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/5-ehr-optimizations-for-enhanced-clinical-decision-support
5 EHR Optimizations for Enhanced Clinical Decision Support
EHR optimizations can support risk calculation, streamlined health IT workflows, and precision medicine for enhanced clinical decision support.
September 10, 2021 - As the digital health transformation progresses, health IT stakeholders are focusing on EHR optimizations for enhanced clinical decision support.
While EHR systems aim to provide clinicians with patient health data in a centralized location for clinical decision support, it often takes optimization for health IT to reach its full potential. EHR optimizations can help alleviate clinician burden while also improving the value of information within the EHR for more informed decision-making.
Cardiovascular Risk Calculation
Implementing a clinical decision support tool into the EHR can boost cardiovascular risk factor awareness in oncology settings, according to a study published in JMIR Publications.
Individuals who survive breast cancer can face cardiovascular health issues, with many breast cancer survivors being more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than cancer, the study authors noted.
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Breaking Down the Basics of Patient Navigation, Care Coordination
Patient navigation and clinical navigators will be instrumental in medicine’s push toward patient-centered care.
By Sara Heath
September 10, 2021 - Healthcare is more than what happens to a patient inside the four walls of a hospital or clinic; it’s what happens at home, the social services the patient does and does not access, and the social determinants of health that shape patient wellness. And as medicine has begun to embrace that holistic definition of care, patient navigation has emerged with utmost importance.
Like a car’s GPS or an explorer’s map, patient navigation services help guide patients across the entire care continuum. Below, PatientEngagementHIT will outline the types of patient navigation essential to healthcare and how organizations can roll out these services.
Provider versus payer patient navigation
Fundamental to understanding patient navigation is assessing what it means to both provider organizations and the payer industry. For both sides of the proverbial healthcare coin, patient navigation generally means helping patients work their way through the complexities of medicine, but there are key differences in the payer versus provider spaces.
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https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20210903.976632/full/
Medical Algorithms Are Failing Communities Of Color
- Donna M. Christensen Jim Manley Jason Resendez
- September 9, 2021 10.1377/hblog20210903.976632
When it comes to our health, it’s personal. That is why it is so important that the physicians we trust make decisions about our care—not machines. And yet, in many situations, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are making decisions about our medical treatment and care, often to the disadvantage of communities of color. To tackle discrimination in health care and insurance coverage, we must evaluate and act on how algorithmic decision making contributes to the inequalities within our health care system.
Medical algorithms are expected to make quick, precise decisions that help providers diagnose and treat patients faster and more efficiently. Their use began primarily in the 1970s, and from this point on, algorithms and AI have become constants in patients’ lives. From consultation programming for glaucoma to automated intake processes in primary care to scoring systems that evaluate newborns’ health conditions, patients regularly encounter these technologies and algorithms whether they know it or not. Insurance companies use algorithms as well to determine risk and adjust the cost of care.
Despite their ubiquity, medical algorithms’ fatal flaw is that they are often built on biased rules and homogenous data sets that do not reflect the patient population at large. Patients should never have to worry that an algorithm could prevent them from receiving an organ transplant, yet this is the reality for many Black patients on transplant lists. Even though Black Americans are four times more likely to have kidney failure, an algorithm to determine transplant list placement puts Black patients lower on the list than White patients, even when all other factors remain identical.
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https://racmonitor.com/how-meaningful-use-increases-audits/
How Meaningful Use Increases Audits
Audits for meaningful use can equal tens of thousands of dollars.
Today I want to discuss electronic health records (EHRs) and Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) audits. We all remember the government pushing all providers into purchasing EHR. It was initially known as the Meaningful Use (MU) program, which is now known as the Promoting Interoperability Programs.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initially provided 10 incentives to accelerate the adoption of EHRs to meet program requirements. Now, physicians who fail to participate will receive a penalty in the form of reduced Medicare reimbursement. Physicians must use certified electronic health records technology (CEHRT) and demonstrate meaningful use through an attestation process at the end of each MU reporting period to avoid the penalty.
Audits for meaningful use can equal tens of thousands of dollars. The monetary amount is not as high as that associated with RAC audits for medical records. One of my clients is a pediatrician in Georgia. His facility received an alleged overpayment of $34,000 for two of his physicians not meeting the MU criteria 8 and 9. We were going to fight it, but the two physicians who were dinged had quit and would not testify positively on behalf of my client. Plus, attorneys’ fees would exceed the penalty. Criteria 8 and 9 constitute proving that your consumers have email and actually open their emails to check their healthcare Internet folders.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/mount-sinai-launches-new-mhealth-app-for-patient-data-access
Mount Sinai Launches New mHealth App for Patient Data Access
The health system is expanding its current patient portal to offer a new mHealth app to simplify and improve patient data access.
September 09, 2021 - Mount Sinai Health System has introduced a new mHealth app to improve patient data access, enhance patient-provider communication, and create a centralized platform for all patient healthcare needs.
The MyMountSinai app expands on Mount Sinai’s existing MyChart portal and mHealth app, which more than one million patients already use, the health system said.
The portal features will transfer to the new app, allowing patients to continue to access lab results and health records, pay bills, request prescription refills, book and check in for appointments, and attend video visits with their providers through the mHealth app.
“The MyMountSinai app provides another access point to care and communication, which enhances the patient experience,” Kristin Myers, MPH, executive vice president and chief information officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, stated in the press release.
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Health equity, SDOH key priorities for ONC, says deputy national coordinator
But another panelist at the ONC Tech Forum on Friday noted that those two terms are not necessarily synonymous.
By Kat Jercich
September 10, 2021 03:22 PM
At the first Friday of the two-day Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT Tech Forum, Deputy National Coordinator Steve Posnack flagged a common theme across the agenda: a focus on social determinants of health, equity and strengthening public health.
"These are things that are of immediate interest and have immediate effect in terms of overall pandemic response," said Posnack.
"These are also ONC priorities and priorities for the secretary [of Health and Human Services] and the administration as a whole," he added.
The questions, he said, will be: "How we can continue to make progress in these areas? How we can continue to look at how health IT can make an impact for these areas and identify where there are still challenges we need to overcome."
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Researchers say 'essential questions remain' about telehealth's diagnostic viability
The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine found that although "telediagnosis" has potential, there's still a lot to learn about how it can work most effectively.
By Kat Jercich
September 10, 2021 09:22 AM
Researchers from the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine released an issue brief this week aimed at exploring the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and future prospects of telehealth.
By combining literature reviews and interviews with a wide variety of stakeholders, the team sought to identify the most pressing research questions on how to maximize telediagnosis opportunities – while avoiding possible problem areas.
"We found that telediagnosis has potential, although there is still much to learn about how virtual diagnosis can be done most effectively," said Suz Schrandt, senior patient engagement advisor at SIDM and principal investigator on the project, in a statement.
"We found that many patients like the convenience of telemedicine, but we also need more research into who is being left behind in the process, such as small practices or people without access to high-speed Internet," Schrandt continued.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/4-considerations-for-patient-data-access-patient-data-requests
4 Considerations for Patient Data Access, Patient Data Requests
Healthcare organizations should emphasize patient navigation to guide patients through patient data requests for patient data access.
By Sara Heath
September 09, 2021 - Understanding legislative requirements, the cost of issuing patient data access, and streamlining provider workflows for records releases are key to facilitating and meeting patient data requests, according to a literature review published in the Journal of AHIMA.
Additionally, reviewers observed strong patient interest in their own medical records, finding that patient data access has a positive impact on patient engagement.
“It is evident that patients, as consumers of healthcare, need access to all the information created about them to enable active participation in their care and treatment, and access is not limited to hospital records,” wrote the researchers, who hailed from Australia but who outlined American habits with patient data access.
“Multiple studies confirm when patients access their health records, it improves the relationship between the healthcare organization and the patient.”
Through a literature review of 12 academic articles, eight of which came from the United States, the researchers outlined not just the importance of patient data access, but how supporting that access impacts the healthcare provider.
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How physicians can protect themselves from litigation risk from virtual care
September 9, 2021
Medical Economics Journal, Medical Economics September 2021, Volume 98, Issue 9
With virtual care on the rise, physicians need to understand the risks when caring for patients.
Telemedicine and telehealth services were growing before the COVID-19 pandemic, and demand has soared since the March 2020 shutdown as patients and providers alike recognized the efficiencies and convenience of delivering care remotely. However, along with the surge in demand for virtual care comes higher risk of malpractice claims for health care professionals.
Misdiagnosis risk
One of the biggest risks in the act of practicing medicine virtually involves the challenges of virtual examinations: reviewing diagnostics, communicating with the patient and loss of contextual clues, among other factors.
Two-thirds of telemedicine-related claims received between 2014 to 2018 were related to diagnosis, according to CRICO, the risk management arm of the Harvard Medical Institutions.
Physicians conducting a telemedicine appointment must rely on a patient’s description and interpretation of their symptoms to try to make a diagnosis without the benefit of testing and physical examination, as at an in-person clinical visit. That could more easily lead to misdiagnosis, missed symptoms or physical clues, prescription of the wrong medication and the potential consequence of prescribing medication across state lines without conducting an in-person examination (a criminal offense in some states).
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September 08, 2021
Telehealth referral, collaborative care improve outcomes in PTSD, bipolar disorder
Patients with PTSD or bipolar disorder reported significant improvement with consultation of primary care physicians or treatment by telepsychiatrists, according to a JAMA Psychiatry study.
“The study was motivated by the inequitable geographic distribution of mental health specialists in the United States,” John C. Fortney, PhD, of the University of Washington’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Seattle’s Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care, told Healio Psychiatry. “This inequity results in substantial unmet need in rural counties and a significant rural-urban disparity in access to and receipt of specialty mental health care.”
Fortney and colleagues randomly assigned 1,004 participants (70.1% women, 66.4% white) with bipolar disorder and/or PTSD across 12 federally qualified health centers in Arkansas, Michigan and Washington to 1 year of telepsychiatry/telepsychology-enhanced referral (TER) or telepsychiatry collaborative care (TCC) between Nov. 16, 2016, and June 30, 2019.
TER involved treatment by telepsychiatrists and telepsychologists, while telepsychiatrists consulted primary care physicians in TCC. Non-engagement in TER at 6 months prompted random assignment to phone-engaged referral (PER) as intervention. Patients self-reported mental health outcomes and adverse psychotropic medication events through surveys at baseline, 6 months and 12 months.
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Health data search engine gives medical group all the information it needs
In just its first month, the eClinicalWorks tool returned external records on 2,300 patients to Carolina Cape Fear Medical Group – offering fuller, timelier and more holistic views of these people.
September 09, 2021
Carolina Cape Fear Medical Group, based in Fayetteville, North Carolina, had a problem: Clinicians lacked a full view of their patients' medical histories.
THE PROBLEM
The medical group is located near a military base, so it often sees patients who have been cared for by multiple hospitals across the country. In addition, COVID-19 has brought about a significant shift in healthcare over the past year and a half, with people being limited to telehealth visits and reaching out to more than one provider.
"These changes increased the significance of getting access to timely and holistic information for our patients," said Trish Haynes, practice manager at Carolina Cape Fear Medical Group. "Without easy access to full records, we relied on our history with the patient or their memory of previous medical procedures.
"Inconsistent and unreliable information can not only result in providers spending more time on paperwork, it can prove to be harmful or even life-threatening for our patients," she continued. "Our practice was looking for an automated solution that could enable us to examine a patient's full medical records from across the U.S., providing the highest quality care to anyone who walks through our doors."
Additionally, patients often come into the practice with urgent medical needs. Quick and easy access to external medical records is vital for clinicians to provide adequate care in a timely manner.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/who-releases-list-covid-19-health-technologies
WHO releases list of COVID-19 health technologies
The 24 new technologies can be used in low-resource settings.
By Sara Mageit
September 09, 2021 07:45 AM
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a new compendium of innovative health technologies for COVID-19 and other priority diseases.
The list provides an assessment of the technologies, carried out by a group of international experts working with WHO technical teams.
The assessment will rank on the basis of compliance with WHO specifications regarding performance, quality and safety; suitability in low-resource settings; affordability; ease of use; and regulatory approval status.
Fifteen of the 24 technologies are currently commercially available in countries, while the rest are still at the prototype stage.
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U of M, along with manufacturers, launches Center for Medical Device Cybersecurity
Boston Scientific, Smiths Medical, Optum, Medtronic and Abbott Laboratories are funding the bulk of the activities at the University of Minnesota's new center.
September 09, 2021
The University of Minnesota announced that it was launching a new Center for Medical Device Cybersecurity aimed at fostering collaborations among university, industry and government representatives.
According to the university, the center will function as a hub for discovery, outreach and workforce training around device security and potential threats.
"I'm excited about how this new innovative center will enhance the security of our state's thriving medtech sector and beyond," said University of Minnesota president Joan Gabel in a statement.
WHY IT MATTERS
A large part of the center's funding comes from five major device manufacturers: Boston Scientific, Smiths Medical, Optum, Medtronic and Abbott Laboratories.
In addition to the founding corporations, additional industry representatives will be actively recruited to the center steering committee over the next two years.
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If We Care About Patients, We Should Just Give Up on Cybersecurity
September 9, 2021
Everyone loves to talk about doing patient centered care. The best organizations are spending both time and financial resources to provide the best patient care possible. Seems like a noble goal. After all, healthcare wouldn’t exist without the patients. There’s no need for healthcare without the patients.
Let me tell you something that would make patient’s lives better. Looser cybersecurity restrictions. How good is the patient experience if a doctor or nurse is struggling at the computer trying to figure out their password because they’ve had to reset it every 6 weeks and include a number, a letter, a special character, a capital, and their first born child’s middle name? The patient sits there while the clinician is frustrated trying to login to the computer.
If you’ve been there you know. If you’re an arrogant techguy (I can say that since I’m @techguy) that is better at password management, you might look this off and teach them about pass phrases or other ways they can remember their password better. There’s a much simpler solution, just change your password policy. Don’t worry about cybersecurity. That password policy is impacting patient care, so just remove the policy. Easy fix and a very patient centric move. Then, the doctor or nurse is no longer frustrated with their login and password and they have more time to focus on the patient. Plus, you get the bonus benefit of reduced physician burnout.
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Leveraging Healthcare IT During Emergencies and Natural Disasters
September 9, 2021
Seems like a week doesn’t go by that you don’t turn on the news (or is it turn on your Twitter feed) and see a natural disaster happening somewhere in the world. As I write this, we’re dealing with the wildfires happening across California, New Orleans is starting their recovery from Hurricane Ida, and the pictures coming out of New York and Philadelphia from Ida remind us of our need to prepare for these natural disasters.
What we don’t often talk about with natural disasters is the impact on healthcare and the role healthcare IT could play in helping during a disaster. Plus, we often wait to talk about it after a disaster happens. Since September is National Preparedness Month, we wanted to talk with an emergency preparedness expert, Lauren Knieser, Senior Director at Audacious Inquiry, to hear how they’re using Audacious Inquiry’s expertise in health data sharing to support natural disaster workers when a disaster hits.
In our discussion, Knieser shares the background of the Audacious Inquiry PULSE Enterprise product that was created in concert with government funding to address the challenges of the California wildfires and was then expanded to be applied to other states and the disasters they may experience. Knieser shares some of the real challenges and impacts on patients during a natural disaster and healthcare’s role in alleviating those pain points.
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Artificial Intelligence Predicts Ventilator Need of COVID-19 Patients
Researchers developed an artificial intelligence tool that can determine if COVID-19 patients will need a ventilator.
September 08, 2021 - Case Western Reserve University researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can predict if a COVID-19 patient will need help breathing with a ventilator.
The tool was created by analyzing CT scans from almost 900 COVID-19 patients diagnosed in 2020 and was able to predict a patient’s need for a ventilator with 84- percent accuracy.
“That could be important for physicians as they plan how to care for a patient—and, of course, for the patient and their family to know,” the Donnell Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve and head of the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics (CCIPD), Anant Madabhushi said in a press release.
“It could also be important for hospitals as they determine how many ventilators they’ll need.”
Madabhushi said intends to is hoping to use these results to try out the AI tool in real-time at University Hospitals and Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center with COVID-19 patients. If successful, he said medical staff at the two hospitals could upload a digital image of a chest scan to a cloud-based application, then the AI at Case Western Reserve could analyze it and predict the need for a ventilator.
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These Sensor-Studded Smart Clothes Just Might Save Your Life
From a prescription bra that signals cardiac arrest to a mosquito-proof textile, startups and scientists are developing garments for healthier living
Author Benoit Morenne
Published Sept. 7, 2021 12:01 pm ET
The Future of Everything covers the innovation and technology transforming the way we live, work and play, with monthly issues on education, money, cities and more. This month is Health, online starting Sept. 3 and in the paper on Sept. 10.
An all-in-one medical checkup
Startups are developing clothing to take the place of tests typically performed at a doctor’s office, from taking blood pressure and body temperature to listening to the heart and lungs, and running an electrocardiogram, or ECG, to monitor the heart’s electrical activity.
New York-based Nanowear has spent about $12 million to develop SimpleSense, a sash lined with billions of nanosensors that is worn close to the chest and over the right shoulder. The sensors double as tiny microphones and capture data for 85 medical signs, including heart rate and blood pressure, which are measured by “listening” to the heart and its electric signals, the company says. A smartphone app is used to start and stop the data recording and transmit it to a physician via an online portal.
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https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/958286
CBT via Telehealth or In-Person: Which Is Best for Insomnia?
Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW
September 07, 2021
Telehealth can be effective for delivering cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) ― and is not inferior to in-person treatment, new research suggests.
Results from a study of 60 adults with insomnia disorder showed no significant between-group difference at 3-month follow-up between those assigned to receive in-person CBT-I and those assigned to telehealth CBT-I in regard to change in score on the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI).
In addition, both groups showed significant change compared with a wait-list group, indicating that telehealth was not inferior to the in-person mode of delivery, the investigators note.
"The take-home message is that patients with insomnia can be treated with cognitive-behavioral treatment for insomnia by video telehealth without sacrificing clinical gains," study investigator Philip Gehrman, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told Medscape Medical News.
"This fits with the broader telehealth literature that has shown that other forms of therapy can be delivered this way without losing efficacy, so it is likely that telehealth is a viable option for therapy in general," he said.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/amazon-care-may-be-coming-to-another-20-u-s-cities-report
Amazon Care may be coming to another 20 U.S. cities: report
Sep 8, 2021 12:41pm
Amazon has ambitious plans to expand its virtual care services as well as in-home care to more than 20 major U.S. cities this year and in 2022, according to a media report.
Amazon Care’s in-person care service had been limited to Washington state, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore but the tech giant plans to expand home-care visits to Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas and Boston this year, Insider's Blake Dodge reported Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the plans.
In September 2019, Amazon launched a pilot of its virtual health service benefit for employees and their families in the Seattle region called Amazon Care.
The service offers virtual visits, in-person primary care visits at patients' homes or offices and prescription delivery. The company then opened up the medical business to employers around the country this summer by offering its virtual care service to companies and Amazon employees in all 50 states.
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Vaccine passports to start in England following widespread deployment across Europe
The passports will be required in nightclubs and indoor venues from the end of September.
By Sara Mageit
September 08, 2021 08:50 AM
Vaccine passports in large indoor venues and nightclubs in England will be required at the end of the month.
UK vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi, who in February described vaccine passports as 'discriminatory' has now said it was the right time to start the scheme for sites with large crowds.
The passports are available in digital format through the NHS app or website, or in paper format sent via the post.
WHY IT MATTERS
This move follows the national plan that all over 18s will have been offered two jabs by then. Zahawi has said the passports would ensure the economy could remain open.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/dos-and-donts-managing-ransomware-risk-healthcare
Dos and don'ts for managing ransomware risk in healthcare
The advisory CISO at Akamai has some advice for IT and cybersecurity leaders – strategies to prepare for, and respond to, ransomware strikes.
By Bill Siwicki
September 08, 2021 11:25 AM
By now it should come as no surprise to anyone in the industry that healthcare is the juiciest target for hackers attacking with ransomware. In a nutshell, healthcare has the most valuable data and has not fully deployed protections as robust as those in other industries.
Steve Winterfeld, advisory chief information security officer at security and content delivery network vendor Akamai, makes it his job to study ransomware in great detail. As a result of his research, he has assembled a list of dos and don'ts for healthcare provider organizations fighting ransomware.
Healthcare IT News sat down with Winterfeld, who believes using the cyber-kill-chain model to disrupt ransomware attacks is the best way to stop them, to discuss his dos and don'ts for the benefit of provider CISOs and CIOs and other health IT and cybersecurity leaders.
Q. You've created this list of dos and don'ts for organizations dealing with ransomware. The first element of your list is DON'T just pay the ransom, but DO have a policy on paying in place beforehand. Please elaborate on why this is important to healthcare provider organizations.
A. If you find your company is impacted by ransomware, it is important to first understand all the implications and options. First you need to understand the real-time impacts to operations. Next you need to determine any regulatory agencies and cyber insurance (if you have this) requirements.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/ehr-usability-user-satisfaction-high-in-ambulatory-surgery-centers
EHR Usability, User Satisfaction High in Ambulatory Surgery Centers
Almost all care organizations that have implemented ambulatory surgery center EHR systems report high EHR usability and clinician satisfaction.
September 07, 2021 - Almost all healthcare organizations that have implemented ambulatory surgery center (ASC) EHR systems report high clinician satisfaction and EHR usability, according to a recent KLAS report.
As more medical care moves to ambulatory settings, ASCs are gaining momentum. While most ASCs currently use paper-based clinical documentation, some EHR vendors have come out with ASC-specific solutions or integrated ambulatory solutions for specialty and general care settings.
EHR vendors HST Pathways and Surgical Information Systems (SIS) are commonly used among surgical specialties. The KLAS report found that 86 percent of HST Pathways customers are satisfied or very satisfied with the health IT. Respondents that use HST noted that the system allows for the creation of specialty-specific workflows, which increases EHR usability.
Similarly, 89 percent of respondents are satisfied or very satisfied with the SIS system. SIS customers said that the health IT is easy to use, and that building templates is a “self-explanatory experience,” one customer said.
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HIE Collaboratives Boost Interoperability Through Shared Best Practices
State and regional HIEs are helping to boost nationwide interoperability through collaboratives where health IT leaders can share best practices.
September 07, 2021 - Health information exchanges (HIEs) are paving the way for nationwide interoperability, and HIE collaboratives are amplifying these efforts through shared best practices.
HIEs support patient health data exchange across a network of providers, supporting care coordination, public health initiatives, and case reporting.
For instance, state and regional HIEs like Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE), worked closely with ONC to support the COVID-19 pandemic response.
John Kansky, president and CEO of IHIE, noted that the federal government recognized HIE data exchange capabilities could supporting the COVID-19 response and proposed a national aggregated dashboard of HIE data.
While this was theoretically possible, connecting all the HIEs nationwide would be a massive undertaking, Kansky said. IHIE and five other HIEs got together to show what could be done quickly.
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Mayo Clinic RPM Model Improves Outcomes For Acute COVID-19 Treatment
The nonprofit medical center expanded its existing multi-state remote patient monitoring program to assist patients with acute COVID-19 treatment.
September 07, 2021 - Remote patient monitoring (RPM) programs are safe and feasible, and they yield positive health outcomes for acute COVID-19 treatment, according to a Mayo Clinic study.
The midwestern health system expanded its multi-state RPM program during the pandemic to treat infected patients at home, employing a strategy that many healthcare organizations have been using to reduce hospital congestion and give patients a chance to recover at home instead of in a hospital ward.
The original program helps patients with chronic care management for conditions like congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but experts from the Mayo Clinic Center for Digital Health worked with COVID-19 physicians to adapt the RPM program to support COVID-19 patients.
The team implemented the RPM program at Mayo Clinic campuses in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota, with the help of hospital and ambulatory care staff. A total of 7,074 patients across 41 states participated in one of two RPM models, depending on their risk factors, between March and November 2020.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/cost-poor-communication-key-barriers-to-medication-adherence
Cost, Poor Communication Key Barriers to Medication Adherence
Providers can drive better medication adherence through stronger patient-provider communication and patient education, research indicates.
By Sara Heath
September 07, 2021 - Drug costs, patient education, and patient-provider communication are leading factors in poor medication adherence, according to new data published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Particularly, about two-thirds of adults with non-ventricular atrial fibrillation (AF) said healthcare costs were the leading factor behind their poor medication adherence, the researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and San Diego (UCSD) said.
Medication adherence is a billion-dollar problem in the chronic disease management space. Regardless of the forces behind medication non-adherence, patients who do not take their medications run the risk of seeing their conditions deteriorate and experiencing acute care episodes.
For patients with AF, taking direct-acting oral coagulants (DAOC) can help managing illness, but currently medication adherence rates leave much to be desired. The researchers noted that medication non-adherence for DAOC runs anywhere between 26 and 45 percent.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/biden-administration-announces-national-cybersecurity-initiatives
Biden Administration Announces National Cybersecurity Initiatives
President Biden met with education and private sector leaders to discuss national cybersecurity initiatives following the Administration’s executive order in May.
By Jill McKeon
September 07, 2021 - President Biden met with cybersecurity leaders from Apple, Google, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and others at the White House to discuss national cybersecurity initiatives in accordance with the Administration’s executive order signed in May aimed at improving the nation’s cybersecurity. In a subsequent fact sheet, the Administration outlined its initiatives discussed during the meeting.
The Administration has been ramping up its cybersecurity efforts and encouraging private companies to do the same, especially since a malicious ransomware attack on US critical infrastructure company Colonial Pipeline in May.
In late July, President Biden issued a national security memorandum outlining cybersecurity expectations for critical infrastructure entities.
Throughout the president’s meeting with industry leaders, participants announced various initiatives and commitments that aim to bolster the country’s cybersecurity.
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September 3, 2021
AI May Not Be Ready to Accurately Read Mammograms
FRIDAY, Sept. 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Radiologists still outperform artificial intelligence (AI) when it comes to breast cancer screening, a new paper shows.
Many countries have mammography screening programs to detect and treat breast cancer early. However, examining mammograms for early signs of cancer means a lot of repetitive work for radiologists, which can result in some cancers being missed, the authors explained.
Previous research has suggested that perhaps AI systems might even outperform people in this task -- and might soon replace radiologists.
But good quality evidence to support the use of AI instead of experienced radiologists is lacking, according to researchers who reviewed 12 studies conducted since 2010.
The latest findings were published Sept. 1 in the BMJ.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/vha-renews-ehr-system-contract-at-43-va-medical-centers
VHA Renews EHR System Contract at 43 VA Medical Centers
VHA has awarded a five-year contract renewal for health IT vendor Clinicomp to continue providing an EHR system for 43 VA medical centers nationwide.
September 06, 2021 - The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has awarded a five-year contract renewal with health IT vendor Clinicomp to continue providing an EHR system for 43 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) nationwide.
The EHR system supports in-patient settings, including emergency, procedural care, critical care, and medical surgical areas.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health IT vendor facilitated an EHR implementation of a COVID-19 clinical surveillance monitoring solution for VA hospitals, officials said in a press release.
This integration allowed providers to monitor at-risk and rising-risk patients for improved critical care coordination. The solution also helped healthcare organizations in managing valuable resources during the pandemic, such as ventilators, officials noted.
The current VHA contract renewal follows the April 2020 announcement of the EHR vendor’s Defense Health Agency support contract award. The EHR vendor is contracted to serve the Department of Defense's 64 Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) in the US and abroad for the next seven years.
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https://governmentciomedia.com/hhs-sustain-covid-19-data-platform-future-health-crises
HHS to Sustain COVID-19 Data Platform for Future Health Crises
The agency stood up its HHS Protect platform quickly amid the pandemic, and now it will have uses in future efforts.
Fri, 09/03/2021 - 14:38
The Department of Health and Human Services is looking to build off the COVID-19 data platform it established during the pandemic to leverage public health data and respond to future public health crises.
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded last year, HHS sought a data-driven response, but according to HHS Chief Data Scientist and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Kristen Honey, there was no one data source to drive that response. As a result agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created HHS Protect, a secure data-sharing platform to guide the government's COVID-19 pandemic response.
HHS not only connected data sources across health agencies, but also it sought new ways to collect COVID-19 data in HHS Protect, such as point-of-case diagnostic data. This involved incorporating different tools that states, localities, communities and organizations were using to collect data, not just those of diagnostic laboratories.
Now that HHS has built out HHS Protect — as well as its public-facing version, HHS Protect Public — Honey said the system's infrastructure will make health data actionable beyond the pandemic.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58413448
HSE cyber-attack: Irish health service still recovering months after hack
By Michael
Sheils McNamee
BBC News NI
Published 6 Sep 2021
The first time Donna-Marie Cullen heard about a massive cyber-attack on Ireland's health system, it was on the morning news.
The 36-year-old mother of two was waiting for her radiation treatment that afternoon for sarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer.
"I thought this is an awful situation for the HSE [the Irish health system] to be in," she says.
"After that, I got a call at lunchtime and was told that my radiation wouldn't be going ahead because of the cyber-attack.
"I didn't realise the severity, how invasive and how horrific this attack was."
On 14 May, when the attack occurred, Ms Cullen was nearing the final stages of her treatment, having been diagnosed in September 2020.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-tele-psychiatry-helping-chip-away-mental-health-crisis
How telepsychiatry is helping chip away at the mental health crisis
A psychiatrist who conducted one of the first virtual behavioral care visits explains how it's working for clinicians and patients. He stresses the importance of "webside manner."
By Bill Siwicki
September 07, 2021 11:33 AM
It is no secret that the United States is experiencing a mental health crisis due to aggravated conditions from the pandemic exacerbated by of a shortage of mental health professionals, especially psychiatrists.
As a result, especially because of the effects and requirements of the pandemic, telepsychiatry has been on the rise. In fact, behavioral healthcare has even received special exemptions from prepandemic reimbursement rules from the CMS and private payers.
Dr. James R. Varrell is chief medical officer and founder of Array Behavioral Care and a practicing psychiatrist. Varrell was among the first to perform telepsychiatry – back in 1999, before the Internet, via phone lines. This was through a state-sponsored grant in New Jersey. Array Behavioral Care has been at telepsychiatry for 20 years, with a large base of virtual psychiatrists.
In an interview with Healthcare IT News, Varrell talks about how healthcare organizations are coping via telepsychiatry with the mental health crisis, how tele-psychiatry has changed over the last two decades and the requisite bedside manner for tele-psychiatry.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/majority-healthcare-orgs-conducting-less-20-visits-virtually
Majority of healthcare orgs conducting less than 20% of visits virtually
Still, provider organizations recognize the value of telehealth when it comes to long-term care – especially for behavioral health patients and those with chronic issues, a new study shows.
By Kat Jercich
September 07, 2021 03:04 PM
A new report from KLAS and the Center for Connected Medicine found that a majority of organizations surveyed were conducting less than 20% of their visits virtually in May and June of this year.
The report, The Intersection of Value and Telehealth, surveyed nearly 100 qualified representatives about their organization's prioritization and adoption of telemedicine.
"We believe that healthcare institutions should focus on the value telehealth can deliver both to patients and the healthcare system overall," wrote the report authors.
WHY IT MATTERS
The report sought to identify trends in virtual care utilization amidst the recent months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/telehealth-accounts-20-health-system-appointments
Telehealth Accounts for 20% of Health System Appointments
Analysis | By John Commins | September 07, 2021
After a spike in telehealth during the public health emergency, a study suggests that virtual care appears to be leveling off.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Even though telehealth volumes are expected to decline in the coming months, the survey found that many health systems are planning to expand their telehealth services.
· Chronic care management, behavioral health and urgent care were the top three service lines cited by survey respondents for future expansion of telehealth.
· More than 90% of respondents were measuring telehealth use by patients to better understand the technology's value, up from the 77% of respondents to the same question in a survey taken in 2020.
· About 25% of respondents reported measuring health outcomes for patients using telehealth in the latest survey, up from 12% who said they were doing so in the 2020 report.
· Health systems identified ongoing obstacles for telehealth that include patients' inability to access the technology and broadband and provider uncertainty around reimbursements.
Telehealth visits are leveling off for health systems in the year since most providers lifted COVID-19 restrictions on non-emergency care, a new survey shows.
More than 80% of the 96 healthcare executives responding to the Center for Connected Medicine survey this spring said telehealth represents about 20% of their non-emergency visits.
A smaller number of hospital executives said telehealth represents about 30% or more of their patient volumes, but they expect those percentages to decline in the coming months as the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs.
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https://www.jwatch.org/na53777/2021/09/07/epics-sepsis-model-not-ready-prime-time
Informing Practice
September 7, 2021
EPIC's Sepsis Model Is Not Ready for Prime Time
Aaron J. Calderon, MD, FACP, SFHM, reviewing Wong A et al. JAMA Intern Med 2021 Aug
Despite its widespread use, the proprietary electronic health record system missed sepsis 67% of the time.
Numerous models exist to assist physicians in early identification of patients with sepsis, but none have been adopted uniformly. Commercial electronic medical record vendors, such as EPIC, have promoted their sepsis models as effective early warning tools, and they are used by many hospitals. In this study of 38,000 hospitalizations in the University of Michigan healthcare system, researchers examined the effectiveness of EPIC's sepsis model.
According to standard criteria, the prevalence of sepsis in this cohort was 7% (2552 patients). The EPIC model missed 67% of these sepsis cases. Additionally, EPIC sepsis alerts were issued for nearly 7000 patients, but the positive predictive value of an alert was only 12%; in other words, the vast majority of alerts were false positives.
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Telemedicine Abortions Offer Cheaper Options but May Also Undermine Critical Clinics
Analysis | By Kaiser Health News | September 03, 2021
Nonprofit Carafem delivers abortion pills to a patient's home after a telemedicine visit for $375 or less.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· A new slate of digital abortion options like Just the Pill, Hey Jane, Abortion on Demand and Choix proliferated, mailing abortion pills to patients in many states after a telemedicine visit.
· Carafem, which had been mailing the pills to patients in Georgia before the pandemic as part of a research project, streamlined its process for patients who are eligible for medical abortions.
· These services can be a lifeline for patients who haven't hit the 10- or 11-week threshold typically used for medical abortion and who can't get to a clinic or need a less expensive choice.
· But experts worry that telemedicine abortion options don't reach the patients who need it the most because they live in states with laws that actively discourage abortions and have made in-clinic care harder to access.
· At the same time, these new options could be endangering brick-and-mortar clinics by siphoning away the first-trimester visits that make up more than 90% of abortions.
Allison Hansen had just gone through a breakup with her boyfriend last year when she discovered she was pregnant. She already had an 8-year-old son and did not want another child.
Hansen called the Planned Parenthood facility near her home in Savannah, Georgia, to inquire about abortion services and was told the procedure would cost $500 and require four to six hours at the clinic.
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Enjoy!
David.
I see what people were on about earlier this week - Healthdirect? A shiny example of time-wasting opportunists. Devoid of thought, vision or action. We seem to have so much half assed attempts to be seen to be involved in Covid, sadly it is counter-productive
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