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.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/feds-gender-inclusive-ehr-data-standards-support-health-equity
Feds: Gender-Inclusive EHR Data Standards Support Health Equity
The implementation of gender-inclusive EHR data standards will help support health equity for gender-marginalized patients, according to ONC leadership.
October 29, 2021 - Gender-inclusive EHR data standards are essential for achieving health equity, Steven Posnack, deputy national coordinator for health IT wrote in a recent ONC HealthITBuzz blog post.
Posnack noted that in a field like healthcare where precision is vital, it is ironic how unstandardized and ambiguous EHR documentation practices are for sex and gender across the industry.
Misunderstanding the meaning, context, and expected use of sex and gender identity can significantly impact patient safety and care quality, Posnack pointed out.
“This ranges from missing preventative screening notifications to inaccurate reference ranges on lab tests, all the way to denied claims because the patient’s ‘administrative sex’ on the clinical side didn’t match their ‘gender’ on the health insurance side,” he said.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/42-of-healthcare-organizations-do-not-have-incident-response-plans
42% of Healthcare Organizations Do Not Have Incident Response Plans
Almost half of surveyed healthcare organizations have not implemented an incident response plan in preparation for a cyberattack, research shows.
By Jill McKeon
October 29, 2021 - Over 40 percent of surveyed healthcare organizations have not yet implemented an incident response plan to account for the constant threats of phishing, ransomware, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities that plague the industry, according to a report by Shred-it, a security service provided under Stericycle.
Despite half of healthcare organizations not having an incident response plan, healthcare was significantly more likely to have an incident response plan compared to every other surveyed industry, including finance, insurance, and real estate.
However, the healthcare sector faces a disproportionate number of data breaches and cyberattacks, which has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. In addition, the healthcare sector is unique in that patient safety is at stake if an organization is underprepared for a data breach.
“In 2020, there was a 73% increase in the number of confirmed data breaches in the healthcare industry,” the report stated.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/10/almost-28million-england-registered-nhs-login/
Almost 28million people in England are now registered with NHS login
Almost 28 million people – around half of the English population – have now registered with NHS login which aims to open up digital access to health and care services.
Cora Lydon 25 October 2021
The online service is managed by NHS Digital and gives registered users a secure single point of access to 45 apps and e-health services. Using just one email address and password, users can access services such as e-Referral, online pharmacies, Covid-19 support and advice, maternity and child health services plus services to monitor and improve health and wellbeing.
NHS login supports the NHS App, which is the most downloaded free app in England. It was the first app to go live within the NHS login and now has over 16million users. Through the NHS App users are able to order repeat prescriptions, book GP appointments and register their organ donation decision.
The NHS login service’s popularity grew during the Covid pandemic, as people moved to access digital content to self-manage their health needs. This was particularly noted when the Covid Pass was launched.
On 17 May the NHS Covid Pass was launched within the NHS App which coincided with around 245,000 people creating an account with NHS login.
-----
Sunak confirms £2.1bn for NHS technology for more ‘connected’ hospitals
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has confirmed £2.1billion for NHS IT upgrades and digital health technology in today’s budget.
Andrea Downey 27 October, 2021
The funding will cover “innovative use of digital technology so hospitals and other care organisations are as connected and efficient as possible”.
It is hoped the boost will improve efficiencies within the NHS to free up staff time to spend caring for patients.
Announcing the 2021 budget in the House of Commons today (October 27), Sunak said it was about “levelling up” the economy for an “age of optimism”.
“Today’s budget does not draw a line under Covid, we have challenging months ahead… but today’s budget does begin the work of preparing for a stronger economy post-Covid,” he said.
Sunak added the economy will be “fit for a new age of optimism – where the only limit to our potential is the effort we are prepared to put in and the sacrifices we are prepared to make”.
Specifically on healthcare funding, the budget confirmed a £44billion increase in health and care spending, taking total spending in the sector to £177billion, the largest since 2010 according to Sunak.
-----
Oct 25, 2021,08:45am EDT|1,256 views
Five Trends In Digital Health Transformation
Dr. Anita Gupta is a C-Suite Healthcare Executive Leader, Board Member, and Anesthesiologist. Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
We live in a digital age, so it’s not surprising that the healthcare industry follows suit. From the data-driven insights of wearables to mobile apps that help manage chronic conditions, it’s clear that technology is changing healthcare forever.
But what exactly are people getting their hands on? As a long-time public health physician and leader on digital transformation in healthcare, here are some of the most exciting trends in digital health that I see shaping the industry right now.
Consumer AI
Many health systems have already chosen to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their operations — and it’s not just for cost-saving purposes. With the help of AI, healthcare organizations can better tackle complex challenges related to population health management like declines in patient satisfaction, rates of readmission and rising costs of care.
Apart from this, consumer AI also has a significant role in improving the current state of healthcare. At home, for instance, AI can help patients better understand their symptoms and treatments by making personalized recommendations generated from an individual’s own unique biological data.
-----
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/95307
Pathologists Consider 'Workaround' So Patients Don't Freak Out Over EHR Bad News
— Doctors worry patients will misconstrue language or be psychologically harmed without guidance
by Cheryl Clark, Contributing Writer, MedPage Today October 28, 2021
Fearing that some patients might freak out after seeing bad news in their electronic health portals before their doctors have reviewed results, some pathologists have adopted creative strategies.
They're trying to get the lab report's bad news to the treating physician first.
"One workaround I've heard about is that the pathologist picks up the phone and calls the treating physician who will receive the results," before it becomes an electronic record, Emily Volk, MD, president of the College of American Pathologists, told MedPage Today.
"I know some practices are attempting to give the doctor a heads-up" when a specimen analysis shows spreading disease, so they can prioritize a phone call to that patient before the patient goes into that portal. Patients can misunderstand, become confused, or think the end is near.
-----
Prioritise digital healthcare from early life, says Lancet report
Greater demand for digital solutions in healthcare sector has been accelerated by COVID-19 pandemic.
October 29, 2021 09:49 AM
The Lancet and Financial Times Commission on governing health futures 2030: growing up in a digital world has placed children and young people centre stage of the report, as this demographic is seen as the most likely to have the highest exposure to digital technologies.There is an urgent need to orient digital health priorities towards the establishment of strong health and wellbeing foundations from an early age.
Addressing the role of digital technologies as determinants of health in early childhood was seen as crucial for reducing the social and economic burdens of disease in later life.
The report proposed several action areas, viewed as game changers in shaping health futures in a digital world.
-----
Machine learning can revolutionize healthcare, but it also carries legal risks
In a preview of the HIMSS Machine Learning & AI for Healthcare event, Carium general counsel Matt Fisher explains two areas of potential liability concerning artificial intelligence – and explains how healthcare organizations can protect themselves.
By Kat Jercich
October 29, 2021 09:05 AM
As machine learning and artificial intelligence have become ubiquitous in healthcare, questions have arisen about their potential impacts.And as Matt Fisher, general counsel for the virtual care platform Carium, pointed out, those potential impacts can, in turn, leave organizations open to possible liabilities.
"It's still an emerging area," Fisher explained in an interview with Healthcare IT News. "There are a bunch of different questions about where the risks and liabilities might arise."
Fisher, who is moderating a panel on the subject at the HIMSS Machine Learning & AI for Healthcare event this December, described two main areas of legal concern: cybersecurity and bias. (HIMSS is the parent organization of Healthcare IT News.)
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/security-automation-collaboration-prove-critical-for-healthcare
Security Automation, Collaboration Prove Critical For Healthcare
As cyberattack surfaces and scopes continue to grow, healthcare organizations must focus on security automation and collaboration to keep defenses up.
By Jill McKeon
October 28, 2021 - Siloed security teams, slow threat response, and avoidable data breaches are some of the main concerns of IT leaders today, but security automation and collaboration could ease these struggles, a survey conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Cyware found.
Forrester surveyed security decision-makers across the healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, government, and technology sectors. Over 70 percent of respondents reported that their teams need further access to threat intelligence, incident response data, and security operations data.
But 65 percent of respondents said they found it very challenging to provide security teams with cohesive data access.
Experts reported that a lack of collaboration, data silos within security teams, and difficulty unifying data access are major hurdles to achieving adequate cybersecurity architectures. Because of these difficulties, 60 percent of respondents experienced a slow threat response, and over 50 percent reported experiencing preventable data breaches and incidents caused by avoidable human error.
-----
Using revolutionary healthcare IT to achieve the Hippocratic Oath
Technology can enable organizations to recast a basic set of ethical and behavioral guidelines that are critical in today’s health ecosystem.
Oct 27 2021
Physician executive
Hippocrates will likely stand forever at the head of the medical profession, although very little of his original thought is genuinely extant. Even his greatest aphorism, do no wrong, is thought to be from the lips of Thomas Inman, a nineteenth-century English surgeon.
Although long in the tooth, the remark is exemplary, even if having been reappropriated by Google in its early days.
If Hippocrates lived today, I believe he would propound a basic set of ethical and behavioral guidelines — a code, if you will — by which healthcare ought to be practiced. The code is based on four simple tenets: quality and safety, access, outcomes, and the resulting cost of healthcare.
Every patient and every healthcare professional has these basic deliverables in mind for every patient transaction. Let us take a closer look at quality and safety, access, outcomes, and the resulting costs associated with twenty-first-century healthcare.
-----
Information blocking regs align with healthcare’s new path
ONC’s National Coordinator Micky Tripathi believes that ‘information sharing’ is the inexorable force that will power the industry in the next few years.
Oct 27 2021
When Micky Tripathi came to the lead role in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology earlier this year, it signaled a continuation of the push to advance the use of IT to improve healthcare delivery and consumer engagement.
He comes to the role with a long history of participating in efforts that enabled data to be exchanged – he most recently served as the project manager for the Argonaut Project, an industry collaborative to accelerate the adoption of FHIR, and a board member of HL7, the Sequoia Project, the CommonWell Health Alliance and the CARIN Alliance.
Tripathi heads ONC as the agency looks to implement provisions of the Cures Act Final Rule, widely known for its information blocking provisions. He wants to put a positive spin on the rules, preferring to call them information sharing regulations. Improving the flow of information will be important as patients seek more access to their medical information from providers to use as they choose.
In this two-part interview with Health Data Management Editor Fred Bazzoli, Tripathi discusses the challenges of the regulations and the rationale behind them.
-----
What the Facebook papers say about sourcing health information
By DARIUS TAHIR
10/27/2021 10:00 AM EDT
The Big Idea
WHEN THE WEB TRUMPS THE MD: It wasn’t long ago that doctors were almost the sole source for medical information. A diagnosis was the last word, second opinions were frowned upon and subtle bias seeped into decision-making.
The trove of documents collected by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen shows the extent to which the pendulum has swung away from physicians — and how the social media giant has become a hub of medical advice that frequently drowns out public health experts.
Patients now flock to groups to discuss their care, scour resources to find the best treatment and even share tips on how to hack medical devices. And users questioning Covid-19 vaccine safety and pushing purported wonder drugs like ivermectin can dominate and shape public health debates.
Internal research found vaccine hesitancy was rampant, sometimes comprising 40 percent of all comments, and anti-vaxxers were able to spread their messages more broadly than vaccine promoters, according to disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by Haugen’s legal counsel. A consortium of news organizations, including POLITICO, obtained the redacted versions Congress received.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/fda-releases-guiding-principles-aiml-device-development
FDA releases 'guiding principles' for AI/ML device development
The principles identify areas in which international standards organizations and other collaborative groups could advance what the agency calls Good Machine Learning Practice.
By Kat Jercich
October 28, 2021 11:57 AM
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a list of "guiding principles" this week aimed at helping promote the safe and effective development of medical devices that use artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The FDA, along with its U.K. and Canadian counterparts, said the principles are intended to lay the foundation for Good Machine Learning Practice.
"As the AI/ML medical device field evolves, so too must GMLP best practice and consensus standards," said the agency regarding the principles.
WHY IT MATTERS
As the FDA notes, AI and ML technologies have the potential to radically expand the healthcare industry – but their complexity also presents unique considerations.
The 10 guiding principles identify points at which international standards organizations and other collaborative bodies, including the International Medical Device Regulators Forum, could work to advance GMLP.
-----
FDA's 2022 A-list guidance plan hits on software, post-pandemic future
Published Oct. 27, 2021
Dive Brief:
- FDA has released its list of proposed draft and final medical device guidance documents for fiscal year 2022. The list is heavy on documents related to software, including the long-gestating guidance on clinical decision support (CDS) software.
- Four of FDA's high-priority draft and final guidance documents address software, including one planned for publication on software premarket submission that FDA failed to post in time to meet its MDUFA IV commitments.
- FDA also plans to publish two draft documents setting out transition plans for medical devices covered by COVID-19 enforcement policies or emergency use authorizations. Test developers will need to get diagnostics authorized using traditional premarket review processes to support post-pandemic use.
Dive Insight:
FDA divides its planned guidelines into an A-list featuring prioritized documents and a B-list of texts it intends to publish. This year, the A-list is topped by the final guidance on clinical decision support software, the first draft version of which was released in 2017. FDA published a revised draft text for consultation in 2019.
The agency received more than 30 comments on the original draft text, including feedback from the American Medical Informatics Association that warned the guidance may leave "lingering confusion" about the regulatory status of software. FDA received even more comments on the second draft.
FDA is now seemingly close to finalizing the guidance, positioning it to clarify when CDS meets the definition of a medical device and set out a risk-based framework for the software functions.
-----
Autonomous Coding: It’s Not About Cost Reduction. It’s About Improving Revenue.
October 28, 2021
The digitization of health records coupled with the increasing capability of Natural Language Processing has made autonomous coding possible. The main benefit of this technology is not the potential cost reductions, but rather the potential improvement in revenue that it brings.
Medical Coding
According to the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Coding Specialists “create coded data used by hospitals and medical providers to obtain reimbursement from insurance companies or government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.” They do this by reviewing patient records and assigning numeric codes for each diagnosis and procedure.
Prior to the pandemic, medical coding was one of the top 20 most in-demand jobs in the US according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It was difficult for healthcare organizations (especially mid-sized practices) to find and keep good coders. Not only could they find better paying jobs elsewhere, but good coders were often promoted to senior roles in the organization. As a result of this, many organizations outsourced the coding function.
Automating repetitive tasks is one way to deal with this coding workforce challenge.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/ehr-vendor-cerner-launches-clinical-research-operating-unit
EHR Vendor Cerner Launches Clinical Research Operating Unit
The EHR vendor’s new operating unit, Cerner EnvizaSM, will focus on making the clinical research process more inclusive and efficient.
October 26, 2021 - EHR vendor Cerner has announced the launch of a new operating unit, Cerner EnvizaSM, that aims to offer data-driven solutions and research services to advance the clinical research process.
Cerner partnered with life sciences vendor Kantar Health to create the new business unit. The vendors said their combined expertise is set to accelerate the discovery, development, and deployment of therapies to improve health outcomes.
Currently, new therapies take an average of 17 years and $2.5 billion to finally reach patients.
Cerner Enviza aims to get therapies to patients more quickly and efficiently by bridging industry and technology boundaries through a network of research-ready health systems.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/growing-number-of-states-enact-new-genetic-data-privacy-laws
Growing Number of States Enact New Genetic Data Privacy Laws
California, Arizona, and Utah are the latest states to enact genetic data privacy laws to hold genetic testing companies accountable for data protection.
By Jill McKeon
October 27, 2021 - A growing number of states are enacting new genetic data privacy laws to protect patients from misuse of data and to hold private companies accountable for proper data governance practices.
HIPAA holds providers to certain security standards when it comes to collecting genetic data, but private companies are not required to follow the same rules. Companies like 23andMe and Ancestry, which provide genetic testing kits delivered to the customer’s door, fall in a gray area in terms of regulations.
Genetic data is deeply personal and can provide insights about ethnicity, family history, and one’s likelihood of developing certain diseases. A few states, including Nevada and Alaska, already have laws protecting genetic information. More states have been producing legislation and regulations surrounding genetic data use in recent months and years.
California
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Genetic Information Privacy Act (GIPA) into law recently, which will go into effect in January. The law requires genetic testing companies to be transparent about data collection practices regarding genetic data and obtain written consent from individuals to use the data.
-----
Organization-Wide PHI Access is Commonplace at Most Healthcare Orgs
Overexposed data, loose PHI access controls, and unsecured passwords are common practices at healthcare organizations, posing serious data security risks, research shows.
By Jill McKeon
October 26, 2021 - On average, nearly 20 percent of files were open to every employee at a given healthcare organization starting on their first day of employment, pointing to troubling data security issues and poor PHI access controls, according to research conducted by Varonis.
Two-thirds of organizations had 500 or more accounts with passwords that never expire. What’s more, 1 in 10 sensitive files containing proprietary research, PHI, and financial information were freely available to every employee.
Varonis researchers analyzed 3 billion files across 58 healthcare organizations, ranging from hospitals to pharmaceutical companies to the biotech industry. The report broke its findings down further based on organization size and discovered that employees at midsize and small companies had almost unlimited access to one out of every four files on average.
“COVID-19 provided fertile ground for attackers to sow confusion and take advantage of healthcare organizations on the front lines. From hospitals triaging patients around the clock to pharmaceutical companies developing advanced vaccines, cybercriminal groups targeted entities and systems under massive stress,” the report explained.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/asia/what-earths-health-systems-can-learn-space-health
What Earth's health systems can learn from space health
This HIMSS21 APAC discussion draws on insights from space health and how innovation there can be used to enhance digital health on Earth.
By Adam Ang
October 27, 2021 03:28 AM
In delivering care to potentially hazardous areas on Earth, outer space can serve as an "ultimate edge case" for accelerating remote healthcare on Earth.
In the keynote panel "Blastoff! Propelling Digital Health with Lessons from Outer Space" at the HIMSS21 APAC Conference, Dr Aenor Sawyer, director of the University of California Space Health, gave insights on how innovation in space health can be used to accelerate digital health on Earth.
Dr Sawyer noted the "great parallels" between health care needs on Earth and in space. "We have resource constraints, limited supplies, limited power... We experience those same things as remote or low resource settings have."
In Earth's health systems' attempt to provide care in untapped environments, there is a "real need" to extend capabilities in distributed or remote health care, which includes good quality and validated sensing capabilities and "as closed-loop as possible" information that will guide patients in their decision making. Beyond telemedicine, there is also a need for quantification.
-----
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/digital-pharmacies-rise-who-going-pay
Digital pharmacies on the rise. But who is going to pay?
Today at HLTH, panelists discussed how digital is changing the medication delivery space and who will pay for the services.
By Laura Lovett
October 18, 2021 10:46 am
Today consumers are used to getting just about everything delivered at their doorstep. But historically, getting medication required a trip to the doctor’s office and then a stop at the pharmacy. However, digital may interrupt this paradigm.
It’s no secret that medication adherence is a major issue in healthcare. While medication costs have often been pointed to as the main barrier to adherence, transportation is another obstacle.
“In a lot of the surveys we’ve seen, only 16% of our patients are saying that it is financial. It's typically that the pharmacy is too far away, or I just don't have time, or they have a medical disability, or they don't have a car,” Amanda Epp, CEO of ScriptDrop, said at HLTH 2021 this morning. “So being able to provide transportation to those patients to get what they need, to provide therapy is really the first step. What we like to do is we look at the medication, where the patients are at, where the pharmacy is. We use the power of the brick and mortar pharmacy. Almost all patients are within five miles of their pharmacy. So taking in all of those data points to determine if it is an antibiotic and the patient needs it within an hour to get on therapy.”
Alternative to traditional pharmacies
The traditional healthcare system takes a lot of time for patients to navigate, according to Dr. Melynda Barnes, chief medical officer at Ro, said during a panel at HLTH.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/08/new-head-of-telstra-health-uk-wont-just-push-paper-around/
New head of Telstra Health UK won’t ‘just push paper around’
The new head of Telstra Health UK has said he won’t “just push paper around” when it comes to population health management.
Hanna Crouch 4 August, 2021
David Sharp comes into the role as UK-based data and analytics Dr Foster is integrated into Australian telecommunication company Telstra Health – the latter acquired Dr Foster back in 2015.
Sharp has been brought in as the new lead for Telstra Health’s UK division as the Australian company looks to invest in the UK health sector.
Despite not being in the role for long (he started on 7 July 2021), the new head of Telstra Health UK is looking to hit the ground running and told Digital Health News his first mission is to find the so-called “pain point” or issues in aged care and try to fix them.
“There will be something that is creating a pain point which nobody is attending to, so my first mission is to find the pain points in aged care,” he said.
-----
Amazon Enhances Alexa for mHealth Platforms in Hospitals, Senior Homes
Amazon has beefed up Alexa's capabilities to help health systems and senior living facilities improve care management and coordination.
October 26, 2021 - Amazon is ramping up its connected health platform with new services designed to expand Alexa’s capabilities in healthcare organizations and senior living facilities.
Offered through the Alexa Smart Properties business line, the services aim to give Alexa-enabled mHealth devices more opportunities to interact with both care providers and seniors – two distinct populations primed to take advantage of AI chatbots. The new services are designed to enhance in-hospital telemedicine platforms as well as telehealth services for seniors living independently.
“We believe the intuitive and accessible nature of voice and Alexa has the potential to help and delight customers in many scenarios, in and outside of the home,” Liron Torres, head of Amazon’s Alexa Smart Properties unit, said in a press release. “We’re excited to extend the experiences customers already love to senior living communities and healthcare systems, and give providers new ways to save time and personalize care for their patients and residents.”
The healthcare provider platform has been enhanced to enable hospital staff to communicate more easily and efficiently with patients, reducing the need to have patients press a call button repeatedly to summon nurses to a room. Through Echo devices stationed in the hospital, staff can communicate with patients in their rooms, while patients can access customized information ranging from cafeteria menus to podcasts.
-----
Why more clarity on HIPAA settlements could aid records access
Providing more details on federal agency efforts to improve patients’ access to data will help the industry meet expectations.
Oct 25 2021
General Counsel
The Office for Civil Rights announced its twentieth HIPAA right of access settlement on September 10, which continues the initiative that has been a primary focal point of enforcement for the past couple of years.
The stream of settlements doesn’t seem to have changed behavior though. The concern was best stated in a recent tweet from Lucia Savage – it read, “You'd think after 20 settlements in two years, people would stop violating patients’ right to access their own PHI,” noted Savage, chief privacy and regulatory officer for Omada Health, and former federal official. “I've not done the math but surely the total is now around $500k?”
While the question posed by Lucia is certainly a valid one, part of the issue could be found in how OCR reports the settlements. A review of the most recent settlement with Children’s Hospital & Medical Center (CHMC) can help highlight the issue. In revealing CHMC’s agreement to pay $80,000 to resolve the allegations of not appropriately honoring an individual’s right of access, OCR was quite skimpy on details. Here is a complete summary of the factual background included by OCR in the resolution agreement, which constitutes the full scope of publicly known information:
· A mother was the personal representative for her deceased daughter. The mother submitted a request for the deceased daughter’s records on Jan. 3, 2020.
· CHMC provided a portion of the deceased daughter’s records at the time of the request, saying that the remainder of the records had to be collected from another division.
· A second portion of the records was provided on June 20, 2020, while a third and final portion was provided on July 16, 2020.
-----
Providers worry info blocking rules could be ‘weaponized’
Complaints are being filed on federal websites, charging restricted access to patient data, even though enforcement action is yet to be released.
Oct 25 21
Healthcare policy executives and other stakeholders are running scared over the upcoming enforcement of the information blocking rules, released this April, and that fear is twofold.
First, consumers have already begun to file complaints charging violations of the rule, forcing those who have been attacked to get legal counsel prior to an enforcement reg even being established. Secondly, penalties can be as much as $1 million for health IT vendors, health information exchanges and health information networks.
Compounding the problem, some observers say the federal government is having trouble determining how to interpret exceptions to the rule and has indicated it may learn as it goes. This means that federal enforcement efforts will be refining their approach on the first organizations charged with violations of the regulation, some industry experts fear.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) sometime this fall is expected to release an enforcement regulation that will apply to health IT vendors, health information exchanges and health information networks.
------
3 Characteristics of a Good Clinical Decision Support Tool
Analysis | By Christopher Cheney | October 25, 2021
Clinical decision support tools help clinicians to have up-to-date information about medical conditions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· A good clinical decision support tool should be available at a clinician's fingertips.
· A good clinical decision support tool must be as current as possible.
· A good clinical decision support tool must be accurate.
An effective clinical decision support tool is available at the point of care, is as current as possible, and is accurate, a chief medical information officer says.
Medical knowledge advances rapidly, with a plethora of new studies published daily. Clinical decision support tools can help clinicians stay up to date with the constant changes of information about diagnoses and treatments.
A good clinical decision support tool has three primary characteristics, says Jon Michael Vore, DO, chief medical information officer Southern New Hampshire Health. The Nashua, New Hampshire-based health system features a medical center and a network of more than 400 clinicians.
First, a clinical decision support tool must be easily accessible to clinicians at the point of care, he says. "You want clinical decision support at the point of care when you are taking care of a patient. If you are going to have a clinical decision support tool, it needs to be at your fingertips. If you have to go into a completely separate system or leave the room, it detracts from being able to use a tool. A clinical decision support tool should be directly integrated into your workflow."
-----
https://www.icd10monitor.com/senate-votes-to-remove-ban-for-funding-unique-patient-health-identifier
Senate Votes to Remove Ban for Funding Unique Patient Health Identifier
Chuck Buck
Original story posted on: October 25, 2021
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s vote is seen as a victory for AHIMA and other leading healthcare organizations.
There was a hint of expectation when Katherine Lusk, chair and president of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), recently teased Talk-Ten-Tuesdays audience members regarding a pending piece of legislation for a national patient identification program.
The Patient ID Now coalition, of which AHIMA is a founding member, continues to make an impact on the problem of patient misidentification. “We’re proud of the Framework for a National Strategy on Patient Identity that Patient ID Now released earlier this year,” Lusk said.
Later that same day, on Oct. 19, the U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Committee removed a longstanding prohibition to fund a national patient identifier program. AHIMA, along with a coalition of other healthcare organizations, had rallied around the cause.
According to the bill’s text, released by AHIMA, it “drops prohibition on using funding to develop a unique patient health identifier for each individual’s health information. The longstanding ban has been a barrier for health institutions to reliably share information about patients, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, for health entities to effectively trace contacts and track immunizations.”
-----
Biden Administration Emphasizes Telehealth in its Infrastructure Strategy
While Congress is whittling down a the Biden Administration's massive Build Back Better plan, new announcements out of the USDA and FCC aim to support broadband expansion for telehealth - and to emphasize how important that is to the nation's infrastructure.
October 25, 2021 - The federal government is making a concerted effort to link broadband connectivity and telehealth to the nation’s infrastructure.
The Us Department of Agriculture last week unveiled more than $1.15 billion in federal loans and grants for broadband expansion in rural regions, alongside $50 million in funding for 105 distance learning and telemedicine projects in 37 states and Puerto Rico. This announcement came on the same day that the Federal Communications Commission unveiled $40.5 million for 71 more projects in the COVID-19 Telehealth Program, and at the same time that the FCC is getting ready to announce more award winners in its Connected Care Pilot Program.
All of these efforts come as the Biden Administration is putting pressure on Congress to support its Build Back Better plan for infrastructure improvements.
In the USDA announcement, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack emphasized the federal action as a means of addressing barriers to care and other services in rural America.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/patient-privacy-concerns-emerge-over-facial-recognition-tech
Patient Privacy Concerns Emerge Over Facial Recognition Tech
Surveyed patients expressed concerns over data governance, usage, and patient privacy relating to facial recognition technology being used in medical research.
By Jill McKeon
October 25, 2021 - A person’s face is their most publicly-identifiable feature, which explains why people may be wary of facial recognition technology’s healthcare functions in terms of patient privacy, data governance, and usage.
Over 70 percent of over 4,000 surveyed patients indicated that they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned about data privacy when asked about a hypothetical precision health study that would utilize facial recognition technology to garner insights, according to a study published in PLOS One.
Facial recognition technologies can be used to diagnose certain medical conditions, assist patients with touch-free appointment check-ins, and deter healthcare fraud. DNA, EHR data, and biometric data, including facial imaging, are valuable assets in medical research, but patient privacy concerns are justified.
“Understandably, many in and out of the precision health research community wonder whether the measures taken to ensure responsible stewardship of facial imaging and imaging-derived data are appropriate and adequate,” the study explained.
-----
New AI technology developments consistently recognize medical image anomalies
Hannah Murphy | October 22, 2021 | AI & Emerging Technologies
A study published in IEEE Access cites the advancements involving the use of AI in medical imaging. Scientists from Skoltech, Philips Research and Goethe University Frankfurt have taken an innovative approach in the pursuit AI implementation by deploying new methods in the setup of AI models.
For this study, researchers used a database of chest x-rays and breast cancer histology microscopy images. Researchers used an autoencoder approach and enacted what the study refers to as “progressive growing training,” which would allow for a small amount of image anomalies to be included in the model setup, with more added on a regular basis. In previous models, no anomalies were present. “We showed some abnormal images to the network to unleash the arsenal of weakly supervised methods, and it helped a lot. Even just one anomalous scan for every 200 normal ones goes a long way.” said Skoltech Professor Dmitry Dylov, senior author of the study, and head of the Institute’s Computational Imaging Group, in a press release sent by Skoltech.
According to the study, the new method outperformed previous methods in every case considered. The goal of this new method is for the model to be able to “perceive” the data just like the radiologist would, looking for any anomalies beyond what a “normal” baseline is typically. By simplifying the approach, this new method also presents a potential building block for other researchers to reference and build upon while keeping the foundation of the research consistent.
-----
HHS AI strategy hinges on culture shift, knowledge exchange
October 21, 2021 9:57 am
It won’t be in the Olympics anytime soon but Oki Mek considers artificial intelligence “a team sport.” As the chief artificial intelligence officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, Mek may be a little biased, but as his agency works through its AI strategy — released in January — collaboration and knowledge exchange will be paramount.
The strategy aims to promote AI adoption, and to ensure that algorithms are fair, legal and ethical. Three core pieces of the strategy are adoption and bringing the entire department up to speed on the language of AI; scaling best practices, and accelerated adoption. As for the first piece, Mek said culture change plays a pivotal role.
“The main risks here is not AI itself, it’s not the technology itself, it’s more of a culture shift. It’s getting away from that industrial culture, more into a data-centric digital culture. Because the two obstacles in AI that we’re going to face [are] data acquisition, because health data is quite heavily regulated, but also data processing — formatting the data and tagging the data,” he said during a web event hosted by ACT-IAC on Tuesday.
It’s important to educate and train all of HHS on what AI and machine learning are — their respective principles, what are bots, what is robotic process automation — to ensure everyone is on the same page before the organization moves forward. Then, HHS can see what is valuable and risky with regards to AI, he said.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/budget-boost-2bn-planned-digital-overhaul-nhs
Budget boost of £2bn planned for digital overhaul of NHS
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to award a fund of £2.3bn in this year’s Budget, which will go towards improving IT and technology in NHS hospitals in England.
October 25, 2021 10:50 AM
The plans include introducing digital systems for healthcare organisations which have not previously used them, restocking and updating old technology, improving cybersecurity and expanding the use of shared digital care records.
This much-needed cash is part of the government’s so-called levelling-up agenda, which will be beneficial for all regions in the UK.
WHY IT MATTERS
The extra investment in IT and data services to create digital patient records is part of the government’s plans to speed up working practices in the NHS and free up valuable time for health workers.
There will be support for around 100 'one-stop-shop' community diagnostic centres across England, to assist those waiting for clinical tests such as MRIs, ultrasounds and CT scans.
One in 10 trusts still operate on “paper-based systems” according to Health and social care secretary, Sajid Javid. NHS trusts have been seeking an additional £1.8 billion per year by 2024, which would take the overall NHS capital budget to £10.3 billion.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/concerns-mount-for-va-ehr-implementation-patient-safety
Concerns Mount for VA EHR Implementation, Patient Safety
After a hearing left House members with further VA EHR implementation concerns, legislators suggested the VA provide more frequent briefings.
October 25, 2021 - At a recent House of Representatives hearing, subcommittee members noted a lack of clarity in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) responses to questions regarding the agency’s ongoing EHR implementation.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, asked VA deputy secretary Donald Remy what specific steps the agency has taken to address EHR implementation-related patient safety concerns highlighted in several reports over the past year.
Remy, who was confirmed by the Senate in July, responded that the VA had organized patient safety concerns into nine domains: order management; administration of medicine; pharmacy; suicide risk; tracking and documentation; identity; ambulatory care; referrals and consults; and roles, positions, and privileges.
Remy noted that as the agency hears patient safety concerns, it catalogs the information into those domains, “examine the root cause, and make sure that [the problems] don't recur."
-----
Legislators grill VA about EHR modernization patient safety concerns
Members of a House appropriations subcommittee also sounded the alarm about the cost of the program and cybersecurity issues at the agency.
By Kat Jercich
October 25, 2021 01:07 PM
Representatives from the Veterans Administration faced concerns from legislators this past week around patient-safety issues associated with the agency's Cerner electronic health record modernization initiative.
"At the end of the day, this whole undertaking is about improving patient care," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., in a House Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
WHY IT MATTERS
Wasserman Schultz noted that the VA's first rollout of its new EHR took place one year ago this month, at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington.
The VA had initially planned to go live at 11 sites by the end of 2021.
"At this point, VA is more than one year behind their initial schedule," said Wasserman Schultz. She cited complaints from staff and local legislators, particularly those about patient-safety issues.
-----
https://histalk2.com/2021/10/22/weekender-10-22-21/
Weekly News Recap
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center reports that patient-to-clinician messages doubled when it started posting lab results immediately to its patient portal as required by the Cures Act.
- Virtual care company Babylon begins trading on the NYSE via a SPAC merger that values the company at $4 billion.
- Microsoft enhances Cloud for Healthcare and Teams with expanded virtual visit capabilities.
- General Catalyst and Jefferson Health form an innovation partnership in which the health system will use technologies from the venture capital firm’s Health Assurance Network of companies.
- The merged Grand Rounds Health and Doctor on Demand rebrand as Included Health.
- Transcarent announces that it will offer Walmart’s pharmacy services to its self-insured employer customers.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
