Burnouts can leave you physically weak, cynical and ineffective. They can make you doubt everything in life. But, there is a way to recover from burnouts. Instead of being in the victim seat, taking the seat of responsibility can bring more control over life. Mental state of burnout can take a toll of your happiness. More sleep will be needed and taking small steps of change will go a long way in the recovery. Setting boundaries and thinking bigger will help more than it seems to. Read more at: https://hbr.org/2017/12/to-recover-from-burnout-regain-your-sense-of-control

Wearables are more than a fitness tracker. Life Insurance providers are now using this gadget to track their customers' heart rate, sleep patterns and physical activity and reward policy takers with policy discounts and movie tickets. It is also being used to redefine traumatic medical events like heart attacks and claims correspond to that. To know more, please read the article by Ruth Liew (Reporter at ‘ The Sydney Morning Herald’ ) -: http://www.smh.com.au/business/wearable-tech-the-future-of-life-insurance-20160309-gnf60l.html

Image source -:http://www.healthworkscollective.com/veer-gidwaney/163271/how-wearables-will-transform-health-insurance-game

A recent research report shows that Medicare ACOs are facing difficulty to control and manage patient care because most beneficiaries have unrestricted choice over choosing healthcare providers. Much of the specialty care received was provided outside the patients' assigned ACO. The potential challenges in outpatient care are: the proportion of patients assigned to an ACO in 1 year who remained assigned the next year

• The proportion of office visits outside a patient's contracting organization

• The proportion of Medicare outpatient spending billed by a contracting organization that is devoted to assigned patients.

For more details please visit Mark Crane’s article in this link: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/823951

Insight, a free healthcare analytics software tool launched by Practice Fusion uses real time data from healthcare industry to show patterns against various diagnoses and prescriptions against diseases across seasonality, age, gender and other parameters.

Membership can be taken where more details such as patient and doctor details etc. are available. This software can also be useful for pharmaceutical companies to change their strategies. To know more kindly visit:

http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/analytics/practice-fusion-releases-free-healthcare-analytics-tool/d/d-id/1268917

America according to a recent survey, the healthcare industry in America, have a large untapped market. The Hispanics (an inhabitant of one of the countries of Spanish America), besides being cost conscious are also reluctant in going to doctors but depend more on pharmacists. Thus a potential market lies in the Hispanics. But the Mexicans, Puerto Ricans etc. who fall under various categories of Hispanics must be approached differently as their behaviours and mentality are different.

To know more, kindly visit:-

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/obamacare-deadline/future-health-care-america-think-hispanic-n111461

Wearable technology is the latest trend in healthcare industry. This technology helps doctors, by assisting them in the operating room and providing real time access to electronic health records. By collecting information through this technology, healthcare providers now have more complete and essential real-time data to treat patients. David Peterson - CMO Emdeon Inc., believes that the adoption of wearable healthcare-related devices could indeed be a significant step in patient engagement and improving population health. Not only doctors, now patients can also monitor their own health continuously. Read more about this technology at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vala-afshar/wearable-technology-the-c_b_5263547.html

The universal healthcare system should be divided into private and public spheres according to the commission of audit. The audit suggested a complete reform in health system in order to be sustainable. As per the report, more deregulated and competitive markets with appropriate safeguards have the greatest potential to improve the sector's competitiveness and productivity. In the current community rating system, risks are shared and therefore insurers can't charge a sick person higher premium than a healthy person. They also recommended that high income group should take out private health insurance. For more details please visit the following link: http://www.afr.com/p/national/end_universal_healthcare_audit_says_zrc6GH6VmXQx2YBwlB7gSJ

US Community hospitals are facing issues like declining volume, shrinking patient care and other financial problems. In this situation most of the community hospitals are merging with large entities to survive. In Virginia, Community Memorial Healthcare of Virginia will join Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, the biggest health safety-net provider in the state, to help improve its bottom line and maintain quality care access throughout the region. Community Memorial expects $2.7 million in Medicare cuts next year and $2.9 million in 2016. For more details please visit Katie Sullivan's article link: http://www.fiercehealthfinance.com/story/mergers-key-community-hospital-survival/2014-04-22

The health care industry in India is growing at 1.5 times the GDP growth rate, but still use of information technology in healthcare is insufficient. Currently, Government of India is encouraging private participation due to constraint in public funding capability. Government has launched Health Management Information System (HMIS) in order to take better decision on public health delivery. HMIS portal will convert local health data into real time information, management indicators and trends. A research suggests that the growth rate of India’s health care market is 25%. Also the research suggests that India has the fastest growing healthcare IT market in Asia. Currently seeing the growth rate, many multinational companies are entering in to India’s healthcare industry with innovative and customized products. For more details please visit: http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2014/24904/intelligence-by-variety-where-to-find-and-access-big-data-infographic

According to an analysis, healthcare price transparency initiatives can reduce U.S healthcare expenditure by $100 billion over next decade. The analysis of the study on healthcare price transparency quantifies the potential $100B in savings from three policy initiatives:  Use state all-payer health claims databases (APCDs) to report hospital prices, require electronic health record systems to provide prices to physicians when ordering diagnostic tests, require all private health plans to provide personalized out-of-pocket expense information to enrollees. For more details please visit: http://hitconsultant.net/2014/05/16/3-ways-healthcare-price-transparency-could-save-10b-over-10-years/

The healthcare industry is going to face a great challenge in coming decades. Increasing population & demographic shifts in the society will drive the industry to incur huge costs. Hence to survive, the industry must consider the following remedies: First, healthcare organizations must agree to come under a same umbrella to provide better care to the customers. This process is known as "precision M&A". Secondly, companies need to provide innovative ideas to serve the mankind. Last but not the least; companies should build "powerhouse" business which will go hand in hand with upcoming market & demographics. For more details please visit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2014/05/08/the-key-to-surviving-the-new-brutal-world-of-healthcare/#&SM_LENGTH=7

According to a blog written by Todd Hixon (a contributor in Forbes), healthcare cloud is a major area of innovation.  This article also tells us about opportunities and drawbacks of healthcare cloud. Cloud technologies help in lowering cost by strengthening care coordination, and improve clinical outcomes by analyzing medical data in the cloud. Problems lie in implementing cloud technology due to unavailability of data. To read more about opportunities and problems of implementing healthcare cloud please follow this link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddhixon/2014/05/06/entrepreneurs-outlook-for-the-healthcare-cloud-is-cloudy/

Technology has redefined healthcare industry.  Lot of new dimensions are active into the arena of healthcare industry today, but we have to look into the other side of technology in healthcare as well. The cost of medical treatment is going higher & higher as many new technology enabled options are coming up. "Computers make things better and cheaper. In health care, new technology makes things better, but more expensive," said Jonathan Gruber - an economist at MIT. We need to manage data both on patient and system level - to realize higher-quality and better-value care. We also need technology that will take us to the next level and will reduce costs. To read more, visit: http://recode.net/2014/04/28/technology-made-health-care-expensive-can-it-now-control-costs/

Lean and Six Sigma are popular techniques used in production industries to improve efficiency and quality. Now these process improvement techniques are also applied in healthcare and in software development. To read more about how Lean and Six Sigma can be applied in clinical and translational research, visit Sharon A. Schweikhart (Ph.D.) and Allard E Dembe (Sc.D.)’s, article link as given below

For more please visit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2835466/

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the last date for the third round of new applications for 2015 Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The following five key decisions will help organizations before joining the MSSP program. They are:

•        Estimate the number of Medicare beneficiaries for whom the prospective ACO(Accountable Care Organizations) wants to be accountable.

•        Determine an appropriate contracting vehicle through which to operate the ACO.

•        Consider the types of health care professionals and facilities the prospective ACO should target as participants.   

•         Set expectations for prospective ACO participants in advance.

•        Gather the appropriate staff to address particular aspects of the MSSP Application early and set milestones in advance of submission deadlines where possible.

To read more about this aspect, please visit Stephanie D. Willis’s (Associate of Mintz Levin) article link as given below: http://www.natlawreview.com/article/five-key-decisions-acos-accountable-care-organization-looking-to-participate-2015-ms 

Six sigma can help healthcare providers to improve patient care and reduce uncertainty for care givers. This article speaks about how six sigma can be introduced in healthcare industry and improve the quality of care givers.

For more details please visit http://www.isixsigma.com/industries/healthcare/applying-six-sigma-patient-care

The government of NSW has released their long awaited integrated care strategy. This strategy emphasises on greater collaboration among the big players in health care industry and motivates partnership between hospitals and community based service. The article by Darragh O’ Keeffe, Editor of Australian Ageing Agenda, speaks about this strategy and its benefits.

For more information please visithttp://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/2014/03/20/nsw-takes-lead-connected-healthcare

Healthcare organizations are becoming proficient at creating and storing terabytes of data each month. Unfortunately, their skills to transform that data into knowledge and useful information are not quite so impressive.

The major primary obstacles to widespread analytics adoption are:-

·         Culture does not encourage sharing information.

·         Lack of understanding how to use analytics to improve the business.

·         Ownership of the data is unclear or governance is ineffective.

Please go through the link for more details:

http://healthcareanalytics.info/2013/11/three-main-barriers-to-widespread-analytics-use-in-healthcare-organizations/#.UyhkhqIyX4s

Through a study, Gallup (research organisation) found that two thirds of the Americans are satisfied with the current health care system. People who own insurance schemes are more satisfied with the current health care system compared to others who don’t have insurance schemes. According to Gallup, health care insurance status plays an important role in the life of an American. Researchers also found that most of the young and old people like the present health care system. The article by Laura Matthews, U.S political reporter for the International Business Times, speaks about the Americans’ reaction towards the current health care system.  

For more information please visit http://www.ibtimes.com/majority-americans-say-healthcare-system-isnt-crisis-1561795

Steven Rust, Ph.D., “the Battelle’s Inventor of the Year”, developed and demonstrated a very useful analytical tool which can predict risk associated with a patient in such a way that it can be prevented in an early stage.

 Please go through the link for more details:http://www.battelle.org/media/press-releases/rust-is-battelle-inventor-of-the-year