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Recent Posts
#Buzzword
October 12, 2016
mHealth. Interoperability. Industry 4.0. Internet of Things. Personalized Medicine. Quality. Disruptive Tech. Virtualization.
These buzzwords were tossed around like casual colloquialisms at the eHealth Initiative (eHI) Innovation Showcase, which the HFA fellows attended October 4-5 in Washington, D.C. to learn from key players in the health IT sector and beyond.
When it comes to buzzwords, some roll their eyes. Oh, yes, drop enough buzzwords and you can delude people into believing you. For others, it amalgamates and emphasizes trending themes in a dynamic field.
In this blog post, I want to unpack some of the health IT vernacular we heard at eHI, and also jot down some buzzwords from what we’ve been learning in stroke care.
eHealth Initiative
#Interoperability. Arguably the trendiest topic in health IT and one of the major tenets of Industry 4.0, interoperability of different systems and software to exchange efficiently has yet to be achieved across health care. As a sub-hashtag, #Blockchain technology tackles interoperability challenges by creating a digital ledger for health transactions.
#Genomical. “There’ll be a new word that means really big, bigger than astronomical…it’s genomical!” exclaimed Erich Dishman, director of the NIH’s Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), at the eHI conference. In order to use health IT to design individualized treatment for patients, the PMI will establish the world’s largest research-cohort biobank and open the doors for Big Data to step into the realm of precision medicine.
#Telehealth and #mhealth. The delivery of health care and information looks a lot different now. In fact, it probably looks like a digital screen. The surge in telehealth and mobile health innovations is transforming health care through virtual doctor visits, remote patient monitoring, and internal provider interaction.
Stroke
#D2N or #BrainIsTime. Door-to-needle time is the golden window of acute stroke care. The sooner the clot busting medication tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) is administered, the better the outcome. Reducing #D2N necessitates looking at barriers to access, acute care coordination, and stroke education for the public.
#SilentKiller. Hypertension is the “silent killer” because it has no symptoms and, thus, often goes undiagnosed. But it is the most important risk factor for stroke. Addressing hypertension screening and management can concurrently tackle upstream factors, such as diet, exercise, health literacy.
#NewNormal. In the post-stroke rehab process, there’s a huge transitional jump from physical and occupational therapy in the hospital to the real life challenges after discharge. A component of this is adapting to new physical disabilities, and another component is very psychological in adjusting to a “new normal” for patients.
As we attend our next wave of conferences, I look forward to adding to—and learning from—this list.



