Here are a few I came across last week.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-hie-ehr-data-can-measure-disease-trends-support-public-health
How HIE EHR Data Can Measure Disease Trends, Support Public Health
Regenstrief researchers leveraged EHR data from a regional HIE to measure pediatric asthma trends across the state.
January 14, 2022 - Health information exchange (HIE) data can effectively measure epidemiological trends for pediatric asthma, according to a study published in the Journal of Asthma that points to the potential public health benefits of EHR data sharing.
Using data from the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC), a regional HIE, researchers from Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine analyzed EHR data for patients ages two to 18 from 2010 to 2019.
INPC is the nation’s largest inter-organizational clinical data repository, housing more than 14 billion pieces of patient data from 95 percent of the state.
“We wanted to see if the data collected by our health information exchange, could provide a timely and complete picture of pediatric asthma trends in an entire state,” Colin Rogerson, MD, study first author and Regenstrief Institute research scientist, said in a press release.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/01/nhs-england-digital-priorities/
NHS England sets out digital priorities in latest planning guidance
NHS England has revealed its digital priorities for the year ahead as part of a larger publication which sets out planning guidance for 2022/23.
Jordan Sollof – 10 January, 2022
The 40-page document, released on 24 December 2021, sets out the NHS’ objectives for the next 12 months across a range of topics, which include digital.
The focus of the publication looks at how the NHS can increase the number of people it diagnoses, treats and care for “in a timely way”. This includes “accelerating partnership working through integrated care systems (ICSs) to make the most effective use of the resources available”, the document adds.
Digital priorities feature in the guidance which states there are plans to use pandemic learnings to “rapidly and consistently adopt new models of care” that “exploit the full potential of digital technologies”.
Focussing on the NHS’ digital aims in more detail, the document sets out plans to use digital technologies to “transform the delivery of care and patient outcomes – achieving a core level of digitisation in every service across systems”.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/01/hospify-platform-shut-down-data-protection-act/
Hospify platform to shut down following suspension of Data Protection Act
The Hospify platform will close at the end of January after its “exponential growth curve collapsed” as a result of the Government’s decision to suspend relevant terms of the UK 2018 Data Protection Act.
Jordan Sollof – 6 January, 2022
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was announced that the terms of the act would be suspended in relation to health care for the duration of the crisis, and that industry professionals can freely use non-compliant consumer messaging platforms to communicate without fear of disapproval.
Therefore, for the last 18 months there has been no urgent need for Hospify’s services, and the decision has finally been made to discontinue the platform on January 31 2022.
Hospify confirmed that following this date, “all Hospify accounts will be closed, all user data will be removed from the platform, any outstanding subscriptions will be repaid and the service will be suspended”.
In a letter to Hospify users, the Hospify Team said: “Without the demands of compliance driving users to our service we have found it impossible – with a few honourable exceptions – to attract sufficient clients and investment to pay our way.
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Northwestern Researchers Develop a Digital Health Facemask for Clinicians
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | January 13, 2022
Dubbed the 'FaceBit,' the quarter-sized sensor array attaches to any mask and tracks the wearer's respiration and heart rate, as well as the mask's fit.
Researchers at Northwester University have developed a digital health attachment for a facemask, which they’ve dubbed the FaceBit.
The quarter-sized, battery-powered sensor attaches to any N95, cloth or surgical mask with a magnet, and can monitor a user’s respiration rate, heart rate and time wearing the mask, as well as how well the mask fits. The data is transferred to an mHealth app, which allows the wearer to monitor his or her health in real time and receive alerts when the monitors sense something amiss.
The project, funded by a National Science Foundation Grant for Rapid Response Research, was recently detailed in the journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
“We wanted to design an intelligent face mask for health care professionals that does not need to be inconveniently plugged in during the middle of a shift,” Josiah Hester, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science who led the device development team, said in a news story published by the university. “We augmented the battery’s energy with energy harvesting from various sources, which means that you can wear the mask for a week or two without having to charge or replace the battery.”
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What to know about implementing single-sign-on and multifactor authentication
Wes Wright, CTO at digital identity company Imprivata, explains how the two security approaches can reduce workflow disruptions while safeguarding protected health information.
By Bill Siwicki
January 14, 2022 11:20 AM
Striking the right balance between complex passwords, security and workflow efficiency is a big challenge for healthcare CISOs and CIOs. The rising number of publicly reported breaches shows the need to balance all three.
Healthcare security leaders no longer can rely upon just firewalls to protect the four walls of their organizations. For example, they need to control access to customer data, systems and other information at each point of entry – each device and each user – with complex passwords that are much harder to hack.
Healthcare IT News interviewed Wes Wright, CTO at Imprivata, a digital identity company, to dig into eliminating security friction, integrating compliance and security steps into end-user workflows, augmenting complex password policies with multifactor authentication (MFA), and making security "invisible" to the end user.
Q. How can healthcare chief information security officers and CIOs eliminate the friction in the security process that users often dislike?
A. In the past, healthcare IT professionals were guilty of making clinical teams jump through cybersecurity hoops. CISOs and CIOs always are thinking about and implementing security measures across their organizations because it is integral to their responsibility to defend the network.
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Kaiser Permanente Joins New Digital Health Collaborative
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | January 14, 2022
Kaiser Permanente has joined Graphite Health, a non-profit formed by several large health systems to create an interoperable digital health platform and bring new products and services to scale.
Kaiser Permanente has joined several other large healthcare organizations in a collaborative aimed at creating an interoperable digital health platform for developing and scaling innovative tools and services.
Graphite Health operates as a non-profit, according to officials, with a board of executives comprised of representatives from Kaiser Pemanente, Intermountain Healthcare, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and SSM Health. Members help guide the company’s direction and will receive products designed for and by them along with the resources to use them.
“We know that by working together to address interoperability at scale, we can create more convenience, better quality care, and lower costs,” Ries Robinson, MD, former vice president and chief innovation officer at Presbyterian and Graphite Health’s new CEO, said in a press release. “As Kaiser Permanente is nationally known for their innovative approach, we look forward to working closely with them to digitally transform and improve health care, and ultimately, to help patients and members across the country live better, healthier lives.”
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Having the Same EHR Vendor Does Not Ensure Health IT Interoperability
While EHR implementations from the same vendor are more likely to support data exchange, limited data standards adoption impedes interoperability.
January 13, 2022 - EHR interoperability with the same health IT vendor is still far from perfect due to limited data standards adoption, according to a study published in JAMIA.
That said, having EHR implementations from the same health IT vendor within a given health system still helps data exchange.
Researchers calculated inter- and intra-EHR vendor interoperability scores based on data from 68 oncology sites that implemented one of five EHR vendor products.
Intra-vendor interoperability is defined as the ability to share data between instances of the same vendor’s product. Inter-vendor interoperability refers to the ability to share information between instances of different vendor products.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/cyberattacks-increase-mortality-rates-but-healthcare-is-in-denial
Cyberattacks Increase Mortality Rates, But Healthcare Is In Denial
At a WEDI conference, Joshua Corman, chief strategist of CISA’s COVID task force, urged the healthcare sector to get realistic about the dismal consequences of cyberattacks.
By Jill McKeon
January 13, 2022 - Joshua Corman, chief strategist of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) COVID task force, urged the healthcare sector to come to terms with the harsh realities of healthcare cyberattacks at a recent WEDI Spotlight conference about privacy and security in healthcare.
“In the last 12 to 18 months, we've had successful electronic attacks of the water we drink, the food we put on our table, and the oil and gas that fuels our cars and our homes. The timely availability of patient care, the schools our children go to, the municipalities who run our towns and our cities, and even federal agencies have been the victims of state-sponsored and criminal attacks,” Corman said during his presentation.
“Things are on fire, and we're going to need a resilient workforce to deal with these shocks on all fronts.”
Corman cited data from an October CISA report that outlined the strains of COVID-19 on the nation’s critical infrastructure, particularly the healthcare sector’s ability to provide quality care. Data showed that as ICU beds filled, excess deaths increased.
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These Are the 5 Covid-Driven A.I. Trends That Are Changing Health Care
Closing the gap between in-person and virtual visits is just the tip of the iceberg.
By Melissa Angell, Staff Writer @melissajourno
For all of its ills, Covid-19 has supercharged consumerism in America's health care system, offering tantalizing opportunities for companies interested in lowering health care costs and increasing access to quality medical care.
Speaking at CB Insights' recent Future of Health Conference, Deepa Varadharajan, a senior managing analyst at the New York City-based research and analytics firm, explained that consumers can look forward to improved access and quality of health care, in addition to lowered costs--courtesy of artificial intelligence spurred by the coronavirus.
More than 170 startups are driving "anytime, anywhere care," said Varadharajan, noting that she expects the trend to continue. In addition to providing a growth industry for those working to further A.I., improving accessibility and lowering the cost of care could make the lives of time-crunched workers far more convenient--especially if the technology cuts down the time it takes to see a doctor or get a test done.
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New study investigates early claims of COVID-19 'infodemic'
“When you compare it to what was going on before the pandemic, you start to see that health misinformation was already widespread.”
By Brooke Migdon | Jan. 12, 2022
Story at a glance
- Health misinformation online was “already widespread” prior to the pandemic, new research suggests.
- The “infodemic” some say was brought on by the pandemic had been ravaging the internet long before COVID-19, and the spread of misinformation is really just an unfortunate feature of general online health information, according to the study.
- Researchers found that social media posts about COVID-19 were far less likely to contain false or misleading information than posts about other health topics.
The “infodemic” many say has been sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic is actually a general feature of online health information, new research suggests.
In a study of public social media posts shared in 2019 and 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, researchers found health misinformation had been spreading long before the first case of COVID-19 was detected.
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Why decisions on telehealth strategies are at a critical juncture
Deciding the best path forward will dictate choices on which technologies health systems will need, and integration with EMR platforms will be key.
Jan 13 2022
Telehealth is a virtual healthcare delivery system, and it has become a permanent fixture in healthcare delivery, accelerated by the pandemic. Now, healthcare leaders are looking to expand and improve their telehealth product.
Virtual care is now mainstream. It's transforming how healthcare is delivered and part of the strategy. Challenges remain, but numerous opportunities exist. The solution you choose to buy or build will have a long-lasting impact. Here are four things to consider for healthcare decision-makers.
Standalone or
EMR-centric system
Telehealth works best when it replicates an in-clinic visit, and that can only
happen when all of the patient's clinical data is in one place and linked to
the EHR. This completes the picture of the patient and gives insight into a
possible health trend by examining historical information. The historical data
improves physicians' ability to assess the patient's condition over time, which
is crucial for preventative and long-term care.
The marketplace has a few standalone products that integrate well with the EMR enabling the records solution to act as the central platform. Critical findings for standalone solutions that work well in the industry must include the following:
- Consistent application design on all devices (smartphone, tablet, desktop, web TV).
- System usability in a low-bandwidth environment.
- Multiple integration points with the EMR to have EMR-like functions in the system.
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AI in Practice initiative shows potential of advanced computing
The project from RSNA is gaining vendor support and shows a path to supporting radiology practices through vendor collaboration and the use of standards.
Jan 13 2022
Implementing artificial intelligence in healthcare has proved challenging, but an ongoing demonstration effort by the Radiological Society of North America is offering a glimpse at how the advanced computing technology could be applied to imaging.
Called Imaging AI in Practice, the initiative is bringing together vendors, subject matter experts within RSNA and standards organizations to set out practical ways in which AI could support healthcare, focusing on radiology.
The project provided demonstrations at the recent RSNA conference in Chicago, walking visitors through a variety of potential scenarios in which AI could play a role in assisting clinicians, whether in actual image analysis or at a more basic level, such as optimizing the routing of information or in organizing clinicians’ workdays.
Even though it’s just a project at this point, the RSNA initiative is gaining support from a variety of vendor participants, and it places importance on using a variety of standards that enable interoperability and easier information exchange. As such, it may provide a springboard to help AI gain traction and demonstrate its utility for imaging professionals. Expansion of this initiative could offer a path to gain acceptance of AI in use by clinicians, and a focal point to achieve industry consensus around needed interoperability and use of standards.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/nhs-england-pledges-level-digital-maturity-20223
NHS England pledges to level up digital maturity in 2022/3
Planning guidance sets out goal to exploit the full potential of technology.
By Tammy Lovell
January 13, 2022 01:59 AM
NHS England (NHSE) has pledged to use lessons from the pandemic to level up digital maturity over the next year.
In the 2022/2023 priorities and operations planning guidance it sets out plans to “rapidly and consistently adopt new models of care that exploit the full potential of digital technologies”.
This aims to ensure health and care systems have a core level of digitalisation by March 2025 in line with the NHS long term plan.
The planning guidance encourages GPs to promote the NHS app and NHS.UK, with the goal of reaching 60% registration by March 2023.
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Smartwatches, fitness bands aren't medical devices but are starting to act like them
The line is blurring as wearables become more advanced. And it's only getting more complicated.
Lisa Eadicicco Jan. 13 2022
Bill, a 31-year-old engineer based in Ohio, has experienced health anxiety in some capacity for most of his life. That's why he bought a Fitbit Sense in late 2020. He thought it would reassure him that he was healthy if he was able to take an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) reading when he felt something abnormal, such as heartburn or an accelerated heartbeat.
Yet Bill only grew more anxious after receiving inconclusive ECG results on the Fitbit Sense. An inconclusive result doesn't indicate a health issue; it just means the device couldn't get a reliable reading. This can happen if there's too much movement during the scan or if the wearer's heart rate is too high or low, as Fitbit explains on its website.
But Bill didn't realize this when he was taking up to 20 ECGs per day because of his anxiety around springtime last year. (Bill asked that his last name be omitted from the story so that he could freely discuss details about his health. CNET has verified his identity.)
"If it was inconclusive, I'd be like 'OK, I need it to say normal,'" he said. "And I would keep checking it to see if it was normal or not, just to reassure myself that I was fine."
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https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=cad21f3a-8eb7-469f-a985-c259460d0402
In brief: digital healthcare in Singapore
Drew & Napier LLC Tony Yeo and Benjamin Gaw
Singapore November 30 2021
Data protection, privacy and digitisation in healthcare
Digitisation
What are the legal developments regarding digitisation in the healthcare sector and industrial networks or sales channels?
The Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act (PHMCA), which adopts a premises-based regulatory framework, will be replaced with a new Healthcare Services Act (HCSA), which adopts a services-based regulatory framework. This was partly prompted by the increasing use of digital healthcare solutions, which may not involve physical premises. Under the HCSA, telemedicine services will be licensable healthcare services.
In this connection, the Ministry of Health (MOH) launched the Licensing Experimentation and Adaptation Programme (LEAP) on 18 April 2018, a regulatory sandbox initiative for telemedicine and mobile medicine to facilitate the development of innovative healthcare models in a controlled environment. As of February 2021, MOH has closed the sandbox for telemedicine and mobile medicine after successfully achieving the objectives it had set out. As a transition approach prior to licensing under HCSA in 2022, MOH will start to list direct telemedicine service providers online.
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FBI, CISA, NSA Warn of Russian Cyber Threats to Critical Infrastructure
The FBI, CISA, and the NSA released a joint advisory about Russian state-sponsored cyber threats and urged US critical infrastructure to remain vigilant.
By Jill McKeon
January 12, 2022 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint advisory warning US critical infrastructure of ongoing Russian cyber threats.
The advisory outlined frequently observed the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of Russian state-sponsored cyber operations. The brief noted that the Russian threat actors have been known to target the healthcare, energy, telecommunications, and government facilities sectors.
“Historically, Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actors have used common but effective tactics—including spearphishing, brute force, and exploiting known vulnerabilities against accounts and networks with weak security—to gain initial access to target networks,” the advisory stated.
Commonly exploited vulnerabilities that Russian state-sponsored APT actors leverage for initial access include those in FortiGate VPNs, Oracle WebLogic Servers, Citrix, Microsoft Exchange, and VMWare products.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/evaluating-ai-digital-assistants-primary-care-physicians
Evaluating AI digital assistants for primary care physicians
Dr. Steven E. Waldren, vice president and chief medical informatics officer at the American Academy of Family Physicians, offers an advance look at his HIMSS22 session on clinical artificial intelligence.
By Bill Siwicki
January 12, 2022 11:15 AM
Studies show the majority of U.S. physicians and clinicians feel burned out when going to work, and indicate clerical burdens – including clinical documentation – are a major contributor to burnout.
For primary care physicians, a new class of technologies – AI-powered digital assistants – is improving capacity and capability, while reducing their administrative and cognitive burden. But how can organizations determine which tools most effectively address primary care physicians' pain points while strengthening patient engagement?
Dr. Steven E. Waldren, vice president and chief medical informatics officer at the American Academy of Family Physicians, will answer this and other questions in a HIMSS22 educational session entitled "Innovation to Improve Physician Burnout: Lessons from AAFP."
Healthcare IT News sat down with Dr. Waldren to get a sneak peek at his session.
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Clinicians have spent even more time in the EHR during COVID-19 – is telehealth to blame?
A recent study found that in-basket messages and clinical review are two major factors driving a pandemic increase in daily electronic health record minutes.
By Kat Jercich
January 12, 2022 12:02 PM
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association found that ambulatory clinicians spent less time in electronic health record systems at the start of the pandemic.
That initial valley was short-lived, however, according to the report. By July 2020, clinicians were spending consistently more time in the EHR than before COVID-19.
Researchers pointed to two major factors appearing to drive the increase: clinical review, where clinicians view test results and patient history, and in-basket messages from seven possible sources. "An obvious potential driver of this finding is that many clinicians delivered care virtually via telemedicine, including both phone and video visits," observed researchers.
"The rapid proliferation of virtual visits may have had implications not only for how clinicians deliver care during the encounter but also how patients expect to interact with their clinician outside of the boundaries of the scheduled appointment," they added.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/01/12/when-can-we-get-back-to-the-future/
When Can We Get Back To The Future?
January 12, 2022
Today I read a piece appearing in Becker’s Health IT which offered excerpts from interviews with health system CIOs to see how they would like to see their hospitals’ technology improve in the coming year.
The article featured excerpts from interviews with four CIOs. One focused on better using IoT to create better at-home care experiences, another on using data aggregated across institutions to improve decision support, a third CIO focused on using predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to get ahead of supply chain and capacity issues arising during the pandemic, and the fourth CIO’s interests included the use of robots and AI to create companions for isolated patients.
To me, what was striking about these discussions is that they were different from many years of “looking forward” health IT pieces I’ve read over the years. Rather than shooting for the stars, they mostly involved fairly mundane extensions of what hospitals are doing. Given the pandemic’s continued strength I’m not surprised by this, but the lack of 10,000 foot thinking here is still striking.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, healthcare IT leaders may be cutting themselves off at the knees by failing to think past the usual routine and imagine some bigger picture changes to their systems that could address even longer-term entrenched problems. In other words, I’d argue that it’s time to get back to the future — a future no longer dominated entirely by COVID — if for no other reason than that stagnation means we may not be doing our best work for patients.
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ONC Adds Public Health Reporting Specifications to Interoperability Guidance
ONC has added health IT specifications for ePrescribing and public health reporting to its Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) Reference Edition.
January 11, 2022 - ONC’s 8th annual update of the Interoperability Standards Advisory (ISA) Reference Edition includes new specifications related to ePrescribing and public health reporting, according to a HealthITBuzz blog post written by Andrew Hayden.
ISA is a catalog of curated health IT data standards and implementation specifications based on feedback from industry stakeholders.
COVID-19
ONC added CDC Immunization Information System (IIS) code set standards and Health Level Seven (HL7) IIS implementation guidance to the “COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic” interoperability need, officials said.
“To better support CDC’s COVID-19 reporting requirements, we’ve added a newer release of HL7 Laboratory Test Compendium Framework to Support the Transmission of a Laboratory’s Directory of Services to Provider’s Health IT or EHR System,” Hayden noted.
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This Year’s Trends Center on Health IT Adoption to Ease Clinician Burnout
Surescripts officials say that 2022 will be a year filled with health IT adoption as COVID-19 continues to exacerbate clinician burnout concerns.
January 11, 2022 - This year’s health IT trends will include increased adoption of specialty prescribing tools and other solutions to mitigate clinician burnout, according to statements from Surescripts officials emailed to journalists.
Andrew Mellin, MD, vice president, and chief medical information officer at Surescripts, noted that COVID-19 has exacerbated clinician burnout concerns.
"For clinicians, trying to balance patient care with innumerable faxes, phone calls, and communication issues is contributing to an epidemic of burnout,” explained Mellin. “Although we can't control COVID-19 and public opinions about science, we can do things to make providers’ lives easier by removing administrative barriers and burdens so caregivers can focus on being caregivers.”
Urgent need for interoperability
Ensuring providers have access to patient health data at the point of care is key for patient safety. Access to patient health information also helps keep healthcare costs down by eliminating the need for duplicate tests.
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Telehealth Use Dipped 7% in October, But Telemental Care Persisted
Last October, telehealth use fell in every region except the Northeast, where it remained stable, but mental health condition claims increased in every region, according to FAIR Health.
January 11, 2022 - National telehealth use declined by nearly 7 percent in October 2021, but mental health conditions remained in the top spot for the most common telehealth diagnoses in every region, according to FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker.
From July to September last year, the country’s use of telehealth services continued to increase each month, but that changed in October. In September, telehealth accounted for 4.4 percent of all medical claim lines on a national level. That percentage dropped to 4.1 percent in October, amounting to a 6.8 percent decrease in claim lines.
The Southern region of the country saw the biggest decline in telehealth use, with an 11.4 percent decrease in claim lines. This deviates from the 12.9 percent increase in telehealth utilization that Southern states saw from July to August 2021.
Similarly, there was an 8.3 percent decrease in the West and a 6.4 decrease in claim lines in the Midwest. The Northeast region maintained its telehealth use, with virtual care accounting for 4.8 percent of all claim lines in September and October.
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January 10, 2022
Timely nudge via EMR may improve transition of care for CVD after pregnancy
An electronic reminder sent to a provider ahead of a postpartum visit increased discussions about transition of care and CVD risk between the provider and patients who had a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, researchers reported.
“Scalable interventions are needed to improve preventive care for those with increased CVD risk identified during pregnancy,” Jourdan E. Triebwasser, MD, MA, and colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Triebwasser and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial of 222 women aged 18 years or older who had a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. The participants were enrolled in the postpartum BP monitoring program Heart Safe Motherhood and had positive pressure ventilation 4 to 13 weeks after delivery.
The researchers randomly assigned the women in a 1:1 ratio to receive usual postpartum care or a “nudge” intervention between Feb. 8, 2021, and June 10, 2021. In the nudge group, the provider conducting the postpartum visit received a nudge through the patient’s electronic medical record a week prior to the visit. The nudge included counseling phrases and patient-specific information on hypertensive disorder of pregnancy and gestational diabetes. This information was also available through the EMR phrase manager for the usual care group. The researchers investigated how often providers accessed the nudges and whether they resulted in documentation of counseling on transitions of care to primary care or cardiology.
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How AI almost led Dr. Farzad Mostashari down the wrong path on health equity
In a virtual panel discussion about public and population health at J.P. Morgan's annual conference, the CEO of Aledade shared how the quest for efficiency in a world of harried physicians' practices almost led Aledade to use a flawed ML algorithm to engage at-risk patients of those practices.
Jan 11, 2022 at 1:34 AM
Achieving healthcare efficiency and reducing costs are increasingly the dual goals that hospitals, payers and providers are aiming for and many are looking toward machine learning algorithms to help deliver these while also avowedly not compromising care quality and patient outcomes. But leveraging AI/ML comes with its own pitfalls and human judgment can make the difference between reinforcing systemic racism and alleviating it.
That was the message of Dr. Farzad Mostashari, former National Coordinator for Health IT and CEO of Aledade, who participated in a panel discussion about public and population health moderated by Hemant Taneja, managing partner at venture capital firm General Catalyst, and with co-panelist Caroline Savello, chief commercial officer of Color, the Burlingame, California-based genomics testing and population health company. [A third panelist, Dr. Robert Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at UCSF joined the virtual panel that was part of the annual virtual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference.]
The conversation inevitably turned to health equity, a topic that is on top of mind of scores of healthcare stakeholders given how Covid-19 has laid bare the inequities in the U.S. health system.
Savello painted the health equity challenge as largely an issue of access. Through Color’s experience in the pandemic she forwarded the argument that the infrastructure that has been stood up as a result of Covid — whether through government effort or private effort — can and should be leveraged to attack this problem of access to healthcare in underserved communities.
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Address standardization is a first step in achieving matching certainty
Healthcare organizations involved in matching records to patients say more efforts lie ahead, and jurge consideration of patient identifiers.
Jan 11 2022
The challenging task of matching patient matching got a boost from the decision by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Department of Health and Human Services to release specifications for cross-industry standards for representing patient addresses.
Absent a unique patient identifier – probably years away from being established, if it ever is, because of privacy concerns – a patient’s address provides a step forward in enabling healthcare organizations to match patients to their healthcare and claims records.
However, many admit that the use of addresses to aid in patient identification is only a single step along the path of ascertaining matches, especially in an age when most patient information is electronic and services can be provided in a variety of settings.
Organizations that deal with the complexities of exchanging patient data are encouraged by the ONC’s announcement and expressed willingness to continue to work.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/01/11/health-it-turnover-survey-offers-grim-picture/
Health IT Turnover Survey Offers Grim Picture
January 11, 2022
I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of HISTalk, a fellow HIT website that has strong ties to health tech leaders across the provider spectrum. For that reason, I’m inclined to take the results of the site’s recently-released health IT turnover survey pretty seriously — and unfortunately, these results aren’t pretty.
In a recent progress report on the survey, the site looked at different entities and how turnover was affecting them. Nobody’s staffing situation seems to be good, and some seemed to be downright terrible. While the update summarized responses from several different types of healthcare organizations, in this article I’m focusing on the vendors to keep things focused.
One vendor executive who responded to the survey said that significant turnover was underway, with 25% of staff already gone. (It should be noted that the vendor is in merger talks, but still…)
Another software vendor reported a turnover rate of 15% to 20%, particularly among developer roles. The vendor said that the company has raised wages to closer match inflation, added monthly and annual incentives and boosted health insurance and 401K contributions in an effort to keep the folks who remain.
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Mayo, Kaiser Join $110M Funding Round for Hospital-at-Home Company
Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente are once again investing in Medically Home, a company that provides healthcare for acute care patients in their own homes.
By Anuja Vaidya
January 10, 2022 - Medically Home, a Boston-based company that operates acute care-at-home programs, has raised $110 million in a new funding round, which includes investments from the likes of Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente.
The company offers a technology platform and services that enable clinicians to provide care for a range of medical conditions — including high-acuity ones typically treated in hospitals — in a patient's home. Medically Home's model involves the creation of medical command centers led by physicians and nurses. The medical command center staff work with field clinicians, including nurses, paramedics, and technicians, to provide care at home.
The company also enables certain surgical procedures to be performed outside the hospital by linking ambulatory surgery centers to the temporary hospital-at-home.
More than 7,000 patients have been treated using the Medically Home model, according to the news release. The hospital-at-home company has worked with various providers across the country, including Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Adventist Health and UNC Health.
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Remote Patient Monitoring Finger Clip Can Help Monitor Blood Pressure
Researchers are working to develop a remote patient monitoring finger clip for at-home use so patients can measure their blood pressures in a noninvasive way.
January 07, 2022 - Engineers from the University of Missouri have created a prototype of a remote patient monitoring device that can noninvasively monitor an individual’s blood pressure.
Providers can detect certain health conditions earlier than usual through the regular monitoring of blood pressure, including hypertension, which displays no warnings signs or symptoms. But taking an individual’s blood pressure at the hospital or a doctor’s office may lead to an inaccurate reading for a number of reasons.
Patients may feel nervous about getting their blood pressure taken in a clinical setting, causing it to abnormally rise.
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January 06, 2022
Machine learning score using stress CMR may predict death in patients with CAD
By Erik Swain
A score derived from machine learning that included information from stress cardiac magnetic resonance effectively predicted 10-year all-cause death in patients with known or suspected CAD, researchers reported at EuroEcho 2021.
“This is the first study to show that machine learning with clinical parameters plus stress cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) can very accurately predict the risk of death,” Théo Pezel, MD, researcher in cardiovascular imaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital, said in a press release. “The findings indicate that patients with chest pain, dyspnea or risk factors for cardiovascular disease should undergo a stress CMR exam and have their score calculated. This would enable us to provide more intense follow-up and advice on exercise, diet and so on to those in greatest need.”
Pezel
and colleagues analyzed 31,762 patients with known or suspected CAD (mean age,
64 years; 66% men) who were referred to a center in Paris for stress CMR to
evaluate myocardial perfusion and wall motion from 2008 to 2018.
During 206,453 patient-years of follow-up (median, 6 years per patient), 8.4%
of patients died. Compared with those who survived, those who died were older
and more likely to be men, have diabetes, have hypertension, have obesity, be
current or former smokers at baseline, have known CAD, have known MI, have had
prior PCI, have had prior CABG and have peripheral atheroma, Pezel said during
a presentation, noting that those who died were also less likely to have a
family history of CAD compared with those who survived.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/boost-patient-matching-onc-releases-technical-specs-project-us
In a boost for patient matching, ONC releases technical specs for Project US@
The new Final Version 1.0 provides unified specifications for patient addresses. A new companion guide developed with AHIMA offers healthcare organizations help with implementation.
By Mike Miliard
January 10, 2022 10:55 AM
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT this past week released the Project US@ Technical Specification Final Version 1.0, in collaboration with healthcare standards development organizations and other healthcare stakeholders.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The new specification (it's pronounced "Project USA") was developed
as a unified, cross-standard approach that can be implemented
across healthcare organizations of all shapes and sizes. The aim is to offer a
unified method for representing mailing, physical, billing and other addresses,
to help improve patient matching.
Standardized representation of how addresses are written in healthcare records has long been an elusive but important component of accurate patient identification and broader nationwide interoperability. So ONC has been working for the past year with a variety of healthcare stakeholders and SDOs to develop the Project US@ specs.
"Among the many data elements that are used in patient matching, research has shown patient address to be one of the most sensitive to standardization and therefore impactful on patient matching, especially at scale," wrote Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Steve Posnack and ONC IT Specialist Carmen Smiley in a January 7 blog post.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/01/10/the-new-healthcare-truths-of-2022/
The New Healthcare Truths of 2022
January 10, 2022
The following is a guest article by Mike Noshay, MSE, Founder and Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Verinovum.
This time last year, we healthcare leaders were excited to be looking ahead to 2021 and leaving 2020 firmly behind us. But our dreams of putting the pandemic in the past were put on pause. Now, as we look ahead to another new year, we wonder: will 2022 bring positivity, innovation, and transformation?
At Verinovum, our SWAT (Strategic Workforce and Tactics) team has once again consulted their proverbial crystal ball and have made some predictions about what healthcare can expect over the next 12 months. In no particular order, here are our top 10 new truths for 2022:
1. Telemedicine will become a more mainstream way to interact with healthcare professionals.
Telemedicine’s popularity will continue to rise as better technology delivers benefits for both providers and patients. Lower costs for delivering telemedicine will be a driver for payers and providers, while convenience and easier access to services will continue to appeal to patients. Infrastructure and technological understanding remain barriers for mass adoption, but a recent survey by Rock Health reported that while racial disparities had been a concern in the past, “Black, Hispanic and other non-white adults were more likely than white adults to use telemedicine.”
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https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/07/ibm-reportedly-shopping-watson-health-just-as-healthcare-gets-hot/
IBM reportedly shopping Watson Health just as healthcare gets hot
IBM could be looking to sell the Watson Health division for a mere $1 billion, according to an Axios report. The question is why is IBM running away from the healthcare vertical just as it seems to be heating up, and for such a low price?
Just last month, Oracle spent $28 billion to buy digital health records company Cerner. Last spring, Microsoft spent close to $20 billion to buy Nuance, which is used heavily in the medical industry, boasting 10,000 healthcare customers. That’s huge money, suggesting that enterprise companies are looking to embrace the healthcare vertical and willing to spend big bucks to do it.
IBM launched Watson Health in April 2015 to much fanfare. It was supposed to take Watson, IBM’s artificial intelligence platform, and put it to work on healthcare problems. The argument went something like this. Even the best doctor can’t read all of the literature out there, but a computer can do it quickly, and could come up with suggested courses of action to augment the doctor’s expertise and produce better outcomes.
It then did what IBM does when it focuses on something. It opened up a fancy headquarters in Cambridge in September that year. It also began announcing partnerships. It checked all the boxes, partnering with the likes of CVS, Apple and Johnson & Johnson.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/abbott-unveils-new-line-wearables-ces-2022
Abbott Unveils New Line of Wearables at CES 2022
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | January 07, 2022
The pharma giant unveiled its Lingo line of biometric wearables Thursday at CES 2022 in Las Vegas, continuing a trend in digital health innovation brought on in part by the pandemic.
Abbott Chairman Robert B. Ford introduced a new line of consumer-facing wearables at CES 2022, positioning the pharma giant near the top of a fast-growing digital health trend.
Ford unveiled Lingo, sensor-enhanced wearables designed to track biometrics such as blood glucose levels, ketones, lactate and even alcohol.
"This will be like having a window into your body," he said. "It's science that you will be able to access any time so you can understand what your body is telling you and what it needs. Our vision is that Lingo will go far beyond today's wearables for consumers to help you proactively manage your health, nutrition, and athletic performance."
Ford’s keynote highlights a busy week in Las Vegas, conducted on a mishmash of in-person and virtual venues due to COVID-19. His was the first keynote for a healthcare executive in the history of the Consumer Technology Association’s massive show, and represented the building interest in devices – especially wearables – that monitor and collect health and wellness data.
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https://www.economist.com/business/how-health-care-is-turning-into-a-consumer-product/21807114
Move fast and heal things
How health
care is turning into a consumer product
A new tech boom is changing the business of medicine
Jan 9th 2022
TECH AND health care have a fraught relationship. On January 3rd Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, a startup that once epitomised the promise of combining Silicon Valley’s dynamism with a stodgy health-care market, was convicted of lying to investors about the capabilities of her firm’s blood-testing technology. Yet look beyond Theranos, which began to implode way back in 2015, and a much healthier story becomes apparent. This week a horde of entrepreneurs and investors will gather virtually at the annual JPMorgan Chase health-care jamboree. The talk is likely to be of AI, digital diagnostics and tele-health— and of a new wave of capital flooding into a vast industry.
Clunky, costly, highly regulated health systems, often dominated by rent-seeking middlemen, are being shaken up by companies that target patients directly, meet them where they are—which is increasingly online—and give them more control over how to access care. Scientific advances in fields such as gene sequencing and artificial intelligence (AI) make new modes of care possible. E-pharmacies fulfil prescriptions, wearable devices monitor wearers’ health in real time, tele-medicine platforms connect patients with physicians, and home tests enable self-diagnosis.
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https://histalk2.com/2022/01/07/weekender-1-7-22/
Weekly News Recap
- Stryker announces that it will acquire Vocera for $3 billion.
- Vera Whole Health signs a deal to acquire Castlight Health for $370 million.
- Nomi Health acquires Artemis Health for $200 million.
- Babylon Health acquires Higi.
- Report: IBM is again trying to sell Watson Health for $1 billion.
- Symplr will acquire Midas Health Analytics Solutions from Conduent for $340 million.
- Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is found guilty of four counts of investor fraud.
- Health systems report labor problems caused by underpaying employees due to the weeks-long, ransomware-related downtime of payroll system vendor Kronos.
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Enjoy!
David.
