The COVID-19 Effect

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way individuals live and interact. Clinical Encounters have dramatically decreased as individuals stay at home and avoid visits to the Hospital. Outpatient procedures have been canceled nationwide, and even regular “checkups” with the doctor have also decreased as people limit their potential exposure to COVID-19.
The nation’s public health system responds with a process called “Syndromic Surveillance,” which refers to methods relying on the detection of individual and population health indicators that are discernible before confirmed diagnoses.
Signs and Symptoms associated with a range of common illnesses, communicable diseases, and even natural or human-made outbreaks are captured in nearly real-time, primarily at a point of care, such as a hospital’s emergency department.
Public health disease surveillance utilizes inpatient and ambulatory Electronic Medical Record data through the CMS EHR Incentive Programs. As such, local and state public health agencies now routinely receive health data from emergency departments, clinics, and urgent care centers. And, of course, COVID-19 testing is adding to the data for the public health response.
However, what is missing is the extension of Disease Surveillance past large clinical settings to the doctor’s office and into the homes of the Patient. Imagine the value of extending the identification of signs and symptoms down to where a person lives. Providing access and control of a complete Personal Health Record combined with the ability to conduct Disease Surveillance at the home/community level provides 1 True Health with a unique and strategic advantage.
Interested in seeing how 1 True Health addresses the COVID-19 effect? Click here to read about the 1 True Health Solution.