< + > Walkable Neighborhoods Could Lower Cardiovascular Disease Risk

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death not only in the U.S. but also globally.

< + > Covid-19 Infection Linked With Poor Cardiovascular Outcomes And Death

This study is the latest in a rapidly growing body of research demonstrating that Covid-19 infection impacts our health well beyond the acute stage of the illness.

< + > ONC launches SDOH interoperability pilot

In the new peer-to-peer learning forum, participating organizations will test using FHIR standards to exchange information about social determinants of health in primary care

< + > Telehealth summit debrief: staffing shortages, wider acceptance but expansion barriers

Doug Duskin, CEO of Avel eCare, offers a look at the learnings that came out of his company's first annual conference.

< + > Who Will Benefit From New Wireless Internet Bandwidth?

When WiFi was first launched in the 1990s (based on the growing set of IEEE 802.11 standards, for those who care about provenance), it had a small range at the 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) radio frequency. In 1999, a more capable range at 5GHz range was added. And now 6GHz is just appearing on the market.

Radio waves are sort of all the same, no matter the space between their peaks. Therefore, the differences between 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz are a matter of quantity and the trade-offs they make. We shouldn’t expect a sudden new capability just because we’re in a new frequency band. On the other hand, the quantitative differences each new band brings can open up new possibilities for the institutions employing it.

I talked to Roger Sands, CEO and Co-Founder of Wyebot, about the capabilities of the new radio band and how it can benefit hospitals. We’ll start with some radio basics, then look at applications of the band to clinical institutions.

The technical reasons for advantages of 6 GHz

Radio waves make a trade-off: Higher-frequency waves carry more information but travel less far.

The higher waves have more information because the more vibrations they make per second, the more bits you can fit into one second (thinking digitally for a moment). It’s just like you can name twice as many people if you speak the names twice as fast. Think about an auctioneer’s pitch.

However, the rapid vibration of the frequencies uses up energy, so higher waves lose energy faster and don’t travel as far. (I am trying to use concrete language and simplify concepts here, so I offer apologies to electrical engineers and physicists among the readership.)

Higher waves also have trouble passing through walls or other barriers (even a steady rain).

Another aspect of radio we need to evaluate is the width of the band allocated to a service. In order to send an orderly set of waves that an antenna can pick up, and that won’t interfere with other transmissions, each transmission stays within a limited range of frequencies called either a band or a channel.

That’s why TV stations, even with cable TV, occupy numbered channels. In AM and FM radio, the numbers assigned (such as 100.1) correspond to actual measurements of the frequencies they occupy. The measurements are in kilohertz (KHz) for AM and megahertz (MHz) for FM.

The 5GHz WiFi band has more channels than the 2.4GHz band, partly because higher-frequency waves can convey the same operation in less space, and partly because of the width assigned by regulators (which means the FCC in the US). The 6GHz band has even more channels.

How wide is a channel? For the sake of analogy, on FM radio, a channel occupies 200KHz: That’s why the 100.1 channel and 100.3 channel (measured in MHz) can carry separate radio stations.

In the original 2.4GHz space, users had a choice of 20MHz or 40MHz channels. If you chose 40MHz, you got only half as many channels. And for practical reasons, most installations used a maximum of two channels.

With 5GHz, you could also have 80MHz channels. In the new 6GHz WiFi, you can go even bigger and choose 160MHz channels. Thus, if you have a device emitting lots of data (MRI images, perhaps) you can choose a wide channel.

A posting from Wyebot lists a lot of useful geeky specs about 6GHz WiFi. Because the range assigned to that band is large, it provides a lot of channels: 14 channels if you choose 80MHz or 7 channels if you choose 160MHz.

At the time I’m writing, only a few manufacturers make 6GHz access points (often called “hubs”). To use 6GHz, the devices at the other side of the communication also have to be upgraded. Therefore, Sands explained, there are three parallel evolutions going on: access points, devices, and the users upgrading their hospitals or other facilities. I’ll return to the question of adoption later.

Possibilities of 6GHz in hospitals

Just as when you expand your physical building, you have to think about how to divide up your bandwidth needs when you expand your WiFi capacity. Locating access points and choosing channels for WiFi is a little like spacing out walls when you architect a building. Who’s hogging space now? How many people are competing for space?

A lot of hospitals are OK without 6GHz. Each network administrator should monitor usage of their WiFi networks and see whether they tend to run out of capacity. (Parenthetically, that’s part of the service Wyebot offers.)

But bandwidth needs are on the rise. First, more and more devices are getting “smart” (Internet-connected). Carts and tablets are becoming Internet-enabled. Many patients now wear tracking devices. Children will be playing video games, and so on. The hospitals also have sensors for temperature, security, and other general purposes besides patient care.

Some devices also send a lot of data, such as the MRI images mentioned earlier.

By the way, RFID chips (which are popular for tracking items in hospitals) use different frequencies from WiFi.

Because 6GHz has trouble with walls and has a shorter reach, you will need more access points in order to be within the range of the devices. That limitation increases costs (including the cost of monitoring and administering access points). But it also means you can squeeze more devices into your facility, because you need to put fewer on an access point.

Hospitals are likely to adopt 6GHz gradually

Sands says that hospitals tend to upgrade each access point every 4 to 5 years. This is the time to re-evaluate requirements, including those for bandwidth.

Thus, he says, we should see a bit of early adoption in 2023. As more hospitals become familiar with 6GHz and replace more devices, he thinks 2024 will be the year when we can say that the band becomes mainstream.

In so many areas, quantitative change can lead to a qualitative one. Proponents for 6GHz WiFi think it will put us closer to having a fully connected hospital, unloading from staff some of the burdens of monitoring patients and their environments.

< + > Celebrating 100 Episodes of Healthcare IT Today – Healthcare IT Today Podcast Episode 100

For the 100th episode of the Healthcare IT Podcast, we are celebrating! Join us as we take a look back at the journey that brought us here. We’re discussing the big hits and lessons from the previous episodes. And then we look forward at what’s to come for us in the next 100 episodes.

Here’s a preview of the questions and topics we discuss in this episode:

• What stands out for you from the last 100 episodes?
• What were some of the big learnings from the 100 episodes?
• In these 100 episodes, what trend or announcement surprised you the most?
• What do you see coming in the next 100 episodes?

Now, without further ado, we’re excited to share with you the next episode of the Healthcare IT Today podcast.

We publish a new Healthcare IT Today podcast every ~2 weeks. Thanks to our friends at Healthcare Now Radio, you’ll be able to listen to the latest episodes of Healthcare IT Today on their radio station for the first two weeks. Then, we’ll be publishing each episode as a podcast and YouTube video here after it finishes on the radio.

You can also subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today podcast on any of the following platforms:

• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Stitcher Podcast Radio
• TuneIn
• Spotify
• iHeartRadio
• Pandora

Thanks for listening to Healthcare IT Today and if you enjoy the content we’re sharing, please rate the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform.

Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube.  Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on HealthcareITToday.com.

If you work in Healthcare IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with the perspectives we shared. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, with @Colin_Hung or @techguy on Twitter, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes.

Thanks so much for listening!

Listen to Our Latest Episodes:

< + > This Harvard Female Scientist Wants To Use Genetics To Reverse The Age Of Your Skin

She worked in top labs at Stanford and Harvard. Now she wants to disrupt a 100-Billion-Dollar market by rejuvenating your skin using genetic engineering.

< + > England’s Hospital Staff Battle Anxiety And Depression As Health Crises Continue

Experts have called for a fully-costed workforce plan as employees battle staff shortages.

< + > 1/3 Of Medicare Members Won’t Switch Plans, Despite Opportunities To Save, New Survey Shows

New research from eHealth shows that half of people on Medicare haven't reviewed their plan options during open enrollment and one-third say they don't plan to.

< + > Guests Trapped In Disney On Halloween As China Locks Down Theme Park Over Covid Scare

The Shanghai Disneyland lockdown comes as Foxconn workers reportedly fled restrictions at the firm’s large iPhone factory.

< + > Around 6% Of People Have Long Covid Symptoms Post Infection

Long Covid symptoms commonly include chronic fatigue, body pain, mood swings, cognitive problems or brain fog, and ongoing respiratory issues.

< + > New Zealand's national health plan seeks 'greater use' of digital tools

In the area of digital health, New Zealand aims to improve interoperability and digital access to primary care, among other planned actions.

< + > CDC: Flu Season Is Here Already With Over 6,900 Hospitalizations, 360 Deaths

The cumulative hospitalization rate for influenza this past week—the 42nd week of 2022—-has been higher than the rate for the 42nd week of any year since 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

< + > Health Misinformation Is A Pandemic, and Social Media Is Desperately Trying To Navigate it

Social media has enabled rapid access to information; but this also brings with it many challenges.

< + > FDA: Here’s Yet Another Blood Pressure Medication Recall For Cancer Concerns

This time the potential cancer-causing contaminant is Nitrosamine Drug Substance Related Impurity (NDSRI), N-Nitroso-Quinapril.

< + > Is New Senate GOP Covid-19 Pandemic Origin Report More About Politics Than Science?

The report from the office of Richard Burr (R-NC) claimed that "the COVID-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident." But what evidence did the report actually provide?

< + > People Prefer Familiarity Over The Excitement Of Novelty

In a recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that people prefer old and familiar activities over hedonic ones that are new and exciting.

< + > Salt, Fat And Sugar: How Americans Became Addicted To Eating

High-calorie foods look, feel and taste good because they tap into our carnal desires to seek pleasure. Like sex or drugs, it targets areas in our brain that keep us wanting more, even after our stomachs are full.

< + > USDA: Bob Evans Farms Recalling Over 7,500 Pounds Of Italian Pork Sausage

Here's how to check if your sausage may have been contaminated and is part of the recall.

< + > 35% Of Americans Deterred From Healthcare Without Price Information, New Survey Shows

In new survey data released from AI firm AKASA, one-third of Americans said uncertainty about healthcare prices would deter them from seeking care for themselves.

< + > Weekly Roundup – October 29, 2022

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

Doctors Love Alerts – Until They Don’t. The idea behind the alerts to help doctors get the information they need quickly to improve patient care. The problem is that EHR alerts are great until doctors stop looking at them – and with hundreds of alerts streaming into the average EHR every day, John Lynn said he’s worried the EHR may soon look like the email inbox with 10,000 unread messages. Read more…

Is Disruptive Innovation Really Such A Good Thing? It’s been 25 years since Clayton Christensen first described disruptive innovation. Anne Zieger reflected on the limitations of disruptive innovation in healthcare – namely, the long and slow path of wearable and telemedicine adoption despite years (if not decades) of hype – and called on innovators to instead focus on healthcare’s more pressing problems. Read more…

How Greenway Health’s EHR Addresses Health Equity. Colin Hung sat down with Greenway Health CMO Dr. Michael Blackman about new EHR features that capture and display health equity information at the point of care. The EHR can recommend food assistance programs if a patient lives in a food desert, for example, or suggest virtual visits if transportation to in-person appointments may be a barrier to care. Read more…

A Look at the Fall Health IT Conference Season. John and Colin have been out and about this conference season. With seven events down and five to go, John offered some perspective on which types of in-person conferences seem to still be attracting attendees – along with who is (and is not) showing up. Read more…

The Benefits of RCM as a Service. At the recent eClinicalWorks National Conference, John spoke to Todd Mallon of Advocare about the health system’s transition from in-house revenue cycle management to RCM as a service, due in part to staffing issues. They also talked about how capturing more revenue has helped the system in its efforts to expand. Read more…

The CIO’s Role in RCM. In the latest CIO Podcast, John spoke with Donald McGruder at South Shore Hospital Chicago about technology’s role in improving RCM, especially when it comes to process automation. McGruder also discussed the security challenges of a broader risk surface due to more remote work and more connected devices. Read more…

How CIOs Can Help with Clinician Retention. Colin shared insights from a eBook co-authored by CareAlign on helping clinical staff amid the one-two punch of the pandemic and the workforce shortage. The best thing CIOs can do is to keep simple tasks simple so staff have the cognitive load to focus on important clinical tasks. Read more…

Tech’s Role in Supporting the Physician Practice. With physician practices struggling amid the shift to digital health, can technology help practices make the transition to new care models? More than a dozen members of the Healthcare IT Today community offered their thoughts, with suggestions ranging from task automation to online scheduling to EHR optimization. Read more…

Twitter Roundup: Epic Delays, Value Based Care, and Amazon Drug Delivery. Every once in a while, Healthcare IT Today provides some commentary on interesting posts making the rounds on Twitter. John reacted to news about EHR implementation delays, a modest proposal for value-based care progress, and the impact of Blues plans using Amazon for drug delivery. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Hospital Network & Systems Engineer at Natividad, just east of Monterey Bay in California, posted to Healthcare IT Central.

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Behavioral health integration technology vendor NeuroFlow secured $25 million in growth capital.
• Specialty practice management software maker Nextech acquired TouchMD, which provides marketing and in-clinic engagement software for plastic surgery, dermatology, and ophthalmology practices.
• Practice management software vendor WELL Health acquired EMR and billing software from CloudMD, along with three primary care clinics in British Columbia.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.

< + > #COVIDIsAirborne #BringBackMasks Trend, Questioning CDC Director’s Tweet on Covid-19 Precautions

Folks on Twitter have wondered why the Biden Administration hasn't been emphasizing face mask wearing and air filtration/purification more.

< + > Real-Time Air Quality Data in Developing Countries Can Be Life Saving

Every year, over 4 million deaths are associated with high levels of air pollution — particularly in developing countries where there is a severe dearth of air quality data.

< + > Robert Malone’s New Claims About Seasonal Flu Vaccines, Manufacturing, And Markets

Robert Malone, MD, MSc, who’s made a lot of questionable Covid-19 vaccine claims during the pandemic, asserted that people are being coerced to get the annual flu vaccine in order to “maintain warm base manufacturing in case something like 1918 ever happens again.”

< + > Another Example Of A “Shkrelian” Drug Price Increase

Fortunately, Shkreli’s behaviors have not been mimicked – until now.

< + > Mayo Clinic working with Memora Health on virtual postpartum care

They're researching how AI-enabled messaging and text-based interventions can help maternal care teams support patients at home between visits.

< + > Good News And Bad News About The Ebola Epidemic In Uganda

The question now is whether interventions are in time to avert a large outbreak?

< + > Should You Keep RCM in House or Leverage RCM As a Service?

One of the hottest topics we hear talked about at Healthcare IT Today has to do with revenue cycle management (RCM).  COVID and other financial pressures have driven RCM to the top of many healthcare organization’s strategic priorities.  Most healthcare organizations operate on thin margins and so effective RCM is essential for them to continue their operations.

When talking about RCM, we often hear the discussion of whether RCM should be kept in house or whether you should work with a partner to receive RCM As a Service.  Like most questions in life, the answer to this question is that it depends.  Medical practices that have a great RCM leader that’s doing a great job making sure they’re paid every dollar they deserve are fine to do it in house.  However, what happens when that leader leaves?  What happens when your medical billing staff leave and you’re faced with the challenging task of replacing them?  What if your collections fall off over time?  The trend I see happening across the nation is the move to RCM As a Service because it’s really hard to do RCM in house effectively.  Plus, finding the right RCM staff makes this even harder.

At the eClinicalWorks National Conference, I had a chance to hear about RCM as a Service first hand from Todd Mallon, Chief Financial Officer at Advocare.  Mallon and his team at Advocare decided back in 2019 to use eCW’s RCM as a service.  We wanted to know what factors contributed to their decision to move from inhouse RCM to eCW’s RCM as a service and what has been their experience with it since going live 3 years ago.

When asked about the staffing impact, Mallon shared how the difficulty finding medical billing staff helped drive the decision to look outside their 4 walls for an RCM solution and how now his staff is largely monitoring reports and results as opposed to the detailed operations of billing.

The good news is that the benefits they have seen from working with eCW’s RCM service have been great.  Prior to embracing this service they’d been experiencing decreasing net collection ratio and since working with eCW’s team, they’ve been able to remedy that problem and achieve an excellent net collection ratio.  As Mellon says, it’s all about that net collection ratio.

Mallon also talked about Advocare’s efforts to grow nationwide and how ensuring that they are paid every dollar they deserve is important for them to be able to serve patients in their organization.  Check out our video interview with Todd Mallon from Advocare at the eCW National Conference to learn more about his experience moving to RCM As a Service.

Learn more about eClinicalWorks: https://www.eclinicalworks.com/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

And for an exclusive look at our top stories, subscribe to our newsletter.

Tell us what you think. Contact us here or on Twitter at @hcitoday. And if you’re interested in advertising with us, check out our various advertising packages and request our Media Kit.

eClinicalWorks is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > Indiana University building a medical device security lab with TriMedX

The goal is to help healthcare organizations "remediate vulnerabilities before equipment reaches the patient floor."

< + > NeuroFlow Closes $25M Growth Investment

Company secures growth capital to expand its footprint and accelerate integration between payers, providers, and referral partners to meet the growing demand for mental health care

NeuroFlow, the market leader in behavioral health integration technology, has secured $25 million in growth capital, led by SEMCAP Health.

With SEMCAP Health as a new strategic partner and investor, the company will continue to expand its groundbreaking referral network and deepen its relationships with payors and providers, determined to identify and triage individuals with behavioral health needs across the spectrum of care. Additionally, NeuroFlow will increase R&D investments to expand its technology platform, which alleviates pressure on providers caused by a growing number of behavioral health patients outstripping a finite supply of behavioral health resources — a longstanding issue made worse by the pandemic. The company will increase headcount across all departments to support rapid growth.

“NeuroFlow is different because we embrace collaboration with others in the space, like telehealth partners, to get people to the most efficient and effective care possible. Organizations, and people, need more than one approach. There is a significant supply and demand imbalance for behavioral health, and no efficient or scalable way to standardize the way people are identified, assessed, and referred. That’s why we exist,” explained NeuroFlow Chief Executive Officer, Chris Molaro. “Since we were founded in 2017 the world has changed so much. Our growth has been fueled by both behavioral health finally being acknowledged and prioritized as well as payors and providers moving closer to value-based care. This financing round was opportunistic for us with a lead investor that is aligned with our vision and experienced in healthcare. We have the strength and flexibility to continue serving our health system and payor partners regardless of whatever the market conditions may be quarter-to-quarter.”

In the past year, the company has doubled in size (full-time employees) and has seen considerable adoption in the market by both major health systems and payors, expanding its reach of lives supported from 2 million to 15 million in all 50 states. Last month, the company moved into a state-of-the-art 16,000-square foot office in downtown Philadelphia to support a staffing increase and encourage more collaboration with key partners.

“NeuroFlow is the definitive leader in behavioral health integration because its technology effectively connects mental and physical health and supports integrated care models at scale,” said Ralph Muller, Executive Chairman at SEMCAP Health. “The company’s thoughtful approach to patient experience, enterprise workflows, and clinical content is helping healthcare organizations do more with less — clinicians use technology to engage millions of in-need patients to improve outcomes and reduce encounters in expensive, supply-constrained medical settings.”

“NeuroFlow fits perfectly into SEMCAP Health’s strategy of partnering with category leaders in their critical growth equity phase and amplifying their ability to improve healthcare quality, affordability, experience and health equity,” added Mark Miller, Managing Director at SEMCAP Health. “We are honored to help NeuroFlow advance its mission.” Miller joins the company’s Board of Directors in connection with the transaction.

About NeuroFlow

NeuroFlow assesses and triages people with behavioral health conditions to get them to the right level of care, providing high-tech and high-touch support for populations that would typically fall through the cracks in today’s healthcare system. Proven to drive better clinical and financial outcomes for hundreds of leading health systems, payors, and military organizations covering 15 million individuals, NeuroFlow’s platform combines consumer engagement with enterprise-level care management software to support behavioral health at scale. To learn more, visit http://www.neuroflow.com.

About SEMCAP

SEMCAP is a growth equity impact investor built to identify and invest in seminal trends that have the greatest impact on humanity – Healthcare, Education and Food & Nutrition. SEMCAP invests in companies across three verticals, which are underpinned by shifting government policy, technology, and consumer values, and are reframing the way business is conducted and how people live. Comprised of industry leading teams, globally recognized leaders, and advisory boards across these transformative investment verticals, SEMCAP seeks to create enduring value and generate above-market returns for investors. Through capital and strategic post-investment support, SEMCAP creates value for investors and empowers innovators to scale rapidly and deliver measurable positive outcomes for future generations. For more information please visit http://www.semcap.com.

About SEMCAP Health

SEMCAP Health is a distinctive investment platform within SEMCAP. Fueled by a leading investment team and a network of Senior Operating Advisors with deep operating and investing experience, SEMCAP Health makes growth equity investments in next generation healthcare technology and tech-enabled services businesses. SEMCAP Health invests with the intention to generate outsized financial returns while advancing healthcare quality, affordability, experience, and health equity. For more information about SEMCAP Health, please visit http://www.semcap.com/seminalhealthcare.

Originally announced October 13th, 2022

< + > People Wearing Masks Are Less Likely To Indulge In Antisocial Behavior

According to a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, social scientists found that in Chinese society, masks might function as a “moral symbol” and decrease the likelihood of an individual engaging in any form of deviant behavior.

< + > Covid Hospitalizations Climb Again As Another U.S. Wave Looms Large—These States Lead The Way

Around 2,500 people are dying with Covid each week as cases rise rapidly in some states and hospitalizations climb after weeks of decline.

< + > U.K. Hospital Staff Vote On Strike Action Over Pay

Around 350,000 public hospital staff are deciding whether or not to strike over pay conditions.

< + > InnovationRx: Respiratory Diseases Surge, Covid’s Connection To Heart Attacks And Genomics 3.0

InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare news. Sign up!

< + > A Look at the Fall Health IT Conference Season

As most regular readers know, at Healthcare IT Today we go to far too many healthcare IT conferences.  Plus, the fall conference season is the busiest time of year for health IT conferences.  Just to give you a feel, Colin Hung and myself covered the following conferences:

• Civitas Networks for Health 2022 Annual Conference, a Collaboration with the DirectTrust Summit
• SHSMD Connections 2022
• RARE Disease Patient Advocacy Summit
• Stericycle Communication Solution’s User Conference
• eClinicalWorks National Conference
• MGMA
• Health Connect Partners

Plus, on tap next month we’ll be going to PointClickCare User Conference, HCIC, CHIME Fall Forum 2022, HLTH 2022, and RSNA 2022.

More than halfway through the conference season there are some interesting takeaways about conferences and the health IT industry.

First, those who are attending these conferences are extremely happy to be back in person.  There’s an incredible feeling at these conferences to be together in person again.  While virtual events are great for education, there’s something different about being in person and the serendipity that can happen at in person events.

Second, there are still quite a few people that haven’t returned to conferences.  It’s hard to say if this trend is going to be long term or not.  The lack of attendees is particularly prominent for those from provider organizations.  Are they still so slammed with COVID and other pressures like the great resignation that they can’t leave the office?  Is there still a stigma of going to a conference when many others at your healthcare organization are struggling?  Did these people realize that conferences weren’t required for them to be successful?  Hard to say, but this is definitely something to watch.

Third, it seems like those conferences that offer something extremely practical and useful are doing well.  For example, user conferences seem to be doing really well since the things they learn at the conferences can really impact their daily lives.  Some of the more generic conferences are having a harder time attracting the right people.

Fourth, some vendors have realized that they didn’t need conferences to drive business and others have realized they’re extremely dependent on conferences to drive their business.  I have a feeling this will be a big part of the discussion at our Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference early next year.

I think most of us are grateful that conferences are back.  It’s great to see amazing friends and peers to learn what they’re doing and how we can improve our organizations.  It will be interesting to see how they’re impacted by many digital health companies going through layoffs and the digital health funding environment changing rapidly.  Looking at the HLTH conference coming up, they have 750 vendors listed which may show it hasn’t hit us yet.  That’s going to be an interesting crossover event with traditional healthcare, new healthcare entrants, startups, investors, and more.

We’ll keep doing our best to share the most interesting insights from all of these events.  How are you looking at conferences now?  What’s been your fall health IT conference experience?  What do you see happening for conferences going forward?

< + > Pharma Executives Are Awakening To A New Reality: Embrace The Future Of The Commercial Model Now Or Else

For sales force leaders, the economic pressures of this new landscape can be daunting. Some major drug companies have already started layoffs and we expect that trend to continue in a big way - especially as the number of and qualifications required for representatives have changed substantially.

< + > As Protection From Current Covid-19 Monoclonal Antibody Treatments Fades, The Discovery Of A New Class Of Antibodies Brings Hope

New classes of antibodies may be one of our best tools to overcome new immune evasive variants.

< + > What’s Driving The Covid-19 Vaccine Price Increases?

Welcome to the convoluted world of U.S. healthcare. In the height of the pandemic, the government negotiated directly with the drug companies – no list price/net price worries, no middlemen – and everyone could get vaccinated for free. Now we are back to business as usual.

< + > India’s Digital Health Ecosystem Is An Unparalleled Opportunity

The Indian healthcare landscape is ripe for disruption.

< + > Is Disruptive Innovation Really Such A Good Thing?

This week I read an essay by Health Futures President Jeff Goldsmith which made a case for moving beyond a much-beloved way of thinking about innovation and growth.

In his essay, which appeared in The Health Care Blog, author Goldsmith argues that the concept of disruption as having “passed its sell-by date” after mass adoption by those who see it as gospel.

To be certain, there’s much to admire in the theory, which was outlined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.

In this book, Christensen defines disruptive innovation as the process in which a smaller company with fewer resources gradually takes over a market niche by capturing customers at the bottom of the market.

We’re all familiar with how this plays out. The once-tiny bookseller Amazon trounces brick-and-mortar bookstores and eventually the entire retail e-commerce sector.  Apple rolls out the smartphone and it transforms the way we consume and use digital information, steamrolling its way into new markets and eating the lunch of countless companies in this space. And so on.

Over the 25 years since it was introduced, the disruption thesis has become a core concept in the venture capital and private equity worlds. This includes, of course, VCs focused on health technology investments. As a writer covering HIT, I have been bombarded with public relations pitches insisting that a given healthtech startup was going to “disrupt” whatever niche in which they were found.

The problem is, like any model it has limitations. One of the greatest problems with the notion of disruptive innovation is that it’s become the standard for tech entrepreneurs. Health IT leaders are sometimes dazzled by vendors claiming that they can provide market-shifting disruptive technology, but in my experience, this rarely pans out as promised.

The truth is, many – if not most – of the most important health IT tools in use today have emerged from long periods of incubation and struggle rather than capsizing an entire industry.

Take wearables, for example. Vendors have been pitching them for more than a decade, but they’ve only come into their own over the past year or two, as hospitals used them as remote monitoring tools that could track patients in their homes.

Even now, though, after many years of experimentation, we still haven’t reached a consensus on how to take advantage of wearables’ full capabilities.  The day will come when they’re widely used for remote patient monitoring and public health surveillance, but that day may be further ahead than you’d expect.

Telemedicine also has a long history and has actually been in use for decades. In the past, it was only available to those who could afford to build out a costly video infrastructure. However, when broadband Internet and video interfaces became cheap and reliable, telemedicine gradually gained a higher profile. With its use during the pandemic, it’s become far more familiar to providers and patients, but it’s still far from a mass-market darling.

Now, however, a far greater number of consumers have tried out telemedicine visits – but it still hasn’t become a day-to-day go-to for many providers and patients. Though telemedicine adoption has climbed steadily over time, it continues to be a long game.

I agree with Goldsmith. Too many people are invested in creating a disruptive product or service and failing to tackle mundane problems like fixing what’s broken or seizing opportunities that are right in front of them.

< + > New Study Looks At Ivermectin Versus Placebo To Treat Covid-19

A recent study looked at the benefits of ivermectin over placebo in treating Covid-19 infections.

< + > Biden Getting Updated Covid Booster Shot Amid Dismal Public Uptake

Fewer than 20 million Americans have received an updated shot, according to CDC data.

< + > Centene Reports $738 Million Profit And Picks Cigna’s Express Scripts As PBM

Centene reported $738 million in quarterly profits and announced Cigna's Express Scripts will be its PBM In 2024.

< + > Nextech Announces Acquisition of TouchMD, Enhancing Specialty Practice Patient Experience

Nextech, the market leader providing a single, comprehensive specialty practice solution including Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) functionality, is pleased to announce its acquisition of TouchMD, a visual consultation, marketing, and imaging software platform for plastic surgery, medspa, dermatology, and ophthalmology practices. With this acquisition, TouchMD combined with Nextech’s platform enhances both the digital and in-person patient experience and clinical experience for specialty practices.

“Acquiring TouchMD was an easy decision,” said Bill Lucchini, CEO at Nextech. “Our customers and key industry influencers rave about TouchMD. Together we can make it easier than ever before to work with patients and create great, meaningful experiences.”

Nextech and TouchMD customers will continue to enjoy the benefits and capabilities of current solutions, and existing TouchMD customers will continue to be fully supported regardless of what EHR or practice management solution they have in place.

“I have always believed the most natural partner in our market is Nextech, and now it’s a reality,” said Kary Smith, CEO at TouchMD. “The concept of one company offering an inclusive end-to-end patient journey is powerful and speaks to both clinicians and patients. We are thrilled about what the future holds as we help Nextech and TouchMD reach new heights.”

To learn more, schedule a demo with Nextech and TouchMD here.

About TouchMD

With over 12 years of experience and with thousands of medical practice clients, TouchMD has successfully created a visual consultation, marketing, and imaging software platform. Their touchscreen technology focuses on enhancing the patient experience with proven revenue generation for medical practices. TouchMD practices can customize their unique presentation to showcase all their products and services to their patients. Learn more about TouchMD.

About Nextech

Nextech is the complete healthcare technology solution for specialty providers. Since 1997, Nextech has been focused on delivering intelligent, intuitive, integrated solutions that empower specialty physicians to maximize efficiency, optimize charting accuracy and increase overall practice profitability. Nextech services more than 13,000 providers and 4,000 practices in the clinical specialties of Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Dermatology and Orthopedics.

Originally announced October 11th, 2022

< + > Vara Raises $4.4 Million In Funding To Bring Its Groundbreaking AI Breast Cancer Screening Platform To Millions More Women

There are more lost disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by women to breast cancer globally than any other type of cancer. Vara, a startup building an intelligent platform that infuses state-of-the-art AI into routine breast screenings, is on a mission to find every deadly breast cancer early.

< + > RTLS helps enhance contact tracing of high-risk COVID-19 cases, South Korean study finds

The system has higher sensitivity in identifying close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases compared to a conventional tracing method.

< + > Cybersecurity Must Become A Top Priority In Healthcare

Cybersecurity breaches in healthcare can very tangibly affect patient lives.

< + > TRICARE For All: Wrong For Iowa And America

Doctors can accept TRICARE’s lower rates because their practices also receive payments from private payers that fill the gap and keep their practices afloat.

< + > RPM leads to early detection of stroke-risk blood pressure at Boston Medical Center

The academic medical center's physician chief of maternal fetal medicine explains how remote patient monitoring technology improves care during a very sensitive time in a woman's life.

< + > Henry Ford makes homegrown Rx platform available to health systems nationwide

DromosPTM is a specialty pharmacy software, designed to help coordinate medications for rare conditions that need unique handling and distribution.

< + > How CIOs and IT Can Help with Clinician Retention

It certainly feels like we are just moving from one crisis to another in healthcare right now. As we emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, we were suddenly hit with a healthcare workforce challenge. We find ourselves again in a “all-hands-on-deck” situation where every department needs to contribute to solving the problem. But what can healthcare CIOs and IT departments do to help retain clinicians? A new eBook offers five practical ways to help.

The eBook was written in collaboration with CareAlign, a company that provides a secure, HIPAA compliant workspace to build care plans, manage tasks, and generate notes.

Cognitive Load

The eBook is centered on Cognitive Load – the amount of information that a person needs to hold and process to perform an activity like diagnose a patient, document an encounter, or administer medication. It turns out that cognitive load is an overlooked factor in staff dissatisfaction and frustration.

In a nutshell, the higher the cognitive load, the more effort it takes to perform a task. The more effort it takes, the more frustrated people become which can ultimately lead to that person leaving the organization. Tasks with high cognitive load are silently and insidiously sapping the energy from the healthcare workforce.

“We want clinicians to be focused on what they are uniquely positioned to do: diagnostic and clinical reasoning, patient conversations and care planning,” stated Subha Airan-Javia, MD – Founder and CEO at CareAlign. “That work is not only high stakes, but also has an extremely high cognitive load. Pile on top of that searching through book-size electronic charts for each patient, cumbersome workflows that take 10 clicks instead of 1, and you have a perfect storm of things getting missed. Anything to reduce even one click from a clinicians’ day works to help them focus on what matters most: patient care.”

The eBook identifies five “quick-wins” for healthcare CIOs and IT departments that can help reduce the cognitive load on clinicians. I won’t spoil the eBook by revealing all five (you’ll have to download the eBook for that!), but two did stand out for me:

1. Reducing the number of userIDs and passwords clinicians have to remember
2. Streamlining screens to fit workflows so clinicians can more easily find the information they need

userIDs and Passwords

It only takes a few seconds to type a username and password, but the cognitive load of this process is high, especially if there are multiple systems with multiple userIDs and passwords. Remembering which combination works is taxing.

An easy way to address this is through single sign-on (SSO) where a single userID + password grants access to multiple systems securely. Even better is replacing the password with biometrics (like facial recognition) so that you don’t need to remember a password at all.

Most organizations already have SSO, but there are always new systems that have yet to be integrated. Staying on top of that is a quick win that will help reduce cognitive load.

Presenting the Right Information

One of the most significant cognitive loads presented in the eBook is the mental and physical effort required by clinicians to get to the information they need to care for patients.

A study published in 2020 found that redesigning user interfaces to better suit the needs of clinicians reduced the time by as much as 44%. Those redesigned screens also reduced the error rate to near zero in some cases.

It is unrealistic to try and redesign all the user interfaces that clinicians use, but the eBook does suggest making simple changes like eliminating data fields that are not needed. This will help reduce the visual scanning that is required to find the relevant information. Getting rid of just one or two fields can make difference.

“Giving clinicians quick access to the right information at the right time is essential to improving workflow and the quality of care,” said Dr. Airan-Javia. “Most people don’t realize that 12 patients’ charts have as much text as two copies of Hamlet. It is simply not possible to read through all that information for every patient.  Therefore it is critical that we simplify access to intuitive, real-time data so clinicians can make informed, timely decisions.  Fewer clicks, More care.  That needs to be the goal.”

Check out the eBook: 5 Quick Wins for CIOs to Help with Clinician Retention

CareAlign is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > Obamacare Open Enrollment Brings Election Day "Gift" To Voters

Last year, Obamacare sign-ups hit a record. The Biden administration is no doubt hoping for another one this year. And it doesn't care if it has to spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to get it.

< + > WELL Health to Acquire EMR, Billing and Clinical Assets from CloudMD

• WELL Health is acquiring CloudMD’s Cloud Practice entity which includes OSCAR based Juno EMR or “Electronic Medical Record” and ClinicAid billing Software applications as well as three primary care clinics located in the province of British Columbia.
• The combined entities serve more than 2,500 healthcare practitioners across Canada and represent WELL’s entrance in the Alberta and Saskatchewan markets for its EMR and billing products. 
• Post transaction WELL expects the assets to operate profitably while contributing more than $9M in topline revenues.
• WELL will pay approximately $5.75 million for all assets, subject to post-closing adjustments and holdbacks, reflecting an accretive transaction.

WELL Health Technologies Corp. (the “Company” or “WELL”), a digital health company focused on positively impacting health outcomes by leveraging technology to empower healthcare practitioners and their patients globally, is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cloud Practice Inc. (“Cloud Practice”) and three clinics (the “Transaction”) from CloudMD Software & Services Inc. (“CloudMD”).

Hamed Shahbazi, CEO and Founder of WELL, said, “This transaction demonstrates our dedication to expanding and strengthening WELL’s Canadian healthcare offering through disciplined capital allocation.  This acquisition will also enable our EMR and billing divisions to enter new markets in the Canadian Prairies where we look forward to supporting healthcare practitioners’ access to new digital health innovations.”

Cloud Practice is a medical software application company with products including Juno EMR, a cloud based EMR solution based on OSCAR, and ClinicAid, a medical billing software used by healthcare practitioners who don’t need access to a full EMR. Outside of WELL who is the largest provider of OSCAR EMR products and services, Juno EMR represented the largest remaining asset and market share available in the OSCAR based EMR industry. Both Juno EMR and ClinicAid represent WELL’s entrance into the Alberta and Saskatchewan markets for its EMR and medical billing related lines of business.  Both assets will be integrated into WELL’s Provider Solutions Business Unit, under WELL’s existing EMR and Billing platforms.

Amir Javidan, COO at WELL commented, “This transaction is a win for healthcare practitioners and their patients as it will allow software users and clinicians joining our network to have access to WELL’s innovative Apps.Health platform which includes dozens of apps designed by leading 3^rd party digital health companies providing advanced physician tools such as an AI-powered virtual assistant to premium digital patient engagement tools that can drive significant operating efficiencies for clinics.”

The three primary care clinics being acquired in the Transaction currently have a total staff of 20 physicians operating out of two clinics in Vancouver, BC and one clinic in Surrey, BC.  These clinics are owned by subsidiaries of CloudMD, with all of the shares of these entities being acquired as part of the Transaction. These three clinics will be integrated into WELL’s existing primary care clinic network under WELL Health Canada Clinics Inc.

About WELL Health Technologies Corp

WELL is a practitioner focused digital healthcare company whose overarching objective is to positively impact health outcomes to empower and support healthcare practitioners and their patients. WELL has built an innovative practitioner enablement platform that includes comprehensive end to end practice management tools inclusive of virtual care and digital patient engagement capabilities as well as Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) and data protection services. WELL uses this platform to power healthcare practitioners both inside and outside of WELL’s own omni-channel patient services offerings. As such, WELL owns and operates Canada’s largest network of outpatient medical clinics serving primary and specialized healthcare services and is the provider of a leading multi-national, multi-disciplinary telehealth offering. WELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “WELL” and on OTCQX under the symbol “WHTCF”. To learn more about the Company, please visit: www.well.company.

Originally announced October 11th, 2022

< + > Gain-Of-Function Experiments At Boston University Create A Deadly New Covid-19 Virus. Who Thought This Was A Good Idea?

After all the controversy over the past 2 years about gain-of-function research on viruses, it's shocking to learn that scientists at Boston University have just created a brand-new Covid-19 virus that causes 80% mortality in lab mice.

< + > Meet 11 Female Scientists, Innovators And Entrepreneurs Changing The Narrative On Menopause

Featured in this story are 11 female scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs who have made it their mission to ensure a better future for themselves and menopausal women globally, through their advocacy, education, and pushing the boundaries of what life after 50 should look like for women.

< + > Covid-19 Pandemic Might Have Altered These Personality Traits Of Young Adults

A recent study published found that the pre-pandemic personalities of young adults had far more positive traits as opposed to the shift that was observed in their 2020 personality traits.

< + > Stabilizing Proteins Might One Day Help Treat Cancer

Peruvian scientist Yanymee Nimesia Guillen Quispe studies stabilizing proteins that might one day help treat cancer, while also strengthening scientific ties between South America and Asia through an organisation she co-founded, called SAPPIENS.

< + > Google’s New Medical Imaging Suite Will Enable A Bright Future Ahead For Healthcare

The suite will empower a new generation of advanced analytics and AI technology.

< + > Bonus Features – October 23, 2022 – Pennsylvania providers dominate CHIME Most Wired list, 61% of patients research providers online, and more

Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.

News

CHIME has released this year’s lists of Digital Health Most Wired organizations. Seven of the 18 Level 10 acute care providers are based in Pennsylvania – UPMC, Geisinger Health System, affiliates of Jefferson Health, and the Lehigh Valley Health Network. The same is true for ambulatory care, where providers in Pennsylvania represent seven of the 17 organizations in Level 10. Meanwhile, all Mayo Clinic sites for acute and ambulatory care have achieved Level 10 status.

The sixth annual Patient Access Journey Report from Kyruus found strong interest in online research and comparison shopping among today’s patients. Among the patients surveyed, 93% are interested in digital self-service options for pre-appointment tasks, 61% research new providers online (with 80% of those patients consulting multiple information sources), and 40% prefer to book appointments online instead of calling. In addition, 87% of patients consider care costs when choosing a new provider, and half compare costs among providers before making a decision.

Research from conversational intelligence vendor Authenticx concluded that healthcare organizations spend $726,000 annually to resolve disruptions in the patient experience. These disruptions range from delays in receiving documentation (such as prior authorization) to receiving conflicting information from different sources to being stuck between the provider and another entity (such as a payer or pharmacy) trying to resolve a dispute.

An analysis from the patient safety organization ECRI revealed that the majority of safety incidents related to race in the healthcare setting target providers. The review of more than 500 incident reports found that 57% involve patients making inappropriate racial comments or engaging in racist behavior, with the remainder involving racist behavior or disparate care on the part of staff members.

Partnerships

• Patient communication company Kno2 announced a partnership with Alayacare, a home-based care technology provider.
• HSBlox has partnered with Apexon to integrate the company’s data visualization and analytics technology into the HSBlox value-based administration platform.
• Virtual reality companies XRHealth and HTC VIVE collaborated on a distraction therapy tool.
• Psychiatric care provider Talkiatry has integrated with Cedar, a post-visit patient engagement and payment platform.
• Digital perioperative service provider Pip Care has launched a pilot at three UPMC hospitals. Pip Care is the first company launched through the partnership between UPMC Enterprises and Redesign Health.

Products

• Quality management software provider Qualio released Validation Pack, a quality and compliance tool for life sciences, and announced ISO 9001 and 27001 certifications for its quality management and data security products.
• Precision medicine platform Feel Therapeutics received a patent for its emotion detection technology.
• Clinical workflow platform Wellsheet introduced Virtual Nursing Station to optimize nursing workflows within Cerner, Epic, or athenahealth.
• Payment and interoperability vendor Edifecs unveiled its Payer-to-Payer Data Exchange and Member App for FHIR products.
• Credentialing software provider Sutherland received NCQA certification for its Sutherland SmartCred platform.
• GE Healthcare has received more FDA authorizations for AI-enabled medical devices, with 42, than any other company. The FDA has issued 510(k) clearances to more than 500 devices in all.

Sales

• Physician-owned Advocare announced $1 billion in collections using eClinicalWorks Revenue Cycle Management.
• OSF HealthCare selected Lightbeam Health subsidiary CareSignal for remote patient monitoring as part the health system’s Medicaid Transformation Project.
• Community-based providers TPC selected SHOAR Health and Automation Anywhere as revenue cycle management partners. Both vendors are subsidiaries of Windham Brannon.

• Cloud service provider Gainwell Technologies implemented the Medicaid administration platform for the state of Kansas.

If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo.

 

 

< + > U.K. Flu Season Kicks Off Early As Covid-19 Cases Fall

Experts warn this year's outbreak could be particularly severe.

< + > Weekly Roundup – October 22, 2022

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

GIS Technology Supports Healthcare Workers on the Ground. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology helps track and manage the spread of diseases in remote areas. Colin Hung recently chatted with Sightsavers’ Andy Tate to discuss the benefits of GIS to control and eliminate trachoma, an infectious cause of blindness easily treated with antibiotics – provided they get in patients’ hands. Read more…

Healthcare’s Opinion of Automation Has Evolved. Clinical and administrative staff used to be afraid of process automation, but over time healthcare has learned to embrace automation as a way to augment staff or meet patients’ needs. John Lynn chatted with Stericycle’s Matt Dickson about automation’s role in improving efficiency and addressing healthcare’s workforce challenges. Read more…

Bringing Innovation to ePrescribing. There hasn’t been much movement in the ePrescribing market, but FDB Vela is looking to change that. John spoke with the company and its first customer, Parker Health, to learn how FDB Vela’s use of technology and data has set itself up to provide what the market needs. Read more…

How Big Tech Can Succeed in Healthcare. For every big tech company that has succeeded in healthcare, it seems like there are two that have failed. John sat down with Don Hooker from Capital One Healthcare to discuss why understanding the financial needs and decisions of healthcare organizations is critical for successful partnerships. Read more…

When “Evidence-Based Medicine Has No Evidence. One of the biggest misconceptions about healthcare is that everything has been well researched. John reacted to some valuable insight from Jay Parkinson, MD: Most things in healthcare and medicine haven’t been researched at all, especially if there’s no money in finding the right answer. Read more…

How to Help Physician Practices Survive. Today’s physician practices face an uphill battle, and many are fighting to bring in enough revenue to stay open. In the latest Healthcare IT Podcast, John and Colin share their thoughts on how physician practices need to adapt to survive and talk about the technology that can help them thrive. Read more…

A Look at 3 Startups in the Rare Disease Space. At the recent RARE Patient Advocacy Summit, John caught up with three entrepreneurs who used their personal experiences with rare diseases to create solutions for themselves, their loved ones, and patients facing the same challenges. Read more…

Collaboration, Technology Can Address the Mental Health Crisis in Children. One in five children in the U.S. has a mental health disorder, but only one in five are able to get treatment. Telehealth can close this gap and provide equitable care, but Serrah Linares at Change Healthcare and Rachel Mack Robinson at DotCom Therapy said policymakers, payers, and providers all need to step up and work together. Read more…

Not All QHINs Will Be Created Equal. Many entities have already signaled their intent to apply to be a Qualified Health Information Network under TEFCA. Jay Nakashima of eHealth Exchange said organizations should consider elements of data control, technological inclusivity, and innovation and flexibility when selecting a QHIN. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Clinical Informatics Analyst in a hybrid work position for Windsor, Ontario-based TransForm Shared Service Organization, posted to Healthcare IT Central.

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Brave Health announced a $40 million Series C round; the virtual mental health provider focuses on Medicaid populations.
• Provider resource optimization platform DexCare acquired eCommerce and merchandising company Womp.
• Insurance technology company Milliman IntelliScript acquired OneRecord, which helps patients connect their data to digital health apps and services.
• Chronic condition management platform Redi.Health announced a growth capital round led by Refinery Ventures.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.

< + > CDC: Surge In Young Kids Hospitalized With Respiratory Illnesses Like RSV, Flu

Hospitalizations due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections, influenza, and other respiratory illnesses are already pushing children's hospitals to capacity in different parts of the U.S.

< + > A Designed Death – Where & When The World Allows It

For Boomers used to planning and controlling many of life’s choices, from when to have children to what kind of milk in their coffee, defining a good death seems like something they may want to discuss with their families – and decide for themselves.

< + > Novavax Covid-19 Booster Gets FDA Authorization, Does This Deserve More Attention?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, has also signed a decision memo “allowing Novavax monovalent Covid-19 boosters for adults.”

< + > Reimagining Alzheimer’s (Part 4): Cautious Optimism For A New Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment

Cautious optimism about the use of a new anti-amyloid fibril antibody for the treatment of early-stage Alzheimer's.

< + > Brave Health Secures $40M in Series C Funding to Expand Access to Mental Health Services for Medicaid Populations

Town Hall Ventures Joins Union Square Ventures and City Light Capital as Company Expands Into Value-Based Care

Brave Health, the largest virtual mental health provider and engagement platform focused on serving Medicaid populations, today announced a $40M Series C funding round led by Town Hall Ventures, with existing investors Union Square Ventures, City Light Capital and others joining as well. Brave Health is the first investment from Town Hall Venture’s newly-announced $350M fund. The company has raised a total of $60M to date, and this most recent funding will support their continued expansion into value-based care arrangements and into new and existing markets.

Since launching with health plans in Florida in 2019, Brave Health has rapidly grown. The organization now serves over 65M covered lives across more than 200 health plan contracts through their unique approach to patient engagement, treatment, and integration with plans and other providers. Earlier this year, the company announced its first value-based contract with Molina Healthcare of Texas. Brave Health also recently signed a value-based contract with Sunshine Health, bringing the total number of potential Medicaid members under Brave Health’s care in a value-based arrangement to more than one million.

“The team at Brave Health has demonstrated a commitment to doing the hard work of engaging the most vulnerable populations at their most vulnerable moments and getting them into ongoing care. And they’re taking on the accountability to improve patient outcomes and ultimately reduce the total cost of care,” said Andy Slavitt, General Partner at Town Hall Ventures. “We are thrilled to support Brave Health’s expansion as they work to revamp the way mental health services are delivered and paid for on behalf of Medicaid populations across the country.”

Brave Health will use these funds to continue to build the technology and data infrastructure that powers their industry-leading patient engagement and outcomes engine, as well as to further expand into new states and accelerate the closing and activation of new value-based contracts in the 18 states in which they operate.

“Innovation in Medicaid care delivery and reimbursement models is critical for our healthcare system,” said Anna Lindow, Co-Founder and CEO at Brave Health. “Today, we’re energized by the enthusiasm from our forward-looking investors and health plan partners around this aim.”

Today, access to mental health services for the nation’s most vulnerable populations is a public health crisis. The percentage of psychiatrists that accept Medicaid has fallen to 35 percent, according to previous research reported by JAMA Psychiatry. With nearly one in four Americans now receiving healthcare benefits through Medicaid, this gap leaves many without the ability to get ongoing, critical care. Access, though, is not the only component needed to change health outcomes. Engagement is a crucial, and often elusive, first step.

Brave Health plays a critical role in driving engagement among Medicaid beneficiaries through a number of data-driven, tech-enabled approaches and interventions that leverage the company’s integrated model and generate a more than 80 percent contact success rate. In practice, this approach allows Brave Health to drive results around closing care gaps and reducing wait times for first-time appointments to as soon as the same day, which represents a radical improvement over the national average of 48 days. Once individuals are engaged, Brave Health care teams composed of therapists, psychiatric providers, and peer support specialists work in close partnership with patients as well as other stakeholders like health plan case managers and other providers. By working within the system and sharing data and insights, Brave Health is able to drive better short- and long-term outcomes and reduce costs associated with events like potentially-preventable hospitalizations, driving as high as a 66 percent reduction in readmission-related costs.

Partnership with the broader system drives tangible results: year to date in 2022, over 23,000 individuals have been referred to Brave Health for care, representing exponential growth since beginning work with health plans in 2019.

About Brave Health

Brave Heath is the largest virtual mental health provider and engagement platform focused on serving Medicaid populations. The company offers outpatient services (therapy, psychiatry, peer support) for mental health conditions through its platform. Brave Health’s 200+ health plan contracts cover over 65M lives across 18 states, including Florida, New York, and Texas.

Originally Announced October 11th, 2022

< + > Introducing A “Naked” Self-Amplifying RNA Vaccine Candidate

Researchers have developed a "naked" self-amplifying RNA vaccine optimized for injection into the skin, rather than the muscle.

< + > The role of care orchestration tools in personalizing care and reducing workload

"From the care team point of view, this means less activity but more action, less documenting but better documentation and better coordination but less coordinating," one expert explains.

< + > Senator questions Mark Zuckerberg over Meta's healthcare data collection policies

The letter from Sen. Mark Warner to the Facebook founder comes just days after Advocate Aurora Health notified patients of a potential breach involving a pixel tracking tool.

< + > HIMSSCast: What the pandemic has changed about requisite IT leadership skills

Leadership demands and imperatives have changed for CIOs, CMIOs and other health IT execs over the tumultuous years of the COVID-19 pandemic. An expert in leadership skills offers guidance.

< + > Katie Couric Reveals Her Breast Cancer Details, Showcasing Progress Of Modern Cancer Medicine

Katie Couric revealed she was treated for breast cancer. Many of her treatments show the progress of modern medicine's fight against breast cancer.

< + > CAR T Therapy For Drug Resistant Multiple Myeloma

Patients with drug-resistant multiple myeloma find early success with a new CAR T therapy, a recent study finds

< + > A closer look at the tech needed for new care-at-home and aging-in-place models

Connecting care teams and enabling information sharing among hospitals, group practices and, most importantly, families is crucial to helping more senior citizens get healthcare at home.

< + > Advocate Aurora notifies patients of potential tracking pixel breach

The health system says that, "out of an abundance of caution," it's assuming that anyone with Advocate Aurora Health MyChart account, including users of its LiveWell app could be affected – as many as 3 million people.

< + > In Our Flawed Healthcare System, Patients Need To Take More Control

Real reform begins by changing expectations. By doing so, we can introduce more accountability into each transaction between patients and their healthcare providers and set up the conditions needed to get better health at lower cost.

< + > Eliminating Trachoma with the Help of GIS Technology

Trachoma is the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, yet for decades we have had the antibiotics to treat it. Sightsavers is an international charity dedicated to preventing avoidable blindness and is working in Africa and Asia to eliminate this disease. Their programs are having a significant positive impact. A key to their success is effective use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to track and manage both the disease and treatment coverage.

We sat down with Andy Tate, Senior Data and Reporting Advisor for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) at Sightsavers to learn more about their work and how they are leveraging GIS technology from Esri.

Trachoma

Trachoma is a NTD of significant concern and is one of the world’s oldest diseases.

“Trachoma is caused by repeated bacterial infections,” explained Tate. “Over time it will cause scarring to the inner eyelids such that the eyelashes will turn inwards and scrape the eyeball. This will cause irreversible blindness, if not treated.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), trachoma is “hyperendemic in many of the poorest and most rural areas of Africa, Central and South America, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East”. The WHO estimates that trachoma causes 1.4% of all blindness worldwide.

Eliminating Trachoma

In 1993, the WHO adopted an effective strategy to control and eliminate trachoma, called SAFE:

• Surgery to treat the blinding stage (trachomatous trichiasis);
• Antibiotics to clear infection, particularly mass drug administration of the antibiotic azithromycin
• Facial cleanliness; and
• Environmental improvement, particularly improving access to water and sanitation

Sightsavers supports national programs across all four elements of the SAFE strategy. For example, they have been working in Malawi in south-eastern Africa since the 1950s and helped to launch the Malawi Trachoma Elimination Programme in 2014. That program recently celebrated an important milestone. On September 21^st, 2022 the WHO officially announced that the country had eliminated the disease as a public health problem.

Sightsavers is also supporting Kenya to achieve the same.

Sightsavers Kenya Project

“In Kenya, we’ve been noticing some concerning trends,” said Tate. “We have some areas where we’re seeing persistent trachoma where the level of infectivity has not reduced following multiple years of treatment. We are also seeing a return of the disease in places where the level of infection had been reduced such that drug treatment was no longer required.”

Sightsavers is now working on a project to maximize equitable distribution of trachoma treatment. A key component of this project is GIS technology.

An army of volunteers is required to effectively distribute the antibiotic treatment. These volunteers are called “Community Directed Distributors” (CDDs) and in the project focus areas they have been equipped with mobile devices loaded with two Esri applications:

• ArcGIS Field Maps which helps to guide CDDs to the right communities and households where treatment is needed; and
• Esri Quick Capture Which allows CDDs to easily capture information while onsite

“They use Quick Capture at each household to record whether drugs were delivered, if they were refused, or if no one was home,” elaborated Tate. “Then supervisors will be able to, in real time, track the households, and they’ll be able to direct CDDs to communities and households which may have been missed, thus ensuring that we achieve maximum treatment coverage.”

GIS Improves Sightsavers Efforts

By leveraging GIS technology in Kenya, Sightsavers and the teams on the ground can be more efficient in their use of precious resources. They can send CDDs to specific households where they know treatment is needed and not waste time visiting homes that have already received the antibiotic. Seeing everything on a map also allows for better route planning which maximizes the number of households visited by a CDD while minimizing travel.

Sightsavers is not only using GIS technology in Kenya. They are using satellite imagery and interactive maps to help with identifying nomadic camps. They are also modelling NTD treatment coverage and better communicating the scope and impact of programs through storymaps. Check out their open resource portal for more information: https://ntd-sightsavers.hub.arcgis.com/

Watch the interview with Andy Tate to learn more about:

• The new projects Sightsavers is working on
• What outcomes they hope to achieve for the Kenya project
• How they plan to leverage social media to help combat trachoma

Learn more about Sightsavers: https://www.sightsavers.org/

Learn more about Esri: https://esri.com/health

Esri is a supporter of Healthcare Scene.

< + > DexCare and WompHealth Combine to Bring the Best of eCommerce to Healthcare While Creating New Digital Discovery Solutions

The addition of Womp immediately brings to market a proven digital storefront – adopted by top retailers in eCommerce – that delivers a modern, “shoppable” access experience for healthcare consumers.

DexCare, Inc., the leading data-driven intelligence company focused on creating exceptional healthcare access experiences for everyone, has acquired preeminent eCommerce and online merchandising technology company, Womp, Inc. The company’s brands, WompHealth and WompMobile, remain independent subsidiaries of DexCare.

WompHealth applies groundbreaking online shopping technology to empower health systems to deliver frictionless, intuitive digital experiences for consumers. WompMobile utilizes powerful technology to convert any website – no matter how complex – into a high-performance mobile experience. Womp CEO, Madison Miner, and his team bring with them decades of eCommerce experience, digitally-transforming some of the country’s largest brands, both within healthcare and elsewhere.

The combination of DexCare and Womp coincides with the consumerization of healthcare access, a sea change occurring throughout the industry. Patients seek best-fit experiences that allow them to discover, book and receive care with the convenience, speed, and flexibility they get from eCommerce. From travel to restaurant reservations, most industries are now characterized by digital customization, a merchandising mindset and retail centricity, and these traits will define the next frontier of healthcare access.

DexCare and Womp are modernizing the consumer experience by delivering more effective digital discovery and access in concert with the ability to balance and optimize system capacity. Womp powers over 70 million consumer-facing digital experiences, resulting in significant increases in click-thrus, conversions and customers. The underlying technology becomes a key component of DexCare’s Digital Discovery Solutions, which provide health systems a turnkey solution to create, publish and promote high-performing, consumer-facing mobile and web-based digital experiences, as well as natural language search and merchandising care options.

“Online scheduling isn’t enough anymore. Health systems face intense competition, evolving consumer expectations and limited resources that require comprehensive, highly-performant Digital Discovery Solutions that empower health systems to capture sustainable growth and guide patients to the best care while optimizing capacity in real-time,” said Derek Streat, CEO at DexCare. “Womp is providing an essential element to this vision – a powerful storefront for healthcare.”

Digital Discovery Solutions enable consumers to easily discover care on search engines and websites, including a health system’s digital front door (DFD), and to access real time availability for the care options best suited to their needs. They also enable health systems to extend their DFD to the places consumers are looking for care, ensure high-converting experiences that engage new and existing patients, and effectively feature the care options that support health systems’ strategic, operational and financial objectives.

Specific components of Digital Discovery Solutions include:

• Fast Pages: Rapid loading, consumer-facing digital and mobile experiences, purpose-built to drive traffic and conversion by exceeding the most important determinants of ranking and promotion on search, listing and other websites.
• One Search: Next-generation search engine for health system digital front doors, apps and other websites that empowers users to find care quickly and effectively via modern search capabilities and a frictionless consumer experience.
• Care Options: Intelligently matches care options to consumers by balancing the goals of patients, providers and health systems, and then features the best fit recommendations in Fast Pages, One Search and other consumer-facing experiences throughout the care journey. Consumers never see a dead-end, and health systems extend the capacity of their resources, balance supply and demand, and grow sustainably.

“Reducing digital friction, by making the complex simple, is how we create customer-centric, results-driven experiences,” said Madison Miner, CEO at Womp. “It’s no surprise that disruptors are rapidly entering healthcare, as the industry’s websites lack the performance, sophistication and personalization that consumers are conditioned to expect. By uniting forces, DexCare is the response to transformation, and brings to market the proven methods of eCommerce to unlock a digital storefront that captures, nurtures, and delivers access to healthcare.”

“Healthcare consumers want effortless and relevant digital access to care,” said Dr. Patrick McGill, Chief Transformation Officer at Community Health Network. “By partnering with DexCare on Digital Discovery Solutions, we now have technological infrastructure that creates a seamless process for patients to intuitively find, and book, personalized care. DexCare’s innovative, digitally-enabled experiences have significantly enhanced both the patient and provider experience here at Community Health Network.”

About DexCare

Incubated at Providence, one of the nation’s largest health systems, DexCare is a data-driven intelligence company focused on making access to healthcare better for everyone. DexCare’s core offering is a software platform, provided exclusively to health systems, that orchestrates digital demand and health system capacity across all lines of care. The platform attracts high-value, commercially-insured consumers by providing a highly discoverable, fully-digitized and unified experience while amplifying health systems’ existing EMR, caregiver and brand investments. The uniqueness of DexCare lies within its intelligent navigation and load balancing across providers, settings, modalities and service lines. DexCare’s data-driven engine allocates, flexes and optimizes resources to best meet both consumer demand and health system business goals.

DexCare powers the digital engine of leading health systems across the U.S., including Kaiser, Houston Methodist, Mass General Brigham and others. DexCare-powered digital experiences attract 30% more new patients, 85% of whom are commercially insured, capture 8x downstream revenue, generate over 20% per patient encounter in cost savings, and deliver net promoter satisfaction greater than 90%.

For more information, visit dexcarehealth.com or follow us on LinkedIn

Originally announced October 13th, 2022

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< + > Featured Health IT Job: Clinical Informatics Analyst

We like to regularly feature a healthcare IT job that might be of interest to readers. Today, we’re featuring the Clinical Informatics Analyst position that was recently posted on Healthcare IT Central. This position was posted by TransForm Shared Service Organization and is an international position in Canada with a hybrid work environment.

Here’s a description of the position:

Location: Windsor, ON (Hybrid – Onsite & Remote Work)

Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Benefits: Pension, Health & Dental, Paid Sick, Life & Disability Insurance, Vacation and more. Visit our website for more details

Conditions: Current business reference checks, vulnerable sector police clearance, and immunization medical clearance

POSITION SUMMARY:
The Clinical Informatics Analyst role functions within the Clinical Systems Transformation division of Transform and reports to the Manager, Clinical Informatics. This key role will advocate on behalf of the clinical professional in the design, development and adoption of TransForm’s Health Information System program strategies.

Responsibilities include continued operational support beyond implementation to enable continuous improvement and advancements in the adoption of electronic health records throughout Erie St. Clair.

The CIA role will bridge health care professionals practicing in clinical areas with information services by translating user and patient needs related to clinical information systems. Clinical practices will be utilized to determine clinical functions suitable for computer applications, ensuring information technology is consistent with professional clinical practice standards.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:
•        Play a supportive role as a collaborative team member liaising with CIS, hospital clinicians and Allied Health, TransForm’s information services professionals and relevant project team members; fostering collaboration and shared direction.
•        Assist with the documentation of workflows to support project activities including mapping models which will help facilitate design, build & testing to achieve process improvements and gains in adoption.
•        Assist with the implementation of health information technology applications, tools, processes or structures that will drive health informatics best practices for clinicians and other providers.
•        Participate in the development of training and education programs and conduct training as required (in classroom or 1:1 setting).
•        Act in a supporting role to enable the adoption and standardization of clinical systems through education and training, workflow\process analysis, quality outcomes, and providing support in accordance with regional strategies and organizational goals.

MUST- HAVES:
•        Three (3) year college diploma or university degree in healthcare related discipline / Health Information Management, Health Informatics or equivalent work experience
•        Previous experience working on clinical systems implementations or health transformation projects, preferred experience in formal clinical informatics
•        Advanced computer skills (MS Office applications, navigate and understanding of IT concepts), Cerner knowledge a preference
•        Strong time management and analytical skills
•        Knowledge of and experience in redesigning clinical processes to improve clinical practice, efficiency and patient care, preferably in conjunction with the implementation of a Health Information System
•        Knowledge of and experience in developing, implementing and revising policies, analyzing workflows and making departmental or system wide improvements in practices using lean methodologies
•        Strong ability to develop detailed clinical or technical documentation, training aides and how-to documents, and track work activities or issues
•        Critical and strategic thinking abilities to work with complex systems, bridging community issues and regional and provincial activities

WE VALUE:
•        Preferred registered Regulated Health Professional (in good standing) an asset
•        Minimum of two to four (2-4) years of hospital experience preferred with direct patient care in a team environment
•        Experience in project management and change management in a clinical setting an asset
•        Experience with lean methodologies/principles an asset

OTHER CONDITIONS:
•        Minimal exposure to disagreeable conditions typical of an office position: exposed to stress and pressure associated with multiple priorities and deadlines
•        Must be able to travel within the Southwestern Ontario area, when required
•        Must be able to work evenings and weekends, when required

TransForm is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to fair and accessible employment practices that attract and retain employees. Upon request, accommodations for disabilities will be provided to support participation in all aspects of the recruitment process.

By applying to this position, you are confirming you possess a Canadian citizenship or a permanent resident status or work permit.

We thank all applicants for their interest. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

TransForm is currently not accepting applications or solicitation from recruitment agencies. Thank you for your cooperation.

Looks like a great opportunity for those with experience as a clinical informatics analyst. If this looks like a position that would interest you, check out the full details for the job and how to apply.

As always, you can search our Health IT job board for a variety of jobs from leading companies in the industry. You can also register for free and post your resume where recruiters search for job candidates regularly.