» Nursing home residents would have quicker access to breakthrough technologies as treatment options under a new Medicare coverage pathway proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Under the new rule, Medicare would cover breakthrough devices immediately after it receives market authorization from the Food and Drug Administration — eliminating the current lag time between FDA approval and the existing Medicare coverage determination process.
» Telemedicine visits have skyrocketed by 300% among Medicare-eligible seniors since the start of the pandemic, according to a survey of more than 1,000 seniors by the website healthinsurance.com. Nearly half of those surveyed said they were comfortable using telemedicine in the future.
» Purdue University researchers have developed a wearable, portable device that allows a patient to receive wound care treatment at home. Findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
» Researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have found that a rice cooker or Instant Pot can effectively decontaminate N95 respirators without compromising their fit or function. The study was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
» Sonica Health has been awarded $10,000 from the “What’s Next Business Competition” for its development of the ADAM, a wearable skin sensor that measures COVID-19 symptomology such as fever, cough and shortness of breath. The firm plans to donate the sensors for a study this fall to monitor nursing home residents, in collaboration with Northwestern University.
» Pasadena, CA-based technology company PopID has seen a surge in demand from long-term care facilities for its fixed biometric PopEntry+. The artificial-enabled health screening system combines facial recognition for employee identification, instant fever detection and hand gesture recognition for health question screening, all through a contact-free platform.
From the October 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
