communicating the same for rectification to the patients and providers, Phytel Outreach would assist in all possible ways as it is combined with an electronic patient registration system connected with automatic messaging process.

Medical Establishments have been acknowledging a population health management (PHM) approach to provide better care to patients at a lower rate expenditure with a motto to promote reformation in healthcare system. Through demonstration procedure, Phytel Co-ordinate Providers Physician Associates care managers give proper briefing hand-on-tools which are essentially required to satisfy the patients at a time when their health is on the risk index/graph, and decide what kind of tools/devices with due methods needed first so that he may get rid of the problem, either in office or during visits. The automation solution accumulates and normalizes data provided by the group's EHR as such that the care coordinators can concentrate to patient care without wasting time in collecting the data they acquire from patient charts. As precautionary measures, Phytel co-ordinate even flags all patients who are in high risk and in the need of quick attention. Better not to presume whether they contacted their providers recently or not.

In addition, for various section of population, Phytel co-ordinates may be utilized without facing any difficulties. For instance an Orientation Program on diabetes can be organized by the Physician Associates, if they really desire and the Phytel co-ordinate may approve care managers and , in a moment with the help of the computer keys all patients suffering from diabetes (the silent killer) could timely be benefited through e-mail or automated personalized communication system. You can get in touch healthcare it development companies to get your healthcare software developed.

We develop electronic medical records for healthcare providers.. If you would like to talk to one of our certified EMR EHR Software development experts, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Sunday, 6 April 2014

Telehealth is New Technological Boon For Healthcare

Needless to say that Telehealth has now been very helpful in changing the manner in which healthcare services are utilized and made available. Since the patient care has been the core issue of paramount importance, every medical centre now gladly adopts telehealth due to its reliable, rapid and comfortable services of care-taking.

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In order to take proper care and reduce stress on the healthcare process, medical hospitals and GPs have started giving due importance on video conferencing and guiding in consultation to ascertain the proper diagnosis from remote locations. This process has proved to be an outstanding reality which has facilitated magnificent opportunity for conducting the future GP surgery and enhanced access to the professional experts under the purview of the basic care process.

It is a fact that while A&E services are facing great difficulties to pay due attention, this particular technology could greatly minimize the unbearable load of the healthcare arrangement in the UK.

Telehealth would be able to look at the overall modification concerning main attention, for instance, considering the development of isolated medical diagnosis as well as observation rooms, permitting patients to get diagnosed by using link and therefore observed slightly through professionals. Telehealth has the benefit of each possibility to develop high-defination conferencing meetings packages by permitting categories of specialists to debate on treatment solutions collectively, regardless of their presence of location and providing additional time for delivering various essential solutions.

Such applications of Telehealth not only possess the potential to accelerate the clinical diagnosis and prescription process of providing longer duration results but also share the patients from wastage of time and tedious journey.

Telehealth is constantly improving and it can be made suitable under required conditions. Optometry and Renal rare are already recognized for telehealth which could possibly be utilized; patients kept on dialysis can be watched remotely in their own houses. Moreover, eye-tests can be conducted through video conferencing.

The integration into mobile devices is an advanced development of the telehealth that facilitates the patients to interact with their doctors via video streaming which is totally a new technology and proved to be more trustworthy and affordable. Thousands of nurses support-staff and Gps would be benefited from this new technology, in a desired period of time, by broadening the access in a caring and befitting manner.

Possibly, we would shortly witness telehealth emerged as more technical aid of healthcare. This include the treatment process from psychological patients or prisoners. Video links could be available through mobile phones. The people who work in such organizations where visitors are usually prohibited. This new technology would easily help each and every rehabilitation method for the improvement of the psychological and physical patients.

The Cumbria and Lancashire Telestroke Network, which is functional under 8 medical centers in the north west could be given as a vivid example of performing of the telehealth. These systems offer an out of hours, remote video stroke diagnosis service, enabling fast prescription of proper medication, regardless of the location of the doctor.

Around 4,000 people throughout Cumbria and Lancashire being affected from strokes annually, this method of technology has really decreased the amount of incidences as well as deathrate in the area, especially in remote locations where medical care is beyond reach.

A lot more tech-savvy are the younger generation, might become more willing to enjoy the benefits of telehealth and also the services it provides, while the elderly people will be benefited a lot more through unique apps of telehealth. For insitance, the older people or even all those likely to have seizures are often provided with life-saving remote detectors to use, which will call for the emergency teams when they suffer.

Telehealth is emerging as a highly effective solution which is able to take advantage of unique, reasonable technology with all the possibility of delivering suitable, efficient care for patients wanting to adapt to it, and also offers a different approach for an owerloaded NHS to provide extraordinary health results. You can get in touch healthcare mobile app development companies to get your software developed.

We provide web based EMR/EHR development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified EMR software developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Impact of Cloud Technology on Health IT

Introduction of cloud technology has revolutionized the IT industry. Naturally, there is no doubt that the health industry will also be equally benefited from this new technology immensely. In fact, such has been the impact of cloud technology on health related IT industry that the sector has seen a growth of a new proportion altogether. Amongst all the industry sectors that have received shot in the arms because of the advent of cloud technology, health care sector has been the one that has seen the maximum impact. Let us discuss some of the benefits that this particular sector now enjoys because of the cloud technology.

Security and resiliency of data

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This particular technology has offered optimal durability when it comes to securing as well as safeguarding the database of the clients along with other critical information. The technology offers an option to the service providers to build a large amount of data centres. These data centres help users to maintain backup along with the resiliency of data and lower the cost uptime. The technology is extremely cost effective and thus can be adapted by even the smaller clinics which relatively weaker coffers.

As patients’ databases contain a lot of confidential data there is an utmost need of protecting them 24x7. This is why, the IT infrastructure as well as the network system of hospitals or clinics need to be absolutely secured from the hackers or unauthorized as well as illegal users. Cloud computing has provided that level of security to make sure that the data stored are absolutely safe as well as secured. However, health care clinics as well as hospitals who take the help of cloud computing mechanism adhere to the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act or HIPAA.

Cost cutting

In general, any business opting to create any additional storage system for maintaining a backup other than their regular storage space, have to incur some extra cost to have access to the resource. Cloud computing does the same thing, but with the involvement of a much lesser cost. This is because the new mechanism only responses to the basic needs of its clients rather than any other factors. Naturally, this will lead to a considerable amount of cost cutting which after all, every business looks forward to.

Access of info to authorized personnel

Only a permission granted by a doctor will allow an individual to have access to the database of any hospital or a health clinic. However, even if an individual has the doctor’s permission, visibility may be at times, restricted and the login details may not be always available under normal circumstances. However, with the advent of cloud technology, patients and their relatives are able to log in to the database and avail any information they might need, for referring to prescriptions that match with the ailments. Again, this will give someone the chance to consult a doctor even if the doctor is out of the station and this naturally gives a shot in the arm of the health care sector in a huge way. Patients, who are critically ill, are saved because of this technology as for them, time is extremely crucial and any delay whatsoever can lead to fatality that may even cause death.

Mobile component

The conventional intranet systems that were previously used in health as well as other industry sector were mainly dependent on the desktop computers used by individual employees. However, the advent of cloud computing has introduced a great deal of mobility to the users along with an appreciable extent of convenience. Thanks to this technology, healthcare professionals as well as others who are authorized are able to get access to important information on any mobile device like Smartphones, tabs and so on, even without any permission or special settings.

The world of technology is changing at a lightning speed. Cloud computing is simply one of the most robust and revolutionary technologies that have been introduced recently. Much due to this particular technique, it is now possible to access files and applications that are shared online. Thanks to the technology, doctors and medical professionals are now able to share the same information from different locations. You can get in touch with healthcare mobile app development companies to get your software developed.

We provide EMR EHR software development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified EMR software developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Monday, 31 March 2014

Progress of HIE - Health Information Exchanges

Electronic Health Information Exchange (HIE) can be defined as an electronic mobilization of healthcare or medical information across various organizations that are located within a specific region, community or a chain of hospitals. The system allows medical practitioners, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab personnel, other professionals connected to the medical business as well as relatives of the patients to properly access and share critical medical information electronically. This increases the speed, safety, along with the quality of the care that is given to the patients.

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Technically speaking, this timely as well as effective sharing of vital information will improve the mechanism of decision making. This will help the clinics to:
  • Avoid readmissions of patients
  • Keep various types of errors at bay
  • Improve diagnosis of the patients
  • Minimize the chance of duplicate testing that at times plague diagnosis, especially when any patient has any prolonged and persistent illness
There are three types or forms of HIEs that are practiced:

Directed Exchange:

It allows electronic exchange of secured information between various medical service providers for providing a coordinated as well as synchronized care.

Query Based Exchange:

It allows the clinics to search or request for information on a particular patient for supporting coordinated care.

Consumer Mediated Exchange:

This helps the patients to aggregate as well as control the use of information relating to their health among the medical practitioners.

Benefits and progress of HIE:

Of late, for better tracking as well as secured sharing of the complete medical histories of patients, these HIEs are getting increasingly popular and an increased number of doctors are taking part in these HIEs. The practice is getting more and more popular among the doctors. Following are the benefits that these HIEs provide:
  • Helps in improving the quality as well as safety of patients through reducing the medication as well as the errors
  • Stimulates the education of the consumers along with the involvement of the patients for the betterment of their own health
  • Increases the efficiency through the process of elimination of unnecessary paperwork
  • Provides the doctors a wide range of support tools that will facilitate taking clinical decisions for effective treatment of the patients
  • Eliminates the need of unnecessary or redundant testing
  • Helps to improve monitoring and reporting of public health
  • It helps creating a potential feedback loop between actual practice and health care related research
  • It also helps to facilitate effective deployment of various cutting edge technologies and emerging services related to health care.
  • It forms the backbone or the fundamental interoperability level among the different EHRs or Electronic Health
  • Records that are maintained by the individual physicians as well as organizations.
  • Last but not the least; it helps in significant reduction of costs involved in treatment.
Electronic Health Information Exchanges are excellent platforms that facilitate prevention of errors during the prognosis. This is ensured by various value added features like automated reminders for appointments, or follow-up instructions that are automatically dispatched directly to the patients, or automatic dispatch of prescriptions to the pharmacies. Thus, they significantly reduce the time that a patient needs to spend for filling up the documents and briefing their medical service providers on their respective medical history. Thus, they allow more time for discussions related to the health related concerns as well as treatments. HIE has, therefore, every potential for both cost cutting as well as improvement of health related outcomes.

These HIEs are being pushed to the limits of their capacity by various medical services so much so that these exchanges are continually enhancing their capabilities to reach out to serve an increased number of medical practitioners as well as the patients alike. The technicality of these HIEs is such that they provide equal importance or emphasis to the care givers and the patients and give them equal parts and areas to operate in. You can get in touch with healthcare software development companies to get your software developed.

We provide EMR EHR software development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified EMR software developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.