Category: IT

IT, Sonstiges

Meet MedCrunch At Innovations & Investments In Healthcare 2012, Berlin, April 26/27, 2012

Lukas Zinnagl

It seems as if Europe is slowly but surely moving forward when it comes to digital health 2.0 – both in terms of startups and events. As a Europe-based media outlet, with a strong readership in the US though, we are happy to be able to support some great people out there, who are also aiming to disrupt healthcare in terms of a media partnership with there and have a chance to support events as media partners. When the masses will be gathering at Germany’s largest fair for healthcare IT – the ConhIT – the conaisseurs will be gathering in Berlin, Europe’s (rightly) self proclaimed hub for tech entrepreneurs. Miles away from boring panel discussions, there will be an ecclectic mix of people, who meet at the so-called Innovations & Investments in Healthcare Summit in Berlin, from April 26 – 27 2012 (It’s great to see people like Halle Tecco, CEO of Rock Health or Sutha Kamal, Co-Founder of Massive Health coming all the way to Berlin and discuss with some industry experts twice their age. It looks like the event is going to be very diverse, not only in terms of the program, but also in terms of attendees – […]

IT

Sabi – Solving Patient Adherence Through Design

Lukas Zinnagl

We’ve just learned that patient’s adherence is one of the biggest problems today’s healthcare system is facing – and it is clearly a neglected one. Now there are several ways how one can improve aherence and compliance. One of them is through design. As you probably know, we are big fans of design here at MedCrunch and always seek new shiny objects and concepts that are small elements of a next-gen hospital or just make our daily lives more aesthetic. Silicon Valley has always been on the verge of making great products for the world. People and startups have been ingenial When it comes to transforming ordinary objects into aesthetic game changers – this has happend from mobile phones to thermostats. Sabi, a Palo Alto based Startup, has recently emerged with a simple, clean and effective pill dispensing system, crafted by renowned designer and entrepreneur Yves Béhar who also brought us the Jawbone Up. The company has created a so-called vitality line of pill holsters and dispensers, that not only are simple to use and thus especially suited for the elderly, but also entail functional elements that are notewothy. For example, the holster only allows to dispense a maximum of a […]

IT

The Elephant Man and The Medicine of Disability

Stesha Doku

We discuss often the ways in which medicine prolongs life: controlled infections with antibiotics, life saving organ transplants, vaporized tumors and the like. Just as important are the ways in which medicine improves quality of life or gives explanation to the things we fear: the disabilities we can see. A friend of mine who teaches freshman English invited me to attend her school’s production of ‘The Elephant Man” by Bernard Pomerance.  The play, set in the late 1880s, chronicles the journey of the real-life Joseph Merrick, a man so naturally deformed since childhood that he was displayed as a show. His swollen arms, face and legs made those who saw him believe he was half-elephant, half-man. Later abandoned by his show manager, Merrick, goes to live in a London hospital under the care of Dr. Frederick Treves’s, a young surgeon who wants to study the cause of Merrick’s deformities for the interest of science. I knew little of the play before watching but found its content and historical background incredibly relevant to the intersection between medicine and the culture of disability. For many of us, our sicknesses are internal or even silently waiting to reveal themselves. For those however whose disease can be […]

IT, Sonstiges

Making a Dent in One of Healthcare’s Biggest Problems

Guest Author

What do you think is the most common topic that comes up when physicians complain about their patients? According to a 2011 Consumer Reports survey of physicians, noncompliance with medication and other treatment recommendations was number one.

I can understand that. Non-adherence is a demoralizing problem for physicians. Think of all that effort on diagnosis, clinical decision-making, and education going to waste because the patient decides not to fill the prescription, or quits after a few weeks, or takes it only sporadically. As former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop famously quipped, “drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them.”

It turns out that not only does non-adherence rank as physicians’ number one complaint, it is also one of healthcare’s number one problems.

In 2009 the New England Healthcare Institute estimated that poor compliance with prescription medication is the root cause of $290 billion in “otherwise avoidable medical spending” in the US per year. That’s a staggering number, but it makes sense if you think about it.

Heart attacks and strokes, for example, are very expensive, but largely avoidable if you control known risk factors with lifestyle modifications and medications as needed (which are dirt cheap by comparison to other popular drugs).

IT

Smartphone, MD – A Doctor At the Tip Of Your Fingers

Alejandro Marcano

This ist part I in a series of posts about how technology interacts with the modern patient and physician.  I have always considered myself as a technology junkie and I thank my father for that. He always had the newest, fastest and amazing computer (back in the day it was a Gateway 486 – moo!). So when it was my time to start med school, my father gave me the most awesome of gifts saying: “I know how difficult med school can be; this will help you organize your time,” and handed me his old Palm m500. I felt like Luke Skywalker when Obi-Wan gave him the lightsaber for the first time. Little did he know that organizing my time was the least of tasks I would achieve with this new amazing piece of technology I  had just received. During my anatomy course, a professor showed interest in my device, so he introduced me to my first medical app: Epocrates. It really ran on my black and white m500! I instantly thought “this could be big”. After my m500, I upgraded to the Palm Tungsten, then the Treo phone and now, after a succession of Blackberries I have an iPhone 4s. […]

IT

Improve Outcomes and Engage Patients in Their Own Health with Social Media Improve Outcomes and Engage Patients in Their Own Health with Social Media

Guest Author

This is a guest post by Katie Matlack, a Medical Analyst for Software Company “Software Advice“. By now plenty of bloggers have discussed the September study that found that well over half of doctors use social media in their practice of medicine. It came as no surprise that most docs who participated in the study said the marketing and business development benefits of social media were their biggest motivation. The study made me think more about other reasons why doctors are–or should be–social networking: Social media can actually improve care. I found a study in Chest Journal that discussed findings showing that patients who’re in touch with their doctor after their visit are more likely to follow the doctor’s instructions when it comes to things like taking medications properly. Social media helps you spread useful information. This is obvious. With so much information online, the source of health information is increasingly important for readers to consider. People are becoming more web-savvy and more discriminating in where they get their advice. So doctors who lend their voices to the conversation are doing a valuable service to the online world–which, don’t forget, does include current and prospective patients. It’s a way of doing […]