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New CPT Code for Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine

The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine is still undergoing stage three clinical trials, including clinical trials for its use on children. Therefore, it hasn’t yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for distribution. The Novavax vaccine has thus far shown to be 96% effective against the original strain of COVID-19, 86% effective against the B.1.1.7/501Y.V1 variant of the virus, and 100% effective against severe symptoms of the disease.

What Is the CPT Code for the Novavax Vaccine?

The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine is administered in two doses. The American Medical Association (AMA) has released CPT codes for the vaccine itself as well as codes for the administration of each dose:

Novavax vaccine CPT code: 91304
First dose administration CPT code: 0041A
Second dose administration CPT code: 0042A

The above CPT codes will help physicians to bill for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine once it has been approved for administration by the FDA after it completes its clinical trials.

Contact Us for Help With Your Medical Billing

The Importance of an Online Reputation for Doctors

For better or worse, the internet plays a huge role in every part of our lives. The world of healthcare isn’t an exception. Patients research everything to do with their health online, from symptoms and medications to their doctors. Before visiting a new doctor, potential patients will research their options ahead of time.

Why Is an Online Reputation So Important for Doctors?

a doctor wearing a white lab coat in discussion with a patient

Having an online presence is vital to a doctor’s practice because it’s often how patients find you in the first place. However, just being online isn’t enough. Managing your reputation online is essential to promoting your practice. Patients don’t just look online to see if a doctor has a website. They use the internet to read reviews of prospective doctors and see what other patients thought ahead of time. Up to 84% of patients research medical professionals before they ever set foot in the doctor’s office.

Patients are much more likely to visit a doctor with a good online reputation. On top of that, they’re more likely to spend more money to do so. Doctors with good online reputations may have patients seeking care with them even if they’re out-of-network.

How To Improve Your Reputation Online

The first step in improving your online reputation is to check its current status. You can start by searching for your practice’s name in search engines like Google and Bing. Look to see what sort of links are popping up in the search results. Do they reflect favorably on your practice?

Then, look more closely at review websites, such as ZocDocs, WebMD, Yelp, or Healthgrades to see what patients have been saying about you. You should also check the reviews on Bing and Google.

Ask patients for reviews

You can ask your patients for reviews via email after their visit. This doesn’t hurt your reputation and can result in a lot of positive reviews. However, you should only seek out real reviews. It can be tempting to post fake reviews, but review sites screen for these and will flag your account for having fraudulent reviews, which would negatively impact your reputation even more than a bad review.

Respond to reviews

It’s a good idea to respond to reviews, both positive and negative. You can thank positive reviewers for their feedback. For negative reviews, you can respond as long as you’re careful not to violate the patient’s confidentiality. You should also be courteous and professional. Responding in the right way to a negative review can help to cancel out any negative effects on your online reputation.

How Should You Address Negative Reviews?

You should first try to put yourself into the shoes of the patient that left the negative review. Taking the opportunity to improve your practice and eliminate the source of the negative feedback can help to prevent such reviews in the first place. You can also respond to the negative review by apologizing for the patient’s experience and asking them to contact your practice to address their concerns. You shouldn’t reveal your side of the story in your response because that could violate confidentiality laws.

Set up Google Alerts

You can set up Google to alert you via email whenever your practice or your name is mentioned by someone online. This will help you stay proactive about any changes, good or bad, to your online reputation.

How to Set Up Google Alerts

To create a Google alert, go to https://www.google.com/alerts and enter the name of your practice. Google may offer you suggestions based on your Google account, such as your name or email address. You can set up as many alerts as you like, so you can select your name and also specify your full practice name. You’ll want to make sure you’re signed in to your Google account because that’s the email address Google will use to send the email alerts to you.

Claim your online business listings

When you search for a business by name, Google provides a profile of the business. If the business owner hasn’t claimed the business, Google will draw information about the business from online directories. Claiming your business will allow you to control the information that Google displays about your practice. If your business doesn’t have an automatically-created Google business listing, it’s a good idea to create one so that patients can more easily find you.

How to Claim Your Online Google Business Listing

To claim your practice with Google, log in to your Google account and go to Google My Business at https://www.google.com/business/. Click the Manage Now button and enter the name of your practice. If it’s not already there, Google will prompt you to add your business profile to its listings. If it is, you can search for your practice and then follow Google’s instructions to verify that you are the owner of the business. This is often done by having a postcard sent to your location with a verification code. Then, you can update your business profile to make it easier for patients to find you.

Directories in Which to Claim Your Business

Google isn’t the only online business listing. In fact, because Google gets its information from online directories, it’s a good idea to claim your business in as many places as possible.

The following are online directories of medical professionals and practices:

Every Patient Can Affect Your Reputation

The people leaving reviews about you and your practice online are patients. It’s important to remember that every patient you treat is also a potential reviewer. This means that you’ll need to make sure you’re leaving each patient with the reputation you would like for your practice. If you’d like to be known for your good bedside manner, you’ll need to make sure you have a good bedside manner with every patient. How you treat them during their visit is what they will report online.

Learn more about proper online reputation management by reviewing our list of medical practice directories.

New CPT Code for Eli Lilly’s Antibody Treatment for COVID-19

Illustration of a COVID-19 virus being attacked by antibodies

In November of 2020, the FDA approved Eli Lilly’s antibody treatment for COVID-19. The antibody treatment was designed to treat mild-to-moderate cases of the coronavirus in patients aged 12 or older who were at risk of developing more severe symptoms of COVID-19 or who may have been at risk of needing hospitalization.

As with the COVID-19 vaccine, the costs of the COVID-19 antibody treatment are covered by Medicare for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have released CPT codes for the billing of this treatment.

What Is the Eli Lilly COVID-19 Antibody Treatment?

The Eli Lilly COVID-19 antibody treatment is a monoclonal antibody therapy that involves bamlanivimab and etesevima. It was given emergency authorization by the FDA on November 9 of 2020 as a treatment for patients who tested positive for COVID-19, were 12 years of age or older, and weighed at least 88 pounds. Bamlanivimab and etesevima were authorized by the FDA as a treatment together and bamlanivimab was authorized for use on its own, but etesevima was only ever authorized to treat COVID-19 in conjunction with bamlanivimab.

Two men sitting outside and wearing a mask while socially distancing

The antibody treatment isn’t a cure for COVID-19, but in clinical trials, it was shown to reduce the number of hospitalizations due to the coronavirus in patients at higher risk for progressing more severe symptoms of the virus.

The FDA revoked the treatment’s authorization in April of 2021 due to the rise of COVID-19 variants.

How Can The Antibody Treatment Be Billed?

Just like with the COVID-19 vaccines, the costs of the bamlanivimab and etesevima monoclonal antibody treatments are covered by Medicare during the COVID-19 pandemic. The treatment can be billed by healthcare providers either as a single claim or as a roster bill. The CMS expects that any healthcare providers billing for this treatment provide documentation to show that all guidelines regarding the treatment were followed, including the name of the healthcare professional who ordered the treatment for the patient.

What Are the CPT Codes for the Eli Lilly Antibody Treatment for COVID-19?

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the following CPT codes for billing for the bamlanivimab and etesevima antibody treatment:

Q0245
M0245

Q0245

The CPT code Q0245 has been assigned to the 2100 mg injections of etesevima and bamlanivimab.

M0245

The CPT code M0245 has been assigned to the intravenous infusion and the monitoring of the patient post-administration.

How Virtual Reality Can Help with Medical Training

Doctor in a white lab coat with a stethoscope wearing virtual reality goggles

Virtual reality may play a major role in the future of medicine. In particular, VR may have useful applications in medical training. Some medical schools have already started using virtual reality as part of their training programs.

Training for Developing Medical Skills

Medical student practices surgical skills with virtual reality smart technology

There are many different medical skills that doctors need to have at their disposal. Some of these are, fortunately, rarely needed. However, when they are needed, doctors must be able to perform them quickly and flawlessly.

With virtual reality software, medical students can practice and hone these necessary skills in a much more immersive environment. VR software can better emulate a real-world scenario so they’re better prepared when they do eventually face a situation where those skills are needed. Established doctors can also use VR software to brush up on skills that aren’t used very often.

Surgical Practice and Training

Many medical students don’t get a lot of practice with surgical training until they’re doing a surgical residency. VR software changes that by allowing students to practice surgical skills long before they reach the residency stage. Medical students interested in becoming surgeons can get ahead in surgical practice by using VR software. That also means that they’ll be better prepared for surgical residency and will be much more experienced when it comes time to perform surgery on a patient.

Simulations of Emergency Room Situations

There’s nothing that can prepare a medical student for treating patients in the emergency room except for actually being in the situation. It’s a high-pressure, high-stakes place where medical decisions need to be made quickly. Virtual reality can simulate not only the environment of the emergency room but also the procedures that doctors would need to perform on patients there. Medical students can prepare for work in the emergency room via simulation.

Anatomy Training

In the Middle Ages, medical students learned anatomy primarily from Ancient Greek books and from dissecting animals. In many cases, they didn’t have access to or weren’t allowed to dissect human corpses. Fortunately, human anatomical studies have come a long way since then. Virtual reality can take anatomy training even further by allowing medical students to explore every system in the human body via immersion.

8 Directories to List Your Medical Practice on

doctor wearing a white lab coat using a medical computer touchscreen interface

People are increasingly turning to the Internet to shop around to find the best price and read reviews on everything from restaurants to movies to haircuts. Health care isn’t exempt from this. Before visiting a doctor, people want to know what to expect and online reviews help them do that. People also find doctors in the first place by looking in online directories.

Here are 8 directories that you should list your practice on in order to be more easily found by prospective patients.

1. BetterDoctor

BetterDoctor isn’t an online database where patients search themselves. Instead, BetterDoctor allows doctors to manage their information in one location. That information is then shared with multiple insurance providers. This helps to reduce accidental out-of-network appointments.

2. Cured

Cured stands for Campaign Urging Research for Eosinophilic Disease, but their directory of medical practitioners includes a variety of different areas of specialty, from pediatrics to gastroenterology and immunology. The site also offers fitness, health, and nutrition information to patients.

3. DocSpot

DocSpot is an online directory that takes its doctor profiles from over 600 different sources on the Internet. It’s frequently updated so that patients are accessing the most recent data.

4. Doximity

Doximity is an online network that is driven by doctors. In fact, one in every four doctors has a presence on the site. The website is for doctors to manage their profiles, but there’s a mobile app with search features for patients that allows them to find doctors in their location with the specialty that they need.

5. EZDoctor

EZDoctor is a directory that allows patients to search for doctors by:

Location

City
State
Zip code

Medical specialty
Last name
Appointment availability

EZDoctor also includes reviews from real patients and also compiles reviews from other medical review sites so that patients can read up on prospective doctors before they book an appointment.

6. Google My Business

Google My Business isn’t a medical directory, but it’s incredibly important for getting found on the Internet. When someone searches for your practice’s name, the information Google provides is pulled from Google My Business. Other medical databases may use that data as well. If you create a Google My Business profile, you can claim any information Google already has on your practice and manage your profile.

7. Healthgrades

Healthgrades is an online database of doctors that is very popular with patients. The site has around 30 million visitors every month. Healthgrades pulls its information about the doctors in its database from public registries and then offers a search feature to patients so that they can find a doctor near them that meets their criteria, including location, availability, and insurance.

8. Wellness

Wellness is a popular health website that also includes a directory of medical practitioners. The site takes its information about individual providers from public online sources and then uses its search functionality to connect patients with the right physician.

A doctor wearing a white lab coat using a mobile phone

The benefits of adding your medical practice to online directories

Adding your medical practice to various online directories can offer several benefits, including:

Increased Visibility: Online directories serve as platforms where potential patients search for healthcare providers in their area. By listing your medical practice on these directories, you increase your visibility to patients who are actively seeking healthcare services, potentially leading to more appointments and patient inquiries.
Improved Search Engine Ranking: Many online directories have high domain authority and are frequently indexed by search engines like Google. When your medical practice is listed on these directories, it can improve your pr
Enhanced Online Presence: Having your medical practice listed on multiple online directories helps establish a robust online presence for your practice. This presence reinforces your credibility and legitimacy as a healthcare provider in the eyes of potential patients.
Access to Targeted Audiences: Online directories often categorize healthcare providers based on specialty, location, and other relevant criteria. This allows patients to find providers that meet their specific needs and preferences. By listing your practice on relevant directories, you can target specific patient demographics and attract patients who are most likely to benefit from your services.
Customer Reviews and Ratings: Many online directories allow patients to leave reviews and ratings for healthcare providers. Positive reviews and high ratings can significantly influence prospective patients’ decisions when choosing a healthcare provider. By actively managing your practice’s online reputation on these directories, you can cultivate a positive image and attract more patients.
Cost-Effective Marketing: Listing your medical practice on online directories is often a cost-effective marketing strategy compared to traditional advertising methods. Many directories offer free or low-cost listing options, making it an affordable way to reach a large audience of potential patients.
Local SEO Benefits: Online directories are essential for local search engine optimization (SEO). When patients search for healthcare providers in their area, search engines often prioritize listings from reputable online directories. By optimizing your practice’s listing on these directories with accurate and consistent information, you can improve your local SEO ranking and attract more local patients.

Overall, adding your medical practice to various online directories can help increase visibility, improve search engine ranking, enhance online presence, target specific patient demographics, manage online reputation, and drive patient inquiries—all of which contribute to the growth and success of your practice.

How Doctors Can Market With Google My Business

A web browser zoomed in on a Google My Business account page

The Internet has become a major part of our lives. It’s changed the way we do business. Many people won’t even buy a product or seek out a service (like medical care) without first researching online. Even though doctors’ services are a necessity rather than a commodity, having an Internet presence is still vital to business.

Why Should You Use Google My Business?

At no cost, Google My Business allows you to create and manage an online profile for your medical practice. Google will display this profile as a part of the search results page.

You can use it to not only manage what users see when they search for medical practices in your area, but you can also engage with potential patients whenever they interact with your Business Profile (for example: leaving a review).

Google My Business is an excellent way for doctors to market their practice and medical services to patients online.

But how should doctors market with Google My Business?

Create a Google Business Profile

If you’ve ever googled the name of a business, you’ve most likely already seen a Google Business Profile. Anyone can create a Google Business profile. It’s just like adding a new location to Google Maps. The only information Google needs to create a Business Profile is:

Business name
Business location
Business category

If someone wanted to leave a review about your practice, they may have already created a profile for your business. Google may also have created a profile for your business automatically from an online listing generator.

If your business doesn’t already have a profile, you’ll want to create one, but you can do this as part of creating your Google My Business account.

Create a Google My Business Account

A Google Business profile is only the first step. The profile is just Google’s default profile for your practice and it can be created by anyone because it’s based on publicly available information.

Marketing purposes will control how your profile appears. With Google My Business, you can access and manage your profile so that you can add more information about your business as well as control exactly what is shown to potential patients and internet users.

How to Create a Google My Business Account

You may already have a Google My Business account and not even know it. Google My Business is just one of the many services that make up a Google account. If you use Gmail, then you already have that Google account, which also includes Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and more.

If you already have a Google account for your business:

Visit here
Click Sign In at the top right of the screen

Google My Business page with a red arrow pointing to the Sign In option

Enter your business name to bring up your Google Business profile to add it to your account

Google My Business page with a red arrow pointing to the find and manage your business option

If you don’t have a Google Business profile for your practice:

Create a profile here
Click Add Your Business to Google

Google My Business page with a red arrow pointing to the letters add your business to google

Fill in your business name and category and click Next

You will be prompted to provide your practice’s location, contact details and verification

Google My Business page asking for contact details

Business versus Personal Account

It’s a good idea to keep your personal and professional lives separate. Even if you already have a personal Google account, you may also want to create a new one for your practice if you haven’t already. That way, you can have a Google account dedicated only to your medical practice.

Connect Your Practice to Google My Business

Once you have a Google My Business account and your medical practice has a Google Business profile, you will need to connect the two. You can claim your Business Profile by claiming the business either when you see the Google Business Profile on a search results page or in Google Maps. Then, click Manage Now. You’ll be asked to provide information to verify that you are, in fact, the owner of your business.

Attract More Patients

A web browser showing business-related Google applications, including Google My Business, Adwords, Adsense, and Analytics

Once you have created your Google My Business account and have successfully claimed your business, it’s time to use it to attract new patients. You can do this by fully filling out your Business Profile. The more information you can put into your profile, the better.

Not only will it be more helpful to potential patients, but it can actually improve your rankings in Google’s search results. Photos can also go a long way towards attracting more patients.

Use the Right Keywords

It’s important to think about what you think your target audience will be searching for. You can incorporate these keywords into your Google My Business profile so that your listing shows up in the search results when potential patients search for those words.

Check out Google’s Free Marketing Kit

Google also offers a free Marketing Kit to anyone who has a verified business profile.

Gain Insights from Google My Business

Google My Business can also offer you insights into what kind of traffic is viewing your Google Business profile. Check out the Insights tab after you’ve logged in to your Google My Business account.

From the Insights section of your dashboard, you can see exactly what people are searching for when they arrive at your profile. You can also see how well your profile’s photos perform compared to those of other company profiles within your industry. Additionally, Insights can show you exactly what actions users take on your profile.

How Mobile Apps Can Help Patients With Chronic Illnesses

Patient wearing a smartwatch checking an app on a mobile phone

Chronic illnesses are responsible for 70% of deaths in the United States. On top of that, chronic illnesses are also a primary cause of disabilities across the country and people who have them are more frequent users of healthcare than those who don’t.

With so many people affected by chronic illnesses, new solutions are needed to help patients manage their illnesses and help doctors support their patients.

How Does a Mobile App Help Doctors Treat Patients with Chronic Illnesses?

A challenge doctors face is helping patients with chronic illnesses manage their condition. Fortunately, modern technological innovations that we already use in everyday life may be the solution. Mobile apps are already convenient for so many things, from entertainment and communication to organization and education. So how can mobile apps help patients with chronic illnesses?

Patient Monitoring

One of the major challenges of working with patients with chronic diseases is that much of the daily management of the illness has to be done by the patients themselves. Many patients become overwhelmed by the daily care required for managing the illness. They then fall back into bad health habits and often don’t correctly take required medications, which may ultimately result in a trip to the emergency room.

Mobile apps can allow doctors to monitor their patients’ progress. Knowing that their physicians are keeping track of their medication and behaviors regarding their chronic illness can help patients stay on track. Using a mobile app could give patients the support they need from their doctors to better stay on top of managing their condition.

Easier Communication

When a patient has a chronic illness, they may have frequent questions for their doctors. If their only method of communicating with their physician is to come in for an office visit, that can be disruptive to both the patients’ lives and to the doctor’s practice as more office time is taken up for the same person. Using a mobile app instead can give patients the tools to easily communicate remotely with their doctors, saving both time and energy.

Low Cost

Using mobile apps can be a low-cost solution that is easily distributed to patients. Most patients already have smartphones and tablets that can handle mobile apps. Plus, they already use these devices in their daily lives. This means that beyond investing in software that is compatible with mobile apps, there’s likely to be minimal cost to distribute it to patients. In fact, if the doctor’s version of the software is also an app, the cost may be even less.

Easy for Patients to Use

Another benefit is that mobile apps tend to be very easy for patients to use. There may be minimal training in how to use them, but mobile apps are often very intuitive. Plus, patients most likely already use other apps that operate on similar logic. It would be easier for them to learn a new app on a device they’re already familiar with and comfortable using.

Supplementary to a Treatment Plan

As useful as mobile apps are, they can’t substitute for actual medical treatment plans. The doctor won’t be replaced by a digital device. The digital devices will be a supplementary tool that can help doctors assist patients with chronic illnesses and manage their conditions from home. Mobile apps can help to implement a treatment plan rather than replacing it.

What Can Patients Do on a Mobile App?

Mobile apps can be used to track overall health. If losing weight would benefit a patient’s chronic condition, then they can track their weight on an app. The same goes for exercise and diet.

For people who have to take medication, an app can remind them to take it. Patients can log when they have taken their medication and an app might be able to send that data directly to their doctors. Additionally, a smart watch could be used to monitor patient vitals and send that data to an app.

New CPT Codes for the COVID-19 Vaccines

Healthcare providers across the United States have been working hard to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. There are four different vaccines, three of which have already been granted emergency use authorization by the FDA. The American Medical Association (AMA) has issued CPT codes for each of the different vaccines

What Vaccines Are Available in the United States?

There are currently four vaccines that have been developed to protect people from the COVID-19 virus. These vaccines are:

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine by Pfizer, Inc.
Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine by Moderna, Inc.
Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine by Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)
AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine by AstraZeneca

Of these, the Pfizer, Moderna, and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccines have been granted emergency use authorization by the FDA in the United States. AstraZeneca has not yet been approved due to discrepancies in the data submitted to the FDA.

What Are the CPT Codes for Each Vaccine?

The CPT codes for each vaccine are as follows:

Pfizer

Vaccine Code: 91300
Vaccine Administration Code (1st Dose): 0001A
Vaccine Administration Code (2nd Dose): 0002A
NDC 10: 59267-1000-1
NDC 11: 59267-1000-01

Moderna

Vaccine Code: 91301
Vaccine Administration Code (1st Dose): 0011A
Vaccine Administration Code (2nd Dose): 0012A
NDC 10: 80777-273-10
NDC 11: 80777-0273-10

Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)

Vaccine Code: 91303
Vaccine Administration Code: 0031A
NDC 10: 59676-580-05
NDC 11: 59676-0580-05

AstraZeneca

Vaccine Code: 91302
Vaccine Administration Code (1st Dose): 0021A
Vaccine Administration Code (2nd Dose): 0022A
NDC 10: 0310-1222-10
NDC 11: 00310-1222-10

These CPT codes will help physicians bill for the vaccines they are distributing.

How Blockchain Is Disrupting Health Care Records

Keeping accurate and up-to-date medical records can be a difficult proposition. With patients accessing health care in different places, different providers can have different information on the same patient. Accessing patient data can also be a hassle. Because of laws regarding patient privacy, most requests for patient records must go through the patient, which can take time.

Some companies, such as Medicalchain, are looking to change the world of medical records by using blockchain to create a secure way of sharing the latest patient data with multiple health care professionals at once, eliminating the middleman.

What Is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a digital ledger made up of records called blocks. It was initially designed in 2008 by someone (or a group of people) using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Blockchain’s intended use at that time was to serve as a public ledger of transactions involving bitcoin. Blockchain records aren’t limited to recording cryptocurrency transactions, however. The distributed records of blockchain can be used to record and verify any transactions between two parties in a way that isn’t easily alterable.

How Does Blockchain Work?

Each block in a blockchain is linked to the next using cryptography and contains data from the previous block in the chain. It’s for this reason that blockchain is considered very secure. Although it’s not impossible to change data in a blockchain, it’s not easy to because the data would need to be changed in every subsequent block in the chain, making them very resistant to changes. Each entry in a block also contains a timestamp.

Doctor looking at patient medical records on a tablet computer

How Does Blockchain Improve Health Care Records?

Software companies such as Medicalchain use blockchain technology to create a centralized database of patient medical records. This centralized database has many advantages over the siloed system in use across much of the healthcare world.

Patients Must Opt-in

Patient privacy is still a major concern. Therefore, any patients whose records are stored with blockchain must opt-in to the service. From there, they can grant permission to health care professionals to access those records. They can retract that permission or grant permission for only a limited period of time. This helps healthcare professionals maintain compliance with patient privacy laws.

Centralized Records Database

Medical records stored with blockchain are kept in one centralized database. This means that healthcare professionals seeking access to patient records and information only need permission from the patient to access the files. There’s no middleman or waiting to receive transferred documents. The most up-to-date information is stored in one location shared by all healthcare professionals who have been granted access by the patient.

Health Care Records Are Collaborative

With patient records located in one centralized database, they’re more collaborative. A health care professional can make necessary additions to the records that are timestamped. Another health care professional can do the same without the records having to be transferred. All patient data from all relevant health care professionals can be kept in the same centralized record instead of separately.

Health Care Records Are Up-to-Date

When health care records are kept separate with each individual health care provider, there’s a risk that records aren’t the most up-to-date. This occurs when a change is made with one health care provider but others are unaware of the change. Blockchain-based medical records, on the other hand, are both centralized and timestamped so it’s easy to ensure that health care professionals are accessing the latest information.

Patients Get Better Care

When patient records are more accurate and easier to get, health care professionals can ensure that they’re providing the best possible care. With siloed records, there’s a risk of inadvertently using inaccurate information. Plus, if medical records are requested from another provider, the transfer can take some time. Accessing a centralized blockchain of medical records can make accessing patient data much faster, freeing up health care provider time and ensuring faster care for the patient.

How Google Glass Can Help Doctors Become More Patient-Centric

Google Glass is a type of smart glasses released by Google in 2013. The glasses can project images on the inside of the lenses for wearers to view. They work like a smartphone but respond only to voice commands. You may remember the hype surrounding the smart glasses’ launch, but since then the glasses have mostly seemed to fade from the public eye.

Although Google Glass didn’t make the impact the company hoped for in the general public, but Google Glass turned out to have many useful applications in the field of medicine. Google Glass may be the most well-known smart glasses, but it’s not alone. Augmented reality technology in general can offer many benefits to doctors.

How Does Augmented Reality Help Doctors Treat Patients?

Time is of the essence when it comes to treating patients. Augmented reality technology can help doctors receive the information they need about patients quickly and easily. QR codes can transmit patient files to Google Glass or other smart glasses so the doctor can get the information they need immediately. Plus, because they’re transparent glasses, the doctor can maintain eye contact with the patient at the same time.

Instead of needing to read through paperwork first before attending to a patient, a doctor can focus on the patient while receiving the necessary information at the same time. Plus, the glasses are hands free and operate on voice commands, so the doctor can request more information, take pictures, and more.

Three medical students wearing lab coats paying attention and taking notes on a clipboard

How Does Augmented Reality Help Doctors Learn?

Augmented reality technology can also improve learning experiences for medical students and doctors in training. Images and videos of actual procedures can be taken and streamed to Google Hangouts with Google Glass. Students can watch procedures as well as tele-consultations.

Two doctors wearing scrubs performing surgery on a patient

How Does Augmented Reality Help Surgeons?

Google Glass and other augmented reality technologies can also help doctors in surgery. In a demonstration involving Google Glass in surgeries, a doctor were able to consult with colleagues while the surgery was going on as well as stream the procedure to students observing on laptops. The doctor performing the surgery said that the glasses were extremely intuitive and that the technology had fit seamlessly into the operating procedure.