scholarly journals Validation of use of billing codes for identifying telemedicine encounters in administrative data

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepika Yeramosu ◽  
Florence Kwok ◽  
Jeremy M. Kahn ◽  
Kristin N. Ray
Keyword(s):  
Administrative Data ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Weighted Analysis ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Services Evaluation ◽  
Store And Forward

Abstract Background Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication technology to remotely provide healthcare services. Evaluation of telemedicine use often relies on administrative data, but the validity of identifying telemedicine encounters in administrative data is not known. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy of billing codes for identifying telemedicine use. Methods In this retrospective study of encounters within a large integrated health system from January 2016 to December 2017, we examined the accuracy of billing codes for identifying live-interactive and store-and-forward telemedicine encounters compared to manual chart review. To further examine external validity, we applied these codes and assessed patient and visit characteristics for identified live-interactive telemedicine encounters and store-and-forward telemedicine encounters in a second data set. Results In manual review of 390 encounters, 75 encounters were live-interactive telemedicine and 158 were store-and-forward telemedicine. In weighted analysis, the presence of the GT modifier in the absence of the GQ modifier or CPT code 99444 yielded 100% sensitivity and 99.99% specificity for identification of live-interactive telemedicine encounters. The presence of either the GQ modifier or the CPT code 99444 had 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for identification of store-and-forward telemedicine encounters. Applying these algorithms to a second data set (n = 5,917,555) identified telemedicine encounters with expected patient and visit characteristics. Conclusions These findings provide support for use of CPT codes to perform telemedicine research in administrative data, aiding ongoing work to understand the role of non-face-to-face care in optimizing health care delivery.

Telemedicine for management of patients with lung cancer during COVID-19 in an Italian cancer institute: SmartDoc Project

2021 ◽  
pp. 030089162110127
Author(s):  
Alessandro Pardolesi ◽  
Gherzi Lorenzo ◽  
Ugo Pastorino
Keyword(s):  
Lung Cancer ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
National Health System ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Cancer Center ◽  
Virtual Meeting ◽  
Long Term Follow Up

Background: Telemedicine, and particularly video-consulting, has rapidly accelerated since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak. The role of e-healthcare for the management of patients with lung diseases is evolving. We report the results of the initial experience of the SmartDoc Project, a telemedicine program activated in a cancer center (Istituto Nazionale Tumori) at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic onset in Italy. Method: The SmartDoc project was established to guarantee continuity of healthcare services for patients with lung cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The project was promoted within the National Health System to create a regulatory framework to authorize and reimburse telemedicine in its care delivery for all patients. At the end of the virtual meeting, patients were asked to answer an online survey. Results: From June 19 to December 1, 2020, 83 patients participated in the SmartDoc project and received a teleconsultation. The majority of patients were older than 65 years. Among the 83 televisits, 14 (16.9%) were new visits, 2 (2.4%) second opinions, 4 (4.8%) 30-day postsurgery controls, and 63 (75.9%) long-term follow-up visits. A “complete satisfaction” score (5 out of 5 points) was reported in 70.59% of all the respondents; most patients (76.5%) preferred video-consulting and defined it as better than or comparable to an in-person visit. Conclusion: The favorable initial results of this study suggest that telemedicine should continue beyond the pandemic crisis and should be embedded in a more efficient and accessible healthcare system.

scholarly journals Attaining Excellence in Professional Pharmacy Practice-Pharmacists in Academia Must Take the Lead

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-67
Author(s):  
D. E. Effiong ◽  
Mfonobong Alozie
Keyword(s):  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Pharmacy Practice ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Therapeutic Drug ◽  
Healthcare Needs ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
Pharmacy Profession

As societal needs change, so are professions adjusting and adapting their services to meet this new normal. The essence is not just to remain relevant, but to live up to their professional expectation and be impactful to their environment. In the constantly changing societal healthcare needs, Pharmacists as medicine experts and frontline contributors towards health care delivery, have crucial roles to play. From sound medical information dissemination to drug manufacture; from dispensing and therapeutic drug control to research and development and from sustaining supply chain of products to provision of total pharmaceutical care, pharmacists stand tall to provide needed healthcare services. Rendering services with professionalism is the desired path. But what does it take to attain professionalism in pharmacy practice? How can pharmacists in the academia harness their potentials to promote the path of service delivery with professional excellence? This piece showcases the role of excellence in the pharmacy profession highlighting the potentials of members in the academia in spearheading excellence in practice, thereby adding to the professional outlook of the pharmacist.

scholarly journals Why online medical teams disband? The role of team diversity and leadership type

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaying Li ◽  
Hong Wu ◽  
Zhaohua Deng ◽  
Richard David Evans ◽  
Ziying Hong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Teams ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Good Doctor ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Diversity ◽  
Diversity And Leadership ◽  
Medical Teams ◽  
Leadership Types

PurposeOnline medical teams (MTs), involving collaboration between remote healthcare workers, can provide comprehensive and rapid healthcare to patients. The growth in MTs is continuing, with popularity growing among doctors and patients, but some MTs disband, which could break the continuity of healthcare services provided. We aim to address this pressing issue by exploring the effects of team diversity and leadership types on team status (i.e. team disbandment (TD)). This paper systematically investigates the influences of team diversity, including separation, variety and disparity diversity and the effects of leadership types, including strong, equal and weak types.Design/methodology/approachA data set consisting 1,071 online MTs was collected from the Good Doctor website, a leading Chinese online health community (OHC), on January 10, 2018. The data captured included 206 teams which disbanded after 3 months collaboration. Logistic regression and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) were used to examine their effects.FindingsThe results show that variety diversity, related to departments, positively affects TD, but disparity diversity, referring to clinician titles, negatively affects TD. Separation diversity, in terms of team member attitudes, exerts a negligible influence on disbandment. Although strong and equal leadership types negatively influence TD, they are seen to strengthen the positive effect of variety diversity, suggesting stable structure combinations of strong or equal-type leadership and low department diversity, as well as the match of weak-type leadership and high department diversity.Originality/valueThis paper extends the current understanding of virtual teams and OHCs by examining the role of leadership types and team diversity, and their influencing role on team status. The pairwise combinations are obtained to effectively reduce the disbandment probability of medical teams operating in OHCs, which could help platform managers, team founders and those connected with MTs deal with the team-disbandment crisis, providing both theoretical and practical implications to healthcare providers and researchers alike.

Collection of Ego-Centered Network Data with Computer-Assisted Interviews

Methodology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Gerich ◽  
Roland Lehner
Keyword(s):  
Survey Methods ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Dynamic Structure ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Network Data ◽  
Great Effort ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Full Network

Although ego-centered network data provide information that is limited in various ways as compared with full network data, an ego-centered design can be used without the need for a priori and researcher-defined network borders. Moreover, ego-centered network data can be obtained with traditional survey methods. However, due to the dynamic structure of the questionnaires involved, a great effort is required on the part of either respondents (with self-administration) or interviewers (with face-to-face interviews). As an alternative, we will show the advantages of using CASI (computer-assisted self-administered interview) methods for the collection of ego-centered network data as applied in a study on the role of social networks in substance use among college students.

Exchange Spin Coupling from Gaussian Process Regression

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Philipp Bahlke ◽  
Natnael Mogos ◽  
Jonny Proppe ◽  
Carmen Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Gaussian Process ◽  
Gaussian Process Regression ◽  
Molecular Magnets ◽  
Molecular Structures ◽  
Spin Coupling ◽  
Structure Property ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Uncertainty Estimates

Heisenberg exchange spin coupling between metal centers is essential for describing and understanding the electronic structure of many molecular catalysts, metalloenzymes, and molecular magnets for potential application in information technology. We explore the machine-learnability of exchange spin coupling, which has not been studied yet. We employ Gaussian process regression since it can potentially deal with small training sets (as likely associated with the rather complex molecular structures required for exploring spin coupling) and since it provides uncertainty estimates (“error bars”) along with predicted values. We compare a range of descriptors and kernels for 257 small dicopper complexes and find that a simple descriptor based on chemical intuition, consisting only of copper-bridge angles and copper-copper distances, clearly outperforms several more sophisticated descriptors when it comes to extrapolating towards larger experimentally relevant complexes. Exchange spin coupling is similarly easy to learn as the polarizability, while learning dipole moments is much harder. The strength of the sophisticated descriptors lies in their ability to linearize structure-property relationships, to the point that a simple linear ridge regression performs just as well as the kernel-based machine-learning model for our small dicopper data set. The superior extrapolation performance of the simple descriptor is unique to exchange spin coupling, reinforcing the crucial role of choosing a suitable descriptor, and highlighting the interesting question of the role of chemical intuition vs. systematic or automated selection of features for machine learning in chemistry and material science.

Toward establishing telepsychology guideline: Turning the challenges of COVID-19 into opportunity (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed M. J. Alqahtani
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Psychological Services ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Governance Model ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Temporary Response

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has obstructed the classical practices of psychological assessment and intervention via face-to-face interaction. Patients and all health professionals have been forced to isolate and become innovative to continue receiving and providing exceptional healthcare services while minimizing the risk of exposure to, or transmission of, COVID-19. OBJECTIVE This document is proposed initially as a guide to the extraordinary implementation of telepsychology in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and to extend its implementation to use fundamentally as the main guideline for telepsychology services in Saudi Arabia and other Arabic communities. METHODS A professional task force representing different areas of professional psychology reviewed, summarized, and documented methods, policies, procedures, and other resources to ensure that the recommendations and evidence reviews were valid and consistent with best practices. RESULTS The practice of telepsychology involves the consideration of legal and professional requirements. This paper provides a guideline and recommendations for procedural changes that are necessary to address psychological services as we transition to telepsychology, as well as elucidates and demonstrates practical telepsychology frameworks, procedures, and proper recommendations for the provision of services during COVID-19. It adds a focused examination and discussion related to factors that could influence the telemedicine guideline, such as culture, religion, legal matters, and how clinical psychologists could expand their telepsychology practice during COVID-19 and after, seeking to produce broadly applicable guidelines for the practice of telepsychology. Professional steps in practical telemedicine were illustrated in tables and examples. CONCLUSIONS Telepsychology is not a luxury or a temporary response. Rather, it should be considered part of a proactive governance model to secure a continuity of mental health care services. Arabic communities could benefit from this guideline to telepsychology as an essential protocol for providing mental health services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith: A Student Introduction to Federal Tax Compliance and Documentation

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaele L. Morrow ◽  
Shane R. Stinson
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Income Tax ◽  
Tax Compliance ◽  
Personal Income Tax ◽  
Initial Information ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Client Advocacy ◽  
Tax Practice

ABSTRACT In this case, students assume the role of new accounting staff tasked with the preparation of a personal income tax return and supporting documentation for a client of their firm. Students are provided prior year work papers and client communications, a copy of the prior year's tax return, as well as a letter and supporting documents from the client for the current year. To complete the case, students generate questions based on the initial information provided, meet face-to-face with the client, and roll forward a set of electronic work papers before submitting a complete current year engagement file for senior review. This case adds work papers and client interaction to the traditional tax compliance case to reinforce both the technical and communication skills valued in professional practice. The formulation of questions for the client also allows students to practice discussing technical topics in a non-technical manner and underscores the required balance between attitudes of client advocacy stressed in professional tax practice and legal requirements for “good-faith” tax return reporting. This case is appropriate for an individual income tax course at either the undergraduate or graduate level, and can be easily adapted to increase or decrease difficulty.

Vocational Development in Emerging Adulthood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Pratt ◽  
M. Kyle Matsuba
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Emerging Adult ◽  
Vocational Development ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts

Chapter 6 reviews research on the topic of vocational/occupational development in relation to the McAdams and Pals tripartite personality framework of traits, goals, and life stories. Distinctions between types of motivations for the work role (as a job, career, or calling) are particularly highlighted. The authors then turn to research from the Futures Study on work motivations and their links to personality traits, identity, generativity, and the life story, drawing on analyses and quotes from the data set. To illustrate the key concepts from this vocation chapter, the authors end with a case study on Charles Darwin’s pivotal turning point, his round-the-world voyage as naturalist for the HMS Beagle. Darwin was an emerging adult in his 20s at the time, and we highlight the role of this journey as a turning point in his adult vocational development.

Embodied Spatial Practices and the Power to Care

2019 ◽  
pp. 360-377
Author(s):  
Elise Paradis ◽  
Warren Mark Liew ◽  
Myles Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Critical Care Units ◽  
Interprofessional Care ◽  
The Social

Drawing on an ethnographic study of teamwork in critical care units (CCUs), this chapter applies Henri Lefebvre’s ([1974] 1991) theoretical insights to an analysis of clinicians’ and patients’ embodied spatial practices. Lefebvre’s triadic framework of conceived, lived, and perceived spaces draws attention to the role of bodies in the production and negotiation of power relations among nurses, physicians, and patients within the CCU. Three ethnographic vignettes—“The Fight,” “The Parade,” and “The Plan”—explore how embodied spatial practices underlie the complexities of health care delivery, making visible the hidden narratives of conformity and resistance that characterize interprofessional care hierarchies. The social orderings of bodies in space are consequential: seeing them is the first step in redressing them.

scholarly journals Actors, Partisan Inclination, and Emotions: An Analysis of Government Shutdown News Stories Shared on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Colin Agur ◽  
Lanhuizi Gan
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Information ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Sharing ◽  
Government Shutdown

Scholars have recognized emotion as an increasingly important element in the reception and retransmission of online information. In the United States, because of existing differences in ideology, among both audiences and producers of news stories, political issues are prone to spark considerable emotional responses online. While much research has explored emotional responses during election campaigns, this study focuses on the role of online emotion in social media posts related to day-to-day governance in between election periods. Specifically, this study takes the 2018–2019 government shutdown as its subject of investigation. The data set shows the prominence of journalistic and political figures in leading the discussion of news stories, the nuance of emotions employed in the news frames, and the choice of pro-attitudinal news sharing.

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