Note: I had stopped writing posts in 2017. Started again in late-2024, mostly for AI.
Switzerland-based MindMaze created news early 2016 when it raised a $100 million round of funding at a pre-money valuation of a Billion dollars. It is creating virtual reality products related to neural recovery. The medical-grade product (!imaginatively called MindMotionPRO) embodies the usual inpatient medical device: a set of CPUs and monitors attached to a metal framework on wheels. It has...
The idea is certainly not new. Using VR immersion as a part of mental health treatment has been a subject of academic research and debate for a couple of decades. What usually makes news are opinion articles and university research projects. I've seen commercially-oriented companies (like VirtuallyBetter) but none that gave me the impression of a true 'VR platform for Psychiatrists'. Limbix...
Amion stands for the question every physician asks at one point or other in their residency - "Am I on?". As I've pointed out before, scheduling is one of the prime candidates for being done externalized - done right by a handful of players, and utilized by everyone else. Unlike the recent upstarts though, Amion has been around for 15 years. You can read the full story here. And unlike vanity...
Scheduling is starting to become a great example when I talk to others about what is wrong with the current mainstream healthcare IT market. In short, the mainstream vendors are trying to do everything, and ending up with sub-optimal solutions across the board. Luckily for them, most clients are either unaware or choose to overlook the grotesque in the IT solutions presented. Which is why, I...
As I've pointed out before, referrals is a complicated workflow in healthcare. But it's important nevertheless because it affects transition points in a patients care continuum, in turn affecting outcomes and cost. Par8o was founded by the same guys who started Sermo (the online physician community that had the distinct honor of being the first review on Multiplyd 🙂 ). It's a referral...
In healthcare, 'referral' is used when a provider from one clinical domain directs a patient to a provider in another clinical domain. Most prominent use case is when a primary care physician (PCPs) refers a patient to a specialist or for services performed outside the PCP's office (diagnostic tests, outpatient surgery, etc.). If a referral is deemed medically warranted, the PCP decides at...
Among other things in healthcare, the care transition process is also broken. For example, outpatient care usually ends with the provider summarizing for the patient their medical issue, instructions on next steps, etc. Ideally, the key takeaways are given to the patient as printed handouts, prescription instructions. But as most of us who have been a patient would know that printed medical...
The phase of digitizing medical records is passing by, giving way to the next set of tasks. The three most prominent challenges now are: Exchange - how to break the silos of isolated EHRs, and enable sharing based on geography (think HIEs) or affiliation (think ACOs) Consumer Engagement - If the official record is electronic, how to make it accessible to patients and open to contribution of...
The last mile problem exists everywhere. Systems may get digitized, products and services may evolve to perfection, but the last link to individual is key. Whether it is the local cable provider laying the actual copper wire to your doorstep or the company that makes a better mouse/keyboard to control any given software, the constraint brings a dose of reality to digital value propositions....
Tablet publishing is a nascent domain. Consider that Flipboard, arguably the runaway success story, was in stealth mode mid-2010 and had started getting serious traction a year later. The underlying concept of creating aggregated, curated and organized channels for personalized content consumption in a magazine like format has never been so viable. It hasn't taken entrepreneurs long to recognize...