By now, you’ve got a solid understanding of a health IT entrepreneur’s strategic business need to stay abreast of health data regulations as they’re developed. If you understand the connection between regulatory alignment and business growth but are wondering “When should I engage in reviewing, responding to, and influencing regulations?
So you’re all about creating the best IT-based solution to disrupt healthcare. Whether you’re a entrepreneur with a brilliant idea or a programmer bringing an idea to life, the success of your efforts will have to be aligned with the regulatory landscape of health IT legislation and regulation– and most companies need help sooner than they think.
This is a big week for those who care (or should care!) about health data tech regulation. The day before the biggest health IT conference of the year, HIMSS, the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) dropped two highly anticipated draft rules—one outlining the seven exceptions to information blocking (i.e. when does not sharing data not count as information blocking) and the other requiring health plans to release Medicare and Medicaid claims data through openly published Health Level Seven (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®)–based Application Programing Interfaces (APIs).
So you want to build the next best app-based telehealth solution? Great, the world needs you! But working through Washington DC’s never-ending lists of legislation and regulations to identify which will maximize return on your efforts is like unlocking a code. Incorporating national and state regulatory requirements into your prototype design can be the linchpin to the successful expansion of your company. Lucky for you, we’ve got the key!
If you haven’t yet read part one, we encourage you to go back and read about some of the reasons telehealth makes sense not only today, but for the future of healthcare. Today we want to address some practical components necessary for any health data technology to have viability, longevity, and scalability in the future landscape of telemedicine.
You might have heard of telehealth in reference to rural populations, who often must drive hours to the nearest clinic for health care. In fact, until now, telehealth has been practically synonymous with rural health as the modality used by physicians to provide care for distant populations. But it would be a mistake to think that convenience for rural populations is all that telehealth has to offer health care.
Now that we’ve given you a primer on Atul Gawande, we want to dig more into the company he’ll be heading and offer insights on aligning with this upcoming venture. (If you missed our introduction to Atul, we strongly suggest you go back and read why we’re so excited.)
For those who don’t know, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase have come together on a health care venture that has health tech entrepreneurs watching very closely. Part of the interest is, let’s be honest, a result of the sheer capital potentially involved, and part of it is that the details of the project remain largely a mystery.
Cancer is undoubtedly one of today’s deadliest diseases with the American Cancer Society anticipating that over 1.7 million new cases will arise while over 600,000 people will lose their personal battle with the disease just in 2018 alone. The need for patients, providers, and health researchers to be armed with tools that will effectively and optimally fight cancer is more critical than ever. This is where health tech entrepreneurs come in: solutions are needed and you are the ones who can build them.
From the time I peered through the nursery room window watching my mother, a neonatal ICU nurse, take care of premature babies, my life has been devoted to improving health. My journey has taken several forms since then: cardiac nurse, pediatric nurse, medical researcher, federal health grants program founder and director, national health policy wonk, data scientist, research data infrastructure developer, and now, new entrepreneur.
