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/executives-report-ehr-health-it-solutions-stifling-innovation
Executives Report EHR, Health IT Solutions Stifling Innovation
Current
health IT solutions such as the EHR lack sufficient care coordination and
customization capabilities according to industry executives.
By Hannah Nelson
July 02, 2021
- Despite the rapid evolution of the digital health transformation,
current health IT solutions – including the EHR – may be stalling innovation,
according to research
conducted by Sage Growth Partners on behalf of Lumeon.
The
researchers found that less than one in five healthcare executives are
satisfied with their current digital health solutions; 19 percent are satisfied
with their remote patient monitoring technology and 14 percent are satisfied
with the existing technology for care journey automation.
The research
revealed that 68 percent of healthcare leaders seek a customizable digital
transformation solution. Currently, just 16 percent of care organizations can
customize their EHR
to meet the facility’s individual transformation needs.
More
than half (57 percent) of executives reported that health
IT solutions should span many use cases.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/06/sajid-javid-faces-huge-task-on-digital-and-data-in-nhs/
Sajid Javid faces ‘huge task’ on digital and data in NHS
Sajid
Javid faces a “huge task” in his new role as health secretary with a number of
major data and technology programmes to oversee in the NHS.
Andrea Downey
28 June 2021
The former
chancellor replaced Matt Hancock as health secretary over the weekend following
Hancock’s resignation over an affair with his aide.
The British
Medical Association (BMA) said Javid has a “huge and urgent task ahead”.
“He must
ensure completing the roll-out of the adult vaccination programme at rapid pace
to control spiralling infection rates. He must also put forward a credible plan
to tackle a backlog of care of unprecedented scale whilst at the same time
rebuilding the trust of doctors and the wider healthcare workforce,” Dr Chaand
Nagpaul, chair of the council at the BMA said.
Speaking over
the weekend Javid said the new position comes with “huge responsibility” and
that his “immediate priority” was ending the Covid-19 pandemic.
Javid’s
appointment comes at a time when the use of data and technology in the NHS is
at a pivotal moment.
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https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/cybersecurity/hhs-130-health-systems-might-be-exposing-2-million-patients-medical-images-data-online.html
HHS: 130 health systems might be exposing 2 million patients' medical
images, data online
Hannah Mitchell – 01 July, 2021
Millions of
patients may be exposed because of vulnerabilities in medical imaging archiving
software.
Four
details:
1.
Picture archiving communications systems are used by hospitals to share medical
images and data. Research discovered in 2019 that a vulnerability in these
systems can be exploited to expose patient data.
2. Hundreds of healthcare organizations continue to have unpatched PACS servers
visible, and HHS recommends hospitals review their inventory to determine if
PACS are still being used, according to a June 29 news
release.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/second-opinions-via-telehealth-have-value-to-patients-and-providers
Second Opinions Via Telehealth Have Value to Patients and Providers
The Clinic
by Cleveland Clinic is using telehealth to offer second opinions, a service
that benefits not only the patient but the primary care provider as well.
By Eric Wicklund
July 01, 2021
- Telehealth is making the second opinion much more meaningful.
While
patients and healthcare providers have been using connected health for years to
both research and support diagnoses and treatment plans, the platform has
gained value over time as a way to not only make sure everything is proper, but
to more fully explain complex medical care to patients and give providers the
access to specialists they need to bolster care management. Nowadays that
so-called second opinion is really just the next step in care coordination.
At The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic, the
nationally known health system is expanding its telehealth reach with a
platform, developed by AmWell, that’s designed to give patients advice on their
diagnoses and help providers map out the right care plan. They’re one of dozens
of high-profile health systems around the world using telehealth to make their
experts available to anyone anywhere.
“We’re
removing any and all barriers for the patients,” says Peter Rasmussen, MD,
Chief Medical officer at The Clinic. By engaging with a patient via virtual
care, “the patient has the opportunity to talk directly to the expert.”
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/klas-top-healthcare-security-privacy-consulting-firms
KLAS: Top Healthcare Security, Privacy Consulting Firms
KLAS
researchers spoke with healthcare security and privacy leaders to understand
which security consulting firms are true partners with organizations.
By Jill McKeon
July 01, 2021
- In a new KLAS
report, researchers aimed to separate perceptions from reality by
determining what makes a healthcare security and privacy consulting firm a true
partner. Researchers spoke to over 70 healthcare security and IT leaders to
decipher how perceptions differ from client experiences and how the COVID-19
pandemic has impacted security programs.
Meditology
Services, CynergisTek, and Clearwater are the most likely security and privacy
consulting firms to be seen as true partners by healthcare organizations, the
report found.
Midsize and
large organizations appreciated the expertise, staff, and response times of
Meditology Services, while smaller organizations were more likely to find a
partnership in Clearwater. CynergisTek clients were mostly from large
organizations and valued the firm’s broader areas of expertise outside of
healthcare.
Most
leaders considered expertise, firm responsiveness, and quality of consultants
as top reasons for considering the firms true partners. Meanwhile, project
flexibility, monetary value, and quality of work were low on the list of
priorities.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/focusonpolicy/93368
Google's Rise in Healthcare
— The tech
giant's innovation is sure to disrupt the status quo
by David
Nash, MD, MBA, FACP June 30, 2021
Google has
become thoroughly embedded in our daily lives since its introduction in late
September 1998. By 2006, it had so permeated our culture and language that the
word "google" found its way into the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as
both a noun and a verb. Today -- at a whopping 88.65% share -- Google continues to dominate the search engine market in the U.S.
Back in 2006,
the company quietly began to explore potential business opportunities in the
healthcare sector. The initial intention of Google Health was to create a
repository of health records and data that would provide direct connections
between doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies. The project failed to gain momentum
and was tabled in 2012.
Fast forward
to 2019, when David Feinberg, MD, assumed the newly minted position of vice
president at Google Health. On his appointment as its leader, Feinberg announced
a new initiative to "improve the quality of health-focused search results
across Google and YouTube." New efforts were undertaken in the areas of
health-related artificial intelligence (AI) research, machine learning,
clinical tools and other healthcare tools and services -- all with an emphasis
on developing strategic partnerships in the healthcare sector.
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https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/benefits-using-genomic-data-health-systems-and-patients
Jul 01 2021
The benefits of using genomic data for health systems and patients
Widespread
use requires greater reimbursement and an enterprise-wide strategy.
Susan Morse,
Managing Editor
Genomic data
is giving insights into just what will work for a particular patient. This
precision medicine is being used in pharmacogenomics, oncology, and
immunotherapy.
But
widespread use requires reimbursement and getting to a scale in which genomic data
is integrated across the health system and the patient's care journey.
On Tuesday,
August 10, at 11 a.m. in the Venetian Murano 3204, Dr. Phillip Empey and Dr.
Robert Bart will describe at the HIMSS21 annual conference how they're using
genomic data in personalized oncology treatments and pharmacogenomics
in "Genomic Data in Health Systems: The Importance of an
Enterprise-Wide Strategy."
They'll also
discuss the results of survey data from A Centers for Connected Medicine/HIMSS
survey of informatics, genomics and IT leaders published in August 2020,
which indicates near unanimous respondent focus on a genomic data management
strategy.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/va-will-stick-cerner-ehr-modernization
VA will stick with Cerner for EHR modernization
Following a
three-month review of the program, Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough
said this week that the department would stay the course with the
Millennium-based platform, despite scheduling setbacks.
By Kat Jercich
July 01, 2021
11:55 AM
The
Department of Veterans Affairs announced this week that it would be staying the
course with its electronic health records modernization strategy.
Following
a 90-day review, VA Secretary Denis McDonough reaffirmed in a press conference
Wednesday that the agency would move forward with Cerner's Millennium records
management platform.
"We
are going to stick with this technology … [We] are ready to continue with
that," said McDonough, as reported by FedScoop.
WHY IT
MATTERS
Questions
have lingered over the future of the VA's EHR modernization initiative after an
initial go-live at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane,
Washington, was met with consternation and confusion.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/top-10-healthcare-it-news-stories-2021-so-far
Top 10 Healthcare IT News stories of 2021 so far
Believe it or
not, we're already halfway through the year. Here's what HITN readers have been
clicking.
By Mike Miliard
July 01, 2021
10:47 AM
The four types of COVID-19 vaccine – a snapshot
It
should surprise precisely no one that the top story of the year so far is an
explainer describing the specifics of vaccine candidates. This particular
January piece from our Dubai-based correspondent was focused
specifically on the Middle East and North Africa region, but the headline's
enormous popularity with readers worldwide spoke to the pent up public
excitement about these miracles of science and their promise of pointing
to a way out of the pandemic.
Biden nominates Dr. Rachel Levine as assistant secretary of
health
Shortly
before his inauguration, President Joe Biden made history by nominating Dr.
Rachel Levine, a pediatrician and a professor at Penn State College of
Medicine, to be assistant secretary of health in the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services. When confirmed by the Senate two months later, Levine
became the first openly trans federal official in U.S. history.
Privacy fears over NHS plans to share GP medical records
with third parties
A
controversial plan to share medical records from patients in England's
National Health Service with third-party developers drew controversy
earlier this month. A database with the medical histories of more than 55
million people would support "public health monitoring and interventions
(including COVID-19) and enable many different areas of research," as NHS
Digital explained. There has been news since then: Patients were given an extra three months to opt out of the program, and U.K.
health secretary Matt Hancock resigned after breaching COVID-19 rules.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/bias-free-ai-and-algorithms-healthcare-remain-elusive-goal
Bias-Free AI and Algorithms in Healthcare Remain Elusive Goal
Analysis
| By Scott Mace |
June 30, 2021
Datasets
still contain bias and hold back the ability of machine learning to improve
healthcare.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Data used by algorithms and machine learning to
improve healthcare often contains inherent bias.
·
Existing FDA pharmacovigilance process provides
an example of how similar vigilance should apply to AI and algorithms used in
healthcare.
·
More representative samples of individuals and
their experiences in healthcare can help reduce or eliminate bias.
Artificial
intelligence (AI)–driven healthcare is widely expected to transform medical
decision-making and treatment, but AI algorithms must be thoroughly tested and
continuously monitored to avoid unintended consequences, including bias, to
patients.
In a commentary
published in JAMA Network Open, Regenstrief
Institute President Peter EmbÃ, MD, calls for algorithmovigilance—a term he
coined for scientific methods and activities relating to evaluation,
monitoring, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects of algorithms in
healthcare—to address inherent biases in healthcare algorithms and their
deployment.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/who-report-targets-ai-in-health-cautions-against-health-disparities
WHO Report Targets AI in Health, Cautions Against Health Disparities
The report
released by WHO explains the uses of AI in health and six principles to prevent
health disparities.
By Erin McNemar, MPA
June 30, 2021
- The World Health Organization (WHO) released the first global report on
artificial intelligence in healthcare and six principles to avoid health
disparities in the field.
The report, Ethics
and governance of artificial intelligence for health, is the outcome of two
years of consultations held by a panel of WHO appointed international experts.
“Like all new
technology, artificial intelligence holds enormous potential for improving the
health of millions of people around the world, but like all technology it can
also be misused and cause harm,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, WHO
director-general, said in a press
release. “This important new report provides a valuable guide for countries
on how to maximize the benefits of AI, while minimizing its risks and avoiding
its pitfalls.”
Artificial
intelligence can be used to “improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis
and screening for diseases; to assist with clinical care; strengthen health
research and drug development, and support diverse public health interventions,
such as disease surveillance, outbreak response, and health systems
management,” WHO stated in a press release.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/gao-hhs-must-collaborate-to-ensure-healthcare-cybersecurity
GAO: HHS Must Collaborate to Ensure Healthcare Cybersecurity
A GAO
study shows that while HHS has defined roles and responsibilities within its
security arm, further collaboration is needed to ensure healthcare
cybersecurity.
By Jill McKeon
June 30, 2021
- HHS clearly defined roles and responsibilities within its security
departments, but a lack of collaboration between these entities is preventing
adequate healthcare cybersecurity, according to a study conducted by the US
Government Accountability Office (GAO).
GAO was
tasked with reviewing HHS’s organizational approach and reflecting on its
roles, responsibilities, and collaboration efforts. Researchers evaluated roles
and responsibilities and scanned for any overlap, duplication, or fragmentation
that went against GAO’s leading collaboration practices.
Under the
Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014, HHS implemented a
cybersecurity program and identified roles and responsibilities within the
Office of Information Security, which is responsible for overseeing
cybersecurity across HHS.
HHS
also defined roles and responsibilities for the Health Sector Cybersecurity
Coordination Center (HC3) and the Healthcare Threat Operations Center (HTOC).
But GAO was informed by private-sector partners that HC3 would benefit from
receiving threat information more frequently. Since HC3 does not regularly
receive information from HTOC, the potential for collaboration is often lost.
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https://hbr.org/2021/06/how-to-measure-the-value-of-virtual-health-care?ab=hero-subleft-3
How to Measure the Value of Virtual Health Care
by Meg Barron, Vimal Mishra, Stacy Lloyd, and Jared Augenstein
June 24, 2021
The pandemic spurred a huge increase in the use of virtual
health care. But its place in the post-pandemic world is up in the air. To help
policymakers, payers, providers assess the various ways in which
virtual care programs could have a positive impact for...
The
Covid-19 pandemic has spurred a dramatic
increase in virtual health care in the United States. The rise has been
driven by the need for social distancing and enabled by a wide range of policy
flexibilities implemented by federal and state legislators, regulators, and
payers. However, many of these allowances are temporary. As the pandemic ebbs,
policymakers and payers are deciding whether and how much to pay for virtual
care services in the future, leaving clinicians uncertain about whether they
will be able to afford to continue their virtual care programs. But parties are
often making these decisions based on outdated or limited measures of success
that do not holistically reflect the realities of how value is being generated.
To
address this need, the American Medical Association (AMA) and Manatt Health, a
legal and consulting firm, have developed
a framework for assessing the value of digitally enabled care. It accounts
for the various ways in which virtual care programs may increase the overall
“return on health” by generating benefits for patients, clinicians, payers, and
society going forward. The framework can be used by care providers to develop
and evaluate new digitally-enabled-care models, by payers to inform coverage
and payment decisions, and by policymakers to establish regulations that guide
the future of virtual care.
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https://www.axios.com/who-artificial-intelligence-health-care-ff0bcf06-ec7b-48d6-8baf-4b3342787002.html
Jun 29, 2021 - Technology
A Hippocratic Oath for your AI doctor
Bryan Walsh, author
of Future
A
broad
new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) lays out ethical
principles for the use of artificial intelligence in medicine.
Why it
matters: Health is one of the most promising areas of expansion
for AI, and the pandemic only accelerated the adoption of machine learning
tools. But adding algorithms to health care will require that AI can follow the
most basic rule of human medicine: "Do no harm" — and that won't be
simple.
Driving
the news: After nearly two years of consultations by
international experts, the WHO report makes the case that the use of AI in
medicine offers great promise for both rich and poorer countries, but
"only if ethics and human rights are put at the heart of its design,
deployment and use," the authors write.
Between
the lines: The power of AI in health care is also its peril —
the ability to rapidly process vast quantities of data and identify meaningful
and actionable patterns far faster than human experts could.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/apis-may-boost-ehr-optimization-pediatric-care-functionalities
APIs May Boost EHR Optimization, Pediatric Care Functionalities
Vendors
can optimize their EHR systems for pediatric use through the integration of
application programming interfaces and web services.
By Hannah Nelson
June 29, 2021
- Application programming interfaces (APIs) and web services can help
optimize EHRs for pediatric use, according to a recent policy
statement published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
Currently,
many EHR systems lack pediatric features such as growth charts, anthropometric
percentiles, weight-based dosing, and well-child visit and immunization
schedule tracking.
Additionally,
it can be challenging for EHR vendors to stay up-to-date with clinical content,
as agencies continuously put out new pediatric policies and guidelines. For
instance, in August of 2017, AAP made significant changes to high blood
pressure screening and management guidelines.
Implementing
such changes directly in the EHR requires functionality development investment.
Often, vendors will leverage content development tools to integrate pediatric
functionalities into the EHR, but each individual customer must pay for the
service.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/digital-health/excited-to-share-apple-health-records-a-doctor-thank-industry-data-standards-like
Excited to share Apple Health Records with a doctor? Thank data
interoperability standards like SMART and FHIR
by Dave Muoio
Jun 30, 2021
11:00am
EHR vendors
supporting an upcoming Apple feature that brings patients' health records to
their iPhones was a breeze due to their investments in standardized APIs. As
more patients seek to take control of their care, the vendors expect these
types of integrations to play a role in attracting practice and health system
customers. (Apple)
Back
in early 2018, Apple entered
the personal health record (PHR) space with its Apple Health Records
platform.
Built
directly into the iPhone’s operating system, the tool was designed to help
consumers manage their health information by downloading health data directly
from participating providers with compatible electronic medical records systems—a
list that today includes more than 700 health organizations.
Now
more than three years on, the tech company has
announced plans to tackle the other side of the coin with a new
data-sharing feature for Apple Health Records.
The
feature will allow users to choose a participating organization and select
which metrics they would want to share with their doctor—a list that ranges
from device-collected daily activity and vitals to immunization histories and
clinical lab results. From there, the platform will begin periodically
collecting a snapshot of the user’s health information that doctors can open within
a patient's health record.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/06/30/re-designing-electronic-healthcare-records-to-reduce-clinician-burnout/
Re-Designing Electronic Healthcare Records to Reduce Clinician Burnout
June 30, 2021
Guest Author
The
following is a guest article by Amy Heymans, Founder and Chief Experience
Officer, Mad*Pow.
Electronic
Healthcare Records were supposed to be the wave of the future, allowing
clinicians more time to spend with patients, and offering individuals access to
their personal health data. But is it working the way we intended?
Clinician
burnout, and its tie to mental health, has long been a top concern in the
healthcare industry. This insidious problem worsened exponentially during the
COVID-19 pandemic and is threatening not only the wellbeing of clinicians and
caregivers themselves but ultimately the patients in their care as well. The
strain of this unprecedented emergency is piled on top of stressors that have
been plaguing the healthcare industry for years, driving valuable personnel
from the field.
The
rise of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) should have
mitigated some of this stress. One would assume that with technology at their
fingertips clinicians would have less paperwork to manage, leaving more time
for holistic care, making healthcare more efficient and accessible.
Unfortunately, we’re finding quite the opposite. Hidden in the promise of EHRs
are difficult interfaces, confusing customization options, and usability
challenges.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/06/30/what-apple-ios-15-means-for-clinicians-and-the-patient-experience/
What Apple iOS 15 Means for Clinicians and the Patient Experience
June 30, 2021
The
following is a guest article by Dr. Mike Petersen, Chief Clinical Innovation
Officer, NTT DATA Services.
Recently,
at the Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the company announced a
series of features and updates focused on personal health and wellness
including the new Apple iOS 15 new health data sharing.
Apple
iOS 15 new health data sharing capabilities are the next logical step in the
evolution in providing the consumer the power of controlling aspects of their
health data. Currently, you can’t share health data via Apple Health and this
will now provide clinicians a view of certain aspects of your personal health
outside the four walls of the hospital. It also demonstrates a growing demand
for having secured control for their own data and having the option to share
salient aspects of their health.
This
announcement serves as the barometer to what has been an expected trend in the
health industry which is to respond to a growing demand for a consumer
experience that is informed by various digital experiences outside health and
wellbeing. This new feature provides the consumer the control they want but
will force healthcare systems, electronic health record vendors, and other
healthcare vendors to adapt to consumer expectations, but more importantly,
nudge companies to evolve their digital pursuits to enable data sharing and
interoperability with the EMR’s and health systems. It also brings forward the
notion that it shouldn’t matter what health system I use and that my medical
data follows me wherever I go…”bye bye medical record fax permission forms or
radiology CD’s” where I’m forced to physically obtain or sign which of course
takes time.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/06/special-report-ai-and-data/
Special Report: AI and Data
With the
pandemic shifting views on AI and data use across industries, Maja Dragovic
investigates how much those views have been altered in the NHS.
Necessity,
as the saying goes, is the mother of invention and during Covid necessity was
fundamental in adopting inventions already available. In particular, the use of
AI and data and the tools that were readily available, were embraced with more
readiness than they might have been greeted before.
“There was
no alternative,” says Ben Court, head of analytics at Civica. “We had to use
some form of data to make decisions, and we had a clear list of problems, and
we had access to technologies that allowed us to do it.”
As Court
points out, often with new technologies, be that business analytics, raw data
and reporting, AI or machine learning, people can focus on technology and what
it does rather than the problem that needs to be solved. But this rule does not
apply in healthcare, especially during a pandemic.
“Our
experience certainly is that good AI solutions or good data solutions derive
from a problem,” Court says.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/direct-messaging-boosts-interoperability-for-covid-19-vaccination
Direct Messaging Boosts Interoperability For COVID-19 Vaccination
Pharmacists
have used Surescripts Clinical Direct Messaging to send over seven million
COVID-19 vaccination notifications to primary care providers.
By Hannah Nelson
June 29, 2021
- Surescripts Clinical Direct Messaging has played
a vital role in the country’s COVID-19 vaccination effort by boosting
interoperability between pharmacies and primary care providers.
Since
December 2020, pharmacies have used the health IT to send over seven million COVID-19
vaccination notifications to primary care providers.
This
electronic data exchange sets to reduce the need for pharmacies to fax paper
forms or depend on patients to notify their PCP themselves about their COVID-19
vaccination status.
"Participants
across the Surescripts Network Alliance continue to find innovative ways to
leverage existing technology to answer the nation’s call for help with
COVID-19," Tom Skelton, chief executive officer of Surescripts, said in a
press release.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/patient-trust-health-equity-among-leading-post-covid-health-trends
Patient Trust, Health Equity Among Leading Post-COVID Health Trends
Healthcare
organizations need to reconcile COVID-era solutions with long-term goals of
patient trust and health equity to continue improvements.
By Sara Heath
June 29, 2021
- Building patient trust and addressing health equity are among the
leading healthcare trends as the industry grapples with its post-COVID state,
according to analysis
from consulting firm Forrester.
This comes as
healthcare organizations work to recalibrate their strategies in a new
landscape defined by the COVID-19 public health crisis. Although the virus has
not gone away, the industry recognizes it needs to adapt its workflows to
account for the novel coronavirus in the long term.
That, coupled
with the push to get
the nation vaccinated, has allowed organizations to return to their
pre-COVID priorities, integrate pandemic imperatives, and iterate forward.
Success will
hinge on that second step. COVID-19 revealed deep cracks in the healthcare
ecosystem—health disparities, lagging health IT infrastructure, and propensity
for workplace burnout—and it will need to reconcile the solutions healthcare
quickly propped up with longer-term priorities in order to continue moving
forward.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/nist-defines-critical-software-per-cybersecurity-executive-order
NIST Defines “Critical Software” Per Cybersecurity Executive Order
NIST
published its definition of “critical software” as directed in President
Biden’s executive order aimed at improving the nation’s cybersecurity.
By Jill McKeon
June 29, 2021
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published
its official definition of “critical software,” as instructed by President
Biden’s executive
order (EO) on improving the nation’s cybersecurity. NIST solicited feedback
and position papers from the community to settle on a reasonable definition.
The executive
order also directs the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
to use the “critical software” definition to create a list of categories of
software that might fall under the first phase of the executive order’s
implementation. NIST proposed a phased implementation approach to give the
government and software industry time to secure the supply chain of critical
software.
In a white
paper released on June 25th, a day before the EO’s official deadline, NIST
explains that “One of the goals of the EO is to assist in developing a security
baseline for critical software products used across the Federal Government. The
designation of software as EO-critical will then drive additional activities,
including how the Federal Government purchases and manages deployed critical
software.”
-----
https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/ransomware/costs-from-ransomware-attack-against-ireland-health-system-reach-600m/
June 28, 2021
Costs from ransomware attack against Ireland health system reach $600M
Jessica Davis
The
Ireland Health Service Executive (HSE) is continuing to operate under electronic
health record (EHR) downtime procedures and experiencing continued
care disruptions, after suffering a ransomware attack more than six weeks ago.
The
June 28 update
shows patients are still being warned to expect significant care delays and to
bring health information that could help support their care, also pointing to
investments to ensure more comprehensive network monitoring for malware in the
future.
The
recovery is slow-going with the HSE Director General Paul Reid projecting the
costs to exceed $600 million, Reid recently explained during a Joint
Committee on Health meeting.
Reid
was joined by HSE Chief Operating Officer Anne O’Connor, Chief Clinical Officer
Dr. Colm Henry, Chief Information Officer Fran Thompson, and Clinical Lead of
the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Damien McCallion, shedding light on the
ransomware attack that has driven much of the country’s health system offline.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-snooping-7000-ohio-health-system-patients-potentially-victimized
EHR snooping: 7,000+ Ohio health system patients potentially victimized
A former
employee may have inappropriately accessed patient data for more than 11 years,
according to local reports.
By Kat Jercich
June 29, 2021
11:41 AM
An
Ohio-based health system began notifying patients this past week that a former
employee may have inappropriately accessed their private records.
Aultman
Health Foundation, which is headquartered in Canton, Ohio, said that the former
employee could have snooped on patient data for more than a decade, according to the Daily Record.
"Upon
discovering this, the employee’s access to Aultman’s electronic health record
system was suspended, and an investigation was conducted to determine the
nature and scope of the incident," said company representatives.
WHY IT
MATTERS
As
reported by the Daily Record, about 7,300 patients across Aultman's health
system had their information involved in the incident.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/06/29/problems-with-epics-sepsis-prediction-model-underscore-larger-issues-with-algorithmic-prediction-models/
Problems With Epic’s Sepsis Prediction Model Underscore Larger Issues With
Algorithmic Prediction Models
June 29, 2021
Anne Zieger
Recently,
a small blaze of negative publicity erupted when research
was published suggesting that Epic’s
deterioration index designed to predict the onset of sepsis performs far
worse than the vendor claims.
Researchers
behind the study, which appears in JAMA Internal Medicine, examined a cohort of
27,697 patients undergoing 38,455 hospitalizations, concluding that sepsis
occurred in 7% of the hospitalizations. The Epic proprietary sepsis model had
predicted a hospitalization-level area under the receiver operating
characteristic curve of 0.63, which is substantially worse than that reported
by Epic.
Under
these circumstances, clinicians would have needed to check in with 109
Epic-flagged patients to find one that needed an intervention to avoid sepsis.
Not
only that, the Epic technology didn’t do a good job of managing alerts,
generating them for 18% of all of the hospitalized patients studied. This
double failure – to accurately predict sepsis and the tendency to create high
volumes of needless alerts – is a matter of concern, the authors note.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/what-providers-should-know-for-cms-interoperability-rule-compliance
What Providers Should Know for CMS Interoperability Rule Compliance
CMS will
enforce the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule requirements
starting on July 1, 2021.
By Hannah Nelson
June 28, 2021
- As part of the 21st Century Cures Act, the federal government will
require that all healthcare providers grant patients access to their personal
health information starting July 1.
The CMS
Interoperability and Patient Access final
rule requires payers and providers to remove the industry siloes that
prevent seamless patient data exchange across the care continuum.
While the
final rule has been in effect since January 1, 2021, CMS put off enforcement of
the new requirements until July 1, 2021 due to the COVID-19 public health
emergency.
The
regulation aims to benefit patients and providers alike. Increased
interoperability will help ensure providers have access to an individual’s care
history to make informed clinical decisions, which may lead to improved patient
outcomes. Similarly, increased access
to personal health information may lead patients to become more engaged in
their care decisions.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/covid-19-sparks-decline-in-life-expectancy-highlights-disparities
COVID-19 Sparks Decline in Life Expectancy, Highlights Disparities
A new
analysis reveals a reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19, underscoring
health disparities impacting Black and Latino populations.
By Erin McNemar, MPA
June 28, 2021
- In an updated analysis, data showed that COVID-19
reduced life expectancy in the United States by 1.3 years in the year 2020.
Especially impacted were Black and Latino populations, revealing significant
disparities regarding race and ethnicity. The study
was published in JAMA Network.
Lead author
Theresa Andrasfay, a postdoctoral scholar at the USC Leonard Davis School of
Gerontology, and coauthor Noreen Goldman of Princeton University first studied
the pandemic’s impact on life expectancy in October 2020. The initial study
predicted the largest single-year drop in life expectancy in about 40 years,
hitting its lowest average since 2003.
The analysis
compared more the 380,000 US COVID-19 deaths in 2020 to the life expectancies
in 2018. The results indicated a decrease in life expectancy by
1.31 years, bringing the average down to 77.43 years. However, larger
reductions in life expectancy were present among Black and Latino populations.
While White populations saw a reduction of 0.94 years off their life
expectancy, the Latino population’s loss was three times higher at 3.03 years.
For Black populations, they saw a reduction of life expectancy twice as large
at 1.90 years.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/survey-reveals-how-leaders-are-overcoming-cybersecurity-hurdles
Survey Reveals How Leaders are Overcoming Cybersecurity Hurdles
A recent
survey of cybersecurity leaders across all sectors reveals that most
organizations see compliance with data privacy regulations as a top priority.
By Jill McKeon
June 28, 2021
- Over 70 percent of cybersecurity leaders from various sectors have
transferred at least half of their organization’s data to the cloud, according
to a recent
survey conducted by Corinium Intelligence. The survey shows how data
privacy leaders are enabling cybersecurity transformations within their
organizations.
Research
revealed that 94 percent of respondents ranked data privacy compliance as their
organization’s top priority. However, 45 percent are not concerned about
regulatory fines and penalties despite the growing amount of cyberattacks
across all sectors.
“The
explosion of remote working has created borderless networking in a way that we
have never seen. Services that were done in-house are now being moved to the
cloud. That’s redefining what traditional network boundaries look like,”
Michael Owens, survey participant and business information security officer at
Equifax, said in the survey report.
“The
move to the cloud means companies are relying more and more on third parties,
which extends and increase the number of external entities that are involved in
every supply chain.”
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/06/28/windows-11-and-security-why-8th-generation-core-processors-and-amd-zen-2-processors-are-required-and-what-cios-can-do-to-mitigate-the-issue/
Windows 11 and Security – Why 8th Generation Core Processors and AMD Zen 2
Processors are Required, and What CIOs Can Do to Mitigate the Issue
June 28, 2021
Mitch Parker, CISO
Since
Microsoft has announced the new version of Windows, Windows 11, which has more
onerous CPU requirements than its predecessors, there has been significant
outcry. These changes shut out a significant number of machines already
in use from receiving this update. There has been outcry over the
requirements, mainly focusing on Trusted Platform Management. Microsoft
has not been very clear either. The baseline CPU support for
Windows 11 is an 8th generation Intel Core or AMD Zen 2 processor. These
are machines that were released in late 2018 (Intel) and mid-2019 (AMD).
What
is clear now, after doing some research, is that between the 7th and
8th generation of Intel Core architectures and Ryzen Zen/Zen+ and
Zen 2 architectures is that both included significant hardware security
enhancements due to Meltdown, Spectre, and other issues discovered by security
researchers. These discoveries came about during the release cycle of
Windows 10. Microsoft was not able to address the changes needed to
implement the needed security changes without breaking backward compatibility.
This
would have been a very bad business decision to do this while an operating
system was current. Moving the version number to 11 allows
Microsoft to make a break from hardware that does not have mitigations for
critical security vulnerabilities. It also allows them to implement many
of the security enhancements both Intel and AMD have made without breaking
legacy environments.
-----
https://histalk2.com/2021/06/25/weekender-6-25-21/
Weekly News Recap
- Health Catalyst announces its
acquisition of Twistle.
- Doximity shares surge on their first
day of NYSE trading, valuing the company at $7 billion.
- Tegria acquires KenSci.
- Researchers say that Epic Sepsis
Model performs poorly in identifying potential cases of sepsis.
- GE Healthcare names Pater Arduini as
its next president and CEO.
- England’s NHS publishes a draft
patient data strategy.
- NextGen Healthcare announces that
President and CEO Rusty Frantz will leave the company.
- Amazon announces a four-week,
virtual AWS Healthcare Accelerator program for startups.
- California launches a digital
COVID-19 vaccination record system.
- ONC invites colleges and
universities to apply for its $80 million public health IT workforce
program.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
