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.
November 19,
2021 - An automated texting program helped Philadelphia-based Penn
Medicine lower the risk of death for COVID-19 patients who quarantined at home,
according to a new
study.
As the novel
coronavirus surged in waves across the country last year, hospitals were
overwhelmed with patients. As a result, many hospitals turned to remote patient
monitoring to keep an eye on COVID-19 patients at home and free up inpatient
beds for those who needed it the most.
The study,
which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, examined data for
patients who tested positive for COVID-19 between March 23 and Nov. 30, 2020.
Researchers
compared outcomes of patients enrolled in COVID Watch — a Penn Medicine program
designed to remotely monitor patients via twice-a-day, automated text message
check-ins — with patients who received the usual outpatient care. Those in
COVID Watch had the option to report worsening symptoms, which were managed
24/7 by a dedicated team of telemedicine clinicians.
The members
addressed the increasing number of healthcare professionals making false claims
about COVID-19, which undermines public health initiatives and poses a risk to
patients. The false claims include how the virus is transmitted, promoting
untested treatments and cures, and encouraging patients to defy public health efforts
such as masking and vaccinations.
Members
agreed that the number of health professionals purposely spreading
disinformation to individuals is small, but they damage the overall credibility
of trusted healthcare professionals, including physicians.
“Physicians
are among the most trusted source of information and advice for patients and
the public at large, which is why it’s so dangerous when a physician or other
health care professional spreads disinformation,” AMA Board Member Jesse M.
Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, said in the press release.
In September
2020 the governmental Welsh health IT provider, Digital Health and Care Wales
(formerly known as NHS Wales Informatics Services), announced a partnership with healthcare ICT and mobile
workflow specialist, Ascom, to provide a customised version of its software
solution Digistat to all 14 Adult Intensive Care Units in Wales. Before then,
just three ICUs in Wales used electronic systems.
The objective
was, and remains, to roll out a national critical care information system that
will enable intensive care unit (ICU) staff to manage many more aspects of
patient care electronically and support the standardisation of care pathways
across Wales.
News
regarding the development of this system wasn’t just welcome because it spelled
an end to an antiquated paper-based system that was laborious, but also because
it offers the chance to transform workflows, make clinicians’ lives easier and
ultimately improve patient care. How? By enabling a digital ‘single source of
truth’ for each patient and those caring for them.
To explain
what I mean by this, it’s important to understand the challenges clinicians
face at present. In a fast-paced environment such as an ICU, having a
paper-based records system which dictates workflow is hugely inefficient and
prone to error.
As
you might guess, health-technology innovations relating to the COVID-19
pandemic are well represented among the winners of Fast Company’s
first Next Big Things in Tech awards. But the winners and honorable mentions
span a gamut of issues related to medical challenges, including a new device
that makes dialysis less of a burden, tools for keeping people out of the
hospital, and even a way for people with paralysis to control computers through
brain waves.
See
a full list of Next Big Things in Tech winners across all categories here.
Winners
Biospectal
For measuring blood pressure through
smartphones
Using the camera on a smartphone, Biospectal’s OptiBP app can record a user’s blood pressure
through a fingertip in just 20 seconds. The WHO is currently validating the
technology in a large-scale global study.
Brightseed
For mapping plants’ chemical diversity and
using it for medicine
The Forager platform leverages large-scale data processing and machine learning
to get a deeper understanding of the compounds within plants to identify potential
medical applications. For example, the company used it to identify a compound
that it’s testing as a treatment for fatty liver disease.
Caption Health
For adding intelligence to ultrasounds
Caption Health’s ultrasound uses AI to guide healthcare providers through the imaging
process and offer preliminary interpretations of scans. This year, the
company used the technology to monitor cardiac impacts from COVID-19.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/11/19/2021-security-review-key-takeaways-practical-cybersecurity-insights/
2021 Security Review: Key Takeaways & Practical Cybersecurity Insights
November 19, 2021
John Lynn
In
a recent virtual meetup Healthcare IT Today did with Proofpoint, we took a look back
at the year that was 2021 when it comes to cybersecurity. The speakers
shared some of their key takeaways and learnings from this last year and
offered some practical insights for healthcare CISOs and CIOs that are looking
at how they can improve their cybersecurity efforts.
While
we’re not able to share the entire event, we wanted to highlight a number of
the insights and perspectives that stood out at the event.
Insight
#1
Many
healthcare organizations still need to do basic security hygiene. While
we like to talk about the latest and greatest in IT security, many
organizations would benefit from stepping back and doing some of the basic
security efforts they still haven’t done. Ryan Witt, Managing Director,
Industry Solutions Group and Resident Healthcare CISO at Proofpoint, shares a few of
what those basic efforts might be.
Insight
#2
While
we often talk about security solutions, Drex Deford, Executive Healthcare
Strategist at Crowdstrike, shared
that one of the best things healthcare organizations can do to secure their
environment is to cleanup their aging and often randomly pieced together
infrastructure.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/apis-that-connect-to-certified-ehr-technology-on-the-rise
APIs That Connect to Certified EHR Technology on the Rise
The number
of APIs that integrate with certified EHR technology is expected to continue to
climb as more developers meet Cures Act requirements.
By Hannah Nelson
November 18,
2021 - ONC research has found an increase in the number of application
programming interface (API) adoption that integrate with certified EHR
technology, which should increase patient access to health information,
according to a HealthITBuzz blog
post written by ONC’s Christian Johnson and Vaishali Patel.
The ONC 21st
Century Cures Act Final Rule, published in 2020, built upon previous federal
initiatives to enhance patient access to personal health information through
standards-based API adoption.
APIs
make it easier patients to use smartphones, tablets, and desktop apps to access
their personal health information from certified
EHR systems.
ONC survey
data has revealed a rapid uptick in healthcare providers enabling patient data
access through APIs. In 2019, about 7 in 10 non-federal acute care hospitals
enabled this capability, which is a two-fold increase compared to 2017.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/follow-up-visit-volumes-similar-for-telehealth-in-person-care
Follow-Up Visit Volumes Similar for Telehealth, In-Person Care
Telehealth
services and in-person care were accompanied by similar volumes of follow-up
visits and subsequent hospitalizations.
By Victoria Bailey
November 18,
2021 - Telehealth visits for primary care services did not lead to any
significant increases in in-person follow-up visits, hospitalizations, or
prescription orders, according to a study
by Kaiser Permanente researchers published in JAMA Network Open.
Direct-to-consumer
telehealth platforms are on the rise, due to their ability to provide
individuals with instant virtual care. However, these visits often take place
with a new doctor and are not integrated with the patient’s regular physician
and EHR. This can potentially lead to over-prescribing and increased
follow-up visit volumes.
To understand
if the results differ when the telehealth visits are between patients and their
regular primary care physicians, researchers looked at all primary care visits
at Kaiser Permanente Northern California between January 2016 and May 2018.
Out of the
nearly 2.2 million primary care visits, 1.8 million were in-person and 307,888
were conducted via telehealth. Around 20,000 of the telehealth appointments
were video visits, while the remaining were audio-only telephone visits.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/chime-reports-increased-patient-engagement-technology-use-in-2021
CHIME Reports Increased Patient Engagement Technology Use in 2021
The
pandemic, regulatory programs, and the push for remote patient care have fueled
a surge in patient engagement technology use this past year.
By Sara Heath
November 18,
2021 - The COVID-19 pandemic has heralded in a new era of patient
engagement technology and utilization, with healthcare organizations reporting
new levels of patient portal, mobile app, online health information gathering,
and digital health insurance card use, CHIME described in its 2021 Digital
Health Most Wired report.
These trends
in patient engagement and experience of care come with additional reports about
increased use of health data analytics, EHR reporting, cybersecurity measures,
and price transparency tools, the organization wrote.
“A monumental
shift is occurring across the industry as more and more organizations adopt
digital health strategies that transform health and care,” CHIME President and
CEO Russell P. Branzell, said in a statement emailed to journalists.
“The survey
covers multiple categories to assess how effectively healthcare organizations
are advancing on their digital health journeys,” Branzell continued. “This
year, we see not only individual gains in categories but also cumulative gains
from the past two years that reflect a digital revolution long in the making.
Top performers are setting an example that is inspiring widespread change at an
unprecedented pace.”
-----
https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/why-remote-patient-care-is-likely-to-expand-quickly
Why remote patient care is likely to expand quickly
The benefits
of remote patient monitoring were underscored by the pandemic, and
opportunities are rising to use technology more broadly.
Nov 18 2021
Matthew
Fisher
The pandemic
and evolving patient preferences are bringing new attention to technologies
that enable care delivery where and when patients want them.
So it’s no
surprise that remote patient monitoring (RPM) is an area of telehealth
receiving a fair amount of attention. The basic premise of RPM is to record and
obtain physiologic data about individuals in their daily lives that is then fed
to the care team, which in turn enables management of an identified condition.
The premise builds upon goals of improving health while also beginning to meet
patients where they are.
Adoption of
RPM has not necessarily been as quick as expected, though data are starting to
be generated as to the benefits that can be derived. Anecdotally, patients and
clinicians are happy with the interactions and results that can be obtained.
Before diving
into the past, present and future of RPM and healthcare, it is also helpful to
consider whether calling the interaction remote patient monitoring is even
accurate. The service is arguably a lot more comprehensive than just
monitoring. While patients are certainly recording data and having that data
transmitted for review, there are also direct interactions, whether by
audio/visual visit or in person, along with recommendations for lifestyle
changes. In many solutions, patients are also able to access and interact with
the data collected, enabling the opportunity to self-identify trends or share
with additional care teams.
-----
https://healthtechmagazine.net/article/2021/11/3-tips-integrate-ehr-clinical-communication-and-collaboration-tools
3 Tips to Integrate EHR with Clinical Communication and Collaboration
Tools
From
understanding your healthcare system’s needs to improving patient care, here
are considerations for your clinical and IT teams.
by Nathan Eddy
Healthcare
systems looking to remedy the fatigue brought on by unwieldy electronic health
records systems and mounting staff shortages can explore how the integration of clinical communication and collaboration
tools modernize their workflows and ultimately enhance patient
care.
At
a foundational level, CC&C tools integrated into an EHR system improve
convenience for a care team by enabling them to view messages from and respond
back to multiple members, says Dr. Allen Hsiao, chief medical information
officer for Yale New Haven Health and the Yale School of Medicine.
“The
ability to drag and drop chart results you want other clinicians to see, or
group messaging where all care team members are in the loop, are great
time-saving tools,” Hsiao says. “The key is to build functionality that allows
people to prioritize the messages. For example, you can see the doctor’s status
is writing orders, so they don’t get interrupted when they are in certain parts
of the chart.”
Mobile
functionality, such as speech recognition technology and the ability to write
orders, is also important, he adds, but he would like to see improved status
markers.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/digital-health/report-most-physicians-worry-telehealth-made-them-miss-signs-drug-abuse-during
Report: Most physicians worry telehealth made them miss signs of drug
abuse during the pandemic
by Rebecca
Torrence
Nov 16, 2021
12:23pm
Telehealth
offered numerous benefits to patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing
access to care when in-person visits weren’t safe or feasible for many. But a
new report shows providers worry that virtual visits allowed signs of drug
abuse to slip by unnoticed.
In
a report
from Quest Diagnostics released Monday, 67% of the over 500 primary care physicians
surveyed said they fear they missed signs of drug abuse in their patients
during the pandemic.
And
nearly all of them were prescribing those often-misused drugs—a whopping 97%
reported prescribing opioids within 6 months of taking the survey.
Their
concerns extend beyond the pandemic into telemedicine use today. Only 50% of
physicians said they were confident they could recognize signs of drug misuse
during telehealth visits, a far cry from the 91% that said the same of
in-person patient interactions.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/broadband-achilles-heel-telehealth
Broadband is the Achilles' heel of telehealth
The fate of
virtual care adoption is tied to the fate of broadband expansion.
By Craig Settles
November 18,
2021 05:16 PM
Six
years ago I had a stroke and telehealth saved my life. Make no mistake, I am a
believer!
However,
as wonderful as telehealth is, it has a serious Achilles' heel. The fate of
telehealth adoption is tied to the fate of broadband adoption.
Some
folks believe telehealth applications take up very little space on patients'
computers, so how can broadband be an Achilles' heel? Let me count the ways.
No broadband, no telehealth
"We
recently provided testimony before the Missouri legislature about the ties
between digital equity and telehealth, how not having internet connections at
the requisite speeds means you can't have telehealth", says McClain Bryant
Macklin, director of policy and strategic initiatives at the Health Forward Foundation.
"Broadband
is now revered as the super-social determinant of health because it has a
direct impact on all of the other social determinants of health."
But
what if there's no broadband? More than 14 million urban homes and nearly 4 million
rural homes have no broadband. People of color make up 75% of the unconnected
population in urban counties.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/new-report-finds-digitisation-making-great-progress-germany
New report finds that digitisation is making 'great progress' in Germany
Digital
infrastructure, including e-Prescription and electronic patient record, being
rolled-out successfully according to findings from German agency, gematik.
By Anna Engberg
November 18,
2021 04:39 AM
The
German agency gematik - focused on the digitisation of the country's
healthcare system - has published a new report, the 'Telematics Infrastructure Atlas', providing an
update on the current status of the digital health architecture in
Germany.
The
publication highlights development potential and addresses the use of
the electronic patient record (ePA) by healthcare providers and patients in
Germany.
According
to the report, dental practices (97 per cent), pharmacies (96 per cent) and
doctors' offices (93 per cent) are the medical facilities in Germany which are
most frequently connected to the telematics infrastructure (TI), followed by
psychotherapy practices and hospitals with least 88 per cent.
Although
trust in health data protection is high among insured Germans, many health
care providers seemingly still have concerns about data security.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/11/18/ltis-comprehensive-telehealth-platform-for-developing-countries/
LTI’s Comprehensive Telehealth Platform for Developing Countries
November 18, 2021
Andy Oram
Telehealth
has been crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic to connect patients to their
health care systems. It’s impressive that clinicians, regulators, and payers
managed to quickly integrate telehealth—and the innovations seem to be catching
on permanently. But in the U.S., at least, these accommodations of telehealth
were disappointingly limited to reproducing the doctor/patient visit. A
comprehensive telehealth strategy is called “connected health.” It focuses on
building better behaviors through planning, monitoring, and support.
We
are far from a connected healthcare system in most countries, but Let’s Talk Interactive (LTI) is
building a solution and reaching out to Latin America. LTI has long offered a wide range of solutions in
behavioral medicine monitoring, not just televisits. Elements of LTI’s
system (Figure 1) include telehealth software, medical carts, kiosks, and other
medical devices, provider networks, HIPAA-compliant web development,
cybersecurity, and APIs for integration with other systems.
Understanding
the Context
I
got a sense of how difficult care in remote areas is from an email message by
Juán Carlos Lenz, a board member of Wings of
Hope, which provides medical aid by air and the Internet to these areas.
“When
the people in El Charco, on the Pacific coast of Colombia, need access to
specialist doctors or for special diagnoses, they have to go to the nearest
high level hospital. This hospital is in Tumaco, about four to eight hours away
by boat in the best cases. Sometimes, and for more complex issues, they have to
go to Pasto, which is another nine hours by bus. The transportation is very
expensive given it is by water, and the trip can be hard on pregnant women and
other groups of people, such as the elderly. Travel is also expensive because
the insurance covers only the tickets, but there is only one trip per day, so
patients have to stay overnight in Tumaco or Pasto. Some of the indigenous
people don’t speak Spanish and don’t even have appropriate clothing to
withstand the cold from a high-altitude capital like Pasto. Imagine also even
thinking of letting your 5 or 7 kids alone at home. Additionally, low schooling
levels leave people with difficulties accessing the health system, and
interpreting the results they might get, Sometimes the doctor’s advice can be
out of touch with their reality.”
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/cisa-iranian-government-sponsored-threat-actors-targeting-healthcare
CISA: Iranian Government-Sponsored Threat Actors Targeting Healthcare
The US and
its allies are warning healthcare entities about Iranian government-sponsored
threat actors targeting Microsoft Exchange and Fortinet vulnerabilities.
By Jill McKeon
November 17,
2021 - US cyber officials along with allies from Australia and the UK issued an advisory
warning the healthcare and transportation sectors about an Iranian
government-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) group that has been
exploiting Microsoft Exchange ProxyShell and Fortinet vulnerabilities.
The FBI,
along with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the
Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), and the United Kingdom’s National
Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have observed the APT group exploiting Fortinet
vulnerabilities since at least March 2021 and Microsoft Exchange
vulnerabilities since at least October 2021.
The threat
actors are known to focus on exploiting known vulnerabilities and subsequently
leverage the access for data exfiltration or encryption, ransomware, and
extortion.
“In March
2021, the FBI and CISA observed these Iranian government-sponsored APT actors
scanning devices on ports 4443, 8443, and 10443 for Fortinet FortiOS
vulnerability CVE-2018-13379, and enumerating devices for FortiOS
vulnerabilities CVE-2020-12812 and CVE-2019-5591,” the advisory
stated.
-----
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abi8017?mc_cid=bce3a02a2c&mc_eid=0c3635cc12
A decade retrospective of medical robotics research from 2010 to 2020
Pierre
E. Dupont Bradley
J. Nelson Michael
Goldfarb Blake
Hannaford et al.
Science
Robotics • 10 Nov 2021 • Vol 6, Issue 60 • DOI:
10.1126/scirobotics.abi8017
Abstract
Robotics is a
forward-looking discipline. Attention is focused on identifying the next grand
challenges. In an applied field such as medical robotics, however, it is
important to plan the future based on a clear understanding of what the
research community has recently accomplished and where this work stands with
respect to clinical needs and commercialization. This Review article identifies
and analyzes the eight key research themes in medical robotics over the past
decade. These thematic areas were identified using search criteria that identified
the most highly cited papers of the decade. Our goal for this Review article is
to provide an accessible way for readers to quickly appreciate some of the most
exciting accomplishments in medical robotics over the past decade; for this
reason, we have focused only on a small number of seminal papers in each
thematic area. We hope that this article serves to foster an entrepreneurial
spirit in researchers to reduce the widening gap between research and
translation.
-----
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/16/22785163/digital-health-physical-activity-inequity
Health apps and wearables help rich people the most, study finds
They don’t help improve physical activity for poorer
people
By Nicole Wetsman Nov 16, 2021, 12:54pm EST
Digital
tools like motivational text messages that try to nudge people to do more
physical activity aren’t effective for poor people, according to a
new meta-analysis. In one of the most comprehensive efforts to tease apart
the impact of behavioral change programs on people with different income
levels, the study authors showed that apps and wearables only helped bump
physical activity levels for people with high socioeconomic status.
The
finding bolsters
arguments
that digital health interventions can end up widening health gaps between
groups and that they’re designed for people with more money and more education.
The
new analysis looked at 19 studies that tested whether things like text
messages, web-based prompts, or wearable step trackers could nudge people to
increase their levels of physical activity. Across all of the studies, the
behavioral tools were not effective for people with low socioeconomic status,
even when they worked well for wealthier people. That pattern held across every
type of approach tested.
-----
https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/interoperability/information-sharing-after-the-21st-century-cures-act
Information Sharing After the 21st Century Cures Act
Steven
Posnack | November 16, 2021
When
President Obama signed the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act (Cures
Act) into law in 2016, it marked a significant shift in health policy and
health law. Not since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
of 1996 (HIPAA) has there been a more noteworthy change in how electronic health
information (EHI) is approached under United States federal law.
Importantly, the Cures Act’s information blocking provision should always be
considered in the context of other laws that speak to how EHI is shared in
health care.
The
Cures Act’s information blocking provision requires new thinking, new
practices, and adjustments to prior norms. It also potentially makes the
“starting line” for evaluating whether a given practice might be considered
information blocking different depending on the fact pattern and the actor(s)
involved (health
care providers, health IT developers of certified health IT, and
health
information networks or health information exchanges, as defined in the
information blocking regulations). As a result, understanding how the
information blocking provision may apply to particular practices must account
for case-by-case details, including whether a regulatory exception has been
met, what an actor’s intent was, and whether an interference in the access,
exchange, or use of EHI has occurred.
When
it comes to the information blocking provision and its intersection with other
laws, we suggest keeping in mind how other laws align and interact with three
main concepts set forth in the information blocking regulations: 1) “required
by law,” 2) the definition of “interference,” and 3) information blocking
“exceptions.”
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/what-should-interoperability-look-eight-years-onc-asked-you-answered
What should interoperability look like in eight years? ONC asked, you
answered
The Office of
the National Coordinator for Health IT said it received more than 700
predictions from stakeholders about healthcare outcomes in 2030.
By Kat Jercich
November 17,
2021 12:16 PM
This
past May, the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT asked
healthcare stakeholders: What should healthcare look like in 2030, and what should
interoperability have enabled by then?
According
to a blog post published this week by Deputy National Coordinator
Steven Posnack, the agency received more than 700 submissions in response over
the course of the next few months.
As
Posnack explained, the agency "analyzed each statement and looked for
trends, groupings, combinations, and other affinities."
The
resulting theme statements ran the gamut from shifts in individual and care
delivery experiences to changes at health systems.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/11/17/study-looks-at-impact-of-virtual-first-care-in-chronic-disease-management/
Study Looks at Impact Of Virtual-First Care in Chronic Disease Management
November 17, 2021
Anne Zieger
New
research
suggests that virtual-first care can improve the results of chronic care
programs.
The
data underlying the research comes from Omada Health, which offers
virtual-first care programs for a number of chronic illnesses, including
diabetes, hypertension, musculoskeletal conditions and behavioral health
issues.
To
look at the effectiveness of these programs, Omada pulled together more than 1
billion actionable data points from 100 million devices across all programs. It
also collected 13 million care messages spanning these programs.
The
Omada Insights Lab found that virtual-first care generated some significant
successes. For example, it concluded that 94% of members engaged with a COVID
health coach in the first week were more likely to achieve the health outcomes
caregivers had in mind.
Also,
when coaches offered proactive feedback, patients showed a 10% to 15% increase
in meal tracking retention. This correlated with a 0.5% increase in weight loss
for the first four months, compared to the control group that got reactive
coaching.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/digital-health-paradox-record-funding-2021-yet-path-broad-adoption-needs-unique-approach
Digital Health Paradox: Record Funding in 2021, Yet Path to Broad Adoption
Needs Unique Approach
Analysis
| By Pothik
Chatterjee | November 16, 2021
Maryland-based
payer-provider partnership looks to mentor healthcare startups to bridge the
development divide.
Digital
health funding in 2021 has already shattered 2020's record with more than $20
billion invested in digital health startups, according to Rock
Health’s recent industry report.
While it is
heartening to see increased investment in historically neglected areas
such as mental health, female-funded startups and health equity, there remains
a fundamental paradox in digital health. Out of these thousands of mobile
apps and digital disrupters embraced by both Silicon Valley
and consumers (who are now used to these technologies from other
industries) getting to broad adoption and reimbursement in the
healthcare industry remains challenging.
There may be
many reasons for this. Healthcare providers are interested in validated
outcomes (how can this mobile app help make my patients healthier?) and
identifying effective digital solutions they can “prescribe” to their patients
from a myriad of potential solutions. Similarly, payers/insurers are interested
in outcomes and cost reduction to justify reimbursement for new tech. Who will
create solutions that emerge as industry standards and get adopted at scale by
the healthcare industry?
It is
imperative that digital health entrepreneurs work closely with both providers
and payers to figure out the complex challenges around implementation, requiring
culture change and disruption of status quo with electronic medical records and
current infrastructure investments, outcomes validation and sustainability of
business models. Paradigm shifts in healthcare
innovation require a multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder
approach grounded in collaboration.
-----
https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/onc-clarifies-expectations-for-data-sharing-with-patients
ONC clarifies expectations for data sharing with patients
In a series
of answers to questions raised by the 21st Century Cures Act, the agency
explains how much data organizations must share.
Nov 16 2021
Fred
Bazzoli
Responses
released Monday by a federal agency bring more clarity to long-standing
questions surrounding the information blocking of the 21st Century Cures Act.
In a series
of answers to frequently asked questions, the Office of the National
Coordinator for Health Information Technology put a stake in the ground on what
it expects provider organizations to be able to after October 2022, as well as
providing guidance on interference, content and manner.
Current rules
limit data that must be shared to the U.S. Core Data for Interoperability
(USCDI), but ONC said in one of its responses that, after October 6, 2022, the
definition of information blocking “will apply to the full scope of EHI” and
means electronic protected health information as defined in federal
statute. The rules will apply “regardless of whether the group of records
are used or maintained by or for a covered entity.”
However, EHI
shall not include psychotherapy notes or “information compiled in reasonable
anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal or administrative
proceeding.”
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/looking-back-year-interoperability-milestones-ehealth-exchange
Looking back on a year of interoperability milestones at eHealth Exchange
The health
information network's executive director, Jay Nakashima, sees big progress with
21st century Cures Act compliance, TEFCA, data quality, FHIR adoption and
information exchange among providers, public health agencies and labs.
By Mike Miliard
November 16,
2021 10:59 AM
After
more than a decade of hard work, and not a little frustration at the slow pace
of change, interoperability has been making some significant progress recently.
And 2021 was a particularly notable year for U.S. efforts toward more
widespread and seamless data flow, says Jay Nakashima, executive director of
eHealth Exchange.
The
nationwide exchange – it's literally in all 50 states – is a network of
networks that links federal agencies and private-sector healthcare
organizations for care delivery and public health. In recent times, of course,
that's meant, among other imperatives, "sending millions of COVID-19
testing and diagnoses reports to the CDC, and other national and state
agencies."
But
the eHealth Exchange has been making progress on many other fronts toward the
wider goals of free-flowing movement of health information across the
healthcare ecosystem.
For
instance, it's working in tandem with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to
leverage FHIR next year for FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
initiative, which gathers patient data for clinical follow-up after adverse
events.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/biggest-healthcare-data-breaches-2021
The biggest healthcare data breaches of 2021
More than 40
million patient records have been compromised this past year by incidents
reported to the federal government in 2021.
By Kat Jercich
November 16,
2021 09:54 AM
Amidst
warnings from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation about hacking groups and news from the Department of Justice
about ransomware-related arrests, an adage has begun to be
repeated among cybersecurity professionals: It's not "if" an attack
will happen, but "when."
And
2021 has been a particularly dire year for healthcare data breaches, with
incidents taking down networks for weeks at a time and potentially leading to disruptions of care throughout the country.
To
add insult to injury, some hospitals even face legal action after restoring
access to their network. Overall, 40,099,751 individuals' records have been
affected by exposures reported to the federal government so far this year.
For
anyone who needs a refresher on how things have gone, Healthcare
IT News has compiled a list of the 10 largest data breaches
reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office
of Civil Rights this year so far:
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/11/16/the-future-is-open-data-what-healthcare-can-learn-from-finance/
The Future is Open Data: What Healthcare Can Learn From Finance
November 16, 2021
The
following is a guest article by Mike Simmons, CEO and Founder at andros.
Sharing
information across platforms has become so ubiquitous that many of us hardly
notice it happening—interconnected technologies touch almost every area of our
lives. Industries ranging from tourism to e-commerce have adopted data-sharing
practices; greater access to information has proven, unsurprisingly, to lead to
better experiences.
And
yet, information-sharing innovations that would allow for streamlining and
convenience are lagging in one of the most vital sectors: healthcare. If
healthcare is going to join those sectors that are more advanced in both
technology and consumer experience, it would do well to take a page from
fintech—or more specifically, the open data paradigm known as open
banking.
The
goal of open banking is to lower barriers to entry across different financial
services by making consumer financial data accessible and open through
purpose-built APIs. This allows customers to choose the ideal financial product
for them, be it easily opening a new credit card or adopting a new financial
planning app.
In
our increasingly digitized world, this kind of convenience, a result of open data, is often expected. By taking a cue from finance,
healthcare can move beyond the slowdown of the initial ACA-incentivized telehealth boom over ten years ago to
embrace newer technologies, and the possibilities of open data.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/drone-deliveries-taking-healthcare
Drone Deliveries Taking Off in Healthcare
Analysis
| By Eric Wicklund |
November 15, 2021
Intermountain
Healthcare and several other healthcare providers are using drones to deliver
prescriptions, medical supplies, and telemedicine platforms.
Intermountain
Healthcare will be using drones to deliver prescriptions and other medical
supplies to homes in and around Salt Lake City.
The
multi-state health system, based in Salt Lake City, has announced a partnership
with Zipline, a San Francisco-based medical product delivery company. The deal
will enable Intermountain to used drones to ship specialty pharmaceuticals and
homecare products to homes within 50 miles of the health system’s distribution
center.
“Making
access to healthcare faster and more convenient will lead to better health
outcomes for our patients,” Intermountain President and CEO Marc Harrison said in a press release.
“Patients can
connect with providers from the home, and then receive the medications and
supplies they need in a matter of minutes, directly to their doorsteps,” said
Keller Rinaudo, co-founder and CEO of Zipline, which has facilitated more than
200,000 drone deliveries and is currently involved in programs in Ghana and
Rwanda. “For example, a cancer patient could receive her medication without
ever leaving her home. Or a single parent could get his child’s antibiotics
without a trip to the pharmacy. Instant access to care is not just about
convenience. It comes down to making healthcare more equitable, efficient, and
reliable for people, regardless of where they live or their circumstances.”
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/data-standards-key-for-ehr-documentation-of-gender-minority-patients
Data Standards Key for EHR Documentation of Gender Minority Patients
A health
system implemented SOGI EHR documentation protocols, but a lack of data
standards limits the usability of SOGI data across the care continuum.
By Hannah Nelson
November 15,
2021 - As healthcare organizations look to sexual orientation and gender
identity (SOGI) EHR documentation to improve health equity for gender-minority
patients, a lack of national data standards limits data usability across the
care continuum, according to a study
published in JAMIA.
Geisinger, an
integrated health system located in rural Pennsylvania, modified its Epic EHR
system to enable the collection and use of SOGI-related information.
In
particular, the health system added four new data elements:
·
Gender identity, which refers to how individuals
perceive themselves
·
Birth sex, which documents anatomic and/or
physiologic characteristics
·
Affirmation history, which documents transition
steps for transgender patients
·
Organ inventory, which documents organ history
for transgender patients
The health
system also configured the EHR to ensure inclusive documentation for existing
data elements such as legal sex, pronouns, correct name, marital status, and
emergency contacts.
Geisinger
modified clinical decision support tools in the EHR to ensure the correct use
of the updated data elements. For instance, wherever the EHR used a patient’s
sex, Geisinger configured the system to map to legal sex, gender identity, or birth
sex, based on the context.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/patients-used-telehealth-as-a-substitute-for-post-discharge-visits
Patients Used Telehealth as a Substitute for Post-Discharge Visits
Post-discharge
visit volumes remained steady, but more patients used telehealth while the
number of in-person visits decreased, a study found.
By Victoria Bailey
November 15,
2021 - The number of outpatient visits after hospital discharges remained
stable during the COVID-19 pandemic but telehealth use for these visits
increased, suggesting that telehealth was a substitute for in-person care
rather than an addition, a study
published in JAMA Health Forum revealed.
There was a
significant uptick in telehealth use at the start of the pandemic. Since then, patients
and providers alike have expressed their satisfaction with virtual care.
As
policymakers consider the
future of telehealth, they must weigh the pros and cons of virtual care.
Understanding if telehealth increases access to care and if it substitutes for
or adds to in-person care are two key areas of consideration.
University of
Pennsylvania researchers analyzed hospital discharges and subsequent outpatient
visits from commercially insured patients to track telehealth use during the
pandemic.
-----
https://www.healio.com/news/hepatology/20211113/artificial-intelligence-algorithms-lead-the-way-for-health-cares-bold-new-future
November 13,
2021
Artificial intelligence, algorithms lead the way for health care’s ‘bold’
new future’
Data
used well via artificial intelligence and transparent algorithms offers
health care a glimpse into democratization and equitable, efficient and
efficacious care, according to an expert speaking at The Liver Meeting Digital
Experience.
“Over
the next six quarters, ... we are going to see technology advancements, we are
going to see policy and regulatory change and cultural expectations that will
ask us to deliver cures in novel settings using novel methods and processes
that will require us as providers to rethink how health care works in this
country and internationally,” John D. Halamka, MD, MS, president of the
Mayo Clinic Platform, said during his President’s Choice Lecture.
Prerequisites to streamlined care
Halamka
challenged meeting attendees to adjust their views of what a platform is and
what it offers to both physicians and patients.
“Whether
you’re a provider or just a care navigator for a family ... in 2020 and 2021,
care is often challenging to coordinate. It’s not clear where you go next, what
disease state you have, ... bringing the right patient to the right facility
... to get the right care ... is guesswork,” he said. “We want something
different. By 2030, we want continuous care that’s easy to access and navigate
based on evidence and [we want to] make this care equitable and highly
available to all. And if we are going to achieve that, there are several
prerequisites.”
-----
https://www.statnews.com/2021/11/15/its-time-for-individuals-not-doctors-or-companies-to-own-their-health-data/
It’s time for individuals — not doctors or companies — to own their health
data
By Juhan
Sonin, Annie Lakey Becker and Kim
Nipp Nov. 15, 2021
Health data should be like a mountain stream, flowing in a
single direction with a clear purpose: improving health and medical outcomes.
Instead, it’s a complex puzzle that only data scientists and physicians can
meaningfully put together and use.
When
most people think of personal health data, they think about their medical
records. These reside — usually unconnected — in the offices of primary care
physicians and specialists, in imaging companies, hospitals, and elsewhere.
These records contain information such as vital signs, prescriptions and
allergies, illnesses and injuries, physicians’ notes, and more.
But
health data represent so much more than that, since most
“health” happens outside of medical care settings. It includes your personal
circumstances, the choices
you make, and the things you do. This includes information from apps that log
your workouts. It’s information from your past, like trauma or
adverse childhood events. It’s information about where you live, what you eat and drink, your education,
salary, emotional and social history, and other things, all combining to provide the whole picture of
your health.
With
health data scattered across each facility and provider you’ve ever visited and
across each app
and wearable you’ve ever used, it’s impossible to see the full picture. But
that is something that should be available to everyone.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/telephone-video-visits-critical-enabling-safety-net-care-access
Telephone, video visits 'critical' for enabling safety-net care access
But a recent
study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found
that clinicians are still concerned about hurdles to telehealth implementation.
By Kat Jercich
November 15,
2021 01:28 PM
A
study published this month in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine
found that safety net providers in New York state reported positive experiences
using telephone and video during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At
the same time, researchers noted, "When it comes to equity in access,
telemedicine presents a double-edged sword."
"On
the one hand, telemedicine visits can make care more convenient and accessible
by removing physical barriers such as distance or transportation costs. On the
other hand, some telemedicine modalities, such as videoconferencing, entail
using digital tools and technologies that may not be equally accessible to all
patients," they continued.
"COVID-19
has further exposed dramatic inequities in technology access and utilization,
compounding socioeconomic and racial disparities in health equity," they
added.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/nation-state-threat-actors-are-motivated-intelligence-cash
Nation-state threat actors are motivated by intelligence, cash
H-ISAC Chief
Security Officer Errol Weiss warns that individuals working on COVID-19
vaccines and treatments are of "high interest" to adversaries. He'll
discuss more at the upcoming HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Forum.
By Kat Jercich
November 15,
2021 10:16 AM
As
cyberattacks continue to hamper the operations of critical infrastructure,
including hospitals, it may be tempting to think of the hackers as if they're
the main characters in the 1995 film of the same name: Kids who want to stir up
trouble, and maybe make some cash doing it.
But
"this is not a teenager in a hoodie doing these kinds of
attacks. These are elaborate, sophisticated, organized criminal
gangs," as Errol Weiss, chief security officer at H-ISAC, warned at HIMSS21 this past summer.
And
some of these gangs have the muscle of nation-states behind them – making them
even more potentially threatening to healthcare organizations of
all sizes.
Weiss,
who will be appearing this December at the virtual HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Forum, spoke with Healthcare
IT News this past week just as news broke that the U.S. Department of Justice had charged two men for their
alleged involvement in deploying Russia-linked REvil ransomware.
He
discussed the motivations for nation-state threat actors, what can be done to
tamp down on ransomware and why it's so important for everyone to protect
themselves and their data.
-----
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2021/november/telemedicine-during-covid-19.html
Telemedicine During COVID-19: Video vs. Phone Visits and the Digital
Divide
Nov 15, 2021
Health
and Medicine Engineering,
Science and Technology
New York City
Telemedicine
visits accounted for more than 60 percent of patient care at New York community
health centers during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020, finds a
new study by researchers at NYU School of Global Public Health.
While
video visits have their advantages, telephone visits accounted for a larger
proportion of telemedicine care and are critical for providing access and
addressing the “digital divide,” according to the study published
in the Journal
of the American Board of Family Medicine.
“Our
study suggests that both video and phone visits will continue to shape how health
care is delivered in a post-pandemic world,” said Ji Eun
Chang, assistant professor of public health policy and management at NYU
School of Global Public Health and the lead author of the study.
The
COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed profound transformations across the healthcare
delivery system, including an abrupt shift toward telemedicine. While a
significant amount of research has centered on the rapid adoption of
telemedicine in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, less is known about
the feasibility, use, and benefits of phone vs. video visits in the months
following the widespread transition to remote care, particularly for “safety
net” providers who care for vulnerable populations.
-----
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/testing-firm-can-profit-from-sale-of-covid-swabs-w6vkb2f2f
Testing firm can profit from sale of Covid swabs
Company
saves customer DNA for future use
Shanti Das and George Greenwood
Sunday
November 14 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
A large
Covid-19 testing provider is being investigated by the UK’s data privacy
watchdog over its plans to sell swabs containing customers’ DNA for medical
research.
Cignpost
Diagnostics, a government-approved supplier trading as ExpressTest, said it
intended to analyse the samples to “learn more about human health”, to develop
drugs and products or to sell information to third parties, company documents
show.
Analysis of
sensitive medical data can typically be carried out only with explicit informed
consent. But customers booking tests through expresstest.co.uk were not clearly
told their data would be used for purposes beyond Covid-19 testing. Instead
they were asked to tick a box agreeing to a 4,876-word privacy policy, which
links to another document outlining its “research programme”.
It is not
clear how many samples have been stored by Cignpost or whether they have been
sold or used for any research so far, but the policy says that data belonging
to all those providing a swab is retained indefinitely. There is no minimum age
set out in the research document, suggesting children are included.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
