Moving Analytics

Posted on March 10, 2016March 16, 2016

Moving Analytics

This week I spoke with the co-founder, Harsh Vathsangam, of a technology company, Moving Analytics, that is working to significantly increase participation rates in cardiac rehabilitation. Over 900,000 Americans experience heart attacks each year. Still more will experience heart failure, valvular disease, and other cardiovascular problems that create a diminished tolerance of activity.

We know very well that regular activity and selective behavior choices around such things as diet, alcohol consumption, and smoking, among others, play a large role in stopping or even reversing effects of these conditions. Currently, roughly a third or less of these patients are engaging in a supervised cardiac rehab program. Clearly, there is much room for improvement in this regard.

As a computer scientist, Harsh has long-known the power of computing and analytics data for creating efficiencies and making well-educated strategic decisions. He and some colleagues began to look for opportunities to leverage this power in the healthcare arena, one which we know is actively seeking to reduce cost while at the same time improve patient outcomes.

The Moving Analytics app allows patients to receive frequent feedback regarding their prescribed activities and behavioral choices. Additionally, it provides data regarding the patient’s compliance with their regimen along with some basic health data to the health professional overseeing their cardiac rehab progress. In this way, the patient is able to engage in healthful activities that will improve their condition in the convenience of their home. Additionally it will allow the cardiac rehab professionals to scale their services to a wider patient population, reducing cost of providing care (based on a per-provider cost).

Moving Analytics is looking to partner with hospitals and health systems who are working to improve patient engagement with these important cardiac rehab programs for the post-cardiovascular event patients.

Special Guest:

Harsh Vathsangam, Co-founder, Moving Analytics

PhD, Computer Science, University of Southern California
MS, Computer Science, University of Southern California
Recipient, PhD Award, University of Southern California
Awarded USC Annenberg Fellowship 2008-2012

Sharing Spaces Program

Posted on December 16, 2015December 16, 2015

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Wende Parker talks Sharing Spaces

Mark Anderson of Cobb County School District

Sharing Spaces Program

On this week’s episode we focused on how the Cobb-Douglas Department of Public Health is working to reduce rates of childhood obesity. The Sharing Spaces program and Power Up for 30 program both aim to facilitate more physical activity among our student-aged populations.

Childhood obesity is rising among our young people at alarming rates. The American Heart Association’s website explains: “Today, about one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese, nearly triple the rate in 1963. Among children today, obesity is causing a broad range of health problems that previously weren’t seen until adulthood. These include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol levels. There are also psychological effects: Obese children are more prone to low self-esteem, negative body image and depression. And excess weight at young ages has been linked to higher and earlier death rates in adulthood.”

On this week’s episode we focused on two more programs that are part of the Cobb 2020 initiative. Created and implemented by the Cobb Douglas Department of Public Health under the direction of Dr. Jack Kennedy, aims to address a number of public health concerns that erode level of health and quality of life for many of the over 850,000 resident who live there.

One key area of focus is childhood obesity among student aged residents of Cobb and Douglas Counties. Among the 29 public health programs that make up the Cobb2020 initiative are the Power Up for 30 and the Sharing Spaces programs. These are programs focused on getting young students moving more throughout their school day and beyond.

I sat down with District Director for Chronic Disease and Injury, Wende Parker, and Mark Anderson, Supervisor for Health and Phys Ed for the Cobb Co School District to learn more about how these programs work and the resources they’re hoping to identify in the community.

The sharing spaces program seeks to partner with community organizations that have playgrounds, gyms, tracks, and trails, giving area residents access to these resources, particularly young people.

In this way, the community will see declines in rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and others, and students enjoy academic performance upticks to boot.

Special Guests:

Wende Parker, District Director of Chronic Disease & Injury Prevention, Cobb-Douglas Dept. of Public Health

BS Exercise Science, Community Health, University of Southern Mississippi
Previous Program Manager, Child Fatality Review, Eastern GA, State of Georgia Office of the Child Advocate

Mark Anderson, Supervisor, Health & Physical Education, Cobb County School District

Improving Patient Outcomes

Posted on September 16, 2015

Podcast: Download

Sara Bright, Gary Austin, and Jay Shaffer

Improving Patient Outcomes

On this episode we featured three organizations who are working on improving patient outcomes in several ways. We hosted Dr. Kim Dennis, CEO/Director for Timberline Knolls and her colleague, Sara Bright, Gary Austin, CEO of One Care, and Marc O’Connor of Curant Health came by to talk about their solutions.

Timberline Knolls is a residential treatment center for young and adult women (ages 12 to 65+) with eating disorders, substance abuse, trauma, mood and co-occurring disorders. Dr. Dennis joined us by phone and the center’s Atlanta-based outreach representative, Sara Bright joined us in studio to talk about how they help improve the outcomes for the women they treat.

Located in suburban Chicago, residents receive excellent clinical care from a highly trained professional staff on a picturesque 43-acre wooded campus. Women and families seeking Christian treatment can opt for specialized Christian-based therapy. For more information on Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, call them at 877.257.9611. They are also on Facebook – Timberline Knolls, LinkedIn – Timberline Knolls and Twitter – @TimberlineToday.

One Care is a form of social platform that is designed to help families who are trying to support loved ones who are dealing with a variety of health issues, particularly when there are a number of activities the patient needs to accomplish to optimize their outcomes by adhering closely to the care plan prescribed for them. This may include nutritional recommendations, exercise regimens, medication schedules, etc. The platform employs philosophies learned through Aubrey Daniels’ management and behavioral training philosophies.

Aubrey Daniels

The application interfaces with a variety of wearable technology such as the Fitbit, glucometers, and others. In this way, family members have the ability to coach and reward their loved ones when they complete the recommended actions, as well as check in when it’s seen they have missed a med or other action.

One Care has partnered with technology company, Curant Health. Marc O’Connor is Chief Operating Officer for Curant Health. Curant Health treats patients nationwide through its medication management protocols, including medication reconciliation and establishment of personalized medication regimens, and supports its provider partners and care coordination with its award-winning EHR, MedPlan™.

Curant’s healthcare professionals provide individualized care proven to improve the lives and reduce the overall healthcare costs of chronically ill patients.curanthealth.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/CurantHealth LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/curant-health

Special Guests:

Dr. Kim Dennis, MD, CEO and Medical Director of Timberline Knolls

Doctor of Medicine, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
American Society for Addiction Medicine
National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders

Sara Bright, MS, Professional Outreach Representative, Timberline Knolls

MS, Human Resources Counseling, Northeastern University
Integrative Health Coaching, Integrative Medicine, Duke University
Board Member and Founding Member, Friends of Camp Celo

Gary Austin, CEO of OneCare

Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business
Completed Advanced Performance Management Training Course, Aubrey Daniels International
Co-founder and past CEO, Clearwave

Marc O’Connor, COO of Curant Health

MBA, Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business
Member, Board of Directors, Atlanta Heart Ball, American Heart Association
Editorial Board Member, Specialty Pharmacy Times

Cobb2020

Posted on September 9, 2015September 9, 2015

Podcast: Download

CW Hall, Lisa Crossman, Dr. Jack Kennedy, Valerie Crow, Becky Shipley

Cobb2020

A few months ago, I learned about a health initiative coordinated through the Cobb-Douglas Department of Public Health. This far-reaching effort aims to improve the health of this region that hosts over 800,000 residents across a number of health and lifestyle markers such as smoking, obesity, access to primary care, and many more.

Established in 1920, Cobb & Douglas Public Health’s (CDPH’s) mission is, “with our partners, to promote
and protect the health and safety of the residents of Cobb and Douglas counties.” CDPH serves over
800,000 residents. Many of its 30-plus health programs are population-based, although some cater
specifically to particularly vulnerable populations.

Services are delivered through diverse programs provided at several public health clinical locations as well as through several additional partnership sites. One of 18 public health districts in the State of Georgia, CDPH is comprised of two distinct boards of health—the Cobb County Board of Health and the Douglas County Board of Health. Cobb2020, The Partnership for a Healthier Cobb County and Live Healthy Douglas facilitated by Cobb and Douglas Public Health (CDPH), continues to make steady progress on the priorities established in the 2012 Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).

Both Cobb and Douglas Partnerships were established in April 2011 and utilizing the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnership (MAPP) process, the coalitions conducted a thorough Community Health Assessment. The two Steering Committees, made up of diverse community members, outlined the top health priorities for the counties which included improvement of health lifestyles and access to health services. The teams helped to draft the
CHIP in December 2012 which outlined the MAPP process including the structure for the partnership, Community Health Assessments, Strategic Issues and Community Balanced Scorecards for evaluation.

Using the CHIP, The Cobb2020 and Live Healthy Douglas Implementation Teams (I-Teams) working on Healthy Lifestyles and Access to Health Services selected evidenced based strategies and developed detailed action plans which were published in June 2013. The I-Teams continue to review and revise strategies (with oversight from the Steering Committee) based on evaluation data. An overall assessment and update of I-Team plans was completed in December 2014. The I-Team plans were updated for 2015 to focus on initiatives which have been truly successful, impactful and sustainable.

Since the I-Team plans were completed in 2012, much progress has occurred. Listed below are a few highlights of successful activities from 2014.

Three new Farm Fresh Markets opened in the Spring of 2014 in a food dessert in Austell, GA. An existing Farmer’s Market in Mabelton, GA completed certification to accept SNAP (i.e., food stamps) for produce. Several Cobb2020 partners established regular mini-markets onsite for their employees and clients.

A no-smoking ordinance for parks and cemeteries in the City of Kennesaw passed in June 2014. A new Childhood Obesity Grant was obtained from Healthcare Georgia to support work on joint use agreements and work with school wellness councils. A Cobb2020 partner, Good Samaritan Health Center of Cobb was approved as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) bringing more resources to improve access to health services.

Special Guests:

Dr. Jack Kennedy, District Director, Cobb-Douglas Department of Public Health/Cobb2020

Lisa Crossman, Deputy Director, Cobb-Douglas Department of Public Health

Becky Shipley, MS, of YMCA of Metro Atlanta

Vitamin C and OBMedical Company

Posted on August 31, 2015September 1, 2015

Podcast: Download

Osama Hashmi of Vitamin C

Vitamin C and OBMedical Company

On this episode of Health Connect South Radio we hosted the CEO and co-founder of Vitamin C and President/CEO of OB Medical Company. These two companies are creating technology innovations that help two distinct groups, physician practices and expectant mothers in the birthing process, respectively.

Vitamin C’s Osama Hashmi realized that increasing focus on population health management measures meant a need for greater engagement with particular patient groups. In order to effectively manage chronic diseases such as diabetes or even regular wellness follow up, practices often need to interact with patients to get these visits scheduled. In many cases, patients won’t take initiative to schedule them themselves.

Hashmi and his colleagues decided to create a platform that interfaces with existing EMR’s that allows providers to ID target populations and create a variety of pre-created content for distribution to patients. In some cases, it’s a pre-recorded automated phone call that can encourage the scheduling of a follow up visit. In others, it may be an automated call that queries the patient for particular data such as vitals or blood sugars, quantity of exercise, etc.

In still others, it may be a text or email generated that goes to the patient. In this way, the providers are able to more effectively “scale” their resources to be able to reach what is often hundreds or even thousands of patients with necessary contact to facilitate follow up. The end result is better patient outcomes as well as increased revenue for the practice due to scheduling of necessary, yet high-Revenue visits (based on time/acuity).

OBMedical Company saw an opportunity to improve upon monitoring technology used in the OB delivery room. As I spoke with President/CEO, Weaver Gaines, he explained the technology for the fetal heart rate, contraction frequency/intensity, etc. have not really changed in roughly 40 years.

Today, mothers are tethered to a monitor by wires leading to sensors that are held in place by elastic velcro straps that encircle the mother’s abdomen. They are challenging to keep in position and can provide limited accuracy in cases where the mother is particularly obese.

OBMedical Company has designed a monitoring device that uses wireless electrodes that measure electrical current through the patient’s skin rather than having to rely on skin tension. This allows the mother to be able to ambulate in the room during labor while continuing to be monitored. Additionally, it allows for greater accuracy when the mother is obese.

Osama Hashmi, CEO/Chief Product Officer, of VitaminC

Doctor of Medicine, College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University
Master of Public Health, University of Georgia
Previous Policy Director, Roosevelt Institute, University of Georgia
Former Research Assistant, Stanford University

Weaver Gaines, President/CEO of OBMedical Company

Juris Doctor, University of Virginia School of Law
Director and Treasurer, Dance Alive National Ballet
Chairman, Board of Directors, Florida Research Consortium
Adjunct Professor, University of Virginia School of Law

Mobiquity

Posted on June 26, 2015June 26, 2015

Podcast: Download

Nirav Desai, Principal Health Strategist for Mobiquity

Mobiquity

On this week’s show, Diana and I sat down with health technology strategist, Nirav Desai, of Mobiquity. Mobiquity is a professional services firm trusted by hundreds of companies to be their mobile engagement provider. On a global scale, the trends, strategy, users, platforms, technology, development, organizational issues of mobile are complicated. Mobiquity eliminates the complexity.

We talked about how important the Mobile component is for all enterprises today, including healthcare. The ACA has created requirements for providing patients with access to portals where they can connect with their health providers and get access to their health data. Mobiquity helps health enterprises create more effective applications and platforms for handling this requirement as well as better outcomes for population health management.

Nirav shared some troubling statistics (~125,000 people/year die due to incorrectly taking their medications). We discussed how mobile technology and applications can promote better adherence to prescribed care by notifying providers if patients are taking meds as directed as well as giving providers access to real time patient data remotely.

Additionally, technology platforms can facilitate making decisions about care plans by showing aggregate data across a practice’s patient population as a whole. In this way, trends may be identified that allow more proactive approaches with the care plan.

We talked about the way mHealth and teleHealth are overlapping now. Previously, telehealth was mainly a way to deliver care to a patient, particularly in mental health. Now, with mobile health, more data can flow from patient to provider and the patient can take a greater part in achieving positive outcomes through engaging with a mobile platform. These mobile platforms can push educational information and reminders to help facilitate care plan compliance. Some telehealth platforms now have mobile components to them that enhance the patient encounter and have more robust data.

Mobiquity is also making available a behavior change platform called Delta IQ, aimed at helping to change patient behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and other health behaviors. The platform “learns” as the user engages with the information, adapting what is displayed to the user to better facilitate effectiveness of suggested interventions.

Special Guest:

Nirav Desai, Principal Healthcare Strategist, Mobiquity

MBA, General Management, University of Virgina Darden School of Business
Author of several publications on telehealth
Former Global Product Manager, GE Healthcare
Previous CEO, Hands On Telehealth

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Greenway Health

Posted on June 16, 2015June 18, 2015

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Mark Janiszewski of Greenway Health and Diana Keough of ShareWIK

Greenway Health

A couple of topics that have come up repeatedly over the course of weeks since we started the Health Connect South Radio show: Population Health and Interoperability. On this week’s show we sat down with health IT expert, Mark Janiszewski, EVP of Product Management for Greenway Health.

Mark shared how the company has recently introduced new solutions that are aimed at facilitating better population health management initiatives. Recent changes in the law are placing greater requirements for focus on preventive health and patient outcomes over the older disease-focused models that reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis.

Greenway’s platform gives providers access to data that empowers them to close gaps in care delivery and better manage a population’s high-cost problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses. Additionally, the company is providing a portal called, Greenway Exchange, that gives patients ability to see their health data, schedule appointments, and even interact with their care providers.

We talked about how the company helps their clients prepare for the coming implementation of ICD-10 coding requirements that are currently set to go into effect in October 2015. The new coding format will add a much greater degree of detail in documenting patient problems and treatments.

The goal of the ICD-10 changes is to facilitate research, improve outcomes through better case management, decrease medical errors, enhance public health, educate patients on costs/outcomes, and more.

Mark shared some of the challenges that health organizations face in meeting the expectations for the ICD-10 documentation. The company is helping to prepare their clients for the upcoming changes in coding.

“Greenway Health has always worked to empower our customers so they can deliver high-quality care while being financially sound,” said Tee Green, CEO of Greenway Health. “Never has that been more important given the rise of pay-for-performance, healthcare consumerism and a population with an increasing number of chronic conditions that requires coordination between multiple caregivers. Greenway Community enables providers to gain actionable insight into clinical and financial performance at all levels of the care continuum like never before.”

Greenway Health has been providing health IT solutions since 1977. Over time, the company has grown significantly, both organically and through merger. As an enterprise, the company delivers clinical, financial, and administrative information tools providers need to practice medicine the way they want to practice.

Greenway helps providers stay ahead of the complex regulatory requirements, maximize revenue and, most importantly, focus on their patients rather than on technology. The company accomplishes this through intuitive user interfaces, interoperability leadership to exchange clinical data and facilitate connected care, and a grass-roots service culture.

Special Guest:

Mark Janiszewski, EVP, Product Management, Greenway Health

Bachelor of Commerce, Concordia
UniversityGraduate Diploma, Public Accountancy, McGill University
Previous Director, Account Marketing, Nortel Networks
Former VP, Product Management, Revenue Cycle Solutions

Rimidi

Posted on June 11, 2015June 24, 2015

Podcast: Download

Rimidi

This week we hosted the President and CEO of Rimidi, Dr. Luci Ide. Rimidi is a healthcare technology company that is working to help patients and health providers better manage diabetes. It’s an important endeavor—roughly 24 million Americans are diabetic and as many as 86 million more are pre-diabetic (slightly elevated fasting glucose levels).

Based on current trends, 1 in 3 persons will have diabetes by 2050. And when you consider the costs associated with treating diabetes and the problems such as heart disease, stroke, and others that often come with it, as much as $.60 of every healthcare dollar are spent on this population.

The Rimidi platform is an application that allows patients to share sensor data from glucometers, fitness devices, and share nutritional data from apps such as My Fitness Pal with their providers via a portal link on the provider’s EMR.

The benefit of gathering real time health data and sharing it with the provider is that corrective measures can be taken sooner should trends show that glucose levels are not responding to the care plan as expected. In this way the patient can more consistently maintain or improve their glucose levels and avoid damaging effects of high glucose such as neuropathy, renal failure, vascular disease, and others.

The company’s platform has been live for roughly a year and they are now actively looking for healthcare partners to deploy their Diabetes+Me application.

We also had a chance to speak with a patient ambassador, Joelle, for “Lights, Camera, Take Action On MS” by Genzyme. This public awareness event/campaign is working to increase awareness about multiple sclerosis. The event is coming to The Atlanta Marriott, Alpharetta, June 27, 2015, 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM ET.

At the event, guests will have the chance to engage with experts and hear tips on how to manage their MS. Beverly Layton, Registered Nurse, will be at each event to discuss the emotional impact of MS and techniques to help people alleviate feelings of guilt or depression. Alongside Beverly will be Certified Life Coach Caroline Craven, who lives with MS and is skilled in managing the stress that comes with the disease. Medical Exercise Specialist Monique Acton will also be at each event to share tips on how people living with MS can stay active and maintain energy.

Special Guest:

Luci Ide, MD, President and CEO of Rimidi

MD/PhD Emory University
Residency, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Magee-Womens Hospital
2014 Recipient, Ross Baird Award for Excellent, Village Capital
Former Associate, Monarch Capital Partners

Healthgrades

Posted on May 27, 2015

Podcast: Download

Healthgrades

This week, Diana and I sat down with Dr. Brad Bowman and Nickey Scarborough, of Healthgrades. They’re a healthcare IT company that provides several valuable services to the community at large as well as to the healthcare industry. One of Healthgrades’ core offerings relates to transparency and healthcare consumerism. When you need to find a physician to address a particular health need from primary care to a specialist, the company’s website allows the patient and/or their family to conduct a search of their database.

The Healthgrades platform utilizes a number of available data sources to compile a match score that gives a measure of confidence a particular physician has sufficient experience and positive outcomes to be considered as a viable option for providing your care. You can search by provider name, specialty, condition, or procedure, along with location/radius.

Your results will give a list of possible providers, each with a rank for volume of this given procedure they’ve performed, along with a report of any sanctions or board actions that have been taken. Similarly, Healthgrades provides prospective patients with access to outcomes and patient satisfaction data across the gamut of service lines and procedures they offer. Patients can review a given hospital’s rank and compare it to the national average for that procedure.

But, these useful services are only scratching the surface for what Healthgrades is able to do for health systems and hospitals. The company is able to use a wide array of readily-available health and consumer data for patients in a given service area to give valuable predictive insights around outcomes for a given health problem. Things such as number of rooms in your home, whether it’s rented or mortgaged, how financially stable a family is, along with buying habits combined with numerous other data points can give surprisingly accurate pictures of what a given population’s tendency toward ER re-admissions or poor outcomes/compliance with care.

Through an engagement with Healthgrades, using their population analytics, a health system can be very strategic in their marketing efforts to help make that revenue spend be far more likely to help the system achieve its goals and deliver a higher level of care/outcomes.

Special Guests:

Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, of Healthgrades

Nickey Scarborough, VP of Digital Editorial, Healthgrades

MHA, Health Administration, Xavier University
Former Director, Client Delivery Services, WebMD
Previous Content Director, PERFECT SENSE digital, LLC
Former Senior Consultant, Deloitte & Touche

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Hospital Acquired Conditions

Posted on May 22, 2015

Podcast: Download

Hospital Acquired Conditions

According to CDC, there were over 700,000 hospital acquired conditions in 2011 (in this case, infections). When you add those numbers to other preventable situations such as falls, wrong drug/dose/patient, and others, it’s clear that hospitals can be potentially-dangerous places. This week, Diana and I sat down with two experts from companies that are tackling this problem from different directions.

HanGenix, an Atlanta-based start-up is developing an innovative technology that employs ultrasound transmitters/receivers on soap dispensers, on the clinicians’ badges, and in the patients’ rooms with the goal of increasing compliance with hand-washing standards. CEO, Jeff Kline, talked about how each patient bed is “guarded” by an ultrasonic receiver that communicates with the clinician’s badge and soap dispenser in the room or nearby.

The system starts a clock that will alert the health worker that they need to re-wash their hands if too much time elapses between washing their hands and touching the patient. The bed’s zone receiver also prompts an audible alert on the worker’s badge if they approach the patient’s bed without having registered a hand-washing event detected by the system.

Early returns from health systems that are participating in the testing of the prototype have shown that hand washing compliance is as low as 40% before implementing the technology and rises rapidly once it is deployed. This is significant, as hand-washing has been identified as one of the most effective means to prevent spread of infections from patient-to-patient in a healthcare environment.

Synensis’s Chief Innovation Officer, Rick Stone, joined the conversation to talk about how their company works with their healthcare clients to assess the organization’s internal culture relating to behaviors that reduce hospital acquired conditions such as falls, infections, and other sentinel events. Through an in-depth assessment at the outset of their engagement, Synensis’s team formulates a picture of how an organization prioritizes policies/procedures that can reduce/prevent those sentinel events.

The company then begins to interface with all levels of leadership and front-line providers to raise awareness and put in place actions such as debriefings after untoward events occur so that better team work can result. Synensis also helps hospitals identify areas of their organization that have particularly low rates of sentinel events to draw from their localized culture/approach to prevention to the betterment of the organization as a whole. As Rick stated, “Hospitals have teams of experts. But, few have expert teams,” pointing out that in many industries, healthcare included, poor communication and/or teamwork is the primary culprit in accidents.

Special Guests:

Jeff Kline, CEO/Co-founder, HanGenix

MBA, Goizueta Business School, Emory University
Previous Manager, Deloitte Consulting
Former Director of Marketing, BARD Urology Division
Previous VP Marketing, Genesis Biosciences

Rick Stone, Chief Innovation Officer, Synensis

MS Clinical Psychology, Vanderbilt University
Former President, StoryWork Institute
Previous StoryAnalytics Master, IDEAS
Fluent in Spanish

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