Here are a few I came across last week.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/epic-in-process-of-developing-ai-ehr-documentation-assistant
Epic in Process of Developing AI EHR Documentation Assistant
Judy Faulkner told Vanderbilt University health IT experts that Epic will launch its own AI EHR documentation assistant within two years.
February 26, 2021 - In a recent virtual seminar, Epic CEO and founder, Judy Faulkner, told health IT experts at Vanderbilt University Medical Center that the EHR vendor giant is tirelessly working to mitigate clinician burnout by developing an artificial intelligence (AI) EHR documentation assistant.
During the seminar, Faulkner discussed the vendor’s past and present work, highlighted by how the vendor plans to combat clinician burnout, if the company plans to optimize the Epic patient portal for the upcoming interoperability rule compliance date, and more.
Dara Mize, MD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics, asked Faulkner what Epic is doing to help ease EHR documentation and mitigate clinician burnout.
Clinician burnout is a common issue tied with EHR usability, EHR emergence, and EHR prevalence. Poor EHR usability leads to high levels of physician attrition, depression, dissatisfaction, and burnout.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/layperson-callers-effective-at-reducing-social-isolation-sdoh
Layperson Callers Effective at Reducing Social Isolation, SDOH
Call recipients reported fewer depressive symptoms and lower anxiety, marking the success the program had in addressing social isolation and SDOH.
By Sara Heath
February 25, 2021 - A program out of Meals on Wheels Central Texas has successfully moved the needle on social isolation and the mental and behavioral health consequences that particular social determinant of health can have, data reported in JAMA Psychiatry showed.
The study, conducted by researchers from the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas Austin, showed that laypeople can address loneliness as a social determinant of health through targeted, empathetic phone calls to high-risk individuals.
Social isolation has long been a pressing social determinant of health, naturally impacting mental and behavioral health and also showing signs of affecting physical health, too, the researchers said.
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https://securityboulevard.com/2021/02/everything-you-need-to-know-about-phishing-and-pharming/
Everything You Need to Know About Phishing and Pharming
by Richard Singha on February 23, 2021
Today, the ever-evolving technology has taken society to the next level of evolution. However, it has also paved a path for malicious actors to misuse it and exploit unwary users. Day after day, cyber criminals are growing more sophisticated and smart. They have been honing their skills in order to bypass the latest security standards and obtain money and data illegally.
Phishing and pharming are two major types of cyber attacks that involve tricking others into providing their personal information. Although cyber criminals use both these tactics to obtain sensitive information, they work differently.
What is Phishing?
Phishing is basically a social engineering attack that uses emails as a disguised weapon. In short, the cyber criminals impersonate a legitimate source to trick the target into clicking on a malicious link or attachment to acquire their personal information.
The scary part is, cyber criminals are not only limited to using emails for launching phishing attacks. They can also phish over a website and sometimes go with SMS (smishing) or voice call/messages (vishing) to trick users. According to a report from Security Boulevard, 97% of the users are unable to recognize a sophisticated phishing email.
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https://fortune.com/2021/02/24/insilico-a-i-rare-lung-disease-ipf-record-time/
Startup says A.I. helped it find treatment for rare lung disease in record time
By Jeremy Kahn
February 25, 2021 1:00 AM GMT+11
Artificial
intelligence is making rapid inroads in helping with the discovery
of potential medicines.
In the latest example, a Hong Kong–based biotechnology company, Insilico Medicine, which uses
A.I. tools to help it find potential new therapies, announced Tuesday it has
brought a drug candidate from an initial scientific hunch to the cusp of human clinical
trials in less than 18 months, a time span the company says may be a new record
for a process that often takes more than four years.
The company said it was the first time A.I. had been used to find a completely
new target pathway for a disease and then generate a new molecule to hit that
target, and to do so in such a shortened time frame. Alexander Zhavoronkov,
Insilico’s chief executive, describes A.I. as “a Ferrari” that allows the
company to move quickly through the first few phases of early stage drug
discovery.
The drug Insilico is developing is a potential therapy for idiopathic pulmonary
fibrosis (IPF), a rare condition that affects older adults in which the lungs
become scarred for unknown reasons, making breathing increasingly difficult.
Bringing a new drug to market is risky, time consuming, and expensive. On
average, it takes a decade and costs more than $1 billion. Most new drug
candidates fail—in fact, one recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
estimated that only 14% of drugs that enter initial human clinical trials
ultimately make it to market. But many more fail before they even reach that
stage.
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00490-5
Massive Google-funded COVID database will track variants and immunity
Open repository will give free access to more than 160 million data points with details about individual infections.
An enormous international database launched today will help epidemiologists to answer burning questions about the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, such as how rapidly new variants spread among people, whether vaccines protect against them and how long immunity to COVID-19 lasts.
Unlike the global COVID-19 dashboard maintained by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and other popular trackers that list overall COVID-19 infections and deaths, the new repository at the data-science initiative called Global.health collects an unprecedented amount of anonymized information about individual cases in one place. For each individual, the database includes up to 40 associated variables, such as the date when they first had COVID-19 symptoms, the date they received a positive test and their travel history.
Individual-level data like these provide the clues that epidemiologists need to determine how diseases are spreading, says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins, who is part of the project. “By the time we understand the gravity of an outbreak, it’s often too late,” she says. “Data can close that loop and make the process faster.”
Researchers hope the database will help them to monitor coronavirus variants and vaccines in the months to come, and provide a template for tracking real-time data in future epidemics.
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Behavioral Interventions, mHealth Self-Monitoring Tools Cut Obesity
mHealth self-monitoring tools lead to greater reduction in obesity than traditional paper-based behavioral interventions in 21 out of 34 comparisons.
February 24, 2021 - Behavioral interventions using mHealth self-monitoring tools lead to significant weight loss among overweight or obese patients, according to a research review published online in The Obesity Society's flagship journal, Obesity.
Researchers reviewed randomized controlled studies among overweight or obese adults, ultimately concluding that digital self-monitoring lead to weight loss in 74 percent of interventions across three major behaviors tracked (diet, physical activity, and body weight).
“Digital health tools have flourished in the past decade,” said Michele L. Patel, PhD, corresponding author of the study and post-doctoral research fellow at the Stanford Prevention Research Center in the Stanford University School of Medicine. “What this paper sought out to explore was whether tracking via these digital tools is effective at producing greater weight loss.”
Researchers searched six databases—PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, PsycInfo, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses—for studies that included self-monitoring interventions for weight loss that were 12 weeks or longer in duration and provided patient outcomes at least six months post-intervention. The studies were published between January 2009 and September 2019.
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FDA's enforcement discretion for digital health is more ambiguous than ever in 2021
Industry regulatory leaders outline the best approaches for digital health companies looking to make sense of FDA's long-in-the-tooth enforcement discretion guidelines.
By Dave Muoio
February 25, 2021 02:06 pm
The digital health ecosystem has swelled to encompass a broad range of products over the years.
On one end of the spectrum is software-as-medical-devices (SaMD) and prescription digital therapeutics, product categories for which a comprehensive regulatory strategy and engagement with the FDA are mandatory. On the other are wellness apps and other low-risk digital tools that likely spend more time worrying about oversight from the Federal Trade Commission than the health regulator.
However, a growing number of companies are finding themselves in a gray area of enforcement discretion, a term the FDA uses for lower-risk products that meet the definition of a medical device, but do not require regulatory submission, review and authorization before heading to market.
"Enforcement discretion doesn't mean no regulation," Ankur Kaushal, VP of regulatory affairs and quality at Big Health, said yesterday in DTx West virtual panel. "It doesn't mean that the FDA is no longer in your life. The FDA is very much there. Regulations are still very much present.
"FDA is choosing to enforce them in a very hands-off manner, and so, instead of getting clearances and approvals, you're able to move forward by internally building evidence that you are complying."
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/epic-cognitive-computing-platform-primer
An Epic cognitive computing platform primer
Dr. Yindalon Aphinyanaphongs at NYU Langone Health explains the machine learning technology and offers some tips on its use.
By Bill Siwicki
February 26, 2021 11:37 AM
In production machine learning systems, the model itself is only a small part of the implementation. The "scaffolding" required to run machine learning models, also called machine learning operations or MLOps, is another crucial component.
This scaffolding includes configuration, data collection, feature extraction, data verification, machine resource management, analysis tools, process management tools, serving infrastructure and monitoring, explained Dr. Yindalon Aphinyanaphongs, assistant professor for the departments of population health and medicine in the division of general internal medicine at NYU Langone Health.
How the cloud helps machine learning
"A common way of deploying machine learning-based models is to use infrastructure-as-a-service resources," he noted. "Several cloud providers, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Sagemaker, offer solutions that help to create the scaffolding to deploy machine learning-based models and also provide many MLOps tools."
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What Does Remote Patient Monitoring and Chronic Care Management Really Take to Be Successful?
February 26, 2021
This month we’ve had an added focus on Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and all it’s nuances and features. No doubt a month still isn’t enough to fully understand this quickly changing area of health IT. The more I’ve learned about RPM and it’s related Chronic Care Management (CCM), the more I realize how complicated it is to do right. RPM companies require a mix of data collection, data analysis, patient communication, behavior change, and so much more. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but it also is one of the most promising areas of healthcare and is going to be key to value based care. In fact, many of the tools and technologies related to RPM are moving into other areas like surgical protocols for example. What does seem clear to me is every healthcare organization is going to need to consider how they’re approaching RPM and CCM.
To really understand what it takes to make RPM and CCM work, Healthcare IT Today recently sat down with Josh Claman, CEO of Rimidi. Claman shared his view on the RPM market and how he sees the market playing out between disease or condition specific RPM and more whole health or wellness based RPM. Spoiler Alert: He offers some great reasons why an RPM platform is going to be important long term. We also dive into how the pandemic has impacts RPM and what that portends for the future.
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Feb 25 2021
Automating 'high level' healthcare tasks can create high value savings
The massive amount of data available in healthcare makes it a prime area for artificial intelligence and machine learning automation.
Mallory Hackett, Associate Editor
With the recent influx of data across the healthcare industry, the time to fully implement artificial intelligence and machine learning is now, according to Brandon Sim, the chief technology officer and chief operating officer at ApolloMed, a tech-powered healthcare management company
"Especially because recent CMS regulations are going to force electronic health record companies to share their data in a more reasonably accessible fashion," Sim said. "Just the sheer amount of data that is being collected – the rise of alternative sources of data like remote patient monitoring and wearable devices – make it a very natural fit for using machine learning and AI methods in healthcare."
Further implementing these technologies into healthcare has the potential to advance preventive care, but for that to be possible, health systems need to adopt "high-level" AI and ML processes, according to Sim.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/directtrust-adt-notifications-guide-looks-at-interoperability-rule
DirectTrust ADT Notifications Guide Looks at Interoperability Rule
The implementation guide intends to add increased context to ADT notifications and improve provider-to-provider communication.
February 24, 2021 - DirectTrust announced the launch of its Implementation Guide for Event Notifications via the Direct Standard, a Draft Standard for Trial Use (DSTU), to address the admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) notifications from the CMS interoperability rule.
“The Event Notifications via Direct Implementation Guide is the shortest path to compliance with the CMS ADT Notifications Conditions of Participation, as it leverages existing Standards and implemented technologies,” Therasa Bell, chair of the DirectTrust IG for Notifications Consensus Body, said in a statement.
This implementation guide aims to help providers fulfill a CMS condition of participation that will require all hospitals to send outbound event notifications by May 2021.
All health facilities must send direct electronic notifications to a patient’s provider once the patient is admitted, discharged, or transferred from another facility.
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HHS Taps Community Health Centers, Health Partners in COVID Response
The Biden administration will partner with community health centers and community health partners to promote equitable mask access.
By Sara Heath
February 25, 2021 - President Joe Biden will tap the expertise of more than 1,300 community health centers and another 60,000 community health partners as part of the administration’s effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through partnerships to be managed by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DoD), the administration plans to deliver over 25 million masks to under-resourced communities by way of these community health groups.
“While masks
are widely available in many different shapes and sizes,
many low-income Americans still lack affordable access to this basic
protection,” Jeff Zients, the White House Coronavirus Coordinator, said in a statement
to the press. “That’s why we’re taking this important action to keep Americans
safe.”
The administration plans to deliver the over 25 million masks across the country in over 1,300 community health centers, which traditionally provide healthcare to low-income individuals, and at over 60,000 food pantries or soup kitchens.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/healthcare-cyberattacks-doubled-in-2020-with-28-tied-to-ransomware
Healthcare Cyberattacks Doubled in 2020, with 28% Tied to Ransomware
IBM X-Force's report upheld previous findings that COVID-19 was a leading theme of cyberattacks in 2020. Meanwhile, ransomware accounted for 28 percent of targeted attacks on healthcare.
February 25, 2021 - Cyberattacks on healthcare more than doubled in 2020, with ransomware accounting for 28 percent of all attacks. COVID-19 response efforts, including personal protective equipment and the vaccine supply chain were the largest focus of these targeted campaigns, according to the latest IBM X-Force report.
Nearly one out of four of overall cyberattacks last year were ransomware, while the increase in data extortion efforts enabled just one of these ransomware hacking groups to make over $123 million in profits in 2020.
The annual report is generated through insights and observations from monitoring more than 150 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries. Researchers also gathered and analyzed data from multiple sources within IBM, including data from Quad9 and Intezer.
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https://www.vogue.com/article/eating-disorder-treatment-equip-app
Most People With Eating Disorders Never Get Treatment—This New Online Platform Makes Support More Accessible
February 24, 2021
In 2014, after spending exactly half my life battling an eating disorder, I was tired. Debilitating mental anguish aside, the logistics of cobbling together a treatment team are kind of a nightmare. I was tired of coordinating appointments and relaying messages between doctors, dietitians, and therapists, and I was tired of filing insurance claims hoping to recover a fraction of my out-of-pocket expenses. After 15 years of navigating the complexities of the treatment world solo, I was ready to ask for help. That was when I learned what help in the form of traditional eating-disorder care actually looks like—and costs.
I reached out to a residential facility with dreamy beach scenery splashed across their website. Advertising an “outcome-backed approach” to eating-disorder treatment, along with the kinds of bells and whistles I assumed would reprogram years of compulsive thoughts and behaviors (Group yoga! Nature excursions!), the program seemed solid, and I was ready to commit to a monthlong stint in immersive care. But the price tag for that care came out to a dollar amount I couldn’t fathom—$43,500 for 30 days. And when I petitioned my (fairly generous) insurance carrier for financial assistance, I was informed I did not qualify for said assistance because my weight was not considered low enough to merit the level of care I was seeking. And so I could choose to either go into debt or fall deeper into my disorder in an effort to meet insurance criteria.
This is when I learned that eating-disorder treatment as it stands is broken.
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Health Systems Eye EHR-Based Telehealth Toolkit for IBD Treatment
Four health systems across the country are developing an EHR toolkit that would allow providers to use telehealth and mHealth tools to help treat patients living with inflammatory bowel disease.
February 23, 2021 - Four health systems are launching a program to identify and use telehealth and mHealth tools within the electronic health record to help patients living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Mount Sinai Health System, Cleveland Clinic, Northwestern University Health System and University of California at Davis Health System will be developing an IBD Digital Therapeutics Toolkit to help care providers identify the best connected health treatments that don’t disrupt clinical workflows.
The project aims to develop connected health pathways within the EHR to improve care management and coordination at home, and to use tools like mHealth apps, telemedicine tools and remote patient monitoring platforms to boost care outcomes.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/using-data-improve-communities-well-being
Using data to improve communities' well-being
In an era of more seamless information-sharing, decision-makers have a renewed chance to address health inequities.
By Kat Jercich
February 25, 2021 02:33 PM
The work of advancing health equity isn't new – but more seamless data sharing has unlocked more potential to use information and analytics to work toward addressing disparities in care.
Panelists at the WEDI Quest for Health Equity event on Wednesday noted that it's important to reinforce the relationship between public health and medicine as advocates move forward in this work.
"In terms of interoperability, technology [and] data, there may be a new conversation, but it's important for us to incorporate some of that work that's been going on for many decades," said Kenyetta Jackson, health equity manager, health solutions, at the American Medical Association.
"It's important for us to be partnering with some of those equity champions," Jackson added.
Melissa Kotrys, CEO at the Health Current health information exchange, agreed that examining social determinants of health has been an issue for decades.
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Dark Web Analysis: Healthcare Risks Tied to Database Leaks, Credentials
CybelAngel shows just how hackers are successfully cracking into healthcare networks: credential stuffing, vulnerable, connected devices, and databases left wide open to attackers.
February 24, 2021 - A new report from CybelAngel analysts provides insight into just how hackers are getting into healthcare networks, from providers leaving databases wide open to attacks, to credential stuffing cyberattacks through third-party access points.
The Healthcare Data Actively Targeted and Sold on the Dark Web report leverages case studies on three French hospital environments, The sale of this data is highly sought after by global threat actors, with similar motivations, data types, and attack methodologies used in attacks on the US healthcare sector, as well.
The research sheds light on hackers’ planning efforts for fraud, ransomware, and other attacks through stolen credentials, leaked database files, and other elements provided from specialized sources from dark web markets.
The findings provide further insights into recent findings from CTIL, which showed demand and sale of backdoor access to healthcare networks spiked last year.
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-covid-19-hit-mayo-clinic-had-to-rethink-its-technology-11613937600
When Covid-19 Hit, Mayo Clinic Had to Rethink Its Technology
One example: The healthcare provider had to make close to 3,000 changes in its electronic health-records system
Photo: Mayo Clinic
By John McCormick
Feb. 21, 2021 3:00 pm ET
Mayo Clinic, like many health providers, has been pushed to its limits by the Covid-19 pandemic. Its intensive-care units were often filled to or near capacity in 2020. And while doctors throughout the health system rushed to find ways to care for the wave of sick patients infected by the new virus, many of the medical and support staff were being sent home to work remotely.
The information-technology team led by Mayo Clinic Chief Information Officer Cris Ross faced immense challenges. Practically overnight, remote, secure and fast access to multiple systems had to be provided to thousands of workers, including doctors. The influx of Covid patients, meanwhile, needed to be able to communicate with the outside world while being kept in isolation. And it all had to be done on the fly. Adapting the healthcare system’s networks and building new tools to meet these demands required planning, decisions and execution at speeds undreamed of a short time before.
Mr. Ross spoke to The Wall Street Journal about his IT department’s efforts to support Mayo’s staff and how the pandemic is changing the way his team provides IT to the organization. Here are edited excerpts of the discussion.
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Microsoft updates Cloud for Healthcare with new virtual care, patient monitoring features
Feb 24, 2021 12:52pm
Microsoft announced the first updates for its healthcare cloud offering with new virtual care capabilities, remote patient monitoring and care coordination.
The tech giant announced its Cloud for Healthcare service back in October that brings together existing services such as Microsoft Teams, Azure IoT and chatbots to help healthcare organizations manage operations.
The first update will be available in April and includes services for care plan management and will support eight additional languages.
Virtual health has helped expand access to care at a time when the pandemic has restricted patients’ ability to see their doctors. This requires providers to think about ways to improve patient experiences, enhance care management workflows and ensure secure health information exchanges, according to Tom McGuinness, corporate vice president, worldwide health at Microsoft in a blog post.
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Mobile health apps leak sensitive data through APIs, report finds
Feb 24, 2021 1:56pm
“Recovering hacker” Alissa Knight calls personal health information the most valuable data on the dark web. The Knight Ink cybersecurity researcher says, “It's 10 times more the price of a credit card for a single PHI record.”
Knight partnered with mobile security company Approov to hack 30 mobile health apps to highlight the threats they face through application program interfaces (APIs). The findings were published in a recent report, “All That We Let In.”
All of the apps were found to be vulnerable to API attacks, and some allowed access to electronic health records (EHRs). The 30 apps collectively expose 23 million mobile health users to attacks, Knight reported. Of the 30 apps tests, 77% contained hardcoded API keys, of which some do not expire, according to the report, and 7% had hardcoded usernames and passwords.
APIs are the communication channels between a mobile app and a cloud service, physical server or hospital infrastructure, explained David Stewart, founder and CEO of Approov.
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HHS pick says pandemic is top job, but agenda is broader
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health secretary nominee Xavier Becerra told senators Tuesday that confronting the coronavirus pandemic will be his first priority if confirmed, but he also pledged to expand health insurance, rein in prescription drug costs and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in medical care.
“To meet this moment, we need strong federal leadership,” Becerra said at the first of two hearings on his nomination. “I understand the enormous challenges before us and our solemn responsibility to faithfully steward this agency that touches almost every aspect of our lives.”
Becerra now serves as California’s attorney general and previously represented the Los Angeles area for more than 20 years in the U.S. House. A liberal politician-lawyer, he faces opposition from many GOP senators, who question his support for abortion rights and government-run health insurance, along with his lack of a clinical background. However, in the past 25 years, only one medical doctor has led the Department of Health and Human Services in a permanent capacity.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/patientcenteredmedicalhome/patientcenteredmedicalhome/91300
The Great Catch-Up of 2021
— Our computer systems could do better at getting patients back on track for routine care
by Fred N. Pelzman, MD February 22, 2021
They say that catching up is hard to do.
Since the start of the pandemic, through this long terrible year we've been through, many of our patients have, of necessity, put off much of their routine care and fallen behind with their healthcare maintenance.
In the middle of the first peak last spring, when our hospital shut down for elective surgeries and procedures -- as well as for most in-person care except for that related to COVID-19 -- there was a huge pause in mammograms and colonoscopies.
And visits plummeted for patients who would have come in for an annual visit to get their healthcare maintenance updated, including things like pneumonia vaccines and tetanus boosters, as they were sheltering-in-place, avoiding public transportation, and desperately trying to keep away from hospitals and doctor's offices, which were flooded with both virus and fear. Patients put off routine visits, their quarterly or semiannual in-person appointments where we checked on their hypertension, their cholesterol, their diabetes, their COPD, and their mental health.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/uk-s-top-100-digital-health-innovators-given-global-boost
UK’s top 100 digital health innovators given a global boost
Campaign aims to export the most impactful health tech firms.
By Tammy Lovell
February 24, 2021 05:13 AM
Major health tech bodies have collaborated on a global campaign to showcase the talents of 100 of the UK’s most innovative and impactful digital health innovators.
The First 100 list features UK companies with a proven track record of benefiting the lives of healthcare professionals and patients in the NHS and private health sector.
They include companies which have underpinned the country’s response to COVID- 19, and others whose technology can address the issues facing healthcare systems across the globe.
Organisations listed include Foundry4, which remotely delivered the UK’s COVID-19 home testing service in just eight days, DrDoctor, a patient engagement platform provider which has supported at-scale healthcare staff vaccination programmes and IMMJ Systems which provides digitised records via the cloud, enabling NHS trusts to deliver virtual clinics.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/nhs-issued-legal-challenge-over-contract-palantir
NHS issued legal challenge over contract with Palantir
The lawsuit claims that NHS England failed to consider the impact of the deal on patients and the public, according to Sky News.
By Kat Jercich
February 24, 2021 02:38 PM
The tech-justice firm Foxglove has issued a lawsuit on behalf of news site openDemocracy over a National Health Services deal with the controversial big data firm Palantir Technologies.
According to Sky News, the lawsuit claims that NHS England failed to consider the impact of the deal on patients and the public by performing a fresh Data Protection Impact Assessment.
"This isn’t just about Palantir. The future of the NHS is being written now, in the latest chapter of the pandemic," wrote Foxglove founding director Cori Crider and openDemocracy editor in chief Mary Fitzgerald in an opinion piece.
"The government has a legal duty to consult us, citizens and NHS users, before they strike massive deals which affect that future. In doing so, they need to take important steps (like conducting ‘data protection impact assessments’) to ensure our health information and our rights are protected," Crider and Fitzgerald continued.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/european-leaders-debate-eu-wide-vaccine-passports
European leaders to debate EU-wide vaccine passports
Calls for European Commission to introduce common national measure to allow travel.
By Tammy Lovell
February 24, 2021 08:20 AM
As governments roll-out mass COVID-19 vaccination programmes, debate has grown on the issue of vaccine passports and status apps.
Tomorrow (25 Feb) EU leaders will discuss the possibility of common national measures to allow travel between members states.
Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are among the proponents of EU-wide vaccine passports, with Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis officially calling for their introduction. European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, stated in January that she supported the idea.
NATIONAL MEASURES
UK prime minister Boris Johnson this week announced a review of vaccine passports to be led by Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, which will examine whether businesses such as pubs and theatres could be prohibited from making access conditional on vaccination. The NHS app is expected to become a digital COVID-19 certificate allowing citizens to prove they have been vaccinated or tested negative.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-machine-learning-can-improve-patients-care-plans
How machine learning can improve patients' care plans
An expert in machine learning and natural language processing discusses how these technologies are enhancing care and enabling the use of SDOH data and personalized analytics.
By Bill Siwicki
February 24, 2021 10:42 AM
Some healthcare provider organizations are using machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence to provide clinicians with the best evidence-based care pathways.
A group's aim could be to improve a patient's care plan based on personalized analytics. Another goal could be the further merging of evidence-based care paths with historical utilization and outcomes in order to offer optimal patient care. Provider organizations might be using social determinants of health combined with machine learning to offer clinically meaningful services.
Healthcare IT News talked over these ideas with Niall O'Connor, chief technology officer at Cohere Health, a vendor of artificial intelligence technology and services designed to improve the provider, patient and payer experiences.
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HHS Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra signals support for virtual care
"If we don't learn from COVID how telehealth can help save lives, then we're in trouble," said Becerra during a Senate confirmation hearing this week.
By Kat Jercich
February 24, 2021 12:58 PM
President Joe Biden's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services signaled his support for telehealth during a Senate confirmation hearing this week.
Xavier Becerra, currently attorney general of California, highlighted the effects of inequity on the health of vulnerable communities and noted the role digital health can play in addressing that inequity.
"We know we need the data," said Becerra during the Tuesday hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. "We know we have work to do to fill those gaps."
WHY IT MATTERS
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., drew attention to several provisions currently in place that have expanded access to telehealth during the COVID-19 crisis.
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WNS’s AI-Driven Application Takes Doctors Off the Phone with Payers
February 24, 2021
Doctors don’t seem flustered by bodily fluids or welts–what they dread is the hour-long calls with insurers, trying to persuade them to cover a test or procedure. There has to be some quality monitoring to prevent fraud and upcoding, but a lot of the time, the doctor just hasn’t coded properly or filled out the fields of the EHR that bolster her claim to need the procedure.
How do we take the doctor off the phone and give back those hours of her life? WNS has an AI-based application they claim can save huge amounts of time. It simply guides the doctor to filling out an EHR accurately and completely. As value-based care becomes more popular, accurate documentation becomes even more important.
WNS has been in the health care field for 15 years, utilizing 4,000 associates to serve 70 clinical institutions. They also have 1,200 associates in pharma or life sciences more generally, where their AI-generated dashboards and reports improve marketing efforts. This article focuses, however, on a clinical application. I had a call recently with Mark Halford, Senior Vice President, Client Services, Life Sciences and Health Care and Vipul Ahuja, Vice President, Client Services.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/microsoft-announces-first-cloud-healthcare-update
Microsoft Announces First Cloud for Healthcare Update
Analysis | By Jack O'Brien | February 24, 2021
Microsoft made the announcement while rolling out three new cloud offerings for financial services, manufacturing companies, and nonprofits.
Microsoft announced the first update to its Cloud for Healthcare offering Wednesday morning.
The technology company first announced its Cloud for Healthcare in October 2020 as a software offering to support provider organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first update will be available in April and include new features for "virtual health, remote patient monitoring, care coordination and patient self-service, and support for eight new languages."
"Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is helping clinicians stay connected across the health system, and to their patients by offering new home health care plan management applications and remote patient monitoring features," Tom McGuiness, corporate vice president of global healthcare at Microsoft, said in a statement. "We’re providing robust functionality in dynamics 365 care management features that allow care managers to develop and follow-through on care plan activities and goals, set timeline views of the patient care plans,and improve workflow efficiency with the ability to view clinical events sequentially to discern the best next step in care, and avoid costly duplication."
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/finance/teladoc-health-finishes-2020-more-1b-revenue
Teladoc Health Finishes 2020 With More Than $1B in Revenue
Analysis | By Jack O'Brien | February 24, 2021
The Purchase, New York–based telemedicine company saw its total visits increase 156% last year.
Teladoc Health finished 2020 with more than $1 billion in total revenue, according to the telemedicine company's earnings report released Wednesday afternoon.
Teladoc Health benefited from the virtual care services boom related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as full year access fees revenue rose 107% year-over-year, while visit fee revenue increased 132%.
The Purchase, New York–based telemedicine company saw its total visits increase 156% last year.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/data-dashboard-informs-disabled-populations-about-vaccine-rollout
Data Dashboard Informs Disabled Populations About Vaccine Rollout
Johns Hopkins has launched a data dashboard to help people with disabilities determine when they qualify for the COVID-19 vaccine.
By Jessica Kent
February 23, 2021 - A team from Johns Hopkins has created a data dashboard that shows how states are prioritizing people with disabilities in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The tool can also help people with disabilities determine when they’re eligible for shots, and provide policymakers with data to improve the system.
Created by researchers, students, and advocates who themselves are disabled, the COVID-19 Vaccine Prioritization Dashboard launched to help people with disabilities get vaccinated and access critical information.
“There’s been a persistent gap in the pandemic response for the disabled community. It started with testing and we’re seeing it being echoed in the vaccine rollout,” said Bonnielin Swenor, director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center. “Being part of that community, we understand that need and want to empower the stakeholders and policymakers with data.”
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https://governmentciomedia.com/health-data-leads-push-iterative-approach-interoperability
Health Data Leads Push for Iterative Approach to Interoperability
Getting to interoperability standards is a journey, not a destination, and requires close collaboration with all parties.
Mon, 02/22/2021 - 16:49
Federal health data officials called to view health information interoperability as a journey to be developed with end users and iterated over time rather than a major destination to reach all at once during last week’s Academy Health Datapalooza virtual conference.
Furthermore, interoperability is best achieved when the federal government articulates and defines data standards over time alongside partners.
“Government, working with industry and working with academia, working with people on the front lines of the reporting, and then together figuring out how to report that data in the most useful way — then the role we can play is to say these are the standards and help industry developers and all sectors to adopt them in a consistent way,” said Kristen Honey, senior advisor to the assistant secretary for health and executive director of data operations at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Chief Data Officer Alan Sim emphasized that also being agile and intentional in what to make interoperable at first are critical.
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https://blog.google/technology/health/updates-on-google-healths-clinical-tools/
Our Care Studio pilot is expanding to more clinicians
Paul Muret
VP, Product & Design, Google Health
Healthcare professionals are healers, not data clerks. Yet many clinicians spend half their day on a computer navigating electronic health records (EHRs) and other systems. Because health records are often scattered across multiple systems, getting a full picture of a patient’s health requires a great deal of clinicians’ time, energy, and resources. These gaps in patient information can contribute to less effective and efficient care. The Google Health team started to think about how we could bring Google’s experience in organizing complex information to healthcare.
Driven by this idea, we created Care Studio, a software solution that provides a comprehensive view of a patient’s records and allows clinicians to quickly search through complex patient information. Care Studio is built for clinicians and works alongside EHR systems; it streamlines workflows and supports more proactive care. We’ve been working with the healthcare organization Ascension on a pilot of Care Studio focused on data quality and product safety with a small group of clinicians based in Nashville, TN and Jacksonville, FL. The pilot is now expanding to more physicians and nurses in the clinical setting.
How Care Studio supports clinicians
Care Studio streamlines key clinician workflows so that teams can quickly get the information they need to care for patients. It brings together patient records from the multiple EHRs an organization uses – giving clinicians a centralized view of patient data and the ability to search across these records.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/new-uk-research-agency-high-risk-science-and-technology
New UK Research Agency for High Risk Science and Technology
ARIA will be used to quickly identify and fund transformational science and technology.
February 23, 2021 01:51 AM
The UK government has announced its intention to form a new research agency for high risk, high reward science and technology. The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) will empower leading scientists to identify and fund potentially groundbreaking research, in an attempt to establish the UK as a global scientific leader.
A date has not been set for the launch of the agency but it is hoped it will be fully operational by 2022. The government is currently recruiting for a CEO and chair.
WHY IT MATTERS
ARIA will add on to the UK’s existing Research and Innovation body, UKRI. It will be influenced by similar organisations that have already proved successful, such as ARPA and DARPA in the US, which were crucial to the foundation of the internet, GPS and the development of the mRNA vaccine.
ARIA will be dedicated to seeking out and fostering radical innovation at speed through funding, business engagement and the simplification of R&D bureaucratic processes. It will experiment with different funding models, have a higher tolerance for project failure and will continually assess project funding options depending on their success.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/digital-health-literacy-social-determinant-health
Digital health literacy as a social determinant of health
Experts at the WEDI conference outlined steps for institutions and clinical teams to take toward bringing equity to patient-facing tools.
By Kat Jercich
February 23, 2021 03:54 PM
The release of final rules from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT regarding the 21st Century Cures Act have shined a renewed spotlight on patients' ability to take control of their own health data.
But not everyone enjoys the same level of self-determination – or access to digital healthcare, in general, said speakers at the WEDI Quest for Health Equity event on Tuesday.
"Digital health equity is a step toward health equity," said Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, a health technology equity researcher and hospitalist at Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of General Internal Medicine. As such, he said, digital health equity is "essential for our success and the sustainability of digital health overall."
Rodriguez and his co-panelist, Brigham and Women's Hospital General Internal Medicine Division Chief Dr. David Bates, outlined five main facets to address when considering digital health equity: tech access, tech literacy, implementation, payment and standard of care.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ibm-sale-watson-health-could-enable-renewed-focus-cloud-growth
IBM sale of Watson Health could enable renewed focus on cloud growth
The Wall Street Journal says Big Blue is pondering ways it might off-load the healthcare AI subsidiary, and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has already signaled a ''maniacal focus" on hybrid cloud development.
By Mike Miliard
February 23, 2021 09:00 AM
When The Wall Street Journal reported this past week that IBM is considering a sale of its Watson Health arm, the news was not entirely a surprise.
The division has seen some major milestones in the decade since Watson first wowed the world with its much-hyped Jeopardy! win in 2011 and the announcement soon after that the technology would be applied to healthcare. Then specific use cases began to emerge. Big Blue had big plans for what it might accomplish.
Growth and challenges
Since then, the Watson business has grown substantially, through a series of targeted, multi-billion-dollar acquisitions: Merge Healthcare for imaging, Phytel and Explorsys for population health and Truven Health Analytics for value-based care.
But there have also been some high-profile setbacks along the way.
Most notably, there was the deployment at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center, where the cognitive computing technology was first deployed in 2013 to help oncologists mine for insights from the health system's vast troves of research and patient data, and develop new NLP-powered decision support tools.
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Record Stress Levels Fueling Demand for Mental Health Services
February 23, 2021
New poll results from the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that adults in the US are experiencing the highest levels of stress since the pandemic began. This prolonged and elevated stress is fueling increased demand for mental health services. Without more trained professionals, better technology, and improved access, many who are suffering may not get the care or help they need.
More Stress Than Ever
According to the Stress in America: January 2021 Stress Snapshot survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the APA, the average reported stress level during the prior month was 5.6 (on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means “little to no stress” and 10 means “a great deal of stress”). This level was higher than what had been reported when the pandemic first started.
The January 2021 Stress Snapshot also showed that 84% of American adults reporting feeling “at least one emotion associated with prolonged stress in the prior two weeks”. The most common feelings were:
- Anxiety (47%)
- Sadness (44%)
- Anger (39%)
The Snapshot survey was conducted January 21-25, 2021 and included 2,076 US adults 18 years and older.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/education-infrastructure-key-to-precision-medicine-adoption
Education, Infrastructure Key to Precision Medicine Adoption
While healthcare has increasingly embraced precision medicine, a lack of education and advanced infrastructure are still major barriers to adoption.
By Jessica Kent
February 22, 2021 - To increase precision medicine adoption, healthcare leaders must build education among patients and providers, implement advanced infrastructure, and boost patient engagement, according to a report from the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC).
The prevalence of precision medicine treatments has increased in recent years, PMC noted. The report shows that the number of personalized medicines on the market in the US has grown from 132 in 2016 to 286 in 2020 – the largest four-year increase since PMC began tracking this figure in 2008.
“Because our increasing understanding of human heterogeneity demands it, healthcare is in the midst of a transformation away from one-size-fits-all, trial-and-error medicine and toward this new, targeted approach in which, as is often said, the right patient will get the right treatment at the right time,” PMC said.
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Industry Voices—The future of healthcare depends on enhanced data exchange
Feb 19, 2021 9:43am
Today, the flow of data between care providers and health insurance plans is often in one direction, incomplete, and not fast enough—leading to ineffective collaboration between the two groups. This lack of communication and coordination can frustrate providers and consumers, and—more importantly—potentially delay care or lead to poorer health outcomes.
We will not be able to take the next step in healthcare’s digital evolution until we have real-time, bi-directional exchange of data between groups, such as health insurance plans and care providers, who play significant roles in helping consumers lead healthier lives.
At Anthem, our decades of experience serving more than 110 million people convince us that truly reducing the pain points along the health care journey requires effective bi-directional data exchange built on a hybrid model.
This model must incorporate data sources such as electronic health record companies, health information exchanges (HIEs), healthcare providers, and third-party vendors that also collect and/or produce health information. And that data needs to include clinical data; lab results; and information about hospital admission, discharge, and transfer.
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New ONC leader Tripathi says data sharing rules force a 'culture change'
Feb 19, 2021 8:05am
New data-sharing regulations will soon go into effect that lay the groundwork for patients to have easier access to their health information.
When will patients start to see the benefits of these new mandates?
New federal health IT leader Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., believes it's already happening.
"A lot more is happening behind the scenes that benefit patients that they don’t appreciate. Think about information flowing through networks today: a lot of that does benefit patients," Tripathi, the new national coordinator for health IT, said Thursday during a virtual fireside chat as part of Health Datapalooza.
"My father passed away from cancer a few years ago, and we had his health information on five different portals. At that time, I didn’t complain that his information wasn’t on one portal. I was just grateful that I could get it and we had five portals. It's incremental improvements," said Tripathi, only three weeks into his new post as chief of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).
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American College of Radiology Data Science Institute releases 6 new AI use cases
Marty Stempniak | February 19, 2021 | Artificial Intelligence
The American College of Radiology’s Data Science Institute has released six new artificial intelligence use cases, officials announced on Friday.
ACR said the updates pertain to neuroradiology and cover clinical scenarios including white matter lesion tracking in multiple sclerosis patients and hemorrhagic brain contusions. All told, the institute now offers 21 sample cases in brain imaging, responding to burgeoning demand from the subspecialty.
“Practitioners are expressing tremendous enthusiasm for practical AI tools to improve neuroradiology diagnosis and treatment,” Alexander Norbash, MD, chairman of the ACR DSI Neuroradiology Panel, said in a Feb. 19 announcement.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-directtrust-managed-direct-secure-messaging-during-covid-19
How DirectTrust Managed Direct Secure Messaging During COVID-19
The health data exchange has facilitated over 2 billion Direct Secure Messages after a tumultuous, yet record-breaking, 2020.
February 22, 2021 - Communication between providers is crucial when it comes to patient data exchange, which is why health information exchanges across the country are always aiming to enhance provider-to-provider communication by way of direct secure messaging.
Direct secure messaging, which was launched in 2010 by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), provides a basic exchange or push messaging system without the need for an EHR or health IT infrastructure other than an internet connection.
“It allows the 2.5 million connected parties in our network to send messages to any other connected party,” Scott Stuewe, president and CEO of DirectTrust, said to EHRIntelligence. “It was built as a simple mechanism for interoperability that doesn't take a lot of effort to deploy. The system is easy to deploy, it carries virtually any payload, and the user doesn’t have to do anything but know the recipients’ direct address to send them a message.”
While many expected direct secure messaging to soar at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the beginning of the year actually saw a massive 13 percent decrease in messages from Q1 2019 to Q1 2020, before executing a record number of transactions at the end of the year.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-onc-is-addressing-ehr-clinician-burnout-health-it-barriers
How ONC is Addressing EHR Clinician Burnout, Health IT Barriers
Since the passage of the HITECH Act, ONC has aimed to mitigate EHR clinician burnout and improve EHR satisfaction through regulations.
February 22, 2021 - Fully comprehending a future path to mitigating EHR clinician burnout requires a complete understanding of the intent and development of health IT regulations and why these regulations exist, according to a recent article published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).
Two health IT experts from the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC), Andrew Gettinger and Teresa Zayas-Cabán, penned an article about the administration’s current and future efforts to mitigate clinician burnout and improve clinician EHR satisfaction.
Since the 2009 passage of the HITECH Act, clinician burnout has grown rapidly across the healthcare industry. Healthcare leaders expected health IT adoption to address critical deficiencies, such as poor EHR usability, unintuitive EHR design, and high clinician workload. However, that has not been the case.
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CIS now offers free ransomware protection to all US hospitals
· February 19, 2021
· 12:05 PM
The Center for Internet Security (CIS), a non-profit dedicated to securing IT systems and data, has announced the launch of free ransomware protection for US private hospitals through the Malicious Domain Blocking and Reporting (MDBR) service.
The MDBR service, powered by systems maintained by CIS and Akamai, automatically blocks domains associated with cyber threats including ransomware, malware, and phishing after the organizations switch their DNS provider to Akamai's DNS server.
"This capability can block the vast majority of ransomware infections just by preventing the initial outreach to a ransomware delivery domain," as CIS explains.
CIS will fund the MDBR service at no-cost for several types of health care organizations including independent hospitals, multi-hospital systems, hospital-based integrated health systems, post-acute patient care facilities, psychiatric, rehabilitation, or other specialty hospitals.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ipads-telehealth-can-help-reduce-depression-patients
iPads for telehealth can help reduce depression in patients
Heritage Clinic, a behavioral health provider, gives tablets to help patients connect with their clinicians and with their families. The effort enables measurable improvements in mental health.
By Bill Siwicki
February 22, 2021 11:11 AM
Pasadena, California-based Heritage Clinic, a division of the Center for Aging Resources, provides mental health services in Los Angeles County to older adults experiencing substantive and persistent mental health concerns.
THE PROBLEM
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many services were provided in the clients' homes or elsewhere in the field. For some who are unable to leave their home for a variety of reasons, their session with their clinician was one of the few social interactions in their lives.
Others are homeless, without the security of four walls. They brave the elements and potential violence on the streets. Many have multiple medical issues further complicating their lives.
"For all of these reasons, our clients are some of the most vulnerable people in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Robyn East, financial analyst at Heritage Clinic. "Providing services to them in person would put them at risk of exposure, despite all of the precautions staff might have taken. With the stay-at-home order, clients were more isolated than ever before."
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/02/22/virtual-care-changes-that-wont-unravel-post-covid/
Virtual Care Changes That Won’t Unravel Post-COVID
February 22, 2021
Virtual care is the new reality in healthcare. Understanding the right strategy for virtual care is going to be every healthcare organization’s challenge going forward. In a recent roundtable discussion with a wide variety of healthcare organizations we hosted with Dell Technologies and VMware, we learned some of the challenges healthcare organizations face with virtual care. However, we also learned about many of the benefits that the move to virtual care has provided that are unlikely to leave us post-COVID.
A number of CIOs commented that their biggest challenge with virtual care was scaling it across their organization. A few commented how finding a video camera was an issue at the start of COVID, but the supply chain of video cameras finally caught up and solved that problem. However, one person commented that he wouldn’t be surprised if all future PC purchases included a video camera as a quick and easy endpoint addition to their virtual care efforts.
Others noted the challenge they faced with connectivity in rural areas and that virtual care frankly doesn’t happen without connectivity. Another CIO shared how their focus on oncology meant that incorporating the family was key to their virtual care efforts. While this is certainly possible virtually, a CNIO aptly pointed out how adding the family into a video call was important, but also represented one more burden on the nursing staff that were often responsible for a larger set of patients due to COVID.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/revenue-cycle/4-ways-optimize-vaccine-scheduling
4 Ways to Optimize Vaccine Scheduling
Analysis | By Alexandra Wilson Pecci | February 22, 2021
Without a solid plan in place for scheduling vaccinations, revenue cycles will easily find themselves overwhelmed by the influx of phone calls, emails, and appointment requests.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Use multiple technology platforms and tools to help with complex scheduling tasks.
· Streamline patient scheduling functions.
· Prepare employees for emotional elements of vaccine scheduling.
As hospitals across the country take on the gargantuan task of vaccinating tens of millions of people against COVID-19 in just a few months, there's one element of the effort that revenue cycle leaders cannot overlook: Scheduling.
Without a solid plan in place for scheduling vaccinations, hospitals will easily find themselves overwhelmed by the influx of phone calls, emails, and appointment requests. That's already happened in some places, including Carolinas HealthCare System Blue Ridge in North Carolina, where the CEO issued an apology for the vaccination phone system issues.
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https://histalk2.com/2021/02/19/weekender-2-19-21/
Weekly News Recap
- Intelerad acquires Lumedx.
- IBM considers selling IBM Watson Health.
- Former Nuance CEO Paul Ricci joins Qualifacts as president and CEO.
- Zocdoc receives $150 million in growth financing.
- Innovaccer is valued at $1 billion based on a reported new investment.
- Dexcom launches a venture capital fund.
- Sharecare’s SPAC deal values the company at $4 billion.
- GAO recommends that the VA stop its Cerner implementation until critical issues are resolved.
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Enjoy!
David.
