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/epic-virtual-care-solution-delivers-strong-patient-experience-integration
Epic Virtual Care Solution Delivers Strong Patient Experience, Integration
Epic
customers said a unified system where patients can access their EHR data and
receive virtual care has enhanced the patient experience.
By Hannah Nelson
June 17, 2022
- Of the fully rated EHR-centric virtual care solutions, Epic’s received
the highest overall customer ratings due to the platform’s ability to support a
strong patient experience, according to a KLAS
report.
Epic
customers noted improvements in patient usability now that they can access Epic
Telehealth through a web browser rather than a specific app.
Multiple
customers also pointed to the “deep integration” benefits of the Epic platform.
Respondents said having a unified system that allows patients to schedule
appointments, access records, and see their doctor virtually gives patients
more power and confidence in the health IT, leading to higher adoption.
Healthcare
organizations said this increased adoption has enabled them to treat patients
who wouldn’t otherwise have received needed care.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/06/what-can-lesser-digitised-trusts-learn-from-recent-epr-deployments/
What can lesser-digitised trusts learn from recent EPR deployments?
Recent electronic patient record (EPR) targets have shown
more of a focus on the less digitally mature NHS trusts. In light of this, Dr
Anna Bayes, international medical director at Altera Digital Health explores
what the lesser-digitised trusts can learn from recent EPR deployments.
DHI News Team
– 16 Jun 2022
The recent
segmentation of trusts as part of NHS England’s Frontline Digitisation
Programme shows the relative stage that health providers across the country are
at on their journey towards being paper-free at the point of care using digital
technology. Whilst only an indicator, the various digital maturity groups
highlight trusts that are excelling in digitisation and help stratify those at
other stages of their digital maturity. For those procuring or in the early
stages of deploying an EPR, this benchmarked data will help ensure their
leaders have evidence to support investment decisions.
The need
for digital transformation
Historically,
digital transformation in the NHS has taken longer than any of the stakeholders
would have hoped. Designing, configuring, and implementing a clinical system to
optimise clinical workflows for multiple professionals and specialties across a
busy acute hospital whilst maintaining 24/7 care was never going to be
straightforward. Engaging future users in this work is essential in ensuring
buy-in for changes in processes and sustained adoption of new systems. Having
the programme led by clinical and operations teams with significant buy in is
crucial. Even after initial deployment, the work is not complete; the
journey to full digital transformation is just beginning. The ongoing need for
training, and tweaks to configuration and optimisation, requires sustained
effort and clinical leadership.
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https://www.digitalhealth.net/2022/06/new-government-data-strategy-launched/
Government publishes final data strategy for healthcare
A new
strategy has been launched by the government to drive transformation in health
and care by reshaping the way data is used.
Jordon Sollof
13 Jun 2022
The strategy,
titled ‘Data Saves Lives: Reshaping Health and Social Care with Data’,
was originally published in draft form in June 2021 and a year later, the full document
has been published on 13 June 2022. The strategy focuses on seven principles to
harness the data driven power and innovation seen during the pandemic to drive
transformation.
The seven
principles set out are:
·
Improving trust in the health and care systems’
use of data
·
Giving health and care professionals the
information they need to provide the best care
·
Improving data for adult social care
·
Supporting local decision makers with data
·
Empowering researchers with the data they need
to develop life changing treatments and diagnostics
·
Working with partners to develop innovations
that improve health and care
·
Developing the right technical infrastructure
Health
Secretary to introduce the strategy
The Secretary
of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid will launch the strategy at
London Tech Week’s HealthTech Summit.
He is
expected to say: “We will improve trust in data, which is the currency that
data-driven technologies need to function.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-technology-can-help-providers-fight-back-against-opioid-epidemic
How technology can help providers fight back against the opioid epidemic
A
pharmacotherapy expert walks readers through the ways different forms of heath
IT can help detect and track prescription drug abuse – and prevent it.
By Bill Siwicki
June 17, 2022
11:15 AM
Healthcare
information technology has opened new doors to understanding opioid addiction,
but there still are areas where data and innovation can help medical
professionals better handle this crisis, contends Reema Hammoud, PharmD,
assistant vice president of clinical pharmacy at Sedgwick, a vendor of
technology-enabled risk, benefits and integrated business systems.
The COVID-19
pandemic is a major health crisis that has taken center stage, but the
still-rising opioid crisis is a large-scale epidemic that cannot be overlooked.
It is a crisis in desperate need of innovative solutions, and certainly
technology can be one sector that provides them.
Healthcare
IT News interviewed Hammoud to discuss the opioid crisis and
IT, specifically, metrics to track potential abuse and abuse mitigation
strategies providers can pursue, and the best ways to proceed and how health IT
can help when there is no one-size-fits-all approach for pain management or
addressing substance use disorder.
Q. You
say there are metrics healthcare professionals can use to track potential
abuse. What are they, where can they be obtained and what role can health
IT play here?
A.
It's no surprise that drug abuse in the U.S. has skyrocketed in recent years.
In fact, the CDC recently released a report that found overdoses
involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surpassed 71,000, which is up
23% from the previous year, as well as a 23% increase in deaths involving
cocaine and a 34% increase in deaths involving methamphetamines and other
stimulants.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/epic-will-sign-tefca
Epic will sign on with TEFCA
The EHR giant
says its 2,000 hospitals and 45,000 clinics will now have the ability to
participate in the nationwide interoperability framework developed by ONC and
The Sequoia Project.
By Mike Miliard
June 17, 2022
10:32 AM
On
Thursday Epic announced that it will join the Trusted Exchange Framework and
Common Agreement, and that when the application process opens later this
year it will apply to connect to TEFCA as an inaugural Qualified Health
Information Network.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The Verona, Wisconsin-based health IT colossus says joining the new information
exchange network will enable its vast cross-section of provider customers to
broaden and streamline interoperability nationwide, helping "ensure that
all people benefit from complete, longitudinal health records wherever they
receive care."
Epic
says it worked with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, along
with TEFCA's recognized coordinating entity, the Sequoia Project, on the
project, and plans to collaborate with the other healthcare organizations
around the country to "build consensus around the principles and
procedures of TEFCA."
The
company's data exchange footprint across its own provider base today is large,
with customers in its Care Everywhere network exchanging more than 10 million
patient charts every day – half of them with organizations that use different
IT systems, according to Epic. The majority of these provider clients also
share data through the Carequality framework, which includes about 70% of U.S.
hospitals.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/study-proves-value-telehealth-addressing-rural-health-disparities
Study Proves Value of Telehealth in Addressing Rural Health Disparities
Analysis
| By Eric Wicklund |
June 17, 2022
A three-year
study in rural Alaska has shown that a telehealth program can help children
access specialist services for hearing issues much better than the traditional
in-person referral process.
A telehealth
program in Alaska that enabled rural children to access hearing specialists is
proof that the platform can reduce rural disparities in access to care,
according to supporters.
The Hearing
Norton Sound study, conducted in 15 rural Alaskan communities from 2017-20,
allowed children to connect with specialists for diagnosis and treatment of
hearing problems. Roughly 1,500 children in the Bering Strait School District
in the northwest part of the state participated in the study, and those using
telehealth were treated to follow-up care 17.6% faster than those receiving
standard primary care referrals.
“This trial
has notable broad public health implications,” Susan
D. Emmett, MD, MPH, director of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Center for
Hearing Health Equity, which conducted the study, said in a press release. “While we focused on school
hearing screening, the model of specialty telemedicine referral is applicable
to other preventable health conditions. Importantly, this novel telemedicine
model promotes early access to specialists in an effort to decrease health
disparities.”
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/apis-need-to-enhance-clinical-workflows-improve-patient-care
APIs Need to Enhance Clinical Workflows, Improve Patient Care
To
motivate patient and provider adoption, API-enabled apps should focus on
improving clinical workflows and advancing patient care.
By Sarai Rodriguez
June 15, 2022
- Healthcare providers and patients are seeking APIs and apps that can
improve clinical workflows and enhance patient care processes, according to the
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) App Developer and
Data Integrator Perspectives on APIs report.
“Together
with the ONC Cures Act Final Rule and CMS Promoting Interoperability Programs,
health IT developers are encouraged to support a more interoperable health IT
ecosystem,” ONC officials Mera Choi, Stephanie Garcia, Chelsea Richwine,
Christian Johnson, and Brittney Boakye wrote in a HealthITBuzz blog.
“As a result,
we see a growing number of third-party app developers emerging in the
marketplace to create health apps that gather and exchange data from electronic
health records (EHRs), devices, and related systems,” the ONC officials
continued.
Even though
the use of proprietary APIs, standardized APIs (such as FHIR and FHIR Bulk Data
Access APIs), and apps by patients and providers is limited, there is an
evolving landscape with steady progress towards greater adoption and use of
APIs and apps.
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/report-third-top-hospitals-websites-collecting-patient-data-facebook
Report: Third of top hospitals' websites collecting patient data for
Facebook
By Dave Muoio
Jun 17, 2022
05:35am
Facebook
has been collecting potentially sensitive health data through a tracker that,
until recently, was included in the online scheduling tools of roughly a third
of the country’s top hospitals, according to a
new report from nonprofit investigative newsroom The Markup.
Called
the Meta Pixel, the tracker is an analytics tool Facebook’s parent company
offers website owners. In exchange for social media advertising information, the
tracker sends the tech company data on users’ IP addresses and webpage
activity.
The
Markup reviewed the appointment scheduling webpages of 100 leading hospitals
and found the Meta Pixel on 33, according to the report. These hospitals
collectively saw over 26 million patient admissions and outpatient visits in
2020, per American Hospital Association survey data cited by the publication.
The
group also found the tracker within the password-protected patient portals of
seven major health systems, five of which they were able to document sending
the personal data of real volunteer patients.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ponemon-institute-just-16-enterprises-have-mature-iam-programs
Ponemon Institute: Just 16% of enterprises have mature IAM programs
That should
be a "wake-up call to C-level executives," says an exec from Saviynt,
which sponsored the survey, since it "fuels the risk of rising identity
and access-related attacks and their financial consequences."
By Mike Miliard
June 16, 2022
09:15 AM
More
than half (56%) of respondents to a recent Ponemon Institute survey reported an
average of three identity-related data breaches over the past two years. That
could be because so few organizations in healthcare and elsewhere are
adequately investing in identity and access management technologies, the report
suggests.
WHY IT
MATTERS
The report shows just 16% of respondents having a fully mature IAM plan in
place, according to Saviynt, which develops identity governance tools and
sponsored the survey. That's defined, the company says, as an organization
having fully operational IAM programs with skilled workers and C-level and
board executive awareness.
The
other 84%? They're "currently dealing with inadequate budgets, programs
stuck in a planning phase and lack of senior-level awareness," according
to Saviynt.
Of
those poll respondents who'd expired identity and access-related cyberattacks,
52% indicated that the breach was due to lack of comprehensive identity
controls or policies.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/among-clinicians-perceptions-telehealth-affect-remote-care-utilization-rates
Among Clinicians, Perceptions of Telehealth Affect Remote Care Utilization
Rates
Analysis
| By Christopher
Cheney | June 16, 2022
A new
study compared the telehealth perceptions of mental health, primary care, and
specialty care clinicians, as well as use of video versus phone telehealth.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
Mental health clinicians gave video care the
highest rating, and they had a greater preference for treating new and
established patients remotely with video.
·
Primary care and specialty care clinicians had a
greater likelihood of rating the quality of phone care as at least equivalent
to video care for new and established patients.
·
Perceptions of telehealth vary between mental
health (MH), primary care (PC), and specialty care (SC) clinicians, with an
impact on remote care utilization rates, a new research article says.
Utilization
of video and phone telehealth has expanded exponentially during the coronavirus
pandemic as a way to limit patient and staff exposure to infection. Clinician
perceptions about telehealth may affect utilization—a survey conducted early in the pandemic found Veterans
Health Administration PC and SC clinicians were more likely to prefer phone
over video care but MH clinicians were inclined to prefer video care.
The new
research article, which was published by JAMA Network Open, features survey
data collected from more than 800 clinicians in the Department of Veterans Affairs
New England Healthcare System, which serves about 260,000 veterans annually.
The survey was conducted from August to September 2021.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/technology-optimizes-transfers-lower-higher-acuity-care
Technology Optimizes Transfers from Lower to Higher Acuity Care
Analysis
| By Scott Mace |
June 15, 2022
A
statewide program launched in Arizona during the pandemic allowed hospitals to
manage their capacity and track bed use, ensuring that transfers were handled
expediently and no hospital 'ran out of space.'
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
During the height of the pandemic, many hospitals
across the country struggled to track bed use and transfers so that they always
had room available for new patients.
·
In Arizona, a statewide project used a new
technology platform to manage transfers and bed use, ensuring that patients
were housed in the right place and that hospitals weren't running out of
available beds.
·
These types of platforms will become more
commonplace as health systems look to technology to close gaps in care and
better manage their operations.
The pandemic
may have highlighted the shortcomings of the nation's healthcare system in
shifting resources and patients to optimize care, but it also spurred the
development of new technology and strategies to solve those problems. Health
systems are now embracing new platforms that reduce silos and improve both care
coordination and management.
HealthLeaders
recently sat down to talk to Darin
Vercillo, MD, a practicing board-certified hospitalist at Davis Hospital and
Medical Center (owned by Steward Health Care) in Layton, Utah, and the
medical director of the hospitalist division of the Physician Group of Utah.
He's also co-founder and chief medical officer of ABOUT Healthcare, a digital
health company that partnered with the state of Arizona during the pandemic to
improve surge capacity and bed management throughout the state.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/payer/5-takeaways-onc-sdoh-learning-forum-0
5 Takeaways from the ONC SDOH Learning Forum
Analysis
| By Laura Beerman |
June 16, 2022
The
agency's latest information exchange series addressed SDOH technical
infrastructure and interoperability.
KEY
TAKEAWAYS
·
The ONC hosted the latest webinar from its SDOH
Information Exchange Learning Forum.
·
The June event featured SDOH Technical
Infrastructure and Interoperability.
·
Highlights include SDOH data standard
advancements, medical-social fragmentation and how strategic interoperability
can help, and presentations by three groups working in this space.
The website
for the learning forum from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology (ONC) features its past and future events, including the most
recent on Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Technical Infrastructure
and Interoperability. The following are five takeaways from that webinar.
- The ONC forum spans five topics relevant to payers and all
healthcare stakeholders
From the ONC website, the topics include:
- Governance
- Technical infrastructure
- Interoperability
- Financing
- Policy considerations
The ONC has
provided a primer summarizing this scope.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/latest-healthcare-innovation-tiny-robots
The Latest in Healthcare Innovation? Tiny Robots
Analysis
| By Eric Wicklund |
June 16, 2022
Nanotechnology
is moving from fiction to reality, with at least two universities studying the
use of miniature robots inside the body to treat diseases and address other
health concerns.
Fans of
Fantastic Voyage take heart: The innovative nanotechnology featured in the 1966
movie about miniaturized doctors entering a human body may actually be coming
true—sort of.
Researchers
at both Stanford University and Purdue University have recently published
studies on the use of miniaturized robots inserted into the body to treat
certain health concerns. The robots could be used to delivered timed doses of
medicine, chart the course of a tumor or disease, or even remove obstructions
such as blood clots.
While
nanotechnology has long been a popular topic in fiction, from Michael
Crichton's 2003 novel Prey to the most recent James Bond movie No Time to Die,
it's starting to show up in the real world. Several programs over the past few
years have focused on the development of pills
fitted with digital health sensors that are ingested and used to deliver
timed doses of medicine and/or track vital signs and medication results, though
the digital health company best known for developing that technology, Proteus,
filed for bankruptcy in 2020.
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https://patientengagementhit.com/news/is-text-messaging-the-best-patient-outreach-tool-for-covid-19-vaccines
Is Text Messaging the Best Patient Outreach Tool for COVID-19 Vaccines?
Researchers
found that text messages were just as effective as phone calls, with both
COVID-19 vaccine patient outreach strategies yielding the same response rate of
nearly 3 percent.
By Sarai Rodriguez
June 15, 2022
- Using text messaging for COVID-19 vaccine patient outreach was as
effective as direct phone calls in getting patients to seek out the vaccine, according to new
research published in JAMA Network Open, but is likely the best option
considering the limited resources most organizations have.
Despite ample
public health efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates, uptake remains
sparse, especially for minorities.
As of April
5, 2022, only
57 percent of Black people across the country have received at least one shot,
according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Lower
vaccination rates in these minority populations scan further
disparities in COVID-19 outcomes, the researchers stated.
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https://ehrintelligence.com/news/oracles-cerner-acquisition-set-to-transform-ehr-usability
Oracle’s Cerner Acquisition Set to Transform EHR Usability
Oracle and
Cerner will modernize the Millennium EHR system through a voice-user interface
and integrated telehealth module.
By Hannah Nelson
June 15, 2022
- Oracle's acquisition of EHR vendor Cerner is set to transform EHR
usability through the development of a health management information system
with a voice-user interface, Larry Ellison, chairman and chief technology
officer of Oracle, said in a virtual event on Thursday.
"Cerner
and Oracle have all the technology required to build a revolutionary new health
management information system in the cloud," Ellison said. "That
system will deliver much better information to healthcare professionals."
Ellison noted
that today's health management systems are hospital-centric instead of
patient-centric.
"Every
hospital or hospital system buys its own and operates its own information
system," he said. "Your electronic health data is scattered across a
dozen or two dozen separate databases, one for every provider you've ever
visited."
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https://healthitsecurity.com/news/cybersecurity-professionals-identify-top-cloud-computing-security-risks
Cybersecurity Professionals Identify Top Cloud Computing Security Risks
The Cloud
Security Alliance (CSA) released a report outlining the top cloud computing
security risks that cybersecurity experts frequently encounter.
By Jill McKeon
June 15, 2022 - The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) released this year’s “Top
Threats to Cloud Computing” report, outlining the most prevalent security
concerns that trouble cybersecurity experts today. Researchers observed an
apparent shift in perceptions of cloud security responsibilities from the cloud
service provider (CSP) to the cloud adopter.
Some of the most traditional cloud security concerns, such as
denial-of-service, CSP data loss, and shared technology vulnerabilities, were
rated significantly lower than in years past.
“New, highly rated items in the survey point to cloud adopters as
the weak links,” the report noted.
CSA found that many of the top concerns were “directly in the
user’s control: identity and access management, cryptography, configuration
management, poor coding practices and ignoring cloud direction.”
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https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/despite-oracles-lofty-vision-healthcare-industry-long-distance-away-unified-health
Health IT execs skeptical of Oracle's lofty vision to build national
medical records system
By Heather Landi
Jun 14, 2022
09:30pm
A
unified digital health record system for American patients has long been
considered the "holy grail" for the healthcare industry. And, like
the medieval legend, it's been a quest embarked on by countless health IT
leaders and industry groups over decades.
Oracle
Chairman Larry Ellison's vision to use the power of Cerner to build a national
health records database is a lofty ambition, and it's an aspiration that will
take an unprecedented level of collaboration to execute, health IT execs
told Fierce Healthcare.
Ellison's
announcement
last week, on the heels of its $28 billion deal to pick up the electronic
health record company, was met by a healthy dose of skepticism by
interoperability experts who have been striving for years to build technical
"roadways" to make it easier to access and share health data.
"The
concept is not new, and the barriers still remain," Patrick Murta, a
health IT leader and chief platform architect at digital health company BehaVR,
told Fierce Healthcare. "Saying that you're going to build a national
database and bringing that to fruition is a different story. This particular
model is going to face the same barriers that have been there for many years
and there's no easy path to overcome those barriers quickly."
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/himss22-europe-digitalisation-must-address-health-inequalities-not-cause-them
HIMSS22 Europe: ‘Digitalisation must address health inequalities – not
cause them’
A panel of
experts gathered at #HIMSS22Europe to discuss how to build stronger, more
sustainable, and equitable healthcare systems post-COVID.
By Tammy Lovell
June 15, 2022
10:45 AM
There
was a sense of hope, combined with an awareness of the challenges ahead, as
global health experts convened to discuss the topic of ‘Humanity's Moment for
Reimagining Health and Care’ in the keynote session at HIMSS22 European Conference today in Helsinki (15
June).
The
speakers were: Adam Niedzielski, Minister of Health, Poland; Elad Benjamin,
business leader, clinical data services, Philips, Israel; Maria Hassel, senior
advisor and international coordinator, Swedish eHealth Agency; Laura
Létourneau, co-head of digital health ministerial delegation, French Ministry
of Solidarity and Health; Aki Lindén, Minister of Family Affairs and Social
Services, Finland; Simon Bolton, chief executive, NHS Digital, UK; Isabelle
Kumar, former Euronews anchor, disability rights campaigner, president of
Autisme, Ambition, Avenir, France; Dr Ilona Lundström, director general,
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Finland; Hal Wolf, president and
chief executive officer (CEO), HIMSS, US; Marco Foracchia, chief information
officer (CIO) Azienda USL di Reggio Emilia, Italy
“Fundamentally
there is now an opportunity for Europe in particular to accelerate digital
transformation,” said HIMSS president and CEO, Hal Wolf, opening the session. “There
is a spirit of innovation, creativity and the opportunity to re-imagine what we
do, fundamentally born out of the COVID-19 crisis.”
Reimagining
health and care
Dr
Ilona Lundström, director general, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment,
said it was “time for collaboration” as she welcomed delegates to the
conference on behalf of the Finnish government.
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/europe-s-medicines-watchdog-publishes-new-report-identifying-covid-19-lessons-learned
Europe’s medicines watchdog publishes new report identifying COVID-19
lessons learned
The European
Medicines Agency’s annual report looks back on painpoints and progress in 2021.
June 15, 2022
01:35 AM
The
report described the continued approval of vaccines to combat COVID-19, the
strengthening of cyber-capabilities in the wake of a 2020 attack, and the extension
of the agency’s mandate.
WHY IT
MATTERS
In
2021, the European Commission, Parliament and Council gave the EMA greater
tools enabling it to both support innovation and respond to emergencies, in an
acknowledgement of the agency’s vital role in tackling the pandemic.
The
EMA approved five treatments and four new vaccines against COVID-19. It also
passed regulation on medical devices—a year later than planned because of the
pandemic—and took steps towards developing an information network designed to generate
data about health patterns across the continent, called the Data Analysis and
Real World Interrogation Network (DARWIN EU).
But
2021 was a challenging year for Europe’s medical regulator. A lessons-learned
exercise on its response to COVID-19 said that the EMA needed to improve
collection and coordination of health data, and enhance data analytics so as to
build public trust in vaccines and other medicines, among other findings.
-----
https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/06/15/top-healthcare-it-priorities-implementing-zero-trust-ensuring-file-transfers-are-secure-and-of-course-hipaa/
Top Healthcare IT Priorities: Implementing Zero Trust, Ensuring File
Transfers are Secure, and of Course HIPAA!
June 15, 2022
The
following is a guest article by Richard Barretto, Chief Information Security
Officer Progress.
Files
and Documents are a cybercriminal gold mine.
neglect
their most vital assets: files, documents, and records. Securing the data held
within these files is the most critical hurdle, especially since these files
move around like a college kid on holiday in Europe.
These
files are where most Protected Health Information (PHI) is contained, and if
not fully protected not only exposes this sensitive data and harms the
individual, it opens your organization up to expensive and embarrassing HIPAA
fines and actions. This data MUST be protected and SHOULD be encrypted at rest
AND in transit.
Healthcare
Breaches Cost More Than Just Fines
Healthcare
breaches, at $9.23 million per incident, are the most expensive of any
industry, according to a IBM/Ponemon analysis reported in a Beckers
Hospital Review blog. Meanwhile, “Nearly half (44 percent) of the
breaches analyzed in the report exposed customer personal data, including
healthcare information, names, emails and passwords,” IBM found.
Here
are some examples of sensitive health data that must be protected:
- Patient appointment reminders
- Medical reports
- Big data e.g. medical images
- Billing and payment data
- Regulatory compliance reports
- Compliance reports
- Claims submissions
-----
https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/technology/hhs-issues-guidelines-audio-only-telehealth-use
HHS Issues Guidelines on Audio-Only Telehealth Use
Analysis
| By Eric Wicklund |
June 14, 2022
The Health
and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights has released guidelines
on how healthcare providers can use audio-only telehealth platforms, including
the phone, that meet requirements set forth by the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act.
Federal
officials are cracking down on healthcare organizations using audio-only
telehealth platforms – such as the telephone – to deliver healthcare services.
The Health
and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has released guidance on how providers can use "remote
communication technologies to provide audio-only telehealth services"
without running afoul of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA),
which focuses on how sensitive health information is disclosed over various
communications channels.
“Audio
telehealth is an important tool to reach patients in rural communities,
individuals with disabilities, and others seeking the convenience of remote options,"
OCR Director Lisa J. Pino said in a press release. "This guidance explains
how the HIPAA Rules permit health care providers and plans to offer audio
telehealth while protecting the privacy and security of individuals’ health
information.”
-----
https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/hhs-hipaa-compliant-audio-telehealth-guidance/
HHS offers guidance for HIPAA-compliant audio telehealth
June 13, 2022
By Jim
Hammerand
The HIPAA
Security Rule does not apply to audio-only telehealth services provided via
landline, but does apply to calls over cellular and internet connections.
(Imagy by Frederik Lipfert on Unsplash)
The
Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
today issued
guidance on providing audio-only telehealth services in compliance with the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
“Audio
telehealth is an important tool to reach patients in rural communities,
individuals with disabilities, and others seeking the convenience of remote
options,” Office for Civil Rights Director Lisa Pino said in a news
release. “This guidance explains how the HIPAA rules permit health care
providers and plans to offer audio telehealth while protecting the privacy and
security of individuals’ health information.”
HHS
said the guidance is meant to ensure patients benefit from audio-only
telehealth by clarifying for providers how covered entities can provide
telehealth services, as well as by improving public confidence that providers
are maintaining patient privacy and health information security.
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https://enterprisetalk.com/featured/unlocking-flexibility-in-cloud-data-governance/
Unlocking Flexibility in Cloud Data Governance
By Prangya Pandab
June 8, 2022
A
data governance strategy allows an organization to gain greater trust and
loyalty from current and future customers and provide flexibility in the cloud.
Storing
company data in the cloud can be empowering, and it also allows businesses to
pivot rapidly and be proactive while non-cloud enterprises must zigzag. A clear
data governance strategy – data management best practices for stewardship and
quality – is essential. A data governance policy can help the company earn more
trust and loyalty from existing and future consumers while also providing the
company with more flexibility in the cloud.
Here are a few significant data
governance considerations and benefits.
All
of the Data in One Place
A
cloud-based database can be highly flexible, but only if organizations don’t
develop small, segregated databases that neither IT nor marketing are aware of.
Organizations often shift data to other cloud environments for reporting and
analysis using various tools. Since all data is kept in the same cloud
environment, the business can save money on licensing fees and time training
the workforce.
Not
to add, having all of the data in one location makes it easy for team members
to find the right information to use when tailoring customer experiences, which
the consumers will appreciate.
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https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/challenges-telemental-health-and-how-they-can-be-improved
The challenges of telemental health, and how they can be overcome
Mental
healthcare may be among the more intuitive specialties to deliver via
telemedicine – but privacy demands, technology difficulties and the need for
safe places deter some from taking advantage.
Bill Siwicki
June 14, 2022
Of
all the medical specialties impacted by telemedicine during the course of the
pandemic, perhaps the one with the most wholesale and lasting effects is
behavioral and mental health.
Mental
health appointments do not typically involve any collection of vitals or
specimens, nor do they absolutely require a face-to-face meeting, although
therapists can observe physical cues from the whole body in person. Just
talking via video, or even just audio, is enough.
We
talked with Dr. Janice Johnston, chief medical officer and cofounder
of Redirect Health, a telehealth technology and services company, to get
her expert observations regarding:
- The biggest ways telehealth is
changing America's treatment of mental health.
- What impact increased telehealth
accessibility has had on mental health treatment.
- The challenges telehealth presents
in treating mental health.
- The improvements that can be made to
telehealth for the treatment of mental health.
Q.
What are the biggest ways telehealth is changing the U.S.'s treatment of mental
health issues?
A.
Before COVID-19 and historically in the U.S., there has been a negative stigma
around receiving mental healthcare. While there have been a lot of movements
and campaigns attempting to try and stamp out the stigma, many people have been
deterred from seeking professional help due to a lack of coverage in healthcare
plans, high copays and fear.
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https://www.healthcareittoday.com/2022/06/14/digital-transformation-in-healthcare-begins-with-tackling-legacy/
Digital Transformation in Healthcare Begins with Tackling Legacy
June 14, 2022
Colin Hung
The
first step towards a digital transformation isn’t to adopt new technology. To
truly transform, healthcare organizations need to first deal with legacy
thinking, legacy culture, and legacy processes that surround legacy technology.
Get that right and the road to transformation becomes faster and smoother.
Healthcare
IT Today recently had the opportunity to discuss the topic of
legacy in healthcare organizations with Lisa Esch, Chief of Strategy,
Innovation and Provider Industry Solutions at NTT DATA
Services.
Legacy
is more than technology
Right
off the bat, Esch expanded what the term legacy really means: “When we think about
healthcare and just even the business of healthcare, there is a lot of legacy
there. There’s tradition, there’s legacy systems, and there’s processes. Legacy
is more than just IT systems. It’s the people. It’s the culture.”
Consider,
for example, the process around assessing the cybersecurity risk of vendors.
When Ransomware was only something out of a Hollywood movie script, healthcare
organizations would occasionally do an assessment, usually when a contract was
about to expire. That approach clearly needs to change given the cyber reality
of today’s operating environment.
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https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/consortium-unveils-guidelines-using-digital-twin-technology
Consortium Unveils Guidelines for Using Digital Twin Technology
Analysis | By
Eric Wicklund |
June 10, 2022
The
Digital Twin Consortium has created a framework for the use of digital twin
technology, which is just now being adopted in healthcare to help providers
improve care management.
The Digital Twin
Consortium has unveiled a document designed to help healthcare
organizations using the innovative digital health platform to improve clinical
care.
Reality
Capture: A Digital Twin Foundation lays out the groundwork for using the
technology, which essentially uses sensors and AI to create a digital twin of
an object, room, building or landscape, for use in planning and design. In
healthcare, the strategy focuses on developing a digital twin of a patient,
which can then be used to test the effectiveness of treatments before they're
tried on the patient.
“Reality
capture technologies play an important role in providing context and, depending
on the scenario, delivering real, on-time decision support for situational
awareness," Dan Isaacs, chief technical officer of the Boston-based
organization, said in a press release. "This in turn enriches digital twin
predictive accuracy and outcomes. Situational awareness serves to augment event
intelligence for timely, high confidence, data driven, and evidence-based
decision making."
-----
https://siliconangle.com/2022/06/08/manage-artificial-intelligence-risk-security-focus-five-priorities/
How to manage artificial intelligence risk and security: Focus on five
priorities
GUEST COLUMN
by Avivah Litan
In most
organizations, artificial
intelligence models are “black boxes,” where only data scientists
understand what exactly AI does. That can create significant risk for
organizations.
Large,
sensitive datasets are often used to train AI models, creating privacy and data
breach risks. The use of AI increases an organization’s threat vectors and
broadens its attack surface. AI further creates new opportunities for benign
mistakes that adversely affect model and business outcomes.
Risks that
are not understood cannot be mitigated. A recent Gartner survey of chief
information security officers reveals that most organizations have not
considered the new security and business risks posed by AI or the new controls
they must institute to mitigate those risks. AI demands new types of risk and
security management measures and a framework for mitigation.
Here are the
top five priorities that security
and risk leaders should focus on to effectively manage AI risk and security
within their organizations:
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https://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=rca&sub=SIIM_2022&pag=dis&itemid=136108
SIIM: AI can help simplify radiology reports for patients
By Amerigo
Allegretto, AuntMinnie.com staff writer
June 11, 2022
KISSIMMEE, FL - Artificial intelligence (AI) can help
simplify medical language for patients undergoing chest CT imaging, a presenter
explained on June 10 at the Society for Imaging Informatics (SIIM) annual
meeting.
In
his talk, Pratheek Bobba from Yale University presented a proof of concept
showing how publicly available AI algorithms shaped to parameters set by
researchers help eliminate medical jargon in radiology reports and in turn,
could help patients adhere to health guidelines more.
"We
think that patients who can wrap their minds around radiology findings are more
likely to be better engaged and have better clinical outcomes," Bobba
said.
While
radiology reports contain vital health information for patients, verbiage used
in reports equate to college-level language. The resulting confusion can lead
to patients not adhering to report recommendations, leading to costly,
avoidable follow-up visits.
A
2020 study found that lung cancer screening adherence is at about
55% and called for interventions toward patients with lower education
levels.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/industry-voices-why-industry-needs-solidify-definition-digital-therapeutic
Industry Voices—Why the industry needs to solidify the definition of
'digital therapeutic'
By Daniel Knecht
Jun 13, 2022 02:01pm
Digital
therapeutics are here to stay. The promise of improved access to care and novel
treatments for conditions with high unmet needs will likely allow this
treatment category to flourish, despite some of the challenges and complexities
they present.
One
of the first complexities is defining digital therapeutics. How are they
different from your average wellness app? To start, the sheer number of
available assets is notable. While there are over 350,000 digital health apps
currently available, there are currently only 48 commercially available digital
therapeutics.
Digital
therapeutics must provide a form of clinical intervention, from improving a
health function to managing a disease, and include both prescription and
over-the-counter solutions. Digital health is a much broader category and spans
a wide range of uses, from applications in general wellness to applications as
a medical device.
Types of digital therapeutics
These
novel treatment options represent a diverse landscape of evidence-based digital
interventions that can prevent, manage or treat a broad spectrum of physical,
mental and behavioral conditions. They are designed to help treat disease by
either complementing or replacing other therapies (i.e., pharmacological) and
may employ strategies rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy.
-----
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/oracle-cerner-plan-build-national-medical-records-database-ellison-pitches-bold-vision
Oracle, Cerner plan to build national medical records database as Larry
Ellison pitches bold vision for healthcare
By Heather Landi
Jun 10, 2022 08:22pm
Oracle's
chairman Larry Ellison outlined a bold vision Thursday for the database giant
to use the combined tech power of Oracle and Cerner to make access to medical
records more seamless.
Days
after closing
its $28.3 billion acquisition of electronic health record company Cerner,
Ellison said Oracle plans to build a national health record database that would
pull data from thousands of hospital-centric EHRs.
In
a virtual briefing Thursday, Ellison highlighted many long-standing problems
with interoperability in healthcare. "Your electronic health data is
scattered across a dozen or separate databases. One for every provider
you've ever visited. This patient data fragmentation and EHR
fragmentation causes tremendous problems," he said.
"We're
going to solve this problem by putting a unified national health records
database on top of all of these thousands of separate hospital databases. So
we're building a system where the health records all American citizens' health
records not only exist at the hospital level but also are in a unified national
health records database."
-----
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/new-health-data-strategy-announced-england
New health data strategy announced for England
NHS will
establish TREs and give patients more control over their data.
By Tammy Lovell
June 13, 2022
11:08 AM
Patients
in England will have greater access to GP records through the NHS App and power
over how their data is used, following the launch of the new health in data
strategy.
Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data,
published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) today,
contains commitments to simplify the opt-out processes for data sharing and improve access
to GP records in the NHS App by November 2022.
Launching
the strategy at London Tech Week’s HealthTech Summit, health secretary Sajid
Javid announced that following a £200 million investment, trusted research
environments (TREs) – a form of secure data environments would be established
“to better enable researchers to securely access linked NHS data while
maintaining the highest levels of privacy and security.”
He
added that the public will be consulted on a new ‘data pact’, setting out how
the healthcare system will use patient data.
-----
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/telehealth-is-critical-to-our-healthier-future
Telehealth is critical to our healthier future
June 13, 2022
06:00 AM
By Sally Pipes
Earlier this month, a group of
17 House Republicans released several ideas for modernizing the healthcare
system, improving access to care, and lowering costs.
One
of the proposals — safeguarding expanded access to telehealth — could help
achieve all three of those goals. Lawmakers would do well to relax permanently
the telehealth restrictions that were temporarily waived during the pandemic.
Those waivers have eliminated onerous barriers to virtual care. For example,
Medicare beneficiaries no longer have to travel to a designated healthcare
facility just to connect with their physician online. Waivers have also allowed
patients in many states to schedule virtual appointments with doctors licensed
in other states.
As
a result, telemedicine has exploded. According to a recent report from Doximity, a social network for medical
professionals, nearly 70% of patients had at least one telehealth visit last
year — compared with just one-quarter of patients before the pandemic. But
future access to virtual care is far from guaranteed. Many pandemic-era
telehealth waivers could run out after the expiration of the federal public
health emergency, which could happen later this year.
It
would be a mistake to let virtual care flexibility lapse. Telehealth makes it
easier for patients — especially those in rural areas — to get care. In a recent survey from the American Medical Association, more
than 80% of physicians reported their patients had better access to care since
they began using telehealth.
-----
https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/medical-boards-get-guidance-setting-rules-telemedicine
Medical boards get guidance on setting rules for telemedicine
Contributing
News Writer
With the COVID-19 pandemic making telemedicine a household word,
the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) has updated its telemedicine policy (PDF) for the first time in nearly a decade. The policy tackles
areas such as licensure, standards of care and equitable access to
telemedicine.
Put
telehealth into practice
The AMA leads the charge to expand advocacy, research and
resources that keep physician and patient needs at the forefront of telehealth
delivery.
“What FSMB has tried to do here is strike that balance between
making sure we open up and create room for innovation for good telehealth and
try to discourage the massive growth of the things … that cause harm or that
exacerbate inequities,” said Jack Resneck Jr., MD, in an early June AMA webinar
on the future of telemedicine that was
recorded prior to his inauguration as AMA president at the 2022 AMA
Annual Meeting.
Supporting telehealth is a core element of the AMA Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians. You took care of the nation. It’s time for the nation to take
care of you. It’s time to rebuild. And the AMA is ready.
-----
Enjoy!
David.