Here's What You May or May Not Have Missed This Week:

• Healthcare IT News held its inaugaral Pop Health Forum 2016 in Boston this week, gathering clinicians, technology professionals and health care experts from all over the country to discuss the future of population health management. Strategies such as data and analytics, care coordination, patient engagement, technology and quality-based care are just some of the many efforts to be examined during the two-day forum. Source

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced this week a rule that requires hospitals and health care organizations to release injury data that will later be posted on its website. Businesses with 250 or more employees must submit work-related injury data. The new rule takes effect August 10 of this year, with data submissions being phased in beginning 2017. Source

• Oregon Health & Science University, or OHSU, is revolutionizing transgender health care by heading the first ever Transgender Health Program in the U.S. The program is meant to help transgender patients feel comfortable and more welcome in an already intimidating and non-nurturing environment, where many providers lack the training and sensitivity to deal with said patients. Source

 

On The Front Lines:

Week after week, Android has dominated the mobile user base, taking away 0.04 percent this week from iOS and stealing the show for the fourth week in a row. Could the declining apple market share worldwide be bumping the formally dominating smartphone brand down a few notches?

 

FINAL RESULTS:

iOS: 90.58%
Android: 9.42%

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care alongside the front lines of the iOS-Android wars among pMD's physician charge capture users. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news.

Here's What You May or May Not Have Missed This Week:

• Why are some organizations experiencing ineffective care coordination? In short, poor communication. Health care systems are disjointed, patients are often left out of the loop in their own care, and information between specialists and primary care physicians is not often relayed. While new technologies are being introduced into the health care industry, often these technological issues can complicate the communication that is necessary for effective care coordination, such as multiple systems that don't talk to each other.  As health care systems rapidly transition to value-based care models, there are high hopes for the future success of care coordination.  Source

•  Bonuses to 231 subpar quality hospitals were paid out by the federal government because their patients tend to be less expensive for Medicare. The Affordable Care Act's intended incentive goals hardly had this in mind when rewarding hospitals for mediocre quality of care. These hospitals with below average scores on quality measures were rewarded bonuses because caring for their patients during their stays and 30 days post-discharge cost Medicare less than what it cost at half of hospitals evaluated in the program. In a statement, CMS said it would consider revising the program for future years and will take into account scores that fall below the median for quality.  Source

• Reported cases of the Zika virus are making their way throughout the U.S. The latest from the CDC indicates that there are now 472 travel-related cases of the virus reported in the U.S., 10 of which were sexually transmitted. Pregnant women are cautioned to avoid traveling to areas with Zika and to strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites. Research efforts are underway worldwide in an effort to halt the advancement of this rapidly-spreading virus.  Source

 

On The Front Lines:

With Apple off to a rocky start heading into Q3, it's no surprise that Android has taken the crown for the second week in a row. While only a mere 0.02 percent take away this week, small victories may lead to big wins for the future of Android.

 

FINAL RESULTS:

iOS: 90.68%
Android: 9.32%

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care alongside the front lines of the iOS-Android wars among pMD's physician charge capture users. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news.

Here's What You May or May Not Have Missed This Week:

•  Online patient portals are becoming increasingly important as health care delivery moves towards value-based reimbursement, and patient care and consumer engagement become increasingly intertwined. These patient portals offer financial benefits that reduce staff workload, improve collections and help drive patient engagement with better outcomes. Patients are able to receive educational resources and targeted information. Additional benefits include quicker access to full patient records which can lead to improved provider productivity, secure communication between health care staff and patients as well as increased administrative efficiency. Source

•  This week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aims to simplify and streamline the existing patchwork of value-based payment models. This new proposed rule tackling MACRA, or Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, will provide doctors with two paths for compliance under the umbrella of the Quality Payment Program: a merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) and advanced alternative payment models (APMs). Most providers are expected to opt for the MIPS track, initially. According to CMS, doctors will have the flexibility to switch among various components of either path based on the needs of their patients or their practices.  Source

•  The F.D.A. cautions prescribing oral yeast infection drugs to pregnant women due to new evidence suggesting a possible link to miscarriage. There have been previous warnings that chronic high doses of the drug, fluconazole or brand name Diflucan, may be linked to a rare and distinct set of birth defects in infants whose mothers took the drug in the first trimester. Women who ingested the oral drug had a significantly increased risk of miscarriage in comparison to those who used a topical treatment.  Source

On The Front Lines:

Android crushed Apple with a 0.12% surge in this week's total devices, which is not surprising considering the results of the dismal Q2 earnings report released by Apple early this week. After a 13-year run of quarterly revenue growth, the tech giant experienced a 13% decline, leaving much of the tech industry wondering what's in store for Apple's future.

 

FINAL RESULTS:

iOS: 90.70%
Android: 9.30%

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care alongside the front lines of the iOS-Android wars among pMD's physician charge capture users. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news.

Here's What You May or May Not Have Missed This Week:

• Starting March 27, physicians operating in New York will be required to transmit all prescriptions digitally and will be penalized for continuing to use paper script pads. Penalizations can range from hefty fines to even possible imprisonment. Under the I-STOP, or Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing Act Legislation, electronic prescription of drugs is being mandated in order to combat controlled substance abuse. Another added benefit of e-Rx is the hope of improving patient safety by removing sloppy handwriting and missed or inaccurate information. All practitioners, excluding veterinarians, must issue electronic prescriptions for controlled and non-controlled substances. Source

• Hospitals dominate Fortune's annual list of best places to work in health care. Eleven hospitals made the list this year of the 100 best medical workplaces, with Baptist Health South Florida taking the number one spot. Companies are graded on a combination of company culture, benefits, and career paths. Of the eleven hospitals, the top five include Baptist Health South Florida, Southern Ohio Medical Center, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Scripps Health, and Texas Health Resources. Source

•  TV003, a new type of dengue vaccine, has been found to protect people against at least one type of the virus, representing a big advancement in controlling the most common mosquito-transmitted virus worldwide. Researchers are now testing whether the TV003 vaccine can protect people from the three other types of dengue virus. Another vaccine, Dengvaxia, recently became available in Latin America and Asia, but may be inappropriate to use in countries such as the U.S. as many of the cases in Latin America and Asia involve a population that may have already been exposed to the dengue virus before. Source

On The Front Lines:

Apple took back to back hits these past two weeks, most recently losing 0.08 percent of the market share in the mobile device wars against Android. There's been much speculation around Apple's media event on March 21, where Apple will be unveiling a new 9.7 inch iPad and a 4 inch iPhone. Given Apple's recent downturn among pMD's charge capture niche, users may be holding out for Apple's September event, when Apple typically announces more highly sought-after products, including the redesigned iPhone 7.

FINAL RESULTS:

iOS: 90.66%
Android: 9.34%

Each Friday, Signor Goat reports the latest from the week in health care alongside the front lines of the iOS-Android wars among pMD's physician charge capture users. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of health care news.

The big day that Apple enthusiasts are anxiously awaiting is just a day away, and we’re here to play the prediction game for Apple’s Q1 performance based on our own little set of data from the mobile health care consumer base. After all, researchers estimate that over 80 percent of health care providers use smartphones in their work, so it’s enough for us to make some sort of prediction on how the fruit and robot devices are doing in the real world.

iOS vs. Android:

Apple has always been the dominant device of choice among pMD’s mobile charge capture and secure text messaging physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician’s assistants. Throughout the quarter we saw Apple’s portion of the mobile device pie fluctuate from week to week, finally closing out the quarter with a strong 0.4 percent net increase over Android.

iPhone by Model:

There were also small shifts within the iPhone population itself as we had the first full quarter to gauge the performance of the 6S devices. To little surprise, the 6S saw a slow uptake among users, who were still holding onto the popular iPhone 6 models. This behavior is typical of most second models in the same body for iPhones.

So does Apple’s increase amongst pMD’s mobile users indicate that Apple is doing well, or that Android is doing poorly? Or a bit of both? Or perhaps it’s all for naught because what really matters is what Apple tells us in their quarterly earnings report tomorrow. For what it’s worth, we think that these numbers from our medical users indicate a bullish Q1 earnings report for Apple. Will our numbers match Apple’s? Find out tomorrow, 1/25 at 2pm PT.

Apple lost yet another iOS-Android mobile device battle this week, losing a narrow 0.02 percent of the market share among pMD's charge capture users. This marks the fifth week in a row that Apple has lost a slice of the pie to Android, losing 0.39 percent over that time period. A rumor has surfaced that Apple is planning to release a smaller 4" iPhone next year, breaking the bigger-is-better trend. The source of this rumor is sketchy at best, but if it pans out we'll be eagerly waiting to see how it will affect the mobile device market for health care providers!


Signor Goat reports updates from the front lines of the iOS-Android wars. Each Friday, we report the current device breakdown of our charge capture physician users and identify the net winner for the week. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of the platform wars.

FINAL

iOS: 90.50%
Android: 9.50%

This week, Apple saw a .12 percent gain of the mobile device pie, snapping a two week losing streak to Android. With less that one week until Apple's highly anticipated announcement of the iPhone 6 on Sept. 9, it's time to dig even deeper into our wealth of mobile device data to predict how the new iPhone will shake up the mobile device breakdown among pMD's health care providers.

The iPhone 6 will give Apple a huge win over Android in the battle for the mobile market share in health care (rumor has it Apple will unveil not one, not two, but THREE different iPhone 6 sizes!), and we should start to see Apple take back even more of the device pie. We'll also see an inevitable cannibalism of existing iPhone devices as providers abandon their antique versions to get a hold of the iPhone 6. We've put together a colorful chart that depicts which iPhone devices our providers are currently using so we'll be able to gauge just how much the iPhone 6 disrupts the current marketshare.

Señor Goat reports updates from the front lines of the iOS-Android wars. Each Friday, we report the current device breakdown of our charge capture physician users and identify the net winner for the week. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of the platform wars.

FINAL

iOS: 90.75%
Android: 9.25%

As with past iPhone releases, this latest offering is expected to bring a host of hardware improvements and new features. Rumors indicate that the iPhone 6 will come in two new, larger sizes: 4.7 inches, as well as a giant 5.5 inch form factor. It will also likely be faster, offer better battery life, and sport a higher resolution camera (rumored at 13 megapixels) than the current iPhone. Finally, the iPhone 6 will ship with Apple’s newest operating system, iOS 8, which will offer goodies such as time lapse photography, mobile payments, and a number of new apps.

One of the most exciting apps for us here at pMD is something called Health, which is expected to allow users to monitor and track a variety of their personal health statistics, including blood pressure, number of steps taken, and possibly even blood oxygen levels! Health will likely integrate with other fitness and nutrition apps. Users will have the option of relaying the information Health gathers to their doctor, allowing the provider to alert their patient if any health issues are detected.

It has also been reported that Apple is working on partnerships with several large EHR vendors. These strategic relationships will allow iPhone 6 apps to sync with providers’ electronic health records, allowing patients to see more of their health information in one place.

At pMD, we’re always excited to hear about new ways that technology can help health care providers offer better care to their patients - that’s how mobile charge capture got its start. We’ll be watching the iPhone 6 announcement closely tomorrow to see if the predictions about Health and all of the other cool iPhone 6 features live up to the hype. And, we’re pretty sure Apple will surprise us with a thing or two we didn’t even see coming!

Apple lost a total of .07 percent this week, making this two weeks in a row now that Apple has lost share to Android. But we don't expect this drop to last for very long! In anticipation of the iPhone 6 announcement on Sept. 9, we took a look at last four months of the iOS-Android wars among our own health care providers:


Señor Goat reports updates from the front lines of the iOS-Android wars. Each Friday, we report the current device breakdown of our charge capture physician users and identify the net winner for the week. Check back next Friday for your dose of our little medical corner of the platform wars.

FINAL

iOS: 90.63%
Android: 9.37%

Accessing health care information on mobile devices is not just a trend anymore; it’s the new norm. The last couple of years has seen tremendous growth in the number of mobile health care apps that make doctors more efficient and improve patient care; mobile EHRs, charge capture, secure text messaging, drug references, and diagnostic support, to name a few.

With such critical patient information at the hands of our doctors, these apps have to be secure and robust. Whether hospital WiFi is spotty, certain care locations don’t have WiFi, or cellular reception is limited, doctors still have to be able to access important medical information on-command from their array of health care apps. Say, for example, you’re a patient in the hospital. Your doctor pulls out his or her smartphone to find what drug dose to prescribe you, only to find out that the hospital WiFi signal has dropped, and along with it, any immediate access to the necessary health information to find this out. As a doctor, this would be frustrating. As a patient, this would be frustrating and unsettling.

This is where the Native app vs. Web app distinction comes into play. A native app is developed for one particular mobile device, like the iPhone or Android, and is installed directly onto the device itself. It works standalone and can be used offline. A Web app, on the other hand, is an Internet-based app that runs on the mobile device’s Web browser, like Safari. So if you want to access information from an app when you’re in a cell reception void, like parts of most hospitals, you’ll want a native app. If you want your doctor to be able to access your medical information on a secure mobile device to deliver faster and more accurate care, you’ll want your doctor using native apps.