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://healthitanalytics.com/news/ai-technology-protects-algorithms-improves-patient-care
AI Technology Protects Algorithms, Improves Patient Care
Researchers are developing new artificial intelligence techniques to protect algorithms from vulnerabilities and provide better patient care.
July 22, 2021 - A team of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is creating new artificial technology techniques that protect algorithms from vulnerabilities such as contaminated data, malicious attacks, or independent algorithm interference to improve patient care.
The researchers are being led by Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Pingkun Yan and supported by a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award.
“We see great potential in AI, machine learning, and deep learning in biomedical imaging,” said Yan in a press release. “We just need to build a system one step at a time to make it more robust, usable, and understandable.”
Artificial intelligence techniques show potential in advancing image reconstruction, image quality, computer-aid diagnosis, and image-guided surgery. However, according to Yan, deep learning adversaries remain an obstacle in the widespread application, resulting in confusing image results and inaccuracy.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/how-can-congress-aid-healthcare-cybersecurity-fight-ransomware
How Can Congress Aid Healthcare Cybersecurity, Fight Ransomware?
Witnesses testified before Congress this week, noting that the healthcare sector needs help battling cyberattacks and ransomware.
July 22, 2021 - Healthcare is a prime target of ransomware and needs assistance to face digital thieves, according to several witnesses that testified before Congress this week.
Experts from healthcare, technology and cybersecurity testified before the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, July 20. Their testimonies were part of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce’s hearing entitled, “Stopping Digital Thieves: The Growing Threat of Ransomware.”
The witnesses included a mixture of in-person and remote testimonies from Philip Reiner, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Security and Technology; Charles Carmakal, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of FireEye-Mandiant; Robert M. Lee, Chief Executive Officer of Dragos; Kemba Walden, Assistant General Counsel of Microsoft Corporation; and Dr. Christian Dameff, MD, a practicing emergency medicine physician, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine, Biomedical Informatics, and Computer Science at the University of California San Diego and the Medical Director of Cybersecurity for UC San Diego Health.
Dr. Dameff testified on the first-hand impacts of ransomware on US healthcare.
Dameff testified that “healthcare is not prepared to defend or respond to ransomware threats.”
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/07/gpdpr-september-implementation-date-scrapped/
GPDPR September implementation date is scrapped
The implementation date of the GP Data for Planning and Research (GPDPR) programme has been scrapped and instead data collection will now only begin once certain criteria have been met.
Hanna Crouch – 20 July 2021
Originally planned to go live from 1 July 2021, concerns were raised about the programme and eventually led to the implementation date being moved to September.
However it looks like this date has now been scrapped as the minister for primary care and health promotion, Jo Churchill, sent a letter to all GP’s on 19 July which set out a new process for commencing data collection.
“While we are continuing to work on the infrastructure, and communication for the project, we are not setting a specific start date for the collection of data,” the letter states.
Instead, data will only begin to be uploaded when the following is in place:
- the ability to delete data if patients choose to opt-out of sharing their GP data with NHS Digital, even if this is after their data has been uploaded;
- the backlog of opt-outs has been fully cleared;
- a Trusted Research Environment has been developed and implemented;
- patients have been made more aware of the scheme through a campaign of engagement and communication.
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How close is quantum computing in healthcare?
Applications in clinical trials and administrative functions could come as soon as the next few years.
Published July 19, 2021
Rebecca Pifer Reporter
The world is on the cusp of a new era of computing with the advent of quantum technology, a highly touted but abstract branch of engineering with the potential to transform the healthcare industry that has yet to be fully leveraged in real-world applications.
Near-term uses run the gamut from streamlining clinical trials to optimizing back-end functions for payers and providers, and could start being used in practice as early as the next few years, experts say.
"I'm loath to put an exact timeframe — is it a year? Is it two years, three years to get in production? But we're seeing real results today that say this is going to be tractable in the near-term," Christopher Savoie, CEO of quantum software developer Zapata Computing, told Healthcare Dive.
Quantum computers, which are exponentially faster and more capable than classical ones, hold promise to reshape the entire industry, with proponents suggesting they could save the system hundreds of billions of dollars while improving patient care.
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Germany's healthcare system is using this open source standard for encrypted instant messaging
The entire German healthcare system will end its reliance on commercial applications and instead build its own network of communication.
By Daphne Leprince-Ringuet | July 23, 2021 -- 14:46 GMT (00:46 AEST) | Topic: Digital Health and Wellness
Called Matrix, the platform will provide German developers with the infrastructure, tools and protocols to build custom-made applications for instant messaging.
A fast-growing open communication platform has been picked by the German healthcare system to support instant messaging between health professionals and organizations across the country.
Called Matrix, the platform will provide German developers with the infrastructure, tools and protocols to build custom-made applications that will let up to 150,000 healthcare organizations securely share messages, data, images and files.
The entire healthcare system in Germany, from hospitals through clinics and insurance companies, will switch to this homegrown communication and collaboration network, which was hailed as a milestone in the country's digital transformation.
Zero Trust architecture: key tips for protecting health data and IoT
The CEO of Cynerio talks about the value of a Zero Trust approach, but says it can be a difficult proposition for some hospitals and health systems.
By Bill Siwicki
July 23, 2021 12:47 PM
Now more than ever it's critical that hospitals and health systems take the necessary precautions to secure their systems and data from cybersecurity threats. For most hospitals and health systems, it's a matter of when, not if, a cyberattack occurs.While the Zero Trust security model has been around for about a decade, there still is opportunity for vast implementation. In healthcare, some experts say, the Zero Trust approach is possibly the only way to eradicate three imminent and growing threats: ransomware, outdated vendor firmware and unsecured services.
Following a year of increased cyberattacks on hospitals and health systems, such an approach may be critical to better defending healthcare networks, systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices from an ongoing barrage of sophisticated attacks.
Healthcare IT News interviewed Leon Lerman, CEO and cofounder of Cynerio, a vendor of healthcare IoT cybersecurity and asset management solutions, to talk about the core reasons why hospitals and health systems need to implement Zero Trust architecture, why Zero Trust is difficult to achieve with healthcare IoT, and the four stages of a Zero Trust implementation model in healthcare.
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DeepMind releases most complete database of predicted human protein structures
Breakthrough could herald a new era for AI-enabled biology.
By Tammy Lovell
July 23, 2021 10:42 AM
The most complete database of predictions for the shape of proteins in the human body has been shared with the scientific community to open new avenues of discovery.Researchers at Alphabet subsidiary, DeepMind made the breakthrough using artificial intelligence (AI) system AlphaFold, which was hailed in December 2020 as a solution to the 50-year-old challenge of protein structure prediction.
In partnership with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), they have released more than 350,000 protein structure predictions, including the entire human proteome, to enable and accelerate research.
A paper in the journal Nature provides the fullest picture of proteins that make up the human proteome, and the release of 20 additional organisms that are important for biological research.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/google-cloud-intros-new-interoperability-platform
Google Cloud intros new interoperability platform
Healthcare Data Engine, which builds on the Google Cloud Healthcare API, is designed to enable a more interoperable and longitudinal patient record, using FHIR to harmonize data from an array of sources.
By Mike Miliard
July 23, 2021 10:32 AM
Google Cloud on Thursday unveiled its new Healthcare Data Engine, which it says is designed to give researchers and clinicians a more real-time, holistic view of patient records.WHY IT MATTERS
The goal is to enable more advanced analytics and artificial intelligence
applications built in a secure and scalable cloud environment – helping
healthcare and life sciences organizations harmonize data from sources such as
electronic health records, claims data and clinical trials results.
Healthcare Data Engine is built with the Google Cloud Healthcare API, helping provide longitudinal clinical insights in FHIR format. It can map more than 90% of HL7v2 messages – medication orders, patient updates – to FHIR across leading EHRs out-of-the-box, according to the company, eliminating the need to create custom tooling or services to translate between data schemas.
The platform also uses Google BigQuery's AI-powered analytics, helping healthcare organizations process and visualize petabytes of their data. The aim is to enable faster decision-making not just for clinical decision support and population health management but around resource utilization, clinical trial optimization, risk stratification, burnout reduction, research innovation and more.
Google Cloud partner Mayo Clinic has already been working with the technology for data aggregation, FHIR harmonization and analytics. Healthcare Data Engine is also already in use at Indiana University Health.
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Machine Learning Meets Public Health in Jvion Heat Maps
July 23, 2021
“Where there’s variability, there’s hope for action.”
I heard this summing-up in a recent interview with Dr. John Showalter, chief product officer for Jvion, a prescriptive AI analytics company in health care. His point is that we need to compare two or more populations to find out what makes one health and another unhealthy.
Jvion spent its first several years predicting events just two to four weeks in the future. Their data analytics helped health care providers and payers plan when the emergency room would be crowded, or how many people with heart or lung disease would come in for treatment.
Today, Jvion extends its predictions far into the future, branching out into public health issues with great consequence. Already, the company has found that air quality—particularly a concern with the repeated fires in the Western U.S—and work-related stress have a greater impact on both mental and physical health than the health care field had thought
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/direct-secure-messaging-now-approved-health-data-exchange-standard
Direct Secure Messaging Now Approved Health Data Exchange Standard
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved the foundation of direct secure messaging as a national standard for health data exchange.
July 22, 2021 - The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has approved the Direct Standard, which lays the foundation for direct secure messaging, as a national standard for health data exchange.
The Direct Standard, developed by non-profit healthcare industry alliance DirectTrust, is a widely adopted procedure that allows individuals to digitally send authenticated, encrypted health data to trusted recipients.
“We’re thrilled ANSI has recognized the Direct Standard as a national standard,” Scott Stuewe, DirectTrust President and CEO, said in a public statement.
“ANSI’s approval clearly demonstrates that the Direct Standard meets their highest level of standards, and that the healthcare industry and participants in direct secure messaging can have total confidence in Direct as a secure method of transmitting electronic health information,” he continued.
When it comes to patient data exchange, provider communication is crucial. Health information exchanges and health systems leverage direct secure messaging to enhance provider-to-provider communication.
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New Letter Urges Congress to Establish a Post-Pandemic Telehealth Policy
The eHealth Initiative and several high-profile organizations are once again asking Congressional leadership to enact long-term telehealth policy to preserve some access and coverage rules that have been enacted during the pandemic.
July 21, 2021 - Telehealth advocates have launched another effort to prompt Congress to establish a post-pandemic connected health policy.
The eHealth Initiative is leading a new letter-writing effort to permanently extend several key waivers put in place during the height of the COVID-19 public health emergency to expand access to and coverage of telehealth services. Among those supporting the letter are the American Telemedicine Association, Alliance for Connected Care, Consumer Technology Association, Health Innovation Alliance, Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Personal Connected Health Alliance and Partnership to Advance Virtual Care.
“Many of the telehealth flexibilities are temporary and limited to the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency,” the letter reads. “Without action from Congress, Medicare beneficiaries will abruptly lose access to nearly all recently expanded coverage of telehealth when the COVID-19 PHE ends. This would have a chilling effect on access to care across the entire US healthcare system, including on patients that have established relationships with providers virtually, with potentially dire consequences for their health.”
Addressed to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the letter calls on Congress to:
· Remove geographic and originating site restrictions for telehealth, expanding telehealth services in rural areas and enabling patient to receive care in their homes;
· Give the Health and Human Services Secretary the authority to expand the list of providers able to use telehealth and add or remove services that can be delivered via telehealth and covered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and allow CMS to expand coverage for other modalities, such as audio-only telehealth, when clinically appropriate;
· Allow federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and critical-access hospitals to continue to use telehealth after the PHE ends; and
· Eliminate restrictions on Medicare coverage for telemental health services, including the requirement that a provider and patient first meet in person before using telehealth.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/cdc-should-be-more-like-wikipedia/619469/
Institutional Authority Has Vanished. Wikipedia Points to the Answer.
The crowdsourced reference site can teach the CDC how to communicate in an era of rumors and shifting information.
July 21, 2021
About the author: Renée DiResta is the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory.
Much as his predecessors warned Americans against tobacco and opioid abuse, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a formal advisory last Thursday that misinformation—such as the widespread propaganda now sowing doubts about coronavirus vaccines on social media—is “an urgent threat to public health.” It is, but the discussion soured quickly. After President Joe Biden said social-media platforms that turn users against vaccines are “killing people,” an anonymous Facebook official told CNN that “the White House is looking for scapegoats for missing their vaccine goals.” When Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the White House is “flagging problematic posts for Facebook,” conservatives and Twitter contrarians inferred that the government was telling the company to censor people. The journalist Glenn Greenwald described the effort as “fascism.”
Greenwald and Facebook are minimizing a genuine problem: An “infodemic”—involving the viral spread of misinformation, as well as the mingling of facts with half-truths and falsehoods in a fractured media environment—has compounded the COVID-19 pandemic. But critics of Murthy’s initiative and Biden’s comments are right about one thing: The official health establishment has made the infodemic worse through its own inability to cope with conflicting scientific views. In the early days of the pandemic, experts at the World Health Organization, CDC Director Robert Redfield, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, and then–Surgeon General Jerome Adams discouraged mask wearing and only belatedly reversed course; some of the same voices later pooh-poohed the notion that the coronavirus first began spreading after escaping from a Chinese research lab—a possibility now being taken far more seriously.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/93679
Is the 'Open Notes' Rule as Good in Practice as It Is in Theory?
— New rule gets mixed reviews as to how well it's improving patient care
by Jennifer Henderson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today July 21, 2021
Earlier this year, a federal rule that requires clinical information such as doctors' notes and lab and imaging results to be made immediately available to patients took effect. A little more than 3 months out from implementation, there are mixed reviews as to how well the so-called 'Open Notes' rule is actually improving patient care.
Patient advocates and even many physicians have supported the concept of electronic health information in real-time, and say the rule is a first step toward dramatically improving the overall healthcare experience and can help lower the cost of care over time. But even proponents of the rule note that there are potential pitfalls, such as sensitive information reaching patients before their doctors have a chance to deliver and explain it.
Others say there's bound to be a learning curve, and that feedback from patients and physicians needs to be documented and should be part of an ongoing conversation with federal officials. In their opinion, while the rule may be good in theory, it's important to determine whether that also holds true in practice.
"Communication of information is essential for our profession and our patients," Joseph Sellers, MD, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, told MedPage Today. "Having ways to get information to patients as effectively and timely as possible is great, but we have to be careful about unintended consequences."
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VA will pause EHR deployments through at least 2021, department says
July 21, 2021 6:37 pm
The Department of Veterans Affairs will not deploy its new electronic health record to additional sites over the next six months, after a recent strategic review found a wide array of problems at the first go-live site in Spokane, Washington.
It’s the most definitive statement VA has provided publicly to date about the path forward for the EHR modernization since it launched a strategic review of the massive project back in March.
Senators were frustrated but subdued when they discussed the state of the EHR modernization program at a hearing last week with VA Secretary Denis McDonough, who said he was confident the department could turn things around.
VA returned to Capitol Hill Wednesday, this time without McDonough, but with representatives from Cerner, the lead contractor on the project.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cerner-exec-va-ehr-committed-getting-right
Cerner exec on VA EHR: 'Committed to getting this right'
Two Cerner representatives appeared before a House subcommittee on Wednesday to respond to congressional concerns about the VA's electronic health record revamp.
By Kat Jercich
July 22, 2021 09:20 AM
Two Cerner executives testified before the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization on Wednesday regarding the VA's electronic health record modernization efforts.
The $16 billion program, which initially rolled out Cerner's Millennium platform at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, has faced watchdog and congressional scrutiny as it has gotten off the ground.
During his testimony Wednesday, Brian Sandager, senior vice president and general manager of Cerner government services, said the vendor takes its responsibility to veterans, servicemembers, taxpayers and Congress seriously.
"Continued success of VA’s EHRM program will require transparency and an unwavering dedication to do what is right for veterans and the VA providers who passionately serve them," said Sandager in a statement.
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UK government halts GP data sharing scheme after 'mistakes' were made
The previous launch date of 1 September has been dropped until new targets are met.
By Sara Mageit
July 22, 2021 05:22 AM
The government has halted its controversial GP data sharing scheme, following Lord Bethell admitting 'mistakes' have been made in the way the programme has been run and managed.
The launch was previously delayed by three months, with patients being given the option to opt out of plans to share GP medical records with third parties by 1 September.
In a letter to GPs, the government has now said that it would only go live once the following four conditions have been met:
- The ability to delete data already collected prior to a person choosing to opt out;
- The backlog of existing opt outs being fully cleared;
- The development of a “trusted research environment” — a repository into which the data will be collected and accessed only by NHSD-approved users without further extracting the data; and
- Greater patient awareness of the scheme.
WHY IT MATTERS
During the committee, Bethell also said letters could be a “clunky form of communication”, but added he would not rule it out.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/certified-health-it-adoption-a-step-toward-broad-interoperability
Certified Health IT Adoption a Step Toward Broad Interoperability
While adoption of ONC 2015 certified health IT boosted data exchange, nationwide interoperability will require additional data standards and rules.
July 21, 2021 - While ONC 2015 certified health IT adoption has improved data exchange across the care continuum, the program’s ability to achieve nationwide interoperability is limited, according to an ONC study published in JAMIA.
Almost all hospitals and 80 percent of physicians have implemented EHRs certified through the ONC Health IT Certification Program.
The 2015 Edition Health IT Certification Criteria updated several key standards requirements, such as the Consolidated-Clinical Document Architecture (C-CDA) and Applicability Statement for Secure Health Transport standards.
The researchers found that almost 40 percent of hospitals adopted the 2015 Edition certified health IT between 2016 and 2018, which increased interoperability engagement by 18 percent.
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https://www.radiologybusiness.com/topics/care-delivery/virtual-radiology-consultations-primary-care
Virtual radiology consultations during primary care visits help maximize specialty’s value
Marty Stempniak | July 20, 2021 | Care Delivery
Point-of-care virtual radiology consultations in collaboration with primary care physicians can potentially help maximize the specialty’s value, experts charged Monday.
Massachusetts General Hospital recently experimented with this change, videoing in rads to discuss imaging results during a regular PCP visit. In follow-up surveys, primary care docs and patients expressed satisfaction with the service. About 88% of consumers said they’d like to receive their results from rads in the future compared to 56% before trying virtual consultations.
“Such a model has the potential to increase radiologist engagement and value in patient care,” Dania Daye, MD, PhD, with Mass General’s Department of Radiology, and colleagues wrote July 19 in JACR. “Taken together, this model may advance radiology’s role in patient care by promoting patient-centered practices and by improving the quality of care that radiologists provide.”
Daye et al. tested their intervention at an internal medicine clinic, incorporating three primary care physicians and 43 enrolled patients. Both completed post-visit surveys, while consumers shared their perceptions beforehand, too.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/onc-drafts-health-it-developer-measures-for-ehr-reporting-program
ONC Drafts Health IT Developer Measures for EHR Reporting Program
The draft set of developer measures are for health IT certification through the Cures Act’s EHR reporting program and focus on healthcare interoperability.
July 19, 2021 - ONC has released a draft set of health IT developer measures for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Program’s condition of maintaining ONC health IT certification.
As part of the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016, Congress created the EHR Reporting Program which requires ONC Health IT Certification Program developers to publicly report certain information about their certified health IT products to maintain certification.
The program aims to bolster market competition by making information on certified EHR systems publicly available.
ONC took a dual-track approach to implement the EHR Reporting Program. In 2018, ONC contracted with the Urban Institute to develop the first track: voluntary, user-reported measures related to certified health IT usability, interoperability, and security. These measures are now available for industry stakeholder adoption.
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WebMD purchases patient educational video maker The Wellness Network
by Dave Muoio
Jul 21, 2021 3:06pm
WebMD Health Corp. has acquired The Wellness Network, a maker of patient education videos for use in hospitals and health systems, the companies announced on Tuesday.
The companies did not disclose the purchase price or any other terms of their deal.
Founded over 40 years ago, Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based The Wellness Network employs more than 70 employees and was held by private equity firm Granite Bridge Partners.
The company has built a library of health videos spanning 24 therapeutic areas that support patient-physician conversations from diagnosis to recovery. These can be delivered at the point of care through hospital televisions or app-compatible devices and may be integrated into the EHR to document patient interactions.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/future-telehealth-informatics-scalability-interoperability
The future of telehealth: Informatics, scalability and interoperability
A Philips executive describes what's happening now with virtual care – and what needs to happen to ensure a solid future for telemedicine and remote patient monitoring.
By Bill Siwicki
July 21, 2021 11:00 AM
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed telehealth into the spotlight with exponential adoption, helping to prove its value.
The healthcare industry learned that, with the right solutions, care can extend outside hospital walls and be conducted anywhere. Further, CIOs and other health IT leaders reinvented systems and processes, and clinicians gained an improved understanding of the invaluable impact of integrated informatics on digital transformations and the quality and efficiency of care.
Even while the pandemic continues, healthcare provider organizations have begun to stabilize these infrastructures and revisit the technologies and workflows deployed earlier in the crisis and turn them into standard practices.
On this note, Karsten Russell-Wood, portfolio leader for post-acute and home at Philips, shares his viewpoints with Healthcare IT News on the biggest priorities to ensure telehealth is sustained long term.
Q. How can telehealth and remote patient monitoring technologies help support chronic and acute care anywhere?
A. With the right tools, extending care outside the hospital is not only feasible, but in many cases preferred. The Philips Future Health Index 2021 Report, which surveyed nearly 3,000 healthcare leaders across 14 countries, found that healthcare leaders expect an average of 23% of routine care to take place outside of the hospital walls within three years.
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Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative dissolves, saying 'work completed'
MAeHC announced that its remaining assets had been distributed to six local public charities with health IT projects aligning with its purposes.
By Kat Jercich
July 21, 2021 11:54 AM
After more than 15 years of creating and pushing health IT innovations forward in the state, the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative has completed its final dissolution.
This week, the organization announced that its remaining assets had been distributed to six local public charities whose grant projects closely align with its purposes.
"With our work completed, and our mission fulfilled, it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of HIT innovators," said Dr. Lawrence Garber, chairman of the Board of MAeHC, in a statement.
WHY IT MATTERS
Since its founding in 2005, MAeHC has worked to improve the safety, efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery in the state by guiding organizations in the implementation and meaningful use of health IT.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/21/unified-data-the-key-to-hie-success/
Unified Data: The Key to HIE Success
July 21, 2021
The following is a guest article by Todd Broadhurst, Solutions Director, Tamr.
Electronic Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) are exploding globally and in the U.S., with 92% of the U.S. population now served by them. Private companies, states, and even large counties and cities are scrambling to launch their own HIEs.
Why the exponential growth? HIEs are an increasingly important part of the healthcare IT landscape because they allow healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and others) and patients to access and securely share vital patient medical information electronically, improving the speed, quality, safety, and cost of patient care.
HIEs can improve the completeness of a patient’s records, which can positively affect care, as history, current medications, and other information can be jointly reviewed during visits. Near real-time sharing of vital patient information can better inform decision-making at the point of care and allow providers to avoid readmissions and errors, improve diagnoses, and decrease duplicate testing.
The massive HIE issue: disparate, siloed data
Because of the tremendous upside of HIEs, competition to provide the most information about patients to the largest number of providers is intense. Companies and organizations looking to improve the customer experience with improved speed, security, and reduced cost and trying to become the biggest HIE or create the largest EMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Indexes) on the block will look to merge with other HIEs; but that’s not as easy as it may seem.
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Transformation Never Ends, Says New Chief Digital Officer
Analysis | By Scott Mace | July 21, 2021
Jason Szczuka tackles new role at Bon Secours Mercy Health.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Health equity is a big challenge as the health system builds out its digital health offerings.
· Interoperability must go beyond compliance to solutions that matter to patients.
· Fax machines may go away, but the need for the certainty that they provided is here to stay.
The newly named chief digital officer (CDO) of Bon Secours Mercy Health is no stranger to the title, having held it previously at Cigna for two years. Jason Szczuka took Bon Secours' first such defined role on July 8, helming the digital efforts of the 50-hospital, seven-state system headquartered in Cincinnati. "A chief digital officer is something different to every company, based on the existing vision of that company's top executive leadership, as well as the underlying culture and capabilities of that organization," Szczuka says. Digital innovation and services are a common thread, however. Szczuka reports to chief executive officer John Starcher, Jr. and took time to answer questions from HealthLeaders.
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/07/special-report-enterprise-imaging/
Special Report: Enterprise Imaging
Having a good imaging enterprise imaging system in place can help contribute to having the fullest picture of a patient possible. Jennifer Trueland explores what this means for clinician and patients.
When it comes to enterprise imaging, Dr Neelam Dugar would really like organisations to think bigger, and to be ambitious about what they include.
As informatics advisor to the Royal College of Radiologists, she obviously believes radiology should be part of this, but she sees virtually no limits on what other departments should be involved.
“My definition of enterprise imaging is that it should include all sorts of images, including documents, because in a way, PDFs are like images,” Dr Dugar, who is a consultant radiologist at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Trust where she is RIS/PACS clinical lead, says.
“I’d like to take it one step further and say we need an enterprise archive that has a timeline of all the patient’s documents and images together, and that it is properly indexed.”
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Growing Length of EHR Clinical Notes Raises Clinician Burnout Concerns
EHR clinical progress notes have grown 60 percent longer and 11 percent more redundant over the past decade, highlighting clinician burnout concerns.
July 20, 2021 - EHR clinician progress notes have grown longer and more redundant across care specialties in recent years, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open that raises concern for clinician burnout.
The cross-sectional study analyzed 2.7 million clinical progress notes written by 6,228 clinicians and staff members at an academic medical center during the decade following the 2009 passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
The researchers found that between 2009 and 2018, median note length increased from 401 words 642 words, a 60.1 percent increase.
Additionally, median note redundancy (the proportion of text identical to the patient’s last note), increased by 10.9 percent from 2009 to 2018, going from 47.9 percent to 58.8 percent.
Long or repetitive notes can cloud important patient information, which can lead to clinical and diagnostic errors, the study authors explained.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/improving-social-determinates-of-health-with-predictive-analytics
Improving Social Determinants of Health with Predictive Analytics
UnitedHealthcare launched a predictive analytics advocacy program to improve care by addressing the social determinants of health.
July 20, 2021 - With the COVID-19 pandemic highlighting gaps in healthcare and access to service, providers are searching for ways to improve the well-being of their members. By implementing predictive analytics, UnitedHealthcare is addressing the social determinants of health to enhance care for those they serve.
“Around 80 percent of your health is determined by things that are not your genetics. There are things more such as what’s going on in the rest of your life, what we call social determinants of health — social, economic, gender orientation, and other markers that sometimes can lead to inequality,” Rebecca Madsen, chief consumer officer, UnitedHealthcare told HealthITAnalytics.
The social determinants of health have come into the spotlight with the COVID-19 pandemic enhancing health disparities. According to Madsen, 41 percent of Americans avoided medical care at the height of the pandemic.
“We know a lot of that was due to access, or non-essential care being effectively closed, switches to telemedicine. But we also know that this adversely and disproportionately affected underserved groups. And so that even showed more of a spotlight on why this is something we need to accelerate and build on the strong foundation that we have to be able to drive change,” Madsen said.
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Google Cloud study finds overwhelming physician support for interoperability efforts
Nearly all physicians surveyed for a new report say access to the right data at the right time will save them time – and could save patients' lives.
By Mike Miliard
July 20, 2021 04:24 PM
A new batch of research from Google Cloud finds near-universal agreement among physicians that interoperability should be a top priority for the hospitals and health systems where they practice.
WHY IT MATTERS
Of the 300-plus physicians polled by The Harris Poll by Google Cloud, 96% said
efforts to enable access to needed clinical data will help improve patient
safety and could help save lives. Only slightly fewer (95%) said more seamless
data exchange will lead to better patient outcomes, while 86% percent said interoperability
that ensures the right data is available for the right person at the right time
enables faster diagnoses.
The clinicians surveyed say they have an appetite to provider "more personalized care with increased operational efficiency," said Dr. Joe Corkery, director of product management for healthcare and life sciences at Google Cloud, in a blog post.
"More than 9 in 10 physicians say the ability to efficiently incorporate patient data into care plans is critical to care coordination (91%), and the use of inefficient electronic health records systems (which require excessive scrolling, pop-ups, manual data entry, etc.) has had a negative impact on their ability to deliver quality care (92%). Most physicians (90%) say if they could reduce the time they spend on reviewing/updating their patients’ healthcare records by 5%, they would be able to provide more personalized care."
Indeed, nearly two thirds of physicians polled (63%) said burdensome reporting systems were their biggest pain point.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/mayo-clinics-strategies-securing-medical-devices
Mayo Clinic's strategies for securing medical devices
The health system's manager of information security previews his upcoming HIMSS21 session, discussing the device ecosystem and best practices to defend it.
By Bill Siwicki
July 20, 2021 12:09 PM
Within the last year, healthcare organizations have been proactive in their efforts to align the health industry's cybersecurity efforts to include medical device security.
Healthcare giant the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has evaluated and operationalized medical device security technology. It found limitations with traditional cybersecurity solutions, a need for a more targeted technology and best practices for implementing a medical device security solution.
Areas found most successful include defining mission, goals and objectives; determining needs; and aligning to a framework and security solutions.
In his upcoming HIMSS21 educational session, "Securing Medical Devices: Best Practices," Kurt A. Griggs, manager of information security at the Mayo Clinic, will discuss what the medical device ecosystem is like today, what some of the differences are between medical devices and traditional IT devices, the Mayo Clinic's approach to securing medical devices, and best practices the clinic has developed.
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Most Patients Don’t Want to Manage Their Own Health Info
July 20, 2021
Do patients want to manage their own health info?
This is a really big and complicated question. Mostly because there are 7 billion patients in the world that all have different needs and desires. That said, there are some important generalities we’ve learned over the years when it comes to patients and their info.
Before I dive into the details and nuances, let’s start by saying that patients have the right to their health data and they should be given access to their health data. Whether they will use that right or not is a separate question. There are enough that do want proactive access to their health data and they should be able to access it. Gatekeepers aren’t a good thing when it comes to patients’ ability to access their health data. If that’s not enough for you to share the data with patients, there’s also the information blocking law that requires you to give patients access to their health data.
Now, let’s move to the question of whether most patients want access to their health data and whether they want to manage their health info. This quote from Judy Faulkner from Epic at the HLTH virtual event last year tells one side of the story when it comes to patient’s interest in accessing their health data:
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/onc-drafts-health-it-developer-measures-for-ehr-reporting-program
ONC Drafts Health IT Developer Measures for EHR Reporting Program
The draft set of developer measures are for health IT certification through the Cures Act’s EHR reporting program and focus on healthcare interoperability.
July 19, 2021 - ONC has released a draft set of health IT developer measures for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reporting Program’s condition of maintaining ONC health IT certification.
As part of the 21st Century Cures Act of 2016, Congress created the EHR Reporting Program which requires ONC Health IT Certification Program developers to publicly report certain information about their certified health IT products to maintain certification.
The program aims to bolster market competition by making information on certified EHR systems publicly available.
ONC took a dual-track approach to implement the EHR Reporting Program. In 2018, ONC contracted with the Urban Institute to develop the first track: voluntary, user-reported measures related to certified health IT usability, interoperability, and security. These measures are now available for industry stakeholder adoption.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/artificial-intelligence-therapy-reduces-depression-and-anxiety
Artificial Intelligence Therapy Reduces Depression and Anxiety
A new study reveals how an artificial intelligence therapy app can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.
July 19, 2021 - In a recent clinical study, scientists at Stanford University confirmed a new model of mental health treatment in which artificial intelligence therapy is implemented, significantly reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The team analyzed how the AI-powered telehealth platform for mental health, Youper, affected symptoms of depression and anxiety through AI therapy.
“This model of treatment uses AI to deliver just-in-time interventions to help users practice emotion regulation skills anytime and anywhere using their smartphones,” the press release stated.
The study examined the real-world data of 4,500 Youper users to gain an understanding of how AI therapy impacts symptoms of anxiety and depression. The users were followed for a total of four weeks; however, researchers saw levels of anxiety and depression decrease in two.
Researchers observed anxiety and depressing decrease by 24 percent and 19 percent, respectively, in users within the first two weeks. Levels continued to stay low after four weeks of app use.
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Anthem Sees Different Telehealth Adoption Rates Among Populations
An Anthem analysis of telehealth use for mental health services during the pandemic finds that Hispanic and Latino members were the highest users, while black members were far less likely to seek virtual care.
July 16, 2021 - Different populations adopt telehealth at different rates and for different reasons, so a strategy that seeks to address social determinants of health with a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work.
That’s the takeaway from a recent review of Medicaid claims data by Anthem, which surveyed telemental health use in 14 states during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. And while it found that telehealth visits for mental health services surged overall from less than 10 percent to almost 50 percent during that time span, some groups were better at using it than others.
"While telehealth wasn’t a panacea in eliminating health equity gaps, it helped boost connectivity for all and made Internet visits possible when COVID temporarily closed physical doors, allowing health care to continue to be delivered with some semblance of normalcy,” Shantanu Agrawal, MD, the Indiana-based payer’s chief health officer, said in a press release.
Among specific populations, Hispanic and Latino communities embraced telehealth for mental health services during COVID-19 at the highest rate, at 40 percent, while 34 percent of white members, 33 percent of Asian members and 28 percent of black members were accessing online care.
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Amazon rolls out AWS For Health cloud services for healthcare, genomics and biopharma
by Heather Landi |
Jul 19, 2021 3:13pm
Amazon's cloud division has rolled out AWS for Health, a set of services and partner solutions for healthcare, genomics and biopharma.
Amazon says the portfolio of solutions will help to accelerate innovation from "benchtop to bedside" as the tech giant pushes further into the healthcare and life sciences markets.
AWS for Health provides "proven and easily accessible capabilities" that help organizations increase the pace of innovation, unlock the potential of health data, and develop more personalized approaches to therapeutic development and care, Patrick Combes, director, head of technology - healthcare and life sciences at Amazon Web Services (AWS), wrote in a blog post.
The services within AWS for Health can help healthcare customers create holistic electronic health records to help clinicians make data-driven care plans and power population genomic initiatives to expand precision medicine accessibility, as two examples, Combes wrote.
Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are all pushing deeper into healthcare in a battle to provide cloud computing and data storage technology to hospitals.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/cta-8-signs-growth-connected-health-device-market
8 signs the connected health device market is booming
Jul 16, 2021 7:30am
Consumers are buying more connected monitoring devices, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's a trend that's expected to ramp up through 2021.
U.S. tech industry revenue will reach a record-breaking $487 billion in 2021, a 7.5% jump year over year, according to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), driven by unprecedented consumer demand and new technology on the horizon.
“As the country reopens, tech will continue to play a central role in people’s lives, from use of smartphones to upgrading automotive tech,” said Rick Kowalski, director for industry analysis and business intelligence at CTA, in a statement. “With apparel sales on the rise, wearable technologies like smartwatches and wireless earbuds are also making gains. Technology is now an integral part of the modern wardrobe."
Here are eight signs of growth in the consumer health tech market:
- Total revenue of health and fitness tech will reach $13 billion in 2021, 12% growth over last year.
- Shipments of connected health monitoring devices such as smart thermometers, pulse oximeters and blood pressure monitors will grow to 13 million units, up 23%, and earn $740 million in revenue, a 17% jump.
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Digital health dollars hit $15B high driven by telehealth investment in 2021
Jul 19, 2021 10:15am
Global venture capital funding for digital health companies hit a $15 billion high in the first half of 2021, driven in large part by telehealth investment.
Funding
activity was up by 138% during the first half of 2021, compared to $6.3 billion
raised in the first half of 2020, according to a report
from Mercom Capital Group, a global communications and research firm.
Corporate funding into digital health companies, including venture capital,
public market financing, and debt, totaled $19 billion so far in 2021.
"The digital health sector had a spectacular first half of 2021. Venture investments in digital health during the first half of 2021 have already surpassed funding raised in all of 2020 and is the largest amount raised in a single year since 2010," said Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group.
Telehealth again led funding activity, accounting for almost 30% of the funding raised in the first half of 2021.
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July 16, 2021
U.S. Surgeon General Issues Call to Counter 'Urgent Threat' of Vaccine Misinformation
FRIDAY, July 16, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on Thursday called on tech companies, health care workers, journalists and even ordinary Americans to do more to fight vaccine misinformation.
In a 22-page advisory, Murthy wrote that false claims have prompted people to reject coronavirus vaccines, masks and social distancing, undermining efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic and presenting an "urgent threat" to public health.
The warning comes as the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations has slowed throughout the United States, in part because of vaccine resistance.
Murthy, who also served as surgeon general under President Barack Obama, noted that surgeon general advisories have typically focused on physical threats to health, such as tobacco. But misinformation about COVID-19, deemed an "infodemic" by the World Health Organization, can be equally deadly, he noted.
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Bon Secours Mercy Health's chief digital officer: Digital health without patient engagement is like 'electronic trees falling in an electronic forest'
- Friday, July 16th, 2021
Jason Szczuka became Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health's first chief digital officer on June 28, and he brings a wealth of payer experience to the role.
Mr. Szczuka most recently served as Cigna's chief digital officer. Before that, he worked at UnitedHealth Group and GE Capital.
At Bon Secours Mercy Health, he serves an organization with 50 hospitals, thousands of providers, more than 1,200 points of care and 60,000 employees in seven states and two countries.
"What I was most excited about [in joining Bon Secours Mercy Health] was their leadership through the pandemic," he said. "When I think about their response to the rapid rollout of virtual services, and then as vaccines became available, the way they so quickly got vaccine sites out into our many markets, I knew it was an all-star team I'd be joining."
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Gartner CIO report: IT spending expected to increase for cyber, analytics, cloud
A survey of nearly 2,000 technology execs found they expected to see a boost in funding for digital infrastructure – as well as a continuation of work-from-home policies.
By Kat Jercich
July 19, 2021 03:29 PM
A Gartner survey of nearly 2,000 chief information officers found that 2021 will be a race to digital innovation, with organizations seeking to keep up the momentum from COVID-19 responses.
The 2021 Gartner CIO Agenda survey found that the COVID-19 experience convinced many execs that remote work should continue, with just over half of survey respondents expecting working from home to increase this year.
“Nothing, yet everything, has changed for the CIO,” said Andy Rowsell-Jones, distinguished research vice president at Gartner, in a statement accompanying the research.
"The support for remote work that the COVID-19 pandemic brought on might be the biggest win for CIOs since Y2K," Rowsell-Jones added.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/va-now-reimagining-approach-cerner-ehr-modernization
VA now 'reimagining' approach to Cerner EHR modernization
A strategic review of the initiative has so far found problems with patient safety, productivity, cost, schedule and performance. "Frankly, I for one am fed up," said one senator.
By Kat Jercich
July 19, 2021 09:12 AM
During a hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs this past week, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said that a review of the agency's electronic health record modernization effort revealed multiple outstanding issues that must be resolved.
"The mission of EHRM has always been to create a platform that seamlessly delivers the best access and outcomes for our vets and the best experience for our providers," said McDonough.
"VA's first implementation of the Cerner Millennium … did not live up to that promise, either for our veterans or our providers," he continued.
WHY IT MATTERS
McDonough outlined the findings of a 12-week review of the EHRM program initiated after the first implementation of Cerner's Millennium platform at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, this past October.
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Enjoy!
David.
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