Here are a few
I came across last week.
Note: Each
link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on
the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links
may require site registration or subscription payment.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/cds-alert-fatigue-runs-rampant-in-ambulatory-clinics
CDS Alert Fatigue Runs Rampant in Ambulatory Clinics
Health
systems with affiliated ambulatory clinics should allocate resources to
mitigate CDS alert fatigue and improve CDS integration and training.
By Christopher Jason
April 30,
2021 - Ambulatory clinics are facing significant clinical decision support
(CDS) barriers related to health IT resources and user satisfaction, which is
resulting in CDS alert fatigue among clinicians, according to a study
published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
(JAMIA).
Research
suggested health systems should provide further assistance to improve
CDS alerts at affiliated ambulatory clinics. In particular, rural clinics
may need additional resources for CDS training.
Researchers
analyzed CDS data from 821 healthcare clinics at 117 health systems in
Minnesota.
Researchers
identified seven common CDS barriers, which related to resources, user
acceptance, and technology:
- Lack of resources to build and
integrate CDS
- Lack of staff and provider
training
- Redesign of EHR workflow processes
- False and disruptive alarms
- System upgrade requirement
- Software not available
- Hardware problems
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/best-practices-for-integrating-sdoh-data-into-the-ehr
Best Practices for Integrating SDOH Data into the EHR
Health
systems and health information exchanges across the country are trying to
identify and integrate social determinants of health data, but it is not an
easy task.
By Christopher Jason
April 30,
2021 - Identifying and implementing social determinants of health (SDOH)
data into the EHR is critical to finding answers to a state’s most significant
issues.
Once
identified, SDOH data helps healthcare providers make social services
referrals, but the process for doing so using technology is challenging.
“It's not
that physicians have totally ignored social determinants of health, but
impactful information—such as the fact that the patient had to take time off
from a low-paying job and ride two buses to get to the doctor's office—isn't
typically collected in electronic medical records,”
said Brian Dixon, PhD, director of public health at the Regenstrief
Institute.
Health
systems across the country are attempting to implement SDOH data into EHRs and
health information exchanges (HIEs). However, most health systems face
significant issues, such as interoperability,
when implementing SDOH into the EHR.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/ahima-launches-mhealth-resource-assessment-tool-for-vendors
AHIMA Launches mHealth Resource, Assessment Tool for Vendors
The
American Health Information Management Association is giving providers a
resource site for evaluating digital health tools, and giving mHealth vendors
an opportunity to seek AHIMA certification.
By Eric Wicklund
April 30,
2021 - The American Health Information Management Association is jumping
on the mHealth bandwagon with a resource site and assessment standards for
digital health companies.
Working with
Moxe, a clinical data warehouse focusing on interoperability, AHIMA has
unveiled AHIMA dHealth. The site offers resources for healthcare providers on
digital health products, including privacy and data security practices and
policies, and an assessment tool designed to help vendors meet AHIMA standards.
“Through
AHIMA dHealth, we’re assessing digital health products so providers can spend
more time focused on patient care and discern risk more quickly,” AHIMA CEO
Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE, said
in a press release. “Providers will have to place fewer requests in their
‘need to review’ funnel, as they can use the AHIMA dHealth directory to easily
see which digital health products are AHIMA dHealth Approved. I believe
this program will make it easier for providers to comply with the Cures Act
Final Rule.”
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2021/04/nhs-digitals-online-covid-19-dashboard-used-three-million-times/
NHS Digital’s online Covid-19 dashboard used three million times
An online
dashboard that allows people to check Covid-19 reported near their home has
been used more than three million times.
Andrea
Downey, 26 April, 2021
More than
65,000 searches were carried out on the Coronavirus in Your Area dashboard on 4 January, 2021, with
the site continuing to have more than 70,000 views weekly since.
The tool,
provided by NHS Digital, allows users to check virus cases within ten miles of
their postcode, as well as statistics for positive cases reported in the past
10 weeks.
Alistair
Bullward, NHS Digital’s open data and dashboards manager, said: “We believe in
improving lives through data and technology, and our coronavirus In Your Area
app empowers people to understand the risk from coronavirus where they live.
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https://www.wfmz.com/health/health-beat/health-beat-wearable-sensors-mean-no-more-finger-pricks/article_3321e766-a912-11eb-b9dd-3b2ebec21fea.html
Health Beat: Wearable sensors mean no more finger pricks?
·
Apr 28, 2021
UNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. — Instead of a finger prick, what if it were possible to track
blood sugar with a patch? A team of bioengineers at Penn State University have
developed a small, wearable device that can monitor health non-invasively. The
waterproof patch has embedded sensors. Bioengineers designed it to adhere and
conform to the skin, staying put through daily activities and during exercise.
"Through
that, we'll be able to pick up all the vital information in term of the heart
rate, respiration, sweat analysis," explained Huanyu "Larry"
Cheng, an assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn
State.
The
device collects sweat and analyzes it for PH, sodium, and glucose levels. Those
readings are especially important for a person with low blood sugar or
diabetes.
"So,
we don't need to do the blood sampling all the time, and we'll be able to
analyze glucose and the other biomarkers," Cheng shared.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2021/04/30/cerner-agrees-to-share-patient-medical-records-with-life-insurance-industry-intermediary/
Cerner Agrees To Share Patient Medical Records With Life Insurance
Industry Intermediary
April 30, 2021
Anne Zieger
Cerner
has struck a deal
in which it will let a life insurance industry data vendor access patient records.
Under the terms of the deal, risk management and digital services vendor MIB
will be able to offer life insurance industry players access to 54 million
patient medical records, as well as 5,400 patient portals.
The
deal makes Cerner the third EHR vendor MIB has signed up for its services,
which also include data from Epic as well as other EHR and HIE partners. MIB’s
clients use the data as part of the process of underwriting life insurance
policies. According to MIB, the life insurance industry currently lacks a
single solution that offers easy access to medical information across multiple
health systems and data providers.
If
you wonder how Cerner can get away with sharing this data, it’s important to
note that the partners only intend to offer access to data if patients have
given consent for such sharing.
However,
this raises the question of how MIB and/or Cerner will scale up obtaining such
consents, given that they can’t be obtained en masse. This problem dates
all the way back to the early days of HIEs, when the industry first began to
grapple with the reality that managing consent for patient data sharing was
going to be a huge thing.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/telehealth-himss-survey-provides-clues-about-path-forward
Telehealth: HIMSS Survey Provides Clues About Path Forward
Analysis
| By Mandy Roth |
April 30, 2021
While
generational differences guide preferences for post-pandemic in-person or video
visits, as well as primary versus specialty care, telehealth has a significant
role to play as health systems formulate their organizational strategies.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
With the exception of Baby Boomers, about half
of all generations prefer video visits for primary care.
·
Preference for specialist care via video ranges
from 15% to 67%, with younger patients preferring this form of care.
·
67% of respondents expect telehealth to cost
less than traditional visits because they are virtual, shorter, and have
minimal overhead office expenses.
The year 2020
was a breakthrough year for telehealth. Now that the pandemic appears to be
abating, health systems are seeking the best strategies to move forward with
these initiatives and find a way to balance video visits with in-person care.
A
consumer survey from the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
provides significant clues about the road ahead. While there is still a
preference for in-person care in the post-pandemic world, video visits have
significant appeal, particularly among younger generations and certainly for
primary care. Even in specialty care, where in-person visits have an edge, a
significant number of patients desire video encounters, with younger people
expressing the strongest interest.
Research
and analysis for the survey was conducted by HIMSS Market Intelligence in March
2021. The sample included 509 individual consumers who had completed at least
one telehealth video visit in the past 12 months. Demographics were balanced to
the U.S. population.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/nursing/telehealth-increases-nurses-workload
Telehealth Increases Nurses' Workload
Analysis
| By Carol Davis |
April 30, 2021
Study
shows telehealth doubles the tasks nurses complete to assist patients with
chronic diseases.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
The study analyzed data transmitted from 74
patients' in-home telehealth devices to six family medicine clinics.
·
Use of telehealth resulted in twice as many
activities completed by nurses.
·
Because of increased communications with nurses,
the telehealth patients had better health outcomes.
More
hospitals and health systems are pushing forward with telehealth initiatives,
but a new study indicates that telehealth doubles the tasks nurses complete to
assist patients with chronic diseases, significantly impacting their workload
amid a nationwide nursing shortage.
The University
of Missouri study found that nurses remotely monitoring patients with Type
2 diabetes and hypertension were doing more work than nurses who provide
in-person care programs.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/onc-information-blocking-opens-doors-for-interoperability
ONC: Information Blocking Opens Doors for Interoperability
ONC’s
Micky Tripathi led a recent information blocking event to give healthcare
stakeholders his thoughts on the present and future of the information blocking
regulations.
By Christopher Jason
April 29,
2021 - Healthcare organizations and stakeholders must move on from a
compliance mindset and begin to focus on the vast information blocking
opportunities at hand, according to Micky Tripathi, national coordinator for
health IT.
“We recognize
information blocking is a law because it has civil monetary penalties
associated with it,” Tripathi said during the Workgroup for Electronic Data
Interchange (WEDI) information
blocking event. “It's got to be thought of as a compliance mindset.”
However,
Tripathi wants compliance to be the floor, not the ceiling, of healthcare
stakeholder thoughts and ideas.
On
Wednesday, Tripathi headlined WEDI’s “Ready, Set, Comply! Meeting the
Information Blocking Challenge” to take a deep dive into the 21st Century Cures
Act’s information blocking provisions.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/hospital-patient-safety-improvement-was-key-during-pandemic
Hospital Patient Safety Improvement Was Key During Pandemic
More than
half of hospitals had better than a B patient safety grade, which was essential
during the pandemic emergency, The Leapfrog Group said.
By Sara Heath
April 29,
2021 - A whopping 27 hospitals in the United States have received a
perfect letter grade in The Leapfrog Group’s patient safety ratings since the
biannual reports started in 2012, a feat the group credits to a deep commitment
to continuous practice improvement.
The ratings,
an advanced copy of which were shared with PatientEngagementHIT via email, also
revealed that about a third of US hospitals got an A in patient safety and
about a quarter got a B.
But this
string of what The Leapfrog Group called “straight A hospitals” underscores the
strides the nation has made in reducing avoidable patient harms in the hospital
setting.
“We find that
straight ‘A’ hospitals have strong structures of safety in place,” Leah Binder,
president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, said in a public statement. “These
hospitals are continuously learning, monitoring data, and addressing areas of
improvement.”
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/04/26/did-mit-study-really-challenge-6-foot-social-distancing-for-covid-19-coronavirus-heres-what-it-said/?sh=f92e0ea2b734
Apr 26, 2021,10:45am EDT|26,447 views
Did MIT Study Really Challenge 6-Foot Social Distancing For Covid-19
Coronavirus? Here’s What It Said
Bruce Y. Lee
Senior Contributor
Health
Some
people on social media are trying to put the six feet social distancing
recommendation essentially six feet under. They are claiming that a study from
researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is showing that
keeping six feet apart won’t really do much to prevent the spread of the
Covid-19 coronavirus indoors. For example, Peter Navarro, PhD, an economist who
served as an advisor to then U.S. President and current Mar-A-Lago resident
Donald Trump, used the
study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
(PNAS) to take another shot (the mudslinging type and not the
vaccination type) at Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID):
So
does this mean that it’s OK to start stuffing indoor locations to their
capacities like Hot Pockets and no longer keep people six feet or one Denzel
(because Denzel Washington is about six feet tall) apart?
Before
you listen to these claims and start walking right up to others in a room and
saying, “how you doin,” stop. And hold on, in the words of Wilson Phillips.
Take a closer look at what this PNAS study really showed.
For
the study, Martin Z. Bazant, PhD, a Professor of
Chemical Engineering, and John W. M. Bush, PhD, Professor of
Applied Mathematics, who are both at MIT, put together sets of equations that
tried to represent the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in what they called a
“well-mixed” room. In this case, a well-mixed room doesn’t mean a room with a
good DJ but rather one where any floating particles would end up spreading
fairly evenly in the airspace.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cms-proposes-modifications-promoting-interoperability-program
CMS proposes modifications to the Promoting Interoperability Program
The agency is
floating new requirements for hospitals to report on syndromic surveillance,
immunization registries, electronic case reporting and electronic reportable
laboratory results. It also has new plans for quality reporting.
By Mike Miliard
April 29,
2021 09:15 AM
As
part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' proposed rules this
week around Medicare fee-for-service payment rates and policies for hospitals
and long-term facilities – changes that could boost FY 2022 hospital payments by
$2.8% – there are several provisions focused on technology, information
exchange and patient access.
WHY IT
MATTERS
Most notably, there are a series of proposed changes to CMS' Promoting
Interoperability Program – the successor to meaningful use – designed to
bolster the response to public health emergencies such as COVID-19.
The
agency plans to amend program stipulations for eligible hospitals and critical
access hospitals – broadening requirements focused on public health and
clinical data exchange.
The
proposed rule would make it mandatory for hospitals to
report on four measures, rather than allowing a pick-and-choose approach, as
had been the case before:
- Syndromic Surveillance Reporting.
- Immunization Registry Reporting.
- Electronic Case Reporting.
- Electronic Reportable Laboratory
Result Reporting.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/sanford-health-builds-ehr-templates-epic-eliminate-note-bloat
Sanford Health builds EHR templates in Epic to eliminate note bloat
Around half
of primary care providers are using the standard note templates, resulting in
short, efficient charting – with time in notes and note length below Epic's
overall average.
Bill Siwicki
April 29,
2021
Sanford
Health is one of the largest health systems in the United States. Headquartered
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the organization includes 46 hospitals, 1,400
physicians and more than 200 Good Samaritan Society senior care locations
in 26 states and 10 countries.
THE
PROBLEM
Providers
at Sanford Health had for years been sharing feedback that a lot of the
information in the note section of the EHR was not necessarily useful for the
person reading the notes. For example, no one wants to review blood work in the
notes. That would be better viewed in results in the patient's chart.
"But
the biggest concern we heard from providers was that they would have to scroll
through pages and pages of information to get to the assessment and plan
section they were looking for, which were always at the very end," said
Dr. Roxana Lupu, chief medical information officer at Sanford Health.
"To
illustrate the challenge, one provider scrolled through what ended up to be a
19-page printed document to get to the information she needed in one paragraph
on the last page of the note."
There
also were complaints about how information is organized differently by each
note author, and how note readers have to adjust to so many individual
templates. One ask that Lupu heard repeatedly from clinicians was a similar
look and feel for all notes.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/members-states-agree-technical-specifications-eu-wide-vaccine-passport
Member states agree on technical specifications for EU-wide vaccine
passport
The
"Digital Green Certificate" is on track to be rolled out by June.
By Tammy Lovell
April 29,
2021 07:52 AM
Plans
for EU-wide "Digital Green Certificates” have moved a step forward,
with member states agreeing on the main technical specifications for the plans.
The
certificates are intended to facilitate free movement
during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing proof that a person has either been
vaccinated, received a negative test result or recovered from the virus.
Member
state representatives in the eHealth
Network, a voluntary network connecting national authorities, have agreed
on guidelines describing the main technical specifications for the
implementation of the system.
The
guidelines cover data structure and encoding mechanisms, including the QR code,
which will ensure that both digital and paper certificates can be verified
across the EU.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/advanced-ehr-capabilities-lead-to-improved-clinical-performance
Advanced EHR Capabilities Lead to Improved Clinical Performance
The number
of EHR super-user providers increased by 10 percent over a three-year period.
By Christopher Jason
April 28,
2021 - Between 2014 and 2017, healthcare facilities with more significant
EHR capabilities had better clinical quality composite measures than other
facilities, but healthcare clinics that adopted EHRs during that time period
had less significant clinical quality increases, according to a study published
in JAMA Network Open.
The latter
finding might suggest a longer timeline for seeing clinical quality performance
improvements after EHR adoption and implementation.
For over 15
years, healthcare stakeholders have considered the EHR to be vital in achieving
quality
patient care because of the data storage and analytic capabilities vastly
exceeded other alternatives, such as paper records. EHRs also allow for
optimization and tool integration to improve quality, such as clinical decision
support and registries.
However,
a gap remains between high-quality patient care and actual care delivery.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/ehr-support-team-pushes-user-satisfaction-to-cut-clinician-burnout
EHR Support Team Pushes User Satisfaction to Cut Clinician Burnout
Rush
University Medical Center faced a significant clinician burnout problem, but
new health IT management found a way to enhance EHR usability and mitigate
frustration.
By Christopher Jason
April 28,
2021 - Just six years ago, Rush University Medical Center clinicians
experienced a significant lack of EHR support and training, which resulted in
increased frustration and a crippling case of clinician burnout.
“In the past,
the clinician would either ask a colleague that had spent some dedicated time
and was willing to help them personalize their experience, or they would try to
work with an analyst or a health IT specialist to explain to them their
specialty or their clinical background to see if they could help them,” Jordan
Dale, MD, Rush’s acting CMIO, said in an interview with EHRIntelligence.
Sometimes
that method was successful if there was a natural subject matter expert in that
specialty, Dale explained. However, if there was a knowledge gap or if Rush did
not have a health IT expert or a clinician with experience working beside the
clinician, the clinician experienced frustration and burden.
But
under new CMIO leadership, the organization sought out its end-users to
identify the critical sources of health IT and EHR frustration. Rush conducted
its first KLAS Arch Collaborative survey in 2017. This survey identified
several critical EHR
usability issues that Rush clinicians and end-users consistently
encountered.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/health-cio-it-must-be-core-business-element-to-tackle-security-challenges
Health CIO: IT Must Be Core Business Element to Tackle Security Challenges
At
Xtelligent Healthcare Media’s Privacy and Security Summit, health CIO Michael
Archuleta stressed the need for IT to be a key business element if the sector
hopes to overcome cybersecurity challenges.
By Jessica Davis
April 28,
2021 - If healthcare hopes to overcome cybersecurity challenges and
inefficiencies, the overall security posture must evolve by building a strong
foundation around cybersecurity that advocates for incorporating employees,
executives, and management as part of the cybersecurity structure.
On Tuesday,
Michael Archuleta, Chief Information Officer for Mt San Rafael Hospital, kicked
off Xtelligent Healthcare Media’s Privacy and Security Digital Summit with
a keynote centered on the evolution of cybersecurity threats in the healthcare
sector.
While the
overall security process and technology has evolved over time in healthcare,
it’s moving at a sluggish pace when considering other industries.
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https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/26/artificial-intelligence-afib-mayo-clinic/
AI caught a hidden problem in one patient’s heart. Can it work for others?
By Casey Ross April 26, 2021
Somewhere in Peter Maercklein’s heartbeat was an
abnormality no one could find. He survived a stroke 15 years ago, but doctors
never saw anything alarming on follow-up electrocardiograms. Then, one day last
fall, an artificial intelligence algorithm read his EKGs and spotted something
else: a ripple in the calm that indicated an elevated risk of atrial
fibrillation.
Specifically,
the algorithm, created by physicians at Mayo Clinic, found Maercklein had an
81.49% probability of experiencing A-fib, a quivering or irregular heartbeat
that can lead to heart failure and stroke. Just days later, after Maercklein
agreed to participate in a research study, a wearable Holter monitor recorded
an episode of A-fib while he was walking on a treadmill.
The
finding dramatically altered the course of his care. He was put on a blood
thinner and eventually received a pacemaker, interventions that happen too
late, or not at all, for hundreds of thousands of people who die every year of
untreated heart disease.
“I
would have never known that I had A-fib,” said Maercklein, a 73-year-old
retired hospital finance executive at Mayo who lives in rural Olmsted County,
Minn. “For me, it worked out incredibly well. Without this study, who knows
when I would have been diagnosed.”
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/teladoc-q1-revenue-more-than-doubles-to-454m-as-telehealth-visits-continue-to-climb
Teladoc Q1 revenue more than doubles to $454M as telehealth visits
continue to climb
by Heather Landi
Apr 28, 2021
4:34pm
Teladoc's
first-quarter revenue reached $454 million, jumping 151% from $181 million a
year ago.
Despite
a historically weak flu season, the telehealth giant delivered 3.2 million
virtual visits in the first quarter of 2021, up 56% compared to the first
quarter in 2020.
During
a first-quarter
earnings call Wednesday, Jason Gorevic, chief executive officer of
Teladoc Health, said the company was making considerable progress on the
integration of digital chronic condition management company Livongo. Teladoc
acquired Livongo in a massive $18.5 billion deal in October.
Earlier
this month, the company launched the first wave of members to access and
register for Livoingo programs within the Teladoc pap, making "the first
step to creating a seamless member experience to engage with members more
effectively across programs," Gorevic said.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/american-college-cardiology-studies-will-explore-whether-ai-can-improve-clinicians-guideline
American College of Cardiology studies will explore whether AI can improve
clinicians' guideline adherence
by Dave Muoio
Apr 28, 2021
8:00am
The
American College of Cardiology (ACC) is planning a trio of studies that will
measure whether personalized clinical guideline support delivered by an AI tool
at the point of care can improve heart patients’ outcomes.
The
TRANSFORM studies will each use HealthReveal’s software to generate and deliver
care recommendations based on current best practices. These insights are
surfaced to clinicians through the electronic health record (EHR) system and
include medical literature informing the software’s recommendations.
The
first of these tests will be the TRANSFORM HFrEF study. It will be led by
Massachusetts General Hospital cardiology researcher Jim Januzzi, M.D., and
focus on the treatment of patients with heart failure with reduced ejection
fraction (HFrEF).
Effective
strategies have already been established for treating the condition, said
Januzzi, who is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a
trustee of the ACC.
-----
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aapm/92284
Will Telehealth Shape the Future of Pain Care?
— Lessons
from the pandemic may guide the way pain medicine is delivered
by Judy George,
Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today April 26, 2021
Telehealth
has the potential to transform pain care, and changes made during the COVID-19
pandemic may offer a glimpse of the future, researchers said at the American
Academy of Pain Medicine virtual meeting.
"There
was an immediate need to pivot to telemedicine to continue care and education
for our patients, and generally I believe this was quite successfully
achieved," said Mary Ann Fitzcharles, MD, of McGill University and
Montreal General Hospital in Canada, at the meeting. "We have learned that
healthcare professionals can step up and can adapt rather rapidly."
To continue
virtual pain care beyond the pandemic, the field needs to harness strategies
that were successful, she noted. "We must remember that one size does not
fit all, and we have to bear in mind that we must provide secure, efficient, and
equitable ongoing care to our patients."
During
COVID-19, telemedicine provided time and cost savings for many, Fitzcharles
noted. "We were able to triage new patients and at least do an initial
evaluation by telehealth in preparation for an in-person visit," she said.
"The followup of stable patients was mostly efficient, and patients
generally are fairly satisfied." Importantly, telehealth gave patients in
outlying regions access to pain specialists, she observed.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/national-patient-identifier-coalition-launches-strategic-framework
National Patient Identifier Coalition Launches Strategic Framework
The
national patient identifier group wants the federal government to help boost
patient matching, patient safety, and security.
By Christopher Jason
April 27,
2021 - Patient ID Now, a national patient identifier coalition of over 40
healthcare organizations, has called on the federal government to collaborate
with the private sector and public health organizations to create and implement
a national strategy to enhance patient matching, according to a recently published framework.
Patient
matching is when there is a link between patient records across
various healthcare providers. A patient visiting two different doctors or two
separate health facilities should yield the same patient medical history.
However, the data proves otherwise.
Robust
patient matching lowers costs, increases patient safety, improves clinical
decision-making, and fosters care coordination, healthcare experts
have said.
“Over the
past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to address patient
misidentification throughout the health ecosystem,” AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs
Harris, PhD, said in a
statement.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/department-defense-expands-cerner-ehr-implementation-10000-more-providers
Department of Defense expands Cerner EHR implementation to 10,000 more
providers
MHS Genesis
has been successfully deployed to 12 new states, said officials in a statement
this week.
By Kat Jercich
April 28,
2021 11:44 AM
The
Department of Defense's new electronic health record system, MHS Genesis, has
been successfully delivered to 10,000 more clinicians and providers.
MHS
Genesis was developed by the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health, comprising
Cerner Corporation, Accenture, Leidos and Henry Schein One, along with about 30
supporting businesses.
According
to a Leidos press statement, the most recent deployment has
locations in 12 more states: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
"Our
team continues to be impressed by the hard work and dedication demonstrated by
the staff at each of these locations. They are the driving force behind our
success to date," said Liz Porter, Leidos Health Group president, in a
statement.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-help-c-suite-leaders-and-clinicians-trust-artificial-intelligence
How to help C-suite leaders and clinicians trust artificial intelligence
A healthcare
AI expert offers advice to help health system CEOs and CIOs, physicians and
nurses appreciate the promise of burgeoning machine learning technologies.
By Bill Siwicki
April 28, 2021
11:34 AM
Many
health IT decision-makers and clinicians are cynical about the potential for
artificial intelligence solutions to improve healthcare, particularly in the wake of high-profile setbacks and continued
frustration at care recommendations that seem to come from a black box of
technological machinations with little transparency or context.
It
seems to boil down to a matter of trust: AI developers need to prove the
technology's promise to healthcare end users, many of whom are still (often
rightly) skeptical about algorithms' shortcomings.
Industry
groups, whether they're focused on clinical informatics or on consumer technology, have been keenly focused on this idea
recently.
Healthcare
IT News decided to dig into the trust factor of AI by interviewing
Punit Soni, CEO of Suki, a vendor of AI-powered voice solutions for clinicians.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/onc-chief-delves-everything-you-want-know-about-info-blocking-rule
ONC Chief Delves Into Everything You Want to Know About Info Blocking Rule
Analysis
| By Scott Mace |
April 28, 2021
Micky
Tripathi gets into details about sharing patient records, clarifies April 5 and
December 2022 compliance rules, and more.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
In December 2022, connectivity between
electronic health records will get simplified from each EHR's API to a FHIR
interface in standardized data elements.
·
USCDI standardization will also accelerate
consumers' ability to download their records into personal health apps they
control.
·
While the HHS OIG prepares to enforce the
penalty phase of rule, ONC is prepared to wield the power of EHR
decertification.
·
Providers should "think strategically"
about changing their EHR culture to one of authorized information sharing.
The
information blocking rule that took effect April 5 promises to usher in a new
era of free-flowing electronic medical record information, under the direction
of patients and their physicians.
In Part 1 of this interview with Micky Tripathi, PhD, MPP, who
since January has headed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC),
Tripathi discussed the challenges hospitals and health systems face in
interoperability and telehealth. Part 2 delves deeper into the April 5 rule.
This interview has been lightly edited for space and clarity.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/dod-launches-mhs-genesis-ehr-system-across-12-states
DoD Launches MHS GENESIS EHR System Across 12 States
The
Department of Defense (DoD) new EHR system is now live at over 600 facilities
from the west coast to the Midwest.
By Christopher Jason
April 27,
2021 - The Department of Defense (DoD) has
completed another EHR implementation wave after the agency and its partners
recently deployed MHS GENESIS in 12 states and 25 military healthcare
facilities.
The most
recent MHS
GENESIS wave included over 10,000 clinicians from Arizona, Colorado,
Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
“We are
gaining momentum and improved efficiency with each Wave deployment,” said Liz
Porter, president of Leidos Health Group, DoD’s health IT partner. “Our team
continues to be impressed by the hard work and dedication demonstrated by the
staff at each of these locations. They are the driving force behind our success
to date.”
The
EHR platform is now live across 600 military healthcare facilities in the West
and Midwest, with roughly 41,000 active users.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/predictive-analytics-tool-accurately-detects-patient-deterioration
Predictive Analytics Tool Accurately Detects Patient Deterioration
The
predictive analytics algorithm significantly outperformed existing products
when identifying patients in need of life-saving interventions.
By Jessica Kent
April 27,
2021 - Researchers from Michigan Medicine have
developed a predictive analytics model that can accurately identify patient
deterioration for both general ward and COVID-19 patients.
The algorithm
was more accurate than the Epic Deterioration Index (EDI), an existing tool
used for patient deterioration investigation.
In a study published in JMIR:
Medical Informatics, researchers describe the development and performance of
the Predicting ICU Transfer and other Unforeseen Events (PICTURE) algorithm.
The team
trained and validated the PICTURE model on a cohort of hospitalized COVID-19
patients using EHR data from 2014 to 2018. Researchers then applied the model
to two test sets, including non-COVID-19 patients from 2019 and
COVID-19-positive patients in 2020.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/how-intermountain-forged-its-journey-to-health-equity
How Intermountain Forged Its Journey to Health Equity
The health
system is nearly a year into renewed work toward health equity and recognizing
institutional racism as a public health issue.
By Sara Heath
April 27,
2021 - Despite the years-long conversation around the social determinants
of health, it wasn’t until this past one that healthcare began to seriously
talk about institutional racism and health equity.
Racism, of
course, is a central pillar to the social determinants of health. Racial
discrimination in itself can be a health indicator—studies
have emerged suggesting discrimination can deteriorate wellness, a concept
known as weathering—while racism can permeate other key determinants, too. Race
has a strong link to neighborhood, which like dominoes can impact other factors
like income, educational opportunity, or food security.
But that
conversation began to shift when the COVID-19 pandemic began to shine a light
on the stark racial inequities in medicine. It soon became apparent that the
virus impacted
communities of color, particularly Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous populations,
more than White people. This was largely tied to the inequities patients faced
in other aspects of their lives that made it harder for them to avoid
infection.
And when
George Floyd was killed by police, a wave of protests pushed the country to
examine its own biases. That included the healthcare industry, which saw a
number of leading institutions to commit to anti-racism in medicine, a move
that was admittedly and largely unprecedented.
-----
https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/54579
FDA says goodbye PACS, hello MIMPS
by John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter |
April 23, 2021
Health IT PACS / Enterprise
Imaging
The FDA
has changed the name of its regulatory classification for PACS software to
MIMPS (medical image management and processing systems)
The FDA
has changed its regulatory classification of PACS (Picture Archiving and
Communication Systems), referring to it now as MIMPS (medical image management
and processing systems) as part of amended regulatory classification changes
made for radiology-specific software.
The name change reflects an update to the definition of PACS as a medical
device, which no longer includes certain software functions, in accordance with
the Cures Act. These exclusions exempt these applications from FDA review.
“FDA has determined that software functions in the PACS classification
regulation for storage and display of medical images no longer fall within the
definition of a device under section 520(o)(1)(D) of the FD&C Act. However,
FDA recognizes that some software functions in the PACS regulation, which are
for complex image processing, including those for image manipulation, enhancement,
or quantification, remain device functions," said the agency as part of
the Final Rule.
-----
https://threatpost.com/5-fundamental-iot-device-security-controls/165577/
5 Fundamental But Effective IoT Device Security Controls
Matt Dunn
April 23,
2021 1:13 pm
Matt
Dunn, the associate managing director for cyber-risk at Kroll, discusses how to
keep networks safe from insecure IoT devices.
As
the pandemic continues to fuel the shift to remote work, numerous manufacturers
have capitalized on this movement to create a multitude of handy internet of
things (IoT) devices. While these devices may make our home and work lives more
convenient, they greatly expand the attack surface for cybercriminals. Here,
we’ll take a look at the best cybersecurity practices that can thwart attacks.
IoT
devices introduce a host of vulnerabilities into organizations’ networks and
are often difficult to patch. With more than 30 billion active IoT device connections estimated by 2025,
it is imperative information-security professionals find an efficient framework to better monitor and protect
IoT devices from being leveraged for distributed denial or service (DDoS),
ransomware or even data exfiltration.
When
the convenience of a doorbell camera, robot vacuum cleaner or
cellphone-activated thermostat could potentially wreak financial havoc or
threaten physical harm, the security of these devices cannot be taken lightly.
We must refocus our cyber-hygiene mindset to view these devices as potential
threats to our sensitive data. There are too many examples of threat actors
gaining access to a supposedly insignificant IoT device, like the HVAC control system for a global retail chain, only to
pivot to other unsecured devices on the same network before reaching valuable
sensitive information.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/cybersecurity-roundup-us-agencies-warn-russian-hacks-australian-hospitals-struggle-get-back
Global Edition
Privacy
& Security
Cybersecurity roundup: U.S. agencies warn of Russian hacks, Australian
hospitals struggle to get back online
And mourners
remember Daniel Kaminsky, the white hat hacker and "internet security
savior," who died this past week at 42.
By Kat Jercich
April 27,
2021 12:27 PM
A
day doesn't go by without news breaking of another healthcare breach,
ransomware attack or looming cybersecurity threat. Here's a compilation of some
of the recent developments in the cybersecurity world.
In
the past few days alone, U.S. federal agencies have warned of continuing
dangers from Russian state hackers; hospitals in Queensland, Australia, have
been forced to rely on pen and paper following a major ransomware hit; and
patients at Yale New Haven Health say they still haven't been able to get
cancer care after one of its software vendors was breached.
Meanwhile,
infosec experts have come together to mourn Daniel Kaminsky, a renowned
researcher and passionate security advocate who died this past Friday.
Russian threats continue
The
FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency released a joint advisory on Monday warning of the continued threat
from Russian cyber actors.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/revenue-cycle/coalition-calls-national-patient-id-strategy
Coalition Calls for National Patient ID Strategy
Analysis
| By Alexandra
Wilson Pecci | April 27, 2021
A newly
released framework calls on the federal government to create and implement a
national strategy around patient identification that protects patient safety
and privacy.
A new
framework released by the healthcare coalition Patient ID Now calls on public health
authorities to create and implement a national strategy for accurate patient
identification.
The Framework for a National Strategy on Patient Identity: A
Proposed Blueprint to Improve Patient Identification and Matching calls on
the federal government to closely collaborate with the private sector and with
state, local, tribal and territorial public health authorities to create and
implement a national strategy around patient identification that protects
patient safety and privacy.
Patient
identification and matching is important for a lot of reasons. On the revenue
cycle side, patient identification errors are a leading cause of denials.
There are
also issues involving patient safety and high costs. Patient ID Now points to
the vaccine rollout for recent examples of each.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/onc-coordinator-outlines-new-vistas-telehealth-unblocked-health-records-and-patient-id
ONC Coordinator Outlines New Vistas for Telehealth, Unblocked Health
Records, and Patient ID
Analysis
| By Scott Mace |
April 27, 2021
ONC head
Micky Tripathi urges swift adoption of federal regulations.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
ONC is prepared to create rules to support any possible
CMS actions that might support reimbursement for telehealth visits.
·
Video visits remain a workflow issue that may
require ONC to specify appropriate EHR support.
·
The significant existing investment in existing
patient matching systems may be weighed against the cost of adopting a possible
national standard.
Micky
Tripathi, PhD, MPP, who holds a master's degree in public policy from Harvard
University, took the reins of the Department of Health and Human Services
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on
the first day of the Biden administration in January.
Tripathi is
no stranger to the thorny issues at the heart of healthcare IT, such as medical
record interoperability, standards, and certifying electronic health record
software. His previous 20 years of work in the field let him hit the ground
running. He most recently worked as chief alliance officer for population
health management technology company Arcadia, previously served as president
and CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, and has been on the board
of directors of the HL7 FHIR Foundation, CommonWell Health Alliance, and The
Sequoia Project.
Tripathi
recently granted an interview to HealthLeaders. Following are excerpts from the
discussion, lightly edited for space and clarity. Keep your eyes on
HealthLeaders for part two of this discussion tomorrow.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/considering-covid-19-vaccine-education-messaging-for-young-people
Considering COVID-19 Vaccine Education, Messaging for Young People
Some data
suggests COVID-19 education and messaging for young people should appeal to
their sense of altruism.
By Sara Heath
April 26,
2021 - Public health leaders can look to teens’ views on mask-wearing to
get a head start on COVID-19 vaccine education and messaging for the newly
eligible population, according
to researchers from Michigan Medicine.
Particularly,
the researchers said public health messaging around the COVID-19 vaccine can
call to young adults’ altruism to be effective.
COVID-19
vaccine distribution has relied on two key factors: having enough supply and
having enough demand. Now that the US has crossed the threshold allowing the
general population ages 16 and older to access the shots, it’s clear the supply
issue has largely been resolved.
But
the demand issue might now be the issue. Experts from the Kaiser Family
Foundation recently revealed
that the US could see a shift in the supply and demand paradigm in as little as
two weeks, as health departments have more doses than arms into which they can
insert them.
-----
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/what-is-patient-generated-health-data-why-is-it-important
What Is Patient-Generated Health Data, Why Is It Important?
The rise
of application programming interfaces, patient data access, and remote
monitoring tools could propel patient-generated health data use.
By Sara Heath
April 26,
2021 - The regulatory push for better patient data access, coupled with
the insurgence of remote patient monitoring technology, has brought to the forefront
a key type of health information: patient-generated health data.
As healthcare
organizations across the country issue apps and other services that allow
patients to view and download their EHRs and patient portals, any are
leveraging tools that will work the other way around. In other words, more
patient data access apps are letting patients contribute their own medical
information on the record, too.
That
information is coming from a myriad of sources, most prominently remote patient
monitoring tools. These technologies, which have existed for some time, are
becoming more ubiquitous as they both prove their use in chronic disease
management and become more affordable for patients and providers.
Amidst
all of that has come a renaissance for patient-generated health data, or PGHD,
a type of health information that has been championed by the healthcare
industry but brought with it many integration challenges.
Below,
PatientEngagementHIT
outlines PGHD, its uses, and why now may be the time providers can better
utilize it.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/secure-communication-used-in-50-malware-attacks-to-evade-detection
Secure Communication Used in 50% Malware Attacks to Evade Detection
Sophos
data shows an increasing number of malware and ransomware threat actors are
using TLS to hide communication and cyberattack activities.
By Jessica Davis
April 26,
2021 - Research from cybersecurity firm Sophos
shows an increasing number of malware threat actors are levering Transport
Layer Security (TLS) to hide communication between the victim and their command
and control server.
The TLS
cryptographic protocol was designed to secure the privacy and security of
legitimate web, messaging, and application traffic. It’s leveraged by the
HTTPS, StartTLS email protocol, Tor, and virtual private networks (VPNs).
The SSL/TLS
encryption is the industry-standard method for protecting data in transit.
Cyberattacks utilizing the encrypted channels aren’t altogether new.
Previous ZScaler
ThreatLabZ research found hackers were using the encryption channels to bypass
legacy security controls.
In
fact, SSL-based attacks have increased by 260 percent since 2019 with the
healthcare sector as the leading target.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/healthcares-biggest-cybersecurity-blindspots-and-misconceptions
Healthcare’s Biggest Cybersecurity Blind Spots and Misconceptions
While
awareness of the threats facing the healthcare sector has improved, providers
have inherent blindspots and misconceptions leaving them exposed to a host of
cybersecurity risks.
By Jessica Davis
April 26,
2021 - Threat actors are moving at a drastic pace and with stealthy
tactics able to hide their activities from system administrators. The truth is
that healthcare is struggling with some massive cybersecurity blindspots and
misconceptions, making it extremely difficult to keep pace.
Data exfiltration
and extortion was once seen as a rare worst-case scenario, but now it’s
occurring in the majority of ransomware attacks. Meanwhile, reports show an
increasing number of attacks targeting a range of newly disclosed
vulnerabilities, along with legacy
security gaps that administrators have overlooked and failed to patch.
A brief look
at the four zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange
and the ease in which advanced persistent threat actors are actively exploiting
the flaws highlight the ever-bleak threat landscape and the need for highly
advanced cyber posture.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/special-reports/top-health-experts-talk-telehealth-regulation-health-inequality
Top health experts talk telehealth regulation, health inequality
by Healthcare
Staff
Apr 23, 2021
8:00am
While
the telehealth industry is booming, plenty of challenges remain, including the
changing regulatory environment and the impact on vulnerable communities.
At
Fierce Healthcare's "How COVID Changed Everything" event this week,
our reporters caught up with experts across the healthcare industry to dive
into these challenges.
We've
compiled some of their key thoughts on the state of telehealth, and the future.
Here's
more from Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology's Micky Tripathi, Aledade's Farzad Mostashari and other top
executives:
Thinking about the latest regulations
Micky
Tripathi, the new national coordinator for health IT under the Biden
administration, said providers and other industry stakeholders need to view the
recently enacted information blocking rule, along with other interoperability
rules mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act, as a “philosophy change” by putting
patients in control of their health data.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/ftc-issues-warning-using-biased-ai-could-violate-consumer-protection-laws
FTC issues warning that using biased AI could violate consumer protection
laws
by Heather Landi
Apr 22, 2021
11:19am
The FTC Act
prohibits unfair or deceptive practices. That would include the sale or use
of—for example—racially biased algorithms, an FTC staff attorney wrote in a
blog post this week. (Getty/pabradyphoto)
The
Federal Trade Commission issued a warning to businesses and health systems
this week that the use of discriminatory algorithms could violate consumer
protection laws.
It
could signal that the agency plans to take a hard look at bias in artificial
intelligence technologies.
"Hold
yourself accountable—or be ready for the FTC to do it for you," Elisa
Jillson, an attorney in FTC’s privacy and identity protection division, wrote
in an official
blog post.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-regenstrief-built-an-emergency-ehr-system-during-covid-19
How Regenstrief Built an Emergency EHR System During COVID-19
Regenstrief
researchers developed an emergency EHR system within two weeks to help
Indianapolis first responders during COVID-19.
By Christopher Jason
April 23,
2021 - To aid Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services (IEMS) with an
influx of COVID-19 patients, researchers from Regenstrief Institute utilized
a global open-source EHR, OpenMRS, to create an emergency EHR system.
In less than
two weeks, the researchers developed the emergency EHR system to register
patients, collect patient data, and forward
patient data to the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE).
When
COVID-19
began to spread throughout Indiana, IEMS leaders realized a significant gap
between Indianapolis health system capacity and its health IT system to support
the overburdened healthcare system, Regenstrief said.
It
is typical for health systems in metropolitan areas to have a specific process
for capturing and exchanging patient data during healthcare emergencies, such
as COVID-19. Some approaches vary from a full EHR system or a hybrid EHR-paper
system, the authors explained.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/patient-id-now-coalition-releases-national-strategic-framework-identity-matching
Patient ID Now coalition releases national strategic framework for
identity, matching
The framework
calls on the federal government to partner with other public health authorities
and the private sector to ensure patient safety and security.
By Kat Jercich
April 26,
2021 12:07 PM
Patient
ID Now, a coalition of more than 40 healthcare organizations, released a
framework this week aimed at creating a national strategy around patient
identification that protects individual safety and security.
In
the framework, the coalition calls on the federal government to closely collaborate with
the private sector and with other public health authorities in working toward
the goal of accurate patient identification.
"Throughout
the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need to address
the issue of patient identification. The inability to accurately match patients
with their records has severe patient safety and financial implications, and
impedes health information exchange," said Hal Wolf, president and CEO of Healthcare
IT News parent company HIMSS, in a statement.
"The
framework lays the foundation for a national strategy that saves lives, while
protecting a patient's choice and privacy rights," Wolf added.
-----
https://histalk2.com/2021/04/23/weekender-4-23-21/
Weekly News Recap
- Home monitoring platform vendor
Current Health raises $43 million in Series B financing.
- Consumer data aggregation vendor
Seqster raises $12 million in a Series A round.
- Hospital operators HCA and Tenet
beat Wall Street estimates on quarterly revenue and profit.
- FDA says it will use the term
“MIMPS” (medical image management and processing system) instead of PACS
in referring to medical imaging systems.
- Cedars-Sinai is using facial
recognition software to identify patients with a history of violence or drug
fraud.
- FCC will open applications for its
$250 million COVID-19 Telehealth Program on April 29.
- FTC warns businesses that using or
selling AI algorithms that are racially based or discriminatory –
intentionally or not – violates federal law.
- FDA excludes eight software
functions that previously invoked its regulation as a medical device.
-----
Enjoy!
David.