Museums Inspire Good Thoughts

Yes, museums can do more than entertain, inform, and radiate brilliance. They can help us to reach a better state of mind.

Let’s see how.

Consider this story from TrendWatching:

“The Montreal Museum of Fine Art (MMFA) partnered with the Médecins francophones du Canada doctors’ organization to let doctors write prescriptions for museum visits. Medical professionals can write a maximum of 50 prescriptions. They will grant each patient an admission-free trip to the museum. The doctors involved cited the ability of art to improve mood, help patients take a respite from serious illnesses, and more – all, of course, with zero-side effects.”

“This program brings new meaning to ’art therapy’! It also shows how the pursuit of health and wellbeing is increasingly breaking free from traditional channels and formats: from cardio-meets-CPR fitness classes in Thailand to STI testing at music festivals in New Zealand to Costa’s low-budget loneliness-fighting coffee tables.” 

“The benefits of consuming art aren’t the most immediate or tangible. New audiences may be skeptical or resistant. By partnering with doctors, the MMFA benefits from a trusted and credible voice. And with the prescriptions making visits free, patients have no reason not to go!”

Click the image to read more from MMFA.

Museums Inspire Good Thoughts
 

AI Aids Drug Operations

We know that technology has had a tremendous on the medical field. And artificial intelligence (AI) is coming on strong. Today, we look at how AI aids drug operations.

As William Soliman, President, Accreditation Council for Medical Affairs, notes: 

“Recently, two AI drug design companies, Insilico Medicine and A2A Pharmaceuticals joined forces to bring to market a possible treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other rare orphan diseases. Using AI to more rapidly discover optimal pre-clinical candidates may revolutionize the drug development process in the life sciences.”

“What AI can bring to the table is the ability to rapidly and accurately sort through massive amounts of data. This may very well revolutionize how competitive intelligence, drug discovery and stakeholder engagement take place as we know it. Among many functions that medical affairs is tasked with, an important one is stakeholder engagement with External Experts (EE) (formerly known as KOLs or Key Opinion Leaders). For Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs), who are the primary function engaging external stakeholders, there will likely be several changes.”

Click the image to read a lot more.

AI Aids Drug Operations
Medical Affairs and Artificial Intelligence in the Life Sciences

 

Primary Care Physician Usage

Do we visit our primary care physician (or other physicians) often enough? Or do we tend to let things slide? In particular, millennials may be very picky.

Recently, a Business Intelligence E-mail newsletter dealt with this topic.  [Note: The link requires a paid subscription]

“Forty-five percent of millennials don’t have a primary care physician. And that’s largely due to providers’ failure to create a consumer-oriented healthcare experience. Millennials’ avoidance of primary care is representative of the generation’s preference for a more retail-like healthcare service that emphasizes speed and personalization, which is threatening providers’ bottom lines.”

“Here are some other key points from our study: Providers’ inability to offer a consumer-oriented healthcare experience drives millennials to more convenient services.  Thirty percent of millennials have used a walk-in clinic, versus 18% of Gen Xers and 14% of baby boomers. 
But most providers don’t deliver on these expectations. For example, the average wait time to schedule a new physician appointment was 24 days in large US cities in 2017, up from 18.5 days in 2014. Unsatisfied millennials will not be loyal their healthcare providers. Ninety-two percent of them say they’d switch providers ‘without hesitation’ if they weren’t satisfied with the level of care they were receiving.’

 
Primary Care Physician Usage
 

Radio Interview About My Cancer Journey

Last week, I did a radio interview about the purpose of my new book Surviving Cancer and Embracing Life: My Personal Journey.

 As with the book, the interview is uplifting and describes how I have gotten through my time with pancreatic cancer. The book is free by clicking here. 

You may access the full interview by clicking below. [Note: In the near future, I will be dividing the interview into much smaller clips. :-)]

 

Health Care and Rideshare Services

Will Uber Health and Lyft Concierge succeed among those going to medical providers?

In physically reaching our medical professionals, new options are emerging. And they will give us all more choices and better convenience.

As  Christine Diani reports for FreshMR:

“This year Uber and Lyft formally entered the healthcare market to offer rideshare services to nonemergency patients for transportation to scheduled doctor appointments. Patient no-shows are a prevalent problem in the U.S., with an estimated 3.6 million Americans reportedly missing their scheduled doctor appointments due to transportation issues each year. Rideshare services may particularly benefit older Americans, Medicaid patients, and those with chronic diseases to help keep appointments and get care. Uber and Lyft have identified a wide-open opportunity that could significantly improve their business and simultaneously reduce healthcare costs and improve quality care.”

“Uber Health is partnering with healthcare organizations to provide transportation services for patients. Providers access the Uber Health dashboard to order and schedule rideshare services. And patients can use the services even if they don’t have access to a smartphone or Uber app. The healthcare providers can manage the ride scheduling and billing through Uber’s dashboard.”

“Lyft followed suit by offering a healthcare rideshare platform called Lyft Concierge. Lyft partners with Allscripts, the largest electronic health systems provider, to request Lyft rides for patients directly through an integrated platform. Lyft recently expanded its reach by partnering with Formativ Health to provide nonemergency rides for patients.”

However, as this chart shows, Uber and Lyft still have a long way go to win over patients.

Health Care and Ride Share Services

Best Practices to Improve Reporting of Patient Safety Concerns

University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins Medicine looked at what prevented employees from raising patient safety concerns.

Too often, patient safety concerns about their care in medical facilities has gone unreported or under-reported. In response, there is new research about how to fix this.

As Johns Hopkins reports:

“In a case study published online last week in Academic Medicine, an international team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins Medicine looked at what prevented employees from raising concerns. The study identifies measures to help health care organizations encourage their employees to speak up and recommends a systematic approach to promoting employee voice that appears to have already made a positive impact at Johns Hopkins.”

“It’s not enough just to say you’re committed to employee voice. Health care staff must genuinely feel comfortable speaking up if organizations are going to provide safe, high-quality care,” says Mary Dixon-Woods, D.Phil., M.Sc., a professor at the University of Cambridge, director of THIS Institute (The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute) and the study’s lead author. “Even when reporting mechanisms are in place, employees may not report disruptive behaviors if they don’t feel safe in doing so and don’t think their concerns will be addressed.”

“Because health-care workers often are reluctant to raise concerns about co-workers and unsafe behaviors, leadership at Johns Hopkins Medicine sought to encourage employee voice in the organization by first identifying barriers. To address the issues raised in these interviews, Johns Hopkins leaders developed, implemented, and in some cases expanded a series of interventions from fall 2014 through summer 2016. These interventions included clear definitions of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, well-coordinated reporting mechanisms, leadership training on having difficult conversations, and consistent consequences for disruptive behaviors.”

 

Click the image to read more.
Best Practices to Improve Reporting of Patient Concerns
Credit: iStock