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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Government pledges £50m for AI to improve diagnosis of deadly disease
The government has pledged £50 million for further investment in artificial intelligence to improve diagnostics across the NHS.
Andrea Downey – 29 August, 2020
The investment aims to speed up the diagnosis of deadly diseases like cancer through delivering digital upgrades to pathology and imaging services across the country.
It will scale up the work of the existing Digital Pathology and Imaging AI Centres of Excellence, launched in 2018 to develop cutting-edge digital tools to improve the diagnosis of disease.
The three centres set to receive a share of the funding, based in Coventry, Leeds and London, will deliver digital upgrades to pathology and imaging services across an additional 38 NHS Trusts, benefiting some 26.5 million patients across England, according to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
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These researchers adapted a stroke patient device for COVID-19
Designed to detect speech and swallowing problems, the device has found a new use in tracking cough frequency to alert healthcare providers that frontline workers may need to be tested for SARS-COV-2.
Researchers in Chicago have adapted a flexible patch they developed to monitor stroke patients for swallowing trouble to help detect symptoms of COVID-19.
They’re hoping it can help physicians decide whether frontline healthcare workers have developed symptoms of the novel coronavirus so they can prevent the illness from worsening. In their “Lost on the Frontline” series, Kaiser Health News and The Guardian have reported 922 U.S. healthcare worker deaths that likely stemmed from caring for COVID-19 patients.
The device that might help identify the virus is a postage-stamp-size wearable that adheres to the skin at the base of the neck — an indentation known as the suprasternal notch — and generates data for up to 40 hours straight without needing to recharge.
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https://hitinfrastructure.com/news/integrating-digital-health-into-clinical-workflows-after-covid-19
Integrating Digital Health into Clinical Workflows After COVID-19
The rise of digital health stalled over the last few years, but the COVID-19 pandemic may serve to resume its growth as consumers are becoming more interested in virtual services.
September 03, 2020 - The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital healthcare and although consumers are interested in virtual services, concerns over privacy, security, and trust still remain, according to the 2020 Accenture Digital Health Consumer Research report.
During COVID-19, virtual healthcare services became vital to slow the transmission of the coronavirus by limiting face-to-face interactions between doctors and patients.
At the start of the pandemic, 54 percent were open to receiving virtual healthcare from traditional medical care providers.
By April, a majority of providers had transitioned to virtual care and consumers supported this move.
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Judy Faulkner and Epic’s View on Patient Engagement and MyChart
September 4, 2020
I recently watched a Cleveland Clinic interview with Epic Founder, Judy Faulkner. The interview overall was quite boring since the interviewer didn’t ask Judy any hard questions and he chose not to dive into the details which wasn’t probably the goal of Cleveland Clinic, an Epic customer. However, there were a few interesting tidbits that were shared by Judy that are worth highlighting.
The first was Judy Faulkner expressing with glee that “165 million patients have Epic MyChart that makes them the 8th biggest country in the world if you counted the MyChart patients as a country.” No doubt this is an impressive number and Epic has certainly been successful in the work they’re doing. In fact, it shows the potential opportunity for good that Epic could do to empower patients.
The disappointing piece for me was when Judy described the amount of engagement they saw from those 165 million patients in Epic MyChart:
“Our experience has been that about 0.5% of the patients have even been interested in managing their own record and then it falls off…They want the health systems to manage it. The health systems to exchange it so that all that data is there.”
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/maintaining-momentum-in-patient-engagement-technology-adoption
Maintaining Momentum in Patient Engagement Technology Adoption
COVID-19 sparked historic patient engagement technology adoption, but healthcare will need to lean on provider testimony to keep these gains.
By Sara Heath
September 01, 2020 - If healthcare wants to keep up the gains in patient engagement technology adoption it saw at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s going to need to tap the providers that patients trust, according to a new report from Accenture.
Healthcare will also need to be transparent about how different entities use patient data and provide a seamless experience from in-person to digital care, the report found.
This comes in the context of a waning patient engagement tech margin, the report pointed out. At the beginning of March, Accenture reported that patient engagement technology adoption had tipped for the first time ever.
In 2014, the number of patients using smartphone or tablet apps to manage their own health came in at 16 percent, Accenture said in the March report. By 2018, this number swelled to 48 percent, but that’s where the growth stopped. In 2020, 35 percent of patients said they were using smartphone or tablet apps to manage their own health.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/7-steps-to-open-the-healthcare-digital-front-door-care-access
7 Steps to Open the Healthcare Digital Front Door, Care Access
COVID-19 accelerated adoption of a digital front door, introducing virtual care access at scale. How can organizations utilize that door after the pandemic wanes?
By Sara Heath
September 02, 2020 - Healthcare organizations looking to unlock the digital front door in healthcare should build up their health IT infrastructure, consider a patient-centered approach, and factor in the impact virtual care will have on clinical workflows, according to a new report from Wolters Kluwer.
The first in a five-part series outlining the post COVID-19 future of healthcare, the report looked at the impact virtual care access and telehealth has had during the pandemic and where it will move in the future.
Like other industry experts, the report authors gave a nod to virtual health technologies and remote patient access, saying these tools were instrumental in stemming the spread of the virus.
“The most vulnerable among us were its prime targets, which crystallized just how insufficient the brick-and-mortar care model is in providing people with broad access to care and how incredibly difficult population health management is to achieve,” Wolters Kluwer researchers wrote in the report. “If organizations were considering implementing virtual care strategies before the pandemic, they were now actually forced to accelerate those efforts.”
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/covid-19-triggers-eprescribing-direct-messaging-increase
COVID-19 Triggers ePrescribing, Direct Messaging Increase
Surescripts’ ePrescribing platform hit the 1 million prescriber mark during the spread of COVID-19.
September 02, 2020 - Throughout the spread of COVID-19, healthcare providers have increased their use of ePrescribing, direct messaging, and prescription price transparency tools to streamline patient care and boost patient data exchange, according to a recent Surescripts report.
During March, outpatient visits dropped roughly 60 percent, which boosted telehealth visits up to 46 percent across health facilities.
Due to a decrease in ambulatory care visits and an increase of telehealth or remote visits, health organizations and clinicians leveraged their health IT and EHRs to provide optimal care to their respective patients, the report suggested.
“For nearly twenty years, Surescripts has recognized that the digitization of health information drives significant improvements in care quality, safety and costs,” Tom Skelton, chief executive officer of Surescripts, said in a statement.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/index-uses-social-determinants-data-to-rank-community-health
Index Uses Social Determinants Data to Rank Community Health
Using social determinants of health data, the Community Well-Being Index ranked Hawaii and New Hampshire among the top states for health and wellness.
By Jessica Kent
September 02, 2020 - Boston University School of Public Health (SPH) and Sharecare have released their Community Well-Being Index (CWBI) state rankings report, which leverages social determinants of health data to measure community wellness.
For over ten years, Sharecare has measured community well-being by assessing both physical and non-physical individual risk factors across five health domains: purpose, social, financial, community, and physical.
The CWBI combines this original index with social determinants of health data to measure additional risk factors across five domains related to one’s environment: healthcare access, food access, resource access, housing and transportation, and economic security.
“By leveraging sophisticated statistical techniques across small area estimation, multiple imputation, and machine learning, and integrating social determinants of health into our core measure, the CWBI has established a critical baseline that provides a holistic understanding of where we were from a well-being perspective pre-pandemic, while enabling year-to-date and ongoing views of the impact that systemic inequities and COVID-19 are having on our nation's well-being,” said Dr. Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/ocr-updates-hipaa-resource-for-mhealth-apps-cloud-computing
OCR Updates HIPAA Resource for mHealth Apps, Cloud Computing
The update to OCR’s former Health App Developer Portal provides healthcare entities and mobile health app developers with HIPAA resources regarding health apps, APIs, and cloud computing.
September 03, 2020 - The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights updated and renamed its former Health App Developer Portal as a HIPAA resource page for mobile health apps, APIs, and cloud computing, designed to support covered entities and mobile health app developers.
The new webpage provides entities with guidance on how and when HIPAA regulations apply to various mobile health applications, including health app use scenarios, HIPAA Right of Access and APIs, and an interactive tool for mobile health apps.
The update is just the latest OCR effort designed to provide covered entities and business associates better understand how and when HIPAA is applied, to essentially expand a patient’s right of access and ensure patient privacy is maintained under HIPAA.
As noted by OCR in 2019, HIPAA is limited in its regulations for third-party health apps chosen by patients and not connected to or developed by their primary care physician.
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Vanderbilt Study Proves Value of mHealth in Care Management, Engagement
A team of Vanderbilt researchers has found that carefully-crafted mHealth messages to patients living with diabetes can help them stay engaged with their care teams and improve care management.
September 03, 2020 - A new study out of Vanderbilt University finds that mHealth messages can not only help care providers maintain engagement with chronic care patients, but maintain a high level of engagement over a longer period of time.
The study, recently published in JMIR Health and uHealth, come at a critical time. With the coronavirus pandemic sharply restricting visits to the doctor’s office, many care providers are worried that patients aren’t following care management routines that promote health and wellness. They’re now looking at telehealth and mHealth tools to re-establish connections and get their patients back on track.
The study, called REACH (Rapid Education/Encouragement And Communications for Health), tested a personalized text-messaging platform on a group of racially and socioeconomically diverse patients living with type 2 diabetes. For the first six months, they received daily text messages on self-care and medication adherence, with feedback encouraged, and half also received phone calls. At the six-month mark the coaching ended, with patients given the option to still receive texts, though not every day.
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Study: In-home healthcare expansion requires overcoming market and technical barriers
A George Mason University professor argues in a new report that hurdles to entrepreneurial exploration are slowing telehealth expansion.
By Kat Jercich
September 03, 2020 04:41 PM
In a new working paper published Thursday from the Mercatus Center, a free-market-oriented think tank based out of George Mason University, professor Philip E. Auerswald argues that removing labor market barriers and technical barriers to entry are vital for realizing the benefits of in-home healthcare, including telehealth.
Home healthcare, as Auerswald describes it, comprises medical house calls, health agency care, technologies such as remote patient-monitoring devices and telehealth.
"Each of the four elements of distributed health services has progressed rapidly over the past decade, more or less independently of the others," Auerswald wrote.
"As these service models begin to converge and reinforce one another in the decade to come, the disruption of today’s institution-centered modes of health service delivery in favor of patient-centered, largely home-based models is likely to intensify, whether or not such a change is deliberately advanced by policymakers," he argued.
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'Femtech and women’s health issues have become more mainstream. We must do more though'
Takeaways from Alison Byrne, FGM specialised midwife at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS trust & University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust and Lina Chan, founder and CEO of Parla who will be speaking at HIMSS Europe Digital.
By Sara Mageit
September 03, 2020 04:16 am Share
Navigating the obstacles of reproductive health life stages can be a challenging journey for many women that is often shrouded in taboo. Femtech has played its part in bringing women's health into the mainstream since it was coined by Ida Tin, founder of menstruation app Clue. Female coders, makers and engineers have played a significant role in designing health apps that provide a more tailored and personalised service to women, as well as bring awareness to topics that are typically shied away from. Providing women with better digital health support has shown to have a positive impact on health outcomes and this has been demonstrated further by the vote of confidence that investors have shown to this relatively new field of tech.
MobiHealthNews spoke to Lina Chan, founder and CEO of Parla, who will be speaking at the HIMSS & Health 2.0 European Digital Event at the Women's Health - beyond period tracking session, and Alison Byrne, FGM specialised midwife at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS trust & University Hospitals Birmingham NHS trust, who is a finalist in the 2020 European Kate Granger Awards. Both provided insights on ways to highlight resources and tools that bring awareness to women’s health and wellbeing.
Bringing awareness to FGM
Byrne is one of the first FGM specialist midwives supporting women from across the UK to prepare for pregnancy and birth, manage complications and achieve natural births following FGM. She is an advisor to midwives from across the UK and has created specialist training for midwives on recognising and managing the perinatal period for women with FGM.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/cell-phone-location-data-can-identify-areas-of-covid-19-spread
Cell Phone Location Data Can Identify Areas of COVID-19 Spread
Anonymized cell phone location data can help determine which areas are at greatest risk for more rapid spread of COVID-19.
By Jessica Kent
September 01, 2020 - County-level cell phone location data could enable public health officials to better monitor adherence to stay-at-home guidelines, as well as estimate the future spread of COVID-19, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Currently, there is little evidence to support cell phone location data as a marker of decline in growth rate of COVID-19 cases, the research team noted. While this information showed reductions in cell phone activity at workplace and retail locations, it was not known whether these data correlate with the spread of COVID-19 in a given region.
Researchers analyzed anonymous, county-level cell phone location data, publicly available via Google, and incidence of COVID-19 for more than 2,500 US counties between January and May 2020. The group adjusted the data for multiple county- and state-level characteristics, including population density, obesity rates, state spending on healthcare, and other factors.
Researchers then looked at the change in cell phone use in six categories of places over time: workplace, retail locations, transit stations, grocery stores, parks, and residences.
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Artificial Intelligence Tool Diagnoses Alzheimer’s with 95% Accuracy
The algorithm can detect subtle differences in the way people with Alzheimer’s disease use language.
By Jessica Kent
August 31, 2020 - A team from Stevens Institute of Technology has developed an artificial intelligence tool that can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease with more than 95 percent accuracy, eliminating the need for expensive scans or in-person testing.
In addition, the algorithm is also able to explain its conclusions, enabling human experts to check the accuracy of its diagnosis.
Alzheimer’s disease can impact a person’s use of language, the researchers noted. For example, people with Alzheimer’s tend to replace nouns with pronouns, and they can express themselves in a very roundabout, awkward way.
The team designed an explainable AI tool that uses attention mechanisms and a convolutional neural network to accurately identify well-known signs of Alzheimer’s, as well as subtle linguistic patterns that were previously overlooked.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/report-phishing-campaign-uses-hidden-text-to-bypass-email-security
Report: Phishing Campaign Uses Hidden Text to Bypass Email Security
Using techniques that the average user would be unable to spot, a new phishing campaign is using hidden text, or what’s known as zero font, to bypass email security controls.
September 01, 2020 - A new phishing campaign has been spotted in the wild using hidden text, or what’s known as zero font, to bypass email security controls and deliver malicious emails to the user, according to a recent report from Inky Technology.
As noted in an email to HealthITSecurity.com, researchers observed the technique being used to target users from a pharmaceutical software company, an electric utility firm, and a cloud managed service provider.
According to the report, zero font refers to the method of hiding malicious, embedded text within an email. Most email platforms leverage HTML, the language used for webpages. The complex code makes sites more secure, but can also challenge email software when it comes to determining what the user will see when opening a delivered email.
Hackers are taking advantage of HTML complexity, applying the zero font technique in a new campaign. It inserts invisible font into the embedded code that appears as gibberish text, when examined. Researchers explained by using yellow text set to zero, the hacker can hide these malicious emails from mail protection software.
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CISA Shares Incident Detection, Response Playbook for Cyber Activity
The joint DHS CISA alert highlights the best practice methods for incident detection and remediation of malicious cyber activity, including mitigation steps and indicators of compromise.
September 01, 2020 - The Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released guidance to help enterprise organizations detect and remediate malicious cyber activity, which includes best practice steps for mitigating a cyberattack.
The joint alert was created in collaboration between the cybersecurity authorities of the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, to help support organizations bolster incident response policies and procedures. Officials said it’s designed to serve as a playbook for incident investigation.
The insights detail the technical measures needed for uncovering malicious activity within the enterprise network, which includes step-by-step incident response procedures and indicators of compromise.
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Mayo Clinic's Halamka: Telehealth boom slowing, but don't expect it to go back to pre-COVID rates
Sep 2, 2020 12:42pm
The rapid adoption of virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic may be winding down compared to levels it reached early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
But that shift marked a "sea change" in healthcare that will have a long-term impact on how care is delivered, said Mayo Clinic health IT leader John Halamka.
"Organizations were at 5% telehealth visits and that went up to 95% [early in the pandemic] and now it's down to 25%. Organizations went from 5% to 25% in six months," said Halamka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform, speaking during a virtual roundtable Tuesday hosted by Google Cloud.
Future virtual care growth will be driven by a number of factors including increased patient demand for these services along with permanent regulatory changes supporting telehealth and increased adoption of payment models that focus on cost savings, he said. "What I’m seeing is that this change is here to stay and we'll start at a baseline of 20% to 25% and grow from there," he said.
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Sep 01 2020
Digital health adoption stalled prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but recent momentum signals change
While barriers remain, the forced use of digital health services during the health crisis leaves an opportunity for provider adoption.
Jeff Lagasse, Associate Editor
Digital health adoption had stalled prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only to experience an uptick once the coronavirus began to spread, with consumers forced to consider telehealth and virtual care options in the midst of social distancing and isolation measures. But will this accelerated adoption of virtual health persist?
That depends on several factors that could drive or stall progress on that front, according to the Accenture 2020 Digital Health Consumer Survey.
One such factor is consumer attitudes toward digital health. Although people are interested in remote care services, there are certain things that make them hesitant to pursue it – such as a cumbersome digital experience and concerns over privacy, security and trust. On the provider side, difficulty integrating new tools and services into day-to-day clinical workflows has been a barrier to adoption.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/idaho-hie-integrates-remote-patient-monitoring-platform
Idaho HIE Integrates Remote Patient Monitoring Platform
The remote patient monitoring platform aims to connect individuals of Idaho to the HIE’s providers.
September 01, 2020 - Idaho Health Data Exchange (IHDE), Idaho’s statewide health information exchange, announced it is implementing a remote patient monitoring (RPM) platform, combining IHDE’s patient health data and its existing telehealth capabilities to boost remote patient care.
The statewide HIE will integrate Connect America’s RPM platform, aimed to deliver the platform to connect individuals to their respective providers remotely.
The spread of COVID-19 has given health organizations the ultimate stress test over the last six months. HIEs, EHR vendors, and health IT organizations have stepped up to help curb the pandemic by making telehealth a mainstream option while also enhancing patient data access.
“As accountable care programs advance and with the onset of COVID-19 it is becoming more important than ever to enable patients to receive advanced care remotely and to ease the burden on providers to acquire the systems to deliver that care,” Hans Kastensmith, IHDE’s Executive Director, said in an emailed statement.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/healthcares-password-problem-and-the-need-for-management-vaults
Healthcare’s Password Problem and The Need for Management, Vaults
Credential theft remains a prominent issue in healthcare. Given many are habitual in password reuse, the sector must improve its policies, management, and consider employing password vaults.
September 02, 2020 - Digital Shadows recently reported that at least 15 billion compromised credentials and passwords are for sale on the dark web. The data should serve as a warning to healthcare entities on the need for enhanced password management, employee education, and the need for password vaults.
User authentication and identity access management are crucial to any mature security posture. However, many users actively engage in risky password and authentication practices, including the reuse of passwords across multiple accounts.
Particularly in the healthcare sector, deficient user authentication and excessive user permissions are frequently named as the leading risks to the enterprise.
Password issues can include strength requirements, single-sign-on controls, and failing to lock accounts after too many failed login attempts, along with generic passwords, physically posted passwords, and emailing unencrypted passwords.
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How Should Health Systems Approach Their Enterprise Precision Medicine Efforts?
September 2, 2020
We love to talk about genomics and precision medicine, but I often wonder how much of it is really making it into hospitals and health systems. The good news is that the Center for Connected Medicine recently put together a report called “Genomic data management is vital to precision medicine efforts at health systems” to answer this very question. To understand some of the report findings, we interviewed Philip Empey, Associate Professor of Pharmacy & Therapeutics in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh and Associate Director for Pharmacogenomics for our Institute for Precision Medicine.
When Empey was asked if there was a dominant vendor in the genomics and precision medicine space he said “There isn’t just one dominant genomic vendor. Often times the focus is on one therapeutic area or one aspect of the system like in-lab reporting pipelines, electronic health record alerting, patient or provider education, or population management.”
While it makes sense that many precision medicine platforms are focused on one therapeutic area, it does beg the question of if the market is just too early for one vendor to consolidate the space and that as the market matures we’ll see a company or possibly private equity consolidate multiple therapeutic areas into one enterprise platform for health systems.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/sensor-solutions-gather-data-support-telehealth
Sensor Solutions Gather Data to Support Telehealth
By PSQH | September 02, 2020
AI-based remote monitoring helps providers manage care for COVID-19 patients.
This article was originally published September 1, 2020 on PSQH by Megan Headley
While there has been much discussion on the dramatic increase in telemedicine usage due to the COVID-19 pandemic—usage is up 22% even in U.S. states with the lowest telehealth adoption—video and phone calls are just one small piece of the telemedicine puzzle. The other, more critical piece is the monitoring equipment that arms physicians with the clinical data to determine if and when an intervention is necessary.
“With video calls alone, they would not have enough information to provide proper care to the patient,” points out Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO of Biofourmis, a provider of AI-powered digital therapeutics technology. “Hospital [systems] in the U.S. and internationally are now moving towards equipping patients with the right tools to [provide monitoring and management], have the data collected, and process that data using an analytics platform so that clinicians are not overburdened.”
Biofourmis’ Biovitals® Sentinel, powered by the FDA-cleared Biovitals AI platform, is one such solution being used to provide that insight. The platform provides continuous remote monitoring through a biosensor, worn on the patient’s upper arm, that collects data from more than 20 physiological signals. Combined with a patient-facing app that gathers additional information on symptoms and enables text and video visits, care providers can get a fairly complete picture of a patient’s health via a dashboard app on their smartphone.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/5-ways-to-improve-cds-tools-minimize-clinician-burden
5 Ways to Improve CDS Tools, Minimize Clinician Burden
While CDS tools are helpful to EHR users, they are also primarily linked to clinician burden and alert fatigue.
August 31, 2020 - Clinician decision support (CDS) users and developers can decrease clinician burden if they can improve alert relevance, garner end-user feedback, customize for the clinician, measure outcomes and metrics, and continuously optimize, according to a study published in the Yearbook of Medical Informatics.
CDS tools enable prescribers to access real-time patient data, ideally resulting in enhanced patient safety and medication accuracy. CDS can also alert prescribers about potential patient warnings to prevent errors and additional adverse drug events from happening.
While EHRs are directly associated with clinician burnout, CDS tools aim to aid clinicians. According to the study writers, clinical decision support is an essential aspect of EHRs that is “not merely the use of technology; it is using technology to find meaningful information to make clinical decisions and provide the best possible patient care.”
However, CDS tools can result in treatment delays, or have deadly consequences if implemented with a commercial influence.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/coalition-calls-on-congress-to-lift-national-patient-identifier-ban
Coalition Calls On Congress to Lift National Patient Identifier Ban
Led by Premier Healthcare Alliance, the Patient ID Coalition is looking at Congress to overturn the ban on a national patient identifier.
September 01, 2020 - Following vote in the House of Representatives to remove the bill prohibiting the use of federal funds for the adoption of a national patient identifier (NPI), the Premier Healthcare Alliance and the Patient ID Coalition call on the US Senate to also lift the ban.
“The lack of an actionable national patient identifier and matching strategy hampers safe, secure and efficient electronic exchange of health data,” wrote Blair Childs, vice president of Public Affairs at Premier, in an emailed statement to EHRIntelligence.
The six major healthcare organizations collaborated in July to create an NPI program and boost patient matching by leveraging Congressional legislation and regulations.
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September 1, 2020
Machine Learning May Improve Diagnostic Accuracy in Schizophrenia, Autism Spectrum Disorder
Objective biomarkers such as neuroimaging findings, when coupled with machine learning, can increase reliability in diagnosing neuropsychiatric disorders.
Authors of a recent study published in Translational Psychiatry reported that machine learning combined with neuroimaging may help psychiatrists diagnose certain neuropsychiatric disorders.
The researchers compared 6 machine learning classifiers to determine their effectiveness in analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in order to diagnose schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study included 26 participants at ultra-high risk for psychosis, 17 participants with first-episode psychosis, and 106 typically developing individuals.
Objective biomarkers are needed in neuropsychiatry, the researchers said, due to the unreliable nature of subjective diagnosis. Patient heterogeneity, clinician inconsistency (eg, differing opinions), and nomenclature inadequacy all affect diagnostic accuracy.
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Telehealth can reduce heart risk by half for people with high blood pressure
Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Enrolling in a pharmacist-led telemonitoring program to manage high blood pressure can reduce a person's risk for a heart attack or stroke by up to 50%, according to a study published Monday in the journal Hypertension.
Just over 5% of people who participated in the program, designed to track blood pressure and adjust treatment, had a heart attack or stroke, needed stent placement surgery or were hospitalized for heart failure, the data showed.
About 10% of people whose treatment was monitored by routine primary care visits experienced these heart problems, the researchers said.
"Home blood pressure monitoring [and] telehealth support in between office visits has been shown to lower blood pressure more than routine care, and patients really like it," study co-author Dr. Karen L. Margolis said in a statement.
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Heart attacks and strokes halved using pharmacist-led home blood pressure telemonitoring
In a study, researchers also found this telemonitoring reduced hypertension more than usual care.
By Kat Jercich
September 02, 2020 11:43 AM
A study published this week in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension found that 12 months of pharmacist-managed home blood pressure telemonitoring and pharmacist management lowered hypertension for two years.
Researchers also observed that study participants enrolled in telemonitoring were about half as likely to have a heart attack or stroke as those receiving usual primary care.
"The findings were just short of statistical significance, meaning they could have been due to chance," said lead study author Dr. Karen L. Margolis in a statement. "However, we were surprised that the figures on serious cardiovascular events pointed so strongly to a benefit of the telemonitoring intervention.”
WHY IT MATTERS
Uncontrolled high blood pressure can have serious medical consequences, including heart failure, stroke, kidney damage, eye damage and aneurysms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about one in four adults with hypertension have their condition under control. High blood pressure is more common among Black adults than in white, Asian or Latino adults, and a greater percentage of men have high blood pressure than women.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/europe/funding-boost-ai-nhs-speed-diagnosis-diseases
Funding boost for AI in NHS to speed up diagnosis of diseases
The investment will boost improvements in technology across the NHS to speed up the diagnosis of diseases like cancer.
By Sara Mageit
September 01, 2020 05:54 AM
A £50 million funding boost will be invested in the work of the Digital Pathology and Imaging Artificial Intelligence Centres of Excellence, which will develop AI and digital tools to diagnose diseases.
The three centres set to receive a share of the funding are based in Coventry, Leeds and London.
Pathology imaging services and radiology play a crucial role in the diagnosis of diseases.
The funding will deliver digital upgrades to pathology and imaging services across an additional 38 NHS trusts, benefiting 26.5 million patients across England.
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Healthcare execs say telehealth is their No. 1 pandemic tech problem
Other major challenges include remote patient monitoring, interoperability, real-time data analytics, work-from-home resources and patient surveillance, according to a new KLAS report.
By Kat Jercich
September 01, 2020 10:26 AM
A new report from research firm KLAS found that nearly half of the 19 healthcare executives surveyed say that either telehealth functionality or capacity has been their primary problem to solve during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis.
Other major challenges include remote patient monitoring, interoperability, real-time data analytics, work-from-home resources and patient surveillance.
"While healthcare organizations have found stopgaps in many areas, few have successfully implemented permanent solutions that serve a long-term strategy," wrote the report authors.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/09/01/remote-patient-monitoring-does-less-equal-more/
Remote Patient Monitoring: Does Less Equal More?
September 1, 2020
In recent times, I’ve spent some time researching the field of remote patient monitoring technologies. While many are just beginning to be deployed, I’d argue that these solutions make far too much sense to stay under the covers for much longer.
Not only that, given that the COVID-19 restrictions are still in place and may remain so indefinitely, there are even more reasons for providers to dip their toe into these waters.
As I see it, however, there’s a key strategic question to be answered as RPM use ramps up, and that’s how exactly these devices should fit into the clinical workflow. Making that decision, in turn, will dictate what type of overall solutions and device form factors vendors should favor.
The truth is that at present, there are still questions about what functions are best integrated into a remote monitoring tool. I’ve seen everything from tightly focused technology addressing a very specific niche to products that seem to offer everything at once.
One company serving a specialized RPM niche is a startup called Babyscripts which offers virtual prenatal and postpartum care via a mobile app. The app sends health information and daily nutritional, medical and lifestyle content as well as supporting weight monitoring. Babyscripts also offers a connected blood pressure cuff and scale expectant mothers can use to transmit vitals data to their doctors.
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HIMSS Outlines Political Health IT Priorities and Progress on Regulatory and Congressional Issues
By Mandy Roth | September 01, 2020
Healthcare systems receive some relief though extended interoperability deadlines; progress on key Congressional initiatives could stall.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Vaccine technology and continuing initiatives underway will be the focus of the Republican party
· Democrats will prioritize patient engagement and empowerment, using health IT to support updates to the Affordable Care Act, and keeping the U.S. at the forefront of research through precision medicine and the cancer moonshot.
· HHS has extended some deadlines related to interoperability rulings.
· Political issues and the election could stall progress on Congressional issues.
As the nation pummels through a contentious election season, the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) government relations team convened a press briefing last Friday to outline key health IT issues on the radar of both political parties, as well as discuss progress on regulatory and Congressional matters. Following is a recap of topics of interest to HealthLeaders' readers.
Political Platforms Focus on Different Issues
Tom Leary, Vice President of Government Relations at HIMSS addressed key health IT issues that each political party has addressed in its respective platform.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/finance/global-digital-health-market-top-884b-2030
Global Digital Health Market to Top $884B by 2030
By Jack O'Brien | August 31, 2020
A new report attributed the market's growth to increased smartphone penetration.
The global digital health market is expected to top $884 billion by 2030, according to a Prescient & Strategic (P&S) Intelligence report released Monday morning.
The report estimated that the market will experience a compounded annual growth rate of 21.8% over the next decade, largely attributed to increased smartphone penetration.
P&S stated that healthcare consumers are "increasingly using mobile health (mHealth) apps on these mobile communication devices."
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/precision-medicine-approach-could-improve-heart-disease-treatment
Precision Medicine Approach Could Improve Heart Disease Treatment
Researchers leveraged genetic testing and precision medicine to reduce the number of adverse events following heart disease treatment.
By Jessica Kent
August 27, 2020 - An international trial used genetic testing and precision medicine techniques to choose antiplatelet therapies for heart disease patients, lowering the chance of heart attack or stroke by 34 percent, according to a study published in JAMA.
Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a non-surgical procedure where physicians inflate a balloon and place a metal stent in narrowed heart arteries to improve blood flow to the heart. Placement of a balloon and metal stent inside a heart artery can irritate the blood vessel and cause it to clot, which can block the artery from being treated.
PCI patients are prescribed medications to stop their blood from clotting. The most common medication used is clopidogrel, which stops blood platelets from sticking together and prevents clots from forming. However, in almost a third of all patients, the gene required to activate clopidogrel, CYP2C19, does not work.
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SPROUT Unveils Standards for Analyzing Pediatric Telehealth Services
An initiative launched by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2015 is set to unveil a set of standards aimed at measuring the effectiveness of pediatric telehealth programs across the country.
August 27, 2020 - A program launched in 2015 to study pediatric telehealth services has unveiled a set of standards aimed at improving hospital programs across the country.
The Supporting Pediatric Research on Outcomes and Utilization of Telehealth (SPROUT) program, developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), is set to publish a paper in Pediatrics that lays out the guidelines for analyzing the effectiveness of pediatric telehealth programs.
The article was made available for prepublication release due to urgency of evaluating connected health programs in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen telehealth use skyrocket. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for example, saw daily telehealth visits jump from as many as 10 to more than 1,500, while the Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago trained more than 800 providers in just a few weeks to handle the surge.
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Consumers largely unaware that insurers have access to their online data: survey
Aug 28, 2020 1:02pm
Consumers are largely unaware of the extent to which their health plans can access data about their online shopping, social media or streaming habits, a new survey shows.
MITRE and The Harris Poll surveyed more than 2,000 adults in June, and found that just 11% believe their health plans have access to what's known as consumer-generated data, which can be used to build profiles of members to predict their health costs.
This data is separate from protect health data, and tracks things like online activity and social media posts.
Consumers expressed discomfort with their insurer or employer obtaining such data, the poll found. While a majority said it's fine for their plans (60%) or employer (52%) to use their personal information to create tailored programs, two-thirds said it was unacceptable for these organizations to gather or purchase outside data about them.
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Windows Computers Account for 83% of All Malware Attacks in Q1 2020
By Jason Cohen28 Aug 2020, 7 p.m.
AV Test shows that Windows computers are the most vulnerable to malware attacks and are targeted more than any other operating system.
Malware is everywhere, but computers that run Windows—the world's most popular operating system—are especially prone to attacks. According to AV Test's 2019/2020 Security Report, 114 million new pieces of malicious programs were developed in 2019, and 78.64 percent of all attacks were distributed on Windows systems.
Those numbers are expected to rise in 2020, with 160 million new programs by the end of the year. One reason for this increase is the COVID-19 pandemic; many hackers are taking advantage of the uncertainty to spread malware and increase phishing attacks. As a result, the percentage of malware targeting Windows computers has risen to 83.45 percent in the first quarter of 2020.
Windows such a common target not only because it's the most common operating system in the world with the most targets available: It's also prone to security issues. According to the CVE database, which tracks known system vulnerabilities, Microsoft had more than 660 dangerous security gaps, and 357 of them were attributed to Windows 10.
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https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article245302630.html
KC’s Cerner Corp. deepens its ties with Amazon in rollout of Halo Band fitness tracker
August 27, 2020 04:41 PM , Updated August 28, 2020 08:58 AM
Cerner Corp. has deepened its relationship with Amazon as the tech giant doubles down on the health and wellness space.
Amazon on Thursday introduced its Halo Band, a wearable device that helps consumers track sleep, physical activity and emotional well being. The move challenges incumbents Apple, Fitbit and Olathe-based Garmin, all of which have offered fitness trackers for years.
But it also underscores Cerner’s growing business relationship with Amazon: Technology from North Kansas City-based Cerner will allow consumers to share their health data directly with physicians. And Cerner will use the device for customers using its existing wellness programs.
“It’s a step along the way of Cerner and Amazon collaborating to build new-to-industry capabilities,” said David Bradshaw, Cerner’s senior vice president of consumer and employer solutions. “We’ve got to extend the ecosystem of healthcare.”
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/ai-ehr-assistants-need-further-optimization-for-improved-usability
AI EHR Assistants Need Further Optimization for Improved Usability
General practitioners see the potential for using AI EHR documentation assistants, but the technology needs to be improved to ensure accuracy.
August 27, 2020 - Artificial intelligence (AI) EHR documentation assistants need to be human-supervised and optimized to ensure accuracy. However, AI assistants will eventually be a significant part of clinician workflow, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
While AI has become more apparent throughout the medical industry to support business analytics, decision making, and predictive modeling, developers are optimizing AI to aid and streamline EHR documentation.
Up until recently, providers tolerated clinician burden. However, a well-designed AI scribe integrated into the EHR aims to reduce the burden and responsibility of its users.
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Pear's Somryst precursor improved sleep health measures among patients with chronic insomnia and depressive symptoms
The new analysis of a Pear Therapeutics-based randomized controlled trial came along another investigation that spotted early signs of treatment dropout.
By Dave Muoio
August 31, 2020 01:40 pm
Pear Therapeutics highlighted data today from two studies of a digital cognitive behavioral therapy that acted as the precursor for Somryst, the prescription digital therapeutic for adults with chronic insomnia that was the first to pass through the FDA's Pre-Cert pilot pathway.
The first, a randomized controlled trial of 1,149 Australian adults with insomnia and depressive symptoms, suggested that nine weeks with the treatment could drive better sleep outcomes.
The second reviewed the user journeys of 151 patients who dropped out of a prior randomized controlled trial conducted using the early version of Somryst to determine predictors of intervention dropout.
Both studies were led by clinical researchers from Pear Therapeutics, with the first reporting direct funding from the company. Each writeup was published as an online poster presentation for Virtual SLEEP 2020, an annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
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Accurate patient matching is even more vital amidst the COVID-19 crisis, say industry groups
Stakeholders stressed the importance of a patient-identification strategy in an ONC working session Monday.
By Kat Jercich
August 31, 2020 03:09 PM
Healthcare industry groups have been chewing on the challenge of accurate patient matching for years, with the prospect of patient misidentification presenting questions around safety and security, even as the importance of data sharing becomes more apparent.
And the COVID-19 crisis, said industry group representatives at a working session convened by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT on Monday, is clarifying the need to address that challenge.
"Having incorrect data has a negative impact on the timeliness of the public health response," said HIMSS VP of Government Relations Tom Leary during the session.
Patient identification and matching challenges amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, said Leary, can lead to inaccuracies in the longitudinal care record, delays in sharing test results and data collection gaps, among other implications. Leary described how some public health nurses have even relied on Google searches to try and correctly identify some patients and get in contact about their COVID-19 test results.
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Your Telemedicine Could Be Opening the Door to a Compliance Nightmare
August 31, 2020
The following is a guest article by Dr. Waseem Ghannam, co-founder of TeleHealth Solution.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S. in March, telemedicine quickly became the go-to-approach for most medical visits as it offered a solution that allowed effective care without risk to patients or providers. The advent of the pandemic also resulted in changes to the HIPAA restrictions that had historically hampered the adoption of telemedicine across state lines and without HIPAA-compliant technology. These changes improved access and opened the doors to widespread adoption of telemedicine across almost all specialties, as well as allowed for reimbursement of providers for telemedicine visit. However, as with almost every payment change in healthcare, providers have surfaced who have taken the opportunity posed by deregulation to take advantage and commit fraud.
Telemedicine is clearly here to stay. The benefits are clear, and as I know from personal experience, once they’ve experienced telemedicine, patients won’t want to go back to visits when they aren’t necessary. The data is starting to come in to back this up. In a report published on July 28, 2020, HHS reports on the usage of telehealth by Medicare beneficiaries during the pandemic, and the numbers show that nearly half (43.5%) of Medicare primary care visits were provided through telehealth in April compared with less than one percent (0.1%) in February before the public health emergency (PHE). Another provider survey conducted by IQVIA reports that providers do not expect telehealth visits to go back to baseline levels after the PHE. Providers reported that they were holding just 9 percent of visits via telehealth prior to the PHE, that it surged to 51 percent during the PHE, and that they expect levels to fall back only partially, to 21 percent, after the PHE abates.
It’s quite clear that telemedicine is here to stay, with or without the pandemic, but how big a problem has fraud become? Telehealth fraud schemes include:
- Overbilling, upcoding by inflating the time and complexity of visits to increase fees,
- Unbundling, billing multiple procedures as separate claims to increase reimbursement instead of using global or broader procedure codes,
- Billing for medically unnecessary services, tests and durable medical equipment (DME),
- Billing for services that are not provided, and
- Outright fraud like billing for phantom patients who do not exist or offering kickbacks in exchange for a physician prescribing or ordering DME or tests that aren’t needed.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/can-telehealth-help-medical-practices-ditch-the-waiting-room
Can Telehealth Help Medical Practices Ditch the Waiting Room?
Faced with the need to improve patient satisfaction and reduce unnecessary delays in care, hospitals and medical practices are using telehealth and mHealth tools to create a virtual waiting room.
August 26, 2020 - With the COVID-19 crisis putting the kibosh on crowds, hospitals are turning to telehealth and mHealth to take the wait out of healthcare.
The crowded, clamorous, stuffy, sniffly waiting room has long been the scourge of healthcare, a sign of both inconvenienced patients and overworked providers. It’s here that patients are asked to announce their presence, fill out forms and check their insurance, while staff sort through the data to match them to the right provider at the right time slot.
Prodded by the pandemic, health systems are now using mHealth apps, online portals and telehealth platforms to handle those administrative tasks, so that a patient arriving at the hospital or doctor’s office is seen and treated as quickly as possible.
“When you think of healthcare from the perspective of a claim, there’s a lot of hands touching the data,” says Jay Roszhart, MHA, FACHE, president of the Memorial Health System Ambulatory Group, rolling off a list of services that includes scheduling, registration, check-in, insurance verification, coding, billing and appointment reminders – all potentially handled by a different person or department. “That’s just an incredible number of hands in the pot.”
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https://histalk2.com/2020/08/28/weekender-8-28-20/
Weekly News Recap
- Amazon announces its Halo health and wellness wearable, app, and membership program, with Cerner posting its own news that it has integrated the device with Millennium.
- Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas Inc. will pay $500,000 to settle federal false claims allegations that its former Viztek subsidiary fraudulently earned certification for its EXA EHR that allowed users to claim Meaningful Use funds.
- The private equity owners of behavioral software vendors Qualifacts and Credible Behavioral Health announce that they will merge their respective companies.
- CMS issues emergency regulations that require hospitals to report their COVID-19 capacity data daily to HHS to continue being paid by Medicare and Medicaid.
- Google Cloud will invest $100 million in Amwell when the company begins public trading.
- The VA implements patient scheduling in an Ohio facility in its first Cerner go-live.
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Enjoy!
David.
