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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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2020/08/managing-the-uks-next-big-crisis-of-disrupted-cancer-care-and-diagnosis/
Managing the UK’s ‘next big crisis’ of disrupted cancer care and diagnosis
With a lot
of medical care on hold during the coronavirus pandemic, Paul Landau, founder
and CEO of digital cancer care company Careology, looks into how (this is) the
UK’s ‘next big crisis’.
DHI News Team
– 20 August 2020
On the 23rd
March, the UK government announced that lockdown measures to combat coronavirus
would come into play, sparking concern for thousands of people living and
dealing with cancer.
For some,
their treatment continued as planned, for others changes were made such as
switching to oral chemotherapy tablets. But many faced anxiety-inducing delays
to operations and treatment. this was combined with a sharp decline in those
who suspected they had cancer symptoms from seeking help, causing new
referrals to fall by an estimated 70%.
Delays in
diagnosis have huge implications and according to Clare Turnball, a professor
of genomic medicine: “for some cancers, a three-month delay could make the
difference between a tumour being curable or not.”
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/telehealth-kiosks-give-homeless-veterans-a-link-to-healthcare-other-services
Telehealth Kiosks Give Homeless Veterans a Link to Healthcare, Other
Services
Soldier On
has partnered with Let's Talk Interactive to expand a telehealth platform that
connects homeless veterans and those in transitional housing with mental health
counselors and other sorely needed services.
By Eric Wicklund
August 17,
2020 - A non-profit that targets veteran homelessness is using telehealth
to expand access to mental health and other services.
Soldier On,
which was launched in 1994 in Pittsfield, MA and now serves thousands of
veterans in the Northeast, recently Partnered with Let’s Talk Interactive to
leverage telemedicine kiosks and telehealth platforms in transitional and
permanent housing and jail programs.
The kiosks
allow the organization’s 80 full-time case workers to conduct virtual visits
with veterans who might otherwise ignore or skip appointments for care. They
also give the organization a platform to help veterans with other issues, including
financial literacy, social services, legal representation, housing needs and
even employment counseling.
“It’s a great
platform for connecting with veterans,” says Bruce Buckley, Soldier On’s CEO.
Veterans “generally feel more comfortable in their own environment, and this
gives them a chance to connect when and where they need to make that
connection. When you’re in someone else’s office, you’re a visitor, and that
isn’t always comfortable.”
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/deep-learning-models-can-detect-covid-19-in-chest-ct-scans
Deep Learning Models Can Detect COVID-19 in Chest CT Scans
The deep
learning tools could distinguish between COVID-19 and other pneumonias in chest
CT scans, enhancing coronavirus diagnosis.
By Jessica Kent
August 18,
2020 - Deep learning tools were able to identify COVID-19 in chest CT
scans, indicating that artificial intelligence could enhance diagnosis of the
virus, according to a study
published in Nature Communications.
While CT
scans have been useful in helping providers detect COVID-19, clinicians are
discouraged from using these medical images for coronavirus diagnosis.
“CT
evaluation has been an integral part of the initial evaluation of patients with
suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in multiple centers in Wuhan China and northern
Italy,” researchers noted.
“However,
these guidelines also recommend against using chest CT in screening or
diagnostic settings in part due to similar radiographic presentation with other
influenza-associated pneumonias. Techniques for distinguishing between these
entities may strengthen support toward use of CT in diagnostic settings.”
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/big-data-dashboards-to-help-us-colleges-track-covid-19-spread
Big Data Dashboards to Help US Colleges Track COVID-19 Spread
As
students begin to return to campuses across the country, colleges are
leveraging big data dashboards to monitor the spread of COVID-19 among students
and staff.
By Jessica Kent
August 19,
2020 - To help track and monitor the spread of COVID-19 on college
campuses, leaders across the country are implementing big data dashboards to
promote transparency and comfort among students, faculty, and staff.
Boston
University recently went live with its BU COVID-19 Testing
Data Dashboard, a data visualization resource that allows users to see the
number of tests conducted and the number of individuals who have tested
negative, positive, or inconclusive.
Leaders will
update the dashboard daily, and will include daily and cumulative numbers as
well as seven-day averages and comparative figures from the local county. The
university expects that the dashboard will enable proactive measures to stop
further spread of the virus.
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https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/preventing-cyber-attacks/
17 Aug 2020 Opinion
Prevent-ilation: Airing out the Myths of Preventing Cyber Attacks
Zeki
Turedi Technology Strategist, EMEA, Crowdstrike
Cyberspace
remains plagued by vague assumptions surrounding the correct methods of
preventing cyber-attacks. Whilst some of these preventative measures have merit
(often there is no smoke without fire), they are often exaggerated in
effectiveness against determined and multi-faceted attacks.
Our
2019
CrowdStrike Global Threat Report suggests that the cyber landscape once
again changed with more frequent attacks coming via alternative methods such as
malware-free intrusions. In fact, the report revealed 51 percent of
cyber-attacks were orchestrated via malware-free means, whereby an actor
doesn't employ a malicious file or file fragment to a computer disk. These
attacks are usually perpetrated by more sophisticated adversaries, particularly
in EMEA and North America, and are much harder to detect. Typically,
organizations will have to rely on behavioral detection and human threat
hunting to intercept malware-free attacks.
Despite
the growing focus on best practices and increased regulation in recent years,
businesses need to take a more proactive approach to cybersecurity. Here are
some of the common misconceptions of attack prevention.
Anti-virus
is enough to prevent intrusion from adversaries
Anti-virus (AV) software is an important first step in protecting against
foreign infiltration. However, relying on it solely is a mistake. Traditional
anti-virus software can only go so far in preventing and detecting
infiltration, as traditional or legacy AV deployments can only detect known or
existing viruses.
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https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/phone-scam-circulating-callers-pose-as-covid-19-contact-tracers
Phone scam circulating, callers pose as COVID-19 contact tracers
By: Anthony
Reyes
Posted at 4:23 PM, Aug 20, 2020
and last updated 6:23 AM, Aug
21, 2020
BUFFALO,
N.Y. (WKBW) — State and federal authorities say a phone scam is circulating
where the callers pose as COVID-19 contact tracers.
Officials
say the callers that pose as contact tracers try to obtain credit card or bank
account information from their victims.
The
Chautauqua County Department of Health and Human Services has issued
information to help avoid this scam.
County
officials say if you are tested for COVID-19 and your result is positive a
Chautauqua County public health nurse will contact you and if you are named a
close contact, a NYS contact tracer will contact you.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-may-not-predict-the-next-pandemic-but-big-data-and-machine-learning-are-key-to-fighting-this-one/
AI may not predict the next pandemic, but big data and machine learning
can fight this one
In Spain, a
new observatory processes epidemiological, mobility and environmental data to
manage COVID.
By Anna Solana for IT Iberia | August 21, 2020 --
10:15 GMT (20:15 AEST) | Topic: Artificial Intelligence
In
April, at the height of the lockdown, computer-science professor Àlex Arenas
predicted that a second wave of coronavirus was highly possible this summer in
Spain.
At
the time, many scientists were still confident that high temperature and humidity
would slow the impact and spread of the virus over the summer months, as
happens with seasonal flu.
Unfortunately,
Arenas'
predictions have turned out to be accurate. Madrid, the Basque country,
Aragon, Catalonia, and other Spanish regions are currently dealing with a surge
in COVID-19 cases, despite the use of masks, hand-washing and social
distancing.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/health-passports-distancing-tools-among-covid-19-tech-climbing-gartner-hype-cycle
Health passports, distancing tools among COVID-19 tech climbing Gartner
Hype Cycle
Those
pandemic-era technologies will reach the fabled Plateau of Productivity sooner
than other emerging innovations approaching the peak of the curve, such as
digital twins, data fabric, SASE network architecture, researchers say.
By Mike Miliard
August 21,
2020 11:30 AM
Hype
Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2020 (Source: Gartner)
Gartner
research's famous hype curve looks like a steep roller coaster leading to a
launch pad. Beginning with the necessity-is-the-mother-of-innovation
"Innovation Trigger," it predictively tracks new technologies as they
might evolve over the next years and decades: a long, slow climb the Peak of
Inflated Expectations, then falling with a reality check into the Trough of
Disillusionment, before slowly, with tweaks and refinements, clawing back up
the Slope of Enlightenment toward, eventually, the Plateau of Productivity.
WHY IT
MATTERS
With most technologies it can take five years or more to trace that bumpy path,
from shiny-object to indispensable tool (or, in many cases, obsolete fad).
And,
indeed, plenty of the innovations on the most recent Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, published this week,
will take plenty of time to evolve and either prove their worth or lose steam,
whether two-way brain-machine interface, generative adversarial networks or
responsible AI.
But
at least a couple species of emerging tech are charting their course on the
hype curve much faster than usual, and it probably won't be a surprise that
they emerged in response to the COVID-19 public health crisis.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/08/21/cerner-follows-epic-in-adding-consumer-friendly-digital-health-tools-to-its-platform/
Cerner Follows Epic In Adding Consumer-Friendly Digital Health Tools To
Its Platform
August 21, 2020
Anne Zieger
Following
in Epic’s footsteps, Cerner has struck
a deal with a vendor supporting a range of digital health tools designed
for both consumers as well as physicians. What makes the agreement notable
is less the fact that both Cerner and Epic have signed on with digital health
vendor Xealth – though a bit unusual – but rather, that the deals suggest that
the two have similar ideas as to how patient outreach and patient engagement
should work.
Cerner
is so impressed by Xealth that in addition to using Xealth technology, it
partnered with LRVHealth on a $6 million investment in the company. This
follows investments by a number of other healthcare organizations, including
the Cleveland Clinic, Froedert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, UPMC,
McKesson, Novartis, Phillips and ResMed. In other words, it’s not only the two
EHR giants who think the vendor has the right approach to digital health
management.
According
to a news release, the Xealth platform connects with more than 30 digital
health solutions, including remote patient monitoring, virtual care platforms
and e-commerce tools making product recommendations.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/covid-19/californias-data-failures-stymie-efforts-curb-virus
California's Data Failures Stymie Efforts to Curb the Virus
By Kaiser Health
News | August 21, 2020
Data system failures left California with a backlog of about 300,000 lab
reports. Of those, nearly 15,000 turned out to be positive for COVID-19.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
·
Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration is still
struggling to fix the problems and prevent future breakdowns.
·
Iowa recently discovered a major flaw that
backdated thousands of test results.
·
North Carolina learned that another commercial
testing company, LabCorp, had been including out-of-state tests in its data
since April.
·
Alabama found that some labs were not properly
sending test results to the state.
This
article was first published on Friday, August 21, 2020 in Kaiser
Health News.
By
Anna Maria Barry-Jester and
The
failure of California's infectious disease monitoring system for a stretch of
at least 20 days in July and August triggered potentially deadly fallout that
continues to reverberate across the state.
The
fallout has been most severe in heavily populated counties, which rely
primarily on a statewide electronic information system to guide their pandemic
response. Local health departments couldn't clearly see where the coronavirus
was spreading, dramatically slowing their efforts to trace and track new
infections — leading to more death and disease, public health officials said.
Data
system failures left California with a backlog of about 300,000 lab reports. Of
those, nearly 15,000 turned out to be positive for COVID-19, according to state
Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/covid-19-pushed-older-adults-to-telehealth-quality-concerns-persist
COVID-19 Pushed Older Adults to Telehealth, Quality Concerns Persist
Although
telehealth use is growing among older adults, patients still have fears about
privacy and care quality over video visit.
By Sara Heath
August 19,
2020 - Adult patients over age 50 are warming to telehealth, with one in
four patients saying they had used telehealth to access care between March and
June of 2020, the National Poll on Healthy Aging revealed.
That is up
from the only 4 percent of patients over age 50 who said
the same in a similar 2019 National Poll on Healthy Aging, which like the
2020 poll was conducted by University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare
Policy and Innovation (IHPI) with support from AARP and Michigan Medicine.
This surge in
telehealth access and satisfaction can largely be credited to the novel
coronavirus, which pushed individuals to lean on digital technologies to access
healthcare.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/icd-10-codes-unreliable-for-covid-19-symptoms-ehr-surveillance
ICD-10 Codes Unreliable for COVID-19 Symptoms, EHR Surveillance
A high
number of false negative tests were observed when researchers examined ICD-10
data codes to capture COVID-19 symptoms and conduct disease surveillance in the
EHR.
By Christopher Jason
August 18,
2020 - Symptom-specific ICD-10 codes do not accurately capture COVID-19
related symptoms and should not be utilized for disease surveillance in the
EHR, according
to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open.
EHR
data is being used by health systems to learn more about the coronavirus
and how to treat the pandemic accurately. Notably, ICD-10 is a key code set
clinicians use for disease surveillance.
In this
study, researchers from the University of Utah Health assessed the accuracy of
ICD-10 codes through EHR review to capture COVID-19 symptoms, such as fever,
cough, and dyspnea. Researchers examined more than 2,200 patients who underwent
COVID-19 testing for those symptoms between March and April 2020.
Researchers
compared the sensitivity, specificity, and both the positive and negative
predictive code values for the three symptoms. Looking at those measures set to
help the researchers understand how well ICD-10 codes could demonstrate whether
or not a patient had COVID-19.
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https://www.healio.com/news/cardiac-vascular-intervention/20200818/youtube-as-educational-tool-in-mi-may-help-patients-understand-dapt-use-after-pci
August 18,
2020 By Scott Buzby
YouTube as educational tool in MI may help patients understand DAPT use
after PCI
YouTube
was found to be an effective tool for educating patients who had PCI for MI on
their condition and the significance of adherence to their prescribed dual
antiplatelet therapy, researchers reported.
For
the study presented at the virtual Association for Healthcare Social Media meeting,
investigators administered two tests to 21 patients with acute MI who had PCI
that evaluated their understanding of the importance of adherence to DAPT. In
between the two tests, patients were shown a standardized educational YouTube
video that addressed their condition and why they were prescribed DAPT.
“PCI
with coronary stenting is nothing without appropriate concurrent and
complimentary medications like dual antiplatelet therapy, and medications only
work if the patients take them,” Marc Katz, MD, cardiology fellow at St.
Luke’s University Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, said during the
presentation. “We’ve all experienced that we have a limited amount of time in
clinic and at bedside with our patients, and there are many reasons why a
patient might not take their medications as prescribed, but not understanding
why they’re taking their meds and not understanding the possible side effects
shouldn’t be one of them.”
Each
patient (mean age, 63 years; 38.9% women; 9% with prior DAPT) was administered
the same exam of four true or false statements:
- Antiplatelet medications help
prevent future heart attacks by preventing platelets from activating and
forming clots inside stents placed in the heart.
- Stopping DAPT early may lead to
serious complications.
- While taking DAPT, if bleeding
occurs, it is most commonly a nuisance or nonserious bleeding and DAPT
should be continued.
- DAPT may be stopped without
confirming with a cardiologist.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/nurses-20-digital-transformation-nursing
Nurses 2.0 - The digital transformation of nursing
Healthcare IT
News spoke to nursing and informatics experts to find out how exactly nurses
have led the digital transition.
Sara Mageit
August 20,
2020
Digital
innovation is becoming increasingly critical to clinical practice, not just as
a workforce management tool, but as a foundation to change the way care is
delivered. Healthcare
IT News spoke to senior nursing informatics officer for Abu Dhabi
Health Services, Hana Abu Sharib and professor in health and human services
informatics at the University of Eastern Finland, Dr Kaija Saranto, to find out
exactly how nurses and midwives are leading the digital transition.
Nurses
and midwives have played a key role in leading the digital and informatics
arena to improve patient care, particularly in the COVID environment where the
quality of digital care delivery has come to the forefront of healthcare and
been under more scrutiny than ever. In September, they will be speaking at
the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event, in the
‘Nurses 2.0’ session, where they will expand on some of these key
issues in greater detail.
“During
the pandemic, nurse informatics teams were involved in training for
different EMR applications and devices for nurse shifting cross settings
(ED-OPD-Inpatient) based on operational needs. They were also very actively
involved in building the input forms for nursing and addressing the patient
surge during the crisis. From a data perspective, they were validating the
reports and dashboard,” explains Abu Sharib.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/project-will-use-himss-digital-health-indicator-create-roadmap-health-services
Project will use HIMSS Digital Health Indicator to create roadmap for
health services in Queensland, Australia
The
initiative aims to drive digital transformation across the state and identify
services in need of investment.
By Tammy Lovell
August 20,
2020 01:35 AM
A
Queensland government project will use the HIMSS Digital Health Indicator to help health workers in
the Australian state understand the technology used in local health services.
The
initiative will run in hospitals and health services, as well as some primary
health networks across the state, with the aim of building a data-driven
roadmap for digital transformation.
Health
research body, the Digital
Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC) is supporting the collaboration
between the state’s largest healthcare provider, Queensland Health, the
University of Queensland and HIMSS.
HIMSS,
which owns Healthcare
IT News, has developed a virtual assessment process, which will
reduce the burden on the hospitals and health services and Queensland health
team.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hhs-said-reverse-course-hospitals-report-covid-19-data-cdc-again
HHS said to reverse course, with hospitals to report COVID-19 data to CDC
again
White House
task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said the process of HHS bypassing the
CDC was meant to be "solely an interim system," according to a WSJ
report that HHS later denied.
By Kat Jercich
August 20,
2020 04:05 PM
The
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reportedly said Thursday that
it would return responsibility for collecting data from hospitals about
COVID-19 patients back to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
but HHS later said the process would not change.
Dr.
Deborah Birx told hospital executives and government officials that the HHS
system was "solely an interim system" while the CDC worked to build a
new data system "so [reporting] can be moved back to the CDC,"
according to The Wall Street Journal.
The
CDC will work with the U.S. Digital Service to "build a modernized
automation process" for hospital data, an HHS official told The
Journal. The modernized automation process will still send data to
HHS Protect, where all agencies who need it, including the CDC, will have
access to it.
HHS
spokesperson Michael Caputo denied the reports Thursday afternoon,
telling Healthcare
IT News that the process for data reporting "has not and
is not changing."
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/08/20/have-you-tried-to-make-an-appointment-with-your-own-doctors-lately-it-may-be-harder-than-you-expected/
Have You Tried To Make An Appointment With Your Own Doctors Lately? It May
Be Harder Than You Expected
August 20, 2020
Anne Zieger
As
the pandemic grinds on, healthcare systems are looking for ways to adapt to the
situation and better meet the new demands imposed by caring for COVID-19
patients. This includes improving how they handle their communications
with patients. For example, at New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health,
they’re planning to introduce
robotic process automation to direct inbound callers to an appropriate
level of care.
Other
health systems, unfortunately, don’t seem to have gotten this particular memo.
Part of the reason, I suspect, is that the leaders of these institutions
haven’t tried to make an appointment with their own doctors lately. If they
did, some would be aggravated or even horrified by the inefficiency and poor
design within their interactive voice response systems.
Unfortunately,
my personal experiences provide a good example of what can go wrong with IVR
systems. Due to flawed IVR logic, scheduling a visit with a Johns
Hopkins-affiliated doctor turned out to be something of, let’s say, an
adventure due to its crazily disorganized IVR and telephony infrastructure.
Even given my experience as an e-patient with chronic conditions, it took
multiple calls to navigate to where I needed to be and at several points I
almost gave up the fight.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/telehealth-visits-skyrocket-among-americans-age-50-80
Telehealth Visits Skyrocket Among Americans Age 50-80
By Alexandra
Wilson Pecci | August 18, 2020
A new poll reveals several threats and opportunities for the future of
telehealth among older Americans.
The
percentage of older adults who had ever participated in a telehealth visit rose
from 4% in May 2019 to 30% in June 2020, according to the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy
Aging.
However,
the poll also found that these patients still considered in-office visits more
effective, and many of them had no choice but to see their doctor via
telehealth.
Nearly
half of those who had a telehealth visit said their healthcare provider
canceled or rescheduled an in-person visit between March and June, and 30% said
that a virtual visit was the only option when they called to schedule an
appointment.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/machine-learning-tool-predicts-staffing-needs-during-covid-19
Machine Learning Tool Predicts Staffing Needs During COVID-19
The
machine learning model tracks local hospitalization volumes and the rate of
confirmed COVID-19 cases to predict staffing needs during the pandemic.
By Jessica Kent
August 17,
2020 - Researchers from Cedars-Sinai have
developed a machine learning tool that can forecast data points related to
the COVID-19 pandemic and predict staffing needs.
When COVID-19
began to spread across the US, healthcare organizations were faced with the
challenge of accurately forecasting the number of patients who would need
hospitalization. Entities also needed to have an idea of how many patients would
be in the ICU and would need ventilators, as well as how much personal
protective equipment (PPE) staff would use.
A data
science team at Cedars-Sinai adjusted a machine learning platform’s algorithm
to predict
factors related to coronavirus. The platform now tracks local
hospitalization volumes and the rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases, running
multiple forecasting models to help anticipate and prepare for increasing
COVID-19 patient volumes with an 85 percent to 95 percent degree of accuracy.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/understanding-the-new-patient-preference-for-telehealth-access
Understanding the New Patient Preference for Telehealth Access
Emory
Healthcare, like other systems during the pandemic, has leaned heavily on
telehealth access. And now, there's no going back.
By Sara Heath
August 17, 2020 - March 2020 brought about one of the biggest
catalysts for care delivery change at Emory Healthcare. Telehealth access,
which once was a key tool for the health system mostly on the hospital side,
soon became the crux of the patient experience in ambulatory care, too.
This isn’t a novel story. Most healthcare organizations, big and
small, saw a major problem on their hands when the novel coronavirus
quarantined people in their own homes and sparked industry-wide calls to
postpone non-urgent or elective healthcare. Clinics and hospitals could be a
breeding ground for the virus, logic held, and so it was best for patients who
weren’t urgently sick or injured to stay at home for the time being.
But also like organizations across the country, Emory Healthcare
knew that would leave a major patient cohort behind. Chronic disease management, which
hinges on a high-touch and communicative patient engagement strategy, would
fall by the wayside of patients couldn’t get into ambulatory clinics to see
their doctors.
In
a short period of time, these medical facilities put up advanced telehealth
access programs that helped patients receive the care they needed without going
into the office.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/nearly-half-physicians-believe-covid-19-will-not-be-under-control-until-after-june-2021
Nearly half of physicians believe it will take a year to get COVID-19
under control
By Heather Landi
Aug 18, 2020
1:09pm
The
majority of physicians believe COVID-19 won’t be under control until January
2021, and nearly half (49%) expect it will take much longer to get the
virus under control.
Most
doctors (59%) also see opening businesses, schools and public places as a
bigger risk to patients than continuing policies of social isolation, according
to survey
of 3,500 providers conducted by The Physicians Foundation.
The
results are part of a three-part survey examining how COVID-19 is affecting and
is perceived by U.S. physicians.
A
majority of physicians (72%) believe that the virus will severely impact
patient health outcomes due to delayed routine care during the pandemic, the
survey found.
-----
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/teletherapy-meets-teens-live-screen/story?id=72374725
Teletherapy meets teens where they live: On-screen
New apps help teens access mental health services during the pandemic.
By Jay Bhatt
19 August
2020, 20:03
Due
to the coronavirus,
many teens have been missing their proms, graduation ceremonies, daily routines
and their friends. These missed events and social interactions are only adding
to the additional stress many adolescents are facing amid the pandemic, health
experts say.
"A
lot of my clients have been more depressed, more anxious,” said Geovany
Martinez, a bilingual social worker who treats at-risk clients in New York City and Yonkers, New York.
Some
feel isolated and lonely even as they might be stuck in crowded apartments,
perhaps with difficult or abusive family members. Previous coping practices
like seeing friends and playing sports are risky, Martinez said.
And
in a coronavirus hotspot that's also home to the nation's
poorest congressional district—where many employed adults have to take public
transit to essential jobs, while many who are no longer employed worry about
paying for food—parents’ angst often filters down to their teenage children.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/data-standardization-tool-normalizes-covid-19-test-terms-in-ehr
Data Standardization Tool Normalizes COVID-19 Test Terms in EHR
Researchers
developed a data standardization tool that yielded 99 percent accuracy when
characterizing COVID-19 testing names to LOINC codes.
By Christopher Jason
August 19,
2020 - A well-developed data standard tool that automatically normalizes
and characterizes COVID-19 testing names to the Logical Observation Identifiers
Names and Codes (LOINC) dataset can support secondary use of EHRs for COVID-19
research and enhance interoperability, according to a recent article published
in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).
Patient data
stored in EHRs is a crucial source of data for COVID-19 research and studies.
While having access to the actual data is key, one requirement is to normalize
or characterize the data to standard terminologies. To understand and address
the pandemic, institutions such as Regenstrief Institute, have developed
local codes and names for COVID-19 tests.
LOINC aims
to streamline health data standardization for more efficient EHR use and health
data exchange, which is critical when a pandemic, such as COVID-19 occurs.
As
one of the most widely-used code systems, LOINC seeks to provide
standardization in medical test result identification, observations, and a variety
of other clinical measures. LOINC promotes interoperability with new terms for
tests and clinical observations available through requests from end-users.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-facebook/on-facebook-health-misinformation-superspreaders-rack-up-billions-of-views-report-idUSKCN25F1M4
August 19,
2020 / 11:08 PM / Updated 15 hours ago
On Facebook, health-misinformation 'superspreaders' rack up billions of
views: report
Elizabeth
Culliford
(Reuters)
- Misleading health content has racked up an estimated 3.8 billion views on
Facebook Inc (FB.O) over
the past year, peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic, advocacy group Avaaz said
in a new report here on
Wednesday.
The
report found that content from 10 “superspreader” sites sharing health
misinformation had almost four times as many Facebook views in April 2020 as
equivalent content from the sites of 10 leading health institutions, such as
the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The
social media giant, which has been under pressure to curb misinformation on its
platform, has made amplifying credible health information a key element of its
response. It also started removing misinformation about the novel coronavirus
outbreak that it said could cause imminent harm.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/uk-government-seeks-new-healthcare-data-guardian
UK government seeks new healthcare data guardian
The new
national data guardian will oversee the collection and use of patient data.
By Sara Mageit
August 19,
2020 10:50 AM
The
Department of Health and Social Care is seeking a new national data guardian
(NDG) to advise and challenge the healthcare system on safeguarding patient
data.
The
data guardian is expected to represent the interests of patients and the
public, ensuring people’s confidential information is kept securely and shared
appropriately.
The role is offered at £45,000 per annum, working two to
three days per week and will be chosen by a panel including NHSX chief Matthew
Gould and deputy director of data and information governance policy, Simon
Madden.
WHY IT
MATTERS
In
2018, the NDG role was given statutory powers to guide and challenge the health
and social care system.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/08/19/the-importance-of-handling-legacy-ehr-data-during-the-move-to-a-new-ehr/
The Importance of Handling Legacy EHR Data During the Move to a New EHR
August 19, 2020
John Lynn
While
many EHR projects were put on hold or at least slowed down during COVID-19,
we’re starting to see many of these projects revving back up. Just
because COVID-19 happened doesn’t mean it changed the fact that many healthcare
organizations need to upgrade and switch out their EHR software or consolidate
onto one EHR. In fact, in many cases COVID-19 highlighted the need to
move to a more modern EHR across their organization.
Plus,
I predict that the market is ripe for a bunch of EHR switching and
consolidation over the next couple years. For example, Marlin Equity
Partners has acquired AdvancedMD, Aprima, Practice Partner, and e-MDs.
It’s hard to imagine them going forward with all of these software platforms.
At some point I think they’re going to consolidate onto one and then those
practices are going to have to move to a new EHR.
In
my interview
with Howard Messing, CEO of MEDITECH, we highlighted the 50 year history of
MEDITECH and how they essentially launched a new EHR every decade. While
MEDITECH has been and seems to continue to be a strong partner when it comes to
not sunsetting their legacy products, our recent MEDITECH
EHR telehealth interview highlighted why it pays to be on their latest
version to receive the most highly integrated telehealth possible. Some
of the latest features that healthcare organizations want can’t be built on the
legacy systems. It just makes sense that many organizations need to bite
the bullet and move to MEDITECH Expanse.
------
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/covid-19-home-monitoring-tools-pose-patient-privacy-safety-risks
COVID-19 Home Monitoring Tools Pose Patient Privacy, Safety Risks
A study
published in Nature Medicine reveals potential risks caused by the rapid
adoption of home monitoring tools in light of COVID-19, including risks to
patient privacy and safety.
By Jessica Davis
August 14,
2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic spurred the rapid adoption of remote patient
monitoring tools to support patient care in light
of social distancing needs. But the accelerated development
of these technologies potentially increased risks to patient
safety and privacy, among other regulatory concerns.
Published
in Nature Medicine, a group of Harvard
University researchers assessed the adoption of these home
monitoring technologies amid the pandemic and needed interventions to ensure
patient safety and compliance with regulatory
requirements, privacy laws, and Emergency Use
Authorizations (EUAs).
The study
defined home monitoring technology as products used for monitoring
without direct supervision from a healthcare professional and that collects
healthcare-related data. Remote patient monitoring tech is included, while a
telehealth visits were not considered for the purposes of the study.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-a-ny-hie-transformed-healthcare-for-its-homeless-population
How a NY HIE Transformed Healthcare for its Homeless Population
Healthix,
one of the largest public health information exchanges (HIEs) in the country,
was faced with major challenges that severely impacted healthcare for the
homeless community.
By Christopher Jason
August 17,
2020 - In March, roughly 61,000 people in New York City were reported
homeless, a number that rivaled the Great Depression. As a result of this
staggering number, Healthix, a public health information exchange (HIE) that
covers New York City and Long Island, used a coordinated approach to improve
the health outcomes of individuals without stable housing.
However, Tom
Moore, VP of innovation for Healthix, and its provider partners, quickly found
three major challenges that stood in the way of executing that goal.
For one
thing, it’s hard to connect an individual who is homeless to an HIE if you
can’t connect the individual to an address.
-----
https://www.aiin.healthcare/topics/research/cds-software-improves-outcomes-performance
CDS software improves patient outcomes as well as
practitioner performance
Dave Pearson | August 17, 2020 | Research
Computerized
clinical decision support has strong upsides and few to no downsides for both
clinicians and patients, according to a systematic literature review conducted
at Texas State University’s school of health administration.
Analyzing
a small but representative set of articles meeting the review’s criteria,
Clemens Scott Kruse, PhD, MHA, MBA, and Nolan Ehrbar, BHA, made several key
findings:
- 61% of 36 articles described
occurrences of positive patient medical outcomes, while
- 8% found no statistically
significant difference in medical outcomes between intervention and
control groups, and
- 31% did not report or discuss
medical outcomes.
- 66% of 38 articles documented
occurrences of positive practitioner performance, while
- 13% found no difference in
practitioner performance, and
- 21% did not report or discuss
practitioner performance.
Similarly
encouraging for clinical CDS proponents: Zero articles turned up reporting
negative patient outcomes or negative practitioner performance associated with
the use of CDS.
-----
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/technology/coronavirus-disinformation-doctors.html
Coronavirus Doctors Battle Another Scourge: Misinformation
Physicians say they regularly treat people more inclined to
believe what they read on Facebook than what a medical professional tells them.
By Adam Satariano
·
Aug. 17, 2020
An emergency room doctor
in Illinois was accused in April of profiting from naming coronavirus as the
cause of a patient’s death, a rumor spreading online.
An internist in New York treated a vomiting patient in May who
drank a bleach mixture as part of a fake virus cure found on YouTube.
And in June a paramedic in Britain aided a clearly sick man who
had refused to go to a hospital after reading misleading warnings about poor
coronavirus treatment on social media.
Doctors on the front lines of the global pandemic say they are
fighting not just the coronavirus, but also increasingly combating a
never-ending scourge of misinformation
about the disease that is hurting patients.
-----
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/08/18/covid-cdc-white-house-fail-meet-health-literacy-guidelines/3389522001/
Many Americans may not comprehend COVID-19 information as agencies fail to
meet health literacy guidelines, study says
Adrianna
Rodriguez
USA TODAY
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White
House and state health departments failed to meet guidelines when communicating
vital information about COVID-19 to the public, according to a study released
Tuesday.
The CDC, the American Medical Association and the
National Institutes of Health all recommend that medical information for the
public be written at no higher than an eighth-grade reading level.
But after studying 137 federal and state web pages, Dartmouth
College researchers found that public information about the coronavirus averaged
just over an 11th-grade reading level.
The study worries public health experts, who reference previous research
highlighting health inequities among vulnerable communities impacted
most by the coronavirus pandemic.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/covid-19-and-future-care-delivery
COVID-19 and the future of care delivery
It was
quickly recognised that the pandemic required tools to provide safe
access to health and care at a distance. Scotland is demonstrating how a
rapid telehealth transformation can be achieved says Nessa Barry of the
Scottish government.
August 18,
2020 03:56 AM
The
opportunity to deliver a session for new healthcare students on the subject of
telehealth is an enjoyable one. However, these sessions usually begin with a
hurdle to be overcome – that of terminology. Discussion on the definitions for
telehealth, telecare, telemedicine and other terms under the digital health and
care umbrella is always required, and will be discussed in greater detail
during the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event taking
place on 7-11 September 2020..
We
start with a graphic that shows citizens accessing health and care at different
points along a continuum of care. The continuum runs from the home or community
setting – through to an acute hospital setting. In these conversations about
how technology might be used in different scenarios, and the terms that are
applied, we always emphasise that the prefix ‘tele’
simply means ‘at
a distance’
and that students should focus on the intervention, the health and care
being provided. I have repeated that sentence many times over the years and it
comes to mind now, more than ever, as we look for tools to maintain and provide
safe access to health and care services at a distance.
-----
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/north-america/when-will-medical-simulation-catch-consumer-video-games
When will medical simulation catch up to consumer video games?
In a HIMSS20
Digital session, Level Ex CEO Sam Glassenberg discusses his company's efforts
to bridge the gap.
By Jonah Comstock
August 18,
2020 03:02 pm
Sam
Glassenberg, CEO of Level Ex, dodged the family business of medicine and went
into video game design. But his path led him right back to the world of
medicine
“All
of this came to a head in 2012 when my father, who is an anesthesiologist,
finally gave up and said ‘All right Sam, you’re not going to medical
school. It’s too late. So at least put this game silliness to good
use and make me a game to train my residents to do a fiber optic intubation.”
He
made a game. And, to make it easy for his fathers’ residents to access it, he
put it on the app store. A little while later his father, hoping to check in on
his students, asked him how many times the game had been downloaded.
The
answer was 100,000, Glassenberg revealed in a recent HIMSS20 Digital session. And not only that, a
peer-reviewed paper about his game had come out demonstrating its effectiveness
in training anesthesiologists on the procedure.
-----
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/technology-prioritizes-patient-dignity-essential-expert-panel-says
Aug 18 2020
Technology that prioritizes patient dignity is essential, expert panel says
Dignity-preserving technology allows the patient to decide what
information is shared and for how long.
Mallory Hackett,
Associate Editor
Preserving
a patient's dignity is essential to creating a human-driven healthcare model,
according to panelists from the HIMSS 2020 digital session "Dignity-Preserving
Technology: Addressing Global Health Disparities in Vulnerable
Populations."
A
person's dignity is becoming increasingly intertwined with technology, according
to panelist Dr. Alex Cahana, chief medical officer at ConsenSys Health. He says
that technology has become an important mode for sharing how people think, feel
and speak.
"And
so if we are in essence our data, then any third party that takes that data –
with a partial or even complete agreement of consent from my end, and uses it, abuses
it, or loses it – takes actually a piece of me as a human," Cahana said
during the panel.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ai-bias-may-worsen-covid-19-health-disparities-people-color
AI bias may worsen COVID-19 health disparities for people of color
A new article
in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association points to the
dissemination of "under-developed and potentially biased models" in
response to the novel coronavirus.
By Kat Jercich
August 18,
2020 02:17 PM
Developers
and data
scientists have long said that biased data often leads to biased models
when it comes to machine learning and artificial intelligence.
A
new article in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association argues
that such biased models may further the disproportionate impact the COVID-19
pandemic is having on people of color.
The
article's authors, Eliane Röösli, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
and Brian Rice and Tina Hernandez-Boussard, of Stanford University, noted that
even as the global research community has rushed to push out new findings, it
risks producing biased prediction models.
"If
not properly addressed, propagating these biases under the mantle of AI has the
potential to exaggerate the health disparities faced by minority populations
already bearing the highest disease burden," wrote the researchers.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/08/18/data-driven-decisions-for-care-transitions/
Data Driven Decisions for Care Transitions
August 18, 2020
Colin Hung
Transitioning
elderly patients from acute care facilities continues to be inefficient,
inconvenient, and fraught with risk. Most are still done via paper and fax
machines. In addition, the decision on the patient’s most appropriate next
level of care is often made without using patient data or using only
superficial information like primary diagnosis. It shouldn’t be this way.
naviHealth is a company that makes a
technology platform that uses evidence-based protocols along with dedicated
staff to track patient recoveries, manage hospital discharges and improve
clinical decision making. Their goal is to help build a future with more
senior-centered care.
I
recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jay LaBine MD, Chief Medical
Officer at naviHealth. We discussed how decisions are made when transitioning
patients to post-acute care, the future of homecare, and the overall lack of
investment in this area.
Determining
Next Level of Care
“The first part of the care transition is determining what’s the most
appropriate next level of care setting for that individual,” stated Dr. LaBine.
“But how is that determination made?”
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/whats-next-telehealth-opportunities-innovation
What's Next for Telehealth? Opportunities for Innovation
By Mandy Roth |
August 18, 2020
Experts point to areas of potential growth and improvement in the
telehealth landscape.
While
telehealth has accelerated in popularity, it is far from reaching its zenith.
Tremendous innovation is needed to help it reach its potential. BDO USA,
part of BDO International, an accounting network, published the 2020 Healthcare
Digital Transformation Survey earlier this year. HealthLeaders
spoke with Deb Sheehan and Chris Cooper, both managing directors of the BDO Center for Healthcare Excellence and Innovation
who were involved with the study, to obtain their insights regarding where
opportunities for improvement exist in the virtual care arena. Among their
recommendations:
- EMR enhancements: During in-person
visits, physicians have time to check in with staff members and orient
themselves to the patient outside of the examination room. As physicians
conduct virtual care, that dynamic changes. They need to be able to
quickly reference the EMR on demand. Enabling technology is needed so
providers can easily access necessary screens to enhance workflow and
reduce time needed to navigate through the EMR platform.
·
Balancing virtual and in-person visits: As
patients begin returning for in-person visits, new workflow issues exist with
the current need for social distancing and the inability to keep multiple
patients in the waiting room. Coupled with longer patient turnover rates due to
the extra time it takes to sanitize rooms between visits, physicians may design
their workflow to alternate between virtual and in-person visits throughout the
day. Data is needed to help physicians determine the optimal mix.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/3-ways-covid-19-transformed-healthcare-delivery-through-telehealth
3 Ways COVID-19 Transformed Healthcare Delivery Through Telehealth
By Mandy Roth |
August 18, 2020
With the coronavirus crisis, health systems catapulted the industry into
the future by accelerating virtual care initiatives that will forever change
the way healthcare is delivered in the U.S.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
·
The ability to rapidly scale solutions that were
already in place was an essential component of telehealth success stories.
·
Massive training initiatives were necessary to
deploy technology to thousands of new users.
·
With access to new tools, novel uses for virtual
care evolved, such as virtual rounding and ER video handoffs.
As
2020 launched, healthcare executives had no way of knowing the havoc a novel
virus that had emerged in Wuhan, China, would wreak on the healthcare industry.
By March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization acknowledged a pandemic was in
progress, and COVID-19 began impacting the U.S. population. Hospitals and
healthcare systems went into overdrive, brainstorming new ways to protect
patients, and providers set out to devise new ways to deliver care.
Between
mid-February and April, healthcare innovation was happening everywhere at a
rate and scale never before experienced. New ideas were quickly greenlighted;
funds were released to purchase new technology; and staff members were
reassigned to deliver care in new ways. In this wellspring of ingenuity, one
innovation that was already entrenched—yet mired in a bog of skepticism, regulations,
and reimbursement restrictions—was ready to break loose: telehealth.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/features/healthcare-looks-to-telehealth-to-address-physician-burnout-stress
Healthcare Looks to Telehealth to Address Physician Burnout, Stress
In an
industry plagued by burnout, hospitals and health systems are using telehealth
to give providers virtual access to mental health counselors - and to make
their jobs less stressful.
August 14,
2020 - Like any profession that deals in life and death, healthcare has a
stress and burnout problem - to which telehealth could be the answer.
Physicians have
the highest suicide rate of any profession, losing 300 to 400 of their
colleagues a year, and their struggles with stress and depression have an
adverse effect on the healthcare industry’s economic health – a 2019 study posted in
the Annals of Internal Medicine found that burnout adds roughly $4.6
billion in costs each year.
Writing in the
American Journal of Medicine, Scott Yates, MD, MBA, MS, FACP, of the Plano,
Texas-based Center for Executive Medicine, says burnout affects roughly half of
all physicians in practice, manifesting itself in medical errors, lower quality
of care and higher costs. Furthermore, it’s a systemic issue, rather than an
individual one, and COVID-19 certainly isn’t helping.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/how-big-data-analytics-models-can-impact-healthcare-decision-making
How Big Data Analytics Models Can Impact Healthcare Decision-Making
Big data
analytics models can help policymakers make more informed healthcare decisions,
contributing to better public and population health.
By Jessica Kent
August 17,
2020 - In healthcare, providers and lawmakers are faced with the task of
making the best possible decisions for patients and the industry as a whole.
From choosing the best treatments, to determining the most effective ways to
utilize resources, leaders are making decisions every day that can impact
health outcomes and costs.
With all of
this information to consider, it’s no wonder that big data analytics tools have
played an increasingly
significant role in healthcare decision-making.
Researchers,
providers, and policymakers are turning to big data analytics models to help
improve care delivery, allocation of resources, and preventive health measures.
As the
industry continues to innovate and refine these tools, data-driven decisions
will soon become standard, leading to more proactive, successful healthcare
operations.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/harnessing-big-data-to-enhance-population-health-management
Harnessing Big Data to Enhance Population Health Management
Big data
and analytics tools can help providers meet the clinical and social needs of
the patients they serve, paving the way for improved population health management.
By Jessica Kent
August 13,
2020 - As the industry continues its quest to provide holistic,
comprehensive, and cost-effective care to patients, the term population health
management has emerged as a crucial task for organizations to undertake.
Understanding
the needs of particular patient groups, targeting resources to those who need
them most, and measuring outcomes are all part of advanced quality care
delivery. But in order to successfully manage patient populations, institutions
must have a solid grip on something the industry contains in multitudes: Data.
“Healthcare
is typically slow to take things up, but the industry was always big data even
before there was big data,” Brian Coffey, senior vice president and chief data
insight and innovation officer at Southwestern Health Resources (SWHR), told
HealthITAnalytics.com.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/how-covid-19-shaking-up-medical-education-for-good
How COVID-19 is shaking up medical education—for good
By Paige Minemyer
Aug 14, 2020
10:54am
As
the wave of closures swept across the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic this
spring, Jason Rosenstock, M.D. found himself among the educators scrambling to
totally rethink how school would work.
For
the interim associate dean for medical education at the Univeristy of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine, that meant rethinking the delivery
of medical education using pre-recorded classes while
lecturers connected with students in active discussions through
online platforms like Zoom, Rosenstock said.
“It
was okay, but it really wasn’t as good as doing synchronous
discussions,” he said.
With COVID-19
shows no signs of letting up soon, leaders at medical schools like
Rosenstock are adapting their plans for education in the fall to meet the new
demands of the pandemic. That means going digital in an unprecedented
way—both in terms of classes and in terms of the type of clinical care
students are learning about.
-----
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/08/14/902271822/13-states-make-contact-tracing-data-public-heres-what-they-re-learning
14 States Make Contact Tracing Data Public. Here's What They're Learning
August 14, 20205:00 AM ET
Selena
Simmons-Duffin
Updated
3:40 p.m. ET
Note:
This story was updated to include Massachusetts, which began to share contact
When everyone who tests positive for coronavirus in your community
gets a call from a public health worker asking them about their contacts and
those contacts are then asked to quarantine, the process creates a powerful way
to keep the virus from spreading.
But contact tracing can do more than
that: At scale, the data gathered in those calls also offers vital information
about where transmission is happening in a community. That data can drive
policy and even guide individuals in assessing what's more or less safe to go out
and do.
NPR has surveyed the health departments of all U.S. states and
territories three times about contact tracing capacity — first in April, then again in mid-June, and most recently in late July. The
latest survey, done in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health
Security, also asked states about contact tracing data: what they were
gathering and what they're making public.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/cms-issues-medicaid-guidance-for-states-implementing-interoperability-rule
CMS issues Medicaid guidance for states on implementing interoperability
rule
By Heather Landi
Aug 14, 2020
11:48am
A
new federal regulation requires state Medicaid agencies to make it easy
for patients to access their health information via smartphone by January
1.
To
help with the heavy lift, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
issued guidance (PDF)
Friday to help states implement the Interoperability and Patient
Access final rule in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program
(CHIP).
"The
timeline for compliance with the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final
rule is aggressive, and CMS is committed to providing states with the necessary
technical assistance to implement these advancements in improving patient
access to their data and interoperability," said Calder Lynch, deputy
administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services in the
guidance.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/jordanian-telehealth-solution-provide-free-medical-access-beirut-residents
Jordanian telehealth solution to provide free medical access for Beirut
residents
Altibbi will
provide the Arabic-language consultations for a month, allowing anyone who
needs medical assistance to connect directly with doctors via audio calls and
online chats.
By Ahmed El Sherif
August 17,
2020 02:26 AM
Jordan’s
Altibbi has announced it is to provide free telehealth consultations for Beirut
residents “to support the overstretched healthcare system in Lebanon.” This
comes following the devastating explosions that recently took place in the
capital.
Dubbing
itself as the “first and largest platform in the Arab region that offers telemedicine
consultation services”, Altibbi will provide the free Arabic-language
consultations for a month, allowing anyone who needs medical assistance to
connect directly with doctors via audio calls or online chat. Those requiring
the service can visit altibbi.com/consultation or download the app after
which they will be connected with a doctor “within minutes”.
CEO
Jalil Allabadi explained: “Telehealth has proven vital with its ability to
surpass physical boundaries to support the masses: from empowering governments
with their fight against the spreading of COVID-19 to aiding a country in need
of humanitarian healthcare aid.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/interoperability-improved-care-coordination-amid-covid-19
Interoperability for improved care coordination amid COVID 19
How
healthcare providers can leverage interoperability across the care continuum
for improved care coordination and patient empowerment.
By Joyoti Goswami
August 17,
2020 11:46 AM
COVID-19
has brought up the issue of fragmented health information again, making
interoperability of health data paramount. Therefore, there could have been no
better time for the interoperability and patient access rule.
The
rule helps improve the decision-making process for physicians and health
systems by connecting siloed information across the care continuum. According
to Grahame Grieve, the founder of HL7 FHIR, interoperability is all about people
and connecting their health stories across different specialties, visits, and
consults across multiple locations. Connecting the health story of an
individual holds valuable clues to the diagnosis and treatment.
Advantages of FHIR
Data
today is still locked down in individual EMR systems after each patient visit.
The payers, too, have a large portion of this data through the claims and
encounter data that flows to them during billing processes.
As
an example, a patient’s journey from ambulatory care to urgent care and acute
care in an episode of COVID has tons of important healthcare information
generated in a short span. Seamless access to this information about a patient
across the care continuum is the solution to better care coordination that can
be solved by the Interoperability and Patient Access rule primarily by using
FHIR APIs.
- FHIR is free to use. FHIR is built
on existing web technologies such as https, REST, XML, and JSON. The FHIR
API standards support technologies that mobile devices use - both Android
and iOS devices - making it easy for developers to build on it.
- FHIR allows for vendor-neutral
information exchange. The HL7 Argonaut project is a private sector
initiative that is an implementation community led by technology leaders
in healthcare. The primary goal is to collaboratively work on industry use
cases using FHIR and secure authentication protocols for healthcare
information exchange. The goal is to create vendor-neutral applications that
can be leveraged across the healthcare industry by all patients. So, it
becomes easier for patients to visit multiple facilities using different
EMR technologies to get information on their smartphones using standard
technologies and interfaces.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/public-health-england-s-chief-executive-reflects-lessons-learned-covid-19-crisis
Public Health England’s chief executive reflects on lessons learned from
the COVID-19 crisis
HIMSS chief
clinical officer, Dr Charles Alessi, sat down with Duncan Selbie, chief
executive, Public Health England, to discuss the positive outcomes of the
COVID-19 crisis.
By Sara Mageit
August 17,
202010:54 AM
Although
Public Health England has played an integral role in the global pandemic,
it was announced yesterday that it is to be replaced by a new agency with
a sole focus on health protection specifically designed to protect the nation
from pandemics. This new body, modelled on Germany's independent
agency, Robert Koch Institute, will be announced later this week by health
secretary, Matt Hancock.
In
a recent interview for Healthcare IT News, HIMSS chief clinical
officer, Dr Charles Alessi, spoke to Duncan Selbie, chief executive, Public
Health England, about the nation’s response to the pandemic and the
outcomes that have followed.
“In
a time of pressure and adversity during the COVID-19 crises, there have also
been some positive outcomes like the implementation of more granular
surveillance systems and improvements to the quality of data that we have
collected,” said Selbie.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/icd-10-codes-dont-accurately-capture-covid-19-symptoms-study-shows
ICD-10 codes don't accurately capture COVID-19 symptoms, study shows
A JAMA
Network Open study suggested that ICD-10 codes had poor sensitivity for fever,
cough and dyspnea.
By Kat Jercich
August 17,
2020 12:27 PM
A
study published this past week in JAMA Network Open suggests symptom-specific ICD-10
codes don't always capture COVID-19-related symptoms.
An
electronic health record review of 2,201 patients who had been tested for
COVID-19 found that ICD-10 codes had low sensitivity and negative predictive
value for capturing cough, fever and labored breathing.
"Symptoms
are an essential part of data collection for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19
surveillance and research, but symptom-specific ICD-10 codes lack sensitivity
and fail to capture many patients with relevant symptoms; the false-negative rate
is unacceptably high," wrote researchers.
WHY IT
MATTERS
Researchers
at the University of Utah reviewed the EHRs of 2,201 patients who had been
tested at UU Health for COVID-19. Most of the patients had been tested in an
outpatient setting; 7% had been tested in the emergency
department; and 3% were tested in an inpatient setting.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/08/17/possible-discrimination-against-remote-workforce/
Possible Discrimination Against Remote Workforce
August 17, 2020
John Lynn
One
of the big optimization lessons learned as people quickly shifted to remote
work was that if one person is remote, then everyone should connect in as if
they were remote (whether they’re remote or not). It creates some really
tough dynamics if a few people are hopping on Zoom or Google Meet remotely and
the rest of the people are in person. There may be some technology
companies trying to make this better, but I haven’t seen a good solution for it
yet.
My
guess is that most of you have experienced this. In some cases, the
remote person isn’t an intimate part of the discussion and they just need to
hear what’s being shared. If that’s the case, then it can work
fine. However, if you want them to be an active contributor to the
discussion, then having them remote while others are in person is
problematic. The remote person will have a hard time interjecting their
thoughts and sometimes even keeping up with the conversation. Thus, the
advice that if one person is remote, everyone should hop on a virtual meeting
so the playing field is equal.
This
is going to become a major issue in most healthcare organizations as companies
encourage their employees to return to work while allowing some of their
employees to continue to remote work. The desire to have a meeting in
person might be there, but you’ll want to consider how that’s going to impact
those who can’t attend in person. Is it better to just go fully virtual
so everyone can equally contribute?
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/08/17/millions-of-elderly-patients-in-u-s-arent-prepared-to-participate-in-telehealth-visits/
Millions Of Elderly Patients In U.S. Aren’t Prepared To Participate in
Telehealth Visits
August 17, 2020
Anne Zieger
New
research
appearing in a high-profile medical journal suggests that millions of U.S.
seniors aren’t ready to participate fully – or in some cases, at all – in
telehealth visits due to a lack of technical knowledge or health-related
issues.
The
study, which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, looked the degree to
which U.S. seniors were ready to participate in telemedicine sessions. To look
at these issues, the researchers analyzed 2018 data from the National Health
and Aging Trends Study, a nationally representative study of Medicare
beneficiaries age 65 and older. The mean age of patients included in the study
was 79.5 years.
When
looking at whether these seniors were prepared to participate in telehealth
sessions, they assumed that the elderly patients were unready if they had
health issues such as difficulty hearing well, problems with speaking, possible
or established dementia or limited vision.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/healthcare-next-steps-to-opening-the-digital-front-door
Healthcare’s Next Steps to Opening the Digital Front Door
As
healthcare increasingly approaches the digital front door, an industry-wide
goal to humanize care will help organizations walk all the way through.
Source: Getty
Images
By Sara Heath
August 13,
2020 - Before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, healthcare didn’t even
have its hand on the knob of the digital front door. The industry was only in
what Summer Knight, MD, managing director in Deloitte Consulting’s Life
Sciences & Health Care practice, calls the first phase of overall
transformation.
“The first
wave of industry transformation is having group think identifying that, ‘hey,
we have a major problem and we need to get on a path to solve it for the
stability of our industry,’” Knight told PatientEngagementHIT in an interview.
“And then we begin to start to see early actions and early destructors come
into the marketplace.”
That’s about
where healthcare was back in the early months of 2020, before the world got
turned upside down with the COVID-19 pandemic. The US healthcare system knew it
needed to undergo change, that it needed to push for more patient centricity,
and it was even already seeing some big disruptors and some articulation of a
digital front door.
But
it wasn’t until the middle of March when the virus — and fear — spread at
pandemic levels that the medical field began creeping into phase two
transformation territory.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/new-telehealth-bill-seeks-funding-for-broadband-expansion-programs
New Telehealth Bill Seeks Funding for Broadband Expansion Programs
The ACCESS
the Internet Act, introduced last week, proposes to designate $400 million to
restart the FCC's COVID-19 Telehealth Program and give the VA $100 million to
boost telehealth access for rural and remote veterans.
By Eric Wicklund
August 10,
2020 - A new bill before Congress aims to increase funding for telehealth
expansion programs that target improved broadband connectivity.
The Accelerating
Connected Care and Education Support Services on the Internet (ACCESS the
Internet) Act, introduced this past week by Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and
John Cornyn (R-TX), proposes to add $400 million to Federal Communications
Commission’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program, which was shut down last month after
exhausting its $200 million allocation through the CARES Act. It would also set
aside another $100 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand
connected health access for veterans in rural and underserved areas.
The bill targets
a significant barrier to telehealth expansion in rural and remote areas of the
country. Healthcare providers can’t extend programs and services into these
areas – and residents can’t use them – unless they have access to reliable and
uninterrupted broadband.
“The current
COVID-19 pandemic has shone a new light on the broadband issues in West
Virginia and across rural America,” Manchin said
in a press release. “Americans and West Virginians have had to adjust to a
new way of working, learning, and living from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic
and for most people, this change relies on accessible, reliable broadband which
many rural Americans do not have.”
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https://www.livemint.com/news/india/pm-modi-launches-national-digital-health-mission-11597467562654.html
PM Modi launches National Digital Health Mission
3 min read . Updated:
15 Aug 2020, 06:46 PM IST Neetu Chandra Sharma
The National Digital Health Blueprint of the mission was
prepared by a health ministry panel to create a framework for the national
health stack proposed in 2018 by the NITI Aayog
NEW
DELHI : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the
National Digital Health Mission, while addressing the nation from Red Fort on
India's 74th Independence Day.
Modi
said that the initiative which is completely technology based will
revolutionise the health sector in India.
Every
Indian under the mission would get an ID card containing all relevant
information about his/her medical conditions and treatments, tests etc, the
Prime Minister said.
"Every
Indian will get a Health ID card. Every they visit a doctor or a pharmacy, or a
lab, all the detail will be registered in this health card. Ranging from doctor
appointment to the medication prescribed, medical tests, when were they done,
every bit of detail will be available in your health profile," Modi said.
The
National Digital Health Blueprint of the mission was prepared by a health
ministry panel to create a framework for the national health stack proposed in
2018 by the NITI Aayog, the government think tank.
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https://histalk2.com/2020/08/14/weekender-8-14-20/
Weekly News Recap
- MDLive announces plans to go
public early next year.
- Health Catalyst announces its acquisition
of Vitalware for $120 million.
- Epic reverses its mandatory return
to campus policy, approving working from home through at least the end of
the year.
- Waystar will acquire ESolutions,
valuing the company at $1.3 billion.
- Craneware raises $100 million for
acquisitions.
- Providence Services Group acquires
Navin Haffty.
- VA OIG recommends that the VA work
on increasing its use of VA Direct and improve oversight of its VHIE
community coordinators.
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https://www.digitalhealthcrc.com/professor-roughead-in-iran/
August, 2020
Professor Libby Roughead’s Surprising eHealth Adventures in Iran
A
new collaboration between the Digital Health CRC, Macquarie University, Outcome
Health and three Primary Health Networks in Victoria promises to deliver
important public health insights through real-time reporting on the primary
care frontline.
But
while Australia’s world-class health system rates very highly in most aspects,
Professor Libby Roughead says that this project shows Australia’s digital
health readiness lags behind that of Iran, which began trialling real-time
primary care reporting more than three years ago.
Professor
Roughead is Director of the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research
Centre at the University of South Australia (UniSA). She has extensive
expertise in pharmaceutical policy, adverse events and improving use of
medicines. UniSA is a participant in the Digital Health CRC.
Libby
has been an advisor on medicines policy, pricing and quality use of medicines
at regional and global meetings of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
As
the Islamic Republic of Iran extended their digital health services into
pharmaceutical services, Libby was asked by the WHO in 2017 to visit Iran on
their behalf as a consultant to share her expertise and advice on the nation’s
developing e-prescription system.
-----
Enjoy!
David.