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Epic unveils interoperability tool for patients
The EHR vendor says Share Everywhere is designed to empower MyChart users to allow clinicians to view medical records.
September 14, 2017 01:39 PM
Epic Systems introduced its Share Everywhere feature, which enables patients to grant doctors and caregivers access to their data.
Not to be confused with the EHR vendor’s Care Everywhere, which enables health information sharing between providers, Epic’s Share Everywhere gives patients more control over the data sharing process.
Here’s how it works. A patient already using Epic’s MyChart patient portal can tap into the Share Everywhere feature to generate a one-time access code that the patient would verbally tell the doctor, according to an Epic spokesperson.
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Telemedicine saves patients time and money, study shows
Sep 15, 2017 10:46am
Telehealth can save patients as much as $50 per visit and recoup nearly an hour of their time.
A new study adds to mounting evidence that telemedicine can save patients two things they value most: time and money.
Patients and family members saved an average of $50 in travel costs and recouped just under an hour in time by using telehealth technology for sports medicine appointments, according to a study by Nemours Children’s Health System presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference.
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Researchers say HIEs could save Medicare billions each year
Sep 15, 2017 12:18pm
Widespread use of HIEs could save Medicare more than $3 billion each year.
An analysis of Medicare spending shows notable savings in areas of the country that have an operational health information exchange (HIE). Expanded nationally, HIEs have the potential to save Medicare more than $3 billion each year.
That’s according to researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the University of California San Francisco who compared Medicare spending over a seven-year period in areas of the country with and without an operational HIE. They found that areas of the country with a HIE led to $139 in savings per beneficiary per year.
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Healthcare groups, lawmakers push Medicare to promote advance directives
Although the CMS reimburses clinicians for advance care planning during Medicare patients' yearly wellness visits, the agency has yet to encourage patients to set up these plans. It shows: Two-thirds of American adults do not have advance directives to guide their healthcare if they become unable to communicate.
The CMS currently advocates a low-tech, hands-off approach to advance care directives, advising people via its website to keep copies of the directives "where you can easily find them"; give copies to healthcare providers, proxies, and family and friends; and to carry a note "in your wallet" saying you have an advance directive.
But even if a person has an advance directive, it may be hard to use.
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HIEs could cut billions in Medicare spending if implemented nationally
Published September 15 2017, 7:23am EDT
Health information exchanges could cut billions of dollars in Medicare spending if they are implemented nationally, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.
The study, which has been accepted for an upcoming issue of Information Systems Research, demonstrates that when HIEs are created in regional markets around the country, they realize substantial cost savings for the Medicare program.
“We find significant cost reductions in healthcare markets that have established operational HIEs, with an average reduction in spending of $139 (1.4 percent decrease) per Medicare beneficiary per year,” states the paper.
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HIT Think Why disaster recovery strategies need a second look
Published September 15 2017, 3:54pm EDT
With the destruction that recent hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters are leaving behind, communities and organizations must be prepared to start rebuilding immediately.
For healthcare organizations, this means implementing ways to recover lost data and restart operations as a result of power outages or impacted data centers.
Disaster recovery plans hold a line of defense for the unexpected. If implemented strategically, these plans keep enterprises stable in hard times and can make resuming normal operations as simple as recovering from a backup. There are various ways to test a disaster recovery plan after implementation to ensure a foolproof defense against the unexpected.
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AI creates new jobs, holds promise of reducing routine tasks
Published September 15 2017, 3:16pm EDT
The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence will significantly alter how many jobs are performed and how many workers are needed for various tasks, according to new research by Capgemini , a consulting and outsourcing firm.
Some 83 percent of the 993 global executives surveyed by the firm between March and June said AI has generated new roles in their organizations. Specifically, organizations are producing jobs at a senior level, with two in three jobs being created at the grade of manager or above.
Among organizations that have implemented AI at scale, 63 percent said that AI has not destroyed any jobs in their organization.
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Health IT Expert Tripathi Digs Deep on Impact of Epic’s Share Everywhere Release
September 15, 2017
by Rajiv Leventhal
Micky Tripathi feels that patients driving the innovation is the important takeaway from the big Epic news this week
Earlier this week, when Epic Systems Corporation, the Verona, Wis.-based electronic health record (EHR) vendor—a health IT giant company whose platform some 190 million patients have an electronic record on—announced its latest technology upgrade that will allow patients to grant access to their data to any provider they want, there seemed to be an overall sense of optimism amongst industry observers in terms of what this means for interoperability growth.
Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, is perhaps as well-connected as anyone when it comes to health information exchange (HIE) and interoperability. Tripathi sits on the board of directors of The Sequoia Project (of which the Carequality interoperability framework is part of) and also does project management work for the CommonWell Health Alliance, which operates a health data sharing network of its own. Tripathi has been a part of countless meetings, conversations and project work within and for these organizations, with the broad goal always being to advance nationwide interoperability.
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Hunt to promise every NHS patient app access to records
Jon Hoeksma
11 September 2017
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will say every patient in England should be able to use an app to access their medical records and book a GP appointment by the end of 2018.
Hunt will on Tuesday say in a speech at NHS Expo that by the end of 2018 all patients should have access to an “integrated app” to access NHS 111, view their health record, book a GP appointment and order repeat prescriptions.
The promised app, expected to be the latest incarnation of the NHS England development NHS.uk national patient portal, should also enable patients to “express their organ donation preferences”, “express their data sharing preferences”; and access support for managing a long term condition.
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NHS Digital Academy officially launched
Jon Hoeksma
11 September 2017
The NHS Digital Academy has been officially launched, in a move described as the marking the start of establishing informatics as a profession.
The NHS Digital Academy was officially launched here in Manchester today (11 September) in a move designed to create a step-change in the way the NHS develops digital leaders, and described as marking a key step in establishing informatics as a profession.
The Academy was described by Harpreet Sood, associate national chief clinical information officer (CCIO) and lead on the programme, as “an informatics leadership course for NHS digital leaders by digital leaders”.
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Running a Practice Means Running Behind, Survey Shows
September 13, 2017
Six percent of physicians claim that they never fall behind on their appointment schedule.
These are same physicians, no doubt, who fill in a New York Times crossword puzzle in 15 minutes and never get coffee stains on their white coat.
For most physicians, however, running late is a way of professional life, according to the Medscape Practice Workflow Report 2017: Physicians' Bottlenecks, Challenges, and Time. Thirty-six percent said they fall behind schedule several times a week. For 28%, it happens every day.
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Epic announces capability to let patients share their records
Published September 14 2017, 3:47pm EDT
Patients whose records are accessible through the portal offered through Epic electronic health records systems will be able to authorize any clinician to have a glimpse into their records, no matter what EHR system they’re using.
Epic announced the capability on Wednesday, describing it as a significant advance in interoperability.
Called Share Everywhere, it will enable patients to grant access to their data to any providers who have Internet access, even if they don’t use an EHR system in their practice. In addition, healthcare providers who use Share Everywhere can send a progress note back to the patient’s healthcare organization, thus further supporting continuity of care.
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Epic Share Everywhere Enables Worldwide Interoperability
Epic patients can now enable any provider online access to their health data without using an EHR system.
September 13, 2017 - Epic today announced a new innovation to improve worldwide interoperability with Share Everywhere — a solution allowing patients to authorize any provider with internet access to view their health record.
As part of Share Everywhere, patients can even share health data with providers without EHR systems. Additionally, providers can send progress notes back to a patient’s healthcare organization after viewing a patient health record to improve continuity of care.
“Patients should be able to easily share their health information with anyone they choose, no matter where they are,” said Epic Vice President of Patient Engagement Janet Campbell. “Share Everywhere now makes this possible.”
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Clinical Sepsis Data from EHRs Better Than Claims Data
HealthLeaders Media Staff, September 14, 2017
The findings challenge the use of claims data for sepsis surveillance.
New research led by investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital estimates the current United States burden of sepsis and trends using clinical data from the EHR systems of a large number of diverse hospitals.
The findings, published in JAMA, challenge the use of claims data for sepsis surveillance and suggest that clinical surveillance using EHR data provides more objective estimates of sepsis incidence and outcomes, the researchers said.
The research team developed a new strategy to track sepsis incidence and outcomes using electronic clinical data instead of insurance claims. Sepsis was identified if a patient had concurrent indicators of infection and organ dysfunction.
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Obama's cyber czar warns of 3 troubling security trends
Michael Daniel, who now leads the Cyber Threat Alliance, said that cyberspace operates under different rules that demand new security model.
September 12, 2017 11:57 AM
BOSTON — Cyberthreats are getting broader, more frequent, increasingly disruptive, and not to mention dangerous.
That’s why hospitals need to create a cyber toolbox, according to Michael Daniel, who served as Obama’s cybersecurity coordinator from 2012 to 2016 and is now president of the Cyber Threat Alliance.
Daniel said there are three coming developments that trouble him the most.
“We’re going to see a move toward data corruption,” Daniel said Tuesday at the Healthcare Security Forum. “It’s far more damaging to corrupt it than destroy it. If you destroy data your target knows that, but if you corrupt it that’s a more difficult problem to solve because getting back to ground truth is incredibly difficult.”
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Public health agencies still in the early stages of integrating data with HIEs, according to ONC
Sep 13, 2017 11:43am
Public health data has not fully integrated with HIEs thanks to a lack of funding and disparate IT systems.
More state and local agencies are funneling public health data into health information exchanges (HIEs), but a lack of funding and technical difficulties have slowed widespread integration.
Connecting public health information systems with existing HIEs can reduce redundant reporting and provide more complete data to help providers coordinate care. But public health agencies are still “in the early stages” of assimilating with HIEs, according to a report by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
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MedStar Health develops virtual reality training program for emergency, trauma physicians
Sep 13, 2017 12:26pm
MedStar Health will unveil its “Trauma:Yellow” virtual reality program next month.
Hospitals are experimenting with virtual reality programs in a number of areas, and a District of Columbia health system will debut this fall a program aimed at improving training for emergency physicians.
MedStar Health's Institute for Innovation will unveil its “Trauma:Yellow” virtual reality program next month at a conference for emergency doctors. The simulation was built by in-house video game developers at the institute’s Simulation Training and Education Lab, according to an article from Washingtonian magazine.
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HIT Think 3 ways cognitive computing could aid value-based care
Published September 13 2017, 3:33pm EDT
As more providers continue to delve deeper into adopting value-based care models, many are seeing their costs go down as outcomes improve. But they are also finding the areas in which the mathematical realities of an economic model don’t always align with the transformation needed to optimize an often unpredictable clinical setting.
The issue comes to a head when dealing with high-risk patients. These are the 10 percent of the patient population that account for 70 percent of health costs, and they create major challenges for providers and their practices which increasingly are being reimbursed based on outcomes. The challenge becomes even greater when these patients leave the hospital.
Take, for example, an elderly patient with uncontrolled diabetes and coronary heart disease who lives with his daughter in a major city. That patient is going to have a very different post-discharge experience and wildly different set of needs than a patient with the same diagnoses who lives alone in a rural area.
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Electronic alerts, new protocols help speed sepsis treatment
Published September 13 2017, 3:16pm EDT
An electronic alert system in the emergency department at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, coupled with a clinician “sepsis huddle” at a child’s bedside, is helping physicians and nurses more quickly identify and assess children who are developing the life-threatening infection.
“Early and accurate recognition of pediatric sepsis is challenging because many children present initially without overt signs of shock,” says Fran Balamuth, MD, an emergency physician and lead author of a quality improvement study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. “Identifying the rare child with severe sepsis or septic shock from among many non-sepsis patients with fever and rapid heart rate who present to a pediatric emergency department is truly akin to the proverbial needle in a haystack.”
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Technology Could Enable Better Suicide Prevention for Veterans
September 11, 2017
David LaBorde, M.D., is the chief executive officer of Iconic Data Inc. and a strategic adviser to DSS, Inc.
Veterans are more at risk than the general public to commit suicide, making up roughly 9 percent of the overall population but 18 percent of suicides. The Veteran Affairs Department reported in 2014 that an average of 20 veterans committed suicide every day. Combatting this is a top priority for the agency.
“This is a national public health crisis, and it requires solutions that not only VA will work on but all of government and other partnerships in the private sector, nonprofit organizations,” Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said earlier this year.
Suicide prevention is a complex challenge and the current workflow methodology is tedious and inefficient. The challenge begins at the very start of the process: identifying the most vulnerable in the population. Only six of the 20 veterans committing suicide each day in 2014 were actual users of VA services.
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Apple doubles down on heart rate monitoring with upcoming Apple Watch update; announces Stanford study
September 12, 2017
Among Apple’s many device and technology reveals today was an announcement that new health managing software would be built into Apple Watches. Starting Sept. 19, fitness-focused heart rate monitoring will be brought to the face of the watch, alongside warning notifications if an elevated heart rate is detected during a period of inactivity.
The consumer electronics giant will be using this functionality to amass clinical data through a program that they call the Apple Heart Study. In conjunction with Stanford University researchers, Apple will use the sensors built into Apple Watches to observe and analyze arrhythmias. Apple has also been in conversation with the FDA about the study.
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AMA demands EHR overhaul, calls them 'poorly designed and implemented'
Latest study confirms typing and clicking consume more than half the workday for doctors.
September 12, 2017 09:42 AM
Primary care physicians spend more than half of their workday typing data on a computer screen and completing other EHR tasks, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin and the American Medical Association.
Researchers gleaned their findings from EHR event logs. Confirmed by direct observation data, they found that during a typical 11.4-hour workday, primary care physicians spent nearly six hours on data entry and other tasks with EHR systems. The study was published in the Annals of Family Medicine.
“This study reveals what many primary care physicians already know – data entry tasks associated with EHR systems are significantly cutting into available time for physicians to engage with patients,” AMA President David O. Barbe, MD, a family physician from Mountain Grove, Missouri, said in a statement.
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HHS launches campaign to educate patients about rights under HIPAA
HHS' Office for Civil Rights unveiled a campaign focused on patient access to health information Sept. 7, titled "Get it. Check it. Use it."
Under the mottos "access to your health information is your right" and "information is powerful medicine," the campaign highlights the importance of HIPAA and its mandate giving each patient the right to access and obtain copies of his or her health information.
The campaign centers on three pillars: "Get it" (ask your physician for copies of your health information), "Check it" (review your health information for accuracy) and "Use it" (leverage health information to improve communication with your physician).
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Global E-Health Market to grow at the Highest CAGR – Analysis & Forecasts Report By 2022
The Global E-Health Market is accounted for $99.35 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $285.57 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 16.2% during the forecast period. Factors such as growing occurrence of chronic diseases and technological advancements are favouring the market growth. However, increasing privacy concerns and growing demand for the safe infrastructure of data confidentiality are hampering the market.
The global electronic health (eHealth) market is growing at a swift pace and is projected to witness robust growth in the coming years. Technological developments, innovations, and the use of electronic devices are augmenting the global eHealth market. The increasing adoption of these systems by medical practitioners across the globe is anticipated to offer promising opportunities for prominent players in the market.
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08.09.2017
Patients know best?
"Digital infrastructures have to be patient-centred – this is a mantra that every 21st century healthcare politician has learned routinely. In practice, handing over the power to the patient can be difficult though. Privacy concepts and patient rights are not clear-cut. They depend, at least partly, on the technical infrastructure and the security framework that is chosen – and vice versa. The good news is that digital patient involvement can be successful.""More than 80% of the users say that É Saúde is an improvement for the citizens, and nearly 80% say it is an improvement for the health-care system."
By Philipp Grätzel von Grätz
What is the role of the patient in digital healthcare? For Erik Gerritsen, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport in the Netherlands, there is no hesitating at all when it comes to answering that question: "We want to make the patient the CEO of his own health." Being the CEO of your own health means, according to Gerritsen, having access to your own health data, being able to take more control of your health, sharing data with health-care providers and researchers of your choice, being able to work with health data wherever and whenever you want, and getting feedback on the impact of your lifestyle on your own health.
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Equifax hack: What cybersecurity pros are saying about the breach
Every hospital needs a plan for such events, experts at the Healthcare Security Forum say, but that’s just a start.
September 11, 2017 04:03 PM
BOSTON — Healthcare organizations can learn a lot from the Equifax hack of some 143 million records. Executives should not dump stock before disclosing a breach, data integrity takes a team, everyone needs to constantly hone their incident response plan, and the worse is yet to come.
That was the sentiment from speakers on Monday at the Healthcare Security Forum in Boston.
The stock dumping aspect of the situation demands little explanation. MIT professor Stuart Madnick said that the breach ratcheted up the number of exposed records beyond Target and TJX before it.
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Online physician ratings don’t predict clinical performance
Sep 12, 2017 1:08pm
While a new study calls for caution in how much patients rely on online reviews, patients do often use them to find a new doctor.
Patients should not rely on online physician ratings alone to select their doctors because these reviews can be a poor indicator of clinical performance, a new study found.
Online ratings of specialist physicians fail to predict their actual performance on measures of quality, value and peer review, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
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University students undergoing online CBT program had reductions in insomnia, paranoia, hallucinations
MONDAY, Sept. 11, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- For university students with insomnia, digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is associated with reductions in insomnia, paranoia, and hallucinations, according to a study published online Sept. 6 in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Daniel Freeman, Ph.D., from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a single-blind trial at 26 universities. A total of 3,755 students with insomnia were randomized to receive digital CBT for insomnia (1,891 participants) or usual care (1,864 participants), and were assessed online at weeks zero, three, 10 (end of treatment), and 22.
The researchers found that the sleep intervention correlated with reductions in insomnia, paranoia, and hallucinations at 10 weeks, compared with usual practice (adjusted difference, 4.78, −2.22, and −1.58, respectively). In paranoia and hallucinations, insomnia was a mediator of change. There were no reports of adverse events.
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EHRs partially or completely implemented in 99% of US hospitals: 4 survey findings
Around 99 percent of U.S. hospitals had partially or completely implemented EHRs in 2016, up from 33.6 percent in 2003, according to survey results published in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.
Researchers polled a random sample of pharmacy directors at 1,315 hospitals in the U.S. in 2016. Respondents completed the survey on paper or online. IMS Health supplied data on hospital characteristics.
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HIT Think Providers need to ask the right questions about a move to the cloud
Published September 12 2017, 4:39pm EDT
The last time you made a difficult decision, chances are you engaged in some form of a process called the 5 Ws (sometimes, H for How, gets included in the mix).
The process adds the logical consistency of directed, relevant questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? It’s a process journalists often use consciously in writing articles, and it comes in handy for non-journalists when the goal is breaking down options and arriving at an optimal outcome.
You may have even used a 5W1H-like process yourself when considering whether to move your healthcare IT systems to the cloud. For those that haven’t made a final decision, let’s work through this together and see where it leads.
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Jeremy Hunt to unveil plans for digital-led NHS treatment by 2018
Access to medical records, booking GP appointments and ordering repeat prescriptions could all be done via an app by the end of next year
Monday 11 September 2017 09.01 AEST Last modified on Monday 11 September 2017 17.51 AEST
Jeremy Hunt is to pledge that every patient in England should be able to access their medical records and book an appointment with a GP via an app by the end of 2018.
The health secretary will use his speech at an NHS conference on Tuesday to promise the national rollout of an integrated app, which patients will also be able to use for ordering repeat prescriptions and accessing NHS 111 – the non-emergency medical helpline.
Speaking at the Health and Care Innovation Expo in Manchester, he is expected to unveil the key expectations he wants to see rolled out across the NHS by the end of its 70th birthday year in 2018.
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The impact of electronic health records on diagnosis
Mark L. Graber / Colene Byrne / Doug Johnston
Free Access
Abstract
Diagnostic error may be the largest unaddressed patient safety concern in the United States, responsible for an estimated 40,000–80,000 deaths annually. With the electronic health record (EHR) now in near universal use, the goal of this narrative review is to synthesize evidence and opinion regarding the impact of the EHR and health care information technology (health IT) on the diagnostic process and its outcomes. We consider the many ways in which the EHR and health IT facilitate diagnosis and improve the diagnostic process, and conversely the major ways in which it is problematic, including the unintended consequences that contribute to diagnostic error and sometimes patient deaths. We conclude with a summary of suggestions for improving the safety and safe use of these resources for diagnosis in the future.
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Hurricane Harvey No Match for Health IT
Alexandra Wilson Pecci, September 12, 2017
Electronic communications and cloud-based tools helped healthcare providers in Texas deliver patient care before, during, and after the storm.
The nation's focus shifted to Hurricane Irma and Florida over the weekend, while the city of Houston and a huge swath of Texas was still cleaning up from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.
Dan Jenson, CFO of VillageMD-Houston, shared how his organization used technology to prepare for the storm, keep in touch with patients as Harvey hit, and to get back on its feet in the aftermath.
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Hospitals try to weather challenges of Hurricane Irma
Published September 11 2017, 7:32am EDT
Florida hospitals are continuing to cope with high winds and storm-surge caused flooding resulting from Hurricane Irma.
By Monday morning, the hurricane had been downgraded to a Category 1 rating, pummeling cities along the eastern coastline of the state.
An estimated three dozen hospitals throughout the state have been forced to close or significantly limit operations, according to various news reports.
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How hospitals can prepare for Hurricane Irma
Two Houston providers discuss the successful efforts that helped them to weather Harvey and remain open during the hurricane.
September 08, 2017 03:50 PM
Even in the midst of a storm, healthcare providers are responsible for ensuring medical services continue. So, as Hurricane Irma looms off of the coast of Florida, and Hurricane Jose close behind, it’s imperative hospitals not only plan to weather the storm -- but also ensure patient safety in the aftermath.
Communication was top of mind for VillageMD Houston, which was able to remain open during Hurricane Harvey by using its cloud-based EHR -- and by zeroing in on patient needs.
“Most importantly -- connect with your patients. Having a plan for getting communications out to patients prior to any potential storm is key,” said Dan Jenson, CFO of VillageMD Houston. “Inform them of the best way to contact you during an emergency and where to turn for care once the storm passes.”
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ONC's Andrew Gettinger outlines EHR patient safety threats, calls for funding from Congress
Sep 11, 2017 11:53am
ONC's Andrew Gettinger, M.D., raises the alarm about EHRs, including the danger to patients during the transition to a new system.
From poor EHR design and implementation to certification standards that set a “low bar” and potential for patient harm during system transitions, Andrew Gettinger, M.D., raises the alarm about safety threats, interoperability roadblocks and other problems with electronic health records.
“I worry about three areas in health IT and safety.” Gettinger, the chief medical information officer and executive director of the Office of Clinical Quality and Safety for the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), says in a Patient Safety Network podcast:
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ONC: Skilled nursing facilities progress in EHR adoption
A majority (64 percent) of skilled nursing facilities used EHRs in 2016, according to an ONC data brief.
The survey asked 813 SNFs, which had an average bed size of 103, about their EHR usage.
Here are three survey insights.
1. Eighteen percent of SNFs used both an EHR and a local health information organization. Thirty-one percent did not use either an EHR or HIO.
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FHIR Connectathon to Target Consumer-Centered Data Exchange
September 7, 2017
by David Raths
Nine vendors to explore three consumer engagement use cases
The HL7 FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resources) development community recently announced a new development program focused on consumer engagement: the Consumer Centered Data Exchange (CCDE) Track, designed to make it easier for patients to take control of their health data. Several consumer-controlled app (CCA) developers and EHR vendors will participate in a two-day CCDE Connectathon, Sept. 8-10, 2017, leading up to the HL7 31st Annual Plenary & Working Group Meeting in San Diego being held Sept. 9-15.
Connectathons bring together FHIR developers to explore interoperability via live-testing scenarios.
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OCR Urges Disaster Recovery, Health Data Backup in Storm Prep
With Hurricane Irma set to make US landfall soon, OCR stressed the importance of disaster recovery and health data backup for covered entities.
September 08, 2017 - As healthcare organizations prepare for potential natural disasters, it is essential that they have contingency plans in place that include a data backup plan and disaster recovery plan, according to a recent OCR release.
Hurricane Irma is predicted to cause damage in the US when it makes landfall in early September 2017, and covered entities and business associates should prepare for the storm’s arrival, the agency stressed. The HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule are not suspended during natural disasters, and organizations need to ensure they are adhering to the federal regulations.
“The Privacy Rule is carefully designed to protect the privacy of health information, while allowing important health care communications to occur,” OCR stated. “The HIPAA Security Rule’s requirements with respect to contingency planning also help HIPAA covered entities and business associates assure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic PHI (ePHI) during an emergency such as a natural disaster.”
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Digital health is dead, says this health-tech investor
- Since 2014, about $16 billion in VC funding has gone into over 800 digital health companies.
- Conferences, blogs and incubators have quickly sprouted.
- Entrepreneurs and investors need to take a step back to see how this will play out over the next decade.
Rob Coppedge, CEO of Echo Health Ventures
Published 7:13 PM ET Wed, 6 Sept 2017 CNBC.com
Rob Coppedge is CEO of Echo Health Ventures in Seattle and has been investing and working in health care for 20 years.
Let me be clear: I believe strongly in the need for substantive, consumer-centric transformation of the health care system and have been a long-term proponent of the power of entrepreneurs to catalyze and drive these difficult changes.
Despite this, I truly struggled to prepare for a recent presentation on the future of venture capital investing in the "digital health" space. The group I addressed expected another digital health pep rally – but, after much reflection, the best I could bring them was an explanation of why, despite the countless blog posts and questionable survey data to the contrary, I believe the digital health party is over and why those of us focused on long-term systemic transformation should be happy to put this hype cycle behind us.
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Enjoy!
David.
