< + > Weekly Roundup – November 23, 2024

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.

A Look at Epic Culture and Interoperability with Brendan Keeler. The former Epic employee, now at HTD Health, talked to John Lynn for more than two hours. Part 1 of the interview focused on what it was like to work at Epic, as well as what opportunities exist to improve interoperability systems today. Read more…

Can You Build a Health Care System Without Notes? Dr. Alex Butler at River Records joined John to discuss how the company is taking AI-driven ambient voice to the next level by providing a concise list of relevant information and retrieving information from the right place at the right time. Read more…

CHIME 2024: Perspectives on AI, Cybersecurity, Leadership, and More. In San Diego, John connected with healthcare IT leaders who shared their thoughts on how to train AI, improve AI governance, and find the right AI use cases, all while leading a modern healthcare organization. Read more…

How Healthcare AI Automation Improves Accuracy and Trust. John sat down with Caleb Manscill at Vyne Medical and chatted about AI’s role in removing the documentation burden from intake, storage, and curation of documents. Read more…

Supporting Identity and Onboarding in the Home and the Clinic. Sandeep Kumbhat at Okta explained the value proposition for handling identity and security through facial recognition, especially when compared to passwords, digital cards, and even single sign-on. Read more…

Balancing Data Sharing With Protection Amid Competing Government Data Requirements. Mo Weitnauer at MRO offered suggestions for avoiding common pitfalls of aggregating healthcare data while managing ever-evolving federal and state regulations. Read more…

Evidence-Based Interventions That Improve Population Health. We asked the Healthcare IT Today community to provide some key examples; responses included maternal health, public health, value-based care, and genomic testing. Read more…

Implementing Healthcare AI Responsibly. At HLTH, John sat down with Maynd Jolly and Mike Stimpson at enGen to discuss how to ensure using AI supports both margin and mission, particularly when it comes to addressing healthcare cost trends. Read more…

Being Doctor to the President of the United States. John connected with Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, physician in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Among John’s favorite anecdotes: When the President asks to see you but doesn’t say a.m. or p.m. make sure you’re available both times. Read more…

CIO Podcast: Being an AI Champion. Dr. Avi Sharma at Jefferson Einstein talked to John about AI topics that included governance, vendor selection, and product integration. Read more…

Critical Condition: The Increasing Frequency of Ransomware Attacks in Healthcare. Adopting a a robust 3-2-1 backup system helps organizations improve security posture and prevent data loss and downtime in the event of a cyberattack, noted Cody Hall at Synology. Read more…

Federal Innovation Hubs Can Jump-Start Healthcare Technology Adoption. Tim Small and Laura Baker at Deloitte discussed how federal health leaders can demonstrate the potential of emerging technology, encouraging adoption through human-centered design and collaboration. Read more…

How Health Systems Can Adapt to NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0. Under the new framework, organizations must incorporate cybersecurity into their broader risk management strategy. Scott Trevino at TRIMEDX explained how, noting the importance of governance. Read more…

How Technical Debt is Stifling Healthcare Innovation. Organizations accrue technical debt when they focus on short-term fixes instead of long-term solutions. Prasanna Ganesan at Machinify said the best way to pay back debt is gradually and in chunks. Read more…

The Last First Disruption: A Chance for Hospitals to Thrive. Narinder Singh at LookDeep Health described the potential for AI to recognize visual patterns and monitor patients, becoming an “always-on assistant” for doctors and nurses in the hospital and at home. Read more…

This Week’s Health IT Jobs for November 20, 2024: Several roles in informatics and information management, while Virginia-based Sentara Norfolk General Hospital is looking for a CFO. Read more…

Bonus Features for November 17, 2024: 63% of patients more likely to participate in clinical trials if they offer telehealth, plus 29% of healthcare payments in 2023 went through downside risk contracts. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Virtual women’s health clinic Maven Clinic announced a $125 million Series F funding round.
• Motion analysis technology vendor OneStep secured $36 million in funding.
• Member engagement vendor RadiantGraph raised $11 million in Series A funding.
• Health data management vendor Harmony Healthcare IT acquired Trinisys, also a data management vendor.

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

< + > CommonSpirit partners up with U of U for clinical collaboration

Patients from five of the health system's hospitals will now have access to University of Utah Health providers and resources through the new community-based partnership.

< + > Can You Build a Health Care System Without Notes?

Most transcription services and AI medical scribes aim to reproduce the SOAP note that has been the mainstay of patient visit records since the days of paper. Alex Butler, MD, Chief Product Officer at River Records, and his team started the company after reading a paper by Jake Kantrowitz, MD, PhD, Primary Care Physician & Chief Medical Officer, that led him to ask “Can you build a health care system without notes?” This video explains how River Records is working towards that vision.

Traditionally, a SOAP note documents a single visit. To see the trajectory of an illness—whether vital signs have improved or declined, what treatments worked and which didn’t, etc.—a clinician has to page through numerous notes or use some external tool to extract information. In today’s data age, information could be presented in a much more immediately useful, structured format.

River Records operates like other AI-driven ambient voice solutions, but produces a concise list of conditions, symptoms, and other relevant information. The tool is integrated with some 98 EHRs—Butler says it can work with any EHR used in the US or Canada—and they are working on deep integration with certain EHRs so that the tool can manage the problem list, check coding, and initiate billing. ICD codes are currently supported and CPT codes will be added.

Being able to pull information from the EHR, River Records can retrieve not only ancillary information such as lab reports and consultation documents, but information from previous visits. The result is a “problem-oriented document.”

The tool starts by identifying symptoms and conditions. It figures out what information in the transcript is relevant and sends that information as a set of instructions to pull information relevant to those problems from the transcript. The complete report is generated within seconds of the end of the visit. The doctor can also add their impressions before and after the visit to augment the information in the transcript. The tool asks them to review the report and add a summary framework

Doctors can attach the templates from their EHR so that information is presented in the order they like, combining many visits to create a “narrative.” Butler says the tool “opens up a ton of doors” for clinical decision support and other products. He finds that they work well for very narrow specialities as well.

Listen to the video for more information about how River Records adds terms to its AI model, checks for accuracy, and more.

Learn more about River Records: https://www.riverrecords.ai/

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< + > OneStep Secures $36M to Pioneer Gait as the Sixth Vital Sign

AI-Powered Digital Care Platform Revolutionizes Healthcare by Providing Continuous, Real-Life Mobility Insights to Improve Patient Outcomes and Quality of Life

OneStep, an innovator in digital healthcare, announced $36 million in funding to advance its smartphone-based motion analysis technology. This funding positions gait – how a person walks – as the sixth vital sign, crucial for understanding and improving overall health.

OneStep’s technology transforms smartphones into clinical-grade motion analysis tools, making gait analysis as simple as stepping on a bathroom scale. With real-time insights into gait and mobility from anywhere, and without the need for wearables or complex equipment, healthcare providers gain valuable clinical data based on patient movement. This enables timely interventions and keeps patients actively engaged in their health.

As life expectancy rises, gait analysis becomes essential for diagnosing and managing chronic conditions. Gait reveals unique insights into the health of body systems, including nervous, musculoskeletal, and cardiorespiratory functions. Early detection of falls, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases, through gait analysis, allows for proactive interventions that can significantly improve quality of life.

OneStep’s FDA-listed, AI-powered care platform offers continuous, real-life monitoring, empowering healthcare providers with actionable, real-time data. Providers can enhance patient outcomes, improve decision-making, streamline documentation, and reduce costs while also generating new revenue through Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM).

The funding round was co-led by Team8, a global Venture-Creation and Venture Capital fund with deep domain expertise in healthcare, fintech, and cybersecurity, and Vintage Investment Partners, a $4B global investment fund known for investing in disruptive technology companies. Existing investors LionBird, Aleph, and 10D, also participated in the round, demonstrating their ongoing confidence in OneStep’s technology and its potential. This latest funding will be used to scale OneStep’s operations and further develop its pioneering technology, with the goal of establishing gait analysis as a mainstream tool in health monitoring and improvement.

“Motion is life, and understanding it is key to advancing health.” said Tomer Shussman, Co-Founder and CEO at OneStep. “By empowering healthcare providers with real-time insights into how patients move, we’re helping unlock the power of gait – transforming healthcare to be more proactive, precise, and focused on improving quality of life.”

“OneStep’s gait analysis technology is truly a game-changer in healthcare, perfectly aligning with Vintage’s commitment to investing in innovations that transform patient care,” said Shira Eting, Partner at Vintage Investment Partners. “Under Tomer’s visionary leadership, OneStep will expand to new conditions, such as neurology, and to new types of use cases and customers, and will help democratize gait – one of the most important vital signs.”

“OneStep is combining transformative technology, real clinical results, and a clear business strategy to achieve a huge vision – making gait an easily monitored vital sign, critical for many medical conditions,” said Sarit Firon, Team8 Managing Partner. “Team8 is excited to support the team in taking their impressive early achievements in rehabilitation care to many more use cases, improving quality of care for patients, streamlining operations for providers, and making a huge impact in the healthcare market.”

OneStep’s technology is already in use by over 20 leading healthcare providers across key segments, including skilled nursing facilities, outpatient rehabilitation, home care, orthotics, and prosthetics. These partnerships have demonstrated clear improvements in clinical outcomes and operational efficiency, notably reducing falls and enhancing patient recovery. With a clear product-market fit and a growing presence in its core focus verticals in the U.S., OneStep is poised to become an industry standard.

To learn more about OneStep and our gait analysis technology, visit onestep.co.

About OneStep

OneStep is an AI-powered digital care platform that uses smartphone sensors to transform real-life movement into clinical insights, helping healthcare providers assess, treat, and monitor patients from anywhere. Gait (i.e. human motion) is a leading indicator of health, and by making gait analysis as simple as stepping on a bathroom scale, OneStep empowers clinicians with actionable data to improve mobility, reduce falls, and enhance patient engagement. Our FDA-listed technology eliminates the need for wearables, delivering lab-quality gait and motion analysis in seconds.

With a focus on personalized, proactive care, OneStep serves rehabilitation providers, health systems, and medical device manufacturers, helping them optimize clinical decision-making, streamline operations, and increase revenue through Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM). We’re committed to transforming gait into a vital sign and making healthcare more precise and connected- improving quality of life for millions.

Originally announced October 22nd, 2024

< + > House passes veterans healthcare package without RESET Act

The revised bill now leaves out provisions that would have increased Congressional oversight over the VA's EHR modernization partnership with Oracle, which is set to restart in 2025.

< + > Healthcare AI Automation by Vyne Medical Improves Accuracy and Trust

By taking data from a variety of sources—health care records, faxes, voice—and providing structure to unstructured data, Vyne Medical can streamline payments, initiate workflows faster, and lift burdens from clinicians so they can “hold the patient’s hand.”

In this video, President Caleb Manscill explains the goals behind Vyne Medical and some of the services they provide, with several anecdotes to show the benefits of automating the intake, storage, and curation of documents.

Manscill points out that, without automation it could take twenty minutes to enter data received from a fax, with chances of miskeying and entering a critical mistake into the record. Automation is not only important for speed and reducing the burden on clinicians, but also to increase trust in the data.

Although they started in revenue cycle management, the recent purchase of another company, Extract Systems, allows Vyne Medical to handle lab data and healthcare information management (HIM). They cross many types of departments and facilities, using what Manscill calls a “spectrum solution” to “meet the provider wherever they are.” Vyne Medical does a lot of the IT work that providers might not have the staff or funding to do.

Watch the video for more stories and discussion of how Vyne Medical fixes the “documentation gap.”

Learn more about Vyne Medical: https://vynemedical.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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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.

Vyne Medical is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > RadiantGraph Raises $11 Million Series A to Expand AI-Driven Personalized Engagement for Health Plans

RadiantGraph Empowers Payors and Health Service Organizations with AI Platforms that Deliver High-Quality, Tailored Campaigns that Impact Member Engagement and Activation

The Company has seen More than 1,400% Growth in One Year since its Launch and is Currently Processing Personalization Models for More than 3.5 Million People

The Funding will Support the Expansion of the Company’s AI Platform Capabilities, Driving Scalable Growth and Savings Within Health Plans and Health Service Organizations

RadiantGraph, a platform using artificial intelligence to drive consumer engagement for healthcare, today announced that it has raised an $11 million Series A funding round, led by M13, with meaningful participation from XYZ Ventures and True Ventures. The investment will be used to continue the expansion of the company’s platform capabilities and drive scalable growth and savings within health plans and health service organizations. The company’s seed round included Glen Tullman, CEO at Transcarent, Lee Shapiro, CFO at Livongo, Mohsin Hussien, CTO at Liveramp, Yusuf Sherwani, CEO at Pelago Health, and Chethan Bachireddy, Chief Health Officer at Harris Health.

Payors and health services organizations play a vital role in the healthcare outcomes of their members, but the traditional approach to member engagement is broken. Members face an increasingly difficult-to-navigate healthcare system and have come to expect more personalized communication, delivered on the platforms they use.

Despite this, companies have been unable to deliver this level of personalization to their members at scale. They are largely held back by cobbled-together platforms and data point solutions that require significant technical investment before they can have a real-world impact. Healthcare needs a singular consumer engagement platform that makes it possible to understand all aspects of a person’s health needs, models how to best engage them, and delivers communications across multiple channels, from direct mail to voice AI.

Since its launch in September 2023, RadiantGraph has shown an almost immediate impact, empowering healthcare organizations to deploy AI models that deliver high-quality, tailored communications, as well as consumer enrollment and engagement campaigns. RadiantGraph does this by solving the entire lifecycle – starting with a built-in health data engine to digest disorganized healthcare data, developing AI and ML models for their member population, automating content generation and orchestration, and more recently, creating voice AI interactions. Without RadiantGraph, healthcare companies spend years and millions of dollars on manual processes and point solutions that lack this cohesion and functionality.

In the past year alone, RadiantGraph has seen growth of more than 1,400%, processing personalization models for more than 3.5 million people, helping its customers deliver major improvements on the status quo. For one client, the company’s predictive models have demonstrated a more than 12x improvement in identifying members likely to enroll in a program, while another saw almost 3x improvement in identifying individuals who could avoid costly surgery with proactive early intervention.

“Healthcare needs its own consumer engagement platform. AI capabilities have become exceptionally powerful and can help us pinpoint how to engage each consumer, based on their unique needs. But, without a platform that solves healthcare problems on day one, companies are spending tens of millions cobbling together point data solutions and systems that just haven’t worked,” said Anmol Madan, Founder and CEO at RadiantGraph. “This funding will accelerate our ability to help payors and healthcare organizations see the positive impact of consumer engagement on their KPIs and bottom line.”

Healthcare has traditionally struggled to connect with members and encourage participation in programs. The adoption of AI and digital health tools has had little business impact, with health plans averaging an NPS of just 6 for new members. In fact, most members who need digital health solutions aren’t discovering them.

Though AI solutions are making inroads, many companies still rely on paper communication and one-size-fits-all approaches that end up being discarded or ignored. In an economic climate where profitability is an important concern for many payors, RadiantGraph has proven itself to be a valuable partner. The platform brings AI consumer engagement to companies, replacing legacy solutions to increase retention and acquisition, with the goal of improving enrollment in programs, as well as net promoter score with members and star ratings.

“Engaging consumers is a major bottleneck across healthcare and is a crucial problem to solve. While startups are raising large rounds to build healthcare-specific AI capabilities, Anmol and the RadiantGraph team understand the limitation is not the AI technology itself but rather the real-world impact from its adoption. This team has the AI and healthcare expertise to pull off personalized engagement at scale and we couldn’t be more excited to back them” said Latif Peracha, Partner at M13, who led the deal.

RadiantGraph accelerates the program adoption curve by drawing actionable member insights and launching AI-led campaigns in weeks, versus the years it would take a company to build a less efficient platform from the ground up. This results in faster and more impactful member engagement, and the ability for companies to save millions in development and staffing costs to build their own system from the ground up.

RadiantGraph has also expanded its platform with new capabilities, Intelligent Personalization, and Integrations, which offer an expanded approach to data management and targeted member communication. Intelligent Personalization is designed to identify member segments, use AI to train tailored approaches for members, and provide a recommended approach for each member with the goal of treating each member as an individual. The Integrations capabilities allows organizations using leading cloud platforms AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Snowflake, and Databricks to integrate their data with AI-driven personalization within hours – a significant improvement over the current timeframe of months or years.

About RadiantGraph

RadiantGraph is on a mission to help healthcare organizations leverage AI and machine learning to better understand and engage with consumers. Personalization drives higher consumer adoption and engagement with health benefits and improves clinical engagement and long-term healthcare costs. Eight out of ten employees say they would use their health benefits more if they were offered an experience tailored to their individual needs.

RadiantGraph’s platform today supports leading health plans and healthcare organizations in substance abuse, mental health, chronic conditions, MSK, and other complex healthcare. RadiantGraph is led by Anmol Madan (ex-CDS Livongo, Teladoc, and Co-Founder/CEO Ginger); joined by an experienced team of healthcare leaders formerly from Livongo, Teladoc, Ginger, Wheel, and more. Funded by True Ventures, M13, XYZ Ventures, Remus, and other notable investors, RadiantGraph was recently listed as one of Business Insiders “25 Healthcare Startups Set to Take Off in 2024.” Learn more at radiantgraph.com.

Originally announced October 10th, 2024