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The American Medical Association (AMA) is working alongside leading IT companies like IBM and Cerner to develop an integrated healthcare big data analytics platform. The name of the project is Integrated Health Model Initiative (IHMI) and it is aimed to provide a continuous learning environment that can produce interoperable technological solutions, as well as valid care models based on relevant feedback.

IHMI will feature a central data model for organizing and exchanging information, as well as a physician-led validation process to review the clinical applicability of the data. The technology that will deliver this type of sensitive data analysis will be developed by IBM and Cerner, as well as other partners that may join the project in the future. This new healthcare analysis big data platform is set to be developed and released in 2018.

The Central Aims of IHMI

The main goal of IHMI is to provide a digital basis that will support a collaborative approach to optimizing population health management. This will be achieved by identifying the diverse factors that have led to positive medical outcomes, as well as pointing out the points in healthcare development that require improvements. The platform will also offer comprehensive information for medical research.

According to James L. Mandra, MD, the CEO of AMA, the amount of health data produced in the US has reached impressive proportions. However, much of this data remains "fragmented, inaccessible or incomplete" in spite of its potential to lead to valuable improvements in patient outcomes.

As such, IHMI was created as a collaborative effort that could enable the healthcare system to "collect, organize, and exchange patient-centered data in a common structure that captures what is most important for improving care and long-term wellness, and transform the data into a rich stream of accessible and actionable information”, says Mandra.

The healthcare platform is specifically targeted to gather data about high-cost and high-impact clinical areas, such as diabetes prevention or hypertension management. This platform would serve doctors and researchers in optimizing patient care tactics and developing new healthcare protocols based on comprehensive feedback, which has the potential to improve patient outcomes.

The Usability of IHMI

The AMA's big data platform is will ultimately be designed to be used by doctors. As such, IHMI will feature a close collaboration between physicians and IT specialists that can provide the specialized data analytics features that will be both useful and accessible to the medical community.

According to Laurie McGraw, AMA's Senior Vice President of Health Solutions, the new data platform will actually encompass many existing data standards that the medical community is already familiar with, such as SNOMED, CPT, LOINC, or ICD-10.

However, it will be taken one step further because it will help users gain access to patient-centered data, such as patient goals, function, and state, which are essential for an accurate assessment of patient wellness. McGraw said that IHMI is expected to "build bridges with health technology leaders and bring the physician voice into the innovation space”.

IHMI will help physicians access specific patient information in the patient's record more efficiently by putting together patient care models which can be easily deployed and the biggest advances in IT technology that target protocols and workflows.

This type of interdepartmental collaboration could lead to technological breakthroughs that would deliver sensitive information that is relevant to the specific needs of a group of users. Similar developments where technology can help facilitate certain red tape processes are made every day.

For instance, in 2017 a tech solution was made available that can issue an electronic Vietnam visa for US citizens upon demand. This will simplify the visa release process tremendously and hopefully, the model will be implemented for visa systems in other countries as well. In the same way, IHMI is meant as a technological advancement that could then be applied internationally.

To conclude, the Integrated Healthcare Model Initiative will have the titans of healthcare and IT working together for the development of comprehensive big data analysis platform that will fuel the optimization of the American healthcare system. It remains to be seen when the platform will be made accessible to the medical community, but it has the potential to fuel ground-breaking advancements in patient care.

Why are companies so keenly focused on creating great user experience?

Ultimately, the answer is quite simple. It’s ROI! In fact, research shows that a great UI can boost conversions as much as 200%. Well, ROI and the opportunities that technology and data has brought us.

Think about it. The importance of creating great customer experience predates computers. For example, people have always appreciated the following:

• Well organized stores with easy to find merchandise

• Knowledgeable customer service staff and salespeople

• Servers who remember a customer’s regular order

• Helpful suggestions that are based on the customer’s preferences and history

• Interactions and experiences that simply work quickly effortlessly and effectively

• Experiences and actions that bring pleasure

Historically, have not only appreciated these things, they’ll even pay more for better experiences. Early user experience efforts include Henry Ford’s creation of mass production technology, Walt Disney’s carefully designed strategies to make his parks a joyful place, and Don Norman’s pioneering work at Apple focusing on functionality and usability over aesthetics. In fact, it was Norman who coined the term ‘user experience’.

What’s slowly developed in recent years is that companies can now do a much better job of pinpointing the experiences that customers want. Even better, they can do it more effectively, and much less intrusively. Credit for this can largely go to big data and artificial intelligence.

The Role of AI in User Experience

A large part of the conversation about user experience and AI centers around chatbots. The idea is that AI driven chatbots can become more intelligent over time as they receive input from consumers as well as data from other sources. While this is true, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Artificial intelligence also plays a role in the creation of websites that deliver great user experiences. For example, The Grid uses artificial intelligence to help create sites with great UX nearly automatically. Netflix allows AI to do the grunt work of creating user experience by creating a framework of algorithms and rules that AI technology can work with. In the meantime, that leaves designers and others time to focus on the more human elements of user experience.

While AI plays a role in UX beyond the bot, that doesn’t mean the bot should be ignored. Chatbots are an emerging technology that have and will continue to improve the user experience. No, they aren’t perfect. There’s no doubt that most of have rolled our eyes at the seeming cluelessness of bots. However, thanks to advances in the way that bots process natural language, the ability for bots to respond and react appropriately to what people input is rapidly improving.

Paul Gordon at 720 Digital specializes in conversion rate optimization. He says, “Bots are no longer intrusive sales machines. They are intelligent. They possess the ability to interact, to show insight, and to meet customers’ needs when they interact. This is an exciting technology that will continue to improve UX down the road.”

Today, social media platforms are assisting businesses in their effort to use bots to improve UX. This includes the ability to deliver personalized content as well as deliver relevant information and answer questions.

Considering that most people have only five apps on their phone that they use on a regular basis, and that the most used of those five is likely to be a messenger app, there’s no reason to ignore the role that AI can play in messenger apps whether it’s facilitating purchase, acting in a customer service role, or simply providing information.

Big Data And UX

Another asset in the ability for businesses to deliver great user experience is the improved ability to collect and store data. This data can then be used to inform decisions about creating better UX.

One way that startups are able to use data to improve UX is by collecting that data in less obtrusive ways. Analytics software can deliver data about  true consumer behavior. Not only that, sometimes big data can gleen better information about customer information than customer feedback through surveys and other instruments.

Of course surveys are a valuable means of connecting with customers. Market research is also an apparent tool for reaching out to the users. However, once again it’s intrusive and requires  customers to  provide input that they would not otherwise give freely.

Businesses have been collecting and using data from customers and other sources for years. However, thanks to analytics they can identify the right questions to ask in the first place, and also identify where data collection might require a bit of sensitivity. After all, at the end of the day businesses want customer data in the most convenient way possible.

What do Customers Really Want From UX

From the time they leave their homes, log into their computers, or walk into your store, customers really want just one thing. They want to be provided with easy, informative, and easy to connect experiences. More importantly, customers understand the value of CX. They want convenient, safe, and entertaining experiences.

With the online-based evolution of the IT world, moving apps to the cloud is a fundamental step in the future of technology. As the demand for app development for the cloud has increased more and more in the past years, specialized cloud-based platforms have been created to take apps from idea to URL.

Nowadays, web developers have several platforms that can optimize their work and enable them to make better apps for the cloud. In this article, we are going to tell you all about the rise of cloud-based platforms for app development, along with the benefits they bring, as well as their inevitable shortcomings.

The Demand for Cloud-Based Platforms

Moving an app to the cloud has become one of the most appealing ideas in the IT world because it is extremely convenient. Essentially, it entails running an app on the internet instead of the company's servers. As this idea grew to become a full-on sector of the IT world, three main types of cloud-based app development have been established. These are as follows:

1. IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service

The IaaS model entails that the app is created on the company's platform. Then, the entire app-platform bundle must be deployed to a cloud infrastructure. This is the most lucrative form of cloud-oriented app development because the developers working on these apps have their work cut out for them. However, the IaaS model provides them maximum flexibility, which could be essential when it comes to apps meant to suit very specific roles.

2. PaaS - Platform as a Service

This is the middle ground in cloud-based app development because it entails the use of a middleware platform, such as Heroku or Azure. The deployment process is then made to a cloud service that supports this platform.

The PaaS is becoming more and more popular because it offers developers with quite a bit of flexibility, but it significantly reduces the work they have to put in by providing them with specialized features that can optimize certain parts of the development process.

3. SaaS - Software as a Service

The SaaS model means creating cloud-based apps by using a pre-existing app the offers the required functionalities. The best example for this model is the full range of apps that allow users to log in using their Facebook accounts.

Instead of creating new data for the app's log-in system, developers can simply link it to the Facebook app. While this model is clearly convenient, it keeps developers somewhat limited because they need to adapt to existing apps.

While each of the three models has its own advantages and disadvantages, the highest demand has been observed for the PaaS model because it offers the best of both worlds. Developers have flexibility in the processes they choose to run, and the middleware platforms can help them reduce the work they put in.

The Main Roles of Middleware Cloud-Based Platforms in App Development

Middleware cloud-based platforms, such as Heroku, Microsoft Azure, AWS, OpenShift, and others, are all focused on increasing developer experience. These offer a set of specialized enterprise features that can optimize their work by making the development process more accessible.

By simplifying and speeding up the processes of deployment, app configuration, scaling, testing, and tuning, these platforms can let developers focus on the creative part of their jobs, rather than spending a lot of time on technicalities.

In fact, the most complicated part that developers have to get through is the deployment step because this determines how smoothly their apps will run in the cloud. This is where middleware platforms make a difference because they can make the entire deployment process far easier and thus increase developer experience significantly.

Making the shift between traditional programming languages such as Python, Javascript, or SQL, web-based frameworks specialized for development, such as Django, and middleware platforms is extremely easy and it will enhance the entire deployment process.

It is extremely easy to deploy Django to Heroku, for instance, precisely because the Heroku platform is made to run processes written in traditional programming languages. Then, it will make the transfer to the cloud as smooth as possible.

The Advantages of Middleware Platforms and PaaS

If this is the cloud-based app development model that show the biggest potential for enterprises, as well as start-ups, let us tell you more about the primary advantages boasted by PaaS and middleware platforms.

Optimization of Testing and Deployment

Whether you are using AWS, Azure, or Heroku, middleware platforms are meant to help web developers try various configurations of their app and run comprehensive tests to assess its performance and its compatibility with various cloud systems. This is an essential part of speeding up the deployment process and increasing developer experience.

Increased Focus on Business

By simplifying the app development process, companies can focus more on their core business targets. The PaaS model can optimize the web development department with minimal effort because middleware platforms are specially created to be suitable for any development system adapted for the cloud.

Dynamic Allocation

By simplifying the testing process, platforms like Azure and Heroku are not only useful for developing new apps, but also for creating new features for existing ones. If the developers can test these new features quickly and efficiently, they can implement them efficiently to their apps.

The Drawbacks of Middleware Platforms and PaaS

While these specialized platforms for cloud-based app development are on the rise, there are several aspects that must still be improved. While the drawbacks of middleware platforms are not significant, they can constitute issues for certain business models.

Limited Flexibility

While clearly more permissive than the SaaS model, PaaS platforms still keep web developers limited to a series of features. As such, this could prevent them from creating certain features that might be of interest to some businesses. This is why it is essential that these platforms are chosen in accordance with the company's needs.

Cybersecurity

As any emerging IT sector, Paas platforms require improved cybersecurity. As such, it is essential that companies stay in touch with vendors to have access to the latest updates to this middleware, as increasing security is one of the primary objectives for the optimization of these platforms.

As you can see, cloud-based applications are clearly an important part of the upcoming IT era. By using specialized platforms such as Heroku, Azure, or AWS, web developers can quickly make the transfer from traditional programming languages to cloud-optimized systems, thus maximizing the potential of the entire project.

You’ve finally done it. Your ecommerce site is ready to go live. Now, you can relax and wait for the orders to roll in. Can’t you?

Unfortunately, you can’t. In fact, the day you go live is the day the real work starts. Keeping your ecommerce site up and running, and profitable requires continual maintenance and monitoring.

Ensuring that your site is secure, and that it can handle the volume of transactions you anticipate is, of course, a primary concern. However, that’s something that the average business owner should anticipate and plan for. What many aren’t prepared for are the three most common challenges.

According to experts from Zfort Group, who have developed more than 150 ecommerce websites, there are three key challenges that remain common among all of them after they’ve launched. These are as follows:

Ensuring That Products are Presented in The Best Light Possible.

When a potential customer arrives on one of your product pages, that’s a big deal. It is the successful result of many efforts and investments including:

• Paid advertising

• Social media outreach

• Building trust and reputation

• Content marketing

It’s a real victory. The worst thing you can do is squander that by failing to deliver what the customer wants in that moment. Here’s the real challenge. You’ve got about 8 seconds to make a good impression. There are four things you can focus on to ensure this happens.

Product Images

The images on your product pages are going to register in the minds of your visitors before any of the text does. High quality images play a major role in whether or not customers will stay to read more, and whether or not they will convert.

Case studies have shown that larger images can increase conversions by up to 63%. Of course, it’s a no-brainer that images should be the highest possible quality. The rest isn’t so cut and dried. For example, there’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to the number of images that should be included on one of your product pages. That depends on the product you’re selling, and the needs of your customers. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Should the page show photos of various options such as color?

• Will customers benefit from seeing the product from different angles?

• Is my hero shot adequate?

• Would a zoom feature be beneficial?

There are other things to consider as well. Tagging images will help ensure they rank in searches. Keep image file names short but relevant. Use dashes to separate words. These Tweaks are important as 78% of SEO issues can be attributed to problems with images.

Product Descriptions

Clear, readable, and compelling product descriptions are also important. This is an area where it is imperative to prioritize the needs of the mobile consumer. Keep in mind that 44% of mobile users list the ability to read product descriptions clearly as extremely important.

When writing descriptions, focus on two things - features and benefits. Shoppers want to be able to quickly discern whether or not your product will meet their needs. A scannable list of features will facilitate this. The other side to this equation are benefits. Focus on describing ways in which your product can add value or convenience to the lives of your customers.

Finally, keep social proof in mind. You know your product best, but shoppers want to know what others think as well. To be certain, many  will read reviews before making a purchase. Consider embedding positive reviews about your product directly onto your web page.

Cross References

Use cross reference links and data to improve customer experience, and provide information about your products. Here are some examples:

• List relevant product and part numbers, especially if they have changed.

• Link to complementary products and accessories that you sell.

• Inform shoppers of compatibility with other products.

• Let shoppers know if your product is a workable alternative for a product sold by others.

Page Performance

Consumers expect your product pages to load within 2 seconds. If load time exceeds 3 seconds, you’re going to start losing people. Fortunately, there are several things you can do to improve page performance. These include, image compression, enabling caching, optimizing images for SEO for starters.

Why page performance matters so much? Well, if you are experimenting with paid advertising, fast page loading speed will result in more page views, and ultimately higher conversions, especially for mobile users.

Keeping products updated regularly, and the time involved in that.

Stagnancy is the enemy. If you don’t update your products regularly to meet the changing needs and wants of your customers, you’re going to lose sales. In addition to this, your growth going forward will also depend on your ability to select and offer new products that meet your customer’s needs. Pay attention to customer feedback, and keep up with developments in your niche to keep your product offerings up to date. Here are some things to consider when determining whether or not to update or add new products to your site.

• Are customers asking for upgrades and changes?

• Are there new products arriving on the market that are complementary to the ones you sell?

• Have changes to industry standards or regulations occurred recently? Do your products need to be revised accordingly?

• Can you exploit new markets and opportunities by expanding your offerings?

Staying On Trend (with Holidays, News, Competitors, Offers, etc.)

Today’s consumers are a bit spoiled. They are accustomed to receiving special offers and discounts to commemorate virtually any event you can think of. Whether it’s Christmas, the beginning of the school year, or some other event, you can count on your competitors holding some sort of sale. Plan ahead so that you can remain competitive.

Keeping up with holidays and current events also offers you some important opportunities. Not only can you impress your customers with special offers, you can also reach them with relevant content as well. Then, there’s the opportunity to offer select merchandise for holidays and other special events.

Your ecommerce site is a bit like a needy pet. It requires constant feeding, attention, and nurturing. By staying on top of the three challenges mentioned above, you can help ensure consistent growth and profitability.

Bitcoin and blockchain. It’s still a mystery to many, including C-level corporate executives. And yet Bitcoin has come to its own, as a cryptocurrency, having closed on October 3, at a price of about $4300/coin. It has become a major disruptor of traditional financial institutions and financial transactions, despite naysayers like Jamie Dimon.

But it is not the bitcoin currency itself that is causing such a stir. It is the technology behind the transactions – blockchain. And it is this technology that is now capturing the attention of a variety of industries, not just financial.

Just What is Blockchain?

Consider that financial transactions in traditional banks are all housed in huge databases of ledgers. When a customer wishes to access his/her account online, he can see every transaction over a selected period of time and be given a real-time balance. This is a personal banking ledger and it is a part of the larger ledger databases that are reconciled overnight, every night.

Here is the issue: these ledgers can be altered, either by those who have digital permission to access them or, unfortunately, by hackers. They are therefore not unalterable, permanent records.

Blockchain technology was developed to make financial ledgers permanent and unalterable. Here is how that works:

All activity (e.g., a banking transaction) is entered as a part of a block of transactions over a specified period of time (e.g. ten minutes). These transactions are verified by multiple people, and the block of activity is then “hooked” to the previous block and to the block that follows it. Blocks are permanent and can never be altered once verified and entered. No one has permission to access and modify, and, if anyone did attempt to do so, the other verifiers would immediately know and shut that down.

The use of blockchain transactions is especially attractive to enterprises that wish to do business in countries in which financial institutions and currencies are unstable. Using a cryptocurrency and an unalterable ledger of financial transactions keeps such transactions safe and secure from corrupt governments as well.

Enter Ethereum

Ethereum is another blockchain organization that began with a cryptocurrency of sorts (called an ether), and individuals can purchase Ethereum tokens just as they do Bitcoins. But these individuals or organizations can use ethers to conduct far more than just financial transactions, as is the case with Bitcoin.

Early Ethereum Blockchain Adopters Have “Shown the Way”

The UN has been an early adopter of Ethereum, with the following activities:

• Getting financial aid to organizations in countries with unstable/corrupt governments and financial institutions.

• Monitoring the actual activities of countries in climate change initiatives. Right now, there is discussion of using Ethereum blockchain to record the activities of all signers to the Paris Climate Change Accord, as well as the trading of carbon assets. Interestingly, IBM and a company called Energy Blockchain Lab are collaborating to use blockchain technology to record the carbon trading market in China.

• Permanent record of people’s identities. More than a billion people are unregistered as citizens of any country. This means that they are not eligible for critical benefits of their home countries. The ID2020 Alliance is a new UN organization with a goal of providing everyone in the world a digital identity, using Ethereum blockchain. In fact, Microsoft and Accenture have already developed a prototype for doing just this.

Corporations are Coming On Board

The prospects of creating blockchains through Ethereum for a host of business activities is what is now attracting corporations to this organization. In addition to financial transactions, Ethereum has opened its technology to a host of organizations and corporations, and all sorts of activity can be permanently recorded on the back of Ethereum blockchain technology. Ethers can be purchased by corporations for the use of this technology.

Consider the following corporate uses of Ethereum blockchain technology:

• All of a company’s financial records can be housed in unalterable blocks, not only for its own use but for “proof” if ever needed for tax or legal purposes

• Personnel records and all personnel actions can be entered into blocks and never changed – a permanent record that can never be altered by anyone

• Financial transactions between suppliers, wholesalers, and customers can be memorialized permanently

• Contracts become permanently recorded and cannot be altered. And any agreed upon modifications to contracts can be entered in blocks of the chain as well.

• Corporations that deal in Bitcoin can enjoy the collaborative effort between the two blockchain technologies as well as the use of Eidoo.io, a clearinghouse of sorts, which simplifies buying, transferring, and exchanging cryptocurrencies by both individuals and corporations.

• Permanent, distributed public ledgers makes blockchain technology a “natural” for supply chain management. If a company has multiple suppliers from multiple states and countries, it is hard to keep track of them all, when orders were placed and fulfilled.

• Smart contracts. These are a major part of the Ethereum technology. All parties have access to all terms, and, because the record is permanent, the contracts enforce themselves.

The potentials for blockchain technology are just now beginning to be understood by many more organizations and enterprises than just the financial industry. Already, education is being disrupted, by allowing a permanent irrefutable record of students’ coursework, especially when it comes from multiple institutions and some online. And, no matter what industry niche corporations are in, the use of blockchain can provide security, consistency, permanent records of every transaction and internal activity – records that are publicly available and that provide a transparency that has not previously been there.

Once business owners and C-level executives see the value of blockchain technology, and what it can do to streamline and provide transparency within their operations.