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://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-apis-streamline-patient-access-to-health-information
How APIs Streamline Patient Access to Health Information
HL7 FHIR-based application programming interfaces (APIs) can help boost interoperability for streamlined patient access to health information.
August 20, 2021 - To comply with federal interoperability regulations for patient access to health information, many stakeholders are adopting application programming interfaces (APIs).
A portion of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Interoperability rule calls on providers and device developers to promote patient access to health information through APIs or third party applications. Compliance for this portion of the rule began on April 5, 2021.
“Delivering interoperability actually gives patients the ability to manage their healthcare the same way they manage their finances, travel and every other component of their lives,” Don Rucker, MD, former national coordinator for health information technology, said of the final rule at the time. “This requires using modern computing standards and APIs that give patients access to their health information.”
“A core part of the rule is patients’ control of their electronic health information which will drive a growing patient-facing healthcare IT economy and allow apps to provide patient-specific price and product transparency,” Rucker continued.
Additionally, the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule requires payers and providers to remove the industry siloes that prevent seamless patient data exchange across the care continuum.
Compliance for the final rule began on July 1, 2021.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/how-broad-data-collection-can-eliminate-health-disparities
How Broad Data Collection Can Eliminate Health Disparities
Broad data collection can improve precision medicine, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics to eliminate health disparities.
August 20, 2021 - With the use of broad data collection, medical professionals can provide better care for their patients and eliminate health disparities. However, as health analytics advances to improve outcomes for patients, there are also opportunities for potential health inequities.
To ensure all patients are receiving equal and quality care, analytic health technology should engage in broad data collection practices. By focusing efforts on diverse data collection, these tools can improve precision medicine, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics to eliminate health disparities.
Data Collection for Precision Medicine
The success of precision medicine relies on large databases containing information regarding genetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle choices. Clinicians can use precision medicine to determine treatment options that work best for a patient depending on that patient’s unique personal characteristics.
Not only does precision medicine require large databases, but the databases should also contain data from diverse populations to eliminate health disparities. Racial disparities in chronic diseases are well documented in the medical field.
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Nemours Survey: Parents Like Telehealth, But More Need to Be Convinced to Use It
A survey conducted by Nemours Children's Health and Amwell finds that parents flocked to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many hope to continue using it, but there are still gaps in their understanding of the value of virtual care.
August 20, 2021 - The pandemic has proven the value of telehealth to parents, according to a recent survey by Nemours Children’s Health. But it has also highlighted the need to continue emphasizing the value of virtual visits to overcome barriers to care and improve health and wellness.
A survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted earlier this year in conjunction with Amwell found that while 35 percent of parents used telehealth prior to the COVID-19 crisis (based on a 2017 survey), that percentage jumped to 77 percent during the pandemic. In addition, almost 80 percent have accessed pediatric telehealth services, compared to 35 percent before the pandemic.
Overall, the survey reports, more than 60 percent of parents want to continue using connected health services after the pandemic – including almost 30 percent of parents who hadn’t used any telehealth in the past.
“While one might expect that factors such as income or access to technology are barriers to telehealth, this survey underscores how telehealth proved to be a viable solution to expanding access and reducing disparities in providing timely care during COVID-19,” R. Lawrence Moss, MD, president and CEO of Nemours Children’s Health System, said in a press release. “Regulations that were eased during the pandemic need to become permanent to support telehealth access for the long-term. Telehealth can be part of building health equity among people experiencing social, economic and family challenges.”
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Patient Communication Strategies for Chronic Disease Prevention
Patient education, shared decision-making, and motivational interviewing are key patient communication tactics for chronic disease prevention.
By Sara Heath
August 20, 2021 - Chronic disease prevention is a critical aspect of patient care at all risk levels, but becomes particularly important when a patient moves into rising risk. When that happens, clinicians need to employ targeted patient communication strategies to drive patient engagement with key lifestyle and healthy behavior changes.
Those patient communication strategies should be varied and tap into individual patient motivations. Through strong patient education, shared decision-making, motivation interviewing, and empathy, clinicians can coach their patients through chronic disease prevention with the ultimate goal of staving off illness.
Patient education
One of the first steps to any patient engagement endeavor is offering strong patient education. After all, a patient doesn’t know what she doesn’t know, and it is far more difficult to engage with her health when she doesn’t understand it.
Healthcare providers should lean on patient education strategies during patient communication and chronic disease and preventive care.
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The privacy problem with health-related apps is linked to insecure coding
In his next column for Digital Health, Davey Winder, explores the privacy issues surrounding health-related apps.
Davey Winder 17 August, 2021
A study published in the British Medical Journal has served to confirm an inconvenient truth: mobile health apps may not be as private as you think. I’m not convinced that’s the biggest issue with mobile health apps, truth be told.
47% of apps analysed didn’t comply with their own privacy policy
The cross sectional study, authored by Gioacchino Tangari, Muhammad Ikram, Kiran Ijaz, Mohamed Ali Kaafar and Shlomo Berkovsky, set itself the objective of analysing what user data is collected by health and fitness related apps on Google Play and thus reveal any associated risks to privacy.
The researchers performed their in-depth analysis on a total of 15,838 global apps from the Australian store with a 8,468 non-health apps used for the baseline comparison. Of these, the vast majority (88%) were using either cookies or some form of tracking identifier relating to user activity, and 28% of the apps didn’t have any privacy policy. Of those that did, only 47% of the apps complied with that policy.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/08/20/google-and-apple-both-scaling-back-healthcare-efforts/
Google and Apple Both Scaling Back Healthcare Efforts
August 20, 2021
Looks like Google and Apple have both run into the proverbial healthcare wall that so many have faced. In fact, in Google’s case, we can say that they’ve ran into this wall…again. Yes, in some ways this feels like Groundhog Day for those of us who have followed this industry for as long as we have here at Healthcare IT Today. Most of you will remember the patient portal/PHR that was called Google Health. It was shutdown before really making any sort of impact. However, given the size of the healthcare market, you had to wonder when Google would return again and return they did.
Google’s return to healthcare was little by little with a number of very targeted projects that were eventually pulled together under one umbrella called Google Health (why not reuse the name right?). When you look at the list of big names they brought on to the Google Health team, you could see they were really investing in healthcare in a way they hadn’t done previously. Most prominent on the Google Health Team is Dr. Karen DeSalvo who is still Google’s Chief Health Officer and of course Dr. David Feinberg who was tapped to run Google Health after being President and CEO of Geisinger Health.
Yesterday, news broke that Dr. Feinberg was leaving Google Health in order to be CEO of Cerner. Now, Business Insider is reporting that Google is shutting down the Google Health division that Dr. Feinberg led and projects will be split across other parts of Google. Did Dr. Feinberg see the writing on the wall or is him leaving prompting the reorganization? Hard to say. However, what’s clear from this reorganization is less of a focus on healthcare by Google.
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Digital health is booming, and this young startup has ambitious plans to take patient care to the next level
Ukrainian med-tech startups are offering innovative and exciting solutions for patients and medical workers alike. One young startup is enjoying early success.
By Bojan Stojkovski | August 20, 2021 -- 08:33 GMT (18:33 AEST) | Topic: Innovation
Healthcare innovations have been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting companies to invest in various products, pharmaceuticals, masks, and medicines.
With lockdowns and other restriction measures across Europe being both on and off during the past few months, and with more and more activities being undertaken remotely, healthcare providers worldwide are turning to new technological advancements now more than ever.
In Ukraine, the med-tech industry is becoming increasingly popular, with the country having 14 startups included in the EMERGE list of 100 most promising startups in the Central and Eastern Europe region.
Telemedicine company ComeBack Mobility is one of the startups on that list. Established in 2020, the company has designed a telemedicine device that attaches to the end of walking crutches and helps aid patients' recovery from leg injuries.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/cdc-launches-public-health-data-exchange-interoperability-center
CDC Launches Public Health Data Exchange Interoperability Center
CDC has announced the creation of a new center that aims to boost public health data exchange interoperability to prepare for future emergencies.
August 19, 2021 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced a new center that aims to accelerate public health data exchange interoperability to support public health forecasting.
Once established, the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics will bring together expert disease modelers, public health data, and public health emergency responders to accelerate the use of data for public health decision-making.
The center’s goal is to provide public health officials with the information they need to mitigate the effects of disease threats. The center will also support innovation and research on disease modeling.
“This is an amazing opportunity for CDC and public health as we stand up the country’s first government-wide public health forecasting center,” CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, said in a public statement.
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1 in 10 Adults Delayed Care in Spring 2021 Due to COVID-19 Concerns
Black and Latinx adults were more likely to delay care due to COVID-19 concerns, along with low-income individuals and those with multiple chronic health conditions.
By Jill McKeon
August 19, 2021 - One in ten nonelderly adults delayed care in spring 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Latinx and Black adults delayed care at higher rates than White adults, and low-income individuals and those with chronic conditions reported high rates of unmet healthcare needs.
Researchers analyzed results from the Urban Institute’s April 2021 Health Reform Monitoring Survey, which fielded responses from over 9,000 US adults.
Adults ages 18 to 64 reported delaying at least one type of care in the past 30 days because of COVID-19 exposure concerns.
About 16.2 percent of Latinx adults and 13.3 percent of Black adults delayed care due to fear of virus exposure, compared to 8.7 percent of White adults. Additionally, 14.9 percent of adults with incomes below 250 percent of the federal poverty level were more likely to postpone care compared to higher-income individuals.
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https://www.aiin.healthcare/topics/diagnostics/ai-nudges-clinicians-triage-decisionmaking
AI nudges clinicians at triage decision making
Dave Pearson | August 18, 2021 | Diagnostics
Going head-to-head against a small group of clinicians in 50 care episodes, an AI-based smartphone app has equaled or bested the humans at triaging patients to the most appropriate site of care.
The clinicians were seven ER physicians, five internal-medicine specialists and a handful of physician assistants from various specialties.
The care episodes were verbal vignettes (example: A 25-year-old man with severe shortness of breath for a few hours. The symptoms started after a motor vehicle accident in which he was the driver of the car involved. He also complains of chest pain).
For each scenario, the researchers asked the clinicians and the app to present the patient with one of four directives:
- “Go to an ER or call 911 (life-threatening injuries or symptoms that need immediate treatment)”
- “Go to urgent care [e.g., a walk-in clinic] within 24 hours (non-life-threatening but need treatment”
- “Go to primary care physician (PCP) within three days (not immediately life-threatening and can wait three days before being seen by a primary care physician or specialist)”
- “Self-care, remain at home and only report to primary care or urgent care if the condition worsens”
The researchers conducted the experiment in several phases to test the app against individual clinicians as well as against consensus decisions made by five MD hospitalists specialized in internal medicine at a major academic medical center.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/voice-technology-opens-new-avenues-home-healthcare
Voice technology opens new avenues for at-home healthcare
The evolution of speech recognition will also help patients navigate the user interfaces of remote monitoring devices and personal health devices, said experts in a HIMSS21 Digital session.
By Nathan Eddy
August 19, 2021 01:11 PM
The dynamic world of voice technology is impacting healthcare through a number of use cases, as technologies like natural language processing allow computers to understand what humans can say – and allowing computers to speak back.
In a HIMSS21 Digital discussion between David Metcalf, director of UCF's institute for simulation and training, and Teri Fisher, physician and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, Fisher pointed out voice allows providers to multitask, and is also efficient and omnipresent.
"We are at a very interesting time for healthcare and voice technology, because of the computing power – we're already starting to see some radical changes in the way we experience the healthcare journey," Fisher said.
Metcalf and Fisher pointed to the advances in the ability for voice technology as aiding telehealth advances, noting a mix of modalities – between chatbots, text and voice – will provide patients with the right tool for the right time in the right place.
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Study shows increased use of digital mental health services following COVID-19 in Australia and New Zealand
The study looked at the number of people who engaged two online cognitive behavioural therapy service providers.
August 19, 2021 06:07 AM
A recently published study found a marked increase in the number of Australians and New Zealanders turning to digital services for mental health support during the pandemic.
The study looked at the uptake of two online cognitive behavioural therapy services – This Way UP in Australia and Just a Thought in New Zealand. Both companies undertook the research.
WHY IT MATTERS
There was a significant increase in use of both services post-COVID-19. In the three months prior to the pandemic, 2806 people registered for a This Way UP course and 1907 people registered for a Just a Thought course. During the first three months of the pandemic, 21,872 and 5442 registered for a This Way UP and Just a Thought course, respectively.
Use of the Just a Thought service was more pronounced in the three months following the COVID-19 outbreak, compared to three months before:
- Website views increased from 22,937 to 167,972
- Course registrations increased from 1907 to 5442
- Clinician registrations increased from 181 to 441
- Course prescriptions increased from 480 to 794
The study also found limited evidence of elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms severity during the COVID-19 period.
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Changing EHR Leadership: New CEOs at Cerner and MEDITECH
August 19, 2021
In just the last month, we have two new CEOs of two of the largest EHR vendors in the industry. The news came out today that Cerner was appointing David Feinberg, MD as President and CEO of Cerner. Dr. Feinberg will also be a member of the Board of Directors with William Zollars as independent chairman effective October 1, 2021. Former Cerner CEO, Brent Shafer will assist Dr. Feinberg through the transition and Donald Trigg, current Cerner President will be leaving Cerner.
This is quite an interesting choice by Cerner. Dr. Feinberg was previously the President and CEO of Geisinger Health and has most recently been Vice President of Google Health. While Dr. Feinberg’s leadership experience is extensive, it will be interesting to see how well he does as the head of an EHR company. Although, Cerner has been increasingly diversifying away from just being an EHR vendor and so Dr. Feinberg’s experience at Google Health could be very helpful in that regard.
Just over a month ago, MEDITECH announced Michelle O’Connor as the new President and CEO of MEDITECH. While many outside of MEDITECH weren’t familiar with Michelle O’Connor, I’d heard for years that O’Connor who had served as MEDITECH’s COO for a long time was the heir apparent to Howard Messing. O’Connor had worked at MEDITECH since 1988 where she started as an implementation programmer.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/health-it-adoption-disparities-impede-digital-health-transformation
Health IT Adoption Disparities Impede Digital Health Transformation
A new study suggests that a national policy is needed to support widespread health IT adoption and digital health transformation for healthcare planning.
August 18, 2021 - While COVID-19 accelerated the digital health transformation, disparities exist in health IT adoption of tools that help healthcare planning and preparation, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR).
The University of Colorado Denver (UC Denver) Business School researchers conducted a survey of 135 healthcare system CEOs from February to March 2021.
The survey explored health system differences between four types of digital orientations: analytics-oriented digital technologies (AODT), customer-oriented digital technologies (CODT), growth and innovation–oriented digital technologies (GODT), and futuristic and experimental digital technologies (FEDT).
As COVID-19 overwhelmed the industry, many health systems adopted consumer-facing health IT tools that align with existing EHR systems to support virtual care delivery.
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ONC Develops Health IT Protocol for Care Coordination, Interoperability
ONC is working with health IT stakeholders to develop two new health IT protocols to support greater interoperability for enhanced care coordination.
August 18, 2021 - As COVID-19 underscores the need for greater interoperability, ONC is working with industry stakeholders to rapidly deploy health IT implementation guidance in support of care coordination, according to a blog post written by ONC officials Brett Andriesen and Holly Miller.
ONC’s 360X project is a series of Integrating the Health Care Enterprise (IHE) International profiles that leverage health IT standards to streamline patient care transitions, Andriesen and Miller noted. The project currently has IHE-balloted profiles for two transitions of care use cases: ambulatory referrals and acute/ambulatory transfers to skilled nursing facilities.
This past year, the 360X group focused on use cases to enhance care transitions most critically needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Andriesen and Miller explained.
ONC and its industry partners aim to identify and complete balloting for the following two use cases for rapid deployment.
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Biden administration to invest $19M to expand telehealth in rural, underserved areas
Aug 18, 2021 8:02am
The Biden administration is investing $19 million to expand telehealth in rural and underserved communities to help increase access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The investments will provide funding for telehealth incubators to pilot new telehealth services and track outcomes in rural medically underserved areas that have high chronic disease prevalence and high poverty rates. The funding also will provide training and support to primary care providers in rural, frontier, and other underserved areas.
The funding
will be distributed to 36 award recipients through the Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), a federal official said in a press release.
“Telehealth is crucial to providing convenient and sustained care for
patients,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in a statement. “This funding
demonstrates the Biden-Harris Administration’s strong commitment to expanding
access to quality health care for everyone, including in rural and underserved
communities. I will continue to support innovative solutions that will
strengthen our health care system.”
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https://www.govinfosecurity.com/information-blocking-rule-understanding-exceptions-a-17295
Information Blocking Rule: Understanding the Exceptions
Privacy Attorney Adam Greene on Data-Sharing Rule Compliance Challenges Marianne Kolbasuk McGeeHealthInfoSecAugust 17, 2021
Adam Greene, partner, Davis Wright Tremaine
Although the federal information blocking rule spells out practices that are not considered violations of the regulation, healthcare entities must carefully assess the validity of privacy or security concerns before denying access, exchange or use of patient data, says attorney Adam Greene of the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine.
The Department of Health and Human Services' 21st Century Cures Act information blocking rule, which went into effect for compliance in April, generally prohibits healthcare providers, health IT developers and health information exchanges from knowingly interfering with the access, exchange or use of electronic health information.
The rule, however, contains eight exceptions - including one pertaining to privacy and one to security - that spell out practices that are not considered information blocking.
But not every possible issue involving health data privacy or security is a valid excuse for failing to share patient data, Greene explains in an interview with Information Security Media Group.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/nrhi-shiec-partner-to-support-hies-interoperability-infrastructure
NRHI, SHIEC Partner to Support HIEs, Interoperability Infrastructure
NRHI and SHIEC have teamed up to form an organization that aims to support local HIES and strengthen the national interoperability infrastructure.
August 17, 2021 - The Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI) and the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) have partnered to form Civitas Networks for Health, a new organization that aims to support local health information exchanges (HIEs) and collaboratives to strengthen the national interoperability infrastructure.
The partnership comes after a one-year due diligence process that will end on October 1, 2021 with the official organization launch.
NRHI represents regional health improvement collaboratives (RHICs) and state-affiliated partner organizations. RHICs are neutral, nonprofit organizations governed by multi-stakeholder boards of consumers, providers, payers, and purchasers of healthcare. These organizations help local stakeholders implement healthcare strategies that aim to improve the health and healthcare of their communities.
SHIEC represents statewide, regional, and community HIEs. SHIEC’s HIE members are nonprofit organizations governed by multi-stakeholder boards and state-designated entities that support secure health data exchange. SHIEC’s members work to boost care coordination and care management across healthcare systems and communities through enhanced interoperability.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/understanding-the-risks-complexity-of-healthcare-cybersecurity
Understanding the Risks, Complexity of Healthcare Cybersecurity
One emergency medical physician and health IT adviser shares insights on the growing cybersecurity challenges in healthcare today.
August 16, 2021 - From the fields of Fenway Park to the halls of the emergency department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston to the classrooms of the University of Florence in Italy, Dr. Sean Kelly is on the forefront of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the cybersecurity threat-outbreak that is plaguing healthcare institutions across the country.
Kelly is not only a practicing emergency medicine physician in Boston, but also a member of the CHIME Opioid Task Force (a team of health IT leaders,) an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a visiting professor at the University of Florence, a first aid physician at Fenway Park in Boston, and an adviser on the clinical practice of healthcare IT security.
Kelly shares his insights into the growing cyberthreats that hospitals, doctors' offices and healthcare facilities across the country are facing.
The Unique Nature of the Healthcare Industry
Kelly said that because of the unique nature of the industry and its workers, keeping data and computer systems protected is a complex task.
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Boosters to be expanded to most vaccinated Americans: reports
By Mychael Schnell - 08/16/21 10:55 PM EDT 2,672
The Biden administration is reportedly planning to announce that most Americans should receive a COVID-19 booster shot eight months after they have been fully vaccinated, expanding the pool of people who should get the extra doses beyond those with compromised immune systems.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. could begin offering a third shot as soon as mid-September, citing two administration officials familiar with the discussions. The Times reported that health officials “envision” administering Americans the same vaccine they were initially given.
The Washington Post reported that the boosters wouldn't be administered until an application by Pfizer for additional shots is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration.
Biden officials will reportedly announce the new guidance as soon as this week.
The Times and Post reports came days after the FDA authorized a third COVID-19 vaccine dose for certain people with compromised immune systems.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/15/inside-americas-covid-data-gap-502565
Inside America’s Covid-reporting breakdown
Crashing computers, three-week delays tracking infections, lab results delivered by snail mail: State officials detail a vast failure to identify hotspots quickly enough to prevent outbreaks.
There were too many cases to count.
Covid-19 was spreading rapidly throughout the United States, as cold winter weather began to drive people indoors, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was flying blind: The state agencies that it relied on were way behind in their tracking, with numbers trickling in from labs by fax or even snail mail.
In Oklahoma, Dr. Jared Taylor, Oklahoma’s lead state epidemiologist, couldn’t see the full picture.
Inside the state health department in Oklahoma City, staffers shuffled through piles of paper they’d pulled out of fax machines and sorted through hundreds of secure emails to upload Covid-19 lab results manually to the state’s digital dashboard — a system that often malfunctioned. Other employees desperately tried to work with labs — many of whom had not worked with the state previously — to walk them through the process of sending results electronically.
When the data came in, state employees routinely found errors — instances where a person was counted twice or two people with the same name were identified as a single patient.
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American Board of Telehealth launches certificate for virtual primary care
The program will cover a range of topics and best practices, including workflow, barriers to provision, regulatory considerations and health equity.
By Kat Jercich
August 17, 2021 02:03 PM
The American Board of Telehealth announced this week that it is launching a Teleprimary Care Certificate program, geared toward helping primary care providers develop future virtual health strategies.
The online program will cover a range of topics and best practices, including workflow, regulatory considerations and health equity.
"Teleprimary care is at the forefront of the telemedicine space, but it continues to evolve and expand with the development of new technologies, innovative care models and evolving reimbursement policies," said ABT Director of Education Whitney Flanagan, RN, in a statement.
"Telehealth training – whether it’s on the platform, regulations or webside manners – will be critical to long-term success," Flanagan continued.
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Deloitte's quantum computing leader on the technology's healthcare future
Quantum computing offers significant speed and analytics power and boosts the ability to track and diagnose disease, modernize supply chains and help with drug discovery, says Scott Buchholz.
By Bill Siwicki
August 17, 2021 11:44 AM
Quantum computing has enormous potential in healthcare and has started to impact the industry in various ways.
For example, quantum computing offers the ability to track and diagnose disease. Using sensors, quantum technology has the ability to track the progress of cancer treatments and diagnose and monitor such degenerative diseases as multiple sclerosis.
Modernizing supply chains
The tech also can help modernize supply chains. Quantum technology can solve routing issues in real time using live data such as weather and traffic updates to help determine the most efficient method of delivery. This would have been particularly helpful during the pandemic since many states had issues with vaccine deliveries.
Elsewhere, quantum technology can impact early-stage drug discovery. Pharmaceuticals can take a decade or longer to bring to market. Quantum computing could lower the costs and reduce the time.
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Telestroke Services Give Hospitals an Effective Model for Improving Clinical Outcomes
Health systems across the country are literally saving lives through telestroke services, which use connected health channels to speed up diagnosis and treatment for stroke victims.
August 13, 2021 - One of the early front-runners in proving the value of telehealth is through telestroke services, where the technology has literally saved lives.
Healthcare providers have used telemedicine to treat stroke patients for more than three decades, beginning with the strategy of using an audio-visual platform to allow a neurologist to see a patient showing signs of a stroke. These platforms took the form of a hub-and-spoke telemedicine network, with specialists at a large health system or hospital occupying the hub and connecting to smaller, more remote hospitals and clinics, or spokes.
Today’s networks are more sophisticated, but the model is still the same. Neurologists are in short order and high demand, and a telemedicine platform is an easy means of allowing them to extend their reach and treat more patients, especially those who can’t easily access emergency in-person care. Networks have sprung up in many states, within large health systems with multiple sites as well as via partnerships that allow hospitals to market their services to other hospitals and clinics.
Measuring Success in Minutes
The strategy behind telestroke is to identify whether someone is experiencing a stroke as quickly as possible, so that treatment can begin. The treatment often consists of administering tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a clot-dissolving drug first developed for treatment of heart attacks in the 1980s and then fine-tuned for stroke treatment in the early 1990s. The key to success in treatment, however, lies in administering tPA as quickly as possible, to counter the effect of blood loss to the brain. The shorter time period between stroke and treatment, the less permanent damage to the brain.
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Report Cites Success of VA’s COVID-19 Remote Patient Monitoring Program
An analysis of the Department of Veterans' Affairs' COVID-19 remote patient monitoring program finds that the agency cared for more than 23,500 veterans in their homes during the height of the pandemic and maintained a 4 percent hospitalization rate.
August 16, 2021 - A new report finds that the Department of Veterans Affairs used remote patient monitoring to provide care for more than 23,500 veterans during the height of the pandemic, interacting with thousands of patients on a daily level and greatly reducing hospitalizations.
The study, conducted by members of the VA’s Office of Connected Care and published this month in Telehealth and Medicine Today, says the department was able to treat so many veterans at home and at such a successful rate largely because it has been running a strong RPM platform for almost two decades. The VA pivoted quickly to address veterans diagnosed with COVID-19, researchers said, and was able to keep the hospitalization rate for those in the program at about 4 percent.
“The success of this effort demonstrates the importance of having infrastructure in place and framing it in a way that provides flexibility and allows it to be scaled up in times of greater need,” the research team concluded.
The Remote Patient Monitoring-Home Telehealth (RPM-HT) program was launched by the VA’s Office of Connected Care in July 2003, assigning 110 care coordinators to manage roughly 1,500 veterans with acute and/or chronic conditions who qualified for home-based care. That program now encompasses more than 2,800 care coordinators managing more than 75,000 veterans in more than 20 standardized programs, including hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and even depression.
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HIMSS21: Facebook, YouTube say stamping out COVID misinformation is much more than 'plucking all the weeds'
by Dave Muoio
Aug 16, 2021 4:25pm
From infectious 5G networks to vaccine-induced magnetism, the issue of online misinformation has been something of a constant throughout the pandemic.
Online conspiracy theories that spread across online platforms like wildfire have been highlighted by researchers, clinicians, professional organizations, public health leaders, lawmakers and even the president as a direct contributor to the spread of COVID-19.
With public health campaigns surrounding face mask wearing and vaccination hanging in the balance, these stakeholders have called on social media giants time and again to step up their efforts and stamp out online misinformation.
"Health misinformation is an urgent threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust and undermine public health efforts, including our ongoing work to end the COVID-19 pandemic," U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D., said in a July advisory statement warning the public of health misinformation.
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https://khn.org/news/article/apple-patient-health-data-pipeline-to-doctors/
Apple Aims to Push More Patient Data to Doctors. But Who Can Gauge Its Impact on Health?
By Sarah Kwon August 12, 2021
Soon, Apple announced recently, it will enable doctors to monitor health data from their patients’ phones and watches between visits, part of the push into health care that Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has declared will constitute the company’s greatest contribution to mankind.
Since 2014, health systems around the country have partnered with Apple to tap into the mountains of data the company’s devices generate from patients. But most are still experimenting with these tools. While some doctors appreciate seeing records of home-monitored blood pressure, exercise and the like between visits, for others the data is more of a burden than an asset.
Over 100 types of data are available in Apple’s health app through iPhone, Apple Watch and third-party apps. In June, Apple said patients whose doctors work with one of the six electronic medical record companies participating in the new feature will be able to send them tracked data like heart rate, sleep hours, exercise minutes, steps, falls or menstrual cycle history.
Some see great promise in building “pipes” between a patient’s phone and the health records viewed by their clinicians. Apple is “democratizing the flow of health data” between doctors and patients, said Anil Sethi, a former Apple health director and current CEO of Ciitizen, a startup that manages health data for cancer patients.
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13 numbers that show how much telehealth visits cost your hospital
- Friday, August 13th, 2021 Print | Email
Researchers from Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine conducted a study in August to determine if the costs hospitals pay for telehealth visits differ from in-person visits.
Here are 13 numbers that demonstrate their findings:
- Physicians spent more face-to-face time in virtual visits than in-person visits. Physicians, on average, spent 13.8 minutes in a virtual visit compared to 10.2 minutes when the visit was in person.
- A physician-led in-person visit cost the health system on average $26.84. When the visit was virtual, it cost $27.26. If the virtual visit was led by a physician assistant, the visit cost just $9.86.
- The health system compared 250 virtual visits and 250 in-person visits to determine if there was a difference in no-show rates. For video visits, 58 percent of patients completed their visit as scheduled, 33 percent of videos were canceled and 8 percent of patients no-showed their visit.
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Indian Health Service seeks vendors to replace its health IT system
The agency determined that its internally developed Resource and Patient Management System would not be sustainable in the long term.
By Kat Jercich
August 16, 2021 12:14 PM
The Indian Health Service is seeking enterprise health IT software to replace its current platform.
The IHS currently relies on the internally developed Resource and Patient Management System to support a broad range of processes at its facilities, as well as at many tribal and urban healthcare organizations.
"The IHS Office of Information Technology develops and updates the system regularly, issuing patches that are installed on each instance by local staff," explained IHS staff in a draft statement of objectives published to a General Services Administration website this past week.
However, the SOO continued, "in recent years, advances in health-related standards and technologies, an increasingly complex regulatory environment around HIT, and the decision of the VA, IHS’ longtime collaborative partner, to move to a commercial off-the-shelf HIT solution, have combined to make the current approach to IHS HIT development and support nonsustainable going forward."
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/accenture-reportedly-faced-50m-ransomware-demand
Accenture reportedly faced $50M ransomware demand
The consulting firm told Healthcare IT News that the incident had no impact on its operations or on its clients' systems.
By Kat Jercich
August 16, 2021 03:28 PM
The consulting firm Accenture is reported to have faced $50 million in ransom following an attack this past month, according to cyber risk intelligence companies.
Researchers from the cyber intelligence firm Cyble said on Twitter that the threat actors claimed to have accessed more than six terabytes of data.
"Through our security controls and protocols, we identified irregular activity in one of our environments," said Accenture in a statement to Healthcare IT News.
"We immediately contained the matter and isolated the affected servers. We fully restored our affected systems from backup. There was no impact on Accenture's operations, or on our clients' systems."
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/zooms-head-healthcare-talks-future-telemedicine
Zoom's head of healthcare talks the future of telemedicine
Heidi West discusses telehealth/hybrid in-person care, the communities that could suffer without virtual care and the remaining obstacles to mainstreaming telemedicine.
August 16, 2021
Telehealth continues to be a priority for the healthcare industry. It has proven itself throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent Zoom research found that in the U.S., 72% of survey respondents want to attend healthcare appointments both virtually and in-person post-pandemic, demonstrating the clear need for telehealth as an option for this hybrid approach to healthcare.
Despite the success of telehealth during the last year and a half, some have questioned its broader use as healthcare returns to in-person office visits. However, this reversal could put certain communities and demographic populations at a disadvantage, such as those in rural areas or ones without reliable transportation.
Healthcare IT News sat down with Heidi West, head of healthcare at Zoom, to discuss telemedicine's future, hybrid in-person/telehealth care, communities that could be hurt without virtual care, and challenges to telemedicine becoming fully mainstream.
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Alternative Data Paired With Social Determinants Help Redraw Patient Health Outcomes
Analysis | By Laura Beerman | August 16, 2021
One payer hopes to make healthcare more equitable by using alternative data.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Social determinants of health (SDOH) are a powerful influence on human well-being.
· Alternative data about how we live, work, and play is helping to craft SDOH interventions.
· A payer-data provider collaboration is looking to change the game.
The film Minority Report imagines a world where someone’s destiny can be viewed before it occurs. Holographic, 3D maps illuminate people in bad situations—sometimes due to choice, others trapped in circumstance, often a combination.
That was a movie. But the truth is, there is a real map of probable, negative outcomes that already exists. It’s often defined by a person’s ZIP code and what it’s like to live there, marked by social determinants. If that reality was a heat map, florid-red hotspots would mark a complex interplay of too much and not enough—too much crime, poverty, and crumbling infrastructure and not enough jobs, community centers, and grocery stores.
It has been said that ZIP code is a better predictor of health than your genetic code, an early and novel way of describing the social determinants of health (SDOH) and their effect. But why do SDOH matter now more than ever before, and how are payers using them to create solutions?
The role of alternative data in SDOH
Enter alternative data, or any data external to what a company (such as a payer), collects on its own. Alternative data offers broader source, scope, and value. The financial services industry was the first to use alternative data in a significant way, with venture capital firms looking beyond traditional sources (e.g., from personal and professional networks, SEC filings, and financial statements) to make better investment decisions.
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Enjoy!
David.
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