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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2020/10/12-things-health-data-has-taught-us-about-covid-19/
12 things health data has taught us about Covid-19
It’s a milestone no one wants to celebrate – but it’s been just over six months since the government announced a UK wide lockdown to help control the spread of Covid-19.
Andrea Downey – 6 October, 2020
To mark the occasion Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) has highlighted the vital role the UK’s health data research community has playing during the pandemic.
Data collection has helped inform the government’s response to the virus and will continue to so as the country moves forward.
Caroline Cake, chief executive of HDR UK, said: “It has been inspiring to see how the UK health data research community has come together to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, such as securing safe access to relevant datasets for researchers and policymakers, addressing ethical issues around data collection and consent, engaging patients and the public in such a fast-moving environment, and disseminating research findings in a timely way.
“There is much more to do, and we will continue to work together over the coming months to make sure that health data research is used to benefit everyone and that nobody is left behind.”
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UCLA Study Charts Benefits of Telehealth for Chronic Pain Treatment
A new study finds that telehealth can replace many in-person visits for people living with chronic pain, reducing the hassles and stresses of travel and allowing patients to improve care management at home.
October 07, 2020 - Patients dealing with chronic pain have enough discomfort in their lives without the regular trips to the clinic or doctor’s office. A telehealth platform could make life a lot easier for them.
That’s the take-away from a new study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and presented at this week’s annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. It notes that telehealth not only eliminates the stress of travel, but saves time, money and parking and gas costs and is favored by patients.
“This era of contactless interactions and social distancing has really accelerated the adoption of telemedicine, but even before the pandemic, patient satisfaction was consistently high,” Laleh Jalilian, MD, a clinical assistant professor at UCLA and lead author of the study, said in a press release. “Patients who are being evaluated for new conditions may be better off having office visits initially. But once patients establish a relationship with providers, follow-up visits can occur efficiently with telemedicine, while maintaining patient rapport and quality outcomes.”
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https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-archive-3f732b1c4611909e5b47b54b00ee2802
‘So frustrating’: Doctors and nurses battle virus skeptics
It’s dealing with patients and relatives who don’t believe the virus is real, refuse to wear masks and demand treatments like hydroxychloroquine, which President Donald Trump has championed even though experts say it is not effective against the scourge that has killed over 210,000 in the U.S.
Montgomery finds herself, like so many other doctors and nurses, in a world where the politics of the crisis are complicating treatment efforts, with some people even resisting getting tested.
It’s unclear how Trump’s bout with the virus will affect the situation, but some doctors aren’t optimistic. After a few days of treatment at a military hospital, the president tweeted Monday, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. ... I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
After one tough shift in the coronavirus unit at Cox South Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, Montgomery went onto Facebook to vent her frustrations about caring for patients who didn’t socially distance because they didn’t believe the virus was real. The hospital later shared her post on its website.
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Meditech EHR and regional HIE help slash opioid use by 46% at CalvertHealth
Adding clinical decision support and the ability to see patient activity outside the four walls of the hospital enabled, among other things, a 94% reduction in Dilaudid use.
By Bill Siwicki
October 08, 2020 12:17 PM
Back in 2015, CalvertHealth Medical Center in Prince Frederick, Maryland, was ranked as the No. 1 prescriber of morphine milligram equivalents in southern Maryland.
THE PROBLEM
Maryland sits in the top five states for opioid-related overdose deaths. For the sake of the community and the people in it, CalvertHealth knew that drastic changes needed to be made.
Family members of staff inside the hospital were being impacted by substance abuse disorder. At CalvertHealth, staff saw it as a call to action to move forward and make a real change in preventing the opioid epidemic from spreading any further within Calvert County.
“Compounding the issue was the fact that we weren’t the only ones managing pain and prescribing opioids within the county,” said Phil Campbell, CIO and vice president of information services at CalvertHealth Medical Center.
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The Challenge of AI Bias and Diverse Healthcare Data and What VisualDx Is Doing to Address the Challenge
October 9, 2020
One of the great things about doing our 100 health IT interviews in 100 days is the chance to meet and learn from a diverse group of really smart people. My recent interview with Dr. Art Papier, CEO and Co-Founder at VisualDx and Dr. Nada Elbuluk, Director of Clinical Impact at VisualDx fit into this category really well. Not only is VisualDx doing some really interesting things to help clinicians with better clinical decision support, but they’ve made a concerted effort to ensure that the data that powers their tools represents a diverse set of patients.
We’ve often talked about the double edged sword of AI when it comes to bias. On the one hand, the AI treats every patient exactly the same which can reduce bias. However, on the other hand, if the data that powers the AI doesn’t include a diverse set of patients, then by design it could impact certain patient populations adversely.
At VisualDx, they understand this problem really well and have worked hard to ensure that their clinical decision support tools include a diverse set of patient data so that they can better serve patients regardless of race. Plus, that includes presenting images that help educate clinicians and patients on how certain diseases may display on various colors of skin. Something that doctors may not be familiar with if they studied medicine in an area that wasn’t very diverse for example.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/patient-satisfaction-with-telehealth-high-following-covid-19
Patient Satisfaction with Telehealth High Following COVID-19
A new J.D. Power survey showed that patient satisfaction scores for telehealth reached 860 on a 1,000-point scale.
By Sara Heath
October 07, 2020 - Telehealth is one of the top health sectors yielding a high patient satisfaction score, but just about half of patients are still citing some barriers to virtual care access, according to the J.D. Power 2020 US Telehealth Satisfaction Study.
Although telehealth has been around for years, it has seen its biggest use case during the COVID-19 pandemic. As medical providers had to shutter their doors to non-urgent and non-emergency care access, they turned to telehealth to make ends meet. The virtual care access technology enabled remote chronic disease management and generated some income for primary care clinics in dire financial straits.
More than a half a year since the initial pandemic surge, most experts say telehealth will become a part of the “new normal” in some fashion. That is due in large part to the high patient satisfaction the technology has created.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/report-72-orgs-faced-increase-in-iot-endpoint-security-incidents
Report: 72% Orgs Faced Increase in IoT, Endpoint Security Incidents
Cybersecurity decision makers name malware, insecure networks, and remote access as the biggest threats to their organization, highlighting an increase in endpoint and IoT security incidents.
October 07, 2020 - Two-thirds of organizations saw an increase in the number of IoT and endpoint security incidents in the last year, with US cybersecurity decision makers naming malware, insecure networks, and remote access points as the biggest threats to the enterprise, according to a report from Cybersecurity Insights.
Those successful attacks spurred a loss of user and IT productivity in nearly half of the victim organizations and system downtime for 42 percent.
For the Pulse Secure-sponsored 2020 Endpoint and IoT Zero Trust Security Report, researchers examined the key risks, considerations, initiatives, and investments being advanced by the enterprise to implement improved zero trust endpoint and IoT security through a survey of 325 US IT and cybersecurity decision makers from the healthcare, financial services, government, and energy sectors.
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US Ransomware Attacks Doubled in Q3; Healthcare Sector Most Targeted
New Check Point research examines the ransomware threat landscape for Q3 2020, noting a 50 percent increase in daily attacks. The healthcare sector is the most targeted globally.
October 07, 2020 - The frequency of daily ransomware attacks increased 50 percent during the third quarter of 2020 from the first half of the year, with the US healthcare sector the most targeted globally, according to new research from Check Point. Ransomware attacks on the healthcare sector globally have also doubled.
Check Point researchers analyzed data from its threat intelligence engine ThreatCloud, which pulls data from hundreds of millions of sensors worldwide and supported from AI-based engines and research data. Researchers found the US faced the most attacks in Q3, followed by India, Sri Lanka, Russia, and Turkey. Attacks nearly doubled in the US in the last three months, after a lull in reported events in Q2.
Mirroring findings from a recent Microsoft report, ransomware attacks have increased in intensity and frequency, while causing greater disruptions to business operations. The effects can be seen in the most recent ransomware attack on Universal Health Services, which impacted all 400 US sites.
In fact, ransomware claims a new victim every 10 seconds.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/health-54442386
Coronavirus: Health experts join global anti-lockdown movement
· 7 October 2020
Nearly 6,000 experts, including dozens from the UK, say the approach is having a devastating impact on physical and mental health as well as society.
They are calling for protection to be focused on the vulnerable, while healthy people get on with their lives.
The declaration has prompted warnings by others in the scientific community.
Critics have pointed out:
· a more targeted approach could make it difficult to protect vulnerable people entirely
· the risk of long-term complications from coronavirus mean many others are also at risk
But the movement - known as the Great Barrington Declaration - mirrors some of the warnings in a letter signed by a group of GPs in the UK.
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https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/canada-bombarded-with-covid19/
6 Oct 2020 News
Canada Bombarded with COVID-19-Themed Cyber-attacks
Sarah Coble News Writer
More than a quarter of Canadian IT workers say their organization has suffered a COVID-19-themed cyber-attack, according to a new survey.
The "2020 Cybersecurity Report" released today by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) surveyed more than 500 Canadian IT security decision-makers to learn more about their experience with cyber-threats.
Key findings of the report include that one-third of respondents said their organization was targeted by a COVID-19-related cyber-attack. Among the threats recorded by the survey were fake contact-tracing apps and phishing attacks that exploited COVID-19 test results.
Around three in ten organizations reported experiencing a spike in the volume of attacks they had suffered since the pandemic started.
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https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2029812
Dying in a Leadership Vacuum
- The Editors
Covid-19 has created a crisis throughout the world. This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were forced to make hard choices about how to respond. Here in the United States, our leaders have failed that test. They have taken a crisis and turned it into a tragedy.
The magnitude of this failure is astonishing. According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering,1 the United States leads the world in Covid-19 cases and in deaths due to the disease, far exceeding the numbers in much larger countries, such as China. The death rate in this country is more than double that of Canada, exceeds that of Japan, a country with a vulnerable and elderly population, by a factor of almost 50, and even dwarfs the rates in lower-middle-income countries, such as Vietnam, by a factor of almost 2000. Covid-19 is an overwhelming challenge, and many factors contribute to its severity. But the one we can control is how we behave. And in the United States we have consistently behaved poorly.
We know that we could have done better. China, faced with the first outbreak, chose strict quarantine and isolation after an initial delay. These measures were severe but effective, essentially eliminating transmission at the point where the outbreak began and reducing the death rate to a reported 3 per million, as compared with more than 500 per million in the United States. Countries that had far more exchange with China, such as Singapore and South Korea, began intensive testing early, along with aggressive contact tracing and appropriate isolation, and have had relatively small outbreaks. And New Zealand has used these same measures, together with its geographic advantages, to come close to eliminating the disease, something that has allowed that country to limit the time of closure and to largely reopen society to a prepandemic level. In general, not only have many democracies done better than the United States, but they have also outperformed us by orders of magnitude.
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October 7, 2020
Health Records on iPhone available today in the UK and Canada
The feature brings together hospitals, clinics, and the existing Health app to provide a fuller snapshot of health
Healthcare institutions in the UK and Canada can now offer the Health Records feature to their patients, enabling users to securely view and store their medical records within the Health app on iPhone.
Healthcare institutions in the UK and Canada can now offer the Health Records feature to their patients, enabling users to securely view and store their medical records within the Health app on iPhone.
The Health Records feature within the Health app is now available for users in the UK and Canada to securely view and store their medical records right on their iPhone, with their privacy protected at all times. Oxford University Hospitals and Women’s College Hospital are among the first healthcare institutions in the UK and Canada to make this feature available to their patients.
In the US, over 500 institutions currently support Health Records on iPhone, listing more than 11,000 care locations. Previously, patients’ medical records were held in multiple locations, requiring patients to log in to each healthcare provider’s website to piece together their health information manually. Health Records creates a direct connection between medical institutions and a patient’s iPhone, allowing users to see a central view of their allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures, and vitals across multiple institutions, and to be notified when their data is updated.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/61-microsoft-exchange-servers-are-unpatched-vulnerable-to-attack
61% Microsoft Exchange Servers Are Unpatched, Vulnerable to Attack
Months after Microsoft released a software update for a memory corruption vulnerability found in its Exchange Servers, Rapid7 reports the majority remain unpatched and vulnerable to attack.
October 06, 2020 - The majority of Microsoft Exchange Servers have yet to be updated with a patch for a critical memory corruption vulnerability reported earlier this year, according to Rapid7. These unpatched servers are highly vulnerable to attack.
About eight months ago, Microsoft released a software update for CVE-2020-0688: a vulnerability found in the Exchange mail and calendaring control panel that fails to properly create unique keys during installation. With knowledge of the validation key, an authenticated user with a mailbox can employ “arbitrary objects to be deserialized by the web application, which runs as SYSTEM.”
At the time, the tech giant, the National Security Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security warned the vulnerability was an attractive target for hackers as a successful exploit would allow them to take control of the victim’s system.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/precision-medicine-treatments-improve-cancer-patient-outcomes
Precision Medicine Treatments Improve Cancer Patient Outcomes
Using individual patients’ molecular tumor makeups, researchers designed precision medicine strategies that improved cancer patient outcomes.
By Jessica Kent
October 05, 2020 - Patients with advanced cancer who received precision medicine treatments were more likely to survive or have longer periods without their disease progressing than those who received standard therapies, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
Next-generation sequencing can help identify novel cancer targets, but interpreting molecular findings and accessing appropriate drugs or clinical trials can be challenging, the researchers noted.
To implement a precision medicine strategy, a team at UC San Diego Health established a multidisciplinary molecular tumor board (MTB) to advise treating physicians on course of care.
The board included a project manager to facilitate obtaining clinical biomarkers, as well as medication-acquisition specialists who would help design precision medicine strategies based on individual patients’ molecular tumor makeup. The MTB served as an advisory board, with the final decision made by the patient’s physician.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/poor-ehr-integration-stunts-prescription-drug-monitoring-programs
Poor EHR Integration Stunts Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs
State and national health organizations are trying to increase EHR integration for prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), GAO reported.
October 06, 2020 - Limited EHR integration with prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) data is a key challenge in using those PDMPs to improve patient care, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The GAO report detailed the findings from over 30 physician interviews that detailed their respective experiences regarding prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and EHR integration.
The majority of physician respondents noted a lack of EHR integration with PDMP data as a key challenge for most effectively using PDMPs for patient care. Physicians also said the tool is beneficial in preventing drug misuse and potentially dangerous drug prescribing.
PDMPs are state-run electronic databases that have been deployed in 49 states. These programs collect data from pharmacies on opioids and other controlled substances that are dispensed to patients.
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Memorial Hermann Maps Out a Strategy for Primary Care via Telehealth
The Houston-based health system is using lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic and a robust approach to innovation to create a primary care platform that enhances both in-person and virtual care.
October 06, 2020 - While the coronavirus pandemic may have changed the rules, health systems across the country are investing more time and energy in telehealth platforms that take primary care out of the hospital and into the home.
One such network is Houston’s Memorial Hermann Health System, which had a robust virtual care strategy in place well before COVID-19. The 17-hospital health system, which also touts eight cancer centers, three heart and vascular institutes and 27 sports medicine and rehab centers, is now looking to expand its connected health portfolio with new services.
Rakesh Mehta, RN, BSN, MBA, Memorial Hermann’s director of virtual health, recently spoke with mHealthIntelligence about the health system’s telehealth journey.
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Congress Expands Veteran Access to Telehealth for Mental Health Care
A bill headed to the President's desk will expand efforts by the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve veteran access to mental health services, including offering more services via telehealth.
October 05, 2020 - Veterans will soon have more opportunities to use telehealth to access mental health services, following Congressional passage of a bill targeting the high suicide rate among service members.
The Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act (S 785) is headed to President Trump’s desk following passage by the House last month and the Senate’s approval in August. It’s designed to take on a mental health crisis that claims the lives of more than 20 veterans a day – two-thirds of which hadn’t accessed and treatment for depressions or stress.
Originally introduced in June of 2019, the bill authorizes the Department of Veterans Affairs to award grants for the development of telemental health programs for veterans, and to assess and report on the barriers faced by veterans in trying to use telehealth.
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Express Scripts adding new solutions targeting women's health, muscle pain to digital health formulary
Oct 7, 2020 1:00pm
Express Scripts is adding the next slate of solutions to its digital health formulary which will target needs such as women's health and musculoskeletal conditions.
The Evernorth Digital Health Formulary, recently rebranded under Cigna's newly-formed health services subsidiary Evernorth—is adding platforms that target five new conditions: women's health needs, tobacco cessation, muscle and joint pain, caregiver care and COVID-19 workplace support.
The formulary's goal is to assist employers and other plan sponsors in finding the digital health solutions that best fit their worker's needs, and which have been vetted by experts at Express Scripts for key concerns like effectiveness, value, user experience and security.
The new options join a crop of tools targeting diabetes, hypertension, mental health needs and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/2020-breaks-record-digital-health-investment-9-4b-funding
2020 breaks record in digital health investment with $9.4B in funding
Oct 7, 2020 11:05am
With $9.4 billion invested up through the third quarter, 2020 will be the largest funding year for digital health to date.
The sector is on track to hit $12 billion in funding by the end of the year, compared to $7.4 billion invested in 2019 and $8.2 billion invested in 2018, according to investment firm Rock Health's latest digital health funding report.
They cited the stock market’s sharp recovery as well as pandemic-initiated policy and regulation changes that have enabled large competitive moves and commercialization activities in the digital health space.
Since April, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital health adoption by several years, attracting interest from consumers, entrepreneurs and investors alike.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/assessing-telemedicine-readiness
Assessing Telemedicine Readiness
By Revenue Cycle Advisor | October 07, 2020
While telemedicine is certainly a useful tool in today's world, it's important that case managers assess a patient's readiness to utilize technology rather than assume the patient will be able to seamlessly transition to telemedicine visits.
A version of this article was first published October 7, 2020, by HCPro's Revenue Cycle Advisor, a sibling publication to HealthLeaders.
Q: It seems that telemedicine is here to stay, but perhaps not every patient is ready to use telemedicine. What are your best strategies for assessing a person's abilities with technology?
A: A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examined this issue. Study authors found that even with support setting up the technology, nearly 32% of older adults still are not be ready for video visits.
Study authors also discovered that a significant number of adults (20%) were not able to participate in a simple telephone call due to dementia, poor hearing, or other communication issues.
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https://hitinfrastructure.com/news/ai-based-ct-scans-can-distinguish-covid-19-cases-from-influenza
AI-Based CT Scans Can Distinguish COVID-19 Cases from Influenza
The new UCF co-developed artificial intelligence algorithm can accurately identify COVID-19 cases, as well as distinguish them from influenza.
October 02, 2020 - A University of Central Florida researcher is part of a new study, which found that artificial intelligence can detect COVID-19 in the lungs like a virtual physician.
Because COVID-19 looks similar to influenza-associated pneumonia, computed tomography (CT) scans are not the generally recommended diagnostic tool.
But the development of the UCF algorithm can overcome these challenges by accurately identifying COVID-19 cases and distinguishing them from influenza.
The study, published in Nature Communications, showed that this artificial intelligence approach can overcome some of the challenges associated with current COVID-19 testing.
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Treasury Dept: Ransomware Payment Facilitation Could Be Sanction Risk
COVID-19 spurred an increase in ransomware attacks. The Treasury Department warns entities against facilitating ransomware payments for breach victims and possible sanction risks.
October 01, 2020 - The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory on the potential sanction risks associated with companies that facilitate ransomware payments to the threat actors on behalf of breach victims, as the act may violate OFAC regulations and encourage future attacks.
COVID-19 has spurred a drastic increase in the frequency and sophistication of ransomware attacks, with many threat actors taking to the double extortion method. In these cyberattacks, the cybercriminal first gains a foothold onto the network, proliferating to all connected devices and exfiltrating sensitive data.
The hacker will wait sometimes months before deploying the final ransomware payload. And if the organization refuses to pay, they then move to leaking some of the victim’s data to extort them into paying. Sometimes entities refuse, while others have paid up, then the hacker will supposedly return the stolen data.
Healthcare has remained a prime target for these attacks, given that many do indeed pay the ransom to regain access to the stolen data and resume business operations. The latest incident involved the University of California San Fransisco, which paid its hackers $1.14 million to restore access to the servers of its School of Medicine.
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Andrew Yang takes lead in California data privacy measure
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Fitbits on our wrists collect our health and fitness data; Apple promises privacy but lots of iPhone apps can still share our personal information; and who really knows what they’re agreeing to when a website asks, “Do You Accept All Cookies?” Most people just click “OK” and hope for the best, says former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
“The amount of data we’re giving up is unprecedented in human history,” says Yang, who lives in New York but is helping lead the campaign for a data privacy initiative on California’s Nov. 3 ballot. “Don’t you think it’s time we did something about it?”
Yang is chairing the advisory board for Proposition 24, which he and other supporters see as a model for other states as the U.S. tries to catch up with protections that already exist in Europe.
The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 would expand the rights Californians were given to their personal data in a groundbreaking law approved two years ago, which took effect in January. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 was intended to give residents more control over their personal information collected online. It limited how companies gather personal data and make money from it and gave consumers the right to know what a company has collected and have it deleted, as well as the right to opt out of the sale of their personal information.
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https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/who-profits-from-medical-records-
Who profits from medical records?
October 3, 2020
Medical records, which most patients think are private and protected, are in reality lucrative commodities in a multibillion-dollar industry.
Medical records, which most patients think are private and protected, are in reality lucrative commodities in a multibillion-dollar industry. As hospitals and health networks assemble these records, they routinely strip away names and other identifiers and sell millions of HIPAA-compliant files to massive aggregator corporations. Aggregators in turn profit from integrating, analyzing and selling access to data on a massive scale. For example, Truven Health Analytics, part of IBM Watson Health, brought 215 million patient records to IBM when it was purchased in 2016, raising IBM’s total to about 300 million records. Access to these records is sold to pharmaceutical companies, insurers, health systems and government entities for research purposes.
Medical data reside with other owners, as well. Since the development of modern pharma, it has been axiomatic that clinical trial data belong to the companies that gather that data. When participants join a clinical trial, they typically agree that, aside from test entries into their medical records, the data they generate become the property of the sponsor. It makes sense: A typical phase 3 clinical trial costs about $40 million, and pharma companies want the sole right to profit from the data they’ve spent millions to collect.
Other collectors of medical data have taken a more consumer-facing route. 23andMe and Ancestry.com have built massive genetic testing databases. They acquire data by selling DNA test kits for genealogy purposes and using that money to cover testing costs. Consumers get a genealogy report, and 23andMe and Ancestry.com then sell access to the identity-stripped analyses of genetic data on millions of people similar to the way large aggregators such as Truven share medical records. An investigator can pay 23andMe to identify 250,000 people distributed across multiple genetic groups, launch an Institutional Review Board-approved voluntary email survey to those people and deliver the research results. This business model is by no means clear to consumers who want to trace their family trees, but it is legal and thriving.More concerning still is that analysts have found ways to break anonymity, marry records from multiple sources (including search engines and social media) and sell these amalgamated records to a variety of for-profit enterprises.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/patientcenteredmedicalhome/patientcenteredmedicalhome/88960
The Unified EMR: A New Opportunity Arises
— A unified electronic medical record could make a big difference in patient care
by Fred N. Pelzman, MD October 5, 2020
Could there actually be an opportunity here?
This weekend, in the darkness of the early hours on Saturday morning, our institution went live with a unified electronic medical record (EMR) across our entire network.
All of our hospitals, all of the practices, inpatient and outpatient, from the primary care clinics to the emergency department to the ICU's to the PACU's to the OR's.
Suddenly, for the first time since the days when we all used to do it on paper in stiff cardboard folders, everyone across the spectrum of healthcare here will be using the same system to document the care of our patients, and in fact gain the advantages that should, by necessity and previously missed opportunities, come with consolidation and unification.
Our colleagues across town and at satellite clinics throughout the city and beyond can see all the care provided to any patient no matter the context -- their medications, their past medical history, their test results, their allergies, their blood pressure when they were seen in a dental clinic, all of it.
Perhaps this is an opportunity to rethink how the care we provide is documented in an electronic medical record, and rethink how this affects the way we may be able to take care of patients in potentially much better ways. If we all work together and cooperate and allow the electronic medical record to become a true reflection of the patient's care within our institution, then perhaps we can avoid all the duplication, defensive medicine, and over-documenting that has come about as electronic medical records have taken over our lives and, in many ways, interfered with patient care.
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Harris moves into Australia with the acquisition of Meridian Health Informatics
October 5, 2020
Ottawa, ON – Harris, a global vertical market software provider and acquirer, moves into Australia with the acquisition of healthcare software business Meridian Health Informatics Pty Ltd (Meridian).
“This acquisition supports Harris’ ongoing expansion in the Australian healthcare market while also adding its first maternity care solutions business. Harris plans to leverage its global healthcare experience and footprint to help Meridian expand and prosper”, notes Harris Healthcare Group President, Jerry Canada. “The Meridian team is now part of a Healthcare solutions provider that has over 30 businesses across 14 countries, providing mission-critical solutions to nearly 20,000 healthcare providers.”
Founded 20 years ago, Meridian provides innovative health care solutions to public and private institutions across Australia. Meridian’s maternity products have monitored over one million births in Australia. Co-owner and Managing Director, David Ashton, affirms: “Harris offers stability and growth to the companies it invests in, and we look forward to growing with them.”
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Telehealth's digital divide is real, and members of Congress want to address it
Reps. Robin Kelly and Anna Eshoo said that while telemedicine has the potential to expand access to care, it has also highlighted disparities in the U.S. healthcare system.
By Kat Jercich
October 06, 2020 11:22 AM
U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., convened yesterday with Dr. Gary Puckrein, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum, to stress the importance of considering the barriers to healthcare people still face throughout the country.
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified telemedicine's potential to expand access to care, said the Congress members, it has also highlighted existing disparities in our system. Broadband access is an issue, as many telehealth advocates have pointed out, but so are digital literacy and the insurance coverage of remote monitoring devices.
"Some Americans don't have or can't afford a phone," said Kelly. "Will we allow them to be left behind in this revolution?"
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Investigation launched after technical error misses 16,000 COVID-19 cases in England
UK health secretary, Matt Hancock says test error “should never have happened.”
By Sara Mageit
October 06, 2020 04:59 AM
An investigation has been launched after a glitch saw thousands of COVID-19 cases go unreported in England.
The technical error meant that although people who tested positive were told about their results, their close contacts were not traced.
Discovered overnight on 2 October, it was revealed that the error was caused by Microsoft Excel data files exceeding the maximum size after they were sent from NHS Test and Trace to Public Health England (PHE).
PHE has stated that the error has now been fixed and outstanding cases have been passed on to tracers.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2020/10/06/ambient-clinical-voice-nlp-and-ehr-auto-documentation/
EHR Auto Documentation, NLP, and Ambient Clinical Voice
October 6, 2020
If you read this site, then you know that my favorite topic right now is probably ambient clinical voice. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since if ambient clinical voice is effective, then it could solve so many of the EHR documentation features that put such a burden on physicians in healthcare. The idea of an AI system listening to a clinical visit and automatically documenting the patient visit including meeting all reimbursement documentation requirements and other government requirements is just almost too tantalizing to believe. Although, it seems like telehealth is going to provide us the opportunity to see if the technology is finally there to make EHR auto documentation a reality and we’ll soon find out if the price is still too high for ambient clinical voice and we need a bit more time (or competition?) for that price to come down.
If you want to better understand how this technology works and where we’re at in the development of this technology, then you’ll love the interview below with Raghav Mani, Product Manager for Healthcare AI at NVIDIA. While I’m sure many people have seen the name NVIDIA when dealing with the video drivers on their computers (especially gaming computers), their realization that GPUs could be used for so much more than video has positioned them squarely in the healthcare AI space as well. So, Raghav Mani is well positioned to share where we’re at on the journey to EHR auto documentation. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that he previously worked at Epic.
Along with talking about automating EHR charting for doctors, we also talk about what this technology could mean for patients. We all know how little a patient actually retains during a relatively high stress appointment with a doctor. There’s something really beautiful about providing patients a recording of the visit that’s been processed through an engine that can take them directly to the point of the visit they’re searching for or even process the audio into text in a format that is useful to the patient. These types of features are going to be possible too.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/top-5-uses-for-a-direct-to-consumer-telehealth-platform
Top 5 Uses for a Direct-to-Consumer Telehealth Platform
Direct to consumer telehealth offers consumers and providers a quick and easy means of collaborating on episodic care. But what are the ideal uses for this type of service?
October 02, 2020 - Direct-to-consumer telehealth has been one of the stalwarts of the past decade, offering providers and consumers the opportunity to collaborate online without the hassle of appointments, offices or even prior contact.
Most often the service is episodic and transactional, says Joe Kvedar, vice president of connected health at Partners Health and president of the American Telemedicine Association, who moderated a virtual panel on the topic at this year’s ATA online conference in June. The connected health platform enables two parties to come together and solve a quick and easy health problem, with minimal emotional interaction or long-term requirements.
Many believe it’s “the next iteration of consumer-facing care,” says Patrick Carroll, chief medical officer for Hims & Hers, an online health and wellness company, who was part of the ATA panel. He and others envision a future where consumers can go online and shop for healthcare services as they do for clothes, books, airline tickets and other product and services.
So what are the most popular – and effective – uses for a DTC telehealth platform? In no particular order, these are the five that have drawn the most attention.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/4-emerging-strategies-to-advance-big-data-analytics-in-healthcare
4 Emerging Strategies to Advance Big Data Analytics in Healthcare
Researchers are developing new strategies to overcome key barriers hindering the use of big data analytics in healthcare.
By Jessica Kent
October 02, 2020 - While the potential for big data analytics in healthcare has been well-documented in countless studies, the possible risks that could come from using these tools have received just as much attention.
Big data analytics technologies have demonstrated their promise in enhancing multiple areas of care, from medical imaging and chronic disease management to population health and precision medicine. These algorithms could increase the efficiency of care delivery, reduce administrative burdens, and accelerate disease diagnosis.
Despite all the good these tools could potentially achieve, the harm these algorithms could cause is nearly as great.
Concerns about data access and collection, implicit and explicit bias, and issues with patient and provider trust in analytics technologies have hindered the use of these tools in everyday healthcare delivery.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aap/88947
Offering Flu Vax at ED Discharge Boosts Uptake Rates
One hospital's protocol reduced vaccine hesitancy in low-income families
by Elizabeth Hlavinka, Staff Writer, MedPage Today October 4, 2020
A Wisconsin pediatric emergency department (ED) implemented a screening protocol that significantly increased flu vaccination rates in a traditionally undervaccinated population, a researcher reported.
Compared with the 2018-2019 flu season, the proportion of children vaccinated increased from 9% to 20% in the 2019-2020 season after Children's Wisconsin implemented an electronic health record (EHR) infrastructure that allowed nurses to screen, counsel, and refer all children presenting to the ED for flu shots at discharge, reported Shannon Baumer-Mouradian, MD, of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Of children vaccinated, about 75% had Medicaid, and half were racial and ethnic minority patients, who have been reported to have lower vaccination rates, Baumer-Mouradian said at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) virtual meeting.
"Many of our children are uninsured or underinsured, and they do use the [ED] as their medical home," Baumer-Mouradian told MedPage Today. "The ED breaks down barriers families have, whether it's a lack of transportation to their primary care office or working weird hours and not being able to make it to appointments."
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October 5, 20205:32 PM Updated 3 hours ago
Johnson plays down technical failure of COVID-19 testing data system
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson sought on Monday to play down a failure in England’s COVID-19 testing data system that delayed 15,841 results, saying the much higher updated figures were more in line with forecasts of the outbreak’s spread.
But the glitch is likely to cast further doubt over Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic: his Conservative government’s response has been cast by political opponents as slow, poorly organised and confusing.
On Sunday, authorities reported a jump in daily COVID-19 cases to a record 22,961, after saying a technical issue had meant that thousands of test results had not been transferred into computer systems on time, including for contact tracers.
“The incidence that we’re seeing in the cases really sort of corresponds to pretty much where we thought we were,” Johnson said, speaking to reporters.
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Rates of key tests drop with fewer doctor visits, more telemedicine amid COVID-19
Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The number of in-office visits to primary care physicians in the United States were 50% lower in the spring compared with the same periods in 2018 and 2019, a study published Friday by JAMA Network Open found.
At the same time, more than 35 million telemedicine consultations -- in which patients communicate with their doctors by phone or online -- were held in April, May and June, a 30-fold increase over previous years, the data showed.
While some medical services can be performed remotely, rates of important tests such as blood pressure and cholesterol monitoring fell by up to 50% across the country, as the public avoided doctors' offices and other healthcare settings because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers said.
"These are large, clinically important declines involving two of the most fundamental elements of primary care -- the prevention of heart attacks and strokes," study co-author Dr. G. Caleb Alexander told UPI.
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Amazon security tool can help automate risk management readiness
The AWS Foundational Security Best Practices standard aims to help healthcare and other organizations ensure they're aligning with a set of core infosec principles.
By Mike Miliard
October 05, 2020 09:51 AM
Healthcare is no stranger to security frameworks the can help provider organizations get their arms around sprawling and detailed infosec challenges through concrete checklists and sets of best practices. They're hugely helpful, even if far too few providers make use of them.
For one of its most recent data security products, Amazon Web Services made sure to check in with one of the most trusted frameworks, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
Its core principles – identify, protect, detect, respond and recover – have helped AWS engineers be "sure we have coverage across those functions in terms of our security best practices," said Ely Kahn, principal product manager at AWS Security Hub.
Kahn was speaking during a session this past week at AWS Summit Online, a virtual event designed to help developers and end users get up-close looks at new products and services from analytics and AI/machine learning to databases, networking and storage.
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UHS says recovery process complete for corporate data centers after cyberattack
The Pennsylvania-based chain was targeted by an apparent ransomware attack last week, leading to a network shutdown throughout all of its 250 U.S. facilities.
By Kat Jercich
October 05, 2020 12:10 PM
Universal Health Services issued a statement on Saturday morning saying it is continuing to recover from an IT security issue that led to a network shutdown throughout all its U.S. facilities.
"The recovery process has been completed for all servers at the corporate data center. All U.S. based inpatient facilities have connectivity established back to the corporate data center and are in process of securely connecting to those systems," said the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based chain in a statement on its website.
According to UHS, major information systems such as the electronic health record were not affected by the attack, and the company is focused on restoring connections to such systems.
"In the meantime, our facilities are using their established back-up processes including offline documentation methods," the statement read.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2020/09/special-report-analytics-2/
Special Report: Analytics
Traditionally, analytics tools have been used in the NHS to understand current situations or past trends. But with Covid-19, has the role of analytics been permanently altered? Maja Dragovic looks at the impact.
Analytics is seen as a tool which can help the NHS predict where emergency services are most likely to be needed and allow trusts to plan accordingly.
Though in a crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to be flexible, says Matt Hennessey, the chief intelligence and analytics officer at Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership.
“In the past what we have done when facing a bit of a challenge is, we look at what we’ve got and try and make do with the existing infrastructure. If you have a great tool, you tweak it a little bit to get you up to what you want, but if you alter it for a long time or the requirement starts to grow you can start having problems with it,” he adds.
An example is that data that had to be collected from care homes early on in the epidemic but was likely to change over time.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/4-sophisticated-phishing-campaigns-impacting-the-healthcare-sector
4 Sophisticated Phishing Campaigns Impacting the Healthcare Sector
Phishing emails have grown in sophistication, with healthcare as the biggest target for credential theft. Understanding notable campaigns can help providers defend against these attacks.
October 02, 2020 - Hackers have leveraged the COVID-19 public health crisis to improve the sophistication and increase the frequency of attacks. Specifically, email phishing that targets enterprise organizations dominate the threat landscape, with the healthcare sector among the most targeted amid the public health crisis.
In the last year, Microsoft blocked 13 billion malicious and suspicious emails, of which 1 billion were URLs set up with the explicit purpose of phishing credential attacks. And as threat actors continue to hone their methods, these attacks have become increasingly harder to detect.
Indeed, previous data from IRONSCALES found healthcare recipients are the biggest target for credential theft attempts through social engineering attempts and spoofed login pages. During the first half of 2020, researchers identified over 50,000 fake login pages for 200 prominent brands.
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https://histalk2.com/2020/10/02/weekender-10-2-20/
Weekly News Recap
- A GAO report says that state prescription drug monitoring program databases would be more useful in patient care if they were more widely integrated with EHRs.
- Nordic acquires Tasman Global.
- The VA sets October 24 for its first Cerner go-live.
- Epic and M Health Fairview offer Epic sites free use of an algorithm that can diagnose COVID-19 from chest X-rays.
- A study finds that a high percentage of Apple Watch notifications of atrial fibrillation don’t result in a corresponding diagnosis and were likely not useful, also noting that nearly one-third of the patients who sought medical care as a result should not have been using the tool because they fall outside of FDA guidelines because of age or known AFib.
- HHS and ONC launch a program with the American Board of Family Medicine to measure the use and potential burdens of health IT by office-based physicians.
- UnitedHealthcare and Anthem end their no-cost coverage of telehealth visits that are not related to COVID-19.
- A malware attack at Universal Health Services takes down computer and phone systems at 250 facilities, with some hospitals closing departments and diverting patients.
- Allegheny Health Network (PA) and a Pittsburgh investor create an innovation hub that will provide seed funding to companies that are involved in diagnostics, therapeutics, medical devices, and health IT.
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Enjoy!
David.
