With
Covid-19 cases surging in parts of the U.S. at the start of flu season,
developers of artificial intelligence tools are about to face their biggest
test of the pandemic: Can they help doctors differentiate between the two
respiratory illnesses, and accurately predict which patients will become
severely ill?
Numerous
AI models are promising to do exactly that by sifting data on symptoms and
analyzing chest X-rays and CT scans. For now, the increased availability of
coronavirus testing means AI is unlikely to be relied upon for frontline
detection and diagnosis. But it will become increasingly important for figuring
out how aggressively to treat patients and which ones are likely to need
intensive care beds, ventilators, and other equipment that could become scarce
if there’s a Covid-flu “twindemic.”
“That’s
on the forefront of everyone’s mind right now,” said Anna Yaffee, an emergency
medicine physician at Emory University who helped build an online symptom checker
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-virtual-care-can-be-refined-reach-those-who-need-it-most
How virtual care can be refined to reach those who need it most Clinicians,
vendors and telehealth advocates stress the importance of virtual services in
expanding access to care – and noted the ways it still needs to improve.
Kat Jercich
October 16,
2020
There's
no doubt that telehealth has proven to be an integral tool to keeping
healthcare accessible amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Telehealth
has continued to grow and has continued to really set the pace" for
digital innovation, said CHIME president and CEO Russ Branzell. Though the
coronavirus crisis has certainly sped up that process, he said, the foundation
for such growth has been laid overtime by digital health leaders.
But
other experts who spoke at this week's HLTH VRTL 2020 conference reminded
attendees, clinicians and innovators must be willing to think outside the box
to fulfill telehealth's promise.
"The
pandemic has driven innovation in the shape and design of the traditional
healthcare visit. We must add structures that will achieve health equity,"
said Dr. Megan Mahoney, clinical professor of medicine, primary care and
population health at Stanford Health Care, in a statement provided to Healthcare
IT News
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/roundup-nhs-covid-19-app-shows-phantom-alerts-digital-interventions-childrens-mental
Roundup: NHS COVID-19 app shows phantom alerts, digital interventions for
children's mental health and more briefs Also, North
Tees and Hartlepool NHS FT to save quarter of a million pounds through
e-Observations.
By Sara Mageit
October 16,
2020 11:41 AM
NHS
COVID APP SHOWS PHANTOM ALERT
Users
have complained of 'scary and confusing' pop up alerts from the NHS COVID-19
app, suggesting exposure to the virus and then disappearing.
The
messages read: "Possible COVID-19 exposure. Someone you were near
reported having COVID-19. Exposure date, duration and signal strength have been
saved."
It
was later revealed that the messages are a default privacy notification from
the contact tracing technology providers, Apple and Google.
The
app has now been updated to fix the issue and a follow-up message from the
government will tell people to ignore them.
The
app is targeted at users living in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have an app of their own and
have not experienced phantom messages.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/proving-roi-for-social-determinants-of-health-interventions
Proving ROI for Social Determinants of Health Interventions At Healthy
Alliance IPA, outlining return on investment for social determinants of health
is key to meeting patient needs and avoiding suffering.
By Sara Heath
October 14,
2020 - As a family medicine doctor, Jacob Reider, MD, the former Deputy
National Coordinator for Health IT, has spent most of his career focusing on
disease treatment. From medical school to residency, nearly 100 percent of his
training was focused on how to treat disease. But times are changing, according
to Reider, and it’s high time healthcare focus on the social determinants of
health.
“If you think
about it from a societal perspective, that's backwards,” Reider told
PatientEngagementHIT in an interview “We shouldn't wait for people to have
diseases and then treat them. We should prevent illness. We should maintain
health. And yet very little of where we see dollars being invested in our community
is going to health. They’re actually going to care.”
But in an era
of value-based care, Reider, like other providers across the country, has
recognized that the focus on sick care, the interventions clinicians do after a
patient falls dangerously ill, is falling short. This type of healthcare is
expensive and doesn’t promote good quality
of life for patients.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/cerners-new-ehr-implementation-strategy-receives-positive-marks
Cerner’s New EHR Implementation Strategy Receives Positive Marks After a
slew of negative responses in 2019, Cerner vastly improved its EHR
implementation process in 2020.
By Christopher Jason
October 13,
2020 - Cerner made changes to its EHR implementation process in 2020, and
so far, the early feedback has been positive, according
to a KLAS performance report.
Following a negative
2019 KLAS report, on average, Cerner’s large EHR implementation clients rated
the vendor’s overall performance roughly 20 percent higher than its old
implementation approach.
The study
combined feedback from small and large implementations and explored which firms
are the best option for Cerner, Epic Systems, and MEDITECH clients. When a
provider implements a new EHR system, it’s vital to pick the right partner to
deliver a positive experience.
As
noted, Cerner optimized its implementation process and from the six
organizations that participated in the survey, the vendor received positive
feedback. However, the sample size of smaller EHR implementation projects is
not large enough to provide valuable feedback.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/cerner-unveils-platforms-to-boost-interoperability-reduce-clinician-burnout
Cerner Unveils Platforms to Boost Interoperability, Reduce Clinician
Burnout Cerner CEO
Brent Shafer said the vendor will integrate a series of EHR solutions to target
social determinants of health, interoperability, and clinician burnout.
By Christopher Jason
October 14,
2020 - EHR vendor giant Cerner Corporation has unveiled
the Cerner Unite platform and Cerner Discover integration to reduce clinician
burnout, boost interoperability, and increase data quality, Brent Shafter, the
company’s chairman and CEO, announced at the Cerner Health Conference.
“Cerner has
provided important insights and helped make clinical and operational decisions
easier for more than 40 years. Today we’re using actionable data to truly transform
health care,” said Shafer.
“More than
ever before, we have tools, technology and innovations to fight this global
pandemic. Whether it’s working with health systems from around the world to set
up field hospitals, sharing data to help stop the spread or delivering
intelligence to better manage patients, equipment or bed availability, we
rushed to support the work of health care providers across the globe.”
Shafer
said the Cerner Unite EHR platform will take interoperability beyond
connectivity and to actual usability. Cerner Discover, an intelligence
portfolio, will integrate into the Unite platform. These portfolios intend to
boost data quality, incorporate data insights into any Cerner workflow, and
simplify data reconciliation.
-----
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/ehrs/hospitals-will-rate-ehr-interoperability-usability-cost-in-federal-survey.html
Hospitals will rate EHR interoperability, usability, cost in federal
survey Laura Dyrda ( Twitter ) – 14 October, 2020
Healthcare
providers will have the opportunity to provide feedback on their EHR's
interoperability in the future through a 28-question survey.
HHS
contracted with The Urban Institute to develop the survey as part of the 21st Century Cures Act of
2016. On Oct. 13, the first version of the survey became available. The Urban
Institute posted a draft of the criteria online this pat summer for a 60-day
comment period and made revisions based on public feedback.
The
firm received 31 comments from organizations including the Healthcare
Information and Management Systems Society, Epic, Cerner, Allscripts, Meditech
and several clinical societies. The comments consistently mentioned concerns
over how long it would take to complete the questionnaire and the level of data
collected as well as the accuracy of data based on respondents. Commenters also
recommended adding information about social determinants of health, objective
usability measures and the patient experience.
-----
https://www.healthimaging.com/topics/artificial-intelligence/transparency-ai-research-google-breast-cancer-screening
Experts cite Google-led breast cancer screening study in
call for more AI research transparency Matt O'Connor | October 14, 2020 | Artificial
Intelligence
A
study claiming artificial intelligence can beat trained radiologists at
detecting breast cancer has caused scientists from around the globe to demand
more transparency and reproducibility in AI-based research.
Experts
at Johns Hopkins, Harvard School of Public Health, MIT, Princess Margaret
Cancer Center, and others specifically want journals to hold investigators
to higher standards. They implored their colleagues to share codes, models
and test settings in peer-reviewed publications.
The
groups shared their thoughts in an article published Wednesday in Nature
"Scientific
progress depends on the ability of researchers to scrutinize the results of a
study and reproduce the main finding to learn from," Benjamin Haibe-Kains,
PhD, a senior scientist at Princess Margaret in Toronto, said in a statement.
"But in computational research, it's not yet a widespread criterion for
the details of an AI study to be fully accessible. This is detrimental to our
progress."
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/tackling-racism-health-takes-more-data-alone-say-experts
Tackling racism in health takes more than data alone, say experts Although
"technology can be a great equalizer," it can also be used to further
inequities, said panelists at HLTH VRTL 2020.
By Kat Jercich
October 15,
2020 12:40 PM
The
COVID-19 crisis has magnified and exacerbated inequities in healthcare, with
communities of color disproportionately affected by the disease and its
economic fallout. But such disparities date back to long before the pandemic
began to spread across the country this spring.
"Structural
racism," said American Medical Association Chief Health Equity Officer Dr.
Aletha Maybank, "permeates the healthcare system."
Given
that reality, "How do we combat bias that's decades-old in our country as
we move forward today?" she asked.
Maybank
was among the experts at the HLTH VRTL 2020 conference this week who weighed in
on the best strategies to confront the ways racism in the healthcare industry:
from medical education content to training, to research study designs, to
technological responses.
-----
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/cms-will-reimburse-11-new-telehealth-services-during-public-health-emergency
Oct 15 2020
CMS will reimburse for 11 new telehealth services during the public health
emergency CMS will
now pay for certain neurostimulator analysis and programming services and
cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services.
Susan Morse ,
Managing Editor
Providers
have 11 additional telehealth services that will be reimbursed by the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
CMS announced
yesterday the addition of 11 new services to the Medicare telehealth services
list.
Medicare will
begin paying eligible practitioners for these services immediately, and
for the duration of the PHE. These new telehealth services include certain
neurostimulator analysis and programming services and cardiac and pulmonary
rehabilitation services.
CMS
is also providing additional support to state Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program agencies in their
efforts to expand access to telehealth through the release of a new
supplement to its State Medicaid & CHIP Telehealth Toolkit: Policy Considerations for States
Expanding Use of Telehealth, COVID-19 Version.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/onc-officials-offer-update-information-blocking-rules-compliance
ONC officials offer update on information blocking rules compliance Providers,
certified IT developers and HIEs should "be on the lookout" for
upcoming adjustments in certain timelines, said Deputy National Coordinator
Steve Posnack.
By Mike Miliard
October 15,
2020 10:17 AM
At
the Cerner Health Conference on Wednesday, two representatives from the Office
of the National Coordinator for Health IT offered some updates on the
compliance requirements of its 21st Century Cures information blocking
rules published in March.
First,
Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Steven Posnack noted that, with an interim
final rule under review at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, those
covered should keep their eyes peeled for some potential reshuffling of
compliance dates due to the demands of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"We
do have an interim final rule under review [at OMB] that will adjust certain
timelines associated with the certification program and information blocking,
so please be on the lookout for that," said Posnack. "You can expect
certain adjustments to our timing and compliance requirements."
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/ama-coalition-to-help-doctors-use-telehealth-for-mental-health-services
AMA Coalition to Help Doctors Use Telehealth for Mental Health Services The AMA's
Behavioral Health Integration Collaborative, coming on the heels of last week's
Executive Order, aims to help providers use telehealth to integrate mental and
behavioral health services into primary care.
By Eric Wicklund
October 13,
2020 - Healthcare providers will be getting some help in learning how to
use telehealth to integrate mental health services into standard pathways of
care.
With a
coronavirus pandemic and rising substance abuse rates plaguing the nation, the
American Medical Association is launching a new collaboration aimed at helping
providers add telemental health to the primary care platform.
The Behavioral
Health Integration (BHI) Collaborative will bring together the collective
expertise of the AMA, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry,
American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians,
American Osteopathic Association and American Psychiatric Association.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/population-health-studies-examine-role-of-genetics-in-covid-19
Population Health Studies Examine Role of Genetics in COVID-19 Researchers
are studying the role of genetics in COVID-19 outcomes to improve population
health.
By Jessica Kent
October 12,
2020 - As organizations across the healthcare landscape seek to maintain
or improve population health during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are
turning to genetics to better understand patient outcomes from the virus.
Recently,
researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill and
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) received
a $500,000 grant from Google’s philanthropy, Google.org. The study will aim to
discover how COVID-19 alters gene expression in some ways that may be linked to
their risk of severe illness and death.
Researchers
will analyze blood samples collected in the past 16 months from more than 4,000
participants in the Cameron County Hispanic Cohort, some of whom have been
infected with COVID-19. Cameron County is located along the southern
Texas-Mexico border, and it has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the US.
For
the first time, researchers will compare RNA, a marker of gene expression, from
the blood collected over years from the same individuals before and after
COVID-19 infection. The team will also compare participants’ RNA expression
profiles to those of other cohort participants who have not been infected.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/using-machine-learning-to-calculate-unreported-covid-19-cases
Using Machine Learning to Calculate Unreported COVID-19 Cases Researchers
at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub are leveraging machine learning to estimate the
number of undetected COVID-19 cases.
By Jessica Kent
October 13,
2020 - To reduce and track the spread of COVID-19, researchers and
provider organizations have increasingly turned to artificial intelligence and
machine learning tools to improve their surveillance efforts.
From
predicting patient outcomes to anticipating future hotspots across the country,
big data analytics systems have helped health leaders stay ahead of the
pandemic, resulting in more efficient care delivery.
However,
healthcare organizations’ level of pandemic preparation is only as good as the
data available to them. While the industry is no stranger to data issues, the
COVID-19 pandemic has brought a host of unique challenges to the forefront of care
delivery.
The
novel, global nature of the virus has led to significant gaps
in COVID-19 data , with inconsistencies in information leaving officials
unsure of the effectiveness of public health interventions.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/how-will-telehealth-access-shape-primary-care-access-visits
How Will Telehealth Access Shape Primary Care Access, Visits? Increased
telehealth access during the pandemic may have changed the content of primary
care appointments. How will this affect care in the future?
By Sara Heath
October 13,
2020 - Telehealth was instrumental in offsetting some of the serious
decrease in primary care access during the onset of the COVID-19 public health
crisis, but a retrospective analysis
is highlighting some potential shortcomings of telehealth for primary care.
Specifically,
the study, published in JAMA Network Open
“Evaluations
of cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol have
decreased, owing to fewer total visits and less frequent assessment during
telemedicine encounters,” the researchers said. “Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic
has been associated with changes in the structure of primary care, with the
content of telemedicine visits differing from that of office-based encounters.”
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/do-financial-incentives-boost-medication-adherence-outcomes
Do Financial Incentives Boost Medication Adherence, Outcomes? Researchers
assert that using incentives for medication adherence must also factor in
impacts on health outcomes.
By Sara Heath
October 13,
2020 - Financial incentives may be helpful for improving medication
adherence, but they don’t always translate into better health outcomes,
according to a new study
published in JAMA Network Open.
These
findings may influence how medical professionals roll out financial incentive
programs, including which patient populations would best be targeted, the
researchers out of Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania
concluded.
This comes as
healthcare professionals work to improve medication adherence in their
patients. Poor medication adherence is a million-dollar
problem in the US, leaving patients who don’t take their medications as
prescribed susceptible to adverse health outcomes that could warrant costly and
invasive interventions down the line.
Some
evidence has shown offering financial incentives for patients who achieve
medication adherence can be effective for promoting adherence. The Wharton
researchers mentioned previous studies indicating financial incentives for
individuals at-risk for cardiovascular disease have shown some promise.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/feds-map-out-interoperability-strategy-for-va-dod-ehr-systems
Feds Map Out Interoperability Strategy for VA, DoD EHR Systems The
Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program outlined an
interoperability strategy for both the VA and DoD’s upcoming EHR systems.
By Christopher Jason
October 12,
2020 - The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) program
office has supplemented over $21 billion to modernize the Department of
Veterans Affairs’ (VA) and Department of Defense’s (DoD) new EHR systems, according
to documents originally obtained by FCW.
FEHRM took
over for the Interagency Program Office in 2019, which previously managed
patient data exchange and interoperability between the DoD and VA’s EHR
systems, is now in charge of VA and DoD’s new Cerner Millennium EHR systems,
which are both set
to launch within the next few weeks.
“DOD and VA
are continuing to drive toward more seamless care as patients navigate within
and between the federal health care systems, most notably through the
implementation of a single, common federal EHR,” Neil Evans, MD, former interim
director of FHERM, wrote in the strategy.
The
strategy hit on three essential interoperability and health IT deliverables:
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https://www.statnews.com/2020/10/13/how-software-infuses-racism-into-us-health-care/?utm_content=bufferffd78
From a small town in North Carolina to big-city hospitals, how software
infuses racism into U.S. health care By Casey Ross
October 13, 2020
A HOSKIE, N.C. — The railroad tracks cut through Weyling
White’s boyhood backyard like an invisible fence. He would play there on sweltering
afternoons, stacking rocks along the rails under the watch of his grandfather,
who established a firm rule: Weyling wasn’t to cross the right of way into the
white part of town.
The
other side had nicer homes and parks, all the medical offices, and the town’s
only hospital. As a consequence, White said, his family mostly got by without
regular care, relying on home remedies and the healing hands of the Baptist
church. “There were no health care resources whatsoever,” said White, 34. “You
would see tons of worse health outcomes for people on those streets.”
The
hard lines of segregation have faded in Ahoskie, a town of 5,000 people in the
northeastern corner of the state. But in health care, a new force is redrawing
those barriers: algorithms that blindly soak up and perpetuate historical
imbalances in access to medical resources.
A
STAT investigation found that a common method of using analytics software to
target medical services to patients who need them most is infusing racial bias
into decision-making about who should receive stepped-up care. While a
study published last year documented bias in the use of an algorithm in one
health system, STAT found the problems arise from multiple algorithms used in
hospitals across the country. The bias is not intentional, but it reinforces
deeply rooted inequities in the American health care system, effectively
walling off low-income Black and Hispanic patients from services that less sick
white patients routinely receive.
-----
https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/ibm-launches-covid-19-health-status-app-hlth-2020-digital-health-pass/586876/
IBM launches COVID-19 health status app: HLTH 2020 Published Oct. 13, 2020 Dive Brief:
IBM Watson Health is launching an
app for organizations to check people's health status prior to letting
them in public spaces like sports stadiums, airplanes and workplaces. The app, called IBM Digital Health
Pass, premiered at the virtual HLTH conference Monday. Users can present a
verified health status based on different data sources, such as
vaccination status or COVID-19 test, in order to enter public locations,
with the goal of avoiding potential virus transmission. It's the latest in a slew of
products meant to help U.S. organizations resume activity, including some
from big names like CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group launching
back-to-work products in recent months. Pricing for IBM's app is highly
variable depending on the sponsoring organization and its needs, an IBM
spokesperson said, but declined to share specific figures. Dive Insight:
Research
suggests a majority of Americans still aren't comfortable returning to the
workplace, but confidence in returning to some businesses and other public
spaces is steadily growing, according to a
Qualtrics survey conducted in July . But the situation could worsen going
into the cold winter months as safer outdoor activities become less of a viable
option.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/sequoia-project-sets-sights-semantic-interoperability-new-guidance-effort
Sequoia Project sets sights on semantic interoperability with new guidance
effort Its news Data
Usability Workgroup will build implementation guides to help facilitate more
useful health information exchange and more intuitive clinical workflows.
By Mike Miliard
October 14,
2020 01:08 PM
The
Sequoia Project announced Wednesday that it's forming a new Data Usability
Workgroup to continue removing barriers to interoperability, and is calling for
participants in advance of its first meeting later this month.
WHY IT
MATTERS
Members
of the workgroup will be tasked with developing specific guidance on clinical
content for those three broad use cases, with a focus on streamlined clinical
workflows and data usability.
The goal is
to "target improvements necessary to enable semantic interoperability of
health information and will build on existing work," according to the
Sequoia Project. "Semantic https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/sequoia-project-sets-sights-semantic-interoperability-new-guidance-effort
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hhs-secretary-azar-touts-trump-admins-digital-health-response-covid-19
HHS Secretary Azar touts Trump admin's digital health response to COVID-19 He predicted
in a Tuesday speech that patients will eventually see telehealth as a
"durable and desirable" part of their healthcare experience.
By Kat Jercich
October 14,
2020 09:30 AM
U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar this week praised
the Trump administration's technology response to the COVID-19 pandemic,
highlighting its efforts on data collection, telehealth expansion and more.
During
a brief speech Tuesday evening at the HLTH VRTL 2020 conference, Azar
highlighted the efforts of HHS to collect data concerning COVID-19 patients and
predicted that patients will see telehealth as "a durable and desirable
part of their healthcare" in the long term.
In
July, HHS triggered concerns among public health experts and "chaos" at hospitals when it directed health systems to
bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when reporting
COVID-19 patient information.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/10/14/ai-assistance-is-like-a-multiple-choice-test/
AI Assistance is Like a Multiple Choice Test October 14, 2020
John Lynn
Today
I’ve been attending the AHIMA virtual
conference . AHIMA deserves an applause for the work they did to put
this together and credit to the amazing HIM professionals that seem really
engaged with the community. I’ve been to a lot of virtual
health IT events lately and most aren’t nearly as engaged as the AHIMA
attendees.
As
I visited a number of virtual exhibitors, I had a really great conversation
with the people at Dolbey . The
majority of our conversation revolved around computer assisted coding
(CAC). When asked about where we were in the adoption of CAC and how
effective AI was at coding, they shared how it really depended on the
healthcare organization. No surprise there since we’re now entering a
phase where many healthcare organizations have had CAC or have tried CAC 5
years ago and they’re now coming back to it since the accuracy and technology
has made such huge improvements over the last few years.
However,
what they said next was the best description of where we’re at with AI
assistance that I’ve heard in a while. The Dolbey rep (sorry I missed
your name) suggested that CAC was a lot like a multiple choice test. It
doesn’t give you the answer, but it makes things much easier.
-----
https://hitinfrastructure.com/news/aws-partnership-advances-use-of-machine-learning-in-clinical-care
AWS Partnership Advances Use of Machine Learning in Clinical Care The
partnership with Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance has produced two use cases for
machine learning in clinical care, including cancer and depression screenings.
By Samantha McGrail
October 09,
2020 - Two projects sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Pittsburgh
Health Data Alliance (PHDA) have generated solid use cases for machine learning
in clinical care.
Amazon Web
Services (AWS) and the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance (PHDA) collaborated
in August 2019 to advance innovation in areas including cancer diagnostics,
precision medicine, electronic health records, and medical imaging.
Through the
collaboration, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
(UPMC), University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) received
support from Amazon Search Awards on top of existing support from PHDA to use
machine learning to dive into various projects.
One
of those projects examined machine
learning techniques to help experts study breast cancer risk and understand
what drives tumor growth.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/4-operational-changes-to-improve-pandemic-patient-access-to-care
4 Operational Changes to Improve Pandemic Patient Access to Care How can
operational changes help streamline patient access to care post-pandemic and
drive patient trust in healthcare?
By Sara Heath
October 12, 2020
- Healthcare organizations working to enable post-pandemic patient access
to care may consider a number of operational overhauls and revamping
time-tested engagement strategies, according to a report
from the Medical Group Management Association.
The onset of
the global COVID-19 pandemic push healthcare organizations across the country
to shutter their doors to non-urgent and non-emergency healthcare access. This
move, which intended to cut down on patient volume, reserve resources for the surge
in coronavirus cases, and protect patients and staff, also harmed business for
clinics in the US.
But now
organizations are able to reopen, creating an opportunity to recoup lost
revenue and meet patient healthcare needs. In June, 57 percent of patients said
they had healthcare needs that needed immediate attention, and organizations
were poised to do just that.
But
reopening a healthcare facility while the nation is still reeling from a deadly
viral pandemic is no easy task. In July, most healthcare leaders (87 percent) agreed
that safety was the top reason patients deferred care during the pandemic, and
will be integral to gaining patient trust to come back into the office for
treatment.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/why-more-data-is-key-to-tackle-covid-19-racial-health-disparities
Why More Data Is Key to Tackle COVID-19 Racial Health Disparities As
evidence of COVID-19 racial health disparities mounts, health leaders need
better data about what is causing those disparities.
By Sara Heath
October 12,
2020 - Dr. Harvey Kaufman needs more information. As a senior medical
director at Quest Diagnostics, Kaufman is vehement that it’s not enough for
healthcare to be aware of the stark racial health disparities cropping up
during the pandemic. Healthcare experts also need to know why.
“Clearly, one
of the most important issues of the year is COVID-19, but also the whole Black
Lives Matter movement,” Kaufman told PatientEngagementHIT in an interview. “And
that got us thinking about the impact of the pandemic on particularly the
African-American population, but also Hispanic and other populations.”
Of course,
that thought struck a number of medical experts across the country. In the time
since the pandemic has struck, a bevy of data has come to light exposing the racial
health disparities in COVID-19 disease burden. Ubiquitously, the literature
confirms that Black and Hispanic people carry a larger share of COVID-19 cases
than their White counterparts.
-----
https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-technology-smartphones-mental-health-denver-237448327ce95bd9d4663ce664aa9c80
Next gen remote therapy has Bluetooth, pulse monitors, more By JENNIFER BROWN October 12, 2020
DENVER (AP) — When patients sign
up for the newest kind of therapy at the Mental Health Center of Denver, here’s
what comes in their welcome packet:
A biofeedback device that clips to
their ear to measure pulse and blood-oxygen levels. A phone stand to prop up a
smartphone during therapy sessions. And directions for downloading an app to
chat with a therapist.
It’s a new era in technology for
the community mental health center, a key step toward “preparing for the next
generation,” said Alires Almon, the center’s director of innovation. The
12-week, virtual therapy program isn’t meant to replace traditional
face-to-face counseling — it’s a contemporary option for people who would rather
work on their mental health at home with their smartphone than walk into a
mental health center.
“People want something where they
can engage on their own terms,” Almon said. “No one has to know that you are in
therapy. It gives people an opportunity to engage in a private way.”
-----
https://consumer.healthday.com/cardiovascular-health-information-20/statins-news-780/computer-nudge-spurs-doctors-to-prescribe-statins-to-heart-patients-761974.html
Computer 'Nudge' Spurs Doctors to Prescribe Statins to Heart Patients FRIDAY,
Oct. 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Prescriptions of cholesterol-lowering statins
for heart disease patients rose significantly when doctors were prompted to
choose whether or not to order them, according to a new study.
It
included 82 cardiologists and more than 11,000 patients. Doctors randomly
received one of two "nudges," or notifications, in their patients'
electronic health records.
One
was a "passive choice" notification to which doctors would navigate.
The other was an "active choice" notification to prescribe a certain
dose of statins that doctors needed to accept or dismiss.
The
nudges flagged patients with heart disease or those who were at risk for it.
Each nudge also suggested the best dose of statins based on patients'
information.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cerner-unveils-new-interoperability-tools-ceo-brent-shafer-says-innovation-accelerating
Cerner unveils new interoperability tools, as CEO Brent Shafer says
'innovation is accelerating' At the Cerner
Health Conference, CEO Brent Shafer said COVID-19 has "inspired a burst of
innovation," with hundreds of patents and faster progress for a wider
array of technologies moving from concept to general availability.
By Mike Miliard
October 13,
2020 03:03 PM
At
the 35th annual Cerner Health Conference, which launched virtually on Tuesday,
CEO Brent Shafer described the many ways the company has been helping providers
around the world deliver high-quality healthcare more efficiently during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
"We
created tools to reduce strain on your technology infrastructure, to identify
at-risk patients and to enable fact-based, data-driven decision-making,"
he said.
Cerner
also unveiled a pair of new technology suites on Tuesday: Cerner Unite, which
the company describes as a group of interoperability tools designed to take
data exchange "beyond just connectivity to true usability," and
Cerner Discover, a new portfolio of designed to work alongside Unite to
"improve data quality, simplify data reconciliation and seamlessly
integrate data-driven insights into clinician workflows – on any health
platform."
The
company also said it would release new dashboard technology in early 2021 to
help health system tackle social determinants of health – by detecting social
disparities in patient populations and pinpointing areas where resources are
needed. The tools will use geospatial analytics and the CDC’s Social
Vulnerability Index to help physicians spot vulnerabilities by zip codes, thus
reducing emergency department uses through better management of chronic
conditions.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/epic-use-intersystems-data-foundation-latest-ehr-release
Epic to use InterSystems as data foundation for latest EHR release InterSystems'
IRIS Data Platform is now generally available to Epic customers.
By Kat Jercich
October 13,
2020 12:44 PM
The
electronic health record giant Epic will use the InterSystems IRIS Data
Platform beginning with the August release of its EHR, the Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based technology provider announced this week.
Using
the IRIS platform will allow Epic customers access to larger datasets and
provide enhancements in asynchronous mirroring, according to InterSystems.
"InterSystems
conducted rigorous testing with Epic across each stage of the development
process to ensure a smooth transition to InterSystems IRIS and to maintain the
highest level of performance for Epic’s customers," said Scott Gnau, vice
president of data platforms at InterSystems, in a press release.
"One
of our key priorities throughout the entire process was to ensure that IRIS
would be able to service applications well into the future and accommodate
customers’ long-term scalability requirements," Gnau added.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/teladoc-health-and-livongos-post-merger-plan-one-stop-healthcare
Teladoc Health and Livongo's post-merger plan: One-stop healthcare Jason Gorevic
and Glen Tullman see the deal as a way to offer a longitudinal relationship
between clinicians and patients, bringing doctors, digital tools and data
science together for better health.
By Kat Jercich
October 13,
2020 09:24 AM
Two
months ago, digital health behemoths Livongo and Teladoc Health announced their $18.5 billion merger under the name Teladoc
following huge leaps in earnings for both companies.
The
deal, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the fourth quarter in
2020, builds upon the shared company culture at both organizations, said
Teladoc Health CEO Jason Gorevic.
"It
starts with a common vision: a vision for bringing together two complementary
companies, with complementary capabilities and assets driven towards delivering
whole person care and changing the healthcare experience for consumers,"
said Gorevic during a HLTH VRTL 2020 panel this week.
"That
mission-orientation is very strong with both companies," he said.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/mortality-data-supports-placing-seriously-ill-coronavirus-patients-ecmo
Mortality Data Supports Placing Seriously Ill Coronavirus Patients on ECMO By Christopher
Cheney | October 13, 2020
ECMO life support can be used when coronavirus patients with acute
respiratory distress syndrome respond poorly to mechanical ventilation.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
·
·
·
Seriously
ill coronavirus patients placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation life
support have a similar mortality rate as other patients placed on ECMO research article
ECMO
is a form of life support that features a machine that performs essential
functions of the heart and lungs. The ECMO machine is connected to a patient
through plastic tubes that are placed in large veins and arteries in the legs,
neck, or chest, according to the American Thoracic Society. Blood flows through
the ECMO machine, which adds oxygen to the blood and removes carbon dioxide,
then the blood is returned to the patient.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/what-are-the-10-factors-to-patient-satisfaction-with-telehealth
What Are the 10 Factors to Patient Satisfaction With Telehealth? J.D.
Power's 2020 Telehealth Satisfaction Study identifies 10 key performance
indicators that providers should use to ensure patient satisfaction.
By Eric Wicklund
October 09,
2020 - One of the challenges of creating a sustainable telehealth platform
is figuring out what to measure and how to measure it.
While
clinical outcomes and changes to provider workflows are on the top of that
last, a benchmark often overlooked by new users is patient satisfaction. If the
patient isn’t happy with the experience, or his or her concerns aren’t
addressed properly, there won’t be a second chance.
In its second
annual Telehealth
Satisfaction Study , J.D. Power maps out 10 key performance indicators
(KPIs) that every provider should take into consideration when using connected
health technology. According to the consumer advisory company, the top five
KPIs are in use now by at least 69 percent of survey respondents, making them
critical to assuring patient satisfaction.
They
are:
Spent enough time to provide quality
care; Completely resolved medical
concern(s) on visit; Followed up after visit; Online: Question/problem resolved on
first contact; and Phone: Question/problem resolved on
first contact. -----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/ehi-offers-recommendations-on-telehealth-licensure-broadband
eHI Offers Recommendations on Telehealth, Licensure, Broadband The
eHealth Initiative has released a list of policy recommendations designed to
improve telehealth adoption and coverage during and after the coronavirus
pandemic.
By Eric Wicklund
October 09,
2020 - The eHealth Initiative has unveiled recommendations for federal
policy changes to help expand telehealth access and coverage during and beyond
the coronavirus pandemic.
The
22-page report comes roughly a month after a
similar report issued by the Taskforce on Telehealth Policy , a group
spearheaded by the American Telemedicine Association, Alliance for Connected
Care and National Committee for Quality Assurance. Together, the studies put
pressure on Congress and federal agencies like the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services to expand the playing field for providers by making it easier
and more profitable to use telehealth.
The eHI
report was developed by the organization’s COVID-19 Federal Policy Work Group,
comprised of eHI staff and representatives from the American Academy of Family
Physicians, American Heart Association, the Marshfield Clinic, Change
Healthcare, NextGen Healthcare, Cerner and others.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/how-predictive-analytics-patient-ids-can-improve-the-care-experience
How Predictive Analytics, Patient IDs Can Improve the Care Experience Texas
Health Resources is using predictive analytics and patient IDs to improve the
care experience and better meet patients’ needs.
By Jessica Kent
October 07,
2020 - In an industry as high-stakes and uncertain as healthcare,
predictive analytics tools and patient identifiers have emerged as viable
solutions for seamless, comprehensive care delivery.
These tactics
can help organizations better understand and anticipate patients’ needs,
enabling them to deliver necessary services and improve patient outcomes.
At Texas
Heath Resources, leaders were able to create patient IDs for each of its seven
million patients, as well as develop predictive
analytics tools for a more connected care experience.
“We’ve
been able to connect more than 20 data sources together and track the care
journeys of different patients,” said Michael Parris, vice president of data
integration and analytics at Texas Health Resources, told HealthITAnalytics
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/top-3-challenges-of-integrating-precision-medicine-with-routine-care
Top 3 Challenges of Integrating Precision Medicine with Routine Care Insufficient
technologies, limited knowledge, and gaps in research are major obstacles to
adding precision medicine to routine clinical care.
By Jessica Kent
October 09,
2020 - Precision medicine has emerged in recent years as a potential way
to deliver personalized, comprehensive care to patients with a wide range of
diseases.
In just the
last few months, researchers have shown how precision medicine techniques could
reverse
severe lung disorder, improve
heart disease treatment, and boost
cancer patient outcomes.
With more and
more healthcare organizations implementing precision medicine strategies, and
with all the promise these individualized approaches could bring, it seems that
the era of precision healthcare is right around the corner.
However,
several challenges persist when it comes to incorporating these strategies in
routine clinical care.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/new-framework-helps-streamline-ehr-data-extraction
New framework helps streamline EHR data extraction The
open-source FIDDLE tool has the power to speed up data preprocessing and build
clinically useful machine learning tools, a new study in JAMIA shows.
By Kat Jercich
October 12,
2020 11:14 AM
Researchers
from the University of Michigan have developed an open-source framework that streamlines the preprocessing of
data extracted from the electronic health record.
The
framework, which the researchers call FIDDLE (Flexible Data-Driven Pipeline),
has the power to greatly speed up EHR data preprocessing and assist machine
learning (ML) practitioners working with health data, according to a study
published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association.
"By
accelerating and standardizing the labor-intensive preprocessing steps, FIDDLE
can help stimulate progress in building clinically useful ML tools," wrote
the researchers.
WHY IT
MATTERS
EHR
data preprocessing can vary widely among studies, which makes it difficult to
compare different algorithms and ensure that machine learning results can be
reproduced. And although some researchers have proposed pipelines, those
techniques aren't always generalizable.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/judy-faulkner-talks-lessons-learned-epics-covid-19-response
Judy Faulkner talks lessons learned from Epic's COVID-19 response In a
conversation with George Halvorson, the CEO discusses interoperability,
telehealth, rapid dissemination of new clinical insights and the ability to do
installs and go-lives quicker and less expensively.
By Mike Miliard
October 12,
2020 03:51 PM
Epic
CEO Judy Faulkner on Monday offered her perspective on how the company has
responded to the COVID-19 crisis – and described some of the lessons learned
along the way.
She
spoke during a discussion at HLTH VRTL 2020 Monday with longtime Kaiser
Permanente CEO George Halvorson, who is now chair of the Institute for
Intergroup Understanding.
"The
pandemic has taught us that there are some massive failures in the American
healthcare delivery system," said Halvorson. "We have poor access to
information. We have poor connectivity. We have inconvenient care for many
patients. We have caregivers that do not work as teams with each other in the
way we would really like them to work with each other. And we have some serious
delays in learning and in sharing information between caregivers."
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/study-changes-are-needed-to-make-telehealth-a-primary-care-platform
Study: Changes Are Needed to Make Telehealth a Primary Care Platform A new
study out of Johns Hopkins finds that primary care visits and health and wellness
check-ups have dropped during the coronavirus pandemic - and telehealth isn't
helping.
By Eric Wicklund
October 05,
2020 - While telehealth use has skyrocketed during the coronavirus
pandemic, not everyone has made the jump to virtual care – and that could be
putting some people in danger.
A recent
study out of Johns Hopkins finds that primary care visits have decreased by
more than 20 percent since 2018, while blood pressure check-ups have been cut
in half and cholesterol check-ups have dropped by 37 percent.
The
implication is that people may be using connected health platforms to access
urgent care, but they aren’t keeping up with their annual visits to the
doctor’s office or undergoing basic health and wellness tests like
cardiovascular health check-ups. This, in turn, could lead to an increase in
chronic conditions down the line.
As
detailed in the Journal of the Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA) , the team of researchers from Johns Hopkins
analyzed more than 125 million primary care visits between 2018 and the middle
of this year. While the number of visits was consistent in 2018 and 2019, they
dropped 21.4 percent this year. Office-based visits were cut in half this year,
while telehealth visits jumped from 1.4 million during the first quarter of
2018-19 to 4.8 million during the first quarter of 2020 and then to 35 million
during the second quarter of this year.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/what-are-the-top-telehealth-ehr-integrations-in-healthcare
What Are the Top Telehealth, EHR Integrations in Healthcare? Telehealth
EHR integration has a number of critical benefits for both providers and
patients.
By Christopher Jason
October 09,
2020 - Telehealth is increasingly becoming an option for remote patient
care. But with clinician burden — most of which is caused by excessive health
IT use — quickly mounting, clinical experts are looking for ways to streamline
telehealth use into the clinician workflow. Telehealth and EHR integration
could be the key for accomplishing this.
With EHR
adoption at an all-time high, it’s optimal for clinicians to utilize telehealth
solutions in the same workflow.
Ninety-six
percent of non-federal acute care hospitals have possession of an EHR certified
by the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), according
to The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
(ONC).
Streamlining
virtual care in an EHR system that is already coordinating care for patients,
tracking progress, and storing patient data, makes virtual care easier for clinicians,
while also conveniently boosting patient care.
-----
https://histalk2.com/2020/10/09/weekender-10-9-20/
Weekly News Recap Apple releases Health Records on the
IPhone for users in the UK and Canada. Dignity Health’s St. Joseph’s
Hospital and Medical Center (AZ) will pay $160,000 for failing to provide
a patient with a copy of their medical records. Harris adds Australia to its
operating areas with its acquisition of Meridian Health Informatics. Universal Health Services completes
part of its recovery from a cyberattack. Four health IT companies are
acquired by private equity firm The Carlyle Group and will operate under
the single brand of CorroHealth. HHS issues a second $10 million
contract to TeleTracking Technologies for its HHS Protect COVID-19
hospital data collection system Clinical trials software vendor
EResearch Technology is hit by a ransomware attack. Meditech will end its status as an
SEC public reporting company by de-registering its shares to go private. -----
Enjoy!
David.
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