News 11/28/16

Top News

Just in time for Cyber Monday: UpGuard grades the top 25 retailers on their cybersecurity practices. (As a Prime addict, I’m happy to see Amazon on the “Good” list.) In an effort to help consumers shop safely online, the company has created a Google Chrome extension that scores websites based on cybersecurity risk. Its November survey of 1,200 consumers found that nearly all are concerned about the security of their information online, and over 50 percent would avoid their favorite retailers if those companies had poor cybersecurity practices.

On a side note, it would be interesting to see such a scoring system created for developers and users of health IT. I’d be especially interested in seeing if there was correlation between providers with high cybersecurity scores and other areas, such as quality, patient satisfaction, and cost.

HIStalk Practice Announcements and Requests

Thanks to renewing sponsor Healthwise for supporting HIStalk Practice. Contact Lorre before the HIMSS rush if you’d like to learn more about becoming a sponsor.

Webinars

December 6 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Get Ready for Blockchain’s Disruption.” Sponsored by PokitDok. Presenter: Theodore Tanner, Jr., co-founder and CTO, PokitDok. EHR-to-EHR data exchange alone can’t support healthcare’s move to value-based care and its increased consumer focus. Blockchain will disrupt the interoperability status quo with its capability to support a seamless healthcare experience by centralizing, securing, and orchestrating disparate information. Attendees of this webinar will be able to confidently describe how blockchain works technically, how it’s being used, and the healthcare opportunities it creates. They will also get a preview of DokChain, the first-ever running implementation of blockchain in healthcare.

December 7 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Charting a Course to Digital Transformation – Start Your Journey with a Map and Compass.” Sponsored by Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Jack Phillips, CEO, International Institute for Analytics; Graham Hughes, MD, CEO, Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. The digital era is disrupting every industry and healthcare is no exception. Emerging technologies will introduce challenges and opportunities to transform operations and raise the bar of consumer experience. Success in this new era requires a new way of thinking, new skills, and new technologies to help your organization embrace digital health. In this webinar, we’ll demonstrate how to measure your organization’s analytics maturity and design a strategy to digital transformation.

People

The North Carolina Medical Board elects Eleanor Greene, MD (Triad Women’s Health and Wellness Center) president. Greene will no doubt lead the board in its continued efforts to crack down on dozens of physicians of patients that have died from opioid overdoses within the last year.

WEDI elects new board members including Pam Grosze (PNC Bank), David Haugen (Minnesota Dept. of Health) (not pictured), Teresa Rivera (Utah Health Information Network), and Michael Wilson (HealthCare Information Management).

Telemedicine

AbleTo adds care coordination capabilities, including streamlined referrals, to its behavioral health telemedicine program for payers. The New York City-based company has been on a bit of an executive hiring spree over the last six months, bringing on Rob Rebak (ShareCare) as CEO and Dorothy Gemmell (Practice Fusion) as chief commercial officer. Its last funding round seems to have been a $12 million Series C in June 2015.

Research and Innovation

A study of 333 PCPs finds that most would not provide full disclosure of a medical error when presented with two fictional cases – one involving a delayed cancer diagnosis, and one involving a care coordination breakdown. Most noted they would offer patients a limited or no apology, limited or no explanation, and limited or no information about the cause of the error – findings that the study’s authors say fall alarmingly short of national guidelines and patient expectations. The study didn’t delve into the reasons behind the lack of ethics, but it’s worth noting that 56 percent of PCPs have questioned whether the demands of practice are worth the toll, and that 37 percent have thought about leaving practice all together.

Other

The local paper puts the nation’s perceived physician shortage into perspective, calling the lack of family MDs more of an education and distribution problem than a genuine dearth of doctors:

“From our organization’s point of view,” says Family Medicine Education Consortium CEO Laurence Bauer, “more primary care is better. We just created a system that’s out of balance and continues to be out of balance,” Mr. Bauer said. “Family physicians, general internists and psychiatrists all are low on the pecking order and that creates an issue. We’ve created medical schools that, in my opinion, select people not generally wanting to go into general medicine and much more likely to go into sub-specialties. If you have a primary care physician serving as quarterback and allow him or her to make referrals, fewer people will be referred. But when they are, they don’t get lost in the system.”

I missed this a few weeks ago: ScottCare Cardiovascular Solutions, parent company of remote cardiac device monitoring brand Ambucor Health Solutions, notifies the cardiology offices of Conemaugh Physician Group (PA) that a former employee downloaded patient data from a company-issued computer to thumb drives. While no nefarious activity has been detected thus far, ScottCare is offering patients one year of identity protection and recovery services, and $1 million of identity theft insurance. The employee’s actions were discovered during a seemingly separate investigation that ended in his termination. 

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD donates 600 necessity bags to Ronald McDonald House Charities.
• EClinicalWorks releases a recap video from its annual conference.
• GE Healthcare announces several products at RSNA that include patient-controlled mammography pressure, an imaging collaboration suite, and enhancements to Centricity Solutions for Enterprise Imaging.

Blog Posts

• What won’t change with the election (and the next wave of health IT focus) (Nordic)
• Introducing the Versus Consulting Team (Versus Technology)
• CMS Finalizes 2017 Physician Fee Schedule (E-MDs)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 11/23/16

Top News

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales mean big business for retailers and cyber criminals, according to new reports from Experian and CyberReason. Its study found that, though 62 percent of shoppers are worried about being hacked, 40 percent won’t alter their shopping patterns to avoid it. Seventy percent believe finding “the right deal” would make them more likely to buy from a website they’d never heard of. Also alarming is the fact that 23 percent would “risk becoming a victim of identity theft for a good Cyber Monday deal.” Shop safely, my friends.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers! I hope the next several days find you surrounded by family and friends, with ample opportunity to reflect on the many blessings in your life. Should you find yourself in need of healthcare, be sure to thank your provider for working over the holiday weekend.

Webinars

December 6 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Get Ready for Blockchain’s Disruption.” Sponsored by PokitDok. Presenter: Theodore Tanner, Jr., co-founder and CTO, PokitDok. EHR-to-EHR data exchange alone can’t support healthcare’s move to value-based care and its increased consumer focus. Blockchain will disrupt the interoperability status quo with its capability to support a seamless healthcare experience by centralizing, securing, and orchestrating disparate information. Attendees of this webinar will be able to confidently describe how blockchain works technically, how it’s being used, and the healthcare opportunities it creates. They will also get a preview of DokChain, the first-ever running implementation of blockchain in healthcare.

December 7 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Charting a Course to Digital Transformation – Start Your Journey with a Map and Compass.” Sponsored by Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Jack Phillips, CEO, International Institute for Analytics; Graham Hughes, MD, CEO, Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. The digital era is disrupting every industry and healthcare is no exception. Emerging technologies will introduce challenges and opportunities to transform operations and raise the bar of consumer experience. Success in this new era requires a new way of thinking, new skills, and new technologies to help your organization embrace digital health. In this webinar, we’ll demonstrate how to measure your organization’s analytics maturity and design a strategy to digital transformation.

Announcements and Implementations

Bizmatics adds an employer portal to its PrognoCIS EHR for occupational health clinics. The new tool will enable employers to securely communicate with providers, and  track information about injured employees, including health and recovery status.

Former palliative and hospice care provider Joseph Dorn, MD will open the Medical Marijuana Treatment Center of Florida in Tallahassee, FL next week. Dorn is one of three physicians in the city who have completed the eight hours of training required by the Dept. of Health before they can order medical marijuana for their patients. “What makes me different from other folks,” Dorn explains, “is I’ve got extensive hospice background and experience as medical director oversight of a dispensing organization.”

Slightly related random fact: Marijuana dispensaries sell 58 percent more edibles and 72 percent more beverages the day before Thanksgiving than on an average Wednesday. “Sometimes, it’s a little stressful to see family,” says Kaya Cannabis CEO Amanda Gonzalez. “In the same way some people might pick up a bottle of wine, some people are looking to pick up recreational cannabis. Maybe it’ll make your slightly racist uncle a little bit more tolerable."

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Mashable digs into the newest venture of John Sculley, former Apple CEO and now founder of cloud-based pharmacy benefits platform RxAdvance, an endeavor he calls “the most important thing I’ve done since my time at Apple.” Sculley, who bounced around several verticals before landing on the digital side of pharmacy benefit management, doesn’t seem to have much faith in the digital health ecosystem:

“People in digital health have to be willing to do the heavy lifting of learning how the healthcare system really works. It’s tempting for entrepreneurs to say, ‘I can build a cool product and measure a lot of different things.’ They haven’t taken that same philosophy to say how to solve problems for people who are sick, and not just for people who are well who want to measure their fitness. Companies making wearable devices, for example, are going to get smarter to solve problems for people who are sick, not just people who are well.”

People

GNS Healthcare CEO Colin Hill joins the newly formed Massachusetts Digital Health Council, created by Gov. Charlie Baker to bolster the state’s digital health ecosystem. The council, which includes representatives from 38 healthcare technology and life sciences companies, has been tasked with creating a three-year innovation growth plan to the Governor by August 2017.

The American Medical Informatics Association names incoming Regenstrief Institute President and CEO Peter Embi, MD chair-elect of its Board of Directors.

Government and Politics

The National Quality Forum invites industry stakeholders to comment on the 97 metrics it is reviewing (with an eye to removing some) for the federal government’s use in various health programs, including MACRA and MIPS. The measures, 39 of which are related to outcomes, may “help patients and families choose the nursing home, hospital, or clinician that is best for them, and can help providers deliver the highest quality of care to their patients,” according to Kate Goodrich, MD director of the CMS Center for Clinical Standards & Quality. Comments are due December 2.

Other

A perfect way to wind down at the end of Black Friday: Zeel brings its in-home massage delivery service to New Orleans. Customers can book their session via the company’s app or website, and expect delivery within the hour. A quick visit to the website finds that Zeel’s services are available in 40 cities (including mine!).

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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News 11/22/16

Top News

The State of New York is in hot water thanks to an OIG audit released today that contends it improperly used up to $150 million in grants to set up its health insurance exchange. Auditors found that the state used inflated population figures to obtain funding, claiming that every New Yorker would benefit from coverage through the exchange, even though a substantial chunk had access via their employers. The office has recommended that the state return the money to CMS; state officials have disputed the audit. Similar problems have been documented in Nevada, Maryland, Vermont, and Washington, DC – though none on as large of a scale.

HIStalk Practice Musings

I had my first telemedicine encounter over the weekend. My health-sharing plan offers free visits with MDLive, so I was quick to set up a phone consult (my preference) when my symptoms first presented themselves. The registration process was painless. I waited less than an hour to receive a call from the first physician available, who was sympathetic to my plight. He answered my questions, advised me on medication, and we said our goodbyes. The call probably lasted less than 10 minutes. I’ll definitely use the service again for routine concerns.

Webinars

December 6 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Get Ready for Blockchain’s Disruption.” Sponsored by PokitDok. Presenter: Theodore Tanner, Jr., co-founder and CTO, PokitDok. EHR-to-EHR data exchange alone can’t support healthcare’s move to value-based care and its increased consumer focus. Blockchain will disrupt the interoperability status quo with its capability to support a seamless healthcare experience by centralizing, securing, and orchestrating disparate information. Attendees of this webinar will be able to confidently describe how blockchain works technically, how it’s being used, and the healthcare opportunities it creates. They will also get a preview of DokChain, the first-ever running implementation of blockchain in healthcare.

December 7 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Charting a Course to Digital Transformation – Start Your Journey with a Map and Compass.” Sponsored by Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Jack Phillips, CEO, International Institute for Analytics; Graham Hughes, MD, CEO, Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. The digital era is disrupting every industry and healthcare is no exception. Emerging technologies will introduce challenges and opportunities to transform operations and raise the bar of consumer experience. Success in this new era requires a new way of thinking, new skills, and new technologies to help your organization embrace digital health. In this webinar, we’ll demonstrate how to measure your organization’s analytics maturity and design a strategy to digital transformation.

Announcements and Implementations

Sutherland Healthcare Solutions introduces the SmartHealthSolutions portfolio, including analytics targeted to predicting consumer preferences and needs; a dashboard that presents clinical, financial, and operational data; an app library; and related advisory services.

OpenMRI of Connecticut implements imaging workflow solutions from ERad, including PACS, RIS, and speech recognition across its four facilities. The practice will soon go live with the RadNet subsidiary’s mammography technology and physician portal.

Regional Cancer Care Associates, an oncology physician network serving patients at 27 sites in Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington DC, expands its value-based care program with UnitedHealthcare, extending beyond the “Garden State” into Maryland. RCCA physicians in the “Old Line State” will now be eligible for incentive payments based on improved quality outcomes and lower costs of care. RCCA is one of five oncology practices that have joined the program since it launched as a pilot program in 2009.

People

Scott Nordlund (Trinity Health) joins Select Medical as executive vice president, partnership growth and innovation.

Telemedicine

In Hand Health develops the Therapist Essentials smartphone app, which gives physical therapists the ability to create and send video-based home exercises to patients, which they can remotely track in between visits. The Overland Park, KS-based company has also created a patient version of the app that allows them to receive the videos and log activity, and pain and recovery levels.

Other

Neurotechnology researchers at Honeywell Aerospace develop a system that controls aircraft through electrical signals in the brain. Integrated with a plane’s autopilot, the brain-computer interface translates certain signals into commands to climb, bank left, or drop in altitude. “The first few maneuvers,” says test pilot/guinea pig Jack Stewart, “I can’t believe it’s actually me in command. And then comes the euphoria. I am swooping through clouds, climbing, diving, flying in circles, all at my whim.”

“I am the President, he is The Boss.” President Obama awards Bruce Springsteen the Presidential Medal of Honor, the country’s highest civilian honor. Technology-related recipients included Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grace Hopper (aka as “the first lady of software), and Margaret Hamilton, who created on-board flight software for NASA’s Apollo command modules and lunar modules.

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 11/21/16

Top News

With Theranos out of the way, Quest Diagnostics expands into consumer-initiated lab testing. Patients in Colorado and Missouri now have the ability to order certain lab tests without a physician’s order, and then access results through the company’s patient portal. This isn’t the company’s first foray into consumer-facing testing services; it began offering testing services on behalf of AncestryDNA in August.

HIStalk Practice Musings

Listening: Anything by amazing soul shakers Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Jones died Friday of pancreatic cancer at the age of 60.

Webinars

December 6 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Get Ready for Blockchain’s Disruption.” Sponsored by PokitDok. Presenter: Theodore Tanner, Jr., co-founder and CTO, PokitDok. EHR-to-EHR data exchange alone can’t support healthcare’s move to value-based care and its increased consumer focus. Blockchain will disrupt the interoperability status quo with its capability to support a seamless healthcare experience by centralizing, securing, and orchestrating disparate information. Attendees of this webinar will be able to confidently describe how blockchain works technically, how it’s being used, and the healthcare opportunities it creates. They will also get a preview of DokChain, the first-ever running implementation of blockchain in healthcare.

December 7 (Wednesday) 1:00 ET. “Charting a Course to Digital Transformation – Start Your Journey with a Map and Compass.” Sponsored by Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. Presenters: Jack Phillips, CEO, International Institute for Analytics; Graham Hughes, MD, CEO, Sutherland Healthcare Solutions. The digital era is disrupting every industry and healthcare is no exception. Emerging technologies will introduce challenges and opportunities to transform operations and raise the bar of consumer experience. Success in this new era requires a new way of thinking, new skills, and new technologies to help your organization embrace digital health. In this webinar, we’ll demonstrate how to measure your organization’s analytics maturity and design a strategy to digital transformation.

Announcements and Implementations

EyeMD EMR Healthcare Systems adds patient feedback/survey capabilities from Testimonial Tree, including automated requests at various points of care, to its EHR for ophthalmologists.

CTS Healthcare Services adds RightPatient’s photo biometric patient ID system to its line of Patient Passport Express self-service kiosks.

AMA works with LexisNexis Risk Solutions to develop a tool for maintaining accurate directories of provider networks. LexisNexis VerifyHCP will enable physicians to update practice information with multiple payers in nearly real time, helping all parties to comply with increasingly tighter state and federal directory accuracy mandates.

Consulting and IT services company AllUrData works with technology vendor Eccovia Solutions to develop care coordination software for Medicaid programs, ACOs, and managed care organizations that combines clinical data with social determinants of health.

The Washington State Dept. of Health taps Qualis Health to support its Practice Transformation Support Hub, a collection of tools, resources, and coaching opportunities created to help small and mid-sized primary care and behavioral health practices better integrate care. Qualis Health will focus on coaching 

Government and Politics

The Economist uses data to tell the sad health story of states that, against pollster predictions, clinched the win for Trump. It appears that the unhealthier a community, the more likely it was to swing for the larger-than-life businessman. “[Geographic numbers … show … that the specific subset of Mr. Trump’s voters that won him the election — those in counties where he outperformed Mr. Romney by large margins — live in communities that are literally dying,” write the publication’s self-professed data nerds. “Even if Mr. Trump’s policies are unlikely to alleviate their plight, it is not hard to understand why they voted for change.”

Research and Innovation

Scientists develop a temporary tattoo-like electronic sensor that can monitor a person’s heartbeat by recording sound waves as they move through body tissue and fluids. The “mini-stethoscope” will soon be able to connect to a smartphone via bluetooth, and may also have applications in the field of speech recognition when applied to the throat.

Other

Lindsay Norris, RN writes a moving letter to her past, present, and future oncology patients in which she asks for forgiveness for not truly understanding their plight – one that she now finds herself in as she faces her own cancer diagnosis. While the entire letter is worthy of reading multiple times, her opinions on Google struck a chord with me:

“I didn’t get how much you googled. I told you not to do it. You did it, a lot- and so did I. Searching for information, hope, stories like yours, reassurance. It was impossible not to. My new stance is to just know what a good source is when you google. I’ll help you learn to filter the information. And I promise to give you more information, because I know how much you crave it. It’s not realistic to think you will have the willpower to not search at all (at least it wasn’t for me). I’m sorry. I didn’t get it.”

I knew it: A Danish study claims that abstaining from Facebook for one week will make you happier. The study of just over 1,000 Danes found that those that avoided the social network (including uninstalling the app from their phones) reported “significantly higher ‘life satisfaction’ and more positive emotions” than those that remained in the rut of their typical social media routines. “People’s emotional life improves significantly when they quit Facebook for one week,” writes lead author Morten Tromholt. “Millions of hours are spent on Facebook each day. We are surely better connected now than ever before, but is this new connectedness doing any good to our well-being? According to the present study, the answer is no.”

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

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Population Health Management Weekly Wrap Up 11/20/16

GoMo Health makes its Concierge Care population health management and mobile care coordination technology available to cities, states, and government organizations under the Healthy Cities brand name. Targeted to long-term care and FQHCs, the software includes programs for pre-admission, discharge, and managed long-term care for prevention, and quality-of-life improvement.

Group Health Cooperative renews its contract with ZeOmega and upgrades to the company’s Jiva 6.1 population health management platform. GHC is a managed care organization that serves 630,000 consumers in Washington.

A University of Pennsylvania and Free Library of Pennsylvania study finds that librarians frequently fill the role of community health specialist to patrons in underserved areas, often helping them to find housing, food, employment, and healthcare. “Public libraries are a critically needed and trusted lifeline for many vulnerable citizens,” says researcher Carolyn Cannuscio. “Our analysis found that library staff already serve as catalysts in addressing the needs of many immigrants, people experiencing mental illness or homelessness, and others seeking assistance. And they have the capacity to do even more.” A subsequent pilot program at the new Community Health and Literacy Center is training librarians to integrate evidence-based public health programming into a library setting.

Researchers discover that, like librarians, ACOs are well-poised to fulfill the nonmedical needs of their patients, with many of them already doing so. A study of 32 ACOs found that 16 were addressing needs related to housing stability, transportation, and food insecurity. While the majority of those were doing so in an uncoordinated manner due to lack of resources and strategy, analysts were encouraged by their efforts. “The intersection between patient medical outcomes and social service programs is complex, but it’s very important we study it further to determine which activities are effective at addressing patient needs while reducing costs and improving the quality of care,” explains lead author Taressa Fraze.

Banner Health Network (AZ) selects technology and resources from Evolent Health, including its Identifi HIE solution, to help its physicians better care for its Medicare Advantage patient population. Evolent will work with The Advisory Board to provide BHN with implementation and operational support.

Eastern Washington University works with Skagit County’s Population Health Trust to develop a website that offers 165 data sets on community indicators (which, in my mind, should now be referred to as social determinants of health) including health, education, public safety, and economic vitality. “Our hope is that this will stimulate conversations about the state of our community, and spur people to action,” says county health analyst David Jefferson.

A 16-year University of Kentucky College of Public Health study of 300 communities finds that deaths from preventable causes were 20-percent lower in areas that put in place a wide variety of population health activities through multilayered networks of partnering organizations. The key, researchers found, was the power of the “network effect.” “These results give us the clearest picture yet of the health benefits that accrue to communities when they build broad, multi-sector networks to improve population health,” says lead author Glen Mays. “It’s not simply a matter of implementing widely-recommended activities involving assessment, planning, and improvement – it’s about engaging a full range of partners in these activities.”

The local paper highlights LifeWallet, one of nine winners of GE’s HealthyCities Leadership Academy’s Open Innovation Challenge. Partnering with West Kendall Baptist Hospital and Healthy West Kendall, the health risk assessment technology vendor has already installed its Encounter kiosk in West Kendall’s Healthy Hub, which the hospital deems a “one-stop-shop” for risk assessments and resources. Patients with questionable scores and/or considered high-risk are then connected to the local care they need to improve their outcomes.

Sponsor Updates

Blog Posts

• Medicomp University Asia 2016 a Success (Medicomp Systems)
• CMS Lowers Meaningful Use Reporting Period to 90 Days (E-MDs)

Contacts

Jenn, Mr. H, Lorre

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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Become a sponsor.