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://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/07/why-best-of-breed-doesnt-mean-complexity-and-compromise-for-the-nhs/
Why best of breed doesn’t mean complexity and compromise for the NHS
David
Elliott, director of IT at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust,
explores the misconceptions of a “best-of-breed” approach to digital
transformation and why his trust decided to take this particular
approach.
DHI News Team
– 13 July 2021
Having worked
in utilities for over a decade before joining Northumbria Healthcare NHS
Foundation Trust, naturally I made comparisons between the sectors, and I was
particularly struck by the limitations to investment. Whilst it was considered
normal for a utility company to allocate four to five percent of its annual
turnover to digital, it’s just not possible in the NHS. Yet, digital
transformation shouldn’t be about the ‘best you can afford’, it should be about
the ‘best you can achieve’.
This rhetoric
about affordability is often associated with the best of breed (BoB) approach,
often in comparison to enterprise-wide single systems. It’s seen as second best
when trusts can’t afford an enterprise-wide EPR.
And as a recent NAO report highlighted, it can be considered too
complex because of the multiple business cases, integration between solutions
and the extensive management of different suppliers. However, I want to
redefine BoB.
Redefining
best of breed
Northumbria
Trust serves a patient population of 500,000 people and provides a wide range
of hospital and community services across Northumberland and North Tyneside, so
we need technology that can respond to different clinical settings and
specialisms.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/07/hl7-fhir-everything-you-need-to-know/
HL7 FHIR: everything you need to know
As the
interoperability standard HL7 format has evolved over the years, its use has
opened up to current web practices such as HTML, XML and JSON.
This has led
to the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard which
broadens the field of possibilities with its library of open source resources.
FHIR is seen
to be one way to help boost interoperability in healthcare and is defined as a
standard describing data formats and elements (known as “resources”) and an
application programming interface (API) for exchanging electronic health
records (EHR).
Benefits can
include making data sharing easier, it can be fast to implement and it is
vendor-neutral.
To understand
how and why the FHIR standard came into being, Frédéric Laurent, project
manager at Enovacom, reflects on the origins of this interoperability standard.
This white
paper outlines everything you need to know about HL7 FHIR.
Find out more
below.
Read the full case study
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/technology/what-happened-ibm-watson.html
What Ever Happened to IBM’s Watson?
IBM’s
artificial intelligence was supposed to transform industries and generate
riches for the company. Neither has panned out. Now, IBM has settled on a
humbler vision for Watson.
By Steve Lohr
July 16, 2021
A decade ago,
IBM’s public confidence was unmistakable. Its Watson supercomputer had just trounced
Ken Jennings, the best human “Jeopardy!” player ever, showcasing the power
of artificial intelligence. This was only the beginning of a technological
revolution about to sweep through society, the company pledged.
“Already,”
IBM declared in an advertisement the day after the Watson victory, “we are
exploring ways to apply Watson skills to the rich, varied language of health
care, finance, law and academia.”
But inside
the company, the star scientist behind Watson had a warning: Beware what you
promise.
David
Ferrucci, the scientist, explained that Watson was engineered to identify word
patterns and predict correct answers for the trivia game. It was not an
all-purpose answer box ready to take on the commercial world, he said. It might
well fail a second-grade reading comprehension test.
His
explanation got a polite hearing from business colleagues, but little more.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/amazon-web-services-introduces-aws-health
Amazon Web Services introduces AWS for Health
The
announcement came alongside the news that Amazon HealthLake, the company's
HIPAA-eligible data management service, is now available in select regions.
By Kat Jercich
July 16, 2021
11:33 AM
Amazon
Web Services this week introduced AWS for Health, a range of services aimed at
helping healthcare and life science organizations reach their goals.
"AWS
for Health provides proven and easily accessible capabilities that help
organizations increase the pace of innovation, unlock the potential of health
data, and develop more personalized approaches to therapeutic development and
care," wrote Patrick Combes, director, head of technology – healthcare and
life sciences at AWS, in a blog post Thursday.
"AWS
for Health simplifies the process for healthcare and life-science enterprises
and innovative startups to identify industry-leading, cloud-based solutions
across 16 critical solution areas in healthcare, genomics, and biopharma,"
Combes continued.
WHY IT
MATTERS
When
it comes to healthcare specifically, Amazon says AWS will allow organizations
to accelerate the digitalization and utilization of their data.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/californiaupdates-health-facilitydatabreach-requirements
California Updates Health Facility Data Breach
Requirements
California
updated its health facility data breach regulations.
By Lisa Gentes-Hunt
July 15, 2021
- California is tightening up its health facility data
breach regulations and recently issued an update to its administrative
penalties and reporting requirements.
The newly
updated health facility data breach regulations went into effect on
July 1, according to the California Department of Public Health.
“The regulations
implement California's Health and Safety Code Section
1280.15, which requires a clinic, health facility, home health agency, or
hospice licensed by the Department [of Health] to prevent any
unlawful or unauthorized access to, or use, or disclosure of, a patient's
medical information,” according to a report by the law firm Baker Donelson.
In an All
Facilities Letter published by the California Department of Public
Health, Acting Deputy Director Cassie Dunham stated that the updated
“regulations require healthcare facilities to report a medical information
breach to CDPH no later than 15 days after the breach has been
detected. The regulations describe the information the health care facility
must provide to CDPH. Delays in reporting may result in additional
administrative penalties.”
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/tackling-interoperability-ehrs-and-billing-systems-different-vendors
Global Edition
Interoperability
Tackling interoperability with EHRs and billing systems from different
vendors
Differing EHR
vendors for inpatient and ambulatory abound, as they do for inpatient EHR and
billing systems. What to do? An interoperability expert offers helpful advice.
By Bill Siwicki
July 14, 2021
12:02 PM
Although
the topic and importance of interoperability has been discussed for years,
according to new research from health IT and market-intelligence company
Definitive Healthcare, about one in five hospitals report different vendors for
their inpatient and ambulatory EHR systems.
This
disconnect can lead to suboptimal patient experiences where critical
information from a hospital stay may not make it in front of the primary care
provider or outpatient results are not accessible by the inpatient team.
These
are prevalent issues, ones even more relevant as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic. With nearly one-third of hospitals reporting different vendors for
their inpatient EHR and billing systems, according to the Definitive Healthcare
data, missed procedures or miscoding can mean revenue losses.
Healthcare
IT News interviewed Todd Bellemare, senior vice president
of professional services at Definitive Healthcare, to learn more
about today's interoperability challenges and what hospitals and health systems
can do to address them.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/va-veterans-records-system/2021/07/14/fd508732-e4e9-11eb-8aa5-5662858b696e_story.html
VA chief halts rollout of massive digital health system for veterans,
citing serious flaws
By Lisa Rein
July 14,
2021|Updated yesterday at 9:46 p.m. EDT
Veterans
Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough on Wednesday acknowledged fundamental flaws
in the agency’s troubled $16 billion effort to modernize veterans’ medical
records, a project championed by former president Donald Trump and his
son-in-law that is beset by cost overruns, delays, misrepresentations to
Congress and a disastrous rollout at its first hospital.
McDonough told
Senate lawmakers that a three-month internal review of the electronic health
records system found so many structural problems that he cannot continue to
deploy it at other hospitals until VA leaders are confident of success. He
could not say when the rollout will resume.
“It’s a lot
of money you’ve entrusted to us,” McDonough, confirmed
in February as President Biden’s pick to lead the agency, told the Senate
Veterans' Affairs Committee at a hearing. He called the digital health project
a “potential game changer for medicine” that could improve veterans’ health
care. But he cited serious “governance and management challenges” that have
dogged it from the outset, saying, “That’s on us.”
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/tefca-interoperability-infrastructure-go-live-set-for-q1-2022
TEFCA Interoperability Infrastructure Go-Live Set for Q1 2022
ONC
announced that TEFCA’s health information exchange infrastructure for
nationwide interoperability will be live in the first quarter of 2022.
By Hannah Nelson
July 14, 2021
- ONC has announced
that the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA)
interoperability infrastructure and health information exchange (HIE) standards
will be live in the first quarter of 2022.
Drafted by
ONC to fulfill the aims of the 21st Century Cures Act, TEFCA is a set of
policies, procedures, and standards to support the development of the Common
Agreement for nationwide HIE
across health information networks (HINs).
“The overall
goal for TEFCA is to establish a floor of universal interoperability across the
country,” National Coordinator Micky Tripathi and Mariann Yeager, CEO of
TEFCA’s Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) The Sequoia
Project, explained in a blog post. “We need networks to be seamlessly
connected with each other.”
“While
the nationwide networks have made considerable progress in this area,
cross-network exchange is still not frictionless, and most state/regional HIEs
serve only their local markets and many are not connected to any other networks
at all,” they wrote.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/cms-expands-telehealth-coverage-in-proposed-2022-physician-fee-schedule
CMS Expands Telehealth Coverage in Proposed 2022 Physician Fee Schedule
The
proposal includes expanding Medicare coverage for telehealth services that
address mental health and substance abuse issues and extending most COVID-19
freedoms until the end of 2023, as well as some coverage for FQHCs and RHCs.
By Eric Wicklund
July 14, 2021
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposed 2022
Physician Fee Schedule offers some good news for telehealth advocates.
The 1747-page
draft, released this week, proposes to make permanent some provisions enacted
years to address the coronavirus pandemic, while continuing most until at least
Dec. 23, 2023 “so that there is a glide path to evaluate whether the services
should be permanently added to the telehealth list following the COVID-19 PHE
(Public Health Emergency).”
CMS is
proposing to eliminate geographic restrictions on telemental health coverage
and to make the patient’s home an originating site, as long as patient and
telemental health provider meet in-person within six months of beginning
telehealth services and at least once every six months after.
“We are
seeking comment on whether a different interval may be necessary or appropriate
for mental health services furnished through audio-only communication
technology,” the agency said
in a press release. “We are also seeking comment on how to address
scenarios where a physician or practitioner of the same specialty/subspecialty
in the same group may need to furnish a mental health service due to
unavailability of the beneficiary’s regular practitioner.”
As
for audio-only telehealth, CMS is proposing to amend its requirements for
interactive telecommunications systems, which now focus on real-time, two-way,
audio-visual telemedicine technology, to include audio-only telehealth when
used for the diagnosis, evaluation or treatment of mental health issues in the
patient’s home.
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https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/13/22573753/covid-data-health-records-machine-learning-disease
Machine learning model from the largest US COVID-19 dataset predicts
disease severity
The study
also showed how treatment of the disease changed over time
By Nicole Wetsman Jul 13, 2021, 11:00am EDT
A
centralized
repository of COVID-19 health records built last year is beginning to show
results, starting with a new
paper published today. The repository is the largest set of COVID-19
records to date, and was built by a team of researchers and data experts last
year to help make sense of COVID-19.
The
study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, looked at risk factors for
severe cases of COVID-19 and traced the progression of the disease over time.
The authors
built machine learning models to predict which hospitalized
patients would develop severe disease based on information collected on their
first day in a hospital.
Using
the centralized database, called the National COVID Cohort Collaborative Data
Enclave, or N3C, meant the research
team was able to include hundreds of thousands of patients’ records in its
analysis. The study used data from 34 medical centers and included over 1
million adults — 174,568 who tested positive for COVID-19 and 1,133,848 who
tested negative. It includes records stretching from January 2020 to December
2020.
The
analysis shows how treatment for COVID-19 changed over the course of 2020, as
doctors tried new treatments and gained more experience with the condition. The
percentage of patients who were treated with the anti-malaria drug
hydroxychloroquine, which was promoted by former President Donald Trump before proving
to be ineffective, dropped off to nearly zero by May 2020. Use of the
steroid dexamethasone ticked up in June, after studies
showed it could improve survival rates.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/microsoft-taps-teladoc-to-integrate-telehealth-into-teams-app
Microsoft taps Teladoc to integrate telehealth into Teams app
by Heather Landi
Jul 14, 2021
11:08am
Teladoc
Health is partnering with Microsoft to integrate telehealth into the Teams app
for hospitals and health systems.
The
combination of communications, collaboration and workflows in Microsoft
Teams with Teladoc Health’s virtual care delivery technology will simplify
the way care providers work by streamlining the technology and administrative
processes associated with providing virtual care, according to the companies.
"We
will deliver what hospitals and health systems want: integrated, enterprise
solutions that make the full breadth of virtual care available in their daily
workflows,” said Joseph DeVivo, president of hospitals and health systems at
Teladoc Health, in a statement. “Our collaboration will deliver a more
seamless, unified experience for clinicians and patients that makes healthcare
better, leveraging leading data, artificial intelligence and machine learning
expertise from both companies.”
During
the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals and health systems adopted Microsoft
Teams to connect clinicians and patients on video. Clinicians already have the
ability to securely access clinical data included within their electronic
health record system using Teladoc Health's Solo platform and will be able
to do so without having to leave the Teams app, according to Teladoc.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/5-useful-tools-combat-ransomware-attacks
Global Edition
Privacy
& Security
5 useful tools to combat ransomware attacks
A
cybersecurity expert details some technologies that can help secure hospitals
and health systems stretched thin by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Bill Siwicki
July 14, 2021
10:56 AM
Though
ransomware continues to affect organizations across all sectors, its impact on
healthcare has been devastating. Cybercriminals continue to target the parts of
the industry that are most vulnerable – including hospitals already stretched
thin from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hospitals
manage an abundance of personally identifiable information and protected health
data, so they are tasked with ramping up ransomware protections and handling
information securely in the wake of evolving compliance regulations.
Healthcare
IT News sat down with Dan Timpson, chief technology officer at
Kaseya, an IT management software company whose products include IT security,
to discuss some of the best ways for hospitals to handle the numerous security
challenges they face – namely, seeking out technologies that can prevent,
detect and mitigate account compromise and data loss.
Q.
What are automated phishing defenses and how do they help stop ransomware
attacks?
A.
The healthcare industry continues to be one of the most targeted sectors by
cybercriminals, because short periods of downtime can lead to detrimental
patient outcomes. Automated phishing defense solutions can help to quickly
detect and quarantine emails containing malware before employees can interact
with them.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/14/why-human-error-is-just-as-risky-as-ransomware-for-healthcare-cybersecurity/
Why Human Error is Just as Risky As Ransomware for Healthcare
Cybersecurity
July 14, 2021
The
following is a guest article by Tim Sadler, CEO of Tessian.
Ransomware
attacks continue to plague the healthcare industry. In all, cyberattacks on
healthcare more than doubled last year, with ransomware making up 28% of those
attacks. But healthcare IT leaders have another cybersecurity challenge to
overcome: human error. According to Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Report, miscellaneous errors are the
number one cause of data breaches in healthcare today, with the most common of these
mistakes involving an email or file attachment being sent to the wrong person.
While
these errors are not maliciously motivated, they can result in lost data and
significant reputational damage. When you consider how much valuable and
sensitive information healthcare employees are responsible for, a simple
slip-up on email could cause a serious cybersecurity incident.
In
fact, I would argue that human error can be just as damaging as ransomware
attacks — and in some cases, more damaging given that healthcare IT leaders
often lack visibility into employees’ mistakes and risky behaviors. A deeper
look at employee behavior patterns can help organizations prevent a simple
mistake from turning into a major breach.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/what-are-omnichannel-patient-engagement-technologies
What Are Omnichannel Patient Engagement Technologies?
Omnichannel
patient engagement technologies include the multimodal systems organizations
use to connect with consumers.
By Sara Heath
July 13, 2021
- Add yet another phrase to the list of healthcare buzzwords: omnichannel
patient engagement technologies.
The rise of
the health IT sector, combined with a growing appetite from patients for more
healthcare consumerism, has pushed omnichannel patient engagement technologies
into the limelight.
The term
omnichannel engagement derives from the sales space, where companies pitch a
seamless customer shopping experience, according to
BigCommerce.com. Using a variety of tools, each of which is connected to one
another, customers are able to enter the shopping experience from multiple
platforms without friction or interruption.
For example,
a shopper might scroll on social media, see a targeted ad, view the item on the
store’s website, and then purchase it in the brick-and-mortar location.
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https://www.vox.com/recode/22570076/health-apps-privacy-opioid-addiction-app-report
The struggle to make health apps truly private
Why privacy
and patient advocates are worried that substance use disorder apps aren’t
keeping data private.
By Sara Morrison Jul 12,
2021, 11:20am EDT
Jonathan J.K.
Stoltman already knew how hard it can be for people with addiction to find the
right treatment. As director of the Opioid Policy Institute, he also knew how
much worse the pandemic made it: A family member had died of an opioid overdose
last November after what Stoltman describes as an “enormous effort” to find
them care. So Stoltman was hopeful that technology could improve patient access
to treatment programs through things like addiction treatment and recovery
apps.
But then he
consulted last year with a company that makes an app for people with substance
use disorders, where he says he was told that apps commonly collected data and
tracked their users. He worried that they weren’t protecting privacy as well as
they should, considering who they were built to help.
“I left after
expressing concerns about patient privacy and quality care,” Stoltman told
Recode. “I’m a tech optimist at heart, but I also know that with that
widespread reach they can have widespread harms. People with an addiction
already face substantial discrimination and stigma.”
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/data-175k-covid-19-patients-fuels-predictive-severity-model
Data from 175K COVID-19 patients fuels predictive severity model
Researchers
relied on records stored in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative's Data
Enclave, which now includes information from 6.3 million patients.
By Kat Jercich
July 13, 2021
11:50 AM
A
study published in JAMA Network Open this week used the largest data
repository of COVID-19 patients in the United States to develop a model to
predict clinical severity based on first-day admission data.
The
research relied on roughly two million medical records stored in the Data
Enclave of the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, or N3C.
As
the researchers explained, "This cohort study characterizes the largest
U.S. COVID-19 cohort to date, including 174,568 adults who tested positive for
SARS-CoV-2."
WHY IT
MATTERS
The
study was the first to use the N3C database, which is specifically designed to
support research on COVID-19.
The
N3C was developed by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences,
the hub for research of this kind at the National Institutes of Health. As of
December 2020, the N3C release set included information from 1,926,526 patients
from 34 sites across the United States.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-geisinger-uses-telehealth-keep-patients-home-and-out-hospital
How Geisinger uses telehealth to keep patients at home and out of the
hospital
An executive
at its Center for Telehealth explains how the Pennsylvania health system
evaluates virtual care models – and when it knows it's time for an ER visit
instead.
By Bill Siwicki
July 13, 2021
11:18 AM
Geisinger
Health, based in Danville, Pennsylvania, embarked on a telehealth journey to
develop a single solution that could bring care closer to home for patients
across the care continuum.
Geisinger
evolved its telehealth program for its patients and its health plan members,
and then leveraged this program to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
telehealth program now offers more than 70 specialties, including neurology,
pulmonology, dentistry, behavioral health and others. It connects patients
to a local physician, urgent care or primary care clinic, or a regional
hospital.
Telehealth models for in-home care
At
his HIMSS21 educational session, "Providing Care Closer to Home," David
A. Fletcher, associate vice president of the Center for Telehealth at
Geisinger, will explain how an executive evaluates telehealth models that can
be used for in-home care, even for patients with complex health needs.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/13/insights-into-ehr-documentation-workstations/
Insights Into EHR Documentation Workstations
July 13, 2021
John Lynn
One
of the most important and least covered things in healthcare IT is the various
EHR Documentation Workstations. No doubt it’s a regular topic of
conversations at healthcare organizations because an EHR workstation
configuration really impacts EHR users experience and therefore the
patient. It’s not as sexy to talk about workstations when you could talk
about AI. However, a healthcare organization’s approach to the right
workstations for their users can have one of the biggest impacts on their
users’ experience.
Over
the years, we’ve seen quite the evolution when it comes to workstations in
healthcare. Most people will remember the COWs (Carts on Wheels) that
many didn’t appreciate so they changed it to the more respectful WOWs
(Workstation on Wheels). Of course, the early iterations of these were
heavy and often lacked the battery life needed to match a busy clinician’s
needs. Thankfully, both of these have improved over time as far as weight
and battery options.
Once
the iPhone and even more so the iPad arrived on the scene, many were saying
that the workstation was dead in healthcare. Well, we’ve certainly not
seen that happen largely because mobile devices like a smartphone or tablet
aren’t great input devices. Much to their chagrin, a lot of what
healthcare professionals do is input data. So, the EHR documentation
workstation in healthcare lives on.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/telehealth-use-stabilized-38x-higher-pre-pandemic-mckinsey-says
Telehealth Use 'Stabilized' 38X Higher Than Pre-pandemic, McKinsey says
Analysis
| By John Commins |
July 13, 2021
Favorable
patient responses and new investments in the technology will propel the growth
of telehealth in 2021
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Overall telehealth use for office visits and
outpatient care was 78 times higher in April 2020 than in February 2020,
representing nearly one-third (32%) of office and outpatient visits for the
month.
·
The surge in telehealth use was prompted by the
pandemic, the shutdown in in-person visits, an increased willingness by
patients and providers to use telehealth, and the availability of federal
reimbursements for telehealth.
After a spike
at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, telehealth use has stabilized at
levels 38 times higher than before the pandemic.
This strong
continued uptake, along with favorable patient responses, and new investments
in the technology will propel the growth of telehealth in 2021, according to a report from McKinsey & Co.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/how-unitedhealthcare-harnessing-predictive-analytics-to-target-social-needs
How UnitedHealthcare is harnessing predictive analytics to target social
needs
by Paige Minemyer
Jul 12, 2021
3:45pm
UnitedHealthcare
is harnessing predictive analytics to more effectively address members' social
determinants of health.
The
health insurance giant has rolled out the program to employers who have
selected the Advocate4Me Elite and Advocate4Me Premier products, with plans to
launch it for fully insured employer plans later this year, according to an announcement.
The
tool uses de-indentified claims data to proactively identify members who may be
at greatest risk for social concerns. The insurer's call center advocates are
then armed with a curated database of community resources to assist members
with their social needs.
"When
we are looking at our population, we want to make sure we are addressing all of
the variables to help support our members," Rebecca Madsen,
UnitedHealthcare's chief consumer officer, told Fierce Healthcare.
-----
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210709/Health-information-exchange-event-notification-can-be-a-promising-tool-for-better-patient-care.aspx
Health information exchange event notification can be a promising tool for
better patient care
Reviewed by Emily
Henderson, B.Sc.Jul 9 2021
A new study from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs,
Regenstrief Institute, IUPUI and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
researchers reports that primary care physicians recognize the need for better
coordination and welcome health information exchange (HIE) event notifications
as a means of improving the flow of information to enable provision of better
patient care.
Individuals often receive medical care from more than one
healthcare system. Care coordination among providers, for example after
discharge from an emergency department or hospital in one system, with the
patient's primary care physician in another, is challenging and frequently doesn't
occur. This siloed approach to medical care with incomplete sharing of clinical
information, may adversely affect health outcomes.
"While our study focused on patients whose primary
care was provided in the VA system, this is an issue faced by patients and
their providers in many, if not most, healthcare systems in the United
States," study senior author Brian Dixon, PhD, MPA, the Regenstrief and
Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI
director of public health informatics.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/onc-updates-interop-specs-sexual-orientation-gender-identity-and-sdoh
ONC updates interop specs for sexual orientation, gender identity and SDOH
Version 2 of
the United States Core Data for Interoperability offers "clearer direction
toward the standardized, electronic exchange" of those data types and
others, enabling better care for "all patients."
By Mike Miliard
July 12, 2021
04:53 PM
The
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on Friday
released the United States Core Data for Interoperability version 2, with
updated details on how data elements related to sexual orientation, gender
identity and social determinants of health can enable streamlined exchange and
improve care for "all patients who access the nation's healthcare
system," said Dr. Rachel Levine, HHS assistant secretary for health.
WHY IT
MATTERS
Updated after drawing on extensive stakeholder feedback, USCDI v2 – the standardized set of health data
classes and constituent data elements for nationwide health information
exchange – is now updated with more data types: three new data classes and a
total of 22 new data elements.
"Today's
release makes USCDI version 2 available for consideration as part of ONC's
Standards Version Advancement Process, which will take place this fall,"
said agency officials in a news release. "The SVAP allows health IT
developers to update their certified health IT to support newer versions of the
USCDI (among other standards) and provide those updates to their customers,
including providers and hospitals, before they are required by
regulation."
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/northwell-health-uses-machine-learning-reduce-readmissions-nearly-24
Northwell Health uses machine learning to reduce readmissions by nearly
24%
The health
system's medical director explains how clinical AI is better than predictive
analytics when it comes to improving patient outcomes.
By Bill Siwicki
July 12, 2021
11:22 AM
Reducing
readmissions is a major focus for healthcare organizations operating under
value-based care contracts.
Clinicians
at Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York State, are
applying clinical artificial intelligence to augment their post-discharge
workflows and have reduced readmissions by 23.6%. The clinicians studied
clinical AI stratified patients for their risk of readmissions, identified the
clinical and nonclinical factors driving their risk, and recommended targeted
outreach and interventions to reduce patient risk.
Clinical AI versus predictive analytics
The
clinicians noted the contrast between prescriptive clinical AI and traditional
predictive analytics, and their impacts on patient outcomes.
"Predictive
analytics as a whole is a powerful tool using a combination of historical data,
statistical modeling, data mining and machine learning in order to predict
events and identify patterns," said Dr. Zenobia
Brown, vice president and medical director at Northwell Health, a health
system based in Manhasset, New York.
"Despite
those powerful insights, predictive analytics are really just a starting place
in terms of enacting meaningful change at the population and individual levels.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/building-tomorrows-healthcare-it-workforce
Building tomorrow's healthcare IT workforce
Healthcare
organizations need to be thinking about what their future IT workforce will
look like, and figuring out ways to ensure a robust pipeline of talent in an
era of rapid digitalization and disruption.
By Nathan Eddy
July 12, 2021
09:54 AM
State-of-the-art
talent in health IT is vital to the future of the healthcare industry. Health
information-sharing is rapidly extending to support telemedicine, predictive
medicine, and population health; address social determinants of health; and
facilitate remote monitoring of patient and family-generated data, including
data from personal medical devices.
"Experience
is the biggest leak in the pipeline today," explained Lauren Kosowski,
service delivery consultant at Michigan Health Information Network Shared
Services. "When looking for full-time staff, we expect candidates to have
some type of experience in the field or position they are applying
for. But how can we anticipate them to have that experience if we are not
the ones providing them with those opportunities?"
Right
now, she said she is seeing a big spike in health informatics, a rapidly
emerging discipline that can assist in the use of information technology for
better decision-making and better patient outcomes.
She
said the need for and adoption of health IT skyrocketed last year due to the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – and she doesn’t anticipate for that to slow down
anytime soon.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/12/the-1-clinical-communication-system-requirement/
The #1 Clinical Communication System Requirement
July 12, 2021
John Lynn
In
a recent clinical
communications survey we did of the Healthcare IT Today community sponsored
by Halo Health, we found some really
fascinating insights into how healthcare organizations look at their clinical
communication systems. We had over 140 healthcare leaders respond to the
survey and had a nice mix of large, medium, and small organizations take part
in the survey.
One
of the biggest insights we gleaned from healthcare leaders was around
priorities they had for their clinical communication system partner. While
considerations such as cloud architecture and experience with large system
deployments were not unimportant, the survey respondents did indicate even
higher priorities.
The
biggest priority for healthcare leaders was a solution that was purpose built
for clinical communication that reached the right person at the right time and
consolidated the experience for the user.
Considering
our current environment, these results make sense. The main benefit
healthcare leaders wanted from their clinical communication system was how it
improved the workflow for the clinician or other users. No doubt we are
all tired of implementing government driven software that doesn’t provide a
great experience for the end user. It seems like end users are feeling it
and healthcare IT leaders are feeling it too.
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https://histalk2.com/2021/07/09/weekender-7-9-21/
Weekly News Recap
- FDA clears AliveCor’s phone-attached
EKG sensor and app to allow professionals to calculate QTc interval for
diagnosis of irregular heartbeat.
- Intelerad acquires Heart Imaging
Technologies.
- A second OIG review of the VA’s
Cerner project warns again of unbudgeted infrastructure costs of several
billion dollars.
- Sophia Genetics announces IPO plans.
- UC San Diego Health adopts the SMART
Health Card.
- Three institutions form Texas Health
Informatics Alliance and announce its first conference.
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Enjoy!
David.
