Health informatics is the study and implementation of computer structures and algorithms to improve communication, understanding, and management of medical information. It can be viewed as a branch of engineering and applied science.
GE HealthCare Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational medical technology company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was spun-off from General Electric on January 4, 2023, with GE retaining 6.7%. As of 2017, it is a manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic imaging agents and radiopharmaceuticals for imaging modalities used in medical imaging procedures. It offers dyes used in magnetic-resonance-imaging procedures; manufactures medical diagnostic equipment, including CT image machines; MRI, X-ray; ultrasound; cath labs; mammogram; Nuclear Medicine Cameras; and develops health technology for medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. It was incorporated in 1994 and operates in more than 100 countries.
J.D. Power is an American data analytics, software, and consumer intelligence company founded in 1968. The company specializes in the use of big data, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic models examining consumer behavior. The firm's business model has evolved to emphasize data and analytics and software products. Industry benchmarking studies are used to evaluate detailed consumer interactions and trends across the automotive, financial services, healthcare, home, insurance, technology, media and telecom, travel and hospitality, senior living, and utilities industries.
Evidence-based design (EBD) is the process of constructing a building or physical environment based on scientific research to achieve the best possible outcomes. Evidence-based design is especially important in evidence-based medicine, where research has shown that environment design can affect patient outcomes. It is also used in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, facilities management, education, and urban planning. Evidence-based design is part of the larger movement towards evidence-based practices.
Mystery shopping is a method used by marketing research companies and organizations that wish to measure quality of sales and service, job performance, regulatory compliance, or to gather specific information about a market or competitors, including products and services.
Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., doing business as Hillrom, is an American medical technology provider that is a subsidiary of Baxter International.
IMS Health was an American company that provided information, services and technology for the healthcare industry. IMS stood for Intercontinental Medical Statistics. It was the largest vendor of U.S. physician prescribing data. IMS Health was founded in 1954 by Bill Frohlich and David Dubow with Arthur Sackler having a hidden ownership stake. In 2010, IMS Health was taken private by TPG Capital, CPP Investment Board and Leonard Green & Partners. The company went public on April 4, 2014, and began trading on the NYSE under the symbol IMS. IMS Health was headquartered in Danbury, Connecticut.
IQVIA, formerly Quintiles and IMS Health, Inc., is an American Fortune 500 and S&P 500 multinational company serving the combined industries of health information technology and clinical research. IQVIA is a provider of biopharmaceutical development, professional consulting and commercial outsourcing services, focused primarily on Phase I-IV clinical trials and associated laboratory and analytical services, including investment strategy and management consulting services. It has a network of more than 88,000 employees in more than 100 countries and a market capitalization of US$49 billion as of August 2021. As of 2023, IQVIA was reported to be one of the world's largest contract research organizations (CRO).
Consumer-driven healthcare (CDHC), or consumer-driven health plans (CDHP) refers to a type of health insurance plan that allows employers and/or employees to utilize pretax money to help pay for medical expenses not covered by their health plan. These plans are linked to health savings accounts (HSAs), health reimbursement accounts (HRAs), or similar medical payment accounts. Users keep any unused balance or "rollover" at the end of the year to increase future balances or to invest for future expenses. They are a high-deductible health plan which has cheaper premiums but higher out of pocket expenses, and as such are seen as a cost effective means for companies to provide health care for their employees.
The patient experience describes an individual's experience of illness/injury and how healthcare treats them. Increasing focus on patient experience is part of a move towards patient-centered care. It is often operationalised through metrics, a trend related to consumerism and New Managerialism.
Woodwinds Health Campus is a hospital in Woodbury, Minnesota. It is currently part of M Health Fairview and a former member of the HealthEast Care System. It was recognized as innovative for successfully blending integrative health services with traditional medicine. Woodwinds is a full-service 86-bed hospital, located on 30-acres of wetlands. It was one of three hospitals nationally recognized by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), for its evidence-based healing environment and hospital design. It is a collaboration between M Health Fairview and Children’s Minnesota.
In United States healthcare, service excellence is the ability of the provider to consistently meet and manage patient expectations. Clinical excellence must be the priority for any health care system. However, the best healthcare systems combine professional (clinical) service excellence with outstanding personal service. Although health care in the United States is touted as the “world’s largest service industry,” the quality of the service is infrequently discussed in medical literature. Thus, many questions regarding service excellence in healthcare largely remain unanswered.
Healthgrades Marketplace, LLC, known as Healthgrades, is a US company that provides information about physicians, hospitals, and healthcare providers. Healthgrades is part of RVO Health, a partnership between Red Ventures and Optum, part of UnitedHealth Group. Healthgrades has amassed information on over three million U.S. health care providers. The company was founded by Kerry Hicks, David Hicks, Peter Fatianow, John Neal, and Sarah Lochran, and is based in Denver, Colorado. Jeff Hallock serves as RVO Health's CEO. According to USA Today, Healthgrades is the first comprehensive physician rating and comparison database. The application is part of a trend in health technology in the United States towards consumer-driven healthcare.
Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) refers to a set of surveys that ask patients to report on their health care experiences. The surveys are free to anyone who wants to use them. They focus on aspects of healthcare quality that patients find important and are well-equipped to assess, such as the communication skills of providers and ease of access to healthcare services. To customize a standardized CAHPS survey, users can add questions on a variety of topics.
Health care quality is a level of value provided by any health care resource, as determined by some measurement. As with quality in other fields, it is an assessment of whether something is good enough and whether it is suitable for its purpose. The goal of health care is to provide medical resources of high quality to all who need them; that is, to ensure good quality of life, cure illnesses when possible, to extend life expectancy, and so on. Researchers use a variety of quality measures to attempt to determine health care quality, including counts of a therapy's reduction or lessening of diseases identified by medical diagnosis, a decrease in the number of risk factors which people have following preventive care, or a survey of health indicators in a population who are accessing certain kinds of care.
Patient satisfaction is a measure of the extent to which a patient is content with the health care which they received from their health care provider.
RLDatix is a global enterprise software company offering software and services tailored to healthcare organizations. The technology platform is designed to support hospitals and other providers with risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, and workforce management resources.
Press Ganey Associates is a South Bend, Indiana-based health care company known for developing and distributing patient satisfaction surveys. As of January 2017, its Medical Practice Survey was the most widely used outpatient satisfaction survey in the United States.
Value-based health care (VBHC) is a framework for restructuring health care systems with the overarching goal of value for patients, with value defined as health outcomes per unit of costs. The concept was introduced in 2006 by Michael Porter and Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg, though implementation efforts on aspects of value-based care began long before then in the 1990s. With patient value as the overarching goal, VBHC emphasis systematic measurement of outcomes and costs, restructuring provider organizations, and transitioning toward bundled payments. Within this framework, cost reduction alone is not seen as proper strategy for healthcare systems: health outcomes have to improve to enhance value. Although value-based health care is seen as a priority in many health systems worldwide, a global assessment in 2016 found many countries are only beginning to align their health systems with VBHC-principles. Additionally, several studies report incoherent implementation efforts, and there seem to be various interpretations of VBHC, both within and across countries.
Merative L.P., formerly IBM Watson Health, is an American medical technology company that provides products and services that help clients facilitate medical research, clinical research, real world evidence, and healthcare services, through the use of artificial intelligence, data analytics, cloud computing, and other advanced information technology. Merative is owned by Francisco Partners, an American private equity firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. In 2022, IBM divested and spun-off their Watson Health division into Merative. As of 2023, it remains a standalone company headquartered in Ann Arbor with innovation centers in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai.
