Telemedicine programs boosting patient engagement but not ROI, study says

Telemedicine is changing from a specialty offering to a more mainstream service, with a new study showing that two-thirds of respondents name telemedicine as the top or one of the highest priorities – a 10 percent increase from the 2015 survey results.

But challenges remain, notably reimbursement and earning a return on the investments needed to fund telehealth technologies and programs.

“Telemedicine decision-making is rapidly moving from individual departments and specialties to an enterprise initiative,” said Steve McGraw, CEO of REACH Health, which conducted the study. “Both hospitals and health systems reported significant increases in the average number of telemedicine service lines which are active or being implemented.”

REACH Health surveyed 390 healthcare executives, physicians, nurses and other professionals, covering a wide variety of telemedicine-related topics such as priorities, program models, management structures and more. For the full article click here 

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Wentworth Miller’s Response To Body Shaming Was About Much More Than Mental Health

Being a celebrity in 2016 seems to go hand in hand with becoming a meme. But Wentworth Miller turned a body shaming meme about himself into an important message about mental health and body image. Recently, the Prison Break star fell victim to a cruel and arguably pointless meme by The Lad Bible, a UK-based website that’s been accused of sexism and of objectifying women repeatedly. But his response was a reminder that body shaming — whether being directed at someone who struggles with mental health or not — is never acceptable.

In this particular instance, Lad Bible shared a side by side composite of actor and director Miller on its Facebook page: A Prison Break promotional picture alongside a paparazzi shot of the star from 2010. The caption was a typical case of “classic banter:” The excuse often given by many individuals to make their prejudicial statements seem like innocent jokes, simply because they “didn’t mean it.” As for the image of Miller, the focus of the derogatory image was put on his weight. The caption read, “When you break out of prison and find out about McDonald’s monopoly.” For the full article click here 

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Digital health: South Island electronic referrals hit one million

The Government’s eReferrals system is proving to a hit, with Health Minister Jonathan Coleman revealing more than one million electronic referrals to specialists have been successfully processed in the South Island.

The South Island Electronic Request Management System allows general practice teams to submit requests for specialist advice direct to a secure database of over 700 specialists.

“More than a million South Islanders have had access to timely specialist advice as a result of the eReferrals system,” says Coleman.

“First launched in Canterbury DHB in 2009, the eReferrals system enables a faster, smoother and more accurate transfer of patient information,” he explains.

“Replacing hand-written referrals with eReferrals has also reduced inaccuracies and has saved time for clinicians,” he adds. For the full article click here 

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Two more healthcare networks caught up in outbreak of hospital ransomware

Hospitals and healthcare providers are increasingly falling victim to crypto-ransomware attacks. While attacks over the past few months have not been highly targeted thus far, they have caused a great deal of disruption. And disruptions at hospitals can have a much more dire impact than at most other organizations vulnerable to malware-based extortion.

This past week, that point was brought home again when multiple US hospitals acknowledged that they had been forced to take systems offline in response to crypto-ransomware infestations. And on Wednesday, security researchers at Cisco Talos Research revealed a new strain of crypto-ransomware designed to attack vulnerable servers that appeared to be primarily focused on targets in the healthcare industry.

The latest disruption came on Monday, when Columbia, Maryland based MedStar Health reported malware had caused a shutdown of some systems at its hospitals in Baltimore. For the full article click here 

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Critical infrastructure – airports, railway stations need protection: Gene. Kircho Kirov

A company owned by Lockheed Martin was one of the 21 companies selected to score a bite of the huge $22 billion Veterans Health Administration IT contract T4NG.

That is right. Now, Lockheed is not only making money hand over fist by selling weapons that kill and maim soldiers – sometimes our own soldiers – but they are cashing in on the back end by creating “solutions” for health care systems.

The Lockheed company is called Systems Made Simple. That acronym, T4NG, is short for Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation. The contract spans 10 years and was awarded to 21 awardees.

To remind readers, Systems Made Simple was the Lockheed company working on the GI Bill system that was supposed to help improve processing. At the time, VA failed to provide a solution to process GI Bill claims in a timely manner. Instead, it funded an IT contract that never was fully finished while still cost taxpayers almost twice the original projected cost. Systems Made Simple was supposed to “fix” that fix. For the full article click here 

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VA launches 10-year, $22.3 billion procurement program

As the Department of Veterans Affairs ponders whether to continue upgrading its legacy electronic health record system or to replace it outright, the VA has awarded 21 contracts worth up to $22.3 billion for information technology infrastructure improvements.

While the agency conducts a business case analysis on the future viability of its Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) EHR system, a new multi-billion dollar indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract vehicle has been put in place to help meet the VA’s near- and longer term healthcare IT needs.

The 10-year Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology program-Next Generation (T4NG) awards include a mix of large and small business vendors, serving as a follow-on procurement to the original T4 program. For the full article click here 

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Lockheed Martin’s Systems Made Simple awarded VA health IT contract

VIENNA, Va., March 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Systems Made Simple, a Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) company, today announced that it has been awarded the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). T4NG is a multiple-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with a potential value of $22.3 billion over 10 years, to all 21 awardees. The T4NG contract vehicle is designed to promote the seamless integration of health information technology, information technology (IT) and telecommunication solutions to better serve Veterans’ health needs.

“T4NG is essential as the VA continues its business transformation toward a Veteran-centric, results-driven and forward-looking organization,” said Horace Blackman, vice president health and life sciences at Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions. “We look forward to providing our IT and health expertise to deliver the right solutions to meet these goals and ultimately improve Veterans health and benefits experiences.” For the full article click here 

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Syrian Refugees In Canada Face Ongoing Health Challenges: Study

OTTAWA — The vast majority of the 26,000 Syrian refugees who arrived in Canada by the end of last month showed up healthy, newly published government data suggests.

But while the study by Public Health Agency of Canada staff said the newcomers posed no risk to public health, it noted it will take time for chronic medical and mental-health conditions to present and health-care professionals need to remain vigilant.

The Immigration Department has published data on some of the newly arrived Syrians, but the public health study is the first comprehensive look at the entire group.

The researchers focused on communicable diseases among those resettled in Canada as part of the Liberal program to bring 25,000 people here by the end of February. For the full article click here 

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Prison Break star Wentworth Miller shuts down fat-shaming meme

It takes more than a mean-spirited meme to bring Wentworth Miller down. The Prison Break and Legends of Tomorrow actor took to social media Monday to defang an image that surfaced online and ridiculed his past weight gain.

“Today I found myself the subject of an Internet meme,” Miller wrote on his Facebook page. “Not for the first time. This one, however, stands out from the rest.”

Posting a screenshot of the image, which juxtaposes a shirtless photo of him looking trim and a photo in which he’s visibly heavier, Miller opened up about his battles with depression and eating.

“I’ve struggled with depression since childhood,” he wrote. “It’s a battle that’s cost me time, opportunities, relationships, and a thousand sleepless nights. In 2010, at the lowest point in my adult life, I was looking everywhere for relief/comfort/distraction. And I turned to food. It could have been anything. Drugs. Alcohol. Sex. But eating became the one thing I could look forward to.” For the full article click here 

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FBI investigate virus attack on MedStar Health System

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — A Spokesperson for MedStar Health System tells ABC7 the FBI is leading the investigation into a virus attack on its computer network.

Sources tell us workers at Washington Hospital Center who tried to log onto their email got a message they would have to pay to get access.

In a statement MedStar told us :

“Early this morning, MedStar Health’s IT system was affected by a virus that prevents certain users from logging-in to our system…”

MedStar said it then moved quickly to shut down its computer network. That outage affected more than a dozen hospitals and dozens more clinics and doctors’ offices in the Washington and Baltimore region.

The facilities continued to care for patients, but it forced workers to use a paper back-up system. For the full article click here 

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Is NASA slow-rolling a cybersecurity breakthrough?

By Jason Miller | @jmillerWFED

NASA’s cybersecurity challenges continue to bubble up. About a week after my month-long investigative report into major shortcoming with the space agency’s approach to patching software, a private sector non-profit is calling NASA out for not moving fast enough on a potential cybersecurity breakthrough.

The Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) is calling on NASA to unleash Gryphon X in a bulletin it published on March 23.

“Gryphon X was one of those proposals we’ve been waiting since the summer to hear more about,” said James Scott, ICIT’s co-founder and senior fellow. “We have good relationships with the C-level people at Ames Research Center, and we were on the Hill with NASA in the Senate in the fall, and it keeps coming up. There are several questions about what’s being done to secure technology, the Internet of Things connectivity of the critical infrastructure. We said, ‘Why not talk about Gryphon X?” and so we did. We didn’t think the proposal would be placed on ice for this long.”

Scott said Gryphon X is a concept that could change the cybersecurity game, and a little friendly push to NASA would help drum up more interest.

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Study: Analytics, population health top 2016 priorities for hospital CIOs, CMIOs

Thirty-three percent of healthcare IT executives cited data analytics as the biggest topic in 2016 while 32 percent said population health is, according to the fourth annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey conducted by Stoltenberg Consulting.

“Healthcare providers are flooded with piles and piles of EHR data each day,” said Sheri Stoltenberg, CEO of Stoltenberg Consulting. “It has now become imperative to learn to sift through the large quantities of complex information to leverage data insights through data analytics for improved clinical care and compliance and operational effectiveness.”

The healthcare information technology consulting firm surveyed CIOs, CMIOs, IT directors and consultants at HIMSS16 earlier this month. For the full article click here 

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ONC, NIH Launch S4S Program for Precision Medicine Research

Missouri health information exchange bills panned

KERFUFFLE IN MISSOURI OVER HIE BILLS: Controversy is brewing in the Missouri legislature over a bill that would create a health information commission empowered to dictate health information standards and regulate “health information organizations.” Mike Dittemore, executive director of the Lewis and Clark Information Exchange in neighboring Kansas, says the commission would “mandate good behavior” in an industry known to have some bad actors. He tells Morning eHealth that data flow in Missouri is still siloed and the new regulator would expedite the exchange of patient records. He points to Kansas as a good example of a state doing things right and says linking the two states, which share Kansas City, has been extremely difficult. — But it’s not so simple, says Angie Bass, chief operating officer of the Missouri Health Connection. The precise powers of the new state-wide commission aren’t yet clear and that’s scary Bass said. In addition, it could interfere with federal standards. “We feel like there isn’t a problem to be solved and this is an overreach of government,” Bass told us. For the full article click here 

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Mid-Atlantic Health Care Partner Network; Finding New Ways to Revitalize the Health and Wellness of Our Communities

March is National Nutrition Month. Throughout the month, USDA will be highlighting results of our efforts to improve access to safe, healthy food for all Americans and supporting the health of our next generation.

Make no mistake: Hunger is a health issue. There are clear associations between food insecurity and poor health outcomes, and health providers across the country know that good health doesn’t depend solely on medical care. And this is where USDA comes in.

I frequently interact with community health organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region. Through conversations and the observations of physicians, community clinics and hospitals, we understand that USDA’s nutrition assistance programs are a natural partner to patient care.  And so, in my region we created a platform for sharing ideas on how to target our nutrition programs at the places and with the people who directly provide health services in our communities.

We know that health care organizations are already doing impressive work combating obesity and hunger; they host farmers markets, sponsor SNAP incentive programs, promote healthy school meals and environments, support school breakfast expansion, and deliver nutrition and health education.

To share their best practices we started the Mid-Atlantic Healthy Communities Partner Network.  Through quarterly webinars, outreach events and roundtables, we brought together more than 100 partner agencies in the region. The webinars are especially helpful at showcasing the many new and innovative ways health care organizations are leveraging USDA nutrition programs for the benefit of their patients and their communities. For the full article click here 

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Why ARE health chiefs denying lung cancer patients the wonder drug that brought this woman back from the brink?

I don’t know Demi Pestell, but after a few hours together I feel as if we’re friends. Within a few minutes of meeting, she confides hilarious – and unprintable – secrets about a dreadful ex-boyfriend. Cue much laughter.

Given the fact that I know she has a rare terminal lung cancer, it feels like a terrible cliche to say she is ‘so full of life’. I can’t help but think it though. She’s turned up in a stunning body-con dress and heels while I’m in Saturday jeans and ill-fitting shirt – and I feel as if I’m the one who looks unwell.

Yet three years ago, the 36-year-old former diving instructor from Northampton was effectively handed a death sentence when doctors warned she had just weeks to live. Tumours had spread from her lungs to her liver, bones and brain, and her only hope of survival was taking part in a clinical trial for a new drug.

That drug, called Zykadia, transformed her. She had been wheelchair-bound and suffering daily seizures. Today, although doctors can find ‘no trace’ of cancer in her body, she still, apparently, has it – and it could return at any moment. But she is an outwardly healthy-looking young woman leading a normal life.

It seems like a miracle, but experts have hailed Zykadia as consistently performing such works of magic in similarly bleak cases.

Yet this is where the good news begins to end. The lifeline handed to Demi by Zykadia – proven in trials to prolong life by an average of 16 months – is being denied to other patients in the same position. For the full article click here 

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Forest for the Trees: Impact vs. Likelihood

InfoGPS is a unique company.  It is unique in the fact that our existence is borne of problems the founders have had during their careers in IT Risk.  It is not the result of a highly skilled individuals who are coding a solution to a specific subsection of a regulation.  We own this distinction and it drives many of our conversations about value.  In fair disclosure, I am one of the founders but I do not want this to be a blog about us.  I want it to continue the discussion we have started about the importance of focusing on sensitive information as the driver of risk.  I remain astounded when I have the opportunity to talk to the top 25 CPA Firms, the IT Auditors at our largest companies, the most successful of the companies that our IT Security dollars are directed; and they all have the same 2) issues:

1. We are swamped trying to understand and implement the proper controls to prevent data loss. The demand of assistance is overwhelming our resources to handle the requests.
2. We are not employing independent tools to fundamentally understand the asset we are trying to help protect – we don’t know where data is any more than our clients.

The result of this mismatch is an ongoing issue: we know more about how to reduce the likelihood of breach by interpreting the sufficiency of controls, than we do about what assets are at risk in the first place.

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Evaluating investment in health IT

Rod Piechowski, Senior Director of Health Information Systems at HIMSS, explains how the time has come for hospitals and health system to take a closer look at the value of health IT, not only to see where it has improved outcomes but where IT can be retooled to achieve greater efficiencies and cost savings.

For the full article click here 

 

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Propeller, Boehringer Ingelheim expand into broad commercial partnership

Propeller Health and Boehringer Ingelheim announced a new commercial partnership. Under the partnership, COPD and asthma patients using Boehringer’s Respimat inhaler will have the opportunity to enroll in a program at select health systems that will monitor their adherence via a Propeller sensor and improve their engagement in their health.

“So far we have developed a popular Bluetooth-enabled sensor that wraps around the Respimat device,” Ruchin Kansal, executive director and head of business innovation at BI. “It’s a proprietary soft mist platform that has been shown to be highly effective in delivery of medication for the patient. What this sensor allows is to actively track patient behavior around their medication. And through that tracking, it can create a dialogue with the patient or connect the patient and the provider to a support service. The object of our current partnership is to create some of the real-world market experience of our technology so the providers will be willing to provide it, the patients will be willing to adopt a sensor and basically drive adherence.” For the full article click here 

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GOVERNMENT TAKES STEPS ON PRIVACY IN MOBILE HEALTH APPS

The application of health privacy rules to health information on mobile devices is getting the attention of federal regulators as well members of congress.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights published guidance to aid in determining when and how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) applies to mobile health applications.

Health App Use Scenarios & HIPAA, published in February to the OCR’s mHealth Developer Portal, includes six scenarios to help developers that are not covered entities (health plans and health providers directly covered by HIPAA) determine when they are considered business associates (not directly covered but still subject to HIPAA).  For the full article click here 

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FamilyCare reviews Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) latest counter offer

Portland, Ore — March 23, 2016 — On Tuesday (March 22) FamilyCare Health received a new proposal from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to settle its ongoing dispute over the 2015 and 2016 rates.

FamilyCare is encouraged by OHA’s acknowledgement that the 2015 and 2016 reimbursement rates for FamilyCare were calculated using a flawed methodology, and that OHA has agreed to revise the 2015 rates to correct this flaw. However, the new proposal does not include a revision to the 2016 rates. OHA has previously indicated the rate methodology must be consistent for both years.

FamilyCare is reviewing and will continue working with OHA on bringing this dispute to a full resolution. FamilyCare continues its commitment to serve 130,000 Oregon Health Plan members throughout the Tri-County region with the highest quality care. For the full article click here 

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Health rankings released for Southwest Louisiana parishes

LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) –

Southwest Louisiana may have the healthiest Louisiana parish a part of Region 5, but when it comes to certain measures like obesity and smoking, we have room for improvement.

“To the five parishes in Southwest Louisiana, welcome to you annual checkup,” said Dr. B.J. Foch, Regional Administrator of Department of Health and Hospitals Region 5.

Foch gave city and parish leaders the update on health conditions in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron and Jeff Davis parishes.

“Cameron Parish stands out as ranking number one of far as the health outcomes,” Foch said.

Scoring well on physical inactivity and adult smoking, Cameron Parish tops the state’s list. Allen (no. 14) and Beauregard (no. 16) rank among the top 25 percent of parishes.

Calcasieu Parish may rank 24th in the state, but it’s obesity rate is the lowest in Southwest Louisiana, unfortunately, that’s still at 33 percent.

“Looking at the numbers, I feel like I was one of those numbers,” said Kevin White. For the full article click here 

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Lawmakers Urge HHS To Clarify Privacy Standards For Mobile Health Apps

Congressmen Tom Marino (R-PA) led a coalition of lawmakers who sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, stating that progress on promised updated technical compliance guidance for HIPAA has been “sluggish” and “disappointing,” according to Fierce Mobile Health.

The letter was signed by Reps. Marino, Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Renee Ellmers (R-NC), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and Will Hurd (R-TX).

“Today’s letter will hopefully send a signal to HHS that they need to bring their approach to healthcare in line with the technological advances of the 21st Century,” said Marino. “The plodding pace with which they’ve updated HIPAA guidance as it relates to mobile technology is unacceptable. I am hoping that our letter restarts the progress that began in a promising way with their response to our first letter in 2014. More attention to these technologies, and an open dialogue with Congress, presents the potential for improving the doctor-patient relationship, and innumerable beneficial health outcomes.” For the full article click here 

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AGS Health Named to Becker’s Healthcare ‘150 Great Places to Work in Healthcare’ List

DigiSight Technologies Appoints Health IT Expert From Box To Its Board Of Directors

Data Integrity Groups Rally for a National Patient Identifier

HIMSS Calls for Minor Changes to ONC Interoperability Advisory

Network Of 150 Radiologists, Two Million Studies Will Enable Better Care

Candescent Health and Sheridan Healthcare partner to provide continuous operational improvement.

Candescent Health has announced the expansion of its contract with Sheridan Healthcare, Inc. to create a network of more than 150 radiologists covering more than two million radiology studies. This move will improve clinical consistency, increase physician efficiencies, and drive greater healthcare value for its hospital partners and patients.

Last fall, Candescent Health launched a software-enabled service allowing radiologists to optimize clinical performance, increase efficiencies, and deliver the most efficient and effective quality of care, as Health IT Outcomesreported. For the full article click here

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Winona Health reaches high needs patients with smart registry

For hospitals and provider networks to successfully navigate the transition to value-based care, they must develop new care models that emphasize education and outreach to patients, experts say.

This is particularly important in the case of patients with chronic conditions, many of whom ineffectively manage their health and medications, resulting in expensive emergency room treatment, readmissions, and unfavorable outcomes.

Winona Health has been practicing outreach on a number of fronts and, in fact, was among the Office of the National Coordinator’s Beacon programs, winning a grant as a participant of the Southeast Minnesota beacon Community Project. For the full article click here 

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Mahaska Health Partnership Shares the Benefits of Fiber

MAHASKA COUNTY – You’ve probably heard ‘eat more fiber’ at some point, but do you know why it’s so important? Dietary fiber can help relieve constipation, maintain a healthy weight and lower your risk of a variety of health complications. Mahaska Health Partnership shares ways to increase your fiber intake and how it can improve your overall health.

“Dietary fiber is most commonly found in fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains,” MHP General Surgeon Tim Breon, MD, FACS, said. “Fiber comes in two forms; soluble, which dissolves in water, or insoluble, which doesn’t. Each type has specific benefits, so including both in your diet is important.”

Dr. Breon explained that most plant-based foods contain both types of fiber, however, each type plays a different role in health and digestion. “Soluble fiber is found in products like oats, beans, peas, apples, carrots and citrus fruits like oranges. This fiber dissolves in water and creates a gel-like material that can help lower blood glucose and cholesterol levels. For the full article click here 

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What Are Top Healthcare Cloud Security Concerns?

Even with healthcare cloud security concerns, the industry is still increasing its adoption of the technology.

Healthcare cloud security should be an issue that covered entities of all sizes understand.While the cloud might not be a tool that all organizations are considering implementing in the immediate future, it is still an increasingly popular option. A facility should understand top concerns and what potential issues could be so that should it decide to eventually use healthcare cloud options, the implementation process can run more smoothly. HealthITSecurity.com will review the basics of the healthcare cloud, as well its common concerns. Covered entities will likely not be able to guarantee that a healthcare data breach could never take place, but with a better understanding of cloud options, they can create stronger data security measures. For the full article click here 

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4 Barriers Limiting EHR Use, Health Information Exchange

New York Requires 100% e-Prescribing, But Adds Big Loopholes

Mental health, stormwater solutions | Agenda

Proposals to spend $650,000 to fill gaps in mental health services will be taken up by the Brown County Human Services Committee on Wednesday.

The mental health initiative is one of the bigger issues being taken up by local governments this week. Other items include stormwater management proposals and a debate on how to fund a proposed downtown stadium.

Here’s a closer look at what’s happening.

Mental health services

About $650,000 in new funding for programs meant to fill gaps in mental health services will be considered by the Brown County Human Services Committee on Wednesday.

The money includes $300,000 for emergency alcohol and drug detoxification services, which would be provided by Bellin Health. It’s enough to provide treatment for 105 episodes in one year. Currently, people needing emergency detox typically end up in jail or crisis centers. For the full article click here 

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Centrify Provides Secure Access on the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform

New solution offers ironclad identity security for thousands of cloud and on-premises apps and servers via integrated single sign-on and multi-factor authentication

BARCELONA, Spain–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mobile World Congress – Centrify, the leader in securing enterprise identities against cyberthreats, today announced a partnership with BlackBerry to provide secure access to thousands of cloud and on-premises applications and servers on the Good Dynamics Secure Mobility Platform. Centrify’s smartcard-based mobile derived credentials are now certified “Secured by Good” on mobile devices, allowing for easy and secure single sign-on (SSO) to apps and privileged password access to servers.

This combination of SSO, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and access to apps and servers from the Good secure container will give highly regulated customers, such as those in the government sector and the financial services industry, the ability to safely use smart-card based authentication from mobile devices without compromising security.

Customers using BlackBerry’s mobility solutions have the highest levels of encryption and security for mobile application data—both in motion and at rest. With Centrify, customers now have a seamless solution for the use of smartcards for secure access on Good-secured devices. Centrify provides turnkey, password-free access to thousands of apps within the Good secure container, as well as support for smartcard-derived credentials for secure authentication to the Good container.

……

To read the full Press Release , Click Here: http://ift.tt/21mWcep

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St. Luke’s CIO: Despite meaningful use changes, hospitals must align EHR’s with quality measures

As policy wonks and advocates battle over just how much meaningful use will likely change in 2016, the Physician Quality Reporting System might have snuck up on healthcare IT staffs tasked with implementing new technology platforms.

“The focus for most of the health IT folks has obviously been meaningful use regulations, and there hasn’t been a lot of focus on the PQRS,” said Deborah Gash, CIO of Kansas City, Missouri-based St. Luke’s Health System.

In fact, Gash said she actually had what she called an “aha!” moment when colleagues at St. Luke’s began asking her about how best to address PQRS stipulations in concert with other reporting requirements. For the full article click here 

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IBM Health Corps: The Tech Powerhouse’s Health Initiative

IBM launched a new initiative for public health development – the IBM Health Corps. It will work with different health organizations as to help develop new ways in dealing different health issues across the globe.

On EWeek.com, IBM was featured to use their cognitive approach in dealing with such health issues. With this, the company deploys its best problem-solving teams to find solutions on a wider scale.

Jen Crozier, vice president of Global Citizenship Initiatives with IBM’s Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs said in a post on the Citizen IBM Blog:

“We believe the next paradigm shift in health is represented by the cognitive era. IBM is at the forefront of this movement having launched Watson Health, a new business unit that leverages cognitive computing to solve complex health and medical challenges for patients, physicians, researchers, and health insurers across the globe.” For the full article click here 

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Funding cuts to Oamaru Hospital reduce bed numbers

Six beds will be removed from Oamaru Public Hospital as it moves to meet predicted funding cuts.

The Southern District Health Board (SDHB) has come under fire for how it funds its hospitals – and how its proposed allocation to Waitaki District Health Services (WDHS) will affect Oamaru’s services.

The number of rural inpatient and assessment, treatment and rehabilitation (ATR) beds will drop from 30 to 24 to meet a predicted 10 per cent SDHB funding cut for the 2017/18 financial year.

Announcing the move on Friday, WDHS chief executive Robert Gonzales said bed numbers would be reduced from April 4.

The predicted funding cut was criticised by Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher, who said it could increasingly make people ask whether it would be a better idea to join the South Canterbury District Health Board.

“I’m certainly not happy, and our community won’t be happy either.” For the full article click here 

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Shasta County ranks 50th in health study

For another year, Shasta County ranked low in a health study, coming in 50th out of 57 California counties.

Its rates of obesity, violent crime, smoking and child poverty drove down its scores in the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, a national study operated by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and PHI at the University of Wisconsin.

County public health officials say they’re not surprised by the continued low scores, adding that it takes time to reverse health trends.

“It doesn’t change a lot year by year,” Brandy Isola, deputy branch director of the Public Health Department at the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency, said about the study, now in its seventh year. “With public health, it doesn’t change overnight.” For the full article click here 

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National Health IT Board survives MoH restructure

New Zealand’s National Health IT Board will remain as a distinct entity answerable to the director-general of health despite the disestablishment of the wider National Health Board under a restructure of the various health entities announced today.

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said both the National Health IT Board and the Capital Investment Committee, which were sub-committees of the National Health Board, will be retained, but the board itself, which was set up in 2009 to plan and fund national services, fund and monitor district health boards and oversee capacity planning for IT, workforce and capital works, will be subsumed into the Ministry of Health. For the full article click here 

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Do This For 10 Minutes 3 Times A Week For Better Health

There’s no denying our love for a warm sunny day, but time spent outdoors does more than boost your mood. Once thought to only benefit bone health, it is now well known that vitamin D is required for a wide range of functions, including your cells’ ability to communicate. Maintaining optimal levels is essential when aiming to prevent conditions such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s, as a deficiency makes you more prone to disease. Because vitamin D is produced by sun exposure, you may assume that vitamin D deficiency would not be common; however, an estimated one billion individuals around the globe do not have adequate levels of the “sunshine vitamin.” For the full article click here 

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Stolen Laptop Leads To Possible Data Breach For Premier Healthcare

Device security brought to the forefront again in wake of loss of device.

Premier Healthcare of Bloomington, IN has reported the theft of a laptop containing the private information of approximately 205,000 individuals. Premier said 1,769 of those individuals’ Social Security numbers and financial information could potentially be accessed on the computer.

The laptop, which was reportedly stolen from the physicians group’s billing office, on January 4, 2016, contained emails that included patients’ names, addresses, dates of birth, insurance information, and medical records. The laptop was taken from a locked and alarmed administrative office of the billing department, according to Healthcare IT News.

The laptop was password-protected, but not encrypted, underscoring the importance of multi-factor authentication when dealing with sensitive patient data. Files on the laptop included PDF documents, spreadsheets, and screenshots of patient billing issues. For the full article click here 

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These are the 10 healthiest counties in Georgia

The Southeast has long suffered from higher rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses than in other areas of the country. But some counties here in Georgia are healthier than others.

A new study out this week ranks the health of nearly every county in the Peach State and across the U.S. The annual County Health Rankings & Roadmaps project was created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and provides a snapshot of a community’s overall health. It looks at health measures, such as rates of obesity and smoking, access to medical care, long commute times and sexually transmitted diseases.

Here are the 10 healthiest counties in Georgia with a few key measures from the rankings. For the full article click here 

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Dealing With the Physical Threat of Cyber-Attacks

A cyber-terrorist could wreak havoc by exploiting vulnerabilities in the ever-increasing connectivity of smart devices and their mechanical counterparts.

By Thomas Boyden

There has long been concern about a “cyber 9/11” that could cripple the country’s financial, energy and transportation networks. A debilitating attack late last year on electrical grids in western Ukraine has given the United States new cause for concern.

The incident, the first known power outage caused by a cyber-attack, disrupted electrical transmissions, leaving 80,000 customers without power for several hours. This watershed event in cyber-security is not only the latest example of hackers causing physical harm—it’s also a clear indicator of things to come if we don’t work now to minimize the physical threat of cyber-attacks.

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DSI Announces 10th DoD/VA and Gov Health IT Summit

Alexandria, VA, February 20, 2016 –(PR.com)– Defense Strategies Institute’s 10th DoD/VA and Gov Health IT Summit will occur on May 2-3, 2016. With the central theme of “Developing a Connected Health IT Ecosystem for Military and Government,” the Summit will bring together senior leaders from DHA, VA, HHS, Federal and State agencies, along with leaders from Industry and Academia that support them, for two days of Government briefings and informal discussions in a “Town Hall” setting in Alexandria, VA.

“We have created a Summit that will bring together a variety of stakeholders in order to build out two days of discussion and debates that tackle many of the areas involved in enhancing effective and efficient healthcare through advancements in health information technology,” stated Thomas Engelman, Senior Partner, Defense Strategies Institute. For the full article click here 

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It’s Open Season On Employees’ Health Data

On Friday news broke of a non-profit business alliance formed among twenty top US companies with the goal of keeping down their in total 4-million employees’ health care costs.

The group, the undefinedHealth Transformation Alliance, plans to do this “bringing increased innovation, better analyses of the latest data, and greater leverage into how corporations obtain coverage for their workers.”

If you are one of these four million workers and believe that your medical information is your business and not your employers, you may have a problem because clearly employees’ health metrics are going to play a big role in this initiative. For the full article click here 

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Health IT company raises $1.2M to advance predictive analytics tool for radiation therapy

One of the greatest challenges clinical decision support programs have ismoving beyond a general alert to providing specific, timely, and useful information. Oncology seems like an ideal proving ground for this, given the complexity of cancer treatment and myriad factors that can help or hinder its treatment.

Two-thirds of cancer patients receive radiation as part of their initial treatment. But research suggests that half of these patients are at great risk of toxicity due to less than optimal radiation treatment planning.

That’s where Oncora Medical comes in. The predictive analytics startup focuses on radiation therapy and raised $1.2 million in seed financing from iSeed Ventures,BioAdvance, and medical physicist-entrepreneur, Dr. Thomas “Rock” Mackie. Oncora will use the funding to hire three to five engineers and roll out early product installations with a group of health systems. For the full article click here 

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Hacking Nearly Doubled In 2015

2015 was indeed the Year of the Healthcare Hack as health IT experts predicted last March. At the time, they noted health information was more appealing to hackers than ever before as it could be sold for more on the black market than even credit card numbers.

Now, a Redspin report confirms that prediction, finding the majority of healthcare breaches in 2015 were due to hackers. In the past, breaches have been most often attributed to accidentally disclosed information by unknowing employees or lost devices. However, a year ago only a little more than half of healthcare data breaches were the result of hacking or IT incidents; in 2015, 98 percent of breaches were the result of hacking.

“Healthcare organizations are under attack,” said Daniel W. Berger, President of Redspin in a news release. “For those entrusted to protect patient data, the security challenges are now that much more difficult.” For the full article click here 

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MU A Success For 80% Of REC Primary Care Providers

RECs, or regional extension centers, have seen an explosion in Meaningful Use (MU) of certified EHRs, according to statistics from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Fierce EMR reports 78 percent of primary care physicians at RECs have demonstrated the Meaningful Use of certified EHR technology (CEHRT). Additionally, 95 percent overall are currently live on such an EHR system. Internal medicine, family practice, primary care, OB-GYN, geriatric, and pediatric providers all had approximately 95 percent EHR adoption rates as well. While not all who have adopted such technology are demonstrating MU, the rate is also high.

Chiropractors had the overall highest adoption rate, at 100 percent, while doctors of medicine, nurse practitioners, midwives, and physician assistants had an adoption rate of 95 percent. MU attestation is not as high as adoption within these specialties either, with as little as 70 percent of physician’s assistants attesting to program, and nearly 80 percent of medical doctors attesting. For the full article click here 

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Donald Trump says he treats his employees “really good with health care” — so we asked them if it was true

Brand icon and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump boasts that he provides good health insurance to his employees. I mean, really good health insurance. After all, everything Trump touches turns to great. “They don’t have to worry about ‘Obamacare,’ my people,” Trump recently said. “I treat them really good with health care. It’s a very important thing.”

And that does appear to be true for some Trump workers. But only if you’re full-time. Part-time employees at the 64-story Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas like Alma Zamarin aren’t eligible for the health plan.

“I don’t have no healthcare,” says Zamarin, 55, who says she makes $9.71 plus tips delivering room service. “I don’t have no insurance. Because I’m only on call.”

Zamarin says she has been on call for nearly six years, passed over for full-time jobs time and again thanks to a manager’s discrimination and favoritism. She says that she desperately needs the insurance to treat injuries sustained in a car accident that left her with a metal rod in her spine and neck. She takes pain medication every day. For the full article click here 

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Dr Lonny Reisman Outlines the Benefits of Health IT for Patients With Chronic Conditions

Improved health technologies will help physicians better monitor patients with chronic conditions so that those patients can receive more effective care and will help build a bridge between what has been reported as effective in literature and applying it to the patient, explained Lonny Reisman,

MD, founder and CEO of HealthReveal.   Transcript (slightly modified) How do patients with chronic conditions, like diabetes, benefit from improved health technologies? I think there are a couple of things that allow patients to really benefit from health technology and health information technology.

The first is on the analytics side. So to the extent that there’s so much being learned and appreciated regarding say, the pathophysiology of diseases like diabetes and the effectiveness of interventions, the ability to create a bridge, technologically, between what we’ve seen in the literature as being effective and getting that literature applied to the patient in a broader population, represents a tremendous opportunity. The other issue, with regards to technology, relates to the visibility of the practitioner in understanding what’s happening with a particular patient.

If you consider our traditional methods for tracking patients—somewhat arbitrarily scheduled office visits, emergency room visits, those sorts of things—and then to have visibility into a patient’s activities, glucose levels, blood pressure, adherence, represents an ability for the physician or the care team to continuously monitor that patient; and gives all of us the opportunity to intervene when there’s an aberration from an optimal clinical path. For the full article click here 

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GE Healthcare Appoints Charles Koontz CEO of GE Healthcare IT

GE Healthcare today announced the appointment of Charles Koontz as new president and CEO of GE Healthcare IT and GE Healthcare Chief Digital Officer, effective March 14. Koontz succeeds Jan De Witte, who is leaving GE.

Koontz joins GE from Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) and CSRA, where he was Executive Vice President of the Federal Civilian Agencies Group. As VP and General Manager of the Healthcare group at CSC, Charles focused on transitioning healthcare clients to next generation IT, mobile and cloud technology, and applying real-time analytics to measure clinical and performance outcomes.

Prior to this, Charles led the health practice at Booz Hamilton, where he built a health analytics business working with Fortune 500 healthcare companies and government organizations. His 30-year tenure in technology innovation also includes leadership roles with SAIC, Capgemini and Ernst & Young. He holds a bachelor of science degree in engineering from The Ohio State University. For the full article click here 

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Is McKesson getting out of the ambulatory EHR market?

A report from our favorite rumor mill, HIStalk, has McKesson selling off its portfolio of physician practice-centric health IT to ambulatory electronic health records vendor e-MDs. “McKesson will apparently exit the physician practice business by selling Medisoft, Lytec, Practice Partner and Practice Choice to e-MDs,” according to a reader comment posted on HIStalk Tuesday evening.

This could set the stage for McKesson, a giant in the world of medical supplies and pharmaceutical distribution, to exit the health IT market completely, with the possibly exception of RelayHealth, the reader speculated.

The health IT division, known as McKesson Technology Solutions or sometimes McKesson Provider Technologies, is just a tiny part of overall McKesson operations. It accounted for just 2 percent of McKesson’s overall $179 billion in revenues for fiscal year 2015, down from 3 percent in 2013, according to the most recent annual report. For the full article click here 

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Exclusive: 3 things to know about Orlando’s first proton therapy center

More than just top-notch cancer treatments are coming to Orlando next month when the first proton therapy center opens its doors.

On April 4, Orlando Health is slated to open its new $25 million proton therapy center, which holds a 100-ton Mevion S250 superconducting synchrocyclotron proton accelerator — the most advanced radiation technology for treating brain, spine, prostate, lung, breast, head, neck and pediatric cancers. It will be the 21st in the country and one of just 58 in the world, according to Orlando Health. It’s located at Orlando Health’s main hospital campus at 1400 S. Orange Ave. For the full article click here 

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Electronic Engineers May Provide Rx for Health Care Crisis

Where to go from here becomes clearer: health care must embrace digital revolution and incorporate its economies and convenience

“Break things!” is the mantra in Silicon Valley today. Cool. But what do we do with vital services that are already broken?

That’s the situation of health care in America today. Everyone involved — patients, hospital managers, surgeons, nurses… — all agree the system is badly broken due to both the affordability and availability of professional services in this most vital of all vital services.

How we got here is a long and complicated story, and depends on who is telling the story. Where to go from here is becoming clearer: health care must, at last, embrace the digital revolution and incorporate its economies and convenience, although where and to what extent is still open for discussion. For the full article click here 

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Orion Health partners in govt-backed research

New Zealand’s status as a global leader in the health IT sector has been given a $37.8 million boost with a research partnership developed to promote the new area of “precision medicine”.

Listed software developer Orion Health and the Waitemata District Health Board, in collaboration with the University of Auckland, are the initial partners of the project that received $14 million from the government.

Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce and Health Minister Jonathan Coleman jointly announced the new funding, saying the research will help to deliver more proactive and timely personalised care as well as reduce health system costs.

Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae said he expected other DHBs and partners to come on board in coming months. For the full article click here 

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10 Insurance Technology Trends in Health IT

Detroit, Michigan (PRWEB) February 02, 2016

X by 2, a technology consultancy focused on the practice of architecture for the insurance and healthcare industries, today announced 10 insurance technology trends that will impact health IT in 2016.

Healthcare technology is shaking things up faster than ever before. Whether it’s the quicker pace or technology-resistant providers, it’s crucial for leaders to stay educated and up-to-speed on the industry’s top developments.

Here are 10 insurance technology trends that should be top of mind for 2016:

1.    Adoption of hybrid cloud will continue to grow: As organizations re-evaluate their data infrastructure, augmenting existing data centers with cloud-based services will be an economical and safe proposition. For the full article click here

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Health IT Field Growing Quickly According To Professional Survey

HIT professionals can rest comfortably knowing that over the next decade, the field is only expected to grow. According to survey data from 404 respondents compiled by Bisk Education in conjunction with USF Health’s Morsani College Of Medicine, HIT trends are by and large, pointing upwards.

Key Findings

• Job satisfaction is high: According to the survey job satisfaction looks strong with 140 respondents indicating they were very satisfied working in health informatics, with only 18 describing themselves as being very dissatisfied. The data showed a correlation between educationand job happiness levels — respondents who had advanced degrees were more likely to indicate higher levels of satisfaction, or at least that they were somewhat satisfied.
• Advanced degrees pay off: As expected, the correlation with advanced degrees extends to compensation. The survey found that earning additional credentials (such as professional certifications) roughly doubled the chances that a respondent earned more than $130,000 annually. Of the respondents, 43 (29 percent) said they made over $130,000 while only 12 percent who did not have credentials reported falling in the same income bracket. Women came in with the most certifications, with 232 reporting holding credentials compared to 150 of their male counterparts.
• Salaries remain strong: As hard as it can be to evaluate pay in a field when factoring in variables including education, location, experience, and job title (more than 303 were named by respondents), the survey found that the majority of professionals involved reported salaries over $80,000. For the full article click here 

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What Regular Health Checks are needed for Men?

When it comes to men and healthcare, the numbers don’t lie.

Compared to women, men are 24 per cent less likely to visit their doctors for routine tests and 22 per cent less likely to get their cholesterol checked.

Men are less willing to be screened for cancer, despite the fact that their cancer mortality rates are higher.

Some are stubborn because they don’t want to believe that something can be wrong, and afraid because they fear that something might actually be wrong.

However, it is still risky to skip routine screenings and health checks as it’s better to catch something early then later and regret it. For the full article click here 

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CHOP staffers eye Philly tech partnerships at SXSW

Among a standout cast of local leaders who will represent Philadelphia at this year’s South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, three employees of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia will be out building partnerships to help commercialize the hospital’s new technologies.

The annual convention of film, music, media and technology innovators has drawn Philadelphia’s top talent for several years running. Representatives from DreamIt Ventures, Comcast, and Bluecadet have all attended SXSW to help shine a spotlight on local success stories, invite collaboration with companies around the world and strengthen relationships with local firms.

According to Technical.ly Philly, two former DreamIt employees acted as catalysts for CHOP’s expanded participation in 2016. Patrick Fitzgerald, VP of entrepreneurship and innovation, is joined by Paul Dehel and Kamilah Weems as they seek out opportunities to expand on several recent advances pediatric medicine. For the full article click here 

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ONC Unveils Tech Lab To Improve Standards, Build Interoperability Consensus

Pillars include improving standards coordination; testing and utilities; pilots; and innovation.

In its latest efforts to support the move to nationwide interoperability, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC)introduced the multi-pillared ONC Tech Lab this week, stating that the ONC Tech Lab will be used to improve existing standards and build consensus on what best serves interoperability needs, as recently outlined in the 2016 Interoperability Standards Advisory.

According to ONC blog post, the ONC Tech Lab will be built around four specific areas, including Standards coordination; testing and utilities; pilots; and Innovation. Any further ONC-supported activities under the Standards and Interoperability Framework will be completed via the new structure, as its operations conclude over the coming months. For the full article click here 

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Regenstrief: Health IT falling short of its potential

If healthcare information technology is to fulfill its promise of improving health outcomes, the country needs a “rational and well-funded” agenda for HIT development, use and assessment.

That’s the finding of a wide-ranging evaluation of current health IT by the Regenstrief Institute and its conclusion regarding the barriers that must be overcome to move the industry forward.

“We have been making progress, but there’s definitely a gap between where we are today and where we would like to be across a lot of aspects of health information technology,” says Burke Mamlin, MD, a Regenstrief Institute investigator and Indiana University School of Medicine associate professor of clinical medicine. For the full article click here 

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Bernie Sanders Got Slammed by Twitter for His Mental Health Comment at Sunday’s Debate

At Sunday night’s Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders tried to take a stand on mental health and knock Republicans in the same breath — and it didn’t seem to go as planned.

After Hillary Clinton urged voters to “compare the substance of this debate to what you saw on the Republican stage last week,” Sanders tried to piggyback onto her scorn, but ended up ruffling the wrong feathers.

 

“You know, we are, if elected president, going to invest a lot of money into mental health,” Sanders said. “And when you watch these Republican debates, you know why we need to invest in that.”

On Twitter, those struggling with mental health pointed out exactly why Sanders’ joke was inappropriate For the full article click here

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Lawmakers Looking Into Virtual Health Care Regulations

Getting the benefits of a doctor’s visit all without leaving home. Some Minnesota companies are paving the way to ramp-up virtual health care. Lawmakers are looking into whether our state is ready to handle what could be the future of health care.

Do you think you have pink eye? A bladder infection? With the option of telemedicine, you don’t have to go into a clinic to get help.

The chairman of the U.S. House Health IT Caucus is a Minnesotan. Congressman Erik Paulsen visited Minneapolis-based Zipnosis to learn more about telemedicine and figure out if laws should be changed.

The health clinic of the future could be in your computer.

“Our hypothesis is every single health system in the country will have to build by some sort of virtual access in the next 5 years,” said Jon Pearce, CEO of Zipnosis. For the full article click here 

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Tech and Biotech: Props for three Madison health IT startups at a national conference

Three of Madison’s health IT startups — Redox, Catalyze andPropeller Health — received some high-level exposure at this week’s HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) conference in Las Vegas.

They were all part of a big announcement by Salesforce, the cloud-based, customer service company, that it is debutingSalesforce Health Cloud.

The new service is aimed at integrating all of a patient’s health records in one place, accessible via mobile device. For the full article click here 

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Strasbourg hosts int’l colloquium on sport health link

STRASBOURG, March 4 (Xinhua) — The University of Strasbourg organized a colloquium on Friday on sport as a vehicle for better health and a tool in the battle against social and territorial inequality.

Following the “European Bases of Sport-Health” which gathered 500 elected doctors, students, and sanitary and social professionals in Strasbourg in 2015, the European capital welcomed 50 high-ranking European researchers on Friday. The experts debated the results of an unpublished sociological study, conducted in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, on the links between sport, health, and inequality.

Since 2012, a team connected to the sport and social sciences laboratory at the University of Strasbourg has been undertaking a European comparison program in order to better understand the modes of appropriation of health recommendations related to physical activity by families coming from six impoverished districts from the four countries involved. For the full article click here 

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HIMSS’ interoperability: another year, another promise

LAS VEGAS—Dr. Juan Espinoza, an academic pediatrician in Los Angeles, uses a NextGen electronic health-record system when he sees patients at AltaMed, a not-for-profit chain of 43 federally qualified health centers in Southern California. But when one of his patients is treated at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which is a Cerner Corp. customer, those records don’t easily flow between systems.

It is “one of those less desirable situations where two EHRs don’t talk to each other,” he said. “We feel a lot of the pain everyone here is talking about.”

He was speaking at last week’s annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society meeting that drew over 40,000 health IT officials, vendors and consultants to Las Vegas. Obama administration officials kicked off the extravaganza with a pledge from 17 major health IT developers, 16 large healthcare provider organizations and 17 healthcare associations and medical societies to promote patients’ access to their own electronic health records, eschew data-blocking and use federal standards to promote interoperability—the industry buzzword for the easy flow of digital patient records from one provider to another, or between providers and patients. For the full article click here 

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Lake County struggles in many health measures

MERRILLVILLE — Lake County lags behind the national average in numerous health measures. Health care officials say it’s going to take collaboration to change that.

That’s why the three hospital systems in the county are coming together to examine the community’s greatest health needs, with the results to be released in May. Residents can complete surveys online at research.net/r/healthneeds15 or in paper form at Community Healthcare System, Franciscan Alliance or Methodist Hospitals hospital campuses.

“We knew our population would have some similar statistics, health issues and social determinants, particularly in their economic challenges,” said Denise Dillard, chief consultant for government and external affairs for Methodist Hospitals. She spoke Friday at a meeting of the Northwest Indiana Health Disparities Council in Merrillville. “It’ll take all of us to make the changes that truly need to happen.” For the full article click here 

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Telepsychiatry spreading mental health help

The last time they talked, the teen was primarily interested in Pokemon and video games. Since then, he’s grown up. He’s more into country-western music and fishing.

He also recently wrote a bomb threat at school.

Psychiatrist Jenna Saul often has long stretches between in-person visits with patients, such as this teen, because of overwhelming demand for her services. So Saul uses a webcam to talk with this patient and others because it allows her to reach outlying areas of the state where many counties don’t have any psychiatrists who work with children. She works from an old horse barn in Marshfield, refurbished with access to a broadband signal coming from a silo across the road.

“We had to really wrangle this system to make it work,” Saul said. For the full article click here 

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AMA Pledges to Work with HHS to Improve Flow of Electronic Health Information

The American Medical Association (AMA) has pledged to work with the HHS to improve the flow of electronic health information to patients and physicians to increase data sharing that will achieve healthier people and smarter spending. The lack of seamless data exchange continues to drag down physician efficiency and patient satisfaction when using these tools and improving electronic health records (EHRs) will require a concerted effort of public and private stakeholders.  The AMA strongly supports the building blocks of EHR interoperability:  1) Improved Consumer Access 2) No Information Blocking 3) The Use of Nationally Recognized Interoperability Standards.

“Patients and physicians are in this effort together because patients need easy access to their electronic health information, confident that it is secure and can be shared to benefit their health, and physicians need these electronic records to be interoperable to ensure that patients are receiving the best care possible, said AMA President Steven J. Stack, M.D. “Yet, physicians have trouble finding products that can help them achieve this. With so many vendors signing this pledge as well, we look forward to a marketplace where the promise of electronic health records is finally fulfilled.” For the full article click here 

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Network Of 150 Radiologists, Two Million Studies Will Enable Better Care

Candescent Health and Sheridan Healthcare partner to provide continuous operational improvement.

Candescent Health has announced the expansion of its contract with Sheridan Healthcare, Inc. to create a network of more than 150 radiologists covering more than two million radiology studies. This move will improve clinical consistency, increase physician efficiencies, and drive greater healthcare value for its hospital partners and patients.

Last fall, Candescent Health launched a software-enabled service allowing radiologists to optimize clinical performance, increase efficiencies, and deliver the most efficient and effective quality of care, as Health IT Outcomesreported. For the full article click here

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Premier Develops SMART on FHIR Clinical Surveillance App

Features added to PremierConnect performance improvement platform

The Argonaut Project was established to use FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources), HL7’s latest interoperability standard, to enable expanded information sharing across health IT systems. At the HIMSS16 meeting in Las Vegas this week, Premier Inc. is introducing an interoperable clinical surveillance app that was developed through the Argonaut Project.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Premier leveraged the SMART (Substitutable Medical Apps, Reusable Technologies) on FHIR platform, which is being advanced through the Argonaut Project, to collaborate with other innovators on the creation of apps that seamlessly run across IT systems. Premier has developed a prototype app that is powered by clinical surveillance and knowledge capabilities in its PremierConnect performance improvement platform. The prototype can interact within any electronic health record system (EHR) to offer providers clinical decision support, the firm said.

“Premier advocates for, develops and works with other innovators on interoperable solutions to achieve open data access across health IT systems to support the industry’s value-based care transition,” said Keith J. Figlioli, senior vice president of healthcare informatics at Premier, in a prepared statement. Figlioli also serves as a member of the SMART Advisory Committee and is a former member of the ONC Health IT Standards Committee. For the full article click here 

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