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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How HIEs Help Hit Healthcare Compliance, Cost Savings Goals
Health information exchanges could be the key to solving interoperability challenges and achieving a nationwide infrastructure of health data exchange.
August 13, 2021 - Widespread interoperability for health information exchange (HIE) could revolutionize the medical industry through enhanced care coordination, diminished clinician burnout, and increased access to data for medical research and analytics.
However, making healthcare data interoperable across a nation of hundreds of thousands of disparate care organizations is no easy feat. HIEs may help simplify the goal of national interoperability.
An HIE is an organization that helps disparate providers electronically share patient data to deliver more coordinated, patient-centered care.
Statewide and regional HIEs that facilitate standardized data exchange between care organizations should make national interoperability more attainable, as they help break down the challenge into smaller, more manageable pieces.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/how-health-facilities-can-prevent-mitigate-ransomware-in-2021
How Health Facilities Can Prevent, Mitigate Ransomware in 2021
Ransomware is continuing to impact the healthcare industry, which has seen a rise in cyber-attacks since the start of the pandemic.
August 13, 2021 - The healthcare industry continues to battle a surge in ransomware and cyber-attacks, which have increased in recent years and spiked since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ransomware is defined a type of malicious software (also called malware) with a specific characteristic of seizing and encrypting a user’s data with the threat to steal/destroy/publish it unless a ransom payment is made, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Typically, the criminal hacker requests payment by cryptocurrency in order for the user to receive access to the stolen data.
A total of 560 healthcare providers experienced a ransomware attack in 2020, according to a Sophos survey.
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NHSX launches national survey to better understand EPR usability
NHSX has launched a national survey to better understand the usability of electronic patient records.
Andrea Downey – 12 August 2021
The survey aims to gather information on how electronic patient records (EPRs) are performing across the country, including how they are used by clinicians and end users.
Through gaining a better understanding of where EPRs are performing well, and where they can be improved, NHSX hopes to develop their useability and adoption throughout the health service.
NHSX has contracted US research organisation KLAS Research to conduct the survey. A further wave of the survey, launching later in the year, will look at the experience of a wider range of health professionals working in the acute sector.
The survey will contribute to the first part of evidence being gathered to support the What Good Looks Like framework, NHSX’s common vision for good digital practice set to be published later this summer.
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HIMSS21 Roundup—Cyberattacks hit mid-size hospitals hardest; CIOs share tips on digital transformation
Aug 13, 2021 11:30am
Report: Cyberattacks are hitting mid-size hospitals hardest
About 48% of hospital executives say their organization had a forced or proactive shutdown during the last six months due to outside attacks or queries, according to a new industry survey from cybersecurity firm CyberMDX and Philips.
The report, highlighted in a HIMSS21 presentation and now available online, suggested that midsized hospitals are being hit harder than their larger counterparts.
Specifically, those from hospitals with 1,000 or more beds reported an average device shutdown time of 6.2 hours at a cost of $21,500 per hour. For midsize hospitals (less than 1,000 beds), those numbers ballooned to an average 9.8 hours and a shutdown cost of $45,700 per hour.
Relatively few of the respondents, about one in 10, said that cybersecurity was a high-priority spend for their hospital IT team. A little under half said their organizations could use more staff focused on medical device and IoT security.
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https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/956428
'You Have Cancer': When the Computer Pre-empts the Doctor
Sharon Worcester
August 11, 2021
Now that patients in the United States have immediate access to their electronic medical records, they can read test results that mean cancer before their doctor has had a chance to talk to them.
This is what happened to Justin Maykel, MD. When he phoned a patient to personally share some unfortunate biopsy results that he received that day, he was shocked to find that his patient had already been notified of the findings.
Maykel vented on Twitter:
Called a patient today to tell them their colonoscopy biopsies showed cancer. Patient already knew — got an automated alert earlier in the day and read the results on the online medical record. At home, alone.
This new law granting access to test results is a BIG problem.
He was referring to the portions of the 21st Century Cures Act that ensure patient access to certain medical records, except in cases where a patient might be harmed by access to the information.
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Roundup: NZ Health Ministry replaces health system targets with latest indicators, Peninsula Health goes to cloud with Citrix and more briefs
Also, Australian health IT provider Healthsite adds Tyro's payment service to its online booking system.
By Adam Ang
August 13, 2021 03:00 AM
NZ's Health Ministry introduces health indicators for better care delivery
New Zealand has launched a new system that will hold its health system accountable and focus on areas of improvement.
The Health System Indicators replaces the National Health Targets which was retired in 2018 after over a decade of implementation. It was found that the previous health targets have led to "perverse" outcomes as some hospitals were only driven to meet them without actually providing services that the people needed or wanted.
Following consultations with clinicians, the Ministry of Health and the Health Quality and Safety Commission developed the framework to help the health system focus on areas of improvement.
The health indicators will not be a performance metric of a public health service but a measure of "how well the health system is functioning as a cohesive unit," said Health Minister Andrew Little in a speech delivered to the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Conference 2021.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/himss21-micky-tripathi-weighs-about-what-expect-onc
At HIMSS21, Micky Tripathi weighs in about what to expect from ONC
The national coordinator for health IT laid out some of ONC's priorities under the Biden-Harris administration and explained why he thinks "info blocking" needs a rename.
August 13, 2021 11:20 AM
LAS VEGAS - At a recent HIMSS21 session, National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi laid out some of ONC’s priorities under the Biden-Harris administration, as well as discussing some specifics of the recently imposed information-blocking regulations.“What are the things we want to accomplish?” he asked. “Well, we certainly want a health IT system that directly serves patients, providers, payers and public health workers. We want a platform-based business and technical model that allows for a rich and private technology ecosystem and complements the EHR systems that are in place today.
"We want health information networks that operate in the background to make basic clinical data available universally across the continuum in a commoditized, i.e. low-cost, high-consistency, way. And we want systems that help us identify health inequities and facilitate interventions that prevent such inequities from further turning into healthcare disparities," he continued.
ONC intends to use a number of levers to accomplish this goal, including regulation like the Cures Act, but also convening the industry to collaborate and, if necessary, nudge it along from the bully pulpit.
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Is it Time to Lean into Fax for Provider-Provider Interoperability?
August 13, 2021
There is a lot of valuable information lying dormant in paper and electronic documents in healthcare. Although EHRs have almost eliminated the use of paper charts, the same cannot be said for faxes. Fax continues to be a common method for sharing health information between providers. Thankfully there are tools and technologies that can unlock the value in those faxes.
Fax is Not Going Away
At the recent #HIMSS21 conference, a panel discussed faxes, optical character recognition, artificial intelligence (AI) and strategies to unleash the value of these unstructured data sources. The panel featured:
Therasa Bell, President and CTO at Kno2
Frank Toscano, Head of Product Management at Consensus Cloud Solutions
Karim Galil, CEO at Mendel Ai
Michael Marchant, Director – System Integration & Health Information Exchange at C. Davis
The panel kicked off with some very interesting statistics from a survey conducted by Consensus about the use of fax. When healthcare providers were asked why they still use fax, here were the results:
46% said it was required by the recipient
46% because it was convenient/easy
45% because it was secure
44% liked it because the ability to confirm delivery
34% said it was reliable
I was a bit surprised that “Because every provider is capable of receiving a fax” wasn’t on the list…but maybe it wasn’t an option on the survey.
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Apple Aims to Push More Patient Data to Doctors. But Who Can Gauge Its Impact on Health?
Analysis | By Kaiser Health News | August 12, 2021
While some doctors appreciate seeing records of home-monitored blood pressure, exercise and the like between visits, for others the data is more of a burden than an asset.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Apple says patients will be able to send them tracked data like heart rate, sleep hours, exercise minutes, steps, falls or menstrual cycle history.
· Some see great promise in building "pipes" between a patient's phone and the health records viewed by their clinicians.
· But Apple's announcement was shrouded in ambiguity and short on particulars.
· The company would not provide a complete list of the data patients can share with doctors and declined to comment.
· Previous Apple moves to get more data into the hands of doctors have been announced with great fanfare, but questions remain as to how many healthcare providers are using the data .
This article was published on Thursday, August 12, 2021 in Kaiser Health News.
By Sarah Kwon
Soon, Apple announced recently, it will enable doctors to monitor health data from their patients' phones and watches between visits, part of the push into healthcare that Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, has declared will constitute the company's greatest contribution to mankind.
Since 2014, health systems around the country have partnered with Apple to tap into the mountains of data the company's devices generate from patients. But most are still experimenting with these tools. While some doctors appreciate seeing records of home-monitored blood pressure, exercise and the like between visits, for others the data is more of a burden than an asset.
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Virtual Care Platforms Are Becoming Less Complex, But More Complete
Buoyed by their popularity during the pandemic, connected health companies are adding new features onto virtual care platforms to allow more collaboration between patients and providers.
August 11, 2021 - Telecommunications companies that pivoted to telehealth during the pandemic are now integrating new services into the platform to support virtual care and remote patient monitoring.
The latest to do so is BlueJeans Telehealth, which was acquired by Verizon in 2020 and fine-tuned to support HIPAA-compliant virtual visits. The company announced an integration this week with the Apple Health platform, giving providers the opportunity to connect with a patient’s mHealth device and view such data as hart rate, ECG, sleep patterns and activity.
“By empowering patients to share this level of contextual information directly into the BlueJeans Telehealth visit, we are enabling patients and healthcare providers to have more meaningful conversations and successful virtual consultations that can lead to better patient outcomes,” the company said in a press release.
The announcement builds out a telehealth platform that has been popular during the pandemic, when providers sought to shift in-person visits to online platforms. Many telehealth companies touted the value of their platforms during the height of the public health emergency, while others like Verizon, Google, Microsoft and Zoom looked to bolster their platforms to support healthcare uses.
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https://www.statnews.com/2021/08/05/artificial-intelligence-rare-disease-andp-medikanren/
With a nudge from AI, ketamine emerges as a potential rare disease treatment
By Katie Palmer
Aug. 5, 2021
In the seven difficult years since their son Mateo was diagnosed with a rare disease, Victoria Malvagno and Frank Solorzano have been waiting for medicine to catch up with their lives.
Doctors tested Mateo for hundreds of conditions before they finally determined he was one of only a few hundred people in the world with a neurodevelopmental condition called ADNP syndrome. Even with a diagnosis in hand, just getting through each day has been a full-time job. Mateo communicates mostly nonverbally, and his parents must constantly be on alert to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. For years, they have muddled through managing his many symptoms piecemeal, because there’s no treatment approved for the rare genetic disease.
But in 2019, a breakthrough came — not from a doctor’s office, or a drug company, or another battery of tests. It came from an artificial intelligence system. The tool, called mediKanren, scanned millions of biomedical abstracts hunting for relationships between existing compounds and the gene involved in the disease.
In seconds, it pinpointed an unexpected target: ketamine.
Ketamine’s history as a recreational drug might make it seem a dubious candidate to treat a rare disease in children. But it has long been approved as an anesthesia drug in kids and adults, and researchers were finalizing its approval as a treatment for major depression. The AI suggested it could be repurposed to fight a new foe — a strategy researchers hope will bear fruit for many untreated rare diseases.
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HHS 'making progress' on disincentives for providers found info blocking, ONC head says: HIMSS21
Published Aug. 10, 2021
Dive Brief:
- Regulators have yet to determine an appropriate punishment for providers found blocking the free flow of information between disparate systems, but "that work is now well underway," according to Micky Tripathi, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
- The 21st Century Cures Act passed in 2016 said regulators could fine up to $1 million per information-blocking incident, but left it up to the secretary of HHS to define exact punishment. "Unfortunately, not only have such disincentives not been identified, there was no process in place to see how they be defined," Tripathi said, speaking virtually on Tuesday at HIMSS' annual healthcare conference in Las Vegas.
- HHS has formed a workgroup to talk about defining appropriate disincentives, but Tripathi declined to share more detail on its timeline, though he's previously said disincentives would be codified by the end of 2021. An ONC spokesperson declined to comment if that timeline still held, or provide specifics on what members or stakeholders comprised the disincentives workgroup.
Dive Insight:
ONC's top five priorities right now are the COVID-19 response and supporting public health, aligning with federal partners, working to improve health equity, improving EHR and interoperability standards adoption and renewing emphasis on implementing the 21st Century Cures Act, Tripathi said.
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HIMSS21: Hospitals, payers and startups clamoring to be 'digital front door,' and it's overwhelming patients
by Dave Muoio
Aug 10, 2021 3:20pm
Whether it’s a patient app, symptom checker, digital concierge services or a telehealth platform, there’s little shortage when it comes to options for a "digital front door" in the modern healthcare landscape.
Particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing, nearly every healthcare organization is developing or adopting new digital tools to facilitate a smoother patient experience and encouraging other healthcare stakeholders to do the same.
“Everybody who is not investing in a digital front door right now—or [not] investing in the tools that will be covering experience from the patient side and the clinician side—are potentially creating a lot of friction for the future,” said Yauheni Solad, M.D., medical director of digital health and telemedicine at Yale New Haven Health, at the 2021 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Global Conference in Las Vegas.
While one might be hard-pressed to find experts at HIMSS21 or any other health tech industry event that would argue the contrary, some stakeholders are calling for a more tactical approach to deployment. They say the deluge of near-equivalent digital tools has reached the point where it is often harming the patient—or healthcare consumer—experience.
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HIMSS21 Roundup—Epic rolls out customer story-sharing site; Young inventor's advice for health tech innovators
Aug 11, 2021 6:00pm
Epic launches learn-and-share platform for health IT leaders
Health IT giant Epic launched a new customer story-sharing website that lets Epic users share insights, tips and creative ideas around using health IT to improve their organizations and patient care.
The site, EpicShare.org, combines insights from industry leaders, quick tips on improving outcomes and performance, in-depth case studies as well as a "Hey Judy" column from Epic founder and CEO Judy Faulkner.
"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 in a statement. "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."
Through the site, health IT leaders can post articles that describe how organizations improve care and reduce costs with healthcare IT, so others can learn from their experiences and replicate their outcomes. Users also can provide insights on using health IT to address common challenges.
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Visual App Development Combats Technical Debt in Healthcare
Analysis | By Scott Mace | August 11, 2021
Humana deploys testing app in a single month that would have taken months under previous agile hand-coding methods.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· Self-documenting method allows software projects to progress on more predictable schedules.
· First app at Humana replaced cumbersome call center spreadsheet attempting to track thousands of testing sites.
· Survey of 521 IT decision-makers found they devote 28% of IT budgets to the kind of technical debt visual methods were built to alleviate.
The treacherous world of application development has swallowed many IT budgets, inside and outside of healthcare. For decades, as modern applications evolved, IT shops were restrained by the abilities of teams of developers hand-coding applications, until a new term emerged—"technical debt"—described as the ever-widening gap between software requirements, and the ability of IT shops to fulfill those requirements.
An application development executive at health insurer Humana thinks the payer has discovered a better way, one that draws down the technical debt in the process.
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/national-survey-gives-telehealth-good-reviews
National Survey Gives Telehealth Good Reviews
Analysis | By John Commins | August 10, 2021
While 80% of respondents said their primary care health issues were resolved using telehealth, accessing virtual care remains a challenge for the elderly and rural patients.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· One-third of adults surveyed reported having a telehealth visit for themselves or a dependent in 2020, with Medicare beneficiaries (44%) having the most visits.
· And while 80% of respondents said they were likely to use telehealth for routine and preventive healthcare during the ongoing pandemic, access challenges remain for the elderly and rural residents.
· More than nine in 10 respondents said they were satisfied with the audio and video quality of their telehealth, while older adults were more likely to use audio-only, telephone services
· More than half (55%) of Black respondents said they would likely use telehealth for a routine visit for a chronic illness compared to 45% of white respondents.
About 14% of respondents to a new the survey reported that access to telehealth kept them out of the emergency department.
The new national survey of 1776 people, conducted by telephone in June and July by the Bipartisan Policy Center and Social Sciences Research Solutions, also found that 80% of respondents had a primary care health issue resolved using telehealth.
"New telehealth flexibilities have allowed millions of Americans to access healthcare from home, and as our survey shows, telehealth has the potential to take non-emergency cases out of the emergency department," said Marilyn Serafini, BPC health project director.
"BPC encourages Congress to act swiftly to extend telehealth flexibilities beyond the public health emergency to study their impact on consumers, providers, and payers in a post-pandemic world," she said.
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How ePrescribing Interoperability Solutions Mitigate Clinician Burden
Upgrading antiquated faxing systems to interoperability solutions with ePrescribing capabilities mitigates clinician burden, says Surescripts VP.
August 10, 2021 - Andrew Mellin, MD, MBA, a VP and chief medical information officer at Surescripts, wants healthcare to get rid of its fax machines. The archaic technology, which he called a universal inbox, should instead be replaced by health data exchange and ePrescribing tools he said are well-positioned to cut clinician burnout and support value-based care efforts.
“In many places, fax is like a dumping ground for anything that possibly needs to be communicated with the provider office,” Mellin explained in an interview with EHRIntelligence.
This may include a mixture of critical lab results, status updates on specialty medication, and non-clinical items such as the menu from the restaurant down the street, he noted.
Physician offices must sort the information in the inbox and figure out who it should be distributed to. But this system is inefficient and leads to clinician burden, Mellin said, offering an example of how this affects provider offices.
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Zoom launches mobile browser beta release of its Zoom for Healthcare platform
Zoom said its new iOS mobile browser client beta release makes it easier for patients on Apple devices to connect with health providers over Zoom.
By Natalie Gagliordi for Between the Lines | August 9, 2021 -- 18:00 GMT (04:00 AEST) | Topic: Collaboration
Zoom on Monday announced the mobile browser beta release of its Zoom for Healthcare platform, a HIPAA-compliant update that aims to make Zoom's videoconferencing service compatible with telehealth requirements.
Zoom said its new iOS mobile browser client beta release makes it easier for patients on Apple devices to connect with health providers over Zoom.
Patients can join telehealth appointments directly from their mobile browser without downloading an app. Patients receive a Zoom meeting link from their provider via email or text, and can just click the link to launch the session when it's time for their appointment.
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https://journal.ahima.org/the-value-of-hies-from-the-primary-care-provider-perspective/
The Value of HIEs from the Primary Care Provider Perspective
By Chris Hobson, MD, and Allen Ausford, MD, FCFP
Like all aspects of the healthcare system, the day in the life of a primary care provider has evolved. Today, providers integrate many different technologies and tools into their practice to deliver care to enhance the experience for both themselves and their patients. These systems also help to tackle modern-day challenges. How do providers choose among these systems?
Over the last decade, health information exchanges (HIEs) have become a central part of many provider practices to electronically facilitate the secure exchange of a patient’s medical information across organizations. The value of HIEs continues to evolve and be more realized across the health system.
From a provider perspective, what value does an HIE bring?
How HIEs Lead Providers to Better Guide Care Decisions
Today’s clinical digital world incorporates several new concepts, including the new professionalism around the use of technology and sharing of information. The patient-centered medical home, a care delivery model whereby patient treatment is coordinated through the primary care physician, contributes to enhanced information sharing and improved facilitation of team-based care.
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https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RBA1402-1.html
Key Findings from RAND Health Care Research on Telehealth Policy
by Lori Uscher-Pines, Shira H. Fischer
August, 2021
Although virtual health care has been on the horizon for years, telehealth use exploded in the early days of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic—it increased by more than 4,000 percent in March 2020 over the previous year, by some measures (FAIR Health, 2020). Pre-pandemic policies regarding the specifics of telehealth service reimbursement, which had been in place to limit overspending and potential fraud, were temporarily waived to ease access to care during the public health emergency (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2021; Public Law 116-136, 2020). More recently, telehealth use has leveled off as in-person care has begun to resume. Policymakers and payers must decide which policy waivers should remain in place.
Telehealth use increased by more than 4,000 percent in March 2020 over the previous year.
RAND Health Care researchers have been using public and private data, such as data from health care claims, to understand telehealth's effect on health care delivery and how it affects care quality, access, equity, and costs. Researchers have also been working with an array of partners, including the National Institutes of Health, private payers, and telehealth services and app companies that work directly with patients to conduct studies to assess the impacts and effectiveness of particular services. Researchers have conducted randomized controlled trials and interviews and surveys of the general public, telehealth patients, and health care providers. This document synthesizes key findings from recent RAND research on telehealth.
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Giorgia Lupi - August 2021
Internet of Bodies: Our Connected Future
Giorgia Lupi's second visualization for RAND Art + Data focuses on the “Internet of Bodies” (IoB). This new category of technology has the potential to fundamentally transform our relationship with ourselves, our health, and others we interact with.
Lupi's goal is to educate the viewer about IoB technologies and their potential effects, while also “artistically evoking the future 'data ecosystems' that will surround us when these technologies are employed at huge scales.”
This visualization was inspired by the iconic 1977 film, Powers of Ten, created by legendary design duo Charles and Ray Eames. In that work, the viewer is taken on a journey from the smallest unit of life (a single cell) to viewing an entire galaxy, highlighting the interconnectedness of life on earth at all scales.
Lupi's piece raises similar questions about how perceptions of the human body will be transformed with and through IoB technology, which by definition is “smart” and wirelessly connected via the internet.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/what-weve-learned-so-far-covid-19-pandemic
What we've learned so far from the COVID-19 pandemic
Panelists joined HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf during the HIMSS21 opening keynote to emphasize the importance of breaking down healthcare silos and using technology with intention.
By Kat Jercich
August 10, 2021 11:04 AM
LAS VEGAS – HIMSS President and CEO Hal Wolf brought a message of guarded optimism to the HIMSS21 opening keynote on Monday night as he urged attendees to work together on addressing challenges prevalent throughout the healthcare industry.
"Our call to action has never been louder or had a greater need than right now," he said. "We all become part of one society to impact the global health ecosystem."
As Wolf pointed out, many of the issues facing healthcare systems globally – an aging population, geographic displacement, a lack of actionable information, funding models, staff shortages and shifting consumer demands – have only been made more complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Digital health is going to have to be used to conquer all of each of these challenges," he said.
Many of the experts who joined Wolf onstage seemed to agree – particularly when it came to shoring up public health tools, both in the United States and abroad.
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https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/health-it/the-heat-is-on-us-caught-fhir-in-2019
The Heat is On: US Caught FHIR in 2019
Steven Posnack and Wes Barker | July 29, 2021
In 2018, the United States was at a turning point with respect to the adoption and implementation of the Health Level Seven (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) standard in health information technology (health IT). At that time, our analysis, outlined in a previous blog post predicted that the U.S. could soon see widespread adoption of certified application programming interface (API) technology enabled with FHIR. The results are in, and the findings are encouraging.
The US is Catching FHIR
In 2018, we estimated that 87% of hospitals and 69% of clinicians possessed certified technology with a 2015 Edition version enabled with FHIR. These rates were not a prediction of who would adopt FHIR-enabled technology in 2019, but instead served as an estimated upper bound of who could upgrade their certified technology to a 2015 Edition version enabled with FHIR in 2019. Today, new analysis shows that the rates of observed technology adoption came very close to these estimates.
As of 2019, 84% of hospitals and 61% of clinicians adopted and implemented 2015 Edition certified API technology enabled with FHIR (see Table 1). We found that 97% of hospitals and 88% of clinicians whom we predicted in 2018 could adopt this technology did so in 2019.
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COVID-19 Boosts Health IT Adoption, Knowledge of Interoperability Rules
The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted health IT adoption and enhanced physician understanding of new HHS interoperability rules.
August 09, 2021 - The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated health IT adoption and physician understanding of new interoperability rules, according to results from a survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Google Cloud.
The June 2021 survey gathered responses from 300 physicians.
Almost half (45 percent) of respondents said that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated health IT adoption at their organizations. More specifically, 62 percent of physicians said that the pandemic forced their organization to make health IT advancements that would have normally taken years.
This is a massive shift in physician perception of health IT adoption rates compared to pre-COVID-19. More than half (53 percent) of physicians said that before the pandemic, their healthcare organization’s approach to health IT adoption would best be described as “neutral.”
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Implicit Bias in Medicine Resulting in Patient Care Access Barriers
Thirty-nine percent of patients experiencing implicit bias in medicine said they handled it by delaying healthcare access next time a need arose.
By Sara Heath
August 09, 2021 - Racial discrimination and implicit bias in medicine is affecting Black and Hispanic patients at rates three- and two-times more often than White people, and it’s coming to serve as a serious care access barrier, concluded a report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report found that 3.2 percent of patients of all races experienced some sort of unfair treatment in the medical setting. That figure came out to 7.7 percent of Black respondents and 5.2 percent of Hispanic respondents, signaling a racial bias permeating the healthcare industry.
And while there are moral issues as it relates to racial discrimination, the report found that implicit bias is having tangible consequences on health outcomes. Nearly three-quarters of those who said they experienced discrimination in the healthcare setting took action to mediate it, with 39 saying they handled it by delaying their medical care.
Postponing patient access to care can have downstream effects, like deteriorating chronic illness or delayed detection of new diseases. Ultimately, that limited care management and preventive care can result in more acute—and often life-threatening—episodes.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-sparks-upswing-in-healthcare-data-breaches
COVID-19 Pandemic Sparks Upswing in Healthcare Data Breaches
A new study cites the increase in health data breaches during the COVID-19 pandemic.
August 09, 2021 - The medical industry saw a spike in healthcare data breaches due to increased cyber vulnerabilities, according to a new report.
The 2021 Identity Breach Report, PII Fuelling the Threat Economy: How Crisis Creates Targeted Vulnerabilities for Individuals, Executives, and Brands, published by Constella Intelligence on July 30, found that the healthcare industry saw a 51% increase in breaches/leakages compared to 2019, according to a press release.
“Companies in the healthcare sector saw a 51% increase in the proportion of breaches and leakages in which their corporate credentials were exposed, as compared to last year’s report,” it states. “Due to their essential role, it has been well documented that healthcare companies and organizations are facing increased vulnerabilities amidst the global pandemic.”
Constella, a provider of digital risk protection, detected over 8,000 breaches containing over 12 billion records in 2020.
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GoodRx inks deal with Surescripts to provide information on cash prices for drugs
Aug 6, 2021 11:00am
GoodRx struck a deal with medication data giant Surescripts to provide doctors and clinicians with more information about the cash price of drugs at the point of care.
The partnership will significantly expand GoodRx's footprint as Surescripts has relationships with most electronic health record (EHR) vendors. The deal also expands the information healthcare providers have on cash pay drug pricing information.
GoodRx, which went public last year and raised $1.1 billion in its IPO, built an online platform that offers coupons for discounts on prescription drugs. The company has since expanded into telehealth services and free mail-order pharmacy delivery under its GoodRx Gold subscription service.
Earlier this year, GoodRx acquired competitor RxSaver for $50 million in cash, with an eye toward expanding its business capabilities and consumer reach, particularly with respect to its prescription offering.
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Allscripts reports double-digit growth in its Veradigm analytics business as it eyes potential M&A
Aug 9, 2021 10:55am
Health IT company Allscripts' data analytics business is ramping up, delivering double-digit gains in the second quarter of 2021.
The company's overall revenue was flat for the quarter, with a modest 1% bump from $369 million a year ago to $374 million, Allscripts announced in its second-quarter earnings report (PDF).
"Our revenue results, though, were really a tale of two different stories," said Rick Poulton, president and chief financial officer at Allscripts, during the second-quarter earnings call.
"In our core clinical and financial segment, revenue was essentially flat on both a year-over-year and sequential basis, and this continues to reflect a conscious effort on our part to boost gross margins by emphasizing quality of revenue and acceptable levels of client profitability," he said.
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TytoCare teams up with Epic to integrate remote monitoring data into patients' records
Aug 9, 2021 4:35pm
As part of the digital health boom, healthcare providers want to better integrate data from devices and remote patient monitoring platforms into patients' health records.
TytoCare, maker of an at-home medical exam and telehealth device kit, is stepping up its partnership with electronic health record giant Epic to enable providers to access device data directly within the EHR.
The integrated workflow enables health systems to easily access TytoCare-generated data in a patient's EHR and enables clinicians to access TytoCare exam data directly within Epic medical records software, according to company executives.
TytoCare's collaboration with the University of Miami Health System in June 2020 helped drive the Epic integration.
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Cerner, Jvion partner to power social determinants of health insights in EHR
- Friday, August 6th, 2021 Print | Email
Cerner is teaming up with Jvion to integrate the artificial intelligence company's social determinants of health insights into its products.
The partnership will provide Cerner's clients with an accurate way to identify and address social determinants and behavioral health risk factors. The insights will also offer context and clinical guidance to improve health outcomes, according to an Aug. 6 news release.
"We know the impact that social factors have on our health: from access to healthy food to social support networks to exposure to environmental toxins to the ability to take time off work to see a doctor," said John Showalter, MD, chief product officer at Jvion. "Yet care teams still struggle to identify — let alone address — how these social conditions impact the health of their communities."
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/john-halamka-4-big-challenges-ai-adoption-healthcare
John Halamka on the 4 big challenges to AI adoption in healthcare
At HIMSS21 Digital on Monday, the president of Mayo Clinic Platform said "augmentation of human decision making is going to be greatly beneficial" – but some hurdles need to be overcome first.
By Mark Klimek
August 09, 2021 10:03 PM
The promise of artificial intelligence and machine learning for healthcare delivery is bright – but significant challenges around bias, equity and information development and delivery still need to be addressed head-on for AI’s promise to become reality.
Speaking Monday at HIMSS21 Digital Dr. John Halamka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform, shared his insights about AI’s ability to improve health system efficiency, patient outcomes and physician workflows.
Additionally, he addressed the growing concern of AI bias and discussed the safeguards necessary to guarantee equity in AI-supported healthcare.
Halamka sees an environment in which AI provides large, diverse datasets of past patient information that physicians can leverage to augment their own personal experience and knowledge when treating patients.
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HIMSS21 tech news: Salesforce Health Cloud innovations; Vivify telehealth scheduling
New Salesforce "care from anywhere" innovations designed to improve patient access. Vivify Health offers new telemedicine automated CPT codes and video visit clinician scheduling.
By Bill Siwicki
August 09, 2021 10:56 AM
IT vendor Salesforce is rolling out new healthcare tools designed to help healthcare and life sciences organizations meet their patients, members and customers where they are to deliver the right care, at the right time, from anywhere.
These new tools, the company said, deliver stronger relationships across healthcare and life sciences organizations from anywhere, and by tapping into these innovations, organizations can streamline operations and, ultimately, drive better health outcomes.
In addition to already available offerings supporting access to care, scheduling and assessments, patient and member outreach, care coordination, and patient services, Salesforce is rolling out:
- Remote Patient Exception Monitoring for Health Cloud. This surfaces data and insights from connected devices directly within a single dashboard to help providers and care coordinators create a personalized connection with patients to better monitor health conditions, all without ever having to step foot into a provider's office.
- Intelligent Appointment Management for Health Cloud. This maximizes appointment scheduling efficiency by suggesting the right appointment for the patient at the right time – whether at home or in the office – to help reduce no-shows, administrative costs and time spent on calls with a scheduler.
- Medication Management for Health Cloud. This helps health systems, pharmacies, small practices, retail outlets and others manage medication lists, regardless of where care is accessed.
"For years, the healthcare system has struggled to catch up with the innovation we were seeing across other industries, but the pandemic forced us to accelerate digital transformation and provide the healthcare system with digital-first and always-on patient-focused solutions," said Kevin Riley, senior vice president and general manager of healthcare and life sciences at Salesforce.
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https://histalk2.com/2021/08/06/weekender-8-6-21/
Weekly News Recap
- Healthgrades sells its doctor marketplace and renames the remaining enterprise software business to Mercury Healthcare.
- Relatient raises $100 million and announces plans to merge with Radix Health.
- HIMSS21 remains on track for its Monday start, although minus some exhibitors that have cancelled their attendance plans.
- Allscripts announces Q2 results that beat Wall Street revenue and earnings expectations.
- Change Healthcare’s Q1 results beat revenue estimates, but fall short on earnings.
- Evolent Health will acquire Vital Decisions.
- Clarify Health acquires Apervita’s value optimization business.
- Renown Health gives a look at its new Transfer and Operations Center.
- Cerner’s Q2 results exceed Wall Street’s revenue and earnings expectations.
- Epic requires its Verona employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 1, with 97% of them already meeting that requirement.
- WellSky will acquire Healthify.
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Enjoy!
David.
