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://healthitanalytics.com/news/ai-approach-offers-higher-rate-of-diabetes-remission-than-standard-care
AI Approach Offers Higher Rate of Diabetes Remission Than Standard Care
Researchers
found that an artificial intelligence-based intervention offered significant
rates of remission compared to standard care alone for type 2 diabetes
patients.
By Shania Kennedy
June 10, 2022
- Use of an artificial intelligence (AI) tool has shown the highest
reported rate of type 2 diabetes remission to date, according to research
presented at the 82nd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association
(ADA) earlier this month in New Orleans.
Type 2
diabetes is a chronic condition that impacts the way the body utilizes glucose,
or sugar. In patients with type 2 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce
enough of the sugar-regulating hormone, insulin, and cells respond poorly to
insulin, causing them to take in less sugar. This impairment in glucose
regulation results in too much sugar in the bloodstream, which can cause
circulatory, nervous, and immune system disorders, according to Mayo
Clinic.
Remission for
patients with type 2 diabetes was defined in the study as “sustaining normal
blood glucose (blood sugar) levels for at least three months without taking
diabetes medication.” To evaluate rates of remission, along with changes in the
diabetes-related
hemoglobin A1C, researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial to
measure the effect of Twin Precision Treatment technology (TPT) versus standard
care (SC) at 90-day intervals.
The TPT
intervention relied on the Whole-Body Digital Twin Platform, a predictive
analytics model which utilizes AI and Internet of Things (IoT) functionalities
to gather patient data and provide guidance surrounding precision nutrition,
physical activity, breathing, and sleep. These can then be used by clinicians
and their patients to guide treatment.
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/a-review-of-common-hipaa-administrative-safeguards
Common HIPAA Administrative Safeguards Under The HIPAA Security Rule
HIPAA
administrative safeguards are crucial measures that all covered entities must
consider under the HIPAA Security Rule.
By Editorial Staff
June 10, 2022
- Under the HIPAA
Security Rule, covered entities must implement physical, technical, and
administrative safeguards to safeguard electronic protected health information
(ePHI). These safeguards help covered entities mitigate risk and ensure that
sensitive health data remains secure and out of the reach of unauthorized
individuals.
The HIPAA
Security Rule is purposefully flexible and scalable to account for varying
organization sizes and security needs. As is the case with HIPAA
physical safeguards and technical
safeguards, healthcare organizations will need to review their own
policies, daily workflows, and existing security programs to determine what
works best for them.
What Are
HIPAA administrative safeguards?
“Administrative
safeguards are administrative actions, and policies and procedures, to manage
the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security
measures to protect electronic protected health information and to manage the
conduct of the covered entity's or business associate's workforce in relation
to the protection of that information,” HIPAA states.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/06/tech-innovation-framework-invitation-tender-nhs-digital/
Tech Innovation Framework for primary care launched by NHS Digital
NHS
Digital has launched a new framework which has been designed to increase
innovation and choice across the primary care IT market.
Jordan Sollof
8 June 2022
The Tech
Innovation Framework aims to give GPs and commissioners access to a wider range
of technology, enabling them to deliver better care. It will be a blueprint for
introducing the next generation of standards for IT systems.
Any
organisation can apply to become part of the framework, which has been designed
to inspire new methods of working, and commissioners will be able to use this
framework to buy user-focused GP systems and associated products and services.
Helen
Clifton, executive director for product delivery at NHS Digital, said: “This is
a key step forward on our journey to putting patients at the heart of
everything we do by ensuring primary care benefits from the very latest
technology.
“The new
framework will introduce new solutions into the market to work alongside our
current GP offer, providing greater choice and different user experiences.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/06/northern-ireland-digital-health-record-programme/
Northern Ireland gains support for digital health record programme
The
Encompass programme from Health and Social Care Northern Ireland is being
bolstered by the support of two digital health firms.
Cora Lydon 6
June, 2022
Global
healthcare technology specialist, Tegria and digital health consultancy,
Cloud21 will be providing strategic guidance, programme readiness and EPR
implementation expertise to help Northern Ireland become the first UK country
to implement a fully integrated electronic health and care record.
The Encompass
programme is a 10-year national digital transformation initiative that aims to
improve patient outcomes by better supporting health and care professionals.
Its vision is for a digital health and care record for every citizen. The
platform, which will be powered by Epic, it is built on will streamline services,
patient journeys and ensure connected healthcare across primary, secondary,
community and social care.
Dan West,
chief digital information officer for Health and Social Care Northern Ireland,
said: “Tegria and Cloud21 stood out because of their strong understanding of
the challenges that we face with such a large-scale and radical digital
transformation initiative.
“They quickly
provided us with strategic leadership at a challenging time in the programme,
while health and care systems across the world were dealing with the impact of
the COVID pandemic. They brought people who understand large
scale implementation and clinical transformation programmes to help
us build a more sustainable and resilient service through digital.”
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https://www.healio.com/news/orthopedics/20220609/telerehabilitation-yielded-positive-outcomes-for-low-back-pain-during-covid19-pandemic
June 09, 2022
Telerehabilitation yielded positive outcomes for low back pain during
COVID-19 pandemic
Results showed
telerehabilitation for patients with low back pain was equally as effective as
in-person physical therapy, with a trend of higher effectiveness when used for
all visits throughout the entire episode of care.
Mark
W. Werneke, PT, MS, and colleagues used propensity score
matching to analyze functional outcomes and satisfaction in patients with low
back pain (LBP) who received telerehabilitation (TR) for “any,” “few,” “most”
or “all” therapy visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among 91,117 total
episodes of physical therapy, 5,013 (5.5%) had TR involvement in some capacity.
According to the study, researchers also analyzed three matched samples of
patients who received synchronous, asynchronous or mixed TR modes.
Overall,
the only significant differences in functional score (FS) outcomes between
matched samples were found among patients who had “few” (1.7) and “all” (+2) TR
frequencies or among patients who received asynchronous (2.6) TR modes. Despite
a slim trend toward increased effectiveness with TR, these point differences
“suggest limited clinical importance,” the researchers noted in the study.
Except
for those patients with the “most” TR frequency – who had “non-significantly
fewer visits” – patients with “any” TR frequency had “significantly fewer
visits” compared with patients with no TR. Researchers noted most patients were
very satisfied with treatment results; however, a smaller proportion of TR
patients reported being very satisfied with treatment results, except for those
with the “all” TR frequency.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/telemedicine-untethered-looks-eliminate-virtual-waiting-room
'Telemedicine Untethered' Looks to Eliminate Virtual Waiting Room
Analysis
| By John Commins |
June 07, 2022
UC San
Diego Health borrows strategies from the restaurant and airline industries and
text messages patients when their providers are available.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Nearly two dozen patients from a stroke clinic
were given the option of either getting a text with a visit link when their
provider was ready or logging in at a scheduled time and waiting in front of a
camera in a virtual waiting room.
·
After the 10-week pilot, the researchers found
that no patients were seen late, while 55% were seen early, with an average
55-minute time savings in clinic operations due to patients being seen early.
Study metrics also included demographics, visit rates, and satisfaction
surveys.
Staring at a
blank computer screen while awaiting a telehealth consultation is not the best
way to endear patients to virtual care.
With that in
mind, providers at UC San Diego Health borrowed strategies used by the
restaurant and airline industries and launched a 10-week pilot project that
text messaged patients when their provider were available. The
"telemedicine untethered" program proved so successful that the
health system is expanding the option into various high-volume primary and
surgical care clinics this summer.
Brett C.
Meyer, MD, a neurologist and clinical director of telehealth at UC San Diego
Health, led the pilot and said "the goal of the feasibility study was to
determine if this flexibility lead to improved perception of waiting time and
an enhanced experience, while assessing for time saving for both patients and
providers."
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-us-healthcare-leaders-are-shifting-course-navigate-changed-world
How U.S. healthcare leaders are shifting course to navigate a changed
world
Health system
execs are updating strategies to meet new imperatives, Philips' new Future
Health Index 2022 report shows. Their priorities: expanding digital
transformation, managing a human capital crisis and closing the equity gap.
By Bill Siwicki
June 09, 2022
01:16 PM
As
the healthcare industry emerges from the pandemic, its leaders are embarking on
a major reboot of their priorities in order to improve the delivery of patient
care.
That
is one of the big findings of the Future Health Index 2022 report, entitled
"Healthcare hits reset: Priorities shift as healthcare leaders navigate a
changed world." This seventh annual edition of the report from global
technology vendor Philips analyzes feedback from nearly 3,000 healthcare
leaders across 15 countries on the impact of digital health technology in the
adoption of connected care. (Click here for the U.S. edition of the report. Click here for the global edition.)
Many
healthcare leaders are refocusing on both new and existing priorities, from
addressing staff shortages and extending care delivery to leveraging big data
and predictive analytics, revealed Jan Kimpen, chief medical officer at
Philips.
Urgent need to address burnout
Staffing
challenges in healthcare are well-publicized. In January 2022, 20% of U.S.
hospitals reported critical staff shortages, according to the Department of
Health and Human Services, while a recent Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington
Post poll found that around three in 10 healthcare workers had
considered leaving their profession.
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https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/health-it-safety/using-health-it-to-support-safer-use-and-management-of-controlled-substance-prescriptions
Using Health IT to Support Safer Use and Management of Controlled
Substance Prescriptions
Chelsea
Richwine and Christian Johnson | June 8, 2022
New
ONC data show that, as of 2021, nearly all non-federal acute care hospitals
were enabled to electronically prescribe controlled substances (EPCS).
According
to the American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology (IT)
Supplement Survey, the proportion of non-federal acute care hospitals enabled
for EPCS increased from 67% in 2018 to 96% in 2021. Increased adoption of EPCS
by hospitals is significant because e-prescribing enhances hospitals’
capability to ensure patient safety, avoid errors associated with paper-based
prescribing, reduce prescription drug fraud and abuse, mitigate provider
burden, and improve care coordination and workflow efficiency.
Moving from Paper to
E-Prescribing
Health
care providers have historically relied on paper-based methods to prescribe
controlled substances, while those prescribing non-controlled substances have
benefited from e-prescribing technologies. Decreasing reliance on paper
prescriptions helps improve care coordination among providers and clinical
workflow efficiencies by streamlining all prescribing into a single workflow.
E-prescribing helps prevent data entry errors, reduces pharmacy calls to
prescribers to clarify written instructions, and eliminates the need to
coordinate and manage paper prescriptions between doctors, patients,
pharmacies, and other care sites. Most importantly, e-prescribing promotes
patient safety by enabling health care providers to take advantage of safety
features built into health IT products that can alert prescribers of potential
drug interactions, inappropriate doses, allergies, and underlying patient
conditions.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/roundup-royal-marsden-nhs-ft-expands-hyland-healthcare-suite-clinical-trial-uses-digital
Roundup: The Royal Marsden NHS FT expands Hyland Healthcare suite,
clinical trial uses digital education platform to understand genetic diseases
in children and more briefs
Also,
AstraZeneca partners with WEF EDISON Alliance to enhance digital inclusion.
By Tammy Lovell
June 10, 2022
02:09 AM
The
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust expands Hyland Healthcare suite
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has selected Hyland’s PACSgear image capture solution to integrate with its
existing OnBase content services platform and new Epic
electronic patient record (EPR) system.
The
new digital health record (DHR) falls under the hospital’s digital
transformation programme and began in August last year, with Epic going live
across the trust from March 2023.
Lisa
Emery, chief information officer, The Royal Marsden, said: “These technologies
all work seamlessly together to create a comprehensive patient record, which
helps us achieve one of our ultimate goals – for our care providers to be able
to make the most informed decisions possible.”
Clinical trial uses digital education platform to understand fatal genetic
diseases in children
A
clinical trial researching a class of rare inherited disorders will incorporate
online educational resources to improve participant understanding of the study.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/06/10/optimize-provider-operations-the-key-to-minimize-burnout-increase-satisfaction/
Optimize Provider Operations: The Key to Minimize Burnout, Increase
Satisfaction
June 10, 2022
The
following is a guest article by Patrick Hunt, MD,
is a practicing emergency physician and the Chief Medical Officer at QGenda.
Workforce
optimization has suddenly become an everyday necessity in healthcare
organizations. The concept has always been a best-practice ideal, of course.
Still, the sharp increase in provider burnout and resignations lately has made
workforce retention and optimization an essential part of patient care.
To
put the matter into context, a study led by the American Medical Association
suggests that one out of every five doctors and two out of every five nurses
plan to leave
their practice within two years due to stressors such as burnout,
anxiety, depression, and workload. Patients already wait an average
of 24 days for an appointment. How much more will that wait time
rise if providers continue to leave their organizations—or abandon medicine
altogether?
We
owe it to both patients and providers to optimize provider operations to
improve providers’ work/life balance and increase patients’ access to care. But
that demands complete visibility into workflows ranging from provider
onboarding to compensation management. With the ability to view and understand
workforce trend data holistically—including patterns in staffing, overtime, and
room usage—such optimization is possible.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/06/10/the-evolution-of-roi-in-health-it/
The Evolution of ROI in Health IT
June 10, 2022
John Lynn
I
was recently able to attend a press briefing with LeanTaaS and a couple CIO and
Chief Transformation officers. During the event, Aaron Miri,
SVP & Chief Digital and Information Officer at Baptist
Health, said something quite powerful “It’s
hard to argue with hard ROI and that’s what we got with LeanTaaS. The CFO asks
you why you didn’t do it sooner.”
This
seems so obvious when you read it. The problem is that this hasn’t always
been the case for healthcare technology. Think about the history of
IT. What’s the right ROI measurement for phones? How did you
measure the ROI of implementing desktops? How did you measure the ROI of
wireless internet? You didn’t really have to as people often compared it
to cleaning staff that didn’t require an ROI, but were necessary.
Moving
forward, how do you measure the ROI of EHRs? When I first started writing
about EHRs, we were still working on that ROI calculation. It was
starting to become more clear as I saw many move from wondering if they should
implement an EHR to which EHR should they implement it and how they should
implement it to get the most value. Then, we all know what happen.
Meaningful Use and $36 billion of stimulus money blew everything up.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/how-apis-streamlined-covid-19-case-reporting-enhanced-data-quality
How APIs Streamlined COVID-19 Case Reporting, Enhanced Data Quality
Automatic
data transfer via an application programming interface (API) improved data
quality for COVID-19 cases and death rates and reduced the COVID-19 case
reporting process by over 25 minutes.
By Sarai Rodriguez
June 09, 2022
- The use of application programming interfaces (APIs) overall enhanced
the COVID-19 case reporting process, once integrated APIs improved the data
quality of COVID-19 case and death numbers and decreased processing time, a
recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association found.
Particularly
during the pandemic, timely disease surveillance has been important to
making decisions on interventions and crafting public health
responses.
However,
patient data exchange and public health reporting were two major health
IT problem areas during the pandemic that needed to be addressed.
During the
COVID-19 public health response, CDC created a system to track COVID-19
aggregate case and death data, known as aggregate case and death surveillance
(ACS).
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/healthcare-orgs-report-improved-processes-patient-experience-with-aws
Healthcare Orgs Report Improved Processes, Patient Experience with AWS
A new
report examining payer and provider experiences with Amazon Web Services’
artificial intelligence offerings found that 62 percent of organizations
reported better and faster processes.
By Shania Kennedy
June 09, 2022
- A new report
from KLAS Research found that a majority of healthcare organizations reported
better and faster processes, improved clinician and patient experience, and
reduced costs while using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The report
outlines how some healthcare organizations are using AWS and its artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) offerings, in addition to their
perceptions of AWS, the Google Cloud Platform, and the Microsoft Cloud.
The report
evaluated responses from 13 providers and payers regarding the AWS offerings
they use, how they use them, the outcomes they achieve, their loyalty to AWS,
how AWS can support usability for healthcare customers, and their perceptions
of AWS competitors Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Cloud.
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https://healthitanalytics.com/news/snomed-strikes-partnership-to-support-healthcare-research-opportunities
SNOMED Strikes Partnership to Support Healthcare Research Opportunities
SNOMED and
the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics collaborative have
finalized a five-year partnership designed to support clinical and informatics
research.
By Shania Kennedy
June 09, 2022
- SNOMED International announced
a five-year partnership with the non-profit global research collaborative
Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) to open new
opportunities for healthcare research communities.
OHDSI,
coordinated by the Columbia University Department of Biomedical Informatics,
provides open-source solutions to enable the analysis and sharing of healthcare
and observational data. Its mission is to “improve health by empowering a
community to collaboratively generate the evidence that promotes better health
decisions and better care,” according to the press release.
OHDSI’s
common data model, Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP), utilizes
SNOMED Clinical Terms (CT) as a core terminology, which allows the use of other
terminology and classification models through computable linkages.
The
collaboration with SNOMED provides OHDSI and its users with comprehensive
conceptualizations of healthcare areas and content, such as social determinants
of health (SDOH), devices, and disease severity scores. OHDSI will also have
access to better concept definitions used in large-scale research. As OHDSI
users utilize these resources, they can provide SNOMED with information related
to clinical validation, frequency of use data, and validation of SNOMED CT
content modeling.
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https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/clinician-perception-of-quality-linked-to-telehealth-modality-use-rates
Clinician Perception of Quality Linked to Telehealth Modality Use Rates
Researchers
found that high telehealth utilization rates were associated with clinicians’
attitudes toward virtual care quality and ease of use.
By Mark Melchionna
June 09, 2022
- Telehealth utilization rates correspond with how clinicians perceive the
effectiveness level, ease of use, and quality of virtual care services,
according to a study
published in JAMA Network Open.
As the use of
telehealth sharply increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, many factors
influenced provider preference for specific virtual care modalities.
To determine
whether telehealth use rate corelated with clinician perceptions of telehealth,
researchers conducted a study that included 866 participants, who worked in
clinics that specialized in either mental health (MH), primary care (PC), or
specialty care (SC).
The 866
clinicians participated in a 32-item survey conducted by the Department of
Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare (VANEHS) from August to September 2021.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/physician-buy-in-for-patient-self-scheduling-tools-remains-elusive
Physician Buy-In for Patient Self-Scheduling Tools Remains Elusive
Although
88 percent of organization leaders plan to invest in patient self-scheduling
tools to respond to healthcare consumerism, 22 percent said physician buy-in
stands in the way.
By Sara Heath
June 09, 2022
- Eighty-eight percent of health system executives are eyeing patient
self-scheduling tools as high-priority patient engagement technology
investments, but they’re facing roadblocks in drumming up physician buy-in,
according to new surveying
from the Center for Connected Medicine (CCM) and KLAS Research.
The small
survey of 51 respondents from 47 healthcare organizations nationwide showed
that although healthcare organizations prioritize the convenient
care access that often stems from self-scheduling tools, it’s going to be
hard to get clinicians to relinquish that control.
“Many
physicians believe that by allowing patients to self-schedule appointments they
are giving up control of their own calendar,” Joon S. Lee, MD, executive
vice president of UPMC, which partners with CCM, said in a statement emailed to
journalists.
“Self-scheduling
is a big part of improving patients’ access to care. It is up to organizational
leaders to work with physicians to find solutions that address their concerns
while still meeting the demands and expectations of our patients.”
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/54-of-cisos-struggle-to-convince-board-to-prioritize-cybersecurity-investments
54% of CISOs Struggle to Convince Board to Prioritize Cybersecurity
Investments
A new
report shows that while communication with the board is improving at many
organizations, CISOs still struggle to obtain cybersecurity investments.
By Jill McKeon
June 09, 2022
- Chief information security officers (CISOs) play a crucial role in
advocating for cybersecurity investments and communicating risk to the board.
Although significant progress has been made, 54 percent of surveyed CISOs
reported feeling that their board did not provide ample investments in
cybersecurity, a survey
conducted by Censuswide and commissioned by Encore found.
Researchers
surveyed 500 office workers, 100 C-level executives, and 100 CISOS from the UK
and the US.
“Chief
Information Security Officers (CISOs) are the face of cybersecurity within an
organization, and expectations of this role have reached new heights as a
result,” the report noted.
“For years,
they have been the source of all cyber knowledge, the in-case-of-emergency
contact, and the clean-up crew after a breach. The pressure on their shoulders
has been—and continues to be—substantial.”
Communicating
cyber risk to C-suite executives is clearly improving—only 4 percent of
executives said that they did not discuss cybersecurity in the boardroom.
However, only half of the surveyed C-suite executives said that cybersecurity
was a top priority, and over 60 percent of security leaders reported not
feeling supported by the board when it came to mitigating cyber risk.
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https://www.fierceelectronics.com/sensors/wearable-shipments-drop-first-time-1q-except-apple-idc-says
Wearable shipments drop first time in 1Q except Apple, IDC says
By Matt Hamblen
Jun 8, 2022
06:46am
Shipments
of wearable electronics including smartwatches and earbuds declined for the
first time ever in the first quarter of 2022 thanks to cooling consumer demand
following fast growth during the pandemic, IDC said.
Of
the top four companies in the vertical, only Apple saw growth for the quarter
of 6.6% over the prior year, partly due to 2 million shipments of Apple Watch
SE, which has been on the market more than 18 months.
“Cooling
demand will force companies to further differentiate themselves,” said Ramon
Llamas, research director for mobile devices at IDC in a statement.
“Competition
is also on the rise as smaller brands ramp up their basic health and fitness
tracing watches at the low end and as Google along with Samsung and other Wear
OS partners finally become more competitive with Apple at the high end of the
spectrum,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC.
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https://hospicenews.com/2022/06/08/rural-palliative-providers-weigh-telehealth-investment-against-regulatory-uncertainty/
Rural Providers Weigh Telehealth Investment Against Regulatory Uncertainty
By Holly
Vossel | June 8, 2022
Hospices
are leveraging expanded telehealth options to maximize access for hard-to-reach
rural patients despite lingering regulatory uncertainties.
Case
in point, the Providence Institute for Human Caring last year launched a
tele-palliative care program aimed at addressing rural patients’ unmet needs.
Thus far, the initiative has yielded positive results, but the process hasn’t
always been easy, according to Dr. Gregg VandeKieft, executive medical director
of the institute’s Palliative Practice Group.
Snags
along the way included dairy cows blocking staff from reaching patients.
“For
the first time we’re able to offer equitable access
to specialty palliative care services for patients who need and want them in
this rural setting,” VandeKieft told local
news. “But we often have to balance providing health care with the time
schedules and welfare of livestock, crops and other realities of rural living.”
Washington-based
Providence Health System provides a range of facility- and home-based care,
including senior services and hospice. The company has more than 119,000
employees serving communities in six states.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/anz/rmit-university-launches-digital-health-hub
RMIT University launches digital health hub
It also
offers online training to upskill health workers.
By Adam Ang
June 09, 2022
03:21 AM
The
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology or RMIT University has opened a hub to
drive digital health innovation in Australia and beyond.
The
RMIT Digital Health Hub seeks to bring advanced digital health research and
expertise from RMIT to the health sector with the view of transforming
healthcare delivery and improving health outcomes.
It
was launched in partnership with ANDHealth, a digital health commercialisation
organisation, and the federal government-backed Digital Health Cooperative
Research Centre.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The
digital health hub was launched to help bring the stakeholders of the health
ecosystem together to solve unmet needs "from virtual care and artificial
intelligence to diagnostic and monitoring wearables and sensors".
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/oracle-completes-28.4b-acquisition-of-ehr-vendor-cerner
Oracle Completes $28.4B Acquisition of EHR Vendor Cerner
The
acquisition of Cerner will allow Oracle to utilize the EHR vendor’s extensive
health information data, helping the vendor expand its cloud business in the
health system market.
By Sarai Rodriguez
June 08, 2022
- Cloud giant Oracle Corporation has officially
finalized its $28.4 billion acquisition of EHR Vendor Cerner, according to
reporting from FedScoop.
The all-cash
deal was completed after Oracle’s tender offer to purchase all issued and
outstanding Cerner shares for $95 per share expired after midnight, eastern time,
on June 6.
“Working
together, Cerner and Oracle have the capacity to transform healthcare delivery
by providing medical professionals with better information—enabling them to
make better treatment decisions resulting in better patient outcomes,"
Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle, said in a press
release after Cerner
received all required antitrust approvals on June 1.
"With
this acquisition, Oracle's corporate mission expands to assume the
responsibility to provide our overworked medical professionals with a new
generation of easier-to-use digital tools that enable access to information via
a hands-free voice interface to secure cloud applications,” Ellison continued
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/patient-portal-use-disparities-suggest-need-for-judicious-enrollment
Patient Portal Use Disparities Suggest Need for Judicious Enrollment
Understanding
patient portal use disparities will help providers tailor their enrollment
strategies to specific patient populations.
By Sara Heath
June 08, 2022
- Some groups remain more likely to use the patient portal than others,
and healthcare organizations will need to consider that as they lean on the
technologies to boost patient engagement, according to research published in the
Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
Particularly,
men, older adults, those living in rural areas, and racial minorities were less
likely to use the patient portal than their peers. Folks on public insurance
were also less likely to use the patient portal, save for a handful of specific
portal features.
The patient
portal has long been a key part of patient engagement strategies. The
technologies, hurtled to prominence by meaningful use requirements, allow
patients to view their medical information—prescriptions, lab results, and
longitudinal medical records—digitally.
In recent
years, innovations like Apple Health Records and a similar effort from Android,
CommonHealth, have made it so patients could aggregate information from
multiple patient portals into one singular location. And just last spring as
part of the ONC information blocking rule, patients
were granted access to clinician notes via digital format, like the patient
portal, too.
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https://www.natlawreview.com/article/digital-health-metaverse-three-legal-considerations
Digital Health in the Metaverse: Three Legal Considerations
Tuesday, May
31, 2022
The metaverse
has been described as the “next frontier” and the “new era” of healthcare.
Although still a loosely defined and relatively broad term, the “metaverse”
generally refers to a shared virtual environment accessed by individuals via
the Internet. Individuals generally enter the metaverse through the following
four technologies: virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and
extended reality.
As the
metaverse market continues to grow, with some estimates potentially approaching
$800 billion in 2024 (or a $300 billion increase from 2020 estimates),
technology leaders in various industries, including healthcare, have begun to
expand their presence in this new platform.[1] The metaverse has numerous
potential applications for healthcare, ranging from virtual immersive therapy
experiences to digitally evaluating drug interactions. These advancements,
present challenges and raise novel questions as to how the current healthcare
and life sciences legal regime would apply to the metaverse.
Data
Privacy and Security
Underlying
the metaverse is a potential massive collection of user data. As users “exist”
in the metaverse as avatars performing activities, various types of data,
including some that may be deemed “personal” or “sensitive” (by law), may be
generated.
Developers
and other players in the metaverse offering health-related products and
services will face an ever-growing patchwork of state and federal privacy and
data security laws. Among other laws, this might include state biometric
privacy laws, state “comprehensive laws” (California, and forthcoming in Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and Utah),
and considerations under unfair and deceptive practice laws at the state and
federal level. The FTC’s increasing interest in health information that sits
outside of HHS/OCR’s reach is likely to only expand in light of health-related
metaverse use cases. However, traditional healthcare players, subject to the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), may also find
themselves innovating in this space (and grappling with how to stand up a HIPAA
compliance program in the metaverse). In addition, companies may struggle with
how to implement specific technical controls and robust data security programs
(required under certain state and federal laws) in this evolving
infrastructure.
-----
https://www.fastcompany.com/90756713/failed-promises-of-digital-health
05-31-22
Digital health has failed, but that doesn’t mean the future is hopeless
Digital health must ground its functions not just in AI and basic
diagnostics, but in expert-informed clinical guidance.
By Andrew Le
Virtually
everyone can articulate one of healthcare’s myriad issues: it’s expensive,
feels impersonal and corporate, and confronts people with cascading folios of
options and choices they’re not prepared for. From my years of working in this
space, I might summarize all these issues under the umbrella term of
“uncertainty”—that is, the converse of assurance and peace of mind.
Uncertainty
runs deep in this industry. Patients, sensing (correctly) that there’s no easy
way to tap into the vast knowledge of healthcare services, feel like they’re
going it alone in a web of complex coverage stipulations, referrals,
specialists, and co-pays. About half of Americans source their healthcare
coverage through their employers, and yet, 80% of employees say they’re confused about their benefits.
Feeling
like a number in the system and far removed from the old national memory of the
“hometown doc” who knows them well and understands their circumstances,
patients don’t know what care options and services make the most sense for them
as individuals. And rather than dive into the confusing mess themselves and
possibly incur unplanned costs, many forgo the care they need altogether.
The
patients aren’t the only ones who feel this way. Employers are also burdened
under the weight of too many options and services that they don’t know how to
navigate. Finding a provider package or insurance solution that’s valuable to
their employees can seem nearly impossible, while the balancing act of quality
vs. cost-effectiveness continues to churn out results neither party is thrilled
about.
-----
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/study-electronic-symptom-tracking-improves-cancer-patients-quality-life-physical-function
Study: Electronic symptom tracking improves cancer patients' quality of
life, physical function
If patients
reported severe or worsening symptoms, their care teams were alerted.
By Emily Olsen
June 06, 2022
11:54 am
Weekly
electronic symptom-tracking surveys improved physical function, symptom control
and health-related quality of life among cancer patients, according
to a study published in JAMA.
In
a randomized trial that included 52 practices and 1,191 patients receiving
treatment for metastatic cancer, researchers found statistically significant
improvements in secondary outcomes like function and quality of life after a
three month follow-up compared with usual care. Results on the primary outcome,
overall survival, weren't yet available.
In
the survey group, patients were asked to complete a weekly survey online or
through an automated phone system for one year. They were asked about symptoms
like pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, dyspnea, insomnia and
depression.
The
survey also included questions about eating and drinking, falls, financial
challenges and their ability to care for themselves and do daily tasks. If a
patient reported severe or worsening symptoms, an alert was triggered for the
care team.
"In
this report of secondary outcomes from a randomized clinical trial of adults
receiving cancer treatment, use of weekly electronic PRO surveys to monitor
symptoms, compared with usual care, resulted in statistically significant
improvements in physical function, symptom control and HRQOL at 3 months, with
mean improvements of approximately 2.5 points on a 0- to 100-point scale. These
findings should be interpreted provisionally pending results of the primary
outcome of overall survival," the study's authors wrote.
-----
https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/at-the-frontlines-of-precision-medicine-data-and-it-challenges?id=130274
At the frontlines of precision medicine: Data and IT challenges
Numerous
challenges, such as capturing genetic data in EHRs, need to be addressed to
achieve the promised value of precision medicine.
Jun 07 2022
Maggie
Van Dyke
Contributing
Editor
David Jones,
Ph.D., offers a vision of how precision medicine will evolve in the next 20
years to transform healthcare.
By 2042, many
babies will have their genome sequenced soon after birth, revealing their risk
for hundreds of diseases and conditions, both rare and common, says Jones,
chief scientist at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City. Healthcare providers
will have this genetic data at their fingertips to help them develop customized
prevention and treatment plans for each patient, he predicts.
“We’re going
to move from a reactionary style of patient care, where we wait until people
get sick before doing something, to a more proactive approach,” the scientist
says. We’ll know the diseases people may get, so we can get those people screened
regularly and prevent them from getting those diseases.”
The first
steps
Initial steps
toward achieving that long-term goal are being made today. For example, genetic
tests are available to identify a modest number of genes and gene mutations
linked to certain diseases and conditions, including cancers and high
cholesterol. In addition, physicians can order pharmacogenomic tests to
determine if patients, based on their genomic profile, likely will respond to a
drug or have side effects. About 100
drugs have been identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as
having gene-drug interactions.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/why-geisinger-moving-its-ehr-cloud-now
Why Geisinger Is Moving its EHR to the Cloud Now
Analysis
| By Scott Mace |
June 08, 2022
The
Pennsylvania-based health system is partnering with Amazon Web Services to move
its electronic health record platform and other services into the cloud.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Amazon AWS beat out two other contenders for the
cloud platform project.
·
Roughly 900 applications will be moved to the
cloud with help from Deloitte.
·
Officials say they're making the move to improve
agility, disaster recovery, and business recovery.
Geisinger recently
announced it has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its strategic cloud
provider. The project, one of the largest migrations of electronic health
record systems to AWS, will save the Pennsylvania health system several million
dollars a year, which executives say they'll use to make investments in
improving the health of its patients.
Geisinger
Chief Information Officer John Kravitz, MHA, CHCIO, spoke to HealthLeaders about this
partnership and how it will impact innovation at Geisinger. This interview has
been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Health
Leaders: Your move to the cloud -- why now? Why not earlier or later?
John
Kravitz: For us, as an organization, the time was appropriate to start. We
looked at the cloud for the last two years, did an RFP process with the three
major public cloud providers, and we decided we wanted to get to the cloud, so
we're doing some things like setting up an API management platform to provide
better integration with APIs. The ability to move to the cloud, to be agile, to
be scalable, to move our applications quickly, to deploy applications quickly,
that makes sense to move our strategy for the organization forward.
In the
meantime, we're looking to simplify, as much as possible, our environment, as
we're starting to migrate to the cloud. We're in early stages. We've just done
the design and some other things for it, and started to collaborate on some
small applications. It will take us a while to get to Epic, probably 18 months
to 24 months before we get to an Epic production cloud. It’s going to be a
three- to four-year journey before we get there.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/ehr-integration-boosts-primary-care-clinician-pdmp-query-rate
EHR Integration Boosts Primary Care Clinician PDMP Query Rate
An EHR
integration helped streamline access to a PDMP by removing the need for primary
care clinicians to log into a separate web portal.
By Hannah Nelson
June 07, 2022
- EHR integration of a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP)
increased primary care clinician adherence to recommended prescribing practices
for controlled substances such as opioids, according to a study
published in JAMA Health Forum.
PDMPs are
state-run electronic databases that assemble pharmacy and patient data from
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) controlled substances and prescription drugs.
PDMPs help prescribers keep track of patients at high risk of becoming
opioid-dependent.
Researchers
randomized access to an intervention that directly integrated the Minnesota
PDMP into the EHR. Of the 43 participating clinics, 21 clinics received the
PDMP EHR integration.
The
intervention potentially alleviated the hassle of querying the PDMP
in two ways: by removing the need to log into a separate web portal for every
query and by lowering the attention cost of remembering to query the PDMP.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/parents-largely-comfortable-with-artificial-intelligence-use-in-pediatric-care
Parents Largely Comfortable with Artificial Intelligence Use in Pediatric
Care
Researchers
determined that using artificial intelligence for pediatrics resulted in a
relatively high rate of approval from parents.
By Mark Melchionna
June 07, 2022
- Despite a slight inconsistency in satisfaction rates among different
ethnic groups, a
study from Academic Pediatrics reported a relatively high rate of approval
from parents regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in
pediatrics.
The study
consisted of a survey polling 1,620 parents within a big city in the US, all of
whom had a child receiving treatment for a respiratory illness that involved
the use of AI. Researchers used a population-weighted household panel survey
method.
Researchers
found that most respondents indicated a relatively high level of comfort in
AI-based computer programs being used for various clinical processes in the
emergency department. These included antibiotics (77.6 percent), bloodwork
(76.5 percent), and the interpretation of radiographs (77.5 percent).
Despite
parents' relatively high level of comfort, researchers found that parents
within certain demographics were not as trusting of AI.
-----
https://mhealthintelligence.com/news/apple-watch-to-add-medication-tracking-afib-history-features
Apple Watch to Add Medication Tracking, AFib History Features
The new
operating system update will enable users to manage their medications and allow
those diagnosed with atrial fibrillation to monitor their heart rhythm trends.
By Anuja Vaidya
June 07, 2022
- Apple will add
several new features to its smartwatch, including atrial fibrillation
(AFib) history recording and medication tracking capabilities.
The new Apple
Watch operating system, watchOS
9, will include these features.
The Food and
Drug Administration-cleared AFib History feature will enable users diagnosed
with AFib to access critical information, such as an estimate of how frequently
their heart rhythms show signs of the condition. Users will also receive weekly
notifications on their heart rhythm trends.
Further, they
will be able to view a detailed history of their condition, including lifestyle
factors like sleep and exercise that may influence it, in the Health app.
-----
https://healthitsecurity.com/news/rsa-conference-experts-say-medical-device-security-trending-in-right-direction
RSA Conference: Experts Say Medical Device Security Trending in Right
Direction
Experts
still point to the prominence of legacy devices as a bottleneck to improving
medical device security on a larger scale.
By Jill McKeon
June 07, 2022
- At the RSA Conference, currently being held in San Francisco and
virtually, panelists gathered for a session to discuss medical
device security challenges.
Audience
members posed questions about the current threat landscape and experts
addressed common security concerns.
Panelists
Discuss Current State of Medical Device Security
The consensus
among panelists was relatively positive—all three agreed that medical device
security is trending in the right direction. But as previously discussed on
HealthITSecurity, the lack
of standards and shared responsibility in the space may be stifling
well-meaning efforts to improve medical device security on a large scale.
-----
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/innovation/ai-tool-corrects-wrongly-coded-diagnosis-in-ehrs.html
AI tool corrects wrongly coded diagnosis in EHRs
Georgina Gonzalez (Twitter) –
6 June 2022
An
artificial intelligence tool that flags clinical documentation teams with
information about wrongly coded or misspelled data in EHRs to correct them is
now available, according to a June 1
press release.
The
tool, called DxPrime, was developed by health tech startup Aesop Technologies
to reduce the number of errors made in patient health records, which can often
lead to claim denials down the line. The DxPrime machine learning tool was
trained on 3.2 billion patient visits and uses this knowledge to predict and
correct missed diagnoses.
"Physicians,
CDI team, and coders have to spend a lot of time poring through medical records
to find the key clinical diagnoses among the vast amount of information
available," said Jim Long, CEO of Aesop. "After that, they have to
follow a series of inefficient steps on the computer to complete the input
process, and search functionality for ICD codes often is not helpful. When
using DxPrime, we have helped physicians often notice they did not correctly
code complications"
-----
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/patientcenteredmedicalhome/99086
To Bill or Not to Bill, That is the Question
— When
should we charge patients for phone calls, or even for complex responses to
emails?
by Fred N.
Pelzman, MD June 6, 2022
With the
increased penetration of the patient portal and remote access among our
patients, there has been a dramatic increase in the quantity of messages we
receive every day, and many different types of requests come to us through this
portal. Before we had a portal within our electronic health record, pretty much
the only way for patients to reach us was through the telephone, which, as you
know, has been a major sticking point at our academic practice for many years
(i.e., no one ever answered the phone).
Now, with a
large majority of our patients enrolled in the online portal, we are easier to
reach, with a few clicks of a mouse or taps on their phone. What seems to be
the difficulty now is figuring out the fine line between what makes up an
appropriate question on the portal and what really should be saved for an
office visit, or at least turned into some type of encounter for which we can
get reimbursed.
Varied in
Complexity
During the
pre-portal years, we all became accustomed to answering patient phone calls.
Patients called in -- and still do -- with questions about their health:
something they forgot to mention at our recent office visit or a question about
a lab result, a new symptom that has developed in the interim, or another
health issue they want to address.
Sometimes
they even ask about entirely new issues -- things that we have often handled in
a brief call, such as a simple cold, UTI, or ankle sprain. These have always
run the gamut from the very simple and easy-to-answer to the incredibly
complex, requiring a lot of brain power, provider time, and resource
utilization.
-----
https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/cleveland-clinics-virtual-second-opinion-program-saves-65-million-annually
Jun 07 2022
Cleveland Clinic's virtual second opinion program saves $65 million
annually
The Clinic
by Cleveland Clinic launched in 2020 as a joint venture between the Cleveland
Clinic and Amwell.
Susan Morse,
Executive Editor
The Cleveland
Clinic's virtual second opinions program has led to avoidable costs for misdiagnosis
of about $65 million annually.
This is an
estimated $65 million saved per 100,000 health plan members, said Frank
McGillin, CEO of The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic. Typically, the virtual second
opinion is a premium benefit health plans are offering, he said.
The digital,
virtual solution was launched in the fall of 2020 as a joint venture between
the Cleveland Clinic and Amwell, a telehealth company. But
the concept began pre-pandemic, McGillin said.
Even as telehealth flexibilities opened up during the pandemic, the service
offered by The Clinic at Cleveland Clinic is not considered a traditional
telehealth visit, McGillin said. It's not a reimbursed visit but rather it's
self-pay, or it's a premium offering by the health plan. Patients can access
the service from anywhere.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-telepsychiatry-optimal-hospitals-and-health-systems
How telepsychiatry is optimal for hospitals and health systems
This form of
telehealth addresses the psychiatrist shortage, helps serve patients in
underserved areas and boosts patient satisfaction, a telepsychiatry expert
says.
By Bill Siwicki
June 07, 2022
10:21 AM
The
pandemic has amplified the need for behavioral health services and also made it
more difficult for people at risk to access care, as noted by the Biden
administration.
At
the same time, the fallout of COVID-19 has accelerated people's willingness to
engage with telehealth and telemedicine. So how do hospitals and health systems
deal with an influx of mental health patients seeking fast access to
high-quality psychiatric care while improving patient throughput?
Between
the nationwide shortage of psychiatrists, staff burnout, tight
budgets and changing healthcare regulations, many hospitals and health systems
don't know where to start. Fortunately, telepsychiatry can help.
Andy
Flanagan is CEO of Iris Telehealth, a telepsychiatry technology and services
company. We interviewed him to get the lay of the land for virtual psychiatric
care today and beyond the pandemic.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ransomware-attacks-have-doubled-2-years-report-shows
Ransomware attacks have doubled in 2 years, report shows
But
healthcare organizations have gotten better at responding to this new normal,
the new survey indicates, with hospitals now able to restore more encrypted
data after attacks.
By Mike Miliard
June 07, 2022
10:23 AM
Nearly
two-thirds (66%) of healthcare organizations experienced a ransomware attack in
2021, a new survey shows – almost double the number who said the same thing
(34%) in 2020.
WHY IT
MATTERS
That's a 94% increase in just a year, and the new report, sponsored by Sophos,
shows that the bad guys have become more capable and creative in their attacks,
in addition to amping up the volume.
For
its survey, The State of Ransomware in Healthcare 2022, more than 5,000
IT professionals were polled earlier this year. Their answers show them
grappling with a cybersecurity threat that is fast-evolving in scope and
intensity – but also show a growing level of resilience in the face of what's
become a ubiquitous threat.
Cyberattacks
are getting more innovative in their approaches. The report points, for
example, to "the growing success of the ransomware-as-a-service model, which significantly extends
the reach of ransomware by reducing the skill level required to create and
deploy an attack."
There
are signs of hope, however, such as the fact that healthcare, "with a 61%
encryption rate, performed better than the global average of 65%." Also,
more healthcare organizations are buying cyber insurance policies, which
require them to invest in more robust cybersecurity defenses.
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/telehealth/telemedicine-untethered-looks-eliminate-virtual-waiting-room
'Telemedicine Untethered' Looks to Eliminate Virtual Waiting Room
Analysis
| By John Commins |
June 07, 2022
UC San
Diego Health borrows strategies from the restaurant and airline industries and
text messages patients when their providers are available.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
·
Nearly two dozen patients from a stroke clinic
were given the option of either getting a text with a visit link when their
provider was ready or logging in at a scheduled time and waiting in front of a
camera in a virtual waiting room.
·
After the 10-week pilot, the researchers found
that no patients were seen late, while 55% were seen early, with an average
55-minute time savings in clinic operations due to patients being seen early.
Study metrics also included demographics, visit rates, and satisfaction
surveys.
Staring at a
blank computer screen while awaiting a telehealth consultation is not the best
way to endear patients to virtual care.
With that in
mind, providers at UC San Diego Health borrowed strategies used by the
restaurant and airline industries and launched a 10-week pilot project that
text messaged patients when their provider were available. The
"telemedicine untethered" program proved so successful that the
health system is expanding the option into various high-volume primary and
surgical care clinics this summer.
Brett C.
Meyer, MD, a neurologist and clinical director of telehealth at UC San Diego
Health, led the pilot and said "the goal of the feasibility study was to
determine if this flexibility lead to improved perception of waiting time and
an enhanced experience, while assessing for time saving for both patients and
providers."
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/digital-cds-resource-gives-healthcare-providers-demand-support-pediatric-care
Digital CDS Resource Gives Healthcare Providers On-Demand Support for
Pediatric Care
Analysis
| By Eric Wicklund |
June 07, 2022
PedsGuide,
an mHealth app developed by Children's Mercy Kansas City, is an on-demand
clinical decision support platform designed to assist rural and remote
healthcare providers who are treating children.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Rural and remote hospitals, clinics, primary
care physicians and EMS providers often don't have the expertise to treat
children in an emergency, so they end up doing what they can and then
transporting those patients to a larger, often distant, facility.
·
The development of mHealth apps for clinical
decision support enables providers to access diagnosis and treatment
information on demand through their laptops or smartphones, giving them the
tools they need for better emergency triage and care.
·
Children's Mercy Kansas City has developed
PedsGuide to give providers immediate access to current and often-updated
information on treatment and care for pediatric cases.
One of the
benefits of digital health is that it allows healthcare providers to
collaborate and share their expertise with others who don't have that
background. Children's
Mercy Kansas City is following that path with a new mHealth app designed to
give providers a clinical decision support tool for pediatric care.
"Many
ERs see children because they have to," says Brandan
Kennedy, MD, a pediatric hospitalist and clinical informaticist and
associate director of inpatient health informatics at the Kansas City,
Missouri-based hospital. "Less than 10% of their ER traffic is kids, so
it's not their comfort zone … but that doesn't mean they can’t treat
them."
-----
https://www.statnews.com/2022/06/07/apple-watch-heart-health-medication-app/
Apple unveils a medication-tracking app and new heart health features for
smartwatches
By Casey Ross June 7, 2022
Apple
unveils app to track medication use
Apple introduced
a new app to help people to track the medications they take — a new area
of focus for the company— during its pre-taped Worldwide Developers Conference
yesterday. Users can scan a pill bottle to search for a medication
and easily schedule reminders to take it. The software will alert users to potentially
dangerous interactions between drugs in their medicine cabinet.
Building
on its long-evolving features around heart health, Apple is also adding a new
smartwatch feature, called AFib History, to allow people diagnosed with the
condition to pinpoint episodes and track how much time they’ve spent in atrial
fibrillation. The feature also allows users to see how other health and
lifestyle data, like sleep, weight, and exercise might be impacting their
A-fib. The product received FDA clearance on Friday.
Apple’s
commitment to health remains centered around giving users more
information, but questions remain on how the health care system will
adapt to data collected on consumer devices. The Afib History feature, for
example, is based on remarkable technology developed by one of the
world’s most advanced companies. How is a doctor supposed to look at this
potentially very useful data? From a PDF generated by
the Health app, of course.
Playing
the funeral march
The
graveyard of tech pilots is filled with some
of health care’s most appealing ideas: making it possible for
patients to schedule their own appointments online, automating hospital hygiene
monitoring, and more. Health system leaders are often loathe to call
attention on big plans that never move out of pilot mode, but those failures
are the key to making sure the same costly mistakes aren’t repeated.
-----
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/cds-hooks-present-opportunity-to-boost-smart-on-fhir-app-utilization
CDS Hooks Present Opportunity to Boost SMART on FHIR App Utilization
Researchers
found that using CDS Hooks to recommend a SMART on FHIR app can increase app
utilization by 130 percent.
By Sarai Rodriguez
June 06, 2022
- Clinician decision support (CDS) Hooks prompts recommending the use of a
SMART on an FHIR app can lead to a significant increase in SMART on FHIR app
utilization, according to
a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association (JAMIA).
SMART on
FHIR, an open-source
data standard, aims to support healthcare
interoperability for real-time access to health information across the
care continuum.
Since its
inception, the use of SMART on FHIR has become more widespread across
healthcare facilities.
The rise of
SMART on FHIR apps has created a need for suggesting relevant apps to
end-users, the researchers stated.
-----
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/shift-to-cloud-key-strategy-in-healthcare-but-challenges-persist
Shift to Cloud Key Strategy in Healthcare, But Challenges Persist
A new
report outlined various trends in healthcare’s adoption of cloud technologies,
artificial intelligence, and Software as a Service, including the related
challenges and best practices.
By Shania Kennedy
June 06, 2022
- A report
published late last month by Forrester outlines some of the challenges that
healthcare organizations face, including security and compliance issues, and
provides best practices when implementing technologies such as cloud platforms,
artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), and Software-as-a-Service.
As healthcare
organizations pursue data-driven patient care, adopting technologies to enable
digital engagement, data management, and workflow optimization is critical.
Cloud platforms, along with data analytics and AI, can help organizations
achieve these goals while also focusing on patient care and security.
The COVID-19
pandemic, rising patient demand, and the unique opportunities presented by
cloud technology are driving its adoption in healthcare, an industry that has
traditionally been resistant to technological modernization. The pandemic
required health systems and hospitals to pivot quickly to address overwhelming
patient volumes, including adopting new methods of contactless communication
and switching to telehealth visits. Health systems without cloud strategies had
to migrate to them or risk not being able to serve their patients during the
crisis.
Digital
transformation in other industries is also creating expectations among patients
for more technology-and data-savvy medical care. Clinical data analytics have
had a major impact on faster care delivery and more accurate diagnoses, and
patients are now demanding more predictive care.
Cloud
technology also presents further opportunities for healthcare organizations.
Virtual data centers have the potential to help health systems address various
issues, such as reducing infrastructure replacement costs and integrating
disparate systems between departments.
-----
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/ada-twin-healths-ai-powered-digital-twin-tech-leads-diabetes-remission-study-finds
ADA: Twin Health’s AI tech leads to Type 2 diabetes remissions, study
finds
By Andrea Park
Jun 5, 2022
01:00am
Twin Health’s
Whole Body Digital Twin platform uses data from wearable sensors, blood tests and
self-reported questionnaires to build a model of each patient and suggest
potential interventions to reverse Type 2 diabetes symptoms. (Getty Images)
It
may not be able to pass the Turing test, but a “digital twin” created by Twin
Health’s artificial intelligence could help its human counterpart reverse the
symptoms of Type 2 diabetes and significantly cut back on medications for the
condition, including insulin.
That’s
according to the results of a clinical trial of the technology, which were
presented Saturday at the American Diabetes Association’s annual scientific
sessions in New Orleans.
Twin
Health’s Whole Body Digital Twin platform collects thousands of data points
each day from wearable sensors, then combines those readings with the results
of blood tests and self-reported questionnaires to build a computer model of
each patient. The AI continuously updates and analyzes the model to spot
problem areas in a patient’s individual metabolism and suggest potential
changes and improvements for their nutrition, activity, sleep and breathing,
all with the ultimate goal of reversing diabetes symptoms.
-----
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/analysis-nine-20-popular-period-tracking-apps-use-data-third-party-ads
Analysis: Nine of 20 popular period tracking apps use data for third party
ads
According to
the review by cybersecurity and VPN company Surfshark, 10 of the apps collected
coarse location data.
By Emily Olsen
May 25, 2022
12:50 pm
Nearly
half of period-tracking apps studied used or shared data for third-party
advertising, according to an analysis by cybersecurity and VPN company
Surfshark.
The
review examined 20 popular apps from the Apple App Store and ranked each app
depending on the amount and sensitivity of the information they collect. For
instance, an app received one point for data collected that isn't linked to a
user's identity, like app crash information, and three points for data that
could track users across other websites, like user ID. It also added points for
collecting data for third-party advertising.
Nine
shared data for advertising, while 10 collected coarse location, which can't be
tracked to an exact address, but can offer more approximate location
information. Eight apps collected photo and video library data.
Overall,
the analysis ranked Eve, Glow and Ovia highest in how much potentially
sensitive data they collect, while Apple's Cycle Tracking and the Life app
ranked the lowest.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/06/06/to-realize-the-promise-of-connected-healthcare-embrace-edge-computing/
To Realize the Promise of Connected Healthcare, Embrace Edge Computing
June 6, 2022
The
following is a guest article by Bridget Meuse, Industry Strategist at Akamai.
The
evolution of connected healthcare, already well underway, got a major boost
during the COVID pandemic. The shift to remote healthcare service delivery,
together with the expansion of the Internet of medical things (IoMT), went into
overdrive with the arrival of SARS Cov-2. Almost overnight, the ability to
deliver personalized care through virtual interactions, connected devices and
advanced automation went from being a “nice to have” to a “need to have.”
While
the speed and scope of technology modernization across the healthcare sector
has been dramatic, it creates a challenge: How to effectively handle the
massive surge in data and network traffic generated by these connected devices
and remote care models.
Forward-looking
organizations are finding the solution in edge computing – a technology architecture that
places computing power close to the users and devices that need it—and where
critical data is generated and used. Well established in younger, data-centric
industries, edge computing is just beginning to make waves in the healthcare
sector.
Medical
use cases for the edge
So
how will edge computing help drive digital transformation in healthcare? While
data centers and the cloud will continue to play a role, there are some
compelling use cases for edge computing.
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Enjoy!
David.