A recent update to medical coding — the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) — makes medical coding a universal language, as it has already been adopted across the globe. Two key improvements over prior processes are specificity and infinite coding. Specificity removes even the smallest chance of error in the diagnosing, coding, billing or … [More]
Critical Rehab Advances
The City of Surprise will finally get a hospital when the Cobalt Rehabilitation Hospital of Surprise opens this month. The $17.5-million, 55,000-square-foot facility will also be the first hospital in Arizona to provide the ZeroG® Gait and Balance Training System, a robotic body-weight support system mounted to a motorized trolley that rides along an overhead track. The system … [More]
Domestic Medical Travel as Healthcare Cost Solution
Companies today face mounting pressure to provide appropriate healthcare coverage despite staggering costs. Rising to the challenge, a growing number of business owners and corporate executives have sought strategies to help avoid substantial monetary penalties for non-compliance under reform’s new regulations and, concurrently, curb healthcare costs. In this … [More]
Go! Gargle!
Improving on the tried-and-true sore throat home remedy of gargling with salt water, registered nurse January O’Connor devised her GoGargle! formulation initially for her husband, adding honey, aloe, mint and chamomile for their immediate soothing benefit as the salt-water gargle works to reduce swelling. The Scottsdale resident began marketing it as a compressed and convenient … [More]
Expanding Delivery
The new name of Abrazo Community Health Network better expresses the sense of caring that underlies the philosophy of the healthcare system that has evolved from what was previously a hospital system (“abrazo” means “embrace” in Spanish), explains Kat Rondeau, chief business development officer. “The new brand rolled out in May was the result of research regarding what a … [More]
Advancing Safety in Medical Imagery
The use of advanced imagery in healthcare is increasing, but this technology that helps improve patient outcome also has the potential to do harm. Scottsdale-based PACSHealth, LLC manufactures a tool that collects data and sets up the ability to send alerts, reports and other components around that data set to ensure what is being programmed is actually what is delivered and … [More]
Bonus Payments Help UnitedHealthcare Promote Value-Based Care
Through its PATH program, which annually rewards physicians who meet certain performance-based criteria, UnitedHealthcare awarded approximately $1.2 million in bonus payments to 30 Arizona care providers named winners of the PATH Excellence in Patient Service Awards. Care providers who earned recognition as a UnitedHealthcare PATH Excellence in Patient Service Award winner have … [More]
Communication Key in Care
Today’s dynamic healthcare landscape relies on highly educated and motivated leaders with strong managerial expertise to oversee large healthcare operations and their success is determined by how well they clearly communicate with patients, staff, providers, business partners, insurance companies, and regulators. Blair Smith, Ph.D., dean of informatics-management-technology … [More]
Healthcare Grows Business
Healthcare and bioscience have been targeted by state and municipal economic development agencies as among the key industries to build a strong and sustainable economy. Venture-backed competitions focus on identifying startups that have potential to bring revenue and employment, and give them a leg up toward realizing success. Two startups that recently gained that edge are … [More]
Cure Corridor Going Strong
The healthcare sector continues to be a strong element in the local economy. It’s an area the City of Scottsdale has focused on specifically for its economic development, branding intersecting stretches of Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard the “Scottsdale Cure Corridor.” Businesses in that corridor have chalked up numerous economic-impacting milestones this year. Medical … [More]
Research Alliance
Taking aim at Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, Arizona State University and Banner Health have partnered to advance the diseases’ study, treatment and prevention. The research alliance will be led by Eric Reiman, M.D., executive director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute and university professor of neuroscience at ASU, and Raymond N. DuBois, … [More]
Is There a Doctor in the Office?
The demand for healthcare management professionals is on the rise as more healthcare organizations prioritize managing costs and keeping up with legislation changes. An MBA Healthcare addresses this, designed for physicians who aspire to become future leaders in healthcare to ensure that a medical institution is run properly and profitably, while continuing to focus on improved … [More]
Good Data Saves Lives
One thousand people die every day due to medical error. This shocking revelation at a Senate hearing last year put medical error at the No. 3 position for cause of death in the United States. Electronic health records (EHRs) are seen as part of the solution to this problem but their implementation comes with its own set of problems. “It’s in its early stages and is not … [More]
Sight App Sites HQ in Scottsdale
Gobiquity Mobile Health provides a mobile vision diagnostic solution that works through technology in a smartphone’s pre-existing hardware. That makes it both easy to understand and intuitive to adopt — as well as, CEO Andrew Burns points out, “cost-effective, since little investment is required.” It’s a real-time measurement that uses a smartphone’s camera and flash. … [More]
Crowdfunding Answers Medical Need
Hospitals and nonprofits have begun expanding their fundraising efforts beyond the traditional reliance on a board of directors out to the wider reach of the Internet. But medical crowdfunding is taking another direction as well. “There is a major growing trend of people using the Internet to raise money for medical events,” says Frutkin Law Firm founder Jonathan Frutkin, a … [More]
3-D Print for Medical Use
3-D printing is making a big impact in medical applications. Not that the technology is new — W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., among others, has been using 3-D printing for decades. It was used to make models and prototypes, says Eric Miller, principal and co-owner of Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies, which provides 3-D printers and 3-D printing services and is … [More]
More Doctor Time
Medical Scribes The push for healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records (EHRs) has fostered the growth of medical scribes as a supporting profession to relieve doctors of the time-consuming task of entering the comprehensive medical documentation EHRs require. Essentially handling data management tasks, a medical scribe charts the doctor’s patient encounters … [More]
Orion Health: Big Data for Big Health Impact
The Center of Excellence that Orion Health opened recently in Scottsdale to be its North American research and solution center aims to enable clinicians to provide more proactive healthcare on a population basis — “trying to understand chronic patients, pre-chronic patients, well and long-term care from a population perspective,” says David Bennett, the company’s executive vice … [More]
