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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Covid-19 vaccine status added to personal health records in Scotland
Covid-19 vaccine status is now available through personal health records across the majority of Scotland.
Andrea Downey – 02 July, 2021
The Scottish government has struck a deal with Orion Health to enable health and care workers to access a person’s Covid vaccine history.
Information about the jabs, held in the National Clinical Data Store (NCDS), is set to be displayed in shared care records and can be accessed across a range of clinical settings.
Orion Health’s shared care record is used in 11 out of the country’s 14 health boards.
Clinicians from four health boards in the North of Scotland, which use a regional ‘care portal’, and from NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Fife can already find out whether a patient has been vaccinated, when, and which vaccine they received.
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Predictive Analytics, Continuous Monitoring Cut Medical Costs by $535K
Medtronic’s study on respiratory depression shows a predictive analytics approach to decreasing annual medical costs.
July 08, 2021 - Using continuous monitoring and predictive analytics can cut medical costs by nearly $535,000 annually, according to an economic data model from Medtronic.
Specifically, continuous pulse oximetry and capnography monitoring of high-risk patients receiving opioids could significantly reduced annual hospital costs for mid-sized hospitals.
Data was collected from the PRODIGY (PRediction of Opioid-induced respiratory Depression In patients monitored by capnoGraphY) trial.
According to the study, continuous monitoring could result in $535,531 annual hospital cost savings for a median-sized US hospital. Additionally, monitoring could decrease the cumulative patient length of stay by 103 days per year.
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More Underestimated Infrastructure Costs Could Raise VA EHR Price Tag $2.5B
By Aaron
Boyd,
Senior Editor, Nextgov
July 8, 2021
The latest inspector general report shows more underreported infrastructure costs for the electronic health record program, prompting lawmakers to call a hearing for later this month.
The full cost of the Veterans Affairs Department’s new commercial electronic health record system—originally pegged at $10 billion, then revised up to $16 billion—could be $2.5 billion to $5.1 billion higher than currently estimated, according to unaccounted for infrastructure needs included in two separate inspector general reports.
The VA has been working with Cerner for nearly three years to deploy a commercial EHR system, launching the first instance of Cerner Millennium last October at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. In the run-up and after launch, the IG, Government Accountability Office and other watchdogs repeatedly warned of insufficient infrastructure support and planning, including the likelihood of cost overruns.
The IG released a report earlier this year that found cost estimates for EHR-related physical infrastructure—such as electrical work, cabling, and heating, ventilation and cooling—were underreported by $1 billion to $2.6 billion.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/tip-sheet-help-cisos-talk-board-about-security-needs
A tip sheet to help CISOs talk to the board about security needs
A deputy chief information security officer offers a comprehensive checklist for infosec leaders, helping ease the daunting task of talking cybersecurity with health system leadership.
By Bill Siwicki
July 09, 2021 12:22 PM
Healthcare chief information security officers know that the cost of a data breach is higher for them than in any other industry.When attacks make headlines, panicked board members have one question for CISOs: How can we be sure that won't happen to us? CISOs must be prepared to lead board-level conversations about risk management.
Lead with resilience, manage fear
One big question: How do CISOs lead with resilience and manage fear when talking to the board about cybersecurity?
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Texas man who sold protected health information sentenced to prison
The Department of Justice says the defendants breached a provider's EHR and used proceeds from stolen data to buy SUVs, off-road vehicles and jet skis.
By Kat Jercich
July 09, 2021 02:41 PM
A McKinney, Texas, man who was accused of stealing protected health information was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison this week.According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, 46-year-old Demetrius Cervantes pleaded guilty this past December to conspiracy to obtain information from a protected computer.
WHY IT MATTERS
As outlined in court documents, Cervantes, along with Amanda Lowry and Lydia Henslee, were named in a federal indictment in September 2019.
The three allegedly breached a provider’s electronic health record system with the aim of stealing patients' PHI and personally identifiable information.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/cancer-center-networks-lack-care-coordination-ehr-interoperability
Cancer Center Networks Lack Care Coordination, EHR Interoperability
Only half of academic cancer centers have complete access to network sites’ EHR data, highlighting interoperability and care coordination concerns.
July 08, 2021 - Academic cancer centers and their extended network sites often lack access to complete EHR data, according to a study published in the official journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN) that raises care coordination and interoperability concerns.
The study’s results are based on a mixed-methods survey conducted between September 2017 and December 2018. Researchers collected data from 56 cancer centers with at least one network practice site.
Respondents reported that 57 percent of networks had complete, integrated access to their main center’s EMRs. Five respondents reported no access between networks and the main center.
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EHR Integration Boosts Clinical Decision Support, Eases Clinician Burden
An EHR integration that aggregates patient data has cut down on clinician burden by allowing providers to practice at the top of their license.
July 08, 2021 - EHRs aim to streamline patient care by providing clinicians with up-to-date access to patient health records. Ideally, providers would pull up a patient’s EHR record and have all the information they need in one place. But without key EHR integration with workable clinical decision support, this is not always the case.
EHRs often require providers to take time out of their days to manually click through the system to gather the clinical information they need to care for patients. This burdensome process takes time away from patient care delivery and can lead to clinician burnout.
A clinician-developed EHR integration is helping enhance clinical decision support and reduce clinician burden.
The application’s co-creator, Ajay Dharod, MD, vice chair of informatics and analytics for the Department of Internal Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Health, said that as a practicing physician, he was burdened by spending up to an hour clicking around the EHR to gather clinical information before beginning his rounds.
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Mental Healthcare Access Woes Linger as Patient Preferences Evolve
CVS Health reported changes in patient preferences and engagement strategies, even as consumers still report ongoing mental healthcare access problems.
By Sara Heath
July 08, 2021 - Although the COVID-19 pandemic prompted renewed patient engagement and patient motivation for some, the 2021 Care Insights Survey from CVS Health showed serious challenges related to mental healthcare access and healthcare costs.
PatientEngagementHIT received a copy of the survey via email.
The survey, which elicited responses from 1,000 patients and 400 providers, showed that by and large, the pandemic had a disastrous effect on mental health and wellness. Social isolation and depression were up 30 percent over the past year, while 37 percent of patient respondents reported higher anxiety and 35 percent noted higher stress. Another 33 percent of patients reported changes in physical health, like weight gain.
These feelings of stress and anxiety were more prevalent among men than women and young over old people, the survey showed. Young adults ages 18 to 34 were more likely to report depression, with 35 percent saying as much. Another 28 percent said they had mental illness.
These mental health challenges across the entire survey population played themselves out in substance use, the survey continued. Nicotine use and alcohol consumption both increased by about a fifth, or 21 and 20 percent, respectively. CVS Health reported an uptick in opioid use by 10 percent.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/reuters-report-chinese-prenatal-test-collecting-gene-data
Report Draws Patient Privacy Concern with Prenatal Test
A Reuters report says that a globally used, prenatal test is being used by a Chinese company to collect patients’ data.
July 08, 2021 - A globally used, prenatal test is being used by a Chinese company to collect patient data, according to a new Reuters report.
The exclusive Reuters report, published on July 7, states that the BGI Group collaborated with the Chinese military to collect genetic data from the prenatal tests.
China’s BGI Group and the People’s Liberation Army collaborated on the NIFTY prenatal blood test, according to the report.
NIFTY (Non-Invasive Fetal TrisomY
test) is “a safe, simple, non-invasive
prenatal test...which offers screening for certain genetic
conditions from as early as week 10 of pregnancy,”
according to the NIFTY website.
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https://medcitynews.com/2021/07/report-addiction-treatment-apps-pose-privacy-risks/
Report: Addiction treatment apps pose privacy risks
Most apps offering opioid use disorder treatment have access to sensitive identifying information of their users, according to an analysis of 10 of them.
By Elise Reuter
Jul 7, 2021 at 8:23 PM
This article has been updated with a statement from Bicycle Health.
Several past reports have raised privacy concerns in mobile health apps, especially in data being shared with third-party advertisers and analytics providers. Even in apps offering treatment for opioid use disorder, which should carry additional privacy protections, the same problems remain.
An analysis of 10 addiction treatment and recovery apps found that almost all of them were accessing sensitive user data and sharing it with third parties. The report was conducted by ExpressVPN’s Digital Security Lab, with the Opioid Policy Institute and the Defensive Lab Agency.
During the height of the pandemic, more patients have turned to virtual treatment as in-person clinics closed and telehealth regulations were temporarily loosened. ExpressVPN analyzed 10 apps that had been installed 180,000 times. Many of them have also raised recent funding.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/booming-digital-health-market-and-elusive-trifecta
A booming digital health market, and an elusive trifecta
Health system CIOs are reducing their tech footprint and consolidating their IT systems for agility and efficiency. For digital health startups to succeed in this space, they must get three factors right: cost, scale and quality.
July 08, 2021 12:50 PM
The markets are buzzing with the latest Rock Health report on funding for digital health in the first half of 2021. At nearly $15 billion, the funding surpasses the amount for the full year 2020.
Everything is up: deal volumes, deal sizes, M&A activity, IPOs and SPACs. By all indications, the digital transformation of healthcare is fully underway, and it's time to party like it's 1999.
What the explosion in VC funding data doesn't tell us, however, is how all these heavily-funded startups are doing in the market.
Health systems are rapidly transforming their healthcare delivery models with online access and patient engagement tools, remote monitoring and other virtual care modalities. Digital transformation leaders are also grappling with fundamental questions: how much to invest in these efforts, who to partner with, and how to execute effectively on multiple fronts.
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https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20210701.888615/full/
Universal Patient Identification: What It Is And Why The US Needs It
July 7, 2021 10.1377/hblog20210701.888615
On July 31, 2020, the US House of Representatives voted to repeal a ban on the use of federal funding for the development of a universal patient identifier (UPI) for every individual in the United States. However, for the second time in as many years, this proposal made it out of the House only to be shot down by the Senate. In both years, the language in question was declined for inclusion in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee’s proposal. Given the demonstrated challenges accompanying a once-in-a-generation pandemic—such as recording vaccination status and identifying patients who would benefit from specific interventions—as well as a politically favorable Congress, now is the time for the removal of the federal ban on funding for UPI development.
A UPI is a single medical identification number, much like a Social Security number (SSN) or some other identification (such as biometrics or smartphones), that is unique to each person and used to organize their medical information. Unlike the commonly used SSN, this identifier would be valid only with regards to health information. It would be devoid of the attachments of SSNs, which are commonly used as identifiers in health care, banking and finance, education, and more.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/google-updates-api-for-patient-access-to-personal-covid-19-data
Google Updates API for Patient Access to Personal COVID-19 Data
Google has updated its Passes application programming interface (API) to provide patients access to personal COVID-19 data, like vaccination and testing information.
July 06, 2021 - Google has updated its Passes application programming interface (API) to provide patients with a secure way to store, access, and share COVID-19 vaccination and testing data on Android devices.
Organizations authorized by public health authorities to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and/or tests, including healthcare organizations and government agencies, can implement Google’s new API update to promote patient access to personal health data through a digital COVID Card that can store vaccination and testing information.
Once a patient stores the digital version of her COVID Card to her Android device, she can access it through a shortcut on her device’s home screen. This allows patients to access their personal health data even when they are offline or in an area with weak internet service.
Google designed the COVID Card to ensure patient health data security and privacy, representatives noted in a press release.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/strategies-for-using-predictive-analytics-ai-to-improve-care
Strategies for Using Predictive Analytics, AI to Improve Care
Bringing predictive analytics and artificial intelligence into the healthcare system can improve the quality of care for patients.
July 07, 2021 - As artificial intelligence (AI) technology becomes more interrogated into the medical community, mastering the element of predictive analytics will be a critical component in bettering the quality of care for patients.
In order to prove better care of individuals, providers must work efficiently, effectively, and accurately. Integrating predictive analytics into the healthcare system may accomplish those goals and could also provide some relief for medical professionals in the process. However, to meet these goals predictive analytic systems must be properly trained to avoid creating further care disparities.
How Predictive Analytics Works
By using machine learning and data mining technologies, predictive analytics works to assess risks and predict results. The system will look at historical data and statistical modeling to determine outcomes for individual patients.
As technology continues to advance, predictive analytics is showing potential in several medical areas. Through predictive analytics, scientists at James Cook University have made progress in developing strategies to keep premature babies alive.
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Kaiser Permanente Study Measures the Impact of Telehealth on the Environment
A five-year analysis of outpatient visits at a Pacific Northwest health system found that a shift to telehealth helped to dramatically reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
July 07, 2021 - New research from a trio of healthcare’s heavy hitters indicates telehealth is also good for the environment.
In what’s being billed as the first large-scale study in the US, researchers from Kaiser Permanente, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School are reporting that connected health platforms dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, making those services as healthy for the environment as they are for patients.
The study, published online in The Journal of Climate Change and Health, attributes most of the results to the adoption of telehealth during the coronavirus pandemic, when in-person visits dropped sharply and both providers and payers limited their travel time. But the researchers noted that any telehealth service offers an opportunity to reduce stress on the environment.
“The rapid and widespread adoption of telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic has had significant environmental health benefits, primarily through reduction in transportation-associated emissions,” the study concluded. “If the US healthcare system were to maintain or expand upon current levels of telehealth utilization, additional reductions in GHG emissions would potentially be achieved through impacts on practice design. Ambulatory visit carbon intensity would be an effective way to measure these changes.”
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/putting-digital-therapeutics-work-mental-health
Putting digital therapeutics to work for mental health
In a preview of his HIMSS21 session, the chief digital engagement officer of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin describes how a mental health app has helped the health system's patients.
By Bill Siwicki
July 07, 2021 11:19 AM
National Institute of Mental Health data shows that more than 17.3 million U.S. adults have suffered from an episode of major depression in the past year, and one in three are afflicted by an anxiety disorder. Mental health conditions often go underdiagnosed and undertreated.
People also are facing added pressures from COVID-19, which is causing isolation, fear of the virus and financial pressures.
When Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network instituted routine depression screenings with its patients, it needed options for providers to meet patients' mental health needs. It expanded its ability to deliver behavioral health services by implementing a digital health app and platform that its primary care and behavioral health caregivers can prescribe as part of a treatment program directly from their EHR workflow.
Measuring engaged patients
The provider organization has been measuring the success of its digital health app. The first question here is: How does one evaluate digital pathways for measuring engaged patients?
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/amazon-home-covid-19-test-kit-now-available
Amazon at-home COVID-19 test kit now available
The direct-to-consumer kit can be purchased on Amazon.com for $39.99, with delivery times ranging from two days to a week, depending on location.
By Kat Jercich
July 07, 2021 11:48 AM
Amazon announced this week that its at-home COVID-19 test kit is now available to U.S. customers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted an Emergency Use Authorization to the Amazon COVID-19 Test Collection Kit DTC earlier this year, paving the way for its broader use.
"Even as COVID-19 vaccinations continue, widespread access to reliable and affordable COVID-19 testing remains a critical tool in the fight against the spread of the virus," said Amazon Vice President Cem Sibay in a statement.
WHY IT MATTERS
The direct-to-consumer kit can be purchased on Amazon.com for $39.99, with no-cost Amazon Prime delivery. It is authorized for use by adults with or without COVID-19 symptoms.
The kit requires a sample collection using a lower nasal swab and registration of the test. Although it is not covered by insurance, the collection kit is FSA and HSA eligible, and includes prepaid next-day return delivery to Amazon's Kentucky-based diagnostics laboratory. The kits are processed using RT-PCR, generally considered more accurate than antigen testing.
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Digital health funding rockets up to $14.7B, speeding past 2020's investment
Jul 7, 2021 7:05am
Investors poured $14.7 billion into digital health companies so far in 2021, already outpacing all of 2020’s record-breaking funding.
The first half of the year closed with 372 deals and an average deal size of $39.6 million, investment firm Rock Health reported Tuesday. More than half of these deals (59%) in the first half of 2021 came from 48 mega deals of $100 million or more.
Funding hit $14.6 billion in 2020 with 460 deals.
Public exit activity ballooned with 11 closed initial public offerings and special purpose acquisition companies, with another 11 SPACs expected to close in 2021. In 2020, seven digital health companies exited to the public markets.
2021 is on pace to more than double 2020 in terms of both number of deals (372) and companies funded (359).
Digital-Health Investment Boom Speeds Ahead With First-Half Jump
7 July 2021, 2:03 am AEST
· $14.7 billion in funding through June eclipses full-year 2020
· Most of funds came from mega-deals of $100 million or more
Investment in digital-health companies continued to smash records with $14.7 billion pumped into the U.S. sector in the first half of the year, already more than in all of 2020.
The first two quarters of the year were the biggest ever for the country’s digital-health funding, according to a report from Rock Health. Almost 60% of the funding from 372 investments made so far were for $100 million or more, the report said.
Virtual health-care visits skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the rate of Americans who reported at least one telehealth appointment tripling to 60% by March from last year, according to a survey by marketing firm Sykes Enterprises Inc. Even as Covid-19 wanes in many regions and in-person health services reopen, investors are continuing to pour funds into digital health.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/google-updates-api-for-patient-access-to-personal-covid-19-data
Google Updates API for Patient Access to Personal COVID-19 Data
Google has updated its Passes application programming interface (API) to provide patients access to personal COVID-19 data, like vaccination and testing information.
July 06, 2021 - Google has updated its Passes application programming interface (API) to provide patients with a secure way to store, access, and share COVID-19 vaccination and testing data on Android devices.
Organizations authorized by public health authorities to distribute COVID-19 vaccines and/or tests, including healthcare organizations and government agencies, can implement Google’s new API update to promote patient access to personal health data through a digital COVID Card that can store vaccination and testing information.
Once a patient stores the digital version of her COVID Card to her Android device, she can access it through a shortcut on her device’s home screen. This allows patients to access their personal health data even when they are offline or in an area with weak internet service.
Google designed the COVID Card to ensure patient health data security and privacy, representatives noted in a press release.
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GAO: Some Progress, But Changes Still Needed For The Department of Veterans Affairs HIT System
GAO released its latest findings on the VA in a July 1 report.
By Lisa Hunt
July 06, 2021 - The Department of Veterans Affairs has made some progress over the past 20 years but more changes need to be implemented to update its antiquated health information technology system, according to a newly published report.
The US Government Accountability Office’s July 1 report, stated that the “lack of key cybersecurity management elements” at the VA is “concerning given that agencies’ systems are increasingly susceptible to the multitude of cyber-related threats that exist.”
Carol C. Harris, Director, Information Technology and Cybersecurity for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently testified before the House of Representatives. Harris gave an update on the VA’s efforts to modernize and update the aging system, known as the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technolgy Architecture (VistA.)
Over the last two decades, the VA unsuccessfully attempted to update VistA, however, the fourth attempt has shown some progress but more revisions are needed, according to the GAO report.
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July 02, 2021
Telehealth pulmonary rehabilitation program for COPD accessible, feasible, safe
A community-based telehealth pulmonary rehabilitation program for patients with COPD was accessible, feasible and safe, researchers reported in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
“Lack of community resources has been a major barrier to improving access to [pulmonary rehabilitation], one of the few mortality improving therapies in COPD. Tele-[pulmonary rehabilitation] is a realistic solution to help increase access and meet the demand for much-needed [pulmonary rehabilitation]. Furthermore, tele-[pulmonary rehabilitation] may reduce health care disparately by allowing rural participants to access high-quality standardized pulmonary rehabilitation within their communities,” Amr J. Alwakeel, MBChB, pulmonary fellow in the department of medicine in the respiratory division and the Montreal Chest Institute at McGill University Health Centre and the the division of pulmonary medicine at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center Jeddah Branch, Saudi Arabia, and colleagues wrote.
The prospective study included 266 individuals with COPD enrolled in standard pulmonary rehab (n = 89; mean age, 71.4 years) or community-based tele-pulmonary rehab (n = 177; mean age, 68.4 years) programs at seven satellite centers in Canada from January 2017 to January 2020. All participants underwent a 6-minute walk test and COPD Assessment Test (CAT) at baseline, after rehab and at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months.
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Public Health Data Systems Hearing: Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19
Aaron Miri, MBA, FCHIME, FHIMSS, CHCIO and Denise Webb, MA | July 1, 2021
As part of HHS’s response to President Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats, ONC’s Health Information Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) recently held an expert panel hearing to understand the performance of public health data systems during the COVID-19 pandemic response and other gap areas in current infrastructure.
The HITAC members heard from a variety of experts to further inform the work of the Public Health Data Systems Task Force. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Deputy Director for Public Health Science and Surveillance Dan Jernigan provided remarks and noted that in addition to gathering information for short-term needs related to pandemic relief efforts, the CDC is preparing a long-lasting, sustainable approach to improve public health data systems.
Forthcoming recommendations from the Public Health Data Systems Task Force will identify and prioritize policy and technical gaps to be addressed in order to help ensure a more effective response to future public health threats. These recommendations are expected to be issued later this summer.
Taking a Holistic Approach to Public Health Data Systems
Dr. Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives (and former CDC director), opened the ‘big picture’ discussion about where things went wrong with the pandemic response. He addressed the pre-existing weaknesses throughout the public health ecosystem and gaps in the sharing of important data between federal, state, and local public health departments. He stated that the essence of an effective response is to learn, adjust, and adapt as we go along. Since, “we are less used to the kind of urgency that communicable disease control requires of us in public health,” Dr. Frieden said that everyone on every level needs to work in concert to move the country forward to be better positioned to address future needs.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/health-and-care-bill-introduced-uk-parliament
Health and Care Bill introduced to UK Parliament
Think tanks slam plans to give Government more power over the NHS.
By Tammy Lovell
July 06, 2021 02:15 PM
The UK’s new Health and Care Bill was introduced to the House of Commons today, in a bid to deliver more joined up care.
However it faces criticism from independent think tanks, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust for plans to make NHS England more accountable to the government.
Under the reforms, Integrated Care Boards (ICB) and Integrated Care Partnerships (ICP) will be responsible for bringing together local government and NHS services in England, such as social care, mental health and public health services.
The Bill also includes plans for a new NHS and public health procurement regime and to improve delivery of social care services through new assurance and data sharing measures, updated legal framework to enable person-centred models of hospital discharge and increased powers for the secretary of state to make direct payments to adult social care providers.
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Healthcare Industry Slower To Adopt Digital Tranformation Than Many Other Industries
July 6, 2021
New research suggests that healthcare is lagging behind most other industries when it comes to digital transformation efforts.
The study, which was released by Precisely and Corinium Global Intelligence, surveyed 300 chief data officers with more than 2,500 employees on how their digital initiatives were going.
According to researchers, software and technology companies were particularly advanced in their efforts, with 80% of responding CDOs have established a data analytics program that has been “quite successful” so far. Second in line were transportation and logistics companies, 65% of which said that their efforts had been successful.
Near the bottom of the list were financial services, telecommunications and healthcare, CDOs of which said they were seeing success rates of 60%. At the bottom of the list was retail, with 55% OF CDOs reporting mixed or disappointing results.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/booz-allen-hamilton-vp-how-will-5g-impact-healthcare
Booz Allen Hamilton VP: How Will 5G Impact Healthcare?
Analysis | By Jack O'Brien | July 06, 2021
Kelly Rozumalski, a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, said 5G will bring "huge opportunities" to healthcare, but added that with "innovation comes risk."
The embrace of 5G network technology is expected to have major implications for the American economy, specifically the healthcare industry.
As healthcare organizations emerge from a pandemic that challenged the traditional tenets of care delivery and led to the mainstream adoption of telemedicine, some organizations and leaders are examining what 5G could mean for addressing vulnerabilities going forward.
In June, the Department of Defense issued a request for prototype proposal to members of the National Spectrum Consortium for research and training related to 5G telemedicine and medical training.
Kelly Rozumalski is a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, leading the consulting firm's "secure connected health initiatives and health cybersecurity portfolio."
Rozumalski spoke with HealthLeaders about the nationwide shift to 5G, which she said will bring "huge opportunities" to healthcare, but added that with "innovation comes risk."
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Ochsner Health Takes Remote Patient Monitoring to a National Level
The New Orleans health system is marketing its remote patient monitoring programs to businesses and health plans across the country, and will soon expand the platform to cover more chronic health conditions.
July 05, 2021 - While many healthcare providers are just now getting into the remote patient monitoring arena, Ochsner Health has scaled its platform to a national level, and is now monitoring more than 20,000 people in health plans across the country.
And still, says Julie Henry chief operating officer for the New Orleans-based health system’s digital medicine department, “we’re learning lessons each and every day.”
That’s one of the guiding principles behind a connected health service that is seeing immense growth in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed many health systems to shift healthcare services from the hospital to the home. It’s a work in progress for everyone, from those deploying the technology to those paying for it. And there isn’t a hospital, clinic or practice out there that isn’t learning something new.
Ochsner, which has a long history of adopting innovative telehealth and mHealth technologies, launched its first RPM program in 2015, focusing on hypertension. The health system added diabetes in 2017, and more recently has developed protocols for cholesterol and COPD management. Other programs, addressing conditions like asthma and musculoskeletal medicine, will come eventually.
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Educational Attainment Emerges as SDOH Predicting Health Disparities
Educational attainment was one of the most influential SDOH affecting health disparities, including in health outcomes, mental health, and care access.
By Sara Heath
July 05, 2021 - Educational attainment is one of the key social determinants of health influencing health disparities, with individuals without a high school education facing the greatest barriers to wellness, according to the inaugural America’s Health Rankings Health Disparities Report from United Health Foundation.
Particularly, the report found stark health disparities in mental and behavioral health among those without a high school diploma and those who have graduated college. The report also documented maternal health disparities and increased disparities in food insecurity.
“Race and ethnicity, gender, geography, educational attainment and income level should not limit one’s access to health care, or the determinants and outcomes that contribute to our overall well-being,” Dr. Rhonda Randall, chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare Employer and Individual, which is part of UnitedHealth Group, said in a statement. “Our 330,000 team members are dedicated to addressing health disparities and closing gaps in care for the most vulnerable populations.”
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/05/developing-a-saner-solution-for-emergency-situations/
Developing a SANER Solution for Emergency Situations
July 5, 2021
The following is a guest article by Scott Afzal, President of Audacious Inquiry.
This past year, Americans in nearly every community had to face the prospect that there may not be an ICU bed or ventilator available for them in the nearby hospital if they got sick with COVID. It was a stunning illustration of the terrifying scale and severity of the pandemic, and it exposed core limitations of the American health care delivery system and our public health infrastructure.
The COVID-19 response also brought national attention to inadequacies in health care system readiness for large patient surges. The unfortunate reality today is that we lack a modern system by which public health authorities and emergency response officials at local, state, regional, and federal levels can quickly understand critical information about hospital bed capacity, staffing levels, and availability of life saving equipment like ventilators. The result is what disaster response officials call a lack of “situational awareness,” or a real-time understanding of hospitals’ capacity and capability to accommodate an influx of patients. Without this information, making accurate decisions about where to route patients or allocate scarce resources is near impossible.
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https://histalk2.com/2021/07/02/weekender-7-2-21/
Weekly News Recap
- The valuation of process automation vendor Olive reportedly reaches $4 billion following a new $400 million investment.
- HIMSS announces COVID-19 vaccine verification and masking policies for HIMSS21.
- The VA reaffirms its commitment to implementing Cerner while awaiting the results of an internal project review.
- Harris acquires Ingenious Med.
- Ireland’s health service estimates that the ransomware attack that has kept its systems down for six weeks and counting will cost at least $600 million for recovery.
- A private equity firm acquires and combines Verisys and Aperture Health.
- Health Catalyst announces its intention to acquire Twistle.
- Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock resigns after a tabloid runs photos of him kissing a female executive who he appointed.
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Enjoy!
David.
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