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/covid-19-intensifies-clinician-burnout-from-health-it-burden
COVID-19 Intensifies Clinician Burnout from Health IT Burden
While
clinician burnout from health IT use has long been an issue, COVID-19 ushered
in higher rates of physician mental health concerns.
By Hannah Nelson
August 06,
2021 - The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing issue of
clinician burnout related to health IT use, according to a national survey
from the Physicians Foundation.
Editor’s
Note: The following article contains language about suicide.
The “2021
Survey of America’s Physicians, COVID-19 Impact Edition: A Year
Later” found that the added stress of the pandemic resulted in greater clinician
burnout.
Over six in
ten (61 percent) of physicians experienced feelings of burnout during the
pandemic, a significant jump from the 40
percent of reported physicians in 2018.
“Over the
past year, the pandemic has shone a light on a problem that physicians have
always faced: the stigma surrounding accessing mental health support and
services for fear of looking weak or believing they will lose their license and
credentials,” Gary Price, MD, president of The Physicians Foundation, said in a
press
release.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/limited-broadband-poses-a-significant-barrier-to-telehealth-access
Limited Broadband Poses a Significant Barrier to Telehealth Access
A new
survey from the Bipartisan Policy Center detailing telehealth use during the
past year finds that limited broadband and technology are still barriers to
telehealth access.
By Victoria Bailey
August 06,
2021 - The pandemic has highlighted the benefits of telehealth, but
individuals still face significant barriers to access, including a lack of
broadband connectivity and access to the right technology, according to a survey
from the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC).
About one in
three adults surveyed had a telehealth visit in the past year. And while the
answers showed high levels of satisfaction, patients also reported considerable
obstacles in accessing telehealth. Technology-related barriers were the most
common.
BPC worked
with Social Sciences Research Solutions (SSRS) to gather data through the SSRS
Omnibus Survey. Between June 28 and July 18, 2021, researchers interviewed
1,766 adults ages 18 or older via telephone.
Among the
survey respondents, 45 percent said that access to technology, including
broadband and computers, is a barrier to telehealth. These issues particularly
impacted rural residents and adults over the age of 65.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/patients-cite-privacy-cybersecurity-fears-with-vax-credentials
Patients Cite Privacy, Cybersecurity Fears with Vax Credentials
A new poll
shows that Americans have doubts about the cybersecurity of a digital vaccine
card.
By Lisa Gentes-Hunt
August 06,
2021 - American and British adults are fearful of using a digital,
COVID-19 vaccination card and vaccine credentials due
to privacy cybersecurity concerns, according
to results of an Anomali/Harris Poll.
The study
gathered responses from more than 2,000 American adults and more than 1,000
British adults.
The Harris
Poll found that three-quarters of those surveyed have cybersecurity fears of
using a digital vaccination card.
“A majority
of British and American adults predict that a disruptive cyberattack will
follow digital vaccine card adoption, but they differ in other areas, such as
confidence levels when it comes to how prepared each nation is to mount a
defense,” a press release on the findings notes.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/08/lancashire-and-south-cumbria-health-and-care-chooses-better-openehr/
Lancashire and South Cumbria Health and Care chooses Better openEHR
Lancashire
and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership has signed a deal for an openEHR
platform for its regional medicines record.
Andrea Downey
– 5 August, 2021
Using
Better’s openEHR and the Better Meds software solution, the agreement aims to
integrate services across the 1.8 million population it serves.
Lancashire
and South Cumbria Health and Care Partnership (HCP) will now be able to offer a
shared medicines record via a centrally managed system when a patient is
transferred to different health providers across the region.
The contract
is the first step in the region’s strategy to provide a consolidated medicines
record platform that is accessible by any authorised healthcare professional in
any of the region’s care settings.
Andrew
Thompson, acting digital health lead and chief technology officer at the HCP
said: “Like many developing integrated care systems, we have a range of
disparate data sets all over the region, embedded in different systems. This
makes it very hard for effective sharing of information and has the potential
for issues if a patient is transferred across care settings.
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https://medcitynews.com/2021/08/report-digital-health-tools-maturing-as-research-funding-grows/
Report: Digital health tools maturing as research, funding grows
Consumers
and benefits managers have a record number of digital health tools to choose
from, according to a new report by the IQVIA Institute for Human Data
Science.
By Elise Reuter
Aug 3, 2021
at 7:31 PM
As investors
pour record amounts of funding into digital health companies, consumers and
benefits managers have a growing number of apps to evaluate. A new
report by the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science puts this into
numbers.
The report’s
authors identified 150 digital therapeutics and digital care products that are
commercially available. The former includes software that can be prescribed
like medication, such as Akili’s
mobile game to improve attention in kids with ADHD, while the latter
includes programs to help people manage clinical conditions, such as
Omada’s digital diabetes prevention program.
The idea of
prescribing software is relatively new, and there are still lots of details to
iron out, such as payment models and payer coverage. But the companies
developing these tools are building out a growing body of evidence.
“We are
finding evidence of a growing maturity of digital health tools in mainstream
medicine,” Murray Aitken, executive director of the IQVIA Institute for Human
Data Science, said in a news release. “While there has been a significant
growth in apps and digital health tools since 2013, we are beginning to detect
improved quality of the digital health tools in the management of health
conditions.”
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https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/08/05/telehealth-rural-satisfaction-pandemic-study/4111628172973/
Aug. 5, 2021
/ 11:00 AM
Most in rural areas 'comfortable' with telehealth during pandemic, study
finds
Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Nearly 80% of people living in rural areas
who relied on telehealth to continue medical consultations during the COVID-19
pandemic were comfortable connecting with providers remotely, a study published
Thursday by JAMA Network Open found.
A
similar percentage would use the approach, which involves conducting
appointments by phone or using online video calling, again, even when the virus
is no longer a threat, the data showed.
People
in rural areas who found telehealth useful tended to be those with "higher
health literacy," meaning they were more knowledgeable about medical
problems and their own conditions, researchers said.
Those
people also had high-speed Internet access, which allowed them to use online
platforms to connect with care providers, the researchers said.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-automation-helping-reduce-clinician-burden
EHR automation is helping reduce clinician burden
At HIMSS21,
an informaticist at Greater Baltimore Medical Center will explain how AI-powered
documentation is enabling better patient outcomes and greater efficiency for
physicians.
By Nathan Eddy
August 06,
2021 03:37 PM
Regulatory
demands, quality reporting requirements, and value-based bundled payments have
prompted provider documentation initiatives to improve accuracy, yet these
programs often exacerbate the already enormous administrative burden on
physicians.
To
address both documentation accuracy and physician satisfaction, GBMC Healthcare
implemented a clinical decision support documentation improvement program that
uses artificial intelligence enabled clinical intelligence embedded into
speech-to-text dictation tools and EMR workflows.
Physicians
are offered automated clinical insights in real time as they document so the
complete patient story is captured.
Using
the robust capabilities of GBMC's EMR, the physician's documentation workflow
has been united with coding and other revenue integrity workflows to reduce
retrospective documentation queries and rework.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/how-data-analytics-helped-flag-pediatric-care-gaps-during-covid-19
How Data Analytics Helped Flag Pediatric Care Gaps During COVID-19
Data
analytics helped the hospital recognize a decline in well-child visits and
vaccination rates early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Erin McNemar, MPA
August 05,
2021 - As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world in 2020, hospitals
and providers had to determine a course of action to continue administering
quality care to their patients. At Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital,
data analytics indicated a decline in well-child and vaccination rates
beginning in March of 2020.
To address
COVID-19 concerns within Lurie Children’s clinically integrated network, Senior
Vice President, Chief Integration and Business Development Officer Scott
Wilkerson and Dr. Michelle Macy organized a COVID-19 weekly call.
Through the
weekly calls with physicians, it became clear that there was a substantial
decline in patients wanting to come to the office. Wilkerson said the hospital
then started pulling data using analytic
tools to verify what they were hearing in the calls. These analytic tools
were essential in creating a response plan.
“If you don't
have the analytics to show where you're at, you may not understand what's
happening out there in the market. We were able to use the analytics to show
there's been a big decrease, and then we quickly put together a response plan,
including communication, radio ads, other types of communication channels, to
respond to that,” Wilkerson told HealthITAnalytics.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/features/how-to-write-open-clinical-notes-for-a-good-patient-experience
How to Write Open Clinical Notes for a Good Patient Experience
Open
clinical notes that are empathic, informative, and rely on objective clinical
information are most likely to yield a good patient experience.
June 28, 2021
- There is a new compliance mandate in healthcare, one that despite all of
its good intentions for patients is leaving some providers worried about the
healthcare experience. Requirements for open notes and patient access to
clinical notes, as spelled out in the 21st Century Cures Act, are a new spin on
an on old philosophy leaving healthcare providers balancing clinical
documentation with a good patient experience.
Long before
it was a compliance issue, open
clinical notes was a key philosophy in the healthcare industry. The
practice’s main advocacy organization, OpenNotes, has been around for over a
decade, with the exercise of sharing open clinical notes
becoming particularly popular around the meaningful use days.
Meaningful
use, or the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs, asked healthcare
providers to enable patient data access, usually via a patient portal, as part
of regulatory compliance.
Although that
access did not pertain to open clinical notes specifically, it did spark a vast
movement toward patient engagement that largely hinged on transparency and
communication in healthcare.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/despite-high-spend-us-ranks-lowest-on-access-to-care-health-equity
Despite High Spend, US Ranks Lowest on Access to Care, Health Equity
The US
ranked last in health equity, access to care, and health outcomes, despite
spending the most on healthcare spending compared to other wealthy countries.
By Jill McKeon
August 05,
2021 - The United States ranked last in The Commonwealth Fund’s reported
measurements of health equity, access to care, administrative efficiency,
and healthcare outcomes compared to ten other wealthy nations.
This year’s
edition of The Commonwealth Fund’s annual “Mirror, Mirror” report assessed 11
similarly wealthy countries and compared 71 performance measures of healthcare systems
across five domains. The US ranked last in all except care process, where it
ranked second.
The US
achieved poor results in all but one category, despite the fact that it still
spends more of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare than any other
nation.
Norway, the
Netherlands, and Australia were the top-performing countries overall, followed
by the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Canada, and the
US.
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https://www.fastcompany.com/90658934/virtual-reality-covid-drugs
08-03-21
These scientists are using virtual reality to develop COVID-19 treatments
Looking at
molecules in 3D arms scientists with important information that’s hard to glean
from traditional 2D formats.
By Ruth Reader
Last year,
when Italy was under siege from COVID-19, scientists at Exscalate4Cov, a
public-private consortium of 18 institutions across Europe led by Italian
pharmaceutical company Dompé farmaceutici, had just begun the hunt to find a
therapeutic for COVID-19. Eight scientists, all located throughout Europe, met
in a virtual room to discuss potential molecules. Each scientist held up a 3-D
rendering of a molecule they simulated and walked the others through it. Inside
this space, scientists could together scour these molecules, pulling them
apart, enlarging them, and binding them to possible compounds. They asked each
other questions and on a virtual whiteboard, sketched out possibilities for
success and failure in each compound. This virtual setting also allowed them to
compare molecules side by side.
Armed with $3
million in funding from the European Union, the group crowdsourced suggestions
for treatments and analyzed those suggestions using supercomputers. By October
they had submitted their first candidate for a Phase III clinical trial in
Europe: a generic osteoporosis medication called Raloxifene.
The trial is
now completed. “We’re waiting for the final results, but we are very confident
on the possible success of the clinical trial,” says Andrea Beccari, lead
scientist at Exscalate and head of research and develop platforms at Dompé
farmaceutici. The outcome will not only determine whether Raloxifene will work
against COVID-19—but it could also inform new drug design.
To create a
new drug, scientists first look at how a disease enters human cells and then
engineer a mechanism for interfering with that infection. Traditionally,
they’ve done this on paper, sketching out proteins and simulating how a
molecule or compound might bind to it. Current software often doesn’t provide
enough visual landscape for scientists to understand the full scope of how
molecules, especially those with multiple binding sides, relate to one another.
That’s why Exscalate worked with a company called Nanome, which hopes to
accelerate drug development by giving scientists a way to visualize molecules
in three-dimensional space on an Oculus headset.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/healthcare-data-breaches-rise
Healthcare data breaches on the rise
The COVID-19
pandemic has presented a wide range of vulnerabilities for bad actors to take
advantage of, a new report shows.
By Kat Jercich
August 05,
2021 09:14 AM
An
identity breach report from the risk protection services vendor Constella
Intelligence found that the COVID-19 pandemic presented a variety of new ways
for bad actors to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the digital ecosystem.
The
2021 Identity Breach Report noted that, although the
healthcare sector did not make up a huge percentage of the analyzed data
breaches, the industry did experience a 51% increase in the total volume of
records exposed when compared with 2019.
"The
COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the fragility of our online
infrastructure," said Constella Intelligence CEO Kailash Ambwani in a
statement. "As people continue to rely on digital solutions and [work]
from home, both companies and individuals must take new precautions to protect
themselves from potential threat actors," Ambwani said.
WHY IT
MATTERS
For
the report, Constella analyzed a significant portion of the more than 8,500
breaches and leakages (representing nearly 12 billion records) it detected in
underground marketplaces in 2020.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/new-study-pitches-telehealth-as-safer-than-the-doctors-office
New Study Pitches Telehealth as Safer Than the Doctor’s Office
In a nod
to the value of telehealth in primary care, researchers have found that a
person visiting the doctor's office shortly after a visit from someone with the
flu has a much higher chance of getting the flu as well.
By Eric Wicklund
August 04,
2021 - A new study makes a strong case for telehealth as an alternative to
the doctor’s office, particularly during flu season.
Researchers
from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Harvard Medical
School and the university’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and athenahealth
have found that people who visit their doctor’s office after someone infected
with the flu has visited that office are much more likely to come down with the
flu themselves. That same increase wasn’t seen in people seeking treatment for
issues like urinary tract infections.
The study, published
this month in Health Affairs, suggests that primary care providers embrace
virtual visits as a means of reducing that chance of infection.
“It’s a
widely accepted fact that patients can acquire infections in hospital settings,
but we show that infection transmission can happen when you visit your doctor’s
office, too,” Hannah Neprash, an assistant professor at UM’s School of Public
Health and one of the study’s authors, said
in a news release issued by the university.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/patient-out-of-pocket-healthcare-costs-balloon-by-10-since-2020
Patient Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs Balloon by 10% Since 2020
Researchers
also estimated patient out-of-pocket healthcare costs could continue to grow
9.9 percent through 2026.
By Sara Heath
August 04,
2021 - Patient out-of-pocket healthcare costs are up 10 percent since last
year, with the net total of patient financial responsibility coming in around
$491 billion in 2021, according
to Kalorama Information.
What’s more,
the company estimated a 9.9 percent increase in out-of-pocket healthcare
spending through 2026, amount to some $800 billion in patient spending.
This growth
follows previous increases in out-of-pocket healthcare costs, the report
continued. In 1980, the average annual patient financial responsibility came in
at about $250 per patient. That figure ballooned to $1,650 by 2021, the
researchers said. That shakes out to cost increases between $40 and $50 each
year.
Healthcare
consumers have particularly felt this pinch as it relates to health payer
premiums, which the research firm said have in fact outpaced growth in overall
prices and worker earnings.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/combatting-social-determinants-of-health-with-policy-changes
Combatting Social Determinants of Health with Policy Changes
A new
report from Trust for America’s Health makes a case for using health
equity-focused policy interventions to combat social determinants of health.
By Jill McKeon
August 04,
2021 - Tackling care disparities and social determinants of health calls
for policy interventions centered on health equity, economic mobility, access
to care, affordable housing, safe learning environments, and health-promoting
excise taxes, according
to a new report from Trust for America’s Health.
Trust for
America’s Health, a non-partisan advocacy organization, outlined federal and
state-level policy recommendations in its report, all aimed at improving health
equity while reducing healthcare spending and care disparities.
"The
COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the role that social and economic
conditions play in health and gives policymakers an opportunity to build an
improved social supports and public health system," J. Nadine Gracia,
MD, MSCE, president and CEO of Trust for America's Health, explained in a press
release.
"Focusing
solely on individual behavior will not solve America's health crisis. Building
healthy and thriving communities and advancing health equity require improving
the social and economic conditions that shape health. Only then will everyone
have a fair and just opportunity to enjoy optimal health."
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/healthcare-data-breaches-most-common-threats-to-date-in-2021
Healthcare Data Breaches Most Common Threats to Date in 2021
A new
study reports an increase in data breaches in 2021.
By Lisa Gentes-Hunt
August 04,
2021 - Data breaches in the first six months of 2021 increased
slightly in the United States and healthcare data
breaches remain at the top of the most-breached sector list,
according to a new report.
Risk Based
Security released its 2021 data breach and vulnerability reports on August
4.
“Unfortunately, it’s
not surprising to see the Healthcare sector once again in the top position as
the most breached economic sector,” the report notes. “Healthcare has been at
or near the top of the chart since at least 2017.”
Inga Goddijn, executive vice president of
Risk Based Security, said in an interview
with HealthITSecurity that healthcare providers are an attractive
target for cyberattacks, which is dangerous for the industry.
The 2021 Mid Year Data Breach QuickView Report studied
1,767 publicly reported data breaches in the first half of 2021.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/while-revenue-jumped-10-q2-cerner-looks-to-slim-down-costs-by-cutting-jobs-offices
While revenue jumped 10% in Q2, Cerner looks to slim down costs by cutting
jobs, offices
by Heather Landi
Aug 2, 2021
7:45am
Reversing
four back-to-back quarters of decline, health IT company Cerner's top line
jumped nearly 10% to reach $1.46 billion in the second quarter, up from
$1.3 billion a year ago.
Despite the
revenue growth, the company's second-quarter net income plummeted 75% from
a profit of $134.7 million during the same quarter a year ago
to $32.7 million.
Cerner's
restructuring charges dragged on its margin during the quarter as the company
reported an operating margin of 3.4%, falling from 11% in the second
quarter of 2020. The expenses reflect impacts from employee separation costs,
an impairment related to sold properties and eliminating redundant
products, Chief Financial Officer Mark Erceg said during the company's second-quarter
earnings call Friday.
The company
incurred $54 million of employee separation costs due to a sizable reduction in
force and $68 million in costs related to the sale of one of its major
office campuses.
The company
laid off 500 employees in the quarter and eliminated 300 open positions, which
will result in $70 million in annualized savings, Erceg said.
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https://hai.stanford.edu/news/open-source-movement-comes-medical-datasets
The Open-Source Movement Comes to Medical Datasets
Hoping to
spur crowd-sourced AI applications in health care, Stanford’s AIMI center is
expanding its free repository of datasets for researchers around the world.
Aug 2, 2021
Edmund L.
Andrews
Medical
datasets can cost millions of dollars to acquire, which limits their use. A new
platform at Stanford AIMI will offer datasets at no cost. | Laurence
Dutton
In a move to
democratize research on artificial intelligence and medicine, Stanford’s Center for Artificial Intelligence in
Medicine and Imaging (AIMI) is dramatically expanding what is already the
world’s largest free repository of AI-ready annotated medical imaging datasets.
Artificial
intelligence has become an increasingly pervasive tool for interpreting medical
images, from detecting tumors in mammograms and brain scans to analyzing
ultrasound videos of a person’s pumping heart.
Many
AI-powered devices now rival the accuracy of human doctors. Beyond simply
spotting a likely tumor or bone fracture, some systems predict the course of a
patient’s illness and make recommendations.
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02108-2
NEWS
02 August
2021
A simple text has the power to increase COVID vaccinations
People who
received a short ‘nudge’ by mobile phone were more likely to get a jab than
were those who did not.
Max Kozlov
A short text
message reminding people to book a COVID-19 jab can boost vaccination rates by
several percentage points, according to a study of more than 90,000 people in
California.
A reminder
sent one day after individuals became eligible for the jab boosted appointments
and vaccination rates by 6 percentage points and roughly 3.6 percentage points,
respectively, compared with rates in a separate group that did not receive the
reminder, researchers report on 2 August in Nature1. A
second reminder to those who still hadn’t booked a vaccination appointment a
week later boosted appointments and jabs by another 1.7 and 1.1 percentage
points, respectively.
These small
gains, if applied to a large population, could speed up vaccinations for
millions of people, the authors say. “The most surprising thing is how powerful
such a low-cost intervention can be, and I don’t think we’re using it enough,”
says Daniel Croymans, a physician at UCLA Health, the health system affiliated
with the University of California, Los Angeles, and a co-author of the study.
Hesitancy
takes hold
Even in some
countries where vaccines are plentiful, public hesitancy
has stalled their uptake. And a partially immunized population is a fertile breeding ground
for new viral variants — some of which might eventually evade existing
vaccines.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/microsoft-requires-covid-19-vaccinations-person-work
Microsoft requires COVID-19 vaccinations for in-person work
The tech
giant follows Google and Epic, which have also rolled out their own vaccine
mandates over the past week.
By Kat Jercich
August 04,
2021 11:49 AM
This
week Microsoft announced that it would require all employees to be fully
vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to return to work in person.
The
tech giant also said it would push its return to in-office work back by nearly
a month, to October 4.
As
reported by the Seattle
Times, the company will "require proof of vaccination for all
employees, vendors, and any guests entering Microsoft buildings in the
U.S."
WHY IT
MATTERS
Microsoft
had originally planned to open its offices back to in-person work in July
before announcing two different delays.
Now,
in addition to the new October reopening, it says caregivers of
immunosuppressed people or children who are too young to receive a vaccine can
continue to work from home until January.
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https://www.idgconnect.com/article/3627238/canada-emerging-as-global-hub-for-healthcare-ai.html
Canada emerging as global hub for healthcare AI
There are
growing signs that Canada is emerging as a global hub of expertise in AI for
medicine and healthcare applications. A number of innovative projects and
technologies have been launched in this area in recent months – and several
observers predict there is considerable potential for continued expansion.
By Andrew Williams
IDG Connect |
Aug 2, 2021 10:30 pm PDT
In recent
years, Canada has nurtured a strong reputation as a global centre for AI
research and development and cemented its position as a pioneer in this area
through the establishment of world-renowned centres of excellence such as MILA
and AMII, as well as the Vector Institute in Toronto. Building on this success,
there are now growing indications that the country is also becoming a global
leader in AI for medicine and healthcare applications.
A great deal
of this progress is being spearheaded by universities, through initiatives like
the recently established Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research
and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM). As Muhammad Mamdani, Director at T-CAIREM
and professor at the University of Toronto, which hosts the Centre, explains,
the Centre aims to: establish a leading education program in applied artificial
intelligence for medical and health science professionals; create a robust
health data environment ‘enabling timely access to high quality health data to
fuel innovation and quality improvement and support education programs’; and
foster multidisciplinary, collaborative research in artificial intelligence in
medical and health sciences and ‘encourage clinical translation.’ In moving
towards these goals, T-CAIREM has three themes - Education, Research, and
Infrastructure - each linked to a range of key outputs (see Table 1).
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-clinician-engagement-can-fuel-ehr-implementation-success
How Clinician Engagement Can Fuel EHR Implementation Success
Strong
executive and clinician engagement in health IT design and EHR implementation
helps mitigate clinician burnout, MEDITECH CEO says.
By Hannah Nelson
August 02,
2021 - With 32 years of health IT experience under her belt, Michelle
O’Connor, MEDITECH president and CEO, has found the secret sauce to EHR
implementation success: clinician engagement.
A
well-crafted EHR implementation project plan should engage physicians from the
early stages of the health IT’s design to its eventual rollout, O’Connor told
EHRIntelligence.
Insight from
practicing physicians is extremely valuable, O’Connor noted, as it helps ensure
that the EHR system is designed in a way that is beneficial to end-users.
While EHR
systems aim to aid clinicians in providing streamlined care, research has
revealed that the health IT can lead to clinician
burnout. Usability issues may include burdensome EHR documentation
processes, cluttered interfaces, or a high number of EHR alerts.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/population-health-covid-19-vaccine-rates-impacted-by-racial-disparities
Population Health, COVID-19 Vaccine Rates Impacted by Racial Disparities
To protect
population health and eliminate racial disparities, children in diverse
communities should have equal access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
By Erin McNemar, MPA
August 03,
2021 - Researchers have determined that vaccinating children ages 12 and
older is a critical component of protecting population health against future
COVID-19 surges. However, data shows that racial disparities could exist among
children, further creating health inequality.
On May 10,
2021, children ages 12 and older became eligible for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
As of July 26, more than 5.6 million 12-15-year-olds (37 percent) and 3.6
million 16-17-year-olds (48 percent) received at least one dose of a COVID-19
vaccine.
However,
there is little to no data reflecting vaccination rates among children in racial/ethnic
populations, especially troublesome as children return to school in the
fall.
While the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not publicly released data
on the racial/ethnic composition of individuals vaccinated by age, some states
are reporting their own data.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/amga-patient-data-access-rules-may-tarnish-patient-experience
AMGA: Patient Data Access Rules May Tarnish Patient Experience
The group
said ONC should allow for a 24- or 72-hour grace period for patient data access
and test result access to allow for patient-provider communication.
By Sara Heath
August 03, 2021
- The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) may consider
amending its information blocking rules to allow providers to delay patient
data access and test result access by 24 to 72 hours in an effort to preserve a
good patient experience, according
to AMGA.
These
comments come after healthcare professionals have had a few months to get used
to the information
blocking provisions, created as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. The
provisions require healthcare providers to offer immediate patient data access
and access to open clinician notes. ONC said this will improve patient
engagement and transparency in medicine.
AMGA said it
agrees with those principles, but in practice the rule has caused rifts in the
patient-provider relationship. Particularly, the point of contention comes when
a patient gets a test result before her clinician can explain that result to
her in person or at least via telehealth.
“AMGA
strongly supports information sharing and the need for patients to have quick
access to test results and other clinical findings,” AMGA President and CEO
Jerry Penso, MD, MBA, said in a public
statement. “The problem with ‘immediate resulting’ is that patients are
learning about cancer diagnoses or other serious conditions from a computer,
not a person. The rules unintentionally are favoring speed over compassion.”
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/health-it-security-challenges-persist-for-hospital-systems
Health IT Security Challenges Persist for Hospital Systems
Cybersecurity
remains a challenge for healthcare systems.
By Lisa Gentes-Hunt
August 03,
2021 - Basic health IT security
and cybersecurity remain a struggle for many healthcare systems
in the United States, according to a new report.
The “Maturity
Paradox: New World, New Threats, New Focus,” report, published
by CynergisTek on July 28, states that “most
hospitals critically lack the ability to secure their supply chain
systems.”
CynergisTek,
a cybersecurity consulting firm, reviewed just under 100 assessments of
healthcare providers, including hospitals, physician
ractices, accountable care organizations (ACOs), and business associates, according
to a press release on the report.
“These
assessments measure organizations’ security posture against the
National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (NIST
CSF), a standardized framework first published in 2014 intended to help protect
American critical infrastructure,” it stated.
The fourth
annual report stated that supply chain management was
the second-lowest scoring assessment it examined.
-----
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/ai-quantum-computing-and-other-technologies-poised-transform-healthcare
Aug 02 2021
AI, quantum computing and other technologies poised to transform
healthcare
One of the
big factors accelerating technological innovation is the healthcare workforce,
which has been stressed during the pandemic.
Jeff Lagasse,
Associate Editor
The COVID-19
pandemic has created numerous challenges in healthcare, but challenges can
sometimes breed innovation. Technological innovation in particular is poised to
change the way care is delivered, driving efficiency in the process. Efficiency
will be key as hospitals and health systems look to recover from the initial,
devastating wave of the pandemic.
Ryan Hodgin,
chief technology officer for IBM Global Healthcare, and Kate Huey, partner at
IBM Healthcare, will speak about some of these technological innovations in
their digital HIMSS21 session, "Innovation Driven Resiliency:
Redefining What's Possible."
The
technology in question can encompass telehealth, artificial intelligence,
automation, blockchain, chatbots, apps and other elements that have become
mainstays of healthcare during the course of the pandemic.
In a way,
science fiction is becoming science fact: Technologies that were once in the
experimental phase are now coming to life and driving innovation, particularly
quantum computing. The power of quantum computing has the potential to
transform healthcare just by sheer force of its impressive computational power.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/epic-launch-epicshare-himss21
Epic to launch EpicShare at HIMSS21
The EHR
vendor will also feature updates from its Epic Health Research Network, along
with focuses on interoperability, patient access, population health and
analytics.
By Kat Jercich
August 02,
2021 02:34 PM
Epic
will launch EpicShare, aimed at providing a space for decision-makers to learn
and share tips about health IT, at the 2021 HIMSS Global Health Conference and
Exhibition in Las Vegas this year.
The
new site, available at EpicShare.org, is intended to offer insights and details
on healthcare organizations' experiences so that other groups can replicate
what works well.
"Every
day we hear about the impressive ways healthcare organizations use technology
to improve health outcomes for patients, strengthen their communities, and
reduce the cost of care," said Eric Helsher, vice president of customer
success at Epic.
The
site will also include editorials from executives, curated news articles and
stories from Epic CEO Judy Faulkner.
"EpicShare
brings the best of these strategies and insights together every week so that
healthcare leaders can learn from each other and replicate successful
approaches," Helsher added.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cb-insights-report-global-telehealth-investment-still-rise
CB Insights report: Global telehealth investment is still on the rise
Researchers
found a 169% year-over-year increase in global telehealth investment, with the
top five deals alone worth $1.5 billion.
By Kat Jercich
August 03,
2021 03:42 PM
A
new report from CB Insights found that global telehealth investment rose for
the fourth consecutive quarter in Q2 of 2021 – with teletherapy deals
representing a substantial share.
The
State
Of Telehealth report found that much of the growth was pushed by
accelerating digital transformation initiatives, as well as patient experience
prioritization.
At
the same time, stakeholders and thought leaders voiced concerns about health
inequity, and lobbyists mounted the pressure for long-term regulatory reform.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The
telehealth train has continued to chug along, despite dire warnings from health
advocates about what might happen if the public health emergency expires
without any action from Congress.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/surescripts-event-notification-ehr-integration-targets-coordination
Surescripts Event Notification EHR Integration Targets Coordination
New event
notification EHR integrations from Surescripts are set to boost
provider-to-provider communication for enhanced care coordination.
By Hannah Nelson
August 02,
2021 - Surescripts has announced
the launch of new health IT solutions that aim to improve patient follow up,
medication adherence, and care coordination through electronic health record
(EHR) event notifications.
Surescripts’
new Care Event Notifications EHR integration alerts providers of patient
hospital admission, discharge, or transfer (ADT).
Additionally,
an enhanced Medication History for Populations service now includes
patient notifications to allow providers, including care managers, to reach out
to patients experiencing gaps in care, significant care events, or medication
adherence issues.
The health IT
tool also offers updates for certain prescription activities. For instance,
providers are alerted within their EHR system if a patient does not pick up
their prescription,, if no refills remain, or if a different provider
prescribes a new medication to the patient.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/what-are-the-benefits-of-predictive-analytics-in-healthcare
What Are the Benefits of Predictive Analytics in Healthcare?
How
providers can use predictive analytics to enhance healthcare by assisting in
decision-making, improving patient outcomes, and providing relief for
healthcare workers.
By Erin McNemar, MPA
August 02,
2021 - Through the implementation of artificial intelligence, predictive
analytics in healthcare has served as a critical component of advancing care
and improving outcomes.
With the
assistance of predictive analytics, physicians have used the system to aid in
the medical decision-making process and to evaluate big data efficiently. By
integrating predictive analytics into the healthcare system, providers have
seen benefits for both themselves and patients.
Decision-Making
Process
Predictive
analytics has proven to be a significant asset in the medical decision-making
process. Patients respond differently to all types of treatment, especially
chronic diseases. University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers are
creating a blood
test that can predict if a certain treatment method for HPV-positive throat
cancer is working months earlier than standard imaging scans.
"Currently,
the only way doctors know if a treatment is working is for the patient to get
an imaging scan every few months to see whether their tumors are
shrinking," oncologist Paul Swiecicki, MD said in a press
release.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/giant-sucking-sound-digital-health-consolidation
The 'giant sucking sound' of digital health consolidation
The ongoing
wave of mergers and acquisitions makes sense for startups and their VC backers.
What does it mean for CIOs at their health system customers?
By Paddy
Padmanabhan
August 02,
2021 11:15 AM
Ross
Perot may have popularized the term during his unsuccessful presidential bid in
the nineties as a reference to the adverse effects of NAFTA on American jobs,
but "giant sucking sound" may be an apt metaphor today for
the rapid consolidation of digital health companies.
Recent
reports indicate explosive growth in venture capital funding for digital health
startups, around $15 billion for the first half of 2021, with no slowdown
in sight. The story from the other side is that these same startups are exiting
through liquidity events at an equally fast clip.
Amwell's
announcement of the acquisition of two digital health companies is the latest
in a series of M&A moves that have continued to accelerate since Teladoc
and Livongo merged last year in an $ 18.5 billion deal.
On
the face of it, the two companies are in unrelated spaces. Silver Cloud is a
behavioural health company that has developed digital care models equivalent to
face-to-face encounters. Conversa is a chatbot technology company that uses
conversational interfaces for digital pathways to support a wide range of
clinical needs – from pre-admission patient education and preparedness to
post-acute monitoring and chronic care management.
-----
https://histalk2.com/2021/07/30/weekender-7-30-21/
Weekly News Recap
- HIMSS21 attendees will be required
to wear masks following CDC’s updated guidance and state and local
emergency orders.
- Two HIMSS21 exhibitors announce that
they have decided not to participate based on COVID conditions in Las
Vegas.
- Cerner’s Q2 revenue and earnings
beat Wall Street expectations.
- Avera Health sells its 230-employee
telemedicine services company to a private investment firm.
- Amwell acquires a digital mental
healthcare company and an automated virtual care vendor for a combined
$320 million.
- England’s System C acquires
medication management vendor WellSky International and renames it CareFlow
Medicines Management.
- Clinical data and genomic platform
vendor Sema4 goes public via a SPAC merger at a valuation of $3 billion.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
