Practice Technology

Aledade’s Farzad Mostashari answers Medical Economics readers’ questions on various struggles facing physicians regarding health IT.

Ignoring social media is no longer possible if your practice wants to reach patients where they are.

Move your practice margins.

Four winning apps work to generate better use of data collected by doctors in their EHR systems to improve patient care.

EHRs can aid primary care doctors in better managing their patient populations, but challenges exist in optimizing the technology for this purpose.

Whether you know it or not, you have an online presence. And it may be growing without any input from you. It’s time to take control of your Internet presence, engage patients online, and manage your reputation. This guide describes how to get started and effectively manage your onlinepresence and reputation to grow your practice.

Setting up social media accounts for your practice can be a simple, step-by-step process and a great place to start is Facebook. Follow these simple steps to get your Facebook page up and running and reap the rewards of this added connection to your patient community

Setting up social media accounts for your practice can be a simple, step-by-step process and a great place to start is Facebook. Think of Facebook as a channel to connect with your existing patients and even bring in new ones by offering helpful tips and insights into your practice. Follow these simple steps to get your Facebook page up and running and reap the rewards of this added connection to your patient community

Telemedicine is an attractive new care model–the growth potential is great, it’s easy to adopt, and so far patients are very happy with it. Telemedicine is proving to be an ideal format for improving patient engagement and is creating a greater demand for services. That’s strong incentive for private practices to embrace this new frontier of healthcare. Private practices that opt-in to this care model have the ability to improve both their clinical efficiency and the patient/provider relationship.

Smart glasses and other wearable technologies could become as ubiquitous in the exam room as a stethoscope or blood pressure cuff, giving doctors not only another tool to deliver quality care but helping to bolster their personal connections with patients.

Q: Where can I find specific guidance on cloning and electronic health record (EHR) issues?

Recent guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeking to clarify patient safety work product (PSWP) privilege under the Patient Safety Act has instead stoked conflicting opinions among organizations representing healthcare providers as to how the provision should be interpreted.

While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that nearly $29 billion of improper payments were made in 2015, according to spokespersons for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and CMS, the full extent of EHR fraud remains elusive.

In the latest batch of letters to the editor, Obamacare and disturbing technological advances are at the top of mind.

Practices have been collecting this data for decades-and now is the time to start using it.

As the rules for MACRA are written, we are again at a critical juncture in U.S. healthcare. The risks to both physicians and their patients is real.

Unfortunately, for many physicians, the professional rewards of status, security, and meaningful work are threatened by an avalanche of responsibility and stress characterizing today’s practice environment and further contributing to an escalating epidemic of physician stress and burnout.

HIT coalition says the medical field must measure all forms of information sharing today so it can accurately assess interoperability successes moving forward.

A Mayo Clinic report reveals many physicians are dissatisfied with EHRs and patient portals, saying they improve neither their efficiency nor patient care.

EHR errors and MOC frustrations are the hot topics of this issue's Your Voice.

Physicians may have an opportunity to engage with patients via text messaging as smartphones become ubiquitous.

In April, baby boomers passed the crown as the largest living generation to millennials, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. There are now more Americans between the ages of 18-34 than those aged 51-69.

Data thieves are getting craftier with their methods-and are actively targeting healthcare records.

A new report shows office-based physician EHR use has dipped below 60%

Consumers don’t think twice about using an ATM or firing up Amazon to buy anything and everything, but engaging with their physicians via telemedicine-two-way video, emails, smartphones, wireless tools-is not yet a natural instinct.

What does this mean? Why is it a challenge? What’s happening to fix it?

Even if your practice can share data electronically, what do you want to share?

Every device with a wireless internet connection can potentially be broken into, and studies show that 1 in 4 people has been hacked. Over the past few years, white hat hackers have breached a variety of medical devices, proving that a skilled hacker could gain access to medical equipment and wreak havoc from a remote location.

There was a day when medical transcription was neat and clean. A doctor dictated what happened during an exam and a transcriptionist accurately typed each detail into the patient’s record. Each future encounter built on that record, a detailed history meant to ensure quality care. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it worked.

Experts explore the operational requirements, from care coordination to patient engagement.