Hospitals: Trends in Branding and Marketing

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Studies indicate people with chronic conditions want to use mHealth devices at home for care management, but the devices and apps they’re trying are too complex or confusing. More than 100,000 (health) applications are now available in the leading app stores, and the assortment is constantly growing,” says a BAEK study that was discussed at the congress. But only a fraction of the programs are certified as medical products.Mobile health apps for smartphones and tablet computers are especially popular with young people. And demand is rising. There’s a caveat, though. An app can never replace a doctor – at best it can only supplement one, but the problem is that too many patients may be relying on apps that have not been medically tested. The other problem is that many mobile app developers are lax when it comes to data privacy. Users should be careful not to thoughtlessly share personal information.

Chronic Conditions…

A report from digital health analyst Parks Associates indicates 27 percent of those surveyed with a chronic condition want a mobile health device that tracks their condition – yet significant numbers also report that the devices they now have are too complicated to use or don’t work properly.

A lot of patients simply do not have a good grasp on health metrics – meaning they either don’t know what their current health metrics are, or they do not know what they should be, the survey noted. Plus, even when patients do know their numbers, it is not guaranteed that they understand what those numbers mean. To make sense of health metrics and chronic disease management, patients need support from their healthcare providers.

Accuracy Issues?

An independent study of 18 popular mHealth sensors used by people with diabetes finds that two-thirds aren’t meeting standards for accuracy, potentially putting those users at risk.

The analysis of 18 FDA-approved blood glucose monitoring systems (BGMSs) by the Diabetes Technology Society found that only six meters recorded blood glucose levels within 15 percent of mg/dl of the laboratory value in at least 95 percent of the tests. In layman’s terms, this means a person with diabetes can be confident that a blood glucose reading is accurate 19 times out of 20.

Compared with the traditional method of in-office visits, does self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) via digital tools result in better health and wellness for people with non-insulin-treated type 2 diabetes?  In the case of a 450-person cohort studied at 15 primary care practices across the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill health system, the answer was a flat “No.”

The patients were randomized into three different groups. Two groups were given the Telcare connected blood glucose monitor, with one of those groups simply checking in with the device and the other doing the same plus receiving “enhanced patient feedback” (in the form of automated, one-way messages delivered directly on the meter). The third group did not receive a device. After the patients were randomized into groups, their primary care clinicians worked with them to manage their conditions, with those whose patients were using the Telcare devices receiving a summary of the data via their electronic health records.

Researchers were measuring outcomes based on hemoglobin A1c levels and health-related quality of life. Over a year’s time, there were no significant differences in hemoglobin A1c levels nor health-related quality of life over all three groups.

“Incorporating technology into self-management activities has been touted as potentially transformative for patients, and to date some smaller studies support this notion. However, our findings do not,” the researchers wrote in an article published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Pharma may have the solution

Can you imagine a mHealth app developed by pharma that had been clinically tested to show that it provided both accurate data and improved patient outcomes? It would ne recommended by physicians and insurers alike and I’m sure widely adopted.  mHealth developers need to work closely with pharma R&D people yo better understand the clinical trial process.

The use cases of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning could create more personalized engagement for mental healthcare.

While social media use in healthcare has the potential to bring value to patient-provider relationships, it is not without its ethical and professional challenges. This presentation looks at those challenges and suggests ways to deal with them.

Early signs from the FDA point to an agency that seems motivated to move quickly and, ultimately, reinvent itself in the eyes of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry stakeholders.

As telemedicine and virtual care become more ubiquitous in healthcare, providers that occupy the traditional brick-and-mortar model of providing care will have to learn to strike a balance with new digital entrants aimed at improving consumer access, similar to the way Amazon changed the dynamics of the retail industry.

Artificial intelligence, wearable sensors, virtual reality, medical robots are changing the way patients and doctors think and act about healthcare.

A study by researchers at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, US found that 72% of fresh urology graduates had public Facebook profiles of which 40% contained “potentially objectionable” content.

This included pictures of the doctors’ drunk and medical ethics violations such as revealing their patient’s health information. The study brought to light the concern that a physician’s social media use has the potential to break patient trust.

Lead researcher Dr Kevin Koo said, "we all have a role to play in making sure the high standards of patient confidentiality and the doctor-patient relationship are upheld."

Many have examined the implications of HCPs utilising social media

The issue has been a concern for the medical profession for some time now with many GPs surgeries, hospitals, universities and medical societies creating guidelines on what they deem as inappropriate online behaviour.

For example, the American Medical Association issued guidelines in 2010encouraging doctors to "consider separating personal and professional content online" and reiterated the importance of patient privacy. Despite this, Koo is uncertain how many doctors "even know that guidelines exist."

The study found one case in which a patient’s x-ray and name were included in a social media post. Another study conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden found that of 13,000 tweets by 237 doctors, 6% were a potential breach of patient confidentiality.

Interestingly, in a study by researchers at the University of California San Francisco, in which 48 medical boards were asked which of ten social media scenarios would prompt an investigation, most said misleading claims about treatment outcomes would. In a separate case in January, a Canadian nurse, who posted about her grandfather’s inadequate care in another clinic, was penalised.

Maintaining a healthy work-personal life balance

It can be difficult not to cross the line into prohibiting a doctor’s right to share their lives or their opinions however as under “potentially objectionable” content, posts expressing views on religion and politics were also included in the New Hampshire study.

“No one expects doctors to never post an opinion,” Koo said. "We realise they don't live in a vacuum.”

Dr Matthew DeCamp, from the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore suggests doctors "ask yourself if this is something you really want in a public space.” Some doctors have mastered this balance well and created stellar social media presences.

Most guidelines seem to contain the same key behavioral rules and recommendations. Firstly all doctors must be accountable for all content posted on any of their social medical accounts. Secondly it is advised that doctors do not accept friend or follow requests from current or previous patients and in general avoid interacting with them online.

Additionally, patient photos or patient-specific information should not be posted online under any circumstances. Doctors should also be mindful that others may look up to them for general medical advice and so if they do post any, it should be up to date and as accurate as possible.

However social media can also help the medical profession in general as a means to market services and promote good health practices and there are a number of techniques that can help create the best website for a medical centre. MIMS

Oscar Health will partner with the Cleveland Clinic to offer individual coverage in Ohio on the public exchange under the Affordable Care Act.

They need focused strategies and operational discipline.

Outlining the four core elements pharma companies need to lay the foundation for a solid digital health infrastructure.

The Pediatric Insider © 2017 Roy Benaroch, MD Competition often works. Competing dry cleaners or donut shops must either improve the quality of their product or keep their prices low, or customers will go somewhere else for their cruller fix. In time, the better businesses – the ones that provide tastier pastries at a lower…

Hospitals remain high profile and high value targets for ransomware attacks. We’re not a cyber security company, but clients are concerned about safety.

NewYork-Presbyterian is expanding its telemedicine reach. It has launched Pediatric Urgent Care, a new telehealth offering that's part of NYP OnDemand.

Physicians have practiced precision medicine, defined as the tailoring of medical treatment by taking into account individual differences in people’s genes, environments and lifestyles, for decades. The main difference today is that technological advances have given us greater power to combine comprehensive data collected over time about an individual tohelp provide appropriate care.

Further reading: Here's how physicians can impact healthcare policies

The precision medicine initiative, now known as the All of Us Research Program, launched by the National Institutes of Health, is an ambitious effort to gather data for over a million people living in the U.S. It will likely accelerate precision medicine research with the goal of eventually benefiting everyone by providing information that healthcare providers can use in the clinic. However, there are aspects of precision medicine that have emerged, or are beginning to emerge, in different clinics across the country and are being used to benefit patients today.

Pharmacogenomics (PGx), the study of genetic variations that cause individuals to respond differently to medications, is the most widely used form of precision medicine today. Virtually all of us harbor at least one genetic change that predisposes us to metabolize a common medication differently than the average person. A PGx panel with multiple genes can provide gene-drug guidelines for dozens of medications, including common ones like Warfarin, Clopidogrel or various antidepressants.

Trending on our site: Waiting on Congress to fix healthcare could be hazardous to physicians

Modern times demand modern rules. And healthcare marketing is no exception. The market is constantly evolving, leading to a seismic shift in healthcare marketing trends. Here are a few