In-Depth Interview with Protiviti Managing Director Matthew Jackson. He shares the implications of digital transformation in the healthcare industry.

Hello. This is Kevin Donahue with Protiviti, welcoming you to a new edition of Powerful Insights and our series on cybersecurity awareness. Protiviti has a series of webinars on cybersecurity awareness that, along with these accompanying podcasts, are intended to highlight ways organizations can be proactive in addressing these critical security challenges. We explore how leaders can dynamically build cyber resilience while maximizing value.

US-based Next Level Urgent Care has selected healthcare information technology solutions provider Allscripts to improve its electronic health record (EHR) workflows as well as analytics across all its locations.

“We look forward to supporting Next level Urgent Care’s vision of harnessing integrated clinical and financial solutions that drive improved outcomes for the organization and its patient communities.”

Novartis has launched a new virtual innovation hub, Novartis Biome sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), for expediting digital health solutions in the region.
Novartis sub-Saharan Africa president and head Racey Muchilwa said: “Our goal is to provide every patient in SSA with affordable access to high-quality medicines and to ultimately transform healthcare in the region.

“For this, innovation and digital technologies have an immense potential to contribute, and with cross-sectoral partnerships, we can truly maximise the impact on the health of our people.

The ONC is responsible for the certification program for health information technology, which is required to be eligible for a payment or to avoid a penalty. As part of HITECH the ONC also oversaw the $564 million State Health Information Exchange (HIE) Cooperative Agreement Program. "Long-term financial sustainability for organizations facilitating health information exchange appears to be the most pressing challenge. The fact that three-quarters of efforts cite developing a sustainable business model as a major barrier is a warning to policy makers that the growth in health information exchange will likely falter unless these efforts become self-sustaining or there is a long-term public commitment to their financing." To address many of the concerns on building out a national infrastructure for health information exchange in 2012 the ONC announced its plan for enforcing Conditions of Trusted Exchange (CTE) and Network Validated Entities (NVE). Using our Medicity iNexx software we were able to quickly set up a Health Information Service Provider (HISP) in order to enable Direct secure messaging between provider organizations.

This original research paper was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) mHealth and uHealth; the full text can be accessed in this link  Background: Despite the exis…

Objective: The aim of this study was to focus on understanding clinicians’ roles in the adoption of an oncology decision support app, the factors impacting this adoption, and its implications for organizational and social practices. Results: This case demonstrates the affordances and constraints of mHealth technology at the workplace, its implications for the organization of work, and clinicians’ role in its constant development and adoption.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a cybersecurity briefing warning health systems about the threat of “zero-day attacks.” Zero-day attacks occur when hackers weaponize an unknown vulnerability in a system to target the flaw before the developers have identified it. Perhaps the most famous zero-day attack to date occurred in 2010 when the Stuxnet worm exploited multiple vulnerabilities in Windows systems and reportedly destroyed multiple centrifuges at a nuclear power plant in Iran.

For the 73rd episode of the Healthcare IT Podcast, we’re sharing the keys to a thriving and attractive medical  practice. Plus, we have a special guest host, Chad Anguilm, Vice President of Practice Solutions at Medical Advantage. What are the keys to successfully marketing a medical practice?

Here’s a preview of the questions we discuss in this episode:

• What are the big challenges you see when a medical practice is struggling?
• Where does technology play a role in a successful practice today?
• What are the keys to successfully marketing a medical practice?
• How can a practice ensure they’re attractive to private equity or other organizations that may want to buy them?  How can they increase the value of a practice?

Dr Brian Huber, Vice President of Therapeutic Areas, Drug Development and Consulting at ICON and Matthew Huber, a scientist in the emerging biotechnology sector focused on developing innovative oncology medicines, have conducted a review that highlights how innovation, from the development of targeted therapies to a revolution in clinical trial designs, puts an emphasis on patient centricity. Innovation in oncology clinical drug development is needed, not only to enable more effective and efficient development of new cancer therapies, but also to give patients – including those with rare forms of cancer – access to new therapies much sooner. Therapies developed back then were ‘cytotoxic’ drugs whose cell-destroying actions were largely based upon the observation that cancer cells divide more rapidly than most normal cells in the body.

Before the pandemic, only six states required telehealth services to be reimbursed at the same rate as equivalent offline services. The lack of legislative efforts to provide equal reimbursement is one of the biggest barriers to telehealth that inhibits the broad adoption of telemedicine services. According to the 2020 Telehealth Impact Study Physician Survey, over 73% of healthcare organizations believe reimbursement will be one of the most significant challenges with telemedicine after lockdown is lifted. The government has made progress in service and payment parity after the COVID-19 outbreak by implementing laws that made insurance companies and patients pay for telehealth as they would for traditional healthcare. However, only 14 states offer true payment parity, establishing that medical practitioners are reimbursed at the same rate for telemedicine services and in-person medical care.

Season 3: Episode #102 Podcast with B.J. Moore, EVP and CIO, Providence Health Hosted by Paddy Padmanabhan.

Moore discusses Providence’s investments in digital health innovation and advises digital health start-ups to focus on consumer experience.

Dr. Perrin also said it's common for lab results to be shared before a provider has a chance to review them in the context of a patient's medical history.

Plastic surgeons, general surgeons, orthopedists and urologists were the top four physician specialities facing medical malpractice suits in 2021, according to the 2021 Medscape Malpractice Report published Nov. 19.

The four specialities sued the most were plastic surgeons and general surgeons (83 percent), followed by orthopedists (81 percent) and urologists (80 percent).

Cleveland Clinic ended the third quarter of this year with higher revenue and operating income than in the same period a year earlier. Cleveland Clinic posted net income of $422.2 million in the third quarter of 2021, down from $603.8 million in the same period a year earlier.

On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a  $1.5 billion investment to help grow and diversify the nation’s health care workforce, and bolster health equity in the communities that need it most during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years to come.

Selecting a partner that maximizes both the revenue cycle and the patient financial experience is a practice in purpose and passion.

Healthcare providers typically rely on a multitude of vendors to help them deliver care to patients. Depending on time and interests, physicians themselves may or may not work directly with revenue cycle management vendors; however, healthcare administrators communicate with vendor representatives more frequently — weekly or even daily. Providers and vendors work together to establish initial goals and KPIs based on historical data. This is the reason some providers choose to maintain ties with vendors they aren’t satisfied with, even if doing so negatively impacts their overall operations. Selecting a partner that maximizes both the revenue cycle and the patient financial experience is a practice in purpose and passion. While these tips are helpful for avoiding mishaps with established vendor relationships, providers should take note of the following five steps before choosing a vendor. To that end, ask vendors to provide client lists, and call a handful of those clients to learn more about their experiences. You might be meeting with them weekly or even daily when there is a lot to be done, and you’ll want to know that you can count on your partners to provide the support you need when you need it. As your practice evolves, a good vendor will help guide your growth with recommendations based on real-time analytics and deep domain expertise.

Imaging technologies are continuously improving. In some cases, imaging advancement allows for enhanced diagnostics, such as using a CT scan

In particular, their benefits are being showcased in the blood work field to expedite the blood drawing or IV placement experience and reduce patient discomfort. One of the most common complaints when receiving blood work is the number of tries it takes to get the needle into the vein. To help make the process of blood drawing smoother, vein visualizers provide a way for phlebotomists to see the veins more easily. One auspicious method of vein visualization utilizes near-infrared imaging technology, which is commonly used in smartwatches to measure blood oxygen saturation. By making the needle placement process easier and faster through the usage of vein finders, the experience of these patients improves; they don’t experience as much pain, discomfort, and agitation.

The CHIME Digital Health Most Wired survey found 26% of healthcare organizations reported a quarter or more of their patients have used telehealth, compared with only 7% in 2019.

This year, 26% of healthcare organizations – including acute care, ambulatory care and long-term or post-acute care facilities – reported a quarter or more of their patients had used telehealth. The CHIME survey found 80% of acute and ambulatory care organizations reported greater than 10% of their patients had used telemedicine services in the past year, while 68% of long-term care facilities reported telehealth use at that level. Though telehealth, virtual care and other digital health offerings were available before COVID-19, the pandemic pushed healthcare providers and patients to adopt these tools more rapidly.

Baby boomers are less likely to see therapists or psychiatrists, despite the growing need during the pandemic. Telehealth could help lower those barriers to care.

It's time we talked about how to address the mental health crisis among older Americans and the healthcare industry's collective responsibility to find accessible solutions. So what's keeping boomers from addressing mental health? A range of contributing factors include lingering stigma around mental health among aging generations, difficulties in finding accessible coverage – including a lack of practitioners who accept Medicare – and primary care physicians and other healthcare practitioners who hold on to anachronistic, inaccurate views of mental health as separate from physical health. The embrace of telehealth options by previously reluctant mental health professionals could help those who have limited access to mental health services due to geographical proximity or mobility issues, which are particularly prevalent among aging people.

Several hospitals have launched large fundraising campaigns to support research and capital projects. The purpose: About $500 million will go to a capital project for two patient care towers. The purpose: Money from the "We're Changing Medicine" campaign will go toward capital projects, new technology and research advancement. The purpose: The health system is investing funds from the "Caring for You … Then, Now, Always" campaign into the local community, including a new patient tower on the Akron campus and renovations to the Barberton, Ohio, campus.

The right insight, for the right patient, at the right time can be the difference between the care a patient needs and the care many receive.

These gaps in care lessen patients’ trust in the care team, lower patient and provider satisfaction, and increase costs for the patient and health system. An integration engine that delivers analytic insight directly into the electronic health record (EHR)workflow empowers clinicians to close patient care gaps in real time and deliver better, more cost-effective care. By delivering the right insight, for the right patient, at the right time, clinicians can close gaps in patient care, maximize every patient visit, and operate at the top of their license. With critical patient insight at their fingertips, clinicians can close gaps in patient care and maximize the value of every patient visit.

For example, surgical planning and navigation have improved consistently through computed tomography (CT), ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), while minimally invasive surgery (MIS), combined with robotic assistance, resulted in decreased surgical trauma and improved patient recovery. AI assist through surgical robotics Designed to assist during operations with surgical instruments’ manipulation and positioning, AI-driven surgical robots are computer-manipulated devices that allow surgeons to focus on the complex aspects of a surgery. Asensus Surgical has a performance-guided laparoscopic AI robot that provides information back to surgeons, such as size of tissue, rather than requiring a physical measuring tap. At the same time, human skills are used for programming these robots by demonstration – and for teaching them by imitating operations conducted by surgeons. In a second stage, surgical robots recognize, model and conduct the sub-tasks in a sequential mode, hence providing human surgeons with a break from repetitive tasks.

Ideally promotes collaboration in digital health strategy, according to Healthbox Director Julie Campbell.
 

As healthcare leaders, you have the hard job of knowing what to prioritize in your organization.
What I found more interesting was the next two most important priorities: Clinical Communication and EHR Optimization. However, these survey results clearly indicate that bread and butter things like clinical communication and EHR optimization are still things that can be improved. However, the above results seem to say that there’s more value for a healthcare organization to work on clinical communication than to go chasing after the latest AI or telehealth solution. Plus, let’s not discount many of the innovations that are happening in data security, interoperability, clinical communication, and EHR optimization.

Legacy applications have served Healthcare organizations for years, however these applications are causing problems executives must address. Some of these issues include licensing, support and reliability, enhanced data retention requirements and security problems.

Sunsetting these applications is not simple and straightforward though and several factors must be considered when identifying which applications and supporting infrastructure must be updated.

Join our panel discussion on December 2nd, 2021 from 1:00pm – 2:00pm ET to hear how Healthcare executives are developing the strategies needed to evaluate legacy application migration and how to balance that against the need to add new applications and infrastructure as part of your innovation efforts.

Digital care applications are among the most wanted innovations in the Germany.

Pharma giant Novartis is looking for creative, digital solutions that sustainably improve German healthcare. With the Digital Health Award, the global healthcare company, originally based in Switzerland, honours innovative, digital health solutions and projects on specific trend topics. Dr Thomas Lang, Managing Director at Novartis Pharma Deutschland, declared: "We are very pleased that with the DGP (Digital Health Award), year after year, we support projects that can create real added value for patients."