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://healthitsecurity.com/news/39-ransomware-groups-targeted-healthcare-in-the-past-18-months
39 Ransomware Groups Targeted Healthcare in the Past 18 Months
A dozen ransomware groups targeted healthcare despite making promises to not go after the sector, CyberPeace Institute data revealed.
By Jill McKeon
December 17, 2021 - At least 39 ransomware groups have attacked the healthcare sector across 27 countries in the past 18 months, data from the CyberPeace Institute’s Cyber Incident Tracer revealed. Despite explicitly saying that they would not target healthcare, 12 groups singled out the sector.
Some healthcare organizations may simply be collateral damage, an accompanying blog post explained. Some ransomware operators used vague terms like “medical organizations” when describing which entities were off limits. Others saw pharmaceutical companies as fair game. Half of the 12 ransomware operators targeted hospitals specifically, despite saying that they would not target healthcare.
“According to three ransomware operators, such attacks can happen by mistake, in which case a decryption key would supposedly be provided ‘free of charge,’” the blog post explained.
“As noble as they may try to present this gesture, intent matters little for the victim(s). Once the ransomware is deployed, the damage is done.”
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December 14, 2021
Most adults willing to use telehealth services but prefer in-person care
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Two-thirds of adults said they would like at least some of their medical care to include video telehealth visits, but when given the choice, more than half said they preferred in-person appointments, according to survey results.
Zachary S. Predmore, PhD, an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, and colleagues assessed the responses of more than 2,000 American adults aged 20 years or older in a survey conducted between March 8 and 19.
“Telehealth use in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many health care practitioners offering telephone or video visits to reduce the potential for virus spread,” they wrote. “It is unclear how telehealth will be used within the U.S. health care system after the pandemic, with early evidence suggesting that telehealth use is decreasing as patients and clinicians resume in-person care.”
Participants were asked whether they preferred an in-person visit or video telehealth visit for a nonemergency health issue. They were then asked whether they preferred an out-of-pocket cost of $30 for their preferred type of visit, or $10 for the other option. The authors noted the difference of $20 was used to assess the value participants placed on telehealth services.
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https://governmentciomedia.com/hhs-eyes-upcoming-playbook-ai-advances-cybersecurity
HHS Eyes Upcoming Playbook for AI Advances in Cybersecurity
Oki Mek shares how the agency is gearing up data efforts for a collaborative approach to AI.
Fri, 12/10/2021 - 10:58
The Department of Health and Human Services has made strides to prepare for a future that leverages artificial intelligence this year — with an AI strategy, council and communities of practice, and an upcoming AI playbook.
The agency’s chief AI officer, Oki Mek, has indentified ideal use cases and culture shifts to adopt the technology and help drive its next steps. Among over 175 use cases that HHS has identified across its department, cybersecurity is one of the most promising near-term areas for the agency to apply further AI solutions, Mek said.
Cybersecurity is an ideal AI use case because data drawn from cybersecurity tends to be most easily accessible, tagged and formatted in a way that makes it AI-ready.
“Most of the cyber data is well-formatted and tagged, so you know it’s easy to digest,” Mek said at GovernmentCIO Media & Research's Mastering Data event. “Most of the challenges in AI, 80% of it, would be just to get the data and then processing the data, but with cyber it’s a little bit easier.”
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/12/17/oracle-in-talks-to-acquire-cerner/
Oracle in Talks to Acquire Cerner
December 17, 2021
The big news being reported by the Wall Street Journal is that Oracle is talking with Cerner about an acquisition. You may remember that we previously wrote about rumors that Cerner was an acquisition target for Microsoft and Google. While I always felt like those were a bit of a pipe dream, Oracle would be a much more natural home for Cerner. Although, the deal is reportedly 3 times larger than any deal Oracle had done previously.
Cerner currently has a market cap of around $23 billion and the WSJ is reporting that the deal for Cerner could have Oracle paying $30 billion for the company. Many are suggesting that this is a pretty standard premium for an acquisition like this. Cerner’s shared jumped as much as 22% on the news while Oracle’s shares fell about 3%.
This news is quite interesting after Cerner recently appointed David Feinberg as CEO. In some ways, this acquisition would be similar to his role at Google Health where he was leading the health division of a much larger company. Although, Cerner has a much more established market position than Google Health. I can’t imagine this acquisition would be quite what he wanted when he started at CEO, but I’m sure his compensation package if an acquisition does occur will ensure he doesn’t feel too bad.
From the Oracle perspective, this acquisition would offer them the opportunity to grow their cloud business and hurt some of their competitors. Cerner had previously announced a relationship with Amazon AWS for example. Plus, Oracle could use all the Cerner data to better train the AI solutions their creating to compete with the likes of Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
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It’s time for investors to redefine how we evaluate digital health startups
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Alyssa Jaffee is a partner at 7wireVentures, a digital health-focused venture capital firm, where she focuses on investments that empower consumers to become better stewards of their heath.
This was a record-breaking year for private investment across digital health. Investors poured billions of dollars into digital health solutions with great promise of driving innovation in a highly antiquated and inefficient industry.
While digital health has captivated the attention of investors and received validation from consumers, providers and healthcare stakeholders, early-stage entrepreneurs are being required to address the highly complicated yet mission-critical question: How can I show value and ROI?
The problems these companies are addressing are enormous, and the potential to help consumers and their families is even greater — key metrics that shouldn’t be overlooked.
With any new innovation, proving out a financially substantiated ROI case requires a combination of time and data, and digital health is no exception. In healthcare, proving ROI ultimately means calculating how much a digital health solution has either improved in outcomes or realized in cost savings for the sponsoring organization and its members.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/fda-oks-telehealth-use-medication-abortions
FDA OKs Telehealth Use for Medication Abortions
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | December 17, 2021
The US Food & Drug Administration will permanently allow people to receive abortion-causing medications by mail, as long as they've first had a telehealth examination by a doctor.
The US Food & Drug Administration has announced it will permanently allow patients to receive abortion-causing medications by mail following a telehealth examination.
The agency’s action expands access to abortion services for women who face barriers to in-person care, and places telehealth squarely in the middle of the ongoing abortion debate. It comes as the Supreme Court reviews abortion laws and conservative states move to make it illegal.
The FCC had expanded access to the abortion-caused drug mifepristone during the pandemic, allowing care providers to meet with patients via telehealth instead of in person, then issue prescriptions via mail. The US Supreme Court blocked that measure in March 2021, putting back into place FDA guidelines that required doctors and patients to meet in person before any medications could be prescribed.
This past April, the Biden administration announced it would lift its restrictions on the use of mifepristone by changing the way the drug is classified. Mifepristone was approved for use in 2000, but shortly afterward was placed on the FDA’s Risk Evaluations and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) protocol, which requires that drugs determined to be risky be dispensed in a healthcare setting under the direct supervision of a certified care provider, and that patients be advised of the drug’s dangers. This week’s ruling now lists the drug as “safe and effective when used to terminate a pregnancy in accordance with the revised labeling.”
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Adopting AI to Improve Patient Outcomes, Cost Savings, Health Equality
A recent survey of senior healthcare executives indicates organizations support adopting artificial intelligence practices.
December 16, 2021 - Healthcare executives are increasingly looking at artificial intelligence to improve patient outcomes, support cost savings, and promote health equality.
According to the fourth annual Optum Survey on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health Care, surveying 500 senior healthcare executives from leading hospitals, health plans, life sciences companies, employers, 96 percent believe AI has an important role in efforts to reach health equality goals. Additionally, 94 percent agree providers have a duty to make sure AI is used responsibly in the healthcare system.
“This year’s survey findings continue to validate how the responsible use of AI can help health systems strengthen and scale essential functions and reduce administrative burdens, all of which helps clinicians focus on their core mission of patient care,” chief executive officer, Optum Insight, the data, and analytics business within Optum, Rick Hardy, said in a press release.
“We share their enthusiasm for AI, but more importantly, we look forward to combining our health care expertise with AI to help people — patients, physicians, and those working behind the scenes — as that is where the real value is delivered.”
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/digital-interventions-may-aid-in-reducing-depression-symptoms
Digital Interventions May Aid in Reducing Depression Symptoms
Participation in digital interventions such as online modules and lessons led to a reduction in depression symptoms as compared with no treatment at all, a new study shows.
December 15, 2021 - Digital interventions accessed through a computer or smartphone were effective at reducing symptoms of depression, according to a meta-analysis published by the American Psychological Association.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the country’s mental health crisis and telehealth played a significant role in addressing the increased demand for care.
Clinicians also utilized asynchronous digital interventions to help patients improve their mental health. These interventions consisted of patients using an online program, website, or application to individually participate in modules or lessons. Unlike videoconferencing and audio-only telehealth, digital interventions do not include one-on-one synchronous appointments between patients and providers.
“Given the accelerated adoption of digital interventions, it is both timely and important to ask to what extent digital interventions are effective in the treatment of depression, whether they may provide viable alternatives to face-to-face psychotherapy beyond the lab, and what are the key factors that moderate outcomes,” Isaac Moshe, lead author of the meta-analysis and a doctoral candidate at the University of Helsinki, said in the press release.
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Health IT execs under pressure to boost organizations’ efficiency
Providers will be looking for IT systems to boost efficiency to ameliorate financial pressures stemming from the pandemic and value-based care.
Dec 16 2021
Health IT executives have long been under pressure to provide some return on investment for the systems they’re implementing.
Increasingly, they’ll need to help their healthcare organizations use those systems to increase efficiency, improve patient care and safety, and eliminate any unnecessary waste.
Those pressures will ratchet up in 2022, as the slow shift to value-based care continues and the health systems feel the need to ameliorate financial losses suffered over the last two years because of operational changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While IT execs have had to be cost conscious before, the stakes are even higher as healthcare organizations look forward to the new year.
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Interoperability expected to make major advances in 2022
EHNAC’s Lee Barrett sees positive signs for easier exchange of patient information, with federal regulations supplying major impetus.
Dec 16 2021
Progress on interoperability has been a slog for the healthcare industry, but pressure has been steadily growing to make progress on information exchange.
Rules against information blocking contained in the 21st Century Cures Act and requirements to achieve some basic information exchange through the use of application programming interfaces and the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) standard show federal agencies want to increase the pressure.
That pressure will continue next year, with the expected release in the first quarter of the final rule of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), which is designed to set a floor of universal interoperability across the country, by establishing the infrastructure model and the governing approach to share basic clinical information in a secure fashion.
Lee Barrett, CEO and executive director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) believes that these initiatives are likely to advance interoperability in the electronic patient record and “will be a game changer for patients, providers, payers, other stakeholders and for the industry.” EHNAC is a voluntary, self-governing standards development organization established to develop standard criteria and accredit organizations that electronically exchange healthcare data.
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Health execs remain optimistic on the potential for AI
Some 72 percent of respondents to an industry survey say artificial intelligence can prove its worth by improving operations.
Dec 16 2021
Implementing artificial intelligence technology into healthcare has been challenging and is still in the early stages, many experts believe, but senior executives in healthcare organizations remain hopeful about AI’s prospects.
A survey of 500 senior executives by Optum Labs in its fourth annual Optum Survey on AI in Health Care, believe the advanced computing technology can help improve patient outcomes, reduce costs and support health equity. The survey was conducted by Optum, the research and development arm of UnitedHealth Group.
There is growing faith in AI to facilitate operations in day-to-day tasks, with some 72 percent of respondents trusting AI to support administrative tasks. Many experts believe that such use of AI can help improve trust in the technology, which will be necessary to enable its use in clinical applications.
The survey found 96 percent of respondents believe AI plays an important role in their effort to reach health equity goals. In addition, 94 percent agreed they have a duty within the healthcare system to ensure AI is used responsibly.
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Stand-alone AI can reduce radiologists’ screening mammography workloads by 90%
Hannah Murphy | December 14, 2021 | AI & Emerging Technologies
Stand-alone AI technology could help ease radiologist workloads by interpreting screening mammograms. Research published in Radiology this week proved the technology’s sensitivity is non-inferior when applied to digital mammography.
Screening mammograms, the majority of which are truly negative, account for a significant portion of radiologists’ workload. These mountainous lists, unfortunately, have become more burdensome with the staffing shortages many radiology departments now face. Consequently, screening mammograms, which are indispensable for women, could take a back seat to more acutely urgent exams.
One possible solution for this issue is the implementation of artificial intelligence. As technology has advanced, research has demonstrated AI’s comparability to radiologists’ readings in many exams. It has produced particularly noteworthy findings in studies pertaining to digital mammography (DM) and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), which could prove to be valuable in alleviating workload burdens.
“Use of AI as the only stand-alone reader of screening studies could be a cost-effective approach by removing all the workload of reading screening findings, allowing radiologists to focus on only the AI-recalled findings,” corresponding author, Sara Romero-Martin, from the Department of Radiology at Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía, and co-authors explained.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/eu-analysis-highlights-digital-health-lessons-covid-19
EU analysis highlights digital health lessons from COVID-19
New country health profiles and companion report launched by the European Commission, OECD and European Observatory.
By Tammy Lovell
December 16, 2021 04:14 AM
An EU analysis has outlined the effect of COVID-19 on healthcare systems in Europe and the role of digital innovation in building their resilience.
Experts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Observatory have published a set of 29 country health profiles, covering all EU member states, as well as Iceland and Norway. A companion report also highlights a selection of cross-country trends.
Speaking at a virtual launch event on Monday (13 December), Josep Figueras, director, European Observatory, highlighted two main lessons learnt from the use of technology in the pandemic.
Using telemedicine as an example of digital health innovation, he said the number of teleconsultations had increased in all EU countries during 2020. However in some countries, such as France, teleconsultations had decreased when lockdowns ended.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/alleviate-ehr-burdens-teamwork-makes-dream-work
To alleviate EHR burdens, teamwork makes the dream work
A new study shows that primary care physicians who had greater documentation support from staff spent less daily time in the electronic health record.
By Kat Jercich
December 16, 2021 12:53 PM
A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association sought to examine the relationship between electronic health record proficiency tools and time spent interacting with the EHR.
Researchers found that only one proficiency tool was associated with reduced time spent in the EHR.
However, they also found that primary care physicians who had greater support from their care team in writing notes spent less time in documentation-specific activities and less total time in the record per day.
"These findings suggest that PCPs may experience reductions in EHR-related burden and documentation burden by decentralizing documentation responsibilities," wrote the research team.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/hl7-announces-new-positions-set-to-further-interoperability-work
HL7 Announces New Positions Set to Further Interoperability Work
HL7 has created three new executive positions in efforts to advance health interoperability through data standards development and implementation.
December 15, 2021 - Health Level Seven International (HL7) has created three new executive positions that are set to support the organization’s interoperability and data standards goals.
HL7 went through an 18 month-long re-envisioning project to assess how to better serve the HL7 community and the health IT industry. Ultimately, the organization decided to restructure into two divisions: standards development and standards implementation.
HL7 officials said the divisions will seamlessly collaborate to address the needs of the industry and increase the impact of HL7 data standards.
The standards development division will focus on the development and maintenance of HL7 specifications, while the standards implementation division will concentrate on helping communities discover, access, and understand the data standards.
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CISA Warns of Authentication Vulnerabilities in Cardiology Products
Successful exploitation of authentication vulnerabilities in certain Hillrom Welch Allyn cardiology products may allow cybercriminals to access privileged accounts, CISA warned.
By Jill McKeon
December 15, 2021 - The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a medical advisory warning healthcare organizations of authentication vulnerabilities associated with certain Hillrom Welch Allyn cardiology products. If successfully exploited, threat actors may be able to access privileged accounts.
Hillrom reported the vulnerabilities to CISA and plans to release software updates in their next software release, the advisory explained.
The following cardiology products are impacted when configured to use single sign-on (SSO):
· Welch Allyn Q-Stress Cardiac Stress Testing System: Versions 6.0.0 through 6.3.1
· Welch Allyn X-Scribe Cardiac Stress Testing System: Versions 5.01 through 6.3.1
· Welch Allyn Diagnostic Cardiology Suite: Version 2.1.0
· Welch Allyn Vision Express: Versions 6.1.0 through 6.4.0
· Welch Allyn H-Scribe Holter Analysis System: Versions 5.01 through 6.4.0
· Welch Allyn R-Scribe Resting ECG System: Versions 5.01 through 7.0.0
· Welch Allyn Connex Cardio: Versions 1.0.0 through 1.1.1
When configured to use SSO, the vulnerability allows the application to accept manual entry of any active directory (AD) account provisioned in the application without requiring a password. As a result, threat actors can gain access to the application as the supplied AD account with all privileges.
Until Hillrom releases software updates, it recommends that organizations using its cardiology products disable the SSO feature in the Modality Manager Configuration settings. Users should also upgrade to the latest product versions as soon as the new software updates are released.
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Pandemic Intelligence Chief Brings Data, AI to Omicron Fight
By collecting and sharing information, the new WHO group aims to fuel collective action on Covid and future health crises.
By James Paton12 December 2021, 6:00 pm AEDT
Just days after Chikwe Ihekweazu took the reins of the World Health Organization’s new pandemic intelligence hub, a new and heavily-mutated variant of the coronavirus appeared on scientists’ radar. Omicron prompted countries to close their doors to southern Africa and threatened to widen an already worrying gap in access to vaccines.
Now Ihekweazu, a veteran epidemiologist who previously led the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, aims to counter global discord with data. The center in Berlin plans to collect and share information to help governments predict, detect and respond to health emergencies more quickly, relying on artificial intelligence and other tools. He hopes to spur collaboration at a time when many countries are putting their own interests first.
The hub, set to bring on as many as 120 people over the next couple of years, is advancing along with plans for an international treaty to bolster health defenses and other programs aimed at making sure countries are better equipped to tackle the next crisis. Ihekweazu, 50, spoke with Bloomberg, and his remarks have been edited for clarity and length.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/building-model-isnt-enough
Building the machine learning model isn't enough
Evaluating algorithms' efficacy often takes a lot more effort, as Johns Hopkins Machine Learning and Healthcare Lab Director Suchi Saria explained, with tips, at the HIMSS Machine Learning and AI for Healthcare Forum.
December 15, 2021
Clinical and operational machine learning models are gaining ground at hospitals and health systems throughout the country, and new ones are evolving rapidly.
But at this point, the challenge is not so much development of new models, as effectively evaluating their use, said panelists at the HIMSS Machine Learning and AI for Healthcare Forum this week. (HIMSS is the parent company of Healthcare IT News.)
"As there has been an explosion of data, an explosion of off-the-shelf software you can download, there have been more and more teams just downloading model learning tools to be able to build preliminary models," said Suchi Saria, director of the Machine Learning and Healthcare Lab at Johns Hopkins University, during a fireside chat session Tuesday with STAT News' Casey Ross.
"What we're seeing is people come up with a preliminary model, they don't know how to evaluate it – because they have a model, they think it's one-and-done," said Saria.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/diagnostic-ai-may-be-vulnerable-cyberattacks-upmc-study-shows
Diagnostic AI may be vulnerable to cyberattacks, UPMC study shows
Researchers found that a model used to distinguish breast cancer cases could be fooled by falsified misleading images.
By Kat Jercich
December 14, 2021 01:07 PM
A study published in Nature Communications this week investigated whether adversarial images could fool an artificial intelligence model developed to diagnose breast cancer.
University of Pittsburgh researchers were able to simulate an attack that falsified mammogram images, leading the model – and human experts – to draw incorrect conclusions.
"What we want to show with this study is that this type of attack is possible, and it could lead AI models to make the wrong diagnosis – which is a big patient safety issue," senior author Shandong Wu, associate professor of radiology, biomedical informatics and bioengineering at Pitt, said in a statement.
"By understanding how AI models behave under adversarial attacks in medical contexts, we can start thinking about ways to make these models safer and more robust," said Wu.
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https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/399591
Why Telemedicine Is the Future of Healthcare
From safety to ease of access, from reduced costs to AI-driven customized care, why virtual appointments are and will continue to be the proverbial win-win-win-win.
By Folabi Clement Solanke December 15, 2021
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In the decade prior to Covid-19’s appearance, telemedicine was already being described as a potential game-changer — a versatile type of care that could make lives easier, not least for older patients and those in rural areas. After the events of 2020 and 2021, however, it’s clear that telemedicine is not just a progression, but a necessity.
Here's why.
It reduces exposure
The role of infection control in a healthcare setting has never been more important. During the early weeks of the pandemic, confused, scared and sick patients filled waiting rooms around the world, unknowingly spreading a virus that would later force us into repeated lockdowns. Amplified damage spread to medical practices themselves, which continue to labor under reduced patient trust, according to the 2020 Journal of the American Medical Association.
Telemedicine facilitates contact-free consultations, which means doctors don’t need to place themselves or other people at risk. If a patient falls ill, a virtual appointment can provide advice, test appointments and a prescription, if needed.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/hl7-ehr-integration-for-organ-donation-eases-clinician-burden
HL7 EHR Integration for Organ Donation Eases Clinician Burden
The organ donation EHR integration helped alleviate clinician burden by saving a health system 470 hours of nurses’ time over the course of 2020.
December 14, 2021 - An EHR integration that automates organ donor referral calls through HL7 data exchange has helped streamline the time-sensitive organ donation process and alleviate clinician burden, according to an article published in the Harvard Business Review.
The nation’s organ donation process has traditionally relied on providers calling their designated organ procurement organization (OPO) when a patient dies or is near death for an initial medical screen to determine if the patient can be an organ donor. Typically, this call takes about 15 minutes.
While 15 minutes may not seem very long, the calls can consume a sizable amount of staff time at hospitals and OPOs in the aggregate and contribute to clinician burden.
New England Donor Services (NEDS) recognized the opportunity for innovation and developed non-proprietary health IT to replace this phone call with an automated message.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/market-leader-ehr-implementation-increases-patient-data-exchange
Market Leader EHR Implementation Increases Patient Data Exchange
EHR implementations from market-dominant health IT vendors increase patient data exchange and patient sharing among hospitals, a new study found.
December 14, 2021 - Patient sharing increases when hospitals switch to a dominant EHR developer in a market area, suggesting that market dominance leads to an increase in patient data exchange and shared patients, according to a study published in JAMIA.
The researchers used data from the 2011 to 2016 CMS Physician Shared Patient Patterns database for 3,076 nonfederal acute care hospitals to calculate the ratio of patients shared with hospitals outside of the focal hospital’s network that use the same EHR vendor as the focal hospital.
Then, the investigators compared same-vendor patient sharing among hospitals that switched vendors with those that did not leverage a new vendor.
Switching to a new EHR vendor increased the ratio of patients shared with other hospitals having the same EHR vendor by 4 to 19 percent, depending on model specification.
While consolidation in the health IT vendor industry has contributed to this trend, local market conditions play an important role as well, the study authors noted.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/majority-of-patients-dont-trust-healthcare-providers-to-handle-pii
Majority of Patients Don’t Trust Healthcare Providers to Handle PII
Less than half of surveyed patients reported trusting their healthcare providers to safeguard their payment and personally identifiable information (PII).
By Jill McKeon
December 14, 2021 - Only 44 percent of surveyed patients reported trusting healthcare providers at private practices to safely handle their payment and personally identifiable information (PII), according to a survey commissioned by Semafone and conducted by Dynata. Rates were even lower for large hospital networks, with only 33 percent of surveyed patients reporting trust in hospital networks to safeguard their information.
The report emphasized the need for security and privacy assurances for patients in order to improve patient experience while healthcare organizations continue to rapidly undergo digital transformations.
A 2021 Accenture survey found that over 80 percent of healthcare executives said that the pace of digital transformation in their organization is accelerating, and 93 percent of respondents said that they were innovating with a sense of urgency.
Rather than implementing these changes over the course of a decade, more healthcare organizations are compressing digital transformation initiatives into two or three-year processes, Accenture found. Naturally, digital transformation will have an impact on security and privacy, making it crucial for large healthcare organizations in particular to prioritize patient data security.
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CMS outlines data exchange plans to aid quality, cut burden
The agency is teaming up with ONC to further develop the core dataset of patient data and resolve pain points in current administrative processes.
Dec 08 2021
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is continuing to work on future efforts to lay the groundwork for future interoperable data exchange in healthcare.
The federal agency, which oversees federal health programs and has been playing a leading role in encouraging data exchange and consumer access to health data, outlined initiatives it’s pursuing in a blog post on the CMS website, posted on Wednesday.
These initiatives are important because they could lay the groundwork for improving and facilitating data exchange for healthcare organizations, and ease current burdens related to gathering and disseminating public health and care quality information.
The blog, under the byline of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator for CMS, notes that the agency is “working closely with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health information Technology” on efforts to standardize patient data so it can be easily moved between healthcare organizations.
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SMART Health Card Emerging As Model For Sharing Covid Vaccine Data
December 14, 2021
In recent times, as the demand for proof of COVID vaccination status has climbed, the healthcare industry has scrambled to find effective ways of sharing vaccine data between varied locations. As readers know, sharing any kind of health data is still a best a challenge, but given the circumstances, most parties involved don’t have a choice about making it happen.
In recent times, healthcare organizations have found new ways to make such sharing possible. These approaches sidestep relying on data sharing between institutions and instead, involve third-party technology.
One model that seems to be working is the SMART Health Card, which offers a FHIR-based trusted standard for vaccine verification. While it’s unclear how much use it’s getting as a receptacle for longitudinal patient records, it seems to be growing in importance as a tool allowing patients to provide their vaccination information.
The card, which was developed by a private-public partnership of technology companies called the Vaccination Credential Institute, offers a lightweight vehicle for presenting such information to anyone who needs it. The steering group managing the project includes representatives from the Mayo Clinic, MITRE Corporation, Microsoft, The Commons Project Foundation, Evernorth, CARIN Alliance, USC San Diego Health and Apple.
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https://venturebeat.com/2021/12/13/kaiser-permanente-cdo-on-health-care-digital-transformation/
Kaiser Permanente CDO on health care digital transformation
December 13, 2021 4:40 PM
Most leaders who talk about a digital transformation like to highlight companies building innovation from the ground up. Tesla is a common example.
Prat Vemana, the chief digital officer (CDO) for the integrated health system and insurer Kaiser Permanente, prefers to talk about the Mercedes-Benz EQS — the all-electric sedan from a world-famous automobile brand.
“It’s about taking a traditional business model and preparing to lead in a digital world,” said Vemana, previously the chief product and experience officer at Home Depot and a keynote speaker at the upcoming VentureBeat Customer Experience Summit. “Mercedes took the best of what they had, the best of what electric vehicles offer, and went to market with the best possible experience in electric.
For Vemana, the key question for companies in the midst of digital transformation — in health care or other verticals — shouldn’t be how to build a Tesla. It should be how to build an EQS.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/ehr-vendor-epic-tops-market-for-revenue-cycle-management-health-it
EHR Vendor Epic Tops Market for Revenue Cycle Management Health IT
Customers reported high satisfaction with revenue cycle management health IT from EHR vendor Epic, while Cerner clients noted integration difficulties.
December 13, 2021 - Epic is the EHR vendor market leader for revenue cycle management health IT due to its strong integration capabilities, according to a recent KLAS report.
Revenue cycle management is complex, so organizations have historically had to supplement patient access functionality from their enterprise EHR vendors with third-party revenue cycle vendors. However, as organizations look to streamline their digital strategies, many are looking to their enterprise EHR vendors to further develop patient access capabilities.
Epic customers reported the highest satisfaction overall and described the registration and scheduling functionality as strong. Customers noted that they appreciate Epic’s transparency around their modules’ limitations.
Epic customers reported the integration with third-party systems in use is seamless. Respondents said the workflow feels entirely contained within the Epic system, allowing users to operate more efficiently and optimize patient access functionality so it is easy to use. Additionally, customers feel well supported by Epic and appreciate the vendor’s willingness to share their product road map.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/weak-passwords-poor-cyber-hygiene-invite-healthcare-data-breaches
Weak Passwords, Poor Cyber Hygiene Invite Healthcare Data Breaches
Preventing healthcare data breaches requires all end-users to practice better password management and cyber hygiene.
By Jill McKeon
December 13, 2021 - Poor cyber hygiene and weak passwords leave organizations vulnerable to healthcare data breaches. Almost a third of surveyed IT professionals from a variety of industries reported weak password management as a key contributor to security breaches, a report from GoodFirms revealed.
The survey revealed that 63 percent of online users change their passwords only when prompted, and almost half of users keep the same password for multiple sites or applications. Over half of users also reported sharing their login and password credentials with colleagues, family members, and friends.
Almost a third of online users reported being victims of security breaches caused by weak passwords in the past, although 88 percent of respondents said that they use two-factor authentication.
“Password security is a pressing concern for businesses of all verticals. Whether it is through brute force, misconfiguration, pretexting, ransomware, backdoor release, privilege abuse, or other hacking methods, password stealing is a nuisance that organizations, employees, and even cybersecurity experts deal with every day,” the report stated.
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How the pandemic changed clinician EHR use: 9 study insights
- Friday, December 10th, 2021 Print | Email
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an initial decrease and then spike in the amount of time clinicians spend in their EHR, both during and after the workday, according to a study published Dec. 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
For the study, researchers from University of California San Francisco, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford University and Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University measured data on ambulatory care clinicians' EHR use in 366 health systems across the U.S. Data was pulled from December 2019-20, and all participating health systems used an Epic EHR system.
Researchers used descriptive statistics for clinician EHR use, including active-use time across clinical activities, time spent after hours and in-basket messages received.
Nine study insights:
1. Clinician time spent in the EHR per day decreased at the onset of the pandemic but had recovered to levels higher than pre-COVID-19 by July 2020.
2. The average EHR time per day ranged between 80.4 and 80.9 minutes per day between Dec. 29, 2019, and March 14, 2020.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/kevinmd/96130
The Race to Find Uses for Big Data
— The concept has infiltrated healthcare, but is the information being used effectively?
by Afua Aning, MD December 11, 2021
Smartwatch wearers: Have you checked it lately? Did it tell you how many steps you have or how fast your heart is beating? How accurate is the information? What does that number mean for your overall health, and where do all of those numbers go after they are reported back to your computer?
The healthcare industry is under constant pressure to securely store patient information and still have it readily available to staff and consumers. However, only 20% of the data are used -- what happens to the other 80%?
How are we utilizing the information effectively? We have collected data about almost every aspect of our lives, yet we face a situation where we are flooded with an unmanageable flow of data. Can we make a profit from the data to justify the storage? If so, what are the ethical considerations?
"Big Data" is the term often used to describe the large volume of information that has been collected in our digitally connected lives. It includes things like our blood pressure and how often we are stopped at a red light. The data are quickly becoming unmanageable and possibly even useless considering our current technology and current uses. Big data has to prove itself economically worthwhile for the growing costs of storage.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-get-clinicians-more-comfortable-delivering-telemedicine
How to get clinicians more comfortable with delivering telemedicine
A physician expert in virtual care discusses building familiarity, using pilot projects and managing scheduling carefully.
By Bill Siwicki
December 13, 2021 10:47 AM
While there were certainly many clinicians performing telemedicine before COVID-19 struck in early 2020, the pandemic foisted telehealth on countless numbers of additional physicians and nurses, forcing them to get up to speed and feel comfortable with the technology.
But many caregivers still struggle with the different paradigm for delivering healthcare. Some are uncomfortable with the video medium; some are just not familiar with the technologies in use; some are not certain how to incorporate virtual care into the day-to-day operations of their practice.
Healthcare IT News interviewed Dr. Richard Tytus, associate clinical professor at McMaster University and cofounder and medical director of Banty, a vendor of a HIPAA-compliant video platform used for telemedicine. He offered advice on how to get clinicians more comfortable with virtual care, how pilot projects can help and what they should look like, and the importance of smart telemedicine scheduling.
Q. Your first suggestion for physicians needing to get more comfortable with telemedicine is to build familiarity over time. Please elaborate.
A. As a longstanding advocate of telemedicine, it's easy for me to speak openly about the benefits of it and passionately encourage my fellow doctors to start offering their patients virtual visits. However, I also realize there is a faction of doctors who love the idea of telemedicine but are hesitant about implementing a solution at their clinic.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/employee-burnout-severely-risking-cyber-security-report-finds
Employee burnout severely risking cybersecurity, report finds
A new 1Password survey finds security professionals are especially prone to reporting high levels of disengagement.
By Kat Jercich
December 13, 2021 11:55 AM
A new report from the password manager vendor 1Password found that employee burnout presents a "severe, pervasive and multifaceted security risk."
Workers in virtually every industry are reporting high levels of burnout, said researchers – potentially leading employees to let their guard down around security threats.
"Burned-out employees, we discovered, are often apathetic and lax about workplace security measures," wrote the report authors.
"Perhaps most troubling, we found that cybersecurity professionals themselves report disproportionately high levels of burnout," they added.
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How Patient Portals Are Changing the Game in Patient Care
December 13, 2021
The following is a guest article by Doreen DeGroff, Senior Product Director MEDITECH, CereCore.
Patient portals have existed since the late 1990s, but the onset of a global pandemic triggered a drastic shift within the healthcare community and fueled interest in patient portals. According to The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, about six in 10 individuals nationwide were offered a patient portal in 2020—representing a 17-percentage point increase since 2014.
As the COVID-19 pandemic wore on, staying connected with patients and supporting them in their healthcare journey resulted in trial by error for many patients and providers alike. Now we’re beginning to see healthcare leaders take a much more proactive approach with specific focus on optimization and improving the patient experience through portals—including the use of patient portals in rural healthcare.
Patients in Charge
According to the ONC, “Putting patients in charge of their health records is a key piece of patient control in healthcare, and patient control is at the center of HHS’ work toward a value-based healthcare system.” The high level of innovation and attentiveness to interoperability that supports the patient portal experience is essential.
Providers are now able to engage a group of people who might not have interacted with the technology before. And connect with them at the speed of light. For example, patients can go to a doctor’s office for blood work and access the results via the portal in the time it takes them to return home.
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https://www.eweek.com/cloud/four-keys-to-a-successful-saas-solution-in-healthcare/
4 Keys to a Successful SaaS Solution in Healthcare
Those software companies considering developing a SaaS solution for the lucrative healthcare market need to ensure that their product offers capabilities far beyond the typical feature set.
December 8, 2021
The healthcare industry is known for its reliance on antiquated legacy infrastructure, reluctance to adopt newer digital transformation technology, and skepticism toward innovation. While many healthcare organizations lag the technologies that are standard across other industries, this hasn’t prevented key players from promising new and hugely impactful solutions to the space.
In fact, we witnessed firsthand how the COVID-19 pandemic prompted an unusually rapid adoption of virtual tools, such as video appointments, e-messaging, and remote patient monitoring. At the same time, we’re also seeing a sharp rise in funding among digital health ventures. The sector has grown from just $1.1 billion across 93 funding deals in 2011 to more than $21.3 billion and 541 funding deals in 2021, with no signs of slowing down in the future.
However, as more players emerge offering shiny SaaS products that claim to revolutionize the healthcare experience, too many venture capital firms and software companies are simply throwing technology at the wall to see what sticks. For SaaS products to truly move the needle, there are four key components they must feature. The optimal healthcare SaaS solution will:
1) Solve the Hardest Problems
As noted, the historic boom in SaaS solutions has created a number of companies pitching redundant and overpriced services, causing many customers to feel inundated and fatigued by the thousands of solutions now available. In the healthcare space, adopting new technology requires a wide range of stakeholders to be aligned.
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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/937679
News Release 13-Dec-2021
Digital health in times of pandemic: What worked and what didn't
The first eHealth What If Forum series has drawn to a close, analysing and sharing the changes experienced during the pandemic with regard to digital health
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred unprecedented progress in the field of digital health. A great example of this is the growth seen in tools such as Catalonia's La Meva Salut, which, in little more than a year, has seen a jump from 600,000 to more than 4,300,000 users. To analyse and debate everything we've learned over the period, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's eHealth Center organized the first eHealth What If Forum series, which has just drawn to a close.
Spread across three sessions with different geographical focuses (Spain, Catalonia and Latin America), a range of health system experts and stakeholders took the chance to talk about the event’s theme: "What if the digitalization accelerated by COVID-19 enabled us to transform health systems?"
The pandemic, a catalyst for digital solutions
For Albert Barberà, director of the UOC's eHealth Center, "it has become clear that the pandemic has been a catalyst for the implementation of digital health solutions. Now the consensus is that, after a year and a half, we need to have good look at everything to analyse what's been useful and what hasn't, bearing in mind that, given the complexity of the situation, emergency solutions were often provided." All this without forgetting that, as Marta Aymerich, UOC Vice President for Strategic Planning and Research, noted: "healthcare doesn't begin when we go to the doctor, but is associated with how we live in all the places and at every moment of our lives. Digital health invites us to look after our own health and that of the community at large."
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/11/health/telehealth-medicare-covid.html
Telehealth Became a Lifeline for Older Americans. But It Still Has Glitches.
Medicare has extended coverage of remote health care. While telehealth removed barriers to care for many during the pandemic, some say there is more to be done.
By Paula Span
Dec. 11, 2021
Ben Forsyth had doubts about telehealth.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit New York, he was wary of trekking by subway from Brooklyn to see his palliative care doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. The prospect of entering a hospital and sitting in a waiting room troubled him, too.
But when his doctor, Helen Fernandez, suggested a video visit to monitor his chronic kidney disease and other conditions, “I wasn’t sure how it would work,” said Dr. Forsyth, 87, a retired internist and university administrator. “Would I feel listened to? Would she be able to elicit information to help with my care?”
Still, he logged on through Mount Sinai’s patient portal (“I wouldn’t say it was completely user-friendly”) on his laptop — and quickly became a convert.
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https://www.politico.eu/article/ireland-cyberattack-hospitals-report-weak-defenses/
Weak defenses made cyberattack on Irish hospitals easy, experts find
The Health Service Executive didn’t deploy antivirus software correctly and hasn’t patched multiple vulnerabilities.
December 10, 2021 7:54 pm
DUBLIN — Ireland’s national health service was wholly unprepared for the ransomware attack that crippled its services in May and remains vulnerable to a second strike, according to a government-commissioned analysis published Friday.
External analysts found that the attackers started to infiltrate the Health Service Executive’s systems in mid-December and gained system-wide access once a staff member with high-level privileges clicked a malicious Excel attachment on a phishing email on March 18. That user, the report found, had already been targeted several times by the same attacker.
The HSE — Ireland’s largest employer with 130,000 staff and contractors, 54 hospitals and 1,200 networked locations — received warnings of suspicious activity from two hospitals and its own antivirus software provider in the days running up to the May 14 attack but took no action, the report found.
“The low level of cybersecurity maturity, combined with the frailty of the IT estate, enabled the attacker to achieve their objectives with relative ease,” the report said. “The attacker was able to use well-known and simple attack techniques to move around the NHN (National Health Network), extract data and deploy ransomware software over large parts of the estate, without detection.”
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https://histalk2.com/2021/12/10/weekender-12-10-21/
Weekly News Recap
- Ambient clinical documentation vendor Robin raises $50 million.
- Cerebral raises $300 million.
- Report: Cotiviti is for sale.
- Claroty uses $400 million in new funding to acquire healthcare IoT vendor Medigate.
- Amazon’s Comprehend Medical NLP service adds SNOMED-CT support and cuts API usage prices by up to 90%.
- The Spokane newspaper calls out problems with the VA’s Cerner implementation at Mann-Grandstaff Medical Center.
- BDO USA acquires Culbert Healthcare Solutions.
- Fortive will acquire specialty EHR vendor Provation for $1.425 billion.
- Netsmart acquires Remarkable Health.
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Enjoy!
David.
