U.S. Department of Health announces winners of blockchain challenge

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), a division of Department of Health and Human Services, announced winners of blockchain research challenge.

According to the official release, ONC selected 15 winners for the ‘Use of Blockchain in Health IT and Health-related Research Challenge’ from over 70 submissions from a wide range of individuals, organizations and companies. The projects addressed on various uses of blockchain technology in health and health IT in order to protect, manage and exchange electronic health information.

“We are thrilled by the incredible amount of interest in this challenge. While many know about Blockchain technology’s uses for digital currency purposes, the challenge submissions show its exciting potential for new, innovative uses in health care,” Vindell Washington, M.D., M.H.C.M., national coordinator for health IT said. For the full article click here 

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Health IT execs chime in on enterprise imaging

Enterprise imaging strategies are priorities at many provider institutions. However, interoperability issues are standing between wish lists and project assignments—and IT leaders in provider organizations are wary about the potential for “unattainable image data” to set back patient care.

Those are some of the findings turned up by a survey of 100 members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

The survey, commissioned by the image-exchange vendor lifeImage, also showed that more than 58 percent of facilities have implemented an enterprise imaging strategy to help manage, store and exchange medical image data. For the full article click here 

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Tim Kaine touts college mental health plan on call with student leaders

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine laid out the portion of Hillary Clinton’s new mental health care plan that’s geared toward college students Monday afternoon during a conference call with student leaders across the country, vowing that a Clinton-Kaine administration would be committed to helping institutions of higher education provide easily accessible mental health services to students in need of help.

“We’re going to ensure that all schools offer mental health services so that no young person has to ever think twice about going for help,” Kaine said on the call, which a Clinton campaign aide said was attended by more than 100 student leaders.The Clinton-Kaine campaign’s focus on college mental health services is a clear attempt at outreach to millennials, who polling shows are breaking for Clinton.

Kaine stressed that beefing up community-based mental health services — such as campus mental health centers — are a cornerstone of the campaign’s mental health plan.  For the full article click here 

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ONC unveils winners of Blockchain health IT challenge

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has announced the winners of its “Use of Blockchain in Health IT and Health-related Research Challenge.” Most commonly associated with digital currency, a Blockchain is a data structure that can be time-stamped and signed using a private encryption key to prevent tampering.

The ONC received more than 70 submissions from a wide range of individuals, organizations and companies addressing ways that Blockchain technology might be used in health and health IT to protect, manage and exchange electronic health information.

“While many know about Blockchain technology’s uses for digital currency purposes, the challenge submissions show its exciting potential for new, innovative uses in healthcare,” said Vindell Washington, MD, the new national coordinator for health IT. For the full article click here 

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ICIT Analysis: Hacking Elections is Easy! Part One: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

True democracy relies on the reliability of the democratic process. The “Help America Vote Act”, passed in 2002, ushered in an era of uncertainty by proliferating the use of electronic voting systems vulnerable to cyber, technical and physical attack. More often than not, electronic voting systems are nothing but bare-bone, decade old computer systems that lack even rudimentary endpoint security. Despite the recurring discussion on electronic voting vulnerabilities that occurs every four years, only limited attention is given to the systemic problem undermining American democracy. It’s time for a complete overhaul in the electoral process’ cyber, technical and physical security.

In this analysis, entitled, “Hacking Elections is Easy! Part One: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures”, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology provides a detailed analysis of the risks that voting machines and the digital age have introduced into our democratic process which have the potential to impact the integrity of election results.  The report discusses:

• The shocking ease of hacking all aspects of virtually any voting machine’s “black box” technology
• The cyber, technical and physical attack methods that could be enlisted by Nation States, Hacktivists and black hat hackers
• Social Engineering attack vectors and methods that are so easy, even a novice script kiddie can do it
• A few simple tactics that can “fix” any local, state or national campaign in just days or even hours
• And much more

This paper was authored by:

• James Scott (Senior Fellow – Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology)
• Drew Spaniel (Researcher – Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology)

The following experts contributing to this report:

• Rob Roy (Fellow – Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology & Federal CTO, HPE)

Part Two of this paper will be published shortly and provide a deeper technical analysis of this threat.

Download the paper here:  http://ift.tt/2c4hYNx

This paper was underwritten by:

 

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Nike redesigned its popular running app, and users are very angry

For several years now, the Nike+ Running app has been an essential download and companion for millions of people trying to keep fit and improve their health. It’s got between 10 million and 50 million installs on Google Play, and I’d bet on it being even more successful on iOS. But recently (and very randomly), Nike decided to take a gamble and overhaul an immensely popular smartphone app from scratch. It’s now called Nike+ Run Club and, well, let’s just say that the reception hasn’t been very positive so far.

Despite a tagline claiming the new version was made “for runners, by runners,” many old Nike+ users are livid with the sudden switch and the loss of functionality and features that made Nike+ Running feel so vital. As a result, the new Nike+ Run Club app has plummeted to a 2-star review average among iPhone users; that’s actually up from the 1.5-star rating it showed immediately after the redesign. You know it’s rough when Windows 8 burns start getting tossed around. For the full article click here 

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Get moving for your mental health

Wellness means something different to all of us. To some, it is about being knowledgeable. To some, it is about family, friends and relationships. For others, it is a career or financial situation. Most people think of physical health when it comes to wellness, but do they also consider their mental health? It is important to consider the connection between physical and mental health and understand the effect that one has on the other. It is hard to feel well if one’s physical and mental health is not in balance. Just as people need to work to balance external factors — career and family — they also need to work to balance internal influences — mood, nutrition and amount physical activity or inactivity.

Wellness is not simply the absence of illness. Everyone can strive for wellness. Working toward increasing your daily activity level can have a positive effect not only on your physical health, but also on your mental wellness.

Studies show that exercise can be helpful in addressing mild to moderate depression. Exercise can be a powerful depression fighter. It promotes positive changes in the brain, releases endorphins, which are known to trigger positive feelings in the body, and acts as a distraction agent helping to break a negative cycle of thinking. For the full article click here 

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CNN Cancels Dr. Drew Show Days After He Questioned Clinton’s Health

Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of HNL’s popular “Dr. Drew on Call,” will be leaving the network next month.

In a statement, CNN Executive Vice President Ken Jautz said, “Dr. Drew and I have mutually agreed to air the final episode of his show on September 22.”

Daily Caller:

Pinsky appeared Aug. 17 on KABC’s “McIntyre in the Morning” show, where he was highly critical of both Hillary Clinton’s health and the health care she receives.

“Based on the information that she has provided and her doctors have provided, we were gravely concerned not just about her health, but her health care,” Pinsky said on the radio show, which was transcribed byThe Washington Free Beacon.

“Both of us [a medical colleague of his] concluded that if we were providing the care that she was receiving, we’d be ashamed to show up in a doctor’s lounge. We’d be laughed out. She’s receiving sort-of 1950-level care by our evaluation,” Pinsky continued. For the full article click here 

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Is This the Way to Get Rid of the Ridiculous Health Conspiracy Theories?

In August, this often-silly presidential campaign became a medical theatre of the absurd. After Donald Trump campaign surrogates raised questions about Hillary Clinton’s physical stamina—and circulated photos of her propped up by pillows—she demonstrated her strength … by opening a pickle jar on late-night TV.

Meanwhile, wild speculation about Trump’s mental fitness led New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd to imagine up an entire scenario where Trump is institutionalized post-election. Pundits-turned-amateur psychiatrists have repeatedly “diagnosed” the Republican nominee as having a personality disorder or worse. Real psychiatrists have done the same. Eventually the American Psychiatric Association had to warn its members: Stop giving interviews in which you psychoanalyze candidates. For the full article click here 

 

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Former White House Doctor Outlines Gray Areas In Candidates’ Health

How much do we need to know about a presidential candidate’s health? It’s been an issue this year. The Trump campaign claims – in this case, it’s former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday” – that Hillary Clinton is physically unfit for office.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “FOX NEWS SUNDAY”)

RUDY GIULIANI: What we want to do is go online.

SHANNON BREAM: Which…

GIULIANI: All you have to do is go…

BREAM: Wait, which – her campaign and a number of people defending her, saying there’s nothing factual to the claims about her health, and that’s…

GIULIANI: Go online.

BREAM: That’s speculation at best.

GIULIANI: So go online and put down Hillary Clinton illness. Take a look at the videos for yourself. For the full article click here 

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How we could read into Apple’s Gliimpse purchase

is week, Fast Company confirmed Apple acquired its first knowndigital health company. That fact alone was enough to make the health IT industry’s collective ears perk up. What’s interesting is Apple choose to go with personal health record (PHR) startup Gliimpse. For those who have been following health IT news for while, news about the acquisition prompted many to wonder, “Them? Really?”

“Having seen [Gliimpse], I’m a little bit surprised they bought it,” Health 2.0 co-founder Matthew Holt told MedCityNews’ Neil Versel. Versel himselfopined on Twitter that direct-to-consumer “is almost always a failure in healthcare.”

New backers to an old idea

Historically, PHRs haven’t performed as well as backers and vendors have wanted. Famously, Google announced in 2012 it would retire its PHR product, Google Health, saying it was “failing to scale as planned.” There are many reasons why personal health records haven’t made as many waves as expected. For the full article click here 

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Delaware Health Information Network Pursues HITRUST Certification

The Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) recently announced a new effort to further secure the health information of its residents. Through a partnership with BluePrint Healthcare IT, the state health information exchange will pursue HITRUST (Health Information Trust Alliance) certification using the company’s Common Security Framework (CSF).

“The sensitive nature of the information being shared makes its security paramount,” said Mark Jacobs, DHIN’s chief information officer, in a press release. “Completing HITRUST Certification will give practitioners, payers and consumers added assurance that DHIN takes every precaution to protect the clinical information that flows through the exchange.”

Seeking certification is an opportunity, explained Mark Ferrari, chief information security officer for BluePrint, to collaborate and share best practices and tools. HITRUST is a private company governed by an executive council composed of health-care organizations from around the nation, such as Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealth Group. For the full article click here 

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Feds release draft interoperability standards for health IT

The push for interoperability in health information technology continued this week with the release of draft standards for the industry by federal health IT officials.

The draft 2017 Interoperability Standards Advisory, published Monday, is a “coordinated catalog of standards and implementation specifications” for the health IT industry, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

The federally recognized standards will serve as a “key element” as the health IT industry moves toward interoperability, ONC officials said. They also support a pledge from IT companies, providers and professional associations to adopt national standards, guidance and practices for electronic health information. For the full article click here 

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Challenges persist as Nashville seeks to be health tech leader

Nashville is poised to emerge as a national leader in the area of health care information technology but needs to harness its existing expertise to build its reputation as a technology epicenter.

A new report by Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program outlines the city’s strengths and weaknesses in establishing itself as an epicenter of health care information technology, or HIT. The city’s pool of software engineers is thin compared to other cities its size and that it competes with in health care and the link between universities and the private sector need to be bolstered, according to the report.

“We really think Nashville needs to be put on the map for health IT,” said Scott Andes, lead author of Brookings’ “From health care capital to innovation hub: Positioning Nashville as a leader in health IT.” For the full article click here 

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Health IT Board version 2.0’s small team has some big hopes

The newly-formed Digital Advisory Board will build on its predecessor’s work, but with a broader scope.

The DAB, which replaces the National Health IT Board (NHITB), reports directly to the director-general of health Chai Chuah, and will advise the Ministry of Health and minister of health.

Board member Murray Milner is the only DAB member to have been on the NHITB.

Assessing, recommending, but not deciding

Speaking to New Zealand Doctor, Mr Milner said the DAB will not make decisions but will look at emerging technologies including, robotics, devices, genomics and nanotechnology.

Its focus will be less on day-to-day processes and more on bigger strategies like the electronic health record and ePrescription Service, he says. The board will work with the sector to see the wider picture before making recommendations. For the full article click here 

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Many hospitals transmit your health records unencrypted

About 32% of hospitals and 52% of non-acute providers — such as outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities and physicians’ offices — are not encrypting data in transit, according to a new survey.

Additionally, only 61% of acute providers and 48% of non-acute providers are encrypting data at rest.

This “leaves the door wide open to potential tampering and corruption of the data, in addition to a large potential for a breach,” the report stated. “If a computer, laptop, thumb drive, or backup were to be stolen, any person would be able to access such information.” For the full article click here

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HIMSS ANALYTICS HONORS SANSUM CLINIC WITH STAGE 6 RECOGNITION

As of August 2016, 5,781 ambulatory sites tracked by HIMSSAnalytics had reached Stage 6 on its Outpatient Electronic Medical Record Adoption ModelSM (O-EMRAM)

Santa Barbara, Calif. – HIMSS Analytics announced Sansum Clinic has achieved Stage 6 on the EMR Adoption ModelSM (EMRAM).

HIMSS Analytics developed the Outpatient EMR Adoption Model in 2012 as a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for ambulatory facilities in the HIMSS Analytics® LOGIC™. Tracking their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), ambulatory sites can review the implementation and utilization of information technology applications with the intent of reaching Stage 7, which represents an advanced electronic patient record environment. For the full article click here

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‘Health-Chat’ recruting East Tennessee

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Mothers with teenage daughters in Northeast Tennessee are invited to take part in a project that East Tennessee State University researchers are helping to lead in an effort to improve communication about teen health.

“Health Chat” is a private Facebook community that provides expert-reviewed health information and tools for improving how mothers and daughters talk about health. It also shares other valuable resources about physical activity, nutrition, bullying, cancer prevention, vac-cinations, mental health, tobacco, drug use and more.

“We plan to be recruiting in the East Tennessee portion through this year,” said Amanda Peterson, project coordinator for Health Chat.

Plans are to include as many as 2,000 in the study.

To join the group, a person must be a Tennessee resident with a daugh-ter between the ages of 14 and 17. Participants also must have or be willing to create a Facebook account. As part of the study, group mem-bers and their daughters will be asked to complete a brief survey three different times and will be compensated for their time. For the full article click here 

 

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Taking It Like A Man Is Killing Our Men

You’ve probably seen it pop up in your Facebook feed over the past few weeks — men around the world taking photos of themselves doing the ‘okay’ symbol with their hand, while also nominating five of their mates to do the same thing.

You may have wondered what it was all about and if you read the copy that was alongside the photo, you would no doubt have found yourself shocked by the numbers. The movement is all about changing the conversation around mental health and raising awareness for suicide prevention.

In Australia, suicide is the biggest killer of Australian men aged 15 to 44, eclipsing road death, cancer and heart disease. Three times as many men compared to women take their own lives. For the full article click here 

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85% of health IT leaders are upping cybersecurity awareness: 4 notes

Data breaches can substantially impact a health system and compromise thousands of patients’ personal information.

Because of the growing problem, health IT leaders are making data security a top priority, according to Health IT News.

Here are four notes:

1. HIMSS Cybersecuity Survey found 85 percent of respondents said they are increasing cybersecurity awareness.

2. Seventy-five percent of respondents said medical identity theft was their organization’s main source of healthcare attacks. For the full article click here 

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After the Olympics: The next paths for elite athletes

(CNN)After the Olympic flame goes out, what happens to the athletes we’ve come to know and love over the past two weeks?

After upping his gold medal count to 23, swimmerMichael Phelps is retiring (for real this time). Gymnasts Aly Raisman and Simone Biles are enjoying their hard-earned achievements and taking some time off while thinking about the 2020 Games, which understandably seem “far away.” And other members of Team USA like Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel and Devon Allen are either starting or returning to college.

Over the next few months, a few familiar winning faces from Rio will still appear in commercials, interviews and even reality shows. Like the medals they earned, their achievements will shine to motivate others. For the full article click here 

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Healthcare Big Data Silos Prevent Delivery of Coordinated Care

Prescription for ER overuse: Engage patients in EHR data and health information exchange

Louisiana is known as being woefully behind when it comes to healthcare. But in the realm of population health, it is making some serious progress. The state, in fact, launched both a statewide direct-to-consumer patient engagement campaign as well as a health information exchange-enabled emergency department data registry.

Consequently, in one year the state has realized a 23 percent increase in health IT utilization among at-risk patients and a 10.2 percent decrease in non-emergent emergency department utilization of emergency departments among members of one of the state’s Medicaid MCOs.

“This all came about from a partnership with the state department of health because Louisiana for far too long has been on the wrong end of healthcare ratings,” said Jamie Martin, marketing and communications manager at the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum. “So on the one hand, engaging consumers in the use of health IT to manage their care was critical to improving our standing in healthcare ratings.”  For the full article click here 

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Florida health IT company aims to boost staff in Roseville

A Florida-based health information technology company will host a job-recruiting event Friday and Saturday at its Roseville offices.

Modernizing Medicine Inc., headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., said it wants to add 20 medical billing analysts to its West Coast revenue cycle services team in Roseville.

The invitation-only job fair will be at 3300 Douglas Blvd., Suite 200. Job candidates must complete an application online at modmed.com/careers and may be invited to on-site interviews. No walk-in job seekers will be interviewed. For the full article click here 

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Southampton man’s five figure payout after health problems while working at bakery

A SOUTHAMPTON man has won a compensation pay-out after developing severe health problems at work.

Marcin Kurzawski, 39, started at baking company Nicholas and Harris in 2004, working his way up from production line to line manager in only six years.

But by 2009 breathing had become difficult and he had developed a serious skin condition.

In 2012, the father-of-one was diagnosed with occupational asthma, rhinitis and contact dermatitis caused by exposure to flour dust and additives. For the full article click here 

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IT challenges await bundled payment approaches

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is laying the groundwork for new Medicare payment models for cardiac procedures.

Bundled payments for cardiac care may be the next of other programs in other areas seeking to use the approach.

However, CMS and other research within the industry suggests that the lack of appropriate information technology may cause problems for bundled payment approaches.

Acute care hospitals in selected regions will participate in the cardiac program, according to a rule proposed earlier this month. “All related care within 90 days of hospital discharge will be included in the episode of care,” according to the rule, which will undergo an industry comment period before being finalized. For the full article click here

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Precision Medicine, Data Exchange, CDS on New ONC Leader’s Agenda

Duchess Kate On If She Would Get Mental Health Support For Her Children: ‘[I] Wouldn’t Hesitate’

Duchess Kate says she and Prince William would not hesitate for a moment to get mental health help for their children if necessary.

The Duchess launched a series of podcasts aimed at helping parents understand the importance of mental health: “It doesn’t need to be like this… With the right help, children have a good chance of overcoming their issues while they are still young, and can have the bright future they deserve.”

She said one third of parents would be embarrassed to seek mental help for their kids, but assured that stigma was redundant: “No parent would fail to call the doctor if their child developed a fever, yet some children are tackling tough times without the support that can help them because the adults in their life are scared to ask.” For the full article click here 

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Is “Sustainable Development” a concept that integrates Health Literacy and Health Policy as a global health action?

Exclusively written for the Sting by Ms Bruna Schwaab, student of Medicine at the Univille University in Joinville City, Brazil. Ms Schwaab is afiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA).

Health Literacy is the degree to which an individual has the capacity to obtain, communicate, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decision (CDC, 2015). In addition, a health policy can be defined by a law, regulation, procedure, administrative action, incentive, or voluntary practice of governments and other institutions capable of generating long-term benefits and equity in health systems (CDC, 2015). Both of them bound the concept of global health that is integrated by Sustainable Development, whose aim is to promote equity through public policies, and depends on actions of good governance and democracy of the nations.

The progression of Sustainable Development is to achieve WHO’s goals as to end the epidemic of tropical neglected diseases (NTDs); to end infectious diseases as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; to combat hepatitis; to reduce mortality due to environmental factors as air, pollution and water. The goals of sustainable development cannot be achieved when there is a high prevalence of debilitating illness and poverty, and the health of a population cannot be maintained without a responsive health system and a healthy environment (WHO, 2003). Then, we need to create polices that can be conducted by improving sanitation in poor countries in this case. In spite of this, health and disease are linkage with socioeconomics determinants as poverty, housing and environment conditions, but it depends on every individual understanding. For the full article click here 

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How Location-Based IT Could Re-invent Healthcare Security

Pondering the DeSalvo Era at ONC—And the Healthcare IT Policy Challenges That Lie Ahead: An Analysis

A vast array of challenges faces Dr. Washington as this changing of the ONC guard takes place at a critical moment in U.S. healthcare

The announcement on Thursday, August 11 that Karen DeSalvo, M.D. was stepping down from her position as National Coordinator for Health IT, while not particularly surprising, was nonetheless both noteworthy and worth pondering. What does it say about where things are right now with federal healthcare IT policy? The meaningful use program? The healthcare IT zeitgeist in the United States? The announcement certainly comes at a moment of significance for healthcare IT policy.

Indeed, Dr. DeSalvo is leaving her position at a time of unparalleled uncertainty both at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), and for U.S. healthcare IT and healthcare IT policy in general. Further down in this blog, I’ll have more to say about this—but it is an important element that puts yesterday’s announcement into a particular context. For the full article click here 

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Karen DeSalvo Steps Down as ONC National Coordinator for Health IT

On Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced that Karen DeSalvo, M.D. is stepping down as National Coordinator, effective August 12. Vindell Washington, M.D., Principal Deputy National Coordinator at ONC has been appointed to replace DeSalvo.

“During her tenure, ONC has worked with other federal partners and the private sector to update the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan and develop a Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, both of which chart a person-centered path for improving health outcomes by unlocking health data through tools like open application programming interfaces (APIs). “She has also made significant advances to the Health Information Technology Certification Program to promote and expand the safe and secure flow of electronic health information when and where it matters most for individuals and clinicians. She has also co-chaired the department’s Delivery System Reform efforts, which set historic goals and worked to leverage the resources of the Department to build a more person centered health system that encourages more coordinated care,” Burwell said in an email to ONC staff.  For the full article click here 

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Why you should quit sugar, and how

I already miss you. I feel tired, cranky and the cravings are out of control.

But I am stronger than you, sweet poison. And I’m going to break free from your clutches.

The past decade has seen a huge emphasis on refined sugar and how bad it is for our health. It’s sugar that will make you fat, your teeth rot and mood be all over the show.

I’m only a few days into my detox. As a known sugar-addict, it’s not easy.

I have told my colleagues to keep me from sweet temptations. One of them kindly took a pack of biscuits offered to me the other day, selflessly ingesting them himself. For the full article click here 

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Health IT Security Luminary Mac McMillan Offers Views on Accelerating Data Dangers

This is part 1 of a two-part series on the presentation August 10 by Mac McMillan of the SynergisTek consulting firm, at the CHIME/AEHIS LEAD Forum event in Nashville. This article covers a portion of McMillan’s presentation; part 2 will cover the concluding portion of McMillan’s address, as well as his exclusive interview with Healthcare Informaticsthat immediately followed his speech on Wednesday.

Mac McMillan, the CEO of the Austin, Tex.-based CynergisTek consulting firm, and one of the healthcare industry’s IT security luminaries, offered a bracing view of the current IT security landscape to those attending the CHIME/AEHIS LEAD Forum Event, being held Monday, August 10 at the Sheraton Downtown Nashville, in Nashville, Tennessee, and co-sponsored by the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), and its subsidiary association, the Association for Executives in Health Information Security (AEHIS), and by the Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2—a sister organization to Healthcare Informatics under the Vendome Group, LLC umbrella).

McMillan shared his perspectives on what he sees as a very challenging health IT security environment going forward, in a speech entitled “Developing and Managing an Ongoing Risk Management Program.” The risk management perspective on the current health IT security landscape is important, he emphasized. “One of the things I’ve learned is that the teams that win, study the enemy, have a good plan, and can execute,” McMillan told his audience, beginning his speech by sharing a personal story. “Everybody in my family has always been involved in athletics,” he noted, “and most have been in the Marines or the Army. And my oldest daughter actually took it to the highest level. She graduated as an All-American in volleyball. For the full article click here 

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Sunrise Community Health in Greeley celebrates National Health Center Week

Ashlee Garcia, clinic manager at Monfort Children’s Clinic, sported a wild hairdo at the Sunrise Carnival on Wednesday. Her hair had been morphed into a rainbow and puffy white hair ties — shaped like clouds — kept the bend in place. It offered a break from the norm and some extra silliness helped kids have a fun time, even though many came to the carnival to get their teeth checked at a free dental screening.

Sunrise Community Health’s three campuses banded together Wednesday to celebrate National Health Center Week with the community.

National Health Center week, which concludes Saturday, has recognized services and contributions made by community, migrant, homeless and public housing health centers for more than 30 years, according to the Health Center Week website.

“National Health Center Week helps us connect to our patients and express gratitude to our employees for their service,” said Mitzi Moran, CEO of Sunrise Community Health. “It’s a nice time to step back and say thank you.” For the full article click here 

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Digital Health Agency executive begins to take shape

Former NEHTA staffer Bettina McMahon has won the plum role of executive general manager for government and industry collaboration and adoption at the new Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), where she will be in charge of a large range of critical services, including the big job of repairing relationships with a somewhat cynical software vendor community.

Ms McMahon, who acted as CEO of NEHTA for several months earlier this year as it transitioned to the new agency, was previously head of risk and assurance and head of policy and information services. Her new role will also include government, jurisdictions and industry relations, education and adoption, and interoperability and technology standards. For the full article click here 

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What Does It Take To Move to the Next Level of Healthcare Digitalization in APAC?

3 key ways digital health is changing medication adherence in clinical trials

Throughout the course of a clinical trial, sponsors need to collect strong, repeatable data in order to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of a drug. In trials that rely on patients to take drugs according to a set schedule at home, poor adherence on the part of participants can greatly impact the results. In fact, research from the New England Journal of Medicine shows that only 34 percent of trial participants take medications as prescribed.

While the purpose of a trial is to determine if a drug works as planned and is efficacious, sponsors have not historically had an objective means to tell if a drug is in fact not working or if variable results are due to non-adherence. The good and exciting news is digital health technologies are changing this. Over the last few years, we have seen new, innovative devices and technologies entering the market, including smart pill bottles, connected inhalers and ingestible sensors from device manufacturers that include Proteus Digital Health, AdhereTech and Cohero. Some pharma companies are even creating their own sensors to embed in medications to track adherence. For the full article click here

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Why Healthcare Data Security, Compliance Issues Go Untreated

Health Take-Away: Four bite-sized tips for healthy nutrition

Rooted in ancient forms of Buddhist meditation, the practice of mindfulness has come fully into the mainstream of how everyday people manage their physical, emotional and spiritual health. It has practical applications for virtually everything we do, including the way we eat. Mindful eating creates a whole new level of consciousness around good nutrition. It’s about loving the food that loves us back.

Here are four bite-sized tips for eating mindfully.

1. Keep it real: The explosion of highly processed foods that began in the 20 th century has wreaked havoc on the digestive systems and overall health of consumers, feeding an epidemic rise in heart disease, diabetes and other life-threatening conditions. Off-the- shelf products filled with laboratory-engineered ingredients with names you couldn’t pronounce began replacing many of the fresh foods and simple ingredients once found in the home pantry.

“Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food,” says nutrition author and activist Michael Pollan. Fill your cart with plenty of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, along with a balanced selection of plant-based protein sources (like beans, nuts and seeds), sustainably raised meat and seafood. It’s ok to be realistic and occasionally go for convenience. Some ready-made, store-bought foods can be acceptably healthy, as long as you choose wisely. Pick products with no more than five basic ingredients. Stay away from sugar and especially high fructose corn syrup. For the full article click here 

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Mothers with teenage daughters invited to join online community focused on teen health

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.—Mothers with teenage daughters are invited to take part in a project that East Tennessee State University researchers are helping lead in an effort to improve communication about teen health.

Health Chat, is a private Facebook community that provides expert-reviewed health information and tools for improving how mothers and daughters talk about health. It also shares other resources about physical activity, nutrition, bullying, cancer prevention, vaccinations, mental health, tobacco, drug use and more.

To join the group, a person must be a Tennessee resident with a daughter between the ages of 14 and 17. Participants also must have or be willing to create a Facebook account. As part of the study, group members and their daughters will be asked to complete a brief survey three different times and will be compensated for their time. For the full article click here 

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Teach your children about health and nutrition

When do you start to teach your children about health and nutrition? In my opinion, as soon as possible. Why? Because it’s our job as parents to instill proper nutrition in our children.

We already include our children in preparation of our meals. I understand that it may be fun or play for them right now, but we’re teaching them along the way. You can’t wait until they turn 14 years old and expect them to listen. Why wait on educating your children about health? It takes time and is a long process. No one has a bigger impact on nutrition and health than parents.

You cannot expect schools to teach nutrition in health class. This is in no way, shape or form intended as disrespect toward any school or teacher. But it’s the truth. Your children will learn more about health and nutrition at home from parents. For the full article click here 

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PharmaSmart and Giant Eagle Supermarkets ink major deal

ROCHESTER, N.Y — PharmaSmart® International Inc., a prominent Rochester, NY manufacturer of health screening kiosks, and developer of Health IT and health management solutions, announces their partnership with Giant Eagle Supermarkets. PharmaSmart will deploy its clinically validated blood pressure Kiosk and cloud based Health IT platform across 217 Giant Eagle Supermarkets. This includes Giant Eagle, Market District, and Market District Express locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and West Virginia. All kiosks will be manufactured and distributed out of PharmaSmart’s Rochester, NY manufacturing facility.

The Giant Eagle partnership follows a string of important announcements for PharmaSmart®. Most notably, PharmaSmart became a member of the American Heart Association’s “Check. Change. Control TM” leadership community, where it will contribute its expertise and technology toward the goal of reducing deaths from heart disease and stroke by 20% by the year 2020 (http://ift.tt/2b7FE3H). In addition, the World Hypertension League joined the American Society of Hypertension by publishing clinical guidance recognizing PharmaSmart’s unique qualifications as a validated, trustworthy solution for public-use, kiosk based blood pressure measurement.

This clinical recognition and key opinion leader support means pharmacies utilizing PharmaSmart® are in a stronger position to engage in collaborative practice agreements with regional providers and ACO’s. Giant Eagle intends to leverage PharmaSmart’s clinical-grade program to drive Medicare Star Ratings objectives, specifically measures D-14 (Medication Adherence for Hypertension), and C-19 (Controlling Blood Pressure), both of which are triple- weighted measures of high interest to national and regional insurers. For the full article click here 

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P&G’s Uses Shakespeare For Oral Health Education

Believe it or not, oral health is an indicator of school performance. As U.S. families prepare to return to school this month, Procter & Gamble’s Crest toothpaste wants parents to know about the connection.

According to company research, kids with poor oral health are three times more likely to miss school and kids with toothaches are four times more likely to have a lower grade-point average. Thus, the company has teamed with Feeding America and the national PTA to launch the “Healthier Smiles Project,” to raise awareness of these statistics via meetings and school activities and donate hundreds of thousands of toothpaste tubes to needy families.

“It’s a way to educate people about the importance of oral health and the importance of an oral health routine,” Dennis Legault, North American marketing director for oral care at Procter & Gamble, tells Marketing Daily. “We wanted to create a program that had full national exposure as well as a grass-roots [element].” For the full article click here 

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OptumCare selects Allscripts as Health IT provider

Health services company OptumCare, part of UnitedHealthcare subsidiary Optum, announced on Friday that it has tapped Allscripts TouchWorks suite as its electronic health records (EHRs) platform for its physician practices.

Implementation will begin later this year, the company said.

OptumCare serves more than 8 million people in 49 geographic markets.

Allscripts will integrate its EHR and practice management software with the technology OptumCare’s physicians currently use. The combined technology and single platform will facilitate the integration of patient’s care across the ambulatory continuum of care, the company said. For the full article click here 

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Banner Health brings on Levick for cyberattack response

PHOENIX: Banner Health has brought on Levick as part of its response to a massive cyberattack discovered last month.

Hackers accessed 3.7 million records from the hospital’s locations in Arizona, Colorado, Alaska, and Wyoming.

The hospital system identified the hack of its food and beverage outlets on July 7. A week later, it learned patients’ personal, medical, insurance, and beneficiary information was separately accessed, along with some employees’ personal information.

“You get questions regarding why didn’t you announce immediately when you found out,” said Bill Byron, VP of PR for Banner Health. “It takes time to get the [credit and identity monitoring] services of Kroll, to work with the ongoing investigation, and build the communications plan. The position we were trying to avoid is the information getting out, and we’re not there to support yet.” For the full article click here 

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Patients on social media cause ethics headache for doctors

As more and more sick patients are going online and using social media to search for answers about their health, it’s raising a lot of thorny ethical questions for doctors.

“The internet and ready access to vast amounts of information are now permanent aspects of how we live our lives, including how we think about and deal with our health problems,” Dr. Chris Feudtner, director of medical ethics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said by email.

Social media in particular can affect how patients interact with doctors and what type of care they expect, Feudtner and colleagues write in an article about ethics in the journal Pediatrics. For the full article click here 

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‘Big Latch On’ event raises breast feeding awareness

Some of the hungry babies cried, while others reached for bottles or grasped at their mothers’ chests as the clock slowly ticked down to 10:30 a.m. at Cape Coral Hospital.

Then, on cue, the room went nearly silent as the newborns latched to breasts and began their synchronized feeding.

Nearly two dozen women and many more children in all were there in this semi-public setting, only a small portion of the thousands participating globally in similar breast feeding awareness events across the globe this weekend.

The “Global Big Latch On” taking place Friday and Saturday is part of World Breast Feeding Week. The aim: Raise awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding, help to normalize breastfeeding in public and bring together mothers who are all going through this early part of motherhood. For the full article click here 

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HR mining helps athenahealth respond to Miami Zika alert

Once in a while, electronic health records actually do live up to some of the hype rather than cause frustration among clinicians. This week saw one such example of EHRs and analytics providing population health services in near-real time, in this case, to address the Zika virus.

With fears of Zika spreading, well, virally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, for the first time ever, issued a travel advisory about a location in the continental United States. Monday, the CDC warned pregnant women, those hoping to get pregnant and their partners living in or traveling to the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami to get tested and take precautions.

Within a few hours of that advisory coming out, health IT cloud service providerathenahealth went to work, examining records across its network to find pregnant and sexually active women of reproductive age in Wynwood who had not had a Zika test. “It was the next day that we published alerts,” said Dr. Brian Anderson, senior manager of clinical effectiveness for Watertown, Massachusetts-based athenahealth. For the full article click here 

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OptumCare Selects Allscripts to Provide its Physicians a Connected Health IT Platform

OptumCare signs strategic 10-year agreement to deploy Allscripts TouchWorks® suite as its exclusive electronic health record (EHR) and practice management (PM) solution for physicians

CHICAGO, Aug. 04, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Health services company OptumCare, which is a part of Optum, selected the Allscripts (NASDAQ:MDRX) TouchWorks suite – which includes its electronic health record and practice management solution – as the platform for its physician practices. Implementation will begin later this year. OptumCare, a national health care delivery organization serving more than 8 million people in 49 geographic markets, supports doctors and other clinicians in improving care and creating a better experience for their patients.

Allscripts will integrate its electronic health record and practice management software with the technology OptumCare currently provides to its physicians. The combined technology and single platform will make it easier for OptumCare to integrate information about a patient’s care across the ambulatory care continuum. For the full article click here 

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Elation Health raises $15M in quest to double staff numbers, support interoperability

Elation Health, a health IT startup that developed an electronic health record platform aimed at primary care physician-led practices and outpatient care, has closed a $15 million Series B round. It’s the largest financing round the company has raised to date, bringing its total funding to $18.5 million.

Kyna Fong, the CEO and co-founder, said in a phone interview that Elation Health, formerly known as ElationEMR, would use the new funding to double its 40-person business in the next 12 months. Fong added that the staff increase would be across the board, but particularly in product development.

Among the investors who took part in the series B were DFJ, which led the round, along with angel investors Martha Marsh, former president and CEO of Stanford Hospital and Clinics, and Charlie Cheever — co-founder of Quora and a former Facebook software engineering manager who was the architect of Facebook Connect and Facebook Platform. DFJ has invested in a variety of digital heath and life science companies from Livongo to Theranos. For the full article click here 

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Maricopa Co. health officials: 19 sick with pool water parasite

PHOENIX – Maricopa County Department of Public Health officials are investigating an outbreak of Cryptosporidium, a diarrheal illness caused by a parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, and are advising the public to take precautions to further prevent the spread of this disease.

Public health officials said 19 cases were reported in July. Five of those initial cases have been linked to recreational water facilities.

While officials said some people with Crytosporidium show no symptoms, the most common symptom to be on the lookout for is watery diarrhea usually beginning 2-10 days from infection.

Some other symptoms include stomach cramps, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, fever and weight loss. For the full article click here 

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What healthcare IT can learn from HP

Long before HP was known for PCs, laser printers and Carly Fiorina, it was a manufacturer of test equipment for electrical engineers. One reason its products succeeded was because they were designed by the very people who ultimately used them. HP designers possessed a deep understanding of the product use case and empathy for the user — a highly educated and skilled professional with little tolerance for inefficiency. HP’s product design philosophy was called “the next bench,” and it worked extremely well.

In healthcare, physicians — also highly educated and skilled professionals with little tolerance for inefficiency — are obliged to use electronic health records (EHR) systems, most of which (from a physician’s perspective) work quite poorly. Most physicians complain that EHR systems are cumbersome, unintuitive and slow them down.

To be clear, EHRs are not designed by physicians. Most EHRs grew out of the computer systems that run a hospital’s inner workings — patient scheduling, admission and discharge, staff payroll and accounts receivable. For system designers, physicians’ needs were an afterthought. That’s why the typical hospital EHR frequently makes physicians less efficient and productive (and far more frustrated) than they ought to be. For the full article click here 

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First EHR Using the Carefluence OpenAPI for Interoperability Requirements to Achieve Modular Certification for Stage 3 of Meaningful Use

Grand Blanc, MI – ModuleMD WISE version 9.0 is the first EHR using the Carefluence OpenAPI product for interoperability requirements to achieve 2015 Edition Health IT Module Certification from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC-Health IT). This certification positions all of ModueMD’s customers to attest for Stage 3 Meaningful Use with respect to interoperability requirements. Testing and certification was performed by Drummond Group LLC, which has been authorized by ONC to test software for compliance with the interoperability requirements of the Meaningful Use program using ONC’s 2015 Health IT Certification Criteria. Drummond’s stamp of approval designates that the software offers the functionality that facilitates uniform, standards-based health information exchange, supporting the effort for a nationwide interoperable health information infrastructure.

ModuleMD provides a complete EHR solution including practice management, electronic health records, revenue cycle management and patient engagement functionality for ambulatory care practices. “Our focus is simple. It’s always been about solutions, not only software. ModuleMD had embraced interoperability as its fundamental strategy in delivering solutions early on. This certification is a progressive step in the direction towards better patient care through enabling technology for data sharing with providers, healthcare institutions, healthcare applications and patients,” stated Lloyd Williams, COO, “By choosing to utilize the Carefluence OpenAPI platform as a drop-in FHIR stack, we were able to avoid significant time and costs associated with internal development of a custom open API.” For the full article click here 

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Milner the only survivor from National Health IT Board

Former chair of the National Health IT Board, Murray Milner, is the only board member to be appointed to the advisory group replacing the health IT board.

The board has been replaced by a new digital advisory group which is scheduled to have its first meeting next Friday, 12 August.

Former board director Graeme Osborne has left the Ministry of Health and the ministry’s current acting chief technology and digital services officer, Giles Southwell, will take an ex-officio role on the digital advisory group.

Four people appointed to digital advisory group

As well as Mr Milner, a former Telecom chief information officer, now IT consultant, are two other members with extensive backgrounds in IT – Marcel van den Assum and Michael Rillstone. For the full article click here 

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64% Of Security Leaders Lack Tools Needed To Understand Security Threats

According to a recent Ponemon survey, 64 percent of security leaders feel they do not have the proper tools to monitor external security threats.

Security Beyond the Traditional Perimeter, a report from Brand Protect and the Ponemon Institute, finds security leaders have doubts that their organizations could monitor against outside threats.

“The majority of security leaders understand that these external internet threats imperil business continuity,” said Larry Ponemon, president of the Ponemon Research Institute in a press release. “The study highlights a gap in defenses against threats that have proven to be extremely effective for cyber criminals and costly for enterprises.” For the full article click here 

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NHS Highland create award winning app for patients

(Inverness, UK) Patients can now directly message their care team and receive information about their disease through a new app which can be used to record daily symptoms, which are then displayed on the NHS Highland intranet and viewed by staff.

Funds raised by the local Crohn’s and Colitis UK Group will be used to create video infographics which will be shared with patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) via their smart devices.

Subsequently, the clinical team can now take down the details of telephone and video consultations in real-time and this will then go straight into the hospital and primary care electronic records. This development means patients still get all the advice they need without going into hospital.

The learning from this approach is being shared as part of NHS Highland’s work on ‘Transforming Outpatients’ which is responding to patient feedback to improve the quality of patient care. For the full article click here 

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It’s the summer holidays – and children need time outside

Is there any feeling on earth quite like that of a child on the first day of thesummer holidays? The giddying sense of freedom and potential, after hours spent gazing longingly at browning grass and cloudless skies through classroom windows. At the beginning of the summer holidays, your gauzy days stretch out before you like chewing gum, waiting to be filled with adventure. If you were anything like me, most of them will have been spent outside; your life a procession of doing words: running, climbing, building (and wrecking), swimming, playing and paddling.

The doing words of today’s children are somewhat different. There’s gaming, and sitting, and eating. Indeed, a report has found that children’s lazy summer holidays are responsible for wiping out children’s fitness levels. The study of 400 children in 14 schools found that fitness levels improved over the course of the academic year, only to be undone by the long summer holidays spent hunched over gadgets. In terms of physical activity, the bare minimum for children should be 60 minutes a day. This report indicates that children are failing to achieve even that.

Much of this can be blamed on the technology that was simply unavailable before now. As a society, we specialise in timewasting; another report released todayfound that we are now spending 25 hours a week on the internet, and most of that will be indoors. Many children I meet seem to have their time rigidly planned out in activity blocks – school, after-school activities, homework, bed – so slumping in front of a screen must seem like cosy respite in comparison. But you wonder if they’ll ever know the exquisite boredom of an empty summer day, where you’re booted out in the morning after your friends come to call, to return only at dusk when it’s time for tea? For the full article click here 

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Banner Health Data Breach Affects 3.7M Records

Recent cases of potential health data breaches include cybersecurity attacks, accidental release of PHI, and unauthorized employee access.

Arizona-based Banner Health recently announced that it had experienced a cybersecurity attack potentially affecting 3.7 million patients, members and beneficiaries, providers, and food and beverage outlet customers. The possible health data breach was discovered on July 13, 2016 but an investigation from a hired forensics firm revealed that the initial attack occurred on June 17, 2016. Banner reported that the cybersecurity breach affected “a limited number of Banner Health computer servers as well as the computer systems that process payment card data at certain Banner Health food and beverage outlets.” For the full article click here 

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2016 State of Cybersecurity Report from the Federal Cyber Executive Perspective – An (ISC)² Report

In March 2016, (ISC)² and KPMG LLP surveyed a targeted pool of executive-level government officials and contractors from civilian, military and intelligence agencies to determine the state of cybersecurity and to provide recommendations for advancing the federal government’s cybersecurity progress.

The survey covered a range of topical areas that are key to understanding the state of cybersecurity today: professional development, governance and standards, resource and program management and risk management and resiliency.

Not surprisingly, nearly half of federal executive respondents reported that “people,” through actions both intentional and neglectful, remain the greatest security vulnerability to federal agencies. Half of respondents identified training/recruiting as one of their top three areas for applying proposed Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP) resources. For the full article click here 

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Electronic Health Records and the Black Market

Hacking America’s Energy Sector: It’s No Longer a Matter of If, but When

Health care providers team up with Department of Health to enroll people into Medicaid

In a coordinated effort to help eligible adults enroll into the newly expanded Medicaid program, or Healthy Louisiana, a unique partnership has been formed between hospitals and the state’s Medicaid program.

Known as “outstationing,” this new initiative of the Louisiana Department of Health, which began in May, allows hospitals and other health care providers around the state to have a dedicated eligibility worker onsite at their facility working directly with their staff and serving their Medicaid-eligible patients. These “outstationed” state employees assist Medicaid recipients with on-site real time eligibility decisions, as well as update their contact information in the eligibility system, verify eligibility and order new identification cards, for example.

This partnership is good for providers, patients and the State. Having eligibility workers at provider locations where health care services are delivered gives patients ready access to the Medicaid enrollment. Providers get an eligibility worker who will give priority to Medicaid applications submitted by their patients, and the state gets up to 25 percent of the eligibility worker’s pay and benefits covered by the host facility.

Governor John Bel Edwards said access to Medicaid through expansion is the next important step in making a real difference in quality of life for our family members and neighbors all across Louisiana. For the full article click here 

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Strong Passwords Not Enough To Protect Healthcare

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act(HITECH) brought a sense of urgency to healthcare providers when it comes to securing protected patient health information (PHI), particularly when combined with the privacy and security regulations put into effect under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

And as hack after hack has compromised personal data, particularly as use of mobile devicesbecomes more prevalent, healthcare has not remained unscathed. Simply urging people to ditch their weak passwords for stronger passwords isn’t enough anymore. People need to be using other available tools such as password managers or two-factor authentication features among other things.

CSO Online recently noted, “Security risks and data breaches are growing while the form factors of computing devices shrink — because much enterprise data today is created and consumed on mobile devices. This clearly explains why mobile security persistently tops the list of most pressing enterprise security concerns.” For the full article click here 

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Healthcare IT PR & Marketing Leader Kate Donlon Rejoins Amendola Communications

PUTTING HIV SCIENCE INTO PRACTICE: WHAT PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATORS MUST DO

Since the very first international AIDS meeting took place in Atlanta in 1985, these gatherings have provided an important venue for exploring the science surrounding the global AIDS epidemic. What do we know about the virus? What steps can we take to prevent its spread and reach those who are most vulnerable to infection? How can we better care for persons who are living with HIV?

Throughout its thirty one year history, the international AIDS meeting has convened experts from around the globe to share information about their successes, their challenges and sometimes, their failures. Demographers, epidemiologists, basic scientists, virologists, immunologists, sociologists, ethnographers, psychologists, political scientists—the list of disciplines represented is stunning in its breadth. And at every one of these meetings, the science that’s presented has been put into a broader, real-world context by the large contingents of people living with HIV, their providers and other community advocates who participate in these exchanges with enthusiasm and insight. For the full article click here 

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VA Precision Medicine Databank Hits 500,000 Participants

IoT Security Takes Center Stage At Black Hat

At this year’s Black Hat USA conference, the focus on the growing security risks that come with the proliferation of connected devices was a hot topic.The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday (Aug. 1) that the Internet of Things and the looming security vulnerabilities that may come with it were top of mind during the week-long gathering of the global information security community.

Conference organizers told WSJ that, for this year’s event, they received 50 proposals for seminars related to hacking IoT devices. Of those 50, 13 were accepted.As hackers continue to set their sights on IoT, attendees are looking to presentations to learn more about the growing security risks.

WSJ reported that some of the presentations on IoT security include how a computer worm can infest a network of smart lightbulbs, how medical systems can be hacked and how advanced ATM skimming devices may be able to steal funds in a matter of minutes.Earlier this year, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) think tank found that ransomware being pointed at IoT is inevitable because connected devices present a significant opportunity to launch further attacks, ZDNet reported.

For the full article click here  

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Why threat hunting as-a-service is worth considering, but ‘not a silver bullet’

Accenture and Endgame Inc. seek to detect and remove cyber threats from organizations’ systems, but their solution may be only part of a strong security plan. 

Accenture and Endgame Inc. announced Monday a new threat hunting as-a-service program created to identify and remove known and never-before-seen adversaries lurking in an organization’s system.

Accenture offers senior cybersecurity hunters who set out to find latent attackers targeting a company’s intellectual property, business systems, or other assets. Clients do not experience any interruption in day-to-day operations, unlike traditional security approaches, according to a release.

“Today, cyber attackers can circumvent even the most fortified of traditional enterprise defense systems,” said Vikram Desai, managing director of Accenture Analytics. “Rather than building a taller defensive wall, we’re giving our clients the ability to strike first—to stop adversaries before they attack.” For the full article click here 

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