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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VA Adds a Thousand Employees to EHR Modernization Project Amidst Pause
This recent hiring by the Department of Veterans Affairs will include product managers to oversee the implementation of the EHR modernization program.
December 16, 2022 - In the midst of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) current EHR implementation delay, the agency has commenced a Silicon Valley hiring spree, bringing on 1,000 new hires to assist with the EHR modernization program, according to FedScoop reporting.
VA plans to hire employees to assist with transformation efforts, including the update of financial accounting, supply chain, and EHR management systems, in addition to the EHR system.
“The EHR has been, as you rightly point out, a challenging project,” Kurt DelBene, chief information officer of the VA, said to FedScoop. “We are already the largest Oracle Cerner customer in their EHR system. It is also a very complex environment with our medical centers and clinics across the US, and we are stressing Cerner in ways they had not been stressed before.”
New product managers brought in through the hiring scheme will be tasked with overseeing the implementation of Oracle Cerner’s Millennium platform.
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Healthcare Cybersecurity Measures Must Go Beyond Perimeter Security
Over 90 percent of surveyed critical infrastructure leaders agree they cannot solely depend on perimeter security, indicating that healthcare cybersecurity measures must go further than the firewall.
December 16, 2022 - An uptick in cyberattacks across critical infrastructure organizations is causing organization leaders to bolster their security postures, going beyond basic perimeter security.
Healthcare organizations cannot afford to be unprotected against the evolving threat of cyberattacks with patient safety on the line; prioritizing security beyond the firewall will be critical to healthcare cybersecurity measures, according to a report conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Imprivata.
Researchers surveyed 760 IT security leaders in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical to elevate areas of improvement in current security measures and compliance tactics.
“The current IT landscape looks nothing like it did a decade ago,” the report stated. “In the quest to stand up new services, facilities, and locations, optimize existing investments, and keep pace with countless users, roles, and applications, IT infrastructures have evolved into highly complex ecosystems that exist beyond well-define perimeter.”
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/12/the-three-challenges-facing-the-nhs/
The three challenges facing the NHS
Equity, access and digital. Overcome these and we will have an NHS that is fit for purpose according to Lord Victor Adebowale CBE, chair and co-founder of Visionable.
DHI News team, 16 December, 2022
Digital technology is the conduit to equal and equitable access to care. Get that right and we can ensure that the NHS is meeting the needs of all the population and not just those who are equipped to navigate the healthcare system.
The NHS was set up to provide high quality care for patients, free at the point of need. Yet sadly, the people who need health and social care the most are often least able to access this care and support. It should be an NHS priority to ensure everyone gets equal and equitable access to care no matter what their circumstances or where they are located – yet it is failing. It is failing in its mission and it is failing the people it serves.
So, how can technology help to solve this?
The pivotal role of technology in saving the NHS
Technology can connect clinicians and patients leading to better quality care and improved patient outcomes. This can be literal in that technology can facilitate contact when face-to-face contact isn’t possible. For example, connecting GPs or specialist consultants with patients in remote locations or when home care is preferred.
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Why CIOs are focused on streamlining patient access in 2023
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In today's healthcare landscape, patients do not expect a good experience so much as demand it. For a hospital and health system CIOs, delivering that experience starts with time, convenience and removing barriers to care.
Becker's spoke to three health system CIOs to discuss how they are planning for 2023 when it comes to improving patient access.
Note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
An e-commerce approach
Raymond Lowe, senior vice president and CIO of AltaMed, based in Commerce, Calif., said health systems need to shift their engagement and patient access strategies to reflect an experience that is better aligned to an e-commerce approach.
As patients' attitudes shift in how they want their healthcare delivered, health systems must also shift their delivery.
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Harvest time, competing with the coasts on salary: The world of a rural health system CIO
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Running health IT for a rural health system presents a unique set of challenges — and opportunities. Just ask Brad Reimer.
He's the CIO of Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health, the nation's largest rural health system with 47 hospitals and hundreds of clinics across eight states.
For one, the rise in remote work left him competing for rural IT workers with businesses in other parts of the country that can pay a lot more.
"It's probably hurt us more than benefited us," he told Becker's of the shift to remote. "The Midwest traditionally has been a little bit lower on salary and wages because the cost of living has been lower. Now, our staff are getting cherry-picked from people on the coasts, basically giving them 20 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent increases to do the exact same job. So there's something that's fundamentally going to have to change there."
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December 15, 2022
‘The biggest upgrade in health care IT’ is approaching: Are PCPs prepared?
By Stephanie Viguers Fact checked by Shenaz Bagha
WASHINGTON — On Dec. 31, all certified electronic health record companies are required to implement upgraded technology with interoperability, allowing providers to easily transmit patient information across networks, according to a speaker.
This requirement is part of the 21st Century Cures Act, signed into law in 2016, Aneesh Chopra, MPP, former assistant to the president and chief technology officer, and co-founder and president of CareJourney, a health care analytics solutions firm, said during the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) annual meeting.
The technology is known as Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), an application programming interface (API). CMS recently finalized a rule in the Physician Fee Schedule that states all physicians must “turn on this technology” by September, Chopra said.
“We’re in the middle of the biggest upgrade in health care IT since the beginning of the high-tech era,” he said. “If you run a primary care clinic, ask your EHR vendor when they choose to ship this technology to you.”
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Telehealth does not lead to increased primary care spending, study finds
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Telehealth reduces primary care spending, as telehealth utilization has been associated with lower emergency department utilization and inpatient hospitalizations, according to a Dec. 13 study published in Nature.
The study from Boston-based Harvard Medical School researchers analyzed 4,114,651 primary care visits from 939,134 unique patients across three healthcare systems between 2019 and 2021 to see if the increased use of telehealth during the pandemic led to over-utilization of primary care.
Here's what it found:
- The average number of primary care visits per patient remained stable across patients on commercial insurance, Medicare and Medicaid.
- The results suggested that the availability of telehealth did not result in additional primary care visits. Instead, researchers found that telehealth may have served as a substitute for certain in-person encounters.
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What 2023 holds for EHR optimization, SDOH, patient access, health equity and more
An expert walks through the issues and trends she eyes as most important in the year ahead, and offers advice on how to tackle related challenges.
By Bill Siwicki
December 16, 2022 10:19 AM
Consumerism, autonomous operations, interoperability, healthcare access, health equity – these are some of the top issues facing healthcare CIOs and other health IT leaders in 2023, according to Pega Vice President of Healthcare Life Sciences Susan Taylor.We spoke with the health IT vendor executive to get her expert views and 2023 predictions on these issues as well as other topics such as social determinants of health and EHR optimization. Her informed takes on these important subjects can help guide leaders through the year to come.
Q. What do you think will be the top health IT priorities for 2023?
A. As we enter 2023, healthcare organizations are still emerging from COVID-related challenges, dealing with critical staffing shortages, and facing strong inflation across labor and supply chains. The constraint on health IT to deliver immediate value has never been more severe, and the opportunity for technology to deliver value has never been greater.
With that in mind, organizations are focusing on areas that will give them the agile operations platforms foundational to accelerate innovation and outcomes.
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Digital Therapeutics Alliance applauds bill to guide public Rx coverage
The legislation would direct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop national guidance to cover prescription digital therapeutics under Medicaid and CHIP.
By Andrea Fox
December 16, 2022 10:23 AM
The Medicaid and CHIP Access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics Act seeks to expand care options that can help improve health outcomes and quality of life for those facing barriers to healthcare. The Digital Therapeutics Alliance this week encouraged legislators to support its efforts to broaden access to DTx.WHY IT MATTERS
For those with chronic and mental health conditions covered by Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, reimbursement for digital platforms and applications that can improve health outcomes has been limited.
The bipartisan bill, S.5238, introduced by Senators Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., could fulfill the need for a regulatory framework by requiring Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop national coverage standards.
The act would also define the term "prescription digital therapeutic" in Medicaid and allow U.S. Health and Human Services to provide states with technical assistance as they consider coverage.
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Oklahoma HIE exemplifies benefits of making patient data easily accessible
The MyHealth Access Network uses governance and real-time data transmission to bring healthcare info to clinicians.
Dec 15 2022
Contributing writer
Significant progress has been made in and with Health Information Exchange systems during the past decade.
While limitations and struggles persist, certain entities — such as Oklahoma’s MyHealth Access Network (MyHealth) — are demonstrating potential benefits that initiatives can produce.
In a presentation in the HDM KLASroom, Lisa Bari, chief executive officer at Civitas Networks for Health, and David Kendrick, MD, chief executive officer at MyHealth Access Network, discussed how MyHealth has become a pioneer in HIE success through effective governance and new data exchange applications.
The rise of HIE
As more provider organizations have embraced value-based care and taken on risk in providing patient care, HIE adoption has risen organically but not equally.
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The Sequoia Project Publishes Health Data Usability Implementation Guide
The data usability resource from The Sequoia Project covers topics like health data integrity, the effective use of codes, and data searchability.
December 15, 2022 - The Sequoia Project has released the final version of its "Data Usability Implementation Guide," which offers guidance to improve health data usability to benefit patient care.
The final resource created by The Sequoia Project's Interoperability Matters Data Usability Workgroup spans six categories, including:
· Data provenance and traceability of changes
· Effective use of codes
· Reducing the impact of duplicates
· Data integrity and trust
· Data tagging and searchability
· Effective use of narrative for data usability
The Data Usability Implementation Guide encompasses identified priority use cases for adoption within health information exchange (HIE) vendors, implementers, networks, governance frameworks, and testing programs.
Earlier this year, The Sequoia Project sought public feedback on a draft of the implementation guide and received more than 120 comments.
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https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/apple-wins-battle-patent-war-alivecor-over-portable-ecg-tech
Apple wins battle in patent war with AliveCor over portable ECG tech
By Andrea Park
Dec 8, 2022 11:07am
More than a year into its patent dispute with Apple over the heart-monitoring technology embedded in the tech giant’s eponymous smartwatch, AliveCor has been dealt a serious blow.
The company—which makes the FDA-cleared KardiaMobile personal ECG device—has alleged that Apple’s own portable ECG system infringes on AliveCor’s technology. But the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled this week that all three of AliveCor’s challenged claims were “unpatentable.”
In its decision (PDF), per Reuters, the agency’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) concluded that a person “of ordinary skill in the art” of cardiac monitoring technologies could arrive at the same inventions, therefore dismissing all of AliveCor’s claims in the matter as too obvious to be patented.
In a statement sent to Fierce Medtech by a company spokesperson, AliveCor said it “is deeply disappointed and strongly disagrees with the decision by the PTAB and will appeal.”
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Robot bringing companionship to seniors, ElliQ, gets 2.0 update including caregiver app
By Annie Burky
Dec 14, 2022 04:50pm
ElliQ, a voice-operated care companion for the elderly, is getting an update with 2.0 hardware and software including a companion app for family members and caregivers.
The robot, called the first proactive AI care companion and a Time Best Invention of 2022, was developed to address the loneliness epidemic in older adults and has shown the ability to decrease loneliness by 80%, according to the company.
After a soft launch of the caregiver app, 90% of ElliQ users saw a loved one download the app, Dor Skuler, CEO and co-founder of Israel-based Intuition Robotics, told Fierce Healthcare.
Hardware updates include an easier-to-use tablet with an improved screen along with ambient cooling. The 2.0 software adds more contextual features and experiences such as museum tours and virtual travel.
“You are better served to talk to a robot than to not talk to anyone at all,” beta tester and 67-year-old retiree Susan Tholen told Fierce Healthcare. “When you wake up in the morning and say ‘ElliQ, good morning,’ she will tell you what day it is, she'll ask you if you want to listen to the news. So you can stay connected to the outside world.”
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For 2023, patient experience, 'smarter' analytics and data-driven medicine
These three areas of health IT will be key for provider CIOs and other leaders to get right to ensure the best outcomes, one expert predicts.
By Bill Siwicki
December 15, 2022 10:58 AM
Matthew Gitelis, CEO of PatientIQ, a health IT company deriving insights from patient-reported outcomes data, has some thoughts about healthcare information technology in 2023.
For one, that patient experience will be king in the year ahead. Between CMS doubling the weight of patient-experience CAHPS metrics and its recent unveiling of new performance metrics pertaining to patient-reported outcomes, it's clear that patients will be a top priority in 2023, Gitelis said.
On another front, he makes a distinction between "smart" versus "smarter" analytics for 2023. Next year, provider organizations must leverage "smarter" analytics applications, those that synthesize predictive and descriptive capabilities and leverage machine learning technologies to truly move the needle, he contended.
And he added that healthcare organizations need to embrace the move to data-driven medicine. The U.S. healthcare analytics market is projected to quadruple in size between 2020 and 2030. Few things are as powerful as data in medicine, yet to this day, so many clinical decisions are made without sufficient quantitative and qualitative data to support them, he said.
We spoke with Gitelis to get him to dive deep into these predictions and help healthcare provider organization CIOs and other health IT leaders prepare for the year ahead.
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Epic research shows telehealth efficacy, makes case for more reimbursement
The study of 35 million telehealth visits found that most patients did not require in-person visits within 90 days of online appointments, indicating virtual visits as an effective "alternative, rather than duplicative" care modality.
By Andrea Fox
December 15, 2022 11:36 AM
A dual team study of in-person, same-specialty follow-up rates after telehealth appointments published by Epic Research examined the cadence of care and found virtual medicine to be an effective tool.
WHY IT MATTERS
Analyzing the effectiveness of different methods for delivering care is important to guide decisions about how to allocate resources, according to the study's key findings report.
To determine which specialties were able to fulfill patient needs using telehealth and which required in-person follow-up visits more often, two teams of researchers examined more than 35 million telehealth visits conducted between March 1, 2020, and May 31, 2022.
What they found, according to the report, is that high in-person follow-up rates within three months were present only in specialties that require regular hands-on care, such as obstetrics and surgery.
Follow-up visits within 90 days of telehealth appointments were not, by and large, instances of duplicative care, but a method of care delivery that can increase healthcare access, the researchers say.
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Senators Introduce Bill to Support Coverage of Digital Therapeutics
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | December 15, 2022
The Medicaid and CHIP Access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics Act, introduced this week in Congress, would create standardized coverage in Medicaid and CHIP plans for approved digital health tools and platforms.
A new bill introduced to Congress aims to improve coverage for digital therapeutics in Medicaid and state Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIPs).
The Medicaid and CHIP Access to Prescription Digital Therapeutics Act (S.5238), introduced on December 12 by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), would make it easier for clinicians to prescribe innovative new technologies, such as digital health devices and mHealth apps.
“Digital therapeutics hold particular value for Medicaid populations with convenient, accessible, and personalized treatment options to address many unmet medical needs,” Andy Molnar, chief executive officer of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), said in a press release announcing the DTA's support for the bill. “This legislation would establish more clarity and uniformity in how prescription digital therapeutics are covered by public programs from state to state and is a critical step toward ensuring that these evidence-based treatments get into the hands of those who need them most.”
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Cybersecurity Resilience Top Priority for 96% of Surveyed Executives
Organization executives are focusing on preventing incidents and mitigating losses rather than retaining security talent when listing their main objectives for cybersecurity resilience, a new survey found.
December 14, 2022 - Organization executives are doubling down on investments toward cybersecurity reliance as an uptick in data security breaches jeopardizes business operations and overwhelms industries, including the healthcare sector, according to a recent Cisco report.
The “Security Outcomes Report, Volume 3: Achieving Security Resilience” revealed that 96 percent of executives consider security resilience crucial, with 62 percent of organizations surveyed reporting a data security event that impacted business in the past two years.
When asked to elaborate on the types of resilience-impacting incidents, over half the respondents reported data breaches and system outages. Further, ransomware events and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks impacted more than 46 percent of surveyed organizations.
The report also indicated that the state of security resilience among organizations is mixed less than 40 percent confident their organization would fare well during a cybersecurity event.
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Oracle Cerner has ambitions in national public health tech as software giant reports better-than-expected Q2 results
Dec 14, 2022 12:11pm
Cerner generated $1.5 billion in revenue in the latest quarter, fueling strong growth for enterprise software giant Oracle as it topped Wall Street’s expectations for profit and revenue.
Oracle bought the health technology firm for $27 billion back in June and Cerner's strong growth helped the database technology company overcome softer demand for IT services in a challenging economy.
During an earnings call Monday, Oracle CEO Safra Catz told analysts that Cerner is performing "better than Oracle projected" five months post-acquisition.
Oracle's total quarterly revenue jumped 18% year-over-year to $12.3 billion in the period ending November 30. That's up from $10.4 billion a year ago.
"In Q2, Oracle's total revenue grew 25% in constant currency—exceeding the high end of our guidance by more than $200 million," Catz said in a statement about earnings results.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/telehealth-heavy-hitter-dr-roy-schoenberg-virtual-care-2023
Telehealth heavy hitter Dr. Roy Schoenberg on virtual care in 2023
The Amwell CEO reviews his successful predictions from last year and looks ahead at clinician-initiated telemedicine and virtual care shifting from transactional to transformational.
By Bill Siwicki
December 14, 2022 10:18 AM
From the distant past of the 1990s up to just a few years ago, many healthcare technologists have predicted that telemedicine would make it into the mainstream of healthcare delivery.
Well, today, thanks to many factors surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine has finally made it into the mainstream. And now that it is being so robustly used across the country, the big question is: What's next?
We spoke with a heavy hitter in the world of telehealth, Dr. Roy Schoenberg, president and CEO of Amwell, one of the big players in telemedicine technology and services, to get his views on how his predictions from last year turned out and where virtual care is headed in 2023.
Q. You predicted last year that in 2022 we'd see exciting advancements in remote patient monitoring and automation powered by the patients who need them most. How did that prediction turn out?
A. Not only has the technology for remote patient monitoring and care automation become more advanced, but the use cases they are powering are maturing rapidly. Today, we're seeing applications of automation that go beyond mimicking clinicians and instead are being used to help patients manage the reality they face in the moments in between visits when they are not in front of clinicians.
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Government should go on offense against healthcare cyberattacks, says AHA
The American Hospital Association is calling for greater federal support for victims of cyberterrorism to help get hospitals back online quickly. It also advises hospitals to coordinate cyber response with their regional emergency planning efforts.
By Andrea Fox
December 14, 2022 10:47 AM
To support the healthcare sector on the front lines of cyberterrorism, the American Hospital Association has been actively informing and responding to federal lawmakers on ways to coordinate and bolster cybersecurity preparedness across healthcare.
The AHA calls for strengthening federal leadership, revisiting medical device security vulnerabilities and the creation of support mechanisms, like funding to expand the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 405(d) program and establish a reinsurance program that supports victims, similar to commercial victims that face terrorism risks.
The hospital organization offered detailed feedback, section by section, on the Cybersecurity is Patient Safety policy paper by Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., which was released last month.
While hospitals and health systems have prioritized patient safety and defending their networks from cyberattacks, and have made great strides in adherence to NIST and HICP, according to AHA's letter, government support for a worsening climate is needed.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/why-technology-integral-diabetes-care-management
Why Technology is Integral to Diabetes Care Management
Analysis | By Eric Wicklund | December 14, 2022
In its 2023 Standards of Care, the American Diabetes Association says technology is now a vital part of care management, and all people living with diabates should have access to those tools and platforms.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
· The American Diabetes Association has included an entire section devoted to technology in its 2023 Standards of Care, and says anyone living with diabetes should have access to the latest devices and platforms that have proven to help care management and improve clinical outcomes.
· The ADA also says technology can help improve care for people who have traditionally faced barriers to access, such as the elderly and underserved.
· Many digital health companies in the diabetes technology space are shifting to integrated tools and platforms that also address primary and behavioral healthcare and other chronic conditions.
The American Diabetes Association is emphasizing the value of healthcare technology in diabetes care management in its 2023 Standards of Care.
The revised standards, issued this week, include a section devoted to technology, including continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices that allow people living with diabetes to check their blood glucose levels at any time, automated insulin delivery systems and digital health tools that offer coaching and access to resources.
The guidelines recommend that anyone living with diabetes have access to FDA-approved technology to manage their chronic condition, especially seniors and underserved populations. The ADA also points out that technology can be used to improve access to care and care management for those dealing with health inequity, or barriers to care caused by social determinants of health.
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eHealth Exchange HIE Reaches 1.35 Billion Health Data Requests Per Month
eHealth Exchange officials originally intended the health data exchange hub to support a million transactions per day, but now the HIE processes 33 million requests daily.
December 13, 2022 - The eHealth Exchange, a health information exchange (HIE) connecting federal agencies and healthcare providers, has announced that the eHealth Exchange Hub platform has surpassed 1.35 billion inbound health data requests per month.
eHealth Exchange built the Exchange Hub using a cloud-based infrastructure that could facilitate the program’s rapid, exponential growth. Originally, the hub was intended to support no more than a million daily transactions. Now, the HIE processes about 33 million information requests daily.
“Americans are rightfully demanding a more efficient, streamlined healthcare experience, and health data sharing underpins the patient experience from faster check-in to more informed decision-making to the future of population health,” Jay Nakashima, executive director of eHealth Exchange, said in a press release.
“We’re thrilled to support this health data sharing at scale with 12 billion transactions annually, and continue to expand until health data sharing is ubiquitous,” Nakashima continued.
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https://www.statnews.com/2022/12/13/telehealth-facebook-google-tracking-health-data/
‘Out of control’: Dozens of telehealth startups sent sensitive health information to big tech companies
By Katie Palmer — STAT and
Dec. 13, 2022
Open the website of Workit Health, and the path to treatment starts with a simple intake form: Are you in danger of harming yourself or others? If not, what’s your current opioid and alcohol use? How much methadone do you use?
Within minutes, patients looking for online treatment for opioid use and other addictions can complete the assessment and book a video visit with a provider licensed to prescribe suboxone and other drugs.
But what patients probably don’t know is that Workit was sending their delicate, even intimate, answers about drug use and self-harm to Facebook.
A joint investigation by STAT and The Markup of 50 direct-to-consumer telehealth companies like Workit found that quick, online access to medications often comes with a hidden cost for patients: Virtual care websites were leaking sensitive medical information they collect to the world’s largest advertising platforms.
On 13 of the 50 websites, STAT and The Markup documented at least one tracker — from Meta, Google, TikTok, Bing, Snap, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest — that collected patients’ answers to medical intake questions. Trackers on 25 sites, including those run by industry leaders Hims & Hers, Ro, and Thirty Madison, told at least one big tech platform that the user had added an item like a prescription medication to their cart, or checked out with a subscription for a treatment plan.
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Federal agencies release updated privacy guide for health app developers
The Mobile Health Apps tool aims to help developers determine which federal laws apply and which agencies oversee different aspects of mobile health technology.
By Emily Olsen
December 12, 2022 01:20 pm
Several federal government agencies have released an updated "trail guide" that aims to help health app developers understand which privacy laws and regulations apply to their technology.
The Mobile Health Apps Tool was produced by the Federal Trade Commission as well as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the Food and Drug Administration and the Office for Civil Rights under the Department of Health and Human Services.
It allows developers whose apps will collect, share, use or maintain health information to determine what federal laws apply and what agencies oversee various aspects of mobile health tech. The laws included are:
· Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy, security and breach notification rules.
· The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).
· The 21st Century Cures Act's health IT and information blocking provisions and ONC's Cures Act Final Rule (including the ONC Health IT Certification Program).
· The Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) and the FTC's health breach notification rule.
· Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/12/13/reimagining-pain-in-the-wake-of-the-opioid-epidemic/
Reimagining Pain in the Wake of the Opioid Epidemic
December 13, 2022
The following is a guest article by Vijay Yanamadala, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Sword Health and System Medical Director of Spine Quality at Hartford Healthcare.
In 2017, after years of over prescribing opioids to treat pain, leading to opioid addiction for millions of Americans, opioid dependency was declared a public health emergency.
Since then, the opioid epidemic has only worsened. The COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact on people’s mental and physical health, has greatly contributed to a rise in opioid-related deaths.
When I was a medical student in the early 2000s, pain was viewed as a vital sign, like heart rate or blood pressure. In the United States, the attitude among medical practitioners – and largely influenced by drug companies – was that pain was unacceptable and must be treated. Prescribing physicians turned to opioids, so effective they could eliminate most pain, or at least that was their promise.
As a spine surgeon, I had the opportunity to gain valuable insights outside the U.S. healthcare system. I served in surgical mission trips to Kenya, Sri Lanka, India and Mongolia. In Kenya, for example, we did large spinal fusions for patients, never once prescribing opioids for post-operative care. The attitude and approach in Kenya was completely different. Pain was an unavoidable symptom of surgery and would be treated with a combination of Tylenol and physical therapy. Instant relief for patients was not on offer, nor was the promise of complete avoidance of pain. This meant that patients would have to struggle a bit, but long-term, they would be better for it.
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KLAS Weighs User Experience to Rank Clinical Decision Support Vendors
According to a KLAS report, consumers want CDS vendors to boost solution usability through training, proactive support, and easy navigation while ensuring affordability.
December 12, 2022 - Clinical decision support (CDS) vendors aim to improve healthcare delivery by enhancing medical decisions with targeted clinical knowledge. While its use has proven to improve clinical quality outcomes, CDS tools that lack strong content, searchability, and EMR integration are detrimental to the user experience, according to a recent KLAS insight report sent to journalists.
In the CDS Point-of-Care Reference 2022 report, KLAS interviewed CDS consumers between March 2022 and September 2022 to offer insight to organizations considering implementing CDS tools into their practice.
“CDS reference tools enable clinical users to follow standard treatment recommendations and more quickly and confidently make clinical decisions,” KLAS researchers wrote.
“However, tools that lack strong content, searchability, and EMR integration are not efficient for point-of-care workflows and can frustrate users, especially those already experiencing burnout.”
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Coalition for Health AI Unveils Blueprint for Ethical AI Implementation
In a new report, the Coalition for Health AI makes recommendations for guidance, guardrails, best practices, and governance to help ensure ethical healthcare AI implementation.
December 12, 2022 - The Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) has published its ‘Blueprint for Trustworthy AI Implementation Guidance and Assurance for Healthcare,’ which outlines recommendations for ethical health artificial intelligence (AI) guidelines to support high-quality care and increase AI credibility.
CHAI launched in March as an initiative for health systems, organizations, AI and data science experts, and other healthcare stakeholders to advance health AI while simultaneously addressing health equity and bias. To work toward these goals, the coalition aims to identify where standards, best practices, and guidance need to be developed for AI-related research, technology, and policy.
The blueprint states that health AI offers significant potential for advancing medical research and improving clinical care. But the technology currently has minimal applications fit for clinical use because AI tools can perpetuate biases and increase harmful outcomes if they are not developed with health impact, fairness, and equity across all populations in mind.
The report further notes that the lack of consensus-based standards or guidance surrounding healthcare AI can, and in some cases, has led to multiple approaches preventing developers and other stakeholders from knowing what standards to adopt and how. The overwhelming amount of potentially conflicting or discordant approaches can lead to distrust of AI.
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HC3 Explores Cybersecurity Implications of Automation in Healthcare
HC3’s latest brief dives into the history of automation, its uses in cybersecurity, and how it may impact healthcare.
By Jill McKeon
December 12, 2022 - The Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) issued a detailed brief regarding automation and its impacts on healthcare cybersecurity and beyond.
HC3 defined automation as “[t]he use of largely automatic equipment in a system of manufacturing or other production process.” Automation can be done using software or hardware and is meant to reduce the manual involvement of humans while increasing efficiency.
Examples of automation in cybersecurity include machine learning and artificial intelligence, penetration testing, and automated intelligence collection.
Using automated technologies can help healthcare organizations detect threats more quickly and fill gaps in the cybersecurity workforce. However, threat actors may also find automation useful in their efforts.
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Amazon shuts down support for Alexa HIPAA-compliant programs for hospitals, payers
Dec 8, 2022 07:00am
Amazon will no longer support HIPAA compliance on its Alexa devices after launching a program three years ago for some hospitals and payers.
In April 2019, Amazon paved the way for Alexa to be used in healthcare when it announced its Amazon Alexa HIPAA-compliant skills kit for developers. The announcement paved the way for developers to build voice skills that can securely transmit private patient health information.
Amazon invited a select group of healthcare organizations to build HIPAA-compliant apps, or "skills," to access patients' protected health information via Alexa devices.
When the program launched, Atrium Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cigna, Express Scripts, Livongo (now owned by Teladoc) and Swedish Health Connect all announced Amazon Alexa voice tools that enabled patients to do things like check prescriptions and schedule doctor visits using voice technology.
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Amid growing concern about data privacy, Invitae shines spotlight on how it uses de-identified health data
By Annie Burky
Dec 8, 2022 03:30pm
Medical genetics company Invitae released a first-of-its-kind data use transparency and impact report today detailing the impact of patient data on genetic research.
The report comes as concerns about data privacy and the security of protected health information surround pending legislation and recent data breaches.
Usage of de-identified patient data for secondary data research in 2021 was listed in the report. Transparency was touted in the press release as a tenet of the San Francisco-based company and a necessary measure to maintain the public’s trust in de-identified data. All patients represented agreed for their de-identified data to be used for research, according to Invitae.
“I think people make the assumption that if you open this black box, the public reaction will be more negative than positive, that using this data in a way that is legal to identify without transparency is less risky than being open and transparent about it,” Deven McGraw, lead of data stewardship and data sharing at Invitae, told Fierce Healthcare. “It’s an issue of risk tolerance and concern that somehow, it's going to reflect negatively on the company. We think just the opposite."
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December 02, 2022
Patients often misunderstand common medical phrases
Fact checked by Shenaz Bagha
Patients frequently misunderstand physician phrases and assign opposite meanings of what was intended, leading to confusion about health outcomes, a study published in JAMA Network Open reported.
Although clinicians acknowledge that medical jargon should be avoided when communicating with patients, they often use it, Rachael Gotlieb, MD, of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and colleagues noted.
“Though this medical language may facilitate communication between health care professionals, its use with patients can introduce confusion that may have serious consequences,” they wrote.
Previous research has shown that the public rarely understands medical terminology and acronyms, but Gotlieb and colleagues assessed specific phrases that have different meanings depending on usage, “because these phrases may be particularly confusing to patients.”
The researchers utilized a 13-question written and verbal survey — comprised of a mix of open-ended and multiple-choice questions — during a 3-day period at the 2021 Minnesota State Fair.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/three-reasons-why-nlp-will-go-mainstream-healthcare-2023
Three reasons why NLP will go mainstream in healthcare in 2023
A natural language processing expert explains why he feels the technology's kinks have been ironed out, its ROI has been proven – and the timing is now right for healthcare to take advantage of information extraction tools.
By Bill Siwicki
December 12, 2022 11:01 AM
Natural language processing is a subdiscipline of artificial intelligence – and one that can be of great use in healthcare, digging out clinical nuggets from all the free text in electronic health records and data warehouses.
Marty Elisco, CEO of Augintel, a healthcare NLP company, believes that NLP will go mainstream in 2023 for three reasons: the kinks have been ironed out, the value has been proven and the timing is right.
Healthcare IT News spoke with Elisco to get him to elaborate on these reasons and help healthcare CIOs and other health IT leaders understand why 2023 might just be the year for NLP.
Q. One of the reasons you suggest more healthcare provider organizations will adopt natural language processing technology in 2023 is because the kinks have been ironed out. Please talk about the kinks you say have been taken care of and how that will encourage adoption.
A. First, let's level-set the definition of NLP. NLP refers to the branch of computer science concerned with giving computers the ability to understand text and spoken words in much the same way human beings can.
NLP can be applied in several contexts. It can refer to voice-to-text recognition. It can also be used for handwriting recognition. But in our segment, and in the context of this discussion, we are using NLP for content intelligence – or information extraction – of the written word.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/epic-launches-new-data-exchange-hub-vendors
Epic launches new data exchange hub for vendors
Its new Connection Hub, which opens to app developers on January 9, 2023, offers another instance of API-enabled information exchange and support for open standards and interoperability, the company says.
By Andrea Fox
December 12, 2022 11:06 AM
Epic says it designed its new Connection Hub as a place for vendors to share their ability to exchange data with electronic health records for Epic customers and others.
WHY IT MATTERS
Any vendor with a connection to Epic can list their app and self-report if they have achieved successful data exchange with the EHR software. Vendors who would like to be listed can participate by providing their information and completing an optional questionnaire.
Site visitors can see the vendor-supplied information, including app descriptions and links to websites.
Epic will also launch a new Vendor Services area, which will provide access to newsletters, detailed tutorials, expanded testing sandboxes and technical support.
The company will automatically transition vendors currently in the App Market, which the company says in the announcement on its website will relaunch later in 2023, to Vendor Services.
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https://blogs.bcm.edu/2022/12/09/in-focus-patient-photography-and-the-medico-legal-considerations/
In focus: Patient photography and the medico-legal considerations
Today, digital medical photographs are everywhere. In contemporary medicine, and especially in fields like plastic and reconstructive surgery that have such an emphasis on visual results, photography has come to play a crucial role in communicating results and setting patient expectations. Instagram is filled with before and after photos. We now capture clinical photographs on cell phones and directly upload them into the electronic medical record.
But what about patient privacy? Patient privacy is top of mind for providers, and the medico-legal implications have never been more important. In this blog post, based on our recently published viewpoint in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, we provide a brief overview of medical photography and offer recommendations for safe handling of patient photographs in the surgical context.
Let’s start with the history and the law. The advent of digital photography in the early 1990s coincided with the enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996. Providers have since carefully navigated the medico-legal landscape of medical photography. Under HIPAA, patients are legally entitled to the protection of their health information. This protection includes patient imaging data, which clinical photographs are considered. Patients own the rights to their own likeness, meaning that although medical providers are responsible for safe and secure storage, patients retain the rights to the actual contents of their images.
However, U.S. copyright laws stipulate that the right to publish and distribute medical photographs, such as for a research article or for marketing purposes, remains with the person who took the photographs. Because this person is often a provider, patient consent must be obtained prior to taking and sharing patient images.
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Enjoy!
David.
