US adults do not consume enough protein, study warns

ANA SANDOIU | February 25, 2019 | 132 views

New research in the Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging reveals that older people in the United States do not consume enough protein. Insufficient protein is a marker of poor diet and health overall, the study also suggests. With age, the human body loses muscle mass. Sarcopenia, or the age-related gradual loss of muscle function, can slash muscle strength by around 50 percent.

Spotlight

FocusOne Business Services, LLC

FocusOne is a privately held healthcare consulting and services company, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, with satellite offices in South Carolina, North Carolina, and West Virginia. For over 30 years, our experienced team of professionals have provided business management solutions to the healthcare industry. Our clients include physicians, provider networks, hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, technology providers, and many other providers and support organizations serving the healthcare community.

OTHER ARTICLES
HEALTH TECHNOLOGY

3 Key Considerations in Cloud Security for Healthcare Organizations

Article | July 19, 2022

With medical system consolidation and increasing numbers of medical records created, the need for digital access and storage is gaining steam. Digitizing records allows clinicians to improve accuracy and decrease redundant testing and studies, as well as reduce treatment delays. Greater availability of digitized records has other perks too. With vast amounts of accessible medical data, researchers can move public health studies forward, also potentially improving care and treatment of individual patients. As a result, cloud storage is taking off, though healthcare organizations are adopting it more slowly than other industries. According to a 2019 Nutanix report, 71% of healthcare organizations using cloud were considered the least mature – relative beginners – in that they were using fewer cloud services. Compare that figure to finance or retail, where 13% and 15% respectively were beginners. However, that is changing.

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HEALTH TECHNOLOGY

Advanced Healthcare Supply Chains: Why It’s All in the Data

Article | November 18, 2022

During the past decade, the healthcare industry has undergone an unprecedented technological transformation. The industry, once defined by manual processes, has moved squarely into the digital age. As patients, we’ve all become accustomed to seeing physicians as well as clinical staff use laptops during office visits. And behind the scenes, hospitals and health networks have made substantial investments in financial and HR systems, among others. One of the more significant digital advancements has been the industry’s focus on applying greater levels of automation to supply chain processes. In doing so, provider and supplier organizations have improved the efficiency of their supply chains, driven out millions of dollars in cost and waste, all while keeping patient care front and center.

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HEALTH TECHNOLOGY

Artificial Intelligence Adoption in Healthcare

Article | August 16, 2022

Artificial intelligence (AI) – long an impactful technology in other industries – is in the midst of rapid adoption across the healthcare industry. What was once seen as having great potential is now making its way to real-world implementation, driving improvements in care through enhanced clinical decision support, empowering payers, providers and healthcare organizations across the ecosystem with actionable insight. Patient-generated behavioral data is becoming increasingly common for care management. Smart gadgets such as Fitbits, smartphones and other wearable sensors collect patients’ data, helping patients and physicians better understand habits and set realistic healthcare goals.

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Digital Health Democratizes Precision Medicine to Improve Population Health

Article | February 10, 2020

By definition, precision medicine treats the individual while public health focuses on population-level interventions. While public health and precision medicine efforts overlap, some experts argue that precision medicine advancements fall short of public health goals due to their underemphasis on scalability and accessibility. Digital health can help reconcile this conflict by promoting precision medicine’s goal of delivering the right treatment to the right patient at the right time while improving health equity through scalable, accessible solutions.

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Spotlight

FocusOne Business Services, LLC

FocusOne is a privately held healthcare consulting and services company, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, with satellite offices in South Carolina, North Carolina, and West Virginia. For over 30 years, our experienced team of professionals have provided business management solutions to the healthcare industry. Our clients include physicians, provider networks, hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, technology providers, and many other providers and support organizations serving the healthcare community.

Related News

HEALTH TECHNOLOGY, MEDICAL DEVICES

Validic integrates with Smart Meter cellular-enabled connected health devices

prnewswire | March 28, 2023

Validic Inc., a market-leading digital health and personalized care company, continues to expand its healthcare IoT platform with the integration of Smart Meter. This integration brings exclusive cellular-enabled, patient-friendly monitoring devices supplied by Smart Meter, a leading connected health solution supplier to a rapidly growing nationwide network of SmartPartners, to the Validic ecosystem. Smart Meter's proprietary, cellular, FDA-registered monitoring devices are connected to an exclusive AT&T 4/5G private data network to ensure an engaging patient experience for improved adherence. The devices help manage the most prevalent chronic conditions, including blood glucose monitors for diabetes; blood pressure monitors for hypertension and other cardiac diseases; pulse oximeters for COPD, COVID-19, and other respiratory disorders; and weight scales for congestive heart failure and weight-related diseases. "Our proprietary monitoring devices can only connect and transmit patient-generated data when connected to our private data network, ensuring reliable and secure delivery to Validic clients," said Smart Meter Chief Marketing Officer Bill Bassett. "And eliminating the need for patients to pair, sync or connect to Wi-Fi or an app on their phone may improve patient satisfaction and increase the use of their monitoring devices." Validic's health IoT platform is the largest ecosystem of connected health devices and apps, which streams continuous, near-real-time personal health data from 540+ home health and wearable devices. Organizations can access blood pressure, pulse oxygen, blood glucose, heart rate, weight, temperature, sleep, nutrition, respiratory, activity data, and more through a single, endpoint connection. "Technology should be so easy to use that it becomes invisible to the person using it," said Validic CEO Drew Schiller. "The addition of Smart Meter cellular-enabled health monitoring devices to our ecosystem offers another option to help people focus on their health and live their best lives." About Validic Founded in 2010, Validic Inc. is a digital health and personalized care company devoted to our mission of improving the quality of human life by making personal data actionable. With the world's largest health IoT platform and EHR-embedded remote care application, we help healthcare organizations give every person tailored interventions and personalized care, improving healthcare efficiency and delivery, and empowering people to play an active role in their health and well-being. Leading healthcare providers, health plans and health IT companies, such as Mass General Brigham, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, CVS Health and Elevance Health, use our solutions to deliver high-touch and personalized chronic condition management, remote care, and support for healthy living. With a platform intentionally built to support a broad digital health strategy and scale across populations and conditions, Validic supports the largest RPM program in the country, with more than 300,000 enrolled patients since its inception and 7,000 referring providers. Our digital health platform has 540+ supported devices with more than 15 billion annual data transactions. Our remote care solution is available as a standard integration in the Epic Connection Hub and Cerner Millennium®. In 2022, Validic received the North American Customer Value Award for the Medical Device Connectivity Industry by Frost and Sullivan and was named Best Overall Connected Healthcare Solution by MedTech Breakthrough. Validic is HIPAA-compliant, HITRUST CSF Certified®, and ISO-27001 certified for Information Security Management.

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DIGITAL HEALTHCARE, HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS

Orion Health strengthens North American operations with new technology and leadership

prnewswire | March 27, 2023

Orion Health, a global leader in population health software, is strengthening its position in North America with new technology and the appointment of James Rice as Executive Vice President for North America. With operations in 12 U.S States and seven Canadian Provinces, the company has long been at the forefront of transformational Digital Health in North America. Orion Health is continuing on this path with the launch of the Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform leading away from traditional broken healthcare systems, by creating patient-first digital health solutions. Alongside his new position, Rice will continue in his strategic role on the Orion Health global Executive Leadership Team with responsibility for the company's sales, business growth and marketing strategy. His new role will see Orion Health having a global executive on the ground in North America and demonstrates the company's confidence and commitment to this significant market. Brad Porter, Orion Health Global Chief Executive says the North American health sector is in desperate need for innovative technology to reduce the strain brought on by the pandemic and the ever-increasing shortage of medical professionals. "To overcome the challenges facing the sector today, we need to reimagine how IT can improve healthcare by giving more time back to medical professionals and making health systems easier for users to navigate. We're already seeing how Digital Front Door technology is achieving this in parts of Canada, and we look forward to introducing these solutions across more regions in North America," says Porter. Orion Health has been operating in North America for more than 25 years. In addition to its DFD, Orion Health has developed over 30 state or province-wide Digital Care Records (DCR) or health information exchanges across the US and Canada, allowing health information to flow seamlessly to and from authorized organizations and individuals across the state. Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform In 2023 Orion Health is reinventing its Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform, which is made up of its Digital Care Record (DCR), Digital Front Door (DFD), and its new Health Intelligence Platform (HIP). "HIP is an exciting new health-centric solution that helps customers get the most out of their data. As a core component of the Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform, HIP is a scalable, modular data solution that compliments the full range of products in the Amadeus suite. "James will lead the implementation of Orion Health's Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform strategy across North America, and thus will play an instrumental role in improving health outcomes for the region," says Porter. In his new role, Rice is leading the North American arm of Orion Health as well as the Middle East. He is responsible for creating and leading revenue streams focused on these markets. With more than 25 years of experience, five of which at Orion Health, James's experience makes him the perfect candidate to lead the team working to deliver the right care, to the right people, at the right time. "The North American market is hugely important to Orion Health. I'm looking forward to engaging with existing and prospective customers, showing them how our transformational new technology will change the game for healthcare," says Rice. About Orion Health Orion Health is a global healthcare technology company focused on reimagining healthcare for all. We are leading the change in digital health with health and care organizations to improve the wellbeing of every individual with our world leading Unified Healthcare Platform. Made up of a Digital Front Door, Digital Care Record, and Intelligence Platform - each underpinned by extensive health and social data sets, machine learning, and 30 years of innovation focused purely on improving global well-being.

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HEALTHTECH SECURITY, HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS

Ribbon Health Expands Platform to Enable Access to Provider Appointment Booking, Eliminating Barriers to Care

prnewswire | March 24, 2023

Ribbon Health a leader in healthcare provider data technology and management, announced the launch of new platform features that will increase access to care through provider scheduling. Enabled by partnerships with leading booking marketplaces, these new platform capabilities empower patients to easily search for providers that both fit their needs and are accepting new patients, and book appointments with those providers for high-quality care across primary, specialty, urgent, or mental health. Ribbon's platform offers real-time availability data from health systems and direct partner integrations, giving care providers, navigators, and health plans a single source of truth to guide consumers to the right care. "Securing an appointment quickly" is the most important factor for having a positive healthcare experience, according to one-third of Americans surveyed in a recent report. Yet, there are a number of barriers inhibiting people from finding and booking high-quality care appointments when they need to most. Patients, providers, and care teams must navigate across multiple touchpoints, spend significant time and effort tracking down needed information, and contend with a growing physician shortage and a shrinking number of available therapists. All of these barriers lead to an average 26-day wait for an appointment in the best of circumstances, which could lead to worsening health, or patients opting out of care completely. These barriers to care will be removed with Ribbon's new capabilities such as insight into which providers are accepting new patients, provider appointment availability, and booking links. With partner integrations across leading booking platforms, patients can attend a virtual or in-person appointment in as little as 48 hours; this is compared to the national average of two to three weeks, if not months. Patients will have seamless access to high-quality mental health, primary, specialty, and urgent care at the fraction of the cost of out-of-network or emergency services. For the first time, patients, providers, and care teams can use one central platform to find the right care using Ribbon's comprehensive provider directory data, accepted insurances, cost, and quality metrics to understand whether a provider is available, and then book an appointment. "It shouldn't be harder to book care with a doctor than it is to book a flight or hotel," said Nate Maslak, Ribbon co-founder and CEO. "Unfortunately, that is still the case today. This launch is an important step in achieving our mission of accessible, affordable, and high-quality care for everyone. It will ensure patients can find the right doctor for their needs by allowing them to filter for availability and quickly book an appointment, rather than navigating through several websites or phone numbers each time and waiting weeks to months for care." Ribbon's enhanced capabilities will help healthcare organizations decrease the administrative burden for care teams looking to direct patients to in-network providers. By improving the provider search experience with data on whether a provider is accepting new patients and has availability, teams can increase referral confidence. "Making sure patients get to their referrals is critical for our business," said Jane Zhu, Director of Operations at Firefly Health, one of Ribbon's partners. "A big part of that is finding a provider who is not only a good clinical fit but is accepting new patients and available in the relevant time frame. Finding specialist availability is incredibly manual and time-consuming." Ribbon Health continues to launch new capabilities with the ultimate goal of transforming the experience of finding a provider, and paving the way to accessible, affordable, and high-quality care for all. Additional new releases include a Digital Care Network to expand a "provider search" beyond brick and mortar with leading, lower cost, virtual care options, as well as Price Transparency to allow patients to see detailed cost estimates alongside provider quality indicators before a care decision is made. About Ribbon Health Ribbon Health partners with innovators to transform how healthcare decisions are made. Ribbon's data platform fuels healthcare enterprises with actionable provider information, including insurance coverage, prices, and performance. With Ribbon, healthcare enterprises can empower people to make the most informed decisions about their care by finding trusted and affordable providers.

Read More

HEALTH TECHNOLOGY, MEDICAL DEVICES

Validic integrates with Smart Meter cellular-enabled connected health devices

prnewswire | March 28, 2023

Validic Inc., a market-leading digital health and personalized care company, continues to expand its healthcare IoT platform with the integration of Smart Meter. This integration brings exclusive cellular-enabled, patient-friendly monitoring devices supplied by Smart Meter, a leading connected health solution supplier to a rapidly growing nationwide network of SmartPartners, to the Validic ecosystem. Smart Meter's proprietary, cellular, FDA-registered monitoring devices are connected to an exclusive AT&T 4/5G private data network to ensure an engaging patient experience for improved adherence. The devices help manage the most prevalent chronic conditions, including blood glucose monitors for diabetes; blood pressure monitors for hypertension and other cardiac diseases; pulse oximeters for COPD, COVID-19, and other respiratory disorders; and weight scales for congestive heart failure and weight-related diseases. "Our proprietary monitoring devices can only connect and transmit patient-generated data when connected to our private data network, ensuring reliable and secure delivery to Validic clients," said Smart Meter Chief Marketing Officer Bill Bassett. "And eliminating the need for patients to pair, sync or connect to Wi-Fi or an app on their phone may improve patient satisfaction and increase the use of their monitoring devices." Validic's health IoT platform is the largest ecosystem of connected health devices and apps, which streams continuous, near-real-time personal health data from 540+ home health and wearable devices. Organizations can access blood pressure, pulse oxygen, blood glucose, heart rate, weight, temperature, sleep, nutrition, respiratory, activity data, and more through a single, endpoint connection. "Technology should be so easy to use that it becomes invisible to the person using it," said Validic CEO Drew Schiller. "The addition of Smart Meter cellular-enabled health monitoring devices to our ecosystem offers another option to help people focus on their health and live their best lives." About Validic Founded in 2010, Validic Inc. is a digital health and personalized care company devoted to our mission of improving the quality of human life by making personal data actionable. With the world's largest health IoT platform and EHR-embedded remote care application, we help healthcare organizations give every person tailored interventions and personalized care, improving healthcare efficiency and delivery, and empowering people to play an active role in their health and well-being. Leading healthcare providers, health plans and health IT companies, such as Mass General Brigham, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, CVS Health and Elevance Health, use our solutions to deliver high-touch and personalized chronic condition management, remote care, and support for healthy living. With a platform intentionally built to support a broad digital health strategy and scale across populations and conditions, Validic supports the largest RPM program in the country, with more than 300,000 enrolled patients since its inception and 7,000 referring providers. Our digital health platform has 540+ supported devices with more than 15 billion annual data transactions. Our remote care solution is available as a standard integration in the Epic Connection Hub and Cerner Millennium®. In 2022, Validic received the North American Customer Value Award for the Medical Device Connectivity Industry by Frost and Sullivan and was named Best Overall Connected Healthcare Solution by MedTech Breakthrough. Validic is HIPAA-compliant, HITRUST CSF Certified®, and ISO-27001 certified for Information Security Management.

Read More

DIGITAL HEALTHCARE, HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS

Orion Health strengthens North American operations with new technology and leadership

prnewswire | March 27, 2023

Orion Health, a global leader in population health software, is strengthening its position in North America with new technology and the appointment of James Rice as Executive Vice President for North America. With operations in 12 U.S States and seven Canadian Provinces, the company has long been at the forefront of transformational Digital Health in North America. Orion Health is continuing on this path with the launch of the Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform leading away from traditional broken healthcare systems, by creating patient-first digital health solutions. Alongside his new position, Rice will continue in his strategic role on the Orion Health global Executive Leadership Team with responsibility for the company's sales, business growth and marketing strategy. His new role will see Orion Health having a global executive on the ground in North America and demonstrates the company's confidence and commitment to this significant market. Brad Porter, Orion Health Global Chief Executive says the North American health sector is in desperate need for innovative technology to reduce the strain brought on by the pandemic and the ever-increasing shortage of medical professionals. "To overcome the challenges facing the sector today, we need to reimagine how IT can improve healthcare by giving more time back to medical professionals and making health systems easier for users to navigate. We're already seeing how Digital Front Door technology is achieving this in parts of Canada, and we look forward to introducing these solutions across more regions in North America," says Porter. Orion Health has been operating in North America for more than 25 years. In addition to its DFD, Orion Health has developed over 30 state or province-wide Digital Care Records (DCR) or health information exchanges across the US and Canada, allowing health information to flow seamlessly to and from authorized organizations and individuals across the state. Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform In 2023 Orion Health is reinventing its Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform, which is made up of its Digital Care Record (DCR), Digital Front Door (DFD), and its new Health Intelligence Platform (HIP). "HIP is an exciting new health-centric solution that helps customers get the most out of their data. As a core component of the Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform, HIP is a scalable, modular data solution that compliments the full range of products in the Amadeus suite. "James will lead the implementation of Orion Health's Amadeus Unified Healthcare Platform strategy across North America, and thus will play an instrumental role in improving health outcomes for the region," says Porter. In his new role, Rice is leading the North American arm of Orion Health as well as the Middle East. He is responsible for creating and leading revenue streams focused on these markets. With more than 25 years of experience, five of which at Orion Health, James's experience makes him the perfect candidate to lead the team working to deliver the right care, to the right people, at the right time. "The North American market is hugely important to Orion Health. I'm looking forward to engaging with existing and prospective customers, showing them how our transformational new technology will change the game for healthcare," says Rice. About Orion Health Orion Health is a global healthcare technology company focused on reimagining healthcare for all. We are leading the change in digital health with health and care organizations to improve the wellbeing of every individual with our world leading Unified Healthcare Platform. Made up of a Digital Front Door, Digital Care Record, and Intelligence Platform - each underpinned by extensive health and social data sets, machine learning, and 30 years of innovation focused purely on improving global well-being.

Read More

HEALTHTECH SECURITY, HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS

Ribbon Health Expands Platform to Enable Access to Provider Appointment Booking, Eliminating Barriers to Care

prnewswire | March 24, 2023

Ribbon Health a leader in healthcare provider data technology and management, announced the launch of new platform features that will increase access to care through provider scheduling. Enabled by partnerships with leading booking marketplaces, these new platform capabilities empower patients to easily search for providers that both fit their needs and are accepting new patients, and book appointments with those providers for high-quality care across primary, specialty, urgent, or mental health. Ribbon's platform offers real-time availability data from health systems and direct partner integrations, giving care providers, navigators, and health plans a single source of truth to guide consumers to the right care. "Securing an appointment quickly" is the most important factor for having a positive healthcare experience, according to one-third of Americans surveyed in a recent report. Yet, there are a number of barriers inhibiting people from finding and booking high-quality care appointments when they need to most. Patients, providers, and care teams must navigate across multiple touchpoints, spend significant time and effort tracking down needed information, and contend with a growing physician shortage and a shrinking number of available therapists. All of these barriers lead to an average 26-day wait for an appointment in the best of circumstances, which could lead to worsening health, or patients opting out of care completely. These barriers to care will be removed with Ribbon's new capabilities such as insight into which providers are accepting new patients, provider appointment availability, and booking links. With partner integrations across leading booking platforms, patients can attend a virtual or in-person appointment in as little as 48 hours; this is compared to the national average of two to three weeks, if not months. Patients will have seamless access to high-quality mental health, primary, specialty, and urgent care at the fraction of the cost of out-of-network or emergency services. For the first time, patients, providers, and care teams can use one central platform to find the right care using Ribbon's comprehensive provider directory data, accepted insurances, cost, and quality metrics to understand whether a provider is available, and then book an appointment. "It shouldn't be harder to book care with a doctor than it is to book a flight or hotel," said Nate Maslak, Ribbon co-founder and CEO. "Unfortunately, that is still the case today. This launch is an important step in achieving our mission of accessible, affordable, and high-quality care for everyone. It will ensure patients can find the right doctor for their needs by allowing them to filter for availability and quickly book an appointment, rather than navigating through several websites or phone numbers each time and waiting weeks to months for care." Ribbon's enhanced capabilities will help healthcare organizations decrease the administrative burden for care teams looking to direct patients to in-network providers. By improving the provider search experience with data on whether a provider is accepting new patients and has availability, teams can increase referral confidence. "Making sure patients get to their referrals is critical for our business," said Jane Zhu, Director of Operations at Firefly Health, one of Ribbon's partners. "A big part of that is finding a provider who is not only a good clinical fit but is accepting new patients and available in the relevant time frame. Finding specialist availability is incredibly manual and time-consuming." Ribbon Health continues to launch new capabilities with the ultimate goal of transforming the experience of finding a provider, and paving the way to accessible, affordable, and high-quality care for all. Additional new releases include a Digital Care Network to expand a "provider search" beyond brick and mortar with leading, lower cost, virtual care options, as well as Price Transparency to allow patients to see detailed cost estimates alongside provider quality indicators before a care decision is made. About Ribbon Health Ribbon Health partners with innovators to transform how healthcare decisions are made. Ribbon's data platform fuels healthcare enterprises with actionable provider information, including insurance coverage, prices, and performance. With Ribbon, healthcare enterprises can empower people to make the most informed decisions about their care by finding trusted and affordable providers.

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