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.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2020/12/digital-healths-2020-review-top-10-most-read-news-stories/
Digital Health’s 2020 Review: Top 10 most read news stories
It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a year like no other, so as we look to welcome 2021 in just a few hours let’s take a look back at Digital Health’s most popular stories from the past 365 days.
Hanna Crouch – 31 December, 2020
Unsurprisingly Covid-19 dominates the majority of our top ten – with just one story being non-Covid. Join us now as we look at the 10 most-read stories by you, our readers.
10. NHS datasets ‘not sophisticated enough’ to flag high risk patients
As the coronavirus pandemic started to hit the UK back in March, primary care clinicians were asked to flag vulnerable patients at greater risk of hospitalisation from coronavirus as central NHS datasets were “not sophisticated enough” to identify all groups.
A letter sent to GPs from Dr Nikita Kanani, medical director for primary care, asked those central to patient care to identify at-risk patients who may have slipped under the radar.
Seen by Digital Health News, the letter acknowledged that databases held by NHS England at the time were not extensive enough to identify every at-risk patient.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/01/2021-predictions-health-tech-suppliers-give-their-verdict/
2021 predictions: Health tech suppliers give their verdict
After a busy 2020, we asked some health tech suppliers, who are also some of our sponsors for Rewired 2021, to give their predictions for the year ahead. Here is what they had to say.
Hanna Crouch – 4 January, 2021
Ian Denley, joint chief exec of System C and chairman of Graphnet
“Large scale population health systems have been deployed at breakneck speed this year and have been transformational in providing the real-time data needed to manage Covid. This will continue into 2021. NHSE/X’s vision of shared records and population health across all ICSs is likely to be achieved.
“We have all learnt in the last 9 months that the NHS can embrace digital solutions very quickly when it’s an operational imperative to do so. We’re looking forward to the Digital Aspirant programme providing stimulus and focus in terms of accelerating digital maturity – and also to a more mature focus on values and outcomes, rather than just functionality, when measuring digital maturity.
“Finally, the integration of health and social care and the apparent lack of priority given to social care policy is still unresolved. In 2020, we’ve all seen what this means in human terms. As we continue to deal with coronavirus and its impact, 2021 must surely be the year to put social care policy centre stage.”
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/01/2021-predictions-digital-health-leaders-on-what-lies-ahead/
2021 predictions: Digital health leaders on what lies ahead
After a huge year for digital health, we asked NHS IT leaders what they think is in store for 2021. Here’s what they had to say.
Andrea Downey – 04 January 2021
Saffron Cordery, chief executive at NHS Providers
Saffron said 2020 accelerated the adoption of digital technologies and there is a “real sense” that trust boards will be focussed digital “like never before”.
“2021 will see trusts reappraise their digital strategies in order to pursue more ambitious transformational change and to meet the raised expectations of the public, patients, service users and staff,” she said.
“To do this, all trust leaders will look to further build their confidence and understanding of the digital agenda, and NHS Providers are excited to support this.
“This is also the year when ICSs will likely be put on a statutory footing, with an NHS bill expected in the spring. NHS England and Improvement have made it clear they expect digital to be at the heart of system working, with digital senior responsible officers (SROs) appointed to each ICS partnership board.
-----
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/best-buy-vp-talks-whats-next-senior-tech-2021
Best Buy Health VP talks what's next for senior tech in 2021
Sarah Jones, VP for commercial product at Best Buy Health, discusses what to expect in 2021 and why payment models need to evolve.
By Laura Lovett
January 07, 2021 01:53 pm
Best Buy has long been a staple of big box retail stores in the U.S. However, its efforts in the healthcare space span more than a decade. Today the retail giant is looking to the future and taking advantage of the new digital opportunities that have presented themselves within the last year.
MobiHealthNews sat down with Sarah Jones, vice president for commercial product at Best Buy Health, to talk about what we saw in 2020 and what the digital health industry can expect in the next year.
The shift towards virtual care has been a hallmark of 2020.
“From my perspective and where we sit in the healthcare world, one of the big themes obviously was the rapid adoption of digital health technologies. We saw this across the board. People went from having 30 telehealth appointments a quarter to 1,200 a month, from a provider perspective. The other piece, I think specifically in the senior population, was seniors were extremely isolated.”
-----
After trial and error, providers weigh virtual care offerings to fit post-COVID-19 needs
Author Hailey Mensik
Published Jan. 7, 2021
Dive Brief:
- Providers that have experimented with virtual care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic are prepping for their post-COVID operations, though some are still exploring options after months of trial and error with new platforms, according to a report published Wednesday from Klas Research.
- The survey of 277 provider, payer and employer organizations found almost a quarter of respondents are actively looking to replace their platform or feel unsatisfied but stuck with it. Respondents also said few tools exist today robust enough to meet all their telehealth needs in the future — especially those from inpatient organizations.
- Video conferencing vendors are among the most vulnerable because replacing them is a fairly smooth process, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
As the pandemic has forced providers throughout the country to turn to digital tools to continue providing routine care, clinicians are trying a multitude of platforms to see what can deliver.
Klas said that while most providers use the telehealth capabilities their main EHR vendor offers, many combine a blend of different IT options to meet their virtual care needs.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/germany-enables-free-national-use-snomed-ct
Germany enables free national use of SNOMED CT
According the the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, the move is “a building block for establishing semantic interoperability in the electronic exchange of health data”.
January 08, 2021 02:13 AM
The German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) has joined SNOMED International in order to roll-out national use of SNOMED CT, it has been announced. From 1 January 2021, German users will be able register for a free sub-license to the database from the BfArM.
WHY IT MATTERS
SNOMED CT - which stands for Systemised Nomenclature of Medicine–Clinical Terms - is a comprehensive clinical terminology, a standardised language for accurately coding healthcare at every point. With over 350,000 concepts, the terminology ranges from diagnosis to surgical and therapeutic procedures to symptoms and observables to pharmaceutical products and physical objects. It enables users to record and exchange patient data more accurately, both locally and across borders, ultimately improving patient care journeys.
With the BfArM’s new membership to SNOMED International, the not-for-profit that manages the nomenclature database, it will provide free sub-licensing to the terminology to any German institution or specialist group in the healthcare sector. It is hoped that national usage of SNOMED CT will improve health and medical research and data analytics platforms in the country.
-----
Surprise. Email Most Effective During COVID-19 for Communication According to Survey.
January 8, 2021
50% of respondents to a recent survey said EMAIL was the most effective form of hospital-wide communications during the pandemic. This easily beat out secure messaging which was chosen by only 20% of respondents. The survey of clinicians, healthcare executives and IT staff was conducted late last year by Spok, a healthcare communications provider.
I sat down with Donna Scott, SVP of Marketing for Spok, to explore this and other results from their survey.
Interesting Results
Spok has conducted annual surveys about communication since 2011. In 2020, 600 healthcare professionals responded. The result of the COVID-19 communication question was the most surprising.
I did not expect to see this overwhelming preference for email. After all, it has been a much-maligned form of internal communication and there is constant talk about dropping it in favor of collaboration platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
The Spok survey shows how staff stuck with tried-and-true communication platforms during the crisis. Not only did email top the list, but Phone trees, paging, and signs + posters made it on there too. Virtual conference was relegated to the “other” category.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/4-predictions-teletherapy-2021
4 Predictions for Teletherapy in 2021
Analysis | By Christopher Cheney | January 08, 2021
Like many fields in telehealth, teletherapy has experienced significant growth during the coronavirus pandemic, a teletherapy CEO says.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· In 2021, there is likely to be an increased focus on teletherapy outcomes, including patient satisfactions, utilization, and return on investment, a teletherapy CEO says.
· With an increase in investment dollars in the teletherapy field, there is likely to be an increase in startups and M&A activity this year, the CEO says.
Teletherapy is likely to experience growth and other significant changes in 2021, the CEO of a teletherapy provider says.
Last March, when the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States, telehealth visits increased 50%, according to Frost and Sullivan. With in-person medical visits associated with the risk of coronavirus infection, virtual visits have emerged as a safe and effective way for patients to meet with their healthcare providers in many circumstances.
Trip Hofer, MBA, CEO of New York City-based teletherapy provider AbleTo has four predictions for teletherapy in 2021.
-----
Do-It-Yourself Contact Tracing Is a 'Last Resort' in Communities Besieged by Covid
Analysis | By Kaiser Health News | January 08, 2021
In recent weeks, it’s not just the number of positive cases that has increased, overwhelming the capacity of case investigators — so has the number of contacts that each infected person has.
This article was published on Friday, January 8, 2021 in Kaiser Health News. This story also ran on NPR.
The contact tracers of Washtenaw County in Michigan have been deluged with work and, to cope, the overburdened health department has a new tactic: It is asking residents who test positive for covid-19 to do their own contact tracing.
Washtenaw is a county of nearly 350,000 residents who live in and around the city of Ann Arbor, about 45 minutes from Detroit. Until mid-October, a county team of 15 contact tracers was managing the workload. But by Thanksgiving, more than 1,000 residents were testing positive for the coronavirus every week, and the tracers could not keep pace.
In Washtenaw County, the process starts with people called case investigators, who receive lab reports of positive coronavirus tests. Their job is to call anyone who has tested positive, tell them they need to isolate and ask them for the names of people with whom they have had close contact. After creating a list of potentially exposed “contacts,” investigators pass it to a new team to start the actual contact tracing. As the number of positive cases builds, the number of calls tracers must make swells.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/fed-task-force-says-russian-apt-hackers-behind-solarwinds-attack
Fed Task Force Says Russian APT Hackers Behind SolarWinds Attack
Acknowledging the serious SolarWinds Orion compromise will take sustained, dedicated remediation, the federal task force believes Russian APT hackers launched the initial attack.
January 06, 2021 - The extent of the serious compromise of SolarWinds technolofy is continuing to unfold. The latest alert from the National Security Council officially claims that advanced persistent (APT) threat actors from Russia were behind the initial cyberattack on the Orion platform.
The National Security Council established a task force, the Cyber Unified Coordination Group (UCG), which is made up of the FBI, the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency, with support from the NSA.
The task force is working to investigate and remediate the scope of the incident, acknowledging that it will take sustained and dedicated remediation to fully understand the extent of the compromise. CISA released further guidance on identifying and remediating the threat on January 6.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/nurses-need-a-more-significant-say-in-regards-to-ehr-burnout
Nurses Need a More Significant Say In Regards to EHR Burnout
Nurses are experiencing EHR burnout, but further research is necessary to mitigate this epidemic.
January 07, 2021 - Nurses have valuable insight into ways to reduce EHR burnout, but there is a need for further research into ways to better organize, manage, and display this information to mitigate nurse burnout, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Nurses outnumber physicians by four to one, however, the number of studies published in MEDLINE on “physician burnout” compared to those on “nurse burnout” is four to one. In other words, the research community pays attention to physician burnout significantly more than nurse burnout.
According to a systematic review referenced by the research team, nurse burnout ranges from 15 to 45 percent and because of the US nursing shortage, failure to address this burnout will have a trickle-down effect throughout healthcare.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/how-much-are-hospital-physician-star-ratings-worth-to-patients
How Much Are Hospital, Physician Star Ratings Worth to Patients?
Patients were willing to pay up to $3,000 more to visit a provider with a high physician star rating, and up to $2,600 more for a high hospital star rating.
By Sara Heath
January 06, 2021 - Patients are willing to pony up a hefty medical bill if it means they can visit a hospital or physician with a high star rating, demonstrating the price of good patient satisfaction, a new study published in Health Affairs concluded.
The study found that patients would pay more to schedule a total hip or knee replacement with a healthcare provider with one more star rating. Patients would also pay more to visit a facility that is closer to home.
Clinical quality star ratings have become a key metric defining patient experience and patient satisfaction. The tools, which typically utilize a five-star scale seen in other consumer industries, are intended to help patients make informed decisions about their healthcare access. In theory, a patient scheduling an elective procedure like a total knee or hip replacement would use star ratings to compare the different providers who are able to do that joint replacement.
-----
ONC Final Rules Sparked 10% Patient Data Access Increase in 2020
More than 54 million people can view their clinical notes, a massive increase in patient data access in 2020, OpenNotes says.
By Sara Heath
January 06, 2021 - By 2020’s end, over 50 million patients were able to view their clinical notes through the patient portal, an increase in patient data access of more than 10 million since the year prior, according to year-end figures from OpenNotes.
This comes after months of preparation to adhere to patient access to clinical note requirements espoused in the 21st Century Cures Act. The mandates, originally slated to go into effect in November 2020 but delayed until April 2021, called on medical providers to allow patients to view the notes written by their clinicians via a digital tool.
The OpenNotes Health System Survey tool, which garnered answers from some 266 US and Canadian healthcare organization in 2020, revealed a 10 percent increase in the number of patients with digital access to clinical notes. In 2019, 43.8 million patients could access their clinical notes via the patient portal; by the end of 2020, that number increased to 54.2 million.
-----
The Technology 202: Website crashes and other tech problems plague early coronavirus vaccine rollout
Jan. 6, 2021 at 1:01 a.m. GMT+11
Technical problems are already hampering the early rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.
Websites in multiple large Florida counties buckled from a surge of traffic in recent days as seniors attempted to book appointments for their vaccinations. Many were instead met with error messages. Outages were reported in Broward, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
Other seniors thought they secured appointments online, only to be disappointed when they showed up to receive the vaccine. David Kornbluh, an 85-year-old retired IT professional, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he and his wife booked a 10 a.m. appointment Monday morning in Coconut Creek. But when they got there, they were told they couldn’t get a shot because they didn’t have an electronic confirmation.
“I don’t want to die because I couldn’t get vaccinated because of an IT glitch,” he told the Florida paper. “They just put up a website that was incapable of supporting the kind of volume that they were going to have. It’s incompetent state management.” Kornbluh said he and his wife were unable to rebook their appointments since the Broward County website then went down.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/women-are-less-likely-use-video-telehealth-care
Women are less likely to use video for telehealth care
In what's billed as the first large-scale study of inequitable access to telemedicine, a JAMA report calls on providers to ensure "all patients are equipped to effectively participate."
By Kat Jercich
January 06, 2021 02:07 PM
A wide-ranging study published this past week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that older people, women, Black and Latinx individuals, and patients with lower household incomes were less likely to use video for telemedicine care during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cohort study, which researchers called "the first large-scale study to characterize inequitable access to telemedical care," relied on data from nearly 150,000 unique patients who scheduled telemedicine visits from March 16 to May 11, 2020. It found that older patients, Asian people, and non-English-speaking individuals had lower rates of completed telemedicine visits.
"Telemedicine has the potential to be leveraged to increase access to care among patient groups that may have traditionally faced barriers to in-person care," wrote researchers. "However, we must be intentional with implementation to ensure that all patients are equipped to effectively participate in telemedicine care."
WHY IT MATTERS
The research team from the University of Pennsylvania health system sought to compare the demographic characteristics of patients who completed a telemedicine encounter (either via phone or video) with those who were scheduled for one, but did not complete it.
-----
New ONC tools to help developers comply with new interoperability rules
An API Resource Guide, specifics on 2015 Edition Certification Criteria requirements and reminders about key compliance dates are among the resources for software developers to help ensure 21st Century Cures compliance.
By Mike Miliard
January 07, 2021 10:05 AM
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has published a series of guides and tool kits to help tech developers get a jump on compliance with its 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule.
WHY IT MATTERS
The compliance dates for ONC's information blocking rules may have been pushed back due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, but they still draw nearer by the day.
ONC has provided these new resources meant to help the health IT developer community build products that meet the new certification requirements for standards-based APIs that can be used "without special effort."
Among these new resources, the 2015 Edition Cures Update Key Dates compiles the timelines developers need to adhere to in the work to develop certified systems, and help them keep apprised of the requirements they must meet along the way.
-----
Study: Smartphone App Detects Asymptomatic COVID-19 by Recording Forced Coughs
Analysis | By Scott Mace | January 06, 2021
MIT team-developed app, derived from Alzheimer's research, expected to seek FDA approval
· Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)-based researchers have found the way that someone coughs can reliably determine if they have COVID-19, according to a recently published study.
· Moreover, these coughs can be recorded by Web browsers and devices such as cell phones and laptops.
In the paper, published in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, the research team describes an artificial intelligence model distinguishing asymptomatic COVID-19 individuals from a healthy person by the way they cough.
Gathering tens of thousands of samples of coughs, as well as spoken words, the research team trained the model. This model identified 98.5% of coughs from individuals who were verified to have COVID-19, including 100% of coughs from asymptomatic individuals – those who had tested positive for the virus, but reported they had no symptoms.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/telehealth-usage-rises-increase-covid-19-cases
Telehealth Usage Rises With Increase of COVID-19 Cases
Analysis | By Mandy Roth | January 07, 2021
FAIR Health reports more people returning to telehealth in October; communicable diseases now among top five diagnoses for private insurance telehealth claims.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Telehealth usage in October increased by more than 3,000% compared to 2019.
· Since the pandemic began, telehealth usage has ranged from 5.07% to 13% of private insurance claims.
As the nation began experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases this fall, a similar upswing occurred in the use of telehealth, according to the latest report from FAIR Health, an independent, nonprofit organization, which tracks commercial insurance claims as part of a healthcare cost transparency initiative.
Compared to one year ago, October usage of telehealth increased by 3,060%, comprising 5.61% of all "claim lines" processed by the payers the organization tracks, compared to 0.18% the previous October. In September 2020, telehealth comprised 5.07% of all claim lines. FAIR Health defines claim lines as an individual service or procedure listed on an insurance claim.
-----
Healthcare Accounts for 79% of All Reported Breaches, Attacks Rise 45%
Reports show a 45 percent spike in attacks against healthcare providers since November, as the sector accounted for 79 percent of all reported data breaches in 2020.
January 05, 2021 - Cyberattacks against healthcare entities rose 45 percent since November, while the sector continues to be the most impacted overall and accounted for 79 percent of all reported data breaches during the first 10 months of 2020, according to reports from Check Point and Fortified Health Security.
Check Point’s research provides a much needed look at the biggest threats currently facing the sector. Shortly after the federal agency alert on the imminent ransomware threat facing healthcare providers, researchers observed a 45 percent increase in attacks—more than double the amount seen in other industries.
The threats include botnets, remote code execution, and DDoS attacks, with ransomware attacks seeing the biggest increase. Check Point stressed that the malware is the biggest threat facing healthcare providers.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/the-3-eras-of-clinician-burnout-and-how-ehrs-can-mitigate-it
The 3 Eras of Clinician Burnout and How EHRs Can Mitigate It
Health IT professionals dove into the history of medical documentation, EHRs and how EHR vendors, clinicians, and health IT professionals can use history to help decrease clinician burnout in the future.
January 04, 2021 - An increased emphasis on clinician burnout by way of health IT professionals, clinicians, and EHR vendors can help mitigate clinician burnout in the future, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).
From the age of antiquity to now, medical documentation has been a primary source of clinician burnout. While EHRs have documentation benefits, it is the leading cause of clinician burnout.
“We now have unprecedented opportunities in health care, with the promise of new cures, improved equity, greater sensitivity to social and behavioral determinants of health, and data-driven precision medicine all on the horizon,” explained the authors. “EHRs have succeeded in making many aspects of care safer and more reliable. Unfortunately, current limitations in EHR usability and problems with clinician burnout distract from these successes.”
-----
Pandemic Technology Project
Why some countries suspended, replaced, or relaunched their covid apps
Dozens of nations launched exposure notification apps last spring, but some of them look very different today.
by Mia Sato
December 23, 2020
This spring, while the US government was spinning its wheels on an official covid-19 response, countries around the world were rolling out national contact tracing apps. Beginning with Singapore in mid-March, more than 40 countries have launched digital exposure notification systems, to varying degrees of success.
Our Covid Tracing Tracker logs each country’s app and the technologies used, noting privacy considerations and giving each one a transparency rating. We regularly update the tracker to document changes—for example, after finding that several countries rolled back privacy measures. Among the other changes: countries whose apps have been suspended, relaunched, or replaced.
Iran’s AC19 app, which claimed to detect covid-19 infections but was actually spying on users, was banned from the Google Play store and no longer appears to be in use. Meanwhile, Japan’s app has been suspended at least twice because of glitches. The country plans to allow entry to overseas travelers for the delayed Tokyo Olympics as long as they present negative covid-19 tests and download tracing apps.
-----
How to navigate the ‘chaotic’ world of mental health apps
Dec. 30, 2020 at 12:00 a.m. GMT+11
A quick search for “anxiety,” “depression” or “mental health” in Apple’s App Store or on Google Play returns a dizzying array of results. Offerings include games for stress relief, meditation guides, mood trackers and tools intended to tackle conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and more. But regardless of function, many of these apps tout variations of the same promise: They’ll help you feel better.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, mobile mental health apps have experienced a “surge in growth,” responding to an increased need for support as many people have been affected by the psychological toll of 2020, said Adam Haim, chief of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Treatment and Preventive Intervention Research Branch. In January, ahead of the pandemic, the American Psychological Association estimated that there were already close to 20,000 apps available for download.
“The barriers to developing and selling or releasing mental health apps are very low, and currently the market is flooded,” Haim said. “It’s hard for consumers, and in some cases clinicians, to identify what’s evidence-based and might work versus what does not include an evidence base and may in some cases be harmful.”
-----
There were plenty of red flags that spelled the demise of Amazon, JPMorgan healthcare venture, experts say
Jan 6, 2021 1:20pm
When Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway first announced a joint venture aimed at taking on healthcare named Haven, it was met with plenty of buzz and intrigue.
After all, if anyone in the private sector could move the needle on the most entrenched problems in healthcare, surely it'd be these behemoths of industry, right?
But three years later, Haven has turned from one of the biggest potential disrupters to yet another failed tech-driven venture as officials began telling employees on Monday about plans to shut down by the end of next month.
The company posted a statement to its website this week: "In the past three years, Haven explored a wide range of healthcare solutions, as well as piloted new ways to make primary care easier to access, insurance benefits simpler to understand and easier to use, and prescription drugs more affordable. Moving forward, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will leverage these insights and continue to collaborate informally to design programs tailored to address the specific needs of their own employee populations."
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/expanded-patient-medical-history-can-improve-clinical-notes
Expanded Patient Medical History Can Improve Clinical Notes
Researchers added additional patient history information, such as family history timelines, to determine a patient’s disease risk and predict outcomes.
January 05, 2021 - Adding age and patient history can improve clinical notes to support both clinical and transitional research studies, according to a study published in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making.
Adding patient clinical history, such as age and time information can help determine a patient’s disease risk, predict patient health outcomes, and understand disease progression. For example, a patient has increased cancer risk when she has one or more family members who have cancer.
Clinical histories are becoming more prevalent in EHRs. However, specific age and time clinical events, such as risk factors, surgical interventions, and past diagnoses for patients and family members are not often documented or available for research.
Researchers dissected 138 de-identifed discharge data summaries of past medical history, past surgical history, family history, and social history. According to a separate study, most patients are comfortable with sharing their EHR data and biospecimens for research, but may have sharing preferences.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/machine-learning-real-world-data-find-new-uses-for-existing-drugs
Machine Learning, Real-World Data Find New Uses for Existing Drugs
A machine learning algorithm analyzed real-world data to determine which existing drugs could apply to other diseases for which they are not prescribed.
By Jessica Kent
January 05, 2021 - Machine learning and real-world data could help researchers identify new uses for existing drugs, leading to accelerated drug repurposing, according to a study published in Nature Machine Intelligence.
Drug repurposing is an effective strategy to find new purposes for existing drugs, offering the quickest transition from research to clinical care. Developers have used this method to find new purposes for Botox injections – a medication first used to treat crossed eyes but that now treats migraines and can reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
Drug repurposing could lower the risk associated with safety testing of new medications and dramatically reduce the time it takes to get a drug to market. However, discovering new uses for existing medications requires researchers to conduct time-consuming and expensive randomized controlled trials to make sure that a drug that’s effective for one disorder will be useful to treat other conditions.
-----
How telehealth can boost care for heart attack patients
Michael Walter | January 05, 2021 | Acute Coronary Syndromes
Telehealth could provide significant value as a post-discharge treatment tool for low-risk acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients, according to new findings published in JAMA Cardiology.
AMI patients are often given certain medications—ACE inhibitors and ARBs, for example—to assist with their recovery. Could those medications be prescribed and adjusted virtually, allowing patients to receive crucial care from the comfort of their own homes?
The team behind this analysis aimed to find out, launching the IMMACULATE trial to compare post-discharge remote intensive management (RIM) with standard care (SC) provided by a cardiologist.
Data was gathered from 301 patients. All participants were enrolled from July 2015 to March 2019 and received care at one of three facilities. A total of 49.5% of patients received post-discharge, practitioner-led RIM, and the remaining 50.5% of patients received SC. Individuals receiving RIM submitted all had a NT-pro-BNP concentration of more than 300 pg/mL before being discharged.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/optum-acquire-change-healthcare-13b-deal
Optum to acquire Change Healthcare in $13B deal
The companies pointed to the potential to reduce administrative waste, inform patient care decisions and improve payment systems across the industry.
By Kat Jercich
January 06, 2021 11:10 AM
UnitedHealth Group's Optum announced on Wednesday that it would acquire Change Healthcare with the aim of more effectively simplifying core clinical, administrative and payment processes.
The companies said that Change Healthcare would join with the OptumInsight unit to provide software and data analytics; technology-enabled services; and research, advisory and revenue cycle management offerings.
Optum will pay about $8 billion in cash for the company and acquire about $5 billion of Change Healthcare debt, for a total valuation of $13 billion.
"Together we will help streamline and inform the vital clinical, administrative and payment processes on which healthcare providers and payers depend to serve patients," said Andrew Witty, Optum CEO and UnitedHealth Group president, in a statement.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/look-back-2020-reshaping-healthcare-it-landscape
A look back on 2020: reshaping the healthcare IT landscape
The COVID-19 crisis has demanded innovative agility, relentlessly applied – proving again that information technology teams are crucial strategic partners for future goals.
January 06, 2021 10:56 AM
An unknown author commented that "if necessity is the mother of invention, desperation is its father." As I reflect upon the year 2020, it is unequivocally highlighted and underscored as the most significant year in my lifetime thus far regarding the healthcare industry's response to the desperation generated by the coronavirus.
In terms of the necessity of invention and attacking back on this viral threat from a technology perspective, innovative agility was relentlessly applied in such a short time frame, otherwise never imagined.
Many healthcare information services teams were quickly called to rise up to the occasion of supporting our caregivers and patients. Colleagues embraced an attitude of solidarity and embodied characteristics of being agile, pivoting at a moment's notice, and maintaining resilience.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/01/06/the-rise-of-the-stupid-ehr/
The Rise of the Stupid EHR
January 6, 2021
Back in the late 90s, I read an article in a trade magazine and the piece made such an impact on me that the ideas articulated have stayed with me to this day. The article, “The Rise of the Stupid Network,” was written by a man named David Isenberg who worked at AT&T Labs Research.
In the article, Isenberg describes how telephone companies of the day were basing their infrastructure decisions around key premises, including the following:
- That expensive, scarce infrastructure can be shared to offer premium services
- That the communications infrastructure of the day (at that point, primarily circuit-switched calls) was the only communications technology that mattered and
- That the telephone company is in control of its network
In making these assumptions, Isenberg wrote, the telcos were tuning out several important trends, including:
- The massive annual growth in the volume of data traffic running on the network
- The many different types of data that had begun to travel on the network
- The diversity of communications technologies under use that were not part of the core network and
- The extent to which the Internet was shifting control to the end-user.
In his view, telcos like his employer should not have been blindly working to integrate features like more automatic operation and intelligent new services into the existing network architecture. Despite their efforts, he argued, their Intelligent Network was rapidly being superseded by a Stupid Network offering nothing but dumb transport in the middle and intelligent user-controlled endpoints.
-----
Health Information Exchanges Jump to Front of Health IT Line This Year
Analysis | By Scott Mace | January 06, 2021
Vaccination registries, social determinants of health, and patient matching advance the HIE mission.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· During the pandemic, HIEs are playing an increasingly vital role to help share vital health information, including involvement in sharing COVID-19 vaccination data.
· SHIEC, the national HIE collaborative, is exploring ways to share data related to social determinants of health initiatives.
· Thanks to a new government initiative, efforts are underway to build patient-matching address standards, "basically using the person-matching capabilities of the U.S. Postal Service," according to SHIEC's interim CEO.
2021 will continue one positive trend begun in 2020: maturing and increasingly cloud-based health information exchange, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, but yielding benefits across the continuum of care.
So predicts Lisa Bari, interim CEO for the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaboration (SHIEC), whose Health Information Exchange (HIE) members cover 95% of the U.S. population.
-----
Housing Instability Linked to Health Disparities, Access to Care
Moving due to unaffordable housing is linked to unmet medical needs, pointing to access to care and health disparity issues surrounding housing.
January 04, 2021 - People who move due to unaffordable housing are more likely to have unmet medical needs, according to a new health disparity study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The research draws concern for access to care and housing affordability as a social determinant of health.
By comparing data from those who had moved their residences in the last five years to those who had not, the study found that those who had moved due to cost were more likely to report delaying or not receiving prescribed medicines and needed medical care during the previous 12 months.
Researchers from Cedars Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles were motivated to conduct the study as little investigation has been done on the access to care consequences of cost-related moves.
With an estimated 30 to 40 million US renters at risk of eviction in the next few months due to financial strains from COVID-19, the study’s findings have never been more relevant, said Katherine Chen, MD, the study’s corresponding author and a fellow in the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program.
-----
Behind the Scenes of Epic’s User-Centered Patient Portal Redesign
Epic's newly redesigned patient portal features a user-centered design that reflects changes in how patients want to interact with their health tech.
By Sara Heath
January 04, 2021 - Healthcare organizations might be seeing their Epic Systems patient portals looking a little different these days. After a two-year process, the EHR vendor giant has unveiled an updated patient portal that Epic said prioritized patient-centered design and usability.
“What we learned over the years of watching patients use MyChart and then directly communicating with our patient and family advisory council, connecting directly with advisory groups at our customer site was that, as we added more and more tools to MyChart, actually it got a little bit harder for patients to navigate,” Sean Bina, VP of Access and Patient Experience at Epic, told PatientEngagementHIT.
That finding isn’t exactly surprising. Patient engagement trends seen across numerous patient portal vendors suggest patients want a tool that helps them easily manage their health. Patients want to see all of their data in one place, be able to make decisions about their care, and complete other health-related tasks all in one centralized location.
That’s a far cry from the patient portals of the 2000s and 2010s, when most vendors were working on simply letting patients take a glimpse at their EHRs. These portals aren’t just about patient data access anymore, but rather they are about being able to take action with that data.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/can-healthcare-shore-up-insider-threats-transparency-needs-in-2021
Can Healthcare Shore Up Insider Threats, Transparency Needs in 2021?
The rise in attacks and healthcare security incidents at the end of 2019 makes it imperative to secure insider threats, particularly as the need for transparency increases in response to COVID-19.
January 04, 2021 - Ransomware is often the prime headline-stealing topic when it comes to cybersecurity and risks to the healthcare sector. But many entities often overlook the dominance of insider threats and its overall prevalence in a majority of these attacks.
Previous data has found the healthcare sector is the worst at stopping insider-related breaches, with a 2019 Verizon report revealing that insider security threats were a bigger concern than hacking.
In fact, insiders have been consistently named the biggest risk to healthcare data each year. The 2020 version of the report was the first to find external threats outpacing insiders for the first time in the report's history.
Given the increase in remote work and telehealth in the last year in response to the national crisis, the need for transparency in the sector is paramount. As cybercriminals continue to prey on human nature and social engineering attacks, these concerns should be a key focus for healthcare organizations into 2021.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/covid-19-ransomware-breaches-led-2021-health-it-security-trends
COVID-19, Ransomware, Breaches Led 2020 Health IT Security Trends
The COVID-19 outbreak reshaped HHS HIPAA sanctions and enforcement discretion in 2020, which topped health IT security trends, alongside ransomware and data breaches.
January 04, 2021 - In terms of healthcare cybersecurity and overall data breaches, data from 2021 will likely show a year of massive cybercriminal activity and a spike in reported events during the second half of the year. Overall, the leading healthcare cybersecurity trends were dominated by the changing landscape brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indeed, reports during the first half of the year showed that reported ransomware incidents significantly declined from the huge wave of attacks that ended 2019.
However, security researchers and even federal agencies stressed that malicious activities were maintained despite fewer reports and that providers and other organizations needed to remain on guard against the likely resurgence of attacks in the second half of 2020.
Almost like clockwork, hackers, particularly nation-state actors, began preying on the healthcare sector in record droves by the Fall. Further, data exfiltration was found to occur in about half of all ransomware attacks.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/va-ehr-modernization-project-receives-internal-backlash
VA EHR Modernization Project Receives Internal Backlash
Union members and VA groups are voicing their opinions about the VA EHR Modernization platform’s lack of strong patient data sharing and the new patient portal.
January 04, 2021 - Leaders from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) EHR Modernization (EHRM) project are facing scrutiny from the department’s unions and internal groups, according to a POLITICO report.
These issues range from the system’s patient data sharing capabilities, to questions surrounding leadership, to a lack of a warning regarding a recent EHRM deployment.
While the initial EHRM implementation at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, WA was considered an early success, reviews and interviews from those inside the deployment showed real concerns over the project design and the VA’s oversight.
The new Cerner patient portal draws concern because more than 2,000 veterans have already created accounts. John Windom, executive director of VA EHRM Office, told POLITICO, VA is reviewing the portal. Members of Congress and veterans service organizations said the new solution would confuse VA patients due to a lack of familiarity.
-----
https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/02/leading-computer-scientists-debate-the-next-steps-for-ai-in-2021/
Leading computer scientists debate the next steps for AI in 2021
Ben Dickson @BenDee983 January 2, 2021 7:59 AM AI
The 2010s were huge for artificial intelligence, thanks to advances in deep learning, a branch of AI that has become feasible because of the growing capacity to collect, store, and process large amounts of data. Today, deep learning is not just a topic of scientific research but also a key component of many everyday applications.
But a decade’s worth of research and application has made it clear that in its current state, deep learning is not the final solution to solving the ever-elusive challenge of creating human-level AI.
What do we need to push AI to the next level? More data and larger neural networks? New deep learning algorithms? Approaches other than deep learning?
This is a topic that has been hotly debated in the AI community and was the focus of an online discussion Montreal.AI held last week. Titled “AI debate 2: Moving AI forward: An interdisciplinary approach,” the debate was attended by scientists from a range of backgrounds and disciplines.
-----
Behind the scenes: How health systems, EHR vendors will give patients unprecedented access to their data
Health systems and EHR vendors have been working for months to comply with the ONC's final rule on interoperability and information blocking that goes into effect in April and is expected to grant patients unprecedented access to their health information. Here is a look at some of the issues they contended with.
By Anuja Vaidya
Jan 4, 2021 at 9:00 AM
Next year is poised to be a banner year for people accessing their health information. In April, the Department of Health and Human Services will implement its long-awaited interoperability and information blocking rules.
Though providers were already giving patients access to their data to some extent, the new rules widen the scope of the information to be provided. As a result, providers are retooling their policies and processes around data access and working to iron out potential hurdles that may have a negative impact on patient experience. EHR vendors, on the other hand, are focusing on shoring up the technology infrastructure that will enable expanded patient access and helping to educate their provider clients. Both groups received a breather when HHS decided to push back the compliance date of the ONC’s final rule to April 5 from Nov. 2.
What’s in the ONC’s final rule?
Together, the ONC and CMS rules implement
the interoperability and patient access provisions of the 21st
Century Cures Act and support
the MyHealthEData initiative, which aims to
provide patients control over their healthcare data so they can decide how it
will be used.
-----
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-020-00362-8
Privacy protections to encourage use of health-relevant digital data in a learning health system
npj Digital Medicine volume 4, Article number: 2 (2021) Cite this article
Abstract
The National Academy of Medicine has long advocated for a “learning healthcare system” that produces constantly updated reference data during the care process. Moving toward a rapid learning system to solve intractable problems in health demands a balance between protecting patients and making data available to improve health and health care. Public concerns in the U.S. about privacy and the potential for unethical or harmful uses of this data, if not proactively addressed, could upset this balance. New federal laws prioritize sharing health data, including with patient digital tools. U.S. health privacy laws do not cover data collected by many consumer digital technologies and have not been updated to address concerns about the entry of large technology companies into health care. Further, there is increasing recognition that many classes of data not traditionally considered to be healthcare-related, for example consumer credit histories, are indeed predictive of health status and outcomes. We propose a multi-pronged approach to protecting health-relevant data while promoting and supporting beneficial uses and disclosures to improve health and health care for individuals and populations. Such protections should apply to entities collecting health-relevant data regardless of whether they are covered by federal health privacy laws. We focus largely on privacy but also address protections against harms as a critical component of a comprehensive approach to governing health-relevant data. U.S. policymakers and regulators should consider these recommendations in crafting privacy bills and rules. However, our recommendations also can inform best practices even in the absence of new federal requirements.
-----
At UPMC, Android-enabled telehealth keeps child transplant patients safe
Even amid the pandemic, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh found success for peri- and post-transplant care in 2020. It's now tending to hundreds of children with video visits during the second wave of COVID-19.
By Bill Siwicki
January 05, 2021 12:01 PM
The UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh was the nation's first center to perform organ transplantation in children. It has performed more solid organ transplants in children than any U.S. center.
With a focus on both outstanding short-term and long-term outcomes, the follow-up of these children typically extends from the immediate period (0-3 months) to long-term follow-up (3 months-20 years post-transplant).
UPMC Children's has transplanted organs for more than 3,000 children, and currently follows more than 900 children (551 liver or liver/intestine recipients, 152 kidney recipients, 177 heart or heart lung recipients, 34 active liver or intestine candidates, 12 heart or lung candidates, and 16 kidney candidates).
The children live nationwide but the focus is on areas heavily impacted by COVID-19, such as the Northeast and the central and southeastern U.S.
-----
Jan 04 2921
Haven disbands, ending speculation on what innovation at such a scale could do
When formed in January 2018, the joint venture was expected to upend the healthcare industry.
Susan Morse, Managing Editor
Haven, the healthcare company formed three years ago by finance and tech giants Amazon, Berkshire-Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, will end its independent operations at the end of February, according to a statement from the company.
The disbanding ends speculation as to what an innovative healthcare delivery system driven by an Amazon-like experience would look like at scale, starting with insurance coverage for thousands of its combined company employees.
"In the past three years, Haven explored a wide range of healthcare solutions, as well as piloted new ways to make primary care easier to access, insurance benefits simpler to understand and easier to use, and prescription drugs more affordable," Haven said by statement.
-----
When It Comes Telehealth Security, We Don’t Want A Free-For-All
January 5, 2021
In many areas of health IT, experimentation is good and may ultimately be to the benefit of users. On the other hand, when it comes to telehealth security, it’s looking more and more as though establishing routine practices and following security best practices is a good idea. At present, there’s still a lot of ways in which things can go wrong.
One of the few positives emerging from the pandemic response has been the extent to which providers have found new ways to rethink their IT change management process. I have seen more silo-smashing, data sharing, and care coordination during 2020 than I have for many years in the past.
On the other hand, sometimes racing to solve complex problems quickly can create major issues of its own. Such, I believe, may be the situation with telehealth today.
-----
Why Interoperability is Key to Social Determinants of Health Efforts
At the Alliance for Better Health, an interoperable digital platform is connecting providers and community leaders to effectively address individuals’ social determinants of health.
By Jessica Kent
January 04, 2021 - In care delivery today, it’s well understood that a patient’s social determinants of health have a profound impact on both physical well-being and healthcare spending – sometimes even more so than clinical factors.
Evidence has shown that industrialized nations that dedicate more resources to social services than healthcare tend to have better health outcomes.
A 2019 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine revealed that for every $1 the US spends on healthcare services, it spends about 90 cents on social services. In comparison, other industrialized countries spend $2 on social services for every $1 they spend on healthcare.
Although the importance of addressing individuals’ social needs is widely known, many providers still struggle to identify and document the non-medical factors affecting patients’ health. And even if they can, clinicians then have to clear the next difficult hurdle: referring patients to the right services that will meet their needs.
-----
How artificial intelligence and augmented reality are changing medical proctoring during COVID-19
Jan 4, 2021 9:50am
Medical device specialists often monitor the work of surgeons to provide case support during procedures in the operating room. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical proctoring has gone remote.
“COVID has dramatically accelerated the need to have a remote tool, when you either don't have access to the hospital, or when there are travel restrictions that make it really difficult,” said Jennifer Fried, CEO and co-founder of ExplORer Surgical, a company that provides a software platform for case support during surgery. ExplORer offers the training platform in three formats: in-person, remote or hybrid.
Launched out of the University of Chicago Department of Surgery in 2013, ExplORer recently added augmented reality technology that acts as a virtual laser pointer for medical device specialists to provide on-screen guidance for surgeons similarly to how sports announcers use a Telestrator to mark up plays.
Introduced in November, ExplORer’s two-way audio/video system is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The AR technology lets medical device reps zoom in or out and use a laser pointer to highlight items on the screen for the doctor.
-----
Closely watched healthcare play by Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to shutter
by Tina Reed
Jan 4, 2021 12:47pm
Haven—the healthcare company formed by Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway—is apparently no more.
The healthcare company began telling employees on Monday about plans to shut down by the end of next month, CNBC reported first on Monday morning.
Haven was first announced in January 2018 as a venture that could leverage their combined resources to create health solutions to benefit their U.S. workforces and, eventually, all Americans. Their main targets: the complexity of healthcare coverage and out-of-control costs.
The announcement caused shock waves across the industry, sending stocks for insurers and other major health companies tumbling. The Boston-based company continued to gain plenty of media attention as it announced high-profile hires such as widely recognized surgeon, public health researcher and author Atul Gawande, M.D., as CEO.
-----
UK government reports NHS Test and Trace reaching record number of people
The improved contact tracing website has been highlighted as one of the reasons for contacts being successfully reached.
By Sara Mageit
January 04, 2021 08:44 AM
As coronavirus cases continue to rise across the country, a GOV.UK press release has revealed that more than 550,000 contacts were reached by NHS Test and Trace and told to isolate in the week before Christmas.
From 17 to 23 December, 181,910 people who tested positive were successfully reached. This is 58,398 more than the previous week.
It also states that cases are being reached more quickly, with 80.2% reached within 24 hours, compared with 77.1% the previous week.
Listing the reasons for these improvements, the press release claims that they were brought about by improving the contact tracing website, introducing more effective systems for contacting members of the same household and increasing the number of local authority tracing partnerships.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/frost-sullivans-top-10-predictions-healthcare-2021
Frost & Sullivan's Top 10 predictions for healthcare in 2021
From vaccines to virtual care, enterprise imaging to precision medicine, these are the growth areas that will shape the direction of healthcare, this year and beyond.
By Reenita Das
January 04, 2021 04:03 PM
Reenita Das is partner and senior vice president for transformational health at Frost & Sullivan. This article was co-authored with Chandni Mathur, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
The year 2020 has been a year unlike any other year in our history. It has impacted the fabric of our society and life – but most importantly it has changed the healthcare industry forever.
The following 10 predictions that we have made for the global healthcare will define new ways of rethinking business and growth opportunities in 2021, and will help determine the future direction of the industry.
1. By the end of 2021, about 4 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses will be delivered globally.
These will be prioritized to immunize three target groups: the healthcare workforce, consisting of service providers, management & support workers in hospitals and social care; adults above 65; and about 45% of adults with comorbidities.
More than 50% of the expected production capacity of the vaccine candidates, which are in Phase III and are getting emergency approval, have been pre-booked by developed economies, such as the U.S., the E.U., Japan, Canada and the U.K.
-----
Despite Reimbursement Issues, Remote Patient Monitoring Poised to Explode Like Visual Visits Did Previously
January 4, 2021
Sometimes, the benefits of providing a given service are so compelling that healthcare organizations are willing to swallow some of even all of the costs of providing it. The use of virtual visits had begun to reach that point even before COVID-19 hit.
Now, the remote patient monitoring market is evolving in a similar manner, with services coming first and payers poised to cut loose with reimbursement once it’s clear the ROI is there. This expansion seems all the more likely as the pandemic maintains its grip heading into this year.
The benefits of RPM services are more and more obvious as use cases continue to emerge. One recent way health systems are using such tools today is to discharge and monitor COVID-19-positive but stable and low acuity patients from their emergency departments.
Ordinarily, few healthcare organizations will commit to investing in new technologies if they’re not being paid directly to use them. Still, that hasn’t prevented institutions like the Cleveland Clinic from planning a comprehensive telehealth service which I, at least, see as a step toward creating a virtual hospital. The Clinic does expect to attract self-pay patients interested in its high-profile specialists via telehealth tech, but its longer-term plans seem to be focused on bringing virtual care into the mainstream.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
