< + > Uber Hits Another Milestone In Healthcare, Launching Same-Day Prescription Delivery

Uber Health is launching yet another initiative to increase access to care.

< + > Weight Loss Drug Saxenda May Make WHO List: Could Help Make It Cheaper Worldwide

Liraglutide has been approved for weight loss since 2014 by the FDA.

< + > This Mission is Possible: Achieving Better Data in Healthcare

The following is a guest article by Sarah Bavar, RN, BSN, Director at ReMedi Health Solutions.

At ReMedi, we frequently support health systems going through transitions at various stages of the EHR life cycle. Along the way, we almost inevitably uncover challenges surrounding the quality of the patient data transferred to the new and existing EHR. 

Eventually, that information must be reconciled in the new system with all of the disparate sources, including legacy system(s), scanned documents, continuum of care documents (CCDs), and various databases (archives, HIEs, pharmacy databases, state registries, etc.). It’s just a question of when this happens and who does the work. 

Healthcare organizations have two options for this. Clinicians can spend more time on each patient chart before, during, or after the clinic visit. Or, the organization can leverage an outsourced clinical data team to augment the abstraction efforts of the internal clinical staff. 

For an even more in-depth view into our approach to chart abstraction, download our comprehensive whitepaper: How A Clinically Driven Chart Abstraction Process Improves the Continuum of Care.

Clinicians vs. Abstractors: Who should do it?

It takes about 20 minutes or more to sift through all of the disparate data sources to reconstruct an accurate patient chart in a new EHR. While the idea of having access to CCD data appears to be helpful, without referencing the legacy system simultaneously to reconcile it, the data itself is not useful. It’s a different story when a clinician looks under the hood at what sort of data gets transferred from the chart. There’s a misconception about data transfer and the format in which information is migrated to the new EHR. When a clinician looks at a new chart after data transfer, it is difficult to determine what patient information is accurate and useful. 

The resulting patient chart is often difficult to follow because it’s convoluted, confusing, and inaccurate, containing mix-and-match information from multiple systems. It’s like a fire hose sprayed data into the chart without any clear direction or control. 

Clinicians can’t determine what information is the most recent or accurate—or they’re missing data altogether. This can dramatically increase costs from organizational inefficiencies, lower the quality of patient outcomes, and create a dangerous situation for patient safety. 

Ultimately, we find that a hybrid approach is optimal, whereby a health system partners with a clinical data team and collaborates to solve the data quality issues within the EHR. This approach relieves the majority of the work from clinicians and lets them focus on highly complex issues that require more time to analyze and solve. Not only does the hybrid model relieve burden and reduce clinician burnout, but it also ensures the highest quality data in the EHR.

What a successful abstraction process looks like

While data science is a field dominated by mathematics, statistics, and computer science, healthcare data requires additional clinical knowledge and close attention to detail. Health systems must leverage clinical oversight on each deployed resource to serve as a valuable extension of their organizations.

The work requires a significant amount of time and effort. But it’s worth the investment. Hindered care delivery and operational inefficiencies are simply not an option. 

When done correctly, successful chart abstractions give clinicians a clean slate with accurate data for delivering top-quality care right away. They have more time to improve the patient experience and spend less time making sense of the EHR. 

ReMedi’s approach to chart abstraction is to first train our clinical data team. They learn to perform a step-by-step process that considers all the important elements from previous records to ensure patient safety and meet organizational needs. 

For example, medications are reconciled against the active medication list, leveraging data from various systems. This includes comparing order dates, prescriptions, discontinued and suspended medications, and other notes documented by clinicians. 

When our team builds its strategy for reconciling an organization’s patient data, we develop a gold standard for data governance and how to approach patient information. This trickles down to clinicians making future additions to the charts and leading them to view the EHR as a valuable tool to help provide optimal care. 

When it’s time to begin chart abstractions, we begin by developing a step-by-step process to check and reconcile all data sources to ensure we don’t miss any pertinent patient information. We see lots of complex issues with patient records during this stage of data migration. While working through the challenges, we make sure each patient chart supports clinical decision-making from the very first time a provider visits with a patient after the transition. 

The biggest issue we’ve seen occurs when clinicians don’t realize what the patient charts look like after migration until the new system is live. Their needs are not often given enough attention during the transition process. And that’s a problem. 

Health systems must prioritize data as a vital tool for clinician satisfaction. They must consider the clinician experience at every stage of the EHR transition. This will help improve their adoption, job satisfaction, and the overall quality of new data added later on.

A quick note on the potential for automation

Through our work over the years, we’ve discovered the potential for machine learning to aid our process. By pairing our team’s clinical knowledge with the right artificial intelligence model, our goal is to elevate the industry standards for the speed and accuracy of chart abstraction. 

Organizations can make significant strides toward these goals through machine learning and AI-powered automation. For instance, computers could take active medication data, reconcile it, place it in chronological order, remove duplicates, clean up and present it to the clinical staff for review.

This is the future of chart abstraction, and at ReMedi, we are actively working to make it a reality.

Overall, we’re optimistic about the future of health data. As health systems continue to become data rich and accumulate vast amounts of information, health IT companies must create solutions that automate and optimize the clinical process. 

Our big and audacious goal

At ReMedi, it’s our goal to make the EHR the single source of truth for clinicians. We are focused on reducing clinician burnout, optimizing chart abstraction, and educating health systems on best practices for documentation and data governance.

Download the in-depth whitepaper for more information on our approach to chart abstraction, and connect with me on LinkedIn to talk more about data quality in the EHR. 

About Sarah Bavar, RN, BSN

Sarah is a Registered Nurse, turned clinical informatics professional who leverages her time in the clinical setting to improve data quality within health systems. Using her extensive clinical experience, Sarah is dedicated to improving patient care by enhancing the quality of patient data for clinicians and providers. Sarah collaborates with several teams at ReMedi, including leadership, data migration, chronic care management, and health policy. Sarah’s leadership and direction as a nurse play an integral role in improving the adoption of the EHR for clinicians.

< + > HIMSSCast: Cybersecurity priorities from the HITRUST expert

Robert Booker, chief strategy officer at the Health Information Trust Alliance and a 30-year cybersecurity veteran, offers his thoughts on what every healthcare provider organization needs to know about information security strategy.

< + > Cybersecurity: Hoping for the Best, but Preparing for the Worst

In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to worry about cybersecurity for healthcare. But unfortunately that is just not the case. Instead with how deeply personal and important the information and data that we hold is in the world of healthcare, we need to be prepared for the absolute worst. All systems should have protections in place against even the worst of cyber threats.

But doing so is a very daunting task since technology is so deeply embedded into everything we do. So where do we start? What areas could your organization be overlooking? We reached out to our incredibly talented Healthcare IT Today Community for these answers. The following is what they had to say on how to stay safe and can be used as a little check list for your healthcare cybersecurity efforts.

Christopher Toth, Director of Compliance and Risk Management at hc1

In today’s healthcare IT landscape, ensuring your partners take data protection and information security as seriously as your organization is key. While arguably some are very time consuming and resource intensive to achieve, this is where the return on investment of an industry certification pays for itself. For instance, whether your organization achieves a SOC2 or HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year (r2) Validated Assessment certification, it demonstrates to your prospective partner your organization’s commitment to data protection and information security at the highest levels.

Ameesh Divatia, CEO at Baffle

I’m thrilled to see the national cybersecurity legislation broken down by pillars and the strategic objectives articulated eloquently. While individual state legislative efforts so far have made an impact, these separately cannot replace one consistent policy across the United States. And, as cybercriminals continue to invent ways to exploit new and existing vulnerabilities, we must provide healthcare organizations with tools to stop—or at least slow them. The burden will fall to software developers and service providers, thus elevating the data-centric approach to cybersecurity.

Pillar 1: Protect Critical Infrastructure, Modernize Systems: The first pillar of the strategy is fundamental in its approach to protecting critical infrastructure. The strategic objective aims to modernize federal systems with a zero trust architecture strategy that includes encryption, sophisticated multi-factor authentication, and access control while adopting cloud-based security controls.

Pillar 2: Implement Security Controls: The next pillar reinforces this foundation by shaping market forces to build resilience through security controls that hold data collectors accountable. This leads up to NIST-approved data protection at the record-level.

Pillar 3: Use Data Responsibly: The final pillar sets the stage for a resilient privacy-preserving data ecosystem that guarantees individual rights without giving up on the need to gain insights from critical data.

We feel energized and motivated by these initiatives that enable us to build a future where data producers and processors can collaborate in a well-regulated environment managed by a federal mandate for cybersecurity responsibility.

Tim Meyers, Vice President of Federal Cybersecurity at Maximus

IT departments at federal health agencies should engage with cybersecurity experts at the start of all IT decisions to ensure that modernization efforts are designed with a foundation that prioritizes data security and availability alongside maximizing user experience to promote better health outcomes.

Kynan Carver, DoD Cybersecurity Lead at Maximus

By implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) for cybersecurity, health agencies and organizations can effectively increase patient confidence in exchanging medical information. The benefits of this can have a cascading impact, ultimately helping to ensure that more patients are willing to provide personal health data and engage with public health programs more of the time – leading to better health data acquisition, knowledge, and potentially better health outcomes.

Ben Herzberg, Chief Scientist at Satori

We are living in a time where healthcare organizations have to balance between collecting and utilizing patient data for analytics and ensuring the privacy and security of that data. It’s a delicate balance and one that requires a comprehensive data security platform that provides visibility and control over access to data while avoiding any changes to the underlying data, schema, or user experience. With the right data security platform, healthcare organizations can ensure that patient data is secure while also making sure that it is available to those who need it when they need it.

Steve Gwizdala, Vice President Healthcare at ForgeRock

Healthcare continues to be the industry most impacted by data breaches. In 2021, healthcare-related data breaches made up 24% of overall cybersecurity incidents, the largest across all industries. It should come as no surprise that as healthcare breaches rise, so has the average cost to mitigate them.

Vigilance and new ways of enhancing cybersecurity measures will be crucial to healthcare organizations and businesses responsible for protecting the personal information of consumers stored online in 2023 and beyond. The traditional password and username approach is no longer enough to properly protect such valuable information. Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA), passwordless authentication, and zero-trust architecture ensures users experience a high level of security while mitigating risk and reducing opportunities for malicious actors to capture patient medical records.

The demand for security and flexibility is extremely high within the healthcare industry as members and patients navigate different insurance providers, medical providers and specialists, while also taking a hybrid approach to in-person and virtual medical appointments. As competition in the medical industry continues to increase for attracting patients and members, the medical industry must transition to deliver a more retail-like experience yet without jeopardizing security. Creating an improved patient experience while never losing sight of protection is no longer a nice to have, it is a need to have.

Ahsan Siddiqui, Director of Product Management at Arcserve

Data breaches within hospitals and healthcare systems can be catastrophic impacting data connected to everything from diagnosis to long-term care. The healthcare industry produces large data sets at various levels of care and that data is very important for offering the most optimal patient care. Given the volume and depth of valuable healthcare data, implementing a multi-layered data protection and recovery strategy is imperative for all healthcare organizations.

One approach to combat ransomware is 3-2-1-1 data protection. It means maintaining three backup copies of data on two different media types, including tape and disk. One of the copies should always be kept offsite to ensure a fast recovery if a ransomware attack occurs. Also, healthcare organizations should keep one immutable object storage copy of data and one air-gapped copy. Immutable object storage protects data continuously by taking a snapshot at 90-second intervals. This is important because data can be recovered immediately.

Jon Kimerle, Epic Alliance Manager at Pure Storage

Ransomware attacks are increasing at an unprecedented rate, while the level of their sophistication continues to rise. In fact, according to industry estimates, the global damage caused by ransomware could cost $265 billion by 2031. The truth is, whether an organization will experience a cybersecurity attack attempt is no longer an “if” but a “when.” As a result, health IT administrators should be doubling down on ransomware recovery plans.

Investing in a more robust disaster recovery plan and a separate disaster recovery location in case of internal network issues is critical now more than ever considering attackers are outpacing cybersecurity efforts. Having a recovery strategy and plan in place that implements a tiered resiliency architecture, which refers to building an environment of high-speed recoverability by leveraging immutable snapshots for near-immediate recoverability and faster forensic investigation, is a future-proof way to build speed and durability into a recovery plan that can save money and lives, further strengthening your cybersecurity strategy overall.

Health IT administrators should also be accounting for the growing number of healthcare cybersecurity tools that health organizations are acquiring and how their interoperability will affect the security of patient information. Hackers are finding holes in the gaps created by fragmented systems. Cybersecurity products should not stand alone but should be integrated with others to create a mesh of solutions working together. Cohesive solution portfolios can improve automation and efficiency – both of which are essential for protecting, detecting, and recovering from cybersecurity attacks.

Dylan Border, Director of Cybersecurity at Hyland

Artificial intelligence (AI) has played an instrumental role over the years when addressing cybersecurity threats and continues to be a priority. No single system can provide all broad security insights for an organization which makes AI a powerful tool when interpreting massive amounts of data across multiple systems. Although AI does the heavy lifting, organizations can strengthen their cybersecurity measures by implementing training for employees to act as human defenders. By establishing training for recognizing and reporting attacks, like phishing, the combination of human and machine learning becomes a force multiplier which is especially important as cyberattacks grow and become automated.

Kyle Ryan, Chief Technology Officer at Tebra

Cybersecurity requires a holistic approach on both an individual and organizational level. With limited resources, independent practices are a primary target for cybercriminals. Updating cybersecurity software regularly is essential against digital threats. Healthcare IT companies regularly release updates to fix identified vulnerabilities. It is critical that practices remain current on these security updates, as any lapse in protection can expose sensitive information.

Chandra Kalle, Vice President of Security and Compliance at LeanTaaS

​​The healthcare sector is a prime target for cybercriminals due to the sensitive nature of the information stored in electronic health records (EHRs) and the high value of medical data. Malware, phishing scams, and social engineering are commonly used tactics to gain access to healthcare systems, and ransomware attacks have only worsened since 2022.

Although healthcare has historically been slow to adopt new technologies, the potential cost savings from preventing cybersecurity incidents far outweighs the upfront cost. To prevent cybersecurity breaches, healthcare organizations should develop a defense-in-depth security program by replacing outdated and vulnerable software with more secure operating systems like MacOS or Linux, where possible, and deploy always-on security tools like anti-malware and anti-ransomware software and firewalls, and encrypt sensitive data. These changes require budgetary allocation and a willingness from leadership to invest in new technology.

By offering regular training and awareness programs, organizations can help employees stay up-to-date with the latest security protocols and identify potential security risks. A simple way to train staff to be more aware of their role in security is to conduct regular phishing simulations. Phishing simulations involve sending mock phishing emails to employees to test their awareness and educate them on how to identify and report phishing attempts. These simulations can help employees become more vigilant and better equipped to spot potential security threats. Regular security training and awareness programs can also help employees stay up-to-date with the latest security protocols and identify potential security risks.

Dave Bailey, VP of Security Services at Clearwater

Continually making staff aware of what the adversary is doing with phishing exercises and awareness campaigns are must-do behaviors. One simple, but extreme option would be to take away someone’s computer for 2 weeks (simulating the impact to a ransomware attack). I am confident the awareness and importance of their role in security would be realized with 2 weeks of zero productivity.

In all seriousness, the key to awareness is regular and continual engagement with staff.

Ryan Orsi, Global Head of Cloud Foundational Partners for Security at Amazon Web Services

As healthcare organizations continue to accelerate their pace of digital transformation, unlocking operational efficiencies and better patient experiences, a holistic business strategy on resilience, with cyber resilience as a focus area should be a top priority. In general, cyber resilience refers to the ability of an organization to continue to operate and deliver their products or services even during unexpected security events such as ransomware or malware attacks and edge attacks (DDoS). As a framework, most organizations can assess and improve their cyber resilience along three areas:

1. Design – which includes implementing the latest security controls.
2. Operations – is the capability of people, processes, and tools to monitor, triage, and response to cyber threats 24×7. For organizations lacking sufficient internal resources, Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) can assume all or a portion of this responsibility.
3. Recovery – is the ability for hybrid cloud assets to recover, minimizing downtime and data loss.

One example of a simple security measure that is not used enough in healthcare is multi-factor authentication (MFA). Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the simplest security controls to implement and in many cases would stop stolen credentials from being leveraged further by bad actors seeking to elevate privileges and move laterally in the network.

JR Riding, Vice President, Chief Information Security Officer at MultiPlan

Cyber threats will continue to innovate and evolve with ever bigger, faster, more effective tactics and ever more devastating impacts. However, not all attacks work. Because threat actors typically only bother when they get good return on investment, it is imperative that enterprises continue to evolve and adapt as well, investing in security to improve their defenses and increase the failure rate of attacks and the associated costs to attackers. There is no finish line here. It is an ongoing effort to apply good security hygiene practices, prioritizing specific risk reduction efforts to enable business objectives in line with risk appetite, and ultimately, preparing for the worst.

Jeff Zampieron, Solution Architect at MedAcuity

Organizations need to treat software supply chain in the same way as they have physical supply chain for decades. Third-party software components need to be vetted, audited, authenticated, and tracked in a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM). Vulnerability scanning tools should be employed against the SBOM continuously for all released and in-development software to ensure timely identification, triage, and mitigation of new vulnerabilities.

John Gomez, Chief Security and Engineering Officer at CloudWave

Some of the latest security approaches that healthcare organizations should have in place to address cybersecurity threats include:

• Updated incident response plans to protect in today’s current threat landscape. Test those plans – this step is often overlooked and therefore plans fail when needed because they are outdated.
• Monitoring the environment – there are still many organizations that don’t monitor traffic on their network. Honeypots are a minimum requirement here.
• A focus on securing cloud infrastructure.

An old technology or process that not enough in healthcare are using in their cybersecurity efforts is human understanding. You should truly understand what attackers are doing and have sources for threat intelligence to be aware of what you can do to protect against those attacks.

A simple example of something you can do to train staff to be more aware of their role in security is to hold regular security training meetings across multiple roles, including clinicians, and share examples of real breaches/attacks that have happened. Role play how they would respond. This can help quickly uncover gaps in your incident response plan and make people more aware that cybersecurity touches all areas of the organization.

So many great ideas and insights! Thank you to everyone that submitted a quote, we couldn’t do this without you. As for our beautiful readers, are there any areas that we missed or a different angle we should use? Let us know down below or on social media!

< + > Vital Secures $24.7 Million in Series B Funding to Advance Its Artificial Intelligence-Driven Software for Patients, Hospitals and Health Systems

Funding to Accelerate Reach of Solutions, Already on Pace to Impact One Million Patient Lives in 2023

Vital, a leading artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital health company improving the patient experience, today announced that it has raised $24.7 million in Series B funding to fuel expansion and support the rapid growth of its modern software. Vital’s solutions make it easier for healthcare providers and health systems to communicate with and engage patients during emergency department (ED) and inpatient visits. The investment round led by Transformation Capital, with support from Threshold Ventures, strategic health system investors and Vital CEO/Mint.com creator, Aaron Patzer, brings Vital’s total funding to over $40 million.

The funding announcement comes at a time in which health systems are reporting unprecedented financial and operational challenges, where the patient experience has emerged as a key differentiator. The company’s success amid this environment is grounded in its capacity to innovate quickly and drive meaningful value for its health system partners. Vital’s platform, powered by AI and natural language processing (NLP), keeps patients in-network, generates millions in revenue for health systems and improves the care experience – through actionable and personalized patient content, automated communication and real-time feedback.

Vital achieved significant growth over the past year, partnering with over 40 new hospital clients including facilities across Allina Health, CommonSpirit Health, and Emory Healthcare, expanding its software solutions into the inpatient setting, launching new features including its Experience Management and Lab Results tools, and adding seasoned industry veterans in technology and health to its teams. The Series B financing fuels continued operational and technology advancement, with plans to further expand the team and launch new features aimed at enhancing clinical decision support, care coordination and patient experience. The company is on pace to impact over one million patient lives and support 100,000 clinical tasks in 2023.

“With consumer-grade software and AI led by Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer, Vital has proven its ability to break down information silos, connect and engage with patients to deliver a superior experience, and reduce clinician burden across the ED and inpatient settings,” said Todd Cozzens, Managing Partner at Transformation Capital. “The Vital team continues to rapidly innovate for its health system partners and is poised to become the leading patient experience and advocacy platform and we expect monumental growth in 2023 and beyond. Vital has revolutionized the patient journey much like Mint.com did for personal financial management.”

Launched in 2019 and co-founded by Aaron Patzer and Emergency Medicine Physician Dr. Justin Schrager, Vital is a leader in the acute care patient experience with over 100 hospitals and 31 health systems nationwide. Vital’s ERAdvisor software for the emergency department and CareAdvisor solution for inpatient care settings provide a modern, consumer-focused experience, driving revenue and staff satisfaction, while impacting thousands of patients and families every day. The company’s easy-to-use solutions are accessible via a patient’s mobile phone and available with no download or password required.

“Healthcare providers and health systems are faced with a growing list of pressures that all-too-often make it difficult to provide the best care for patients,” said Aaron Patzer, CEO at Vital. “Our beautiful and intelligent software keeps patients engaged and informed, while automating tasks for staff who manage emergency department visits and inpatient stays. With this funding, we will advance the impact of our technology for patients, families and clinicians.”

About Vital

Vital is a modern software for hospitals that makes it easier to communicate with and engage patients in their care. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), Vital educates and empowers patients during their emergency department and inpatient visit. Patients can better understand progress towards discharge, request service and comfort items, set goals, view labs, share health status with family, and more. Vital solutions are designed to be easy-to-use and consumer-focused – all accessible via a patient’s mobile phone and available with no download or password required. Vital improves patient satisfaction, keeps patients in-network and generates additional revenue for health systems.

Founded by Mint.com creator Aaron Patzer and Emergency Physician Dr. Justin Schrager, Vital is HIPAA-compliant, and a cloud-based software that sits on top of any existing electronic health record system (EHR): Epic, Cerner, Meditech and more. For more information, please visit vitaler.com or follow us on Twitter.

Originally announced March 23rd, 2023

< + > Diversity, Evolving Relationships, Understanding Healthcare & Getting More from Health Data at ViVE2023

At the recent ViVE2023 conference a lot of industry experts stopped by for quick discussions on a variety of interesting topics. Here are some of those recorded conversations with Divurgent, Laurel Road, Santa Clara Valley Health System, 314e Corporation, and Clinical Architecture.

Celebrating Diversity – Divurgent

Having a diverse workforce is an advantage. According to Rebecca Woods, Executive VP of Growth at Divurgent, organizations need to do more than just ensuring you have staff from different ethnicities, genders, and age. We need to create environments with the diversity of thought, perspective, and experiences can be brought forward. Woods also spoke to us about her non-profit organization, Bluebird Leaders and the successful Women-in-Health-IT event that was held in partnership with ViVE2023.

Investing to Understand Healthcare – Laurel Road (A Brand of KeyBank)

It is encouraging to see companies from outside of healthcare, take the time to invest in learning the nuances and intricacies of our unique industry. Laurel Road, a brand of KeyBank, has tailored their fintech solution to help employees at healthcare organizations. Diana Welch, Head of Hospitals at Laurel Road stopped by at #ViVE2023 to share more.

Evolving Customer Relationships – 314e Corporation

Truly listening to customers and incorporating that feedback pays big dividends for companies, especially in healthcare. Kahlid Turk, Healthcare CIO at Santa Clara Valley Health System shared how he has been working with 314e Corporation for over 15 years. What started as a staff-augmentation partnership has since evolved to include managed services and product development. Casey Post, SVP of Sales and Client Services at 314e, also spoke to us about their new online micro-learning offering.

Getting More From Health Data – Clinical Architecture

It wasn’t that long ago that we were lamenting that we did not have enough electronic data in healthcare. Now we are drowning in it. Before we can leverage that data, it needs to be of sufficient quality to be useful. At #ViVE2023 I spoke with Charlie Harp, CEO at Clinical Architecture about this data quality challenge. Clinical Architecture provides solutions to help solve challenges around healthcare data quality, interoperability, and clinical documentation.

Be sure to Subscribe to the Heatlhcare IT Today YouTube channel to see all our latest videos.

 

 

< + > Achieving the Vision of Healthcare’s Future

On February 6, a set of key priorities for the future of healthcare was released by AdvancedMD. I talked to Tim Costantino, vice president and head of product, about challenges and potential barriers to meeting these goals.

AdvancedMD is a cloud-based service merging an EHR with a health care management solution, and has recently announced upgrades to its EHR, practice management, and patient engagement functions. Believing in “self-service” and “trusting the patient,” AdvancedMD focuses on things that should improve both efficiency and the patient experience in their document. The practices they herald look valuable and necessary, so I decided to focus on what could get in the way when I talked to Costantino.

For reference, a summary of the AdvancedMD predictions follows.

• Medical offices will adopt a broader selection of patient-centric payment capabilities.
• Mental healthcare will become an integral component of the healthcare experience.
• There will be a resurgence of independent practices with more physicians choosing to take full ownership over their offerings and administrative processes.
• Medical practice owners will lean more heavily into workflow and process automation improvements that enable informed decision-making capabilities based on highly-accurate data – significantly boosting the practice’s financial performance.
• Remote patient monitoring solutions will gain popularity, vastly improving patient outcomes and care management.
• Medical offices will offer comprehensive self-service capabilities that give patients more control over their healthcare experience.

Can the Medical Profession Achieve a New Relationship to Patients?

AdvancedMD envisions a more equal collaboration between patients and clinical staff. This shift will probably please most patients, but it might be harder to sell to the doctors.

Systems such as AdvancedMD allows patients to do more things online, making clinical visits more like an online retail experience. The service can be both empowering and convenient, but it does expect a bit more responsibility for the patient; when scheduling visits, for instance. And the AdvancedMD principle of “trusting the patient” isn’t always embraced by doctors.

Even more disruptive is the uploading of vital signs and other data from fitness devices and scales, glucose monitors, etc. Doctors say, “When will I have to look at this data? What do I care how many steps the patient is taking?” Certainly, it’s no good stored in a spreadsheet somewhere, or even a field in an EHR.

But the data is invaluable when processed to look for trends or anomalies. Analytics are thus the crucial companion of devices. The analytics have to be tuned carefully so that an alert is accurate and actionable. Undoubtedly, though, handing patient-generated data requires both trust and a change to the clinicians’ workflow. Fee-for-value will encourage more reliance on data and analytics.

I asked Costantino how we can encourage doctors to rely on analytics. He said that they’re already trained to practice evidence-based medicine. So analytics must be based on firm research and be documented to show the ties to research. Always, the doctor makes the final decision about diagnosis and treatment.

Alleviating the Mental Health Crisis

Another plank in the AdvancedMD platform is to integrate mental and physical health. Thoughtful observers have known for a long time that the two are inseparable. But mental health professionals are stretched thin, and many are leaving the field as the demand for mental treatment grows. What can we do to address the gap?

Costantino said that when primary care and family practice clinics weave mental health professionals into the care, they can use the professionals more efficiently. A PCP might prescribe treatment for everyday cases of depression or anxiety, leaving the mental health professionals to treat more complex cases.

And each patient could be assigned to the appropriate profession—social worker, M.Ed, and so forth—so that the most expensive professionals are consulted only when they are needed. Costantino calls this “making sure everybody is at the top of their license.”

Telehealth also tends to be more efficient, and allows clinicians to reach people who have little in the way of mental health professionals nearby.

Because there’s fierce competition for some specialties, including mental health, clinics that can automate away tedious clerical work and make the experience more pleasant for its staff will have more luck recruiting them.

The changes proposed by AdvancedMD are neither unique or controversial. But it was great to see that the organization has been thinking through the implications of their vision and finding solutions to the touch challenges it presents.

< + > Healthcare Executives Fail To Grasp That Getting To Population Health Requires An Entirely New, Patient-Centered, Model

Population health is a necessary component to fix our failing fee-for-service system. But like a sand crab trying to inch its way across the beach in order to get to the ocean, healthcare executives are moving more sideways than toward the ocean.

< + > No registry for telemedicine providers is a missed opportunity, says ATA

In response to the DEA, ATA stresses telehealth's efficacy in reaching previously unreachable populations, details the operational complications and confusion that will ensue, and requests to ease provider burdens.

< + > Enhanced Healthcare Partners Announces Growth Investment In Healthcare RCM Technology Platform Janus

Enhanced Healthcare Partners (EHP), a leading private equity firm specializing in transformative, middle-market healthcare businesses, announced today a strategic growth investment in Janus, a leading provider of healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) technology. The new capital will fuel the company’s rapid market expansion, product development and go-to-market initiatives.  

Janus helps health systems and revenue cycle service companies better understand, optimize and automate RCM workflow processes. This has resulted in a significant increase and acceleration of cash collections while lowering administrative costs. Over the past 12 months, Janus has completed over 500 million process events and automated over 40 million transactions, resulting in significant ROI and cost savings for its customers. 

“We are grateful to have the support and guidance from an experienced healthcare investor in EHP as we continue our mission—to significantly drive down health systems’ administrative and operational costs, while rapidly increasing and accelerating cash collections,” said Brendan Downing, Founder and CEO at Janus. “This investment allows us to accelerate the development of our innovative revenue cycle platform, enabling revenue cycle teams to operate more efficiently and effectively.” 

The company has also been featured in an Emerging Technology Spotlight by KLAS Research, Black Book’s Top 50 Emerging Healthcare Companies, and CB Insights’ Top 150 Digital Health Companies. 

“Janus is transforming the way health systems are dealing with revenue cycle management,” said Won Park, Partner at Enhanced Healthcare Partners, who will join Janus’ Board of Directors. “With Janus’ best-in-class technology and strong value proposition for its clients, Janus is well-positioned to continue being a highly differentiated, innovative leader in this market,” continued Park.

About Enhanced Healthcare Partners

Enhanced Healthcare Partners (EHP) is a leading private equity firm that specializes in partnering with transformative, middle-market healthcare businesses. EHP provides the flexible capital, operational support, and strategic guidance necessary to support the continued success of growth-oriented businesses. Representative investments include Hallmark Health Care Solutions, Vytalize Health, PAI, SCA Pharma, and West Dermatology. For more information, visit enhancedhealthcare.com. 

About Janus Health

Founded in 2020, Janus is a revenue cycle management technology company on a mission to help health systems get paid, at a lower cost to collect. Its end-to-end software platform begins by understanding the current state of a revenue cycle operation, then identifies areas for efficiency, and where automation can help revenue cycle teams do more, with less. By harnessing the power of Janus’ technology, revenue cycle teams can work smarter, generating as high as 2% increased net revenue while reducing cost to collect as much as 35%. To learn more about Janus, visit janus-ai.com. 

Originally announced March 21st, 2023

< + > Laboratories Are Still Performing Gain-Of-Function Research On Viruses More Dangerous Than Covid-19

Shockingly, laboratories today are working to make viruses that are even more deadly than Covid-19. Little is being done to stop them. Why?

< + > Everyone is Waiting for Something at ViVE2023

The top story ViVE2023 wasn’t a major product launch, new legislation, or a mega-merger. Instead, the entire industry seems to be waiting for better times to arrive. Vendors are waiting for the economy to turn around. Providers are waiting for labor costs to stabilize. Investors and funders are waiting for companies to show more market traction. Only must-do projects and must-have solutions continue to have momentum.

The Big Question

Because the Healthcare IT Today team speaks to so many attendees and exhibitors at conferences, we often get asked what we think the biggest or most interesting story is. Normally my answer is the latest policy drop or company merger. Occasionally it’s an unexpected partnership or new product launch.

At ViVE2023, none of these emerged as the biggest story.

Almost everyone I spoke to responded with a variation of the same statement: “We are not making any significant investments right now, but we hope to in Q3 or Q4 when our financial situation becomes clearer.” It didn’t matter if the organization was a provider, a health IT vendor, a consulting company, or a venture firm.

I did not get the sense that organizations are retreating from the market or hunkering down like they did in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. At ViVE2023, everyone seemed to be adopting a wait-and-see approach for the next 6 months. Projects that were already underway would continue, but new projects and new investments were on hold, unless absolutely necessary.

No one I spoke to was panicking…well no one except companies who are in need of additional funding.

Positive Signs

What are the positive signs that people are waiting for? Here were the most popular responses:

• For the Fed to stop raising interest rates
• For the Fed to start lowering interest rates
• For layoffs to stop
• For talk of “down rounds” to stop
• For labor costs to stop rising at double digit rates

This last one is the most troublesome for health IT vendors.

According to a report by Syntellis and the American Hospital Association, contract labor expense for healthcare providers rose 257.9% from 2019 to 2022. Although this meteoric rise is expected to slow down in 2023, experts expect it to still be low triple digits – far above pre-pandemic norms. This means healthcare organizations will need to continue to adjust their budgets to compensate for this market reality leaving little room for projects that are not must-have.

That will be the key challenge for Health IT vendors for 2023 – to demonstrate that their solutions should be considered by providers as “must-have”. Those that don’t may be in for a long wait.