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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How Is Artificial Intelligence Shaping Patient Engagement Tools?
Artificial intelligence is finding its place with patient engagement tools, helping to personalize an efficient patient experience.
By Sara Heath
December 31, 2020 - Although patient engagement principles are rooted in timeless concepts like good interpersonal skills and patient motivation, the technologies used to push engagement are indeed at the cutting edge. Most recently, healthcare organizations have tapped patient engagement tools that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to drive a personalized and convenient healthcare experience.
As the medical industry continues to embrace the patient as a healthcare consumer, providers and technology developers alike have sought to create a personalized healthcare experience. AI has proven to fill that gap, helping to make sense of patient data and needs and generate action items that can ideally activate the patient.
And patients are primed for this new type of technology, research has shown. In 2018, Accenture’s Consumer Survey on Digital Health showed that patients are welcoming of AI technology in healthcare. And again in 2019, patients expressed a strong interest in AI for helping to manage their own health and drive convenient care.
Healthcare organizations are beginning to respond to that need, implementing tools that leverage AI, machine learning, and natural language processing (NLP) to aid in not just clinical operations, but in patient engagement efforts, as well.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/nist-shares-best-practice-security-guidance-for-vulnerable-pacs
NIST Shares Best Practice Security Guidance for Vulnerable PACS
Best practice NIST guidance is designed to support healthcare providers in securing PACS. Multiple reports have shown the highly vulnerable tech has exposed millions of medical images.
December 30, 2020 - The Office for Civil Rights is urging healthcare organizations to review recently released NIST cybersecurity guidance for Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). The best practice insights are designed to secure the highly vulnerable technology.
PACS servers are widely used in healthcare to archive medical images, as well as allowing entities to share these records with other providers. However, the tech is riddled with vulnerabilities, including the use of the DICOM protocol. Flaws in DICOM could allow an attacker to install malicious code into imaging files and infect patient data.
Meanwhile, reports from Greenbone Networks in 2019 found PACS were leaking billions of medical images. One year later, a HealthITSecurity.com exclusive report confirmed US providers have not yet secured millions of medical images.
“PACS fits within a highly complex healthcare delivery organization environment that involves interfacing with a range of interconnected systems,” NIST researchers wrote. “PACS may connect with clinical information systems and medical devices and engage with HDO-internal and affiliated health professionals.”
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/year-in-review-most-read-ehr-interoperability-stories-of-2020
Year in Review: Most Read EHR, Interoperability Stories of 2020
COVID-19 put interoperability and electronic health records (EHRs) under the microscope in 2020.
December 30, 2020 - As one of the most tumultuous years in healthcare delivery draws to a close, the most read stories of 2020 spotlight the biggest concerns, challenges, and innovation areas that were top of mind for industry stakeholders, including EHRs, interoperability, and the national emergency brought on by COVID-19.
When COVID-19 began to make its way across the country, healthcare leaders expressed concern that challenges with interoperability and EHR functions would stymie attempts to mitigate the spread of the virus.
However, health systems, health IT experts, and health IT vendors worked together to quickly optimize both EHR and health IT systems to adapt to the unknowns of COVID-19.
This year’s most popular EHR and interoperability stories on EHRIntelligence range from several Epic Systems headlines, EHR optimization, and of course, the impact COVID-19 had on interoperability and patient data exchange.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/emea/all-together-now-moving-beyond-collaboration
All together now: Moving beyond collaboration
A word that we've heard on every Brexit news update was sovereignty, quickly followed by the debate about the cost of such independence, according to Nick Hopkinson, a CIO and Principal Associate with Ethical Healthcare Consulting, UK.
December 31, 2020 02:54 AM
I am reminded of many days sat around conference tables with colleagues from each of the local health and care organisations as we tried to storm our way through the latest centrally required mandate to work together. In those days, the phrase ‘sovereign organisation’ would be mentioned at some point in every meeting. There was a wariness to how we worked together and understanding where the boundaries were was important.
By the start of 2020 sovereignty was a rarely heard word in digital health terms, and increasingly the talk was of collaborating in ‘communities’, ‘place’ and ‘system’. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit it quickly became clear that if one falls, we all fall. The boundaries between primary and secondary care, mental and physical health, health and social care were shown to be artifices of our own creation that quickly dissolved when we all united in a common purpose. Amongst the heroic efforts of staff in all our care settings, digital teams worked tirelessly to help staff work remotely, support reconfiguration of hospital sites and deliver years of innovation in a matter of weeks. Perhaps less noted is the way in which they supported each other, sharing and gifting equipment, staff, knowledge and crucially support regardless of which badge you wore or what your email suffix was.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/health-it-execs-offer-thoughts-big-issues-2021
Health IT execs offer thoughts on the big issues of 2021
Where are vaccine supply chains, value-based care, AI, telehealth and other trends headed next year? C-suite leaders from an array of vendors weigh in on provider/payer relations, the healthcare workforce and more.
By Mike Miliard
December 31, 2020 01:19 PM
I've seen it said before that year-ahead predictions are like weather reports: Everyone reads them, but almost no one looks back later to see whether they were accurate. Still, since when has that stopped anyone from indulging in this pastime as the calendar turns from December to January?
Certainly, few could have guessed, as we rang out 2019, just what 2020 would have in store for the U.S. healthcare system. But having learned some difficult lessons this pandemic year, it's worth taking stock of that hard-won wisdom – and forecasting how it might be put to work in the next 12 months as healthcare organizations chart a path forward to help a "shocked system emerge stronger" (as PwC puts it).
Here's what execs from some leading health IT vendors think about the most pressing challenges – and big opportunities – of the year ahead.
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KLAS, Censinet Partnership to Simplify Provider Cyber-Risk Assessment Efforts
By Scott Mace | December 30, 2020
KLAS Cybersecurity Readiness Assessment ratings will start in April.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· CIOs are eager to cut risk assessment workload through shared information collected by Censinet.
· The service launches as cyberattacks against healthcare technology have greatly increased.
· The adoption curve will parallel KLAS interoperability rating adoption, UT Austin CIO says.
A new partnership promises to reduce the effort required for healthcare providers to perform security assessments and help technology vendors focus on dealing with new security issues through a common security preparedness rating system for their products and services.
KLAS Research, a healthcare research and insights firm, announced that product and service security risk assessments from Censinet will be the source of new quarterly KLAS ratings on those products and services. KLAS and Censinet will also collaborate in other ways, such as research, insight sharing, special report access, and cybersecurity best practices.
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Trump, Congress Give New Life to FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program
The relief bill signed into law this past weekend by President Trump includes $250 million for the Federal Communications Commission's COVID-19 Telehealth Program, which was shut down in July after exhausting its budget.
December 29, 2020 - The latest federal COVID-19 relief bill is giving new life to a program aimed at expanding telehealth through better broadband connectivity.
The bill, signed by President Donald Trump this past weekend after Congressional passage, includes $250 million for the Federal Communications Commission’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program, as well as new guidelines for stricter federal oversight.
Created by the CARES Act in March, the program was designed to support healthcare providers across the country in expanding or developing connected health platforms to address the coronavirus pandemic. While applicants of all sizes sought support to buy telemedicine equipment and launch telehealth and remote patient monitoring services, particular emphasis was placed on efforts to expand broadband connectivity.
The program was shut down in July after exhausting its $200 million budget. In all, the FCC approved 539 funding applications from 47 states, Washington DC and Guam.
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CISA Insights on Ongoing APT Cyber Activity Behind SolarWinds Attack
DHS CISA launched a resource site and shared insights into the ongoing, massive APT cyber activity, brought on by the SolarWinds cyberattack.
December 29, 2020 - The Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released insights that address the ongoing advanced persistent threat (APT) cyber activity, stemming from an earlier supply chain cyberattack on SolarWinds.
CISA also launched a webpage to consolidate resources on this global compromise, which will be routinely updated.
The suspected nation-state actors exploited a vulnerability found in SolarWinds Orion Platform software versions 2019.4 HF 5 through 2020.2.1 HF 1 released between March and June 2020, trojanizing the update with malware.
The cyberattack resulted in further exploits and espionage, which also recently spurred another group of attackers to also prey on the flaw. The attack was highly sophisticated and targeted in nature, SolarWinds officials said at the time of the initial disclosure.
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Similar Factors Contribute to Racial Disparities in Cancer, COVID-19
Access to care, health insurance, and income level are a few of the factors that contribute to racial disparities in both cancer and COVID-19 outcomes.
By Jessica Kent
December 28, 2020 - Racial disparities in cancer and COVID-19 outcomes stem from very similar factors, a finding that has significant implications for the public health sector, according to a study published in Clinical Cancer Research.
Racial disparities in cancer outcomes have been well-documented. Researchers noted that within most cancer types, blacks have a lower five-year survival rate than whites. With COVID-19, about 20 percent of cases in the US have occurred in people who are black, even though that population represents only 13 percent of the population. Additionally, while Latinos make up only 17 percent of the population, these individuals account for 32 percent of COVID-19 cases.
Although cancer and COVID-19 seem like very different diseases at first glance, problems like socioeconomic disadvantages, education, lifestyle factors, comorbidities, and limited access to care increase patients’ risk for both cancer and COVID-19. These factors also contribute to worse outcomes with these conditions.
“The similarities between COVID-19 issues and cancer disparities are uncanny,” said John M. Carethers, MD, John G. Searle Professor and Chair of Internal Medicine at Michigan Medicine.
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Dec 29 2020
Making seniors comfortable with telehealth will be a goal for healthcare in 2021
Access and communication are the main barriers to entry for older Americans seeking to utilize virtual care.
Jeff Lagasse, Associate Editor
Telehealth has played a critical role in healthcare delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is especially true for older Americans. Given the numerous restrictions and guidelines that have been enacted to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, virtual care has been critical in helping seniors safely get the care they need.
Yet, according to data from Medicare-focused digital health company GoHealth, three in five Medicare beneficiaries and seniors nearing eligibility admit to not knowing how to use video call technology. The main issues boil down to access and education.
Prior to the pandemic, reimbursement had been an issue as well, with stringent rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about what is reimbursable and what is not representing a barrier to entry. Recently, though, the regulatory environment has eased somewhat, with CMS making allowances for reimbursement, and Congress mulling permanent changes to the payment landscape when it comes to virtual care.
This allowed providers to rapidly pivot to virtual modalities when it became evident that the pandemic would cause a shift in utilization. This has been happening steadily throughout the year: According to a survey released in May by the Alliance of Community Health Plans and AMCP, 72% of U.S. consumers have dramatically changed their use of traditional healthcare services, with many delaying in-person care and embracing virtual care due to the public health crisis.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/biggest-healthcare-data-breaches-reported-2020
The biggest healthcare data breaches reported in 2020
Many of the top 10 incidents logged by HHS Office for Civil Rights involved ransomware, but a few stemmed from device theft or improper record disposal.
By Kat Jercich
December 30, 2020 12:23 PM
This year shone a spotlight on cybersecurity, with federal agencies warning in October of an "increased an imminent" cyber threat to hospitals fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
But not every security incident was caused by major ransomware attacks, of course. Some costly breaches were caused by much more mundane activities, such as improperly disposed materials or employee snooping.
By law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights must publish a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. It's worth noting that not every incident on this list happened in 2020, nor has every incident that took place in 2020 been reported yet.
The list also includes both resolved incidents and those still under investigation. More than 10 million individuals were affected by the breaches in the top 10 list alone.
Ultimately, it's clear that cybersecurity incidents aren't going anywhere in the coming year – and they may even get more egregious. Here's a list of the biggest healthcare breaches reported to OCR in 2020.
Name:
Trinity Health
Reported:
9/14/2020
Number
of individuals affected: 3,320,726
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Three Virtual Care Applications That Go Beyond Video Visits
December 30, 2020
The term telehealth can be applied very broadly. Although many, including the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, define telehealth simply to encompass virtual visits, we now have a mandate to explore numerous uses for networking and remote monitoring that can improve health, creating what some observers have called a “hospital without walls” or “virtual care.”
The term “virtual care” is used at Lumeon to describe the systems they develop in this space. To find out how virtual care can help us rethink clinical treatment, I interviewed Robbie Hughes, founder and CEO of Lumeon. I’ve written before about Lumeon’s consulting practice, which can re-engineer workflows at health providers and has created a solution for COVID-19 triage. Hughes mentioned how certain important sources of diagnostic information are lost in remote visits, but how an expanded view of telehealth can provide valuable new sources.
Obviously, you don’t get to touch a patient in a virtual visit, or smell them (which often provides important clues). You usually don’t see the whole body and may miss subtleties in speech and movement. But you do see their environment, which is helpful. Now is the time, Hughes suggested, to expand telehealth with continuous remote monitoring, which proponents of connected health have pushed for years.
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OCR Guide on HIPAA-Compliant PHI Disclosures Via HIEs, Amid COVID-19
Recent OCR guidance sheds light on HIPAA-permitted disclosures of protected health information via HIEs for public health activities amid COVID-19.
December 28, 2020 - The Office for Civil Rights recently released guidance for covered entities and business associates on HIPAA-permitted disclosures of protected health information through the use of health information exchanges (HIE) for public health activities, particularly during COVID-19.
The insights join a number of previous COVID-19-related guidelines provided by OCR during the national crisis to ensure appropriate and necessary data disclosures, which can help support the overall coronavirus response in the US.
The latest guide sheds light on HIEs, HIPAA-compliant PHI disclosures, and public health activities of a public health authority (PHA), as well as examples relevant to the public health emergency.
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COVID-19 Defines 2020’s Top Patient Engagement, Healthcare Trends
Like most of healthcare, COVID-19 has defined the patient engagement and experience space, pushing providers to rethink care access and health disparities.
By Sara Heath
December 28, 2020 - 2020 has been a unique year for healthcare. Punctuated almost entirely by the COVID-19 pandemic coming ashore in early March, healthcare has had to adapt to an ever-changing patient engagement and experience landscape that could change the field forever.
From the impact the virus had on patient experience and healthcare delivery to the emphasis it has placed on promoting health equity and ending racial bias in medicine, COVID-19 has been the notable story of 2020. Below, PatientEngagementHIT outlines just how pervasive COVID-19 was in the patient and consumer space, and how that might shake out come 2021.
Exploring COVID-19’s impact on healthcare delivery
As with numerous other areas of healthcare, COVID-19 has pushed stakeholders to question how the patient relationship with care will change. The pandemic pushed patients to re-examine their own role in their healthcare management, making them acutely aware of their health and wellness and the personal efforts that go into protecting that wellness.
At the start of the pandemic, the medical industry saw a knocking down of communication barriers that previously inhibited it. According to Jessica Dudley, MD, chief clinical officer with Press Ganey, the early aughts of the virus pushed industry leaders collaborating when they normally would have been competing.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/eprescribing-solutions-are-boosting-number-of-opioid-prescriptions
ePrescribing Solutions are Boosting Number of Opioid Prescriptions
Contrary to popular belief, ePrescribing solutions did not decrease the number of opioids prescribed by clinicians.
December 28, 2020 - Increased use of ePrescribing was not associated with decreased opioid prescribing or a decrease in the number of opioids prescribed. In fact, ePrescribing was actually associated with a small increase in prescribing, according to a study published in JAMA Network.
As a result, researchers said policymakers should consider ways to integrate outside data into ePrescribing solutions to ensure safety and further mitigate the opioid epidemic.
Since its introduction in 2003, ePrescribing has brought a more convenient, cheaper, and safer prescribing alternative for prescribers, doctors, and patients. An increase of ePrescribing aims to allow for improved workflow, increased patient safety, and more drug price transparency in the future.
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Primary care docs outperform symptom-checking apps – but some apps come close
Some of the apps were comparable to general practitioners when it came to safety performance, but none were as accurate in terms of diagnosing ailments.
By Kat Jercich
December 29, 2020 03:38 PM
A study published earlier this month in BMJ Open found that primary care practitioners outperformed eight symptom-checking apps when it came to the diagnostic accuracy and safety of the advice.
The study found that apps varied substantially in their metrics, but noted that the best performing ones came close to general practitioners in including the correct diagnosis among their top 3 and top 5 suggestions.
"The nature of iterative improvements to software suggests that further improvements will occur with experience and additional evaluation studies," wrote the research team.
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Designing for Patients and Clinicians: Expanding The Human in Human Centered Design (HCD)
December 29, 2020
This article was co-authored by Geri Lynn
Baumblatt & Amy Bucher.
A nurse practitioner (NP) was telling patient advocates how to help patients
prepare better for appointments. She explained that many people with high blood
pressure (BP) don’t track it before their appointment. So, she gives them a
sheet and has them schedule another appointment to come back after they’ve tracked
it. When asked if her office could proactively mail or email the BP tracker to
patients when they schedule their appointment and avoid the delay in treatment
and a second appointment, the NP explained, “we have no way to do that.” When
asked if the admin could be trained to help with this, she said, “They don’t
have that skill set.”
If you’re confused, so were the patient advocates. This is a solvable problem
using existing tools. But it was clear that as frustrated as the NP was with
the current situation, she wasn’t interested in thinking about how to address
it. And this initial roadblock is relatively simple to overcome; it doesn’t
even get to the more complex question of whether people know the right way to
take their own BP and how to train them to do so.
Amy had a similar experience while designing a tool clinicians could use to
train patients to take their own BP at home. After learning the right way to
take BP, she noticed it wasn’t done quite right at her next physical exam: her
sleeve wasn’t moved out of the way, her arm was elevated above her heart, and
she definitely didn’t sit quietly for 5 minutes before it was taken — something
that’s probably often hard to fit in during a short visit.
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Smart temp control technology could be key for COVID-19 vaccine rollout
Some of the hurdles around vaccine distribution could be addressed with high-tech solutions, particularly where environmental management is concerned.
By Kat Jercich
December 29, 2020 10:09 AM
As health systems begin to roll out COVID-19 vaccines, much attention has been paid to the "cold chain," the organizations and equipment that enable their necessary sub-zero storage and transport.
Experts have pointed to the clear logistical and security challenges this unique supply chain presents. But others say that some of these hurdles around vaccine distribution could be addressed with technology – particularly where humidity and temperature controls are concerned.
Paul Daniel, senior regulatory compliance expert at Vaisala Oyj, which develops and markets environmental and industrial measurement services, concedes that the world of temp control monitoring "is not sexy." That said, "it's really critical."
As Daniel explained, it's not quite accurate to think of controlling the ambient temperature around the vaccine as complicating the process. Rather, he said, the temperature control is the process.
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How to Increase EHR Go-Live Efficiency with a Virtual Model
December 29, 2020
The following is a guest article by GP Hyare, Managing Director at ReMedi Health Solutions
One year ago, the average EHR go-live involved hundreds of support personnel flying to a hospital and working on-site for four to six weeks. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability for so many individuals to fly-in and stay in close quarters to hospital staff, EHR go-lives had to evolve. As the healthcare industry continues to adopt virtual solutions, the future of EHR go-lives will never be the same.
The standard EHR go-live had some obvious inefficiencies. They were costly, and it was often difficult to measure the performance of traditional at-the-elbow (ATE) support as they provided assistance to clinicians.
Hospitals planning go-lives today and in the future have to make more intelligent decisions with respect to the constraints caused by the pandemic, both operationally and financially.
In April, in the wake of the first major country-wide lockdown, many health systems put EHR transitions and initiatives on hold. One of our clients, a community hospital in the Northeast, delayed its much anticipated EHR transition to June of 2020. As the country peaked in cases, it seemed as if the go-live would have to be pushed to the summer of 2021.
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https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20201210.999588/full/
Our Health Care System Wasn’t Designed To Support Telehealth. Now It’s Time For A Makeover
December 16, 2020 10.1377/hblog20201210.999588
The health care scholar Paul Batalden, MD, once penned the phrase: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” This captures a lot about US health care. In particular, it applies to our current conversation about telehealth.
In 2016, only a quarter of 1 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries used a telehealth service once in the entire year. This is obviously an astoundingly low number, and when we see it, we shouldn’t see a failure of policy, we should see policy design at work. Today, a lot of people in health care are asking a simple question: What is the future for telehealth? By examining its initial design, we can find clues as to the best path forward for virtual care.
Congress first created the Medicare telehealth benefit as part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997—passed during a bygone era when a balanced federal budget was within reach. Nevertheless, financial pressures still loomed large: Expenditures were growing rapidly, and Medicare’s actuaries had forecasted that the Medicare Part A Trust Fund would be insolvent by 2001. Lawmakers therefore drafted the Balanced Budget Act to reduce Medicare expenditures by $393 billion over 10 years. And as anyone who has worked in federal health policy will tell you, adding benefits and reducing costs rarely go hand in hand.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/data-analytics-model-shows-how-colleges-can-reduce-covid-19-cases
Data Analytics Model Shows How Colleges Can Reduce COVID-19 Cases
A data analytics model revealed that colleges could prevent nearly 90 percent of COVID-19 cases by implementing strict social distancing and mask-wearing measures.
By Jessica Kent
December 22, 2020 - As colleges begin to develop strategies to control COVID-19 cases during the spring semester, researchers are leveraging data analytics models to determine which methods will be most effective.
According to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, a combination of mandatory mask-wearing policies and widespread social distancing will prevent 87 percent of infections among students and faculty.
Researchers also found that even if campuses remain closed, faculty would likely get infected from the surrounding community, and students who return to live off campus in college towns would likely get infected as well.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/intersection-of-big-data-analytics-covid-19-top-focus-of-2020
Intersection of Big Data Analytics, COVID-19 Top Focus of 2020
The top stories on HealthITAnalytics.com in 2020 focused on the industry’s use of big data analytics tools to understand, track, and reduce the spread of COVID-19.
By Jessica Kent
December 24, 2020 - The end of 2020 marks the conclusion of one of the most formidable years the healthcare industry has seen in recent memory.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought new challenges with it, while also shining a harsh light on longstanding issues. Leaders acted quickly to leverage big data analytics tools, including AI and machine learning, to make sense of the virus and control its spread, resulting in a year of technological achievements and rich data resources.
In a list of the top ten stories from the past 12 months, HealthITAnalytics describes the events and trends that dominated readers’ attention. While many will be glad to see 2020 go, a look back on some of its major incidents indicates that the crisis sparked innovations that will live on long after the new year.
10. White House Urges AI Experts to Develop Tools for COVID-19 Dataset
Soon after the Trump administration declared COVID-19 a national emergency, officials sought the help of big data analytics tools to better understand virus transmission, risk factors, origin, diagnostics, and other vital information.
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What to expect in 2021 and beyond? IDC offers 10 healthcare predictions
Its FutureScape 2021 report foresees a half-decade of health systems grappling with – and learning from – the COVID-19 disruption of the past year.
By Mike Miliard
December 28, 2020 04:12 PM
In the recent IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Health Industry 2021 Predictions report, experts at IDC Health Insights offer their thoughts about the issues healthcare and life science organizations will contend with over the next year and beyond.
WHY IT
MATTERS
Unsurprisingly, 2021 will largely be shaped by "the disruptive forces of
COVID-19," according to IDC, which sees the pandemic as having changed
"everything across all verticals now and into the future."
Across organizations of all shapes and sizes, researchers see improved resilience, changes around supply chains and resource consumption, new approaches to data management and IT architecture – and a rethinking of relationships with both employees and healthcare consumers.
Here are IDC's 2021 predictions. Read more about each by accessing the full report.
- The economic and clinical vulnerability resulting from the pandemic will drive 20% of healthcare organizations to embrace integrated care to improve outcomes during 2021
- By the end of 2021, 7 of the 10 leading wrist-worn wearables companies will have released algorithms capable of early detection of potential signs of infectious diseases including COVID-19 and the flu
- Accelerated by the emergence of the new coronavirus, investments by life science companies in digital initiatives to support the utilization of real-world evidence globally will double by 2022
- Alarmed by COVID-19 pandemic shortages, life science and healthcare provider companies will increase investments in AI and advanced analytics by 50% by 2022 to avoid future supply chain disruptions
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Health systems rush to use tech to tackle the coronavirus: A roundup of provider news 2020
MobiHealthNews highlights providers' efforts to address treating, testing and mapping the coronavirus.
December 28, 2020 09:47 am
Last New Year’s Eve, the first COVID-19 case was reported in Wuhan China. Since then the virus has spread all over the world. Today over 70 million coronavirus cases have been reported and nearly 1.6 million deaths associated with the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
By February health systems were quickly responding and rethinking their care-delivery model. Over the last year MobiHealthNews has closely reported on how providers are using digital health to treat, triage and combat the virus. This year, efforts by provider organizations have been robust and comprehensive. This roundup is only the tip of the iceberg of digital initiatives implemented worldwide by providers.
Provider’s efforts to tackle the coronavirus crisis:
On Jan. 19, a patient came into one of the Providence facilities' urgent care centers presenting with a cough and reported recently returning from Wuhan, China. The nurse practitioner treating the patient called the CDC for next steps and tested the patient for the coronavirus. One day later, the patient was admitted to the hospital with a positive case of COVID-19, marking the first case in the U.S.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/look-back-news-stories-shaped-2020
A look back at the news stories that shaped 2020
With 2020 drawing to a close, Healthcare IT News shares the top 10 most read EMEA news stories of the year.
By Sara Mageit
December 28, 2020 02:10 AM
The year 2020 has undoubtedly been an eventful year for the health IT industry, from the explosion of COVID-19 preventative technology, the AI tools used for the global vaccine roll-out, and the introduction of the virtual HIMSS EMRAM asessments, this year was anything but ordinary. To commemorate this challenging but highly newsworthy year, we've picked out our most popular Healthcare IT News stories of 2020.
1. UAE border COVID-19 rapid screening centre proves successful
Our UAE-based health IT stories were very popular with our readers this year, and this story was no exception, raking up the highest ever number of views of an article on our international media platforms. Following a successful debut, Abu Dhabi introduced additional COVID-19 rapid screening centres at entry points to the UAE capital. Residents of the Emirates were unable to travel into Abu Dhabi without providing a negative COVID-19 test before departure. To facilitate the process, the UAE government introduced a rapid screening centre at a checkpoint between Dubai and Abu Dhabi to enable commuters to get tested during their journey instead.
2. UK to use AI for COVID-19 vaccine side effects
As the UK prepares for a widespread COVID-19 inoculation programme of monumental scale in the months ahead, the need for an effective and powerful tool to process a large number of reports is critical in managing the high volume of reports. In this November news coverage, Healthcare IT News spoke to a Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) spokesperson about their collaboration with Genpact UK to develop an AI tool to sift through the high volume of reports of adverse reactions to the vaccine.
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Kaiser Permanente Creates Digital Formulary For Mental Health Apps
December 28, 2020
The idea of using digital health tools in a disciplined, trackable manner (e.g. as digital therapeutics) has been in the air for quite some time. However, I’ve seen very few concrete examples of such deployments so far. This week, though, brings the news that Kaiser Permanente has made it possible for its psychiatrists and mental health therapists to refer patients to health and wellness apps through its Epic EHR.
While the Kaiser news release doesn’t say so specifically, It’s possible Epic Is delivering this capability for Kaiser using digital health management platform Xealth. As we’ve noted previously, both Epic and Cerner are working with Xealth to manage and deploy digital health tools to patients. If there not using Xealth it would be interesting to know what they’re using.
In its release on the subject, Kaiser notes that recent research supports the value of having clinicians involved in guiding patients to mental health and wellness apps, as their involvement makes it more likely that patients will use the apps than if they’d found them on their own.
The Kaiser list of mental health and wellness apps available for referral include tools for mindfulness, meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy that can support patients with mild to moderate anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems.
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Small Wonder Providers Don’t Like Sharing Patient Data For Free. It’s Becoming Their Whole Business.
December 28, 2020
During the decade or so in which I’ve been following data interoperability, the cleverest people in the healthcare and technology industries have come together to make disparate systems work together effectively.
While there are still a number of technical issues to iron out, I’d go so far as to say that sustained data interoperability is clearly possible. After all, when providers within, say, an ACO decide to let it all hang out data-wise and share freely among themselves, you seldom hear reports of an IT rebellion. This is the case even though the number of disparate systems within a decent-sized ACO can be very extensive and the work involved in creating APIs for sharing isn’t trivial.
On the other hand, when local or regional healthcare organizations work together to create health information exchanges, the project is almost always a stressful one. Yes, some health information exchanges/networks have been embraced by their community, region or state, but if you dig down into the data they’re sharing, it’s hardly the richest set known to man. It’s hard to imagine that members wouldn’t get their back up if minimum data sharing requirements were more robust.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/10-most-intriguing-innovation-insights-2020
The 10 Most Intriguing Innovation Insights of 2020
By Mandy Roth | December 28, 2020
Innovation is not all bright shiny things. Innovation leaders became more strategic during the past year; here are some of the most unusual ideas and insights they shared with HealthLeaders to move healthcare forward.
With the worldwide coronavirus pandemic as the impetus, 2020 was a banner year for healthcare innovation. While technologies like telehealth played a key role in changing the way healthcare is delivered, the year also brought a shift in overarching strategies and approaches to innovation.
Through interviews and virtual events, such as the HealthLeaders Healthcare System of the Future, and the HealthLeaders Innovation Exchange, we had the opportunity to speak to numerous innovation leaders at hospitals and health systems about their approaches to innovation and emerging ideas.
Following are 10 of the most intriguing innovation ideas we heard during 2020.
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Enjoy!
David.
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