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
Patients often interact with providers in multiple care systems
and settings, resulting in health data spread across various, often siloed,
sources.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/09/interoperable-digital-care-can-only-be-achieved-with-an-open-technology-approach/
Interoperable digital care can only be achieved with an open technology
approach With
Integrated Care Systems now coming into effect, Andy Meiner, chief revenue
officer at ReStart, looks at what role interoperability will play.
DHI News Team
– 22 September, 2022
Integrated
care systems (ICSs) will struggle to achieve even the most basic objectives,
such as virtual wards and integrated clinical pathways, without a fundamental
change in approach. These digital transformation initiatives must be delivered
against a backdrop of mandatory EPR deployments, convergence of systems,
escalating trust mergers, creation of diagnostic alliances, hints of a
centralised model care record, and unprecedented demands on clinicians.
Integrating
Health and Care Data
ICSs face the
challenge of merging multiple SCRs and trusts, whilst deploying electronic
patient record (EPR) solutions to achieve consistent, cross-organisational
clinical information. Therefore, the NHS is calling to collaborative technology
partners for a greater focus on interoperability.
Yet while
many vendors are talking an integration game, the reality on the ground is very
different. Faced with the need to get multiple solutions to work together, the
typical response from vendors is to demand the NHS organisation picks one of
the incumbent solutions and migrates the merged organisation across to that
single platform.
-----
https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/hospitals-and-emissions-congressional-report-outlines-what-providers-are-doing
Hospitals and emissions: Congressional report outlines what providers are
doing on climate change September
21, 2022
Ron
Southwick
Most
said they are directing some resources to climate change. The health industry
has faced growing scrutiny over its environmental impact.
Hospitals
have faced increased pressure to reduce their environmental impact, and a new
congressional report offers more perspective on what some health systems are
doing.
House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., has been pressing
health systems to share how they are reducing their harm to the environment . Neal
sent a letter to hospital systems earlier this year asking them
what they are doing to reduce emissions.
From
that request for information, the committee released a report last week
outlining how hospitals are being affected by climate change and their own actions
to reduce pollutants.
-----
https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/providers-strive-for-better-communication-relationships-with-consumers
Providers strive for better communication, relationships with consumers The COVID
pandemic prompted quick changes among organizations, and now providers are
trying to identify practices that can facilitate patient interactions.
Sep 21 2022
Fred Bazzoli
Editor in
Chief, HDM
Healthcare
organizations realize the importance of forming closer ties to their patients
and consumers, but they are struggling to catch up to the capabilities
exhibited in other industries.
However, the
COVID-19 pandemic enlightened the healthcare sector, which demonstrated that it
could change rapidly to connect to patients. Now, it needs to solidify those
gains and pick up the pace to improve consumer experiences – and some industry
leaders are recognizing the signs that consumers will be selective in choosing
where to receive care.
Speaking at
the Sept. 20 opening session of the HDM KLASroom, Adam Cherrington highlighted
key results from KLAS Research’s study of responses from 13,000 consumers
queried about their rising expectations for what patients should experience.
Cherrington, vice president of digital health for KLAS, noted that consumers
want personalized care, but they’re often left with the impression that those
interacting with them in clinical settings know little about them.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/physician-ehr-satisfaction-varies-specialty-says-klas-report
Physician EHR satisfaction varies by specialty, says KLAS report A new Arch
Collaborative report explains EHR satisfaction gaps by specialty and features
insights from physicians at organizations with highly-satisfied specialties.
By Andrea Fox
September 21,
2022 10:19 AM
Doctors
with high electronic health record satisfaction are nearly five times more
likely to report they'll stay at their organization, according to KLAS
researchers. The group with the highest EHR satisfaction score is hospital
medicine and also of note, anesthesiology's enthusiasm has declined.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The Exploring EHR
Satisfaction by Provider Specialty report from the KLAS Arch Collaborative
reveals that hospital medicine, pediatrics, family medicine and internal
medicine are the physician specialties with the highest EHR experience scores,
compared to peers using the same EHR, while orthopedics and cardiology had some
of the lowest EHR satisfaction scores.
Common frustrations
experienced include EHR functionality, ability to deliver quality care and
vendor delivery of quality.
The Arch
Collaborative EHR Experience Survey looked at core EHR satisfaction factors –
system efficiency, functionality, impact on care and more, aggregating results
into an overall net EHR experience score. KLAS used Cerner and Epic EHR data
because only they offer a large enough representation of specialty data for
such a study, according to the report.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ata-whats-ahead-telehealth-policy-after-pandemic
ATA: What's ahead for telehealth policy after the pandemic Federal and
state advocacy team members discussed the status of telehealth policy as the
public health emergency deadline looms and the industry questions, 'Is the
pandemic over?'
By Andrea Fox
September 23,
2022 09:55 AM
The
American Telehealth Association is working with Congress and several federal
agencies to shape the fate of policies and payments for telehealth services
that experienced a rapid uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHY IT
MATTERS
Now that President
Joe Biden has declared the COVID-19 pandemic over, the ATA's Telehealth
Awareness Week policy update webinar explored how federal and state telehealth
policies may be affected as Congress decides whether or not to end the public
health emergency (PHE).
Federal priorities
for telehealth have evolved with the pandemic with restrictions lifted by a
Congress deciding if the limiting of certain restrictions should be lifted
permanently.
The PHE must be
reviewed every 90 days, so Congress will have to revisit the renewal by
mid-October, according to policy experts presenting during Wednesday's online
event.
"As we know,
[President] Biden has said in recent days that the pandemic is over, so it's
possible that the technical public health emergency might expire sometime in
the very near future," said Megan Herber, director at Faegre Drinker who
advises ATA and ATA Action on all things Federal policy.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/panicking-over-information-blocking-rules-sequoia-project-can-help
Panicking Over Information Blocking Rules? The Sequoia Project Can Help Analysis
| By Scott Mace |
September 22, 2022
Good
practices, infographics, and policy considerations are highlights of new
resources offered by the non-profit advocate for health information exchange.
With the
information blocking requirements of the 21st Century Cures rule set to
begin taking effect on October 6, the Sequoia Project has released a set of resources to help
with compliance.
The
non-profit group posted Information Blocking Compliance Workgroup Resources this
week after seeking feedback from the public on draft versions.
As recently
as August, a coalition of health systems and related healthcare IT
professional associations asked the Department of Health and Human Services
to provide more support for the impending regulations. They asked for best
practices, a frequently-asked questions online resource, and a toll-free
support line or interactive online chat to answer the questions of regulated
entities.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/the-sequoia-project-issues-final-set-of-information-blocking-resources
The Sequoia Project Issues Final Set of Information Blocking Resources The
Sequoia Project has put together five resources to support stakeholders as they
navigate the information blocking rules issued by ONC.
By Sarai Rodriguez
September 22,
2022 - The Sequoia Project has released
the final set of resources to help entities comply with the ONC’s information
blocking rules as part of the 21st Century Cures Act.
Prior to this
month, the Sequoia Project sought
public feedback on the draft versions of these resources, and after carefully
reviewing the comments received, the final versions have been released.
“The Sequoia
Project is grateful to the public for taking the time to provide feedback on
these documents, as well as to the members of the Information Blocking
Compliance Workgroup (IBWG) and our subject matter experts whose collaboration
and dedication were integral to the development of these resources,” Mariann
Yeager, chief executive officer of The Sequoia Project, said in a press
release.
“We look
forward to continuing to work to advance interoperability and build a
community of practice around this critical topic.”
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/hc3-alerts-healthcare-sector-of-monkeypox-themed-phishing-scheme
HC3 Alerts Healthcare Sector of Monkeypox-Themed Phishing Scheme Threat
Actors are using a monkeypox-themed phishing scheme to lure healthcare
providers into clicking on a malicious link.
By Sarai Rodriguez
September 22,
2022 - The Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) warned
the healthcare sector of a new monkeypox-themed phishing scheme targeting
healthcare providers.
Threat actors
are using the latest public health threat to convince users to click on a link.
The campaign
has a subject line of “Data from (Victim Organization Abbreviation):
"Important read about -Monkey Pox– (Victim Organization) (Reference
Number)” and utilizes an “Important read about Monkey Pox” theme.
Within the
email, there is a PDF that holds a malicious link directing the recipient to a
Lark Docs site. The site is Adobe Doc cloud themed and offers a secure fax
Monkey Pox PDF download.
-----
https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/ceos-digital-strategies-come-up-short
CEOs: Digital strategies come up short Senior healthcare
leaders say IT can help transform healthcare, but they acknowledge that their
organization’s strategies need more work.
Sep 06
2022
Marla
Durben Hirsch
Contributing
editor
CEOs
acknowledge that information technology will play a vital role in transforming
healthcare. But few say that their organization has created a digital strategy
that looks far enough into the future, according to a global survey of 200
leaders of midsize and large healthcare provider organizations.
Many CEOs
also view the challenges in adapting to new technologies as a potential barrier
to transformation, according to the recently released KPMG survey report: 2021 Healthcare CEO Future Pulse .
The survey
shows that top executives see many ways that technology can help address key
issues, including improving workforce retention, enhancing customer service,
offering patient-centric care, shifting to delivering more care outside the
hospital and dealing with new payment models.
“The CEOs are
realizing the importance of technology. The ones that value technology will do
better. The ones that keep it in the back office will not do as well,” says
David Chou, a long-time CIO in the healthcare industry and founder of davidchou.health .
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/medicare-telehealth-fraud-something-see-here
OIG report flags telehealth insurance fraud, recommends CMS beef up
oversight By Frank Diamond
Sep 19, 2022 06:25am
A
mental health provider billed an average of four hours per visit for 37 different
visits. The provider and six others who overbilled for providing telehealth
services to Medicare beneficiaries during the first year of the COVID-19
pandemic all worked for the same chain of mental health and substance abuse
offices in Florida.
What
are the chances?
Slim
to none, according to government healthcare researchers investigating dubious
telehealth billing practices for Medicare beneficiaries. Their findings are
contained in a report
by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.
There’s
more.
“One
physician billed for telehealth and then ordered medical equipment and supplies
for more than 400 beneficiaries, representing nearly 78% of their
beneficiaries,” the report states. “This physician ordered 109 different types
of medical equipment and supplies, totaling more than $9 million. The physician
did not have an established relationship with any of the 400 beneficiaries and
appeared to provide services through a telehealth company.”
It
must be noted quickly that these examples represent extreme outliers.
Researchers analyzed Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage data from
March 1, 2020, to Feb. 28, 2021, from approximately 742,000 providers who
billed for a telehealth visit. More than 28 million beneficiaries, about 2 in
5, used telehealth services during that time.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/telemedicines-accessibility-future-hold
What's next for eased restrictions around teleheath? Here's what one study
says By Frank Diamond
Sep 20, 2022 12:37pm
Telemedicine’s
place in the healthcare system continues to be under the microscope.
A
recent study in JAMA Health Forum looks at how patients used the technology to
access providers across state lines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There
are ongoing debates about whether to permanently change licensure regulations
to facilitate out-of-state telemedicine visits,” concluded the study published
last Friday in JAMA Health Forum.
Those
debates and lobbying efforts tied to them occur on both the federal and state
levels, examples of which include:
States passing
legislation making permanent changes to licensure requirements. Patient groups lobbying
state legislatures for more access to telemedicine. Actions
taken by government and medical organizations and associations. The
Federation of State Medical Boards creating exceptions for when a license
isn’t needed. The Uniform Law Commission drafting legislation about
expanding the use of telemedicine that states could adopt. And the
American Medical Association investigating telemedicine use.The Biden administration’s calling
on Congress to act on this issue. -----
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/smartphone-cameras-could-replace-pulse-oximeters-measure-blood-oxygen-home-study
Smartphone cameras could replace pulse oximeters to measure blood oxygen
at home: study By Andrea Park
Sep 21, 2022 10:42am
Over
the course of the last decade or so, smartphones have slowly morphed into
full-fledged medical tools. Mobile devices are now being used to read
diagnostic test results , scan photos taken by their built-in cameras to spot
signs of disease and even to take the place of pulse oximeters in measuring
blood oxygen levels.
The
last of those is still under development, but was proven possible in a study published
in NPJ Digital Medicine this week by a group of researchers from the University
of Washington and the University of California San Diego.
They
developed an artificial intelligence algorithm that aims to decipher blood
oxygen readings using only close-up videos of a user’s finger captured by a
smartphone camera, allowing them to perform their own check-ups at home using
technology already in their pockets.
“This
way, you could have multiple measurements with your own device at either no
cost or low cost,” said
Matthew Thompson, M.D., Ph.D., the study’s co-author and a professor of family
medicine in the UW School of Medicine. “In an ideal world, this information
could be seamlessly transmitted to a doctor’s office. This would be really
beneficial for telemedicine appointments or for triage nurses to be able to
quickly determine whether patients need to go to the emergency department or if
they can continue to rest at home and make an appointment with their primary
care provider later.”
-----
https://www.yellowad.co.uk/robot-computer-program-dumps-patients-from-waiting-lists-at-queens-and-king-george-hospitals/
Robot computer program dumps patients from waiting lists at Queen’s and
King George hospitals 21/09/2022 Josh Mellor
Local Democracy Reporter
Patients
who had waited more than six months to be seen by two east London hospitals
were quietly removed from the waiting list by a poorly-monitored computer
program.
Earlier
this year, Matthew Trainer – chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge
University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), which runs King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen’s
Hospital in Romford –
apologised to patients affected by the error.
The
1,800 patients were removed from the waiting list without their GP being
informed or BHRUT even being aware.
According
to internal reports obtained via a Freedom of Information request, the error
occurred because of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) programme that
transfers patients between national NHS waiting lists and local hospital lists.
-----
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/veterans-affairs/2022/09/va-ehr-not-even-close-to-meeting-patient-needs-right-now-deputy-secretary-tells-senators/
VA EHR ‘not even close’ to meeting patient needs right now, deputy
secretary tells senators Jory Heckman @jheckmanWFED
September 21, 2022 4:51
pm
The
Department of Veterans Affairs, with the rollout of its new Electronic Health
Record (EHR) on hold for now, is telling Congress that the system is currently
“not even close” to meeting the needs of patients, and that fixes to patient
safety problems may result in additional rollout delays.
Deputy
VA Secretary Donald Remy told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on
Wednesday that the agency won’t proceed with future EHR go-lives until it addresses
persistent outages and patient safety concerns.
“Right
now, the bottom line is that the Cerner system is not delivering for veterans
in the ways that it should. Not even close. It needs major improvements,” Remy
told the subcommittee on military construction, veterans affairs and related
agencies.
The
VA recently postponed
EHR launches planned
for this summer , and has scheduled the EHR to go live at 25 VA medical centers
in fiscal 2023 . but the schedule is still subject to changes.
“We’re
looking closely at this schedule, and we’re realizing that there are issues
that need to be resolved before we can go live. Right now, our schedule would have
us go to another installation in early 2023 — January, February. If we have to
push that back, we’ll push that back,” Remy said.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/clinician-burnout-reaches-new-high-during-covid-19-after-6-year-decline
Clinician Burnout Reaches New High During COVID-19 After 6-Year Decline New data
suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased emotional exhaustion in
physicians and exacerbated women's increased risk for clinician burnout.
By Hannah Nelson
September 21,
2022 - The clinician burnout rate among US physicians spiked drastically
during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic after six years of decline,
according to a study
published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
The research
builds on studies conducted by researchers from the AMA, Mayo Clinic, and
Stanford Medicine at regular intervals between 2011 and 2021.
Together,
these studies revealed that clinician burnout was 62.8 percent in 2021 compared
to 38.2 percent in 2020, 43.9 percent in 2017, 54.4 percent in 2014, and 45.5
percent in 2011.
Each study
consistently found that the overall prevalence of burnout among physicians was
higher relative to the US workforce.
-----
https://www.jmir.org/2022/9/e39177
A Revised Hippocratic Oath for the Era of Digital Health A Revised
Hippocratic Oath for the Era of Digital Health
Authors of
this article:
Bertalan
Meskó 1 ; Brennan
Spiegel 2
Abstract
Physicians
have been taking the Hippocratic Oath for centuries. The Oath contains a set of
ethical rules designed to guide physicians through their profession; it
articulates a set of true north principles that govern the practice of
medicine. The Hippocratic Oath has undergone several revisions, most notably in
1948 by the World Medical Association. However, in an era of rapid change in
medicine, we believe it is time to update the Oath with modest but meaningful
additions so that it optimally reflects 21st century health care. The rise of
digital health has dramatically changed the practice of medicine in a way that could
not have been easily predicted at the time Hippocrates outlined his ethical
principles of medicine. Digital health is a broad term that encompasses use of
digital devices and platforms, including electronic health records,
patient-provider portals, mobile health apps, wearable biosensors, artificial
intelligence, social media platforms, and medical extended reality, to improve
the process and outcomes of health care delivery. These technologies have
driven a cultural transformation in the delivery of care. We offer modest
suggestions to help prompt discussion and contemplation about the current Oath
and its relevancy to our changing times. Our suggestions are not meant to be a
definitive set of final recommendations. Rather, we propose new text that bodies
such as the World Medical Association might consider integrating into an
updated Oath, just as previous changes were adopted to ensure the Oath remains
relevant and impactful for all physicians and their patients.
J Med
Internet Res 2022;24(9):e39177 doi:10.2196/39177
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/new-paper-review-serves-framework-mental-health-clinicians-use-ai
A new paper offers mental health clinicians a framework for using AI on
the front lines. Here is its key takeaway By Anastassia Gliadkovskaya
Sep 20, 2022 05:05pm
Health
tech developers must work with front-line clinicians when developing artificial
intelligence tools, a new paper argues.
Published
last week in Frontiers in Psychiatry, its authors aimed to create a framework
for practical AI implementation that addresses the benefits and challenges for
mental health clinicians. To date, few resources exist on this topic, they
argue.
The
paper
focused on three categories of emerging technologies: automation, engagement
and clinical decision support tools. Automating repetitive tasks helps
alleviate workloads, while engagement tools help keep patients on the right
track between sessions. Decision support tools, meanwhile, can help clinicians
detect mental illness earlier. Ultimately, the paper's authors told Fierce
Healthcare, the goal is to advocate for AI as a supplement, not a replacement,
to clinicians’ expertise.
“For
clinicians, documentation is just a crushing burden,” co-author Katherine
Kellogg, professor of management and innovation at MIT, told Fierce Healthcare
as an example. AI is an obvious intervention to help mitigate burnout, she
added. “We believe that these AI technologies have tremendous potential to
change clinicians’ quality of life.”
Importantly,
AI tools can also support clinicians in training and accommodate various skill
sets—a critical benefit at a time when there is an enormous demand for and
shortage of therapists, she added.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/post-dobbs-data-privacy-law-flux-experts-debate-geolocation-data-message-encryption
Post-Dobbs data privacy law in flux as experts, providers and tech
companies rethink how to protect patient information By Annie Burky
Sep 20, 2022 05:45pm
Following
the Supreme Court ruling that ended federal abortion protections, legislators,
tech companies and users are asking how complicit tech should be in the
prosecution of those seeking the procedure where it’s banned. In the foggy
landscape of a post-Dobbs world, eyes are turning to geolocation data, message
encryption and period-tracking apps.
Last
week, Flo, the No. 1 period-tracking app in the Apple store, made “anonymous
mode” live after widespread calls to protect users’ data. Thirty senators also
called for the strengthening of federal privacy protections under the Health
Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), further prohibiting
providers from sharing patients’ reproductive health information without
consent. The American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA), if passed, would
also work in protecting health data.
These
moves follow two data privacy cases earlier this summer. A Nebraska woman was
charged with an illegal abortion after authorities found substantiating evidence
in private Facebook messages. The Federal Trade Commission sued Idaho-based
Kochava Inc., claiming the company sold the geolocation data of millions of
users.
“All
that sensitive personal information will likely at some point be the basis of
search warrants from law enforcement in states where jurisdictions have
criminalized and are trying to prosecute people seeking, offering or
facilitating abortion,” said Logan Koepke, program director at Upturn, an
organization which investigated ways technology reinforces inequities. “As a
result, I think companies should be taking the step to limit how they collect,
retain or otherwise use data that could be used by law enforcement to glean
information about someone's reproductive health.”
-----
https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/health-it-can-play-an-important-role-in-battling-the-opioid-epidemic?id=131258
Health IT can play an important role in battling the opioid epidemic EHRs
are the lynchpin for providing workflow-focused health IT strategies to improve
physician knowledge and skills for safely managing opioid therapy.
Sep 21
2022
David
Bucciferro Co-chair, EHRA and its Opioid Task Force
Renee Han
Opioid Task Force member, EHRA
Over the past
several years, community service and health professionals have fought hard to
gain ground in the battle against the opioid epidemic.
From 2017
through 2020, the number of patients receiving buprenorphine, methadone or
naltrexone – common medications for treating opioid use disorder – consistently
increased as more patients at risk for the disorder and overdoses were
identified and treated, according to a report from Epic Research .
When an
epidemic meets a pandemic
The COVID-19
pandemic made treatment for those with drug addictions more difficult to
access, while isolation, economic stress, personal loss and increased rates of
depression set the stage for new or increased drug use.
The number of
patients receiving new prescriptions for opioid use disorder medications
decreased by more than 30 percent during the early months of the pandemic as
compared to the three years prior. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention recently estimated that more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021 , up 15
percent from the previous record set in 2020.
In April, the
White House released the Biden Administration’s first national drug control strategy , calling for changes in laws and
policies to prioritize harm reduction by engaging drug users in care and
treatment.
As regulators
and healthcare providers continued work to deliver help to those who need it
most, the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association, which represents EHR
companies, voted this year to elevate the group’s Opioid Crisis Task Force,
which was formed in 2018, to a permanent workgroup. This signifies an ongoing
commitment to examining and strengthening the role of EHR system developers in
supporting opioid use disorder identification and care delivery through means
such as clinical decision support, improved data sharing and increased
standardization and integration of opioid use screening tools.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/aha-releases-healthcare-workforce-toolkit
AHA releases healthcare workforce toolkit The
information offers guidance on actions hospitals can take to strengthen and
sustain the healthcare workforce today and over the near future and long term.
By Andrea Fox
September 21,
2022 06:26 PM
With
the release of its new digital toolkit, Strengthening the
Healthcare Workforce , the American Hospital Association aims help its
members navigate workforce challenges and opportunities, and highlight
strategies and resources.
WHY IT
MATTERS
One
section of the report, Building the Team, shares strategies for recruitment and
retention, diversity and inclusion and creative staffing models.
AHA
does not intend the toolkit to be all-inclusive, according to the report
introduction. Rather, it is a companion to other AHA playbook resources that
address the long-term sustainability of the healthcare workforce. Each section
includes:
·
·
·
AHA
developed the team building section, and previously released sections –
Supporting the Team and Data and Technology to Support the Workforce – under a
framework for action.
The
framework addresses challenges now and in the short and long-term, including
creating a culture of healing, creative staffing, technology solutions, care
model design updates, technology integration, leadership development,
educational pathways and models, strategic workforce planning and more.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/researchers-develop-digital-health-wearable-can-track-tumor-size
Researchers Develop a Digital Health Wearable That Can Track Tumor Size Analysis
| By Eric Wicklund |
September 19, 2022
Researchers
from Stanford, USC, Georgia Tech, and the University of Tokyo have developed a
battery-powered digital health wearable that attaches to the skin and can
measure tumor size continuously and in real time, offering hope for
advancements in both cancer research and treatment.
Researchers
has developed a wearable digital health sensors that can track the size of a
tumor, a vital factor in determining the effectiveness of cancer drugs.
The Flexible
Autonomous Sensor measuring Tumors (FAST) device, a battery-powered patch that
adheres to the skin, measures the strain on the membrane surrounding the tumor
in real-time and transmits the data to a smartphone app. It has the potential
to replace the traditional method of tracking tumors via caliper and
bioluminescence, allowing care providers to understand a drug's effectiveness
in days instead of weeks.
“This work is
a prime example of how wearable electronics can further precision health
technologies — we can monitor the growth of a tumor with tens of micron
resolution using just a sensor and a cell phone app," Yasser Khan ,
an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University
of Southern California, said in a press release . "We can observe the
progression 24/7, unlike any of the existing imaging techniques, and precisely
tell if a drug is working on not in treating the tumor."
-----
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/09/21/technological-fixes-to-ease-the-labor-shortage-issues-in-healthcare/?sh=6fe2a31c77f2
Technological Fixes To Ease The Labor Shortage Issues In Healthcare Sep 21, 2022,10:30am EDT
Sonia Gupta MD , Chief Medical Officer, Change Healthcare.
We
are amid a well-known epidemic of physician burnout. Even before
the Covid-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry was experiencing unprecedented
levels of labor shortages and patient volumes.
As
a practicing radiologist, I’ve seen firsthand the impact this has had on
workers. Many physicians have had to work long hours away from their families,
with no one available to replace them. For working parents within and outside
of the healthcare industry, this was an especially challenging time.
Now,
as we transition toward recovery, patients who postponed things like routine
radiology screenings—either because of fear or facility closure—are coming
back. Unfortunately, it has been difficult to catch up.
Across
the industry, we are experiencing challenges of delayed patient care and
overwhelmed and overworked staff.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/study-health-systems-ehr-success-tied-meaningful-use-guidelines
Study: Health Systems' EHR Success Tied to Meaningful Use Guidelines Analysis
| By Eric Wicklund |
September 21, 2022
Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that health systems
who meet CMS meaningful use guidelines for EHRs are improving clinical care and
reducing patient mortality rates.
A
new study has found that health systems meeting meaningful use requirements
established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for electronic
health records have been able to improve clinical care and reduce patient
mortality rates.
The
study, conducted by researchers at the University of Missouri , published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, and focused on more
than 5 million patient experiences in 300 US hospitals, reinforces the idea
that hospitals should be making the effort to integrate EHRs into clinician
workflows – and that the government should promote programs that support
interoperability.
It
also highlights the challenges that many healthcare organizations have faced in
installing EHRs and getting them to work as expected . To date, the federal
government has invested more than $30 billion in programs aimed to support EHR
adoption, and yet few healthcare leaders will agree that the process has been
smooth or fruitful.
EHRs
"have the potential to be very helpful, but in practice they tend to be
very disruptive because it's time-consuming to train personnel how to use
them," Kate Trout, an assistant professor in the MU School of Health
Professions and lead author of the study, said in a press release . "They're expensive, and
there's always new complicated updates and new forms that come out, and there
is often a lack of interoperability for the data to be shared among different
healthcare organizations."
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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/20/us/politics/covid-data-outbreaks.html
‘Very Harmful’ Lack of Data Blunts U.S. Response to Outbreaks Major data
gaps, the result of decades of underinvestment in public health, have undercut
the government response to the coronavirus and now to monkeypox.
A lab
technician sequencing Covid-19 samples at the Alaska State Public Health
Laboratory in Anchorage.Credit...Ash Adams for The New York Times
By Sharon LaFraniere
Sept. 20,
2022Updated 4:44 p.m. ET
ANCHORAGE —
After a middle-aged woman tested positive for Covid-19 in January
at her workplace in Fairbanks, public health workers sought answers to
questions vital to understanding how the virus was spreading in Alaska’s rugged
interior.
The woman,
they learned, had underlying conditions and had not been vaccinated. She had
been hospitalized but had recovered. Alaska and many other states have
routinely collected that kind of information about people who test positive for
the virus. Part of the goal is to paint a detailed picture of how one of the
worst scourges in American history evolves and continues to kill hundreds of
people daily, despite determined efforts to stop it.
But most of
the information about the Fairbanks woman — and tens of millions more infected
Americans — remains effectively lost to state and federal epidemiologists. Decades
of underinvestment in public health information systems has crippled efforts to
understand the pandemic, stranding crucial data in incompatible data systems so
outmoded that information often must be repeatedly typed in by hand. The data
failure, a salient lesson of a pandemic that has killed more than one million
Americans, will be expensive and time-consuming to fix.
The precise
cost in needless illness and death cannot be quantified. The nation’s
comparatively low vaccination rate is clearly a major factor in why the United
States has recorded the highest Covid death rate among large, wealthy nations.
But federal experts are certain that the lack of comprehensive, timely data has
also exacted a heavy toll.
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https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/va-hospitals-must-do-better-in-tracking-patient-transfers
VA hospitals must do better in tracking patient transfers: Report September 16,
2022
Ron
Southwick
The
Office of Inspector General said that some veterans’ medical centers must
communicate more about transfers between VA facilities. Some missteps could
have affected patient safety, the OIG said.
Veterans’
hospitals must do a better job of monitoring patient transfers and ensuring
patients are getting the appropriate medications when they go to other
facilities, according to a new report.
The
Office of Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs issued the report
Thursday. The inspector general’s office conducted 45 unannounced inspections
at 45 VA medical facilities from Nov. 30, 2020 through Aug. 23, 2021. The
review looked at how the hospitals and medical centers handled transfers of
patients to other VA facilities.
The
missteps, particularly in communicating about medications, could have affected
patient safety, the report said.
The
findings “may help leaders identify vulnerable areas or conditions that, if
properly addressed, could improve patient safety and healthcare quality,” the
report stated.
The
inspector general’s office issued four key recommendations for the VA.
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Wearable cognitive assistance: What is it, and what can it achieve? Among other
use cases, the AI-enabled devices can help health systems reduce the time to
perform surgeries by 30%. An expert from Deloitte explains what's needed to
capitalize on WCA's potential.
By Mike Miliard
September 20,
2022 10:10 AM
Wearable
cognitive assistance might be the new edge hospitals and health systems need to
improve their clinical processes and gain cost efficiencies.
The
technology, which combines AI-enabled devices with edge computing, can help
humans accomplish tasks with greater efficacy by offering them virtual
instructions and sometimes by connecting them with other people who can
assist them.
For
instance, a surgeon might use the software as part of special glasses that
offer a presurgery checklist tailored to specific patients. Augmented reality
could offer enhanced visualizations and easy access to view a patient’s medical
history – helping improve patient safety while reducing the time needed to
perform a given procedure.
Deloitte
has a recent report about how WCA could change workflow and
processes in healthcare and elsewhere. We asked one of its authors, Deloitte
managing director Apan Tiwari, a few questions about the technology, and how
health systems should be deploying it.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/nextgen-releases-new-ehr-functionality-for-foster-care-services
NextGen Releases New EHR Functionality for Foster Care Services The newest
version of NextGen Healthcare’s Behavioral Health Suite will extend EHR
functionality to improve clinical workflow for providers of patients in foster
care.
By Sarai Rodriguez
September 16,
2022 - Health IT vendor NextGen Healthcare has announced
the latest release of its integrated behavioral health suite, which now offers
enhanced EHR functionality to support the delivery of foster care services.
NextGen says
its Behavioral Health Suite is the first platform to integrate physical health,
behavioral health, human services, and oral health in one software solution.
The suite
will now offer state-specific reporting, allowing behavioral health providers
to meet complex regulatory requirements. That’s key in states like New York or
Indiana, where regulatory requirements are particularly granular.
These
services benefit over 672,000 youth who are part of the US foster care system,
according to the press release.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/in-person-patient-portal-training-rises-patient-satisfaction
In-Person Patient Portal Training Raises Patient Satisfaction New
research findings have concluded that in-person patient portal training can
boost patient portal use, consequently improving patient satisfaction and
engagement.
By Sarai Rodriguez
September 19,
2022 - Healthcare organizations can trigger improvements in patient
satisfaction and engagement by providing in-person patient portal training to
hospitalized patients, according
to a study from the Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Patient
portals are designed to grant patient access to their own medical
information, lab and test results, history, clinician notes, and other key
patient-facing features. This technology has shown benefits for patient
engagement, satisfaction, and delivery of patient-centered care while
potentially ameliorating gaps in patient data access.
“Inpatient
portals empower patients by giving them access to clinical data such as test
results, information about their care plan, and a way to communicate with
doctors and nurses,” Ann Scheck McAlearney, ScD, MS, professor in the
Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Ohio State College of
Medicine, said in a press
release .
“Portal use
supports a patient-centered care model where patients are more engaged and
knowledgeable about their healthcare and feel valued as patients,” continued
Scheck, who is also associate dean for Health Services Research at Ohio State
College of Medicine and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical
Center.
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https://journal.ahima.org/page/improve-patient-outcomes-by-integrating-sdoh-data-into-ehrs
September 18, 2022 · Health
Data · Regulatory and Health Industry
Improve Patient Outcomes by Integrating SDOH Data into EHRs By Ankit Rohatgi, MD, MBA, CPE, FACS
Social
determinants of health (SDOH) encompass environmental and socioeconomic
factors, such as housing, education, employment, and access to food. SDOH have
a major impact on access to quality care and are critical to the health and
well-being of patients. While medical care accounts
for approximately 20 percent of healthcare, physical environment, socioeconomic
factors, and health-related behaviors, all elements of SDOH account for about
80 percent of outcomes.
Incorporating
SDOH data into electronic health records (EHRs) “could
dramatically increase the scope, quality, and timeliness of data available
for planning interventions targeted at SDOH factors.” With essential SDOH
information such as housing, transportation, and diet captured in real time,
clinicians can leverage that data to make more informed, targeted medical
decisions that deliver higher quality care.
This
article details information required for integration into EHRs to build
personalized treatment plans and develop successful SDOH programs that provide
resources and support for patients in need. In addition, successful SDOH
programs implemented by Kaiser Permanente and Boston Medical Center showcase
how supporting clinicians with real-time SDOH data can lead to patient-centric
care.
Create a 360-Degree Patient View Through Technology
The
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) indicates
that the “collection, documentation, reporting, access, and use of SDOH data …
can be used to help identify and eliminate health disparities and to improve
health outcomes at an individual and population level.” These four areas
include standards and data (advance standards); infrastructure (HIEs, state,
local); policy (emerging policy challenges and opportunities); and
implementation (integration, innovation, and health IT tools).
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/healthcare-plays-cvs-walgreens-and-amazon-will-drive-more-partnerships-tech-investment
Healthcare plays by CVS, Walgreens and Amazon will drive more
partnerships, tech investment, experts say By Heather Landi
Sep 15, 2022 08:00am
CVS,
Walgreens and Amazon are ramping up their focus on in-home medical services and
primary care and it will cause major disruptions for more traditional
brick-and-mortar providers, industry experts say.
Major
retailers, including Walmart, are extending their reach deeper into the care
continuum and it has major implications for how and where care is delivered and
paid for, and by whom.
Earlier
this month, drugstore giant CVS announced it would acquire
home healthcare company Signify Health for $8 billion, a company sought
after by many healthcare and retail companies.
"It's
sort of like these companies have been sort of poking around the edges to see
what might work and we're finally starting to break through," said Colin
Banas, M.D., chief medical officer at DrFirst.
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Enjoy!
David.
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