Power Your Practice

Technology is rapidly changing the way health care is delivered in hospitals and medical practices across the country. There are countless new health IT and patient care developments cropping up regularly, but certain strategies, systems and trends are set to reach a tipping point of adoption and popularity in the coming year.

Here are Power Your Practice’s findings on four of the most unique and interesting healthcare technology trends to keep an eye on in 2012.

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It only takes a bad batch of apples to ruin the reputation of salespersons across the healthcare technology board. In reality, not all salespersons are shifty, but a bad experience can make a physician or practice manager skeptical.

Can you blame them? No one likes being deceived, especially when you’re at a disadvantage in terms of healthcare IT knowledge. Francis Bacon’s age-old ‘knowledge is power’ adage holds particularly true in the seller-client relationship.

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As social media becomes more and more pervasive in daily life, it’s more important than ever for hospitals and medical practices to use tools like Facebook to engage with patients and the public in a meaningful way.

Plenty of healthcare organizations have signed up for Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, but not all of them are using the tools effectively.

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As a healthcare provider, you’ve heard the term ‘electronic health record’ so much it’s likely to pop up in dreams. Whether or not this is pleasant is a matter of personality, but the truth is transitioning to EHRs is stressful, and settling on the best software option for your practice is only half the battle.

In an effort to obtain Meaningful Use incentives, many practices and IT companies alike are rushing through EHR training, which could lead to healthcare providers spending more time navigating an unfamiliar interface and an increase in error compared to the practice’s old paper-based system.

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Despite the arguments of paper purists, switching over to an EHR is not only more efficient for your practice, but it assuages age-old conflicts associated with ill-famed physician penmanship.

Even the federal government agrees the quill-and-scroll age is nearly over. With the 2015 EHR conversion deadline looming, practices need to keep Meaningful Use compliance and its reward monies in mind, so choosing the right EHR has become a time-sensitive manner.

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In a Fast Company feature titled “Designers Are The New Drivers Of American Entrepreneurialism” last year, Bruce Nussbaum wrote the “growing desire among designers to bring their user focus, strategic vision, iterative methodologies, and propositional thinking […] promises to be transformative and explosive.”

Of course, those in the healthcare technology field know designers play an integral role in EHR usability. However, while ‘usability’ is an oft-used conversational buzzword, its definition – and who gets to decide it – is often a contentious area.

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