VirtualHealthCheck.com

Start the New You Now and Avoid the Resolution Rush

2011-12-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

Each New Year many of us follow the same routine of getting serious about diet and exercise, only to end up weeks or months later following the same destructive, unhealthy lifestyle. The New Year has become the "Black Friday" for the fitness and diet industries. This repeated behavior of flooding the gyms on January 2 is so pervasive that we are called "resolution members" by many industry insiders. This repeated behavior is critical to the success of the fitness industry. The industry knows that the "resolution members" will be members only in the financial sense by February.

In order to prevent repeating past behaviors, try something radical such as starting your New Year's health and fitness resolution today. You can start by simply walking more, performing simple exercises at home or making small changes to destructive behaviors in your lifestyle. MyVirtualHealthCheck.com members have indicated that one of the most important parts of keeping a Food Diary is gaining awareness of unhealthy food choices. Your awareness of these unhealthy habits will allow you to isolate the behaviors and foster change. Changes to seemingly small behaviors can lead to positive health outcomes, over time.

Don't fall victim to the same routine of eating too much in December, only to join the masses at the gym in January. If you can change a few behaviors in the unhealthiest month of them all, then you will be well on your way to improving your health and wellness.

@ Healthunbound.org: Good health at (everybody’s) fingertips: Affordable mHealth Networks and Applications

2011-09-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

Done right, mobile health applications will revolutionize health and wellness programs for the poor. Those suffering from chronic disease in particular will benefit from the rapid growth in mobile technologies. Unlike some traditional medical technologies that fail to reach many poor populations in a significant way, mHealth can connect with large numbers of people and at a low cost. Mobile phone use has soared in both developed and developing countries, along the way becoming a reliable communication and information resource. As mHealth develops networks, applications and technology, it is important the focus be placed on developing secure systems that solve real problems instead of bloated, unnecessary functionality that raises the cost to consumers. more @ Healthunbound.com

New FDA Proposed Guidelines for mHealth: A Step in the Right Direction

2011-07-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

The FDA recently released draft guidelines for the regulation of mobile medical apps. While these guidelines may create many more questions within the mHealth space, it does provide a needed framework for our expanding industry. The new FDA mHealth framework breaks into three parts: mobile platform, mobile app, and mobile medical applications. A mobile platform is a commercially available, computing platform which is hand held. A mobile platform does not have to be wireless. Mobile apps are software loaded on a mobile platform or a web-based software (SaaS) applications that are designed for a mobile platform(s). Finally, a mobile medical app would have to meet the “device” definition found in the FD&C Act. The draft regulation indicated that a mobile medical app must be “used as an accessory to a regulated medical device." Health and wellness apps that refrain from making any specific health related claims will not be regulated according to the draft guidelines. Also, apps that serve as log, record, track and evaluate are specifically listed as apps not regulated (food diaries, calorie counters, exercise information).

We welcome the these draft guidelines and hope that the final guidelines promote more vigorous security and privacy standards. The FDA must understand that mHealth regulatory standards really are about two things data integrity and security. Security standards must rise above the normal practices of user authentication and data encryption. We believe a layered system of security is required where data is independent from the handheld device and resides on monitored and secure networks.

Diabetesville, USA Trailer (long version)

2011-06-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

Official Trailer Long Version

See Trailer (8:48)

mHealth for Accountable Care and Improved Outcomes: Introducing Our Android App

2011-04-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

True health and disease management for your mobile device supported by MyVirtualHealthCheck.com. One versatile app allows users to manage Glucose, Heart Rate, Blood Pressure and Weight, while making a healthier lifestyle easier to achieve with the aid of a robust, set of web-based tools.

Many disease management mobile applications are either locked to the mobile device or simply track a specific vital with their disease narrow outlook. With the MyVirtualHealthCheck mHealth appss, we take a holistic approach to your health by allowing you to record, monitor and share all your vital types! The MyVirtualHealthCheck app also allows users to e-mail physiological data to healthcare providers and caregivers directly from the mobile device. This important function gives users control over personal biometric information. More importantly, this feature provides a window into important vital data over time, instead of isolated data points healthcare providers currently use to make healthcare decisions. The result? Better informed patients, caregivers and physicians, and most importantly, better health.

Why We Don't Use the Word "Diet"

2011-03-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

During the redesign process of the MyVirtualHealthCheck.com Resource Page we have had discussions with people supporting a particular diet. The MyVirtualHealthCheck team has decided that diets rarely result in true lifestyle change, which is what most of us need. Here is the problem with the diet culture and why our resource page soon will be transforming into our LifeStyle Page.

Any diet plan at its core is some variation on adopting lifestyle change. Whether focused on juices, points, supplements, packaged meals or drugs, diets depend on lifestyle change, a critical factor to any weight loss success. Diets require you to commit to change, to make better decisions regarding your health. And yet, there are 5 key elements to weight loss: 1. Move More 2. Eat Less 3. Eat Better 4. Drink Water and 5. Sleep How we go about changing our lives in those 5 areas is what the MyLifestyle section will be all about.

We are faced with predominantly unhealthy choices every day. MyLifestyle will be about providing ideas, recipes and resources on how to develop a healthier lifestyle. Look for the launch of the MyLifestyle section soon!

VirtualHealthCheck.com Launches Software-As-a-Service (SaaS), Telehealth Solution Designed to Improve Patient/Physician Communication and Care

2011-03-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

Chronic Care Management, Inc. offers a total telehealth and telemonitoring solution to improve patient care plan compliance and create new opportunities in patient education and outreach with VirtualHealthCheck.com TeleHealth.

The launch of the VirtualHealthCheck.com fully integrated telehealth solution gives health care providers the power to communicate with patients and monitor their vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, glucose and weight) using the VirtualHealthCheck telehealth center in San Antonio, Texas.

We offer patients three ways to store and share their vital sign information. They can enter their data into our mobile apps or MyVirtualHealthcheck.com, or use our in-home, wireless monitoring systems. Our system even alerts health care providers when vital signs go out of range. Alerts can trigger a multi-channel telehealth response to communicate with patients via inbound/outbound phone, e-mail and/or live chat.

Providers can also manage communication between our telehealth agents and patients, create surveys and establish call rules for specific patients or groups of patients based on care plan needs.

"Our SaaS telehealth approach allows health care providers to control agent scripting, survey content and contact rules, giving them both control and accountability into each patient interaction," said Michael Seringer, Vice President of Chronic Care Management, Inc. "We have designed a flexible, SaaS telehealth solution to free providers from managing hardware and software so they can focus on patient care."

Health care providers can also easily access web-based, real-time reporting to monitor their telehealth effort. The VirtualHealthCheck telehealth solution also provides chain of custody reporting to assure telehealth program rules are being followed and quality patient interactions, every time.

Today the healthcare system is plagued by poor communication between medical providers and patients between visits. Attempting to treat chronic conditions without an accurate, rich history of vital sign data prevents healthcare providers from responding with prompt and appropriate care, which leads to worse patient outcomes and higher medical costs.

"We have conducted many interviews with physisicans and most have expressed their inability to provide between-visit care and communication to patients," said Seringer. "We believe the VirtualHealthCheck.com, SaaS platform will provide physicians with an opportunity to provide true integrated and accoutable care."

Successful Disease Management Starts With Accurately Recording Your Blood Pressure, Glucose, Heart Rate and Weight.

2011-02-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

Health and disease management is dependent upon access to an accurate history of your biometric data. Too often, health decisions are based on isolated vital readings, taken in a stressful environment. Worse yet, incomplete data at key moments during the day leaves medical professionals without critical information to make decisions. For example, monitoring morning blood pressure can be an accurate predictor of a stroke, especially among those who are suffering from morning hypertension. Tracking your blood pressure each day will allow you to see how medications, diet and lifestyle choice are impacting your health. Only through accurate tracking can you determine patterns and make adjustments to your care plan.

Keep in mind, our wireless monitoring system allows your data to go from the device securely to your account using our wellness gateway. For only $475 and $9.99 a month you can rest assured that your vital data is accurate and securely stored at our SAS70, PCI and HIPAA compliant data center.

New Era in Disease Management

2010-10-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

With our launch of MyVirtualHealthCheck, Chronic Care Management, Inc. offers the first, No Cost, personal chronic disease management system. People suffering from chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease can easily and securely record, monitor and share their physiological, vital sign data as well as take advantage of a suite of tools designed to help facilitate lifestyle change.

Our system provides wireless (bluetooth) remote, vital sign monitoring using the MyVirtualHealthCheck.com vital gateway. Wireless monitoring is supported by a host of tools:

- Record, Monitor and Share Vital Signs
- Nutrition Information on over 14,000 food items
- Food Diary
-Activity Log
-Advanced Reports and Vital Sign Graphing
-Share vital sign data via email or file download
-Caregiver Plan

Disease Education and Social Media 3) Organize Your Information and Educational Material In Relation to Social Media.

2010-08-30T11:10:00.001-07:00

There are several methods to communicate and provide information rich resources using social media. By uploading photos, videos, links and posting comments to your “wall,” you can efficiently create a resourceful environment that helps extend your disease education far beyond its current confines. Videos in particular, allows for a creative extension of your content. Advances in video editing software and hardware have made producing a quality video simpler and cheaper than ever before (See an example of a very simple eating healthy video we produced). By providing a variety of quality content sources, you will be setting the stage for a site used regularly by your existing patients while attracting new ones. At this point many educators have a hard time trying to determine what information to include on the social media site. A few items are key. 1) Good description of your disease education mission statement, credentials, etc. 2) links to any affiliated institutions and organizations where you are a member or follow 3) Collateral materials such as photos, graphics, etc. and 4) A few information nuggets ready to share. Use news sites, blog posts, search engines and industry web sites to track, monitor and post interesting disease and health information. Both Bing and Google have great news search capability allowing you to search news on key words such as “diabetes” and “heart disease.”

It is important to recognize that disease educators may not have the same social media goals as many other enterprises promoting web sites, products, etc. While these organizations are going to be focused mostly on generating “Likes” on Facebook or expanding a network of “followers” on Twitter, the disease educator’s aim should be crating a useful resources that patients come to rely on for disease information and lifestyle ideas. It is much more difficult to measure and quantify site usage, but it is the real indicator of social media success.

To determine whether your social media strategy is working, follow the discussions on your page to easily determine whether you have created an environment that fosters patient use instead of a simple “Like” or “Follow”. Start and participate in discussions to keep your social media site active and relevant. Be careful in the discussion sections never to provide patient specific information. Always put your self in the context of broadcasting out to everyone. HIPAA compliance demands that you always provide general information or comments. Never provide patient specific information within the social media context. Use more private methods such as phone or email to answer specifics and always within accordance of your HIPAA policy you are bound to.

Next Blog: Explaining Social Media Applications. Should You Use Them?

Disease Educators: Planning Your Social Networking Strategy

2010-08-20T07:54:00.000-07:00

Social networking is a proven, powerful communication tool. However, by developing a comprehensive strategy, social networking can be transformed into an efficient learning resource for many disease educators. Below are the key areas where your social networking strategy must focus before it can become an effective learning tool.

1) Survey Your Patients

Before you can develop a sound social networking strategy, it is a good idea to determine what percentage of your patient population is actively using social networks vs. those who are not using any social media. It is important to note that many people will respond that they are only using social networks to follow family and friends. Make sure to count these people in the affirmative. Even if they hesitate about extending their social networking beyond family and friends, it is important to count them. We will discuss how you leverage the power of social networking in future blog posts. Knowing what percentage of your patients are actively using and/or thinking of using social networks is important as it allows you to better understand how to focus time and resources. This will lead to developing better social-based learning tools for chronic disease patients.

2) Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, Bebo…Where do you start?

The social media landscape at first glance is daunting. However, it is important to note that you can accomplish most of your education goals on a few well-known sites. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and MySpace offer the simplest and largest potential population of individuals within their networks. Furthermore, Twitter widgets can easily be inserted into your Facebook and MySpace page allowing you to effectively and efficiently manage your posts and learning materials across multiple platforms. Facebook was the first social network that allowed users to insert third party applications into their page and has a clear advantage in the choice of functionality. Facebook apps may well be the most appealing section of the web site as disease educators can add quizzes, disease information news feeds, support tags and more. Providing information rich and interactive resources to chronic patients with minimal effort is simply too good an opportunity to pass up. Facebook maintains a complete list of all apps at http://www.facebook.com/apps/directory.php.

As you begin to bring more and more social networks into your domain there are great resources to help you manage all your accounts seamlessly. You may want to consider signing up on all the major social networking properties from the start even if you don’t plan on using them for a while. This allows you to protect your name or brand and reserves it once you are ready to begin.

Disease Education Meets Social Networking: The "How To" Series

2010-08-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

Disease management and patient education is largely dominated by a traditional pedagogy. Most educators are involved in traditional forms of patient outreach and education that are both labor and resource intensive. Often times, innovations in disease education are exclusive and/or require resources, which are simply not available for educators who need to compel patients to make the necessary lifestyle changes now. Disruptive social networking and disease management technologies, however, have the ability to change this. The expansion of social networking across all demographics provides an opportunity for truly innovative learning and communication between educators and their students. By making quality interactions and information sharing accessible and efficient, social networking technologies can expand outreach, provide support and promote healthier lifestyles.

How to effectively integrate social networking into your health education program, can at times seem like a daunting task. For many, the concerns of loosing control over the narrative, patient privacy and the unknown out weigh any potential gains. That is why we will post series of blogs over the next week specifically dealing with ideas and best practices when integrating social media into your disease education and management programs.

10.1.10 A New Standard in Disease Management

2010-07-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Click Here for the Video (YouTube)

Our 10.1.2010, the launch of the VirtualHealthCheck.com and MyVirtualHealthCheck.com chronic disease management platforms will set a new standard in "between visit care." The strength of the VirtualHealthCheck.com system is our comprehensive approach designed to lower medical costs among chronic disease patients. We accomplish this by creating an environment that finally make true integrated care possible.

"Invest less money in high-end, complex technologies and more in technologies that simplify complex problems."

2010-05-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

FROM: Will Disruptive Innovations Cure Health Care?
Harvard Business Review

" History tells us that major new growth markets coalesce when products, processes, and information technologies let less highly paid groups of people do things in more convenient settings. To truly disrupt the health care system, venture capital, entrepreneurial energy, and technology development need to flow toward these enabling initiatives. Rather than focus on complex solutions for complex problems, research and development need to focus on simplification."

Read The Article Here

by Clayton M. Christensen, Richard Bohmer, and John Kenagy

“Stay in Touch” With Between Visit Management

2010-05-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

Our Focus is chronic care and we believe the “Stay in Touch” program is a breakthrough in chronic care treatment. “Between Visit Management” with improved patient/physician interactions will improve outcomes and reduce health care costs. more

With the VirtualHealthCheck.com commitment to connecting a variety of devices to our SaaS chronic disease management platform, real disease management can be achieved. We support this process with redundant wellness contact centers where trained healthcare specialists follow-up with patients, target potential issues and improve patient outcomes.

Today, the physician has little impact over the disease management plan. For many reasons, including reimbursement, the physician is not actively involved in disease management. By providing physician the power to quickly create patient protocols and wellness center scripting, as well as having access to all interview recordings and vital reporting, the physician is at the center of the patients disease management with real-time visibility. Furthermore, our platform allows physicians to request the contact center immediately intervene with a patient by conducting interviews, providing disease information and access to social services.

Effective disease management also requires patient behavior modification. The challenge of compelling chronic disease patients to change a lifestyle is daunting. Only by setting an aggressive integrated approach can really patient behaviors be changed. Routine patient contact where relationships develop over time supported by a resource packed patient wellness portal will allow for lifestyle change.

The New Chronic Care Model

2010-03-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

In all the discussion regarding new models designed to increase patient care and reduce costs, we are ignoring a fundamental patient frustration. With the introduction of managed care, personal care was sacrificed due to the infrequency of patient communication outside of the appointment. The speed of the medical assembly line was increased and care providers spend less and less time with patients. With daily case loads and appointments increasing, providers have no opportunity or resources to follow-up with patients in the same manner as was standard practice prior to the 1990s. This decreased communication with health care providers has had a profound effect on the outcome of patients, especially chronic care patients. For instance, a diabetic patient, for example, may not fully understand the care plan outlined by the care provider, which may lead to frustration and non-compliance. The doctor may say, “It’s important that you lose weight”. The patient nods in agreement and leaves the office with a diet, but does nothing to affect lifestyle change.

We believe closer patient communication is vital to improving outcomes. Changing behavior begins with communication. That communication begins with listening to the patient and understanding the obstacles standing in the way of care plan compliance. The problem is that we aren’t going back to the “good old days”.

There are a number of requirements for the new model:

First, it must be an extension of the doctor’s practice. That is, patients must perceive this as outreach from the doctor’s office.

Second, the communication must be a process. It must be a routine where patients participate.

Third, the information must get back to the doctor and be included with the patient record

Fourth, there must be a way to flag a record when a patient symptom that warrants attention is discovered, so the doctor can intervene.

Virtual Health Check is testing this model in a group of roughly 1,000 Hispanic, diabetic patients at Su Clinica Familiar in South Texas. Patients are being enrolled in a program of routine telephone contacts that measures vitals, tests for compliance and works with patients to resolve any issues with their plan. All the patient information is uploaded to a Web application for physician review. The goal is to develop a more compliant and prepared patient for the doctor at the next appointment. By making the process more efficient and the patient more compliant, we hope to reduce HbA1c levels and costly medical emergency admissions.

See our World Healthcare Conference Poster here

Disease Management Programs Are Not Created Equal

2010-03-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

It is a fact that chronic disease care accounts for the majority of health care spending. In the face of medical cost skyrocketing for providers and patients alike, chronic disease management programs are often seen as a cost savings approach. However, it is important to understand that all disease management programs are not created equal. As the Congressional Budget Office stated in a 2004 study when it found 'insufficient evidence to conclude that disease management programs can generally reduce overall health spending,” and “limited evidence supporting improve patient care.” Poorly designed programs lacking physician control and integration throughout the healthcare system are destined to fail.

To significantly reduce costs within the healthcare system it is important to target chronic disease populations where in-home vital monitoring systems provide real-time data to a physician controlled, integrated disease management platform. If the goal is to keep people out of the hospital where costs escalate rapidly, preventing the behaviors that cause repeat hospitalizations is key. Only a fully integrated healthcare approach with a foundation in improved patient communication will really help prevent and address lifestyle issues before they result in a trip to the hospital.

Consumer Centered EHR New Attempts to Spur Innovation

2010-03-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

In an effort to create innnovation in Patient Health Records (PHR) Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) will play a key role in a program to help consumers use information technology to navigate the health care system. Learn More

Chronic diseases account for 75% of healthcare spending and better cost estimates are needed

2010-03-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

This paper by Michael J. O'Grady, Ph.D. and James C. Capretta, M.A. helps explain the relationship between current chronic disease spending and projected healthcare costs. Projected costs are particularly important for major healthcare programs such as Medicare and a honest assessment of healthcare costs is essential during the current national debate. O'Grady and Capretta also provide enhancements to existing models providing better insight into this crucial problem. Learn More