Digital MSK startup IncludeHealth scores $11M and more digital health fundings

Digital MSK startup IncludeHealth scores $11M and more digital health fundings

Digital musculoskeletal (MSK) health company IncludeHealth announced it had raised $11 million in a funding round led by CincyTech with participation from Tamarind Hill and other investors.The company said it would use the funds to expand MSK-OS, its virtual care platform for delivering musculoskeletal care and physical therapy. Late last year, IncludeHealth announced a partnership with Yale New Haven Health System to offer a hybrid MSK care model for the system’s patients using the platform. 
In addition to the funding round, the startup said it had hired Ray Shealy as COO and added Grant Koster, who served as senior vice president of…

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Elation Health Acquires Lightning MD to Build Primary Care All-in-One Solution

Elation Health Acquires Lightning MD to Build Primary Care All-in-One Solution

What You Should Know:– Primary care EHR Elation Health acquires cloud-based medical billing and payer connectivity provider Lightning MD, a platform that was created by nurses. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.The acquisition is part of Elation Health’s bid to be a one-stop shop for all primary care — something that co-founder and CEO Kyna Fong, Ph.D., has been driving despite all the odds.As part of the acquisition, Elation will continue to support practices integrated with over 20 practice management and billing solutions connected via the Elation application programming interface (API).Lightning MDFounded in 2017 by registered nurses Kelly Schoenfeld and…

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From Telemedicine to Complete Virtual Care and Beyond

From Telemedicine to Complete Virtual Care and Beyond

Michael Gorton, CEO of Recuro HealthTelemedicine has helped improve the quality of life of patients in every corner of the world and has been successfully utilized to provide convenient care to people with limited or no access to health services. Today, worldwide digital interconnectivity is growing, enabling telehealth to advance health equity, bring access to care for underserved regions and meet the urgent, primary and behavioral healthcare needs of an exploding global population.It has been a remarkable journey for the innovators who pioneered telemedicine. Since its inception, digital health services began the transformation from traditional healthcare — a reactive, disease-focused model…

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RTLS Can Enhance the Patient Experience, Staff Safety, and Workflow Operations in 2023

RTLS Can Enhance the Patient Experience, Staff Safety, and Workflow Operations in 2023

Scott Hondros, MHA, SCPM, VP of Professional Services at CenTrakAlthough the healthcare industry has shown significant resilience, the byproduct of the pandemic has amplified staff stressors across all operational and clinical roles. In a study conducted in 2022, more than one-third (34%) of the participating registered nurses (RN) stated that it was likely they would leave bedside nursing by the end of the year. Almost half (44%) cited both burnout and high-stress environments as their main reasons to retire or pursue other careers. As staff shortages increase, so do workloads. Forty-three percent of the nurses that responded to Hospital IQ’s recent survey…

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5 Biggest Healthcare MVP Challenges

5 Biggest Healthcare MVP Challenges

The healthcare industry currently faces many challenges, from meeting ever-changing patient demands to dealing with cyberattacks. The demand for efficient and secure IT solutions has never been greater. Healthcare MVPs are becoming increasingly popular as they offer a cost-effective way to bring innovative solutions to the market. However, they come with their own set of challenges to overcome.

Healthcare organizations need to develop products that meet the needs of their patients while providing a safe environment. We know that MVP is a great way to start because it gives you the opportunity to validate your idea fast, test the market…

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Singapore's iHiS taps Google Cloud, Accenture to drive healthcare innovation

Singapore’s iHiS taps Google Cloud, Accenture to drive healthcare innovation

Integrated Health Information Systems, Singapore’s national healthcare technology agency, has collaborated with Google Cloud and Accenture to promote the development of data-driven applications to “deliver more high-quality and digital-first healthcare experiences.”Accenture is helping deploy Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, which will provide third-party developers access to data and services across iHiS’s managed systems to create new applications and capabilities. 
The resulting flexible API-based architecture from this collaboration will serve as a “connective tissue across data sources and applications,” as per iHiS assistant chief executive Alan Goh. 
Google Cloud has also built security features into the Apigee platform to provide iHiS full visibility over…

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Few Managed Care Plans Have Current Contact Info for Medicaid Members as Redeterminations Loom

Few Managed Care Plans Have Current Contact Info for Medicaid Members as Redeterminations Loom

Just about one-third of managed care plans have verified or current contact information for between 76% and 100% of their Medicaid members, a recent survey found. 
The news comes as the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision is set to expire March 31 due to the Consolidated Appropriations Act. The requirement was part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and banned states from disenrolling people from Medicaid during the public health emergency (although the Consolidated Appropriations Act separated the requirement from the PHE, which will end in May). Starting April 1, states can resume disenrollments and Medicaid enrollees will have to undergo the…

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We’re Feeling the Effects of the Nursing Shortage. Technology Can Help.

We’re Feeling the Effects of the Nursing Shortage. Technology Can Help.

The healthcare industry is in desperate need of nurses — and fast. Chances are this isn’t news to you. You’ve seen the countless headlines covering the impact the pandemic has had on nurses, and how that nursing shortage has impacted employment numbers, healthcare facilities, and patient care.
Nurses are burnt out. They’re stressed, exhausted, and struggling to find adequate mental health support. But the pandemic isn’t the only issue to blame. Experts are predicting that over 1 million RNs will likely retire by 2030, which will only add to the heaviness of the nursing shortage. An overly-stressed out and aging workforce of…

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Epic, eHealth Exchange and CommonWell among HHS-approved QHIN candidates

Epic, eHealth Exchange and CommonWell among HHS-approved QHIN candidates

A half-dozen organizations on Monday were approved by the Department of Health and Human Services as the inaugural batch of candidates to participate as qualified health information networks as part of ONC’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.During a Feb. 13 event at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, six healthcare organizations were approved to implement TEFCA as prospective QHINs: CommonWell Health Alliance, eHealth Exchange, Epic TEFCA Interoperability Services, Health Gorilla, Kno2, and KONZA National Network.
In a blog post, National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi recognized those organizations, “for their willingness to voluntarily step up and meet the…

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95% of Certified Health IT Developers Met ONC Cures Act Deadline

95% of Certified Health IT Developers Met ONC Cures Act Deadline

– More than 95 percent of certified health IT developers met the Cures Act Final Rule compliance deadline to provide customers with new technology, according to an ONC HealthITBuzz blog post. The Cures Act Final Rule mandated many changes to the Certification Program, including four updates set to have long-lasting interoperability impacts on patients, clinicians, and developers. ONC Certified Health IT developers must: Advance interoperability for patients and providers through the use of FHIR-based application programming interfaces (APIs);Enable patients, providers, and other stakeholders to have access to consistent data elements represented in at least version one of the United States Core…

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