Experience Next-Generation Healthcare at the National Healthcare Conference

Full Health Medical to showcase their online medical technology by offering free health checks at the Convention Centre Dublin on 2^nd April, 2014

Paper. Paper. Paper.

The dreaded paper-trail can slow down and impede the preventative health process, frustrating medical professionals. It can make administration a nightmare. Full Health Medical has a solution. They have taken the entire process online, transforming it into a simple and streamlined experience.

Full Health Medical have unveiled their newest health initiative that will showcase how their online preventative health platform facilitates clearer patient communication and streamlines the preventative health experience for all. Their technology will be demonstrated by way of a free health-check at the National Health Conference. On the day, attendees will receive a personalised health report, which is accessible on any mobile device. All proceeds will go towards Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.

This initiative coincides with the exciting news that Full Health Medical have been shortlisted for the national Health Innovation Hub (HIH).  The HIH is a Government driven collaboration between the Irish health system and commercial enterprises which will lead to the commercialisation of new healthcare technologies emerging from within the health system and/or firms.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.- Arthur C. Clarke

The Full Health technology has the ability to automatically interpret numerical medical tests. Powered by sophisticated algorithms, this interpretation is achieved by combining medical test results with the patient’s responses to their personal, family history and lifestyle questionnaires. The output from this integrated process is an easy-to-read report for the patient – that can be quickly approved by doctors. These reports provide self-management techniques, which promote behaviour change. The technology in Full Health has been developed by a team of medical specialists, consultants and technologists.

There is also a major population health management component to Full Health as all of the data is collected in a uniform way. It’s clearly working, as 70,000 test results have been provided to date. Although the most people using Full Health receive it through employee-based health programs, Full Health now want this extended as a standard for every person in the state and across the world.

For more information on the National Health Conference, log on to www.nationalhealthcare.ie

Contact paul@fullhealthmedical.com for an online demonstration today of the Full Health Platform.

Use World Health Organisation standards when it comes to Health Screening and Wellness Programme Design.

Fantastic advances are being made in Health IT, Electronic Health Records and Mobile Health. This is not only to the benefit of patients in a medical setting, but also to the benefit of employees and the wider community to becoming empowered to be healthier. The ability to interpret medical data and convey it visually and accurately to the range of everyday devices such as smart phones, tablets and desktops is truly revolutionary in terms of communication. It is also a far more effective and efficient way of utilising medical professionals and drastically reducing overall costs.

The range of diagnostic tests coupled with medical advances in equipment at our disposal can make it difficult to decide on what the priorities should be for the population either in the local community or in the workforce when it comes to preventative health. The good news is that preventative health screening is guided by a series of basic principles that are now nearly 50 years old but are equally valid today. Use these to help you make decisions on the design of any wellness programme.

In 1968 the Wilson-Jungner criteria for appraising the validity of screening programmes was published by the World Health Organisation. The criteria set a series of basic rules to ensure that health screening and the test applied under the banner of health screening are necessary and beneficial for the individual.

1.    The condition being tested for should be an important health problem.

2.    There should be a treatment for the condition.

3.    Facilities for diagnosis and treatment should be available.

4.    There should be a latent stage of the disease.

5.    There should be a test or examination for the condition.

6.    The test should be acceptable to the population.

7.    The natural history of the disease should be adequately understood.

8.    There should be an agreed policy on whom to treat.

9.    The total cost of finding a case should be economically balanced in relation to medical expenditure as a whole.

10. Case-finding should be a continuous process, not just a "once and for all" project.

World Health Organisation 1968

At Full Health, we use these principles to guide us to do the right thing by the end user we serve.  This helps us to design health screening and wellness programmes that are genuinely beneficial to both employees in the workplace and patients and end consumers in the community.

Furthermore, the aggregated anonymised data helps underpin that value. A tool such as Full Health that gives a consistency in approach regardless of the intermediary provider who delivers the service ensures that there is a clear return on investment for employers and wider commissioning groups versus just a box ticked and no clear return.

Download the Full Health Corporate Brochure

Health Screening Software - Ten Key Questions to Consider

Health screening is a process with some unique challenges and software plays an increasingly important role. The evolution and choice of systems that can support screening is wide ranging from practice management to occupational health to bespoke software. Providers are increasingly investing in technology to grow and make their businesses more competitive.

Henry Ford "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." 

Innovate to Deliver Real Competitive Advantage

Talking to a leading provider last week, I asked them if they had a working system for efficiently organising and running their entire process from participant self service to administration to decision support for the doctor through to online reports. The reply came that they had just made a very substantial investment in a new bespoke system which they were very excited about. I enquired further as to what this new system does and discovered that although it improved their administration and accounting, it was of no real extra benefit to the end customer they were serving. 
Are customers not looking for much more quantifiable benefits nowadays versus more of the same?

When reviewing or considering an investment in health screening software you should ask these 10 questions:

Will the Health Screening System:

1. Automate the entire workflow?
2. Enable online medical history, lifestyle questionnaires and information relevant to tests to be completed by participant?
3. Provide instant analysis for the full battery of measurements and laboratory results and questionnaire data?
4. Integrate fully with laboratories?
5. Increase doctor productivity dramatically with engaging reports using the most up-to-date medical guidelines and content?
6. Produce instant anonymous population reports?
7. Provide a secure patient portal & report download?
8. Enable scheduling and appointment booking for multiple locations?
9. Give you financial control and ability for participants to pay online? 
10. Continue to evolve and deliver value to you, your customers and empower end user participants to better health?

Today, you should look for a system that combines the best in prevention and is also leading the way in the new age of digital health.

Click here to empower your clinicians and your consumers to better health.

* Paul Mc Carthy is CEO and Founder of Full Health and would love to hear your views.

paul@fullhealthmedical.com

• ie.linkedin.com/pub/paul-mc-carthy/18/535/43/

• 
  

  
  

@paulmcarthy1

Health Surveillance Screening or Health and Wellbeing Screening-Why Not Both?

Many companies already engage in statutory health surveillance screening which is based on the risks in the workplace. Is there an opportunity for companies to upgrade these programmes to become an organisational wide health and wellbeing programme?

Health Surveillance Screening

Occupational health is concerned with the relationship between health and work. Health problems often impact on work and conversely work can impact on health.

The law requires employers to provide a safe place of work for their employees. They must identify workplace hazards and manage health risks that arise. Companies are also required by law to provide 'reasonable accommodation' for employees with illnesses or disabilities.

Health surveillance also frequently includes health screening of employees on an annual basis to ensure that the working environment is not having a negative impact on employee health. Typical health surveillance screenings include audiometry (hearing check) and spirometry (lung function check) and often blood tests too.

Health and Wellbeing Screening

Health and Wellbeing screening aims to promote health awareness and proactive risk management by identifying employee health risks and tailoring lifestyle recommendations accordingly. These health screenings offer the opportunity to identify previously undiagnosed illnesses and to address them before they become serious.

Health and wellbeing screening is primarily used as an employee benefit either as a stand-alone measure or as part of a wellness programme. Wellness programmes are usually tailored to suit the requirements of each individual company and include measures such as fitness programmes, dietary advice and mental wellbeing awareness.

A health and wellbeing screening can contain a combination of tests. A typical basic test profile could consist of Height, Weight & BMI, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Fasting Glucose or extend to a more advanced profile including Kidney Function Test, Liver Function Test, Full Blood Count, Thyroid Function, Urinalysis, Resting ECG & Advice on Cancer Awareness.

Why Not Both?

Health surveillance screening and health and wellness screening require a similar amount of administrative resources and planning and consume the same amount of employee time. So is there an opportunity for HR to effectively upgrade existing screening programmes to offer a real employee benefit?

We think so and innovation in health screening software can now provide the self service tools and automation to minimise costly process issues. This means that the substantial effort and resources invested in health surveillance in the workplace can be communicated to each employee in an engaging way so that is also seen as a company benefit. Ultimately, this can empower your employees to better health and productivity.

Paul Mc Carthy is the CEO and Founder of Full Health Medical.
email: paul@fullhealthmedical.com

Little (miss) sunshine and the heart

These days, I always seem to be thinking about balance in medicine; a balance between risk and benefit, a balanced diet and so on. So as Ireland swelters in unusually hot weather conditions, I’ve found myself wondering about the balance between too little or too much sunlight and the health implications. I’m not alone in this. Over-exposure to sunlight and we need to think about skin cancers, for example. But what about too little? Well, one issue associated with too little sunshine is low vitamin D levels and it is suggested that a large number of the population of Ireland and the UK are currently deficient in said “sunshine” vitamin.

Research about vitamin D seems to be very popular at present and there seems to be an ever increasing body of evidence that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a multitude of illnesses. These range from the role of vitamin D in bone health, cancers, cardiovascular diseases and auto-immune diseases. There is even a vitamin D hypotheses in terms of explaining  the increased prevalence in northern latitude of multiple sclerosis. See Holick MF et al in the Am J Clin Nutr 2004 or Ascherio A. Ann Neurol 2007 for more.

Low vitamin D levels have been linked to increased coronary heart disease risk. However, frequently the findings were in small studies. In the last fortnight research was publish in JAMA regarding the MESA cohort. This was a large study of ethnically diverse patients who were free of clinical heart disease at time of enrollment. Amongst the findings it was noted that low serum levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D independently predicted raised long-term risk of coronary heart disease events among white participants (as opposed to African American for example). This study was described by a JAMA editorial as being “robust” and it is interesting that outcomes were adjusted for a multitude of CHD risk factors: age, sex, BMI, smoking status, excercise, diabetes status, cholesterol for example, so it appears as if the evidence is getting stronger. See here for more.

Although it would seem that there is an increasing body of evidence linking low vitamin D to increased coronary heart disease, a word of warning. Perhaps it might be best to consider getting your levels checked rather than spending longer in the sun. Skin cancer has been increasing over the past decades. According to the World Health Organisation one in three cancers diagnosed is a skin cancer. Reducing exposure to sunlight’s UV rays really is our own resposibility. See here.

Good advice for the current strong sunlight is don’t forget the Australian mantra regarding adequate clothes, sun-cream and hats, “Slip-Slop-Slap” before heading out into the sun.

For Health Screening Software that gives personalised Vitamin D advice CLICK HERE

Does Health Screening have a role in General Practice today?

Most GPs have a strong belief in preventative health but the practice is often a time poor environment. From the doctor’s point of view, the root causes of many illnesses such as diet and exercise take too long to address.

Whilst providing written feedback on all results is desired, the work schedule simply doesn’t allow it. Time spent writing reports is an administrative and costly chore that nobody enjoys and this time is far better spent with patients. 

With the right tools, set-up and discipline, health screening can be an additional high value service to add to your practice without it eating your time. It can create a new revenue stream with good margins and attract new private clients. If something is picked up, these clients are likely to become patients with repeat visits to your practice.  A good set-up means having the process entirely nurse led and the patient doing more of the work in advance.

Full Health provides Health Screening Software for Practices

Here are 10 steps that outline the basics for running a health screening operation:

1. Schedule specific monthly dates for your health screening service, it may only be one to two mornings per month.
2. Contract one of your trusted nurses to lead the screening programme.
3.  Decide what screening products you are offering. The combination of Height, Weight & BMI, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Fasting Glucose is a basic offering. Adding Resting Electrocardiogram, Lung Function Test, Kidney Function Test, Liver Function Test, and Full Blood Count is a more premium profile.
4.   Create awareness. Decide the most appropriate way to promote your new health check service. It may include posters in your practice waiting room, a message on your prescription pads and awareness campaigns aimed at specific age groups.
5. Take bookings and encourage your patients to book online, this reduces your admin time.
6. Encourage patients to complete their questionnaire online, this reduces time required with the nurse, which is the major variable cost in running a health screening.
7. Optimise your resources, perhaps there is a room that can be made available for the nurse on the set days e.g. when a doctor is out on call or off.
8. As the GP you can set a specific time, for example 8 days post screening appointments to review and approve reports and to call any high priority cases.
9. Enable your patients to download their own screening report securely, this reduces admin and printing costs. Hard copy reports cost money but can also be provided.
10. Schedule times for follow-up consultations which should close out very quickly as the patient will have reviewed their report in advance.

Dr. Ann Shortt, Founder and Medical Director

MB BAO BCH BmedSc MRCGP MRCSA&E