A Roundup of 2015 Technology Predictions

JANUARY 18, 2015 | BY CHARLES MCLELLAN

The four horsemen of the digital business apocalypse -- Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud (SMAC) -- have been galloping around for several years, and many companies have now launched with or transformed existing business models.

Health care, providers and hospitals have in large part developed internet presence on the web, in social media, analytics and cloud (SMAC).

 At shows like the recent CES in Las Vegas, there was much talk of the Internet of Things (IoT) -- particularly wearables, connected homes and connected cars -- as well as 3D printing, robots (including drones) and virtual/augmented reality. Are these and other new technologies about to make their way into business? And what changes are afoot in the sector?

And there is no paucity of 'futurists', predicting their own version of transformation.  Will  reality follow fantasy ? Dreams are made of fantasies.

Midnite Madness

I woke at 2 AM earlier today with a panicky feeling about what I may have been missing in Internet explorer and/or Firefox.  Spent that past two days recovering and installing a Vista 32 program on my vintageToshiba Satellite A215 laptop.  My son said the laptop was ‘dead’.  I found an excellent and cheap aftermarket multi-purpose power brick and adapters to fit almost any portable device ($ 9.00 on Amazon  Also went online to Toshiba to order a ‘recovery disk  ($29.95)  Fired it up...all went well.  Runs pretty fast, although it became very hot and shut down. Investigation revealed the cooling fan was not spinning. The problem was dirt in the heat dissipation sink  and stuck fan bearing fr om dried out lubricant.  I was happy to not have to tear the laptop down to replace the fan needlessly.

Back to my anxiety of last night.  For the first time in many years I used a non Chrome browser. I tried Internet Explorer (ver 7.0) first, then Firefox.  ehh !?  Neither of them ran well.  Much of the problem I believe is that the newer programs and add ons are not very backward compatible with Vista 32. and a great many add ons, plug ins would not run or appear at all. Back to Chrome….

Other than the lag in the cloud at times, the “snap” crashes  it serves my purposes well.  For those of you who have sworn off IE or Firefox I agree.  My  assessment is definitely biased because I am using such an older version of Windows.  I noted that the boot times for Vista seemed to be much quicker on this old laptop with the clean install.

Next step is to replace the HDD with an SSD. After using my chrome book now for several years, the Toshiba feels very very heavy...portable comptuer...my ass...it is all relative.

Chrome however will not run several web conferencing tools, nor zoom.info.

When I tire of this activity I will buy a new iMAC 5 K.  

I can now sleep better knowing what the ‘new Windows and Firefox look like.  Vista 32 would not allow me to upgrade  IE past ver 7.0 . either.  It is 6 AM, and time to start the day….I am going back to sleep. The sun is rising in the east, and the owls are hooting.

Our backyard alarm clock

Riverside CA looking North 7A.M.

EHR adoption rises Meaningful Use Declines

Continued growth of physician office EHR use

Whatever the reasons behind these responses from SERMO members, physician office EHR adoption is on the rise. An ongoing study by SK&A indicates a ten-percent increase in physician office adoption of EHR technology between 2013 and 2014. What’s more, it provides a breakdown of the top-five EHR vendors nationally and regionally.

At the national level, Epic Systems controls 30 percent of the market followed by eClinicialWorks (22%), Allscripts (19%), Practice Fusion (16%), and NextGen Healthcare (13%).

The regional differences are quite small

A closer look by region shows a close competition between Epic Systems and eClinicalWorks for EHR selection by physician offices.

The former dominates the West, Midwest, and East regions of the United States. The latter holds sway in the South and New England regions. Here’s a region-by-region breakdown:

Interestingly, where neither is first both companies drop to the third or fourth spots. Considering that both companies specialize in working with health systems and hospitals, their domination of various markets may indicate the ownership of physician practices and use of that health system’s or hospital’s EHR technology.

Despite the increased implementation and use of EHR technology by physician offices, their physicians have a ways to go in order to keep pace with the evolution of the EHR Incentive Programs.

Tagged EHR Adoption, Meaningful Use, Medicare Payment Adjustments, Physician EHR Adoption, Physician EHR Use, Stage 2 Meaningful Use

Related Resources:

• Making the Most of Meaningful Use: Why Choosing the Right EHR Matters
• Tips to a Successful Approach to EHR Implementation
• EHR Replacement Guide: Best Practices
• Webcast: Boost Your Bottom Line
• Stage 2 Meaningful Use: Best Practices for Providers Webcast

Spectrum Health shuts down, reabsorbs digital health startup Ideomed

mHealth developers face several challenges for users and developers.

Interest in these applications is weak. Statistics reveal that 60% of the population have downloaded at least one mobile health application.  How long and how often they access the program is another story.

Whle the consumer market is potentially infinite, in real life things are quite different. Most of these apps are available free of charge or for a small fee. A few have monthly or annual  fees.

The Chrome store and iTunes (iOS) provide easy access to purchasing mHealth applications for desktops and also tablets.

Business sustainability is an issue in terms of acquisition and/or usage. Developers face ongoing expense in software applicaions with upgrades, new versions and staying current with preferred practice patterns for monitoring metrics such as weight, BMI, blood pressure,pulse rate and for monitoring blood chemistries as the technology advances.




Wearable devices are becoming more commonplace  and recent sensory and biochemical markets can be measured with these devices using non invasive skin sensors. The future for wearable sensors may also be combined with embeddable chips accessed by RFID devices, much like personal ID used for animals and  people. Technology also exists that precludes wearing an external device constantly Acquisition is possible just by walking near an RFID antenna embedded in the wall of a home or office. The potential uses are enormous, not just for measuring metrics, and also reminders for appointments, prescripton renewals.

The promises of nano-technology have already contributed to the development of drug delivery systems capable of going where 'no drug  has gone before'.

Spectrum Health faced these challenges of sustainability with their subsidiary Ideomed, a mobile health application. Their decision was to discontinue their mobile health applications associated with their health plan.