Healthvault Case Study

Patient portals offer many functions to allow a patient or proxy access to healthcare information to help improve patient healthcare. Within the patient portal a patient can access a portion of their health record; such as “medical history, health issues, medication lists, test results, care plans, allergy list,” schedule appointments, view and pay bills online, request medication refills, fill out forms electronically, and upload clinical information (Sayles 331). In addition, there are other functions that Surae Lucie took advantage of to help get her mother’s health back on track that are recommended by the National Learning Consortium. She used proxy access to access her elderly mother’s record, and sent messages to her mother’s healthcare providers to get her mother’s medication dosage and

The system requires the patient and the physician to have access to the Internet, computing devices and login-in credentials. Both physicians and patients would require a username and a secured password to access the portal. Given patient consent, it should be possible to add others as “caretakers” to have access to a filtered view of a patient’s plan for treatment administration.

There are three major ethical priorities for electronic health records: privacy and confidentiality, security, and data integrity and availability. The key to preserving confidentiality is making sure that only authorized individuals have access to information. The process of controlling access begins with authorizing users. The user’s access is based on pre-established, role-based privileges. Hence, designating user privileges is a critical aspect of medical record security: all users have access to the information they need to fulfill their roles and responsibilities, and they must know that they are accountable for use or misuse of the information they view and change.

Value the rights of patients to whom you will need to obtain and use their health data to collaborate in their own care with other clinicians and physicians.

As consumers utilize smartphones, tablets, and other devices for other functions like social media and email, they are starting to look at these features to assist them with their healthcare. Mobile body area network devices will be a growing trend in the coming years as a way to get patients engaged in their healthcare and also to give providers routine updates on the status of patients with chronic conditions. As DeGaspari (2014) indicates, these devices can lead to improved functionality for other devices used in hospitals, such as sensors for monitoring patients that might get up and wander or be a fall risk. Telemedicine will continue to grow as payers, providers, and patients all start to realize the mutual benefits that can be

Through apps like the one created by Healow, patients have the option to personalize and manage their medications, receive reminders when it's time to refill prescriptions, and send refill requests to their providers. Patients have access to their patient file and information such as appointment reminders and visit summaries.

Aetna’s customized iTriage app helps employers make better health care decisions based on appropriateness and affordability of care. Aetna launched this customizable app to allow customization of information for consumers based on their specific health benefits plan. It helps employers to understand how using an in-network health care provider can be more affordable, which can also be used to create cost savings for employers and reduce administrative work for health care providers, who will benefit from informed patients, who have selected the right physician, facility and level of care based on their individual needs. The iTriage app is Aetna’s vision of creating a better healthcare experience for their customers and their employers (Aetna,

As stated by Dr. Debra Patt from Texas Oncology “the educational content enhancements to My Care Plus will allow me to provide patient education more easily and help me to improve patient’s health literacy” (McKesson 2016). One unique feature to McKesson products, in particular to their oncology product, is that it provides patients with a unique outline of their diagnosis (McKesson 2016). This includes more information about their disease, medical reports, and what to expect throughout their treatment plan (McKesson 2016). It is evident that McKesson products are currently utilized to their fullest extent and among these resources is patient education. The establishment for a central location for patient data enables patient education to continue both inside the health care facility, as well as, at home. McKesson products recognize the need for health education and also recognize that education does not end at the physician office but is also

One of my more tech-savvy partners recently showed me his new Apple Watch and, instinctively, it raised questions in my mind as to how would HIPAA impact the use of this watch. One might ask why I would ask such a question, and two possible answers exist. The first possible answer is that my healthcare practice has engulfed my thinking or the second possible answer is that the features of this new Apple Watch may be the linchpin to a whole new culture in this mobile health industry. Time may determine which answer is correct, but the new Apple Watch does have some interesting features that will, at a minimum, impact the mobile healthcare industry. Among the Apple Watch, the HealthKit app., and the ResearchKit software (launched in April 2015), Apple has introduced some interesting “tools” for the healthcare marketplace for the consumer and for the provider and possibly other vendors.

For the electronic health record to be considered as a true clinical decision support system, it must be possible to access and integrate patients’ clinical information that is collected throughout their lives, guaranteeing up-to-date, safe and congruent information, immediately accessible at the place of care. Moreover, because of the considerable increase in the capacity to develop and manufacture systems that employ smart components highly integrated and miniaturized, wearable devices facilitate the home monitoring of patients with chronic diseases and their information should be integrated in existing electronic health records. Therefore, the interoperability is an essential requirement of eHealth to allow the integration of care into a

Communication is the key to relating in all environments. When communication lines are broken, it makes take in jobs and personal relationship suffer. In medical environment communication is key in running hospital, nursing home and community care providers. With technology our communication has advanced because now we have electronic medical records. Electronic medical records are a way of providing the medical staff and insurance on the patient health information and insurance coverage. As stated by About.com, “This also provide the doctors away to for individual patients, access to good care becomes easier and safer when

It is important for the both the patient and health care provider to understand what information is being protected, as to avoid any security breach. This protected information included any information in various medical records, patient conversations with all health care professionals about care and treatment, billing data, and a majority of other information regarding patient health. Any patient has the right to see and receive a copy of any health records, request correction be made to a variety of health-related information, control over who the medical records are shared with,

Along with this is a variety of methods to store information. For these reasons, there needs to be multiple security policies and methods that needs to be implemented to ensure that compliance is being met now and for future use. With all of these variables, health care organizations need to make sure they are meeting criteria when it comes to moving this information through these HIE networks including: security management, interoperability, internal and external access control, going hand in hand with access control, patient information and transaction integrity, and central storage (SafeNet, 2015, pg.3).

Healthcare reform has created incentives to increase patient engagement to increase accountability, healthcare outcome and lower healthcare cost. In the early days of this movement, web portals were created with basic functions of requesting appointments, prescription refills, and paying medical bills (Butterfield, 2013). Today, patient portals allow users to access dictated visit reports, labs, approve access controls combined with the function of the web portals. As more health information is pushed to the portals, the users (patients and family) are more involved with healthcare decisions and more knowledgeable on available options that meet individual need.

The use of mobile technology in the healthcare industry has exploded in the last ten years. Mobile health or mHealth, provides an entire new aspect of the relationship between patients and their doctors and other medical providers. Mobile devices place important and critical information into a medical professional’s hands in real-time. Doctors can monitor a patient’s condition more frequently, allowing them to make better and more informed decisions and diagnoses.