< + > Weekly Roundup – September 30, 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.

Streamlining Enterprise Network Management and Monitoring. Network infrastructure can be difficult to manage across multiple sites. Healthcare IT Today received a demo from Rajat Mukherji at Spectrum Enterprise on how to monitor network traffic in the hospital and at home – including temperature and humidity sensors in key locations. Read more…

Making Healthcare App Development and FHIR Data Access Easy. Digital health developers shouldn’t have to learn the hundreds of flavors of FHIR implementations and APIs to share data, Patrick Schiess at Darena Solutions told John. That’s the value of platforms that connect to otherwise disparate EHRs and other FHIR data sources. Read more…

Not All Prescription Management and Clinical Decision Support Is Created Equal. Adoption tends to lag because physicians don’t use it and are sometimes annoyed by it, John discussed with Dr. Clement Goehrs at Synapse Medicine. Part of the solution is more seamless integration with EHRs and a better user experience. Read more…

Discussing TEFCA, QHINs, HDUs, and Interoperability With Civitas Health. CEO Lisa Bari sat down with John to discuss why state efforts to address interoperability are as important as national efforts. They also touched on the role of health data utilities as the evolution of the state HIE. Read more…

CIO Podcast: Digital Transformation. Laura Marquez at the University of Utah Health outlined how to define success in digital transformation in healthcare and shared her thoughts on how AI will impact transformation. Read more…

Operational Teams Drive Optimal Health IT System Adoption. Successful health IT system transitions involve more than an organization’s IT personnel. Cynthia Casatelli at e4.health said it’s critical to respect the perspective of department heads, subject matter experts, and end users and make sure they feel included in implementation. Read more…

Protecting Your Organization From a Hidden HIPAA Threat. Up to 80% of employees may not follow risk avoidance policies when translating patient data, largely because they use free online tools, noted Bill Young at SYSTRAN. Transitioning to purpose-built machine translation system improves both the security and the quality of translations. Read more…

Constructing a Responsible AI Framework for Prior Authorization. One in three doctors report adverse patient events stemming from prior authorization issues, and many delays are attributable to AI-generated denials that aren’t reviewed. That points to a need for accountability, equity, and transparency in how AI influences decision-making, according to Niall O’Connor at Cohere Health. Read more…

Having Tackled Workflows and Image Enhancement, Generative AI Targets Diagnostics. AI can reduce radiology turnaround time by 30% and detect 20% more cancers when compared to standard screening. Further increasing AI’s use in radiology means increasing the size and accuracy of the data pool it draws from, said Morris Panner at Intelerad Medical Systems. Read more…

The Must-Haves of a Patient Financial Communication Platform. Half of patients are willing to switch providers for a better billing experience. Steven Dubner at Nordis Technologies recommended providers consider customer communications management that enables personalization, automation, and compliance while meeting patients where they are. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Rural Health Clinic Transition Project Manager, a hybrid role based in the Midwest, posted by Stoltenberg Consulting at Healthcare IT Central.

Bonus Features for September 24, 2023: 72% of patients say affordability is the biggest challenge for paying medical bills. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Specialty virtual care vendor Summus raised a $19.5 million funding round.
• Data activation vendor IOMED raised €10 million in Series A funding.
• Thoracic CT image analysis vendor Thirona raised €7.5 million in new financing.
• Cancer diagnostics company Ibex Medical Analytics closed a $55 million Series C funding round.

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

< + > Group practice sees 6-8 more patients a day with hybrid virtual care

The use of telemedicine technology that lends itself well to combination with in-person care is bringing many benefits to the family clinic of Dr. Richard Tytus.

< + > AI Diagnoses Defects in Medical Devices

Bad hardware components lie behind many failures in medical devices, according to Oshri Cohen, CEO of Cybord. The devices contain tens of computer chips and other components, so measuring quality becomes a tedious process.

Compounding the difficulty of measuring quality is the constant churn of components. Take personal computers. Two generic laptops sitting on the shelf from one of the big manufacturers could have very different components, because these manufacturers diligently depress costs by seeking the cheapest components from month to month.

Medical devices, while more high-end, also mix and match. They also suffer the risk of getting knock-off components from unethical vendors simulating more high-quality components.

Cybord has found a way to use cameras and AI-driven analysis to automate quality checks. A manufacturer can run each device through Cybord’s system, which in about one minute can scan all the components and return a quality report. The report shows each component in use with meta-information such as the manufacturing date. Sometimes, the component is not what its label claims it is, a clear problem.

Damage or poor quality can also be identified by running the image of each component through the AI-generated model. Examples of damage the model can detect include defects in the component or how it is set into the device, as well as corrosion, oxidation, and mold (Figure 1). Of course, the model can also complain if the image is too blurry to analyze.

Figure 1. Cybord dashboard.

Many manufacturers run all devices that come off the assembly line through the Cybord process, so that bad components can be discarded and never make it out into the field to fail. The manufacturer can also use the data to evaluate their manufacturing process and check whether their vendors are honest. Cybord provides dashboards to help them evaluate large quantities of analytic results (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Cybord dashboard.

Cybord worked with the manufacturers to scan thousands of components, using the images to train the AI model.

The current high-profile alarms over AI, while worth investigating, often make us lose sight of the enormous benefits AI can bring. Cybord can dramatically reduce medical device failures out in the field. That should also noticeably reduce the costs of modern medicine and improve outcomes.

< + > Hidden Heroes: How Operational Teams Drive Optimal Health IT System Adoption

The following is a guest article by Cynthia Casatelli, Senior Consultant and Project Manager at e4.health

The success of any major IT system change hinges on having the right people working on the right tasks through every step of the process. Each phase of a project, from ideation to activation, demands specific skills and insights.

From pre-planning to strategic plans and rigorous timelines, proper resource alignment is crucial. However, proper staffing for EHR, revenue cycle management (RCM), and other major health IT system transitions go far beyond IT personnel. Operational teams must also be fully engaged and included.

Operational readiness is just as important to the success of any IT project as is the readiness of the software applications and technology infrastructure. In fact, my experience suggests that operational readiness is a key factor for EHR and RCM success.

Operational Readiness Can’t Be Overlooked

This principle underscores the importance of pre-planning and strategic planning for any major IT system change. Organizations may be ready from an executive leadership, technology infrastructure, and information governance perspective, but success is unlikely if operational teams aren’t fully prepared.

These teams are the ones who will use the new systems day in and day out. Operational departments also know how the new technology needs to interact within their existing workflows. They are the individuals who understand what specific needs must be fulfilled in the new system starting on day one.

Consider these three specific roles when determining which individuals from your operational teams to include in an IT project: 

• Departmental Directors
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
• End Users

Trust Departmental Directors to Tap the Right Resources

The best departmental directors will delegate responsibility to their top lieutenants. Directors know which employees are the most knowledgeable about departmental workflows and which are the most productive. Departmental directors bring the right people to the table.

However, directors must also empower their designees to make informed decisions, contribute their expertise effectively, and report back to the department as the project progresses. Department directors and managers should also free up these staff from day-to-day tasks to support the IT project team.

Include Subject Matter Experts to Train and Lend Expertise

When planning for system changes it is essential to assemble at least one (preferably several) subject matter expert from each operational department. For large-scale systems, this becomes increasingly challenging. These teams are often fluent in testing, use cases, decision-making, workflow, and validation. They are critical to ensuring the project’s success.

Subject matter experts are also a good choice to serve as trainers for the specific operational departments they serve. They have established credibility with staff and are usually very familiar with detailed nuances of operational workflow having served in all the various department roles over the years.

Trainers play a pivotal role in the front-line testing phase. These individuals often need approval from their supervisors to dedicate time to the project. They are typically your most capable and busiest employees. Therefore, it is essential to select trainers wisely and ensure they receive adequate support and recognition for their contributions. Specific consideration for trainers includes: 

• Have trainers involved from the beginning
• Include trainers in design workshops and testing
• Ensure free access to trainers throughout the project
• Trainers are good testers. They understand where employees might make mistakes or try workarounds.

Embrace End Users with Respect

Often the systems being replaced have been used for decades. They are trusted tools for end users. These same end users know all the workarounds that (hopefully) will be automated in the new system. Their input is essential!

Best practice is to make end users feel like they are part of the project, not mere recipients of it. Building a system with end users’ active involvement makes the implementation more successful. Here are three best practices to consider as they relate to end-user participation in EHR and other major IT system changes. 

1.  Engage them in the planning process, listen to their input, and take their concerns seriously.
2. Be attentive to the soft skills required to work effectively with end users. Acknowledge their investment in the existing system and the pride they take in their work. This collaborative approach ensures smoother transitions.
3. Your IT team is not going to use the new software or platform. The end users are the day-to-day interface with the new IT system. Remember that new systems are an operations project, not an IT project. 

There are several other operational considerations during EHR and other major IT system changes.

Consider Vendors and Third-Party Integrators

Vendors and third-party integrators are often overlooked throughout the pre-planning and strategic planning process. It’s crucial to remember that external partners are integral to your system’s success. Ensure their role and responsibilities are clearly defined and aligned with your project goals.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Finding the right team to facilitate planning can be challenging and some organizations may feel overwhelmed by “too much help.” In such cases, executive leadership must step in to dissolve teams and ensure the right people are handling the right tasks.

However, the success of major IT system changes in healthcare organizations relies heavily on the active involvement of operational teams, expert alignment, user engagement, careful trainer selection, and a holistic approach that considers all aspects of the transition, including third-party integrations. By following these principles and adapting them to the specific needs of each project, healthcare organizations can ensure better implementations of systems that enhance patient care and operational efficiency.

About Cynthia Casatelli

Cynthia Casatelli is a tenured healthcare IT professional with a wealth of experience in the industry. As a Senior Consultant and Project Manager at e4health, Cynthia leverages her extensive background to drive transformative changes in healthcare organizations. She previously served as Director of Administrative Systems IT at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, where she played a crucial role in supporting multiple implementation initiatives. Cynthia also served as Director of Revenue Cycle IT at Hackensack University Medical Center for nearly two decades. 

< + > Summus Raises $19.5 Million to Expand Solutions Solving the Access Problem in Specialty Care

Fundraise Supports Market Expansion with Summus Emerging as the Premier Clinical Platform to Share and Access High-Quality Specialty Expertise Across the Continuum of Care — Serving Employers, Payers, Health Systems, and Physician Groups

Summus, the leading virtual health company focused on specialty care, announced today that it raised $19.5 million to support the company’s continued growth and work to solve the access problem to high-quality physicians. Following a previous investment round in 2022, Summus has now raised $70 million to expand its innovative approach to care.

The company’s proprietary marketplace model empowers patients, families, caregivers, and physicians to share and access high-quality specialty expertise — across all health questions, at any point in the journey. By accelerating access to high-quality physicians, Summus delivers best-in-class clinical guidance, advocacy, and navigation. Summus works with leading employers, health plans, physician groups, and leading medical institutions to provide a broad portfolio of solutions that improve access to quality care and improves outcomes.

“Durable, category-defining companies naturally evolve and expand their aperture to serve more people over time. We are investing to meet the explosive demand for Summus solutions across the healthcare ecosystem,” said Mitchell Rales, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Danaher Corporation.

In supporting more than 2 million lives, 98% of Summus members report that they better understand what to do in the next stage of their healthcare journey. Since 2020, consistent feedback from Summus members and physicians reflects universal recognition of the access and insights through Summus that would not otherwise have been available.

“The value of accessing high-quality physicians in an expedient manner is vital — for peace of mind, optimizing treatment paths, and driving better outcomes. We continue our commitment to put high-quality physicians, the most trusted party in healthcare, at the center of decisions big and small,” said Julian Flannery, Summus CEO and Co-Founder.

The investment will focus on further scaling growth for the organization, including meeting demand for Summus’ innovative solution to support primary care physicians in a peer-to-peer environment, and enhancing condition-specific, personalized journeys for patients to access the best care with the most trusted physicians.

“We remain inspired by the Summus team and the value proposition they bring to the healthcare ecosystem. In providing access to thousands of the world’s most talented physicians to patients, families, and physicians who need their expertise, we see Summus changing lives on a daily basis. We’re grateful to have the opportunity to continue to support Summus as they expand their capabilities to solve the critical issues of access to quality healthcare today,” said Rick Buhrman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Sator Grove Holdings. “I am impressed by the continued innovation, commitment, and expertise of the Summus team, and am thrilled to see their growth and recognition in the market for bringing new solutions to physicians and patients around the world.”

About Summus

Summus is the leading virtual health company, founded with a mission to restore human connection in healthcare. Our proprietary marketplace model empowers patients, families, caregivers and physicians to share and access high-quality specialty expertise — across all health questions, at any point in the journey. With a curated network of more than 5,100 renowned specialists from top academic medical centers, and more than 2.1 million members around the world, Summus serves as the clinical front door to access trusted, high-quality, healthcare expertise, and to support people in the moments that matter most.

Summus. Better access. Better decisions. Better outcomes. Across the continuum of care. Learn more at summusglobal.com

Originally announced September 13th, 2023

< + > Roundup: Medusa ransomware hit Philippine state insurer and more briefs

Also, South Korea takes a further step to enable health data interoperability.

< + > Enterprise Network Management and Monitoring Demo from Spectrum Enterprise

Are you struggling to manage a complex network spread across multiple locations? Do you find it challenging to maintain visibility and security for your remote workforce? In today’s rapidly evolving world, where connectivity and efficiency are paramount, businesses need a comprehensive and reliable solution to streamline network management.

We recently got a demo from Rajat Mukherji, VP, Vertical Market Sales at Spectrum Enterprise, of their managed practice solution which is designed to help with managing and securing your network infrastructure.

In the video below, Mukherji demonstrates how the Spectrum Enterprise solution can help provide network visibility to an organization with practices that are spread out across multiple locations. While it is important to monitor network traffic across multiple practice locations, this solution can also monitor network traffic at home locations for remote workers as well.  For example, the solution can allow the network administrator to prioritize mission critical applications even at home.  That’s the power of the Cisco Meraki solutions that Spectrum Enterprise uses with their monitoring portal.

Along with monitoring the network, the Spectrum Enterprise solution also provides access to cameras with AI layered on top to capture just the video moments that are most important to capture.  You can also incorporate sensors into the monitoring portal for things like humidity, temperature and opening/closing sensors.  All of this is managed through a single portal.

Check out the video below to learn more about the Managed Network Edge solution from Spectrum Enterprise and how it could help your healthcare organization.

Learn more about Spectrum Enterprise: https://enterprise.spectrum.com/

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

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< + > Nuance adds 1.2M patients to the MOVEit hack victims list

The company sent patients data breach notifications explaining that names, Social Security numbers and PHI may have been compromised as part of a global cyber campaign that has snared more than 2,000 organizations to date.

< + > Language Barriers: Protecting Your Organization From A Hidden HIPAA Threat

The following is a guest article by Bill Young, Director of Healthcare & Life Sciences at SYSTRAN

Keeping patient data confidential and secure remains a major healthcare challenge today, more than 25 years after the introduction of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act or HIPAA.

HIPAA is regulatory guidance to ensure Patient Health Information (PHI) is protected in specific entities, mainly healthcare facilities, and healthcare admin support institutions, for the transfer and flow of health information.

How has the HIPPA management challenge increased? To review, in 2021, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that every 10 seconds, 14 US citizens’ PHI is compromised either through data hacking or unauthorized disclosure through healthcare providers and support institution networks.

That is close to 45 million US citizens each year. It’s a big and expensive problem for nearly every healthcare organization.

Now according to the HIPAA journal, penalties and actions have increased overall recently, largely due to OCR’s HIPAA Right of Access enforcement initiative, which was launched in late 2019. Since then, OCR has been cracking down on entities that have failed to provide individuals with timely access to their medical records and has increased enforcement efforts overall.

But if there’s one area that few HIPAA security officers consider a high-risk failure point when it comes to data breaches, it’s in situations where language barriers occur. In fact, it’s the seemingly benign appearance of these situations that makes them so dangerous.

In fact, one of the most common breach risks occurs in the translation process. Because many healthcare providers do not already have a translation system in place, a full 80% of employees typically do not follow risk avoidance policies when translating patient data. The key culprit in this is the use of free online translation platforms because those platform providers do not adhere to HIPAA protocols and regulations.

Ensuring that non-English patients understand their healthcare providers is the law in the United States, mandated by Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which is a federal civil rights law that broadly prohibits discrimination, which includes foreign-speaking patients.

Europe, unsurprisingly, offers similar protections in the form of EU MDR Articles 10 & 32.

Adhering to these protocols might seem simple, but because real-time communication and collaboration are so central to efficient healthcare provision, and because language barriers are not often encountered, the task of securing patient data is often missed, and HIPAA is breached.

How are these policies being breached when sensitive patient data is communicated? Simply put, these breaches occur either through the use of outsourced translation services or through one of the healthcare industry’s biggest HIPAA challenges: the use of unsecured, free cloud-based language translation platforms.

Adopting a secure machine translation system, then, is the best way to avoid these potentially dangerous and expensive situations.

Machine Translation (MT) has been around for almost 75 years. Its reputation for speed has been and remains very strong. In fact, today’s MT can take what might look like a 36-hour translation problem and solve it in 5-10 minutes.

With Artificial Intelligence frameworks built into machine translation systems, quality issues can be addressed immediately and permanently. Natural language processing tasks that were once beyond the scope of MT systems are now built-in.

Contextual factors are now also far easier to address thanks to developments like Neural Fuzzy Matching, which takes context matching to levels that would have seemed unreasonable to expect even 10 years ago.

Today’s MT systems offer the highest quality ever, sure, but the real advantages come from the AI structures in the system. Not only do these systems learn with every correction, ensuring that repetitive errors do not occur, but they also offer a major benefit: the ability to train their translation engines using previous data.

This means that a healthcare provider that has, say, 30 years of translation data, all adhering to its protocols, language style, and branding, becomes a huge asset that can be exploited to ensure the ultimate in personalized translation quality.

Why is this actually revolutionary quality development so important? Because the risk of data breaches inherent with free online translation portals may be serious, but so is the risk of bad translation that leads to improper care.

Securing patient data is a task that will continue to be an issue for years to come for healthcare providers. As America’s population of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) citizens continues to grow, language translation will remain a key issue for healthcare organizations looking to not only protect patient data but also avoid the dollar and reputational cost of enforcement actions.

Confronting the trojan horse of insecure language translation isn’t an expensive process – but ignoring it offers the guarantee that someday soon, it will be.

About Bill Young

Bill Young is the Enterprise Business Director for Government, Healthcare, and Life Science clients at SYSTRAN Software. Bill’s clients include many of the largest US and Canadian Government, Healthcare, and major Life Science and Pharmaceutical companies. Bill has been an expert panelist for a variety of webinars and conference presentations in his career and has a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration from UC Berkeley and a Masters in Business Administration from George Washington University.  He is a former US Marine with an extensive 20-year background in the Life Science industry as a surgical consultant for surgical microscopy and neurosurgery advanced imaging.

< + > IOMED Raises €10M for International Expansion of its AI-Powered Technology for Healthcare Data Activation

IOMED, a leader in AI-powered technology for healthcare data activation, has recently announced the closure of a Series A investment round for a total of 10 million euros.

The round was led by Philips Ventures and XTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of leading algorithmic trading company XTX Markets. Fondo Bolsa Social and Redseed also participated in the round, as well as IOMED’s existing investors Adara Ventures and EASO Ventures. The company has also received a grant of nearly €1 million from red.es to support a research and development project in artificial intelligence.

This milestone represents the consolidation of the company as a leader in the healthcare technology sector and clear evidence of its unique value proposition. This funding round will enable IOMED to expand internationally, consolidate its position in the current market, and develop new business models based on the company’s sustainable growth.

Gabriel Maeztu, IOMED’s Co-Founder, CTO, and Chairman of the Board said, “The lack of structured and standardized data in the healthcare sector has been a significant obstacle in its development for many decades. Thanks to the latest advances in artificial intelligence, we are at a turning point that will change the history of medicine.”

Javier de Oca, Co-Founder and CEO at IOMED added, “At IOMED, our mission is to be the catalyst that drives a better future for the healthcare ecosystem through the application of Artificial Intelligence.”

To achieve these objectives, IOMED has recently consolidated a strategic team in both business and technological development areas to help lead the company during this next stage of growth. Pedro Cladera, Chief Corporate Officer, who has a solid track record working in major companies such as KPMG and Vueling, and Montserrat Roura, Chief Sales Officer, who has over 17 years of experience previously working for Novartis, are some of the strategic members of the team.

The IOMED brand has also evolved, with an updated brand image that reflects the maturity of the company, its cutting-edge approach, and its continuous commitment to excellence and innovation in the healthcare sector.

With this investment round and focus on international expansion, IOMED solidifies its position as a reference in the field of artificial intelligence and innovation, positioning itself as a key ally in transforming the healthcare ecosystem.

About IOMED

IOMED develops AI-powered technology for healthcare data activation, which unlocks valuable data from hospitals’ data sources. We activate data from both structured and unstructured sources, as human-written records, thanks to our Natural Language Processing System. This data is transformed into OMOP Common Data Model, and stored in-house hospitals’ systems thanks to our Federated Data Model, enabling a comprehensive understanding of healthcare information. This allows hospital centers to collaborate with institutions, researchers, medical professionals, and the industry in general, providing them with updated and high-quality real-world data, ready to be used for various purposes. For more information, visit iomed.health.

Originally announced September 13th, 2023

< + > Boston Children's Hospital rolls out hybrid 5G network as it switches to Epic

The technology will "groundwork for future healthcare innovations," says the hospital's CIO, with a scalable network able to support in-home remote patient monitoring and AI-enabled specialist prioritization.

< + > NYU Langone Health promotes generative AI innovation with 'prompt-a-thon'

Teams of clinicians, researchers and educators worked to find artificial intelligence-enabled approaches to healthcare challenges using real-world, de-identified patient data.

< + > MeldRx Is Making Healthcare App Development and FHIR Data Access Easy

When someone wants to create a healthcare app, they often think that getting the data they need to make their app work will be easy.  They assume that there must be some easy EHR API they can tap into that will provide them with the data access they need.  Or maybe they hear about this new more modern FHIR standard that will give them access to that data.  Once they dive into the details associated with accessing health data from the EHR, they realize there is a whole lot more to it than most expect.

This is at least part of the problem that Darena Solutions saw when they talked with healthcare application developers.  These developers wanted to spend time on their application versus spending time figuring out the hundreds of flavors of FHIR implementations and APIs that are required to get data from the hundreds of EHRs and health IT solutions on the market.  Darena Solutions had been working for years providing important interoperability and MIPS solutions to the market when they realized that they could help solve this problem for developers and thus MeldRx was born.

To better understand the newly launched MeldRx product, I sat down to chat with Patrick Schiess, President & CISO at Darena Solutions.  In the video interview below, Schiess shares how the solution works and the problems it solves for developers.  He also shares some insights into the various healthcare standards available and why MeldRx started with FHIR, but how they can support a number of other standards as well (Side Note: Darena Solutions was one of the first implementers of BlueButton 2.0 for HHS and also the first to get certified for the Cures Act for implementing FHIR APIs, so they have a long history in health data standards and sharing).

Schiess also shared the wide variety of potential users he sees for this product.  Healthcare app developers who want access to FHIR data from EHRs are one of the top user-bases, but Schiess also sees how this can be a great solution for research organizations and can even be useful to EHR vendors themselves.  EHR vendors have enough things to manage that it makes sense to outsource the hard work of supporting FHIR to a company with specific FHIR expertise across all EHRs.

I also asked Schiess why a developer wouldn’t just connect to the EHR directly.  Plus, he shares how many FHIR data sources MeldRx can connect, how they approach connecting to multiple data sources, and how they think about linking the data.  Schiess noted how most systems only support read access and not write access.  MeldRx offers a unique data vault feature to customers that allows developers to read and write back to their FHIR data store.  Finally, he shares a little bit about the MeldRx community they’re launching that helps developers navigate the various aspects of FHIR and SMART on FHIR.  This community is a space where developers can ask and answer questions.

Check out the video below to learn more about the newly launched MeldRx and how it can help developers access FHIR APIs more easily.  For a hands-on experience with MeldRx, visit Darena Solutions at HLTH23 (booth #5826).

Learn more about MeldRx: https://meldrx.com/

Learn more about Darena Solutions: https://www.darenasolutions.com/

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

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

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Darena Solutions is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > Future Proofing Healthcare Automation

The following is a guest article by Niall O’Connor, Chief Technology Officer at Cohere Health

Constructing a Responsible AI Framework for Prior Authorization

The American healthcare system is on the precipice of a critically necessary digital transformation. Anyone who has experience with healthcare, even just as a consumer, knows technology and change are needed. A recent report found that 89% of healthcare organizations are still using fax machines and 39% are using pagers. It’s time to future-proof healthcare automation, and I’m not the only one suggesting that now is the time for a digital transformation in healthcare.

Gartner projects expenditure on enterprise IT within the healthcare and life sciences sector to expand by 9.1% during 2023, reaching $240.5 billion. Healthcare leaders are allocating additional funds towards IT services and software, with anticipated yearly growth rates of 11.9% and 13.1%, respectively. Most recently, health industry investors have focused more on artificial intelligence (AI).

As industry leaders have eased into adopting AI solutions and machine learning techniques to expedite the provision of high-quality care and optimize administrative workflows, an enormous opportunity to improve prior authorization processes has surfaced. The process of obtaining prior authorization to evaluate the medical necessity of treatments has plagued healthcare professionals and patients for years. In short, due to their complex nature, inappropriate prior authorization denials contribute to delays in patient care and increased administrative burdens for physicians and their staff. Healthcare leaders have thus set their sights on AI to address the deficiencies within a system characterized by outdated and overly complex prior authorization approval procedures.

While cutting-edge AI tools offer significant potential for enhancing operational efficiency, streamlining processes, and improving patient outcomes, it is crucial that AI-driven technology is utilized responsibly and well-regulated. To gain insight into effective regulation, one must first understand the key ways to establish guardrails around AI’s role in the prior authorization approval process, and what details and actions to consider when leveraging automation.

Creating the Foundation for Responsible AI 

The efficacy of AI hinges on the quality of input data, necessitating an acknowledgment of its inherent limitations to ensure responsible utilization. Addressing these concerns and adhering to four critical considerations for fostering responsible AI transformation have the ability to deliver high-quality, value-based care and enhance patient outcomes.

• Accountability: Responsible use of AI entails a robust collaboration between clinical experts and software engineers, ensuring that the creation, assessment, and refinement of AI models are guided by deep, evidence-based clinical practices.
• Inclusiveness & Equity: AI models with specific health plan policies uphold consistent standards, prevent erroneous care denials, and maintain equity for vulnerable patient populations whose care would otherwise be affected by social determinants.
• Privacy & Security: Safeguarding sensitive patient information requires clinical oversight, and technology must be designed to support that. AI models for prior authorization requests should exclude patient identifiers, relying solely on essential treatment data such as type, date of care, and diagnosis.
• Transparency: Decisions driven by AI must be rooted in clinical data, and transparent practices are vital in minimizing the risk of AI models recommending unjustified prior authorization denials.

Building the Case for AI Accountability 

One in three doctors report adverse patient events stemming from prior authorization issues and delays. Failing to proactively address the potential for negative outcomes, such as algorithmic bias, is unwise and could exacerbate today’s legacy prior authorization concerns. 

In response, the American Medical Association (AMA) has been advocating for increased regulatory supervision of artificial intelligence’s application in assessing prior authorization requests. This oversight includes evaluating whether health plans adhere to a comprehensive and equitable process and mandating human examination of patient records before deciding to deny care. This is one of the major steps to mitigate the risks associated with leaning too heavily on technology rather than utilizing it as a support tool.

One misconception about leveraging AI in the prior authorization process is that the technology makes the final decision; however, AI does not and should never be used to automatically deny authorization requests–or cause delays in patients receiving the care they need. Accountability is the foundation of responsible AI: it stresses that clinical expertise must not only govern the prior authorization processes in real-time but also be integral to AI model development from the outset. 

One example of this overreliance on AI was uncovered in 2022 during an investigation into the use of AI-based technology for the prior authorization review process. Over a period of two months, investigators found that more than 300,000 pre-approved claims were denied by doctors, and did not adequately review the AI-generated denial recommendations.

These fears have prompted growing apprehension about excessive reliance on AI and inadequate clinical oversight. Again, AI’s primary role should be to expedite positive health outcomes and guide providers toward the best treatment options. Physicians cannot rely solely on AI to make final decisions on prior authorization requests without actively scrutinizing the data. We must ensure intelligent decision-making is conducted responsibly and with accuracy. By championing responsible AI alongside advanced clinical innovation and oversight, the healthcare industry is charting a course toward a more patient-centric, precise, and equitable healthcare system.

About Niall O’Connor

Currently, Niall serves as the Chief Technology Officer for Cohere Health. Prior to joining Cohere, Niall acted as Chief Technology Officer for Genospace, a cloud-based software company focused on delivering personalized medicine. Niall was a member of the founding team at Genospace, which was acquired by Sarah Cannon, the Cancer Institute of HCA. Niall also held software engineering positions at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Fidelity Investments. 

< + > Featured Health IT Job: Rural Health Clinic Transition Project Manager

We like to regularly feature a healthcare IT job that might be of interest to readers. Today, we’re featuring the Rural Health Clinic Transition Project Manager position that was recently posted on Healthcare IT Central. This position was posted by Stoltenberg Consulting Inc. and is a hybrid position located in the Midwest.

Here’s a description of the position:

Now seeking a Project Manager for a client engagement in the Midwest, who can lead the organization’s physician practices/clinics in their transition over to Rural Health Clinic (RHC) designation. This is a full-time hybrid role for a 6-month duration, with possibility of extension.

Desired Skills/Expertise

• Experience leading the creation of multiple Rural Health Clinics from scratch
• Experience transitioning multiple physician offices over to a Rural Health Clinic program
• Epic Ambulatory experience and/or certification
• Ability to drive the entire RHC transition both operationally and technically
• Thorough understanding or RHC compliance requirements

Looks like a great opportunity for those with experience in being a project manager! 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.

< + > AstraZeneca expands AI lung screening to public hospitals in Malaysia

It has partnered with Institut Kanser Negara to promote the adoption of AI-based lung screening in public health.

< + > Advocate Health, Mount Sinai, among 10 big health systems in Transcarent provider network

The goal of the new nationwide ecosystem is to simplify patient access through virtual care pathways that work in tandem with local delivery, enabling higher quality and cost efficiencies for providers, says CEO Glen Tullman.

< + > How virtual care can help ease the rural mental health crisis

The overall provider shortage, combined with other unique factors, means rural residents have the odds stacked against them when it comes to seeking mental and behavioral healthcare. But one expert says telehealth can make a big difference.

< + > Not All Prescription Management and Clinical Decision Support Are Created Equal

When I first discovered Synapse Medicine, I was fascinated by the depth of work they had done to handle prescriptions and clinical decision support in their system.  Since their system was and is being broadly used in France, they were able to see and work on all the problems associated with medication management and discover the solutions that worked across a wide swath of patients and environments.  Needless to say, there’s more to prescription management and medication decision support than you would expect at first glance.

This is why I was excited to sit down with Clement Goehrs, MD-PhD, CEO & Co-Founder Synapse Medicine, to learn more about these topics and Synapse Medicine’s progress bringing these solutions to the US market and other countries.  We kick off our discussion around prescription safety and Goehrs offers a nice framework for thinking about prescription safety including two macro trends that are making medication management more challenging: Changing Demographics (Older Population) and Advancement in Treatment Options.

I also ask Goehrs why EHR vendors and other digital health software vendors haven’t solved this problem already.  They all have some sort of medication management and clinical decision support and so why isn’t this enough?  This is an important question since I’m quite sure most hospitals and health systems think their EHR vendor is taking care of this.  In response to the question, Goehrs suggests that many doctors aren’t actually using the clinical decision support that’s in place and I add that some are annoyed by it.  Then, he offers the three major challenges that a useful clinical decision support system has to overcome: Information Not Relevant to That Patient, Poor UI, and Lack of Personalized Recommendations. He then shares what Synapse Medicine has done to address these three challenges.

Goehrs then dives into how an EHR vendor or other digital health company could integrate Synapse Medicine into their product, what that integration would look like, and how easy it is to integrate.  Plus, I ask him to share how he ensures a good user experience when a company decides to integrate with them.

Since prescription safety has such an impact, Goehrs also shares with us some stories he’s heard from his customers of where good clinical decision support has improved the lives of patients.  Finally, we ask him to share what he sees as the emerging trends in clinical decision support.

If you’re interested in what else can be done to address prescription safety and high quality clinical decision support, check out our interview with Synapse Medicine below.  Also, if you’ll be at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas, you can find them at Booth #5931 to learn more in person.

Learn more about Synapse Medicine: https://synapse-medicine.com/

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

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

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

 Synapse Medicine is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > New NUHS AI can spot high blood calcium levels

It flags cases in real time, prompting faster patient interventions.

< + > Bridging IT and medical knowledge to advance healthcare AI

Cooperation is key to the successful implementation of new technologies such as AI for improving care, said Prof Ho Young Lee of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

< + > Breaking through staff resistance with change management

This session delved into birthing pains the Regional Clinical Hospital in Tatarstan went through to achieve HIMSS Stage 6 EMRAM.

< + > At Baptist Health, patient engagement shown to be equivalent to adding a BP med

The outreach program is showing serious clinical ROI by relying on patient-reported blood pressure data linked to the Epic MyChart-based interactive digital health assistant, Care Companion.

< + > CIO Podcast – Episode 62: Digital Transformation with Laura Marquez

For the 62nd episode of the CIO podcast hosted by Healthcare IT Today, we are joined by Laura Marquez, Senior Director for Digital Transformation at the University of Utah Health (UofU Health), to talk all about digital transformation! We begin this episode by looking at healthcare on the East Coast and on the West Coast to see if they are different or not. We then move on to the work Marquez has done and discuss the most successful digital transformation project she’s done and what made it that successful. Next, we talk about how we would define digital transformation in healthcare. Marquez then shares the technologies she is the most excited about, and whether or not she has implemented them. Then we take a look at AI in relation to digital transformation and discuss if it’s currently making an impact, or when and where it will eventually make an impact. Finally, to wrap everything up Marquez passes along the best piece of career advice she’s been given.

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

• Is East Coast healthcare different than West Coast healthcare?
• What’s the most successful digital transformation project you’ve done and what made it successful?
• How would you define digital transformation in healthcare?
• What are some of the technologies you’re the most excited about whether you’ve implemented them or not?
• Is AI really make an impact on digital transformation already? When or where will it?
• What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve been given?

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:

NOTE: We’ll be updating the links below as the various podcasting platforms approve the new podcast.  Check back soon to be able to subscribe on your favorite podcast application.

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

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We’d love to hear what you think of the podcast and if there are other healthcare CIO you’d like to see us have on the program. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post with @techguy on Twitter, or privately on our Contact Us page.

We appreciate you listening!

Listen to the Latest Episodes

< + > 5 Must-Haves in a Patient Financial Communication Platform

The following is a guest article by Steven Dubner, Vice President of Product Management at Nordis Technologies

No matter how exemplary the clinical care, overall patient experience and satisfaction often hinge on the last interactions with providers—billing and payments. But many patients are, in fact, unhappy with the current state: 49% of all adults and 74% of millennials would consider switching providers for a better payment experience, according to InstaMed’s 2021 annual consumer survey on healthcare payments.

To improve this critical financial experience, healthcare technology and revenue cycle leaders are digitally transforming their patient billing and payments with cloud-based customer communications management platforms. Omnichannel CCM technology gives providers and revenue cycle management firms the control and flexibility to cater to patient communications preferences, increasing financial engagement and lowering barriers to payment. For example, 51% of patients say they would pay their bills faster if they received a payment reminder text, according to Salucro’s 2023 Trends in Patient Payment Communications Report.

“Patient experience is everything, and that includes financial experience. If they get a bill and they don’t know why, they may forget about all the good things they experienced during care,” said Anne Goodwill Pritchett, MPA, FHFMA, Executive Vice President of Revenue Operations for Hackensack Meridian Health. “We believe caring for our patients includes the financial experience, and it is our goal to make receiving and paying bills easier and more personalized.”

CCM platforms also can deliver important operating efficiencies through automation, and they cut printing, paper, and postage costs as more patients move to digital interactions. With easy-to-use dashboards, CCM software streamlines developing and distributing digital and print statements and other financial communications and disclosures while improving productivity and employee experience.

5 Keys to a State-of-the-Art CCM Platform 

To maximize the benefits, power, and scalability of a cloud CCM system, healthcare technology and RCM executives should look for five key capabilities:

Omnichannel Development and Delivery

Many RCM companies and providers fail to meet patient needs and expectations with their current billing and payment approaches. A 2022 InstaMed survey found that 67% of consumers want digital and electronic payment options, such as receiving eStatements and paying online. However 78% of providers still primarily collect from patients with paper and manual processes.

By leveraging a cloud CCM platform to offer print/mail, email, and text messaging options, providers and RCM leaders can quickly close these gaps to give patients the billing and payment experiences they want. What’s more, the technology enables billers to automate any mix of communication channels for each patient, from mailed statements to payment alerts by text and emailed payment confirmations.

To consolidate and simplify the process further, a few CCM solution vendors offer integrated digital and print production and delivery, including mailing services. By integrating composition capabilities with execution, healthcare billers control and automate every step from a single platform while also eliminating the need to share patient health information with multiple vendors.

Personalization

Offering multiple channels is a big step in the right direction, but it’s not enough to deliver the personal financial experience that patients want. For that, RCM firms and providers need to leverage CCM platforms to also customize the content of their patient financial communications.

To do so, healthcare leaders collaborate with their CCM platform vendor to create a content library with text, logos, images, and more. They also develop document templates to serve all provider brands and communication programs, with tables and business logic that automate how preset document fields and communication types are filled in. Upon receiving the data, the system dynamically merges all the elements to personalize each letter, email, or text message, from account number to a breakdown of charges to the due date and so on.

Automation & Existing System Integration

A mere 7% of revenue cycle executives are very satisfied with their patient-facing financial processes and technology, with nearly half saying insufficient automation is a top barrier to change, according to a 2023 study by Waystar and The Health Management Academy.

With cloud CCM software, healthcare billers automate manual operations for composing and distributing patient financial communications, driving greater productivity, accuracy, and speed. Equally important, CCM systems should work well with the biller’s on-premise or cloud accounting, ERP, or other systems, enabling seamless data exchange to support creating and tracking patient statements and payments. To this end, some CCM platforms accept document files in multiple formats including APIs, batch STP, and print-ready PDFs.

The best CCM systems also make it easy for multiple business users to review documents, secure sign-offs, make disclosure changes, track distribution, generate reports, archive and retrieve documents, and create audit trails. Some platforms enable RCM firms and providers to automate and manage secure opt-in for electronic delivery and return mail processing.

HIPAA Compliance and Security/Privacy Controls

Not all CCM platforms have been designed for healthcare purposes. It’s essential to verify that a CCM tech provider’s systems, processes, and production facilities are HIPAA-compliant and offer a secure business environment that includes SOC2 Type II certification.

Integration with Payment Portals and Payment Processing

Patients are looking for convenience and ease of use, so removing steps in the billing and payment process can prompt payment and improve cash flow. Some CCM platforms give billers the ability to add QR codes and digital links to print and email statements and text messages. They also automate electronic presentations in payment portals so patients can see their bills and manage their accounts online.

In addition to identifying CCM solutions with these 5 key capabilities, RCM firms and providers need to consider operating models. Cloud CCM providers tend to fall into two main options: Hosted managed service or software as a service. As with any technology investment, billers need to weigh how much support they need and want from their CCM tech provider during implementation and initial training, ongoing operations, and tech updates.

In general, CCM-hosted managed services are more comprehensive, including the software, operating environment, a set of services, and service level agreements. They support companies with upgrades, maintenance, and integration of software to create better workflows. This option ensures revenue cycle staff gets up and running quickly and effectively on the platform, optimizes platform use, and troubleshoots any problems.

With 63% of providers experiencing RCM staffing shortages, a CCM solution that improves both employee experience and patient financial experience can quickly deliver an outsized return. The right CCM platform can confer a major strategic advantage, increasing loyalty and trust among staff and patient populations while lowering costs and accelerating revenue collection.

About Steven Dubner

Steven Dubner leads Nordis Technologies’ strategy and product development and delivery, enhancing current communications and payments technologies and developing new solutions to improve client performance. Steve was VP of payment products for Jack Henry’s Payrailz and senior director of product management and development for EverView, formerly OSG. 

< + > Ibex Raises $55 Million in Series C Funding to Drive Global Adoption of AI for Cancer Diagnosis

Led by 83North, This Round of Financing Brings Total Funding to Over $100 Million

Ibex Medical Analytics (Ibex), the leader in AI-powered cancer diagnostics, today announced it has closed a $55 million Series C financing round led by 83North. Additional participants in the round were Sienna Venture Capital and existing investors in the company, Octopus Ventures, aMoon, Planven Entrepreneur Ventures, and Dell Technologies Capital. The financing brings total funding to over $100 million since Ibex’s inception in 2016.

Ibex is transforming cancer diagnostics with AI-powered solutions that help pathologists improve the quality of diagnosis and support laboratories with enhanced efficiency and better turnaround times. Cancer incidence is rising around the world while its diagnosis becomes more complex and nuanced, causing heavy workloads for pathologists and laboratories. The increasing demand is compounded by a global shortage of pathologists who still rely heavily on manual work and solely on visual analysis of biopsies. Ibex’s Galen platform helps overcome these challenges with AI-powered workflows and decision-support tools that pathologists use in their everyday practice.

“Ibex is leading the market in live customer deployments as we remain steadfast in our mission of providing every patient with a timely, accurate, and personalized cancer diagnosis,” said Joseph Mossel, Co-Founder and CEO at Ibex. “This latest financing round will enable us to take major steps toward reaching our goal. We will be using the funds to expand our footprint in the United States to meet the increasing demand for AI-powered diagnostic solutions and to accelerate the growth of our product portfolio to create more tools for pathologists and labs as they digitally transform their practices. This financing round highlights our strong commercial momentum and our tenacity in pursuing the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Ibex’s Galen platform is the most widely deployed AI technology in pathology and has been deployed in laboratories and pathology departments around the world. Ibex achieved several significant milestones recently, including the live deployment of Galen at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the completion of the national rollout throughout Wales, and collaboration with AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo for the development of an AI-powered biomarker scoring product for breast cancer. Galen provides health systems and diagnostic laboratories with an integrated solution for cancer diagnosis and biomarker scoring, capable of detecting more the 100 different cancer and non-cancer pathologies while offering enhanced interoperability with scanning systems, image management solutions, and lab information systems. Ibex was recently showcased in a KLAS Research report which provided consistently favorable feedback from global customers.

“Our continued investment in Ibex is a testament to the company’s progress in recent years, bringing its unparalleled technology to laboratories, hospitals, and digital pathology networks worldwide, catapulting the industry into an AI-powered era,” added Gil Goren, Partner at 83North and Board Director at Ibex. “Ibex’s successful deployments demonstrate its responsiveness to market and customer needs, while its product portfolio continues to grow and meet new market demands. We are eager to see Ibex forge the way with new uses of AI in cancer diagnosis, supporting providers as they work to improve patient care and outcomes.”

About Ibex Medical Analytics

Ibex Medical Analytics (Ibex) is transforming cancer diagnostics with world-leading, clinical-grade AI-powered solutions, empowering physicians to provide accurate, timely, and personalized cancer diagnosis for every patient. Our Galen™ suite of solutions is the first and most widely deployed AI technology in pathology and is used as part of everyday routine, supporting pathologists and providers worldwide in improving the quality and accuracy of diagnosis, implementing comprehensive quality control, reducing turnaround times, and boosting productivity with more efficient workflows. Ibex’s Artificial Intelligence technology is built on Deep Learning algorithms trained by a team of pathologists, data scientists, and software engineers. For additional company information, please visit ibex-ai.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Galen™ platform includes certain solutions that are CE-marked and registered with the UK MHRA. The solutions are for Research Use Only (RUO) in the United States and are not cleared by the FDA. For more information, including indication for use and regulatory approval in other countries, contact Ibex Medical Analytics.

Originally announced September 6th, 2023

< + > APAC to double down on home hospitalisation, tech-enabled preventive care

Home hospitalisation, tech-enabled preventive care, and genomic data-driven personalised care are some of the emerging trends in care in the Asia-Pacific region.

< + > How to effectively wield emerging tech

Health CIOs shared outcomes, considerations, and success factors in implementing new technologies to advance care.

< + > How Catholic Medical Center achieved personalised care with big data, AI

This HIMSS23 APAC session put a spotlight on the hospital's recent digital transformation journey.

< + > Most hospitals are not yet ready for LLM-based patient portals

If they want to apply these models, it has to be hosted locally to preserve data integrity, said Dr Roel Bolt, CMIO of Franciscus Hospital.

< + > Building a digital hospital from scratch

Gareth Sherlock, former CIO of Cleveland Clinic London, shared their lessons from setting up a fully digital hospital in a new city. 

< + > Bonus Features – September 24, 2023 – 72 percent of patients say affordability is the biggest challenge for paying medical bills

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

News and Studies

• The American Telemedicine Association released three tools aimed at addressing disparity and inequity in care: Digital Infrastructure Disparities Score and Map, Economic and Social Value-Added Calculator, and a toolkit including all previously released resources.
• Collaborations between AI vendors and biotech/pharma companies over the last five years are worth more than $45 billion, according to a recent report from Accenture. Over the same time period, investment in AI-powered drug discovery start-ups grew by $840 million.
• Medicare Advantage costs are 12% lower than similar beneficiaries covered under fee-for-service Medicare, according to research from Inovalon and Harvard Medical School. Additionally, those who enroll in FFS Medicare see a 35% increase in utilization in their first two years on Medicare compared to the two prior years, while utilization is stable over a similar timeframe for MA enrollees.
• While 57% of doctors think patients miss appointments due to insurance issues, and 34% think it’s lack of access to appointments, a Tebra survey found the real reasons that patients skip appointments are work conflicts, not feeling well, and facing transportation issues.
• Nearly three in four (72%) patients say affordability is the biggest challenge to paying larger healthcare bills, according to a survey from Cedar. Another 47% said their well-being or ability to heal from a medical procedure has been negatively impacted by trying to pay a large bill.
• Commercial payers lag behind Medicare in covering nearly all aspects of digital medicine, and coverage policies are inconsistent and not transparent, according to an American Medical Association report. When digital services are available, they’re often disconnected from primary care.

Partnerships

• Carium is using Amazon Bedrock to incorporate AI into virtual care management, with a focus on risk stratification, care gaps, and data summaries.
• Risk management vendor Censinet, KLAS Research, the AHA, and others are launching Wave 3 of The Healthcare Cybersecurity Benchmarking Study.
• Zscaler integrated with Imprivata OneSign and CrowdStrike Falcon to support organizations transitioning to zero trust architecture.

Product and Company News

• Oracle Health announced several generative AI features, including a clinical digital assistant and patient self-service tools. Also, Oracle Health is collaborating with Valeos, providing access to EHR data and cloud infrastructure to modernize the organ transplant system.
• Data analytics platform Arcadia launched a point-of-care generative AI assistant to improve risk factor documentation.
• Drummond Group unveiled FHIR Client Certification Program, which will enter its pilot phase on Oct. 1.
• Healthcare marketplace Zocdoc launched Zocdoc Practice Solutions to support practices with online scheduling, patient intake, and virtual care services.
• Hospital operations software maker symplr launched a survey management tool.
• ModMed added maternal fetal medicine capabilities to its EHR suite for OBGYNs.
• ClosedLoop launched two data science tools: ACO-Predict for risk stratification and Evaluate for population health program monitoring.
• Advisory firm AVIA launched AVIA AI Labs for developing, testing, and releasing AI-driven experiments.
• Biofourmis expanded Digital Clinical Trials to include data management automation and integration of clinical trial documentation.
• Workflow and analytics vendor Reveleer extended its Prospective Risk Adjustment and Quality Improvement suites to risk-bearing providers.
• Metriport launching its Medical API, an open-source platform for retrieving clinical history from major EHR systems.
• Medication management company Medisafe launched Rapid Release to enable organizations to roll out digital patient engagement tools in 90 days.
• Virtual observation technology vendor MedSitter rebranded as Collette Health.
• Remote monitoring improved blood pressure collection for patients with postpartum hypertension, compared to monitoring in-person, and eliminated racial disparities observed in office BP collection, according to a study from Babyscripts.
• Combining remote cognitive behavioral therapy with in-home VR sessions is effective in reducing pain and behavioral health conditions in patients with chronic cervical and lumbar pain, according to a study from Harvard Medtech.

Sales

• Home infusion therapy provider KabaFusion selected Inovalon ScriptMed Infusion cloud-based pharmacy management software.
• Patient engagement platform MediKarma will be licensed to FloridaMed Health Network and CareNational Health System.
• The United States Department of Veteran Affairs expanded its use of CirrusMD to provide VA Health Chat in four additional states.
• Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center expanded its use of CliniComp EHR to include behavioral health.
• Ohio-based Wayne HealthCare implemented Infor for cloud-based ERP and integrated the application with its existing EHR.
• Nebraska-based Bryan Health chose KeyCare for Epic-integrated virtual care.
• California’s Montage Health selected Cadence to power its at-home patient monitoring service.
• California’s Health Plan of San Joaquin chose ZeOmega Jiva to support care management of Medi-Cal (Medicaid) members.
• Pennsylvania’s Mount Nittany Medical Center chose InsightRX to optimize pharmacist workflows.
• Primary Plus chose Accelecom for fiber connectivity across its 10 locations in Eastern Kentucky.

People

• Drug data and analytics company Kalderos appointed Angie Franks as Chief Executive Officer. In addition, Kalderos refreshed Commercial Discount Monitoring to include a proprietary 340B validation set.
• Patient access vendor ABOUT Healthcare announced Jonathan Shoemaker as CEO. He replaces Angie Franks, the new CEO at Kalderos, who will also remain on ABOUT’s Board of Directors.
• Real-world data vendor OM1 appointed Shawn Bates as Chief Commercial Officer.
• Kidney care management vendor Interwell Health appointed Adriana Day as Chief Financial Officer.
• Health payment account provider Paytient added David Smith as Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships.
• The Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network added Susan Dentzer, President and CEO of America’s Physician Groups, to its Accountable Care Action Collaboration. HCPLAN also added the advocacy group Accountable for Health.

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.