< + > Sensate Is A Non-Invasive, Super-Simple Tool For Stress Reduction

It looks like a black river stone, smooth and contoured.

< + > Microsoft signs first AI healthcare partnership in Vietnam

They will work on data sharing and validating Microsoft's new AI computer vision model. 

< + > Planting More Trees In Cities Could Slash Summer Heat Deaths, Study Finds

Increasing urban tree coverage could help bring down temperatures in cities, which researchers said could help tackle rising heat-related deaths as climate change drives thermometers up.

< + > Covid Public Health Emergencies Will End May 11, White House Says

The Biden administration will bring the years-long Covid-19 emergency declarations to an end on May 11, the White House announced Monday, as part of a pivot to treat the coronavirus as an endemic seasonal threat.

< + > New Survey Shows Nearly 1/4 Of Young Hispanic Women May Change Birth Control Due To Abortion Restrictions

A new study shows that young Hispanic women are changing their sexual behaviors and contraception methods since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.

< + > How Will The U.K. Government Fix England’s Emergency Care Crisis?

As winter viruses and industrial action pile extra pressure on England’s already overstretched public health system, the U.K. government has released a plan to try and fix the crisis.

< + > Australian Health Dep't failed to manage risks in expanding telehealth: state auditor

It did not assess fraud and non-compliance risks.

< + > ‘We Can’t Look Away’: Documentary ANXIOUS NATION Explores The Rise In Anxiety In Children

Like adults, children feel worried from time to time, and that's normal. But anxiety disorder is an illness that needs treatment — and it's a growing problem among children, teenagers and young adults.

< + > Johns Hopkins AI models predict ICU delirium risk

Researchers applied algorithms to data from 200,000 intensive care unit stays at 208 hospitals to develop two models that could help clinicians assess patient risks and apply interventions.

< + > Rep. Katie Porter Says 2 Manufacturers Control 97% Of Covid-19 Vaccine Market

In a recent speech, Porter said, “We cannot continue to ask taxpayers to help cover the risk while letting Pharma collude to reap the profits.”

< + > Third-party data breach round-up: mscripts, Diligent, Mailchimp

Recent attacks on healthcare provider business associates, including prescription and hosting platforms, expose more PII and PHI. Newly compromised email lists may be used for phishing attacks. 

< + > Patient Scheduling and Pre-Visit Intake: Let’s Give Patients What They’re Asking For

Several surveys about the online patient experience were recently released. It won’t surprise anyone who follows healthcare professionally—or who has used a healthcare portal—that patients are frustrated and disappointed. This article interviews a dozen experts to better understand why healthcare lags behind retail, finance, and other industries in serving customers online—and what we can do to improve the patient experience.

Surveys Show Widespread Dissatisfaction

This article was inspired by an outreach to me by the company Notable, which offers an API to interact with health records and automate routine tasks during patient interactions. The company surveyed more than a thousand people of varying genders and geographic locations (age and race weren’t tracked) to find out what they thought of the patient experience. I talked with Carle Falk, their Head of Research.

The most salient findings in the survey are listed in a short Business Wire article, but interesting details can be found in Notable’s own report. For instance, they found that 41% of patients have switched providers because of poor digital experiences.

Findings cover a lot of the patient experience, such as waiting room times—which have increased over the past few years—and time spent by doctors looking at computer screens instead of the patient, which averages 41% per visit.

Respondents made two specific requests, which reflect their expectation that a visit to the doctor should be as easy as an online restaurant reservation:

• Patients would like to self-schedule visits online.
• Patients would like to fill out all necessary forms before they arrive.

These requests are quite basic and can be easily satisfied with modern health care technology. Patients are not asking for remote monitoring, predictive analytics, or inspirational wellness reminders. Patients simply want incremental improvements over what they already know, just as people in Henry Ford’s early career were said to want a “faster horse.”

Wolters Kluwer’s Health division also recently commissioned a survey of 1,034 U.S. patients about their patient experience. The researchers tried to achieve a demographic balance. According to the survey, 80% of patients have follow-up questions after a health visit, and 94% of patients would like to have access to educational materials.

Finally, a survey by predictive analytics firm Carta Healthcare found that 83% of patients had to repeat information that they had previously provided at a doctor’s office. Also, 42% of respondents spent six minutes or more recounting their past medical history at every appointment. Results were provided by an online survey of 1,014 U.S. consumers. Carta Healthcare attributes the duplication to a lack of integrated medical systems at healthcare providers.

The Notable survey found, alarmingly, that 61% of patients gave up on scheduling appointments altogether because of the difficulties encountered during the process.

According to Carta Healthcare, one in five patients said the hassle of repeatedly providing their information made them less likely to return to that provider.

This article will explain how the patient experience can be improved, focusing on the two modest requests seen in the Notable survey. A follow-up article will cover the broader topic of connected care.

Why Is a Satisfying Online Experience So Hard?

Patients want to schedule a clinical visit like they schedule a restaurant reservation—so why can’t they?

Clinical visits are complex and come with many variables: insurance, patient type, provider preferences, lab requirements, etc. Scheduling patients with the right appointment therefore requires an understanding of each provider’s specific preferences and expertise.

Cynthia Davis, President of Healthlink Advisors, says that many clinics are reluctant to let patients schedule visits online. The clinicians fear that the patient will choose the wrong doctor, time slot, or type of visit—or that the patient will enter critical information, such as medication names, incorrectly. Therefore, Davis advises starting small: Clinics should offer one or two slots per day for patient self-scheduling. More slots can be added as the clinic’s self-scheduling system is refined.

According to Davis, it’s also hard to offer an automated scheduling system when each doctor has specific preferences and requirements: patient type, time alloted for an initial or follow-up visit, and more. Establishing a common process is therefore important.

Davis says some of the attitudes toward self-scheduling, among both patients and doctors, are generational. Younger people are accustomed to online self-service, and therefore more likely to be comfortable self-scheduling their medical appointments.

Hari Prasad, CEO of Yosi Health, and Joseph Demmons, Application Integration Product Manager at Azalea Health, point out that patient self-scheduling portals are usually provided by the organization’s EHR vendor. For instance, MyChart was created by Epic—and Epic, notoriously, has little sensitivity and concern for the user experience. Epic’s system permits self-scheduling only for the most simple appointments.

When clinics rely on their EHR vendor for self-scheduling, they are almost always disappointed in the result. The patient portals provided by EHR vendors are difficult to use, can’t schedule complex appointments, and don’t take individual provider preferences into account.

According to Demmons, most software developers in health care are trapped in an obsolete approach. They design systems that favor the developers’ interests rather than those of the end-users.

Vendor Solutions

Stephen Dean, COO and co-founder of Keona Health, offered a three-level taxonomy of solutions to patient problems.

1. At the lowest level, the clinician does whatever they can to bulid on the conventional patient portal, which is usually provided by the EHR vendor. Dean says this is relatively old technology that facilitates only very basic scheduling, such as a generic “new patient visit”. Everything else gets sent as a “schedule request” to the call center or front desk, who then must contact the patient to book the appointment. Typically, he says, these sites can schedule only 10-15% of all visit types online.
2. Get a third-party, automated check-in platform such as Phreesia. These AI-powered platforms digitize many paper-based processes. Because their check-in logic accounts for more variables, such as insurance and provider preferences, than EHR portals do, their scheduling algorithms allow 30-50% of visits to be self-scheduled online.
3. Work with a patient access platform such as Keona Health. These platforms operate both online and inside the call center, and they therefore allow 50-90% of all visit types to be scheduled online. These platforms maintain a database of provider preferences, use AI to capture information from the call center, and support workflows unique to the call center location.

Interestingly, although Keona Health allows more than 90% of appointment types to be scheduled online, only 30% of their patients choose to do so. This number is still much higher than the industry-wide average of 10%.

athenahealth is one of the best-known companies for EHRs and collaboration in healthcare. I talked there with Curtis Sherbo, VP of product management for the patient experience, about their services.

Their services include scheduling, self check-in, consent forms, and advance copays—all of which can be performed without going through the clinician’s portal. Providers can configure questionnaires in the EHR for patient screening, which the patient can fill out through the platform.

Branden Neish, Chief Product Officer at Weave, said their platform gives patients what they want. A widget in the clinician’s portal lets patients self-schedule. The widget pulls information from the system and offers a drop-down list that lets the patient choose the type of treatment and a specific provider.

With the appointment in the system, the patient can then receive and fill out the necessary forms. Sometimes the patient’s mobile device already has information, such as their address and phone number, that is requested by the form. In this case, Weave can populate fields in the form automatically. Communication channels supported by Weave include phone calls, text, and email.

According to Prasad of Yosi Health, 82% of patients prefer a provider who offers online scheduling, and 44% said filling out forms is the worst part of the patient experience.

Yosi Health tries to reduce this friction in several ways. It is well documented that patients find it a barrier even to sign up for an account on a portal. Yosi Health dispenses with sign-ups and allows patients to schedule and fill out forms on any smartphones, desktops and laptops, etc.

Interacting without a traditional sign-up process raises the question of how to authenticate the patient. Yosi Health’s system uses a patient matching algorithm that matches the patient information available in the EMR, reinforced by a two-factor authenticator. This enables patients to securely access the system without the need for portal signup.

Having matched the patient, the system gets as much information as it can from the patient’s record, if they are in the clinical system already. The result is that visits can be scheduled online without the need for a phone call more than 85% of the time. Canceling and rescheduling are also easy.

Yosi Health also helps patients fill in forms without having to download an app or log in through a portal. The system is fully device agnostic. Yosi Health finds that 80% of patients fill in their forms before the visit, saving 14 minutes per patient at the clinic.

Clinicians can use a no-code generator to design the questions asked of the patient during scheduling and the check-in process, such as whether they are an existing patient and whether the appointment requested is a follow-up. Such automation addresses pressures on clinicians and helps reduce staff burnout.

Let’s Talk Interactive, Inc. (LTI) hooks into the EHR’s scheduling system—which is normally used just by providers—and opens it up for self-scheduling by patients. Patients have dashboards where they can find their current provider or request a visit with the next available provider. According to Art Cooksey, Founder and CEO, patients can also update documents in the dashboard.

Thus, self-scheduling and filling out forms in advance should be available to most patients. What about more sophisticated forms of online interaction with patients? A follow-up article will cover some options.

< + > Vendor Risk Management in Healthcare ––What It Is and Why It Matters

The following is a guest article by Brian Selfridge, Healthcare Cybersecurity & Risk Leader at CORL Technologies.

In 2023, healthcare organizations face an impossible paradox. On the one hand, they have no choice but to rely on third-party vendors––the ongoing digitization of healthcare would be impossible without them. On the other hand, these vendors have shown themselves to be highly vulnerable to attack, with ransomware and other breaches drastically impacting the ability of some health organizations to function effectively. Worse, these attacks are sometimes threatening patient safety, and causing regulatory non-compliance with HIPAA because of lost or stolen data.

The problem is worse than you might realize. No industry is immune to harm from cyberattacks, but healthcare has been hit particularly hard: according to a recent report from the Identity Theft Research Center, no other industry has experienced as many breach events in the last two years.

For this very reason, healthcare vendor risk management programs have taken on a new importance in recent years. While long-established in fields like finance, these kinds of technologies (like vendor risk management (VRM) technology, workflow automation, and vendor assessment clearinghouses and exchanges) are a relatively new phenomenon in the healthcare field. Below, we’ve assembled a quick guide to how VRM technology works and why it’s quickly gaining traction in the healthcare field.

What is VRM and How Does it Work?

Back when sensitive patient information was stored in physical files, healthcare organizations only had to worry about the (rare) physical break-in. Today––when third-party vendors store or manage infinite reams of Protected Health Information (PHI) and other sensitive data––the range of potential threats has increased exponentially.

This is why VRM is so important. It can take a wide variety of forms, but some of its most essential technological components include making sure assessment data (and supporting evidence) is exchanged efficiently (for instance, through automated vendor questionnaire technology); automated risk scoring, vendor tiering, and decision support; risk findings tracking and remediation capabilities (e.g. risk registers); workflow automation; and reporting and data visualization.

Of course, a high-performing VRM program involves a number of important factors beyond the technology itself. Vendor inventories need to be continually updated, and tiered based on criticality, impact and compliance exposure. Vendors who require remediation need to be prioritized, and that remediation activity needs to be tracked over time. Key performance indicators (KPIs), key risk indicators (KRIs), and service-level agreements (SLA) need to be vigorously and continually tracked. And––because the worst-case scenario can’t always be kept at bay, even with a quality VRM program in place––relevant parties need to prepare and practice communication plans to customers should a supply chain incident ever occur.

Working with Third-Party Vendors to Effect Remediation

So you’ve got a VRM program in place and you’ve identified a risk in one of your vendors. What happens next?

The process, unfortunately, is not automatic. Organizations that spot a risk must work on their own to drive the third-party vendor to remediate the issue in question. This is, of course, as important (if not more important) than identifying the risk in the first place––because a risk identified but not remediated is not of much value to anyone.

The name of the game here is prioritization. The National Institute of Standards in Technology’s 800-53 cybersecurity standard and compliance framework has hundreds of controls––it might not be reasonable to expect high maturity ratings in every single one. Instead, it might be worth lasering in on a subset of critical controls––for instance, a vendor’s vulnerability management and patching program, or its incident response plans.

It’s important, as well, to make sure you have a support model and communication plan in place: this should ideally be a bi-directional process, with expectations properly set on both sides around timeframe, escalation points, etc.

The Legal Side of VRM Programs

Failure to implement a quality VRM program and to work on remediation with third-party vendors opens healthcare organizations to intolerable quantities of risk. The primary risk, of course, is to patient data and security, but the secondary risks are painful as well––non-compliance with the various regulatory standards around VRM can lead to a tremendous amount of legal risk.

There are a few practical steps related to VRM programs that organizations can take to reduce their degree of legal exposure. These include updating contracts with vendors to include security requirements, defining specific Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and including them in contracts, and defining breach notification requirements as well as communication expectations for breach events.

Thorough VRM isn’t easy––nothing in healthcare ever is. But if patients are to be assured that their information is safe, healthcare organizations need to work proactively to implement it, enlisting the help of cybersecurity professionals and continually prodding third- and fourth-party vendors to effect the relevant changes. We can be wistful for the old times, when bad actors would have to physically break in to get access to patient paperwork; but we cannot delude ourselves about the risks at play today. Working proactive to lower those risks needs to be a top priority for healthcare organizations.

< + > Arrive Health Creates First-of-Its-Kind Medication Access Solution with Acquisition of Pharmacy Technology from UPMC Enterprises

Arrive Health, the leading provider of real-time benefit tools and integrated solutions that improve patient affordability, today announced the acquisition of a suite of innovative patient engagement and automation technologies developed by UPMC Enterprises and the UPMC Pharmacy Network.

Arrive Health will add AI-driven virtual assistant technology and a robust patient management system to its affordability offerings, expanding support for more than 200 million patients on their journey to fill and refill their medications. The combined assets will – for the first time – empower providers, care teams, and patients with shared clinical and cost information to achieve improved outcomes and patient access.

“We have a long-standing relationship with UPMC and I’m grateful their belief in our company led them to seek Arrive Health as the right partner to scale these capabilities. With these additions, we will support patients more holistically from the exam room to the pharmacy counter,” said Kyle Kiser, Chief Executive Officer at Arrive Health. “Presenting real-time medication options empowers patients throughout their journey and is an essential step in reducing costs for patients and risk-bearing entities. With UPMC’s adherence tools and our market-leading network, we will create a digital experience similar to what consumers experience outside of healthcare.”

For the past five years, UPMC Enterprises and UPMC pharmacy experts have developed and deployed technology to support medication adherence. The AI virtual assistant and integrated workflow tools allow care teams to prioritize patients who are at risk of skipping their medications and drive continuous engagement through automated conversation flows. With these tools, UPMC has demonstrated meaningful results, including a 200% improvement in refill-rate, a 32% reduction in 7-day readmissions, and the elimination of thousands of pharmacy calls per month.

“Technology is essential in transforming pharmacy and clinical operations, while improving patient outcomes. With these tools, we communicate with over 60,000 UPMC patients annually and make a meaningful difference in their lives, while streamlining processes for pharmacy staff,” said Rebecca Taylor, PharmD, MBA, Senior Director of Pharmacy at UPMC.

“Our goal is to take challenging problems and turn them into innovative technology-enabled solutions that help our patients as well as our provider, pharmacy, and health plan partners,” said Brenton Burns, Executive Vice President of UPMC Enterprises. “This development effort is a great example of what makes UPMC and UPMC Enterprises unique. UPMC’s clinical insights across all three spectrums allow us to create a scalable solution with proven results. Combining our two teams and strategically partnering with Arrive Health allows us to bring this solution to more providers and improve care for more patients.”

Arrive Health has built the industry’s leading cost and coverage network, delivering patient-specific data from over 200 million insured members into the prescribing workflows of over 300,000 providers. With the integration of the UPMC pharmacy technology, Arrive Health will further support pharmacy teams and the patients they serve by combining automated patient access resources with the power of consumer-facing real-time benefit checks.

UPMC has invested in Arrive Health as a part of this transaction, with a strong belief that the expanded solution suite is meeting an important need for patients across the country.

Health systems interested in improving patient engagement, medication adherence, and pharmacy automation should reach out to learn more about activating these solutions.

About Arrive Health

Arrive Health is a healthcare technology company dedicated to putting the needs of patients and providers first. We improve access to the most affordable, quality care by delivering accurate, patient-specific cost and coverage data to providers, care teams, and patients. Collaborating with premier health systems, pharmacy benefit managers, payers, and healthcare IT vendors, Arrive Health is clearing the way for better health by reducing friction in care workflows and enabling meaningful conversations about access to care. To learn more, please visit arrivehealth.com.

About UPMC

A $24 billion health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates more than 92,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 800 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, and a more than 4 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania. In the most recent fiscal year, UPMC contributed $1.5 billion in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region’s most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution, and paid more than $900 million in federal, state and local taxes. Working in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC shares its clinical, managerial, and technological skills worldwide through its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, and through UPMC International. U.S. News consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside among the nation’s best hospitals in many specialties and ranks UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh on its Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals.  For more information, go to upmc.com.

Originally announced January 18th, 2023

< + > Viagra And Heart Disease

The general population of men who had taken ED drugs had a 13% lower rate of MACE, 25% lower rate of mortality and 39% lower rate of CV mortality when compared to men who had not been exposed to ED drugs.

< + > Longevity Startup VitaDAO Raises $4.1m, Backed By Pfizer, Balaji Srinivasan

The web transformed life as we know it, allowing new ways of working, solving problems, and distributing currency.

< + > Samsung Products May Soon Offer Telehealth

The consumer electronics giant is increasing its footprint in healthcare.

< + > Djokovic, Sabalenka Win 2023 Australian Open After Tournament Slammed By Extreme Heat

Novak Djokovic won his 22nd Grand Slam title while Aryna Sabalenka won her first.

< + > U.K. To Offer More Home Care As Emergency Care Crisis Persists

Health officials in England have announced they will expand virtual wards and community response teams to keep more patients out of hospitals.

< + > Bonus Features – January 29, 2023 – ONC says more than 70% of hospitals can use external data at the point of care, the 3 largest health info networks have indexed 90% of patients, 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 and Studies

HLTH Foundation formed the Techquity for Health Coalition, with a mission to help organizations consider health equity in health technology innovation and data practices. The group also launched a health equity survey, with the results to be announced at ViVE in Nashville in March.

ONC’s latest data brief indicated that, as of the end of 2021, more than 60% of hospitals are actively engaged in sharing health information. About 75% of hospitals are members of regional HIE organizations, and 35% participate in regional and national HIEs. All told, 71% of organizations are now able to use data from external sources at the point of care.

A white paper from Particle Health, developer of an API enabling bidirectional data exchange, noted that the nation’s largest health information networks have indexed about 90% of all patients in the United States. The report also found that queries to the  CommonWell Health Alliance, Carequality, and eHealth Exchange took one minute to complete and returned 134 files per patients. Success rates varied tremendously by state, from a low of 38% in Montana to a high of 95% in Michigan.

Partnerships

• Price transparency platform UBERDOC is teaming with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs to offer cash pay medications through the doctors in its network.
• The Consortium for State and Regional Interoperability is partnering with eHealth Exchange in anticipation of the exchange being named a Qualified Health Information Network.
• Vizient selected MDsave as the technology platform for its High Value Network, which connects self-insured employers with health system partners for surgical care.
• Health information network Health Gorilla teamed with DrFirst to launch Pharmacy Data, which provides access to complete medication history data.
• AI Nexus Healthcare is integrating its senior care platform with SensorCall’s CareAlert home monitoring system.
• Smile Train and BioDigital launched a VR platform for cleft and palate surgeries, enabling surgeons around the world to collaborate.
• CHIME will provide executive education for AiMed at the AiMed Global Summit in June.

Products

• CipherHealth earned HITRUST Certified status for Evolve, its patient engagement platform. In addition, the company reported that CipherHealth clients using appointment reminder features decreased no-show rates by 71%.
• Telemental health platform Brightside Health achieved HITRUST Certification for its platform and infrastructure.
• Curebase released an integrated software and services package for digital therapeutics clinical trials.

Sales

• Adult cardiovascular practice MD365 and Brookhaven Heart chose eClinicalWorks healow for remote patient monitoring. In addition, Kansas City University (KCU) College of Dental Medicine is implementing eCW electronic dental record software.
• MEDITECH signed nine cloud-based Expanse clients in the fourth quarter of 2022.
• Intermountain Healthcare named Story Health as its technology partner for improve access to specialty care for patients with heart failure.
• Sentara Healthcare chose Datavant subsidiary Ciox for a pilot to help expecting and new mothers to access their health records.
• Bellin Health chose Kyruus ProviderMatch for patient digital access and self-scheduling.
• Orlando Health selected Biofourmis for vital sign monitoring and analysis for its hospital at home program.
• Evergreen Nephrology chose Innovaccer to support its transition to value-based kidney care.

Awards

• Acute virtual care company AvaSure recognized four health systems for advancing patient safety and improving care delivery: MaineHealth, ShorePoint Health, VA North Texas Health Care System, and Providence Health & Services – Oregon Region.
• Brain health platform Linus Health was featured in Built In’s Best Places to Work in Boston.

People

• HIMSS named Christine Buck as its Chief Marketing & Communications Officer.
• Clinical data exchange platform MRO added Matt Wildman as Chief Commercial Officer and Moliehi Weitnauer as Chief Product Officer.
• Staffing platform SnapNurse named Jeff Grant as Chief Executive Officer.
• EHR, RCM, and practice management software vendor Greenway Health named Mark Goodwin as Senior Vice President of Revenue Services.

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.

< + > Patients Flagged For Behavioral Issues Wait Longer, Get Less Care, New Study Shows

Labeling patients as difficult can be harmful, especially when those labels not equitably applied. A new study shows which which patients are most likely to be flagged.

< + > Bills Damar Hamlin Offers Thanks In Video, Conspiracy Theorists Claim It’s CGI

In the five-and-a-half minute video posted on Instagram, Hamlin thanked everyone who had saved his life, taken care of him, and sent him well wishes.

< + > Amazon’s Bold $5 Prescription Drug Program Is The Future Of Pharmacy

The company is disrupting how medications are acquired.

< + > No, Project Veritas Video Doesn’t Prove Pfizer Is Mutating Covid-19, Who Is Jordon Trishton Walker?

A Project Veritas video claimed that it featured someone named “Jordon Trishton Walker, Pfizer Director of Research and Development - Strategic Operations and mRNA Scientific Planning.”

< + > Weekly Roundup – January 28, 2023

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.

Lessons Learned From a Health System’s Internal Data Breach. An Alabama health system recently fired an employee who accessed 2,500 patient records without authorization. Mike Semel said this is a telltale example of why health systems need to enforce HIPAA’s minimum necessary access rule, along with logging access and updating incident response plans. Read more…

Improving Detection and Reporting of Elderly Falls. Falls are one of the biggest health hazards of aging. John Lynn spoke to Ajay Gulati at Kami Vision and learned how the company’s use of AI embedded in cameras aids fall detection and response. Read more…

Review: Epson DS-790WN Scanner. John sat down with one of Epson’s newest scanners. One of his favorite features was the 4.3″ color touchscreen that works well with mobile workstations, which are quite prominent in the healthcare setting. Read more…

Exploring ECRI’s Top Healthcare Hazards for 2023. The intersection of home health and medical devices is prominent in ECRI’s annual list of healthcare hazards, Colin Hung noted. The patient safety organization is particularly concerned about communication gaps related to safety issues or recalls. Read more…

What to Expect From This Year’s Health Datapalooza. John spoke with Lucia Savage at Omada Health and AcademyHealth about information blocking, medical misinformation, SDoH, and other key topics at next month’s Health Datapalooza. Read more…

Unpacking the Internet of Medical Things. The latest Healthcare IT Today Podcast is all about IoMT. John and Colin talk about the promise of new connected devices and also address what IoMT means for patient privacy and security. Read more…

What Matters Most for Virtual Care Adoption. With physicians and patients alike continuing to embrace virtual care, Janelle Estes at UserTesting offered four considerations for successful adoption of digital care technology and workflows. Read more…

Using Design Thinking to Advance SDOH Data Exchange. Preventing and managing chronic diseases requires thinking outside the box. Sarah Samis at GCOM described how design thinking improves SDOH data sharing among disparate organizations. Read more…

The Value of an Interoperability and Integration Partner. Data sharing has never been easier, but today’s healthcare organizations have hundreds of integration points. Loyd Bittle at Innovar Healthcare highlighted how experienced technology partners can help navigate this landscape. Read more…

Predicting the New Healthcare Truths of 2023. With the industry in a state of flux, Mike Noshay discussed Verinovum’s nine predictions for healthcare in 2023, paying particular attention to data quality, aggregation, and management. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Senior Solution Architect – Radiology for an Alabama-based client of e4 Services, posted to Healthcare IT Central.

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Respiratory medical equipment provider Viemed Healthcare invested $2 million in ModoHealth, a value-based care platform.
• IT staffing company Talent Group acquired Queen Consulting Group, which specializes in Epic implementations and other areas of health and pharma IT.
• Male fertility platform Posterity Health raised $7.5 million in an oversubscribed funding round.
• Precision health data company Velsera announced its launch following the acquisition and integration of three companies: Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec.

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

< + > England’s Hospitals Under ‘Relentless Pressure’ As E.R. Woes Continue

Data from England’s National Health Service shows lengthy ambulance delays and high bed occupancy in the country's hospitals.

< + > The Power Of Ordinary English To Improve Healthcare

How the skillful use of ordinary English language instead of medical jargon can improve patient understanding and outcomes.

< + > HIMSSCast: Getting to better data for better predictive models

A lack of quality clinical data is hindering machine learning models for oncology and other treatments, says Steve Irvine, CEO of integrate.ai, who describes how federated learning approaches can enable secure access to a wider array of datasets.

< + > Gaming tech is being used for dementia treatment

Andrus on Hudson's memory care residents become more engaged and social using a large gaming table designed specifically for people with cognitive challenges.

< + > Employee Fired for Inappropriately Accessing EHR Records

Even an ‘Internal Breach’ is a Breach

According to an announcement on its website, Alabama-based DCH Health Systems fired an employee for accessing and viewing over 2,500 patient records “without a legitimate business need related to the employee’s job duties.”

The notice said the breach was discovered “during a routine privacy audit.”

The records that may have been accessed and viewed without authorization include names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, dates of encounter, diagnoses, vital signs, medications, test results, and clinical/provider notes.

DCH said it does not know if the information was used or further disclosed and mailed letters to patients informing them of the breach and offering identity theft/credit monitoring services to those whose health plan ID numbers may have been involved.

There are lots of lessons to be learned from this incident. This is a good ‘teaching moment’ to share with your administrative and clinical managers and staff.

1. HIPAA includes a requirement for MINIMUM NECESSARY ACCESS. This means that those with authorized access to your medical records may only access records for authorized purposes, and they should only access the minimum amount of information required for the task they are completing. DCH Health Systems said the employee was fired for accessing records for unauthorized purposes.

Everyone knows that HIPAA requires patient information to be kept private and not shared with friends, family members, or anyone else without the patient’s authorization. (There are exceptions for providers and health plans to use patient information without the patient’s authorization for Treatment, Payment, and business Operations.)

What isn’t always effectively taught is that someone with access to a medical records system is violating HIPAA if they access records without a legitimate business purpose, commonly known as ‘snooping’. I have also seen HIPAA training courses that don’t educate staff that HIPAA lives on and protects health information for 50 years after a patient dies.

2. While there is no mention of criminal charges in the DCH Health Systems notice, this incident might be being investigated for criminal intent. HIPAA violations generally move from civil to criminal when there is intent to commit harm or if accessing the records is for personal gain. A Mayo Clinic doctor was arrested for accessing health records without authorization. In Tennessee, five former Methodist Hospital employees were fired and arrested for selling patient injury records to a chiropractor.

3. DCH Health Systems said it caught the unauthorized activity in December during a ‘routine privacy audit’.

HIPAA requires that computer activity logs be reviewed to identify unauthorized or inappropriate access. This can be hard to catch unless you involve clinical or administrative staff members who can spot when someone is accessing a record without a legitimate business purpose. For example, one of our medical practice clients caught a receptionist in one office snooping in records of patients who were visiting another office. Someone in IT would have just seen a name on a list and would probably not have know that the person was accessing records in another location.

One of the first requirements in the HIPAA Security Rule is an ‘Information System Activity Review’, meaning that computer activity logs must be reviewed to identify unauthorized activity. There are cybersecurity tools that can automatically identify unusual activity, such as a user who usually works from 8 am to 5 pm accessing records at 3 am. It is a lot harder to catch a staff member looking at a record for a patient they are not treating, billing, or reviewing for quality assurance purposes. This is why I involved department managers in our Information System Activity Reviews.

There is a related requirement in HIPAA for ‘Unique User Identification’, meaning that all computer users must be uniquely identifiable, prohibiting shared generic logins like ‘Nurse’, ‘Receptionist’, etc. Finally, HIPAA requires ‘Audit Controls’, meaning all access to electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) must be tracked in log files, with logs of all applicable systems (EHR, e-mail, network and cloud servers, Azure, AWS, Google Drive, etc.) retained for 6 years.

Several large HIPAA fines have been issued for not logging access, not using unique user identification, and not performing reviews of the logs. When I was the Chief Information Officer at a hospital, a nurse was fired for inappropriately accessing her former mother-in-law’s medical record. My consulting firm works with several clients that have terminated employees for accessing records without authorization.

4. Even though this was an ‘internal breach’ of health information, it was still a breach just like if the records had been stolen and sold by hackers. DCH Health Systems has followed the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule requirements for patient notification by publishing a notice on its website and sending letters to patients.

It isn’t clear if DCH Health Systems has followed the federal reporting requirement to report the incident ‘without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days from the discovery of the breach.’ because it has not yet appeared on the HIPAA ‘Wall of Shame’ website, where incidents involving over 500 records are shared. The requirement is sometimes misunderstood by those who think they have 60 days to report an incident to the Office for Civil Rights. The actual requirement is for reporting ‘without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days from the discovery of the breach’. If DCH Health Systems could send patients letters and post a notice on its website within 45 days, it would seem that submitting its required report could have been done at the same time.

According to Alabama’s data breach law, which covers Social Security Numbers, health plan ID numbers, and medical information, the incident should have also been reported to the state attorney general because it exceeded 1,000 individuals.

5. The employee was fired. It can be hard to fire an employee, particularly now when it is so hard to find good talent. But, HIPAA requires you to have a Sanction Policy that defines the ‘appropriate sanctions against workforce members who violate its policies and procedures.

Steps you should take now to make sure your patients are protected and your organization is aligned with your compliance requirements.

1. Review your HIPAA Security Rule requirements and ensure your technology is following the requirements for Information System Activity Review, Unique User Identification, and Audit Controls. Be sure to cover all systems that access, process, or store electronic Protected Health Information.
2. Make sure your Information System Activity Reviews include department managers and others who can recognize unusual activity that may be missed by someone not familiar with everyone’s roles and responsibilities.
3. Review the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule and your state data breach law and ensure your Incident Response Plan includes all the required notifications and reporting. Also review any contracts you have signed and your cyber insurance policy for notification requirements.
4. Share your Sanction Policy with your staff and enforce it when needed.

While there are no specific sanctions that must be in your policy, most organizations include several levels of sanctions based on the number of incidents, whether they were accidental or intentional, and the number of patient records involved. I have also worked with an organization that had a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for HIPAA incidents and fired a long-time nurse who admitted accessing a family member’s medical record.

Whatever your sanction policy is, make sure you share it with your staff. To avoid claims of discrimination and unfair termination, be sure to apply sanctions evenly, even if it means disciplining a long-term and well-liked staff member.

 

 

< + > Digital Healthcare Delivery: Four Things That Matter Most

The following is a guest article by Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, a video-based human insight platform.

In a world that runs at lightning speed and thrives on instant gratification, getting in to see a doctor tends to be a painfully slow exception.

On average, it takes 26 days to schedule a new patient appointment in-office in large U.S. cities, according to a recent study by medical staffing firm AMN Healthcare. And that number is rising, up from 24 days five years ago.

No wonder telehealth adoption is surging.

Development and innovation in telehealth was already underway in recent years, but usage skyrocketed during the pandemic as people sought alternatives to in-person visits and it remains high today. According to a McKinsey report, telehealth utilization is 38 times higher than before COVID-19. 

The result: healthcare consumerization that is transforming the industry in much the same way that digitization has shaken up retail and so many other sectors. The balance of power has shifted to individuals rather than bureaucracies as a whole as choices and expectations grow.

Truth is, in an on-demand world where people can order almost anything on Amazon and have it show up on their doorstep a day or two later, being forced to wait 26 days for a doctor appointment feels archaic. 

Consumers want access to healthcare with the same ease and speed they have become accustomed to in the rest of their lives. That dynamic encompasses not only telemedicine but a range of other digital experiences like health apps and wearable devices.

“Virtual healthcare models and business models are evolving and proliferating,” McKinsey said, “moving from purely virtual urgent care to a range of services” that could “improve consumer experience/convenience, access, outcomes, and affordability.”

Doctors also understand the new environment. A survey by the American Medical Association (AMA) showed that physicians, like their patients, have responded very positively to the telehealth spike. Eighty-five percent feel telehealth has increased timeliness of care, 75 percent said it allows them to deliver high-quality care, and 70 percent are motivated to increase telehealth use.

Further fueling telehealth’s momentum, the federal government and many states have taken action to require that healthcare providers be reimbursed the same amount for telehealth visits as those in person.

Digitally enabled care is here to stay, and the healthcare industry must step up its game to deliver not just a high-quality patient experience but an easy, enjoyable customer one.

Let’s dive deeper into four specific areas that matter to healthcare consumers and the questions industry players must address.

1. Medical Sites, Portals, and Apps

So many of people’s interactions with physicians have moved online. Patient portals, for example, have become a preferred platform for asking questions, getting prescriptions refilled, and receiving test results.

Given the growing importance of these access points, healthcare providers should go the extra mile in making sure they are as simple to use as possible. Sites and apps don’t necessarily need to be elegant in design, but they should at least be straightforward to navigate and use, especially given that healthcare consumers tend to skew older and are less tech-savvy. 

Is our portal easy or frustratingly clunky? Would someone with motor impairment have trouble using it? Our site offers a way to book appointments online, but does it really work? Are patients confident that we’re as responsive online as in person or on the phone, or are they afraid something may fall through the cracks? Is access to electronic health records immediate, and are they clear to read? These are the kinds of questions healthcare providers should ask.

2. Delivery of Care Instructions, Reminders, and more

Healthcare providers now are obligated to think like consumer brands and consider the mechanisms by which they communicate with their “customers.”

Do we enable every patient to choose how they receive information, appointment reminders, etc. (email, text, phone call)? Do we bombard patients with more general outreach (health tips, etc.) than the individual cares to see? Do we let them opt in for certain communications and opt out of others. 

Again, these are the sorts of questions consumer brands ask themselves all the time and healthcare providers must do the same in assessing their overall “brand” experience.

3. Long-Term Care Experiences

Meg Barron, the AMA’s vice president of digital health innovations, has said, “It’s not whether telehealth will be offered, but how best to offer telehealth services as we move toward what we’re terming digitally enabled care—which is not just hybrid care, but more so fully integrated in-person and virtual care based on clinical appropriateness.”

That’s spot on. The digital transformation that healthcare providers are undergoing isn’t about this or that technology in isolation, or about one mode of delivery or another, but rather a holistic upleveling of the entire consumer experience. With everything they do, physicians and other providers should think, as consumer brands do, in terms of the buyer journey.

4. Wearable Devices

While healthcare is shifting to digital experiences, there’s also a proliferation of wearable devices and trackers tied to overall wellness. Wearable technology includes electronic devices worn on or close to the body that monitor health or physical activity and can even send data to a physician or other healthcare professional in real time.

The global wearable devices market is projected to grow to $30.1 billion by 2026 from $16.2 billion in 2021, according to Markets and Markets. Research from Insider Intelligence shows that more than 80 percent of consumers are willing to wear such technology. 

However, the makers of these devices and the physicians who recommend them must carefully assess how well patients can interact with them in their own natural settings. Plain and simple, they have to be easy to use or they’ll just end up collecting dust in a drawer.

It’s really important that manufacturers and healthcare pros reach a thorough understanding of devices’ real-world effectiveness.

By keeping these four areas in mind, healthcare providers can meet the challenge that digitization presents and offer their patients/customers the best-in-class digital experiences they have come to expect in other parts of their lives.

It’s a historic challenge, but if the industry maintains the right focus, the prognosis is good for meeting it.

< + > Viemed Invests $2M in ModoHealth

Viemed Healthcare, Inc., a respiratory care and technology-enabled home medical equipment services company, announced that it has made a strategic investment in ModoHealth, a value-based care and patient management platform connecting payors, patients, and post-acute providers. ModoHealth expects to use the proceeds of the investment to fund the expansion of its proprietary patient management network, which combines clinical tools, remote patient monitoring, data analysis and patient-centric engagement.

“We are incredibly excited to partner with the team at ModoHealth to grow the innovative population health platform,” said Casey Hoyt, CEO at Viemed. “Data-driven care coordination solutions available in the home are critical to the evolution of value-based healthcare delivery models. In addition to supporting ModoHealth patients as a technology enabled post-acute provider on its platform, we look forward to expanding Viemed’s collaboration with ModoHealth as a strategic investor.”

ModoHealth’s technology enables partners across the care continuum to collaborate through a secure platform in order to treat numerous disease states, supporting joint care coordination, evidence-based planning, tracking of patient engagement, and reporting of outcomes. Payors seeking to develop, implement, and manage value-based arrangements are able to utilize the platform to measure and improve costs by reducing hospitalizations and overall utilization. Providers benefit from the platform’s connectivity and data integration, improving the efficiency of workflows and facilitating effective care planning and delivery. Patients are able to utilize connected devices to access daily well-being check-ins, medication tracking and alerts, learning lessons and activities, and telehealth, ultimately strengthening the relationship with the care team and improving outcomes. Viemed expects to leverage its connected health care expertise to treat patients in the ModoHealth network suffering from COPD, sleep apnea, and other respiratory conditions.

In exchange for its $2 million cash investment, Viemed received an 18-month secured convertible promissory note and Viemed will participate in the ModoHealth provider network, utilizing the ModoHealth software platform to improve patient outcomes through enhanced patient engagement.

Originally announced January 13th, 2023

< + > Just 28% Of Americans Are Exercising Enough, CDC Says—And It’s Even Lower In Some Regions

A CDC analysis found stark differences in time spent doing physical activity between different regions of the U.S. and between rural areas and cities.

< + > U.S. Healthcare Delivery Is In Critical Condition But Failure Is Not An Option. What’s Next?

While signs of a new market-based model, defined by greater accountability, payment connected to outcomes and greater transparency in cost and quality, are afoot, this can only be fully realized if delivery organizations pivot in a way that puts the patient consumer squarely at the center.

< + > Visiting Green Spaces Regularly Might Just Lower The Use Of Some Prescription Medicines

Irrespective of anyone’s socioeconomic status, those who are able to regularly visit green spaces like parks and community gardens has been associated with a lower use of prescription medicines for anxiety, depression, insomnia, asthma, and high blood pressure.

< + > Orlando Health to launch AI-driven hospital-at-home services

The health system selected Biofourmis, which can analyze more than 120 biomarkers in real-time, to extend hospital-level care to patients across Central Florida. 

< + > InnovationRx: Health System Quality; Plus, A Yearly Covid Vaccine

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

< + > Calling All Members Of Congress: Do You Know Your District's Health?

Today's unveiling of the Congressional District Health Dashboard offers policymakers a new and important resource.

< + > Missouri drug monitoring program taps Bamboo Health for operations

The state has signed the Kentucky-based healthcare IT company, which now operates PDMPs in 44 states, to run a heavily-debated program expected to launch in Spring 2023.

< + > Epson DS-790WN Scanner Review for Healthcare

We’re back again with another review of a high quality, high speed scanner.  In this case, we had a chance to review the Epson DS-790WN.  This fast, secure scanner would be a great fit for many of healthcare’s scanning needs and could work great for a lot of healthcare organizations.

Besides having the core capabilities you would expect in a high speed scanner, I really loved the 4.3″ color touch screen on this scanner.  While most scanners can do a lot of the same functions when connected to a PC, the intuitive touch screen is a great feature for healthcare where you may be using a scanner that isn’t connected to your own PC.  This is particularly true for doctors and nurses that may be using a mobile device or cart on wheels.

Epson was kind enough to send me the Epson DS-790WN so I could put it through its paces and review its features for you here at Healthcare IT Today.  You can check out my full video review of the device and take a look at some of the top features below:

• 45 pages per minute (PPM) – Duplex Scanning
• Daily Duty Cycle 7000 sheets
• 100 page ADF Capacity
• Blank Page Detection
• Twain Driver
• Paper handling – Misfeed and Double Feed Detection
• 4.3” Color Touchscreen Display – Programmable Icons
• Thumbnail Preview
• USB, Wireless and Lan
• Document CapturePro Software
• 3 Year Limited Warranty with Free Next Business Day Shipping

Learn more about the Epson DS-790WN.

Check out all the Health IT Product reviews we do at Healthcare IT Today and be sure to subscribe to Healthcare Scene on YouTube.

< + > Engineering Cells For Medical Use: Learning The Language Cells Use To Communicate With One Another

The researchers from the University of California, San Francisco theoretically recompose the signaling domains of CAR T cells and explore possible impacts on cell-cell communication.

< + > CSRI, eHealth Exchange partner up for TEFCA

The collaboration will see five of the biggest health data exchanges in the U.S. working with the planned Qualified Health Information Network on the interoperability framework.

< + > The End Of Obesity

Since its 2021 launch, Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy set the stage for the next generation of anti-obesity drugs that target the gut’s weight-regulating mechanisms. Now, a new drug on the scene promises to be more effective and safer than any other weight loss drug before.

< + > UV Nail Polish Dryers May Cause Skin Cancer

A new study from the University of California San Diego has found that UV-emitting nail polish dryers used to cure the chemicals used in gel manicures may cause cancer.

< + > More Americans Delaying Healthcare Because Of Cost, New Survey Shows

New research from Gallup shows that more Americans than ever are delaying healthcare due to costs. Rates of delaying care differ based on gender, age, and income.

< + > NextGen Healthcare hit by BlackCat ransomware

The EHR and integrated healthcare IT vendor was hit with the new ransomware variant, in operation since late 2021. Operations are back to normal, the company reports. 

< + > Mental Health: England Launches Review Into Safety Of Services

The country has seen several patient safety scandals at mental health facilities in recent months.

< + > Hyndman Area Health Center cuts IT bill in half with the cloud

It has experienced a more than 150% increase in patients and has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few years since it no longer relies on physical servers.

< + > In The U.S., Conspiracy Theories And Alternate Facts Undermine Public Health And Cause Death

The insidious agenda of anti-vaccine activism and supporters of so-called “health freedom” has led to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths. Inexplicably, anti-vaccine activism extends well beyond novel Covid-19 vaccines. It includes childhood vaccines that have been around for many decades.

< + > Elevance Health To Buy Louisiana Blue Cross Plan

Elevance Health will buy Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, adding to its family of Anthem Blue Cross plans in 14 other states.

< + > FDA’s New Covid Vaccine Strategy Could Be Similar To Annual Flu Shots, Report Says

The FDA’s proposed strategy will replace the current two shots followed by an annual shot that is updated to protect against the most prevalent variants.

< + > What's ahead for health IT policy and legislation in 2023

The government relations team at HIMSS offers some insights on what's next for telehealth, broadband expansion, interoperability rules and more in the year ahead.

< + > Needle moving on drug monitoring program efficacy, ONC says

While more data is still needed to reveal if mandated compliance programs decrease opioid prescription diversion and doctor shopping, new ONC studies show "substantial growth" in the use of EPCS and "widespread use" of PDMPs in 2021.

< + > Three 2023 telemedicine trends that advance the 'new normal' in healthcare

A telehealth and remote patient monitoring expert points to ongoing momentum, market positioning and specialty care as keys moving forward.

< + > IoMT – Internet of Medical Things – Healthcare IT Today Podcast Episode 106

For the 106th episode of the Healthcare IT Podcast, we are discussing the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)! First we analyze what IoMT makes us think of and what it includes. Then, we share what devices we’re excited to see come out. Next, we take a look at what the recent explosion of IoMT means for healthcare organizations. And lastly, we debate on the impact IoMT has on security and privacy.

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

• What do you think of when you see the term IoMT?
• Are there devices or categories of devices that you are excited about?
• What will the explosion in IoMT mean for healthcare organizations?
• What impact does IoMT have on security and privacy?

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:

< + > New Company, Velsera, Represents Summa Equity’s Vision to Improve Global Health Outcomes

New company advances precision health through data-driven solutions

New company Velsera was announced today at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, California. The vision for Velsera is supported by thematic-focused impact fund Summa Equity (Summa).

The promise of precision medicine is held back by barriers across routine health practice and discovery. Existing companies offer partial solutions, but no single company enables the unlocking of insights waiting to be revealed inside data – the status quo is siloed and disconnected. Velsera enables the democratization of omic data across clinical and research applications.

Velsera transforms science, technology, and informatics into an ecosystem of insight, making data actionable through the integration of a rich software platform, deep domain expertise, and knowledge that accelerate the pace and potential of multi-omics. Velsera sets out to amplify the impact of clinicians, researchers and scientists for the benefit of patients around the world. 

Velsera’s initial formation comes with  the acquisition of three global, industry-leading companies in the healthcare and life science industries: Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec. Velsera unites these companies to advance and bring together their missions which are centered around improving health globally through multi-omics and insights. The integrated business will remain actively engaged with existing customers, enhance current offerings, accelerate new offerings, and bring integrated solutions to market as the leading provider of global omics and insights.

• Pierian – Based in St. Louis, MO, Pierian is a global leader in clinical genomics technology and services supporting a network of laboratories around the globe. Pierian curates the world’s genetic knowledge and offers sophisticated analysis tools to allow for rapid, concise clinical reporting. Its advanced interpretation technology uses adaptive learning algorithms to connect diverse sources of information through machine learning to ensure results are comprehensive and up to date. 
• Seven Bridges – Boston, MA-based Seven Bridges enables researchers to extract meaningful insights from multi-omic, phenotypic and other high throughput data modalities. The Seven Bridges ecosystem consists of a scalable, secure multi-cloud analytic platform, petabytes of connected biomedical data and expert on-demand professional services.
• UgenTec – Belgian-founded (with U.S. offices) UgenTec brings sample flow intelligence to labs, assay manufacturers and instrument partners to advance modern molecular diagnostics across routine and research applications. UgenTec software and AI solutions deliver workflow automation, testing result interpretation at scale and real-time insights for the digital, connected lab. UgenTec specialties include lab automation, PCR data analysis and clinical-grade software solutions.

Velsera, headquartered in Boston, will be led by CEO Gavin Nichols. Gavin was most recently CEO of the global Medical Imaging and eClincial company Calyx, a spinout from Parexel. He has 30+ years of business experience, with 20 years in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Notably, Gavin was a life science practice partner for several years at Unisys and spent over a decade at Quintiles as a Vice President, covering divisions such as Advanced Analytics, Innovation R&D, Customer Alliances and Partnerships. Nichols has also worked at Capgemini, Bioclinica, Perspectum Diagnostics, and Certara. As the Velsera CEO he will lead a diverse team of industry experts to advance precision medicine and close the value loop between clinical testing, health care and discovery of knowledge and insights for customers that improves global human health.

On leading Velsera, Nichols said, “I am very excited to launch Velsera and look forward to leading the highly accomplished teams from Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec. Our executive team has knowledge and experience that spans the ecosystem. Collectively we understand the unmet needs of customers and partners, how various stakeholders interact directly and indirectly, and how to uniquely address the unmet needs. As Velsera, we will catalyze the conversion of siloed, global data into insights from clinical and R&D settings to reveal the true promise of precision medicine. We will provide a continuous flow of knowledge among researchers, scientists and clinicians around the world to accelerate the impact of research, expand access to clinical care, and radically improve human health.”

“Summa is driven by a mission to improve the world, through our impact-focused investments in era-defining issues. We believe that the combination of these three leading healthcare and life sciences companies will accelerate innovation and deliver change at remarkable scale, contributing to the Summa thesis and our dedication to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Velsera’s creation meets UN SDG Goal 3, good health and well-being, by reducing the cost of development of new diagnostics, therapies and drugs, as well as increasing access for underserved populations, and driving global adoption of new bio-computational methods,” comments Hans Cobben, Chair of the Board at Velsera and thematic partner at Summa Equity.

About Velsera

Velsera is the precision engine company. We connect healthcare and life sciences to reveal the true promise of precision medicine – a continuous flow of knowledge among researchers, scientists and clinicians around the world, creating insights that radically improve human health. Today Velsera comprises three global, industry leading organizations  in the healthcare and life science industries: Pierian, Seven Bridges, and UgenTec, and growth and expansion should be expected in 2023 and beyond. For more information: velsera.com  

About Summa Equity

Summa invests in companies that are solving global challenges and creating positive Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) outcomes for society.

Summa’s purpose is to co-create win-win for investors, portfolio companies, and society through aligning its vision and outcomes to the Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring a net-positive impact against ESG challenges, and the potential for long-term, sustainable outperformance.

Investments are focused on industries and companies that have tailwinds from megatrends within three sustainability themes: Resource Efficiency, Changing Demographics, and Tech-Enabled Transformation. Across these themes, Summa’s portfolio companies are supporting a world in transition and showing that business can be part of the solution. Summa Equity has c. EUR 4 billion assets under management. For more information: summaequity.com  

Originally announced January 12th, 2023

< + > Microsoft Is Aggressively Investing In Healthcare AI

Paige is the latest AI company and venture to partner with Microsoft.

< + > Why Antidepressants Might Make Users Feel Emotionally Numb

In a new study, a group of scientists found that a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) can affect reinforcement learning, which refers to a person’s decision-making abilities.

< + > Chiefs Patrick Mahomes Has A High Ankle Sprain, Here’s What This Means

This is what makes a high ankle sprain different from more common ankle sprains and why recovery takes longer.

< + > New Multi-Drug Resistant Gonorrhea Detected In U.S., 2 Cases In Massachusetts

These were the first cases in the U.S. of Neisseria gonorrhoeae being resistant to six of seven types of antibiotics.

< + > Bonus Features – January 22, 2023 – 69% of digital health companies report data set gaps, 66% of patients don’t know where their healthcare data goes, 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 and Studies

Amid the push for interoperability, data gaps persist, according to the inaugural State of Interoperability report from Health Gorilla, a health information network. The survey of provider, EHR, lab, and digital health executives found that 69% of digital health companies experience gaps in their data sets, while 60% of health systems report that data retrieved from HIEs is duplicative or incomplete. That said, the majority of executives support TEFCA as well as information sharing for use cases beyond clinical care.

Two-thirds of patients don’t know where their healthcare data goes when they leave the doctor’s office, according to the latest survey from data platform Carta Healthcare. This is despite the fact that 65% of survey respondents saying they believe patients should own their data. In addition, 60% of respondents said they don’t have immediate access to their medical records after an appointment – and 17% don’t know if they have access at all.

Only 52% of healthcare workers believe they are paid fairly, according to the Qualtrics 2023 Healthcare Experience Trends Report, which surveyed 3,000 workers in 27 countries. Nearly 4 in 10 workers reported that they’re considering leaving their current role, and a similar percentage (38%) are at risk of burnout. This is having an impact on the patient experience, as more consumers said they are satisfied with their insurance plan (76%) than with their hospital (74%).

Research from analytics and value-based care platform Clarify Health confirmed that Higher surgical volume of hip and knee replacements resulted in better clinical and financial outcomes. High-volume surgeons had readmission rates that were up to 51% lower than low-volume surgeons, while the total cost of care as $2,800 for hip replacements and $1,500 lower for knee replacements.

Global AI cybersecurity firm Darktrace reported that healthcare organizations are increasingly susceptible to suspicious network scanning, which is often the first step in a cyberattack. The company also noted that the volume of data exfiltration threats against healthcare increased in 2022 – not surprising given the value of healthcare data to attackers.

DirectTrust announced announced TNAP-Participant program, Version 2.0 criteria is available for public comment until March 20. This version of the accreditation program address the Recognized Coordinating Entity (RCE) requirements for working with Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs).

Thirty-nine vendors and organizations signed the Global Health Equity Network Zero Health Gaps Pledge at the World Economic Forum, pledging to reduce gaps in health equity through their organizations. Notable healthcare technology signatories include Accolade, Cityblock Health, and StartUp Health, along with providers such as Boston Medical Center, Hackensack Meridian Health, and Kaiser Permanente.

Partnerships

• Diagnostics company PERSOWN launched SMASH-H, its open platform for monitoring sepsis in the hospital and at home, with the platform’s predictive analytics powered by SAS.
• DrFirst is collaborating with wellconnected, a social and mental care platform, to connect clients for referrals, services, and follow-up.
• ShiftMed has integrated with UKG, enabling streamlined healthcare workforce and schedule management.
• Data sharing platform Datavant is partnering with Socially Determined to provide deidentified social risk data at the patient level. In addition, Datavant received FedRAMP authorization for cybersecurity and compliance.
• Clinical decision support system VisualDx received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support national public health efforts in India and Nigeria.

Products

• AVIA launched AVIA Marketplace, a platform connecting hospitals and health systems to curated digital health tools.
• Workflow automation company OmniLife Health expanded its FlowHawk platform to cover oncology, organ transplant, and other complex care use cases.
• Community health network AllianceChicago achieved a 13% increase in well-child visits and immunizations using QliqSOFT chatbots, which were donated to support the research project.
• Healthcare workforce development company HealthStream has issued 1 million life support certifications.

Awards

• Advata CEO Julie Rezek was recognized as a Female Executive of the Year by the TITAN Women In Business Awards for launching the advanced analytics company six months after integrating six merged companies.
• Health information network Availity was named a Great Place to Work for the third consecutive year.

People

• RPM solution provider Clear Arch Health made two additions to its business development leadership team. Bill Paschall joins as Senior Vice President, Growth and Strategic Accounts, and Matt Peterson joins as VP, Sales and Business Development.
• The American Telemedicine Association named Cigna’s Mary Griskewicz the chair of its Policy Council and also appointed three new members to the council.
• Medical device security firm Cylera appointed Geyer Jones as Chief Operating Officer.
• Consultancy ICF announced Jennifer Welham as the head of its health, human services, and workforce business.
• Law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner appointed Jennifer Csik Hutchens as Global Head of Health Care.

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.