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/2020/11/600k-wade-gery-digital-review-may-be-delayed/
£600K Wade-Gery digital review may be delayed
A high-level review of the digital responsibilities of different NHS agencies, which racked up £600k of management consultant fees, is thought to have been postponed.
25 November 2020
Digital Health News has learned that the Wade-Gery Review, led by NHS Digital’s new chair Laura Wade Gery and carried out by McKinsey, had been set to recommend the creation of an entirely new Transformation Taskforce unit.
The review had been due to present interim findings to NHS England and Improvement but Digital Health News understands it has been delayed until the New Year.
Ongoing pressures related to Covid-19 and the new vaccination programme are though to be behind the delay, but sources also suggest that the review’s headline recommendations have failed to convince secretary of health and social care Matt Hancock.
The review was commissioned by Hancock in July with an aim to find ways to help the NHS digitise “harder and faster”. It was thought to be triggered by ministerial frustrations at the speed of digital responses in the early phases of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/guidelines-for-marketing-a-practices-new-telehealth-platform
Guidelines for Marketing a Practice’s New Telehealth Platform
With so many small and solo practices turning to telehealth to deal with the pandemic and build business, a marketing expert offers advice on how to advertise those new services.
November 25, 2020 - The sharp increase in telehealth use during the pandemic is giving healthcare providers new opportunities to expand their reach. But how can they make patients – both potential and existing – aware of their new services?
The answer lies in marketing, a discipline not entirely familiar to solo and small practices and clinics that have relied on referrals, word of mouth and perhaps one big sign out front to build business. And at a time when budgets are stretched thin and competition is coming from all sides, a plan for promoting one’s services could be the key to staying in the black.
mHealthIntelligence recently sat down – virtually – with Jonathan Treiber, a digital marketing and technology expert and co-founder of RevTrax, to talk about how small providers should be marketing their connected health capabilities.
Q. What factors must a clinic or small practice consider when creating a plan to market new telehealth services?
A. “Some factors to include are how to streamline the paper-intensive new patient or patient data entry. This process automation or streamlining effort will pay off in spaces for both telehealth (and) in-office patient experience. Another key back office item is ensuring the proper processes for patient and insurance billing and reimbursement. One other critical component is revisiting the patient experience to ensure a professional, streamlined and efficient approach while ensuring the appropriate level of personalization and bedside manner, which is harder to translate into virtual telehealth.”
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/uk-government-give-20m-funding-boost-ai-research
UK Government give £20M funding boost to AI research
The funding will support 15 innovative AI projects ranging from early cancer detection to clinical support and wearable medical devices.
November 27, 2020 01:31 AM
Today the UK government has announced the awardees of the Turing AI Acceleration Fellowships. The 15 Fellows, whose projects encompass a spectrum of AI innovations across science and engineering, will benefit from £20 million of government funding in a bid to “equip the next generation of Alan Turings with the tools that will keep the UK at the forefront of this remarkable technological innovation,” says Science Minister Amanda Solloway.
The Fellowships are intended to provide elected Fellows with the necessary resources to accelerate the research and development of their innovative AI projects, in order to scale market uptake, address some of today’s most pressing challenges and cement the UK’s position as a world-leader in AI.
The scheme is funded jointly by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), The Alan Turing Institute, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office for Artificial Intelligence.
The 15 Fellows will be funded for five years and will join the five Turing AI Fellows that were announced in 2019 and the winners of the Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowships, to be announced in 2021. They include Prof. Christopher Yao, who will use a combination of AI and genomics to anticipate the development of cancers before they are fully formed, potentially informing personalised care plans and enabling earlier and more effective treatment.
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A Hidden Advantage Of Telehealth: Patient Access To Specialized Programs
November 27, 2020
Not long ago, I found out that I needed access to a specialized program to address a long-standing medical condition. As it happens, the medical support I need is in short supply in my area, so I thought it would take a while to access the right package of services.
At first, my prediction seemed to be on target. Despite having a lot of experience advocating for myself and finding the care I needed, I was turned away time and again by programs that didn’t have any openings. I was beginning to wonder whether such care was available at all.
Then, someone offered a suggestion that turned things around. Given that pretty much all modes of outpatient care are being delivered via telehealth technology, they asked, why not expand my search to providers outside of my usual search radius?
This technique worked. Within just a few hours, I connected with a program I’d never heard of until that day.
Ordinarily, it would have been virtually impossible to take advantage of their services, as the facility is an hour and a half away from my home. These days, however, its ability to deliver program services to nearly anyone, there was no reason not to sign me up. The staff there signed me up for its offering with no hesitation.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/a-unique-patient-identifier-decreases-adverse-drug-interactions
A Unique Patient Identifier Decreases Adverse Drug Interactions
Over a three-year period, pharmacies with a unique patient identifier lessened the chances of serious drug-to-drug interactions.
November 24, 2020 - Developing an enhanced patient identification strategy, such as a National Patient Identifier (NPI), across separate data sources can boost patient safety and limit adverse drug-to-drug interactions, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
To further increase patient safety, providers should enhance patient data exchange (e.g. prescription history) and interoperability.
Patient matching issues have surrounded the healthcare industry for decades. Patient matching, or the ability to connect the correct medical data to the appropriate patient, is a key patient safety issue complicated by limited interoperability and data governance.
Patient matching aims to connect patient records across different medical providers or facilities. The same patient visiting two separate doctors or two different hospitals should always have the correct medical record brought up. However, this does not always happen, and a mistake can be lethal to the patient and carry a heavy financial burden for the health system.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-to-boost-ehr-usability-using-a-user-centered-design-process
How to Boost EHR Usability Using a User-Centered Design Process
Researchers outlined six crucial user-centered EHR design and summative testing processes to increase EHR usability and decrease clinician burden.
November 25, 2020 - Implementing EHR tools using a user-centered design can boost EHR usability and decrease burnout for ophthalmologists, according to a study published in Ophthalmology and Therapy.
Furthermore, clinicians can utilize these tools and methodologies without high-level EHR training or an advanced technological background.
While approximately 98 percent of hospitals have an EHR in place or plan to install one shortly, similar adoption rates occur in ophthalmology. However, ophthalmologists believe EHR usability leaves a lot to be desired and it often leads to increased clinician burnout and reduced time with patients.
HIMSS defines EHR usability as “The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specific users can achieve a specific set of tasks in a particular environment. In essence, a system with good usability is easy to use and effective. It is intuitive, forgiving of mistakes and allows one to perform necessary tasks quickly, efficiently and with a minimum of mental effort.”
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/machine-learning-tool-accurately-detects-covid-19-on-x-rays
Machine Learning Tool Accurately Detects COVID-19 on X-Rays
A machine learning platform outperformed human radiologists in detecting COVID-19 in x-ray images.
By Jessica Kent
November 25, 2020 - A machine learning tool was able to detect COVID-19 in x-ray images about ten times faster and one to six percent more accurately than specialized thoracic radiologists, according to a study published in Radiology.
In patients with COVID-19, chest x-rays look similar, with lungs appearing patchy and hazy rather than clear and healthy. However, pneumonia, heart failure, and other chronic illnesses in the lungs can look similar to COVID-19 on x-rays. Trained radiologists have to be able to tell the difference between COVID-19 and a less contagious disease.
“Many patients with COVID-19 have characteristic findings on their chest images,” said Ramsey Wehbe, a cardiologist and postdoctoral fellow in AI at the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute.
“These include ‘bilateral consolidations.’ The lungs are filled with fluid and inflamed, particularly along the lower lobes and periphery.”
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Digital health funding expected to drop in Q4 after record-breaking Q3: report
Nov 25, 2020 10:58am
After hitting the high-water mark in the third quarter, global healthcare funding is projected to slow down in the final quarter of 2020.
Global healthcare funding soared in the third quarter, hitting a new high of $22.3 billion across 1,575 deals.
To date, investors have poured $10 billion into healthcare companies in the fourth quarter, and funding is projected to hit $19.6 billion by the end of the quarter, down 13% from the third quarter, according to data from CB Insights on healthcare and digital health investments.
But that's still up 22% compared to the same period a year ago when global healthcare funding reached $15.7 billion.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/a-unique-patient-identifier-decreases-adverse-drug-interactions
A Unique Patient Identifier Decreases Adverse Drug Interactions
Over a three-year period, pharmacies with a unique patient identifier lessened the chances of serious drug-to-drug interactions.
November 24, 2020 - Developing an enhanced patient identification strategy, such as a National Patient Identifier (NPI), across separate data sources can boost patient safety and limit adverse drug-to-drug interactions, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
To further increase patient safety, providers should enhance patient data exchange (e.g. prescription history) and interoperability.
Patient matching issues have surrounded the healthcare industry for decades. Patient matching, or the ability to connect the correct medical data to the appropriate patient, is a key patient safety issue complicated by limited interoperability and data governance.
Patient matching aims to connect patient records across different medical providers or facilities. The same patient visiting two separate doctors or two different hospitals should always have the correct medical record brought up. However, this does not always happen, and a mistake can be lethal to the patient and carry a heavy financial burden for the health system.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/technology-vendors-embrace-social-determinants-health
Technology Vendors Embrace Social Determinants of Health
By Scott Mace | November 23, 2020
New Chilmark Research report highlights the increasing integration of community organizations with EHRs and other healthcare IT products and services.
Driven by the demands of COVID-19, community-based organizations continue to connect to various healthcare partners in order to drive value-based care, according to a recent Chilmark Research report.
Addressing SDoH: IT Solutions to Engage Community Resources draws upon interviews with executive leaders at companies offering technology solutions, including EHR vendors, as well as other research sources, to show how social determinants of health are being addressed by the industry.
The report identifies the strengths and weaknesses of options in the market and predicts how the market will develop in the future.
Jody Ranck, co-author of the report, said that leaders involved understand that the healthcare system needs to address SDoH better.
“The pandemic has proven to be an additional, critical driver for continued expansion of [value-based care], which requires understanding all of the factors that can influence a member’s health status … to engage resources beyond the clinic,” he said in a news release.
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Health care is going digital and that could make it ‘almost free,’ says tech investor Tim Draper
Published Wed, Nov 25 20202:10 AM EST Updated Wed, Nov 25 20202:58 AM EST
Key Points
- In future, artificial intelligence will help to diagnose patients and develop the medicine required at “very low costs,” says venture capitalist Tim Draper.
- He said medical costs have been “crazy high” for many years. “Finally, we’re going to have a way of doing health care a lot cheaper.”
- Ibrahim Ajami of Mubadala, said the coronavirus has led to “probably the most significant acceleration of technology … we will witness in our lives” and that the role of technology in health care has changed.
The use of technology is going to make health care “almost free around the world,” according to venture capitalist Tim Draper.
“Health care is completely going digital,” he told CNBC’s Dan Murphy during a panel discussion at FinTech Abu Dhabi, which was held virtually this year.
“That’s going to create health care that is almost free around the world,” said the founder and managing partner of early-stage venture capital firm, Draper Associates.
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Mayo Clinic tech investments to focus on 'smart hospital', AI and virtual care
Laura Dyrda (Twitter) – 24 November, 2020
The pandemic
accelerated Mayo Clinic's digital transformation, and it will continue to
invest in virtual care and technology for its smart hospital.
During a Nov. 19 Destination Medical Center Corp. meeting,
Mayo Clinic Chief Administrative Officer Jeff Bolton said the health system is
making significant investments in digital infrastructure and artificial
intelligence to transform both in-person and virtual care platforms. "Our
partnerships with Google as well as Nference are great examples with patient
care breakthroughs already coming to fruition within our own practice and will
be extended out to patients global," he said.
He also touched on the health system's plans to develop the "smart
hospital of the future."
"While we see significant growth within our virtual practice, people with
serious or complex medical conditions will continue to need to come to Mayo
Clinic for direct care," he said. "We need to ensure we have the
latest facilities and technology to attract and treat these patients and we plan
to make significant investments in upgrading and expanding facilities in the
coming decades."
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Healthcare Cyberattackers Keep Outsmarting Healthcare IT Providers
November 25, 2020
New research suggests that despite extensive efforts to turn the tide, healthcare organizations continue to struggle with fending off cyberattackers, in part due to a dramatic shortage of security talent for hire.
The recent study surveyed 2,464 security professionals from 705 provider organizations to look at gaps, vulnerabilities and deficiencies in their employers’ security infrastructure which may leave them open to breaches by cybercriminals.
In theory, providers should have the means to protect themselves. According to the researchers, healthcare industry leaders expect to spend $134 billion on cybersecurity from 2021 to 2026, starting at $18 billion in 2021 and increasing 20% each year to almost $37 billion in 2026.
Despite this spending, however, 96% of IT respondents reported that data attackers continue to stay ahead of medical enterprises, with 82% of CIOs and CISOs of health systems in Q3 2020 agreeing that dollars spent are not being allocated effectively and are often only spent after breaches occur. Often, there’s never a full gap assessment of capabilities led by senior management outside of the IT department, the survey found.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/va-enables-ehr-prescription-drug-monitoring-program-integration
VA Enables EHR Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Integration
Veterans Health Administration providers will now benefit from the EHR integration of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs).
November 20, 2020 - The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is integrating prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) data into the EHR to ensure safer prescribing practices across its health system.
The EHR tool aims to improve prescribing practices, target treatment to at-risk patients, and mitigate the risk of potential abuse or fraud by patients who obtain prescriptions from multiple providers. Providers can review the data before prescribing opioids to intervene if there are signs of misuse or abuse.
The solution is home to nearly 8,000 users and over 16 million controlled substance prescriptions.
A PDMP is a state-run electronic database that collects data from pharmacies on Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) controlled substances and prescription drugs dispensed to patients.
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https://hitinfrastructure.com/news/5-things-to-consider-before-undertaking-health-it-implementation
5 Things to Consider Before Undertaking Health IT Implementation
Former Partners Healthcare CIO and Cerner executive shares his tips on how to avoid the shiny, but ineffective objects and execute a successful health IT implementation strategy.
November 19, 2020 - While new technology may promise to solve a provider’s biggest problems, organization leaders should step back and consider the five steps of successful health IT implementation, says former CIO John Glaser.
New health IT solutions must fit in with an organization’s network of stable relationships in order for providers to fully understand and use a specific technology, explains Glaser in a new Harvard Business Review article.
Glaser, who also served as the CIO of Partners HealthCare and an executive at Cerner and is currently an executive in residence at Harvard Medical School broke down five ways that organizations can determine which technologies will fit into its system and how to prepare for challenges that may arise.
The first suggestion is to focus on the transformation, not the digital.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/10-patient-data-sharing-interoperability-principles-for-providers
10 Patient Data Sharing, Interoperability Principles for Providers
A group of healthcare stakeholders and professionals aimed to reduce conflicting patient data sharing messages and increase patient care, research, and innovation.
November 18, 2020 - Stakeholders and healthcare professionals across the country developed 10 patient data sharing principles. These principles intend to help guide health organizations and universities toward the appropriate use of data sharing to boost patient care, research, and innovation, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).
“With more data sharing taking place, concerns are being raised about topics such as data ownership, the loss of privacy, and the protection of the intellectual property (IP) that may be encapsulated within or derived from health data,” wrote the stakeholders. “Healthcare institutions are struggling with competing data sharing and privacy demands.”
Stakeholders created these 10 principles to maintain the ethics and responsibilities of patient data sharing.
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https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20201119.183766/full/
Factors That Shape Notification Of Health Care Outbreaks Of COVID-19
November 24, 2020 10.1377/hblog20201119.183766
Health care-associated infection (HAI) outbreaks can be large-scale adverse events requiring notification of those infected, exposed, or at risk of infection. Such notifications are a critical public health function intended to mitigate risks, prevent harm, and promote safety in health care facilities. Procedures and mechanisms for notifying patients, health care workers, or the public about a suspected outbreak vary by jurisdiction, facility, type of pathogen, and circumstances of the outbreak, as there are currently no standard protocols for notification of outbreaks in health care settings.
Despite the absence of widely established standards, outbreak notification tends to be driven by two ethical frameworks: utilitarian (what is best) and duty-based (what is right). The former approach assesses the benefits and risks of notification, with the primary aim of protecting patient safety and the public’s health. Meanwhile, the latter approach considers ethical responsibilities of notification, such as autonomy and respect.
Equally important are the mechanisms for whom to notify, when to notify them, and how to notify affected or potentially affected persons. In June, the Council for Outbreak Response: Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens (CORHA), released the “Interim Framework for Healthcare-Associated Infection Outbreak Notification,” which provides a practical, stepwise guide on how to operationalize notification of outbreaks that occur in health care settings. Prior to the availability of this tool, guidance varied across jurisdictions.
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Predictive Analytics Determines Outcomes in ED Patients with COVID-19
Predictive analytics can accurately forecast whether ED patients with COVID-19 symptoms will experience severe disease or death.
By Jessica Kent
November 24, 2020 - A predictive analytics platform was able to accurately determine the probability of death or need for critical care within seven days for emergency department patients with COVID-19 symptoms, according to a study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
The tool can help ensure that patients get the right care when they need it, researchers stated. Additionally, the platform could be particularly helpful to providers deciding whether to hospitalize or discharge patients with COVID-19 symptoms at the time of an emergency department visit.
“As the pandemic surges again across the country and hospitalizations are increasing, front-line physicians often must make quick decisions to hospitalize or discharge patients with COVID-19 symptoms,” said Adam Sharp, MD, an emergency medicine physician who also is a researcher for the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation.
“We created a risk assessment that looks at many different patient variables that might predict a critical poor outcome — without any lab or diagnostic testing.”
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https://hbr.org/2020/11/4-strategies-to-make-telehealth-work-for-elderly-patients
4 Strategies to Make Telehealth Work for Elderly Patients
November 24, 2020
As providers have ramped up their use of telehealth during the Covid-19 pandemic, one group — the elderly — has experienced particular challenges in adopting the technologies. This article describes the strategies four innovative provider organizations have used to engage with their older patients via telehealth.
The Covid-19 pandemic catapulted telehealth into the mainstream and it is likely to remain there even after the pandemic subsides. It’s proved highly effective for younger, digitally savvy patients. But older patients, and particularly the frail elderly, often struggle with the technology. How can primary care providers help these patients adopt telehealth? And when are face-to-face visits still the best option?
To answer these questions, we interviewed executives and frontline providers at four innovative primary care organizations that serve predominately elderly populations: Iora Health, Oak Street Health, ChenMed, and Landmark Health. These organizations participate in Medicare Advantage plans and receive a capitated payment for each patient regardless of the volume of services they provide. This gives them both the flexibility and the incentive to develop creative ways to provide value-based primary care, including pivoting to telehealth with their challenging populations.
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Stark Law Changes Should Benefit Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring
The OIG's Final Rule on changes to the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute creates several new safe harbors that will help providers create and expand telehealth platforms and remote patient monitoring programs.
November 24, 2020 - New safe harbors proposed for the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute could help providers expand their telehealth and remote patient monitoring platforms.
A Final Rule issued last week by the Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General creates seven new safe harbors for value-based arrangements, and modifies five already in place. The new guidelines are designed to enable different groups – such as healthcare providers, telehealth and mHealth vendors and others – to collaborate on connected health services without running afoul of federal laws on fraud, waste and abuse.
Specifically, the Stark Law, otherwise known as the physician self-referral law, prohibits referrals by a physician to another provider if the physician or his immediate family has a financial relationship with the provider. The Anti-Kickback Statute, meanwhile, bars the exchange of remuneration – which according to this law is anything of value – for referrals that are payable by a federal healthcare program like Medicare.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/intersystems-updates-healthshare-expanded-fhir-capabilities
InterSystems updates HealthShare with expanded FHIR capabilities
The FHIR R4 APIs in version 2020.2 of the platform will enable broader access to provider, payer and pharmacy benefits data – and can help boost compliance with upcoming interoperability and patient access rules, the company says.
By Mike Miliard
November 24, 2020 08:30 AM
InterSystems has released the newest version of InterSystems HealthShare platform, with new analytics capabilities and connectivity to services such as Apple Health.
WHY IT MATTERS
HealthShare 2020.2 features new FHIR R4 APIs to enable healthcare organizations
to have expanded access to clinical, claims and provider directory data
included in the new release, the company says – noting the key importance of
having such access during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The new release has been tailored to meet the needs of health systems during the pandemic – including COVID-19 analytics dashboards, while its Clinical Viewer adds COVID-19-specific test-status icons and chart options that help care teams better track and monitor COVID-19 patients.
More generally, new analytics offerings and improved clinician and patient portals enable easier access and use of provider, payer and pharmacy benefits data across the healthcare ecosystem.
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How healthcare organizations can enhance RPM security, resiliency
Remote patient monitoring ecosystems should not be treated in the same way as traditional endpoints, say cybersecurity experts.
By Kat Jercich
November 24, 2020 01:00 PM
As the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to push patients away from in-person care, many health systems have ramped up their remote patient monitoring ecosystems.
But with that increase in endpoints comes an increase in security risks.
"From a security perspective, we always model a personal home network as a hostile network," said Stephanie Domas, executive vice president of the MedSec cybersecurity service. "I have to build it that way because I have no control over that network."
Teaching an organization's staff members not to click on suspicious links doesn't help, she said, when a medical device is connecting to an individual's network outside the system.
"Are you going to make your patient take phishing training?" Domas said with a laugh.
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Of Idiocracy and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) – A guide for CIOs on API Security for the CURES Act
November 24, 2020
In the movie Idiocracy, society devolved toward having two major corporations control most of it, Costco and Brawndo. Brawndo was an energy drink known as The Thirst Mutilator. Because it had electrolytes, everyone used it instead of water, which led to its dominance. In this dystopian future, water was thought of as only for toilets. Even the water fountains in the hospital had Brawndo instead. It was also used for farming because the people in charge thought plants craved electrolytes. This led to a drought and no agriculture because of the years of chemicals building up and preventing plant growth.
When Secretary of the Interior Not Sure turned off the Brawndo and watered the plants instead, the subsequent crash caused the computers in charge of the Brawndo Corporation to automatically lay off most of the country and caused mass unemployment and riots. Not Sure was sentenced to almost certain death until at the last minute, and his decision paid off by showing plants growing in the soil.
While Idiocracy was just a movie, it has its parallels in Information Security. We can think of our current approach to security where we buy appliance upon appliance to protect different aspects of our environments every time a new technology becomes prevalent as a parallel to Brawndo being used as a panacea for everything from water fountains to agriculture. Meanwhile, the real technologies that facilitate security are relegated to utilities like water was in the movie Idiocracy.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/leveraging-artificial-intelligence-to-reduce-clinician-burnout
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Reduce Clinician Burnout
Providence health system is using an artificial intelligence solution to alleviate clinician burnout and improve the care experience.
By Jessica Kent
November 23, 2020 - While the dawn of the EHR promised streamlined, accelerated healthcare delivery, the technology can also include burdensome alerts and documentation requirements that lead to clinician burnout.
Providers often spend more time documenting than they do seeing their patients, resulting in poor care experiences and stunted patient-provider relationships.
At Providence, one of the largest health systems in the country, leaders were searching for a solution to problems stemming from EHR documentation.
“At our organization, clinician burnout and productivity were an issue. The amount of time that clinicians spend on documentation is probably the single biggest issue for our caregivers,” said B.J. Moore, executive vice president and CIO at Providence.
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Top Challenges of Applying Artificial Intelligence to Medical Imaging
Medical imaging is one of the best use cases for artificial intelligence in healthcare, but lack of clinician input and data bottlenecks can make the technology less helpful than promised.
November 20, 2020 - Among the many possible applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in healthcare, medical imaging is perhaps the most promising.
When used to decode the complicated nature of MRIs, CT scans, and other testing modalities, advanced analytics tools have demonstrated their ability to extract meaningful information for enhanced decision-making – sometimes with greater precision than humans themselves.
From improved cancer detection to faster pneumonia diagnoses, AI and machine learning have proven to be viable companion tools in the fields of radiology and pathology.
“A lot of the major advances we've seen in AI have focused on image analysis,” said Walter Wiggins, MD, PhD, assistant professor of radiology at Duke University and clinical director of the Duke Center for Artificial Intelligence in Radiology.
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AdventHealth, Berg tap AI technology to reduce mortality in COVID-19 patients
Nov 23, 2020 8:30am
AdventHealth has partnered with biotech firm Berg to gain insights on people that have tested positive for COVID-19 and reduce mortality rates from the disease.
AdventHealth, a nonprofit health system based in Orlando, Florida, has diagnosed and treated more than 25,000 patients with COVID-19 to date. With more than 250,000 Americans having died during the COVID-19 pandemic, a key reason for Berg to work with AdventHealth is to understand COVID-19 better and also help triage patients suffering from the virus, explained Niven Narain, Ph.D., co-founder, president and CEO of Berg.
Under the agreement announced Monday, the two organizations will use Berg’s proprietary artificial-intelligence-enabled Interrogative Biology platform with AdventHealth’s patient data. Narain explained that the platform processes biological patient samples on the front end and feeds that into a back-end AI analytical platform. It incorporates machine learning as well as a type of AI called a Bayesian network. With ML, data scientists generate data insights from a hypothesis, but with Bayesian AI the data generate the hypothesis. You then validate the hypothesis in the laboratory and with clinical records, Narain told Fierce Healthcare.
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https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/23/asia/china-xi-qr-code-coronavirus-intl-hnk/
China's Xi Jinping is pushing for a global Covid QR code. He may struggle to convince the world
Updated 0909 GMT (1709 HKT) November 23, 2020
Hong Kong (CNN)Chinese President Xi Jinping is pushing for a global Covid-19 tracking system using QR codes, to help fast-track international travel and business during the coronavirus pandemic.
China mandated the widespread use of QR-based health certificates earlier this year. The system, which uses an electronic barcode to store a person's travel and health history, has been credited with helping to curb the spread of the virus.
The code issues users with a color code based on their potential exposure to the novel coronavirus. The colors are like traffic lights -- green is safest, then amber and finally red.
Speaking at the virtual G20 leaders' meeting on Saturday, Xi said that to ensure the "smooth functioning" of the world economy during the pandemic, countries needed to coordinate a uniform set of policies and standards, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
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Humanizing AI: How to Close the Trust Gap in Healthcare
To promote trust in artificial intelligence in healthcare, AI products and services must come from a deep understanding of user and patient needs and promote user and patient engagement.
Keith Roberts, VP, Change Healthcare
11/23/2020 07:00 AM
Physician turnover in the United States, due to burnout and related factors, was conservatively estimated to cost the US healthcare system some $4.6 billion annually, according to a 2019 Annals of Internal Medicine study. The results reflect a familiar dynamic, where too many doctors are crushed in paperwork, which takes time away from being with patients.
Just five months after this study was publicized, Harvard Business Review published “How AI in the Exam Room Could Reduce Physician Burnout,” examining multiple artificial intelligence initiatives that may streamline providers’ administrative tasks, thus reducing burnout.
Still, barriers to trust in AI solutions remain, highlighted by 2020 KPMG International survey findings that note only 35% of leaders have a high degree of trust in data analytics powered by AI within their own organizations. This lack of confidence even in their own AI-driven solutions underscores the significant trust gap that exists between decision-makers and technology in the current digital era.
There’s little doubt that multiple industries have been revolutionized by AI, and the same technology is beginning to streamline the US healthcare ecosystem. But how do we initiate AI projects in healthcare that are truly focused on the needs of patients and users?
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Standardizing EHR Use Measure Platforms to Decrease Clinician Burden
A limited number of EHR vendors are effectively tracking EHR use measures and those that do need improved standardization to learn more about clinician burden.
November 23, 2020 - EHR use measure platforms are currently only available on three of the most common EHR platforms and further standardization is necessary to enhance these platforms and decrease clinician burden, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).
EHRs are at the center of clinician burnout and decreased clinician satisfaction. In an effort to learn more about EHR usability, health systems and EHR vendors view audit logs to study EHR use. However, not all EHR systems provide this information and there is a lack of standardization across those that provide a platform.
Researchers utilized data from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and focused on the most common outpatient EHR vendors, including Epic Systems, Cerner, and AllScripts.
The research team then asked vendor representatives about several EHR use measures:
- Total EHR time
- Work outside of work
- EHR documentation time
- Prescriptions time
- Inbox usage time
- Teamwork for orders
- Undivided attention
Researchers aimed to analyze these measures and see how each vendor addresses each measurement.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-market-expected-grow-6-year-through-2025
EHR market expected to grow 6% per year through 2025
A new report predicted that cloud-based systems will see the fastest growth over the next five years, with the need to manage chronic conditions fueling the growth.
By Kat Jercich
November 20, 2020 02:36 PM
A new report released this week predicted that the electronic health record market would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6% over the next five years.
The report, from Research and Markets, noted the roles of chronic diseases, government funding and patient engagement as likely contributing factors to the increase.
"The increasing adoption of software solutions such as data mining, clinical decision support systems and clinical trial management systems will propel the demand for EHR systems," wrote report authors.
WHY IT MATTERS
Unsurprisingly, the report named EHR heavy-hitters Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, eClinicalWorks and Epic Systems as the major vendors, specifically noting Epic as amassing a greater share of the U.S. hospital market in 2019.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/telehealth-may-worsen-digital-divide-people-disabilities
Telehealth may worsen digital divide for people with disabilities
A recently published JAMIA paper argues that design, implementation and policy considerations must be taken into account when developing virtual care technology.
By Kat Jercich
November 23, 2020 10:59 AM
Much has been made of telehealth's potential to bridge the accessibility gap for those who may be otherwise underserved by the healthcare systems.
But, experts said in a new paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association this past week, telehealth may also exacerbate inequities faced by the disability community.
"There remains a pressing need to explicitly consider how changes in the prevalence and ubiquity of telehealth impact people with disabilities," wrote the authors.
WHY IT MATTERS
The paper authors noted that for some people with disabilities widespread access to telehealth services could improve healthcare.
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https://histalk2.com/2020/11/20/weekender-11-20-20/
Weekly News Recap
- Private equity firm Clearlake Capital will reportedly buy the software business of revenue cycle management company NThrive.
- Nuance sells its transcription services business and EScription technology to newly formed DeliverHealth Solutions, in which Nuance will hold a minority share.
- Time’s list of “The Best Inventions of 2020” includes the Vocera Smartbadge.
- Central Logic acquires Ensocare.
- Amazon launches an online pharmacy.
- ECRI announces that it will shut down its Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety collaborative on December 31 after seven years.
- UC San Diego Health reports the benefits of moving UC San Diego’s student health service to Epic.
- Researchers find that including a patient’s headshot in the EHR significantly reduced ED wrong-patient order entry errors.
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Enjoy!
David.
HARDER AND FASTER. Yes please Minister.
ReplyDeleteAnd Australia can follow the UK's lead. Let's go HARDER AND FASTER.
And let's rename the ADHA and call it The Australian Transformation Taskforce Unit [TATTU].
It's patently clear the UK know how to fix things like Digital Health, COVID-19 and BREXIT.
HARDER, FASTER, no time to waste, GO, GO, GO.
Now, what exactly is the problem?