“Implementation of the EHR is not limited to a single event in time,” wrote the researchers. “Rather, the technology changes when newer features are added, or interfaces are redesigned. These upgrades may improve functionality, but they also require physicians to adapt to changes beyond the initial implementation.”
“Users are required to continually learn how to use the newer system and then to incorporate these upgrades into their clinical workflow, often with negative work and psychological impacts,” continued the researchers. “Studies suggest that this type of continual change, such as that required by changes to the EHR, can result decreased productivity, increased stress and increased burnout.”
Using qualitative interviews with nine physicians a large academic medical center in the Midwest, the researchers confirmed that hypothesis.
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HIT Think
How to read between the lines of the healthcare data blocking debate
February 14, 2020, 9:19 a.m. EST
About a year ago, the Department of Health and Human Services first proposed rules to promote sharing and the interoperability of health data to enable patients to electronically access their health information.
Many of the top industry players submitted commentary to The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) up until June 2019.
Most industry observers agree the frictionless movement of health records is an essential precondition of improving the $3.4 trillion healthcare industry. On balance, these rules should present opportunities for healthcare entrepreneurs and turn legacy EHR vendors into a platform to innovate upon. Patients also benefit when their records are freed from EHR silos. But does data liquidity present new risks to data privacy and security? That’s at the heart of the debate.
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What should lie ahead for healthcare IT in the next decade
February 13, 2020, 9:35 p.m. EST
As Health Data Management wraps up 27 years of reporting on the healthcare information technology industry today, it gives me a chance to pause and reflect, and to look hopefully toward the future for the industry.
Much has been accomplished. I recall an early HIMSS conference at which an exhibit featured a one terabyte database of images of the globe. It was powered by rack upon rack of networked individual computers. It was a marvel. Now, 20-plus years later, you can hold a terabyte of data in a USB memory stick.
So, too, has technology adoption accelerated at a breathtaking pace. Twenty years ago, electronic health records were in the domain of pioneers. Now, the vast majority of medical care providers have an electronic means for storing medical information.
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AI-powered temperature screening solution being trialed in Singapore
iThermo reduces the need for manual temperature screening, and provides prompts where secondary checks can be carried out for feverish persons identified by the solution.
February 14, 2020 09:46 AM
Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), the national HIT agency in Singapore, has partnered with local healthcare AI startup Kronikare to pilot iThermo – an AI-powered temperature screening solution that screens and identifies those having or showing symptoms of fever. iThermo is currently being piloted at IHiS headquarters in Serangoon North and St. Andrews Community Hospital (SACH) from 10 and 11 February onwards respectively in "live" operational environments.
WHY IT MATTERS
With the growing threat of the COVID-19 (which was recently renamed by the WHO, formerly known as 2019-nCOV), Singapore has officially raised its ‘Disease Outbreak Response System Condition’ (
DORSCON ) alert level from yellow to orange on 7 February. The DORSCON orange status means that the COVID-19 disease spread in the country is severe but contained. As of 14 February, there are 67 confirmed cases of the disease. As part of the DORSCON orange status, temperature screening and monitoring becomes mandatory for most public spaces.
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KPMG: 89% of healthcare execs say AI already is creating efficiencies in their health systems
A majority believe healthcare is ahead of other industries in AI adoption, but 37% say healthcare’s pace of AI implementation is too slow, according to the new KPMG report.
February 13, 2020 01:29 PM
Artificial intelligence already is having a significant impact on healthcare, and that impact – both good, in terms of patient care and operational efficiencies, and bad, as some believe it is contributing to higher healthcare costs – is only just beginning.
The pace of AI adoption in healthcare
In healthcare, while 53% of respondents say the industry is ahead of most others in AI adoption, they nevertheless believe it needs to happen much faster. 37% of healthcare industry executives believe the pace at which they are implementing AI is too slow, due to countervailing factors around training, cost and privacy, among others.
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How virtual health assistants are changing the care delivery equation
Mobile technology and connected devices allow VHAs to become a productive mean of communication between remote patients, providers and payers.
February 14, 2020 12:28 PM
Outdated technology and processes create challenges across an overburdened healthcare system, resulting in increased costs, alienated patients, and inferior outcomes across the healthcare system.
However, virtual health assistants and chatbots aim to improve the conversation between healthcare provides, payers and patients and put more information in the hands of the end users, to help healthcare organizations improve processes and reduce costs.
"Virtual health assistants can help healthcare organizations improve processes and put more information in the hands of their users," explained Hadas Bitran, group manager for Microsoft Healthcare Israel.
Bitran, who will address the topic this week at HIMSS20, said to provide value, virtual health assistants need to be built with healthcare intelligence, including understanding medical terminology, user intents and context, and providing credible answers.
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HIMSS offers coronavirus updates ahead of Global Health Conference
"HIMSS20 is proceeding as scheduled. The health, safety and well-being of our community remains our highest priority."
February 14, 2020 11:13 AM
The 2020 HIMSS Global Health Conference is set for March 9-13 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. As the conference approaches, HIMSS is offering weekly updates on how it is handling the ongoing coronavirus situation.
"HIMSS20 is proceeding as scheduled," said HIMSS officials in the
most recent update . "The health, safety and well-being of our community remains our highest priority."
While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says health risk of coronavirus for the general American public is
low at this time , HIMSS is continuing to closely monitor the situation and will be offering regular updates to conference-goers.
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Using EHRs to track patients in real time
Health systems can develop patient flow analytics, which can result in faster, more comprehensive care and a quicker release from the hospital.
February 14, 2020 12:13 PM
In this era of value-based care, it is imperative that hospitals excel at patient flow. This entails serving appropriate patients rapidly, effectively, and efficiently as they move through different facilities, departments, and stages of care.
At University of California, Irvine Medical Center, there has been a drive to improve the health system’s ability to provide the right patients with the right care in the right setting.
Better identification and tracking
Using a combination of technology enhancements, analytics and improved workflows, UCI Health created better patient identification and tracking, an enriched patient discharge experience and improved bed supply and demand balance.
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Feb 12, 2020, 06:39pm
IBM Watson And The Value Of Open
Not so long ago, back in 2011, IBM’s artificial intelligence technology (later packaged and sold as Watson) triumphed in the game of Jeopardy. Watson played against the two most successful contestants ever to appear on the show. This victory reflected the result of an enormous amount of work done by IBM and others to mine human language for the semantic meaning of words, and allow a machine to answer Jeopardy questions that would have been impossible for any computer just a few years earlier.
Having achieved this milestone, IBM set out to capitalize on its technology advantage. It created a new business division for “cognitive computing” and invested heavily to apply Watson to big, important problems that could actually pay money. IBM soon settled on health care as the best place to plant its flag, and not long afterwards, some exciting partnerships were announced with leading health care institutions around the country.
There was a lot of unmet need in health care. Something like 45% of medical practice was not based on the best available evidence, and so much new information is being generated each year that it is impossible for doctors to keep up with all the new information. And the market size was huge, amounting to more than 10% of world GDP.
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February 13, 2020 / 8:19 AM /
Privacy law covering most medical care may not apply in schools
(Reuters Health) - The privacy protections Americans have come to expect when it comes to their medical information may not always apply in school settings, a new report suggests.
When a school nurse is involved in a student’s medical care, information on that care may end up in the child’s educational record - which is accessible without consent to school officials and parents, according to the report in Pediatrics.
The problem is that student healthcare provided by a school nurse can fall outside the privacy guarantees of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and instead be covered by another federal law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
FERPA states, for example, that information in the student’s file may be disclosed without consent to “school officials, including teachers, within the agency or institution whom the agency or institution has determined to have legitimate educational interests.”
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Patient Matching Hurt by Data Errors, Lack of Government Support
Healthcare providers and HIE professionals were surveyed to identify the core issues surrounding patient matching and how to improve the situation.
February 13, 2020 - Patient matching accuracy and rates across the country continue to be a challenge for hospitals and health information exchanges (HIEs),
according to a survey conducted by eHealth Initiative Foundation in a partnership with NextGate.
In a survey of roughly 120 healthcare providers and HIE leaders, the researchers identified adoption barriers, how to improve match rates, and the need for government support as top patient matching issues.
“As the number of players and organizations in the healthcare space continue to expand rapidly, patient matching is even more important,” said Jennifer Covich Bordenick, chief executive officer of eHealth Initiative Foundation.
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Health standards organizations help codify novel coronavirus info
February 13, 2020, 2:36 p.m. EST
As part of the global effort to manage and contain the coronavirus response, two global health standards organizations have introduced new content.
Regenstrief Institute and SNOMED International, are supporting care teams globally to code and track SARS-CoV-2 testing and COVID-19 cases, and by extension support clinicians and researchers in their efforts to address its containment.
Regenstrief and SNOMED have recently introduced new content to their respective products, a laboratory and health observations-oriented coding system in the case of LOINC, and a broad spectrum clinical terminology in the case of SNOMED CT. With the high rate of global adoption for both standards, LOINC and SNOMED CT have taken swift action to make this content immediately available to support those on the ground in tackling the virus.
The world is focused on the outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the syndrome caused by this coronavirus “COVID-19”, and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) has named the virus “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” or SARS-CoV-2.
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Concerns rise that the system for diagnosing epidemics is failing
February 13, 2020, 7:44 p.m. EST
Bloomberg—How big is the coronavirus outbreak? A lot bigger than we were initially told, it turns out.
On Thursday, confirmed cases of Covid-19 in China's Hubei Province—the epidemic's epicenter—jumped by almost 15,000. It's not that there was a sudden wave of new infections. Rather, the increase reflects a change in how China counts patients; it couldn't diagnose the disease rapidly enough via lab tests, so it started identifying cases in other ways, such as CT scans.
That change not only upped the case total dramatically—it also threw into doubt assumptions about how much the disease has spread and how well it is being contained. It also revealed a critical vulnerability in the world's ability to combat the virus and others like it. If we can't accurately and rapidly diagnose the disease, how can we control it?
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EHR giant Cerner loses major health system client AdventHealth to Epic
Feb 11, 2020 4:10pm
An anonymous Reddit user said AdventHealth staff felt the health system was on the "back burner" since Cerner signed massive projects with the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. (Cerner)
Florida-based AdventHealth plans to replace its Cerner electronic health record (EHR) system with rival Epic's.
One of the largest faith-based health systems in the country, AdventHealth operates 50 hospital campuses across a dozen states. The health system employs more than 80,000 people who serve more than 5 million patients annually and reports nearly $20 billion in annual revenue.
The health system first signed a deal with Cerner in 2002 when it was known as Adventist Health System.
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ONC's Rucker calls out hospital leaders who signed Epic's opposition letter
Feb 11, 2020 3:32pm
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Federal health IT leader Donald Rucker, M.D., said an upcoming interoperability rule will include "solid" privacy protections for patients as they share their medical data.
Speaking at Health Datapalooza on Tuesday, Rucker—who is the head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC)—acknowledged that privacy in a digital world is a challenging issue. But he reiterated his perspective that patients should be able to easily access and share medical data.
"It is our human right as patients to have access to our data," he said.
Rucker was pushing back on health IT vendor Epic's lobbying efforts against the proposed rules, including an email Epic CEO Judy Faulkner sent to customers encouraging them to sign an opposition letter. The letter cited risks to patient privacy and intellectual property if the rules are finalized now.
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Our phones can now detect health problems from Parkinson’s to depression. Is that a good thing?
Digital phenotyping, which can detect patterns from text messages, movements, and even our speech, could transform health care. But is our personal information at stake?
It’s all too easy in these chaotic times to understand how someone with a stressful job might start feeling isolated at work, wrestle with anxiety, and develop insomnia. That’s how Katie, a young lawyer, found herself increasingly disconnected, spending her weekends in bed.
“She was just trying to get through the day,” says Caroline Ogilvy, a clinical independent social worker who met Katie when she came into her primary care office, an affiliate of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, to get help with her depression. (Because of medical personal privacy laws, “Katie” is a pseudonym.) At the time, Ogilvy was recruiting patients for research the hospital was conducting with Companion MX, an app that uses data collected from cellphones to monitor patients’ mental health, and Katie’s symptoms made her eligible to participate.
Patients like Katie who used Companion MX had their location, screen time, and outgoing calls and texts tracked via their smartphones, in addition to filing mood logs through the app, which are analyzed using voice analysis. The app turned all this data into scores for mood, interest, social connections, and energy — categories that can be used to coach patients toward behavior changes.
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US regulators probing 5 tech companies’ acquisitions to 2010
By MARCY GORDON 11 February, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are ramping up their investigation of the market dominance of giant tech companies, demanding detailed information on five companies’ acquisitions of smaller firms back to 2010.
The Federal Trade Commission announced the move Tuesday, issuing orders to Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. Hundreds of takeovers of smaller companies are involved.
FTC Chairman Joseph Simons said that as a result of the review, the government may require tech giants to unwind earlier acquisitions and divest their assets if it found violations of antitrust law.
“All of our options are on the table,” Simons said in a conference call with reporters. “If there are some transactions that are problematic, then we have that opportunity and that ability to go back and challenge” them.
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Google’s Fitbit deal tests merger cops eyeing data giants
February 12, 2020, 3:02 p.m. EST
(Bloomberg) --Google’s plan to buy Fitbit is running into a wall of antitrust and privacy worries in the U.S., Europe and Australia, where competition officials are increasingly wary of how internet giants can exert control over data to cement their dominance.
Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of the maker of smartwatches and fitness trackers, announced in November, would add wearable devices to the internet giant’s hardware business. It also advances the ambitions of Google parent Alphabet Inc. to expand in the health-care sector by adding data from Fitbit’s more than 28 million users. Google has struck cloud-service partnerships with hospital groups and signed a deal with Mayo Clinic to build new artificial intelligence tools.
In the past, the Fitbit deal probably wouldn’t have raised much concern for competition enforcers because the company doesn’t compete directly with Google. And even with Fitbit, Google would have a minuscule share of the hardware and fitness-tracker market.
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VA to delay rollout of Cerner EHR system, citing interoperability issues
Remaining tasks include additional development of interfaces between the existing EHR, Cerner’s platform and the general IT infrastructure of the VA, which could run through the end of April, according to a news report.
February 12, 2020 11:59 AM
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced it has delayed the rollout of its planned electronic health record modernization at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, which was due to go live at the end of March.
According to a report in the government IT news site
FCW , the EHR system, based on Cerner’s Millennium software, requires more work before it is ready to go live.
The remaining tasks include additional development of interfaces between the existing EHR, Cerner’s platform, and the general IT infrastructure of the VA, which could run through the end of April, FCW reported.
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AI in healthcare: What is next for the UK and EU?
The UK and the EU should 'work as one' to further the deployment of AI in healthcare, writes Dr Layla McCay, director of international relations at the NHS Confederation.
February 12, 2020 04:25 AM
My colleagues at
NHSX are starting to uncover the significant opportunities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for keeping people healthy, improving care and saving lives. In the field of diagnostics alone, we are seeing capabilities develop in areas such as rapid image recognition, symptom checking and risk stratification. AI could help, for example, to personalise health screening and treatments for cancer, eye disease and a range of other conditions. Furthermore, it’s not just patients who can benefit, but also clinicians, enabling them to make the best use of their expertise, informing their decisions and saving time.
The UK is not alone, Europe is also looking closely at how this fast-developing area can change people’s lives, particularly in the field of healthcare.
Commonalities between the EU and UK approach to AI
The aspiration in Europe is that technology and industrial strengths can be combined with a world class digital infrastructure and regulatory framework to become a global leader in the data economy. To deliver on these opportunities, the
European Commission is looking at developing an ecosystem of excellence that supports the rapid and ethical development of AI in Europe from research and innovation, through to incentivising adoption of solutions including by SMEs. In its upcoming White Paper on AI, the Commission is likely to cite benefits in healthcare for citizens through more precise diagnosis and prevention of diseases and generation of new medicines; as well as opportunities for businesses to develop a new generation of healthcare products and services.
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When the health IT expert becomes the patient
The technology is there to make navigating the health system easier for those who have traumatic brain injury, says HIMSS20 speaker Laura Jantos.
When healthcare IT professional Laura Jantos became the patient, she gained a new perspective on what is lacking in consumer-facing technologies.
Laura Jantos, who is retired as a partner in a management consulting firm leading its HCIT practice, will share her experience during HIMSS20.
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Healthcare’s Big Data Problem
February 12, 2020
The following is a guest article by Scott Hampel, President of MedeAnalytics .
Making improvements in healthcare data analytics has the potential to lead to significant cost savings and improved patient health and wellness. We’ve identified two ways these improvements can be accomplished:
Embrace an enterprise analytics strategy to process vast amounts of healthcare data, rather than historical approaches of stitching together dozens of analytics tools resulting in high IT costs and low user adoption
Help payers and providers understand what the data means and how to act on the information
By 2020 the amount of healthcare data produced worldwide is expected to reach
2,314 exabytes ; in 2013,
only 153 exabytes of healthcare data were created.
Healthcare is flooded with data produced by patients, physicians, hospitals, urgent care centers, emergency departments, health fairs and personal wearables. The amount of data created will continue to increase as time goes by and technology advances. Healthcare organizations that don’t adapt will simply cease to exist, crushed under the weight of data, or be consumed by healthcare businesses that recognize the power of data analytics and implement it at an enterprise-wide scale to harness and use the information.
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Apps that claim to test moles are missing skin cancers, doctors warn
By Rob Picheta, CNN
Updated 2340 GMT (0740 HKT) February 10, 2020
(CNN)Popular smartphone apps that assess suspicious moles on people's bodies may not be reliable in detecting all forms of skin cancer, doctors have warned.
A study found that the leading apps were both missing melanomas and incorrectly telling people their moles were a cause for concern.
The researchers evaluated SkinVision and SkinScan, two popular European apps which have not yet been approved for a launch in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"Our review found poor and variable performance of algorithm-based smartphone apps, which indicates that these apps have not yet shown sufficient promise to recommend their use," wrote the authors, from the universities of Birmingham and Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
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Hospitals, clinics most likely to be hit with ransomware attack
Published Feb. 11, 2020
Dive Brief:
Over the past four years, nearly 1,500 healthcare companies have been hit with ransomware attacks, according to a study released Tuesday by Comparitech, a company that rates IT privacy tools.
The 172 individual attacks from 2016 to 2019 affected 6.6 million patients. The overwhelming majority of organizations affected were hospitals or clinics at 74%. Elderly care providers accounted for 7%, followed by dental (5%), medical testing (2%) and health insurance, government health and medical supplies, all at 1%.
Researchers calculated the overall cost of the attacks at $157 million. Hackers have demanded $16.5 million and received at least $640,000. The amounts requested ranged from $1,600 to $14 million.
Dive Insight:
Ransomware attacks are of growing concern to a number of sectors, but can be especially difficult for healthcare organizations that require access to records to treat patients. In the newest study, researchers determined the downtime caused by an attack could last months.
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Google Health, the company’s newest product area, has ballooned to more than 500 employees
Published Tue, Feb 11 20203:54 PM ESTUpdated 5 hours ago
Key Points
More than 500 people now work at Google Health, mostly out of the Palo Alto offices formerly occupied by smart home group Nest.
It’s led by former Geisinger CEO David Feinberg, who reports to Google AI chief Jeff Dean, and key players include Google veteran Paul Muret, who runs product, and Chief Health Officer Karen DeSalvo.
Former Nest CTO Yoky Matsuoka, who oversaw a small team under Feinberg looking at home-health monitoring, has left the company.
Google’s health care projects, which were once scattered across the company, are now starting to come together under one team now working out of the Palo Alto offices formerly occupied by Nest, Google’s smart home group, according to several current and former employees.
Google Health, which represents the first major new product area at Google since hardware, began to organize in 2018, and now numbers more than 500 people working under David Feinberg, who joined the company in early 2019. Most of these people were reassigned from other groups within Google, although the company has been hiring and currently has over a dozen open roles.
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Sequoia Project to create work group to help develop Common Agreement
February 11, 2020, 3:33 p.m. EST
The Sequoia Project is putting together a work group to inform its efforts to develop the Common Agreement, the baseline technical and legal requirements for health information networks to electronically share data nationwide.
Now, through February 28, The Sequoia Project—in its role as the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE)—is accepting applications for the
Common Agreement Work Group (CAWG), which will start on April 1 and convene for 120 days.
“In advance of the launch of the CAWG, the RCE is hosting a series of four public webinars focused on specific Common Agreement provisions developed by the RCE, the Additional Required Terms and Conditions (ARTCs),” according to the announcement. “The community feedback collected at these 90-minute public meetings will inform the work group’s efforts.”
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HIT Think
Why healthcare’s data quality conundrum will stifle SDOH initiatives
February 11, 2020, 3:45 p.m. EST
Healthcare providers, payers, community-based organizations, researchers and government agencies are on the same page: Addressing social determinants—such as homelessness, food insecurity, addiction and poverty—likely has a tremendous impact on population health.
In fact, social programs such as housing assistance, food pantries and behavioral health offerings can have a much greater impact than clinical care and medical treatments.
As population health models and value-based payment systems gain traction, healthcare organizations must be able to track, manage and measure the services patients receive outside of their hospitals, clinics and physician offices for quality reporting and effective care management.
An abundance of social services
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AI improves diagnosis, reduces false positives from mammo images
February 10, 2020, 11:41 p.m. EST
Radiologists getting an assist from artificial intelligence can detect more breast cancer—with a reduced rate of false positive incidents—from mammography images.
A new study, published late last week in the Lancet Digital Health online journal, contends that AI can boost the accuracy of diagnosis by radiologists, compared with the results they achieve by just examining images from mammography exams.
The study was conducted by Korean academic hospitals and Lunit, a Seoul-based medical AI company working in radiology and oncology. It draws on large-scale data of more than 170,000 mammogram examinations from five healthcare organizations in South Korea, the U.S. and the U.K. The set of data includes more than 36,000 cases found positive for cancer and verified by biopsies.
PKI mismanagement leaves healthcare organizations vulnerable
Ponemon Institute and Keyfactor say 60% of organizations aren't adequately maintaining their digital certificates and public key infrastructure.
February 11, 2020 11:34 AM
Current approaches to managing and protecting cryptographic keys and digital certificates, also known as digital identities, are putting organizations at significant risk, according to a survey sponsored by Keyfactor and conducted by the Ponemon Institute.
WHY IT MATTERS
The study revealed nearly two-thirds (73%) of organizations surveyed continue to experience unplanned downtime and outages due to mismanaged digital certificates and public key infrastructure.
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With Microsoft’s Help, Walgreens Is Dropping Retail Urgent Care In Favor Of “Health Corners”
February 11, 2020
Microsoft is working with Walgreens to pilot-test a new type of healthcare service, which it calls “health corners,” bringing a new and more technology-focused form of healthcare to its retail locations.
The project stems out of a
deal Microsoft struck with the Walgreens Boots Alliance roughly a year ago, in which the two organizations agreed to jointly develop healthcare solutions over the next seven years. Among the facets of the deal were plans to create the health corners.
Under the terms of the partnership, Microsoft manages Walgreens’ data storage and the retail pharmacy chain agreed to use the tech giant’s AI platform and retail solutions, according to a
Becker’s Hospital Review piece .
The deployment of health corners marks a significant shift in strategy for Walgreens, which is turning away from the retail clinic model as it currently exists elsewhere. This is probably at least in part to the
acquisition of walk-in retail clinic provider MinuteClinic by CVS Health, which allows CVS retail pharmacies to integrate with the clinics more effectively and potentially provide better service to patients.
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Epic Uproar Focuses Attention on Open API Privacy Concerns
Many healthcare leaders agree that Epic has valid concerns about open APIs, but some question whether the company has underlying motivations for delaying ONC's proposed patient data-sharing ruling.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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·
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Some question whether Epic has underlying motivations to protect its business model.
It's been exactly a year since the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released two
proposed interoperability rulings , designed to give patients access to information that resides inside their electronic health records (EHR) and take advantage of new tools that could expand their care and treatment options.
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Patient Use and Experience With Online Access to Electronic Health Records in Norway: Results From an Online Survey
1 Norwegian Centre for E-health Research, University Hospital of North Norway, Tromsø, Norway
2 NORCE Norwegian Research Centre, Tromsø, Norway
3 Helse Nord IKT, Tromsø, Norway
ABSTRACT
Background: The electronic health record (EHR) has been fully established in all Norwegian hospitals. Patient-accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) are available to citizens aged 16 years and older through the national health portal Helsenorge.
Objective: This study aimed at understanding how patients use PAEHRs. Three research questions were addressed in order to explore (1) characteristics of users, (2) patients’ use of the service, and (3) patient experience with the service.
Methods: We conducted an online survey of users who had accessed their EHR online at least once through the national health portal. Patients from two of the four health regions in Norway were invited to participate. Quantitative data were supplemented by qualitative information.
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How NYC Health + Hospitals is teaming with a startup to tackle food and housing insecurities
Feb 10, 2020 10:00am
As a practicing physician on the south side of Chicago, Stacy Lindau, M.D., knows all too well how often those who work in healthcare system—from doctors to nurses to social workers—are called upon to find community-based support for the patients they serve.
"Doing this work without technology is inefficient and frustrating, and it rarely results in high-quality results for the person in need," Lindau told FierceHealthcare.
So eight years ago, with the help of a $5.9 million award from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), Lindau's research lab in the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago developed a technology tool to link patients to community services.
The idea? Offer a way to prescribe social services the same way doctors can prescribe medications. In 2014, Lindau founded startup
NowPow to commercialize the e-prescribing tool that she developed. Lindau is now the company's chief innovation officer.
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Revealed: how drugs giants can access your health records
Experts say information sold on by Department of Health and Social Care can be traced back to individual medical records
Sun 9 Feb 2020 08.03 AEDT Last modified on Sun 9 Feb 2020 21.52 AEDT
The Department of
Health and Social Care has been selling the medical data of millions of NHS patients to American and other international drugs companies having misled the public into believing the information would be “anonymous”, according to leading experts in the field.
Senior
NHS figures have told the
Observer that patient data compiled from GP surgeries and hospitals – and then sold for huge sums for research – can routinely be linked back to individual patients’ medical records via their GP surgeries. They say there is clear evidence this is already being done by companies and organisations that have bought data from the DHSC, having identified individuals whose medical histories are of particular interest.
Concerns that the data is not truly “anonymous” have been raised by senior NHS officials, who believe the public are not being told the full truth. But the DHSC insists it only sells on information after thorough measures have been taken to ensure the complete anonymity and confidentiality of patients’ personal information.
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Sequoia Project offers guidance, forms group on information blocking
February 09, 2020, 10:52 p.m. EST
The Sequoia Project is offering guidance on information blocking in advance of expected final rules from the government on the topic.
In light of the significant impact the rules would have on the health information sharing community, Sequoia has formed the Information Blocking Workgroup, says Mariann Yeager, CEO at Sequoia.
“Working collaboratively to interpret and apply the rules will be important to fostering cooperation as the community prepares for ONC and Office of the Inspector General enforcement,” she notes. “The Information Blocking Workgroup aims to be a guide for the community. Implementation guidance is essential to reduce uncertainty and prepare for compliance.”
FDA clears AI-guided software for capturing cardiac ultrasound images
February 09, 2020, 10:26 p.m. EST
The Food and Drug Administration has given its clearance to software to help clinicians acquire standard views of the heart from different angles to diagnosis cardiac conditions.
The software—called Caption Guidance—was developed using machine learning and is the first software authorized to guide users through cardiac ultrasound (echocardiography) image acquisition, according to the FDA.
Caption Guidance from medical artificial intelligence vendor Caption Health leverages an interactive AI user interface that guides users on how to maneuver the ultrasound probe to acquire standard echocardiographic images and video clips of diagnostic quality.
HIT Think
Ten steps to ethics-based governance of AI in healthcare
February 10, 2020, 3:50 p.m. EST
Artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare as we know it, enabling healthcare professionals to analyze health data quickly and precisely, and leading to better detection, treatment, and prevention of a multitude of physical and mental health issues. In addition, AI plays an increasingly significant role in the fields of medical research and education.
However, AI’s ability to interpret data relies on processes that are not transparent, making it difficult to verify and trust outputs from AI systems. The use of AI in healthcare raises ethical questions that must be considered to avoid potentially harming patients, creating liability for healthcare providers and undermining public trust in these technologies.
For example, healthcare AI tools have been observed to replicate racial, socioeconomic and gender bias. Even when algorithms are free of structural bias, data interpreted by algorithms may contain bias later replicated in clinical recommendations. Although algorithmic bias is not unique to predictive AI, AI tools are capable of amplifying these biases and compounding existing healthcare inequalities.
Patients are often unaware of the extent to which healthcare AI tools are capable of mining and drawing conclusions from health and non-health data, including from sources they believe to be confidential. Consequently, patients are not fully aware of how AI predictions can be used against them.
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Standardizing metrics for EHR log data could help combat clinician burnout
Better assessment of how often docs interact with their EHRs, at work and during "pajama time" – tracking documentation, prescriptions, inbox time and more, is a key step toward improving the physician experience says one AMA expert.
February 10, 2020 12:35 PM
While electronic health record log data has shown promise in measuring the time medical professionals spend on various clinical activities, variations in definitions and methodologies are preventing effective cross-study of that information.
These were among the results of a
new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, which also proposed a series of core EHR use measures, and explored the challenges and limitations of such a system.
WHY IT MATTERS
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Weekly News Recap
The VA says the firing of Deputy Secretary James Byrne, who was the top executive over its Cerner implementation, won’t affect its planned initial go-live in late March.
Health IT developer platform vendor Commure exits stealth mode and names former Health Catalyst CEO Brent Dover as CEO.
Patient data vendor Verana Health raises $100 million from investors that include Google-owned GV.
Hyland acquires blockchain-powered document and content authentication vendor Learning Machine.
CompuGroup Medical pays $250 million to acquire several Cerner products that are marketed in Germany and Spain,
The CEOs of 60 health systems sign a letter opposing HHS’s proposed interoperability rules, as urged by Epic CEO Judy Faulkner.
Cerner’s Q4 results beat Wall Street revenue and earnings expectations.
MedStar Health becomes the first member of Cerner’s new Learning Health Network.
KLAS announces its “Best in KLAS Software & Services 2020” winners.
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Patients must decide how their medical data is used, says white paper
Patients and the public must be involved in the development of strategies designed to maximise the benefits of NHS data, says a new report.
Failing to engage the UK population in an open and transparent debate on how their health data is used risks losing their trust in the NHS.
And without public buy-in, the enormous potential of this data to improve the health and wealth of the UK cannot be realised, warns
the white paper launched today (Wednesday) from Imperial College London.
"We’re calling for the public to be actively engaged and involved in decisions regarding the use of their data. They must help decide what is an acceptable use of it." Lord Darzi Report author
The NHS owns long-term health data for the majority of the UK population and this unique asset is poised to be transformative for health. The knowledge gleaned from it could dramatically improve health and care and help accelerate the development of treatments for a range of conditions, including precision medicine for cancer and rare diseases. The NHS health data could also generate significant income for the health system, driving further improvements in care quality and delivery.
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Enjoy!
David.
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