Here are a few I came across last week.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/pew-focuses-health-it-efforts-on-public-health-data-sharing
Pew Focuses Health IT Efforts on Public Health Data Sharing
After working to support policies for enhanced health IT use, Pew is looking to improve data sharing between providers and state public health agencies.
November 23, 2022 - Pew Charitable Trusts is working to improve health IT infrastructure for data sharing between healthcare providers and state public health agencies.
“As COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, the health system’s patchwork IT infrastructure and policies can endanger public health,” Kathy Talkington, director of health programs at The Pew Charitable Trusts, wrote in an article.
In November 2021, CMS finalized policies requiring healthcare providers who treat Medicare patients to share more health data with public health agencies. The agency encouraged hospitals to take similar action in August 2022.
“Now, it’s up to state regulators and ONC to further increase the sharing of data that is essential to prevent the spread of disease, curb chronic illness, and enable everyone to be as healthy as possible,” Talkington said.
Over the past six years, Pew has focused on enhancing EHR use to improve patient care.
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State AGs Urge Continued Virtual Care Access for Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
A group of 45 attorneys general from various US states asked the DEA and the SAMHSA to preserve access to opioid use disorder treatment through telehealth.
November 21, 2022 - Led by Attorney General Josh Stein of North Carolina and Attorney General Ashley Moody of Florida, a group of 45 attorneys is urging the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to allow providers to continue virtually prescribing buprenorphine for opioid use disorder indefinitely.
The prevalence of opioid use disorders has grown significantly in recent years, affecting varied populations and resulting in high numbers of overdoses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 564,000 people died from opioid-related overdose between 1999 and 2020.
The request to the DEA and the SAMHSA aims to expand the treatment offerings for opioid use disorder, specifically by allowing providers to prescribe buprenorphine through telehealth permanently.
"We join a chorus of advocates, addiction treatment providers, medical practitioners, recovery groups, public health experts, and members of the House of Representative’s Bipartisan Addiction and Mental Health Task Force in urging the administration to permanently extend these telehealth flexibilities for buprenorphine," the letter states.
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Analysis of Addiction Treatment mHealth Sites Highlights Data Privacy Risks
The Opioid Policy Institute and the Legal Action Center called for additional data privacy protections for addiction treatment data collected by mHealth sites.
By Jill McKeon
November 23, 2022 - An analysis of a dozen opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment and recovery websites revealed significant data privacy concerns and a need for stronger legal protections for addiction treatment data, a report by the Opioid Policy Institute and the Legal Action Center suggested.
The two organizations teamed up to analyze the websites of 12 virtual care platforms that provide OUD treatment or recovery services using the publicly available “Blacklight” tool, described as a “real-time website privacy inspector”, developed by The Markup.
Over the 16-month observation period, researchers observed the use of third-party session cookies, key logging, Meta Pixel and Google Analytics use, and the presence of ad trackers. The research was unable to determine whether or what information was actually collected or how it was being used. However, the websites were consistently using tools with the capability to collect sensitive information.
According to the report, all 12 websites used ad trackers capable of identifying people who visited the sites, and 11 of the 12 sites used third-party cookies, which could identify people who visited the sites and track them across other websites. Half of the websites used Meta Pixel at some point during the observation period.
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State attorneys general call on Apple to beef up privacy protections for reproductive health information
Nov 22, 2022 04:05pm
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with a response from Apple highlighting its privacy controls
Ten state attorneys general are calling on Apple to implement stronger privacy controls for third-party apps that collect consumers’ reproductive health data.
In a letter (PDF) sent Monday to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the group of state AGs raised privacy concerns in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
Third-party apps available on Apple's App Store such as period tracking apps and pregnancy and fertility apps collect consumers’ private reproductive health data, which can be "weaponized against consumers by law enforcement, private entities, or individuals," the state AGs wrote in the letter.
"This gap in Apple’s protections threatens the privacy and safety of App Store consumers and runs directly counter to Apple’s publicly expressed commitment to protect user data," the New Jersey-led coalition wrote.
When reached for comment, an Apple spokesperson pointed to the privacy controls built into the company's Health app. When consumers have enabled two-factor authentication and use Apple's "cycle tracking" feature, for example, the health data synced to iCloud is encrypted end-to-end and "Apple does not have the key to decrypt the data and therefore cannot read it," the policy states.
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Digital Health in Oncology – Emerging Opportunities Across the Cancer Patient Journey
Cancer is a serious public health issue, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths and over […]
Nov 22, 2022 at 4:37 PM
Cancer is a serious public health issue, accounting for nearly 10 million deaths and over 19 million new cancer cases around the world in 2020. The WHO estimates that the number of new cancer cases will increase to nearly 29 million in 2040. This alarming statistic is indicative of the huge focus and investment that will flow into oncology worldwide.
What are the objectives of digital health technologies in the journey of the cancer patient?
Innovative Digital Health solutions have the potential to revolutionize each step of the cancer patient journey. The approach is a shift towards data-centric solutions aimed to complement manual intervention and judgments in areas critical to patient outcomes. The cancer patient journey and the associated potential digital health objectives look as follows:
- Symptom and screening awareness
Early recognition of cancer symptoms, adherence to cancer screening, and potential genetic testing is of great importance to optimize the outcomes of cancer treatment. A broader awareness of comprehensive information among doctors and patients can be promoted through counseling and education campaigns leveraging digital technologies.
Great examples of public campaigns raising awareness of the potential cancer symptoms and cancer screening options leveraging digital channels are UK NHS’ “Be Clear on Cancer” and “Help Us Help You”.
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Amazon rolls out telehealth marketplace, AWS services
Amazon Clinic will initially operate in 32 states to offer virtual care, while additions to Amazon HealthLake take aim at imaging, analytics.
Nov 17 2022
Editor in Chief, HDM
Amazon Clinic will aim to link consumers with telehealth providers who can treat about 20 conditions and do prescription renewals.
Amazon is strengthening its play in healthcare, making separate announcements with one aimed at extending its reach into consumer delivery, while another effort from Amazon Web Services aims to bring data lake and analytics capabilities to medical imaging.
On November 15, the retail giant announced the rollout of Amazon Clinic, which it expects to initially operate in 32 states and provide virtual care for more than 20 common health conditions.
That same day, Amazon announced new capabilities for its Amazon Web Services division – it’s detailed a preview of an expansion of its Amazon HealthLake initiative to store, structure and apply analytics to medical imaging. Called Amazon HealthLake Imaging, it expects to enable storage of vast quantities of medical imaging for healthcare organizations. Also, it announced Amazon HealthLake Analtyics to facilitate data analysis.
Together, the efforts show the retail company’s efforts to expand its healthcare footprint and, in the case of Amazon Clinic, provide another competitive option for healthcare consumers looking for virtual care. It pairs with Amazon’s proposed plan to buy One Medical to make care more convenient and accessible.
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8 meaningful ways to improve the clinician experience
Healthcare organizations can take steps to enable physicians to focus more on caring for patients rather than other tasks.
Nov 18 2022
Contributor
With increasing shortages, healthcare organizations need to find better ways to recruit and retain their clinicians.
Here are a few key steps for dealing with shortages by improving the clinician experience:
1. Improve the documentation experience
Documentation can be frustrating for clinicians. Because of paper workarounds, many clinicians end up writing notes in different formats – paper, email, text, google docs – throughout the day, and then spend time finding and re-writing all this information for the official patient note in the EHR.
In addition to this duplicative documentation, complying with an ever-increasing number of regulations and coping with an increased number of patient visits can contribute to the sheer amount of notes that clinicians need to write.
Better tech can help clinicians focus on their patients while still documenting the relevant patient information.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ransomware-attacks-trend-holidays-weekends
Ransomware attacks trend up on holidays, weekends
While healthcare cybersecurity experts indicated longer response times to cyberattacks during these times, the new report cited hospital emergency rooms as models for SOC staffing.
By Andrea Fox
November 23, 2022 10:46 AM
Incident response plans can help healthcare security teams mobilize when incidents do occur, according to Cybereason, a provider of predictive prevention, detection and response cybersecurity tools.
WHY IT MATTERS
According to Organizations at Risk 2022: Ransomware Attackers Don't Take Holidays, it's a lack of contingency plans along with reduced staffing levels in security operations centers (SOCs) that resulted in lengthier investigation and response times as well as increased costs.
Launched last year, the annual, global study looks at the impact of cyberattacks that occur on holidays and weekends. Cybereason conducted an online survey of cybersecurity teams that experienced one or more weekend or holiday cyberattacks in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Singapore in September and October.
When asked about the type of security incident that SOC teams are most frequently trying to resolve, nearly half (49%) of respondents pointed to ransomware. Supply chain attacks (46%) and targeted attacks (31%) were also cited as the most frequent attack type.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/patients-prefer-telehealth-common-illnesses-study-shows
Patients prefer telehealth for common illnesses, study shows
But more than half are concerned about the quality of care they're receiving, according to the Software Advice survey. One of the firm's analysts dives into the results.
By Bill Siwicki
November 23, 2022 09:38 AM
Telemedicine has, at long last, become very popular. But lingering concerns remain on its effectiveness for certain diagnoses and treatments.
Software Advice's 2022 State of Telemedicine Survey finds that while a majority of people prefer virtual appointments for common illnesses, more than half of patients still are concerned about the quality of care they're receiving.
Software Advice, a Gartner company, polled more than 1,000 patients on telemedicine usage after the worst of the pandemic – whether they intend to keep using it and improvements that can be made.
We interviewed Lisa Hedges, associate principal analyst at Software Advice, to discuss the findings of the study and talk about the future of telemedicine.
Q. What is the overarching message healthcare CIOs and other health IT leaders should take from your study?
A. That failure to invest in telemedicine is downright foolish at this point. It's been around for a long time, and fully took off during the pandemic. It isn't going anywhere now that so many patients have experienced the convenience it offers.
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New Risk Score Tool Provides Accurate Predictions of Dementia Patterns
Research from the UK shows that a newly developed risk-scoring tool can help clinicians in determining the five-, nine-, and 13-year probability of dementia.
November 22, 2022 - Published in JAMA Network Open, a recent study described the development and accuracy of a risk score tool that predicts individual dementia risk, providing clinical teams with guidance on timely actions and treatment.
Dementia affects large numbers of people, mainly those who are older. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 5 million people over the age of 65 had dementia in 2014. The CDC predicted that this would rise to 14 million by 2060.
In the past, research has been directed toward developing methods for preventing dementia. However, there is still no effective treatment method.
In this study, researchers from the United Kingdom aimed to create a point risk score prediction model for dementia. They used data from a large UK population-based prospective cohort study that occurred between March 13, 2006, and Oct. 1, 2010. They performed a data analysis between June 7 and Sept. 15, 2021.
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Providers Can Glean Useable Health Metrics from Wearable Tracker Data
Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that data gathered by wearable activity trackers can be used to calculate health metrics, including heart health status, which can help boost clinical care.
By Anuja Vaidya
November 22, 2022 - Data from wearable activity trackers can be used to determine various health metrics, including users' cardiovascular health status, new research shows.
Conducted by Johns Hopkins Medicine, the study was published in npj Digital Medicine earlier this month.
According to researchers, though the use of wearable sensors, like activity trackers, has grown significantly in recent years, they are primarily used to measure daily step counts. The researchers' objective in conducting this study was to show that clinically relevant metrics beyond daily step count can be gathered from wearable activity trackers.
"There is a large resource of untapped information contained within the data from these devices, enabling a much more granular fingerprint of an individual's activities of daily life," they wrote in the study.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/patientcenteredmedicalhome/101845
Take My Word for It: We Need the EHR to Let Patients Add Health Information
— If patients got their flu shot elsewhere, they should be able to add that to their health record
by Fred N. Pelzman, MD November 21, 2022
"Doc, can you update my chart so that it shows I did my mammogram already this year?"
How many times a day do you get messages like this through the patient portal? I figure it must be about a dozen or more: people requesting we annotate their chart in some way, note that they had their flu shot at the pharmacy, received their new COVID-19 booster, or had their bone density test at an outside radiology facility.
In addition, there are lots of questions about tests they haven't done that the system through the patient portal prompts them that they are due for. "Why does the system tell me I'm overdue for a tetanus shot, when I just did it last year when I went to the emergency room at the beach after I cut my leg on that seashell?"
What I've learned is that patients are not able to make adjustments to these items from their end, so, once again, the work falls to us. It's not that it's that onerous, but it doesn't take no time -- it takes some time and effort. Is it worth it? Is this what we're really trained for? It takes a lot of clicks to get to the right place, to go through the questions the system wants us to answer, and then don't get me started on requiring we enter the exact date they had gotten their bone density test or mammogram or colonoscopy done, when the records lie outside our system.
There has been vast improvements in the past few years in the vaccine registries, such that many of the vaccines our patients receive at different locations, including many pharmacies and vaccine sites set up through the pandemic, will automatically flow into our electronic medical record, updating the health maintenance section. But many things do not, and this leads to a lot of manual work to keep the chart clean, and the patients happy.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/golden-moment-telehealth-depends-meeting-need-broadband
A golden moment for telehealth depends on meeting the need for broadband
The FCC established the Affordable Connectivity Program in December 2021 to provide access and subsidized computing devices. It's free to enroll in ACP, but too few people are taking advantage.
November 22, 2022 09:33 AM
Imagine you had $14 billion, but you couldn't give it away. The Federal Communication Commission has a similar problem with a key broadband grant program – but telehealth might help save the day.
For better or worse, the internet is embedded into everything humans do, from educating our young to practicing medicine. Delivering telehealth is difficult without the internet. However, nearly 28 million U.S. households still lack internet access.
The FCC established the Affordable Connectivity Program in December 2021 to provide access and subsidized computing devices. It's free to enroll in ACP, but many people are reluctant.
Telehealth can win over fence-sitters. The universal need for healthcare can make ACP coupled with telehealth a win-win for everyone.
Just about everybody gets sick, or they're responsible for someone who is sick. "More than half of Americans aged 50 and up are helping an older adult manage tasks ranging from household chores to care for medical conditions," according to University of Michigan's National Poll on Healthy Aging.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/oig-hhs-must-modernize-its-approach-to-cybersecurity
OIG: HHS Must Modernize Its Approach to Cybersecurity
OIG called on HHS to modernize its cybersecurity approaches and improve data governance efforts.
By Jill McKeon
November 21, 2022 - In the 2022 edition of its annual report on HHS’s top management and performance challenges, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) called on HHS to improve data governance, secure HHS systems, and modernize its approach to cybersecurity across the department.
“Persistent and growing cybersecurity threats exacerbate the challenges facing HHS associated with data and technologies used to carry out the vital health and human service missions of HHS divisions,” the report noted.
“These threats, if not mitigated, can put critical HHS program operations at risk and potentially impact the health and welfare of individuals served by HHS.”
The report shed light on the numerous challenges that HHS faces as it works fulfill its mission to “enhance the health and well-being of all Americans” while combatting daily cyber threats.
First, OIG noted that HHS “continues to improve how it collects, manages, shares, and secures its data.”
For example, the department is currently finalizing its HHS Data Strategy, which will ideally help the department address data sharing, privacy, governance, and security challenges.
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HLTH22: Google, Epic ink deal to migrate hospital EHRs to the cloud to ramp up use of AI, analytics
Nov 16, 2022 10:40am
LAS VEGAS—Google Cloud and Epic, one of the largest medical records software companies in the U.S., inked an infrastructure agreement to enable hospital customers to run their Epic workloads on the tech giant's cloud technology.
New Jersey-based Hackensack Meridian Health plans to move its Epic workloads to Google Cloud, the health system announced this week. The health system aims to accelerate digital transformations by moving to the cloud. The 17-hospital system also plans to leverage technology like analytics and AI to improve patient outcomes while benefiting from enhanced security.
"Our mission to innovate requires accessible, cutting-edge technology," said Robert Garrett, CEO for Hackensack Meridian Health, in a statement. "With our Epic EHR on Google Cloud, we'll be able to innovate faster, and benefit from a more efficient and secure cloud environment."
"We expect running Epic on Google Cloud will be simpler for our IT and developers, and will allow them to focus more on uncovering creative ways to improve patient care," said Kash Patel, executive vice president and chief digital information officer for Hackensack Meridian Health, in a statement. "Having everything with Google Cloud will provide a huge opportunity for discoveries. For example, data from our AI Avatar for natural language processing will already be in Google Cloud, ready for us to ask questions. This will speed up our work and make information more accessible."
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Virtual physical therapy provider OneStep using smartphones to determine upper-extremity range of motion
By Annie Burky
Nov 17, 2022 09:00am
OneStep has expanded the capabilities of its technology, which transforms smartphones into clinical-grade motion analysis devices, to assess upper body motion.
By holding a OneStep-enabled smartphone and moving the arm in directed ways, physical therapists are able to assess range of motion to inform post-surgical recovery and treatment of functionality of joints. The platform allows patients to connect directly with physical therapists to develop care plans including OneStep’s library of over 700 video exercises.
OneStep’s patented technology has been used most notably to assess a user’s gait after just 30 seconds of walking. OneStep is also able to take data collected regarding gait and predict and alert providers to a patient that may be a fall risk. Just as with OneStep’s previous offerings, no additional wearables are needed to asses upper extremities.
“In addition to capturing gait data with a phone in a pocket, we're also able to have the patient grab the phone, put in their hand, lift their arm up overhead, and we are able to capture reliable range of motion measurements,” Patrick Tarnowski, OneStep’s chief commercial officer, told Fierce Healthcare. “What we're doing is giving our providers an even more enhanced 360-degree point of view of their patients so our technology is now applicable to all of their patients who present with some kind of an upper extremity problem.”
Traditional range of motion measurements, taken in a clinic with a goniometer, have a margin of error plus or minus five degrees, according to Tarnowski, who previously worked as a physical therapist.
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U of Central Florida researchers create algorithm to fill in incomplete EHRs
- Friday, November 18th, 2022
Varadraj Gurupur, PhD, an associate professor at Orlando-based University of Central Florida's School of Global Health Management and Informatics, has developed an algorithm that can help fill in incomplete EHRs.
The tool can predict and measure the incompleteness of EHRs in lab results, disease diagnosis, medical history and prescription records. Hospitals can lose an average of $5 to $8 million a year due to incomplete EHR data that impacts insurance reimbursement, according to a Nov. 17 UCF news release.
Dr. Gurupur's algorithm works by identifying medical attributes that are more likely to be incomplete.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/third-party-vendor-risk-guidance-renown-healths-ciso
Third-party vendor risk guidance from Renown Health's CISO
Steven Ramirez previews his HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Forum session, explaining how provider organizations can best avoid security problems that stem from associates outside their four walls.
By Bill Siwicki
November 21, 2022 11:11 AM
Data breaches are at an all-time high across all sectors, especially healthcare with its treasure trove of private data.
Many bad actors are entering networks through third-party entities. Healthcare provider organizations are especially vulnerable as they possess a vast amount of sensitive and valuable data – and because third-party vendors have become so critical to healthcare infrastructure.
Risk management of this kind poses a unique challenge and it's critical that security leaders understand how to properly select and vet third-party vendors.
A CISO with plenty of experience
Steven Ramirez is chief information security officer at Renown Health and one of three panelists during the educational session entitled "Making Third Party Risk Management a Priority" at the HIMSS Healthcare Cybersecurity Forum, December 5-6 in Boston. In his role as CISO for a health system, Ramirez knows plenty about third-party risk.
For example, he knows why so many bad actors are entering healthcare information networks via third-party vendors.
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Enjoy!
David.
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