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/market-leaders-drive-certified-health-it-fhir-enabled-api-adoption
Market Leaders Drive Certified Health IT FHIR-Enabled API Adoption
The
nationwide FHIR-enabled API adoption rate was 84 percent for hospitals in 2019,
and most implementations came from a health IT market leader.
By Hannah Nelson
July 30, 2021
- Health IT market leaders drove much of FHIR-enabled API adoption in
2019, according to new ONC analysis.
As of 2019,
84 percent of hospitals and 61 percent of clinicians had adopted and
implemented 2015 Edition certified API technology enabled with FHIR.
Researchers
found that 83 percent of hospitals and 58 percent of clinicians adopted
certified API technology from a market leader in 2019, representing 99 percent
and 95 percent of all FHIR-enabled technology implementations, respectively.
“The findings
show that health IT market leaders, who all support FHIR, drove much of the
adoption of certified API technology enabled with FHIR in 2019,” Steven
Posnack, MS, MHS, deputy National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
and Wes Barker, MS, HHS program analyst, wrote in an ONC Health IT Buzz
blog post.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/remote-patient-monitoring-program-shines-in-treating-covid-19
Remote Patient Monitoring Program Shines in Treating COVID-19
Using
remote patient monitoring to treat COVID-19 can help patients avoid
hospitalization and recover quickly, according to Kaiser Permanente Southern
California researchers.
By Victoria Bailey
July 30, 2021
- Remote patient monitoring for patients with COVID-19 proved to be effective
in preventing hospital admissions and improving recovery from the virus, according
to a Kaiser Permanente study.
The
California-based health system launched an RPM platform to treat infected
patients at home, rather than in over-stressed hospitals and clinics, during
the height of the pandemic. To evaluate its effectiveness, researchers at
Southern California Permanente Medical Group studied 13,055 patients who were
diagnosed with COVID-19 and participated in the program between April 13, 2020
and February 12, 2021.
Patients who
tested positive for COVID-19 and had moderate risk were eligible to enroll in
the program, which monitored them at home. Like many remote
patient monitoring systems, the program required patients to enter daily
symptoms through an mHealth app, which care providers could monitor at the
hospital.
Prior to
participation, patients and caregivers received instructions via handouts and
videos to ensure they understood how to use the technology. Kaiser Permanente
provided some assistance to those who needed help understanding or accessing
the technology.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/07/mobile-messaging-platforms-the-clinical-and-regulatory-risks-explored/
Mobile messaging platforms: the clinical and regulatory risks explored
It is
known that during the pandemic, mainstream consumer messaging apps were used by
clinicians in order to manage very high activity levels, but what happens when
Covid-19 related activity levels subside? A recent Digital Health webinar
looked into the clinical and regulatory risks of mobile messaging platforms.
DHI News Team
– 29 July 2021
Mobile
messaging systems are a vital tool to enable busy clinicians to manage heavy
caseloads, but there is increasing concern about the clinical and regulatory
risk to which some systems can expose users and their employers. A recent Digital Health webinar explored this topic and found that
more than half of the 130 or so participants were concerned that the messaging
platform they used for clinical work did not comply with GDPR. In addition,
more than a third of participants were worried that decisions made using their
messaging system did not link to their organisation’s electronic patient record
(EPR).
These
concerns about regulatory and clinical governance compliance are likely to be
well-founded. Solicitor Darryn Hale, a senior associate specialising in health
information law at DAC Beachcroft, told the webinar that use of generic
messaging applications like WhatsApp to discuss patients’ clinical treatment
would be unlikely to meet all legal and regulatory requirements.
Regardless of
what it was designed for, any software or system being used to help decide
patient care is likely to be regarded as a diagnostic medical device and
therefore has to meet standards set by the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/07/nhs-digital-gives-patients-easier-access-to-who-uses-their-data/
NHS Digital gives patients easier access to who uses their data
A tool
that makes it easier for patients to see which organisations can access their
data has been launched by NHS Digital.
Hanna Crouch –
27 July, 2021
The Data Uses
Register also reveals why such organisations (which could be public sector
bodies, charities or commercial organisations) are allowed to use the data and
what the expected benefits are.
They must all
have a legal basis and legitimate need to use the data, which will only be used
for health and care planning and research purposes, NHS Digital said in a
statement.
In addition
to this, the register also shows the data that NHS Digital has provided, both
as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the many other uses
of patient data that support health and social care.
This includes
developing insights to design new NHS services for patients; improving the
performance, effectiveness or efficiency of existing services; supporting NHS
organisations by creating new tools and products to improve care; creating new
treatments and supporting the NHS and local authorities in planning services.
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https://www.politico.com/newsletters/future-pulse/2021/07/28/virtual-doctors-brace-for-covids-new-wave-796755
Virtual doctors brace for Covid’s new wave
The Big Idea
STRENGTHENING THE DIGITAL
LIFELINE: Telemedicine didn’t just provide a pandemic lifeline for
patients and their doctors. It’s linking rural hospitals with offsite
clinicians who consult on patient care and back up on-site doctors and nurses
as Covid’s latest surge fills beds once again.
With
the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19 now overtaking areas with
low vaccination rates, demand for tele-ICU and tele-ER services is on the rise
as hospital administrators try to shorten the length of stays and avoid
transferring medically frail patients over long distances to higher levels of
care.
Matthew
Lyon, service chief of virtual care operations at Augusta University Health, in
Georgia, said most hospitals his facility collaborates with remotely monitor
one or two Covid patients. A month ago, it was one in every 10 or 12 hospitals.
Kelly
Rhone, medical director of outreach and innovation at Avera eCARE, a leading
tele-ICU provider in Sioux Falls, S.D., has begun seeing sicker younger
patients at facilities her company connects with in the upper Midwest and Great
Plains states.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/the-sequoia-project-posts-draft-tefca-interoperability-infrastructure
The Sequoia Project Posts Draft TEFCA Interoperability Infrastructure
The ONC’s
RCE for implementation of the TEFCA interoperability infrastructure has
published a technical framework draft for stakeholder feedback.
By Hannah Nelson
July 29, 2021
- The Sequoia Project, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health
IT’s (ONC) Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) for implementation of the
Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) interoperability
infrastructure, published a draft of the Qualified
Health Information Network (QHIN) Technical Framework (QTF) for stakeholder
comment.
The technical
framework focuses mainly on QHIN-to-QHIN data
exchange requirements. QHINS, designated by the RCE, will act as the
central connection points within the network-of-networks under the Common
Agreement.
“The
publication of the draft QTF for feedback is an important milestone as we look
to live, in production, exchange under the Common Agreement in 2022,” Micky
Tripathi, PhD, national coordinator for health information technology, said in
a public statement.
“The QTF will
also evolve to support new standards such as FHIR in the future and we welcome
industry feedback on a proposed FHIR roadmap which will be released in the near
future,” Tripathi continued.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/patients-support-greater-ehr-data-exchange-access-to-health-information
Patients Support Greater EHR Data Exchange, Access to Health Information
Most
Americans support enhanced federal health IT policies for EHR data exchange and
secure patient access to personal health information.
By Hannah Nelson
July 29, 2021
- While most patients want greater access to personal health information
and support enhanced provider-to-provider data sharing, federal health IT
policy may be hindering EHR data exchange, according to a nationally
representative survey
conducted by Pew Charitable Trusts
Pew
researchers conducted the survey in conjunction with Public Opinion Strategies
and Hart Research Associates in June and July of 2020.
More than
eight in ten adults (81 percent) reported that they support increased access to
health data for patients and providers. Many of these respondents also called
for greater safeguards to ensure their data is secure.
For instance,
most respondents said that they want to use apps on smartphones, tablets, and
computers to access their health information. However, after the survey pointed
out that federal privacy protections do not apply to data stored on apps, the
number of respondents concerned about data privacy jumped from 35 to 62
percent.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/internet-access-limits-patient-portal-use-furthers-digital-divide
Internet Access Limits Patient Portal use, Furthers Digital Divide
Data shows
that smartphone internet access didn’t ameliorate internet access limits
quelling patient portal use and deepening the digital divide.
By Sara Heath
July 29, 2021
- Having access to the internet solely through a smartphone internet plan,
as opposed to wired broadband access, is linked to more limited patient portal
access, underscoring a digital divide that is hampering equal access to patient
engagement tools, according to research
in JAMA Network Open.
The study
looked at whether getting access to the internet by way of buying a smartphone
internet plan would increase access to the patient portal. After all,
limitations to traditional broadband access—both related to cost and
geography—have often been cited as key issues hampering patient portal adoption
and utilization rates.
“The digital
divide stems from many factors, such as portal usability, digital literacy,
internet access, and high broadband costs,” the researchers wrote in the
study. “The latter have led many US residents (approximately 20%) to opt
for smartphone-only internet access, especially individuals from minority
racial/ethnic groups and adults with low income.”
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/healthcare-data-breach-costs-surged-during-pandemic
Healthcare Data Breach Costs Surged During Pandemic
IBM
Security and Ponemon Institute released a report on July 28, noting
the surging costs of health data breaches.
By Lisa Gentes-Hunt
July 29, 2021
- The cost of a data breach for a healthcare facility spiked during
the pandemic, according to a new report.
“The 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report,” released on
July 28, reports that costs associated with healthcare data breaches
increased $2 million over the previous year.
“Healthcare
breaches cost the most by far, at $9.23 million per incident –
a $2 million increase over the previous year,” according to the
report.
Healthcare,
retail, hospitality,
and the consumer/manufacturing/distribution sectors,
are all industries which endured large operational changes during the
COVID-19 pandemic. These sectors experienced a “substantial increase in
data breach costs year over year,” the report states.
The joint
report from IBM Security and Ponemon Institute analyzed an
estimated 100,000 records of data breaches experienced by over 500
organizations across the globe.
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https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/interoperability/opportunity-trifecta-isa-svap-and-draft-uscdi-version-3-feedback-period-now-open
Opportunity Trifecta: ISA, SVAP and Draft USCDI Version 3 Feedback Period
Now Open
Avinash
Shanbhag and Andrew Hayden | July 28, 2021
On
the heels of the release of United States Core Data for Interoperability USCDI
Version 2 (USCDI v2), ONC has also opened a single, synchronized feedback
period for the Interoperability Standards Advisory(ISA), the Standards Version
Advancement Process (SVAP), and the draft United States Core Data for
Interoperability Version 3 (USCDI v3). Taken together, ISA, SVAP, and draft
USCDI v3 enable ONC to engage with the health care community to advance health
IT standards that support high priority target areas such as the COVID-19
public health emergency, equity and support for underserved communities, and
the interoperability standards priorities “target areas” referenced by the 21st
Century Cures Act. Some of these include quality of patient care, clinical
research, privacy and security, patient safety, usability, and patient access
to electronic health information.
Interoperability
Standards Advisory
Since
its inception in 2015, the Interoperability Standards Advisory has grown to
become an online encyclopedia of standards and implementation specifications
that can be used to meet specific interoperability needs in health care. The
annual ISA review and comment period is an opportunity to provide
comments, suggest revisions, and propose additions to the ISA before we take a
“snapshot” and publish the 2022 ISA Reference Edition. Are there particular
standards or specifications that are missing or in need of an update? Now is
your chance to comment!
Comment
on the ISA
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https://www.fastcompany.com/90659763/vaccine-passports-hacking-privacy
07-29-21 6:00
am
Americans are afraid their vaccine passports could get hacked
Some are calling for broad digital privacy legislation to ensure health
information is kept safe.
Efforts
to get Americans to adopt digital vaccine proof have been slow. A new Harris
Poll reveals that 80% of Americans are worried that getting a COVID-19 digital
passport could put their personal data at risk.
Among
the majority of Americans who have cybersecurity concerns about the new digital
vaccine credentials, the survey found that slightly more than half were uneasy
about the potential for identity theft. On top of that, less than half of
Americans believe that either businesses or the government are prepared to
defend passport apps against a potential cyber attack.
The
overall disquiet about digital vaccine systems aligns with how likely Americans
are to actually get a digital vaccination card. Only 68% of Americans say they
are likely to sign up for one, according to a recent Harris Poll conducted in
collaboration with cybersecurity platform Anomali. Just 45% say they were very
likely to use a digital vaccination certification.
Most
states and the federal government have stopped short of requiring their
employees to get vaccinated. Only San Francisco has so far issued a vaccination directive for city employees. Both New York
State and California are telling workers to get vaccinated or else face weekly
COVID-19 testing. President Biden has now made a similar mandate for federal
workers. Meanwhile, Veterans Affairs is planning to make COVID-19 vaccination
mandatory for frontline health workers.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/google-health-ux-lead-designing-ehrs-work-clinicians
Google Health UX lead on designing EHRs that work for clinicians
A user
experience manager at Google discusses technology fatigue, machine learning's
role in electronic health record design, workflow optimization and more.
By Bill Siwicki
July 29, 2021
10:42 AM
Given
that existing health IT tools – especially electronic health records –
notoriously are not very user-friendly, many healthcare information technology
vendors are spending time and resources designing IT that makes clinicians
happy.
One
such vendor, Google Health, recently introduced Care Studio, software
designed to streamline healthcare information for clinicians. It brings
together information from different EHRs, and lets doctors and nurses
browse and search in one streamlined interface.
Google
Health has a wide array of IT design expertise. Healthcare IT News
has tapped that expertise, interviewing Melissa Strader, UX manager at the
company. She discusses keys for designing EHRs for clinicians, getting past
tech fatigue, understanding clinician behavior and workflows, and machine
learning's role in EHR design.
Q.
What are some keys for designing EHRs for clinicians, given current tools are
often not very user-friendly?
A.
In the last few decades, health IT solutions have done a great job at
digitizing healthcare information and processes. Today's EHRs are powerful
tools and are built to address many needs, including supporting hospital
administrators, IT teams, billing departments and more.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/29/no-downtime-procedure/
No Downtime Procedure
July 29, 2021
John Lynn
“Showed up
for my #Covid19
test today at @cvspharmacy .
When I got to
the window they told me they couldn't test me because their system was down.
Why didn't they notify me before I showed up? Why can't they associate my test
with my information-which they can see-& fill-in later?”
Have you ever
been on the patient side of this? I know I have and it’s
infuriating. Especially when the healthcare organization doesn’t
communicate effectively with you what’s happening and what could happen.
Of course, the real problem here is that they probably don’t know what’s going
to happen. Especially an organization as large as CVS.
Although, the
problem is just as bad on the other side. The worker at CVS is likely
just as frustrated as the patient. Downtime is no fun for any party.
That said, at
this point not having a downtime procedure is inexcusable. I don’t care
if you’re CVS or the solo practice on the corner. We all know that
downtime is possible and we need to be prepared. Downtime can happen in
so many ways, that a healthcare organization must be prepared. In fact,
the number of ways that downtime can happen continues to grow. We used to
have all local networks and so the number of points of failure was
smaller. Even then, downtime was bound to happen. It’s a feature of
technology. A power supply dies. A network connection fails.
A disk runs out of space and brings the server down.
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https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2021/07/most-americans-want-to-share-and-access-more-digital-health-data
Most Americans Want to Share and Access More Digital Health Data
Survey can inform federal policies to expand use of electronic health
records, protect patient privacy
Issue Brief July 27, 2021
Overview
Americans’
medical histories have largely been digitized over the past two decades as
hospitals and physician’s offices moved from paper-based to electronic health
record (EHR) systems.1 Congress has invested billions of taxpayer
dollars to accelerate this transition, authorizing federal rules to expand
individuals’ access to their health records and to help clinicians share data
and coordinate care for patients they have in common.2
To
build on this progress, policymakers need to know how Americans perceive these
issues and the extent to which they will embrace wider adoption of data
exchange and access. Do patients want their personal health information made more
accessible for themselves, and across multiple providers and even via
third-party apps? What kind of information are they comfortable sharing? How
confident are they that their data will be protected? What role do they want
the federal government to play?
This
brief presents the results of a nationally representative survey conducted in
June and July 2020 for The Pew Charitable Trusts that was designed to inform
lawmakers and regulators as they work to further modernize the U.S. health care
system by enhancing patient and clinician access to data held in thousands of
EHR systems across the nation. (See the methodology for more information about
the survey.)
Among
the survey’s major findings:
- Eighty-one percent of adults support
increased access to health information for patients and providers.
- More than two-thirds of adults want
their clinicians to exchange some health information that federal
data-sharing polices don’t currently require, such as advanced care plans
or end-of-life preferences, images (such as X-rays), and family medical
histories.
- Most Americans want their data to be
both more accessible and better protected. For example, although most
respondents want to use apps on smartphones, tablets, and computers to
access their health information, those who expressed serious privacy
concerns nearly doubled—from 35% to 62%—when they were told that federal
privacy protections do not cover data stored on apps. Many said that
extending these laws could help alleviate their apprehension.
- Across political party lines, most
adults—82% of Democrats, 66% of independents, and 51% of
Republicans—support additional federal measures to improve the accurate
exchange of records between health care providers.
- About 4 in 10 survey respondents
said the coronavirus pandemic made them more likely to support efforts
that enable data-sharing among a patient’s providers and let people
download their personal data from EHRs to apps on smartphones and other
devices.
- By a roughly 2-to-1 margin,
respondents were comfortable with their health providers scanning patient
fingerprints or assigning individuals a unique number or code to ensure
that different EHR systems correctly match records for the same person, a
long-standing challenge of data exchange.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/va-will-stop-cerner-ehr-rollouts-until-next-year
VA will stop Cerner EHR rollouts until next year
Officials
told House representatives that the agency would not schedule any further
deployments in the next six months.
By Kat Jercich
July 28, 2021
04:53 PM
The
Department of Veterans Affairs will not continue to deploy its Cerner
electronic health record at any more sites for at least the next six months,
officials said.
VA
Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Discovery, Education and Affiliate
Networks Dr. Carolyn Clancy told House members at a hearing this past week that
the agency would be initiating reviews for IT and physical infrastructure
requirements at every facility in the system.
Then,
she said, the VA would deploy based on site readiness.
"The
secretary is optimistic that at the end of this calendar year 2021, he will be
able to discern a new deployment schedule," Clancy said.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/who-warns-about-risks-ai-healthcare
WHO warns about the risks of AI for healthcare
New ethics
guidance cautions against overestimating the benefits of technology.
By Tammy Lovell
July 28, 2021
11:33 AM
A
World Health Organisation (WHO) report has cautioned against overestimating the
benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) for health at the expense of core
investments and strategies to achieve universal health coverage.
The
new guidance, Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health,
is the result of two years of consultations held by a panel of international
experts appointed by WHO.
It
argues that ethics and human rights must be put at the heart of AI’s design,
deployment, and use if the technology is to improve the delivery of healthcare
worldwide.
Although
there are many opportunities for AI, the report points out associated
challenges and risks, including unethical collection and use of health data,
biases encoded in algorithms, and risks to patient safety, cybersecurity, and
the environment.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/how-voice-tech-will-change-healthcare-delivery
How Voice Tech Will Change Healthcare Delivery
Analysis
| By Mandy Roth |
July 28, 2021
Conversational
AI technology is spurring a wave of innovation between tech companies and
healthcare organizations.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Conversational AI technology will reduce
physicians' administrative demands and create greater patient engagement.
·
Voice tech uses are being explored in the exam
room, OR, and patients' homes.
·
The ability to accurately capture medical
language and produce searchable fields in the EHR is crucial to progress.
This article
appears in the
July/August 2021 edition of HealthLeaders magazine.
Over the last
17 months, a tsunami called telehealth revolutionized the healthcare industry,
becoming an "overnight" sensation due to a global pandemic that
forever changed the way healthcare is delivered. Meanwhile, in the background,
another remarkable development is quietly gaining traction. The whisper many
are hearing is the power of voice technology, or to be more accurate,
conversational artificial intelligence (AI). While still in its infancy, it
holds the potential to deliver the next significant wave of innovation in
healthcare.
"Conversational
AI technology allows people to use natural voice or text to interact with
systems," says Brian Kalis, managing director, health strategy at
Accenture. "There's been a growing trend of artificial intelligence moving
beyond a back-end tool for the healthcare enterprise to the forefront of the
clinician and consumer experience."
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/artificial-intelligence-assists-with-ehr-data-organization
Artificial Intelligence Assists with EHR Data Organization
A recent
study looked at how artificial intelligence systems can be used to sort through
electronic health records.
By Erin McNemar, MPA
July 27, 2021
- According to a recent study, physicians devote 62 percent of their time
per patient reviewing electronic health records (EHRs), with the most
time-consuming portion being clinical data review. To increase efficiency,
researchers studied the development of an artificial intelligence system to
assist with reviewing patient information.
As EHRs
became increasingly common, physicians have spent more time studying these data
bases to review clinical data. With more data being stored in EHRs, users
could experience a type of information overload. By incorporating artificial
intelligence technology to work with these EHRs, physicians will avoid
burnout and improve the patient
experience.
In this
prognostic study, researchers created an AI system to organize patient records
and improve data retrieval. To ensure that the system was fast and accurate, a
nonblinded, prospective study took place at Stanford University.
Recruitment
emails were sent to all physicians in the gastroenterology division, and 12 of
them agreed to participate in the study.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/examining-the-benefits-and-challenges-of-audio-only-telehealth
Examining the Benefits and Challenges of Audio-Only Telehealth
The recent
debate over audio-only telehealth coverage centers on the value of the phone
call. Is it a proper method for healthcare delivery, and should doctors be
reimbursed for it?
By Eric Wicklund
July 27, 2021
- With the pandemic limiting access to in-person healthcare, audio-only
telehealth has surfaced as a popular platform for care delivery. But it’s not
good for all (or even many) services, and that’s forcing providers and
lawmakers to take a close look at what can and can’t be done by phone.
COVID-19
pushed the modality – basically defined as telehealth without the video - into
the spotlight, but the debate over its value has been going on for much longer.
And it’s tied to a long-standing barrier to telehealth expansion and one of the
oft-mentioned social determinants of health: broadband.
Advocates
have long argued that telehealth will struggle in parts of the country where
broadband is either unreliable or unavailable, because patients won’t be able
to access an audio-visual platform and providers won’t want to spend the money
creating one. But in those areas – often rural, with their own challenges to
accessing care – they will and do connect by phone.
And in that
context, a landline telephone might be the only way for someone to get in touch
with a care provider.
-----
https://khn.org/news/article/telemedicine-big-tech-pandemic-growing-pains-for-patients-and-providers/
The Pandemic Made Telemedicine an Instant Hit. Patients and Providers Feel
the Growing Pains.
By Hannah Norman
July 26, 2021
Crystal
Joseph pays for two telemedicine video services to ensure that her small
therapy practice in Silver Spring, Maryland, can always connect with its
clients.
She’s
been burned before. During one hours-long service
outage of SimplePractice in late May, PsycYourMind, which offers mental
health counseling and group sessions for Black patients, lost about $600
because of missed appointments. Livid, Joseph requested a small credit from the
telemedicine service, which costs $432 monthly for her team of clinicians and
trainees. SimplePractice refused, she said.
“What
they offer is phenomenal, especially being founded by a therapist,” said
Joseph, a licensed clinical professional counselor. “But with a private
practice, if you don’t get paid, you don’t eat.” For some sessions, she was
able to hop onto her backup, VSee, which costs her $49 each month. Some of her
peers use Zoom. But even though Joseph keeps links to both her SimplePractice
and VSee accounts in her email signature, a last-minute switch-up can feel
messy for clients, and she never charges a no-show fee when it’s an “act of
God.”
Major
health systems, clinics and private practices alike pivoted swiftly to
telemedicine when the covid-19 pandemic forced the nation to shelter in place
and patients could no longer safely venture into health care settings. But the
video services were not equally prepared for the titanic influx in users, said
Kapil Chalil Madathil, an engineering professor at Clemson University who has researched how easy — or
difficult — telemedicine platforms are to use.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/himss-announces-launch-digital-platform-accelerate
HIMSS announces launch of digital platform Accelerate
The
purpose-built platform aims to connect health industry professionals with
peers, thought leaders, professional development tools, networking
opportunities and curated content.
By Healthcare
IT News
July 27, 2021
11:03 AM
HIMSS,
parent company of Healthcare
IT News, announced on Tuesday the launch of its new purpose-built
digital platform – Accelerate – aimed at connecting health industry
professionals with each other and with thought leaders, professional
development tools, networking opportunities and curated content.
Accelerate is
intended to support HIMSS members, partners and the global health ecosystem by
fostering collaboration and innovation.
"Global
operations, decades of experience and thousands of members provide HIMSS with
the critical scale and expertise required to execute such an ambitious
pursuit," said Hal Wolf, CEO of HIMSS, in a statement.
"With
unparalleled relationships among healthcare providers, industry executives, and
public entities, Accelerate will be a digital platform that convenes a variety
of health stakeholders," he said.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/07/27/early-identification-of-covid-19-surges-using-epic-ehr-data-and-call-email-data/
Early Identification of COVID-19 Surges Using Epic EHR Data and Call/Email
Data
July 27, 2021
John Lynn
A
recent study
was just published in the BMJ
Open journal by lead author Vincent Liu,
MD, MS, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division
of Research. The whole study is a fascinating read, but the basics of
the study was trying to predict COIVD-19 surges before they happened.
They developed CHOTS (COVID-19 HotSpotting Score) to increase the lead time to
as much as 6 weeks before COVID-19 surged versus the individual indicators that
only provided 1-3 weeks lead time.
Here’s
what’s included in the CHOTS score:
CHOTS
includes 4 major variables — cough and cold calls, relevant subject headers
from patient emails, positive COVID-19 test rates, and current COVID-19
hospital census — along with 6 minor variables, including COVID-19-related
calls to the call center, both routine and urgent clinic visits for respiratory
infections, clinic and urgent clinic COVID-19 visits, and respiratory virus
tests ordered.
You
can see how many of these data elements were easily available in Kaiser’s Epic
EHR. However, a few of them stood out to me when I first read it.
Things like calls to the call center and secure emails aren’t often available
in the EHR or in any system a healthcare organization may have in place.
Or at least that data isn’t in a format that can be easily combined with EHR
data to replicate this score. Of course, Kaiser is unique in that they
have all of this data available to them in Epic.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/artificial-intelligence-ehr-integration-cuts-down-on-ehr-screen-time
Artificial Intelligence EHR Integration Cuts Down on EHR Screen Time
Clinicians
said they believed that the artificial intelligence EHR integration could save
them over 14 minutes for each new patient encounter.
By Hannah Nelson
July 26, 2021
- An artificial intelligence (AI) EHR integration helped physicians
extract patient health information more efficiently, according to a study
published in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers
recruited 12 gastroenterology physicians/fellows at an academic medical center
to analyze how an AI integration affected EHR use time and data accuracy.
The AI tool
extracted relevant patient health data and displayed it alongside the original
record.
Each
clinician received an AI-optimized patient record and a standard patient
record. Using each record, clinicians had to answer 22 questions that required
them to find clinically relevant information in the assigned record. Clinicians
reviewed records from June 1 to August 30, 2020.
The AI system
cut EHR use time by 18 percent; standard record review took 12.8 minutes on
average, while AI-optimized record review took clinicians 10.5 minutes.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/covid-telehealth-patient-satisfaction-high-in-person-still-preferred
COVID Telehealth Patient Satisfaction High, In-Person Still Preferred
While
telehealth patient satisfaction was high during the pandemic, 82% of US adults
still prefer in-person doctor’s visits, a new survey reveals.
By Jill McKeon
July 26, 2021
- While 87 percent of respondents reported high telehealth patient
satisfaction rates during the pandemic, 82 percent still prefer in-person
doctor’s visits, according
to a Harris Poll conducted on behalf of Neurocrine Biosciences.
The survey of
over 2,500 US adults conducted between June 29th and July 2nd, 2021, was
consistent with other findings, showing that although patients can appreciate
the convenience of telehealth, it will never be a replacement for in-person
care. Over 80 percent of respondents reported that telehealth appointments met
some but not all their health needs.
Over 70
percent of respondents reported receiving in-person care since mid-March 2020
when the pandemic began, while 41 reported taking part in telehealth
appointments.
Three-quarters
of respondents had primary care visits through telehealth, and 25 percent
received mental health services through telehealth. Specialties like
ophthalmology, rheumatology, and oncology had low telehealth presence.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/how-to-implement-social-determinants-of-health-referral-tools
How to Implement Social Determinants of Health Referral Tools
Virginia-based
Sentara Health recently employed social determinants of health referral tools
that help connect patients to social services.
By Sara Heath
July 26, 2021
- In a past life working as a nurse, Sherry Norquist, MSN, ACM, remembers
going through her Rolodex when one of her patients presented with social
determinants of health referral needs. She’d collaborate with her colleagues to
find the best social services referral she could, give the patient a phone
number, and send them on their way.
“I used to be
a registered nurse. I was a case manager,” Norquist, now the director of
Corporate Social Responsibility at Sentara Healthcare, told
PatientEngagementHIT in an interview. “I worked in many of our hospitals, and
I'll use this term 'back in the day' when I was in the emergency rooms, we used
to have to use telephone books. We used to joke around about who had the best
little black book to call every possible resource that we had at our disposal.”
“In the past,
to be quite honest with you, we wouldn't always know about the resources or
have them,” Norquist continued. “Or when we called, the phone might not get
answered.”
-----
https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20210723/connectivity-digital-tools-becoming-the-sixth-vital-sign-in-health-care
July 23, 2021
Connectivity, digital tools becoming the ‘sixth vital sign’ in health care
Determining
someone’s digital health connectivity may be just as important as measuring
their blood pressure, pulse or body temperature.
In
a commentary published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, David
C. Klonoff, MD, medical director of the Diabetes Research
Institute at Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in San Mateo, California, and
colleagues wrote that a patient’s ability to connect with digital health platforms should be considered the “sixth
vital sign” for providers.
Klonoff is
medical director of the Diabetes Research Institute at Mills-Peninsula Medical
Center in San Mateo, California.
Klonoff
proposed a 10-question, yes-or-no patient survey of virtual care affordability,
device accessibility, data privacy and security, with each affirmative answer
indicating greater connectivity.
“The
barriers to connectivity, in terms of economic and technical, are coming down
rapidly,” Klonoff told Healio. “A big barrier, though, is a person’s own
interest — they have to be motivated. Certain people who don’t want to use
computers, don’t want to use smartphones, are missing out on access to
information and treatment plans that would otherwise be available. It’s a
combination of having the right hardware and software and reimbursement, but
importantly, having the right motivation.”
Klonoff
spoke with Healio about the digital connectivity questionnaire, benefits for
patients, and how digital tools are transforming the health care industry.
-----
https://www.fastcompany.com/90658019/a-third-of-popular-cancer-articles-on-social-media-contain-misinformation-study-finds
07-23-21
A third of popular cancer articles on social media contain misinformation,
study finds
The study examined cancer falsehoods on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and
Reddit, but much of the engagement with cancer misinformation happens on
Facebook.
By Ruth Reader
Health
misinformation runs rampant on the internet, but it’s not limited to COVID-19.
New research published in The Journal of The National Cancer Institute found
that a third of the most popular articles on social media concerning treatment
for common cancers contain factual inaccuracies.
“A
lot of the misinformation we identified were claims that the current cancer
treatments that we have are ineffective or more toxic than they actually are,
as well as statements that there are other ‘cures’ that are basically unproven
or disproven that include extreme diets or herbal remedies, folk remedies,”
says Dr. Skyler Johnson, Huntsman Cancer Institute physician-scientist and
assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Utah, who led
the study.
Using
a webscraping tool, Skyler and a group of researchers pulled 200 of the most
popular articles on lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer found on
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Reddit between January 2018 and December
2019. Two domain experts from National Comprehensive Cancer Network reviewed
the posts and assessed them for misinformation and potential for harm. Of the
articles identified as misinformation, 83% contained harmful content.
Engagement with potentially harmful content, which predominantly took place on
Facebook, was also higher than articles deemed safe or benign. Johnson says
that most of the articles containing harmful content originated from new age
websites and not from reputable news media.
-----
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-tools-improve-patients-understanding-of-ehr-notes-study-shows.html
AI tools improve patients' understanding of EHR notes, study shows
Katie Adams - Friday, July 23rd,
2021
Patients
may have gained access to their EHR notes, but that doesn't mean they have an
easy time understanding what those notes mean, according to a study published
in the Journal
of Medical Internet Research.
Researchers
recruited 174 patients waiting for appointments at Lowell (Mass.) General
Hospital. The research team showed them their EHR notes, either with or without
the help of an AI-powered tool designed to help patients understand EHR notes.
The tool, called NoteAid, provides medical jargon definitions patients
can view by hovering their mouse over a term.
The
study found patients who used NoteAid earned significantly higher health
literacy scores compared to those who didn't.
-----
https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/26/clinical-decision-support-replication-algorithms/
Researchers analyzed 4,063 papers on tools to help guide care. Only 12
were replications
By Katie Palmer July 26,
2021
Clinical decision support is one of digital health’s great
promises. Faced with a surplus of information about a patient’s history and
symptoms, algorithms built into electronic health records can provide important
alerts and reminders, automated prescription suggestions, and even diagnostic
support — hopefully, helping patients receive the right care.
But
those systems don’t always hold up after their initial testing. Most recently,
work pointed to flaws in an algorithm to predict
the risk of sepsis, integrated into Epic’s electronic health record
platform. A recent
STAT investigation found those shortcomings extend to other Epic
algorithms, including those used by hospitals to predict how long patients will
be hospitalized or who will miss appointments.
A
critical check on such systems is the replication of the original research. But
those kinds of gut checks are few and far between, according to new work from
Enrico Coiera, director of the Center for Health Informatics at Macquarie
University in Sydney. Over six months, he and colleague Huong Ly Tong dredged
up all the journal-published papers they could find analyzing the outcomes of
clinical decision support systems. They found 4,063 — and of those, only 12
were replications.
Part
of the problem is that the field has yet to build a culture that values
scientific best practices, said Coiera, whose systematic
review was published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association. STAT spoke with him about how to right that ship, and whether
patients are at risk as unreplicated algorithms proliferate.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/relentless-cyber-attacks-are-putting-pressure-hospital-finances-fitch-ratings
Relentless cyber attacks are putting financial pressure on hospitals:
Fitch Ratings
by Heather Landi
Jul 26, 2021
9:00am
A
historic jump in the number and severity of cyber assaults on hospitals during
the last 18 months will cause "material revenue and expense
pressures" on nonprofit hospitals and health systems, according to a
report from Fitch Ratings.
The
sector is viewed as a target-rich environment due to the large amount of
sensitive data that healthcare entities maintain for patient care and
operations.
Cyber-crime
accelerated during the pandemic as cybercriminals took advantage of the crisis,
causing immense disruption to the healthcare sector at a time when it was
facing enormous patient care demands. Ransomware pay-outs and efforts to
protect or harden healthcare systems and cyber defenses are affecting
hospital financial flexibility by increasing ongoing operating expenses, according
to Fitch Ratings.
Attacks
may also hinder revenue generation and the ability to recover costs in a timely
manner, particularly if they affect a hospital’s ability to bill patients when
financial records are compromised or systems become locked. The recovery time
and costs associated with breaches of critical data not only pose significant
financial burdens but also hamper the ability of healthcare institutions to
provide care, which could ultimately have human costs, Fitch analysts wrote.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/google-cloud-rolls-out-technology-to-map-medical-records-data-to-fhir-standard
Google Cloud rolls out technology to map medical records data to FHIR
standard
by Heather Landi
Jul 22, 2021
2:46pm
Large
tech giants are jumping into a growing interoperability solutions market as new
federal regulations spur the healthcare industry to open up and share medical
records data.
Google
Cloud rolled out a new tool called the healthcare data engine, currently in
private preview, that helps healthcare and life sciences organizations harmonize data
from multiple sources, including medical records, claims, clinical
trials and research data.
It
gives organizations a holistic view of patient longitudinal records, and
enables advanced analytics and AI in a secure and compliant cloud
environment, according to Google Cloud executives.
Data
was a lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic," Joe Corkery M.D., director
of product management at Google Cloud, said during a recent call with
reporters. "We can now see the full potential and vision of data interoperability."
------
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-protect-against-social-engineering-attacks
How to protect against social engineering attacks
A CISO
previews her HIMSS21 presentation and offers tips for recognizing the methods
and tactics used by bad actors to exploit target-rich provider sites.
By Bill Siwicki
July 26, 2021
11:21 AM
Malicious
hacking using social engineering against healthcare has multiple
goals. The most obvious ones are to steal money or data, or to deliver
ransomware. Health systems are particularly susceptible, because many of the
basic critical security controls are not in place within these highly
integrated delivery systems.
In
this preview of the upcoming HIMSS21 educational session entitled "Social
Engineering in the Healthcare Environment," speaker Kathleen Ann
Mullin, CISO at Tampa, Florida-based Healthmap Solutions, talks about how a
healthcare provider organization recognizes hacker motivations, how healthcare
CISOs and CIOs detect the common methods used by social engineers to victimize
healthcare organizations, and how CISOs and CIOs prepare for the impacts of
malware, including ransomware.
Target-rich environments
All
healthcare organizations are target-rich environments for the value of their
health, payment and insurance information, as well as for their methods of
treatment and research information.
"In
order to recognize a hacker's motivation, a healthcare provider needs to
understand where their organization sits in the context of all organizations
and healthcare," Mullin explained. "Do they have a strong and mature
information security program? Is the organization an industry leader? Do they
have a large market share? What country or region are they in? Are their
leaders active in the media? Or social media?
-----
https://histalk2.com/2021/07/23/weekender-7-23-21/
Weekly News Recap
- The VA tells the House Veterans
Affairs Committee that it won’t bring any more sites live on Cerner for at
least six months.
- A law firm files an information
blocking complaint against a hospital, Meditech, and Ciox Health, claiming
that it could not get a machine readable PDF of a client’s medical
records.
- WebMD acquires The Wellness Network
- The New York Times says IBM Watson
failed to achieve its goals of business transformation and IBM
rejuvenation, noting specifically that Watson’s healthcare “moon shot”
failed in multiple health systems.
- The Senate confirms as VA deputy
secretary Robert Remy, JD, whose job responsibilities include overseeing
its Cerner project.
- A study of 500 hospital websites
finds that 471 of them have not posted their prices as federal
transparency rules require.
- Clinical data and registry vendor
OM1 raises $85 million.
- As HIMSS21 approaches, a COVID-19 resurgence
in Las Vegas causes the Venetian, Palazzo, and Sands to again require
employees to wear masks.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
