< + > The Biden Administration unfurls its 4-pillar national cyber workforce strategy

The White House unveiled its new National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy on Monday. The goal is to encourage skilled cybersecurity professionals in healthcare and other industries, communicating the benefits of careers in public service to job seekers and lowering barriers associated with hiring and onboarding, according to the Office of the National Cyber Director. WHY IT MATTERS

< + > Rethinking culture in healthcare cybersecurity strategy

It's not just about "matching wits" with external attackers, but also establishing trust among patients, employees and families, says Kaiser Permanente's Eric Liederman ahead of his appearance at the Healthcare Cybersecurity Forum.

< + > The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic expands its digital and virtual care strategy

The CEO of Amwell, Cleveland Clinic's partner in the telehealth initiative, discusses how the organizations are expanding their virtual care and remote patient monitoring efforts and where they see telemedicine in five years.

< + > CIO Podcast – Episode 59: Data Privacy with Rob McDonald

For the 59th episode of the CIO podcast hosted by Healthcare IT Today, we are joined by Rob McDonald, SVP of Strategy and Field CPO at Virtru and former CIO with Colin Hung replacing John Lynn on the episode. We kick off this episode with a discussion on data privacy. Where should healthcare organizations start and what are some cost-effective strategies that won’t break the bank to implement? Next, we talk about Zero Trust policies and how being data-centric is crucial to making it work. We also discuss where this policy is currently falling short in healthcare. McDonald then shares with us how to leverage emerging technologies to achieve HIPAA compliance to take the compliance burden off the shoulders of healthcare workers.

With all of this data, it is vital that we have strong security to keep it safe. McDonald tells us how CIOs can create a culture of data security from the top down at our organizations. Next, we ask McDonald about what health IT topics aren’t being talked about enough. And to wrap everything up, McDonald passes on the best piece of advice he’s gotten in his career.

Here’s a look at the questions and topics we discuss in this episode:

• When it comes to data privacy – where should healthcare organizations start? What are some cost-effective strategies organizations can implement that won’t break the bank?
• Why is a data-centric approach to Zero Trust critical among healthcare organizations, and where is it currently falling short?
• How can you leverage emerging technologies like AI, automation, and encryption to achieve HIPAA compliance – and how do you do so in a way that takes the compliance burden off the shoulders of healthcare workers?
• How do CIOs institute a culture of data security from the top down?
• What’s a health IT topic that not enough people are talking about, that they should be?
• What’s the best piece of advice you’ve gotten in your career?

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

We release a new CIO Podcast every ~2 weeks. You can also subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today podcast on any of the following platforms:

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Listen to the Latest Episodes

< + > The Future Is Now: Innovative Ways Virtual Reality Is Revolutionizing Healthcare Marketing

The following is a guest article by Ali Williams, Freelance Writer

With there now totaling 171 million users of virtual reality (VR) around the globe, this innovative technology is revolutionizing almost every industry – and healthcare marketing is no exception. Since the healthcare sector is constantly evolving, marketers need to work to stay on top of new trends to create successful marketing campaigns. VR tech is a useful tool that can help you better engage with your target market, provide educational experiences, and open up new opportunities for growth.

Automatic Data Collection

Effective market research is the backbone of any successful healthcare marketing strategy. And VR tech can now help marketers take market research to the next level. In particular, VR lets you automatically record physical movements to exact measurements; this recording is hidden and occurs over long periods of time. Not only is there therefore no longer the need to monitor human behavior via traditional, convoluted methods of observation, but VR can provide even greater insight into the subtleties of human behavior. For instance, with VR researchers can track eye movements that indicate subconscious, underlying feelings.

Additionally, researchers can monitor nonverbal body language, including how close people stand to each other while interacting, whether or not they’re facing to or away from each other, whether they have their arms open or crossed, and whether they’re making direct eye contact. Keep in mind, it’s often what people don’t say that conveys the most information. How people move, act, and interact with people or objects can generate insight into their psychological states. In turn, with this data, you can better understand patient needs, improve services, and refine your marketing strategy as needed.

Immersive Tours

VR tech also lets you engage with patients in fresh, new ways by providing immersive tours. Online video tours have long been a staple in clinic and hospital marketing – however, they typically involve passive viewing alone, rather than providing an immersive experience. VR, on the other hand, paves the way for virtual, immersive tours. For instance, Perth Children’s Hospital uses VR tech to host 360-degree tours. Patients and families can become familiar with the facility layout, and discover exactly what to expect during their appointment or stay.

Most importantly, immersive tours can provide patients with an excellent first impression of the facility, and provide them with peace of mind they’re in safe hands. In particular, hospital superbugs – drug-resistant strains of parasites, viruses, bacteria, and fungi – infect around three million people every year in the United States. As stories surrounding these bugs are often in the media, they can be a real and understandable concern for patients. Effective cleaning and hygiene protocols in medical environments are therefore essential to minimize infection risk and keep patients safe. VR can also help in this regard by showing patients just how clean and hygienic a facility is, quelling anxiety, and building patient trust.

Educational Experiences 

Product launches – from new drugs to healthcare tech – play a huge role in the need for healthcare marketing. With VR, marketers can better help patients understand how a new product can positively impact their health and quality of life. GlaxoSmithKline, for instance, used VR in their marketing campaign for Excedrin Migraine medication. In the “Migraine Experience”, VR was used to educate the general public on the severity of migraines – they’re “more than just a headache”. People who don’t usually get migraines had the opportunity to experience the common symptoms first-hand – including, blurred vision, disorientation, and sensitivity to sound and light. With their new medication, GlaxoSmithKline also made sure to establish themselves as the solution to the pervasive problem of migraines (currently affecting 39 million people in the United States). Participant reactions were also filmed and compiled into an impactful marketing video that’s been viewed on social media over twelve million times.

There’s no doubt VR technology is revolutionizing healthcare marketing. Automatic data collection, immersive tours, and educational experiences are just some of the most effective ways you can incorporate VR into your marketing strategy, and therefore better impress and engage patients, and stay ahead of the competition.

< + > Eureka Health Launches with $7 Million For Patient-Led Platform To Share and Discover Better Treatments

Thousands of Members in its Long Covid Community; Expands into Metabolic Disease and Autoimmune Disorders

Eureka Health, a new community dedicated to helping chronic disease patients share experiences and discover the latest treatments, launched today to provide hope to people living with chronic diseases. Emerging from stealth with thousands already engaged in its Long Covid group, the AI-powered platform added metabolic disease, autoimmune disorders, ME/CFS, and related conditions. It will expand into other conditions in the coming weeks.

The company also announced that it has raised $7 million in funding. The seed round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from South Park Commons, Bling Capital, SciFi VC, Able Partners, and Bow Capital. Angels with healthcare and tech expertise include Anne Wojcicki, Co-Founder of 23andMe, Susan Wojcicki, former CEO at YouTube, and Marty Tenenbaum, Founder and Chairman at Cancer Commons, among others. Funds will be used to build and grow the community, expand its treatment database, and ultimately influence and advance treatment research.

A Treatment Community by Patients, for Patients

Today there is a huge demand for quality, personalized data on treatment benefits and side effects, but very little exists because research is slow and expensive. Patients trust other patients– and they are already sharing their experiences in an ad-hoc way that doesn’t advance collective understanding.

With Eureka, patients can discover new treatments working for others in the community, find patients with a similar health profile and learn what has helped them, and search for data on any treatment in an easy-to-use database. They can also connect with others to discuss their experiences in a safe and supportive space. Importantly, patients on Eureka have full control over their data at all times; they can remain anonymous if they choose, and decide for themselves what data they’d like to share and what to keep private.

Eureka is uniquely able to do this by using large language models (LLMs) to create a database with millions of real patient experiences in addition to the detailed reports being added by the community. The company continues to develop LLMs to interpret and summarize research, match similar patients, provide personalized predictions of the best treatments, and plans to offer patients their own AI assistant to help them understand the pros and cons of any treatment. With such capabilities, Eureka is poised to be a supercharged patient community that guides future research agendas and delivers immeasurable value to users.

“Long Covid is painful, debilitating, and can make you feel like you’re losing your mind. That’s a hard thing for people who have never experienced it to understand,” said Beren Airstone, a member of Eureka’s Long Covid community. “Eureka is where I go to learn from others going through the same thing. Some people are finding relief from simple treatments while other treatments might be a waste of time or money for someone with my symptoms. Eureka also lets me help others by sharing what I’ve tried.”

Built Upon Personal Experiences by Startup Veterans

Eureka began when Zain Memon had to become a part-time scientist himself when his mother was diagnosed with a rare chronic disease. After spending four years trying to navigate black holes of information and with limited access to others affected by the same disorder, Zain felt inspired to create a solution.

“Beyond the basic, first-line treatments, which didn’t work, my mom’s doctor had no answers. We were on our own, and that’s a scary, frustrating place to be,” said Zain, Eureka’s Co-Founder and CEO. “Two key learnings stood out: collecting health data is extremely expensive and typically only done in specialized studies on hundreds or thousands of people, which rules out many rare diseases like my mom’s, and the power of community is the best way to offset this deficit.”

After spending more than 20 years working with startups from early stage to IPO that served millions of users, Zain connected with Noah MacCallum, the Second Product Manager at Forward Health, who helped launch and scale a nationwide primary care network. In addition to his work in the tech sphere, Noah conducted research at MIT and Harvard, with hundreds of citations on his publications, giving him a unique lens into what the ideal treatment community could look like. The pair discussed their vision for a new model for treatment discovery and community building. Drawing on their deep backgrounds in engineering and product development, as well as their personal experiences, the Eureka platform came to life.

“At Khosla Ventures, we invest early in ideas that are bold and impactful,” said Adina Teklu, Partner at Khosla Ventures. “With Eureka, patients have a platform to exchange data and rare experiences with others, giving them a community in times when they need it the most.”

AI-Powered Treatment Community is Now Open

Starting today, the Long Covid, metabolic disease, autoimmune disorders, ME/CFS communities are open to all. Because Eureka is driven by the interests and needs of its community, the company encourages anyone touched by chronic illness to sign up for its waitlist for new conditions, as groups are being added each week.

About Eureka Health

Created to accelerate every human’s pursuit of better health, Eureka Health has combined its AI and patient-powered treatment database with the power of community to spark a movement that puts people in control of their care. The company is based in San Francisco and backed by industry luminaries and leading venture capitalists. Learn more at eurekahealth.com.

Originally announced July 12th, 2023

< + > Singapore’s iHIS rebrands to Synapxe, announces new AI solutions

Its reintroduction comes on the occasion of its 15th anniversary.

< + > Bonus Features – July 30, 2023 – Amazon gets into the generative AI game, HIMSS plans to sell off the annual trade show, 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

HIMSS is planning to sell its annual conference to Informa. Fierce Healthcare confirmed the news as initially reported by Trade Show Executive. The deal only appears to involve the trade show – next slated for March 11-15, 2024 in Orlando – and makes no mention of smaller HIMSS events (in-person or online) or the Healthcare IT News or MobiHealthNews publications that HIMSS Media owns. (Also no immediate news as to whether the speaker submission process will be any easier, but many hoping it will be.)

AWS announced the AWS HealthScribe service for building clinical applications that use generative AI and integrating them with EHRs and other systems. The announced noted that M*Modal parent company 3M Health Information Systems, virtual primary care provider Babylon, and ScribeEMR are early adopters of HealthScribe.

Studies

The second annual Evolution of Care report from WellSky noted that the average length of stay for patients awaiting discharge to post-acute care is one day longer than it was in 2019, which leads to increased care costs and lowered patient satisfaction. One culprit is staffing in post-acute care – 87% of nursing homes report moderate to high staffing shortages.

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of U.S. consumers rate medical billing as challenging to understand, according to a recent survey from HealthLock. In addition, 60% of survey respondents said privacy and identity theft were significant problems in healthcare.

Partnerships

• Care coordination company Quantum Health is integrating Kindbody in-person and online fertility care into its offering.
• HealthBook+ is integrating Isabel Healthcare self-triage functionality into its consumer-facing care guidance application.
• Imaging EMR OmegaAI from RamSoft is hosting Mirada Medical image visualization tools on its platform.
• Patient engagement platform Gozio Health is integrating Hyro conversational AI tools.
• ABOUT Partners and Panda Health are collaborating to support care transitions.

Product and Company News

• Medical image sharing platform Pocket Health launched Appointment Reminders for hospital and imaging center users.
• Surgical workflow software company LiveData added support for women’s services to LiveData PeriOp Planner.
• Virtual primary care platform Hello Alpha launched the Ahead with Alpha weight management program.
• UltraSight was granted FDA clearance for its AI-powered ultrasound guidance technology.
• Virtual reality therapy reduces neck pain and lower back pain, according to research from XRHealth published in BMC.
• Care management support reduces readmission costs by at least 50%, according to research from Laguna Health published in The Journal of Healthcare Management.

Sales

• Cognizant extended its relationship with Gilead to manage the company’s global IT infrastructure in a five-year contract worth $800 million.
• VA Palo Alto Health Care System tapped Verizon Business, a partner since 2020, for its full spectrum private 5G network.
• Missouri-based CoxHealth tapped Philips to co-design an in-house virtual care tool.
• Miami-based UniVida Medical Centers transitioned to eClinicalWorks Cloud EHR.

Accreditations

• Innovaccer received NCQA Measure Certification for HEDIS for its Data Activation Platform.
• Carta Healthcare completed Type 2 System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2) examination for its Cartographer clinical data abstraction platform.

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. Note that submissions received after the close of business on Thursday may not be included in Bonus Features until the following week.

< + > Weekly Roundup – July 29, 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.

How the IoMT Helps Data Reach Its Full Potential. We asked members of the Healthcare IT Community to share their thoughts on the growing role of the Internet of Medical Things in managing healthcare data. We heard about the benefits of access to real-time data, the importance of data standards, and the need for mature data analysis and data management infrastructures. Read more…

The Benefits of Automating Payer Medical Record Requests. Access to medical records makes for better decision-making within payer organizations, but requests can create a burden on short-staffed providers. John Lynn spoke to Mo Weitnauer at MRO about using FHIR-based APIs to automatically fulfill the vast majority of requests in minutes or seconds – not weeks. Read more…

Public Health Transparency Improves Outcomes in San Bernardino County. Earlier this month, we highlighted Colin Hung’s conversation with San Bernardino County Department of Public Health about embracing GIS technology. In a follow-up, Colin talked to the agency about tracking the prevalence of infectious diseases in their communities and deploying resources where they’re needed most. Read more…

The Problems and Benefits of Non-Competes in Healthcare. In the latest Healthcare IT Today podcast, John and Colin discuss non-competes – specifically, whether non-competes hinder innovation and whether they help companies protect the investments they’ve made in their employees. Read more…

Health IT’s Role in Fixing Healthcare’s Biggest AI Misconceptions. Many organizations don’t know where to start with AI, according to Dave DeCaprio at ClosedLoop. One main reason is hesitation that stems from misconceptions that AI isn’t ready to be used and is inherently biased but will nonetheless replace physicians. Transparency in how AI is developed and used can help here. Read more…

Data Lineage Tools Help Unpack Complex Data Dependencies. Because healthcare data is integrated with multiple applications and infrastructures, it has countless dependencies. Data lineage tools document the source, accuracy, and flow of regulated healthcare data – a key step in ensuring compliance and minimizing the impact of a data breach, noted Ernie Ostic at Manta. Read more…

Healthcare Needs More Gender Diversity in Leadership. From leadership roles to clinical trial participants, women are underrepresented across the board in the industry – and this is bad for both patient and corporate outcomes, according to Dr. Erica Barnell at Geneoscopy. To bridge the gap, organizations need to develop robust mentorship programs that support women in advancing their careers. Read more…

Expanding Healthcare’s Reach on the Edge. Increased utilization of virtual care, remote monitoring, and mobile devices has healthcare deploying more technology on the edge than ever before, Adonay Cervantes at CloudBlue said. Effectively managing these devices and the healthcare data they process means moving resources to the cloud. Read more…

How Help Desk Updates Can Boost Clinician Productivity. Helping clinicians troubleshoot within the EHR can improve workflows and job satisfaction, Bill Lewkowski at HCTec pointed out. Organizations can start by offering multiple ways to engage, using credentialled clinicians who understand EHR and healthcare vernacular, and continually monitoring requests to inform both training and staffing needs. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Director of Application Development and Integrations at New York eHealth Collaborative, based in Albany or Manhattan, posted to Healthcare IT Central.

Bonus Features for July 23, 2023: Number of people impacted by data breaches up 56% compared to last year, while CMS keeps temporary telehealth expansion in 2024 Medicare fee schedule. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Provider network management software maker Verifiable landed a $27 million Series B funding round.
• Concierge care platform Gradia Health secured $4.2 million in seed funding.
• CloudMD sold its U.S.-based EMR, RCM, and practice management assets to N. Harris Computer, an operating group of Constellation Software.
• Staffing and consulting services company Optimum Healthcare IT acquired eCloud Managed Solutions, which helps organizations support business requirements in the public cloud.

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

< + > Roundup: Altera's anaesthesia solution live at Waikato, Thames Hospitals and more briefs

Also, WA Health has started expanding its remote monitoring technology to regional communities.

< + > Payer Contracts, AI, and Poster Sessions – Fun Friday

Happy Friday everyone!  We hope you had an amazing week and are in for an even better weekend.  It’s been a bit of a crazy week for me dealing with some health issues and things, but things are on the up and up.  Given the craziness of the week, I knew we had to get in another edition of Fun Friday where we share something funny to start your weekend off right.  We have a great mix of things today.

Renegotiating your payer contracts in #healthcare like ….. pic.twitter.com/18LPc8OA5M

— Aaron Miri (@AaronMiri) July 20, 2023

This is just funny…and also sad. Payer contracts are so fun.

Our #AI times 🙂
by @speedbumpcomic pic.twitter.com/eo6XG9U6pb

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) July 27, 2023

AI is changing everything. It’s going to be amazing all that it’s doing and all that it’s going to do.

Best poster award pic.twitter.com/eIlxXKDFtE

— Daniel Severo 🤙🍍 #ICML2023 🍍🤙 (@_dsevero) July 27, 2023

This is super funny. I’m not sure the organizers agree, but you have to appreciate the humor of someone doing this. It is amazing at what you can get away with at conferences as organizers are so busy at them.

Hopefully this gave you some good laughs. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

< + > Google Cloud teams with CareCloud to bring generative AI to small practices

They're aiming to help ambulatory practices gain insights with help from artificial intelligence, surfacing key information to help develop plans of care based on recommended diagnoses, patient insurance and other information.

< + > Health IT’s Role in Fixing Healthcare’s Biggest AI Misconceptions

The following is a guest article by Dave DeCaprio, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at ClosedLoop

No matter where you look – from TikTok filters to the latest ChatGPT release – artificial intelligence (AI) has a profound and growing impact on our daily lives. The market for AI is expected to show strong growth in the coming decade; its current value of nearly $100 billion USD is expected to increase twentyfold by 2030, reaching nearly $2 trillion.

AI has the potential to transform the ever-growing healthcare industry. However, many healthcare organizations don’t know where to start. Leaders struggle to distinguish true AI solutions capable of delivering clinical value from the marketing buzz that rides the hype cycle, and many of them may not even know what they’re looking for in an AI solution. Those with a better understanding of AI worry about the possible effects of bias too.

Now is the time for healthcare IT leaders to educate the market, guiding healthcare organizations to make more informed decisions about adopting and implementing AI, while also helping them see beyond the hype. This includes dispelling misconceptions and explaining relevant use cases, such as using large language models (LLMs) for note-taking and computer vision for digital pathology. It’s a tall order. Broad education is no easy task and this industry is notoriously slow to adopt cutting-edge technology.

To help healthcare organizations fully capitalize on the potential of AI, let’s separate fact from fiction and dig into three common misconceptions about healthcare AI that I often see perpetuated from my perspective as co-founder of a healthcare AI company. 

Misconception: AI Technology isn’t Ready to be Used in Practice Today

Many people still view AI as a mysterious, futuristic technology thanks to its complexity and pop culture depictions. In reality, AI has existed for decades, with the term being coined by scientists in 1956. Today, AI and machine learning are readily used to more efficiently detect cancer, develop drugs, manage administrative tasks, and much more. Forward-thinking organizations are using AI to predict who is most likely to experience potentially preventable negative health outcomes and events, such as unplanned hospital admissions or chronic disease progression. These insights enable clinicians to take targeted, informed actions that use limited care resources optimally and produce better health and financial outcomes. Beyond the most common use cases for AI, healthcare organizations are also tapping into the generative AI craze, as seen in the Mayo Clinic’s partnership with Google Cloud, among other examples.

Overcoming this misconception and using AI to increase efficiency and curb costs is paramount as the industry reels from the biggest clinician staffing shortages ever, staggering burnout, and unsustainable spending. In addition to predicting health risks and enhancing care delivery processes, AI is also widely used to automate time-consuming administrative tasks, freeing up clinicians and other personnel to focus on more valuable and enjoyable work.

Misconception: AI will Replace Clinicians

One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is that AI will replace teams of trained physicians, nurses, and other clinical staff. Put simply, AI is not a replacement for humans but rather an augmentation of human capabilities. With AI, medical professionals are still making the decisions and delivering care, but their decisions are also informed by AI-driven insights that use clinically relevant data to surface the right people and make accurate predictions about their future health outcomes.

Poring over massive amounts of unstructured data from EHRs, claims, and other sources simply isn’t feasible for humans, and in no scenario is a doctor sifting through their entire patient database to determine who merits proactive intervention. However, AI is perfect for this task, and it enables healthcare organizations to achieve better outcomes by empowering clinicians with insights, not by replacing them.

Misconception: Algorithmic Bias is Inevitable in Healthcare AI

Across industries, one of the major concerns about AI is its propensity to perpetuate biases based on how algorithms are trained. In healthcare, where AI-generated predictions influence life-altering decisions, this is a valid concern. It’s true that algorithmic bias is pervasive across the algorithms healthcare organizations use for risk stratification.

A seminal paper from Obermeyer et al on algorithmic bias in healthcare from 2019 found evidence of racial bias in an Optum algorithm that covered 70 million lives. It inappropriately used health costs as a proxy for health needs, and as a result, Optum’s algorithm incorrectly “learned” that Black members are healthier than equally sick white members. This systematically disadvantaged and led to worse outcomes for Black members while prioritizing white members for care and special programs, despite white members being less sick on average.

The truth is algorithmic bias isn’t inevitable in healthcare. Algorithms are not inherently biased, but if an AI/ML model isn’t trained, managed, and audited correctly, it can worsen health disparities across gender, race, and socioeconomic statuses, as seen in the Optum case. When harnessing the power of predictive analytics, users must also assume responsibility for auditing algorithms for bias prior to deployment and frequently monitoring them as they’re used in practice, or else well-intentioned efforts could inadvertently backfire.

Moving Past Misconceptions: What You Should Look for in an AI Solution

While the uptick in AI adoption is promising and apt, healthcare organizations that adopt AI still need to know exactly how and where each application of AI can make a significant impact. It’s not enough to settle for uninterpretable “black box” solutions and assume they’re delivering value. Healthcare data scientists and clinicians need visibility into the inner workings of algorithms to ensure that AI-driven recommendations are helping, not hurting, their populations. My advice: look for an AI solution that is explainable, intuitive, allows you to audit for bias, and can be tailored to your organization’s unique circumstances and specific needs. Once you find the right one, the promise is infinite.

< + > St. Peter's Health's bumpy migration to Epic MyChart

The new patient portal, part of a $25 million migration to Epic through the EHR vendor's Community Connect model, has created "a temporary disruption for some of our patients," the health system said.

< + > Health3PT recommends fixes for third-party risk management

In its new survey report and implementation guide, the initiative said both HIPAA covered entities and vendors see the legacy TPRM process as a productivity drain, demonstrating a need to create norms around inherent risk and vendor tiering.

< + > AdventHealth has formed an AI Advisory Board – here's a look at its goals

By having deep conversations about artificial intelligence's capabilities and limitations, the nine-state health system hopes to help its clinical and IT leaders enable a more responsible path forward for AI deployments.

< + > AWS offers generative AI documentation through API, medical imaging at scale

Powered by Amazon Bedrock, AWS will now offer artificial intelligence to quickly create clinical notes that can be added to EHRs. A new imaging service, meanwhile, could help reduce costs compared to self-managed infrastructure.

< + > IoMT – Helping Data Reach Its Full Potential

The importance of data in healthcare has been beaten into our heads again and again and again. Healthcare runs on data, all good decisions are backed by data, etc. I think we’re all on the same page about making sure our organizations have all of the healthcare and patient data we can get our hands on. But in repeating the simple message that data is important, we tend to leave out that even more important is the ability to properly manage it to make it accessible, especially with the sheer amount of data that healthcare organizations need to run properly. One tool that can help in this endeavor is the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).

To learn more about IoMT’s role in data management, collection, and sharing, we have reached out to our ever so brilliant Healthcare IT Today Community for their IoMT insights and practical knowledge along with what’s happening with this promising technology. The following is what they had to share with us.

Dustin Vaughan, Vice President, R&D, Robotics at Asensus Surgical

Historically, aspects of patient care have been restricted by the availability of quality real-time data. This includes patient monitoring information and other care delivery metrics, such as care delivered in surgery. With the continued introduction of low-cost reliable IoMT technologies, there will be a broad global adoption across all healthcare segments. Our efforts in the surgery space include the integration of IoMT technologies to deliver Performance-Guided Surgery™.

John Guiliana, Medical Director of Podiatry at ModMed

IoMT technologies reach their full potential for chronic care management when individual patient monitoring devices become traceable within the medical practice’s EHR system. Naturally, the technologies must be capable of monitoring, measuring, and managing patient conditions while reporting and alerting healthcare providers of the data as well as the patient’s compliance. But IoMT technologies need to go beyond that initiative. For example, we already leverage technology such as smart insoles for the shoes of diabetic patients, but by tracking those devices through unique identifiers within EHRs, we can respond more effectively to recalls or device failures and ensure each device is capturing data accurately.

Steve Kent, Chief Product Officer at Know Labs

The pace of global technological advancement is putting immense pressure on the healthcare system to modernize. While this poses great benefit to support how people live longer, healthier lives, concern remains that the U.S. healthcare system isn’t adaptable enough to keep up with market or patient expectations. The opportunity lies where the innovative capabilities of the technology industry merge with the robust and established processes of the incumbent healthcare industry to develop something new – a better way to support patients on their journey to optimal health. And this journey is fueled by high-quality, continuous, comprehensive data across patient history, physiology, behavior, nutrition, exercise, sleep, cognition, relationships, education, medication adherence, acute/interventional findings, and so on.

All of this data about patient health means little when there is no standardized and seamless way to collect, organize, analyze, interpret, and communicate findings in a scalable and meaningful way. This is where the IoMT plays a critical role. IoMT is becoming more important than ever because there are more intelligent medical devices, producing more continuous data, on more diverse patient populations than ever.

The ability to organize all of these devices and data will allow physicians and technology developers to use AI and ML at scale to build predictive and preventive health management protocols and interventions. The result is an interconnected system driven by IoMT that empowers patients with meaningful, predictive medical data to inform the hundreds of decisions they make each day that can potentially impact their health. The learnings IoMT enables could answer what are the appropriate incentives to encourage patients, providers, and payors to optimize their positions in fulfilling a long-term healthcare plan.

Judy Jiao, Chief Information Officer at National Government Services

loMT devices are like 24/7 assistants for clinicians. The convenience, accuracy, and timely feedback these devices provide can encourage patients and caregivers to play a more active role in health care. IoMT devices can deliver insights into a patient’s health on a continuous basis, effectively enabling clinicians to make real-time, informed decisions. However, advanced data analysis presents a tremendous opportunity to maximize the value and utility of the data these devices generate.

Mature data analysis and data management infrastructures can help to realize more meaningful suggestions for managing a person’s health. Moreover, the benefits of preventive care and timely treatment supported by utilizing these devices will outweigh the upfront cost of these technologies in the long run.

So much to consider here! Thank you to everyone that took the time to leave a quote for us and thank you to everyone who took the time to read this article! We would love to hear your thoughts as well. Leave a comment down below or share this article on social media and check out what people are saying over there!

< + > How Automated Lineage Improves Healthcare Data

The following is a guest article by Ernie Ostic, Chief Evangelist at Manta

The healthcare industry creates a vast amount of data each year — roughly 30% of worldwide data — the bulk of which must conform with regulatory standards. That data lives in a complex and evolving ecosystem, integrated with multiple applications and infrastructures, creating countless dependencies.

Between the volume of data and the web of interconnected systems, those dependencies remain hidden from most users in a “black box” of sorts. Without insight into the inner workings of their own flow of information, most healthcare organizations can’t leverage their data to drive better patient care or more informed business decisions.

Data lineage tools address this challenge, highlighting data dependencies and revealing data’s journey through complex systems and transformations. When incorporated effectively, automated data lineage tools shine a light into the black box, enabling greater visibility, and powering predictive insights without compromising the data within. For healthcare organizations, the impact is profound: lineage supports data accuracy, builds data trustworthiness, enables data-driven decisions, and facilitates regulatory compliance. 

A Proactive Approach to Data Incidents

Data incidents significantly impact healthcare organizations. For the 12th year running, healthcare has surpassed other industries with the highest average data breach cost: $10.1 million. In 2021, breaches affected more than 50 million patient records, with an average of 132 days before detection.

Healthcare organizations cannot afford to wait for a data incident to occur before improving visibility in their data systems. But many data observability tools today focus on a reactive approach to incidents, searching for a bug to fix after a costly and consequential breach.

By contrast, automated data lineage tools are proactive, akin to preventative care — an annual checkup with your doctor versus an emergency room visit. You might go to the ER as a reaction to the onset of sudden, acute symptoms. The staff will diagnose and treat you, but care is time sensitive and costly. Plus, delayed treatment compounds the risk of a more long-term health impact. Now consider routine checkups with your primary care physician, who knows your history and has access to your medical records. Greater visibility enables proactive care and preventative measures to anticipate and mitigate health concerns.

In the same way, lineage enables high levels of observability without requiring time-consuming manual intervention, empowering IT teams to identify and address potential issues.

Improved Regulatory Compliance

The healthcare industry is subject to heavy regulation under the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) due to the sensitive nature of healthcare data. And those regulations aren’t without consequence: Over the last 20 years, tens of thousands of HIPAA complaints have been investigated, with penalties totaling over $130 million. 

Complying with the bevy of industry regulatory requirements demands accurate tracking of data and thorough, reliable reporting to demonstrate evidence of compliance. To avoid significant fines and ensure compliance, healthcare organizations must document regulated data’s source, accuracy, and flow. Automated data lineage enables this process through a comprehensive visual overview of an organization’s data. With insights that range from high-level to granular, lineage reduces the need for manual intervention while supporting compliance practices and lowering the risk of noncompliance.

Increased Visibility and Trust in Data and Reporting

Erroneous healthcare data has wide-ranging consequences — for patients and healthcare organizations. It’s bad enough when a mistake enters one system, but the complex data environment of most healthcare organizations creates the potential for an error to reproduce across applications, contaminating data sets, and endangering patient care decisions.

Now imagine your users discover these data issues before your internal team notices — or mitigates them. This lack of visibility diminishes patient trust and hampers business outcomes. Automated data lineage enables healthcare staff to quickly identify and correct errors, reducing the time spent manually tracing and correcting mistakes. It also empowers healthcare organizations to ensure the integrity of their data, mitigating any risk of data quality issues, and upholding their reputation with partners and patients.

Impact Analysis for Healthcare System Dependencies

Beyond reducing human-made errors, healthcare systems need the ability to manage the impact of system updates, including uncovering and discovering schema and other code changes that can have ramifications downstream. This impact analysis capability is particularly important when dealing with home-grown or vendor-supplied systems — especially for customized analytics systems that build their own data warehouses from packaged applications or use data received from other suppliers.

Lineage provides users with a comprehensive understanding of their data dependencies, which translates complex code into approachable, manageable pipelines. Users can easily navigate data systems, drill down to specific tables and cells, and ensure more accurate data across systems.

Enhanced Business Intelligence Insights

Automated lineage tools also help healthcare organizations gain insights to inform business strategy. With improved data quality and accessibility, organizations can better forecast future trends and adjust accordingly. Automated lineage tools can also help identify areas with room for operational efficiency improvement.

Overall, automated data lineage gives healthcare organizations a comprehensive understanding of their data, enabling them to make better-informed decisions, improve patient outcomes, and drive business growth. With these tools, healthcare providers can ensure that their data is accurate, trustworthy, and compliant. They also gain valuable insights to inform their business strategies and improve patient care.

How one Healthcare Organization Benefited from Lineage

CHRISTUS Health — a nonprofit health system made up of more than 600 centers, including hospitals, clinics, and urgent care centers — faced two major challenges with its data system: 

• Managing the impact of EHR system updates across data sets. 
• Getting ahead of users in identifying and resolving data issues.

The team at CHRISTUS Health was frustrated that end users were discovering and reporting problems before their team was aware of an issue. And as the company evolved into a larger healthcare system, it faced migration challenges and data deprecation. Fixes took longer than they should have because the team needed more visibility into its full data environment. By incorporating automated data lineage, CHRISTUS Health could scan key parts of its data environment to identify EHR system changes and get ahead of quarterly updates. Insights that once required days of tedious work — leaving the team in a constant reactive mode — took minutes or hours after implementing lineage tools.

The Future of Lineage in Healthcare

Maintaining accurate, reliable, and compliant healthcare data will only become more critical as organizations undergo mergers, implement migrations, retire legacy systems, and integrate new applications. Data lineage enables a proactive approach in the face of emerging changes, drives data confidence amid system complexity, empowers organizations to move beyond collecting data, and put their data to work for better patient and business outcomes.

About Ernie Ostic

Ernie Ostic is Chief Evangelist at Manta, focusing on solutions for lineage and metadata integration and providing guidance on information governance and custom lineage solution architectures. He brings 40+ years of experience in data integration, including more than 20 years at IBM where he worked in a variety of roles including product management and technical sales support. Ostic is a graduate of Boston College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science.

< + > Gradia Health Secures $4.2M in Seed Funding to Improve Ongoing Care for Patients with Chronic Conditions

The Platform is set to Reinvigorate Patient-Physician Communication Pathways by Partnering Directly with Brick-and-Mortar Practices to Deliver Superior Virtual Care Beyond the Doctor’s Office

Gradia Health, the integrated concierge care platform designed for clinics to support patients with chronic conditions, today announced its seed funding totaling $4.2M. The round was led by Adrian Fenty at MaC Venture Capital with participation from YCombinator, Soma Capital, Atlanta Ventures, and several angel investors, including Gene Lee (Ramp), Eric Feldman (Bolt), David Tsao (BillionToOne), Austen Allred (Bloomtech), Juan Benet and Jesse Clayburgh (Protocol Labs) and, Jude Gomila (Golden). Gradia provides a virtual extension to clinics that helps physicians delegate and deliver concierge care. Gradia intends to utilize the latest funding to scale its platform, build its team, and perfect its care pathways alongside physicians to capture their customer demand. 

In today’s healthcare landscape, patients with chronic conditions often need continuous care and support after leaving the clinic. However, due to bandwidth, staffing, and software constraints, physicians often aren’t able to provide this support at scale. Gradia addresses this gap by acting as a bridge between in-person clinic appointments, providing physicians with the necessary tools to delegate and virtually monitor patient care more effectively. The innovative platform allows physicians to deploy and manage specialized virtual care teams consisting of dietitians and nurses who closely collaborate with patients between their in-person appointments, augmenting traditional brick-and-mortar practices. This enhanced oversight has the potential to improve patient outcomes, significantly reduce the overall costs of delivering care, and give physicians the ability to go above and beyond for their patients, ultimately bringing more joy to their profession. 

“Chronic conditions require consistent and comprehensive care beyond the traditional clinical setting. However, the immense potential of post-clinic patient care solutions remains largely unexplored and frequently overlooked, with the privilege of concierge care being limited to an exceedingly small patient demographic,” said Rithvik Seela, Co-Founder and CEO at Gradia Health. “Our platform seeks to bridge this gap, offering patients a way to stay informed about their care status, easily communicate with their providers, and get direct access to specialized, virtual care teams. At Gradia, our vision is to extend physicians’ capabilities and empower them to deliver a superior, continuous care experience that every patient not only needs but also deserves.” 

Rithvik and his co-founder, Andrew Zelaya, started Gradia in 2021 after attending Stanford, where they studied computer science. Together, they spent thousands of hours in clinics and quickly realized that patient care needed to be more cohesive and extend far beyond the clinic appointment. Knowing that there needed to be a better way to track, monitor and deliver post-clinic care, they dropped out of school to begin this journey to pioneer a new evolution of the patient care journey. Today, Gradia Health’s software is redesigning the patient experience, with the company on a mission to deliver high-quality, ongoing personalized care for all patients in need. 

“Gradia is changing the healthcare landscape and taking a hands-on approach to provide patients with the proper attention they need once they leave the clinic,” said Adrian Fenty, General Partner at MaC Venture Capital. “What makes Gradia truly unique is that the platform builds the foundation to create a new standard for physician care — oftentimes, once patients leave the clinic, they’re typically not left with the tools to manage their ongoing care and wellbeing. Gradia Health is working to solve that problem. We’re thrilled to support them as they continue to improve post-clinic patient care and build software to help physicians feel that they have superpowers.” 

Gradia partners with several multi-provider clinics that serve thousands of the 60-70 million Americans who have chronic GI conditions, including IBS, GERD, fatty liver, and more. The concierge care platform plans to triple its patient base by the end of the year and also aims to expand its offering to other specialties and refine its integrated care pathways in collaboration with physicians to meet patient demand. 

About Gradia Health 

Gradia Health is an integrated concierge care platform designed for clinics to provide ongoing high-touch care. Partnering directly with brick-and-mortar practices, Gradia gives physicians the software to deploy and manage virtual, specialized care teams of dietitians and nurses that work closely with patients between in-person appointments. Co-founded by Rithvik Seela and Andrew Zelaya in 2021, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. To learn more, visit gradia.com.

Originally announced July 12th, 2023

< + > APAC shifting to tech-enabled distributed model of care: Philips

Many health facilities are already delivering acute and intensive care virtually or at home.

< + > UCI Health names nursing informatics leader as new CIO

Julie Eastman, RN, has been associate chief information officer at the Orange County health system for the past 18 months. With the promotion, she'll supervise IT operations and lead efforts on telecom, biomedical engineering and more.

< + > MRO Satisfies Payer Medical Record Requests Automatically

Requests for medical records have grown enormously in recent years—and that’s as it should be. Because data allows for better decision-making, patient records are being requested by payers, communities of care, and patients themselves.  However, this can sometimes be overwhelming for healthcare provider organizations that are now getting larger and larger volumes of requests from payers which inundate their systems.

We recently sat down with Mo Weitnauer, Chief Product Officer at MRO, to talk about their newly announced Payer Exchange product which implements near-frictionless interoperability for payer exchange. Although some manual intervention is still required, many requests can be satisfied in seconds or minutes instead of weeks.  MRO makes the most of FHIR-based APIs to reduce staff needs during data exchange which has become essential as most healthcare organizations face staffing challenges.

In their future, MRO expects to satisfy HEDIS requests, audits, patient requests in multiple languages, and images. Weitnauer also talks about bidirectional exchange, so that interoperability also adds value to clinicians for better patient care or operations.

Check out this video with MRO to learn more about how you can help alleviate the burden of records requests from payers.

Learn more about MRO: https://mrocorp.com/

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 MRO Corp is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > How proactive, predictive, AI-powered patient oversight can boost health outcomes

Health systems able to offer this will not only be better positioned to survive external pressures, says one artificial intelligence expert, they'll help set the bar for critical best practices for future patient-provider relationships.

< + > Closing the Gap: Why Healthcare Needs More Gender Diversity in Leadership

The following is a guest article by Dr. Erica Barnell, MD, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer at Geneoscopy

Women comprise 70% of the healthcare workforce and 59% of medical, biomedical, and health sciences graduates, yet are the minority at leadership levels — holding only 25% of senior executive roles. As a result, the lack of women in significant decision-making positions is evident.

According to U.S. Census estimates, no single ethnic or racial group will represent a majority of the U.S. population by 2055. The potential for more positive patient care experiences, greater innovation, and improved organizational performance exists by creating more balance in healthcare leadership.

Existing Disparities and Challenges

Over a century ago, women founded, led, and operated hospitals. Today, they comprise most of the healthcare workforce — but not in leadership positions.

Women represent only 25% of top leadership roles in healthcare while holding an even lower percentage of corporate board seats (~14%) for publicly held life sciences companies. Within privately held companies, these numbers are even more underwhelming.

Despite significant advancements, we have a long way to go to address existing gender disparities in education and careers within STEM. As few as ten years ago, I was one of only a handful of women scientists in research labs and often the only woman in the boardroom. During presentations, I was asked more questions about my personal life than my business ideas — questions I have never heard asked of my male peers. Additionally, when defending research results, questions were often directed to my male peers even though I was the subject matter expert.

Gender Bias in Medical Research 

Women’s health is often considered a niche area. But how can half the world’s population be considered niche? Of the nearly $42 billion the National Institute of Health (NIH) funds annually on health research, only $5 billion is spent studying women’s health issues in research labs led by men.

These numbers are consistent with female representation in clinical trials. On average, 41.2% of study participants are female. This number is often lower than the number of females typically diagnosed with the disease being studied. Unconscious biases can also significantly impact gender and racial equity in research studies. For example, a recent study showed that 80% of black women with breast cancer expressed willingness to participate in clinical trials; however, only 40% were included.

In colorectal cancer research, clinical studies have traditionally been held at large academic or endoscopy centers where patients typically have a colonoscopy scheduled, are health literate, and have insurance. This sample does not accurately reflect the population most at risk for developing colorectal cancer due to a lack of screening.

Researchers must adopt alternatives to traditional research methods to impact health equity positively. One approach is using decentralized recruitment efforts for clinical trials to support engaging diverse populations at greater risk for disease. For example, using social media to recruit study participants can help reach underserved communities and requires a low marketing dollar commitment. Decentralizing clinical trials can improve prevention and treatment for all populations, particularly racially and ethnically diverse communities.

The Importance of Women Leaders in Healthcare

Decades of research have shown that when women leaders are empowered to lead, everyone benefits. Fiscally, studies indicate that companies with women in top leadership positions are valued at $42 million higher than other companies. They generate a 10.1% return on equity annually versus 7.4% for those without female leadership.

When looking beyond the bottom line, including women in a leadership team increases a company’s global human capital wealth by 22%, with substantial health, social, and economic gains. The presence of women leaders helps achieve better results, including increased productivity, improved collaboration, greater commitment, and a fair work experience. Women are considered encouraging in a collaborative environment and are more honest, compassionate, outgoing, and creative.

What Does the Future Hold?

We are already seeing glimpses into the future with advances in digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, robotics, gene sequencing, and nanotechnology. As this unfolds, healthcare leaders must hire, train, and lead increasingly diverse teams of healthcare professionals along with teams from product development, training, tech, engineering, and manufacturing/construction to ensure inclusivity. But most importantly, leadership must align all decisions and directions to ensure the patient always comes first. 

Witt/Kieffer discovered that 84% of survey respondents agreed that one of the best ways to support these endeavors is to establish mentorship programs that track to leadership roles. They offered these tips to create a successful mentorship program:

• Provide role models that help with advancement
• Develop a robust mentorship program
• Create internship opportunities

Advice For Future Women Healthcare Leaders

Trying to live up to someone else’s ideals will only cause you to sacrifice your own and block your path to the top. To be the best version of yourself, which includes being a fantastic leader, set your expectations and live up to those.

Here are three pieces of advice to guide you both personally and professionally:

1. Be resilient and have humility: Adversity is a given. Keeping a positive attitude, being optimistic, controlling emotions, and seeing obstacles and failures as opportunities are keys to learning, improving, and growing.
2. Look for opportunities, take risks, push yourself, and go for it: Successful leaders are proactive. Don’t wait for others to reach out to you – build and develop the relationships you need to make your goals happen.
   
3. Success means finding YOUR balance: Life and work are often not in harmony in the real world. Living a successful and balanced life is more about knowing what motivates you and having tough conversations with people who matter most in your life. 

While things are improving, there’s work ahead to close the gender gap in healthcare leadership. Prioritizing an inclusive and safe environment where people acknowledge the experience and expertise of women at all levels is essential to creating the culture shift necessary to make change happen throughout our industry. 

About Erica Barnell

Erica Barnell graduated from Cornell University with a dual degree in Biological Sciences and Applied Economics & Management. Dr. Barnell completed her MD PhD at the Washington University School of Medicine with a PhD focus in Molecular Genetics and Genomics. Her thesis work surrounded the development of bioinformatics tools to alleviate the analysis bottleneck within precision oncology. Dr. Barnell has published 24 peer-reviewed manuscripts, four patents, and two book chapters within the oncology space. Dr. Barnell conducted the original research to validate Geneoscopy’s stool extraction method and managed all clinical studies for Geneoscopy’s colorectal cancer screening test. Dr. Barnell has contributed to the existing engagement with the FDA, which includes submitting a pre-market approval application, holding three presubmission meetings, completing BIMO/PAI audits, and obtaining Breakthrough Device Designation for the lead colorectal cancer (CRC) screening test. Dr. Barnell was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2020 for her contribution to the Healthcare space.

< + > Featured Health IT Job: Director, Application Development and Integrations

We like to regularly feature a healthcare IT job that might be of interest to readers. Today, we’re featuring the Director, Application Development and Integrations position that was recently posted on Healthcare IT Central. This position was posted by New York eHealth Collaborative and is a hybrid position requiring one day in either the Manhattan, New York office or the Albany, New York office.

Here’s a description of the position:

New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) is a not-for-profit organization working in partnership with the New York State Department of Health to improve healthcare by collaboratively leading, connecting, and integrating health information exchange across the State.

Founded in 2006 by healthcare leaders, NYeC works to help New York State achieve the Triple Aim of improving the patient experience of care, delivering better health outcomes, and reducing costs. On behalf of the State, NYeC leads the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY), a network connecting healthcare providers statewide, develops policies and standards that support the utilization of health technologies, and assists healthcare providers in adopting and effectively using electronic health records.

NYeC is propelling healthcare forward by facilitating the use of new and innovative technologies that will improve patient care. Healthcare is undergoing an unprecedented transformation through digital health. Do you want to be at the center of it in New York State?

Employees must be fully vaccinated in accordance with NYeC’s policy before beginning employment with NYeC and present proof prior to their start date, unless they have requested and been granted an exemption or accommodation (based on disability/medical condition or a sincerely-held religious belief).

Position Summary

NYeC is seeking a Director, Application Development and Integrations, that is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of cutting-edge healthcare applications. This role is responsible for leading a small team of developers and managing several consultants, ensuring that our technology solutions are robust, reliable, and align with our corporate vision. The successful candidate will foster a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement within the team.

This role will be based out of our Albany, NY or Manhattan, NY office and report to the Chief Information Officer (CIO). At this time, this role has a hybrid work schedule. All staff are required to work in the office 1 day per week (currently Tuesdays). There are then 30 additional in-person days that are expected each year on top of the 1 day required per week. Stakeholder visits, all staff meeting days, development days, and conference attendance count towards the additional 30 days. This schedule is subject to change.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of software developers, setting clear expectations, defining roles and responsibilities, providing feedback, and fostering a collaborative and inclusive work environment
• Develop and implement innovative application strategies that align with the organization’s goals and objectives
• Acts as the subject matter expert for platforms under their control
• Ensure that the application systems supported by NYeC are maintained to the highest possible standard with maximum levels of attainable availability and efficiency
• Manage the full lifecycle of application development, from ideation and design to deployment and maintenance, using standards and procedures
• Manage application configuration and upgrades, and problem analysis and resolution for complex application problems in conjunction with development teams
• Manage and monitor security alerts, incident detection, resolution, and coordination of resolution efforts with both customer and internal teams
• Promote and implement Agile development methodologies, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and rapid iteration
• Evaluate and manage relationships with and work of external vendors and partners, ensuring they meet our quality standards and adhere to contractual agreements
• Work on multiple projects concurrently, monitor the status of tasks and escalate issues when appropriate
• Other duties and special projects as assigned

Experience and Skills

• Bachelors Degree, Management, Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology or other related field, or equivalent work experience
• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in software development, with at least 5 years in a leadership role
• Healthcare information exchange (HIE) and/or healthcare information technology (HIT) knowledge desired
• Experience managing departmental vendors and budgets
• Experience developing and managing cloud-based applications preferred
• Exercises independent judgment within defined parameters
• Reporting to CIO

We consider a wide range of factors when determining compensation, which may cause compensation to vary depending on your skills, experience, qualifications, and home office location (Manhattan, NY vs. Albany, NY). The annual base salary range for this role for an Albany based candidate is $120,000 – $135,000. The annual base salary range for this role for a NYC based candidate is $145,000 – $160,000. The salary offer will not be based on a candidates salary history at other jobs, and by law, NYeC will not seek information about salary history, and candidates should not share such information with NYeC. All compensation questions and comments should be directed to the HR Department representative during your application, interview, and hiring process.

NYeC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with everything listed in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

NYeC is an EOE/Minorities/Females/Vet/Disabled.

Looks like a great opportunity for those with experience in developing and integrating applications! If this looks like a position that would interest you, check out the full details for the job and how to apply.

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