The Morning Report provides a quick look at today’s medical news, research and features.
5.21.13
| Doximity Moves To Become Hub for CME |
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Doximity has been called a “Facebook for doctors.” Not anymore. It’s now moving in a new direction: medical education. The new model came about in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, which has agreed to offer credit to practicing physicians who use Doximity to learn on the job. The goal is to move CME (continuing medical education) to an online space so that it’s not confined to auditoriums and conference halls.
“Doctors spend about 40 hours a year to get accredited and 90 percent of physician education happens offline,” said Doximity CEO Jeff Tangney said. “This is time spent away from practice, not to mention administrative time needed to track the courses they’ve completed. It’s a pain. This platform will make it easier for doctors to track all these credits and automatically keep them up-to-date.” The news was announced Monday onstage at VentureBeat’s HealthBeat conference. Tangney, also the founder of Epocrates, said the result will be that doctors can save “precious time and reduce the burden of paperwork.” In addition, Doximity will help physicians track everything they’ve learned. Doximity’s new service offers relevant medical research to its community of registered physicians – about 170,000 and growing. The company’s existing suite of secure HIPPA-compliant collaboration tools will enable doctors to share and discuss cases. (Venture Beat) |
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Patients: New Incentives To Take Your Pills
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| Startup companies are coming up with new technologies aimed at getting people to take medicine only as directed. Insurers and pharmacies are motivated in part by Medicare, which offers financial rewards for proving their members have improved their overall adherence to medication schedules.
San Francisco-based Mango Health Inc. just released an app that lets users earn points toward prizes-such as gift cards from Target or a charitable donation in the patient’s name-for adhering to their prescription schedules. Beyond data and apps, startups are working on digitizing the pills and bottles themselves. Proteus Digital Health Inc. places tiny, digestible sensors inside of pills to get an objective accounting of who is taking what medicine. The sensors are the size of a grain of sand and are made up of copper, magnesium and silicon, amounts well below a human being’s recommended daily allowance of such minerals, said Andrew Thompson, chief executive of the Redwood City, Calif., company.
The sensor beams data such as when the pill was ingested to a disposable strip worn on the skin like a Band-Aid that sends the data to a mobile app. With patient permission, doctors or loved ones can access the phone app to track compliance. (WSJ) |
| ICD-10: Myths and Facts |
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) has once again risen in defense of its much-maligned ICD-10 diagnostic codes by issuing a revised version of a “Myths and Facts” handout.
Myth 1 has to do with the compliance date of October 1, 2014, for ICD-10 codes, which replace the ICD-9 codes now in use. CMS states that some people are under the mistaken impression that the government will give providers and insurers extra time beyond that date to switch to the new codes. Wrong, says CMS. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “has no plans to extend the compliance date for implementation.” October 1, 2014, is a hard date, so healthcare providers need to “complete the steps required” to meet the deadline. Other myths:
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