Here are a few I came across last week.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
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CMS issues final rule on discharge planning: 3 things to know
Mackenzie Bean –
CMS finalized a rule Sept. 26 that revises discharge planning requirements for hospitals.
Three things to know:
1. Under the rule, hospitals must focus on patients' care goals and treatment preferences during the discharge planning process.
2. Hospitals must assist patients in selecting a post-acute provider by sharing relevant quality performance data for post-acute facilities, including readmission and patient fall rates.
3. The rule also requires hospitals to ensure each patient has access to an electronic version of their medical records.
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How IT will impact healthcare in the next decade
By HDM Staff
September 27, 2019, 1:12 a.m. EDT
The landscape of healthcare entering the new decade is immeasurably different than it was in 2010.
From an information technology perspective, electronic health records systems have become standard tools of the trade at almost all healthcare organizations. That’s a far cry from 2010, when a minority of hospitals and only a tiny fraction of physician practices had such systems in place.
And only 10 years ago, information technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality devices and precision medicine have moved from experimental to capacities that hold significant hope for impacting medical delivery in the new decade.
Beyond that, information technology has become an accepted way of delivering care in healthcare organizations. Problems still exist in determining how best to promote efficiency and augment the work of healthcare professionals with it, but few question the value—and potential payoff—that can come from its use.
Meanwhile, HIT likely will be called upon to help the industry as it inexorably moves to value-based care reimbursement approaches, in an effort to restrain healthcare costs, and improve the quality and efficacy of care that patients receive.
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Connected 'smart' communities will be a key part of 21st century healthcare
During National Health IT Week, three experts put the focus on how digital technologies and smart care approaches are already transforming population health and helping address social determinants.
By Mike Miliard
September 27, 2019 02:53 PM
As part of its National Health IT Week program, HIMSS presented a webinar this week exploring the advent of what it calls the "Smart Communities-Cities Movement."
Healthcare suddenly finds itself amid a paradigm shift, where a profusion of real-time clinical and social health data, broadband connectivity, personal devices, sensors, apps, digital therapeutics and more are transforming delivery away from acute care settings and into the larger community.
It's a fundamental change that's only going to be more pronounced in the years ahead as the demands of consumerism and value-based care, combined with ongoing advances in always-on technology, maintain the momentum toward new models of care.
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The new guidances are intended to provide clarity on which products are or are not subject to regulatory enforcement, and to bring the agency’s efforts into compliance with provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act.
FDA releases revised draft guidance on CDS software, final guidelines on ‘device’ definitions for software such as wellness apps
By Dave Muoio
September 26, 2019
The first is a draft guidance outlining categories of clinical decision support (CDS) products that would or would not require direct regulatory oversight from the agency. This is an update to a CDS draft guidance released in 2017, with the noteworthy addition of a risk-based categorization approach for determining enforcement over these tools.
“The agency received feedback from many stakeholders advising us on improvements that could be made to better clarify the agency’s oversight of CDS products,” Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Amy Abernethy wrote in a statement announcing the new documentation. “We heard you and worked to incorporate that important feedback.”
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Inside OSF Healthcare’s decision to incorporate cancer risk assessment software in its EHR
To help cut down cancer disparities and deaths, OSF HealthCare recently announced that it will be expanding its genetic cancer risk assessment software into its Epic electronic health record for primary care practices.
By Chuck Green
Sep 25, 2019 at 10:00 AM
Bloodlines, of course, run deep, which can place a blistering spotlight on those genetically at risk for conditions like cancer.
It’s prompted some medical facilities to incorporate genetics into their primary care setting to help individuals avert what could otherwise amount to a game of Russian Roulette with their lives.
To help cut down cancer disparities and deaths, OSF HealthCare, an integrated health care network, recently announced it’s in the early stages of rolling out this EHR integrated solution to primary care practices throughout the system. The software has been developed by CancerIQ, which is based in Chicago and develops genetic cancer risk assessment software.
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Best Buy sees growth in health care technology for elderly
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO 25 September 2019
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, known for selling TV sets, cellphones and laptops, is looking to health care as a big source of its future growth.
Best Buy Co. said Wednesday that in five years it hopes to provide 5 million seniors with health monitoring services, which can range from sensors placed throughout a home to a pendant worn around the neck. It currently provides the service to 1 million.
It’s part of the chain’s deeper push into the $3.5 trillion U.S. health care market and essential to its goal of reaching $50 billion in annual revenue by 2025.
The Minneapolis-based chain is tapping into an aging U.S. population, noting that two out of three seniors live with two or more chronic conditions and many want to stay at home.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/predictive-analytics-tool-increases-palliative-care-consultations
Predictive Analytics Tool Increases Palliative Care Consultations
Palliative Connect, a system powered by predictive analytics, is effective for increasing palliative care consultations for critically ill patients.
By Jessica Kent
September 26, 2019 - Researchers at Penn Medicine have developed a new predictive analytics tool that can help increase the number of palliative care consultations for seriously ill individuals, leading to improved quality of life for patients and their families.
Palliative care is specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness, researchers explained in a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Palliative care is appropriate for patients of any age and at any stage of illness, and research has shown that hospitals delivering timely, patient-centered palliative care can both improve the patient experience and reduce healthcare costs.
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Underperforming EHRs, consumer payments still worrying providers
September 26, 2019, 3:39 p.m. EDT
Information technology budgets are growing as providers focus on pressing needs to ensure modernization and economic stability.
The survey, from Navigant Consulting, finds that healthcare organizations are making new investments in areas such as robotic process automation, better electronic health record systems, revenue integrity and external collaboration for achieving revenue cycle improvements.
The survey for Navigant was conducted by the Healthcare Financial Management Association—it includes responses from 108 hospital and health system chief financial officers and revenue cycle executives.
Nearly two-thirds of provider respondents say they struggle to get optimal value from their EHRs and they can’t keep up with EHR upgrades, or they underuse available EHR functionality.
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Senator Paul introduces National Patient Identifier Repeal Act
September 27, 2019, 12:00 a.m. EDT
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is continuing his crusade to prevent members of Congress from lifting a 20-year ban on using federal funding for a unique patient identifier.
Paul has introduced the National Patient Identifier Repeal Act of 2019 in response to recent bipartisan efforts in the House of Representatives to overturn the prohibition.
In June, the House adopted an amendment to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2020, that would eliminate the ban.
Supporters of removing the prohibition were hoping the Senate would follow suit. However, Paul was able to keep legislative language banning federal funding for the unique patient identifier in last week’s Fiscal Year 2020 draft Labor-HHS appropriations bill.
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What’s Keeping Medical Practices Up At Night?
September 26, 2019
As I was recently thinking about the future of healthcare, I started to wonder how my own thoughts of what’s happening in healthcare aligned with those in the trenches. Rather than just think about it, I decided to reach out to a bunch of people to get their perspectives on what challenges they face. In this two part series, I’m going to share the responses from a medical practice perspective and then from a hospital and health system perspective.
First up is the medical practice perspective. I sent a number of practice managers and those involved with practice managers the following two questions:
- What are the major areas that are keeping practices up at night?
- What challenges are coming that practices aren’t paying enough attention to?
Here are the responses I received:
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InterSystems makes HL7 FHIR integration components free to NHS customers
InterSystems underlines its ongoing commitment to drive collaboration and provide interoperable systems for joined-up health and care.
By: Intersystems
September 26, 2019 12:09 PM
InterSystems, a global leader in information technology platforms for health, business, and government applications, has committed to making all NHS HL7 FHIR profiles available to NHS customers, as part of their long-standing commitment to interoperability.
FHIR is an international standard for exchanging information between systems, developed by HL7 International. It is being used alongside other standards in a number of national projects to support the structured exchange of information between IT systems.
HealthShare Health Connect integration platform already supports international HL7 FHIR Profiles. Jon Payne, manager for sales engineering at InterSystems, said: “Interoperability using the HL7 FHIR standard is the cornerstone around which the NHS will build the joined-up IT systems that it needs for integrated health and care.”
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CMS unveils new rules aimed at clinician burden, patient experience
The Omnibus Burden Reduction and Discharge Planning rules both aim to reduce red tape and enable transparency, says Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma.
By Mike Miliard
September 26, 2019 12:08 PM
As part of its Patients Over Paperwork initiative, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services unveiled its Omnibus Burden Reduction Final Rule on Thursday, aimed at combating clinician burnout.
It also finalized a new rule on discharge planning, aimed at patients preparing to move from hospitals into post-acute care settings, requiring hospitals to provide information about PAC provider choices.
WHY IT MATTERS
Together, the rules seek to improve the experience of providers and patients, respectively, said CMS Administrator Seema Verma on a conference call, and are part of a larger effort to remove "regulatory requirements that stand like a brick wall between patients and their doctors and yet do nothing to advance patient safety or health."
Together, the rules seek to improve the experience of providers and patients, respectively, said CMS Administrator Seema Verma on a conference call, and are part of a larger effort to remove "regulatory requirements that stand like a brick wall between patients and their doctors and yet do nothing to advance patient safety or health."
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AI Is Just As Good As Medical Professionals at Spotting Disease, Study Says
By Jason Murdock On 9/25/19 at 10:16 AM EDT
Artificial intelligence technology may now be just as accurate at detecting diseases from medical imaging as human healthcare experts, new analysis suggests.
The study, conducted by a team of international academics from hospitals in the U.K, U.S. and Switzerland, was a review of all existing scientific literature comparing the performance of AI models and healthcare professionals published between January 2012 and June 2019.
The full results were published in The Lancet Digital Health journal on September 24.
Researchers said analysis of 14 studies comparing the performance of deep learning with that of humans found algorithms correctly detected disease in 87 percent of cases in the sample of images, compared to the 86 percent that was achieved by human experts.
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September 25, 2019 / 8:07 PM /
Health workers aim to save lives of mothers and babies with smartphone data
LONDON (Reuters) - Community health workers in India and Uganda are to be armed with smartphones and tablets that use data analytics, risk maps and social media trends to help save the lives of vulnerable mothers and babies.
The $100 million project, funded by the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank and others, will be extended to 10 countries in all and aims to prevent the premature deaths of 6 million women and children by 2030.
The plan is to give frontline health workers inexpensive data analytic tools to help them gather the intelligence they need to focus on communities and families most at risk, said Raj Shah, president of the Rockefeller, which is leading the project and investing $60 million of the $100 million total funding.
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Vendors focus on treatment gaps to help aid patient engagement
September 25, 2019, 3:51 p.m. EDT
Electronic health record vendor Cerner is working with GetWell Network to close treatment gaps that can occur when patients move from the hospital to outpatient sites.
GetWell Network has a suite of patient engagement software to help a team of providers engage patients before they arrive and after they are admitted.
Using automated check-ins, and identifying patients who should be taken for care quicker, such as in near real time, sets the stage for proactive intervention before complications and costs arise.
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HIT Think
How a policy change could better protect recovering drug addicts
By Liz Johnson
September 25, 2019, 3:47 p.m. EDT
In today’s world of increasingly connected healthcare data, CIOs and other healthcare IT professionals often see the unintended consequences when two public policies clash.
A case in point is 42 CFR Part 2 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
42 CFR Part 2 was designed to protect the privacy of patients undergoing treatment for substance use disorders. The thinking was that prohibiting unauthorized disclosures of patients’ records would allay confidentiality concerns, which some people struggling with addiction say prevents them from seeking help.
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Understanding worm attacks
Two years after the ransomware WannaCry wreaked havoc, the threat to hospitals from worm attacks has not diminished. The BlueKeep vulnerability is the latest to raise cybersecurity fears, but is healthcare doing enough to protect itself?
By Tammy Lovell
September 25, 2019 02:42 AM
Cybersecurity experts recently warned that the CVE-2019-0708 vulnerability, dubbed BlueKeep, is a ticking time bomb that could turn into an entrance door for worm attacks.
The flaw in the remote desktop protocol (RDP) present in Windows 7, Windows XP, Server 2003 and Server 2008 could allow a hacker to connect to a server and executive arbitrary code without user interaction.
Microsoft has warned that nearly one million computers connected to the internet are at risk and urged customers to update immediately to ensure a patch is in place.
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Google May Have Given Up On The EHR Market, But Definitely Not Health IT
September 25, 2019
For quite some time, giant technology companies have struggled to get a foothold in the healthcare business, but with relatively little success.
Now, if one Google executive is to be believed, these giants may have finally concluded that at least where the EHR market is concerned, they have thrown in the towel. On the other hand, Google at least has found other ways to stake a claim in health IT.
This widely-publicized assertion comes from Dr. Toby Cosgrove, former president and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, who now serves as executive advisor to Google, who spoke at the Intelligent Health conference in Basel this month.
“There’s not been discussions going on, with IBM and Google, around whether or not they should do a new electronic medical record,” Cosgrove told the Basel audience. “Quite frankly, I think it’s too late because across the world, everyone is invested heavily in their EMR systems – both in the cost of equipment and training of people who use them.”
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AI Could Soon Have A Big Impact On Primary Care
September 25, 2019
A lot of discussion about healthcare AI is vague and visionary in nature. Most of us know that these technologies have a very promising future, but until recently it hasn’t been clear just when practical applications will emerge.
That could be changing, though. For example, according to a new research paper appearing in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, there are a number of ways in which healthcare AI is having or will soon have an impact on primary care. Areas identified by the researchers include the following:
- Avoiding excess hospitalizations primary care interventions identified by AI-driven risk prediction
- Triaging patients and providing medical advice to patients with common symptoms using AI-driven virtual doctors
- Establishing panel sizes by AI-based analyses of patient complexity
- Managing and integrating wearable device data into EHRs
- Creating EHR clinical documentation using AI-powered digital scribes
- Improving clinical decision-making using AI tools built into the EHR workflow
- Automating repetitive clerical tasks such as insurance claims, prior authorization and data reporting
What’s particularly fun about this list is that each topic barely scratches the surface of what’s already underway. For example, there’s already a growing list of hospitals which have deployed AI to detect heightened levels of risk and suggest interventions, and they’re all but certain to deploy such solutions to their clinics as well.
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How Telemedicine Can Drive Change in Behavioral Health Services
By Christopher Cheney | September 25, 2019
AbleTo Medical Director David Whitehouse shares the potential and best practices for providing behavioral health services through telemedicine.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· The anonymity and convenience of telepsychiatry can be powerful advantages over face-to-face office visits.
· Best practices for telepsychiatry include a thorough screening process that determines which patients can benefit most from the service.
· When telepsychiatry patients slip into crisis, the protocols are similar to those used at the national suicide hotline.
David Whitehouse MD, MBA, the new medical director at AbleTo, a provider of virtual behavioral health services, says telemedicine is a 'particularly good fit' for behavioral health.
Telemedicine is one of the most significant growth areas in healthcare around the world. Last year, the value of the global telemedicine market was estimated at more than $38 billion, and the market is expected to be valued at $130 billion by 2025. With a high degree of anonymity and convenience, telemedicine has gained significant traction in the provision of behavioral health services.
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FDA releases its Technology Modernization Action Plan
September 25, 2019, 12:37 a.m. EDT
The Food and Drug Administration wants to close the gap between scientific and biomedical advances and the technologies required to translate those advances into new patient therapies.
To address the problem, the FDA has developed a Technology Modernization Action Plan (TMAP) that lays out the agency’s short-term actions (for 12 to 24 months) to modernize its use of information technology, including hardware, software, data and analytics.
“The TMAP provides a sturdy technological foundation for development of FDA’s ongoing strategy around data itself—a strategy for the stewardship, security, quality control, analysis and real-time use of data—that will accelerate the path to better therapeutic and diagnostic options for patients and clinical care providers, and better tools to enhance and promote public health,” states the plan.
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Amazon unveils Voice Interoperability Initiative to speed adoption
September 25, 2019, 12:15 a.m. EDT
Amazon.com has gathered a broad coalition of companies in an effort to speed up the widespread adoption of voice-activated assistants, including its own Alexa.
The e-commerce giant on Tuesday announced the Voice Interoperability Initiative, a group of some 36 companies committed to ensuring voice software made by different companies works seamlessly together.
However, notably absent were two of Amazon’s biggest rivals in voice technology: Apple and Alphabet’s Google, two companies that hold keys to a smartphone market that Amazon has yet to crack.
The Seattle company, whose Fire-branded smartphones were a commercial flop, is the leader in voice software for the home. Its Echo devices accounted for 25.4 percent of global smart speaker shipments in the second quarter, according to Canalys, a researcher. Plenty of home appliance makers link their products to Alexa, and Amazon is expected to announce new capabilities and devices for its assistant at a press event this week.
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Patients in NZ’s Hutt Valley book hospital appointments online
Known as uBook, the referral management centre allows patients to make or change their own outpatient appointments online.
September 24, 2019 12:00 AM
Up to 10 patients a day are using an in-house solution to book their outpatient appointments online with Hutt Valley District Health Board (DHB).
uBook is a referral management centre developed by the DHB and supported by its IT team. It allows patients to make or change their own appointments online.
On average, five to 10 appointments are booked daily and three to five appointments are changed. Numbers have been steadily increasing since it was introduced in 2011.
The DHB says uBook was created to enable patients to have more control over the outpatient booking process.
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How one CNIO is preparing staff for the digital future
An interview with Katie Trott, chief nursing information officer at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
September 24, 2019 03:51 AM
Data, information and technology should improve outcomes for patients, create better experiences for staff, and shape more efficient ways of working. This was the vision outlined by nurses and midwives taking part in a consultation organised by the Royal College of Nursing last year in the UK.
But their findings also indicated a disconnect between the expectations of staff and what was happening on the ground. It highlighted challenges around the use of outdated technology and further issues stemming from organisations not prioritising the voices of nurses or midwives in digital leadership.
Earlier this month, Healthcare IT News (HITN) caught up with Katie Trott, chief nursing information officer (CNIO) at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation trust. The Royal Free is one of the biggest trusts in the UK, delivering care and treatment to over 1.6 million patients each year across three main sites, the Barnet, Chase Farm and Royal Free hospitals. The Chase Farm Hospital, which opened in September last year, was validated at Stage 6 of the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) this summer.
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University of New Mexico Studies Physician Burnout Related to Electronic Records
By Cindy Foster | September 23, 2019
It was supposed to make things get better but it didn’t.
When the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was signed into law in 2009, the promise was that an electronic record technology would streamline paperwork, reduce waste and lead to more cost-effective health care.
Instead, 10 years later, physicians find the length time devoted to medical record-keeping has essentially doubled: they now are spending two minutes at the computer for every minute spent with patients and their typical workdays are apt to end with laptops out at home as they wearily climb into bed.
Now, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center researchers are examining the toll in stress and burnout that maintaining Electronic Health Records (EHR) are inflicting on the medical profession.
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Amazon launches Amazon Care, a virtual medical clinic for employees
Published Tue, Sep 24 2019 3:43 PM EDT
| Key Points. |
- Amazon just launched Amazon Care, a virtual primary care clinic with an option for nurses to visit employees in the home.
- It’s described as a new benefit for employees that offers “the best of both virtual and in-person care.”
- The company says it’s a pilot for employees in the Seattle area.
Amazon Care is a pilot medical clinic for employees.
Amazon has launched a virtual health clinic with in-home follow-ups for employees in Seattle, dubbed Amazon Care.
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Artificial Intelligence – Advisory Series, September 2019
By Kim Thomas – Digital Health
Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been promoted as a tool which could transform the way clinicians work in the NHS. However there is an awareness that the space between the promise and the reality is often large. Kim Thomas reports on the realities and myths surrounding AI in healthcare.
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), in common with other NHS hospitals, has a problem with patients not attending appointments.
As Neil Sebire, chief research officer and director of the hospital’s Digital Research, Informatics and Virtual Environment (DRIVE) unit points out: “If you book a clinic and 20% of the patients don’t turn up, you’re wasting 20% of the slots.”
Could artificial intelligence (AI) – which uses software to perform tasks usually requiring human intelligence – make a difference?
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09.19.2019 07:48 AM
AI Could Reinvent Medicine—Or Become a Patient's Nightmare
The Mayo Clinic will store health data in Google's cloud and use its AI expertise to unearth insights. But Google has made mistakes before.
In the 1880s, when the world-renowned Mayo Clinic was still a young fraternal surgical practice in the newish state of Minnesota, its doctors scribbled notes about their patients into heavy, leather-bound ledgers. But in 1907, a physician there named Henry Plummer came up with something better. He thought the episodes of a patient’s medical history should all be in one place, not scattered between many doctors’ journals. So he introduced a new system, creating for every Mayo patient a centrally housed file folder and a unique identifying number that was to be inscribed on every piece of paper that went inside it—doctor’s notes, lab results, patient correspondence, birth and death records. And recognizing the scientific value in these dossiers, he also convinced Mayo’s leadership to make them available for teaching and research to any physician at the practice.
This development marked the beginning of modern medical record-keeping in the US. And from the beginning, the endeavor has been animated by an inextricable tension between sharing and secrecy—between the potential to mine patient data for new medical insights and the rights of patients to keep that information private.
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New robot offers in-home monitoring and medication dispensing
Sep 23, 2019 11:00am
Black+Decker has launched with tech company Pillo Health to launch a new robot assistant named Pria to aid in the in-home adherence to medication.
Launched just months after Pillo closed an $11 million Series A round led by Stanley Black & Decker’s Stanley Ventures, the company announced its device can schedule up to 28 medication doses, provide alerts and dispense proper dosages through the use of voice command and a built-in camera. Pria uses facial recognition and AI to maintain safety and shares all information via a mobile app—which can be monitored by a caregiver from a distance.
And, perhaps most notably, the robot looks friendly.
Many devices were tested via field beta tests or pilot programs with the company’s partners before the technology was brought to market, said Emanuele Musini, co-founder and CEO of Pillo Health “In the end, this anthropomorphic look was the one that resonated the most with our target audience,” Musini told FierceHealthcare.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/report-amazon-plans-jumps-into-health-devices-wireless-earbuds
Report: Amazon plans jump into health devices with "fitness tracking" wireless earbuds
by Tina Reed
Sep 23, 2019 4:36pm
Amazon is reportedly planning to give Apple a run for its money with its own version of wireless earbuds.
Amazon is working on "fitness tracking" earbuds that will be able to track measurements like the distance run, calories burned, and pace of running, CNBC reported Monday citing a source inside the company.
It would be Amazon's first official move into health devices, the news organization said.
I've reached out to Amazon for comment and will update you when I hear back.
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AI, telehealth are among technologies to rapidly expand in 2020
By Diana Manos
September 23, 2019, 12:27 a.m. EDT
Payers and providers will see artificial intelligence, care coordination, cybersecurity, data analytics, digital therapeutics and telehealth drive the digital health market in 2020.
The study by Dublin-based Research and Markets, entitled, "Global Digital Health Outlook, 2020," says digital health “is a growing but complex market,” with an expected compound annual growth rate of 12 percent through 2023.
Payers should look to digital solutions to boost the quality and efficiency of healthcare, authors of the study say. In addition, digital health solutions are expected to offer “great promise” for new care delivery models and expanded access.
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Senate bill keeps funding ban in place for unique patient identifier
September 23, 2019, 12:18 a.m. EDT
A Senate Appropriations Subcommittee last week released its draft Fiscal Year 2020 funding bill but the proposed legislation did not lift a 20-year ban on using federal funding for a unique patient identifier.
The Department of Health and Human Services has been prohibited from spending funds on a unique patient identifier due to a provision inserted into every budget passed by Congress since 1999.
However, in June, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2020, that would eliminate the ban. Supporters of removing the prohibition were hoping the Senate would follow suit.
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The benefits of a standardised digital health agenda in Malaysia
“We are continuously developing and managing standards with international benchmarking. Among the standards implemented include MyHRDM, MyHDD, ICD, ISO TC 215, LOINC & SNOMED CT,” said Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Director General of Health Malaysia.
By: SNOMED International
September 23, 2019 12:00 AM
The Minister of Health Malaysia, Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, in one of his remarks said, the Ministry of Health (MoH) is committed to ensure that the electronic medical record (EMR) system can be realised within three to five years in all hospitals and clinics nationwide.
Noting that the EMR system is one of the basic and fundamental digital infrastructure for building a digital health ecosystem, he said the system would allow for the entire clinics and hospitals to be integrated.
It will then enable the health facilities to achieve a seamless level of patient information services and systems, with no obstacles or barriers to accessing patient information. Fortunately with EMR, MoH will be able to enhance the effectiveness of health services in terms of patient care and management.
Part of the MOH Malaysia’s ICT Strategic Plan is to achieve a standardised digital health agenda and the vision is for an integrated healthcare system to provide comprehensive health services to the people. An integrated healthcare requires information that flows from different systems and various sources but interoperability between information systems still remains a challenge. Therefore, promoting the use of health informatics standards that is recognised internationally is important in pursuing this vision.
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Hackers are changing their approach to healthcare ransomware attacks
One cybersecurity expert offers his perspective on the changing threat landscape faced by CIOs and CISOs, and gives some tips for more effective threat detection and response.
By Bill Siwicki
September 23, 2019 03:21 PM
Ransomware attacks continue to rock IT systems nationwide, proving that they’re a cybersecurity plague that’s here to stay.
In July, for instance, to choose just one extreme example, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency in response to ransomware attacks on three public school districts in the state.
When it comes to hackers’ ransomware targets, however, the healthcare industry is still perhaps the biggest. But while healthcare remains unchanged as a prime target, the way hackers are going about ransomware attacks is changing.
Organizations hamper hackers’ old approach
“Criminals previously relied on automated ransomware as an easy money-maker by setting a modest ransom fee, making paying up the quickest and easiest way to return to normality,” explained Tom Van de Wiele, principal security consultant, cybersecurity services, at F-Secure, which specializes in threat detection and response.
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Information blocking rules: Health industry groups call for Congressional oversight
An alphabet soup of healthcare stakeholders, including AHIMA, CHIME, MGMA and others, want the Senate HELP Committee to ensure the proposed regs serve the "needs of patients and those who deliver their care."
By Mike Miliard
September 23, 2019 04:15 PM
Seven leading healthcare trade groups – representing hospitals, physicians, medical informatics professionals, IT executives and others – have called on Capitol Hill to take an active role in ensuring upcoming regulations on data exchange and information blocking are implemented in keeping with the goals of the 21st Century Cures Act.
WHY IT MATTERS
In a Sept. 23 letter to Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, and Patty Murray, D-Washington, the industry groups called on the leaders of the Senate HELP Committee to ensure the forthcoming regs from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT achieve goals of patient access while also promoting privacy and security and preventing clinician burnout.
In a Sept. 23 letter to Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, and Patty Murray, D-Washington, the industry groups called on the leaders of the Senate HELP Committee to ensure the forthcoming regs from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT achieve goals of patient access while also promoting privacy and security and preventing clinician burnout.
The letter is signed by:
- American Health Information Management Association
- American Medical Association
- American Medical Informatics Association
- College of Healthcare Information Management Executives
- Federation of American Hospitals
- Medical Group Management Association
- Premier Inc.
"We write today to encourage the Committee's continued oversight to ensure that the 21st Century Cures Act is implemented in a manner that best meets the needs of patients and those who deliver their care," said the signatories.
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National Health IT Week kicks off with a focus on healthy communities
HIMSS is convening policy events nationwide this week to spotlight how information and technology are addressing social determinants and improving population health.
By Mike Miliard
September 23, 2019 10:28 AM
For its 13th annual National Health IT Week, which kicks off today and runs through Sept. 27, HIMSS will be focusing on how public- and private-sector stakeholders can better align information and technology to drive advancements in population health.
WHY IT MATTERS
With the theme this year of Supporting Healthy Communities, HIMSS will be convening in-person and virtual events – along with White House officials, Congressional leaders, federal and state agencies, healthcare providers and community groups nationwide – to spotlight opportunities to address five key factors of community health:
With the theme this year of Supporting Healthy Communities, HIMSS will be convening in-person and virtual events – along with White House officials, Congressional leaders, federal and state agencies, healthcare providers and community groups nationwide – to spotlight opportunities to address five key factors of community health:
- Advancing public and population health
- Modernizing the public health infrastructure
- Accelerating workforce development
- Expanding access to broadband and telehealth
- Addressing social determinants of health
More than 500 different stakeholders, including government agencies, industry and community groups nationwide, are participating, in NHIT events all week long. You can see a full listing of events here and follow along on Twitter using the hashtags #NHITweek, #HITworks, #IHeartHIT or #GovHIT.
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Majority of Hospital Data Breaches Expose Sensitive Financial Info
More than 70% of hospital data breaches include sensitive demographic or financial information that could lead to identity theft.
Most hospital data breaches expose sensitive demographic or financial information that could lead to identity theft, according to a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine Monday afternoon.
A joint research project between Michigan State University and Johns Hopkins University found that in a pool of more than 1,400 patient health information (PHI) breaches over the past decade, all of them contained at least one piece of demographic information.
Two-thirds of breaches affected 150 million patients, compromising demographic information that included Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, or dates of birth.
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Weekly News Recap
- Australia’s Queensland Health struggles with its new EHR and ERP systems.
- Alphabet restructures its DeepMind health business to report to Google Health.
- Warburg Pincus acquires behavioral health and human services EHR company Qualifacts for over $300 million.
- Jonathan Bush (Athenahealth) joins video and office visit provider Firefly Health as executive chair.
- Leidos sells its Leidos Health EHR implementation and consulting business to private equity firm A&M Capital.
- Specialty practice EHR, PM, PACS, and AI chat bot vendor OrbCare is reportedly nearing insolvency just six months after announcing a $2 million seed round.
- Livongo’s shares drop below their July 25 initial offering price after its first quarterly report shows widening losses.
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Health and Fitness Apps v Medical Devices
We explore the factors tech companies and app developers need to consider and the risks associated with being regulated as a software medical device both under the current system and under the revised regime coming into effect in May 2020.
Can an app be a software medical device?
A software medical device, which can include an app, is generally intended to be used for the purpose of diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of disease. The app’s functionality is central to determining whether the app falls within the definition of a medical device or if it is simply a consumer app. The analysis does not end here and the intention of the manufacturer or claims about the health benefits of the app, usually set out in the manufacturer’s advertising, marketing, etc., are also relevant. If an app makes claims to produce health benefits, it will be regulated accordingly.
An app that does not offer functionality to achieve the above medical purposes, and makes no claims to, will not be considered a software medical device. For example, apps for general health and wellbeing that record lifestyle habits such as smoking and exercise are generally not considered as medical devices e.g. a Fitbit wearable which records your heart rate, sleep pattern and step count.
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AI in Medical Imaging: Exploring the Frontier of Healthcare Applications
Industry leaders anticipate that the use of artificial intelligence in medical imaging will have a substantial clinical impact, ushering in an opportunity to significantly improve decision support in medical image interpretation. In this post, we cover a variety of promising medical imaging applications for AI and machine learning—including diagnosing cancer and brain aneurysms—as well as recent regulatory developments.
Metrics Climb
CB Insights reports that healthcare-related AI investment totaled $1.44 billion in the first half of 2019, putting investment in the space on track to surpass the prior year, in which investment reached $2.5 billion. Much of the attention to date has surrounded applications in medical imaging or radiology.
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Enjoy!
David.
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