Although Lean methodologies have their origin in the automobile industry, Lean applied to healthcare can improve the patient experience, while eliminating waste and reducing financial costs. 

In this insightful interview, Lean expert Thomas Palopoli, shares why healthcare may be the best industry to apply Lean methodologies, how to overcome the greatest challenges in implementing Lean, and 4 key starting steps for leaders who wish to transform their organization to Lean.

Healthcare AI expert Dr. Anthony Chang breaks down the relationship between stronger networks and smarter AIs.

The increasing adoption of 5G in healthcare organizations and new developments in AI and machine learning are two major trends of the moment in health IT. On today's show, HITN Senior Editor Kat Jercich and CHOC Chief Intelligence and Information Officer Dr. Anthony Chang join host Jonah Comstock for a conversation about how these trends intersect and why 5G (and beyond?) will help support the future of healthcare AI.

The agency's analysis suggests increases in interoperability and patient-provider communication, along with frequent use of mobile health apps.

A brief out this month from the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT found an increase in patient portal access and online medical record download rates over the past few years.  

"In minutes, the software identified nearly 54,000 patients with the condition, a process that would likely have taken years for physicians to perform manually," a physician researcher tells Healthcare IT News.

Although healthcare is squarely in the era of big data and data analytics, it remains difficult in clinical research to accurately identify patients with complex conditions like valvular heart disease through medical records.

THE PROBLEM

And if researchers cannot identify these patients, they cannot study them, track practice patterns or conduct population management.

Part of the problem is that the current methods used to identify highly specific conditions like valvular heart disease use diagnosis or procedure codes. These were created primarily for billing purposes and often are not very useful for clinical care because they can be quite nonspecific and not include detailed data about the condition.

Med-Tech Innovation News sat down with Dr. Waqaas Al-Sadiq, CEO of Biotricity to find out more about the company, including its offering in digital health and medical devices.

First of all, tell us about Biotricity?

Biotricity is a remote patient monitoring company that focusses on the cardiac space. Our vision is to create a complete solution that follows cardiac patients throughout their cardiac journey. Our first product, Bioflux, is focussed on real-time diagnostics and we have a product roadmap designed to support those patients post diagnosis. At our core, we are a technology company focussed on healthcare solutions that are delivered to healthcare providers in a tech-as-a-service model.

Your product line consists of four devices – tell us about how they work, both individually and together, if possible?

Bioflux is our core, product which is used to diagnose patients. Biocare Telemed is designed for follow up visits or to support remote prescribing of Bioflux. Bioheart is an upcoming product designed for the consumer market, for individuals diagnosed on the Bioflux or a similar diagnostic product. Lastly, we have Biocare pain management, an interactive app designed to provide patients and physicians a way to manage pain when they log in and track.

Jean Luc, founder and chief executive officer of HexTransforma Healthcare, spoke to Med-Tech Innovation about its emergence and entering the medtech and healthtech space.

First of all, tell us about HexTransforma Healthcare – where did the idea come from?

I broke my ankle whilst playing rugby back in 2017 and experienced first-hand the frustration caused by an overwhelmed, fragmented health system. The doctors responsible for my care informed me I’d have to wait at least six weeks to get a referral appointment to a specialist due to a lack of capacity in the system, which effectively prevented me from accessing the required services sooner and ultimately impacted my recovery. In these six weeks, I experienced ongoing swelling, tenderness, and pain and was left worried about the potential of delayed care causing more serious damage to my ankle. It was then that the innovation and desire behind HexTransforma’s remote monitoring solution was born, and eventually the company itself.

Technology has proved to be a blessing for consumers who today have a plethora of care options and improved access to care. This is not the case with frontline providers who continue to suffer from burnout and fatigue.

During the early years of implementing electronic health records in hospitals, nearly 15 years ago, I recall an intensivist in the CCU warning that EHR systems are a disaster.

The reason? An inherent order form within the application prevented the physician from prescribing medicine in the dosage he required. Technology has its glitches, and all those who have been part of EHR implementations during those years will remember the challenges they have had to face.

Fast forward 15 years, and today, the electronic health record has become the central hub for all digital developments in healthcare. With the stabilization of the EHR systems, the demand to make healthcare more user-friendly has only increased.

The introduction of FHIR APIs and the interoperability ruling has further opened the market to a slew of consumer-friendly healthcare services that rival Uber and Amazon. The two decades of digital transformation have been expedited in the last two years due to COVID-19, which has made change management easier than it previously was.

Ransomware and other cyberattacks on healthcare organizations are growing rapidly in numbers and scope. To better protect their high-value data, organizations need to look at the vulnerability of their medical devices which are increasingly becoming a path of attack. An important step in securing those devices is having an accurate risk profile for each of them.

More Connected Devices

The number of connected devices has exploded in recent years and is expected to continue to grow at an accelerated rate. What we are seeing is the rise of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) where devices are connected to each other and to clinical applications including EMRs.

Successful transformation towards value-based health care (VBHC) involves a change to the organizational culture. This must be done inclusively, with a reward system and outcome-based incentive model that is focused on achieving a common goal: deliver the best health outcomes to patients.

In Part 2 of this interview, Christina Åkerman speaks to us about how to implement such an outcome-based incentive model to ensure the success of VBHC in your organization.

Outcome-based contracting is helping enable the shift from fee-for-service payment and delivery models to more value-based healthcare models

Outcome-based contracting is helping to drive value-based healthcare (VBHC) by transforming the way cutting edge and high-cost therapies are being delivered to patients and paid for. 

In this interview, we sat down with Girisha Fernando, CEO of Lyfegen, whose company exists to improve the life of every patient by driving the world’s transition to value and outcome-based healthcare. Girisha shares his insights about the move towards VBHC, why this is so vital, and how corporations and startups can work together to be the necessary change. 

Improving equality, affordability and access to healthcare 

HT: What problem in healthcare did you set out to solve when you created Lyfegen, and why was it important to you to solve that problem?

Girisha Fernando: When I was a teenager, in just a short period of time, both of my grandfathers had passed away at a young age due to cancer and heart failure. If they would have had access to the right treatments, they might still be alive today.

We all have seen loved ones falling ill to a serious disease, and we want to make sure that they have the best possible treatment. This is why we created Lyfegen. We want  to make healthcare more equitable by increasing access and affordability to healthcare and treatments for patients. 

2020 saw three factors combine to define the future of “Hospital at Home” care in a way that will become a new care reality over the coming years.

Changing Patient Attitudes

Researchers surveyed nearly 600 health IT and security professionals about the ways cyberattacks disrupt care delivery and put patient safety at risk.

A report released Wednesday by the Ponemon Institute found that ransomware attacks in the time of COVID-19 have had an impact on patient safety, data and overall care availability.  

An expert in emerging technology from the IEEE Standards Association describes the elements that must be considered as artificial intelligence proliferates across healthcare.

The topic of ethics and artificial intelligence is not new, but businesses and policy creators should prioritize human wellbeing and environmental flourishing – also known as societal value – in the discussion, says John C. Havens, director of emerging technology and strategic development at the IEEE Standards Association.

Typically, ethical concerns tied to AI largely focus on risk, harm and responsibility; bias against race and gender; unintended consequences; and cybersecurity and hackers. 

These are important concerns, but Havens contends that as AI systems are created, they must directly address human-centric, values-driven issues as key performance indicators of success to build trust with end users.

Havens further says that AI systems must also prioritize human wellbeing (specifically, aspects of caregiving, mental health and physiological needs not currently included in the GDP) and environmental flourishing as the ultimate metrics of success for society along with fiscal prosperity. Flourishing means restoration of the ecosystem, not just avoiding harm,

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In recognition of this awareness month, we are highlighting Innovative companies, like KUBTEC, that continue to challenge the status quo of breast cancer.

Patient journeys are being revolutionised thanks to interactive technology which puts consumers at the heart of their own care. Hear how international experts are leveraging technology to gain fresh insight into the patient experience.

Traditionally, healthcare data has centred around clinicians and institutions who largely controlled patient interaction. Lately, however, there has been a shift to consumer-centred systems. This is enabling patients to interact with health professionals and get involved in their own care, leading to greater engagement, improved outcomes and increased satisfaction.

The speakers at the "Transforming the patient experience through a modernised journey-led approach" webinar were A/Prof Clair Sullivan, Head, University of Queensland Digital Health Network; Kristi Roe, Head of Healthcare Experience, Medallia; and A/Prof Low Cheng Ooi, Chief Technology Officer, Sheares Healthcare Group. The session was moderated by Andrew Pearce, Senior Digital Health Strategist, Analytics, HIMSS.   

"It starts with feeling heard and I think that’s just been a big miss. I think when they [patients] are in live interactions, they feel heard… And so by leveraging technology, you listen at scale," said Roe.

A/Prof Sullivan believes technology improves patient engagement: "I am desperately trying to use digital technology to empower patients, to let them learn about their

As Mayo Clinic rolls out its hospital-at-home program in Arizona, John Halamka, M.D., president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, described the organization’s experience creating a centralized command center and scaling up the service.

Speaking at a panel session at the recent Tech Forum of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, HalamkasaidMayo Clinic has worked through practical issues around making hospital at home a reality. For instance, what is the user experience like? What is the redundancy and disaster recovery? What is the provider experience? And how do you integrate all of these components into work flow?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today announced $100,000 in total awards to six winners of the Synthetic Health Data Challenge (Challenge). Synthetic health data (i.e., data that is artificially created to mimic real-world data), is important to researchers, health IT developers, and informaticians, among others, who need data to test new ideas until access to secure and actual clinical data is available.

The Challenge was conducted under ONC's Synthetic Health Data Generation to Accelerate Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) project, which is supported by HHS' Office of the Secretary Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund. Challenge winners created and tested innovative and novel solutions that will further augment the capabilities of Synthea™, an open-source synthetic health data generator that models the medical histories of synthetic patients. The availability of reliable and robust synthetic data generation tools safeguard patient privacy because they support appropriate stewardship practices in which real patient data is only accessed and used when necessary.

"The availability of realistic, synthetic data is a vital part of supporting iterative testing models and early stage research and product development," said Steve Posnack, deputy national coordinator for health information technology. "We received a lot of inspired submissions that took this work to the next level and hope that each winner can serve as a foundation to further enhance tools that create synthetic data."

The Synthetic Health Data Challenge winning solutions are:

The time it takes for clinical innovation and evidence-based practices to reach patients remains a major challenge for the health care sector. In 2015, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) launched the Diffusion of Excellence Initiative aimed at aligning organizational resources with early-stage to midstage promising practices and innovations to replicate, scale, and eventually spread those with greatest potential for impact and positive outcomes. Using a 5-step systematic approach refined over time, frontline VHA staff have submitted more than 1676 practices since the initiative’s inception, 47 of which have been selected as high-impact, Gold Status practices. These Gold Status practices have been replicated more than 412 times in Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country, improving care for more than 100,000 veterans and approximately $22.6 million in cost avoidance for the VHA. More importantly, practices such as Project HAPPEN (Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Prevention by Engaging Nurses to complete oral care) and rapid availability of intranasal naloxone have saved veterans’ lives. Several practices are now being implemented across the country, and the Diffusion of Excellence Initiative is playing a pivotal role as the VHA works to modernize its health care system. This initiative serves as a promising model for other health care systems seeking to accelerate the spread and adoption of clinical innovation and evidence-based practices.