In an era where technological breakthroughs reshape traditional industries, the convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics delivers extraordinary transformations in healthcare and wellness. The emergence of AI-driven robotic massage devices is not only revolutionizing the quintessential relaxation experience but also poised to redefine the fundamental dynamics of healthcare practices. 

In 2022, the global market for artificial intelligence in healthcare was around $15.1 billion. Predictions indicate that it will skyrocket to approximately $187.95 billion by 2030, with a remarkable growth rate of 37% during 2022-2030. Specifically, North America’s AI in the healthcare market hit $6.8 billion in 2022. The medical robots market alone is set to hit $25.44 billion by 2028, up from an estimated $9.18 billion in 2022. This growth, projected at a CAGR of 18.5% between 2022 and 2028, shows a promising trend.

AI robotics massage devices starkly contrast those gadgets you’re used to seeing, such as electrical neck shiatsu-style consumer devices or “massage guns”. AI robotics massage devices embody a profound paradigm shift. These devices transcend the boundaries of their predecessors by embracing adaptability and personalization as core tenets of their design.

With features such as a manipulator arm, adjustable couch, and flexible spheres, these devices craft a bespoke massage encounter calibrated to suit individual preferences and anatomical intricacies.  By dynamically tailoring the massage regimen, these devices ensure an unparalleled depth and scope of relaxation and are created and ideal for discerning customers in search of a secure and comfortable experience. 

Redefining the Notions of Safety and Privacy

The synergy between AI and collaborative robotics lies at the core of this new field in healthcare and wellness. Safety is paramount, evolving beyond a mere buzzword to a tangible assurance. Robotic massage devices embrace AI as a sentinel, monitoring real-time physiological indicators like heart rate and skin conductance. This facilitates real-time adjustments in the device’s intensity and pressure, ensuring an experience that is not only effectual but also unequivocally safe.

By effectively working on relieving tension, it alleviates it with remarkable efficiency. This approach optimally stimulates a multitude of skin receptors, ushering in an unparalleled level of effectiveness beyond traditional massage methods.

But devices aren’t just about safety.

AI-powered massage ensures the utmost privacy as you undergo the treatment in complete solitude. Certain individuals harbor apprehensions about being touched by unfamiliar hands, or they may hold hygiene-related concerns. Moreover, cultural considerations might hinder some from embracing the therapeutic benefits of massages. AI-driven robotic massage technology effectively addresses these challenges and beyond, democratizing access to this rejuvenating experience while also making it cost-effective.

Such devices provide a massage when it is convenient for you rather than for the masseuse or the establishment you’re staying in.

Let’s say you arrive at the hotel at 10 p.m. and would like to get a massage because you were flying for several hours, but the spa services have ended for the day. With a robotic massage device, you get your massage when needed, and one that is perfect for you. 

Furthermore, we deemed it necessary to pay special attention to real-time body positioning control and applicator adjustments. Recognizing that patients may naturally shift during a session, this technology continually monitors and adapts the trajectory and movement of the device. Based on the 3D dynamic control of body positioning in live conditions, the process begins by capturing essential parameters for precise measurements. Subsequently, a high-speed high-speed LiDAR camera swiftly scans the body within a mere 10 seconds, constructing a distinct 3D model. Even in instances of patient movement, the system promptly recalibrates, generating a new trajectory and a revised map for guiding the tool’s motion.

The Four Pillars of Wellness and Healthcare

The AI massage narrative transcends the contours of indulgence, encapsulating the “4P” principles of predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory healthcare. AI’s predictive potential assumes center stage, identifying and preventing potential discomfort zones. The personalization principle is meticulously upheld through AI’s adaptive algorithms, ensuring every massage session is tailored to an individual’s distinctive requirements, optimizing therapeutic dividends.

The essence of personalization is encapsulated within the technology’s core, as it crafts bespoke treatment plans for every individual. This approach, empowered by real-time data from LiDARs capturing a comprehensive body scan in just seconds, culminates in a distinct 3D model. The system rapidly recalibrates with the movement, resulting in optimal results tailored to the individual’s body shape and desired outcome. Unlike the limitations of manual intervention, this level of precision and adaptability is beyond the grasp of even the most seasoned massage practitioners.

Automation, a pillar that drives consistent quality, thrives within the system. The technology orchestrates intricate movements with a level of precision that surpasses human capabilities, thereby elevating the efficacy of treatments. This liberation from routine tasks not only enhances outcomes but also empowers skilled specialists to focus on aspects that demand their expertise.

Collaborative Robotics and the Quantified Self

The AI massage revolution resides in the seamless alliance between AI and collaborative robotics. These collaborative robots recalibrate their movements and pressure gradients in real time, hinging on the body’s nuanced cues. This transmutes the massage experience into a synergy of human intuition and AI augmentation. The confluence of AI insights and the robot’s adaptive mechanics converges to deliver an exceptional outcome.

As this technology evolves, anonymized and aggregated data will make the experience more accurate and effective for all future users, just as Tesla has improved its autopilot self-driving mode with data from every kilometer its owners have traveled.

And as society becomes used to technology driving personal health, which started with the “quantified self” movement, an AI-powered robot massage device may become as commonplace as using an Apple or Pixel Watch to track daily activity, stay hydrated, measure blood pressure, and therefore incentivize healthy behavior.

Many people are addicted to their fitness trackers and need to run or walk 10,000 steps daily, with the device helping them stay on track. They’re always looking at their watch to see if they did it. The same with massage. It isn’t merely a beauty treatment; it’s fundamentally about fostering health, relaxation, and overall well-being. And such devices are signaling an era where regular massage is seamlessly integrated into daily health and wellness routines, the same as running or walking. 

In the near future, it will be able to sync with your fitness tracker, providing valuable information about your progress and the health benefits derived from your AI-driven massage routine. The whole technology redefines massage by embracing its essence as a cornerstone of health and wellness, it empowers individuals to proactively enhance their well-being, regardless of their lifestyle or needs.

The main idea is to cultivate a new wellness routine. Alongside walking breaks and hydration, having a massage will become an integral part of managing stress and enhancing health. AI-massage devices can become reliable partners in this wellness journey.

About Dennis Ledenkof
Dennis Ledenkof, the CEO of Robosculptor, is an expert, entrepreneur, and inventor with over 15 years of experience in the aesthetic hardware industry. Robosculptor is an automated robotic system designed for aesthetic body contouring, powered by AI to deliver fully automated professional body treatments. Since 2001, Dennis Ledenkof has built his expertise through his work in various solarium distributor companies, gaining valuable experiences and establishing industry connections. Throughout his journey, he collaborated with two leading European manufacturers, KBL AG, and HAPRO International B. V., who served as trusted partners. In 2006, Dennis embarked on his entrepreneurial path, founding his first company that specialized in solarium rentals. As time passed, the company shifted its focus to renting body-shaping devices to aesthetic clinics and med SPAs.

If you’ve been in the healthcare or technology spaces for any reasonable length of time, you’ve witnessed the tremendous growth spurred by investment as healthcare organizations pursue digital transformation. According to RockHealth, funding for U.S.-based digital health startups topped $29 billion in 2021 – adding to the $23 billion invested in 2019 and 2020 – and the number of new solutions in the market has never been higher. 

Such strong investment drives technology adoption but also generates trends that influence business strategies and buying decisions. As a result, large numbers of organizations follow each other in one direction, only to find later that a technology or operating model doesn’t deliver all the benefits anticipated. The swinging pendulum is not only costly but can delay realizing the real value that specialized solutions bring to the table. By looking back over the history of this phenomenon, healthcare organizations have the opportunity to take a more reasoned, long-term approach to technology investment and shorten the time to realize the value. 

Significant swings in recent years

One key example in healthcare is outsourcing, a market expected to be worth $488 billion by 2027. For years, healthcare organizations have been outsourcing a wide range of business processes, such as IT and revenue cycle management, as fast as possible to reduce costs and manage labor shortages. So, the pendulum started swinging hard from “in-sourcing” toward outsourcing those functions – including moving operations offshore – as much as they possibly could. 

But once the pendulum swings too far, it inevitably moves back in the opposite direction. Organizations began to realize that some functions are better kept in-house than outsourced or offshored. As a result, many brought outsourced functions back in-house, seeking an optimal balance.

Another pendulum swing I’ve witnessed in healthcare involves the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems, driven substantially by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, designed to spur the adoption of health information technology. As of 2021, nearly 78% of office-based physicians and 96% of non-federal, acute care hospitals had adopted certified EHRs. I’ve talked with clients who invested in EHRs and expected these systems to be the answer to a broad range of needs. And then these organizations found out they missed the mark in many areas. 

To fill EHR performance gaps, many hospitals, health systems, and large provider groups began implementing point solutions, especially for patient-facing capabilities like scheduling, access, and payment. Now they had to manage a hodgepodge of solutions to get what they needed from a business standpoint, a workflow standpoint, and a patient experience standpoint. However, these disparate point solutions quickly became cumbersome to maintain, leading to data being siloed and patient journeys being frustrating. The challenge is to navigate the myriad options available and ensure that each solution offered is adding value.  

In response, EHR vendors started filling in the functional gaps on their platforms. Now the pendulum began to swing back toward provider organizations consolidating on their single EHR platform to address all the functionality they need. Even if some of that functionality isn’t as good as that offered by point solutions, the integrated nature of the platforms became the priority for provider organizations with limited IT staff. 

Eventually, though, we can expect the pendulum to swing back to a more balanced place where EHRs are complemented by other solutions. Business imperatives will cause provider organizations to integrate their EHR platforms with specialized solutions, such as customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. While more consolidated, they’ll still have to manage an ecosystem of technologies.

Current pendulum: Cloud solutions

A trend I’m seeing today is that healthcare organizations are moving applications they historically have run on-premises into the cloud, typically with Amazon, Google, or Microsoft. In one recent survey, 70% of IT professionals said their organizations had adopted cloud computing solutions. As adoption increases with the large cloud providers, organizations reason that if they’re going to spend that kind of money, they’re going to leverage it to the fullest. That’s what is now pushing the pendulum in the direction of consolidation. 

However, as with EHRs, the functionality offered by the Big 3 cloud platform vendors will feature a mix of mature and emerging technologies to support business-critical functions. In the latter case, healthcare organizations may have to supplement their cloud-based deployments with something that offers more specialized capabilities. 

One specific technology where there is a need for an upgrade over the vendor solution is natural language processing (NLP), a foundational Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabling technology. Healthcare organizations are currently starting to use Amazon Comprehend or the Microsoft NLP engine because they’re part of those suites. 

But medical language isn’t everyday language; medical language has its own terminologies, definitions, and slang (SNOMED, RadLex, MEDCIN, ICD-10, etc.). That leaves a big gap between functionality and accuracy within large commercial NLP platforms that have not been trained on large enough pools of medical data. For example, if the NLP software is analyzing a report about a patient with a history of appendicitis, does the algorithm understand that the appendicitis happened in the past? Or does it conclude the patient has appendicitis now? If the report also includes language indicating the patient’s mother has chronic kidney disease, will the algorithm misattribute this condition to the patient?

The need to understand the context to produce accurate results is just one aspect that makes it difficult for healthcare organizations to standardize on industry-agnostic technology platforms that can’t accurately process unstructured medical text. Healthcare organizations need a more prescriptive tool than the bigger tech companies are equipped to provide today. 

Focus on value to be gained from medical NLP

The landscape has grown even more complex and confusing with the emergence of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Bard. With its ability to create new content, generative AI is already having a transformative impact on publishing, research, education, and entertainment. 

Not surprisingly, people envision multiple use cases for generative AI in healthcare. However, these large language models (LLMs) still have reliability problems in terms of accuracy and “hallucinations,” a phenomenon in which an AI model, based on the training data it has been fed, generates outputs that aren’t possible in the real world. To have practical application in clinical contexts, LLMs must be trained and/or fine-tuned on large sets of annotated medical data to improve accuracy. 

Nonetheless, healthcare organizations shouldn’t wait for the pendulum to swing back, nor should they lose valuable time trying out NLP integrated into large cloud platforms or generative AI algorithms if they already know these tools aren’t good enough to meet their needs. Instead, these organizations should focus on business imperatives and the ability of specific solutions to fulfill those imperatives, while being mindful of how those tools will continue to mature. Waiting will only cost time and money.

The business imperative in healthcare is data and an organization’s ability to extract and leverage that data from medical documents without humans having to read every word. Data is what enables clinicians to provide evidence-based care for patients. Data is what allows healthcare organizations – providers and payers – to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively. And real-world data is what helps pharmaceutical companies to accelerate research into drugs and medical devices. 

Anticipating – and not being hit by – the pendulum

Healthcare organizations that chase the technology trend pendulum by partnering with large cloud vendors promising comprehensive solutions must ensure these platforms can deliver business value. While this can be approached on a case-by-case basis, NLP is a technology that requires a medical-grade understanding of clinical terminologies and can extract value from unstructured data buried in EHRs. Providers, patients, payers, and pharmaceuticals all can benefit from a purpose-built engine capable of understanding medical language and efficiently delivering useful information where it’s needed most. 

About Kim Perry
Kim Perry is the Chief Growth Officer of emtelligent, a Vancouver, BC-based medical AI and NLP technology solution. In addition to her full-time professional roles, Perry is president of Women’s Health Leadership TRUST, an organization with 500 members that elevates and supports women at all phases of their healthcare career, and an advisory board member at Broadpath, a privately held call center company.

Functional balance is a critical health metric. One-quarter of seniors – about 36 million – will fall each year in the U.S. and more than 36,000 of them will die as a result. That translates into one fall every second of every day. The problem is growing, as fall-related deaths among seniors in the U.S. have more than doubled over the past 20 years, according to a research letter in JAMA Open.

It is also an expensive problem. According to a study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, non-fatal falls cost an estimated $50 billion in medical expenses, while fatal falls account for an estimated $754 million. 

As is often the case in today’s healthcare environment, advanced technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are emerging as a potential solution, helping to both prevent falls and accelerate recovery when falls lead to injury – particularly when they can be used in the comfort of the patient’s home.

Concerning Times for Seniors

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers falls to be a public health concern, and with good reason. One out of every four seniors fall each year and one out of every five falls causes an injury. Further, of those seniors reporting a fall, more than 45 percent fell two or more times. 

According to the Journal of the American Geriatric Society study, a significant percentage of healthcare expenditures among seniors in the U.S. can be attributed to falls, including approximately six percent of Medicare and eight percent of Medicaid expenditures. Falls among older adults also accounted for nearly 12 percent ($29 billion) of spending on home health services, long-term care facilities, and durable medical equipment.

The aging population suffers from multiple comorbidities and in many cases, they are simply not seen often enough by the proper clinician. Due to this fact, the frequency and severity of fall injuries have made prevention a priority. The more often a clinician assesses their patient, the earlier they can detect a problem, treat it, and improve the outcome. Reducing falls among older adults through strength and balance exercises and medication management could lead to a substantial reduction in healthcare spending. Further, multifactorial interventions, including screening and assessment of fall risk, which are often managed in clinical settings, have been shown to reduce falls by as much as 24 percent.

At-Home Prevention

Seniors who are at risk of falling and who have already been injured during a fall would benefit from new AI/ML-powered motion sensor technology designed for in-home. The latest medical-grade solutions monitor balance and movement and send critical information from the patient’s home back to the healthcare provider improving care management and outcomes.

Structured balance and gait tests are administered by the patient or caregiver to monitor for changes or trends. As a therapeutic tool, patients perform appropriate rehabilitative movements while AI/ML-enabled affixed motion sensors instantly and accurately “feedback” the movements using graphics and numerical display of information. This interactive biofeedback function brings an element of gamification to recovery and prevention, helping patients more accurately perceive changes in their neuromuscular activity for improved adherence and performance.

The patient’s data is sent back to the clinician in real-time, allowing them to monitor and actively ascertain progress against baseline metrics, without requiring an in-office follow-up evaluation – reserving limited staff resources for more critical patient care functions. It also delivers a range of motion, fatigability, and symmetry metrics for longitudinal monitoring.

Importantly, AI/ML-enabled sensor technology is also able to quantify previously unmeasurable parameters like pain, as well as objectify physical, surgical, pharmacological, and cognitive therapies. As a real-time biofeedback therapeutic tool, sensors also defocus patients’ attention on the pain and discomfort and redirect their focus on their functional performance. All of which contribute to lower care costs and improved patient outcomes.

Demonstrated Impact

At the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Department of Neurosurgery, John Ward, MD, MSHA, is using such AI-enabled functional motion analysis to monitor patients’ gait and balance throughout the course of treatment for normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), a condition thought to occur in as much as one percent of the medical population. Caused by abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid, NPH may affect normal movement and can lead to incontinence and memory issues. It is commonly treated by the placement of a ventricular shunt.

Dr. Ward first assesses a patient’s functional gait and balance pre-spinal tap to provide a baseline. This is followed by ongoing assessments to help guide any appropriate shunt adjustments and necessary treatment changes. Because results are reproducible, which is critical for longitudinal monitoring, they are both clinically reliable and contribute to broadening the understanding and treatment of NPH patients worldwide.

Transitioning this patient base to remote monitoring is essential. These patients are typically elderly, immobile, have difficulty getting to the healthcare facility, are at a greater risk for falling, and may have limited at-home oversight. Due to the nature of the disease, frequent shunt adjustment based on frequent monitoring of functional mobility is a big step forward in the treatment of NPH.

The outcomes realized by Dr. Ward’s NPH patients show why demand is increasing for clinically actionable and objective functional motion data to inform, demonstrate, and evaluate the short- and long-term efficacy of numerous diagnoses and treatments – demand that is now being met by coupling advanced AI/ML with mobile technologies to enable effective, real-time capture of motion data in clinical and real-world settings. HIPPA-compliant cloud-based analytics software then delivers that information back to providers as precise, accurate, and reproducible assessments, therapeutic decision support, and actionable data, stratifying risk, improving outcomes, and increasing the overall efficiency of the healthcare delivery system. 

“If the patient’s risk can be objectively assessed, then appropriate interventions can be performed to prevent falls and subsequent injury,” says Dr. Ward.

An AI/ML-Powered Solution

At a time when fall prevention is emerging as a leading public health concern, AI/ML-enabled technologies offer a promising solution. For seniors who need to improve their balance or recover from fall-related injuries, AI/ML-driven motion sensor technology speeds recovery and improves outcomes. It allows patients to actively and compliantly engage in highly effective in-home rehabilitation that is remotely managed by clinicians and other healthcare providers, improving balance, and reducing risks without sacrificing quality of care. 

About Dr. Frank Fornari

Dr. Fornari, co-founder of BioMech, brings more than 35 years of research, scientific and executive experience to this biotechnology group. Previously Dr. Fornari co-founded and was the CEO and medical director of Dominion Diagnostics, one of the country’s leading pharmaceutical monitoring laboratories and served there from 1997 to 2011. 

Prior to Dominion, Dr. Fornari was a research scientist and consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. He has extensive experience in basic scientific research, clinical medicine, toxicology, chemistry, teaching and drug development and has managed several academic, industrial and clinical laboratories and research facilities. Dr. Fornari has authored numerous scientific publications, has regularly presented at national scientific meetings, has been a member of many scientific societies, holds several patents and is a frequent speaker and industry expert in molecular genetics and pharmacology. 

When it comes to the Great Resignation, forget office workers – the real wave of resignation is coming from nurses. For many months post-COVID, nearly every headline, or so it seemed, was about office employees, their career paths, and the return to the office. What was underreported then – and continues to be – is that the Great Resignation came in full force for nurses. 

The dynamics in healthcare are always complicated: Costs are going up, margins and reimbursements are shrinking, and there are clinical shortages everywhere (with no hint of it letting up anytime soon). Our U.S. healthcare system is placing a very heavy burden on nurses who are being driven to the brink, often leaving the field altogether.

Nurses provide critical care for all of us. They’re the lifeblood of our healthcare system, but burnout continues to push them out, creating an untenable situation in communities across the country. Here are four tips on how to keep nurses in the field. 

1. Offer more than a “thank you” 

Nursing is more than a job – it’s a calling. While most nurses go into the profession to make a difference, they’re leaving in droves, which has been widely reported. They’re overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid. Nurses often work under unsafe staffing ratios as some health systems cut corners to keep their budgets balanced or struggle to find experienced clinicians to fill shortages.  

So much has been written about the power and flexibility technology can offer employees in dozens of industries, especially those in service-related ones. In today’s climate with solutions like conference services, virtual private networks, and SaaS-based productivity suites, workers are able to work from almost anywhere they want, so why not nurses too? 

Technology has supercharged travel nursing by making it easier than ever to find desirable positions. And, perhaps the most obvious benefit is the ability to take a well-compensated assignment, and – even more importantly – one that they want and for which they’re a good fit. 

2. Recognize that self-determination drives satisfaction

Travel clinicians can help restore job satisfaction among clinicians and help boost retention and productivity for healthcare facilities by ensuring units are fully staffed and patient-to-staff ratios remain manageable. Recent survey data shows that more than three out of four (76%) travel clinicians report satisfaction with their most recent placement. So much so that 83% of them would recommend the profession to a friend. 

The reported high rates of satisfaction can be attributed to a number of factors, including empowering clinicians by giving them more control over their own career journeys with a better sense of flexibility and choice. Travel clinicians can select assignments that appeal directly to what they want at that stage in their careers, whether it is the ability to learn new skills, maximize their existing expertise, or create a better work-life balance. They can also avoid elements like unmanageable patient-to-staff ratios, excessively long shits, and hospital politics. Knowing there is always a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, coupled with the ability to build in time for rest and recuperation, can have a very positive impact on a professional’s mindset and happiness.

3. Hone in on specificity and skills mapping 

In a field as specialized as nursing, traditional recruitment methods won’t cut it anymore. Nurses know what their expertise is, where their passions lie, and what jobs in which they belong. For far too long, travel recruiters have been selling jobs to nurses without putting much thought into whether a particular position aligns with that nurse’s background. Healthcare facilities that want to make meaningful improvements for their staff need to hire people, and the best way to do that today is with technology. 

Technology, such as automated staffing platforms, allows job-seeking nurses to regain control over their careers. Rather than trying to force a NICU nurse into a med-surg job, these recruitment tools give them the opportunity to self-review job postings and their required skill sets to determine which are a match. They allow nurses to operate at the top of their licenses and thrive there. Medical workers utilizing staffing platforms are typically only going to apply for positions they really want. Accepting an assignment they know fits their interests and expertise immediately sets them up for success and inherently lowers their chance of burning out on the job, or canceling prior to the set start date. 

4. Reimagine education

The demand nationwide is partially due to the fact that graduation numbers at many nursing schools have slowed to a trickle. There are not enough educators, which means those in school are unable to complete their training, increasing the waitlists to even get into classes. 

Some states, like Minnesota, are tackling this problem head-on. The University of Minnesota and Minnesota State University formed the Coalition for Nursing Excellence and Equity in the hopes of attracting more students to the field without increasing the costs of education. By attempting to mitigate any racial, systemic, or financial barriers that may prevent minority caregivers from pursuing careers in nursing, the coalition hopes to move nursing students forward while addressing the worsening staffing shortage in hospitals and clinics.

Helping nurses get trained and certified is hugely important, but a new generation entering the workforce means new expectations, values, and work preferences, particularly concerning technology. In today’s nursing schools, technology is ubiquitous. Hardware such as tablets and medical software are central to how students complete their courses. Not only that, but today’s nursing students – regardless of age – use technology in every aspect of their lives. And after they graduate, they prefer to use technology like automated staffing platforms. 

We can’t afford not to act

With data forecasting that by 2030 4.7 million nurses worldwide will retire, leaving a deficit of 900,000 RNs in the United States alone, this paints a grim picture for our healthcare system, which cannot function without nurses. This means everyone in need of care – each and every one of us – will likely spend more time in waiting rooms than with the clinician. It also means longer wait times for procedures, hospital beds, and even emergency care. 

For healthcare facilities, the shortage impacts the bottom line. Without the personnel in place to provide care and perform critical surgeries – a hospital’s primary source of revenue – facilities will not be able to sustain themselves, leaving many communities without healthcare and the ability to receive medical treatment in their own region. 

Fair and competitive compensation, self-determination, personal agency and skills mapping, and educational opportunities are four critical ways to shift energy and positivity into healthcare, address nursing burnout, and arrest the Great Resignation among our most valuable professionals. 

After all, based on what they offer us all, nurses deserve so much better than they’ve been given, and it is within our power to provide that. 

About Kim Howard

Kim Howard, is chief client officer at Nomad Health. She brings more than 25 years of staffing industry experience, with 18 years focused entirely on the healthcare market. With prior experience at AMN and Nursefinders, Kim is passionate about providing clinicians with the tools, information, and support they need so they can find the most rewarding assignments with as little effort as possible, allowing them to do what they love the most – focus on their patients. 

The rapid growth of America’s senior population presents unique challenges for the healthcare industry. There are more than 56 million Americans currently over the age of 65, and approximately 85% of them have at least one chronic condition. Caring for these seniors accounts for more than one-third of all medical expenditures in the U.S. and nearly 40% of all in-patient hospital encounters. But the real challenge is that there will be 45% more 60-90 year-olds by 2033 than there are now, and 30% fewer workers to support them.

Meeting this surge in demand with our current systems would be challenging even under ideal circumstances—but post-COVID attrition of nurses, physicians, and other skilled caregivers makes it clear that there is no hiring solution to fix the issue. A radical transformation in how care is delivered is necessary. Fortunately, emerging technologies like healthcare AI, advances in digital experiences, and evolving care best practices could help health systems dramatically scale their ability to provide care to older adults without the need to significantly increase their workforce.

The digital senior

Seniors might initially seem like an unlikely target for new digital initiatives. However, new research is putting to rest many of the preconceptions about older adults and the use of technology. Recent surveys have found that today’s seniors are more comfortable with technology than ever, with more than 81% of older adults having used a smartphone as of 2021. Compare that to 2013, when the same survey found that just 13% of older adults had used one.

This increased familiarity and expertise with digital tools means that technologies such as virtual visits, asynchronous messaging, and online scheduling are becoming viable tools to dramatically improve the health experiences of America’s seniors. These technologies will increasingly become essential for improving the capacity of health systems’ existing workforce to treat older adults, just as they are now doing for other digitally native populations.

However, the use of digital technologies to improve care experiences for older adults will also require fine-tuning and specialization, both to meet the level of comfort older adults have with technology and to address the unique healthcare needs of that population. Health systems with tried-and-true digital health programs should take a hard and thoughtful look at their existing capabilities and tools to determine whether they are not just adequate but ideal for meeting the needs of this fast-growing population; in instances where they fall short, careful adjustment or augmentation may be necessary to ensure they can actually deliver on the efficiency, experience, and ROI health systems need.

Smarter, not harder

Although still a nascent field, healthcare AI may also hold the key to meeting the growing demands for elder care as well as the challenges of maintaining supply in the face of staffing shortages.

First and foremost, the widespread adoption of healthcare AI—especially in tasks like clinical documentation and administrative review tasks—will make it possible to dramatically improve the efficiency with which an individual clinician or skilled nurse can deliver care. According to a 2022 meta-analysis of PubMed research, clinicians spend as much as 4.5 hours a day completing EHR-related documentation tasks. The adoption of ambient voice AI could make it possible for such tasks to be largely or completely automated, freeing up considerable capacity and allowing more patients to receive the same level and standard of care without needing to expand the existing workforce. The same could be true for tasks traditionally handled by skilled nurses or back-office staff, including prior authorization, billing, and even complex care coordination across large care teams. 

But above and beyond just expanding capacity, AI could also make it possible to completely re-imagine many healthcare interactions. Caring for patients with multiple chronic conditions in particular places considerable burdens on the individual patient to schedule and coordinate visits across different specialists, healthcare organizations, and locations—many of which will present patients with duplicative scheduling, documentation, and onboarding tasks of their own.

The adoption of generative healthcare AI—a category of artificial intelligence algorithms that generate new outputs based on the data they have been trained on—also offers enormous opportunities for helping older adults take a more active role in their own care by simplifying or automating patient tasks such as scheduling, finding transportation, and managing billing responsibilities.

Navigating the path ahead

Like any new capability, the adoption of new technologies and systems catering to older adults requires careful analysis and strategy if real ROI is to be realized, whether that be in the form of improved experience, improved capacity, or greater revenue attribution.

Many of the digital capabilities that might be brought to bear to square the gap between supply challenges and growing demand already have a mature solution market and clearly established use cases. For health systems looking to use asynchronous messaging, virtual care, and other capabilities to meet the care requirements of older adults, the first step is to identify meaningful use cases and align potential ROI with larger organizational needs. Gaining an understanding of the vendor and solution landscape is also essential, as is learning from the experiences of other organizations that have already found success with these use cases. Solution marketplaces can provide a valuable tool for identifying market leaders and finding partners with experience working with older adult populations and health systems similar in size and nature to your own.

For emerging capabilities like healthcare AI, the path forward is both more challenging and potentially more rewarding for both clinicians and patients. Healthcare AI adoption is still in its infancy, and there are few tried-and-true use cases for health systems to turn to. Industry collaboration will be essential for vetting potential use cases, establishing best practices, and laying the organizational and practical framework for adopting ambient voice AI, generative AI, and other forms of these technologies. At the same time, health systems can’t afford to adopt a “wait and see” approach if they are to derive the full benefit from AI, and so it will be important to examine and vet new developments in the field as use cases and best practices begin to emerge or run the risk of falling behind market competitors and disruptors.

The twin crises of staffing challenges and a rapidly aging population present a major challenge for the healthcare industry—but it is far from the first challenge, and past experiences have proven that health systems can act quickly and decisively to meet the needs of their staff, their organizations, and (most importantly) their patients. Through innovation, leveraging new technologies, and industry-wide collaboration, the same can be true of the “silver tsunami”—but only if health systems are ready, willing, and able to act.

About Scott Cullen

An experienced leader in both clinical care and driving strategic success, Scott Cullen, M.D., brings decades of experience in care model transformation, population health, and experience-centered design. As a former primary care physician, he is well aligned with AVIA’s vision for digital transformation in the health systems of the future—one that combines digital health innovation, clinical outcomes, and equitable and effective healthcare experiences.

Cullen also brings a wealth of experience building and leading strategic advisory practices, having most recently served as Managing Director for Accenture’s Health Provider Industry vertical and as the company’s Chief Clinical Innovation Officer. He also built the Advisory Services practice for Valence Health, during which time the company won a “#1 Best in KLAS” award.

Concerns about deadly fungal infections are growing nearly as fast as the outbreaks themselves. From popular television shows to recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company, the attention has been swift and breathless.

Unfortunately, lost in the scramble to highlight their potency and develop a cure has been any agreement on an effective strategy for cutting into their spread. Over centuries of fighting diseases, humanity has developed a proven approach to containing outbreaks by first identifying how they spread and then breaking the chain of infection.

Like using preventive measures such as diet and exercise to stave off heart disease and other dangerous health conditions, healthcare has a distinct opportunity to prevent the spread of infections by addressing one of the primary root causes, improper cleaning and disinfecting.

The Rise of Fungal Infections

Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning on the spread of Candida auris, a fungal infection that is one of the more prominent multi-drug resistant organisms today. Hard to diagnose and highly lethal in those infected, it has expanded quickly across large swaths of the United States, having grown from 53 people diagnosed in 2016 to at least 2,377 people in 2022, with cases tripling year over year. 

Severe fungal infections are deadly, with some having fatality rates of greater than 50%. And research shows that the risk of death can double for some fungal infections if treatment is delayed by even a day. In total, fungal infections kill at least 1.6 million people per year, according to the Global Action for Fungal Infections, but the actual number is likely much higher because of misdiagnoses.

Preventive Interventions Buy Time

History tells us we should be moving quickly to break the chain of infection to slow or halt the spread of Candida auris and other fungal outbreaks. 

One of the hard-won lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is that a lack of uniform adherence to preventive guidance allowed the virus to spread rapidly, causing millions of unnecessary deaths before vaccines were made available. Even though compliance across the entire general public is admittedly difficult to sustain, enforcement of preventive best practices in our healthcare systems should be achievable.

When presented with an urgent, rising infection concern like Candida auris, the smart first step is to refine and augment our preventive efforts.

I saw this firsthand early in my career fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It was the heroic effort of rapid response teams and healthcare workers at Ebola Treatment Units conducting contact tracing, isolating those exposed, and adhering to rigorous infection prevention and control standards that helped contain the disease while a vaccine was developed and deployed.

An additional benefit of leaning into better cleaning and disinfection is that a large number of epidemiologically important pathogens are transmitted through surfaces, like C. difficile, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), meaning improved disinfection targeting one disease also has the potential to broadly prevent the spread of other diseases at the same time.

Hospitals as Primary Lines of Defense

Unfortunately, our places of healing also seem to be the most adept at spreading fungal infections. In fact, a CDC paper found that most Candida auris transmission in the U.S. to date has occurred in long-term healthcare facilities.

This is partly because studies show that many healthcare facilities have a significant opportunity to improve their disinfection compliance, which – when done poorly – leaves the door open for the rapid spread of contagion. A 2010 study across 27 hospitals found the average percentage of high-touch surfaces cleaned was 49.5%, while a study published this year by several Veterans Administration hospitals and long-term care facilities reported compliance at 33.6%.

The good news is that a handful of innovative hospitals have demonstrated how even incremental process change can lead to a real impact on patient safety. 

In 2006, researchers at Rush University Medical Center found that a proactive effort of training environmental services staff and improving cleaning metrics from 48% to 87% led to a 50% reduction in the acquisition of VRE. In 2008, a team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that bringing cleaning compliance from 44% to 71% was linked to a 49% reduction in MRSA. 

Most recently, a new study published this year conducted across eight hospitals at Trinity Health demonstrated that using a sporicidal disinfectant hospital-wide and improving cleaning quality from 59% to 93% was associated with a 50% decrease in hospital-onset C. difficile infections.

What’s compelling about these data sets is that they don’t necessarily require an impossible standard of 100% perfection to reduce infections – improvements that lead to compliance rates near 80% or better were typically enough to make a difference.

And they can be instituted quickly. Canada’s second-largest health system Fraser Health deployed an updated infection prevention process combining new technology with basic improvements like standardized cleaning carts. Weeks after rolling out these changes and with comprehensive staff training, Fraser Health documented a containment in outbreaks this past winter season compared to historical ones.

The bold headline in all of this is that room for immediate improvement exists. Fungal infections are a clear and present threat that has the potential to spiral out of control if not properly contained. But we can slow this spread through an emphasis on better cleaning techniques and training across our health systems, buying us time to develop better pharmacological interventions and a potential cure. The key is that we act now before the problem gets worse.

About Jason Kang

Jason Kang is the Chief Innovation Officer and a co-founder of Kinnos. Prior to this role, Jason served as Kinnos’ Chief Executive Officer. Jason previously conducted biomedical research at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University and served as the VP of Engineering at Jibon Health Technologies, where he brought a medical device to clinical trials in Bangladesh. For his pioneering work, Jason has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare, served as an AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador, was recognized as a Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellow, and was selected as one of Crain’s New York Business Notable Leaders in Health Care. Jason studied Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University as an Egleston Scholar and recently served on the Executive Board of Columbia Engineering Young Alumni.

As a result of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), Medicaid programs were required to keep citizens continuously enrolled through the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). These continuous enrollments ended on March 31, 2023, resulting in what many call the unwinding of Medicaid. 

In June, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) estimated that between 8 million and 24 million people will lose Medicaid coverage during the unwinding of the continuous enrollment provision. The unwinding of Medicaid has become one of the most significant challenges facing state health agencies. 

The Medicaid redetermination process has become mired in procedural challenges during the renewal process, resulting in CMS pausing Medicaid redeterminations in six states. 

In August, CMS also sent a letter to Medicaid directors in all 50 states that evaluated performance on Medicaid call center wait times, call abandonment rates, rates of procedural terminations, and average wait times for applications to be approved. Overall CMS found that 36 states were falling short on meeting the regularity requirements. 

State and local HHS agencies are clearly in the midst of a public health emergency and are finding themselves challenged with processing Medicaid redeterminations at record levels as they resume regular eligibility operations following the end of the Medicaid continuous enrollment condition. 

In addition, many of these agencies are dealing with eligibility and enrollment systems that have been in place for 10 years, or even longer. As a result, these systems are hitting “legacy” classification, and lack modern features to keep up with the current Medicaid redeterminations challenge. 

With the immense ebb and flow of eligibility applications and redeterminations, it is clear that data is key to overcoming this challenge. On top of this, an astounding level of data is increasing every day, along with the demand to leverage this data to meet citizens’ needs.

Automating Legacy Systems 

Fortunately, state health agencies can address these challenges by automating legacy data systems without needing to invest in full IT modernization. 

Legacy systems are essentially mission-critical systems that contain custom code and business processes designed to serve citizens. Part of the challenge is the lack of automation to deal with high volumes of eligibility redeterminations and disenrollments while ensuring coverage continuity for eligible members.

It is possible to create a path to accessing and engaging with data on legacy systems to break down data silos while enhancing overall processes. By combining these modernizing citizen-focused interfaces, agencies can streamline the Medicaid reenrollments, while reducing errors. 

For example, process mining can help agencies pinpoint processes for improvement and allow simulation of the new processes. These types of solutions can run on top of an eligibility and enrollment existing process engine, providing insights into bottlenecks or outliers.

These solutions also offer easy-to-use interfaces that can help business analysts visualize areas of improvement. New processes can also be simulated before going into production for testing desired outcomes and adjusting as necessary.

Many states are also exploring moving their eligibility and enrollment systems to the cloud, which offers new ways to integrate data more effectively to meet citizen needs.  

This transition can be made seamlessly by quickly integrating applications in the cloud, while also offering end-to-end monitoring to follow the complete flow of transactions across multiple applications. As a result, users can easily visualize integration processes and simulate to-be scenarios to assess impact. 

Regardless of the complexity of the data, common integration scenario templates can provide a quick start to integration development. In addition, key solutions allow agencies to pull data from any source across the HHS landscape, which can include data warehouses or legacy mainframes into one common picture. 

By providing an updated visual interface through a range of pre-built connectors, agencies can easily ingest, transform, and deliver data to the desired destinations. This enables them to detect patterns, anomalies, and trends in real time, which can be used for predictive analytics or immediate decision-making around the redeterminations issue. 

The unwinding of Medicaid is presenting a significant challenge for states, as well as for citizens who have relied on receiving this critical healthcare coverage.  Fortunately, updating the manner in which we engage with legacy systems, and better leveraging the data housed in those legacy systems, provides a path for agencies to ensure that citizens don’t lose coverage due to administrative and procedural issues. 

About Chris Oskuie

Chris Oskuie is the Vice President, State & Local Government and Education Sales at Software AG Government Solutions.  Chris has more than 20 years of experience working with Federal and State Government programs. For the past four years, Chris has led a team of experts that helps government agencies modernize how citizens and state employees engage with and access legacy systems through data and event-based integration.

The concept of an enterprise imaging strategy was coined over a decade ago, however, it’s only in recent years that the expansion beyond “enterprise radiology” has truly begun. The total market for IT across those nine specialties included in Signify Research’s report reached $6.6 billion in 2022; however, only 20% of market revenue was associated with enterprise deals. When digging deeper into which specialties led the enterprise trend, radiology represented 71% of the total enterprise imaging IT market.

As demonstrated in the graph below, radiology and cardiology are expected to continue dominating the market opportunities for enterprise imaging, representing 79% of enterprise revenue in 2027. Pathology, oncology, and ultrasound IT are the next largest enterprise imaging markets, forecast to represent 18% of the enterprise market opportunity in 2027.

This graph represents the global market revenue from each of these specialties associated with enterprise imaging deals, as opposed to standalone deals. (f) denotes forecast data. This data is taken from our Market Opportunities of Enterprise Imaging – 2023 report, published October 2023.

Recent research with industry stakeholders has centered on the need to consolidate data, make imaging IT systems more interoperable and emphasized the importance of enterprise collaboration to drive better patient care. The question for the market then becomes how do providers and vendors alike move beyond radiology and achieve the ambition of enterprise imaging? And importantly, for imaging IT vendor’s investment, evaluating what is the true market opportunity?

The Resurgence of the VNA

To take advantage of the momentum surrounding enterprise imaging, most radiology IT vendors are evaluating strategies to leverage existing installed bases to expand into larger, multi-specialty deals. In many instances, that has been a successful strategy, so far. As a result of radiology deals transitioning from standalone to enterprise bundling, stakeholders have evolved. Decisions are increasingly led by C-Suite executives, with the overall influence of the radiology department slowly eroding, limiting some radiology IT vendors from taking advantage of legacy brand recognition.

The success a vendor holds in radiology will however only get them so far, radiology IT vendors will need to evolve along with the market, striving towards an interoperable and optimized platform for technologies such as cloud and AI. In addition, vendors will need to prove capability in managing imaging beyond radiology and DICOM critical. Expansion into other specialties can be complex, with important considerations on data standards and formats (DICOM, video formats, JPEG, plus other clinical formats that are non-DICOM). In addition to image formats, there are also considerations on the management of encounter-based workflows versus order-based workflows. Thus, expansion beyond radiology will be inevitably tied to the diversification of the core enterprise imaging platform, often considered the vendor-neutral archive (VNA) or equivalent products such as enterprise content management.

Building on the central repository of imaging data offered by the VNA, vendors can begin to differentiate further by leveraging the data, alongside EMR and other sources, to produce actionable insights and analytics, and improve productivity not only in radiology but across all imaging departments and the overall enterprise. Command center-type products are not new in the market, with products available from vendors such as Philips, Siemens Healthineers and GE HealthCare. However, at this time, there is no enterprise imaging use case – with current products aligned to radiology or enterprise operations as opposed to a broader imaging focus.

What’s Next for Best of Breed Vendors?

As specialty markets converge and the opportunities for IT intertwine, what does this mean for the best-of-breed (BoB) vendors already occupying the market?

In most instances, larger radiology IT vendors will be seeking a partner, to leverage the BoB brand recognition, specialist tools and overall expertise in the individual market, whether that’s pathology, oncology, or dermatology. Therefore, for BoB vendors, the priority short-term will be finding the right partner(s) to integrate and target larger EI deals. Geographical representation and market share, customer segment, the overall portfolio and ability to integrate, and broader strategic alignment on cloud and AI will all be important for BoB vendors to evaluate when assessing partners to ensure the “right fit”. This selection will be important, as this creates an opportunity for BoB vendors in the mid-to-long term.

As enterprise imaging momentum grows outside of the core markets of North America and Western Europe, BoB vendors have an opportunity to leverage a radiology IT vendor’s market presence to expand into new geographies. However, additional investment will be required, with the BoB assessing regulatory requirements, any implication or challenges on reimbursement, and customer requirements in new markets, whether that’s a priority on AI integration, efficiency-based tools, or public cloud deployments.

Striving the Market Forward: A Vendors Role

Although interest is high across North America and Western Europe around enterprise imaging strategy, converting deals can be a challenge. As noted in the graph above, opportunities over the forecast period are expected to be heavily weighted towards radiology and cardiology. Broader expansion is often set back due to market education; what is the best way to adopt an enterprise imaging strategy? What is the value and use case of having smaller specialties such as point of care ultrasound (POCUS), dermatology, or ophthalmology integrated into an EI strategy? As well as overcoming the inherent departmental and siloed budgets that make a large EI deployment challenging to fund.

The journey to enterprise imaging will be unique to each healthcare provider, based on specific pain points, contract renewals and vendor incumbents for example. However, vendors have an opportunity to drive the market forward. Ongoing industry discussions help, but there remains limited visibility on real-world use cases to allow providers to learn from one another, or a framework on best practices to improve the management and roll-out of an enterprise strategy. This is where technology vendors should focus.

Investing in the Future

Undoubtedly, opportunities for enterprise imaging are increasing, with many radiology IT deals evolving to include reference to multiple specialties. Although providers may not be ready for a full enterprise imaging deployment today, providers are seeking a long-term partner that can offer the EI capability when the institution is ready, hence the importance for vendors to invest in platform capability and partnerships now, ready for the future.

However, who will be in the best position to take advantage? The success of an IT vendor will depend on three critical factors: an adaptive sales team, leveraging relationships across the enterprise; class-leading interoperability interfacing across all leading diagnostic verticals; the ability to clearly demonstrate the economic and diagnostic and clinical outcomes and tangible benefits to each care pathway.

About Amy Thompson

Amy joined Signify Research in 2020, and is now the Research Manager for Healthcare IT, focusing on imaging and clinical IT, AI in medical imaging and teleradiology. Prior to Signify Research, she brings four years of experience as a Senior Analyst; supporting business strategy and market sizing for Liaison Group, a company operating within the NHS. 

The No Surprises Act (NSA) is a bipartisan effort to protect patients from unexpected healthcare expenses. This law is good news for patients, with a KFF poll showing that 1 in 3 insured adults between 18 and 64 received an unexpected medical bill in the prior two years. The NSA aims to make the cost of care more transparent and minimize surprise billing, which can cause significant financial burdens through higher out-of-pocket expenses and denied claims. Under the NSA, patients now receive preliminary good faith estimates of care costs and can seek care feeling confident they understand the price. 

While the implications of the NSA are a relief for patients, health plans and providers can’t say the same. Providers are experiencing administrative and payment-related challenges, and payers have to navigate delayed revenue recognition. Since COVID, the frequency providers have updated their data is on the rise, and payers are struggling to keep up. Now, health plans must comply with the regulations of the NSA, making the daunting volume of provider updates even more unmanageable.

The State of Play

Under the NSA, health plans must meet a series of stringent requirements establishing a verification process that ensures the accuracy of their provider directories. Inaccurate provider directories and compliance failures are grounds for hefty federal and state fines. The verification requirements for health plans are as follows:

• Establish a verification and removal process for unverified providers
• Verify and update provider information every 90 days 
• Update payer databases within 48 hours of receiving new provider information 
• Respond to all requests regarding a provider’s network status within 24 hours 

With hundreds of thousands of in-network providers, administrators are burdened with a near-impossible challenge to remain compliant. Unfortunately, many existing provider databases use datacraping and cold calling tactics to gather information, which produces unreliable, sporadic results. 

The Cost of Non-compliance

Imagine for a moment you’re a regional health plan with 40,000 members, and the information in your member directory is inaccurate. The federal government can fine you up to $100 per individual impacted by those errors while also fining providers up to $10,000 for errors. So, if you’ve got 40,000 members, the math becomes pretty compelling to get your data in order. 

An organization in this situation faces more than overwhelming federal penalties; each state can also set its own fines. Altogether, the need to have accurate directories is non-negotiable, and those payer organizations that are unprepared to meet verification requirements will need to make significant adjustments to their business processes to avoid violating the NSA.

Automating the Path Forward

Payers will need to make significant adjustments to avoid violating regulations and incurring these hefty fines, including to how they manage their provider directories. It’s important to note that organizations investing in the tools to keep directories up-to-date can benefit in multiple ways simultaneously.

Simplifying healthcare administration could save the industry $250 billion, but instead, a persistent, antiquated, siloed approach that relies on incompatible systems is trapping data and making the exchange of information slow and complex. If the NSA has made one thing clear, it’s that there is a substantial need throughout the industry for a payer solution that solves compliance issues and automates data management. 

Data delivery and maintenance are among the most prominent administrative headaches payers face, making an automated solution a crucial piece of adhering to federal regulations like the No Surprises Act. Providers and payers need a sophisticated infrastructure that facilitates the seamless exchange of critical information, creating a single source of truth and eliminating inefficient information silos. Furthermore, this type of provider data exchange could simplify transactions between payers and providers so they can stay compliant with the No Surprises Act through real-time provider directory updates. Administrators can focus on other essential tasks when data can be automatically verified and updated in all necessary places.

Undoubtedly, implementing The No Surprises Act was a significant and necessary win on behalf of patients. But the dust won’t settle until payers and providers successfully implement the processes and technology required to consistently meet the NSA verification requirements. The time and costs of completing administrative tasks are already bleeding the industry and eating into quality patient care. Without a strategic, nimble, and automated approach to handling the new requirements, payers and providers alike can expect to feel financial and administrative pain for a long time. 

About Eric DemersEric Demers is the CEO of Madaket Health. He believes we can transform healthcare delivery through the power of data and interoperability. With more than 25 years of global healthcare experience, Eric has built and scaled leading technology and service companies, from early stage to Fortune 100. He is highly sought-after for speaking and consulting on international health, having advised global entities and governments on critical issues facing healthcare. A growth-minded leader, Eric has founded three companies and exited two. Eric previously served in strategy-focused executive roles at IBM, Accreon, MEDecision and Orion Health. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

You’ve probably heard about Ozempic, especially if you’re one of the millions who regularly scroll through TikTok or browse other social media platforms. It’s the drug that influencers are lauding as a revolutionary aid for weight loss, making it a hot topic of conversation. 

While Ozempic was initially developed to manage Type 2 diabetes, its emerging potential for weight loss is captivating medical professionals and the public alike.

How Ozempic Works: The Basics

Ozempic is a weekly injection containing the active ingredient semaglutide, FDA-approved in 2017 for adults with Type 2 diabetes. It helps control high blood sugar levels when used alongside lifestyle changes like proper diet and regular exercise. But the most intriguing discovery is its additional effect—weight loss—which is attracting interest well beyond the diabetic community.

Ozempic belongs to the class of drugs known as “GLP-1 receptor agonists.” It lowers blood glucose and stimulates insulin secretion, making it a mainstay in diabetes management. Furthermore, Ozempic also curtails the secretion of glucagon and slows down gastric emptying, which could help people feel full faster, making it an appealing option for potential weight loss prescriptions.

The Buzz on Social Media

There’s been a considerable surge in Ozempic’s popularity, fueled in part by social media influencers sharing their weight loss journeys. While Ozempic is not yet FDA-approved specifically for weight loss, some medical professionals are considering its “off-label” use as a weight-loss solution. 

It’s essential to note that its active ingredient, semaglutide, has already been approved for chronic weight management under the brand name Wegovy — which most recently, has shown positive effects on patients with heart failure — assuming the adult patient is overweight or obese and has at least one weight-related condition.

Navigating the Financials

While the enthusiasm around Ozempic’s potential is high, it’s worth mentioning that insurance usually does not cover off-label uses. Therefore, patients opting to use it for weight loss should be prepared for the cost, which could exceed $1,000 per month. 

Always Consult a Professional

While Ozempic has proven incredibly beneficial in managing Type 2 diabetes, just like any other medication, it does have its own potential set of side effects. There are some reports that have shown that Ozempic could potentially cause mild digestive side effects, among others. Therefore, consultation with a healthcare provider is critical for anyone considering Ozempic for weight loss. 

A Responsible Approach to Sharing Information

Social media has changed the way we perceive and consume medical information. While pharmaceutical companies are bound by rigorous standards and regulations, independent influencers are not held to the same criteria. In a digital age where personal testimonials can go viral and reach millions, it’s crucial for both medical professionals and social media users to share information responsibly. 

That being said, the majority of the information currently being shared regarding Ozempic’s effects is because there are clear, positive results that individuals are experiencing. At the end of the day, however, it is both the consumer’s responsibility to do their research and the company’s responsibility to provide the most up-to-date and accurate information on their products. 

To this extent, social media influencers — particularly those within the healthcare space — should understand the power that they have, and always keep in mind that information should always be shared responsibly. 

A Bright Future

Ongoing evaluations are looking into Ozempic’s potential role in weight loss. While it’s currently essential for managing Type 2 diabetes, its potential extends further, possibly helping millions more in their weight loss endeavors. The key is to approach this medication responsibly, guided by proper medical advice.

So, while the future seems promising for Ozempic as a groundbreaking treatment for both diabetes and potentially obesity, consultation with healthcare providers is essential for its safe and effective use.

About George Kramb
George Kramb is the CEO and co-founder of PatientPartner, a platform he created after recognizing the anxiety patients felt before medical procedures. With a background in supporting doctors in the operating room, George saw the need for more significant support, education, and compassion for patients facing stressful medical experiences. PatientPartner connects patients in a community of empathy and support, boasting over 100 PatientPartner Mentors who share their own medical experiences to help others. George, a Bachelor of Science in Economics graduate from the University of Oregon, has been featured in prestigious publications like Inc and Forbes 30 Under 30 for Consumer Technology and is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur. Under his leadership, PatientPartner has also built a network of over 50 doctors who prioritize improving their patients’ experiences through connections with relatable individuals.

A demographic shift is looming, and we aren’t as prepared as we think.

Colorado has long been revered for its stunning landscapes and outdoor pursuits, earning a reputation as a state with a youthful and active population – but, we are aging.

By 2050, Colorado’s number of older adults is expected to more than double to 1.7 million, second only to Alaska in the U.S. for the fastest-growing population of people over 65. Nationwide, the 85 and older population is projected to more than double from 6.7 million in 2020 to 14.4 million by 2040. 

The concept of a ‘Silver Tsunami’ goes beyond statistics; it underscores the demand for affordable, quality care for our aging adults.

This puts senior care communities at a critical juncture.

Three key areas are emerging as indicators of a new era in senior living that demand our attention. First, there is the need to enhance staffing retention and cultivate a supported and dedicated workforce. The second involves integrating technology to enrich the lives of seniors and empower caregivers. Lastly, there’s a pressing need to make long-term senior care more affordable, reshaping its accessibility and benefits for everyone.

To fully address the surge of seniors who will require care, we must first transcend quick-fix solutions into more tangible improvements that will prepare the industry for its impending reality.

Balancing Staffing Shortages with the Demand for Care

The scarcity of senior care staff has transformed recruitment and hiring into full-time jobs for communities. This is a result of fewer individuals entering the industry compared to the demand in almost every market throughout the country.

This severe shortage has been worsened by experienced care team members leaving due to burnout, stress, retirement, and other factors. Moreover, it is amplified by growing operational inefficiencies, characterized by miscommunication, delays in sharing information, and fragmented coordination of care.

When multiple providers and care team members work together to care for older adults, it’s essential to have clear and efficient communication, especially for keeping staff engaged. When all caregivers are well-coordinated and informed, it minimizes misunderstandings and mistakes, resulting in happier staff and lower turnover rates

Dispelling the Myth of Senior “Technophobia”

The myth that aging adults are incapable of embracing technology must be debunked. 

The cultural shift towards embracing technology lies with organizational leadership. When these key stakeholders champion the integration of digital solutions, they send a powerful message to staff and residents to explore the potential that technology holds in enhancing their daily lives.

Adoption must begin at the top, with C-suite members leading by example and celebrating the benefits with confidence and enthusiasm. Beyond mere acceptance, they will come to recognize the value that technology brings to their communities, from improved communication and care coordination to enhanced social connections and personalized experiences.

Unpacking the Cost Dilemma

Ensuring the affordability of long-term care for our seniors is a crucial factor that shapes the future of caregiving. This challenge is complex and tied to various financial limitations.

Offering improved pay to staff creates a tough situation for families seeking care. When concentrating on higher wages, the element of keeping staff for the long term is overlooked, causing communities to hurriedly spend money on the issue without planning lasting ways to keep their caregivers.

Increasing food expenses, elevated utility bills, and inflation add to the challenge of affordability, impacting both care communities and families. The discrepancy between Medicaid’s reimbursement rates and the rising care costs compounds the issue, as the number of Medicaid participants surpasses the available rooms or beds. Finding the correct balance between affordable care and high-quality service is necessary for the future of long-term caregiving. 

Shifting Perceptions for Future-Oriented Senior Care

The current model, which is based on an approach from fifty years ago, must be reimagined to fit the unique challenges of today’s senior care environment, which is unlike anything seen before.

To start, we need to change the public perception of senior care and educate consumers about its future. Encouraging everyone to ask, “How will you address my needs when I require your services?” prompts a shift in mindset, driving care providers to adapt their offerings to meet the demands of tomorrow’s seniors.

We also need to nurture a motivated workforce, fostering a culture of development and learning. This means understanding that job satisfaction goes beyond just money – it’s about creating an environment that makes their work more manageable and fulfilling. When caregivers can prioritize the personal connection that seniors crave, it keeps the human touch intact and enhances operational efficiency. This, in turn, can alleviate the financial pressure on communities and families.

To ignore the potential of staffing improvements, technology adoption, and affordability concepts is to undermine the entire industry’s future. This is a call for a shift beyond the immediate, for a forward-thinking vision that reshapes the status quo.

It’s time to break free from the constraints of tradition and lay the foundation for a more sustainable future in senior care.

About Katherine Wells

Katherine Wells is the CEO of Serenity, the only network that allows ageing service providers, older adults, and their loved ones to “care together. In addition to her role at Serenity, she is the Chief Inspiration Maverick at Mavericks of Senior Living, a place to bring together different-minded individuals across the senior living ecosystem to create true innovation, including spearheading a new event called National Collaboration In Aging. Prior to her work in senior care, Katherine spent 25+ years as a software marketing executive. She also spent 10+ years as a family caregiver. Caring for her parents both inspired her to start her company and get more involved in creating a future we all want to live in. Katherine is a frequent speaker and thought leader within the industry, passionate about discussing the topic of ageing.

About Francis LeGasse Jr.

Francis LeGasse Jr. is President and CEO of Assured Assisted Living, whose mission is to improve the quality of life of its residents suffering from various dementias in a residential, home-style, least restrictive, but secure environment.  In addition to his role at Assured Senior Living, he is the Chief Curiosity Maverick at Mavericks of Senior Living, a place to bring together different-minded individuals across the senior living ecosystem to create true innovation, including spearheading a new event called National Collaboration In Aging.

Healthcare staffing, an essential pillar of the U.S. healthcare system, involves a myriad of entities, including healthcare providers, facilities, staffing agencies, credentialing bodies and regulatory agencies. At the heart of this process lies the critical function of credentialing — the rigorous verification of clinician qualifications–and how the system is reimbursed. As the industry grapples with a profound staffing shortfall, all stakeholders in the healthcare industry need to focus on speeding up workers’ onboarding and time to bedside.

Presently, the healthcare staffing industry spends millions of dollars on credentialing as part of the process of qualifying travelers, and the process itself takes two to three weeks or longer, often involving manual processes and complex screenings. Manual processes can delay start dates and lead to missed placements. Credentialing costs are becoming even more expensive because of increasing passthrough fees in certain cases.

In light of recent challenges confronting the healthcare sector, the concept of a credential wallet has been discussed for years. The idea is straightforward–enable healthcare professionals to keep a repository of their own credentials that are maintained and even verified so that credentialing can be made a lot faster. Some have discussed leveraging blockchain technology as an approach to execute on the credential wallet concept.

A credential wallet has profound implications for efficiency, security, cost savings, and improved patient care. There have been multiple attempts to create a system of credential wallets for travelers in the industry. It’s time for the industry to take collective action for the benefit of everyone involved.

Implications for the healthcare staffing industry would include:

1. Time Efficiency: time spent on credentialing could fall dramatically. Travelers could save valuable time currently spent on paperwork, allowing them to focus more on patient care. Quicker verification would mean a faster, more responsive staffing process for staffing agencies and healthcare facilities.

2. Cost Savings: with this type of wallet, the cost of credentialing could also decrease significantly. Staffing agencies could save hundreds to thousands of dollars per clinician by eliminating repetitive verification procedures.

3. Interoperability: A universally recognized wallet standard could be used across various facilities, reducing the need for re-credentialing, enhancing flexibility for practitioners, and reducing administrative costs for institutions. It would make for simpler and more efficient audits, further reducing associated time and costs.

Despite these clear benefits, the transition to a credential wallet does pose challenges, such as privacy concerns, initial implementation costs, and the need for widespread acceptance. However, the potential savings in time and costs and increased security and efficiency make a compelling case for its adoption.

By adopting technology for credentialing, the U.S. healthcare staffing sector could realize substantial financial benefits, improve efficiency, enhance data security, and ultimately improve the delivery of patient care. Technology has advanced rapidly, and it’s time for the healthcare industry to take advantage of available efficiencies.

About Eric Ly

Eric Ly is the Founder & CEO of KarmaCheck, a first-of-its-kind company that uses data-driven technology to bring truth, speed, and efficiency to background checks.  Ly is the cofounder of LinkedIn, a social networking platform, where he served as the chief technology officer. Ly helped launch LinkedIn from a strategic perspective and assisted with the architecture and implementation of specific aspects of the networking and search algorithms. Ly even acted as the vice president of desktop, building a team of professionals to lead the desktop integrations. Ly attended Stanford University, where he earned his bachelor of science in symbolic systems, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his master of science in media arts and sciences. After earning his MS, Ly returned to Stanford to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science. After co-founding LinkedIn, Ly founded Presdo, Hub, KarmaCheck, and several other companies.

For the last decade, Section 1557 has been at the center of many changes and today, it continues to be as the Biden administration is working to take giant steps towards restoring and strengthening some civil rights protections for people in many health-related programs and activities that receive funding from the federal government.

Section 1557, known as the “Health Care Rights Law,” is the main nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It prohibits discrimination in healthcare based on factors like race, ethnicity, language, age, disability, and sex. Part of this landmark regulation asserts that language barriers must not hinder patients’ access to quality care. For healthcare providers, compliance with these regulations is not only a legal obligation but also critical to addressing health disparities and improving patient outcomes.

Recently, the Biden administration proposed changes to the current regulations implementing Section 1557 that would restore and strengthen nondiscrimination protections and improve access to care for millions of people. 

When Section 1557 came into effect in 2016 under President Obama, it was a testament to the power of health equity as it was designed to support existing legislation like Title VI – the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With changes in subsequent administrations, including reversals by President Trump, Section 1557’s significance remains a constant area of focus. 

Focus on Language

The effective delivery of healthcare is more than just a commitment to medical excellence; it’s also a commitment to cultural competency and equitable access for all patients. Under Section 1557, regulations set forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the importance of providing language assistance services has been magnified, emphasizing the critical role of qualified medical interpreters in ensuring equal access to healthcare for all patients, regardless of their language proficiency.

From a language access perspective, Section 1557 is a call for equity and inclusivity and qualified medically trained interpreters become critical to bridging the language gap. Qualified medical interpreters bring accurate communication to patients, eliminating the potential pitfalls of misinterpretation that could lead to life-altering consequences. 

Language barriers that exist between healthcare providers and patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), is one of the most significant challenges to achieving compliance for Section 1557. Effective communication is the cornerstone of safe and quality healthcare delivery, encompassing accurate diagnosis, informed consent, medication management, and post-treatment instructions. Qualified medical interpreters become indispensable assets, breaking down language barriers and facilitating meaningful conversations between healthcare professionals and LEP patients and therefore are an essential part of the care team.

Trained medical interpreters bring a unique skill set to the healthcare setting that automated translation tools and bilingual staff may not replicate. These professionals possess a high level of language fluency, a deep understanding of medical terminology, cultural nuances, and ethical considerations, allowing them to convey complex medical information accurately while preserving patients’ cultural beliefs. 

There are several keys to achieving compliance to Section 1557 when it comes to language, which includes the following:

Accurate Communication: Medical jargon is intricate and precise, and any miscommunication can have dire consequences. Qualified medical interpreters ensure that medical information is accurately conveyed, reducing the risk of medical errors, misdiagnoses, and inappropriate treatments.

Cultural Competence: Healthcare encompasses diverse cultural backgrounds and beliefs. Qualified medical interpreters are adept at navigating cultural nuances, ensuring that patients’ beliefs and values are integrated into their care plans. This enhances patient satisfaction and fosters trust in the healthcare provider-patient relationship.

Ethical Considerations: Qualified medical interpreters adhere to strict codes of ethics that prioritize patient confidentiality, impartiality, and professionalism. This ensures that patients can openly discuss sensitive matters with confidence.

Reduced Legal Risks: Section 1557 violations can result in significant legal repercussions. Qualified medical interpreters can play a crucial role in minimizing these risks by facilitating clear communication and promoting adherence to the regulations.

A Collaborative Approach to Compliance

Achieving compliance to Section 1557 is not solely the responsibility of medical interpreters; it requires a collaborative effort across the healthcare system. Healthcare institutions must invest in training and certification for interpreters, integrate interpreter services into their workflows, and emphasize the importance of language access in their organizational culture.

As the healthcare industry evolves to become more inclusive and patient-centered, Section 1557 stands as a symbol of equity and access. Qualified medical interpreters form the bridge that connects healthcare providers with patients, both from different cultures and who speak different languages, ensuring that quality care is provided to all, regardless of language. By recognizing the invaluable role of these interpreters, healthcare organizations can not only meet potentially new regulatory requirements but also champion a new era of compassionate, culturally competent, and patient-focused care.

As we wait for any changes in this space from the current and future administrations, one thing is clear: we must continue to pursue equitable and quality care for all patients no matter what language they speak. 

About Carla Fogaren R.N.
Carla is currently with AMN Language Services. She has served as the System Director of Diversity Initiatives, Interpreter Services and ADA/504 and Section 1557 Coordinator for a large healthcare system with forty-two hospitals and 46,000 employees in eleven states. Carla is known nationally as a pioneer in the field of medical interpreting as well as a national consultant on language access, health disparities, disabilities, and regulatory requirements for hospitals. She created and implemented a bilingual clinical staff language assessment to comply with Section 1557. Carla has performed over sixty gap analyses for hospitals and clinics to assess compliance with Joint Commission, DNV, ADA and other federal and state requirements. She is currently the President of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCHIC).

In the dynamic world of healthcare, preference cards serve as crucial tools that capture a surgeon’s specific needs and preferences for each type of surgical procedure they perform. These cards typically outline the equipment, instruments, and supplies required for a particular procedure, providing a personalized roadmap for surgical teams to follow. By detailing these specifications, preference cards help streamline surgical planning, foster improved communication among the operating room (OR) staff, and ultimately enhance patient safety.

The Issues With Traditional Preference Card Systems

While preference cards serve a valuable purpose, traditional systems — including paper-based and electronic versions in Microsoft Word and Excel file formats — have notable limitations. These range from logistical issues, such as the physical storage and maintenance of paper cards, to operational challenges, like updating information in a timely and accurate manner. In an environment where precision, efficiency, and safety are paramount, these limitations can have significant implications. 

The evolving digital transformation at hospitals, however, presents an opportunity to overcome these challenges. Digitizing preference cards can transform healthcare operations, providing tangible benefits for surgeons, nurses, techs, SPD teams, and patients alike. Let’s take a look at three key advantages for OR teams.

The Benefits of Going Digital

At their core, digital preference cards enhance efficiency and accuracy in the OR. By replacing paper-based systems with digital alternatives, OR teams can:

Streamline communication – Digital preference cards give an at-a-glance overview of a surgeon’s specific needs for any procedure. They provide a clear, easy-to-understand roadmap, eliminating any guesswork or uncertainty and ensuring every member of the surgical team agrees.

Allocate resources more efficiently – By clearly specifying the required surgical instruments, supplies, and equipment, digital preference cards enable the OR staff to prepare with greater speed and precision. This not only enhances productivity but also minimizes the risk of delays or disruptions because of missing or incorrect instruments.

Easily update – Digital preference cards improve communication among OR staff. With digital cards, updates or changes are applied in real-time, ensuring that everyone always has access to the most current information. This feature fosters a more collaborative and cohesive OR environment, ultimately benefiting both healthcare providers and patients.

The Crucial Role of Data Accuracy in Digital Preference Cards

Digital preference cards shine regarding data accuracy. Up-to-date data is the backbone of efficient and effective healthcare provision, and digital preference cards are pivotal in achieving this. They offer an easy and convenient means of updating and maintaining surgeon preferences, ensuring that data accuracy is always at its optimum.

An accurate preference card facilitates precise surgical planning, reduces the risk of errors, and minimizes waste — from unnecessary instrument sterilization to the overuse of supplies. It ensures that the most relevant, current data informs all decisions made in the OR, promoting patient safety and quality of care.

Efficiency and Error Reduction with Digital Preference Cards

One of the fundamental advantages of digital preference cards is their potential to reduce errors and increase operational efficiency. While several EHRs include preference card functionality, many are hard to set up, difficult to update, and challenging to use; purpose-built solutions that focus solely on preference card management are more likely to be easier to deploy, update, and utilize and will make a more meaningful impact. In addition, purpose-built solutions provide features not found in the EHR, like annotating cards with photographs of items on the list. By delivering accurate, real-time information, they allow surgical teams to work with greater speed and precision.

By eliminating the need for manual updates and the risk of miscommunication, digital preference cards can significantly reduce errors — from ordering and preparing the wrong instruments to misinterpreting a surgeon’s preferences. They can help to cut down on time spent searching for missing or misplaced information, allowing surgical teams to focus more on patient care.

In terms of efficiency, digital preference cards help streamline numerous aspects of OR operations. They simplify preparing for surgeries, speed up turnover times, and support more efficient resource utilization. As a result, they not only enhance the productivity of OR teams but can also lead to substantial cost savings.

Digital innovation is transforming how healthcare providers operate. In an industry where every second and every detail matters, digital preference cards are proving to be an invaluable tool.

About Aileen Killen
Aileen Killen, Ph.D., RN, CPPS, brings a wealth of clinical experience and thought leadership in patient safety and perioperative nursing to her role as director of perioperative operational excellence at LiveData. Her career has included leadership positions in some of the country’s leading academic medical facilities including New York University Medical Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As the first director of patient safety programs at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Aileen established institutional guidelines, metrics, and standards for the overall quality of patient care.

Healthcare providers are feeling the industry’s talent shortage in their administrative functions as well as clinical areas. One case in point: revenue cycle management. In a recent study, 63% of healthcare providers reported an inability to fill key revenue management roles. Reduced revenues and cash reserves are almost inevitable when providers don’t have sufficient staff to follow up on claims, manage appeals and help patients understand their financial responsibilities and options. 

Fortunately for providers, revenue cycle automation offers timely, cost-effective solutions to the talent shortage. Robotic process automation (RPA) is proven technology for automating rote, repetitive processes that involve multiple steps and systems and/or substantial human and machine interaction. Using software bots, RPA essentially mimics the keystrokes of human operators. Many bots can be developed and deployed in a matter of weeks. They then work tirelessly and accurately, including during off-hours. At one institution, a software bot cleared a backlog of thousands of claims status checks in just a single weekend. It would have taken humans hundreds of days to accomplish that task. 

RPA is just the start. With software bots streamlining processes and improving data accuracy, the foundation is set for creating more sophisticated automation solutions built on AI and ML models. These can tackle more complex tasks that involve following business rules and making decisions based on the models’ data analysis.  These AI/ML solutions often are more expensive and take longer to implement than RPA. They are best suited for providers that already have standardized processes and cleaner data from their existing automation. 

Unlock revenue fast with robotic process automation

Automating RCM tasks frees up revenue management professionals to take on other, more complex activities, such as providing financial counseling during patient pre-registration activities. RPA solutions will also enable providers to improve revenue cycle productivity without adding additional employees. Many RCM tasks are excellent candidates for automation via software bots and RPA, including: 

Claims status checks. Bots can look up claims data and other information in payer portals, then update systems and even initiate next steps, eliminating these rote tasks and returning time to revenue professionals.

Automated patient pre-registration. RPA bots can link applications and systems together to automate more complex transactions and extract more value from them. Take a patient-facing, self-service registration portal. After a patient agrees to interact digitally with the provider, RPA bots can download patient registration requests; retrieve patient data from an electronic health record (EHR); then update the patient engagement system. The update can trigger the engagement system to send the patient a self-registration and payment link. When the patient completes those steps, the RPA bots can access the payment and patient demographic data and update the provider’s EHR. 

Digitally enabled prior authorization. Bots can easily retrieve patient data, insurance details, CPT codes, physician details, diagnosis codes and schedules from an EHR; flag cases requiring prior authorization; and submit them digitally to a payer portal. Then bots can update records with approved requests. They can also automatically route denied cases requiring additional information to the right clinicians, then refile them when updated. 

What about AI? 

RPA software bots essentially follow sets of rules. While a rule set can be complicated and involve several systems, software bots generally are making preprogrammed if/then decisions. Outliers can be routed to finance professionals for follow-up. 

In contrast, automation solutions that incorporate AI and machine learning algorithms can evolve and eventually make autonomous decisions. Put very simply, an ML algorithm learns from the data sets to which it’s exposed, finding patterns and relationships. This makes ML potentially very powerful. ML algorithms can stratify patient accounts by propensity to pay and automate financial assistance applications. That would reduce costs to collect while improving revenue realization. ML could also identify missing charges and help avoid revenue loss. Those applications, however, are complex. In general, the more advanced the technology, the more time and expense required to implement it. That’s not to take these options off the table. While they undoubtedly will play a role in coding and other tasks, ML and AI applications often are more than many providers need to solve immediate staffing and revenue realization issues. Healthcare organizations must carefully select which processes to automate to ensure the results meet their needs. 

Moving forward with automation

Providers must be clear about what they hope to achieve by automating their revenue cycles and realistic about the time and resources they have available to allocate to the project. The following steps can help guide decisions about which revenue cycle processes to tackle.

• Choose low-hanging opportunities first. Providers should build organizational automation experience before attempting more ambitious projects. The provider that solved its claims status check backlog with RPA initially applied the solution to claims from its largest payer. After succeeding there, the provider then expanded the initiative to claims from its other payers. 

• Choose opportunities that minimize IT involvement. Provider IT professionals often have many competing priorities. Developing RPA software bots requires minimal IT input. 

• Choose a vendor that understands healthcare revenue cycle services. Working with a skilled, experienced vendor helps minimize the time and input a provider’s revenue professionals must give to the engagement. Vendors with RPA and healthcare revenue expertise can build flexible bot frameworks so bots can be extended to other applications with minimal programming.

• Prioritize opportunities that tangibly improve patient and employee experiences. Improving the patient financial experience is a growing priority. Automating tedious, repetitive tasks reduces errors and frees revenue staff to work on more complex issues that deliver more value to patients and the organization. 

• Evaluate the return on investment. Most RPA projects should deliver a return 2 to 3 times greater than the investment. Reconsider projects that have lower anticipated returns or that indicate a long time to ROI. 

The societal changes that have shrunk healthcare’s labor pool are here to stay. Automating the revenue cycle will position providers to improve cash flow, enable their revenue professionals to work at the top of their abilities and offer patients the streamlined digital experiences they increasingly expect. Most importantly, providers will have more of the financial resources they need to focus on their true expertise, delivering patient care and improving outcomes.

About Noel A. Felipe, CRCR
With over 38 years of experience in healthcare accounts receivable management, Noel has a proven track record of developing progressive client-based solutions and building strong cross-functional teams to implement those solutions and maximize client results. At Firstsource, Noel maintains direct account management responsibility for strategic clients and leads the development team for Firstsource’s digital collection and digital pre-service collection platforms.  Noel attended Miami Dade College, is a member of the American Association of Health Administration Management (AAHAM); has served two terms as president of the Florida Chapter of HFMA and was appointed to HFMA’s National Advisory Council for Revenue Cycle.