Growing up in Alaska, Dr. Yolanda Evans saw firsthand the healthcare gaps found in rural populations, a divide that includes mental health care.

As an adolescent healthcare provider at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where she sees youths facing issues such as eating disorders and gender dysphoria, Evans has kept those concerns top of mind since joining the faculty in 2011.

“I knew that I wanted to try to serve more rural patients,” she says. “I understand the needs in these communities.”

Remote areas often lack specialists to provide counseling and intervention: A 2017 Merritt Hawkins report found 77 percent of U.S. counties reported a severe shortage of psychiatrists. The Association of American Medical Colleges notes that nearly two-thirds of practicing psychiatrists are 55 or older, setting the stage for a substantial retirement drain.

Meanwhile, 1 in 5 Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year, federal data shows.

It’s why Evans and some colleagues are using videoconferencing technology to reach patients outside a clinic’s walls. Seattle Children’s offers telepsychiatry services not only in Washington state but also in Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

The hospital, which first established a telehealth program in 2001, has long made mental health a core part of its offerings. “Psychiatry was the most requested specialty across our partner sites,” says Dr. Kathleen Myers, a psychiatrist at Seattle Children’s.

The chief medical officer and co-founder at patient engagement tech vendor Luma Health provides a view of what provider organizations can expect in the year ahead.

Artificial intelligence will also continue to be a big focus, as it becomes more clear which startups are succeeding in their initial target sectors. VCs are also eyeing genomics analytics tools, as well as other more practical technologies.

23andMe has laid off 100 employees across its consumer business, the genomics company confirmed to MobiHealthNews.

This news come amidst disappointing sales numbers, according to CNBC, which first reported the story. In an interview with CNBC’s Chrissy Farr, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki discussed potential factors contributing to what she sees as a market cooldown, top of the list being customers’ privacy concerns.

WHY IT MATTERS

As one of the largest consumer genomic platforms in the country, 23andMe has been under the microscope for some time now. Privacy has often been the top concern for customers and lawmakers alike.

In 2017 Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) wrote a letter to the FCC urging the organization to investigate and ensure that privacy policies are clear, transparent and fair to consumers.

23andMe isn’t the only genomics company feeling the punch. Over the summer DNA sequencing company Illumina noted that its consumer genomics business was slowing, providing some credence to Wojcicki’s claim that interest in the consumer genomics space is winding down.

Regional Samaritan Hospital; Kearney NE. After a long meeting of the IT department at RSH, Jay Koh, VP of Information Technology announced that new and creative ways of locking practitioners out of their EMR accounts are coming soon.

Elaborated, Jay Koh: “Our present schemes are clever, cruel and inflict meaningful annoyance to all EMR users. I mean locking you out after three unsuccessful attempts or forcing you to change passwords every week is solid. Requiring passwords with 12 unique characters, none of which is a vowel was brilliant. And the guy who decided to make you to use a different password for each of the 5 different applications got a raise. Did I mentioned that they all reset at different times? No, you may not use the same password from 10 years ago!”

The healthcare industry is ripe for change. From chronic illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes, to risk assessment, there are countless opportunities where technology can enhance clinical workflows, improve experiences and elevate overall care.

As physicians today face high rates of burnout and patients demand increased attention from their doctors, artificial intelligence is emerging as a credible solution to such problems. It is freeing up doctors’ time and allowing them to administer care both more attentively and effectively.

The discipline, inclusive of machine learning and deep learning, is already making impressive waves in the world of healthcare today: predicting senior falls, changing oncology, expanding access to care in remote areas and much more.

Here’s a look at some of the ways in which AI is helping healthcare organizations to make significant improvements in patient experience and outcomes.

The healthcare industry is ripe for change. From chronic illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes, to risk assessment, there are countless opportunities where technology can enhance clinical workflows, improve experiences and elevate overall care.

As physicians today face high rates of burnout and patients demand increased attention from their doctors, artificial intelligence is emerging as a credible solution to such problems. It is freeing up doctors’ time and allowing them to administer care both more attentively and effectively.

The discipline, inclusive of machine learning and deep learning, is already making impressive waves in the world of healthcare today: predicting senior falls, changing oncology, expanding access to care in remote areas and much more.

Here’s a look at some of the ways in which AI is helping healthcare organizations to make significant improvements in patient experience and outcomes.

Dr Afzal Chaudhry, director of digital and CCIO at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, writes about the organisation’s eHospital programme.

Pitfalls of healthcare innovation to avoid include the lack of follow-ups, the lack of an innovation strategy and an overemphasis on technology, says Justin Gernot, vice president of HIMSS subsidiary Healthbox.

While there is a large and growing market for remote patient monitoring technologies, with particular benefits for the older population, simplification of connection technologies – Bluetooth for one – will be key to the broader adoption of RPM in 2020. The vast majority of hospitals and health systems – 88 percent – have invested in or plan to invest in remote patient monitoring technologies as part of their transition to a value-based care model, according to a 2019 Spyglass Consulting report.

Wait times in the emergency department (ED) are in the spotlight once again after a recent incident involving a woman’s death demonstrates that hospitals must do what they can to get patients treated immediately – especially if they have symptoms that may be life-threatening.

Could cyberattacks on healthcare entities be taking an ugly twist? In a recent attack on a Florida-based plastic surgery practice, hackers exfiltrated patients’ medical records and then demanded a ransom be paid by the clinic and some of its patients to avoid further exposure of the data.

At HIMSS20, they’ll show how RPM introduces new security risks outside the walls of the hospital – and show how controls can be implemented to help safeguard patients’ privacy as they’re cared for in the home.

By combining prior CDC data with heart rate and sleep measurements, Scripps developed a new disease tracking model that they say could deliver speedy and accurate estimates.

Cost-effective and customizable, these portable tools are improving the patient experience.

Coupled with ongoing vigilance, the preventive measure can help medical practices preempt trouble later.

New findings show that radiomics and machine learning (ML) can be combined to help ascertain if late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac MR images in

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new report published in JAMA (Journal Against Medical Advice) found the Food and Drug Administration’s plan to streamline the process of approving drugs has been made possible by removing the cumbersome step of reviewing any and all pertinent evidence.

“When we stepped back and asked what was the biggest hurdle in the FDA’s process of approving of new drugs for the market we found that reviewing clinical trials and their evidence as the major rate-limiting step,” explained FDA spokesperson Ira Brisk. “Over the past few decades, we have made good progress rolling out novel drugs based on weaker evidence. It’s time to take the next step forward. Evidence shmevidence.”

Consider your most recent healthcare interaction. It likely involved some sort of medical device or equipment — a blood pressure monitor, a continuous glucose monitor, maybe even an MRI scanner.

This should come as no surprise: More than 500,000 medical technologies are currently available, according to a recent Deloitte report.

Today’s internet-connected devices are being designed to improve efficiencies, lower care costs and drive better outcomes in healthcare. As computing power and wireless capabilities improve, organizations are leveraging the potential of Internet of Medical Things technologies.

With their ability to collect, analyze and transmit health data, IoMT tools are rapidly changing healthcare delivery. For patients and clinicians, these applications are playing a central part in tracking and preventing chronic illnesses — and they’re poised to evolve the future of care.

But how exactly does this connected ecosystem work? And what is the real difference between the Internet of Things and IoMT?

Healthcare information technology will be the focus of investors in 2020, with interest in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector, home and hospice care and managed care companies also high on the list, according to a KPMG report including survey results from 333 investment professionals. WHY IT MATTERS The study projected the healthcare and life sciences industry would likely continue to be an attractive investment target for the foreseeable future, as national healthcare spending rises to $6 trillion by 2027.

The American Heart Association — and cardiology as a whole — is primed for the adoption of data-driven innovations, says Dr. Robert Harrington, president of the AHA.

Vendors offer their perspective on the opportunities and challenges for healthcare data exchange in the year ahead.

It’s been difficult for healthcare to tackle the interoperability challenge compared to other industries, says Drew Ivan, EVP of product and strategy at Rhapsody.

The cloud giant’s director of product, healthcare and life sciences discusses these three trends and why they will be important at the big HIMSS20 event.

Half of physicians said they would take a salary reduction of up to $20,000 per year in exchange for working less hours and achieving a better work-life balance, according to a new survey.

The Medscape survey of more than 15,000 physicians found that was pretty consistent across generations. Millennials (52%), Generation Xers (48%) and baby boomers (49%) all said they would take a salary cut in exchange for more personal time. That was true even among millennials, who typically earn less than their more established peers. Some 53% of women said they would take a pay cut, versus 47% of men.