< + > Epic and Marquette collaborate on EHR training for nursing students

Marquette is the first nursing school in the country to incorporate the use of Epic's educational health records software into its curriculum.

< + > Helping Healthcare Professionals Evaluate AI Offerings

Steve Weber

AJ Grotto

The following is a guest article by Steve Weber, Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley, and AJ Grotto, Director, Program on Geopolitics, Technology, and Governance at Stanford University

Generative artificial intelligence technologies promise to improve healthcare in large part by enabling healthcare professionals to utilize massive troves of health-relevant data. They will fuel improvements across the healthcare value chain, starting with a better understanding of physiology and disease, to efficiencies in disease management, treatment protocols, and even billing and reimbursement. The technology companies facilitating this push into AI-powered health services know that strengthening their footholds in the health sector could mean a significant windfall. But what matters most is what’s good for patients, and that means caution is warranted.

Putting patients first means that health systems, their government partners, and regulators need to look at companies’ security and interoperability track records to ensure the technologies being adopted keep patients’ private records safe and usable across providers. Competition, then, is an important aspect of this focus on patients. Regardless of arguments about natural monopolies and standards, it is far too early in the game for any single solution to be permitted to dominate the market.

To its credit, the healthcare industry has digitized at a remarkable rate: 96% of hospitals in the United States use electronic health records (EHR). Yet the vast majority of EHR remains unstructured and under-utilized. The piecemeal approach of health systems to digitization is a far cry from the well-engineered data lakes other industries – such as financial services – have built with large-scale distributed file systems to support faster, easier, and more productive data access and usage.

AI technologies could help accelerate improvements in healthcare for patients, payors, and providers, but they have to win over skeptics in order to preserve caregiver and patient trust. A recent survey found that more than half of healthcare professionals don’t believe AI is ready for medical use. This was reflected in a BMJ Global Health article published this year, which attributed professionals’ apprehension to concerns regarding AI errors that cause patient harm, data privacy and security, and incomplete or biased data.

Health systems tend to favor an incremental approach that focuses on patient outcomes, as it should be, rather than simply on enhancing data use or improving day-to-day business processes. As technology companies launch bespoke healthcare products, ink strategic partnerships, and tout their expansive visions at industry events, we don’t want the bright shiny object of generative AI to get ahead of protecting patients’ privacy and confidentiality. Americans are already and appropriately uncomfortable with the idea of AI being used in their own healthcare, in part because of how major technology companies already exploit their health data and the leaks that these companies experience.

Along with government partners, healthcare professionals should be at the forefront of evaluating and adopting AI technology. Microsoft presents an important opportunity to do so following the recent expansion of its partnership with Epic. Together, they promise to help solve major challenges in health care through AI in the Microsoft Cloud. This collaboration makes sense conceptually: Healthcare practitioners would benefit from seamless conversational interfaces and appreciate reducing manual, labor-intensive processes like entering clinical notes into Epic. These benefits will be overshadowed, though, if data in Microsoft’s purview is insecure or non-interoperable.

That is why it is important to remember Microsoft’s poor cybersecurity track record. Its products were at the core of two of the largest hacks of government and critical infrastructure in recent memory, and just last September a conversational AI developer owned by Microsoft, Nuance Communications, disclosed that it was the victim of an attack in which hackers gained unauthorized access to 1.2 million patients’ data.

Microsoft + Epic is a powerful player that would naturally aim to dominate the healthcare market, but would at the same time create a single plane of attack for malicious actors; just one vulnerability could open the door for potential intruders to open what might be the world’s most valuable vault. And Microsoft is already under serious scrutiny for how it has tried to manipulate markets in other industries, including legislators increasing the wariness of Microsoft’s monopolistic dominance in government technology.

Microsoft appears to like walled gardens, and while that might be attractive to the company and its shareholders, it is not acceptable to risk locking healthcare professionals into Microsoft and thus becoming the gatekeeper of patients’ data – it would directly clash with the potential of generative AI and what it could offer patients.

Any technology provider that wants to add a new layer to healthcare systems — be it generative AI innovations, cloud collaboration tools, or otherwise — must demonstrate credibility and performance across security and interoperability first and foremost. Patients come first, and privacy is paramount in healthcare. Advancements in AI and the cloud have too much potential to be shortchanged by anti-competitive corporate practices and strategies. Assessing these technologies and business models now on security and interoperability criteria will help ensure healthcare professionals adopt the right patient-focused solutions that can improve health outcomes over the long term. 

< + > Access Healthcare Acquires Envera Health

Enhances Revenue Cycle Services Market Leadership with Patient Engagement Services and Technology Capabilities

Today, Access Healthcare, a global leader in revenue cycle management (RCM) and healthcare services, announced the acquisition of Envera Health, a market leader in patient engagement services. This acquisition, a testament to Access Healthcare’s focus on providing innovative and superior revenue cycle solutions, broadens its service portfolio to include enhanced patient engagement capabilities.

By leveraging Envera’s patient engagement capabilities, Access Healthcare will strengthen its end-to-end RCM services delivery and further enhance its proprietary workflows and process intelligence platform.  This unique combination will deliver progressively improved outcomes to customers. With delivery capabilities across upstream and downstream processes, Access Healthcare is uniquely positioned to unlock insights derived from operational processes to prevent claim denials, maximize collections, and enhance the overall patient experience.

Anurag Jain, Chairman and CEO at Access Healthcare said, “Welcoming Envera Health is a pivotal move in our ongoing mission to deliver comprehensive, patient-centric solutions. Envera’s proficiency in patient engagement coupled with our innovative revenue cycle services will elevate the value proposition for our healthcare provider clients.”

Welcoming the US-based Envera Health team, Vardhman Jain, Founder and Vice Chairman at Access Healthcare said, “Combining Envera Health’s strength in patient engagement with Access Healthcare’s deep technology-enabled global revenue cycle services allows us to offer more flexible and diverse choices to our healthcare clients. We will leverage our collective capabilities to provide next-generation, omnichannel patient engagement solutions.”

The acquisition combines Envera Health’s patient services and Access Healthcare’s advanced technology-enabled revenue cycle services capabilities to offer clients enhanced and flexible services to improve the overall patient experience and achieve market-leading revenue cycle outcomes.

David Cerino, CEO at Envera Health, expressed his excitement about the acquisition, saying, “Joining forces with Access Healthcare is a tremendous opportunity for Envera Health. We share the vision for transforming healthcare pathways for health systems, hospitals, physician practices, medical groups, and, most importantly, patients. We will do so by applying innovative technology, empathetic patient engagement teams, and developing custom solutions.”

This strategic acquisition broadens Access Healthcare’s diverse service offerings. It solidifies its standing as a pioneering leader in healthcare services, demonstrating its continued commitment to providing innovative revenue cycle solutions and flexible choices. Access Healthcare’s global delivery engine encompasses over 27,000 people working from 20 delivery sites across nine cities in the United States, India, and the Philippines.

About Access Healthcare

Access Healthcare is a leading provider of revenue cycle management services, specializing in medical billing, coding, and accounts receivable management. With a global presence and a commitment to innovation, Access Healthcare delivers efficient, leading-edge solutions to healthcare organizations. For more information, please visit accesshealthcare.com

About Envera Health

Envera Health is a human + tech engagement services partner committed to improving people’s lives by providing better access to care. Through our people, managed services, data, and technology, Envera delivers an ecosystem of connectivity to strengthen health systems and physician practices, drive growth, and deliver better, more connected, and coordinated care. Offering a comprehensive suite of customized solutions, Envera supports modern patient demands through effective, compassionate engagement that maintains lasting relationships.

Originally announced October 12th, 2023

< + > There is no escaping making investments in cybersecurity technology

Risks run high as the healthcare industry in Australia is increasingly becoming more data-reliant amid growing consumerisation, says managed service and cloud solutions provider Intelliworx.

< + > President Biden's executive order on AI directs HHS to establish safety program

The White House plan for "safe, secure and trustworthy" artificial intelligence wants the Department of Health and Human Services to have a mechanism in place to collect reports of "harms or unsafe healthcare practices," and act to remedy them.

< + > Healthcare AI Edition: Buy or Sell – Healthcare IT Today Podcast Episode 126

For the 126th episode of the Healthcare IT Podcast, we are once again back with everyone’s favorite game: Buy or Sell, only this time we are doing a special AI edition! For anyone who’s new or would like a reminder, in these episodes, we select a list of topics and then debate whether we believe something will happen or will have an impact on health IT (ie. we ‘buy’ it) or if we don’t think it will happen or it’ll have no impact (ie. we ‘sell’ it). With that re-cap, let’s dive in and begin a new round of Buy or Sell!

Here’s a preview of the topics we will be debating in this episode:

• Ambient Clinical Voice
• AI Bot for Searching Patient Data
• Diagnostic AI
• Website Chatbots

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks so much for listening!

Listen to Our Latest Episodes:

< + > WellSky Acquires Corridor, Expands Commitment to Offering Best-in-Class Coding, Revenue Cycle Management Services for Post-Acute Industry

The Combined Companies will Work Together to Bolster Providers’ Ability to Improve Financial Performance and Succeed in Value-Based Care Arrangements

WellSky, a leading health and community care technology company, announced today that it has acquired Corridor, an end-to-end tech-enabled services platform designed for the post-acute care industry’s toughest challenges, from HealthEdge Investment Partners, a healthcare-focused private equity firm. By adding Corridor to its portfolio, WellSky will expand its medical coding and revenue cycle management (RCM) offerings to help care providers increase efficiency and improve performance across clinical, financial, operational, and compliance areas.

Given the increasingly complex and frequently changing regulations that complicate coding and billing processes, healthcare organizations are turning to trusted and experienced coding and RCM providers who can increase productivity and help ensure accurate reimbursement. With the addition of Corridor, WellSky expands its comprehensive services — including medical coding, clinical documentation review, billing, and collections services — that address these challenges within the post-acute and long-term care sectors.

“Providers today must continually demonstrate higher quality performance and compliance, and they’re looking for solutions to support quality patient care and reduce administrative burdens,” said Bill Miller, CEO at WellSky. “As we looked to strengthen our services offerings, Corridor emerged as an ideal partner. Together, WellSky and Corridor help more post-acute care organizations succeed against industry challenges.”

Corridor has a proven track record as a leading tech-enabled services partner to post-acute providers, serving more than 2,600 client sites and supporting more than 52,000 clinicians. The addition of Corridor allows WellSky to strengthen its position in home health coding and RCM and move into the skilled nursing facility billing business. The announcement comes on the heels of WellSky’s recent acquisition of Experience Care, a leading technology company for long-term and post-acute care providers, further demonstrating its commitment to the long-term care market.

“For more than 30 years, Corridor has held steadfast to our mission to help our clients maximize their performance and resources with powerful, tech-enabled solutions. I’m thrilled that Corridor will continue to advance that mission as part of the WellSky team,” said Des Varady, CEO at Corridor. “With access to WellSky’s tech-enabled solutions that are focused on improving outcomes, lowering costs, and improving patient and family satisfaction, we can better serve our client partners.”

Corridor’s deep industry expertise in billing and financials, workforce issues, and medical coding complements WellSky’s aim to deliver innovative solutions that power providers’ success. Corridor clients will soon be able to leverage WellSky’s robust analytics, care coordination, patient engagement, interoperability, and EHR solutions to enhance care quality and better position clients for success with value-based care models.

Varady is staying on to lead the Corridor team, along with the Corridor leadership team, who will integrate with WellSky as they evolve and invest in the future of tech-enabled services.

Lincoln International acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Corridor and HealthEdge on this transaction.

For more information, visit wellsky.com.

About WellSky

WellSky is one of America’s largest and most innovative healthcare technology companies leading the movement for intelligent, coordinated care. Our proven software, analytics, and services power better outcomes and lower costs for stakeholders across the health and community care continuum. In today’s value-based care environment, WellSky helps providers, payers, health systems, and community organizations scale processes, improve collaboration for growth, harness the power of data analytics, and achieve better outcomes by further connecting clinical and social care. WellSky serves more than 20,000 client sites — including the largest hospital systems, blood banks, cell therapy labs, home health and hospice franchises, post-acute providers, government agencies, and human services organizations. Informed by more than 40 years of providing software and expertise, WellSky anticipates clients’ needs and innovates relentlessly to build healthy, thriving communities. For more information, visit wellsky.com.

About Corridor

Founded in 1989, The Corridor Group Holdings, LLC (Corridor) is a leading provider of technology-enabled outsourced coding, revenue cycle, and education solutions to the post-acute healthcare industry. Leveraging deep and broad post-acute expertise, Corridor delivers documentation quality improvement and reimbursement success to clients ranging from large health systems and national chains to smaller, independently operated agencies. For more information visit corridorgroup.com.

Originally announced October 12th, 2023

< + > Bonus Features – October 29, 2023 – 66% of patients prefer email or text for reminders about medical bills, 94% of clinicians said lack of timely access to insights within EHR impacts patient care, and 28 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

• CMMI released the 2022 performance results for the direct contracting value-based care model, which has since been redesigned and renamed the ACO REACH Model. All told, participating entities achieved net savings of more than $484 million. That’s an increase of more than 10x from 2021, though the gains are explained in part from a longer reporting period and more providers participating.
• Digital health funding has dropped to levels not seen since 2016, with just $3 billion in global funding announced in Q3, according to the latest report from CB Insights. In addition, the number of total deals announced, 247, is the lowest count in nearly a decade.

Studies and Surveys

• Nearly 80% of patients say the billing experience is important when choosing a provider, according to a report from Salucro Healthcare Solutions. Additionally, two-thirds of patients said they prefer text or email reminders about their bills, while demand for contactless payments has doubled in two years.
• Only 17% of healthcare technology VCs said generative AI is “significantly” changing their investment strategy, according to a poll from GSR Ventures. Another 12% said the technology isn’t changing their strategy at all – leaving the majority, at 71% to say generative AI is impacting their investment strategy “somewhat” or “a little.”
• Retaining qualified IT talent is the top operational challenge for 44% of healthcare organizations, the latest industry outlook report from Stoltenberg Consulting found. When it comes to financial priorities, the main concern for 56% of organizations is getting the most out of existing EHR or ERP systems.
• A recent Cedar Gate Technologies analysis of its member database indicated 55% of women with commercial insurance are unlikely to get a mammogram even though clinical guidelines suggest they should. The study also found that the average age of a breast cancer diagnosis for commercially insured women is 58, compared to 63 for other women.
• About 60% of patients are comfortable with their provider sharing information about social needs such as food, transportation, or housing with other providers, according to the latest ONC Data Brief.
• While 74% of clinicians have changed a diagnosis or altered a treatment plan based on insights from third-party tools integrated with their EHRs, 94% of clinicians said lack of timely access to insights adversely impacts patient care, according to a survey from Insiteflow.
• Although 45% of healthcare finance professionals said autonomous coding works well and 16% place complete trust in it, a majority of those surveyed (52%) said they don’t know what it is, according to a report from HFMA and AGS Health.

Partnerships

• California HHS designated nine Qualified Health Information Organizations to facilitate information exchange in the state starting in 2024.
• WebMD Ignite and Freshpaint are partnering to incorporate patient privacy into healthcare marketing services.
• Point-to-point encryption vendor Bluefin is integrating with CORE payment products for government and healthcare customers.
• Google Cloud solution provider SADA is collaborating with Peerbridge Health to build its enterprise clinician portal and deploy its cardiac monitoring platform.
• Patient engagement software Intiveo has integrated with Sensei Cloud, the patient and practice management platform of Carestream Dental.
• Maternity care platform Mother Goose Health is partnering with Nest Collaborative, a virtual lactation consultation platform.

Product and Company News

• Staffing firm SnapNurse has relaunched as SnapCare and is offering its float pool management software at no cost.
• FutureRx launched PlexxusAI to help health plans improve medication adherence and pharmacy care management.
• R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company rolled out Accessibility Hub by RRD, which manages alternative document formats for healthcare and insurance.
• Weight loss program Found launched Found Assistant to provide personalized insight on on nutrition, movement, health habits, and more.
• Personal safety technology vendor LogicMark launched the Freedom Alert Plus device and the complementary Care Village platform.
•  Ventric Health received FDA 510(k) clearance for Vivio, a device that aids in the diagnosis of heart failure.
• Data integration platform 1upHealth joined the early adopter program for NCQA Digital Content Services.
• Cardiac data management company Implicity was shown to reduce alerts from implanted cardiac devices by nearly 58%, according to a paper published in the Cardiovascular Digital Health Journal.

Sales

• Maryland-based Urology Associates is adopting Avenda Health’s Unfold AI platform and integrating it with its own PrecisionPoint Transperineal Access System to identify cases of prostate cancer.
• Pennsylvania-based Integrated Medical Health implemented eClinicalWorks EHR and healow.
• Missouri-based Texas County Memorial Hospital implemented RapidAI stroke imaging and workflow products.
• Nebraska-based Midwest Surgical Hospital selected Wolters Kluwer Health Simplifi to manage pharmaceutical compounding documentation.

Certifications

• Chronic disease workflow management vendor Rimidi received provisional certification status for TX-RAMP, which is Texas’ risk and authorization management program.
• Workflow automation vendor Lumeon received HITRUST Risk-based, 2-year Certification for Lumeon Conductor.
• Fivetran attained HITRUST Implemented, 1-Year (i1) Certification for the Fivetran Automated Data Movement 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 – October 28, 2023

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

Considerations for Migrating Existing Healthcare Systems and Applications to the Cloud. It’s a topic on everyone’s mind, so we asked the Healthcare IT Today community for advice. Tips include improving legacy systems before moving them to the cloud, ensuring what gets moved to the cloud is optimized for scalability and flexibility, and weighing the appetite to maintain on-premises and cloud infrastructure in the interim. Read more…

The Evolution of Suki’s Ambient Clinical Voice Solution. John interviewed Suki CEO Punit Soni, about how ambient clinical voice is changing rapidly, including how Suki works as a voice assistant and not just a clinical documentation tool. They also discussed the all-important topic of EHR integration. Read more…

Addressing the Social Determinants of Mental Health. There are many ties between mental health and SDoH such as food insecurity, unemployment, and access to transportation. Malekeh Amini at Trayt Health spoke to Healthcare IT Today about the importance of coordinating mental health resources so the right challenges are ultimately addressed. Read more…

eClinicalWorks Details Practical Application of AI. Reporting from the vendor’s national conference, Colin Hung found eCW customers delighted by announcements of AI to manage inbound faxes and AI to save robotic process automation (RPA) actions much the same way you save macros in Microsoft Office. Read more…

Going Beyond Visit Summaries Using AI in the EHR. Meanwhile, John spoke to Suhas Uliyar about Oracle Health’s moves to create tools that accompany and augment the workflow of physicians, nurses, and patients. One example is helping with follow-up tasks such as ordering medication and scheduling a phone call in addition to generating a visit summary. Read more… 

Driving Optimal Use of Temporary Nurses. Andy Oram spoke to Craig Allan Ahrens at ShiftMed about automating onboarding, provisioning, and training of temporary nurses so they can hit the ground running. Additional steps such as hiring temps as full hires and aligning their schedules with union rules for full-time staff can improve retention and reduce liability. Read more…

Choosing a Trustworthy Consultant to Build a Sustainable Program. Palomar Health CIO Anis Trabelsi highlighted what to look when hiring a consultant. The right consultant will ask a lot of questions, help your team grow and learn, and offer a solution tailored to your needs, he said. Read more…

Security, Privacy Hurdles Plague AI-Driven Health Services. The intersection of HIPAA and AI technology presents new challenges for developers and patients alike, according to Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan at Inflectra. Generally speaking, HIPAA applies if AI takes data from medical records and processes it to provide decision support, though of course there’s more to consider as well. Read more…

Secure Data Archiving Is Critical to Fortifying Your Technology Stack. Data archives often sit on legacy infrastructure that’s siloed and not routinely monitored. That makes it imperative to ensure both vendors and employees are committed to cybersecurity best practices, noted Shawn Fergason at MediQuant. Read more…

Turn Increased Ambulatory Volumes into Financial Strength. As healthcare increasingly moves out of the inpatient setting, ambulatory providers need the financial strength to support additional volume and the operating costs that go with them, said Pete Heydt at Patient Pay. One strategy for building this strength is digitizing and streamlining RCM. Read more…

Featured Health IT Job: Senior Architect with Epic MyChart integration experience, a remote position posted by Llyod Staffing on Healthcare IT Central.

Bonus Features for October 22, 2023: 57% of patients accessed portals or medical records in 2022, plus 21 orgs make Level 10 in the 2023 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired Survey. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Mental health startup Headway raised $125 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation.
• RCM vendor Alpha II acquired RCxRules, a revenue cycle automation vendor.
• Pediatric autism services company Cortica closed a $40 million Series D extension.
• Remote monitoring and RCM vendor Athelas has merged with Commure, maker of enterprise healthcare software.

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

< + > Tufts Medical Center to pilot nutrition screening in EHR

By integrating a patient portal screening tool into the clinical workflow, Tufts University researchers aim to advance the use of HIT to identify food-insecure and nutrition-insecure patients and pave the way to interventions like nutrition prescriptions.

< + > The Evolution of Suki’s Ambient Clinical Voice Solution and What Differentiates It in the Market

When I first had a chance to interview, Punit Soni, CEO of Suki, two years ago I was impressed with his accomplishments and intrigued by his unique view of the ambient clinical voice market.  In technology, 2 years is a long time.  In the world of AI, it’s an eternity.  Needless to say, Soni and his company have evolved a lot since I last talked to him and so I wanted to get an update on where Suki is at today and how it fits into the ever evolving ambient clinical voice space.  For reference, check out our other interviews where we asked similar questions as this interview with: Nuance’s DAX solutions, Ambience Healthcare, Nabla, OnPoint Healthcare Partners, and AWS HealthScribe with 3M.

In our interview, Soni shares the evolution of Suki’s vision since we last talked and the evolution of ambient clinical voice.  He also shares how the Suki solution compares to many of the other competitors in the market and what differentiates them from those competitors.  Then, we ask him to share what the workflow looks like for a clinician that wants to use Suki.  One of the differentiating features he talks about is that Suki isn’t just for capturing clinical documentation.  Suki also works as a voice assistant who you can ask questions and get answers.

Soni also dives into other important aspects of ambient clinical voice including whether they use humans in the background (Spoiler Alert: They don’t).  Plus, he gave one of the most thorough answers I’ve heard as far as how accurate their solution is and more specifically how accurate it is across different specialties.

Another highlight of this interview was learning from Soni about how Suki was approaching EHR integration.  He makes a great case for why EHR integration is going to be one of the key differentiators for ambient clinical voice solutions.  Soni says that the solution has to be deeply integrated into the EHR workflow for it to really be accepted by doctors.  That’s why he said they have as many or more interface engineers as they do AI engineers.  Finally, we also talk about whether a doctor has to change their workflow to use Suki effectively.

Check out our interview with Suki below to learn more about their solution and a deep dive view into many of its differentiating features and a view into how Suki is differentiating itself from its competitors in this noisy market.

Learn more about Suki: https://www.suki.ai/

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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< + > US Mental Health Startup Headway Raises $125 Million at $1 Billion Valuation

Headway, a healthcare tech startup that connects patients and in-network therapists, has raised $125 million in Series C funding, the company told Reuters.

The round of financing, which valued the company at $1 billion, was led by Spark Capital with participation from existing investors including Thrive Capital, Accel, and Andreessen Horowitz. Insurance company Health Care Service Corporation also joined the round.

Based in New York, Headway’s platform connects patients with therapists and psychiatrists who can provide care covered by insurance. It also offers billing and claims software for providers.

Andrew Adams, Chief Executive at Headway, said the startup stands out for its provider-first approach. The company makes money by taking a cut of the payments that therapists on its platform receive from insurance companies.

“We’ve seen a whole class of entrepreneur therapists because we have unlocked the barriers to launch and grow your businesses. We’ve made accepting insurance easier, which means attracting way more patients,” Adams said in an interview.

The company plans to use the funding to invest in expanding its network and increase marketing to help providers on the platform acquire patients. It says it now runs one of the largest networks of therapists and psychiatrists in the U.S., with 26,000 providers participating in-network with 19 insurance plans.

The pandemic prompted more people to turn to mental health services to deal with stress and burnout. As they looked for easier ways to access care, the sector attracted billions of funding from venture capitalists.

“We saw Headway emerge as this one piece of technology that supports providers, patients, and payers, bringing together all these fragmented systems to finally deliver quality and accessible mental health care,” said Will Reed, Investor at Spark, who is joining the board of Headway.

Originally announced October 4th, 2023

< + > CISA, HHS and HSCC release healthcare cybersecurity toolkit

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services released the Cybersecurity Toolkit for Healthcare and Public Health after a discussion on cybersecurity challenges the U.S. healthcare and public health sector system faces and how government and industry can work together to close the gaps in resources and cyber capabilities. WHY IT MATTERS

< + > Oracle Health Goes Beyond Visit Summaries with Its Use of AI in Their EHR

Many companies are jumping on the AI bandwagon to offer services ranging from risk stratification to auto-generation of patient notes after a visit. Oracle Health wants to move further. In this video at the Oracle Health conference, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Suhas Uliyar describes how Oracle Health is creating tools that accompany and augment the workflow of physicians, nurses, and patients.

Uliyar addresses the commonly noted problem of burnout among clinicians, and says that Oracle Health wants to speed up administrative work so they can talk more to patients.

During a patient visit, where other tools can passively record a conversation, Oracle Health can participate actively. A physician can verbally ask Oracle Health, for instance to pull up an X-ray.

Oracle Health has a multi-modal interface: It support voice, keyboard input, and other common ways of interacting with the computer. It gets rid of the “forty clicks” normally needed to get access to important patient information. It can also alert a physician to a trend, such as increasing A1C in a patient with diabetes.

After a visit, in addition to generating a summary, Oracle Health can help with follow-up tasks such as ordering medication and scheduling a follow-up call.

Watch the video to see what Oracle Health is doing and the challenges it faces as it tries to support multiple languages and serve an international market.

Learn more about Oracle Health: https://www.oracle.com/health/

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.

< + > Alpha II, LLC Announces Strategic Acquisition of RCxRules

Alpha II, a leading healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) technology solutions provider, announced today its successful acquisition of RCxRules, an innovator in healthcare revenue cycle automation.

“This strategic acquisition aligns perfectly with our vision of empowering healthcare organizations with the tools and expertise they need to thrive in an increasingly complex healthcare landscape,” said Todd Doze, CEO at Alpha II. “Combining Alpha II’s proprietary rules engine and extensive content with RCxRules’ robust workflow and automatic claim correct features will create a comprehensive denials management solution for our partners and clients. Together, we see an exciting opportunity to streamline the revenue cycle and take our technology to a broader audience.”

With the addition of RCxRules’ AI-driven solutions, Alpha II furthers its commitment to enhancing its product suite and evolving solutions to meet the needs of healthcare providers. For instance, RCxRules’ extensive Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) content will expand Alpha II’s existing robust rules engine to further elevate coding accuracy. Clients will also save significant time and increase productivity through the combination of RCxRules’ automatic claim correction and Alpha II’s audit-level tracking.

“At RCxRules, our focus has always been helping our customers to succeed and navigate industry challenges,” said Stephen Gorman, CEO at RCxRules. “Joining with Alpha II enables us to further support stakeholders across the healthcare industry. With our complementary expertise and solutions, we will provide healthcare organizations with a powerful solution that optimizes revenue cycles and ensures the richest, most up-to-date content and efficient workflows. We look forward to combining our strengths to deliver unparalleled value to the healthcare industry.”

This strategic move marks a significant milestone in Alpha II’s mission to revolutionize healthcare RCM and compliance through cutting-edge technology and expertise. Building on this momentum, Alpha II is well-positioned to explore continued product expansion and better serve its ambulatory and acute practice customers across the country.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

About Alpha II

For decades, Alpha II’s software-as-a-service products have supported medical coding, compliance, revenue analysis, and claims editing for healthcare providers. Continuously updated in real-time, Alpha II’s proprietary rules engine is used across a wide range of provider specialties and payer types, producing the industry’s most comprehensive coding and billing content database. The Company’s products integrate with electronic health records, practice management, revenue cycle management, and provider information systems. Alpha II’s suite of solutions across claims editing, coding, denials prevention, and MIPS reporting support the revenue cycle workflows of providers across the country. For additional information, please visit alphaii.com.

About RCxRules

Founded in 2010, RCxRules partners with leading medical groups and RCM companies across the country, raising the bar on automation, speed, and cost savings. The company’s AI-driven solutions simplify revenue cycle and risk adjustment workflows and help healthcare organizations succeed with both value-based care and fee-for-service billing models by tapping into the time-saving power of automation. Visit rcxrules.com to learn more.

Originally announced October 3rd, 2023

< + > NUS Medicine introducing holographic GI care training and more briefs

Also, Fujitsu and Toppan have partnered to offer advanced big data analysis services.

< + > Cleveland Clinic, IBM to lead new quantum computing for health projects

Researchers will use $40 million in funding to develop quantum algorithms and workflows, and they'll also partner with Algorithmiq on a second initiative to create computational tools that demonstrate quantum advantage.

< + > Denver Health integrates meaningful race, ethnicity and language data in its Epic EHR

Critical patient insights were missing in more than 13% of Denver Health electronic health records. A new methodology has helped reduce this to less than 1%.

< + > Onboarding of HIEs in the GCC – the physician’s perspective

The full implementation of HIEs across countries including the UAE, KSA, and Qatar is set to transform healthcare in the region as we know it.

< + > Featured Health IT Job: Senior Architect

We like to regularly feature a healthcare IT job that might be of interest to readers. Today, we’re featuring the Senior Architect position that was recently posted on Healthcare IT Central. This position was posted by Llyod Staffing and is remote.

Here’s a description of the position:

Immediate Need for Senior Developers and Architects with Epic MyChart integrations experience with white label, extensibility, APIs (public and private), React, and conversions from React Native to React web applications.

Looks like a great opportunity for those with experience with Epic MyChart integrations! 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.

< + > Where virtual care meets value-based care

"If we can manage patients on the front side of their diagnoses, and continue that management longitudinally, it's going to have a significant impact on the escalation of patients' chronic conditions," one expert says about the value of preventative care.

< + > WebMD Ignite collaborates on data privacy in omnichannel outreach

Its partnership with Freshpaint seeks to support hospitals, health systems and health plans by configuring their patient engagement ecosystems to support compliance with HIPAA privacy rules and regulations.

< + > Cortica Closes $40 Million Series D Extension Led by CVS Health Ventures, LRVHealth, and Other Strategic Investors, Bringing Round Total to $115 Million

Funding to Support Expanded Access to Whole-Child, Value-Based, Outcomes-Driven Autism Care

Cortica, the United States’ leading physician-led, whole-child, value-based autism services company, has raised $40 million in a Series D extension, bringing the total Series D round to $115 million. The extension was entirely strategic, led by CVS Health Ventures, in conjunction with LRVHealth, Ascension Investment Management (a subsidiary of Ascension), and the University of Wisconsin Foundation.

“There is an increasing need for access to evidence-based care for children with neurodivergent conditions and autism, and we believe that Cortica is well positioned to help support our members and their dependents by deploying an integrated, medical and behavioral care model,” said Justin Brock, Partner at CVS Health Ventures. “Through our investment and collaboration with Cortica, we believe that we can help improve the overall quality of care for individuals with autism, as well as provide support to their caregivers.”

Founded to fix the fragmented care journey families typically experience when seeking diagnoses and treatments, Cortica’s whole-child, whole-family, value-based care model for autism spans medical treatment, neurodiversity-affirming behavioral therapy, developmental therapy (encompassing speech, occupational, physical, and music therapies), and family support and counseling.

Cortica’s care model has shown improved outcomes across conditions that frequently co-occur with autism, including sleep disorders, seizures, psychiatric comorbidities, and gastrointestinal, communication, behavioral, and sensorimotor issues, among others – while utilizing less than 50% of standard applied behavioral analysis volumes, limiting the use of antipsychotic and stimulant medications, and reducing emergency department and inpatient admissions.

Cortica delivers on multiple metrics related to the healthcare effectiveness data and information set (HEDIS), one of the healthcare industry’s most widely used performance tools. Cortica’s value proposition has led to four whole-child value-based care contracts, with several more in the pipeline.

“After working closely with our strategic network and developing a deep thesis on autism, one of the most complex challenges in healthcare, we’re thrilled to have discovered and invested in Cortica,” said Ellen Herlacher, Principal at LRVHealth. “Cortica’s validated care model and technology platform improve clinical outcomes, enhance the healthcare experience, and reduce waste in the system.”

The additional funding will support the company’s continued national scaling of whole-child autism value-based care, as well as deeper investments in technology, data capture, clinical decision support, research, and optimization of the clinician and patient experience.

“I’m deeply grateful to have the support of these impactful and visionary strategic partners,” said Neil Hattangadi, MD, Co-Founder and CEO at Cortica. “With 1 in 36 children in the United States now affected with autism, and that prevalence continually climbing, partnerships between the field’s most innovative clinicians, strategic investors, health plans, and health systems are essential to defragment the traditional care model and evolve the reimbursement paradigm. We can no longer wait. Collectively, we’re in a position to solve one of the most pressing challenges confronting humanity.”

About Cortica Inc.

Cortica’s mission is to design and deliver life-changing care – one child, one family, and one community at a time. Founded in 2017, Cortica now employs more than 1,800 experts across disciplines, including pediatric neurologists, developmental pediatricians, epileptologists, pediatric nurse practitioners, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, music therapists, board-certified behavior analysts, marriage and family therapists, and more. The researchers and physicians in the company’s Cortica Innovation Network conduct outcomes research, serve as global leaders in clinical trial recruitment and have assembled the largest long and wide dataset in autism and neurodevelopment. Cortica will serve more than 12,000 children and their families this year. For more information, visit corticacare.com.

About CVS Health Ventures

CVS Health Ventures is a dedicated corporate venture capital fund that works with high-potential, early-stage, and growth-stage companies focused on making health care more accessible, affordable, and simpler. The company focuses on investments that transform care delivery and focus on whole-person care, consumer-centric health, and disruptive technology enablement. CVS Health Ventures’ goal is to enable promising entrepreneurs to scale more quickly and effectively through access to their unmatched enterprise capabilities and consumer touchpoints while offering expertise and insights from their company’s unique perspective. For more information, visit cvshealth.com/health-care-redefined/ventures.html.

About LRVHealth

LRVHealth is the “Inside Healthcare” venture capital platform. Through a network of strategic limited partners that includes leading providers, payers, and vendors and touches half of all healthcare consumers in the U.S., LRVHealth applies industry knowledge and operational experience to early-stage companies focused on innovation. LRVHealth’s exclusive focus is helping to transform healthcare by forging partnerships among its network members and entrepreneurs addressing the industry’s biggest challenges and opportunities. For more information, visit lrvhealth.com.

About Ascension Investment Management, LLC

Ascension Investment Management (AIM) is an SEC-registered investment adviser with a mission to help faith-based organizations meet their operating, investment, and mission goals by investing its clients’ capital according to their values. AIM is a Missouri limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Ascension Capital, LLC, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ascension, one of the nation’s leading non-profit and Catholic health systems, with a Mission of delivering compassionate, personalized care to all with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. For more information, visit ascensioninvestmentmanagement.com.

About the University of Wisconsin Foundation

The University of Wisconsin Foundation (UWF) raises, invests in, and distributes funds for the benefit of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. UWF’s mission is to help ensure that the University of Wisconsin-Madison has the financial resources necessary to maintain its national leadership in teaching, innovative research, and outreach. For more information, visit supportuw.org.

Originally announced October 3rd, 2023

< + > Generative AI can be applied to nearly every healthcare use case you can think of

That's according to Vrinda Khurjekar, a consultant specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning. But she cautions that the right governance and guardrails are needed before that happens.

< + > Automation Drives Optimal Use of Temp Nurses

Staffing has become alarmingly tight in health care, driven by aging and a less healthy population, an aging workforce, bureaucratic demands from payers that disincentivize staff, and the traumas of the COVID-19 crisis and increasing violence against staff. Temps, often traveling long distances, have been making up the difference between supply and demand in staffing. The critical shortage has interfered with well-intentioned regulatory goals.

ShiftMed, though, has been taking a sleeker and friendlier direction in temporary staffing.

On the institutional side, pressures to reduce staff costs intersect with desperate needs to fill staffing gaps. ShiftMed serves hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and in-home providers.

On the nurses’ side, staff want high-quality placements at times that are convenient for them. They often occupy a sandwich generation that needs to work around the schedules of their children and elderly parents.

I talked to Craig Allan Ahrens, Chief Growth Officer, about the technology ShiftMed uses to streamline the hiring of temporary workers. Even more significant, perhaps, is how they build supportive relationships with both hospitals and the temp workers they hire through their platform.

Automating the onboarding process

Hiring a temp is a process with several stages: recruitment, provisioning (such as getting them accounts in the hospital’s system), and training.

Forms allow a nurse to create a profile, which includes not only their credentials and particular expertise (such as geriatrics) but also personal details such as what times of the week they want to work. ShiftMed analyzes the profiles and presents potential hires to employers.

Provisioning and training are highly specific to each institution, typically taking up to 15 weeks. So ShiftMed works with the hospital to automate the processes and drastically reduce the time required. Time-consuming processes based on spreadsheets, such as scheduling, are replaced with modern automated systems.

ShiftMed also collects data on their nurses and institutions to look for possible process improvements. For instance, they might notice that a nurse is turning down opportunities in another part of the region and ask whether the nurse needs transportation. ShiftMed maintains relationships with ride services such as UberHealth, an Uber-sponsored service dedicated to health care.

Over time, ShiftMed’s AI can detect patterns in a nurse’s behavior and improve their recommendations to meet the nurse’s as well as the hospital’s needs. And this kind of service takes us to the larger question of relationship-building.

Meeting the needs of clients

Ahrens stressed that ShiftMed is not just a market; it wants to actively contribute to nurses’ careers and to hospitals’ strategic plans to create a stable workforce across all its labor pools.

On the hospital side, they suggest ways to maximize the mix of temporary staff and full hires. For instance, when a nurse in one facility goes on maternity leave, the hospital might offer temp work to a nurse in another facility to cover the gap. Eventually, ShiftMed hopes that different institutions will collaborate to share staff across the country for a nationwide, hospital-driven network.

As part of staff optimization, ShiftMed might note when a temp position could be filled by a less experienced nurse, such as a LPN instead of an RN.

We know that “gig” jobs can disadvantage workers through downward pressure on wages and a lack of job security. This is less likely to happen in nursing because the shortage of staff is not likely to be alleviated soon. Nevertheless, ShiftMed takes special steps to protect its clients.

Whereas most gig services treat employees as independent contractors and pay them with a 1099 tax form, ShiftMed signs up employees as full hires with W2 forms. Making someone a full hire is particularly important because of the risks and liability issues associated with 1099 models in many states.

ShiftMed also makes sure that hospitals follow union rules for the temps hired, such as on scheduling and overtime. Temping is a good way for both the nurse and the institution to try each other out before creating a permanent position.

ShiftMed can even ease the nurse’s burden by sending a meal to their home while they’re working, so that their family doesn’t miss out on a good meal in the nurse’s absence.

I think that ShiftMed’s commitment to its clients’ wellbeing shows what can be done when technology is employed in a humane, respectful way. Sharing staff more efficiently might reduce some of the negative effects of the current crisis in health care, while policy-makers find lasting solutions.

< + > Meditech leader: AI should automate tasks and augment clinical decision making

Helen Waters, chief operating officer at the EHR giant, describes the company's artificial intelligence strategy and shows how provider organizations can benefit today from NLP, LLMs, generative AI and more.

< + > Athelas + Commure: Merging to Create a $6B Healthcare Infrastructure Company

Press release written by Tanay Tandon, CEO at Athelas

We are beyond excited to share that Athelas and Commure – a leading provider of enterprise healthcare software – are merging, and I am taking over the combined entity as CEO, Deepika Bodapati as COO, and Dhruv Parthasarathy as CTO. We’re also raising fresh capital from General Catalyst, valuing the combined entity at $6B.

In the past few years, Athelas RCM and RPM have grown rapidly to thousands of healthcare providers and hundreds of thousands of patients. We process hundreds of millions of dollars in healthcare claims and power critical workflows for small practices and hospitals alike.

Commure has built a fast-growing enterprise software business, serving the likes of HCA Healthcare, Jefferson, Providence, and the VA – some of the largest health systems in the country. Their PatientKeeper EHR software saves clinicians hours of time every day, and Strongline protects nurses while delivering key analytics on the physical logistics of a hospital.

Each company has independently grown more than 500% in the trailing 3 years and has more than 6 years of runway.

Our combined teams believe that the advent of large language models has created a pivotal moment for healthcare, and more broadly in American labor. Healthcare providers spend countless hours a day on documentation, administrative work, faxing, and other forms of button-wrangling – valuable time lost that could be better spent improving outcomes for patients.

This constant battle between real work and ‘work tax’ has driven the creeping spend in American healthcare – spiking to $1 Trillion annually in administrative costs.

Commure’s up-market distribution, paired with Athelas’s rapid engineering + product velocity, is the perfect combination to attack this massive and growing problem in American healthcare.

The combined company has multiple fast-growing revenue lines attacking this thesis. Revenue Cycle, Workflow Automation, Scribing, Patient Engagement, Remote Patient Monitoring, Mobile EHR, and Strongline (Asset Tracking + Nurse Badging/Safety) built on top of a single operating system: CommureOS.

We’re excited to have HCA Healthcare, the largest hospital operator in the country ($70B+ public company) on the board, along with Hemant Taneja, Quentin Clark, Qasar Younis, and other incredible technologists.

Combined, the company is at a $100mm+ run rate, tracking to $125mm-150mm by the end of the year.

In many ways, this merger has been 6 years in the making. The two companies have been converging on a singular vision for a while. An ‘OS’ that obviates all ‘work tax’ for a doctor or nurse and allows them to focus on rendering care safely and efficiently.

We’re here for the long haul to build an enduring, genre-defining healthcare company using software, sensors, and artificial intelligence. At heart we’re always going to be a bunch of kids in a garage, building crazy technology 🙂

The Athelas garage 2016, And first office in 2017 (pre-FDA clearance)

Originally announced October 4th, 2023

< + > MENA’s leading digital health to convene in Dubai for eHWDC 2023

Professionals from around the world can join the discussion on key digital health topics at the GCC eHealth Workforce Development Conference (eHWDC 2023), scheduled to take place in Dubai at the end of the month. 

< + > Bonus Features – October 22, 2023 – 57% of patients accessed portals or medical records in 2022, 21 orgs make Level 10 in the 2023 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired Survey, 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

Nearly six in 10 (57%) of patients accessed online medical records or patient portals in 2022, according to the latest ONC data brief. This total has doubled since 2017. This compares to 73% of patients who were offered access to their records or to portals, an increase from 52% five years ago. Notably, access via apps is rising and access via web-based portals is declining, ONC said – and patients who use apps access their records more frequently.

Children’s National Hospital consortium Alliance for Pediatric Device Innovation and MedTech Color are hosting the “Make Your Medical Device Pitch for Kids!” competition focused on supporting African-American and Hispanic innovators. Applications are due November 10.

CHIME named 21 healthcare organizations to Level 10 in the 2023 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired Survey, the most in the 24-hear history of the survey.

Partnerships

• Inovalon and Amazon Web Services are collaborating to improve risk score accuracy for health plans.
• Wolters Kluwer Health announces its Health Language Platform, a FHIR Terminology Server that will work with Microsoft Azure Health Data Services.
• Qualtrics and Oculi Data are partnering to enable comparisons and analyses of nursing quality metrics.
• LexisNexis Risk Solutions and Prime Health Services are partnering to provide data cleansing and managements services.
• Inpatient telehealth from Vitalchat is now available on Samsung healthcare displays.
• First Health Advisory and Censinet are partnering to deliver cybersecurity risk assurance solutions.
• The intelliMammo platform for cancer screening decision support from Densitas is now available to Intelerad Medical Systems users.
• Reproductive care decision support technology from Fairtility is now integrated with four leading EHRs for fertility.
• Audiovisual technology maker Avidex is partnering with Artisight, a smart hospital platform.

Product and Company News

• Syra Health launched CarePlus, an EHR for small and mid-sized organizations.
• Voice-enabled AI technology from Suki now supports inpatient care.
• Outpatient technology provider CareCloud launched the first three features of CirrusAI, its generative AI platform: Clinical decision support, virtual support, and appeals.
• Sphere subsidiary Health iPASS launched Health iPASS Cloud Payments to support mobile and contactless payments.
• LGBTQIA+ healthcare service provider FOLX Health is an in-network for Blue Shield of California and other health plans.
• XRHealth distributed VR headsets to 30 hospitals in Israel to help treat patients coping with anxiety, stress, and PTSD.

Sales

• iTech AG received a $75 million CMS contract to support the agency’s Health Care Quality Information Systems (HSQIS) development.
• Ambulatory network United Medical extended its contract with Oracle Health.
• Medicare Advantage plan eternalHealth chose 9amHealth for at-home, virtual cardiac care. In addition, eternalHealth chose Inovalon to support risk and quality gap identification and closure.

People

• Would care and rehab EHR vendor Net Health appointed Ron Books as Chief Executive Officer.
• Diagnostic testing platform ixlayer added Kevin Ban, M.D., to its clinical advisory board. Ban is Executive Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer for Walgreens Boots Alliance.
• Value-based care platform Equality Health named Stephanie Cutter to its Board of Directors. Cutter is founding partner of Precision Strategies.
• Health equity platform Spatially Health added Nicole Bradberry to its Board of Directors. Bradberry is CEO of the Florida Association of ACOs.

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 – October 21, 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.

Driving Patient Behavior and Connecting Patients With Care Teams. Patients are embracing the notion of monitoring their health every day, but health systems aren’t, John Lynn discovered in a chat with Rich Steinle and Scott Pradels at Carium. The conversation also covered how to remove barriers to adoption of remote monitoring technology. Read more…

How Will Data Utilities Evolve? We asked this question to the Healthcare T Today community at the recent Civitas Conference. Experts agreed that health data utilities are in their early stages but will start to see additional value when they engage with government agencies in their communities and enable data sharing across state lines. Read more…

Understanding Social Determinants of Health. In the first post in a series, Andy Oram described how data can can both call out SDoH and help to address its effects. This becomes increasingly important as value-based care models take hold and more providers are judged on their ability to address non-clinical effects of clinical outcomes. Read more…

Defining and Sharing SDoH. It’s difficult to address SDoH if you don’t understand what they are, Andy noted in his second post. Definitions for SDoH vary and are often changing. Meanwhile, sharing SDoH data often proves difficult because it’s captured in free-text notes that lack a standard format and can’t easily be abstracted. Read more…

Collecting and Processing SDoH Data. In his third post, Andy discussed why collecting and processing SDoH is so labor intensive (because clinicians have to speak to patients) and whether data obtained from insurers or consumer databases is valuable in a clinical setting. Read more…

Acting on SDoH Analysis. Andy’s fourth installment outlined services that connect patients to resources in their community, whether through automated outreach, surveys, and referrals or a more holistic and hands-on approach focused on direct conversations with patients. Read more…

Exploring Specific Types of Help to Address SDoH. In his final post, Andy explored a range of solutions that help patients receive financial assistance, find a job, obtain medications, and increase their access to healthy food. The biggest challenge isn’t necessarily convincing clinicians to adopt these solutions, he concluded: It’s convincing them that they need to address SDoH in the first place. Read more… 

Verato, CLEAR Come Together to Accelerate Adoption of Digital Identities in Healthcare. In a conversation from HLTH, Joaquim Neto at Verato and David Bardan at CLEAR discussed why they embarked on a collaboration to improve patient identity management. Read more…

Empowering All Patients with Digital Accessibility. Digitization often has the unintended consequence of putting up barriers for patients with disabilities, John learned in a chat with Matt Ater at TPGi. Ater said accommodations for patients with disabilities need to be as common as wheelchair ramps. Read more…

The Benefits – and Challenges – of Public, Private, and Multi Cloud. We asked the Healthcare IT Today community to weigh in on cloud deployment models. While there’s a lot for organizations to consider, issues such as security, interoperability, scalability, and complexity all impact the choice of the preferred cloud deployment model. Read more…

Profile of a New Health Data Exchange Company. John sat down with Jared Jeffrey, a KLAS Research alum who founded healthKERI after a health scare. The company is based on the KERI protocol for decentralized data exchange, which makes it different from existing operability standards. Read more…

Healthcare IT Today Podcast: The Women’s Health IT Landscape. Brittany Quemby joins John to talk about two important topics for digital health tools for women: How tools need to optimize specific women’s health needs and how developers can build tools to address the disparities in care that women face. Read more…

How Communication Platforms Can Harness Generative AI in a HIPAA-Compliant Way. As organizations roll out technology to streamline workflows and relieve administrative burdens, they must be sure to get patients’ content to use generative AI and embrace federated learning, which trains AI models without disclosing medical records, noted Nate MacLeitch, Founder and CEO at QuickBlox. Read more…

Finding a Health Equity Partner for Language Services. Organizations that don’t provide language access to limited English proficiency patients face compliance issues, not to mention frustrated staff and patients. As leaders assess their language services, Merrie Wallace at Boostlingo recommended a closer look at capacity, quality, and protocols. Read more…

Healthcare Organizations Can Reduce Risk Thanks to Zero Trust. While zero trust can improve security and support compliance, zero trust can disrupt clinical operations without the right level of planning and implementation, according to Peter Newton at Fortinet. Read more…

Generative AI Requires a Focus on Caregivers and Patients. Healthcare organizations want to get more value from the data they already have, noted Tina Manoharan at Philips. That’s why the best use cases for generative AI help them analyze existing data or gather data they’re required to have. That also makes them easier to slot into existing workflows. Read more…

Bonus Features for October 15, 2023: 66% of orgs hit by cyberattacks report disruptions to patient care, while 75% of Americans don’t trust AI in a care setting. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Cigna subsidiary Evernorth acquired Bright.MD, which it plans to use to provide asynchronous care in its MDLIVE virtual care offering.
• Netsmart acquired of Netalytics, which makes addiction treatment and practice management software for substance use disorder providers.
• LGI Healthcare Solutions acquired Boston Software Systems, maker of robotic process automation solutions.
• Predictive risk platform vendor Health Data Analytics Institute announced $31 million in oversubscribed Series C funding.
• Women’s midlife care company Midi Health raised $25 million in Series A funding.

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