PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN CHALLENGED ON MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

A social care charity in Glasgow is looking to tackle mental health stigma by changing the way young people think about it at an early age.

The charity Quarriers is working with primary school children to improve mental health knowledge and awareness – with the long-term aim of removing the taboo about mental health, helping to end stigma.

The project funded by See Me, Scotland’s programme to end mental health discrimination is focused around the north east of the city, an area where mental health issues are more prevalent than other parts of Glasgow.

The project has found that children are aware of mental health, but don’t have an understanding of what it means and what impact it can have on their own lives. For the full article click here 

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What’s behind New Zealand’s mental health funding crisis?

According to many Kiwis working in mental health, the system in this country is broken, seriously underfunded and in crisis.

They say there is a constant waiting list for beds in all mental health care facilities, and not enough staff.

New Zealand’s only 24-hour suicide counselling service Lifeline, which receives 15,000 calls a week, is struggling to find the funds to keep operating and will likely close next year.

Tragically, more Kiwis are taking their own lives more than ever before, and suicide is now our third highest cause of death behind heart disease and lung cancer. For the full article click here 

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Tech and Biotech: Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite goes health-tech; Madison Vaccines shows good early results with prostate cancer vaccine

Sonic Foundry, the Madison company that morphed from music-editing software to streaming video, is diving into the health tech field — at least, indirectly.

Sonic Foundry has signed a strategic partnership with Noordhoff Health, a Dutch company that provides training and education to health care professionals.

A division of Noordhoff Publishers, Noordhoff Health offers services to more than 4,000 hospitals, nursing schools and health care organizations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Noordhoff says it will use Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite technology to create and sell a package of 100 training videos to health care organizations, and will offer its clients Mediasite Video Cloud subscriptions to produce their own content. For the full article click here 

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Survey: Ransomware, malware among top concerns for health IT executivesa

Regardless of size, healthcare facilities report similar cybersecurity concerns, according to a recent survey.

The survey included responses from 190 members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security. When considering size, respondents were divided into three groups: those from facilities with more than 400 beds, those from facilities with 100 to 399 beds and those from facilities with fewer than 100 beds.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. All three groups ranked ransomware their highest concern when considering potential security exploits; other major concerns included malware and hacking. However, when asked to consider which security exploits were most common, malware proved the most cited response.

2. When considering potential security threats, facilities with fewer than 100 beds cited social engineering as their greatest concern, while the other two groups cited data theft. However, when asked to consider which security threats were most common, social engineering proved the most reported response for all three groups. For the full article click here 

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Wes Needs CAPS Campaign Aims to Expand Mental Health Services

“At Williams and Trinity, students from 2014-15 waited at most two days to get non-emergency mental health counseling,” reads a petition circulated earlier this week. “At Amherst, they waited a day and a half. At Bowdoin and Connecticut College, they had no wait. At Wesleyan, they waited three weeks.”

Last summer, University Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Dr. Jennifer D’Andrea announced that Advanced Practicing Nurse Practitioner (APRN) Katina Varzos had left to pursue a full-time employment opportunity. Dr. D’Andrea indicated that although no prescriptions would be issued through CAPS, students could schedule consultation appointments with their clinicians to locate a prescriber in the community.

In response, University students, led by a group that includes Paige Hutton ’18, Nat Warner ’17, Aliya Shecter ’20, and WSA Student Life Committee Chair Lizzie Shackney ’17, have launched a “Wes Needs CAPS” petition and photo campaign. The petition and corresponding Facebook event details the obstacles students face without an APRN available. It also argues that the University is generally less responsive to the non-emergency mental health needs of the student body compared with its peer institutions. In addition to increasing the CAPS budget for the first time in six years, the petition calls for the hiring of two new full-time psychologists and the promotion of half-time therapists to full-time positions. For the full article click here 

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‘Wearable trackers have particular resonance for diabetics’

The average person with diabetes will only see a healthcare professional for three hours a year – the other 8,757 hours they have to manage their own health, says Simon O’Neill, Director of Health Intelligence and Professional Liaison at Diabetes UK, in BJ-HC’s vox pop this month.

Some of that requires specific condition management, but much of it is ensuring the body can work properly – maintaining a healthy weight, eating well and exercising, says O’Neill, in the article, which talks about the technologies that are helping revolutionise chronic care. “That means that many wearable fitness trackers and apps aimed at the general market have particular resonance for diabetics,” he says.

Diabetes clinics have also started making good use of Skype and phone consultations, says O’Neill. “These have specific benefits with the diabetes community,” he says. “For example, people from Black and South Asian communities are two to four times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a group which includes some people who don’t speak good English. At Newham University Hospital, remote consultations have made it easier to include a son or a daughter for 10 minutes of translation, rather than trying to bring both the patient and translator into a hospital for a lengthy wait and appointment. Do Not Attend rates have dropped, and patients are much more engaged – vital to ensure that self-management happens after the appointment.” For the full article click here 

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Creighton University expands Phoenix health-education program

One of Arizona’s largest health-care providers announced Wednesday that it is expanding its partnership with Creighton University to help bring more doctors and health professionals to Arizona and keep them.

Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, Maricopa Integrated Health System, District Medical Group Inc. and Creighton University School of Medicine entered into an agreement Wednesday to expand their current health-education programs.

The partnership will develop programs in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and allied health. It is tentatively called the Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance.

Residency and fellowship programs are planned to begin July 1, 2017, according to a news release. Creighton University plans to begin an accelerated nursing program by January 2018. For the full article click here 

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Health insurance rates on the rise

COLUMBUS, Ga. – This week, the Obama Administration announced an increase in premiums under the Affordable Care Act.  Georgia currently has nine health insurance carriers under the Affordable Care Act.

Starting at the end of 2016, four of those carriers will be leaving.  Cost increases are on the horizon for the remaining five carriers.

Harry Underwood’s first insurance policy he has had on is own is under Humana, which is in the health insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act.

“It worked well for getting me onto healthcare,” Underwood said. For the full article click here 

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At the DC Health IT Summit, Intermountain’s Chief Strategy Officer Sees a Data-Driven Future

Intermountain’s chief strategy officer Greg Poulsen frames the path ahead around improving outcomes

How can clinician and other patient care leaders move the U.S. healthcare delivery system forward to improve care quality and value? Data, information, and analytics will be absolutely essential, says Greg Poulsen, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare. And that is precisely the message that Poulsen shared with attendees on Oct. 25, in his plenary presentation, entitled “Using Information to Improve Clinical Quality and Value,” at the Health IT Summit in Washington D.C., one of the Health IT Summit Series sponsored by Healthcare Informatics, and being held at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner, a Washington, D.C. suburb.

Poulsen walked his audience of healthcare leaders through a detailed narrative around quality and value, in a journey that ended with examples of some of the advances that he and his colleagues at the 22-hospital Intermountain Healthcare integrated system have made using data and information.

Early on in his presentation, Poulsen brought up the concept of capitation, framing it in a nuanced way. “The idea of capitation is more profound than payment: it’s what your idea of healthcare is,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is to maintain people’s health, or fix them when things go badly. It’s summarized well in this new book by Clayton Christensen, Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. Poulsen shared this quote from Christensen’s book: “The job [most people want to have done] is to be so healthy that they don’t even think about health. Yet, in systems where the providers of care are reimbursed for services they provide, they actually make money when members of their system get sick—it’s effectively ‘sick care’ rather than ‘health care.’” For the full article click here 

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YOU ARE NOT ALONE: Chesterfield College students help combat stigma of mental health issues

Mental illness affects one in four adults and one in ten children and young people.

It can rob victims of their self-esteem, make them feel isolated, afraid or ashamed to confide in others. Maintaining mental health and educating the public are the aims of a collaboration between college students and healthcare professionals which is the first of its kind in Derby-shire.

The initiative will target learners at Chesterfield College next week and be rolled out to the town’s wider community in the spring. Karen Wheeler, of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The aim of the project is to build resilience in our future generation. “We’re also looking to combat the stigma around mental health problems and help people to understand what it is like to live with.” For the full article click here 

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CDHB contracts more $20m of surgeries out to private clinics

Five years after the Canterbury earthquakes damaged many of its operating theatres, Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) is fundingmore surgeries than ever, many at private facilities.

The CDHB has been spending more than $20 million a year on procedures at private hospitals and clinics for the last three financial years.

The health board has struggled with funding since the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes damaged several facilities and forced it to invest in new ones.

The earthquakes damaged 200 CDHB buildings and 7500 hospital rooms, escalating the need to use private sector care.

In the financial year to June 2016, the CDHB spent $22.3 million on 4717 elective procedures at private facilities. Costs included follow-ups and other expenses.

Some procedures were carried out by CDHB staff working in leased operating theatres. For the full article click here 

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Citizen group to appeal Boston Children’s Hospital expansion approval

BOSTON (State House News Service) – Opponents of an expansion at Boston Children’s Hospital are not dropping their fight after the $1 billion project won state approval last week.

A citizen group that has fought against the project, pointing to both a possibility of increased health spending in Massachusetts and the demolition of a popular healing garden on hospital grounds, announced Monday it plans to pursue an administrative appeal of the Public Health Council’s 10-0 vote in support.

The same group, known as the Anne Gamble Ten Taxpayer Group, continues to pursue a lawsuit against the expansion in Suffolk Superior Court.

“On both fronts, we look forward to continuing to press our strong case against this immensely expensive and wrong-headed proposal – this time free of the political pressures that apparently influenced the Public Health Council’s vote,” Gus Murby, a member of the group and lead plaintiff in the court case, said in a statement. For the full article click here 

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From California to Costa Rica to Missouri: Assistant research professor finds her home at MIMH

Rachel Winograd was in an internet café in Central America when she found out that she got accepted into the University of Missouri–Columbia’s graduate program for clinical psychology. The San Francisco Bay Area native, who studied both psychology and theater at Emory University in Atlanta, was working on a farm while waiting to see where tentative future plans for graduate school might take her.

Fast forward through seven years of research, study and clinical experiences, and those plans have brought her to another UM System campus – the University of Missouri­–St. Louis, where she’s an assistant research professor and primary investigator for the Missouri Institute of Mental Health.

The new position allows her to do every day what she did back then when she was just deciding to pursue her PhD: follow her curiosity.

“I knew I wanted to be able to have a profession where I could be intrinsically motivated to learn more about it and feel like the work I was doing was going to have a tangible impact,” she explains. “The way I described it then, when I was trying to figure out what direction to go in, was, if I would walk into a bookstore, what section did I gravitate towards? Or if I was looking for something to watch on TV, what kind of shows would I watch?” For the full article click here 

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Mental health in the U.S. increases and Americans are not receiving treatment

Mental Health of America released its annual State of Mental Health Report that ranks all states of America based on mental health facts. The analysis shows that the rates of youth depression are on the rise and although more people have access to insurance, more than half of them do not receive treatment.

The State of Mental Health Report shows different numbers regarding mental health issues of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It assessed both people with mental health and measures to treat their condition. Sadly, the results show that even when Americans are more insured, the state and federal government fails to meet the needs of those facing a mental condition, especially for people in jail and prison. Around 40 million Americans are dealing with mental health concerns, which means that the number is bigger than the populations living in New York and Florida combined. And the numbers show that 56 percent of them do not receive treatment, even with insurance. For the full article click here

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UCSD Emergency Medicine prof. likens state of ER geriatric care to “cruise ship medicine”

Although the rising senior population is widely acknowledged, the need to change  geriatric care in emergency rooms in light of the “silver tsunami” is not. Seniors generally have more complex conditions than the typical emergency room patient, posing challenges for ER staff. Add dementia to the equation and their visit may be a troubling sign that a family caregiver is overwhelmed and can no longer manage.

The ER has been at the crossroads of acute care and population health for some time, but the current state of geriatric care in hospital emergency rooms is no better than “cruise ship medicine,” according to University of California San Diego emergency medicine professor Dr. Ted Chan. He highlighted some of the ways hospitals are trying to change that in a fireside chat at the MedCity ENGAGE conference in San Diego this week. Chan noted that University of California San Diego is working with West Health on a project to test different models in UCSD’s emergency department to see which ones are most effective. For the full article click here 

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Plan would see QMG take over clinical services at Keokuk Health System

QUINCY ­– Leaders at Keokuk Health Systems and UnityPoint Health have signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding to explore an affiliation.

Under the agreement, UnityPoint Health would become the sole corporate member of KHS, and Quincy Medical Group will expand the clinical services that it provides in Keokuk as part of QMG’s relationship with UnityPoint.

“Our proposed partnership with Unity Point Health and Quincy Medical Group provides substantial stability to our organization and greatly enhances our ability to deliver on our critical health care mission for many years to come,” Walt Stephens, chairman of the KHS board of directors, said in a news release.

These efforts will increase access to primary care providers, specialists and hospital services while improving care coordination and patient experience. The partnership also will provide KHS of management, operational and infrastructure support.

UnityPoint Health will take financial responsibility for initial capital investments, ongoing capital needs and operating results. Capital projects such as renovating KHS’s emergency department will be a focus of both parties. For the full article click here 

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Instagram adds mental health support feature

Let’s say you notice someone posting some alarming things and you think that person needs help. Now, you can anonymously flag a photo or post.

Then, that person will get this message: “Someone saw one of your posts and thinks you might be going through a difficult time. If you need support, we’d like to help.”

Different options are provided that include “talk to a friend,” “contact a helpline,” or “get tips and support.”

Instagram worked with the National Eating Disorders Association and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to create this feature.

That’s something Bay News 9’s mental health expert, Dr. Steve O’Brien, applauds.

“I think the fact that they are consulting with mental health organizations and mental health experts, then I think this is good,” he said. For the full article click here 

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Influence Health Wins Frost & Sullivan 2016 Enabling Technology Leadership Award

Influence Health today announced that it has been awarded the 2016 North American Enabling Technology Leadership Award for Patient Engagement. Influence Health’s comprehensive cloud-based technology solutions, coupled with pioneering support services, have helped it firmly entrench itself at the top of the leader board.

“Influence Health is a leading example of a best-in-class patient engagement vendor that enables diverse health systems to achieve clinical, operational, and financial success through intuitive and next-generation health IT solutions, bridging the communication gap between patients and health systems,” said Frost & Sullivan Transformational Health Analyst, Koustav Chatterjee.

Influence Health’s consumer experience solutions help provider organizations build and nurture consumer relationships at scale, across multiple channels and device types. The company’s digital marketing cloud enables targeted marketing and direct patient communication through effective data-driven consumer engagement programs tied to key digital touch points such as search and social, email, and branded, personalized digital experiences, including a best-in-class enterprise patient portal. For the full article click here 

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NHS England sets up £400k innovation fund for mental health

[London, UK] NHS England has launched a £400k fund that gives six to eight mental health digital innovators the chance to accelerate their technology towards adoption and endorsement.

It is estimated that the strain that mental ill health puts on the economy, the NHS and society adds up to £105bn per year.

A digitised NHS system would improve mental health services

The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health predicts that digital technology is going to play a crucial role in developing mental health services and the Wachter Review highlights the importance of a digital NHS system that would improve the quality of healthcare and lower costs at the same time.

Juliet Bauer, Director of Digital Experience at NHS England, said: “We’re particularly interested in tools that support the mental health of young people and families. This might include more self-care at home, managing conditions before they escalate and building mental resilience.  It also means NHS commissioners will be able to update or newly commission digital products for their population with confidence.”

To apply for a share of the fund, the mental health digital innovation must have an existing user base, be a standalone tool, exclude advertising and address at least one of the following issues: early intervention and improving access; parenting; perinatal health; transitions to adulthood; employment, education and training. For the full article click here 

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Nursing home pharmacy to pay $476K settlement to Mass. after kickback charges

The nation’s largest pharmacy serving elder care facilities will pay Massachusetts nearly half a million dollars to settle allegations that it got kickbacks more than eight years ago from Abbott Laboratories to promote the anti-seizure drug, Depakote.

The settlement was signed by Omnicare, a pharmacy services company that was acquired by CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) in August 2015. The $476,216 payment to Massachusetts is part of a $28 million multi-state settlement.

According to a release, Omnicare solicited and received illegal payments from Abbott (NYSE: ABT) through agreements that required Omnicare to participate in certain promotional programs, grants and other financial support. Those agreements, intended to increase the use of Depakote, resulted in alleged false claims to Medicaid and other federally-funded health care programs from 2001 through 2008.

The settlement was based on two cases filed by whistleblowers in Virginia. Those cases were consolidated and are pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. For the full article click here 

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Health IT overhaul set to deliver landmark tender

A big government tender could be on the horizon for local partners, with the Department of Health announcing plans to replace the ageing IT system it uses to deliver Medicare payments to Australians.

“The Australian government will replace the IT system to deliver reliable and accurate health, aged care and veterans’ payments,” said Minister for Health and Aged Care, Sussan Ley, and Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, in a joint statement.

“Australia’s existing health and aged care payments system is 30-years-old and is now obsolete.

“The new system will support the Australian government continuing to own, operate, and deliver Medicare, PBS [Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme], aged care, and related veterans payments into the future,” the ministers said. For the full article click here 

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Bacolod hosts 1st health IT locator

A HEALTH care outsourcing firm has chosen Bacolod City as the site for support operation to its headquarters based in Chicago City, Illinois.

The Grab Support Inc., with Assure Home Healthcare Inc. as its supporting company in the US, entered on Tuesday an agreement with the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNEFIT) for a two-year renewable lease contract at the Negros First Cyber Centre (NFCC).

Brandon Mahinay, president and chief executive officer of Assure Home Healthcare Inc., told Sun.Star Bacolod they are initially investing about P10 million in operating a 52-square meter space at the NFCC, employing some 15 individuals, mostly nurses, from the city.

These nurses will be employed for the support operation that the company has in Chicago, Mahinay said, adding that they target to start recruiting in December, and the actual support operation will begin by January next year. For the full article click here 

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Clay Oven restaurant to reopen under new management

GREENFIELD — A local Indian food restaurant that had its food service license suspended indefinitely until the ownership could come up with a plan to fix ongoing food safety issues intends to reopen in the coming weeks under new management and new staff.

The Clay Oven at 286 Main St. is to be run by Madan Rathore, one of three co-owners who previously ran the business. However, Rathore said he’s been absent from the establishment for at least a year and a half, leaving to open another restaurant in Keene, N.H. He relied on the other two former co-owners, Shashi Sharma and Swostik Rana Magar, to run The Clay Oven.

“I’m taking over,” Rathore said. “I’m working hard on it so we will open as soon as we can.”

Rathore is hoping to change the restaurant’s name and said he’s working with an attorney to see whether that’s possible. He’s also hoping to make several renovations to the restaurant, including replacing the floor and possibly the ceiling, and repainting the walls. He said he wants to make it “a totally different restaurant.”

“There’s a lot of money involved,” he said. “It’s a really big expense building a restaurant from scratch.” For the full article click here

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Mercom Capital sees jump in accelerator investments in health IT startups in Q3

Healthcare accelerators and incubators have been re-evaluating how they work with startups, such as dropping the investment for equity formula that so many started with. But a quarterly health IT investment report from Austin-based Mercom Capital Grouppoints to these groups continuing to play a role in early stage investment.

In the third quarter of 2016, 47 of the 87 deals at $2 million or less involved either an accelerator or incubator compared with 12 such deals in the second quarter, according to an executive summary of the report. For the third quarter last year, there were 69 early-stage deals under $2 million, including 22 accelerator and incubator deals, Mercom Capital CEO and Co-founder Raj Prabhu noted in response to follow-up questions. There were only 55 deals involving accelerators and incubators for all of 2015, Prabhu said. There have been 74 accelerator and incubator deals for year to date, Prabhu added.

Earlier this year 500 Startups took the wraps off of a dedicated digital health program, as did MassChallenge. But several accelerators dedicated to digital health that have been around since 2011 or longer have been making changes to their approach. Some have backed away from a traditional three-month program in favor of long-term sustainability, building funds with strategic investors and customized programs for payers, integrated health systems and other healthcare stakeholders. Although GE Healthcare is a partner with StartUp Health for its StartUp Health Academy, GE pledged to invest $50 million in an accelerator to foster digital health startups in developing countries. For the full article click here

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Here are the MACRA final rule changes you need to know

“We’re looking to make a long term program successful,” Slavitt said.

Last week, HHS released a barrage of regulations and guidance under it’s various arms. One final rule focused on health IT but the big news centered on CMS’ release of the highly anticipated Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2105 (MACRA) implementation final rule. The announcement differed somewhat from CMS’ previous releases. For one, the agency gave interested parties the news in the morning hours as opposed to within the happy/witching hour of 4 p.m. at the end of a working week. Another is the agency teamed up with the U.S. Digital Service team to produce an easy-to-use, informative website detailing the program.

Quick MAC-ground

The Medicare program covers about 55 million people, CMS’ acting Administrator Andy Slavitt noted on a call for reporters.

MACRA will eliminate the sustainable growth formula and replace it with a .5% annual rate increase through 2019, after which physicians are encouraged to shift to one of two Quality Payment Programs: 1) Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or 2): Alternative Payment Model (APM).

MIPS sunsets and packages up Meaningful Use, the Physician Quality Reporting System and the Value-Based Payment Modifier where physicians will receive payment adjustments based on quality (via both evidence-based standards and practice-based improvement activities), cost and use of certified EHR technology use. For the full article click here 

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Tolan Group Launches Digital Health Search Practice

October 16, 2016 –

The Tolan Group, a member of the Sanford Rose Associatesnetwork, has launched a new telehealth / digital health practice. Associate partner Kaye Johnson has been named practice leader.

“The digital health market is projected to reach $233 billion by 2020 and we needed a dedicated search professional to lead our efforts in this fast growing niche,” said Tim Tolan, the search firm’s chief executive officer and managing partner. “Patients and physicians are looking for a more streamlined approach by using smart phone and video technology to make faster clinical decisions by having access to data anywhere and at any time.”

Digital health, he said, will present huge growth opportunities and the need for talent in this sector will be highly competitive. “We have worked within the tele / mobile health niche on numerous positions, however creating a specialized practice will keep us at the forefront of the momentum and better able to serve our clients. Kaye is the perfect person to lead our efforts in digital health.”

A PricewaterhouseCoopers‘ study put healthcare in the top three biggest mobile trends for 2016. Digital technology looks set to revolutionize the future of health and social care. In 2017, the mobile health market is expected to reach $24.2 billon dollars worldwide. For the full article click here 

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Still Time –Nominations for HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards

Nominations close on Oct. 17 at 11:59 p.m. CDT for the HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards. The awards, established in 2016, honor female visionaries who have used the power of IT to transform health and healthcare. Online nominations and applications will be reviewed by a panel of judges that will select the first year’s recipients. Nominations must include two letters of recommendation, a resume/CV, and a 1,500 word write-up of the nominee.

“The HIMSS Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards program is unique, in that it is inclusive of all women of influence, no matter where they are in their career,” said Diane M. Carr, MA, FHIMSS, healthcare executive and educator, and Most Influential Women in Health IT Awards panel judge. “These awards will recognize women who have improved health and healthcare through the best use of health IT, and bring to light the importance of eliminating the gender pay gap in the field of health IT.”

In a September blog post, Carr noted that “findings of the HIMSS Longitudinal Gender Compensation Assessment report take direct aim at the claim that, in health IT, ‘You’ve come a long way.’” She suggests four guidelines in her post to achieve gender equity in the workplace.

This perspective continues with an online review, by Carla Smith, MA, FHIMSS, CNM, executive vice president, HIMSS, of the inequities in salary between men and women in health IT. Smith leads the Women in Health IT initiative at HIMSS. For the full article click here 

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Health IT startup using analytics to assess pain treatment, costs raises $16.5M

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published guidelines earlier this year in a bid to reduce opioid dependence sparking a mixed bag of support and outrage. The challenge to find ways to easily and efficiently manage opioid abuse is one that has attracted several healthcare startups, some of which have approached this subject from the perspective of patients or clinicians or both.

Axial Healthcare in Nashville, Tennessee developed a set of clinical support tools to analyze claims data and coordinate pain treatment between pharmacists, physicians and their patients. The company has raised $16.5 million in a Series B, according to a news release. The funding will be used to ramp up Axial’s customer base and double the size of the 50-staff workforce over the next 12-18 months, Axial Healthcare CEO John Donahue said in a phone interview. He added that insurers work with the company to give their providers access to Axial’s services. The health IT vendor’s client base includes large insurers and accountable care organizations.

Donahue noted that part of the startup’s mission is to check opioid misuse while supporting evidence-based care, physicians, and patients. Among the services Axial enlists are predictive analytics, a provider dashboard, network performance monitoring, and consultation between pharmacists and providers. The business also developed an app for patients with chronic pain. For the full article click here 

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No more waiting room clipboard? CrossChx launches mobile app for patient health history

CrossChx Inc. has started selling its digital appointment check-in service to independent physician practices and started directly reaching patients with a free mobile health history app that’s been downloaded 20,000 times.

The Columbus health IT company, assembling puzzle pieces toward a secure “internet of health care” for true portability and patient control of health records, also has expanded its board for the first time since its 2012 founding. Dr. David Agus, an oncologist at the University of Southern California and best-selling author, was named as the first independent director alongside the co-founders and lead investor.

“We probably delayed it longer than most do to expand the board,” co-founder and CEO Lane said. “I guarded that position very carefully.”

Agus advises Silicon Valley venture capitalists on health technology and is friends with tech moguls such as Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison and Salesforce.com Inc. CEO Marc Benioff. That can lead to product ideas, business opportunities and introductions to potential investors. For the full article click here 

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How Hemet officials are trying to cut health costs

As Hemet works to fix its budget, the biggest deficit remains the cost of health insurance for retirees.

The city is looking at paying at least $87 million over the next four to five decades to cover the cost of benefits for 265 workers, retired workers and their dependents.

Although the lifetime healthcare benefit was discontinued in 1998, there are still 225 retirees and 40 active employees in the program.

In an effort to help reign in those costs, the City Council voted Tuesday, Oct. 12, to create a trust account strictly for the program.

The account – referred to as an Other Post-Employment Benefit Trust – will earn higher interest and be easier to manage than the city’s current pay-as-you-go model, Deputy City Manager Jessica Hurst said. For the full article click here 

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Cost of health care in area on rise

MANKATO — Medical care costs for insured patients in Minnesota rose by more than 5 percent last year, according to new data analysis.

The 5.6 increase in medical costs statewide is the biggest since the MN Community Measurement nonprofit started releasing cost of care data for medical groups two years ago.

The nonprofit measures costs by tallying insurance claims made by the more than 1.5 million patients enrolled in the four health plans available in Minnesota last year.

On top of being a larger increase than the 3.2 percent one highlighted in last year’s report, the uptick also far outpaces income increases for Minnesotans over the same time period. For the full article click here 

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South Australian ED doctors attack Transforming Health changes

A MODBURY Hospital emergency department doctor has bravely spoken out about a raft of major concerns following the State Government’s controversial Transforming Health overhaul which has led to an average of 10 patient transfers everyday, putting people at unnecessary risk.

Dr Jackie Davidson, director of Modbury Hospital’s ED, told a parliamentary committee meeting today clinicians were not adequately consulted about the changes, that they were rushed into implementing them and there was huge concern among staff because no one wants to work at the hospital anymore.

She was one of three emergency department heads, speaking of behalf of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, who reported on the progress of changes at the Lyell McEwin, Modbury and Royal Adelaide hospitals. For the full article click here 

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Diving into Healthcare’s Data Blocking Enigma

Key healthcare stakeholders have argued both sides. Where does the truth lie?

I recently had a great conversation with Dr. Farzad Mostashari, M.D., one of the leading voices in health IT. A former National Coordinator for Health IT, Mostashari subsequently founded Aledade in 2014—a Bethesda. Md.-based company focused on physician-led accountable care organizations (ACOs).

During our interview, which can be read in full here, we touched on a multitude of industry-wide issues, but there was one thing that Mostashari said that definitely deserved a deeper dive. We were talking about IT challenges that ACOs in the trenches were having, and then I asked him about other physician pain points when it comes to IT. Here is what he said:

“First, there is the real world data blocking that we’re seeing. The first example is EHR [electronic health record] vendors—in order to fully develop that picture and really know your patient, and to know who needs your help, you need to do predictive modeling with the clinical data. It’s about getting clinical data out of EHRs that the practices have paid for and spent tens of thousands of hours putting data into them. Wanting to get your own data out is way too hard, expensive and slow. It’s neither cheap, easy nor fast; you get zero out of those three, and honestly I would settle for getting two out of those three. So that needs to be fixed.” For the full article click here 

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DHB member joins call for national mental health inquiry

Waikato District Health Board is reviewing the care its mental health service provided to Ross Bremner, who killed three people including his mother last week, before killing himself.

The 34-year-old had a number of brief in-patient stays at Waikato Hospital’s specialist mental health unit between 2003 and 2007, and spent six weeks in hospital in 2013.

Since then he had been living in the community under the care of his GP, with support from DHB services.

MidCentral Health DHB member Lindsay Burnell said there was huge pressure on the system, not just in Waikato but in other areas, including his own. For the full article click here 

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Health IT Platform Results in Better Patient Care

A nonprofit adopts a health information technology platform to decrease challenging conduct and restrictive residential living for people with behavioral issues.

Services for the UnderServed (SUS) is a New York City-based nonprofit organization that provides $185 million in services to individuals with disabilities, people living in poverty and those facing homelessness. The organization, which has a staff of close to 2,000, needed a way to track measurable results for people with behavioral issues, so it adopted a health information technology (HIT) platform.

HIT platforms make it much easier for health care organizations to gather and report results of value-based care delivery to governmental organizations and foundations. Proven success rates can also pave the way to get program funding. For the full article click here 

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In Trump’s America, towns in poor health don’t think he will save them

GEORGETOWN, Ohio — Here at the Brown County Fair — the biggest event of the year, when schools close for the week — is Donald Trump’s America.

People carry Trump/Pence yard signs across the promenade. Families stop to take pictures with a Trump cutout at the local Republican Party’s cabin.

But beyond the campaign swag is another sign you are in Trump Country.

This is an unhealthy place. Its residents die younger than all but a few other counties in this important swing state. The suicide rate is well above the national average. Brown County saw a 50 percent increase in drug overdose deaths over two years.

In one barn at this year’s fair, people stop to learn how to administer Narcan, the opioid overdose medication. On a wet September afternoon, the booth still had visitors. For the full article click here 

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Look Out For Guildford Buildings Lit Up Purple On Monday

World Mental Health Day (WMHD) is a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy.

Making a vibrant effort to highlight the importance of mental health and wellness, Guildford Castle, Tunsgate, the Guildhall and the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre will all turn ‘purple’.

The aim is to show solidarity in destigmatising issues around mental illness and support the legacy of Amanda Todd (a Canadian who took her own life at the age of 15) by promoting discussions surrounding mental health, digital safety, cyberbullying and exploitation. For the full article click here

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Greater awareness on mental health needed in Oman, say experts

Muscat: More initiatives need to be undertaken in Oman if better awareness about mental health is to be ensured, experts say.

Observed annually on October 10, the World Mental Health Day theme for this year is ‘Psychological First Aid.’

As per the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) website, “Efforts in support of the day will focus on basic pragmatic psychological support by people who find themselves in a helping role, whether they are health staff, teachers, firemen, community workers or police officers.”

According to Her Highness Sayyida Basma Al Said, owner and founder of the Whispers of Serenity Clinic, which deals with stress, depression and other issues linked to mental health, “It is really important to have a mental health awareness day. Mental health affects people every day and it’s always good for others to remember those who have suffered and understand it. For the full article click here

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Local suicide prevention advocate starts 21 day initiative

COLUMBUS, Ga.- More than 350 million people suffer from depression worldwide according to the World Health Organization and 8.3 million American adults have reported suicidal thoughts in the past year.

October 2-8 is Mental Health Awareness Week and Joanne Spencer has created a new initiative to help people overcome depression. She has started a 21 day challenge that focuses on your mind body and spirit.

Joanne Spencer is a Suicide Prevention Advocate she posted a 21 day initiative on Facebook to challenge people to eat healthy, think positive and build their spiritual relationships.

Spencer said, “More aware of what they eat and the thoughts that they have and their diet because a lot of time you go through life and you’re always doing this and doing that sometimes you don’t think about the consequences.” For the full article click here 

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8 Awesome Upcoming Health Technologies – How to Become Superhuman

In many ways, the advancement of healthcare is a trustworthy indicator of humanity’s development as a whole. This is because healthcare is one of the earliest beneficiaries of new technology. Today, technologies such as the internet, electronic health records, smartphones and wearables are making huge impacts on the healthcare sector. As tech rapidly advances over the next decade, expect even more positive improvements in healthcare.

It will become easier to diagnose and treat diseases, especially the challenging ones like cancer. Even more importantly, it will greatly improve health monitoring and preventive care. Instead of treating a disease after it has already struck, doctors and patients can detect health problems in their early stages and apply preventive care.

Another big healthcare improvement we expect to see in the coming years, and which is already happening, is personal health. Wearables have been especially crucial in creating the personal health boom. Using devices such as fitness bands, people can track their fitness, heart rate and general health. Other devices allow people to test for things like blood sugar at home. As the quality and accuracy of home testing kits improve, people will become more proactive in managing their own health. For the full article click here 

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Health Informatics and Health IT Certificate Program Information Session

Are you interested in entering a quickly expanding field in healthcare?

Attend one of our info sessions to learn why our students are so well prepared to enter the workforce and why Health IT jobs are in such high demand. For the full article click here 

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Increasing Amount of Money Spent on Health IT

HealthDay News — Doctors are spending more than $32,000 per year on health information technology (IT), according to an article published inMedical Economics.

Results from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) survey suggest that medical groups spend more than $32,500 per year for every full-time doctor in their practice. Multisite practices incur additional costs for salaries of IT support staff and equipment, maintenance, and supplies.

Between 2009 and 2015, costs for IT increased by 40%, with the biggest increases seen in 2010 and 2011; costs can be expected to continue increasing at considerable rates. For the full article click here 

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Denver Health IT Firm Welltok Picks Up $33.7M to Push Wellness Tools

Welltok has raised a $33.7 million Series E funding round to sign up more customers and further develop its software that aims to encourage healthy habits.

The Denver-based health IT company sells its software, called CaféWell, to healthcare providers, insurers, government programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and employers. Those groups use it to incentivize their patients and employees to take steps to boost their health, partly by providing users with benefits and rewards. The software can also make health recommendations and help users track their progress.

The funding is aimed at helping Welltok expand its service to more clients, the company said in a press statement. It’ll also be worth watching to see if Welltok uses the money to scoop up other companies. Welltok has made a string of acquisitions in recent years, including Predilytics, a Burlington, MA-based machine learning company,gamification system Zamzee, and Seattle-based mobile healthcare app Mindbloom, among others. For the full article click here 

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Northeastern grad students develop all-in-one health tracker

Want to track your blood pressure? Pull out the blood pressure cuff. Curious about your temperature? Grab a thermometer from the medicine cabinet.

But several engineers from Northeastern University have created one device that does all of that and more, and the creators are looking to raise up to $2 million from both US and Chinese investors to finance its development.

In all, the Lifestone device, as it’s called, is capable of measuring blood pressure with a detachable cuff, body temperature with an IR sensor, blood oxygen level, heart rate, respiratory rate, EKG, “stress index”, and an optional add-on for a stethoscope that can listen and record the body’s internal sounds.

The device connects to an app that can track all these stats and even share them with family or medical professionals. For the full article click here  

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Could Apple be working on an electronic health record?

As sure as apple cider mills in October, the Apple rumor mill is heating up, particularly as it applies to healthcare. This fall’s crop is especially juicy.

Politico took the latest crack at gazing into the opaque ball (or whatever the opposite of crystal is), trying to figure out what Apple might be up to. In a story published Tuesday afternoon, Politico reported that the tech giant recently deleted a job listing seeking a lawyer specializing in healthcare data privacy and FDA compliance. That could mean that someone’s been hired.

Already in the Apple fold are nearly 100 employees with experience in healthcare or “with significant medical backgrounds,” Politico reported, citing a review of LinkedIn page. According to that story:

The current roster includes 22 staff with expertise in medical devices, for example, and 17 medical sensor experts. The staff include a designer who made a package of sensors and software to assess whether the sounds of one’s joints indicate osteoporosis, and an individual with expertise in atrial fibrillation.

The publication also referenced a Bloomberg story from last week, which said Cupertino, California-based Apple was looking to add clinical decision support to its HealthKithealth information platform. HealthKit might serve as an interoperability tool in the future, Bloomberg reported. For the full article click here 

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Georgia College debuts Global Health minor

This fall Georgia College is making available its new Global Health minor for the first time. While some students may be interested in the minor but be unsure because their majors have nothing to do with nursing or public health. Dr. Sallie Coke, associate professor of Nursing, said this minor is for anyone that has an interest in studying health on a macro scale.

The minor combines various different classes and fields of study, including courses in Kinesiology, Geography and Public Health. It also includes a required international fieldwork experience, to be possibly located in the Philippians, Honduras or Belize. One quality about this minor that may attract students is that its diverse coursework allows for overlap with several major fields of study.

The object behind the overlapping courses is to hopefully boost the amount of GC graduates who leave with a major, as well as a minor. Dr. Sallie Coke and Liz Havey of the International Education Center were the catalysts behind the new minor, but they also reached out to faculty such as professor of geography Dr. Chuck Fahrer and Dr. Scott Butler of the school of Health and Human Performance. For the full article click here 

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Healthcare ransomware attack: Prevention and backups are critical

A healthcare ransomware attack may be inevitable. They’ve increased 300% since 2015. One CIO says that prevention measures and backups are key to protecting the organization.

There are a lot of complicating factors when it comes to a healthcare ransomware attack. Like any cybersecurity threat or attack, health IT professionals want to do everything in their power to prevent one from happening. But equally as important is planning for what can be done after a healthcare organization has been hit by a ransomware attack.

Unfortunately, being hit by a ransomware attack is likely. In early 2016 alone, there were 4,000 daily attacks against healthcare organizations. That’s a 300% increase from the 1,000 daily ransomware attacks reported in 2015,according to a U.S. government interagency report.

However, healthcare CIOs agree that if an organization is hit by a ransomware attack, the ransom should not be paid.

“You really should not be paying these people,” said Harun Rashid, vice president of Global Health Services and CIO of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). “Because once you start paying, you will only, probably, be more of a suspect for other ransomware because they know you are paying and you are giving into those things.” For the full article click here 

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CEO Spotlight: Former ONC chief Farzad Mostashari on EHR shortcomings and pop health potential

Farzad Mostashari, MD, has a unique vantage point over the health information technology industry. Previously he served as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Today he is founder and CEO of Aledade, a company that markets technology and services designed to help independent primary care practices come together to form accountable care organizations (ACOs) that can take on the total cost of care and share in value created.

Aledade operates ACOs across 11 states and handles nearly 100,000 patients in more than 110 physician practices. In June 2015, the company raised a Series B Funding Round of $30 million and now employs a staff of more than 80 experts in health policy, technology and practice transformation. This growth, the company said, is driven by the need of primary care physicians to begin the shift from volume-based care to value-based care with the aim of delivering better care at a lower cost.

Healthcare IT News spoke with Mostashari about about a variety of topics, from ACOs and technology trends to EHR shortcomings.

Q: What is the state of technology within accountable care organizations? What must technology do, and what is the role of population health within an ACO?
A: One way to think about the role of technology here is the electronic health record is the transactional piece of healthcare where a patient’s care needs to be delivered. But it does not address very well – despite many years of effort on the part of meaningful use and other programs – the concept of population health. So the needs from a population health tool perspective are, first, get the data, so there is a whole lot of infrastructure work around assembling and integrating claims data, clinical data, ADT data, event notifications from hospitals, practice management system data, and scheduling system data. And then, collecting data from the use of apps to understand what physician practices are doing and what they need to be doing. For the full article click here 

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Will “Telehealth” Soon Become, Simply, “Health?”

A Health IT Summit-New York panel discussion probed exciting healthcare delivery potentialities

It was my privilege and pleasure last week to moderate a panel discussion on telehealth and population health at the Health IT Summit in New York, sponsored by our publication, Healthcare Informatics. Our panel discussion, under the title “Telehealth: New Platform for Population Health,” was privileged to have with us Rahul Sharma, M.D., emergency physician-in-chief in the Division of Emergency Medicine, New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center; Mony Weschler, chief and senior director, applications and innovations strategy, at Montefiore Health Systems; and Todd D. Ellis, a managing director at KPMG.

We looked at a broad range of issues, including payment, industry, clinical practice, and technological developments that have been dramatically expanding the concept and implementation of telehealth. For example, as noted in the report on the session published by our Assistant Editor Heather Landi, Dr. Sharma shared extensively with our audience about a telehealth initiative that has been very successful at New York Presbyterian-Weil Cornell, involving efforts to reduce waiting times in that organization’s emergency department by offering patients waiting in the ED the opportunity to move next door in the facility to a space where they can immediately be seen by a physician via a telehealth connection. “We launched a pilot telehealth program so when a patient comes into the ER, they have the option of a virtual visit through real-time video interactions with a clinician after having an initial triage and medical screening exam. So they go to a private room and see a clinician via a telehealth monitor,” Sharma noted. “The analogy we use is that years ago there were banks going up on every single street corner, and then the banks all put in ATMs. And people said that’s crazy, why go to ATM when can go to the teller? It’s the same concept. We’re allowing patients a choice in how they get healthcare.” For the full article click here 

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Health-e News: The role of supermarkets in the nation’s obesity

Obesity in South Africa has hit epidemic proportions. But while the science is clear about the extent of our expanding waist lines, it is not as easy to quantify the why. Where lies the responsibility of the individual when we grow, learn and age in a “toxic” food environment? Fast food outlets are known villains but a growing body of evidence is questioning the role played by the seemingly innocuous supermarket in creating a super-sized South Africa. By Amy Green for HEALTH-E NEWS.

South African women are one of the most severely obese populations in the world, ranking ninth out of 186 countries in 2014, according to a study published in the medical journal the Lancet in April. Local women account for 2.7% of all the obese women on the planet.

And it’s not only adults who are tipping the scales. The World Obesity Federation estimates that just over 8% of the nation’s five- to 18-year-olds are obese. By 2025 they predict more than one in 10 kids will be classified as obese.

“It’s not a debate – it’s a shocking reality,” says Professor Tess van der Merwe, president of the South African Society for Surgery, Obesity and Metabolism.

She says that high body weight predisposes one to developing a host of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. And rates of these illnesses, which historically occur later in life, are escalating in the nation’s children.

But what, or who, is to blame? For the full article click here 

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Sick Building Syndrome: What It Is and Tips for Prevention

“Sick building syndrome” is the name given to a collection of illnesses and symptoms that afflict multiple occupants of particular buildings. The symptoms include sniffles; stuffy noses; itchy eyes; sinus infections; scratchy throats; dry, irritated skin; upset stomachs; headaches; difficulty concentrating; and fatigue or lethargy. The key factors in diagnosing sick building syndrome are a rapid recovery and the disappearance of symptoms after an affected individual leaves the building.

Occurrences are not rare, nor is there a simple solution. Sick building syndrome is common enough that many government agencies have published research on causes and symptoms. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health included it as a recognized health issue¹ in its Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Third Edition. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration also calls out sick building syndrome, which it refers to simply as “indoor air quality,” and makes several recommendations for remediation, especially increased ventilation.

Causes of Sick Building Syndrome
During the first energy crisis in the 1970s, builders and building owners took steps to reduce energy consumption in office buildings. Measures included increased insulation, building wraps, weatherstripping doors, and using insulated double- and triple-pane windows, among others. In many cases, buildings were erected or renovated to include windows that couldn’t open, to minimize loss of heated or cooled air. The result: Some modern buildings feel as if they are airtight. For the full article click here 

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Michigan endowment to subsidize Medigap premiums in 2017

LANSING, MICH.

A fund created through the restructuring of Michigan’s largest health insurer will spend $44 million next year to begin partially offsetting a spike in the cost of supplemental insurance that covers Medicare recipients’ coinsurance and deductibles.

The Michigan Health Endowment Fund’s initial contribution — which will dampen the impact of Blue Cross Blue Shield ending a five-year rate freeze on its Medigap policies— is more than a third of the $120 million it must spend through 2021.

The fund is frontloading the aid to try to effectively cut the premium hike in half. Blue Cross has estimated that seniors in its most popular Medigap plan in southeastern Michigan will see rate increases ranging from $48 a month to $177 per month.

“The most vulnerable seniors are going to get this help,” the fund’s CEO, Paul Hillegonds, said in an interview.

Enrollment runs through Dec. 15. That is the window to get the full subsidy for 2017. Residents will have to re-apply each year. For the full article click here 

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