February, 2014 | Distance Learning Systems (DLSI)

Start-Ups Changing the Healthcare Industry

Few sectors stand to gain more from recent enhancements in technological innovation (and certain federal legislation) than healthcare. In 2014 and beyond, consumers will finally start to benefit from some of the enhancements that have been changing over the last year, from 3D prosthetics to cutting-edge DNA testing. Here are some stats: Family care providers offer 83 percent of senior care in the U.S. each year and these family care providers spend about $5,000 and devote 1,000 hours to offer proper care to their families. If care provider mistakes were reduced, which could potentially reduce Medicare expenses, then $60 billion dollars in avoidable healthcare expenses could be removed.

A portion of the Affordable Care Act makes it a requirement that healthcare providers switch to electronic medical records, so there have been several start-ups offering services in that world, including Practice Fusion and CareCloud. The appearance of 3D-printed prosthetics symbolizes a major landmark in not just the performance and appearance of artificial limbs, but also the availability of them. Over the last season, a number of powerful applications of big information approaches to healthcare problems have appeared as appealing solutions. Start-ups are using quantified self information to fix infertility (Glow), running big information analysis on differential diagnoses for cancer treatments (HC Pathways) and applying ad tech techniques to find connections in disease treatment (Flatiron Health).

The Supreme Court decided against the patent-ability of naturally sourced human genes this previous June. This previously meant that companies were able to patent a particular gene series that associated to a particular hazard to wellness or drug sensitivity. Not amazingly, the patent certification was expensive for research and avoided bringing DNA testing to the public. The use of technological innovation to build better relationships, improve communication and identify early depending on EMR-integrated provider-patient programs captivates healthcare traders. Although the quantified self gets lots of attention, large sections of our population are not as tech-savvy and technological innovation needs to have concrete and immediate benefits for high adoption. The second trend is compliance-based technological innovation that allows patients to stay in therapy, receive consistent reviews and rely on a support network.

Respiratory Therapist Access Act

This season, the AARC will begin lobbying in earnest for House Resolution 2619; the Medicare policy coverage Respiratory Therapist Accessibility Act, known as HR 2619. It is a part of a long-term way to enhance the life of respiratory practitioners on Capitol Hill and in a healthcare center, DME, or physician’s workplace near you. One of the misconceptions that people have and I think many CRTs have is that the AARC is working extra time to force us out of the field of respiratory treatment. Not real. The AARC has gone to extreme conditions not only to secure the CRTs, but to allow them to continue working. What, then, is the bill about? It’s about predicting respiratory treatment in the same light other professions in the healthcare center are projected, such as radiology, physical therapy, work-related treatment, and others.

So here’s a wake-up call for every certified respiratory therapist working; the AARC is not the end of your profession. Unfortunately, only a little over a third of us working in respiratory treatment are associates of the only professional team that is lobbying for us, and may understand HR 2619 as a risk to their jobs. Again, this is not true. HR 2619 seeks to get recognition for the exclusive and specific work respiratory therapists do, both in and out of the healthcare center. It is true that unless you keep the RRT certification and a bachelor’s degree in a healthcare self-discipline that there could be some projects that you cannot execute, particularly outside of the healthcare center and get paid for. You can still do the work; you and your company just may not be refunded all you could be with the CRT certification in contrast to the registered respiratory therapist.

You have to comprehend a little about state policies. Any MBA will tell you that political figures and organizations in general worry about three things: how to reduce costs, how to increase sales, and how to pay for your new idea. Researches are ongoing to figure out a price advantage for having those with advanced qualifications and advanced degrees offer some and the key phrase is “some,” health care. This in no way has an impact on the CRT doing his or her work in the healthcare center, rehabilitation service, DME, or other places. Even those employed by doctors in the workplace will not be put out of a job depending on this regulation, though the doctor may choose to find a registered respiratory therapist to increase their capability to get compensated by Insurance policy coverage. That is an employer choice and not a ramification of HR 2619. Other insurance companies, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, etc, will likely adhere to the paths of Insurance policy coverage, as they always have.

What Senior Care can Bring to the Table

Perhaps you cannot think about the situation, but for a short time, just close your eyes and think about what it could be like to be looking after your partner, an individual whom you’ve spent almost all your life with and looking after his or her needs because their health is starting to decline. Over time, the psychological and physical exertion for this act of love can affect even the best of us. If your parent or guardian is offering senior care to their partner, know that it could be more than they can handle.

But when your dad, for example, had a stroke or cardiac arrest and the physicians informed your mom that he was going to need extra help getting around the house and looking after his own well being, she said that she would deal with him. Maybe she considers that it’s her responsibility, or she loves him so much that she would not even think twice about being the individual to provide that stage of proper care for him.

And while you may think that she has everything under control, that she is doing well, the psychological cost can be even greater than the actual one. Dealing with being a senior care service agency to a partner is one of those things that are often an unmentioned pressure. She will not say that it’s wearing her down and she will continue to do what she can to make sure that her spouse, the love of her life, has what he needs and that he is safe and healthy.

However, what happens if that degree of care means that her wellness is affected as well? The best thing that anyone can do when their partner needs some form of senior medical care services is to consider choosing a professional care company to assist. This does not mean that your mom would not be there for your dad, but rather that she will get some much needed help so that she can be there for him psychologically as well. Senior care can create all the distinction in the world for a partner who is looking after the love of their life.

All About CLEP

The acronym of College Level Examination Program, CLEP is really a set of examinations provided by the College Board, a not-for-profit examination board in the United States, established in the nineteenth-century. The College Board controls conventional assessments, such as the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, CLEP, ACCUPLACER, and Advanced Placement assessments and the subject-specific SAT Subject Tests. CLEP provides the opportunities to the learners of any age to show their college-level success through a sequence of assessments. There are about 2,900 universities that allow university loans and/or advanced degree status for CLEP assessments or exams; a credit is a system that provides weighting towards the price, degree or time specifications of an academic course.

The CLEP assessments facilitate the US learners in high schools or universities and colleges to generate credits for the effective completion of each class for each academic period. The state or the company in most cases, places a minimum of credits required to graduate college. The CLEP assessments are usually 90 minutes long and currently cost $60 each.

These assessments are organized at examining facilities on university and college campuses, as well as military installations; the facilities impose an administrative or signing up fee per college student or per test, which might range from $5 – $60. The CLEP assessments are free to military service people. The Military Services whose members are eligible for a CLEP tests consist of Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Navy Reserve, Coast Guard Reserve, Military and Air National Guard. The CLEP assessments are on a range from 20 – 80 multiple-choice assessments that provide outcomes. The credit for a grade of 5 – 0 or greater is given by almost all educational institutions, but driving ratings differ from university to university.

RN Classes and Continuing Your Education

Continuing RN education web based programs are available to nursing staff that need to sustain their professional status and credentials. There are many different continuing programs on the internet RN classes that are available to current RNs. There are some common misunderstandings when it comes to continuing education for RNs. These two terms are CEU and CE.

CEU, literally translated, stands for continuing education unit. CE, on the other hand, represents contact hours. Authorized nursing staff are required to take continuing education and these programs can either be completed on the internet or in person through live lessons for contact hours. A CEU is usually similar to 10 contact hours (or a CE). Make sure that you, as a nurse, check with the accrediting body or company before you sign up for your continuing education on the internet RN programs. This will put your mind at ease and allow you to enjoy your convenient RN classes in the comfort of your own home and in your own spare time.

Be sure you completely understand the difference between CEUs and CEs. You want to ensure you meet the necessary credentials so that you can continue on with your profession as an RN. Do not allow yourself to get puzzled on what you need to do to move full steam ahead with your profession. If you feel concerned, you can always get in touch with the exclusive school or company that is providing the continuing education on the internet RN programs and/or the controlling body for your registered nursing credentials. When you know all that you can about the potential continuing education on the internet RN course and then you can be on your way towards an interesting academic internet experience on which you maintain your professional nurse status!

National League for Nursing Accelerating to Practice

The National League for Nursing (NLN) declared the release of an important effort of the NLN Center for Academic and Clinical Transitions. The center is reinforced by grants from Laerdal Medical, the innovator in healthcare education and learning equipment, and Wolters Kluwer Health, publishers of Lippincott nursing content. This unique collaboration of not-for-profit and private businesses will create collaborative programs to better prepare nursing staff for the progressively complex requirements of nursing practice.

“The requirements placed on modern practicing nursing staff are accelerating, with more sick sufferers, more complex treatments and digital medical records all including new levels of complexity to basic nursing proper care,” said Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, CEO of the NLN. “This center will build a link between those providing nursing education and learning and those guiding nursing staff in practice. Together, we can create the solutions and resources modern learners need to succeed in this challenging field.” National League for Nursing President Judith Halstead, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF declared that the NLN Center’s first program, Accelerating to Practice, will focus on building relationships to enhance the conversion of new nursing staff from education and learning to practice.

A team of major health professional teachers and medical center nursing directors will draw on active research to determine the specific capabilities that new nursing staff need to ensure job success. Then, together with Laerdal Medical and Wolters Kluwer Health, the National League for Nursing will create an Accelerating to Practice system programs and material, which will be available for adopting and execution by 2015. Wolters Kluwer Health and Laerdal Medical have previously joined on items that incorporate digital health records learning resources with individual cases and manikin simulator, helping learners master the skills of patient history presentation, individual care and follow up certification. The incorporated items link to Lippincott books, referrals and e-Learning material, to enhance clinical knowledge and verdict and create interesting student experiences.

The Accelerating to Practice working group includes experts from many of the country’s major nursing educational institutions, academic health techniques and community health techniques. Founded in 1893, the NLN offers staff development programs, social media opportunities, examining services, nursing research grants and public policy projects to its 38,000 members and 1,200 institutional members across the variety of nursing education and learning.

New Developments in Distance Education

The U. S. army has been at the leading edge of new improvements in distance education and is one of its biggest users throughout the world. In the 70’s, the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) use of correspondence education and studying had improved to a point that it was working one of the biggest U. S. post offices in Fort Eustis, Virginia to keep up with the requirement globally. These days, The Army Correspondence Course Program (ACCP) is approved by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) and is accountable for the official nonresident expansion curricula of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command.

In the last two years, all branches of the military have intensely implemented the use of telecom satellite and the internet to provide various kinds of training and education and studying via video conferencing and web-based applications. In inclusion, the Distance Education Program (DEP) at the US Military War College provides an extensive program of training that result in the award of the Graduation Certificate as well as the Master of Strategic Study degree. The DEP is approved by the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a program for joint education and studying, Phase I Senior Level (JPME I). The Distance Education Program needs 15 hours of study weekly that is provided via the internet.

The College of Distance Education (CDE) is the academic outreach program of the Naval War College. It provides executive-level education and studying to officers of the various military services and to senior workers of the Department of Defense and other Government departments. Three distribution techniques widely-used to by the College: faculty-led night workshops, a web-enabled program, and a CD-ROM centered correspondence program. These programs mirror, to a degree, this method of research provided to resident learners at the College’s Newport campus. The Air Force Institute for Advanced Distributed Learning (AFIADL) was recognized in 2000 “to display identification of the significance of online and advanced distributed education” according to Kim Bowling, then the Colonel of USAF and Commander of AFIADL.

Mathematics is Fun

We are all conscious of the inadequate condition of our mathematics education and studying to accomplish a sufficient level of grades in math in our primary education and studying program and the effects that this has on our community, e.g. not enough engineers, who need an advanced stage of mathematics, are being qualified. There are many factors for this circumstance.

While we know that there are many factors for this, it is crucial that we need to instill interest and passion for mathematics among all the stakeholders engaged with education and studying, such as the parents. This could be a massive process, but it is one that must be performed.

Mathematics is one of the only places of information that can logically be described as “true,” because its theorems are a result of genuine reasoning. Compared with, say chemistry and physics, where there can be discussion or debate about trial outcomes or concepts, mathematics always symbolizes the truth: 7+5 will always equal 12, it cannot be anything else. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying: “Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poems of sensible concepts.” To some specialized mathematicians, “math is like love, a simple concept, but it can get complex.” The biggest time in the life of a math wizard is when after he has shown the result, but before he discovers the error. This does not matter; the excitements of getting the outcomes exceeds the frustration of discovering the error and, in any situation, spurs him on to recalculate and again experience the high of a new outcome. Charles Darwin, however, had a rather depressing perspective of mathematics: “: “A math wizard is a sightless man in a black space looking for a black cat which isn’t there.”

Hospice Care Experience

The stained-glass wall in the church of the Community Hospice House represents a menagerie of animals quietly experiencing the woodlands, water and air. It’s a field full of life. And life is the focus in this place where individuals come to die. Dee Pringle’s spouse, Gene, spent his last two weeks of life here four years ago. Her spouse had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and was getting treatment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Dee, a retired instructor who lives in Amherst, was looking after him in their house. “And I was excellent,” she said. “I was really excellent.”

But as Gene’s illness developed, his physicians suggested hospice care. For three months, hospice nursing staff offered support and proper care to Gene at home. Then they suggested a move to the 10-bed hospice house run by Home Health & Hospice Care, a charitable organization in Merrimack. And just like that, the pressure of medical care moved to the professionals, Pringle said. “My part was just to be with him.” She calls it “magical.””Those last few days that are valuable, the medical parts are being taken care of and you don’t even have to think about that because the qualified individuals have taken over.” It was also a great comfort to her spouse, she said. “He could rest. “Pringle can’t say enough about the services offered at the property, from food supervisors who serve residents’ wants and needs, to visits from musicians, therapy dogs and Reiki massage treatment practitioners.

She still gets together with members of a bereavement support team she met after her spouse’s death and visits some of the per month academic programs the organization offers. Her son, Frank, said having the professional employees at the hospice house take over the medical care of his dad in his last days was a convenience to the entire family. Home Health & Hospice Care has its origins in a women’s organization that took care of sick employees and their children in Nashua in the late Nineteenth century. The Good Cheer Society became one of the first viewing health professional organizations in the country.

Combining Medicine and Humanities

You do not have to be a biology major to be a physician. Specializing in the humanities and being pre-med can be both possible and achievable. To help learners in those areas, Wake Forest has lately released the Interdisciplinary Humanities Pathway to Medicine program or IHPM that allows learners who major in the humanities guaranteed admittance to Wake Forest University of Medicine upon completing this program. Applications must involve two faculty recommendation letters and an article. A maximum of five learners will be approved by IHPM for this program at the end of their sophomore year.

The guiding committee for this program includes director of the Wake Forest students and put in interdisciplinary humanities Tom Phillips, director of the Wake Forest humanities institute Mary Foskett, director of the health professions program Pat Lord from the Reynolda Campus and Sean Ervin, Gail Cohen and David Grier (associate dean of admission) of Wake Forest University of Medicine. “The program appeared from a year-long interdisciplinary discussion that started among WFU staff and directors in the college and at the School of Medicine,” said Foskett. Medical school admissions are certainly aggressive. Wake Forest Medical School generally gets over 8,000 programs per cycle for 120 available seats. However, there is an increasing interest in expanding the higher education student body.

“When I look at somebody, I think, ‘are they going to bring something into the class that is different?’” said Grier. “With this program, you definitely bring something different into the class. This program will promote a different type of variety in instructors we do not usually get.” While humanities learners add an exclusive viewpoint to medicine, staff stress that IHPM is not the only road to an effective medical profession. “It should be highlighted that our program is one road to medicine. We’re not saying that it’s the best road,” said Foskett. The current field of medicine, however, identifies the significance of the holistic approach. “We want to move away from the mechanistic way of considering medicine,” said Ervin. “We’ve kind of lost touch with this other way of considering the person.” Faculty also highlight that this program is a mutual connection between the college student and the medical school. Thus, while the medical school will guarantee approval, there is a firm dedication expected from the student.