Blogs

Another year comes to an end and one can say 2016 has been a rollercoaster of a year for the healthcare industry. We saw revolutionary developments, rattling news and understated excitement ruling the system in this year. As 2017 is about to come, let us look back at top 10 things that changed and what to look ahead for in 2017.

The population in the United States is extremely diverse – people from different communities, countries, ages and socioeconomic backgrounds are all living there – diversity is everywhere. This composition is going to defines how U.S. healthcare is and the way people are covered under it. The notion of a single-mold health plan has been all but rendered moot. Hospitals and other healthcare required to constantly assess the changing population and their changing needs to deliver the best care.

In the words of W. Edwards Deming, “Every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results it gets.” This is one of the most agreeable statements in the healthcare industry, and the most certain way to change health care is to change how the system works, improve quality and contain costs. To guide these improvements in healthcare space, we need to learn from the past, predict future, and quantify the concept of ‘good care.’

On an average, chronic conditions claim 7 out of every 10 deaths in the United States, accounting for more than 1.7 million Americans every year. The amount of money being spent to treat patients with chronic diseases is skyrocketing; according to CMS, 93% of United States’ total Medicare spending is distributed among beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions. These stats are truly reflecting the real picture and make us wonder why there is need to drive focus towards chronic care management.

Unstructured data has always been a complication everywhere, and more so than anywhere in healthcare industry. Invaluable information is at stake, all due to unstructured data and the difficulties in accessing it, making it difficult for the quick change in expectations for preventive care, wellness and speedy diagnosis and treatment.

The story of Geraldine Alshamy explains how a minor complication in healthcare network can be catastrophic! The patient started experiencing severe headaches, and she was rushed to an emergency room. Since she didn’t have a Primary Care Physician, she had a previous condition of hypothyroidism. But due to lack of proper communication channel, her care process wasn’t the best that she could have gotten and unfortunately she had a heart attack!