Health Care Round-up: Alzheimer’s Strain on Workforce, Medical Crowdsourcing, and More

Here is a round-up of health care stories that are catching our interest this week.

Is the Health Care Workforce Prepared for an Increase in Alzheimer Patients?

The April issue of Health Affairs is devoted to the latest research and thinking about Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s cases already overwhelm health care facilities and families. The challenge is expected to worsen with an increase from 5 million cases in 2013 to 13.8 million cases in 2050. Here is detailed look at how to increase and train a work force that is prepared for the challenge. 

Other research in the same issue suggests that many hospitalizations and Emergency Department visits both before and during the last year of life were potentially avoidable. 

Medical Scribes

The demand for medical scribes is on an uptick across the country. In this article on NPR, an orthopedic surgeon in Dallas explains how he uses a scribe to save hours each week entering Electronic Health Record information. The scribe sits in on cases and takes notes that the doctor later examines and approves.

Mayo’s Plan to Cut the Cost of Outpatient Care 30 Percent by 2019

Mayo Clinic is preparing for value-based care by developing patient-centered medical homes and using technology to drive compliance to evidence-based medicine. The hospital system will also consolidate and cut administrative costs and transfer ongoing care for patients away from Rochester and back into the community. Read more here in Becker’s Hospital Review. 

The Hepatitis C Factor on Insurance Company Earnings

This article in Forbes breaks down the effect the $1000 Hepatitis C Pill is having on insurance earnings. UnitedHealth says that Hepatitis C prescriptions cost the company $100 million in Q1 across the public and private plans it sells.

Medical Crowdsourcing Start-up

A software developer has started a website crowdmed.com that lets patients who have illnesses that are difficult to diagnose to get input from hundreds, potentially thousands of “advisors.” Patients input their symptoms, test results, and images and then “medical detectives” on the site weigh in. The information is aggregated to prepare diagnosis possibilities. Since the site went live last year, it has solved more than 200 cases. More here in this Information Week article.

Will EHR and Other Health Care Software Soon Be Regulated? 

A good summary and analysis can be found here about a recent report on Health IT released by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. As Electronic Health Records (EHR) take root, where are the quality control safeguards to make sure EHR software works the way it should? 

Heartbleed and Healthcare.gov

And finally, the software bug Heartbleed continues to be a high priority concern for companies, including many in the health care sector. Over the weekend, the administration announced that “out of an abundance of caution” passwords were being reset on healthcare.gov in response to the Heartbleed software bug.

If you’re already subscribed, the next installment will be delivered to you just like the rest of our content. If not, sign up today so you don’t miss a thing.