NEW YORK (Reuters Health—Telemedicine follow up based on patient-reported outcome (PRO) is noninferior to conventional outpatient care for tight control of disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with low disease activity or remission, new findings show. “Even though patients in the [telemedicine] follow-up groups requested more acute visits, they over-all had a more than…
Digital Healthcare Devices, Sensors Gaining Ground as Portable Personal Coaches
WASHINGTON, D.C.—A friendly, but stern, voice talks to Joseph Kvedar, MD, vice president of Connected Health at Partners HealthCare, from his smartphone. Dr. Kvedar has just woken up. “Good morning, Joe! Here’s the tale of the tape. Your blood pressure and cholesterol are fine. Your sleep deficit is now up to three hours for the week….
Cyber Safety in the HIPAA Age
Ready for a cyber checkup? Auditing your health IT policies, safeguarding your hardware and educating your staff on the importance of data security should be routine, according to industry experts…
Telemedicine: One Rheumatologist’s Experience
Once the barriers to telemedicine are overcome, this modern approach to the practice of medicine solves patient access issues and increases physician productivity, says Daniel Albert, MD, a pediatric rheumatologist at the Center for Telehealth at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center…
Designate a Data Expert for Your Practice
With Medicare and insurers now incentivizing physicians for collecting and reporting data, rheumatologists need at least a minimum understanding of the gigabytes of information flowing through their practices. Actually, every medical practice should have at least one person with some informatics expertise, according to computer-programmer-turned-rheumatologist Jeffrey Curtis, MD, MS, MPH. “Physicians need to be more…
Road Rules for Social Media: As More Rheumatologists Go Online to Tweet, Chat or Post, They Must Learn How to Tread Wisely
For many practices, the benefits of social media—connecting with patients and exchanging ideas with colleagues—outweigh the risks, says R. Swamy Venuturupalli, MD, FACP. If rheumatologists set strategies for engagement and help shape the conversations, social media can be leveraged for research, community outreach, patient support and more…
Common Sense Tips for Rheumatologists on Social Media
Using social media goes beyond self-promotion, says David Deutsch. “If you can give prospective patients something that changes their lives, they will care about you.” A few thoughts on social media and rheumatology practices…
Medicare Telemedicine Underuse May Not Be Due to Reimbursement Policies
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Contrary to previous research, mandating commercial insurance reimbursement of telemedicine was not associated with faster growth in Medicare telemedicine use, according to a newly published study. Dr. Ateev Mehrotra of Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues examined trends in telemedicine utilization by Medicare from 2004–2013 using claims from a 20% random sample…
Smartphones Not So Smart with Urgent Medical Questions
(Reuters Health)—Smartphones are the first thing many people turn to with questions about their health. But when it comes to urgent queries about issues like suicide, rape and heart attack, phones can be pretty bad at offering good medical advice, a new study suggests. Researchers tested four commonly used conversation agents that respond to users’…
Health Apps Often Lack Privacy Policies & Share Our Data
(Reuters Health)—Just because a health app has a privacy policy doesn’t mean the data will remain private, an analysis of mobile tools for diabetes suggests. In fact, privacy policies appear rare, and when they do exist, most state that user data will be collected and half warn that medical information will be shared with third…
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