Here are a few
I came across last week.
Note: Each
link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on
the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links
may require site registration or subscription payment.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/researchers-work-on-a-drone-that-can-make-telehealth-house-calls
Researchers Work on a Drone That Can Make Telehealth House Calls
Researchers
at the University of Cincinnati are developing a small drone, that, equipped
with telehealth tools, can enter a house to facilitate virtual visits, drop off
or pick up supplies, even survey living conditions.
By Eric Wicklund
March 19,
2021 - Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are creating a drone
that can make telehealth house calls.
Still in
development, the drone includes an audio-visual telemedicine platform and a
waterproof compartment for carrying medical supplies or test samples. It’s
designed to maneuver quickly and easily into and around a house, an mHealth
version of the telehealth robots now seen in hospitals and health clinics.
“When the
COVID-19 pandemic began, we saw a need for telehealth care delivery drones to
provide healthcare in the home and in locations where access to care is not
readily available,” Debi Sampsel, director of telehealth at UC's College of
Nursing, said
in a news story posted by the university.
“We
can perform all kinds of functions: chronic disease management, post-operative
care monitoring, health coaching and consultations,” she added. “And in the
health care arena, there is no age limit. Telehealth services are useful from
birth to death.”
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/dhs-cisa-shares-incident-response-tool-for-on-prem-threat-activity
DHS CISA Shares Incident Response Tool for On-Prem Threat Activity
The new
CISA Hunt and Incident Response Program (CHIRP) tool from DHS is meant to
support entities with detection of threat activity and compromise of on-prem
environments.
By Jessica Davis
March 18,
2021 The Department of Health and Human Services Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency unveiled the CISA
Hunt and Incident Response Program (CHIRP) tool, which is designed to support
entities detect threat activity within on-prem environments.
CHIRP is a
forensics collection tool that will help network defenders find indicators of
compromise with two key threat areas: advanced persistent threat (APT) actor
attacks tied to the SolarWind compromise and threat activity in Microsoft Cloud
environments.
The extent of
SolarWinds
has continued to expand throughout the first quarter of 2021 impacting hundreds
of entities across a range of sectors, including several federal agencies and
some of the largest security firms.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/03/hancock-to-look-at-creating-consistent-cloud-platform-for-patient-data/
Hancock to look at creating ‘consistent cloud platform’ for patient data
Matt
Hancock has told the Digital Health Rewired audience that he is
looking at creating “a consistent data platform” which would see patient data
separated from the application layer.
Hanna Crouch
– 18 March, 2021
Speaking at
the Digital Transformation Summit on 18 March, the secretary of
state for health and social care laid out his post-Covid vision for the use of
digital in the NHS.
This included
looking into patient data and where it is stored.
“At the
moment, most live patient data is held by the companies who provide the
electronic patient record systems but it isn’t their data, and although it
isn’t their data too often these systems act as a barrier to accessing it,”
Hancock said.
“This
means that data might not be accessible and can’t be probably shared, providing
a barrier to the research and innovation that we know has so much potential,
and hampering the life-saving role that data can play in promoting patient
safety.
“We
need to make it create services that interact with data from different NHS organisations,
so I want to explore whether we can remove this barrier to innovation and
separate the data layer from the application layer so providers can offer the
application software and the data will be stored separately and securely in the
cloud, then we have a consistent data platform across the NHS.
-----
https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/03/fhir-creator-stresses-the-importance-of-patient-empowerment-at-rewired/
Rewired 2021: FHIR creator highlights patient empowerment importance
The
creator of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) has told the Digital Health
Rewired audience the project is pivoted around empowering the
patient.
Hanna Crouch
– March 15, 2021
In his
morning keynote, which opened day one of Rewired (March 15), Grahame Grieve spoke about
how FHIR, which is the leading healthcare data exchange standard of the future,
is “very much patient focused”.
“A key thing
is the patient focus – to empower the patient and improve their lives – those
things are not always the same but they are very tightly related,” he added.
Grieve, who
has a background in laboratory medicine and software vendor development, also
highlighted a key focus around the world at the moment is to “get data into the
hands of the patients”, but that might not necessarily be what the patient
wants.
“What really
makes a different to people is not data but services, but data is a
pre-condition to be able provide those services,” he said.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/lessons-international-study-using-health-it-covid-19
Lessons from an international study on using health IT for COVID-19
Researchers
examined how six hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom used
digital health tools in their response to the pandemic.
By Kat Jercich
March 19,
2021 01:53 PM
The
novel coronavirus affected countries – and health systems – all over the world.
But not every hospital used health information technology in the same way to
address the needs of patients with COVID-19.
In
an accepted manuscript published this past week in the Journal
of the American Medical Informatics Association, researchers
examined how six hospitals with a long history of health information technology
use have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic from an HIT perspective.
"Importantly,
the HIT-related responses to COVID-19 were perceived to have further
highlighted the value of informaticians for improving care and responding
quickly to emergent needs," wrote the researchers.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The
researchers found a number of themes emerging in the ways health systems from
the United States and the United Kingdom used IT during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One
major theme was the need to manage an unusually high number of patients,
coupled with the strain on resources such as medication. This necessitated
"rapid and responsive" changes to health systems, such as expediting
governance processes and using electronic health records to forecast which
wards would soon be reaching capacity.
----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/03/19/how-to-build-a-multimillion-dollar-business-case-for-virtual-care/
How to Build a Multimillion-dollar Business Case for Virtual Care
March 19, 2021
The
following is a guest article by Rick Halton, VP of Marketing, Lumeon.
For
many providers, 2020 might have felt like being thrown out of an aircraft, at
10,000 feet, with no training on using the parachute. With hospital margins
down to just 0.3% by the close of 2020 (without subsidies), those who had
already made the transition to value-based care models have to some degree
reduced reimbursement volatility and come out on top.
But
the next few years will most likely continue to be a nail-biting trip, and
there is little doubt virtual care will be a defining feature of
it. Virtual care shows promise to ease the productivity shock on care teams,
stop revenue leakage for the healthcare organization, and transition patients
to a more meaningful virtual care journey beyond a deluge of video calls.
Without
structural change, by 2022, the U.S. will need 1.1 million new RNs to avoid a
nursing shortage, focusing our attention on the fact that virtual care must
help nursing teams work more productively. At the same time, 56 percent of
health care leaders, according to market research by Lumeon, agree that
fragmentation of the care experience is their number one priority, and virtual
care is showing promise to resolve the fragmentation challenge.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/covid-19-mobility-data-can-exclude-older-and-non-white-people
COVID-19 Mobility Data Can Exclude Older and Non-White People
Mobility
data captured during COVID-19 is less likely to include older and non-white
voters, potentially exacerbating disparities in underserved groups.
By Jessica Kent
March 18,
2021 - Smartphone-based mobility data used to respond to COVID-19 can
leave out older and minority voters, which could lead jurisdictions to
under-allocate important health resources to underserved populations.
That’s the
principal finding of a study
published in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability,
and Transparency, a publication of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Throughout
the pandemic, researchers and public health officials have widely
adopted anonymized smartphone-based mobility data to design and evaluate
COVID-19 response strategies. Leaders can use this information to analyze the
effectiveness of social distancing measures, determine how people’s travel
impacts virus transmission, and understand how social distancing has affected
different sectors of the economy.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/amazon-announces-nationwide-telehealth-platform-open-to-other-businesses
Amazon Announces Nationwide Telehealth Platform, Open to Other Businesses
The retail
giant announced today that its telehealth platform, previously available only
to employees and their families in Washington, would roll out nationwide this
summer and be offered to other businesses.
By Eric Wicklund
March 17,
2021 - Amazon has announced the nationwide launch of its telehealth
platform, with plans to expand the service from its own employees to other
companies.
The
Washington-based retail giant announced today that its Amazon Care service,
until now limited to employees and their families in its home state, is now
available for other Washington companies, and that the platform will be
expanded to Amazon employees and other companies throughout the country
beginning this summer.
Finally, the
company announced that it would offer in-person care to Washington DC,
Baltimore and other cities in the near future.
The
long-rumored
announcement puts Amazon securely in the middle of the retail telehealth
sandbox, with a virtual care platform that could appeal to a wide range of
businesses. It is expected to compete in a crowded connected health space with
vendors like American Well and Teladoc, as well as with payers and health
systems offering their own branded programs.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/fbi-4.2b-lost-to-cybercrime-in-2020-led-by-phishing-bec-extortion
FBI: $4.2B Lost to Cybercrime in 2020, Led By Phishing, BEC, Extortion
BEC,
phishing, and extortion were among the leading threats behind complaints filed
with the FBI in 2020, as cybercrime cost all victims $4.2 billion, overall.
By Jessica Davis
March 18,
2021 - The latest FBI
IC3 Internet Crime Report shows that cybercrime cost individuals and US
businesses about $4.2 billion in losses in 2020, up 69 percent from $3.5
billion in
2019. Phishing, non-payment scams, and extortion were the biggest crimes
reported to the FBI.
Data showed
healthcare-related losses amounted to a little over $29 million from 1,383
complaints. Healthcare-related schemes attempt to defraud private or government
healthcare programs and typically involve providers, companies, or individuals.
The FBI
received 791,790 complaints last year, an increase of over 300,000 complaints
reported in 2019. It’s the largest volume of complaints reported to the agency
in its history.
Since
its inception, the IC3 has received an average of 440,000 complaints each year.
In 2020, the FBI received an average of 2,000 complaints each day.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/walmart-partners-commons-project-clear-to-launch-digital-covid-19-vaccine-records
Walmart partners with Commons Project, Clear to launch digital COVID-19
vaccine records
by Heather Landi
Mar 18, 2021
10:35am
Customers
at Walmart and Sam's Clubs may soon be able to verify that they have received a
COVID-19 vaccine by showing an app on their smartphones.
The
retail giant announced Wednesday that it will provide access to digital health
records, including vaccination information, to people who receive their shots
at Walmart and Sam's Clubs.
Walmart
is working with The Commons Project and Clear, an identity management
platform, to make the digital health records available. The records will be
available via the organizations' app called the Health Pass by Clear, as
well as the CommonHealth and CommonPass apps.
Currently,
most patients who have been vaccinated against the virus only get a small piece
of paper as proof. Those papers are easy to lose and highly vulnerable to fraud
and counterfeiting, industry stakeholders say. So public and private
organizations have turned to the idea of developing digital
health passports to help restart global travel.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/artificial-intelligence-mines-ehr-data-to-improve-diagnoses
Artificial Intelligence Mines EHR Data to Improve Diagnoses
A new form
of artificial intelligence can help providers make optimal diagnostic and
testing decisions by mining EHR data.
By Jessica Kent
March 17,
2021 - An artificial intelligence algorithm is able to mine EHR data and
suggest the best diagnostic approaches, leading to enhanced diagnoses and
treatments, according to a study
published in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics.
Although AI
performs very well when trained on years of human data in specific areas, the
technology hasn’t been able to manage the huge number of diagnostic tests and
disorders of modern clinical practice, researchers noted.
A team from
the USC Viterbi School of Engineering worked to develop an AI algorithm that
can learn and think like a doctor, but with essentially infinite experience.
The new form of AI
mines EHRs in databases to recommend optimal treatment strategies. The
algorithm works just like a doctor, the team said.
“The
algorithm thinks about what to do next at each stage of the medical work-up,” said
Gerald Loeb, a professor of biomedical engineering, pharmacy and neurology at
USC Viterbi School of Engineering and a trained physician. “The difference is
that it has the benefit of all the experiences in the collective healthcare
records.”
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/pandemic-era-telehealth-grew-most-wealthy-and-metro-areas-rand-study-shows
Pandemic era telehealth grew most in wealthy and metro areas, RAND study
shows
In another
reminder of the ongoing digital divide, the report shows that providers and
policymakers need to think about health equity and help make sure virtual care
works for everyone.
By Mike Miliard
March 16,
2021 03:44 PM
Telehealth
experienced sudden and massive growth starting a year ago, but it didn't happen
everywhere. A new report from the RAND Corporation suggests that the biggest
upticks in virtual care availability occurred in more affluent and metropolitan
communities, and that telemedicine services were mostly enjoyed by patients
with private insurance.
WHY IT
MATTERS
That study, Who Is (and Isn't) Receiving Telemedicine Care During the
COVID-19 Pandemic, adds to an already substantial body of evidence that the
public health emergency is exacerbating disparities in access and use of
technology-enabled healthcare.
For
the report, RAND researchers examined insurance claims from more than
six million people with employer-based health insurance in 2019 and 2020.
They examined the number of care encounters and types of services received by
these enrollees from January 2019 through July 2020.
In
its findings, RAND points to a twentyfold increase in telehealth visits
starting in March 2020.
"Conversely,
the incidence of office-based encounters declined almost 50% and was not fully
offset by the increase in telemedicine," said researchers.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/blog/amazon-care-big-deal-heres-why
Amazon Care is a big deal - here's why
With its
promise of virtual care in all 50 states, this is the first time a big tech
firm will be directly in the healthcare services business. Will it be another
failed experiment, or the breakthrough we've been waiting for?
By Paddy
Padmanabhan
March 18,
2021 03:09 PM
The
rumors about Amazon’s entry into the virtual primary care space have been
swirling for a while. Reports had indicated that Amazon had quietly filed paperwork to offer virtual and in-person care
in several states.
Now,
Amazon has now gone full-bore, as it were, and has confirmed that the services will be available nationwide
starting the summer of 2021. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the service
would be delivered through Care Medical, an independent private medical
practice consisting of licensed clinicians with whom Amazon has contracted as
Amazon Care’s clinical team.
The
Amazon Care offering now puts a big tech firm directly in the healthcare
services business for the first time. There are three critical aspects of
Amazon Care worth noting:
- The offering addresses two major emerging trends in healthcare
delivery: telehealth and home-based care. Alongside its
filings to operate Amazon Care in multiple states, Amazon also announced
its participation in a home healthcare advocacy group in early March. Moving Health at Home aims to promote home-based care,
a trend that is already playing out with remote patient monitoring models
for chronic care and post-acute care management.
- The offering targets employers. "By
supplying Amazon Care as a workplace benefit, employers are investing in
the health and well-being of arguably their most important asset: their
employees." Amazon has recognized a pain point in employers
struggling with runaway inflation in healthcare costs. Speaking to this
need will make Amazon Care look appealing to some employers. Employers are
desperate for an alternative to the current state anyway, so why not
Amazon Care?
- It raises the bar on performance for incumbents.
"Amazon Care enables employers to provide access to high-quality
medical care within 60 seconds for employees, including options for care
around the clock through messaging or video." Think of this as Amazon
Prime same-day-delivery on steroids. Amazon has rightly latched onto a
critical gap in telehealth experiences today: access to a medical
professional in 60 seconds or less. Amazon Care eliminates lengthy wait
times and travel times to see a doctor and provides care quickly in the
comfort of patients’ homes, 24/7 and 365 days a year. What’s not to like?
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/03/17/the-power-of-community-what-cios-can-do-to-improve-security-through-collaboration/
The Power of Community – What CIOs Can Do to Improve Security Through
Collaboration
March 17, 2021
Mitch Parker, CISO
One
of the only collections that has moved with me through the years has been a
number of old 5.25” floppy disks and several floppy drives. For those of
you who have not used these, they are bigger than the disk the Save icon is
modeled after, which is 3.5”. Even though the bulk of what I use on my
Commodore 64 now sits on SD cards, there are still some old files I want to
convert and use again. I also want to free up some space in my now-packed
home office.
To
convert my old personal collection, I found a device called a Kryoflux, which
is a USB device that plugs between a computer and one or two floppy disk
drives. It allows you to read these disks and convert them into formats
that emulators of older computers can use. It also allows you to write
them out to actual floppy disks if you want to use them on real hardware.
It is only available from Germany.
I
ordered this device online, paid the shipping, and waited 2-3 weeks for this
device to arrive at my house. It did not arrive. However, an email
from a former CISO who lived in my neighborhood did, complete with a picture of
the package. For some reason, the package arrived at his house
instead. He drove it over later that day and dropped it off. We
talked for a few minutes about his new job and what city he and his family will
be living in next.
He
did not need to do this. He could have done any number of things that
would have led to the package disappearing into the Dead Letter Office, never
to be seen again. I am thankful for him doing so.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/03/18/four-telehealth-tips-for-hospitals-and-health-systems/
Four Telehealth Tips for Hospitals and Health Systems
March 18, 2021
Guest Author
The
following is a guest article by Matt Dickson, Vice President of Product,
Strategy, and General Manager at Stericycle Communication
Solutions.
Telehealth
and virtual care have exploded during the current COVID-19 pandemic, building
on the incremental growth and adoption seen in recent years. As patients look
for safe ways to receive care, digital technology has grown in acceptance by
both consumers and providers. From the boost in virtual visits, telehealth is
now fulfilling its promise as a significant part of the patient journey. When
used correctly, telehealth can be a powerful vehicle to drive patient access,
action, and adherence while protecting provider revenue.
Marketing
the ability to conduct virtual visits is important, but you also need to think
about the patient experience. Your telehealth strategy can quickly fall off
track if patients don’t have a good first experience. Here are four ways your
hospital or health system can set your patients up for virtual visit success.
Identify
Which Appointments Warrant a Telehealth Visit
While
virtual visits are growing in popularity, health systems must realize that
telehealth isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. For telehealth to remain
relevant, providers need to focus on appointments that can be resolved
successfully virtually. Otherwise, they risk alienating patients who may view
virtual care as an unnecessary and costly step when their telehealth
appointment results in a required follow-up office visit.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/clinical-decision-support-improves-patient-clinical-outcomes
Clinical Decision Support Improves Patient Clinical Outcomes
Clinical
decision support tools have a significant impact on both clinician performance
and patient outcomes for many diseases.
By Christopher Jason
March 16,
2021 - Clinical decision support (CDS) tools have positive impacts on
patient clinical outcomes and clinician performance when dealing with most
diseases, according to a study published
in BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making.
Research
showed CDS alerts benefit usability, clinical guideline compliance, patient and
clinician cooperation, EHR integration, and real-time prescription alerts.
CDS
tools enable prescribers to access real-time patient data, ideally
resulting in enhanced patient safety and medication accuracy. CDS tools can
also alert prescribers about potential patient warnings to prevent errors and
additional adverse drug events from happening.
CDS studies
have proven its effectiveness on clinician performance, but the impact on patient
outcomes impact is still undefined.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/fda-data-dashboard-shows-adverse-events-related-to-covid-19-products
FDA Data Dashboard Shows Adverse Events Related to COVID-19 Products
The public
data dashboard allows individuals to search for information related to COVID-19
emergency use authorization products.
By Jessica Kent
March 16,
2021 - The FDA has
launched the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), a public data
dashboard showing human adverse event reports for drugs and therapeutic
products used under emergency use authorization (EUA) during COVID-19.
The COVID-19
EUA FAERS Public Dashboard provides weekly updates of adverse event reports
submitted to FAERS.
“The FAERS
Public Dashboard is a highly interactive web-based tool that will allow for the
querying of FAERS data in a user-friendly fashion. The intention of this tool
is to expand access of FAERS data to the general public to search for
information related to human adverse events reported to the FDA by the
pharmaceutical industry, healthcare providers and consumers,” FDA stated.
The
FDA noted that there are some limitations to the data shown in the FAERS
dashboard. For example, while FAERS contains reports on a particular drug or
biologic, this doesn’t mean that the drug or biologic caused the adverse event.
The agency also emphasized that the FAERS data by themselves are not an
indicator of the safety profile of the drug or biologic.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/medpac-recommends-limiting-post-covid-19-telehealth-coverage-more-study
MedPAC Recommends Limiting Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Coverage, More Study
The
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is taking a cautious approach to long-term
telehealth policy, telling lawmakers to extend COVID-19 telehealth freedoms for
a few years before making any final decisions.
By Eric Wicklund
March 16,
2021 - The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is taking a cautious
approach to permanent telehealth policy, advising lawmakers to extend some
emergency rules for telehealth access and coverage up to a few years after the
coronavirus pandemic ends and to keep on studying how these tools and platforms
affect healthcare delivery.
MedPAC’s report to Congress,
released yesterday, will disappoint connected health advocates who had hoped
the agency would set a clear path for long-term telehealth policy. But it also
underscores the degree to which healthcare delivery has been changed by the
COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.
“In the
report, we present a policy option for expanded coverage for Medicare
telehealth policy after the PHE is over,” MedPAC says
in a press release accompanying the report. “Under the policy option,
policymakers should temporarily continue some of the telehealth expansions for
a limited duration of time (e.g., one or two years after the PHE) to gather
more evidence about the impact of telehealth on beneficiary access to care,
quality of care, and program spending to inform any permanent changes.”
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/healthcare-hacking-incidents-rose-42-in-2020-31m-patients-impacted
Healthcare Hacking Incidents Rose 42% in 2020, 31M Patients Impacted
The
Protenus Breach Barometer shows the healthcare sector fought two silent enemies
in 2020: COVID-19 and cyber threats; nearly 31 million patients were affected
by hacking alone.
By Jessica Davis
March 16,
2021 - Hacking incidents on the healthcare sector rose 42 percent from
2019, impacting a combined total of nearly 31 million patient records in 470
security incidents in the last year, according to the latest Protenus
Breach Barometer.
Health
systems were pummeled by both the COVID-19 pandemic and cyber threats, with
researchers finding a rise in healthcare hacking incidents for the fifth consecutive
year.
For its
annual analysis, Protenus, with support
from DataBreaches.net, reviewed the 758 healthcare data breaches
reported to the Department of Health and Human Services in 2020. For
comparison, the reported number of breaches in 2019 totaled 572.
The
researchers then assessed 609 incidents, for which they had data, to determine
the leading causes and the risks healthcare entities need to address. In total,
these incidents compromised 40.7 million patient records.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/03/16/blood-red-tape-how-redundant-data-collection-leads-to-scandal/
Blood-Red Tape: How Redundant Data Collection Leads to Scandal
March 16, 2021
Andy Oram
Throughout
the health care field, clinical and administrative staff complain about the
burden of collecting data required by government regulations–often with no idea
what purpose the data serves. A lot of regulatory requirements are desperate
stabs at filling the gaps caused by a lack of data standards and of
interoperability–yes, a decade into the U.S. government’s goal of making data
exchange simple and universal in health care.
But
now, ill-considered data collection requirements led to a lurid headline on the
front page of the Sunday New York Times on March 14: “Maggots,
“Rape and Yet Five Stars: How U.S. Ratings of Nursing Homes Mislead the Public.”
This extensive examination of the five-star system offered by the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was a marathon exercise in big data,
where reporters “combed through 373,000 reports by state inspectors and
examined financial statements submitted to the government by more than 10,000
nursing homes.”
The
results were predictable. When the self-reported data by nursing homes was checked
against the facts–hospitalizations, inspection reports–it turned out that a
huge number of nursing homes underreported incidents, overestimated staffing,
and made other adjustments to reality. These administrators violated not only
the law but the ancient Deuteronomic injunction: “Do not have two differing
weights in your bag–one heavy, one light.” Like merchants who buy using one set
of weights and sell using another, the nursing homes were gaming the system.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/03/16/home-care-services-and-technology-set-to-explode/
Home Care Services and Technology Set to Explode
March 16, 2021
Colin Hung
The
market for services and technologies to help patients remain at home is one of
the fastest growing healthcare segments. Even before COVID-19, there was
increasing momentum for care outside the walls of healthcare facilities. Now
after a year of the pandemic, more money and effort is being invested in home
care solutions.
8.65%
CAGR
According
to a recent report from Precedence
Research, the home healthcare market was valued at US$ 167.28 billion in
2020 and is anticipated to double to US$ 383.66 billion by 2030 – a CAGR of
8.65%.
The
growth in home care is happening worldwide:
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/clinicians-unlikely-to-access-patient-genomic-data-in-the-ehr
Clinicians Unlikely to Access Patient Genomic Data in the EHR
Researchers
evaluated EHR access logs to learn clinicians only viewed 1 percent of patient
genomic data.
By Christopher Jason
March 15,
2021 - Clinicians viewed only 1 percent of patient genomic data in the
EHR, according to a study published
in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Open (JAMIA
Open).
Genomic
testing has become an important tool to enhance clinical decision-making
and precision medicine. Attaining the full benefits of precision medicine
relies mostly on understanding how clinicians utilize genomic data, the study
authors wrote.
Thus,
researchers implemented the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE)
Network into the EHR to evaluate how clinicians engage with genomic
data. This platform gathers and displays genetic testing data in EHR
systems.
The
research team uploaded 1,071 genetic tests into the iNYP “genetics” section.
iNYP is a hospital-supported web-based platform that displays patient data. The
researchers defined clinician engagement with genetic test results as any
interaction with the iNYP “genetics” section, such as an attempt to access the
section or view a genetic test report.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/congress-targets-telehealth-coverage-for-mental-health-substance-abuse-treatment
Congress Targets Telehealth Coverage for Mental Health, Substance Abuse
Treatment
Several
bills on Capitol Hill aim to expand telehealth coverage for mental health and
substance abuse services delivered via telehealth, including efforts to reduce
barriers to prescribing scheduled drugs.
By Eric Wicklund
March 15,
2021 - Congress will be taking a serious look at expanding telehealth
coverage for mental health and substance abuse services this year.
Last week
Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Lisa Murkowsky (R-AK) introduced S
660, which would require private health plans to cover mental health and
substance use disorder services regardless of whether they’re provided in
person or via telehealth.
The bill’s
exact text wasn’t yet available, but it aims to level the playing field for an
expanding number of healthcare providers who are using connected health
platforms to deliver mental health and substance abuse services.
It
comes on the heels of the Telehealth Response for E-prescribing Addiction
Therapy Services (TREATS) Act, which was introduced
in the Senate last month and in
the House last week after failing to make it through Congress last year.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/embedding-health-equity-as-a-patient-safety-clinical-quality-issue
Embedding Health Equity as a Patient Safety, Clinical Quality Issue
The
Leapfrog Group has added health equity and ethical patient billing questions to
its patient safety and clinical quality surveys.
By Sara Heath
March 15,
2021 - For Leah Binder, president and CEO of patient safety rankings
organization The Leapfrog Group, embedding health equity as part of patient
safety is a no-brainer.
“This year,
the issue of equity and inclusion have emerged as major national priorities,
and Leapfrog is no exception,” Binder told PatientEngagementHIT in an
interview. “As an organization, we recognize our role and our obligation to
assure that when we set standards for safety and quality, those standards apply
to one hundred percent of all patients, not just those patients who may be more
privileged for whatever reason, whether it's race, ethnicity, socio-demographic
status, or language.”
The question
of health equity has also been an important one for value-based care.
Organizations can only get the best clinical outcomes and fulfill their
value-based care contracts when they ensure all patients have the same
opportunity to obtain and maintain health.
That
means organizations have to do things to level out the playing field, like
deliver community-based
healthcare for patients who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access care in a
traditional brick-and-mortar facility. It means conducting social determinants
of health screenings and referring patients to key social services, because
patients can’t achieve wellness if they are housing or food insecure. It means
provider groups need to continually track where health disparities are, and
understand the forces driving them.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/zocdoc-co-founder-launches-dr-b-a-site-matches-americans-leftover-vaccines
Zocdoc co-founder launches Dr. B, a site that matches Americans with
leftover vaccines
by Heather Landi
Mar 15, 2021
6:40pm
While
the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in the U.S. has improved since its rocky start in
December, Americans continue to be on the hunt for an appointment slot.
Between
the limited supply of vaccines, the challenges of signing up for an appointment
and the short shelf life of the cold storage vaccines, many people wait
in line for hours at clinics hoping for canceled appointments, no
shows and extra doses that otherwise would be thrown out.
Zocdoc
co-founder Cyrus Massoumi wants to make sure COVID-19 vaccine
doses are getting into arms and not the trash.
The
former CEO of the doctor appointment-booking company created an online platform
that serves as a vaccine standby list. The site, Dr.
B, matches vaccine providers who find themselves with extra vaccines
to people who are willing to get one at a moment’s notice. The site enables
people to receive text message notifications when extra vaccine doses
become available nearby.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/one-year-covid-mayo-clinic-s-john-halamka-reflects-how-pandemic-spurred-health-tech
One year of COVID: John Halamka reflects on how the pandemic spurred
collaboration—and a lot of goat grooming
by Heather Landi
Mar 14, 2021
9:40am
Editor's
note: It's been a year since COVID-19 changed everything. We take
a look back at some of the pandemic's biggest impacts.
It
was exactly one year ago, on March 15, while on a flight from Boston to
Rochester, Minnesota, that health IT expert John Halamka, M.D., realized
COVID-19 was going to drastically change life as we know it.
It
was a Sunday, and Halamka, who lives outside Boston, was doing his typical
"commute" to Minnesota to work on-site at the Mayo Clinic four
days a week. Since taking the job of president of Mayo Clinic Platform in
January 2020, Halamka would spend weekdays in Rochester and fly
back on weekends to his family and his farm, Unity Farm Sanctuary,
in Massachusetts.
"I
was on a flight from Boston to Minnesota with 186 college students. When I
showed up at the office, the chief medical officer at Mayo Clinic looked at me
and said, 'That’s an interesting issue. You’re in a thin metal tube with a
bunch of 20-year-olds, all doing spring break travel. This is probably not a
great idea,'" Halamka told Fierce Healthcare.
Like
many executives, he then started working remotely, thinking it would last about
six months. Halamka also is a practicing emergency room physician, a public
policy expert and a Harvard University professor.
-----
https://apnews.com/article/anti-vaccine-accounts-thrive-social-media-e796aaf1ce32d02e215d3b2021a33599
Defying rules, anti-vaccine accounts thrive on social media
By BARBARA ORTUTAY and AMANDA SEITZ March 12, 2021
With vaccination against COVID-19
in full swing, social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter say
they’ve stepped up their fight against misinformation that aims to undermine
trust in the vaccines. But problems abound.
For years, the same platforms have
allowed anti-vaccination propaganda to flourish, making it difficult to
stamp out such sentiments now. And their efforts to weed out other types of
COVID-19 misinformation — often with fact-checks, informational labels and
other restrained measures, has been woefully slow.
Twitter, for instance, announced
this month that it will remove dangerous falsehoods about vaccines, much the
same way it’s done for other COVID-related conspiracy theories and
misinformation. But since April 2020, it has removed a grand total of 8,400
tweets spreading COVID-related misinformation — a tiny fraction of the
avalanche of pandemic-related falsehoods tweeted out daily by popular users with
millions of followers, critics say.
“While they fail to take action,
lives are being lost,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering
Digital Hate, a watchdog group. In December, the nonprofit found that 59
million accounts across social platforms follow peddlers of anti-vax propaganda
— many of whom are immensely popular superspreaders of misinformation.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/long-covid-alliance-launched-help-coronavirus-long-haulers
Long COVID Alliance Launched to Help Coronavirus 'Long Haulers'
Analysis
| By Christopher
Cheney | March 12, 2021
The
membership of the coalition includes many organizations that are focused on
other complex chronic illnesses.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Long COVID is legitimizing similar conditions
such as chronic fatigue syndrome that lacked legitimacy for years.
·
A top goal of the Long COVID Alliance is to
promote public-private partnerships to accelerate research.
·
There is a sense of urgency in developing
effective treatments for long COVID, so patients are not afflicted for years or
potentially decades.
More than 50
organizations have formed the Long COVID Alliance to use their collective knowledge and
resources to educate policymakers, accelerate research, and empower patients.
There are
coronavirus "long haulers" among COVID-19 patients who have
experience mild, moderate, and severe infections. In a recent study of COVID-19 patients hospitalized with severe
acute respiratory infection, functional impairment was found in 53.8% of
patients four months after hospital discharge. Long COVID symptoms include
cough, shortness of breath, anxiety and depression, cardiac issues, fatigue,
deconditioning, and hair loss.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/microsoft-vulnerabilities-report-offers-key-cybersecurity-insights
Microsoft vulnerabilities report offers key cybersecurity insights
In 2020, a
record number of 1,268 Microsoft vulnerabilities were discovered, a 48%
increase year over year, a BeyondTrust report finds. Its CISO sits for an
interview to dig deep into the findings.
By Bill Siwicki
March 15,
2021 11:31 AM
BeyondTrust,
a privileged access management security technology vendor, today has released
its "2021 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report."
The
annual research includes the latest breakdown of Microsoft vulnerabilities by
category and product, as well as a five-year trend analysis.
These provide a holistic understanding of the evolving threat
landscape. The report analyzes the data from security bulletins publicly issued
by Microsoft throughout the previous year.
Approximately
1.5 billion people use Windows operating systems each day, with various
applications for Microsoft's products reaching into homes, businesses and
entertainment venues. The data in this report provides a barometer of the
threat landscape for the Microsoft ecosystem.
Now
in its eighth edition, this year's report identified the following highlights:
- In 2020, a record-high number of
1,268 Microsoft vulnerabilities were discovered, a 48% increase year over
year.
- The number of reported
vulnerabilities has risen a whopping 181% in the last five years
(2016-2020).
- Removing admin rights from endpoints
would mitigate 56% of all critical Microsoft vulnerabilities in 2020.
- For the first time, "Elevation
of Privilege" was the No. 1 vulnerability category, comprising 44% of
the total, nearly three times more than in the previous year.
- 87% of critical vulnerabilities in
Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge would have been mitigated by removing
admin rights.
- 70% of critical vulnerabilities
affecting Windows 7, Windows RT, 8/8.1 and 10 would have been mitigated by
removing admin rights.
- 80% of critical
vulnerabilities in all Office products (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio,
Publisher and others) would have been mitigated by removing admin rights.
- 66% of critical vulnerabilities
affecting Windows Servers would have been mitigated by removing admin
rights.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/03/15/athenahealth-makes-trove-of-telehealth-trend-data-available/
Athenahealth Makes Trove Of Telehealth Trend Data Available
March 15, 2021
Anne Zieger
Health
IT vendor Athenahealth has launched a dashboard offering users a look at
telehealth encounter data generated by its customers, and some of the trends it
identified are quite interesting.
Athenahealth’s
Telehealth Insights
dashboard offers data on trends in telehealth adoption and use among the
60,000 providers using its network. The database includes de-identified data
from 18.4 million telehealth appointments. The current dashboard draws on data
collected between 11/1/2020 and 1/31/2021, but Athenahealth will update the
dataset monthly.
Among
the trends identified by the dashboard is a breakdown of telehealth use among
various specialties by volume. Mental health topped the list, with 33% of
visits being held virtually, followed by primary care (17%), pediatrics (9%),
cardiology (7%) and OB/GYN (4%).
The
data also identified differences in how telehealth encounters were scheduled
and conducted.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/hospitals-health-systems/updated-coronavirus-tracker-blue-cross-nc-waives-ma-copays-for-primary
UPDATED Coronavirus tracker: CVS offering vaccines in 29 states
by Healthcare
Staff |
Mar 11, 2021
10:00am
UPDATED:
Thursday, March 11 at 9:45 a.m.
CVS now offering vaccines in its pharmacies in 29 states
CVS
Health is now offering COVID-19 vaccines to eligible people at 1,200 pharmacies
across 29 states and Puerto Rico.
The
healthcare giant said in announcement
that it's nearly doubled the number of states where it's offering vaccines in
retail locations through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program. Within the past
week, vaccines were made available in Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota,
Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah and
Vermont.
CVS
was already administering vaccines in Pennsylvania and New York, but has added
Philadelphia and New York City as locations.
Appointments
in newly-activated locations will be available beginning on March 13, CVS said.
"We're
increasing the number of active stores and expanding to additional states as
fast as supply allows, with the capacity to administer 20 25 million shots per
month," said Karen S. Lynch, CEO of CVS Health, in a statement.
"We're also focused on priority populations, including vulnerable
communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic as well as teachers and
school support staff."
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/onc-leader-tripathi-says-health-it-agency-focused-healthy-equity-by-design
ONC leader Tripathi says health IT agency focused on 'healthy equity by
design'
by Heather Landi
Mar 11, 2021
9:30am
New
healthcare interoperability regulations will open up an app ecosystem that
enables patients to engage with healthcare on their smartphones and through
health apps. (Getty/ FG Trade)
As
the federal National Coordinator for Health IT, Micky Tripathi, Ph.D. has
a full plate.
He's
tasked with strengthening health data sharing as the nation continues to combat
the COVID-19 pandemic and implementing new interoperability regulations.
Addressing
health equity also will be a top priority as he leads the Office of the
National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), the health IT arm of HHS, the interoperability
veteran said Thursday.
"I
like to think about it as health equity by design. Right now, in many areas we
have embraced technology and moved forward with standards and processes that
didn’t explicitly take into account the consequences on health equity,"
Tripathi said during a virtual event hosted by the Health IT
Leadership Roundtable.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/scientific-innovation-went-into-overdrive-due-to-covid-19-here-s-what-a-year-research-looks
One year of COVID: As scientific innovation went into overdrive, here's
what happened at UnitedHealth Group
by Paige Minemyer
Mar 12, 2021
1:03pm
Editor's
note: It's been a year since COVID-19 changed everything. We take a look back
at some of the pandemic's biggest impacts.
Deenen
Vojta was on spring break in Florida with her family as it became clear that
COVID-19 was going to hit the United States in a big way.
Vojta,
M.D., executive vice president for research and development at UnitedHealth
Group, said that as the Trump administration rolled out early travel bans at
the beginning of 2020, she decided to cut the vacation short and plan her
return to Minneapolis to get to work.
She
is part of a research team at UHG which has rolled out a slew of projects over
the past year in response to the pandemic, ranging from studies on COVID
therapies to home health to protective equipment.
"I
haven't worked this hard since I was an intern," Vojta told Fierce
Healthcare in an interview. "But when you’re in R&D and you’re in the
beginning, in the middle and hopefully the ending part of a pandemic…this is
what we’ve trained for."
-----
https://histalk2.com/2021/03/12/weekender-3-12-21/
Weekly News Recap
- PatientPoint acquires one-time high
flyer Outcome Health.
- Brainlab acquires Mint Medical.
- A former Practice Fusion sales exec
pleads guilty to obstructing a federal investigation into the company’s
EHR change to push opioids on behalf of its drug company client.
- Telus will acquire Babylon Health’s
Canadian operation.
- Harris acquires Bizmatics.
-----
Enjoy!
David.