For the first time in our lives, we have been able to see how artificial intelligence would influence a pandemic from identification and tracking to treatment and vaccination. Two things had to perfectly align to make this happen.
Technology had to advance to a place where it could analyze, predict, and engage with extreme accuracy and a virus had to be dangerous enough to spur massive funding and demand for action. We reached that tipping point in 2020. As the year comes to a close it is time to consider all that AI has done and where it is likely to continue to impact epidemiology and disaster response moving forward.
Tracking
HealthMap, an AI application run by Boston Children’s Hospital, was launched in 2006 and was one of the first tools used to detect and track the COVID-19 outbreak in China. The algorithm uses online data about infectious disease events from news outlets and social media in more than a dozen languages. It then applied machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to track outbreaks.
Diagnosis
Tracking or predicting where cases might show up is just one step in a long journey to stopping the spread of the virus. An article published in May 2020 by researchers in the U.S. and China would reveal that Artificial Intelligence was accurately diagnosing COVID-19 in 68% of patients who had previously been thought to be negative and had normal results on chest imaging. The AI algorithm used to compare imaging, symptoms, medical history, and exposure was said to have “equal sensitivity as compared to a senior thoracic radiologist.” I have also had the pleasure of reading some yet-to-be-published articles about how AI is helping in the ICU to predictively determine ventilator utilization but it’s not just ventilators.
When it came time to harness AI in the diagnosis of COVID-19, even the CDC jumped on board. In partnership with Microsoft’s Azure platform, they embedded a symptom checker chatbot on their website. Likely out of an abundance of caution, their bot uses what I term “light-AI” to guide patients through a very basic decision tree. Answering simple yes-no questions to determine their likelihood of needing a test.
As long as we continue to prioritize data, AI will have the information needed to analyze and predict, it’s a very logical application of the technology — but what about using it to engage patients and address widespread misinformation and fear?
The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was adopted in 1996. It seeks to ensure the secure management of healthcare information and outlines guidelines that all healthcare organizations and employees must follow to manage protected healthcare information (PHI). Under HIPAA, PHI is any information that can be used to identify an individual, including:
Contact information
Demographic information
Lab test results
Insurance information
Medical history
As technology continues to evolve, the risks facing PHI also grow. It’s now more important than ever for players in the healthcare industry to comply with HIPAA to avoid costly penalties. To understand the significance ofHIPAA compliance, it’s best to revisit past cases relating to violations. These cases will provide crucial lessons on how to avoid common HIPAA-related mistakes.
Case #1: Allergy Associates of Hartford, Conn.
Hartford-based Allergy Associates was fined $125,000 after a patient complained to the Department of Health and Human Services about the disclosure of her PHI by a physician at the facility to a reporter. An investigation revealed that the physician disregarded advice from the hospital’s privacy officer not to respond to the media regarding claims that the woman had been turned away from the facility for bringing along her service animal. Following the disclosure, Allergy Associates failed to take any corrective or disciplinary action towards the physician.
Lesson Learned
Allergy Associates should have disciplined the physician besides taking corrective action to prevent similar incidents from occurring. Had it done so, the facility would probably not have been penalized. This highlights why healthcare entities should take immediate remediation action when such incidents occur and hold employees responsible for their behavior. Likewise, employees should be trained on media protocols to ensure that PHI is not intentionally or unintentionally disclosed to the media as it happened with Allergy Associates.
Technology has been slowly making its way through almost everything in our lives. From simple daily chores, to entertainment, shopping, education and even to medicine, it is everywhere. Not only does it make things more convenient but more accessible as well.
One of the many things that it has revolutionized for the better is addiction treatment!
Yes, that’s right, addiction treatment. From sobriety tracker apps to online counselling assistance, treatment is now easy and more accessible than it ever was. Especially in the time of a pandemic, when a lot of people might not have access to a treatment facility on hand. Here are a few reasons why you need to put your faith in technology for addiction treatment:
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the best things to come out of the digitization of addiction treatment. AA is an international forum of people who have faced drinking problems. Anyone can join and seek help from people who have been through alcoholism and can act as a mentor. The book Alcoholics Anonymous first published in 1939 was a collection of stories from people who have been through addiction and later on it was turned into an online platform, making it the world’s largest self-help platforms for alcoholism treatment. It is free of cost and anyone can join it to get help or to be a mentor. They have a large collection of online resources on treatment and self help, that provide help with all stages of alcoholism.
Sobriety Tracker Apps
Sobriety tracker apps also known as sobriety clocks helps recovering addicts track their progress. It alerts them of their goals and achievement, reminding them how long they have been sober and provides them access to online resources in time of need. There are many free of cost sobriety clocks available, some come with smart gadgets to keep a record of the patient’s health as well.
As technology continues to develop, it becomes necessary to upgrade your equipment or select new software to help run your practice or clinic more efficiently. Periodic updates are often helpful, but they might come with a few challenges. For instance, how can you know which software or equipment are best for your office? Are there new tools you should bring into your clinic, knowing that you’ll have to train your employees in their use and foot a higher bill?
Deciding when and what to upgrade can be tricky for even experienced administrators. Let’s break down what you should do to make smart choices when selecting medial tech and equipment and their vendors.
Determine what your practice needs
First, it’s a great idea to do a full inventory of your practice or clinic. Figure out what you want, what your goals are, and what frustrations your staff and patients are currently experiencing.
Is your patient scheduling software simply too slow and clunky for comfort? In that case, maybe upgrading that software or buying different software entirely is a good idea. Alternatively, maybe your practice will benefit from redoing your computer systems or upgrading the terminals throughout your rooms. Figure out what you need before purchasing anything so that every dollar you spend provides the most value.
Don’t skip your due diligence
You’ll also want to perform due diligence regarding software and equipment vendors. It’s an excellent idea to research a vendor or company’s history, past clients, and reputation to figure out if they’ll be a good match for your service. Check if a given vendor is a secure vendor, given that vendors are the weak link for healthcare security in many cases.
Don’t have the time to do an investigation yourself? Hiring a firm to do domestic investigations might be an alternative solution. These companies can dive deep into vendors or potential business partners and tell you if they’re hiding anything before you make a deal.
Statistics say that the average person changes their job between five and seven times in their lives. As we grow older, although the frequency of these changes slows, the importance of them grows. No longer do we have to live up to someone else’s expectations and fulfill someone else’s dreams. No longer do we have time to waste wondering whether we’re capable of doing what we always wanted to do.
Around 7.5 million people over the age of 25 go back to some form of schooling to gain the qualifications they need to change their careers entirely. One of the qualifications on offer is nursing, and it’s a popular one. But what is it about nursing that makes it such an excellent choice for those in their later years who want a change of career? There are many different reasons, and although each individual will have their personal ideas of what it means to them to become a nurse, read on to find out more about the most common ones.
Nursing requires a good amount of knowledge. It requires an education and the right qualifications – at the very least it requires an RN. But what it also needs is experience.
This is not just the nursing experience that will be gained over many years of helping patients and dealing with doctors. The very best nurses also have plenty of life experience, and if they are coming to the profession late, this is experience they will no doubt already have.
They will know exactly how a decision can make all the difference, and how to cope with disappointment, how to solve a challenge that others might not have an idea what to do about.
With this experience, and the ability and willingness to learn, older nurses have a definite advantage over those who are turning to the profession directly from high school, which accounts for the vast majority of trainee nurses.
Age isn’t going to matter to any medical facility that needs nurses. With a nursing shortage, anyone who is willing to work and who has the right qualifications stands just as much chance of getting a job as anyone else, with age being the lowest barrier to entry. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there will be 371,000 new nursing jobs available by 2028; this equates to a 12 percent growth forecast for the profession.
According to the World Health Organization, dementia affected more than 50 million people worldwide in 2019, with 10 million more cases being added each year. This makes dementia one of the most prevalent conditions medical researchers are looking to address.
While there is no cure for dementia, since it’s a symptom of other brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s Disease, there have been countless innovations that support patients who have it and help doctors and care professionals deal with more serious cases.
We can only hope that a universal cure for dementia would be available in the near future, but until then, we just have to look at some of the best technologies for addressing the challenge brought by this chronic condition:
Managing behaviors
Dementia is known to cause emotional disturbances ranging from anxiety to depression. In fact, a medical study has shown that between 30% and 90% of dementia patients also suffer from such disturbances. This makes it difficult for doctors and even loved ones to deal with agitated patients.
Luckily, one way to approach this problem is through behavioral management therapy which usually involves keeping patients relaxed and preventing behavioral triggers that may cause violent outbursts. This requires the use of effective agitation detection technology such as multi-modal sensors. These can help caregivers and physicians determine the best types of interventions to undertake, resulting in a lesser risk of injury to both patients and medical workers.
Location trackers
When it comes to ensuring the safety of dementia patients, care providers will have to leverage location trackers. Sure enough, there are a number of location devices on the market that families can even use to track loved ones.
One of the most prominent brands is AngelSense, which allows for determining transit times and sending alarms and notifications on current whereabouts. The device can be attached to clothing so that patients are always tracked wherever they go. Similar products are also available, but it’s best to pick one that is easy-to-use and durable in case a patient often goes out on lengthy walks.
By Paul Keely, general manager, Born in the Cloud business unit at Open Systems.
Paul Keely
Cyberattacks are never easy. But when ransomware actors recently hit several U.S. hospitals with attacks, it was especially problematic. Anything that wipes out a hospital’s compute environment is bad because hospitals are now 100% digital. Add to that the fact that the U.S. is recording around 100,000 COVID-19 cases a day, and you’ve got a real challenge on your hands.
This Was a Large and Sophisticated Attack
There are two general types of cyberattacks. Spray-and-pray attacks don’t have a particular target. Attackers simply go into an environment and hope the worm or malware spreads. WannaCry, which crippled the U.K. National Health Service in 2017, is a spray-and-pray attack.
The recent attack on the U.S. hospitals is known as an advanced persistent threat. This kind of attack is far more sophisticated, and focused on a specific area – in this case, the American healthcare system. We haven’t heard of a similar attack in Europe.
This attack doesn’t appear to have been staged for fun by a group of guys in a college dorm room. It’s a big attack. The FBI is telling American healthcare systems to block 150 IP addresses.
The Threat Ravaged Some and Left Others Unscathed
Some of the targeted healthcare organizations were severely affected by this recent attack. The malware landed on computers and moved very rapidly to encrypt hard drives, making the IT resources of these organizations essentially useless.
At least one impacted organization may have to build and migrate everybody slowly but surely to a new Active Directory environment. That’s a doomsday scenario. Active Directory acts as the very core of an organization’s identity. Without Active Directory, an organization can’t say for sure whether its IT environment – and, thus, its organization as a whole – is safe.
By Ken Perez, vice president of healthcare policy, Omnicell, Inc.
Ken Perez
The cost of prescription drugs is one of the top reasons why the U.S. spends much more on healthcare on a per capita basis than economically similar countries. The general public understands this, as polls consistently show that high drug costs are the number one healthcare issue for Americans.
Congress certainly understands this as well, as there have been numerous attempts in recent years—many of which have garnered some bipartisan support—to slow the growth of prescription drug costs. However, the devil has been in the details, precluding passage of substantive legislation.
The inaction by the legislative branch led President Donald Trump to sign on July 24 four executive orders aimed at reducing drug prices and ensuring access to medications.
The first order directed federally qualified health centers to pass along discounts on insulin and epinephrine received from drug makers to medically underserved patients.
The second order allowed states to develop plans for safe importation of certain drugs, authorize the re-importation of insulin products made in the United States, and create a pathway for personal importation through the use of individual waivers to purchase drugs at lower cost from pre-authorized U.S. pharmacies.
The third order required that kickbacks between drug makers and pharmacy benefit managers be passed along to seniors as discounts in Medicare Part D.
The fourth order authorized the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to take action to ensure that the Medicare program and seniors pay no more for the most-costly Medicare Part B drugs than any economically comparable OECD country. (This concept was first introduced by the Trump administration as a rule in October 2018.)
Per the fourth order, on Nov. 20 CMS issued an interim final rule for the Most Favored Nation (MFN) Model that would lower prescription drug costs by paying no more for Medicare Part B drugs and biologicals than the lowest price that drug manufacturers receive in 25 other industrialized countries, normalized by GDP per capita.
