Telemedicine programs boosting patient engagement but not ROI, study says

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Digital health: South Island electronic referrals hit one million

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

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

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

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

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

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Two more healthcare networks caught up in outbreak of hospital ransomware

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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VA launches 10-year, $22.3 billion procurement program

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

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

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

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

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

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

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