Empowered Patient Podcast

Amanda Bury, Chief Commercial Officer at Infermedica, emphasizes the need for better care navigation tools to help educate patients about care options and appropriate providers to address their concerns. AI-powered care navigation also supports clinicians by identifying patients who need in-clinic attention, those who can be helped through a telehealth visit, or those who can be given instructions about self-care at home. Amanda addresses the need for education and trust when bringing AI to healthcare and the positive impact these technologies can have on alleviating the shortage of healthcare workers.

Amanda explains, "Taking it a step further is this new wave of care navigation tools, which takes that search match a step further. It leverages more of a question-and-answer capability to help route, manage, and navigate patients to the best care choice, whether inside a hospital via a telemedicine appointment or maybe they can even self-care at home. So, care navigation tools have evolved quite a bit, and we're now at this beginning stage of AI-powered care navigation tools, making the industry that much more exciting."

"At Infermedica, we have an AI-powered tool either for health plans or health systems to take clinically validated navigation and help guide those patients and members towards the most appropriate and cost-effective care. So I always like to say, "When you were younger, did you ever do those choose your own adventures where you would go through and pick and choose what your next step was?" And that is really what these AI-powered care navigation tools are doing: they're taking and learning along the way based on the symptoms and how the patient is feeling and helping direct them to the right level of care."

#Infermedica #HealthcareAI #AI #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth

Infermedica.com

Listen to the podcast here

Amanda Bury, Chief Commercial Officer at Infermedica, emphasizes the need for better care navigation tools to help educate patients about care options and appropriate providers to address their concerns. AI-powered care navigation also supports clinicians by identifying patients who need in-clinic attention, those who can be helped through a telehealth visit, or those who can be given instructions about self-care at home. Amanda addresses the need for education and trust when bringing AI to healthcare and the positive impact these technologies can have on alleviating the shortage of healthcare workers.

Amanda explains, "Taking it a step further is this new wave of care navigation tools, which takes that search match a step further. It leverages more of a question-and-answer capability to help route, manage, and navigate patients to the best care choice, whether inside a hospital via a telemedicine appointment or maybe they can even self-care at home. So, care navigation tools have evolved quite a bit, and we're now at this beginning stage of AI-powered care navigation tools, making the industry that much more exciting."

"At Infermedica, we have an AI-powered tool either for health plans or health systems to take clinically validated navigation and help guide those patients and members towards the most appropriate and cost-effective care. So I always like to say, "When you were younger, did you ever do those choose your own adventures where you would go through and pick and choose what your next step was?" And that is really what these AI-powered care navigation tools are doing: they're taking and learning along the way based on the symptoms and how the patient is feeling and helping direct them to the right level of care."

#Infermedica #HealthcareAI #AI #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth

Infermedica.com

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Dr. Ahzam Afzal, Co-Founder and CEO of Puzzle Healthcare, aims to reduce readmission rates to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities by focusing on discharge planning and post-acute care. High readmission rates can result in financial penalties and are often caused by the complexity of the patient's condition and social determinants of health. Puzzle is working with health systems and SNFs to implement a readmission prevention program that includes physiatry and care coordination 90 days after discharge.

Ahzam explains, "Hospital readmissions have become a focal point for our healthcare systems for several reasons. First and foremost, they are a key indicator of the quality of care being provided by these facilities. High readmission rates often suggest that patients may not be receiving the comprehensive care they need during their hospital stay or the necessary support post-discharge. This could be due to inadequate discharge planning, insufficient patient education on their conditions, or a lack of effective follow-up care."

"Additionally, readmissions place a substantial financial burden on healthcare facilities. Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals with higher than expected readmission rates for certain conditions face significant penalties including reduced Medicare reimbursements. This policy was also extended to skilled nursing facilities through the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing program, which penalizes SNF facilities based on their readmission rates starting in 2024."

#PuzzleHealthcare #ReadmissionPrevention #Hospitals #SkilledNursingFacilities #ValueBasedCare #PostAcuteCare #SDOH

puzzlehealthcare.com

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Dr. Ahzam Afzal, Co-Founder and CEO of Puzzle Healthcare, aims to reduce readmission rates to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities by focusing on discharge planning and post-acute care. High readmission rates can result in financial penalties and are often caused by the complexity of the patient's condition and social determinants of health. Puzzle is working with health systems and SNFs to implement a readmission prevention program that includes physiatry and care coordination 90 days after discharge.

Ahzam explains, "Hospital readmissions have become a focal point for our healthcare systems for several reasons. First and foremost, they are a key indicator of the quality of care being provided by these facilities. High readmission rates often suggest that patients may not be receiving the comprehensive care they need during their hospital stay or the necessary support post-discharge. This could be due to inadequate discharge planning, insufficient patient education on their conditions, or a lack of effective follow-up care."

"Additionally, readmissions place a substantial financial burden on healthcare facilities. Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals with higher than expected readmission rates for certain conditions face significant penalties including reduced Medicare reimbursements. This policy was also extended to skilled nursing facilities through the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing program, which penalizes SNF facilities based on their readmission rates starting in 2024."

#PuzzleHealthcare #ReadmissionPrevention #Hospitals #SkilledNursingFacilities #ValueBasedCare #PostAcuteCare #SDOH

puzzlehealthcare.com

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JJ Mosolf, Founder and President of Academy Medtech Ventures, develops digital health solutions for use in clinical environments and at home to drive more effective rehabilitation. Addressing the brain and body by combining cognitive training with physical rehabilitation demonstrates better health outcomes and pain management. Their operating system, Cog PT, includes user-friendly tools for in-clinic assessment, AI human motion capture, and training, with a companion app for patients.

JJ explains, "We see the body and the brain as intricately connected. A lot of the literature over the past decade or so points to the brain as a vehicle for the upside, as the driving force behind what goes on from a neuromuscular standpoint. We see this less as, "Let's introduce cognition and neurocognitive training to uncover some deficiency or impairment," and more as a vehicle for training upside purposes. This connection point is typically where people struggle."

"The operating system term references every component within a clinical care instance. We recognize that it isn't just the delivery of a modality that a clinician cares about but the time that it takes to document said intervention and the ability to introduce connectivity to the home environment. We've tried to build a suite of tools to touch on each of those elements and provide the most easy-to-use and valuable service for clinicians, not just at the point of care."

"A tangible example would be the in-clinic modality side of what can be delivered as a software implementation on an iPad. It can be set up whether it's on a stand or in a patient's hands, and it fits within the workflow space. Then we've got some patient education tools and data tools to help on the workflow side, and the home remote monitoring side also rounds out the operating system. That's a core tenet of how we think about technological interventions in the rehab space."

#CognitiveTraining #AI #ComputerVision #Rehabilitation #PhysicalTherapy #Clinicians #DigitalHealth

academymedtechventures.com

Listen to the podcast here

JJ Mosolf, Founder and President of Academy Medtech Ventures, develops digital health solutions for use in clinical environments and at home to drive more effective rehabilitation. Addressing the brain and body by combining cognitive training with physical rehabilitation demonstrates better health outcomes and pain management. Their operating system, Cog PT, includes user-friendly tools for in-clinic assessment, AI human motion capture, and training, with a companion app for patients.

JJ explains, "We see the body and the brain as intricately connected. A lot of the literature over the past decade or so points to the brain as a vehicle for the upside, as the driving force behind what goes on from a neuromuscular standpoint. We see this less as, "Let's introduce cognition and neurocognitive training to uncover some deficiency or impairment," and more as a vehicle for training upside purposes. This connection point is typically where people struggle."

"The operating system term references every component within a clinical care instance. We recognize that it isn't just the delivery of a modality that a clinician cares about but the time that it takes to document said intervention and the ability to introduce connectivity to the home environment. We've tried to build a suite of tools to touch on each of those elements and provide the most easy-to-use and valuable service for clinicians, not just at the point of care."

"A tangible example would be the in-clinic modality side of what can be delivered as a software implementation on an iPad. It can be set up whether it's on a stand or in a patient's hands, and it fits within the workflow space. Then we've got some patient education tools and data tools to help on the workflow side, and the home remote monitoring side also rounds out the operating system. That's a core tenet of how we think about technological interventions in the rehab space."

#CognitiveTraining #AI #ComputerVision #Rehabilitation #PhysicalTherapy #Clinicians #DigitalHealth

academymedtechventures.com

Download the transcript here

Adam Kautzner, President of Express Scripts, highlights the role pharmacy benefit management companies play in negotiating prices with drug companies and pharmacies. They also perform health safety checks to ensure patients get the correct medications and updates, and those with multi-morbidities are checked for possible drug interactions. Overcoming the supply chain challenges during the pandemic, Express Scripts continues to develop more effective solutions to lower the cost of drugs and improve access.

Adam explains, "Unfortunately, prescription drugs are becoming even more expensive. So our role in that space is to work for employers, or potentially for health plans, that hire us to help improve, for patients, medication affordability, to improve patient outcomes, and ensure that for patients there is predictability at the pharmacy counter to navigate their pharmacy benefit."

"We're able to do that because, as the most utilized benefit, we have a bird's eye view of all the different patients' needs that they may have. We're able to look over, if you're going to multiple doctors, getting prescribed multiple drugs from multiple doctors. We can actually perform safety checks across all of that to ensure that when you're refilling a prescription or getting a new prescription everything is safe, and there aren't going to be drug interactions. We're able to ensure that you have predictability and affordability for your pharmacy benefits."

"So yes, comorbidities continue to become a broader and broader issue. I would say there are also more drugs now to treat many of those comorbidities, and some products can even treat multiple types of conditions where they've been approved for things like cardiovascular and diabetes. Those drugs that treat multiple conditions can also be helpful as well because you can actually eliminate some drugs and minimize the number of different products that you have to take."

#ExpressScripts #Evernorth #PharmacyBenefitManagement #PBM #DrugCosts

evernorth.com

ExpressScripts.com

The facts about home delivery

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Adam Kautzner, President of Express Scripts, highlights the role pharmacy benefit management companies play in negotiating prices with drug companies and pharmacies. They also perform health safety checks to ensure patients get the correct medications and updates, and those with multi-morbidities are checked for possible drug interactions. Overcoming the supply chain challenges during the pandemic, Express Scripts continues to develop more effective solutions to lower the cost of drugs and improve access.

Adam explains, "Unfortunately, prescription drugs are becoming even more expensive. So our role in that space is to work for employers, or potentially for health plans, that hire us to help improve, for patients, medication affordability, to improve patient outcomes, and ensure that for patients there is predictability at the pharmacy counter to navigate their pharmacy benefit."

"We're able to do that because, as the most utilized benefit, we have a bird's eye view of all the different patients' needs that they may have. We're able to look over, if you're going to multiple doctors, getting prescribed multiple drugs from multiple doctors. We can actually perform safety checks across all of that to ensure that when you're refilling a prescription or getting a new prescription everything is safe, and there aren't going to be drug interactions. We're able to ensure that you have predictability and affordability for your pharmacy benefits."

"So yes, comorbidities continue to become a broader and broader issue. I would say there are also more drugs now to treat many of those comorbidities, and some products can even treat multiple types of conditions where they've been approved for things like cardiovascular and diabetes. Those drugs that treat multiple conditions can also be helpful as well because you can actually eliminate some drugs and minimize the number of different products that you have to take."

#ExpressScripts #Evernorth #PharmacyBenefitManagement #PBM #DrugCosts

evernorth.com

ExpressScripts.com

The facts about home delivery

Download the transcript here

Wayne Picker, Head of Operations at Prenuvo, discusses the use of whole-body MRI as an early detection tool to change the paradigm of healthcare from reactive to proactive. Using an optimized MRI machine, these 3D scans allow clinicians and patients to identify early signs of disease and gain insights into actionable information that can influence lifestyle changes and future testing. Prenuvo is focused on reducing the cost of whole-body MRI scans and making them affordable and accessible to reduce late-stage diagnoses dramatically.

Wayne explains, "MRI is still quite a young tool. It's only been around for the last 40 years. Traditionally, MRI has always been a slow scan technique. And so, because of that, it's usually the last test people are ever getting done. Usually, imaging starts with an X-ray. If they can't find the solution from that, they'll often go for a CT scan or an ultrasound, and usually, MRIs are the last test that people get sent for."

"This is a real shame because MRI is the most sensitive and specific scan for lots of different health conditions. So, part of forming Prenuvo was looking to change that paradigm. We were looking to use MRI as the first test. And if we image the body sooner before somebody has symptoms, then health outcomes have to be better. The direction has been using MRI, a safe imaging test to scan head to toe, looking for as many different health conditions as possible."

"One was to screen for the most conditions possible. The next one was to do it in a time-savvy way, doing the scan in less than an hour. Then the third one was to make it as reproducible as possible. We could compare the scan from one year to the next so we could come in and follow the progression or the consistency of their health conditions year-on-year, as well as with our different clinics, making sure that those scans are reproducible."

#Prenuvo #ProactiveHealthcare #WholeBodyMRI #Healthtech

Prenuvo.com

Listen to the podcast here

Wayne Picker, Head of Operations at Prenuvo, discusses the use of whole-body MRI as an early detection tool to change the paradigm of healthcare from reactive to proactive. Using an optimized MRI machine, these 3D scans allow clinicians and patients to identify early signs of disease and gain insights into actionable information that can influence lifestyle changes and future testing. Prenuvo is focused on reducing the cost of whole-body MRI scans and making them affordable and accessible to reduce late-stage diagnoses dramatically.

Wayne explains, "MRI is still quite a young tool. It's only been around for the last 40 years. Traditionally, MRI has always been a slow scan technique. And so, because of that, it's usually the last test people are ever getting done. Usually, imaging starts with an X-ray. If they can't find the solution from that, they'll often go for a CT scan or an ultrasound, and usually, MRIs are the last test that people get sent for."

"This is a real shame because MRI is the most sensitive and specific scan for lots of different health conditions. So, part of forming Prenuvo was looking to change that paradigm. We were looking to use MRI as the first test. And if we image the body sooner before somebody has symptoms, then health outcomes have to be better. The direction has been using MRI, a safe imaging test to scan head to toe, looking for as many different health conditions as possible."

"One was to screen for the most conditions possible. The next one was to do it in a time-savvy way, doing the scan in less than an hour. Then the third one was to make it as reproducible as possible. We could compare the scan from one year to the next so we could come in and follow the progression or the consistency of their health conditions year-on-year, as well as with our different clinics, making sure that those scans are reproducible."

#Prenuvo #ProactiveHealthcare #WholeBodyMRI #Healthtech

Prenuvo.com

Download the transcript here