You spend thousands of dollars and hours to get new patients in the door.
Then, you have your initial consultation.They need special tests, so you send them away for specific, diagnostic results. Then, you begin treatment. What’s wrong with this scenario? It’s 2024, and things have changed.
Trends in healthcare technology
Forbes1 indicates the top trends in healthcare include generative AI, personalized medicine, virtual healthcare assistants and preventative healthcare to name a few. New technology is constantly providing new ways to obtain data, treat patients and provide the most effective and timely results. It can be overwhelming to keep up with all of the latest updates.
However, if you don’t pay attention and stick to the “status quo,” you risk losing your patients to the competition. Then, it may be too late, and you’ll have a difficult time recovering.
While things may be going well at your practice, there is always room to increase revenues. But more importantly, it’s essential to provide your patients the best care possible. They’ll feel better, and you’ll know you are making a positive difference in their lives. This is where new technology can help.
For example, did you know that traditional X-rays and MRIs are being replaced? It’s about time. X-rays were discovered way back in 1895 and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been around since the early 1970s. Both processes involve having the patient remain still while the image “snapshots” are taken. If the patient moves, the film or images are disqualified, and the entire process has to start over. This can be uncomfortable and painful for patients with back, leg and other injuries who have to stay in a set position for a certain amount of time.
More important, these outdated tests do not provide the comprehensive data today’s new technology provides combined with the latest technological upgrades to provide data never before available. In fact, the new technology allows you to see the spine in motion.
Patients simply stand or sit in a special motion support platform, and padded bolsters isolate the spine. Rather than bending on their own or using their hips, which can alter test results, the new technology as a tactile guide. Patients follow the device through a controlled flexion and extension that is comfortable, quiet and much less intimidating than an MRI.
As they bend forward and backward during the cervical examination, alignment and range of motion are optimized. Individual vertebral levels are stabilized so you get quantitative, objective and visual data to see cervical and lumbar spinal motion, instability and exact pain points.
The video is recorded in a motion analysis report with the assistance of a C-arm and a patient handling and data collection device. Thousands of data points go through artificial intelligence software in seconds to tabulate exact pain points. Then, this data is placed in a HIPAA-compliant cloud-based storage system.
The results?
You receive easy-to-read charts and graphics showing measurements of ligament laxity or ligament instability (alteration of motion segment integrity (AOMSI) injuries) down to the tenth of a millimeter; something traditional X-rays and MRIs cannot do.
In fact, loss of motion segment integrity is rare, unless it is accompanied by trauma. In fact, the AMA indicates:
“The following factors must be considered to determine if AOMSI is present:
- Flexion/extension radiographs are performed when the individual is at maximum medical improvement and are technically adequate.
- The proper methodology is used in obtaining measurements of translation and angular motion.
- Normal translation and angular-motion thresholds consistent with the literature are used in determining AOMSI.
Imaging modalities such as video fluoroscopy, digital fluoroscopy and upright/motion magnetic resonance imaging cannot be used to establish an AOMSI permanent impairment using the AMA Guides.”
The AMA guidelines indicate a translation cannot be more than 3.5 mm to show these injuries.However, the in-house chiropractic diagnostics finds these diagnoses and increases the opportunity to identify instability by measuring ligament translation, angulation and disc height. This data was previously unavailable with static X-rays and MRI scans. Now, it’s possible to obtain a correct diagnosis, discover exact pain points and provide the appropriate treatment for these “previously hidden” injuries.
Additional technology discovers traumatic brain injuries
Are you aware today’s latest technological advancements also detect one of the leading causes of death?
“With an estimated 10 million people affected annually by traumatic brain injuries (TBI), the
burden of mortality and morbidity this condition imposes on society makes TBI a pressing public health and medical problem,” according to the World Health Organization.2
New technology is helping with this growing concern. Specifically, quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) records electrical impulses
from the brain, and eye movement assessment devices assess and track visual-motor impairments related to brain injuries.
Medical professionals can use this data to provide better treatment, which varies according to the diagnosis. “A person with a mild TBI or concussion may experience short-term symptoms and feel better within a couple of weeks or months,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. “And a person with a moderate or severe TBI may have long-term or lifelong effects from the injury.”3
If there is a TBI diagnosis, treatment costs increase significantly. According to the Journal on Neurotrauma,4 “over the full period, from baseline up to six years after baseline, medical care costs for persons with TBI were an average of $4,906 higher than costs for matched controls without TBI.”
Many injury victims turn to their attorneys for help due to these skyrocketing medical costs. However, legal professionals can only win their cases if they have high-quality objective findings with specific and high-level diagnoses, especially those showing permanent impairment, and this is what the new technology (in-house chiropractic diagnostics) provides.
Until now, TBIs were often overlooked as “only headaches,” even by experienced physicians. Now, it’s possible to get undisputable objective findings which are measured and documented.
In fact, it’s now possible to detect a TBI in as low as an eight-mile-per-hour impact, which can be valuable data for your patients’ personal injury attorneys.
This data makes it more difficult for carriers to contest the injuries, and then there really is one issue to negotiate; case value.
Manage new technology in-house and provide data directly to your patients’ attorneys
Instead of sending patients away to get diagnostic data like you do now, any medical clinic can add the technology and equipment to their office if they have 320 square feet of available space, which is an 18-by-17-foot room.
You keep thousands of dollars in outsourcing costs, provide better treatment for your patients and help their attorneys win their cases. Plus, your patients get the right treatment for their specific injuries and feel better. In-house chiropractic diagnostics offers wins for everyone.
Final thoughts
These are just a few examples of how new technology (in-house chiropractic diagnostics) is enabling DCs to grow their practices and help their patients. So if you ignore the latest technology updates moving forward, do so at your own peril. It can mean the difference between providing better patient results and significantly boosting revenue or losing money to the competition and struggling to survive.
MELANIE REMBRANDT, founder of Rembrandt Communications® LLC, is an award-winning publicist, copywriter and speaker. She is the author of Simple Publicity, Secrets of Becoming a Publicist and Dance Class Etiquette and has helped thousands of entrepreneurs boost sales, awareness and credibility via her content and public relations strategies, articles and presentations. For more information, visit rembrandtwrites.com.
References
- Marr B. The Ten Biggest Trends Revolutionizing Healthcare in 2024. Forbes. October 3, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/10/03/the-10-biggest-trends-revolutionizing-healthcare-in-2024/. Accessed June 10, 2024.
- Hyder AA, et al. The impact of traumatic brain injuries: a global perspective. NeuroRehabilitation. 2007;22(5):341-53. PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18162698/. Accessed June 10, 2024.
- Traumatic brain injury and concussion. Facts About TBI. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html. Accessed June 10, 2024.
Leibson CL, et al. Medical Care Costs Associated with Traumatic Brain Injury over the Full Spectrum of Disease: A Controlled Population-Based Study. J Neurotrauma. 2012;29(11) 2038–2049. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3408240/. Accessed June 10, 2024.