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
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/06/sector-react-to-governments-digital-health-and-care-plan/
Sector reacts to government’s digital health and care plan
From NHS Providers to the National Care Forum – there has been a lot of reaction to the government’s digital health and care plan.
Hannah Crouch 29 June 2022
Digital Health has pulled together some of the best reaction from the healthcare IT sector to the publication of the plan which you can find below.
Interim chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery:
“We welcome this plan which rightly signals digital transformation as a high priority within the NHS, and aims to set out a clear national vision for a digital future, consolidating previous national guidance.
“It also provides a much needed clearer plan of action for trust leaders as they support digital transformation in their organisations and their local systems. Trust leaders recognise the role digital tools will play in recovering elective performance and supporting the workforce sustainably.
“The focus on patient experience and empowering patients to be more involved in their care and data is particularly welcome, and the plan also rightly recognises the role of NHS England in supporting commercial negotiation with technology suppliers and leveraging purchasing power at scale. We welcome the commitment to produce a new framework for NHS action on digital inclusion, which has rightly risen up the agenda since the sector’s response to the pandemic.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/06/digital-health-and-care-plan-2billion-digitise-sector/
Digital health and care plan reveals £2bn will be allocated to digitise sector
The digital health and social care plan has been published and reveals that £2billion has been allocated to help bring the health system into the 21st century.
Jordan Sollof 29 June 2022
The plan, published on 29 June 2022, sets out the government’s vision for transforming health and care with digital technology.
This includes £2billion from the spending review which has been allocated to help digitise the sector through the roll out of electronic patient records (EPRs). The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, has already outlined his EPR targets earlier in the year, where he set the aim of 90% of NHS trusts to have an EPR in place by December 2023, with the remaining 10% in the process of implementing them.
The document also features a commitment to extend remote monitoring and virtual wards with a target of September 2024 set for when patients are able to complete their hospital pre-assessment checks from home across the country .
The plan also sets out how the government will improve citizen access to health information with a number of features planned for the NHS App.
-----
How health systems can successfully manage and grow their provider networks with an EHR
Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the preferences and expectations of healthcare consumers have […]
Jun 27, 2022 at 2:08 PM
Against the backdrop of the pandemic, the preferences and expectations of healthcare consumers have changed significantly over the last two years. One of the most profound changes taking place is that patients are now prioritizing convenience and access to care above all else. As a result, health systems are investing heavily in digital transformation initiatives that enable them to streamline their operations and become more consumer-friendly. According to Precedence Research, the market for healthcare’s digital transformation in North America is expected to surpass $151.8 billion by 2027, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.29% from 2021 to 2027.
Telemedicine, IoT-enabled medical devices, modern electronic health records (EHR) and artificial intelligence (AI) are just a few examples of the digital technologies that are completely reshaping how patients interact with healthcare professionals. However, despite these innovative technologies, there is one critical piece of the equation that’s holding the complete digital transformation of healthcare back. It’s the way in which patient data is shared amongst healthcare providers, which impacts how care is coordinated and medical decisions are made.
Patient-First Care Depends on Better Collaboration
“The digital transformation of healthcare has the potential to make medical care more collaborative than ever before,” said Tabitha Lieberman, President, EHR and Healthcare Applications at Brightwork Health IT. “This is important because better coordination between primary care physicians, hospitals, specialists and the patients themselves equals better overall care. But unfortunately, the sharing of information and services between hospitals and outside practitioners and specialists isn’t as streamlined as it could be.”
-----
Top 5 health IT issues, according to CIOs
-
Staffing and cybersecurity are among the biggest challenges hospital CIOs face in 2022, 12 health system executives told Becker's.
Becker's asked hospital technology leaders for their three most-pressing health IT issues. Of the 16 topics mentioned, the following five were noted most (and are ranked in order of the number of mentions):
1. Staffing
"Talent is an area we see a ton of pressure," said Kathy Azeez-Narain, chief digital officer of Newport Beach, Calif.-based Hoag. "Everyone is competing for the top talent to come into IT/digital roles. The offers from pay to benefits to perks have been expansive, which makes it a very competitive space when trying to recruit the 'A' team."
2. Cybersecurity
"The known and unknown threats combined with the implications of an attack are an ever-present challenge," said Michael Restuccia, senior vice president and CIO of Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine.
3. Making IT stress-free
"Nurses, doctors, therapists, lab techs, pharmacists — basically, everyone who works in the field — are all exhausted and on the receiving end of a lot of animosity," said Joel Klein, MD, senior vice president and CIO of Baltimore-based University of Maryland Medical System. "We have to find ways to make the computer part of their day less taxing — any less friction is an improvement."
-----
Implementing Change Part Three: How To Move AI Forward In Healthcare
Jul 1, 2022,09:00am EDT
Rick Newell, MD MPH is CEO of Inflect Health, Chief Transformation Officer at Vituity, and passionate about driving change in healthcare.
I’ve explained some of the many ways artificial intelligence could vastly improve healthcare at all levels, from telehealth to the emergency department, from diagnosis to claims processing. I’ve also called out the inherent limits on what AI can do so that we don’t waste time and resources or endanger patients by trying to make it do what it can’t. With both opportunities and limits in mind, what can we do to move AI forward in healthcare?
“AI” needs a new name.
To start, I think we need a new term for machine learning and other technologies as applied to healthcare. The words “artificial intelligence” conjure the very image we don’t want: a machine making its own decisions. Studies have shown the best outcomes result from machines and humans working together, with the AI as a sort of physician’s assistant — preternaturally brilliant in some ways, known to be clueless in others.
-----
Patient Data Access Elusive for Nearly Half of Healthcare Consumers
A survey found that nearly half of all Americans are unable to get health records when needed, underscoring patient data access barriers that could impact patient health outcomes.
June 30, 2022 - Even though the vast majority of Americans want quick patient data access, many of them struggle to obtain their health records, uncovered a new survey conducted by Propellar Insights on behalf of DrFirst.
The survey of more than 1,000 healthcare consumers over age 18 found that 92 percent of patients think it’s important to have quick and seamless access to their medical records. However, 45 percent of patients reported having trouble getting health records from a patient portal and 42 percent stated that they even had trouble getting health records from their provider during a time of need.
Most of the surveyed respondents stated that managing health records is a difficult task. In response to the reported difficulty, 46 percent of patients keep printout health records, 23 percent use a mobile app, and 17 percent have a copy saved on their computer. Yet some patients (32 percent) have decided not to store them at all.
Patients also reported concern regarding the ability to share their personal medical information with family members and caregivers, with 52 percent of respondents stating that it is difficult.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/greater-collaboration-needed-for-digital-health-interoperability
Greater Collaboration Needed for Digital Health, Interoperability
As the digital health transformation progresses, an article from the National Academy of Medicine called for interoperability standards to go beyond EHRs.
June 30, 2022 - While ONC has made significant progress toward achieving national health interoperability, continued interagency collaboration and public-private partnerships are needed to fully enable digital health, according to an article published by the National Academy of Medicine.
“Through the work of ONC, data and interoperability standards have grown increasingly sophisticated over the past ten years,” the authors wrote. “While more work is needed, early progress with HIEs, APIs, and EHR integration has yielded improvements in care coordination, and recent efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the capacity of HIEs to deliver value by generating public health reporting.”
The authors said that interoperability standards need to extend beyond the current focus of EHRs to support longitudinal care delivery and advance the country’s health needs.
“The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated the needs and opportunities for digital health and transformative preparedness and response capacity,” they wrote. “The rapid pace of the pandemic’s spread emphasized the need for a rapid learning system that relies on capturing, organizing, sharing, and analyzing large amounts of data digitally across public health, research, and clinical systems.”
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/onc-announces-approved-health-it-data-standards-for-svap
ONC Announces Approved Health IT Data Standards for SVAP
The newest version of SVAP will advance ten health IT data standards that ONC said respond to industry needs.
June 30, 2022 - ONC has released the newest approved health IT data standards for the annual Standards Version Advancement Process (SVAP), a recent HealthITBuzz blog post announced.
The ONC Cures Act Final Rule (Final Rule) established the voluntary SVAP as part of the Real World Testing Condition and Maintenance of Certification.
SVAP gives Certified Health IT Developers who participate in the ONC Health IT Certification program the option to update their Health IT Modules to support newer data standards versions for interoperable health information exchange
“The SVAP is designed to make ONC Health IT Certification program responsive to industry needs by allowing for better alignment to industry efforts for standards advancement, removing barriers for standards development and version updates, and improving the ability for health IT developers to provide relevant, timely, and innovative solutions to their clients,” ONC officials Rob Anthony and Avinash Shanbhag wrote in the HealthITBuzz blog post.
-----
OCR has new guidance for patient privacy and PHI, following Dobbs ruling
The HHS agency is reminding providers that they aren't required to disclose private medical information to third parties. It also has tips for data security in using period trackers and other health-information apps.
By Mike Miliard
June 30, 2022 09:51 AM
The Supreme Court's seismic ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has led to upheaval and confusion for healthcare organizations nationwide – not least when it comes to matters of patient privacy and providers' responsibilities around data protection.
On Thursday the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidance intended to help clarify some key considerations for this fraught new era of care delivery.
WHY IT
MATTERS
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has expressed strong support for patient privacy protections in
the wake of Roe v. Wade's reversal, and has asked HHS agencies to take action to safeguard access to care for abortion,
pregnancy complications and other reproductive health issues.
On the topic of patient data and protected health information specifically, OCR's new guidance is meant to inform and protect patients seeking reproductive healthcare – and their providers.
The guidance addresses how federal law and regulations protect individuals' protected health information relating to abortion and other sexual and reproductive healthcare. It reminds providers that they are not required to disclose private medical information to third parties.
-----
44% of Digital Health Companies Have Low Levels of Clinical Robustness
Researchers found that though many digital health companies have low levels of clinical robustness, about 20 percent had high scores in this arena.
June 29, 2022 - Despite the rapid growth of the digital health sector in recent years, a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that many digital health companies have low levels of clinical robustness, indicating a need for further clinical validation.
The digital health sector has seen rapid growth over the past decade, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first quarter of 2022, digital health funding totaled $6 billion, with an average deal size of $32.8 million, according to data from Rock Health. This figure is extremely high, though it trails the $7.3 billion raised in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Although many assume that increased demand for digital health solutions was accompanied by increased education, researchers found that many healthcare technology stakeholders do not clearly understand clinical robustness. Thus, they decided to examine the clinical robustness and public claims made by digital health companies.
Researchers collected data from 224 digital health companies using the Rock Health Digital Health Venture Funding Database, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Library of Medicine.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/aha-expresses-member-support-for-patch-act-medical-device-security
AHA Expresses Member Support for PATCH Act, Medical Device Security
On behalf of its members, the American Hospital Association (AHA) expressed its support for the PATCH Act, introduced in April to enhance medical device security.
By Jill McKeon
June 29, 2022 - On behalf of its nearly 5,000 member healthcare organizations, the American Hospital Association (AHA) expressed its support for the Protecting and Transforming Cyber Health Care (PATCH) Act, which was introduced by Senators in April to enhance medical device security.
In a letter addressed to Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), who first introduced the PATCH Act, the AHA said that the association and its members were committed to preventing cyberattacks and would support the PATCH Act’s intentions of doing the same via medical device security improvements.
“We are pleased to support this legislation to improve the security of medical devices, which can create cyber vulnerabilities and serious risks to the security and privacy of patient data along with vital medical technology used in care delivery,” the letter stated.
“Cyber vulnerabilities in medical devices, often containing outdated legacy technology, have posed a significant cyber risk to hospitals.”
-----
https://mhealth.jmir.org/2022/5/e33735
Published on 6.5.2022 in Vol 10, No 5 (2022): May
Privacy, Data Sharing, and Data Security Policies of Women’s mHealth Apps: Scoping Review and Content Analysis
Privacy, Data Sharing, and Data Security Policies of Women’s mHealth Apps: Scoping Review and Content Analysis
Authors of this article: Najd Alfawzan 1 ; Markus Christen 1 ; Giovanni Spitale 1 ; Nikola Biller-Andorno 1
Abstract
Background: Women’s mobile health (mHealth) is a growing phenomenon in the mobile app global market. An increasing number of women worldwide use apps geared to female audiences (female technology). Given the often private and sensitive nature of the data collected by such apps, an ethical assessment from the perspective of data privacy, sharing, and security policies is warranted.
Objective: The purpose of this scoping review and content analysis was to assess the privacy policies, data sharing, and security policies of women’s mHealth apps on the current international market (the App Store on the Apple operating system [iOS] and Google Play on the Android system).
Methods: We reviewed the 23 most popular women’s mHealth apps on the market by focusing on publicly available apps on the App Store and Google Play. The 23 downloaded apps were assessed manually by 2 independent reviewers against a variety of user data privacy, data sharing, and security assessment criteria.
Results: All 23 apps collected personal health-related data. All apps allowed behavioral tracking, and 61% (14/23) of the apps allowed location tracking. Of the 23 apps, only 16 (70%) displayed a privacy policy, 12 (52%) requested consent from users, and 1 (4%) had a pseudoconsent. In addition, 13% (3/23) of the apps collected data before obtaining consent. Most apps (20/23, 87%) shared user data with third parties, and data sharing information could not be obtained for the 13% (3/23) remaining apps. Of the 23 apps, only 13 (57%) provided users with information on data security.
Conclusions: Many of the most popular women’s mHealth apps on the market have poor data privacy, sharing, and security standards. Although regulations exist, such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, current practices do not follow them. The failure of the assessed women’s mHealth apps to meet basic data privacy, sharing, and security standards is not ethically or legally acceptable.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2022;10(5):e33735
doi:10.2196/33735
-----
Providers, payers need to move beyond compliance with FHIR interoperability, experts say. Here's why
Jun 30, 2022 02:00am
Industry leaders argue that a stronger push for interoperability in healthcare will lead to a better understanding of population health and improved care delivery, where easily shareable data can be complemented by artificial intelligence.
The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) standard, created by the standards development organization Health Level 7, aims to improve data sharing in a healthcare system full of fragmentation. FHIR is a core data standard, where participating entities agree on the meaning of the data and how to share the information.
In the spring of 2020, the federal government published a rule regulating the 21st Century Cures Act application programming interface (API) requirement, along with protections against information blocking. That regulation aims to give patients easier access to their digital health records through their smartphones and requires health IT vendors, providers and health information exchanges to enable patients to access and download their health records with third-party apps.
By year-end 2022, most electronic health record (EHR) systems are required to update their software to support the Bulk FHIR API standard, which allows data to flow in batches at a population level.
-----
Medical scribes, EHR templates boost efficiency, satisfaction and care quality, report says
Twitter– 28 June, 2022
Medical scribes and EHR templates come out on top when compared to other EHR interface technologies and solutions, according to a June 25 paper published in Cureus.
The researchers completed a literature review of the various new modalities in EHR interfaces, looking through the existing research for each interface and rating them qualitatively.
Medical scribes and EHR templates were found to have positive effects on patient satisfaction, quality of documentation and efficiency of number of patients seen. Healthcare providers using medical scribes reported improved efficiency, cost savings and reduced fatigue. In the case of EHR templates and shortcuts, they were seen to improve documentation accuracy, time to complete and physician satisfaction. Artificial intelligence-driven scribes didn't have enough real-world evidence of improvements or efficacy in clinical practice to judge.
Speech recognition systems as scribes for EHRs have been found to not provide significant advantages to healthcare providers, with some studies even finding that it creates more errors and can take more time to do both simple and complex tasks. However, speech recognition can be helpful in situations that require more detailed descriptions.
-----
Using Technology to Get the Most Out of Community Health Needs Assessments
Analysis | By Scott Mace | June 29, 2022
CHRISTUS Health is looking to make a difference beyond the hospital walls by using technology to understand the social determinants of health and lived experiences of both patients and employees.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· CHRISTUS Health is using a data analytics platform to survey staff and patients in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Arkansas, as part of a CMS-mandated program conducted every three years.
· The health system has received some 6,000 results so far, double what was expected.
· Survey results are used to identify underserved communities, as well as the barriers and challenges that make them underserved, and drive programs aimed at improving access and outcomes.
As system vice president of community benefit, health equity, diversity, and inclusion at CHRISTUS Health, an international Catholic health system headquartered in Irving, Texas, Marcos Pesquera sees techology as an inflection point in the health of his community and employees.
And an innovative, systemwide, community needs survey is helping the health system leverage data to understand the needs, assets, and lived realities of patients and employees to accelerate progress on health equity.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requires all nonprofit hospitals to do a community health needs assessment (CHNA) every three years. These hospitals subsequently create community health improvement plans.
"This year, we're in the middle of that process," Pesquera says.
-----
GAO Calls on HHS to Improve Healthcare Data Breach Reporting Process
In a new report, GAO suggested that HHS improve its healthcare data breach reporting process to allow entities to provide feedback on it.
By Jill McKeon
June 28, 2022 - In its latest report, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) called on HHS to improve the healthcare data breach reporting process. Specifically, GAO urged HHS to create a mechanism for entities to provide feedback on the breach reporting process.
GAO studied the number of breaches reported to HHS since 2015, analyzed the extent to which HHS established a review process to assess a covered entity’s security practices, and assessed improvement opportunities relating to breach reporting requirements.
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is in charge of enforcing and implementing the HIPAA Security Rule, the HIPAA Privacy Rule, and the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, along with the development and management of the breach reporting process. On its data breach portal, OCR lists all healthcare data breaches impacting more than 500 individuals.
The reported breaches have been increasing rapidly over the past few years. In 2015, GAO’s analysis showed, there were 270 healthcare data breaches impacting more than 500 people each. In 2021, covered entities and their business associates reported a total of 714 breaches impacting more than 500 people.
-----
https://histalk2.com/2022/06/28/news-6-29-22/
The Promise of Digital Health: Then, Now, and the Future
The National Academy of Medicine publishes a paper titled “The Promise of Digital Health: Then, Now, and the Future” whose authors are digital health household names that include Amy Abernethy, Patti Brennan, Atul Butte, Judy Faulkner, John Halamka, Kevin Johnson, Don Rucker, and Eric Topol. Points:
- US health policies and health system investments are misaligned with WHO’s definition of health as incorporating physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease.
- Digital health has done little to improve care effectiveness, efficiency, equity, and continuity of care, as inpatient data is largely sequestered and difficult to integrate due to a lack of data standards.
- The promise of real-time generation of evidence to fuel a learning health system exists only in a few pilot projects.
- Potential uses of digital innovation include advancing diagnosis and treatment, ensuring care continuity, managing patients offsite via telemedicine, partnering with individuals for self-management, and reducing errors and waste.
- Digital health measured the impact of COVID-19 by race, economic states, and underserved populations and has the potential to identify, measure, and modify the root sources of illness.
- Social determinants of health, which cause up to 15% of premature deaths, need to be considered as in-scope by providers and health systems, as supported by the collection and integration of SDoH into EHRs and mobile apps. The risk of algorithmic bias should be considered, however, such as stigmatizing no-show patients who struggle with employment and childcare issues.
- Digital health can also contribute to the understanding of environmental factors, such as air pollution and climate change.
- Behavioral interventions, such as weight management programs, often don’t work, and digital programs that claim otherwise are usually not supported by evidence and weren’t produced by experts in health behavior change.
- AI/ML as applied to genetic, genomic, and medical history data could provide near real-time feedback to individuals using a voice assistant as a “digital health coach.”
- Architecture should focus on the individual, embed equity and transparency, and realign health system payments around outcomes and value.
-----
How remote patient monitoring improves care, saves money for chronic care
Half the population has at least one chronic disease. Care for these sick patients is costly. RPM has the potential to help.
By Bill Siwicki
June 28, 2022 09:30 AM
It is estimated that 50% of the U.S. population has a chronic disease, and caring for them is consuming 86% of healthcare costs.
Many organizations still rely on traditional chronic care models characterized by periodic in-person encounters that can be inconvenient, expensive and insufficiently frequent. The question is: How will hospitals provide more robust, timely and cost-efficient care moving forward?
Some health systems are beginning to reconfigure care models to proactively care for patients with chronic conditions and illnesses, and a key component of this is implementing remote patient monitoring services. RPM allows for patients to share data in a non-clinical setting (like their home) and receive care assessments and recommendations in between visits.
To get insights into this technologically enhanced care for chronic conditions, we talked with Sarah Carroll, director of the Center for Care Transformation at AVIA, a healthcare digital transformation technology and services company.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/opinion-its-time-congress-change-health-privacy-rules
Opinion: It's time for Congress to change health privacy rules
With the door now opened for medical data to be weaponized, HIPAA protections are insufficient for current times.
June 28, 2022 08:00 AM
Carol Robinson is founder and CEO of CedarBridge Group. This article was co-authored with Frank Baitman, who has served as chief information officer of the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Congress must take quick action to strengthen health privacy laws, as the reversal of Roe v. Wade stands to turn electronic health record systems into tools for harassment and prosecution of women and their healthcare providers.
The same information technology systems supporting individualized cancer treatments and providing the evidence that identified a community poisoned by its water supply could be used to create a dystopia for women in over half of the U.S. states where reproductive healthcare in the form of abortion is expected to be criminalized.
As health information exchange facilitates data movement between EHRs, advances in healthcare quality, safety, research and critical public health are being demonstrated daily. However, the imminent threat to women’s reproductive health privacy also threatens the progress made.
Both the threats and the progress need to be recognized and addressed with changes to the HIPAA Omnibus Privacy Rule.
-----
AI Adoption in Healthcare Requires Better Approaches to Patient Data
June 28, 2022
The following is a guest article by Vanessa Braunstein, Healthcare Product Marketing Lead at NVIDIA.
Building great AI models in healthcare and life sciences requires lots of data that is diverse, well-labeled, and spans across different patient types.
However, as AI gains traction, there are still a number of bottlenecks that slow down the process of developing robust AI models such as patient privacy, access to data, and lack of clinical expertise to annotate data for training.
In order to overcome these barriers, data scientists and developers have developed new solutions such as federated learning paradigms, AI models that require less labeled data to reach state-of-the-art performance, and AI models that generate synthetic clinical data which can be used to understand disease progression across age, gender, and ethnicity.
Considerations in Ethics and Governance
Europe’s landmark GDPR regulations are templates for healthcare AI, but governments will need to go much further. Things to consider include educating patients on how their data is deidentified, stored, and used in building AI models. Patients would feel more at ease understanding the security of their data, plus understanding the value that their data plays in better patient care and treatment.
-----
Henry Ford Health Uses Digital Health Technology to Improve Ultrasounds
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | June 28, 2022
Henry Ford Innovations is partnering with digital health company Exo to apply digital health concepts to ultrasounds, with the goal of making them more portable and accessible to underserved populations.
Henry Ford Health is partnering with a digital health company to make ultrasounds more portable and accessible.
Henry Ford Innovations, the Michigan-based health system's innovation arm, is working with Exo, a California-based developer of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) technology with a connected software platform. The project aims to bring ultrasounds, which are traditionally conducted in hospitals and medical offices, out to remote and underserved communities, where they can tackle traditional barriers to care.
"We envision a future where handheld portable ultrasound is as ubiquitous as the stethoscope, only more accurate and more capable," Dan Siegel, MD, a musculoskeletal radiologist and vice chairman of radiology quality and informatics at Henry Ford Health, said in e-mail. The technology, he said, would be "able to provide quantitative data and faster, more automated assessment for our patients and providers."
------
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/biden-signs-law-to-improve-va-ehrm-program-transparency
Biden Signs Law to Improve VA EHRM Program Transparency
This law will require the VA to provide Congress with periodic reports regarding EHRM program progress and costs, in hopes of increasing transparency.
June 27, 2022 - Following the most recent delays of the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program through Department of Veterans Affairs, President Biden has signed a bill into law that will increase EHRM program transparency, according to a FedScoop reporting.
“The VA, and consequently our nation, has invested a great deal of time and money into the VA Electronic Health Record Modernization program,” US Senator Jerry Moran said in a public statement.
“The potential benefits of this program are important, and it is vital to get it right. Now that this legislation has been signed into law, we can make certain the VA is providing the proper transparency throughout the EHRM implementation,” he added.
The VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act of 2021—which was, in fact, introduced in 2021 but passed in 2022—will require the VA to submit periodic reports to Congress regarding the costs, performance metrics, and outcomes for EHRM.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/fast-becomes-an-hl7-fhir-accelerator-enhancing-fhir-scalability
FAST Becomes an HL7 FHIR Accelerator, Enhancing FHIR Scalability
As a new HL7 FHIR Accelerator, FAST will be able to continue its scalability work and develop infrastructural standards to support FHIR implementations.
June 27, 2022 - The HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) at Scale Taskforce (FAST) initiative will continue its scalability work as an official HL7 FHIR Accelerator, a recent HealthITBuzz blog post from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) stated.
This announcement comes shortly after HL7 announced that ONC's FAST would transition into an HL7 FHIR Accelerator.
In 2017, ONC founded FAST, a public-private partnership with industry stakeholders, to accelerate the scalability of FHIR across the industry by defining a standard set of infrastructure solutions.
"Many individuals and organizations have dedicated countless hours to FAST," ONC officials Alex Kontur and Stephen Konya wrote in a HealthITBuzz blog post. "Their contributions have been essential to the development of FAST standards and launch of the FAST FHIR Accelerator. To keep things rolling, ONC has joined the FAST FHIR Accelerator as a Founding Member."
-----
Telehealth Use Remained Steady in 2021 for Medicare Beneficiaries
Although the future of telehealth flexibilities remains uncertain, researchers found that telehealth use was steady and did not lead to a spike in total visits among Medicare beneficiaries in 2021.
June 27, 2022 - While analyzing Medicare data from 2021, researchers from the University of Michigan's Institute for Healthcare Policy found that telehealth use remained steady, serving as a substitute for in-person care for Medicare beneficiaries and avoiding a spike in visits and costs.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth became widespread, spurred by various regulatory flexibilities enacted by federal and state agencies. For the study, researchers examined Part B claims for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. They included all outpatient evaluation and management services received by beneficiaries from Jan. 1, 2019, to Dec. 31, 2021, and calculated the monthly proportion of services that were conducted in-person and through telehealth.
Overall, the total number of outpatient E&M services was 289 million in 2019, 255.2 million in 2020, and 260.7 million in 2021.
Telehealth visits rose to a peak of 7.2 million in 2020 (representing about 50 percent of monthly visits for E&M services) before declining slowly through 2021. But they remained high compared to pre-pandemic levels.
-----
Period-Tracker Apps Aim for Anonymity Following Roe v. Wade Decision
Apps that help people monitor their menstruation and fertility can also be troves of personal data; deleting the app isn’t always enough to clean up your digital breadcrumbs
By Cordilia James and Shara Tibken
June 26, 2022 7:00 am ET
Developers of period trackers and fertility apps are working on ways to anonymize user data in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down the constitutional right to an abortion.
Millions of women use services such as Flo, Clue and Apple’s Health app to help them become pregnant, avoid pregnancy or know when their next period is due. The court’s decision brought more attention to the services, which hold sensitive data that could be used against people in states where abortion may be criminalized.
Creators of some of those apps are now seeking ways to ensure that they don’t have specific information to share about their users in the first place.
Natural Cycles, the first birth-control app cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, is working to build a “completely anonymous experience for users,” said Raoul Scherwitzl, the company’s co-founder and co-chief executive.
-----
Period tracking app Flo says it will add 'anonymous mode' after Roe decision
In tweets posted Friday, the period tracking app said it would soon launch a mode that allows users to access the app without providing their name or email.
By Emily Olsen
June 27, 2022 11:31 am
Flo said it would add an "anonymous mode" to its period tracking app as users raised concerns about data privacy in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In a tweet on Friday, the company said it would soon launch an option that would allow users to track their menstrual cycles without providing some identifying information.
"We will do everything in our power to protect the data and privacy of our users," Flo said in another tweet. "We are working on a new feature called anonymous mode so users can access the Flo app anonymously without providing their name or email address."
WHY IT MATTERS
After a draft opinion of the Supreme Court's decision leaked in early May, some experts argued the data collected in period tracking apps could be used to build a case against users in states where abortion is now illegal.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/improving-rural-care-and-care-equity-telemedicine
Improving rural care and health equity with telemedicine
Healthcare IT News talks with a telehealth expert on the benefits and challenges of virtual care for rural patients.
By Bill Siwicki
June 27, 2022 11:25 AM
Virtual care has great potential to improve rural health and health equity.
Virtual care can either serve to stretch the capabilities of understaffed rural clinics – for example, by pre-screening or triaging patients before sending them to a crowded facility – or to route excess clinical capacity from large academic medical centers to rural clinics, such as by facilitating telehealth appointments between city-based providers and patients in rural areas.
In short, telehealth can improve rural care. Which is why we sat down with Shayan Vyas, senior vice president and medical director of hospital and health system at Teladoc Health – to glean his expertise on telemedicine and rural care, both the benefits and the challenges.
Q. How can virtual care improve rural health?
A. I am enthusiastic about virtual care's potential to address rural healthcare access, and I believe it can be used to improve barriers to access in a number of ways.
It's important to remember that improving rural health is more than just increasing access to care. Improving rural health also means improving access to scarcely available specialists and subspecialists that patients may not otherwise be able to see, at least not in a timely manner. This is particularly vital for specialties like stroke or cardiology where access to a specialist via virtual care can literally save lives.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/study-telehealth-doesnt-lead-excessive-healthcare-use
Study: Telehealth Doesn't Lead to Excessive Healthcare Use
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | June 27, 2022
Researchers at the University of Michigan, analyzing Medicare data through 2021, are reporting that the traditional Medicare population used telehealth during the pandemic to access care, but they haven't been overusing the platform.
A popular criticism of telehealth is that people will be using it more than they should, leading to unnecessary healthcare appointments and expenses. But researchers at the University of Michigan say that's not true in the Medicare market.
An analysis of Medicare data through 2021 finds that while virtual visits have increased considerably as a result of the pandemic, with roughly one-third of traditional Medicare members taking part in at least one telehealth visit last year, those numbers aren't excessive. This means that the Medicare population, comprised primarily of older Americans, is using the platform to replace in-person care, rather than just because they can.
“As telehealth use hits its stride in the Medicare fee-for-service population, the fears that flexible telehealth rules might lead to an increase in the total volume of outpatient visits has not panned out,” Chad Ellimoottil, MD, MS, director of the Telehealth Research Incubator at UM's Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and lead author of the study, said in a press release. “With all the evidence we have to date, it appears that telehealth has been used as a substitute for in-person care rather than an expansion of care.”
-----
Microsoft and Volpara Health join forces to accelerate the research and development of software that uses mammograms to identify potential cardiovascular issues
Jun 21, 2022 | Microsoft New Zealand News Centre
Volpara Health Technologies, a global health technology software leader providing an integrated platform for personalised breast care, today announced a new research and development collaboration with Microsoft to accelerate the creation of a product that detects and quantifies breast arterial calcifications (BACs).
Microsoft and Volpara share a commitment to improving women’s health through science and innovation. The product will build upon Volpara’s approach to quantitative and objective breast density scoring using artificial intelligence (AI). Capitalising upon Volpara’s recent BAC patent, the product will create a tissue composition map that identifies and quantifies BACs from a mammogram, helping radiologists identify the need to take steps toward prevention of heart disease. Machine learning and AI specialists from Microsoft will assist with improving Volpara’s BACs model and data processing, while Microsoft engineers will collaborate with the Volpara team on the product’s technical development and operationalisation.
This project is an expansion of the companies’ relationship over the last decade. Last year, Volpara’s innovative work in supporting healthcare providers was recognised with its SaaS (Software as a Service) Award win at the Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards. Microsoft SaaS and cloud products have played a fundamental role in supporting Volpara’s development of the latest, FDA-cleared version of their core AI algorithm. To date, the algorithm has been used to assess the breast composition of more than 14.5M women through Volpara’s analysis of over 60M mammography and tomosynthesis images. These images, representing one of the world’s largest de-identified image datasets, will prove a pivotal resource for the BACs project.
-----
Delay in rolling out electronic health records an ‘enormous missed opportunity’
Ireland is the fourth last country in Europe to embrace the widespread introduction of electronic health records for patients, expert says
By Sylvia Thompson Sat Jun 25 2022 - 06:00
Most patients attending outpatients’ clinics or emergency departments across Ireland will be familiar with the cumbersome hospital charts that remain part and parcel of their hospital experience.
They contain everything from patients’ address labels attached to every new test result, drug prescription or X-ray to the handwritten notes that medical personnel add to share patients’ progress with their colleagues.
In an era when most of our personal information is digitalised, it seems extraordinary that so many of our health records are still paper-based. Yes, GPs have electronic health records (EHRs) for their patients but the problem is that this treasure trove of information on current complaints, medications and past diagnoses cannot currently be shared with often outdated hospital-based computer systems.
Ireland is the fourth last country in Europe to embrace the widespread introduction of electronic health records (EHRs) for patients, according to Prof Martin Curley, professor of innovation at Maynooth University, who was appointed head of digital transformation and innovation at the Health Service Executive in 2019.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
No comments:
Post a Comment