how text messaging for health can be considered a part of the larger strategy of mobile health

mHealth platforms are giving health systems and public health programs newer and better ways to reach large populations. 

Deliver better healthcare through effective use of secure mobile messaging

Healthcare providers are finding out that smartphones and mobile health messaging platforms are changing how they administer population health programs.

The attraction is simple: smartphones, nowadays, are ubiquitous. With roughly 96 percent of the world now using a smartphone, an mHealth messaging program can reach almost everyone in a defined population. And with texting and e-mail overtaking phone calls as the most popular means of communicating, providers can create personalized, content-rich, even interactive messages that drive engagement.

Examples of mHealth-based population health programs are numerous. They include text-message programs targeting public health concerns, such as smoking (Text2Quit), maternal/infant health (Text4Baby), weight loss, physical activity and anxiety/depression. Other programs remind people to schedule wellness visits for their children or flu shots. Then there are those programs targeted at chronic populations with HIV, diabetes, or asthma.

More complex programs include interactive platforms and target post-discharge patients, those in need of follow-up care (such as physical rehabilitation) or chronic care populations requiring care in between office visits. These platforms often include questionnaires that when answered offer links to care management information or trigger alerts that prompt follow-ups from the care team.

At the top of the pyramid are care coordination programs that draw data from the electronic health record to develop personalized messages that direct the patient to specific resources, handle prescriptions or send data back to the provider for follow-up care. These programs are usually developed and launched by healthcare providers looking to improve care management for patients at home, including those recently discharged and so-called “frequent flyers” — patients with multiple chronic conditions who need daily or near-daily interventions to manage their health and keep them out of the hospital.

Why SMS Programs Work

Text messaging programs have been around since at least 2002, according to a systematic review of available literature by Hall et al. published in the March 2015 edition of the Annual Review of Public Health.

These programs have grown to replace older methods of population health, which include phone calls (often handled by a call center), mailings and social awareness campaigns that rely on advertising, be it TV, radio, billboards or, more recently, social media platforms (e.g., Facebook).

With the smartphone in nearly everyone’s hands nowadays, providers are turning to short-message service (SMS), or text messaging, followed by multimedia messaging services (MMS) and mobile-messaging apps.

The analysis by Hall and colleagues of more than a decade of published material found that text messaging platforms hold “enormous potential” for healthcare as a “novel, high-reach, highly accessible, and relatively low-cost communication strategy,” delivering measurable improvement on health outcomes and, on occasion, health behaviors.

Of the newer MMS platform, the study’s authors expect this to become a more popular strategy as more and more consumers shift to smartphones with better messaging capabilities — in other words, better phones with more toys. And with the addition of new services such Facebook Messenger, Kik, WhatsApp, SnapChat and Instagram, providers can add content-driven features like searchable tags and hashtags.

mHealth interventions have many advantages over older methods. Among the benefits:

• Reach large populations at a low cost
• Able to sent at any time, and as frequently as needed
• Offer real-time contact and feedback
• Represent an acceptable – oftentimes preferable – means of communicating
• Overcome barriers of physical or social isolation
• Able to be personalized
• Support interactivity, with corresponding messages based on previous responses.
• Provide times to remind, support or provide “touches” around healthcare appointments.

Perhaps most importantly, these programs engage more easily with consumers, wherever and whenever they want. They make the consumer feel more comfortable.

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healthcare tops highest data breach lawsuits across industry

Mobile Healthcare Messaging from Vectramind

In 2016, the healthcare industry faced the most class-action data breach lawsuits, according to a new analysis of data breach class action lawsuits by the law firm, Bryan Cave, LLP, although the risk of litigation following a breach is still relatively low.

 According to the recent HIPPA journal report on   data  breach litigation across industry conducted by Bryan Cave  show that  the healthcare industry topped lawsuits filed by victims of data security breaches in 2016. The report explains that while there is always a threat of legal action being taken by data breach victims, the risk of a company facing litigation following a data breach is fairly low due to the difficulty by  plaintiffs to establish that an injury has been caused.

Year over year, there was a slight (7%) increase in class action lawsuits filed against companies that have experienced a data breach although there was a fall in the number of breaches that resulted in lawsuits. The report shows only 3.3% of data breaches in 2016 resulted in class action lawsuits compared to between 4%-5% in previous years. In total, 76 class actions were filed in 2016 as a result of data breaches.

 Out of those 76 lawsuits, there were 27 unique defendants. The report confirms that the healthcare industry reported the most data breaches of any industry – 70% of the total – yet only 34% of class action lawsuits name healthcare organizations as the defendants. 

Healthcare was the leading industry for class action data breach lawsuits (26 complaints), closely followed by email providers with 33%. The figures for email service providers was heavily influenced by the disclosure of two massive data breaches by Yahoo! Restaurants were in third place with 11% of the total followed by the retail industry with 7%.

Healthcare data breach lawsuits fell slightly year over year. Lawsuits are most commonly filed following the exposure or theft of sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, medical data, health insurance information, and security Q&As – 89% of class action lawsuits resulted from data breaches where these types of information were exposed or stolen. 65% of the lawsuits alleged negligence as the primary theory. Data breach lawsuits are most commonly filed in the Northern District of California (32%), followed by the Middle District of Florida (11%), the District of Arizona (11%), and the Western District of Pennsylvania (7%).

how healthcare communication increases effectiveness in delivering patient care

Secure messaging is often seen as an efficient way to communicate, but a recent survey shows face-to-face meetings are still preferred in healthcare.

Deliver better healthcare through effective use of secure mobile messaging

Healthcare communication is ever-evolving, as more organizations continue to implement BYOD options and secure messaging or secure texting platforms. Providers want to have effective ways to communicate that do not compromise patient information.

A recent survey from Everbridge indicates though that while secure messaging is an effective option, it is not necessarily the preferred method for how covered entities choose to communicate.

Everbridge interviewed 158 emergency department employees about communication challenges that arise during patient care coordination.

Eighty-two percent of respondents said face-to-face discussion was the most effective form of communicating with co-workers about patient care, while 80 percent reported that secure texting was the most effective.

Delayed communication methods were cited as the least effective communication means, with 30 percent of those surveyed rating voicemail as a poor option. Twenty-nine percent said that pagers were a poor form of communication and 24 percent cited faxes as a lackluster option.

Twenty-two percent of respondents also reported that more than 1 in 5 hand offs involve communication errors that could endanger patient care outcomes.

Handing off patient information is more likely to occur in the emergency room, according to the survey, as those teams are often larger. Over half of those surveyed – 59 percent – added that there are more hand offs to other care team members than for treatments originating elsewhere in the hospital.

Everbridge Healthcare Solutions General Manager Eric Chetwynd explained that emergency department staff should not be focused on what communication method would be best.

“There should never be any worries about whether patient care instructions were correctly received and understood,” Chetwynd said in a statement. “With the growing acceptance of mobile technologies in emergency departments, there is an excellent opportunity to make co-worker communications more efficient and effective – reducing the potential for errors that could affect patient care.”

Mobile technologies are increasing in popularity, the survey found. Three-quarters of respondents said they are using mobile phones, while 49 percent use secure messaging to enable mobile real-time communications.

Emergency department staff are also more likely to use a personal mobile device for communication, as 76 percent of physicians and 45 percent of clinical staff can now use personal devices in the emergency department.

There are multiple challenges with patient care coordination during hand offs, the report explained. Waiting for physicians to respond to hand off requests was the top issue, while deciphering handwritten information, deciphering handwritten information, and delays receiving information were also key challenges.

However, there was no clear “best” method of communication found, as 89 percent of respondents admitted that they must use five or more different channels to communicate with co-workers about patients.

Secure messaging can greatly improve healthcare communications, giving providers another option for sending information quickly, efficiently, and securely. However, there are potential adoption barriers that covered entities need to address before implementing a new system.

DirectTrust addressed some of these barriers in a white paper earlier this month, stating that vendors must standardize and enhance their users' experience in handling inbound and outbound Direct secure messaging.

A DirectTrust workgroup made more than 50 recommendations for EHR vendors and HIT product vendors in how they can work toward overcoming usability issues with their secure, interoperable clinical messaging products.

With regard to HIPAA regulations, the workgroup recommended that organizations prevent information forwarding.

“The receiving system is able to prevent the forwarding or resending of behavioral health, substance abuse treatment or other information as required by state and federal law, unless appropriate patient consents are documented,” the workgroup stated. “[This] prevents the inappropriate distribution of patient information that would be in violation of existing law.”

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3 factors to keep in mind before patient engagement via sms

Mobile Healthcare Solutions

A patient wants to engage with his or her physician via email without going through the secure channel of a portal. Is this allowed, and should physicians consider it?

According to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, physicians and patients can exchange unsecured emails as long as patients are aware of and accept any potential privacy and security risks.

“It’s critically important that healthcare providers, payers and their technology partners design and implement systems that serve patients’ needs first and foremost,” says David C. Harlow, JD, MPH, principal at The Harlow Group, LLC, a healthcare law and consulting firm. “This includes respecting the patient’s right to choose ease of use over high security.”

However, obtaining patient consent is critical, says Harlow. Physicians can ask patients to physically sign intake paperwork stating the physician may contact them via unsecured email or text messages. They can also ask patients for their consent over the phone or via a secure message through the portal. Electronic signatures are sufficient, provided they meet federal and uniform state laws, he adds.

Harlow encourages physicians to take a thoughtful approach to unsecured communications.

“Given the sensitivity of the information being shared—and the potential for negative consequences if the information is intercepted or misdirected—it makes sense to go above and beyond the bare minimum requirements of clicking an ‘I agree’ box on a screen,” he says. For example, physicians could require patients to type their name or initials to signify consent. “Taking that extra step makes it more likely that a patient actually reads the consent,” he adds.

However, it’s important to set boundaries.“Texting creates an expectation of instantaneous response, and that’s really hard for practices and individual physicians to maintain,” says Jan Oldenburg, FHIMSS, chief executive officer of Participatory Health Consulting, a company that helps physicians use digital health technology to engage patients.

Consider using an automated reply letting patients know that the practice will respond within 48 hours and that they should call 911 in the event of an emergency, she adds. These same strategies are appropriate in establishing response standards for secure messaging.

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mental healthcare and healthcare digitization

Mental health has long been taboo from a social perspective, and access to care (especially in rural areas) is often sporadic. Health tech can address this problem

The immediate need for quality mental healthcare in America is huge – 43.8 million adult Americans experience mental illness every year.

But of those people, an estimated 60% do not seek out mental health services, largely because of the stigma around mental illness and the difficulty of accessing care.

The good news is that digital health tools can help tackle both the stigma and the lack of accessibility around mental healthcare.

The most obvious and clear solution comes with the pervasiveness of mobile technology: 68% of Americans own a smartphone, and 45% own a tablet, making mobile technology an easily accessible tool for improving care.

It also provides those who struggle with the stigma of mental illness a sense of security and empowerment: they can learn more about their symptoms and understand that they’re not alone in their suffering.

Connecting with peers via digital health solutions can help people get past the first, often debilitating, step of outreach, allowing them to seek help more confidently, when it feels right.

Mobile technology also increases accessibility to mental health specialists across the country. Many therapists have started using video chatting tools for appointments, increasing access to care for all people, whether they’re in rural areas or homebound for other health reasons.

Deliver better healthcare through effective use of secure mobile messaging

Additionally, therapists often use simple phone conversations, SMS and email to provide support between in-person sessions.

With many of today’s mental health apps, people can track their own behaviours, symptoms and moods, and report that back to their therapist, making in-person sessions more efficient and improving the quality of dialogue between patient and therapist.

The first wave of digital mental healthcare solutions is focused on informing and empowering people, most commonly around conditions like anxiety, depression and insomnia.

While each works with different topics and populations, most provide education about risk signs and symptoms, as well as positive and negative coping mechanisms.

They also include built in support systems, allowing for peer-to-peer contact and access to professional resources. Most of these applications also have tools for getting immediate help in the case of an emergency.

So what’s next?

Right now, most mental healthcare apps require proactivity and outreach from the patient. However, the use of passive monitoring, which occurs in the background of a mobile device, tracking movement, the frequency of messaging and more, could change this system drastically. Apps like Ginger.io are experimenting with passive monitoring.

Consider the scenario of a person suffering from depression: if someone is in bed and not moving for long periods of time, the app would flag a care provider.

Similarly, if someone has stopped making social connections via their mobile devices, the app would alert key members of the care team. This provides the patient valuable support when they most need it, without needing to ask for help.

In the future, passive monitoring could also include the use of voice scanning technology.

A recent development by MIT’s Lincoln Labs shows that measuring the acoustics of a person’s voice can help detect signs of depression, brain injury and even Parkinson’s disease.

Employing this technology could prove useful in catching early warning signs of mental illness. Combined with artificial intelligence (AI), the impact of passive monitoring in detecting mental illness could be even more dramatic.

Analysing trends in a person’s speech, word choice and word combinations has been proven to predict psychosis, a sign of schizophrenia.

Researchers at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre have also shown that analysing a person’s responses to a defined set of simple questions over time can be used to identify suicidal thoughts.

Connecting mental health providers to this valuable insight could increase both the quality of care and the quality of life for their patients substantially.

Passive monitoring, artificial intelligence and other new technologies can sound daunting and impersonal. That’s why the industry must make sure technology does not replace people.

Digital health solutions should never be a replacement for connecting with a therapist, for example, and those seeking help shouldn’t be diagnosing themselves using technology, either.

Instead, technology should be used in conjunction with talk therapy, to increase accessibility to care, empower and educate people.

Technology has the potential to accelerate mental healthcare treatment, encourage proactivity and lessen stigma worldwide. As America works toward improving mental healthcare, digital health technology will help care move more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

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a mere 5% hospitals test for medical devices security

HIPAA COMPLIANT HEALTHCARE MESSAGING FROM VECTRAMIND

VECTRAMIND  is among the few messaging companies which provide healthcare organizations fully secure HIPAA compliant Hl7 messaging standards for patients and healthcare clinical staff.

Vectramind’s customized A2P solutions now enable you to capitalize on SMS to reach your target audience – from healthcare service provider, administrator to patients. 

The security of medical devices has attracted a lot of attention in recent months due to fears of device vulnerabilities being exploited by cybercriminals to cause harm to patients, gain access to healthcare networks and steal patient data. Cybercriminals have extensively targeted the healthcare industry due to the high value of patient data on the black market, combined with relatively poor cybersecurity defenses. While there have been no reported cyberattacks on medical devices with the specific aim of causing harm to patients, there are fears it is only a matter of time before such an attack occurs. Even if harming patients is not the goal of cybercriminals, ransomware attacks – which take essential computer systems out of action – can place patient safety at risk.

 Those attacks have  already started  occurring. Some healthcare providers experienced medical device downtime as a result of the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks.However of late much attention has focused on device manufacturers for failing to incorporate appropriate security protections to prevent cyberattacks and not considering security for the life cycle of the devices.A recent Synopsis-sponsored survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute suggests healthcare delivery organizations may be equally at fault.

The report on the survey – Medical Device Security: An Industry Under Attack and Unprepared to Defend – shows that both device manufacturers and healthcare organizations are concerned that medical device attacks will occur. 67% of medical device manufacturers and 56% of healthcare delivery organizations believe a cyberattack on a medical device at their organization is likely to occur in the next 12 months.

Even though manufacturers and HDOs are aware of the risks of cyberattacks on medical devices, and one third are aware that those attacks could have an adverse effect on patients, only 17% of device manufacturers and 15% of HDOs are taking action to reduce the risk of cyberattacks on medical devices used by their organizations.

One of the biggest challenges is incorporating security controls into the devices. 80% of device manufacturers said medical devices are very difficult to secure, with a lack of knowledge about how to secure the devices cited as a major issue along with accidental coding errors and pressure to meet product delivery deadlines. Identifying potential vulnerabilities does not appear to be a major priority. 53% of HDOs and 43% of device manufacturers said they do not perform any medical device security tests, while just 9% of device manufacturers and 5% of HDOs conduct device security tests on an annual basis. There is also a lack of accountability for medical device security. One third of manufacturers and HDOs said there is no one person in their organization with overall responsibility for medical device security.

pharmacy chain riteaid's customer database hacked

Pharmacy chain Rite Aid has discovered unauthorized individuals gained access to the e-commerce platform of its online store and stole sensitive information of its customers over a period of 10 weeks. The attackers gained access to, and stole, personal information and credit/debit card details. An investigation into the breach revealed that access to the platform was first gained on January 30, 2017 and continued until April 11, 2017 when the intrusion was detected and unauthorized access was blocked. During the time that unauthorized individuals had access to its e-commerce platform, they obtained customers names, addresses and payment card information, including card numbers, expiry dates and CVV numbers. 

The incident impacts all customers who used the online store between the above dates and manually entered their payment card details. A leading cybersecurity firm was called in to help determine how the breach occurred, which individuals were impacted, and to mitigate future risk. Rite Aid is also working closely with payment card companies and assisting in their investigations of the data breach. Due to the sensitive nature of the data compromised in the attack, affected individuals face an elevated risk of experiencing payment card fraud. To reduce risk, all affected individuals have been offered 12 months of identity monitoring services free of charge through Kroll. At present, it is unclear exactly how many individuals have been impacted by the breach as this incident has yet to be reported on the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights breach portal.

using enterprise mobility management (EMM) for healthcare data security

Enterprise mobility management (EMM) is vital to healthcare data security as more organizations adopt mobile strategies.

Healthcare is going mobile and clinicians are utilizing more advanced devices as they cut their cords. But as staff members move around more freely, how can providers ensure that their patients’ protected health information (PHI) stays secure?

Protecting those devices – and the data they access – through secure enterprise mobility management tools (EMM) is becoming an increasingly important strategy for organizations.

Enterprise mobility management has matured over the past several years as organizations realize the risks associated with mobile devices, particularly with mobile applications accessing electronic health records and PHI. As security risks surrounding these datasets increase, provider organizations must keep pace with evolving threats.

Healthcare mobility environments are increasingly complex as employees use their own devices to access PHI. Unsecure user devices brought in under BYOD policies and proprietary third party apps leave security holes that hackers will use to bypass network security.

“The healthcare industry is highly targeted from a security perspective,” Travelers VP Chief Underwriting Officer Mike Thoma told HITInfrastructure.com. “The value of healthcare records is so high because there is so much information that can be gleaned from a healthcare record. Addresses, SSNs, payment methods, insurance information as well as the health information of the individual.”

When users access healthcare data on an unsecured device, they are committing a HIPAA violation. An unsecured mobile device that is lost or stolen with PHI on it is a massive security risk to the healthcare organization, and can result in significant fines and a damaged reputation.

Implementing a complete EMM solution is not easy. Some of the top challenges organizations face when deploying and upgrading an EMM solution include the scope and depth of the deployment. EMM solutions need to cover a high volume of devices as well as keep track of information on the device.

IT departments must have a strong mobile management strategy in place not only to ensure that all apps are running correctly, but also to detect abnormal behavior that could be a sign of a potential attack.

To stay on top of the latest exterior and insider threats, healthcare organizations must understand how to deploy a secure yet unobtrusive enterprise mobility management solution.

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the future of healthcare visits is going mobile

Ninety-one percent of patients use mobile apps and 80 percent prefer mobile to traditional office visits.

A study by business and technology consulting firm West Monroe Partners found expansion of digital communication and available patient data will move the healthcare industry beyond the traditional doctor’s visit. Of those polled, 91 percent of respondents say they take advantage of mobile apps when offered, and 80 percent actually prefers mobile to a traditional office visit. Thirty-one percent of patients have used a mobile app to communicate with their healthcare provider about a specific condition.

The study, No More Waiting Room: The Future of the Healthcare Customer Experience, also found two-thirds of patients whose provider doesn’t offer an online portal want one, which supports earlier research finding patients want better mobile access to their records and healthcare options. A recent Harris Poll found that, while patient adoption of digital health tools still remains low, interest in virtual care services is high and the majority of consumers are now choosing primary care providers based on how well they use technology. In fact, 59 percent of all insured patients and 70 percent of millennials report they would select a PCP who had a patient mobile app over one that does not.

“Patients today are choosing their providers, in part, based on how well they use technology to communicate with them and manage their health,” Joshua Newman, M.D., chief medical officer, Salesforce Healthcare and Life Sciences, said in a statement. “Care providers who build deeper patient relationships through care-from-anywhere options, the use of wearables and better communications post-discharge, will be in a strong position to be successful today and into the future.”

The West Monroe study demonstrates consumer preferences, particularly among younger, tech-savvy patients, are moving away from traditional office visits toward more digital, mobile interactions that heighten convenience and efficiency. While these patients are expecting their healthcare experiences to transcend the annual checkup, healthcare providers and insurers are not keeping up with demand. In fact, 85 percent of healthcare insurance executives say they are not confident they have the right technology in place to help transform the customer experience to meet these new demands, while 54 percent say they don’t have the processes necessary to evolve that experience.

“Healthcare providers realize the impact of digital communication channels and are beginning to adapt,” explained Will Hinde, senior director at West Monroe Partners. “We’re starting to see more providers incorporate the digital experience with their office visit, by shifting to more online scheduling of appointments, paperless office interactions, following up via email, portals, and mobile apps and taking steps towards greater cost and quality transparency.”

The study also found roughly 70 percent of healthcare insurers currently offer rewards programs built around data collected from consumers’ health tracking devices and apps, but that less than half (48 percent) of consumers completely trust their healthcare provider with their personal information.

“Health insurers should take cues from the retail and banking industries,” says Kyle Hutchins, senior director of Customer Experience at West Monroe Partners. “From booking an appointment to receiving an explanation of benefits, healthcare organizations wanting to keep up with today’s pace of change must have an agile operating model. They also need to start building cross-functional teams and redefining HR hiring practices.”

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healthcare in your pocket? the mobile phone phenomenon

The number of studies involving mHealth technology registered with the ISRCTN registry has been increasing in recent years. With this in mind, we thought it would be a good opportunity to investigate this a little further and learn more about this new field of research.

Unless you have been living on Mars for the last few months, you couldn’t possibly have failed to come across the latest smartphone app craze, Pokémon Go. Admittedly I haven’t downloaded it on my own phone (perhaps I’ll use writing this blog as an excuse to do so), but this augmented reality game has become something of a global phenomenon. Amazingly, it’s also been credited with both physical and mental health benefits

Not all mobile phone apps with a health benefit tag capture the public imagination in quite the same way as Pokémon Go of course, but they are certainly big business. According to a recent article in The Economist, there are currently around 165K health-related apps available for either Apple or Android phones and it’s been predicted that the global revenue from these products will reach $21.1 billion in 2018.

Healthcare services by phone, however, don’t have to be high tech. Although many people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) own a mobile phone, far fewer of them own a smartphone compared to people living in high income countries, and simple text messages are increasingly being used as a tool in a number of healthcare-related settings.

As a Database Editor for the ISRCTN registry, I’ve noticed an upsurge in the number of studies being registered that involve the testing of mHealth technology, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce just some of the research happening in this area.

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providing secure messaging to encourage patient communication

Healthcare providers may have a positive impact in how patients utilize secure messaging, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR).

Provider secure messaging levels can predict their patients’ communicative behavior, researchers explained.

The research team reviewed healthcare and secure messaging records of more than 81,000 US Army soldiers and approximately 3,000 clinicians with access to a patient portal system.

“In this study, we demonstrated that among US Army soldiers, increased provider-initiated and provider-response messaging were associated with statistically-significant increases in the adjusted probability of patient-initiated secure messaging,” researchers wrote. “We also demonstrated that provider-response messaging had a much larger impact on patient messaging than provider-initiated messaging.”

Specifically, patients who had providers that were highly responsive to other patients’ messages initiated 334 percent more secure messages than patients with providers who did not personally respond to other patients’ messages.

“Secure messaging could facilitate the development of deeper relationships by increasing interaction time, making patients more comfortable about asking questions and discussing embarrassing issues, and allowing physicians to provide better advice and education,” the research team stated. “However, such benefits are likely to be realized only if patients and providers are both committed users of the technology.”

The study found that of the 81,645 patients who adopted the portal between January 2011 and November 2014, 7 percent of patients initiated a secure message each month. Healthcare providers initiated on average 0.007 messages per patient per month, and responded on average to 0.09 messages per patient per month.

Furthermore, patients with high initiation-messaging providers were 60 percent more likely to send a secure message than patients with non-initiation-messaging providers.

The research team also found that patients sent 14 percent more messages in a given observed month for every additional primary care visit during the month prior.

Overall, researchers showed that increased provider-initiated and provider-response messaging were associated with statistically-significant increases in the adjusted probability of patient-initiated secure messaging among US Army soldiers.

Even though secure messaging is often part of patient portals, the researchers noted that previous studies have shown portal usage to be low.

To help curb this issue, CMS recently proposed a change to the HITECH Act to reduce the current requirement that 5 percent of patients use secure messaging. Instead, CMS suggested the feature is only required to be there.

However, the research team suggested that reducing the communication recommendation may not be the best approach to encourage secure messaging use.

“The way and degree to which providers generally engage in messaging may represent a marker of the level of approachability that is perceived by their patients during care,” the researchers pointed out. “Provider receptiveness to communication, an otherwise difficult-to-assess factor, might be indicated by the willingness of patients to initiate secure messages with their clinicians.”

Researchers did note that more study into the factors associated with provider secure messaging is necessary “to fully understand the mechanisms of this relationship.”

Secure messaging barriers may also affect how providers and patients are able to communicate with one another.

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most healthcare institutions using non HIPAA-compliant messaging apps

Dive Brief:
A new study from Infinite Convergence Solutions finds just 1 in 4 healthcare institutions that have designated an official mobile messaging platform are using an internal app. The others are directing staff toward regular consumer messaging apps that do not provide the security required to comply the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

The study also finds just 8% of healthcare institutions prohibit the use of consumer apps for employee communication.

The company concludes many healthcare institutions lack the knowledge popular consumer apps do not meet the technical safeguards that HIPAA requires.

Dive Insight:
While much of the issue is around lack of knowledge by healthcare institutions, those grappling with the issue may be pleased to hear employees overwhelmingly say they would embrace a secure solution.

According to the study, 51% of healthcare employees report their institution does not have an official messaging platform, but 92% of them say they would use a company-wide platform if one was implemented, and 64% said it would make communication at their job easier.

"Healthcare institutions need to get serious about meeting their employees’ needs and providing a secure, internal messaging platform that not only allows HIPAA compliance, but also replaces outdated communication systems, like pagers, in order to increase productivity and serve patients faster,” Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence Solutions, said in a prepared statement.

The company launched the study in October and surveyed 500 professionals in the finance/banking, healthcare, retail and legal industries.

Among its other findings:
Sixty-five percent of healthcare respondents said they use email the most for business communication, followed by 22% using mobile messaging the most and 13% using voice-calling the most.

As for why more respondents aren't using mobile messaging the most: Thirty-one percent prefer email or phone; 19% say there’s no paper trail; 18% say it’s not as secure as phone or email; 17% say it’s too informal; and 16% say it isn't authorized by their company.

Vectramind Healthcare messaging Platform

Message security is the top concern with mobile messaging for business communication.

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10 healthcare marketing trends to watch in 2017

The nation’s healthcare delivery system continues to evolve. A curious thing about trend-watching is not that trends suddenly appear. Sometimes that’s true, but not always. In fact, marketing professionals are aware of the healthcare marketing trends on our list.

What is important–the significant dynamic at work here–is change. It is the degree of change that marks a meaningful trend. It becomes something worth watching, evaluating and bringing into your thinking and your planning.

A backdrop of near-constant change in healthcare brings challenges and opportunities. Doctors, hospital executives and marketing professionals have the option of “going along,” or they can proactively manage the course and direction of change.

A Periscope on 2017: Healthcare Marketing Trends
As you look ahead and make your healthcare marketing plans, here are some of the significant trends to consider for 2017:

1)Social messaging apps are becoming marketing platforms. Facebook, Twitter and the other big-names are still popular social hangouts. But what’s growing in popular use are the social messaging apps, such as Snapchat, Messager, WhatsApp and others. As they have in China and elsewhere, these convenient apps are fast evolving to multi-purpose platforms. Real-time customer conversations and relationships are the traditional roots of messaging. Expect new advertising and marketing possibilities to emerge as chat apps continue to grow.

2)Smarter content wins patients.The significant trend is presenting content that is authoritative, interesting and share-worthy. The Internet is healthcare marketing’s front door. Patients—now responsible for an expanded share of medical costs—search online for valuable and relevant information. Amid increased competition for the reader’s attention, today’s content must be fresh, social-sharable and reliable to earn respect and build trust.

3)Personalize; individualize. Marketing delivery systems are more sophisticated. The public/audience has also become resistant to old-style, broad brush advertising methods. Contemporary marketing methods identify user interests and deliver timely, personalized and relevant content on a one-to-one basis. Retargeting, for example, displays ads to individuals who indicate an interest in your website or content. As digital marketing automation creates a user profile, relevant, and personalized messaging is more attention getting and generates greater interest and response.

4)Optimize for mobile, the new universal standard. In the US, four out of five Americans own and use a smartphone. Laptops, desktops and tablets are still commonplace. But an individual will likely connect first using a smartphone. The ability to send and receive email, make Internet connections and do immediate online research is ever present. Healthcare marketing needs to think of the mobile screen first, and budget for and adapt that message to other options.

5)Location-based marketing. Ubiquitous smartphones present marketers with the ability to target and reach a patient/audience by their location as well as by niche. For example, in one strategy uses the device’s location to alert the audience about nearby facilities. Further, location-based marketing can detect and adapt to the social and personal preferences of the audience.

6) Live video speaks louder than text. Internet technology now supports online video delivery, with far more available options than YouTube. What’s more, video has a stronger audience appeal (about four to one) than text. Contemporary healthcare marketing can share stories by way of video content and live streaming video on websites, blogs and by way of social media platforms. The advantages include timeliness, immediacy and educational impact. Marketing plans and budgets are shifting and increasing in video categories.

7)Programmatic video buying is more cost-effective. Sophisticated software can draw on real-time data and produce greater effectiveness from a media budget. Programmatic media buying purchases digital video advertising and presents video ads to precisely qualified customers at the exactly the right time. Within the next two years programmatic video will account for the majority of digital video spending.

8) Monetizing telemedicine. Telemedicine advancements are due mainly to technology and consumer expectations. But telemedicine services are experiencing a breakthrough as medical practices become aware of the ways and means to charge for these services. Medical practices are beginning to recognize consumer demand for text, email, and similar connectivity conveniences. What’s more, monetized telemedicine options—such as online doctor-patient consultations—contribute to office efficiency, profitability and brand differentiation.

9)Patients as informed consumer/buyers. The marketing battle for new patients is played out long before the first appointment phone call. Patients research medical and health information, treatment options, provider selection criteria and dozens of other considerations. Today’s patient has a great deal more “skin in the game” than previously, and their research guides their decisions about treatment as well as their selection of provider and/or hospital. Today’s informed consumer/patient is willing to post physician ratings online, and to make (or withhold) provider recommendations.

10)Patient’s time is just as valuable as a doctor’s time. In a patient-centric world, convenience is the new competitive currency. Patients want convenient and prompt appointment times. There is no patience for waiting days or weeks for an appointment. And little understanding about having to “wait in the waiting room.” Change has driven a new consumer reality. Patients expect and demand a retail-consumer experience.

The high-altitude point of view…

The broader trend picture here is that healthcare marketing is about the one-to-one conversation between the health care provider and the individual prospective patient. Enabled by technology, marketing and advertising continue to shrink from one-to-many to an increasingly precise one-to-one.

Patients/consumers can be reached in a defined geographic location addressed by their personal smartphone. It’s about the ability to deliver exactly the right message at exactly the right time to the specific individual in need. And today, more than in the past, marketing is about a dialog, a conversation, and a relationship.

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mobile security strategies for common healthcare providers

With more providers implementing mobile options, overcoming common mobile security concerns is critical for organizations to stay innovative.

As covered entities and business associates continue to adopt mobile security strategies, it can be increasingly difficult to find tools that are innovative but do not compromise security.

Mobile app privacy and security worries and maintaining HIPAA compliance are often top concerns for healthcare organizations in terms of overall mobile security.

Even if a covered entity has a mobile device management (MDM) solution, it just takes one staff member to download an unsecured app to potentially compromise patient data.

Or, an organization may start using an app that is not in fact HIPAA compliant. Sensitive data could become exposed, and may even lead to the entity facing an OCR HIPAA settlement for potential violations.

By reviewing common concerns and what federal tools have been put in place to help providers overcome them, covered entities and business associates can work toward implementing strong and current mobile security strategies.

Understanding mobile app security concerns
Healthcare application security is one of the top pain points for covered entities that are looking to implement mobile options. Organizations want physicians and staff members to utilize smart phones and tablets, but also want to ensure that ePHI and patient data remain secure.

A study released in early 2017 found that more than one-quarter of IT decision makers were not fully confident in their organization’s MDM solution.

The survey was released by Jamf and conducted by Vanson Bourne, with researchers interviewing 550 global healthcare IT decision makers within organizations of all sizes in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia.

Eighty-four percent of respondents concurred that their organization is HIPAA compliant, however approximately half said they are not very confident in their organization’s ability to quickly adapt to changing regulations.

Furthermore, 83 percent of those surveyed admitted that security as their top concern with mobile devices for employees, while 77 percent listed data privacy as a key worry. Forty-nine percent stated that inappropriate employee use of devices was their top concern.

Similarly, a Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technology (SMART) Health IT study from February 2017 found that privacy and security with third-party healthcare apps was a key provider concern.

Vectramind Healthcare messaging solutions

KLAS interviewed clinical leadership at larger healthcare organizations about how they currently use apps, what they would like to see in the future, and what concerns they have with healthcare apps.

Approximately half of the respondents said that healthcare app privacy and security was a key worry, followed by app credibility and the ongoing app maintenance.

“For years, healthcare providers have been adopting increasingly integrated healthcare IT (HIT) suites from a single vendor, but healthcare apps buck this trend, with many organizations looking to third-party vendors to supply niche solutions to improve organizational efficiency and patient care,” the report’s authors wrote. “The recent passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, which states that a year from now open APIs will be necessary for EHR system certification, is expected to drive further growth in the app ecosystem.”

Healthcare organizations must ensure that they are using apps that already have necessary privacy and security measures built in. Staff members at all levels need to be properly trained, and should not download apps that have not been cleared by an entity’s IT or security department. Maintaining HIPAA compliance with mobile apps, devices HIPAA compliance is another top pain point for healthcare organizations that are trying to implement mobile devices. Convenience and usability are key for daily operations, but that ease of use cannot be traded over data security. The right balance must be found.

The ONC released an online tool and guidelines to help clarify potential legal concerns and ease provider worry over mobile app security.

ONC collaborated with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and OCR to create the tool, and said that mobile apps must be created in a secure way.

“This interactive tool helps guide developers through a short assessment of their app with a series of questions about the nature of the app, including its function, the data it collects, and the services it provides to its users,” wrote ONC Chief Privacy Officer Lucia Savage, J.D. and ONC Senior Health Information Privacy Program Analyst Helen Caton-Peters, MSN, RN.

Mobile app developers must understand how HIPAA regulations would potentially apply to mobile applications, as well as how any apps would be affected by the FTC Act, the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule, and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FD&C Act).

ONC also published a report that discussed companies that offer wearables, mobile health apps, and websites that publish health data.

Sidley Austin LLP Partner Anna Spencer explained in an earlier interview with HealthITSecurity.com that the report explained that when health technology is used by a covered entity, such as a healthcare provider, and that technology collects, stores, or uses individually identifiable health information, the health information on the device is protected by the HIPAA rules.

“Thus, in health technology used by individuals to manage their own health, but not offered or provided to the individual by a HIPAA covered entity or business associate, is outside of HIPAA's scope,” Spencer said.

Foley Hoag attorney Jeremy Meisinger added that healthcare organizations must determine exactly whether HIPAA applies to the type of information that a device is gathering.

“There can be a potential for just whenever there is something vaguely health related, there’s this assumption that it creates something like a health record, to which HIPAA is applicable,” Meisinger stated. “Any company developing some type of technology like that, or is developing an app that works in tandem with something like that, wants to be really clear with what is being gathered.”

Whether a healthcare provider is utilizing wearables or smart phones, understanding how the devices use and store sensitive data is critical. Understanding how state and federal laws will apply to mobile devices will also ensure that organizations remain compliant.

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how physicians can send secure messaging to caregivers and patients

Secure Physician messaging offers physicians and patients, a secure messaging platform to collaborate with each other. messaging communications to patients and caregivers ensures patients stay in touch with their Physicians and healthcare providers and also helps doctors consult with other doctors and specialty departments via mobile .

Physicians and doctors can can send secure messages with attachments, to fellow practice members to discuss a patient's problem. The messages are sent over private secure network to maintain confidentiality of patient data. Also, the messages are tagged to the patient and can be viewed in the patient's dashboard at ease.When the patient is being consulted, providers can send secure messages to nurses/therapists using the secure messaging framework, so that they can initiate preparatory works, if a patient needs a intravenous injection or therapies after the consultation. This greatly improves the practice workflow and the patients can be treated at a quicker pace and also reduces cost on paper based communication.

 Vectramind's secure messaging framework can be integrated to Hospital EMR and its patient portal, thus allowing messaging correspondence to be initiated by either the patient or the provider. Patients can communicate with the providers on questions about their medications, prescriptions, refill requests, etc. When the physicians share pre-appointment questionnaire to the patient, they get notified to the patient through their PHR. When the patient fills the questionnaire, providers get notified back through the secure messaging framework. Vectramind's healthcare secure messaging also allows providers to configure the number of messages that can be sent by their patients between visits and the size of the messages.

Vectramind has recently tied up with  CERNER  which is the  worlds biggest healthcare solution provider for mHealth solution including SMS, OTT Messaging services, Near Field Communications and Secure Encrypted Messaging.

healthcare messaging and its impact on elderly patient care

Mobile Healthcare Messaging

Due to the nature of care required for elderly patients, it has become common for family members to play an integral role in long-term care for patients at home, during the transition between facilities, and even in healthcare decision making. In fact, 65.7 million family members have become caregivers who provide care to someone who has aged, is ill or disabled in the United States.

A recent report from Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice Center (JHUEPC), have shown that a  systematic communication between healthcare providers, patients and their familie results in better patient care for the family members involved.

 Mobile and secure messaging can play a big role in providing long term care to elderly patients and caregivers.The systematic communication between healthcare providers, patients and their families simply results in better patient care and better peace of mind for the family members involved. Because text messaging has become a preferred means of communication in both professional and personal environments, healthcare teams and family members often rely on native SMS text to collaborate for faster patient care decisions.

In fact, 95% of healthcare professionals, physicians and nurses use their smartphones and tablets for work – whether sanctioned or not. However, because healthcare data breaches are up 40% from 2015, skilled nursing facilities need to be confident that the sensitive patient information shared within the circle of care will not be compromised.

 As healthcare providers transition from fee-for-service to value-based care, it's becoming more important than ever for healthcare providers to streamline communications with the entire care team, all while maintaining HIPAA compliance.

The  healthcare industry is among  the most targeted industries for cyberattacks, hence its  important to go beyond compliance to truly ensure the integrity of the patient record and protect patient privacy. Therefore, skilled nursing facilities should consider secure messaging platforms that focus first and foremost on the protection of the circle of care communications.

 The caregiver team can also leverage the efficiency and features of SMS texting, such as group text, without opening up the conversation to risks, vulnerabilities or outside sources. Further, secure messaging platforms available today can prevent images from being screenshotted or stored on devices, and provides the ability to expire messages from devices and message servers based on policy while maintaining a copy of the communication with the patient record in the EHR . A recent report projects that the marketplace for technology designed to assist aging adults is expected to reach more than $30 billion in the next few year which is a rise of 1400% from today's market figures.

5 trends across healthcare predictive analytics market:

Healthcare Predictive Analytics Market: Overview

A significant rise in the demand in the healthcare predictive market expected to be seen in the forecast period. This can be attributed to the increasing prices of medication facilities and increasing popularity of personalized medicines. Regionally, North America is expected to head the healthcare predictive analytics market.

Healthcare Predictive Analytics Market: Competitive Players
Some of the major companies in the healthcare predictive analytics market include Allscripts, Optum Inc., SAS, Verisk Analytics Inc., MedeAnalytics Inc., IBM, Oracle, McKesson Corporation and Cerner Corporation.Healthcare Predictive Analytics Market: Segmentation

The global healthcare predictive analytics market is segmented into its type, application, component, delivery model, end-user and geography. On the basis of type, the market is divided into predictive analytics, descriptive analytics and prescriptive analytics. Based on application the market is segregated into financial analytics, clinical analytics, population health analytics and operational and administrative analytics. The financial analytics is further classified into claims processing, revenue cycle management, fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA), payment integrity and risk adjustment, the clinical analytics is further divided into comparative analytics/comparative effectiveness, quality improvement and clinical benchmarking, reporting and compliance and clinical decision support and precision health and the operational and administrative analytics is divided into workforce management, supply chain management and strategic analysis. On the basis of component, the market is classified into services, software and hardware. Based on delivery model the market gets divided into on-demand and on-premise model. Based on end-user, the market is segregated into providers, payers and HIEs, ACOs, TPAs and MCOs. Providers include post-acute organization, hospitals, physician practices and IDNs and ambulatory settings and payers include government agencies, private insurance companies and employers and private exchanges. Diversification on the basis of region is seen into North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Middle East and Africa.

Healthcare Predictive Analytics Market: Competitive Players
Some of the major companies in the healthcare predictive analytics market include Allscripts, Optum Inc., SAS, Verisk Analytics Inc., MedeAnalytics Inc., IBM, Oracle, McKesson Corporation and Cerner Corporation.

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non hipaa-compliant messaging apps by healthcare institutions rise by 92%

92 percent of healthcare institutions are using non HIPAA-compliant messaging apps, according to a study released today by Infinite Convergence Solutions, Inc. What’s more, only 1 in 4 healthcare institutions who have an official mobile messaging platform are using an internal, company-authorized app. The rest are recommending or using consumer-facing messaging apps and services that do not provide the enterprise-grade security needed to comply with regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Healthcare Employee Messaging Habits vs. Official Messaging Polices
The study also found that employees in the healthcare industry use mobile messaging more frequently than voice calling for their business communication, where they most frequently communicate with colleagues. The immediacy of the information employees need to communicate matters most when they are deciding whether to use phone, email or mobile messaging to reach someone.

However, 51 percent of healthcare employees say their company does not have an official mobile messaging platform, despite the fact that 92 percent of these employees would use a company-wide mobile messaging platform if their employer decided to implement one. Sixty-four percent said it would make communication at their job easier, as well.

“We are seeing a rapid adoption of mobile messaging in healthcare as the industry looks to work faster, improve patient care and reduce wasteful spending,” said Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence Solutions. “The problem is that many healthcare institutions are not aware that the messaging apps and services that are popular for daily personal use do not follow the administrative, physical and technical safeguards that HIPAA requires.”

Of the 49 percent of healthcare employees who say their employer has an official mobile messaging platform, 16 percent say that platform is GChat and 11 percent say it’s WhatsApp. What’s more, even without an official mobile messaging platform, healthcare institutions recommend employees use consumer mobile messaging apps. None of these messaging apps or services typically follow HIPAA guidelines for messaging security.

“We’ve found that 91 percent of healthcare employees use mobile messaging at least a few times per week for business communication,” said Lal. “Healthcare institutions need to get serious about meeting their employees’ needs and providing a secure, internal messaging platform that not only allows HIPAA compliance, but also replaces outdated communication systems, like pagers, in order to increase productivity and serve patients faster.”

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global mhealth (mobile health) market focus on ecosystem

Mobile health (mHealth) is one of the most modernized trends in the healthcare industry that has shown tremendous progress in the last few years. This trend is observed due to the flourishing growth of personal health devices, which can be easily worn or used with a smartphone or tablet. Mobile Health refers to the use of mobile communications, such as personal digital assistant (PDAs), laptops, and mobile phones among others, for health services and information.

Global Mhealth (Mobile Health) Market Report 2017

The mHealth services dominated the market in 2014 and are expected to grow over $55.63 billion by the end of the forecast period due to the increasing usage of mHealth solutions by healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies along with end users (patients). However, device segment is expected to grow in near future with a high CAGR of 38.02%, from 2015 to 2022, due to increasing integration of mHealth devices with smart phones and weareables, and also, increasing opportunities of connected health solutions are predicted to promote the growth of this market through the forecast period.

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accelerating clinical trial patient engagement and retention through mobile technology

Patient recruitment and retention has always been a major cause of delay and expense in pharmaceutical clinical trials. Almost 80 percent of clinical trials fail to meet their enrollment timelines, and nearly 50 percent of trial sites enroll only one or zero patients.1 Patient recruitment activities represent more than 25 percent of overall trial costs — according to a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an average of $805,785 is spent on recruitment from Phase 1 through Phase 4.2

An effective patient retention and engagement program is critical to controlling dropout rates, and hence reducing costs, lowering duration, and increasing the likelihood of success in clinical trials. Thus, pharmaceutical companies are moving towards a patient-centric approach to retention and engagement, with technology as a key enabler. For technology to be effective, it must deliver the necessary features and fit seamlessly into the patient’s daily routine. However, the right technology not only improves active trial participation, it also improves the quality and accessibility of data collection during clinical research.

In this article, we will assess the mobile health apps market, key features of successful apps, and associated timelines and costs for developing apps that engage patients across categories and conditions.

Technology Enhances Communication & Reduces Costs

The patient-centricity movement in clinical trials recognizes that if patients are supported throughout a study, higher levels of compliance and retention can be achieved. Continuous engagement with patients throughout their clinical trial experience, and simplifying methods of data capture and reporting are now seen as vital to pharmaceutical R&D success.3,4

The rise of electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOAs), and specifically electronic patient reported outcome (ePRO) tools implemented through everyday mobile technology, has transformed how patients can be engaged throughout a clinical trial.5 Using these tools, pharmaceutical companies can now design studies to include relevant, standardized, and tailored communication plans, delivered through text messaging, email, and/or in-app notifications.6 As such, patients can be prompted to take medication, record health data, and attend site visits. Plus, sites can follow up with patients if data isn’t being entered in the correct manner, rather than waiting for their next site visit.

BYOD (bring your own device) trials, especially in the early development stage, offers true scalability for eCOA and has the potential to greatly reduce the cost and logistical complications of providing and maintaining traditional ePRO devices for trial participants. However, provisioning may be required when, for example, a validated instrument is used to assess primary outcomes, or when Bluetooth integration with next-generation home monitoring devices is involved. Selection of simple BYO smartphone or tablet devices can provide cost-effective solutions, while maintaining the benefits of mobile ePRO.6

An easy and engaging method for data capture can reduce data gaps. This along with an effective ePRO solution can increase quality and reduce the need to pad sample sizes. Padding is done in an effort to minimize the impact of missing data and discontinuations - an extra 10 percent is added to offset anticipated losses. Additionally, in larger event driven outcomes trials, retention of patients increases the number of observe events, bringing the study to an earlier close; reducing overall cost and duration.7

An Overview Of The Mobile Health App & Device Market

Mobile technology is increasingly being implemented in clinical trials due to their real-time data collection feature. Additionally, they provide means of communicating directly with patients across broad demographics and multiple locations.3 Sponsors and CROs are actively searching for opportunities to incorporate mobile solutions into trials to increase the probability success.

The mHealth market is made up of connected medical devices and healthcare apps, with the former generating 80 percent of revenues between 2013 and 2016. While medical devices have been around for decades, the advent of smartphones with Bluetooth technologies and internet connectivity has resulted in a rapidly growing number of apps designed for a multitude of healthcare-related purposes, from monitoring body temperature to measuring heart rate.8

According to Allied Market Research, the mobile health industry is growing at a staggering rate of 25 percent per year and is expected to reach an estimated $58.8 billion by 2020 (Figure 1).The key drivers of this trend are apps and devices for cardiac monitoring, diabetes management, multi-parameter tracking, etc.

The mobile app market is highly fragmented, with a large number of developers spread across the globe. Europe and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region hold the greatest market share, each at 30 percent, followed closely by North America at 28 percent (Figure 2a). Within the APAC region, China and Japan leading in market share with 37 percent and 21 percent respectively. Figure 2b shows the top 10 countries by mHealth revenue.

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