The tool, called SymTrak, is a patient intake survey that looks for a set of symptoms that do not necessarily correlate to a specific chronic condition. Instead, SymTrak developers created the tool to track for symptoms that are tied to various chronic conditions, ideally to point clinicians in the right direction when assessing patients for potential illnesses.
The symptoms SymTrak tests for include pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety, and depression.
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The growing cyber threat to physician practices
May 15, 2019
Right now, medical practices are being attacked by cybercriminals.
The sophistication and volume of attacks is increasing, according to cybersecurity experts, and practices have to be more vigilant than ever to protect themselves, even if at times it seems fruitless. “A doctor running a small practice might say, ‘If Blue Cross of Tennessee can’t protect itself, how can I?’” says Rob Tennant, director, health information technology policy for the Medical Group Management Association. “But you can’t just throw your arms up and say there’s nothing that can be done. If at the minimum you take some low-impact security steps, that should be sufficient, but always have a contingency plan so that if you run into a hack, a fire, or flood, you have a way out that ensures your practice continues.”
Cybercriminals have many resources and are highly knowledgeable about how technology works and its vulnerabilities, experts say. But they also tend to take the path of least resistance, meaning the harder they have to work to hack a practice, the more likely they are to move on to an easier target. As the bad guys refine their tactics, practices must continue to be vigilant, especially against the most common threats.
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Viewpoint: 7 factors that negatively impact physicians' EHR use
Jackie Drees -
Wednesday, May 15th, 2019 Print | Email
American Medical Association researchers, led by Michael A. Tutty, PhD, AMA vice president of professional satisfaction and practice sustainability, outlined seven factors that can negatively influence physicians' experience with EHRs:
1. Government regulations.
2. Payment and quality reporting.
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24/7 text messaging services launched to support those in crisis
A new text messaging service to support people in crisis has been launched by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Andrea Downey 15 May 2019
The Shout helpline operates 24/7 and connects people in need – those feeling suicidal or suffering a mental health crisis – with trained volunteers.
It allows people to have a conversation from anywhere, at any time, including at school, at work or at home.
While the service is for everyone to use, it’s particular focus is on young people who often prefer text messaging to communicate.
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PDMP Seems to Be the Heart of Health IT’s Effort to Address the Opioid Crisis
May 16, 2019
I’m always intrigued by anything that talks about what healthcare can do to help with the opioid crisis. So, I had to attend when
KLAS Research offered a session on the Opioid Crisis at their Arch Collaborative event.
One thing has become clear to me. Everywhere is the epicenter of the opioid crisis.
Basically, no one was spared from the opioid crisis. Everyone is dealing with the challenges associated with it and maybe that’s a good thing that everyone feels like they live in the epicenter of the crisis since every community needs to work on it if we’re going to make a dent.
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HIT Think How providers can gain value from real-time info in emergencies
Published May 17 2019, 5:29pm EDT
At hospitals, the margin for error is razor thin, and during unexpected emergencies— from natural disasters to shootings—seconds can spell the difference between life and death.
The faster hospital teams have access to relevant, high-quality information, the faster they can mobilize; the faster they mobilize, the quicker they can get to work saving lives.
Yet, hospital operations and emergency management teams face significant barriers to obtaining information rapidly, especially during unpredictable breaking incidents. Not only can the volume of information be overwhelming (even for those with crisis management tools), but communication between hospitals and agencies is often fragmented, contradictory or delayed. This can significantly impair decisions surrounding resource allocation and emergency planning.
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Personal data of more than 4,000 potential blood donors leaked, says Singapore Red Cross
Investigations to determine the cause of the incident are ongoing but preliminary findings show that a weak administrator password could have left the website vulnerable to the unauthorised access.
May 16, 2019 05:13 AM
The personal data of 4,297 people has been compromised after a website hack, according to a statement by the Singapore Red Cross (SRC) on May 16.
Last Wednesday (May 8), SRC said it was alerted by its web developer to an incident of unauthorised access to the part of its website which supports the recruitment of interested blood donors. Information of 4,297 people who registered their interest on the website was compromised. Their names, contact numbers, e-mails, declared blood types, preferred appointment dates and times and preferred locations for blood donations were leaked.
Investigations to determine the cause of the incident are ongoing but preliminary findings show that a weak administrator password could have left the website vulnerable to the unauthorised access, said SRC.
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EHR training is biggest predictor of user satisfaction, experts say
A better clinician experience makes for higher-quality patient care, according to a new report from KLAS' Arch Collaborative, which makes the case for bigger investment in end-user education.
May 17, 2019 03:56 PM
A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Informatics takes aim at the notion that lackluster user experience is an essential part of electronic health record usage.
Instead, it emphasizes the importance of thoughtful education and training processes, sensitive to the unique needs of physicians and nurses, to enabling increased EHR satisfaction.
WHY IT MATTERS
The
study , from KLAS' Arch Collaborative, which comprises academics, providers and other informatics experts, polled more than 72,000 clinicians at more than 150 hospitals and health systems nationwide.
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71% of medical devices still run on Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows mobile
Medical IoT devices carry significant cybersecurity risks, according to a Forescout report.
The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has exploded across the healthcare industry, with connected medical devices giving providers the ability to improve patient care, provide better clinical data, increase efficiency, and reduce healthcare costs. However, the rapid adoption of connected medical devices has largely failed to consider cybersecurity impacts, according to a
Wednesday report from Forescout.
The report examined Forescout Device Cloud data from 75 healthcare deployments with more than 10,000 virtual local area networks (VLANs) and 1.5 million devices. The variety of device operating systems in use makes managing security a challenge, it found. Some 40% of device deployments had more than 20 different operating systems on their medical VLANs. More than half of these (59%) were Windows operating systems, and 41% were a mix of others, including mobile, embedded firmware, and network infrastructure.
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Survey, FP Expert Agree: Interest in Telehealth on the Rise
May 14, 2019 10:10 am
Michael Devitt – Use of telehealth is increasing steadily throughout the medical profession, and family physicians who aren't currently using the technology may want to consider doing so for a number of reasons, including as a possible way to reduce burnout and attract new patients.
"We believe this 2019 physician survey begins to paint a clearer picture of the trajectory of telehealth adoption among physicians and the role key organizations will play in its advancement," the firm stated in its report.
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Express Scripts maps plans for inaugural digital health formulary
Published May 16 2019, 4:57pm EDT
The good news about digital health? There are plenty of new, promising technologies emerging. The bad news? It’s hard to know what to choose.
Bringing order to the dizzying array of personal health technologies and interventions is the aim of Express Scripts, which is introducing a standalone digital health formulary, which it expects to make available next year.
Executives of Express Scripts—a Cigna company—say the new formulary will help payers ensure the safety, effectiveness and usability of digital health technology tools made available to their members. It will be a curated list of technology- and software-enabled applications and devices that help patients prevent, manage or treat a medical condition.
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As technology proliferates, human factors matter more than ever for healthcare
Even as EHRs, telemedicine and AI continue to transform clinical practice, certain core human qualities – civility, respect, empathy, collaboration – are "what make us valuable."
May 15, 2019 11:31 AM
CLEVELAND – At the Cleveland Clinic and HIMSS Patient Experience Summit on Wednesday, two experts showed how skills of human interaction are essential to the success of organizational missions.
Technology is transforming communication, and artificial intelligence is becoming more mature and capable every day. But some bedrock human qualities are what will truly enable positive transformation for healthcare organizations: civility, respect, empathy, collaboration, storytelling.
Christine Porath, associate professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business and author of Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace; and Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large at Fortune and author of Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will, offered consecutive presentations here on Wednesday morning that shared some major themes.
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Avoidable Hospital Deaths Dip to 161K, Leapfrog Study Finds
Researchers compared the latest hospital quality ratings to rates observed three years prior, finding both progress and opportunities for much more improvement.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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The estimated number of avoidable deaths in U.S. hospitals each year has dropped, according to updated analysis prepared for The Leapfrog Group by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers.
Matt Austin, PhD, an assistant professor in the school's Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, and Jordan Derk, MPH, used the latest data from Leapfrog's semiannual hospital safety grades to estimate that there are 161,250 such deaths each year, down from the 206,000 deaths they estimated three years prior, according to
their report .
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California Funds Effort Connecting EMS To Hospitals Via HIE
May 14, 2019
While health data sharing has reached most participants in the healthcare system, it’s not often that you see EMS workers have access to patient medical records. Moreover, rather than entering up-to-the-moment data on patients being transported into an EHR, most of the time EMTs end up calling in updates on patients and supplying status information verbally to emergency department personnel.
This has never seemed like a particularly good situation to me, and apparently, they’re doing something about it in California. Specifically, the state’s Emergency Medical Services Authority has agreed to issue a $4.9 million
grant to an HIE to connect EMS units to an HIE network.
The EMSA has awarded the grant to Manifest MedEx, whose 400 healthcare organizations members include Scripps Health, AHMC Healthcare and Health Net. The HIE provides real-time notifications of hospital admissions, discharges and transfer activity to participants, along with making seven years of searchable medical record history available.
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70% of medical devices will be running unsupported Windows operating systems by January: report
May 15, 2019 1:55pm
The number of connected medical devices being used in hospitals and healthcare organizations continues to grow at a rapid pace, representing a vulnerable surface for cyberattacks.
Raising the cyberrisks even further, 70% of devices in healthcare organizations will be running unsupported Windows operating systems by January 2020, according to a new cybersecurity report.
Microsoft support for devices running Windows 7, Windows 2008 or Windows Mobile is planned to expire by January 14, according to a
cybersecurity report from Forescout, a medical device and internet of things (IoT) cybersecurity company. Running unsupported operating systems poses a risk that may expose vulnerabilities and has the potential to impact regulatory compliance.
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Most health IT-related safety events lead to staff training rather than technology fixes
May 15, 2019 1:31pm
While frontline staff report IT-related safety events, health systems often focus on staff training to resolve the issues rather than address the underlying technology problems, according to a recent study.
Plenty of
studies have pointed to the link between the usability of health IT systems—particularly electronic health records (EHRs)—and patient safety. But when researchers from MedStar Health's National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare analyzed more than 2,600 patient safety event reports related to health IT, they found almost two-thirds of those reports (64%) did not describe any actions taken to resolve the issue, according to the study published in the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management.
In most cases, when the issue was resolved the health systems focused on additional training and education for healthcare staff rather than engaging IT support to address the technology glitches. Only 45% of reports cited an IT-oriented solution to the issues, and 7% addressed the patient safety issue by establishing a new policy.
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Digital Health: Promise, Perils, and Perspective
By Stephanie Crabb, MA
The age of digital transformation across many industry sectors is in full swing. While healthcare often paces behind others when it comes to technology innovation and adoption, this is not the case with digital health—start-ups in this sector raised a record $14.6 billion in 2018.
1 But what does digital transformation encompass in healthcare? This article explores the current state of digital health—the business case, the digital health landscape, and the various barriers to its adoption and sustainability.
Digital Health Defined
There are many different definitions of digital health that contribute to the functional definition employed for this article: digital health is the convergence of digital technologies with health, healthcare, and living to enhance healthcare delivery and make approaches to health and wellness more personalized and precise.
Digital Transformation and Digital Health Investment
There are several drivers that underpin the investments the industry is seeing—in digital transformation, generally, and in digital health, specifically. Enabling more efficient clinical practice, delivering products and services more quickly while accelerating innovation, and the empowerment of consumers are all high priorities in the industry.
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Telemental Health Study Finds Value in a Hybrid Telehealth Platform
An analysis of mental health treatment options in rural Missouri finds that a hybrid telehealth platform combining in-person care with virtual visits can improve time to care and follow-up care rates, when compared in traditional office care.
May 13, 2019 - While many studies look to compare virtual visits against in-person care, a new report suggests a combination of telehealth and office visits may be best in helping rural Americans access mental health services.
A study conducted by Relias and Genoa Healthcare, a Washington-based provider of behavioral health services, finds that a telemedicine platform that complements in-person mental health care with virtual visits reduces the initial time to treatment by seven days, an important statistic when taking into account the patient’s need for care following an ER visit or hospitalization. In addition, the hybrid model increased the number of follow-up outpatient visits by one-third, thereby improving access to care.
The study found no significant difference, meanwhile, in medication adherence rates or hospital readmissions between the two forms of care.
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Grieve: FHIR has disrupted health IT, but not healthcare
Published May 15 2019, 5:01am EDT
HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standard has succeeded in disrupting health information technology and standards, but not healthcare’s “broken” processes.
That’s the contention of Grahame Grieve, architect of the open health data standard and HL7’s FHIR product director, who spoke earlier this month at the Regenstrief Institute.
“Our goals are threefold—to disrupt healthcare IT standards, to disrupt healthcare IT and to disrupt healthcare,” Grieve told the audience. “We set out to disrupt healthcare IT standards—that’s in the bag. We set out to disrupt healthcare IT—that’s changing. We want to disrupt healthcare—that has not started yet. Our focus now is turning more to healthcare rather than healthcare IT.”
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Latest report highlights insider threat to health plans’ data
Published May 15 2019, 2:34pm EDT
Last year was a significant one for health plans when it came to data breaches and breach settlements.
For example, the largest health data breach settlement in history was paid out in October, when Anthem, surrendered $16 million in fines to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for the breach of 79 million patient records in 2014-2015.
And at the end of last year, OCR named three health plans among the top 10 breaches it was investigating, including one involving the alleged unauthorized access or disclosure of 1.2 million records by the Employees Retirement System of Texas Health Plan. Also under investigation were the California Department of Developmental Services Health Plan and CNO Financial Group, for exposing more than half a million records each, breached by theft and unauthorized access and disclosure, respectively.
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Board members say security information is among top concerns
Published May 15 2019, 4:12pm EDT
Fewer than 15 percent of board directors across several industries, including healthcare, say they are satisfied with the cybersecurity information they receive from management.
As a response to the results of that survey, from the National Association of Corporate Directors, some basic information can help organization executives to improve board-level communication about cybersecurity issues.
The primer, compiled by the corporate directors association and the National Cyber Security Alliance, offers tips to help directors hold management accountable for performance. Board members should have long lists of questions for CIOs, chief information security officers and other data security professionals about security, the organizations say.
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HIT Think How tech can improve supply chain performance for providers
Published May 15 2019, 4:30pm EDT
Now more than ever, healthcare organizations are prioritizing cost control, while focusing on enhancing patient care. This overarching goal is challenging hospitals and healthcare systems to achieve these countering objectives.
However, new technologies are uncovering supply chain management opportunities to reduce healthcare supply cost and deliver quality care. With advanced software, hospitals can transform basic processing with the right resources that are both analytical and patient-focused.
This adoption of new technologies is key for hospital longevity. By applying Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine learning (ML) and augmented analytics, healthcare providers can strategically optimize inventory needs, automate processes and improve patient outcomes, leading to a successful solution for budget-conscious CFOs, healthcare practitioners and emergent patients.
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Private hospitals to display prices of drugs, says Thai Government
With the new measure, private hospitals, manufacturers, importers and wholesalers are required to report sales prices to the Department of Internal Trade.
May 15, 201904:06 AM
Private hospitals in Thailand will have to display the price of medicines so that consumers can make better-informed decisions prior to purchase, starting from this week.
According to a
report by the National News Bureau of Thailand, the country’s Ministry of Commerce has implemented a new measure after announcing medicine and medical supplies as controlled items, requiring hospitals to display pricing of some 3,000 items via QR codes allowing the general public to make comparisons.
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CMS Asks Consumers To Share Their Medical Record Access Complaints
May 13, 2019
CMS has launched an effort asking consumers for stories on their ability to access and share their medical information. It seems to be part and parcel with the agency’s MyHealthEData initiative, a broad initiative focused on giving every American control of the medical data which was launched last May.
The current campaign was kicked off in a tweet by CMS Administrator Seema Verma:
Verma’s tweet sparked an interesting conversation about such access among other Twitter users. For example, Matthew Taber noted that mobile health access is making things easy for him:
Another user, Jen Graff, pointed out that even if patients do have access, not all medical record data is made equal:
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Digital healthcare is more attractive to tech-savvy consumers
Those who place a large amount of trust in technology are more likely to also put their trust in digital doctors
Though the growing arena of digital health comes with some
concerns for healthcare officials, researchers from Penn State University have discovered an interesting trend among consumers who might consider using digital doctors.
According to their study, the researchers found that consumers are more likely to trust digital healthcare if they also trust technology more broadly, and their own ability to utilize technology.
“Doctors are limited by their human bandwidth, by their experience, knowledge, and even state of mind from minute to minute,”
said researcher S. Shyam Sundar. “In contrast, machines can be programmed to ‘think’ of all the possible conditions that a patient’s symptoms could point to, and they never get tired. Some level of automation is clearly needed.”
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As health tech innovation moves forward, who is being left out?
The digital health industry has much work to do when it comes to developing technologies for underserved populations, including people of color, the LGBTQ community and women.
May 10, 2019
The problems and opportunities
“I would say communities of color, and frankly underserved communities of any color, are being left out of this conversation and the technology shifts,” Silas Buchanan, CEO of the Institute for eHealth Equity, told MobiHealthNews.
But there is hope. Buchanan said the emerging focus on environmental and social factors in healthcare has put a new spotlight on meeting the needs of every community.
“With this increased focus on social determinants of health, there will be much more attention given to those populations and maybe the ideators and the innovators will be more thoughtful to those populations,” Buchanan said.
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HIT Think Why the ‘Haves’ are still winning in American healthcare
Published May 14 2019, 4:54pm EDT
Ideology is a beguiling mistress. When she winks and showers rewards on the faithful, they’re much more likely to focus on successes over failures moving forward, even if the latter vastly outnumber the former.
My use of the word “ideology” here is intentional. I come from rather humble beginnings and have experienced the benefits that a market-based capitalist system offers to those willing to work hard and color inside the lines. I’ve earned a level of prosperity my parents could only dream of.
And let’s not kid ourselves—nothing succeeds like success. As my personal net worth has increased, the opportunities have multiplied to increase it even more. Often without solicitation, I receive offers that I absolutely would not have had earlier in life—opportunities that are certainly not available to the masses. I understand why our system rewards the rewarded, but I also understand that it often penalizes the most vulnerable.
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How one doc fought back against physician burnout
Too many well-meaning providers are "yessing" themselves into serious overwork, putting their health and their patients' health at risk, says one doctor who learned that the hard way – and did something to fix it.
May 14, 2019 05:22 PM
CLEVELAND – Like most physicians, Thomas Jenike, MD, began practicing medicine because he cared deeply about other human beings and wanted to help them.
So, for instance, even though it's above and beyond the typical call of duty, it makes sense that Jenike cared enough about his patients to give them all his cell phone number and tell them to call whenever they need him.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," said Jenike with a wry laugh at the Cleveland Clinic and HIMSS Patient Experience Summit on Tuesday.
For that matter, it's only natural that Jenike – who now serves as chief human experience officer at North Carolina-based Novant Health – was always happy to say yes whenever his colleagues would ask him to take on this extra task or join that new committee.
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Digital health startups worth $7.6 billion are set to IPO, breaking a 3-year drought. Here's what 5 top VCs are keeping an eye on.
Lydia Ramsey
May 15, 2019, 12:04 AM
The window appears to be opening for digital health companies looking to go public. Companies like Livongo, SmileDirectClub, Health Catalyst, and Ancestry reportedly could hold initial public offerings in 2019. If they do, it will be the first time a digital health company has gone public since 2016. We spoke to VCs about what they’re tracking with this latest batch.
A new class of digital health companies could soon hit the public markets.
At least four health-tech firms, worth a combined $US7.6 billion, are reportedly gearing up for initial public offerings this year.
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May 10, 2019 12:42 PM
Healthcare data breaches reach record high in April
Providers, health plans and their business associates reported 44 data breaches to the federal government last month.
That's the highest number of healthcare breaches reported in a single month since HHS' Office for Civil Rights began maintaining its online database of healthcare breaches in 2010, surpassing the previous record—exactly one year ago, April 2018—when healthcare groups reported 42 breaches to the agency.
In spite of the record number of incidents reported last month, April experienced a downtick in the number of people who had data exposed. Healthcare breaches reported in April compromised data from 686,953 people, down 29% from the 963,794 people affected by breaches reported in March. Two breaches reported in April each exposed data on more than 100,000 people.
The largest breach, which compromised data on up to 206,695 people, involved a ransomware attack at Doctors' Management Service, a company that provides medical billing services to hospitals and physician practices. Doctors' Management Service reported the data breach to the OCR on April 22, two years after the incident began.
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Congress Grills ONC on Privacy Concerns Posed by Third-Party Apps
At the Senate HELP Committee on the 21st Century Cures Act, Senators expressed concern that not enough is being done to protect patient data privacy with apps – a component to the info blocking rule.
May 08, 2019 - Privacy, especially around third-party apps, was a key focus during Tuesday’s Senate
HELP Committee on the 21st Century Cures Act, with leaders from Congress, the Office of the National Coordinator, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services all expressing concern for protecting patient data.
In March, ONC issued its proposed information blocking rule designed to fuel interoperability. A crucial component of the rule lies with standards-based APIs. At the time, some industry stakeholders shared concerns about some of the rule’s
elements that could pose privacy and security risks to patient data.
As ONC and CMS continue to drive interoperability and establish the info blocking rule, third-party apps will play an important part in empowering patients with access to their data. However, at the same time, those same apps pose a serious risk to patient privacy: a problem shared by both Senators and ONC Chief Don Rucker, MD.
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Data analytics tops venture capital investment in first quarter
Published May 13 2019, 6:00pm EDT
Data analytics is drawing the most venture capital dollars from investors who are putting dollars in healthcare technology, gaining $557 million in the first quarter of this year.
That’s according to Mercom Group’s first quarter venture capital report. The independent research firm also listed mHealth apps and telemedicine as second and third with investors, spending $392 million and $220 million, respectively, the study shows. Healthcare booking came in fourth at $177 million, followed by clinical decision support at $107 million.
Digital health practice-focused companies raised $926 million in 66 deals in the first quarter and accounted for about 46 percent of the total $2 billion in funding raised worldwide, the study shows. Consumer-focused companies raised $1.1 billion in 83 deals and accounted for 54 percent of the total funding raised during the same period.
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Bitkom study: Germans are in favour of eHealth
Newly-published survey indicates that nearly half of Germans polled believe that the medical care of the future will be digital.
May 13, 2019 05:24 AM
More than 45% of Germans are convinced that the medical care of the future will be digital at least in part - primarily for cost reasons, but also in terms of added value for patients, according to a study published in May by Bitkom President Achim Berg.
For the representative survey, Bitkom Research posed questions on behalf of the Bitkom Digital Association, depending on the issue, to up to 1,005 Germans aged 16 and over. The role of eHealth and digital was examined to identify their potential role in the future of the German health care system.
Results of the study indicate that two out of three Germans want to use electronic patient records (65%), as well as ePrescriptions (63%) as soon as they are available. Nearly half also see the digitisation of the health landscape, with its associated online and additional services, as a necessary development.
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New Zealand’s MOH to open up national health data with FHIR
The staged release of National Health Index and Health Practitioner Index production FHIR APIs is planned from mid-2020.
May 13, 2019 12:19 AM
New Zealand’s Ministry of Health will provide access to two core national systems - the National Health Index (
NHI ) and Health Practitioner Index (
HPI ) – using FHIR interfaces.
Group manager digital strategy and investment Darren Douglass said that by improving access to these core data sets as FHIR resources, the Ministry expects to make it easier for healthcare organisations and vendors to use them within their health applications.
The staged release of NHI and HPI production FHIR APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) is planned from mid-2020.
“New Zealand has adopted the HL7 FHIR (Health Level 7, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically as a core component of our interoperability architecture and standards, along with SNOMED CT and other health terminology services,” said Douglass.
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Kaiser Tackles Social Determinants of Health Through EHR Interface With Community Organizations
4 ways this initiative may impact healthcare for millions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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In three years when one of
Kaiser Permanente 's members has a need related to social determinants of health, a referral to an appropriate community organization will be as simple as ordering a test from within the electronic health record (EHR). And, once the platform and network are established, the Oakland, California, nonprofit integrated health system plans to open the "Thrive Local" program to other interested health plans and health systems.
To launch this initiative Kaiser Permanente is partnering with
Unite Us , which develops software that connects health and social service providers through the EHR. By the first quarter of 2020, each of Kaiser's eight regions, which operate in eight states and the District of Columbia, and currently serve 12.2 million members, will have a pilot in effect. Kaiser is already engaged in other initiatives to address social determinants of health, such as
affordable housing .
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Hospitals look to computers to predict patient emergencies before they happen
May 13, 2019
C LEVELAND — Seven floors, and long odds, were stacked against John S. He was undergoing a test on the first floor of a Cleveland Clinic hospital when his nursing team — on the eighth floor — got a call, telling them the 57-year-old had developed a dangerously rapid heartbeat that was spiraling toward cardiac arrest.
It is a predicament that often ends badly. Only about 25 percent of U.S. patients survive when their hearts stop in hospitals. Crucial minutes elapse before help arrives, sometimes because alarms are missed amid the din of beeping monitors.
But the call that day didn’t come from within the hospital. It came from a darkened room in an office park several miles away, where a technician in the clinic’s Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) was watching the patient’s vital signs on a computer monitor and noticed the onset of ventricular tachycardia.
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Rattled by Cyberattacks, Hospitals Push Device Makers to Improve Security
Health systems are scrutinizing medical devices like infusion pumps and biopsy imaging tables for weaknesses
By Melanie Evans and Peter Loftus
May 12, 2019 8:00 a.m. ET
Hospitals are pushing medical-device makers to improve cyber defenses of their internet-connected infusion pumps, biopsy imaging tables and other health-care products as reports of attacks rise.
Rattled by recent global cyberattacks, U.S. hospitals are conducting tests to detect weaknesses in specific devices, and asking manufacturers to reveal the proprietary software running the products in order to identify vulnerabilities. In some cases, hospitals have canceled orders and rejected bids for devices that lacked safety features.
Hospitals, after a decade of racing to wire up their medical records and an explosion of internet-connected medical devices, are growing more aggressive with technology suppliers amid pressure to better defend against incursions that could threaten patients and cause costly disruptions. Credit-rating agency Moody’s Investors Service in February ranked hospitals as one of the sectors most vulnerable to cyberattacks.
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Top News – David Brailer
David Brailer, MD, PhD – the country’s first National Coordinator going back to 2004 –
urges support for HHS’s proposed interoperability rules. He says that $35 billion worth of incentive payments have made EHRs almost universal, but those systems “have failed miserably in bringing information to patients and consumers.”
Brailer notes that the federal government failed to make sure those EHRs could share information. He thinks it should have defined patient information as belonging to “the people whose bodies it comes from.”
Brailer concludes, “These rules, if implemented as proposed, will transform the experience of consumers. We will finally be able to gather all of our health information in one place and make sense of it. If we want to switch physicians, hospitals, or health plans, our data will move with us and we won’t have to fear retaliation. When we arrive at an emergency room, our information will be there. We will be able to use our personal information to pick the physician or health system that matches our needs. We can discover what new genetic therapies or advanced clinical trials might hold unique promise for us. These proposed rules are fundamentally necessary if we want to improve our health.”
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Weekly News Recap
DocuTAP and Practice Velocity merge
Harris Healthcare acquires Uniphy Health
The Chartis Group changes private equity owners
The Practice Fusion unit of Allscripts is served a criminal grand jury subpoena related to EHR certification and anti-kickback statute issues
Astria Health blames its EHR conversion and contracted RCM vendor for its Chapter 11 bankruptcy
HHS asks people to share their stories about obtaining copies of their health records or the sharing of them among providers
Grahame Grieve is named the winner of the 2019 Glaser Award
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Enjoy!
David.
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