By Jamison Utter, director of product evangelism, Medigate.
Jamison Utter
Last year (2020) was a year of chaos, and one that demonstrated why robust cybersecurity is an essential priority for all healthcare organizations. From COVID-19 disruptions to rapidly increasing networks of managed and unmanaged devices, it’s never been more important to secure the critical infrastructure that forms the basis of clinical care.
This is easier said than done- after all, the growing reliance on digital platforms has opened opportunities for increased attacks and raised questions about data collection and privacy. Threats like Ryuk and other high-profile breaches made a notable impact on the industry’s understanding of cybersecurity, not only for their monetary implications, but the significant operational disruptions that these incidents caused. On a national level, we’re seeing care networks expanding alongside access to telehealth services and the implementation of remote patient monitoring tools– with significant amounts of PHI being broadcast and analyzed each day.
When looking at these trends, there are two immediate realizations that all healthcare leaders should understand: 1) the rate of attacks is only going to increase as healthcare operations become smarter and more connected and 2) we need a better solution that works alongside clinical practitioners, biomed departments and organizational leaders even as it protects them from malicious attackers. For many of these concerns, the answer is Zero Trust, or more specifically, Clinical Zero Trust (CZT), that is uniquely attuned to the needs of the healthcare industry.
What Is Clinical Zero Trust?
Zero Trust represents the concept of “trust nothing, verify everything” in terms of cybersecurity. It has since grown to represent a networking approach that centers the design and application of IT networks around the identity and access rights of users and their data. Clinical Zero Trust applies this same idea but to the cyber and physical environment of healthcare organizations.
Think of CZT as a strategy and not a technology; it is an end goal rather than a feature or ability. Cyber protections like firewalls and end-point security solutions make up some of the offerings that help create a CZT environment. A typical healthcare organization has a security system that prioritizes protecting devices and data– CZT shifts the focus to protect physical workflows, which are made up of the people and processes involved in delivering care.
This means the protected surface extends to the physical world, including everything associated with administering a procedure or delivering care. At first glance, it seems like an impossible task to protect physical things with cyber technologies, but in reality, when you look at the clinical setting holistically it makes it easier to identify interdependencies and develop strategies that will effectively protect the physical, business and digital processes to drive optimal patient outcomes.
The start of the global pandemic put incredible stress on the numerous healthcare heroes as well as their facilities, and the industry at large. Medical professionals, already faced with inordinate pressure under normal circumstances, have been working nonstop to perform heroic work day in and day out since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One thing this crisis has clearly illustrated is the need for medical professionals to have access to the latest tools that provide the greatest degree of flexibility, efficiency, and mobility. These tools certainly include the IT backbone underpinning healthcare facilities big and small, from the networks and software to the new wave of smaller, mobile devices.
Two areas of IT have seen tremendous uptake in the healthcare industry as it has adapted to the crisis, the first being through the accelerated shift to telemedicine. Telemedicine allows patients to get almost instant medical attention without the concerns of traveling to a doctor’s office or hospital during the coronavirus outbreak. Indeed, the telemedicine market is expected to swell to $155.1 billion by 2027 in large part due to the pandemic.
Overall, telemedicine is an efficient way for providers to see the highest possible number of patients at a lower cost with shorter waiting times. Doctors can schedule more appointments than they would during normal rounds while still maintaining a quality practice that offers individualized attention to each case.
Additionally, telehealth visits can be recorded, allowing clinicians to document progress and share information with relevant specialists on the go. Telemedicine fosters collaboration by combining high-speed internet and high-definition video for communication between colleagues who are sometimes seeing hundreds of people a day because of the coronavirus.
The healthcare industry has seen one of the most significant growth spurts in the last two centuries. Now more than ever, we fall back on the medical sector in our times of crisis. We saw how vital the industry is for us during the pandemic and what role medical health officials play in keeping the general population safe and healthy.
As important as they are, the non-medical community’s unsung heroes also need to be given attention sometimes. Without non-clinical officers’ expertise, the industry would not have grown and thrived the way it currently is. Management and administration are areas of the healthcare sector that we might not even consider. Doctors and nurses act as the industry’s faces. These officials streamline the general public’s process to seek medical treatment. Let’s not forget the non-clinical roles of staff in securing the administration of medical facilities.
This article will focus on healthcare opportunities in the sector and how to prepare yourself for non-clinical roles.
Community health worker
One of the most up and coming career choice for non-clinical healthcare officials is that of a community healthcare worker. These individuals look at specific at-risk populations and work with them in the community. One of the most common responsibilities which society bestows on these individuals is to educate the community.
If you are looking to enter the medical field, this would be the time to gain an education in the related discipline of your choosing. With technology at our disposal today, one can take advantage of online learning like never before. Sit at home and pursue your online general studies bachelor degree. With such a degree, several avenues open up to you, and you have a choice as to which career path you want to pursue in the future.
The population worldwide is aging. According to the UN, by 2050, one in six people in the world will be over the age of 65, up from one in 11 in 2019. Given that “aging” is a big and growing sector, it cannot be ignored by the software development industry. All efforts to address the aging economy and the needs of older people are called “Age-Tech.”
By analogy with “FinTech,” the term “Age-Tech” covers digital enablement of the longevity economy like FinTech shook up finance industry, including mobile payments, money transfers, loans, fundraising, asset management, etc.
“We can think of four categories of digital-enablement in Age-Tech: services purchased by older people; services purchased on behalf of older people; services traded between older and younger people; and services delivered to future older people,” says Dominic Endicott, venture capitalist and Age-Tech expert.
Whether it is a product aimed at increasing mental stimulation of our grannies or just an app to coordinate who of the family members will drive an older family member to a medical appointment, these experiences fall into the Age-Tech concept.
While news about vaccines is mostly dominated by COVID-19 right now, work is continuing to find a vaccine that can protect against different types of cancer. The latest development comes from Anixa Biosciences (ANIX:NASDAQ) and Cleveland Clinic, which has developed a breast cancer vaccine that could stop this deadly disease in its tracks.
After being in development for over a decade, the team has been given FDA approval to begin human trials, following a 100% success rate in animal trials. With breast cancer being the most common type of cancer in women worldwide, this news could have a positive outcome in the fight against the disease, as well as other types of cancer.
Breast cancer rates continue to grow worldwide
Breast cancer rates are continuing to grow, with more than 2 million cases reported every year. Survival rates have continued to improve over the years, with the five-year survival rate for a stage 1 or 2 breast cancer diagnosis being 80% and 90% in some parts of the world.
Work is ongoing to develop new treatments and a potential cure, whereas another approach has been to develop a vaccine that could prevent cancer from developing in the first place.
By Ken Perez, vice president of healthcare policy, Omnicell, Inc.
Ken Perez
A record 158 million Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election, a staggering increase of 17% versus 2016. Joe Biden garnered 81.3 million votes, while Donald Trump received 74.2 million—both more than any U.S. presidential candidate in history. In the Electoral College, Biden received 306 votes, while Trump got 236.
In the U.S. Senate Georgia runoff elections, Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican incumbent David Perdue, 50.5% to 49.5%, and Democrat Raphael Warnock prevailed over Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler, 50.9% to 49.1%.
The Democrats’ sweep of the two Georgia runoff elections resulted in a 50-50 split between the Democrats and the Republicans in the Senate. Because Vice President Kamala Harris serves as president of the Senate and holds the tie-breaking vote, the Democrats are the majority party in the upper chamber, allowing Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to become the Senate Majority Leader and giving the Democrats the chairmanships of the Senate’s 24 current committees.
In the House, the Republicans registered a net gain of 11 seats, narrowing the Democratic majority to 10 seats. Currently, the Democrats have 221 representatives, the Republicans have 211, and there are three vacancies.
With Biden’s win, the Democrats’ sweep of the U.S. Senate Georgia runoff elections, and the Democrats’ retention of their majority in the House, the Democrats have control of the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2010.
As for the judicial branch, with Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation by the Senate on Oct. 26, 2020, there are six conservatives and three liberals on the Supreme Court.
Citing former President Barack Obama’s famous triumphal statement in 2009, “Elections have consequences,” many Democrats view their control of both the executive and legislative branches as a clear mandate to aggressively pursue their agenda. Some from the progressive wing of the Democratic party are urging Biden to “go big” and use his “honeymoon” period to drive his most aggressive reforms, including a public option plan, expanding Medicaid, enhancing the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces, lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60, and promoting unionization and collective bargaining for healthcare workers.
Others, including moderate Democrats, advocate pursuit of a less-ambitious, more moderate bipartisan agenda, including reversal of many of former President Donald Trump’s executive orders, supporting telehealth, promoting value-based care and alternative payment models, increasing price transparency, and somehow tackling prescription drug prices.
Whether the aggressive or moderate scenario will come to pass will be largely determined by several factors.
First is the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. In Biden’s inauguration speech, he rightly said, “Our work begins with getting COVID under control.” It is job one for the Biden administration for 2021 and perhaps 2022. It is not an overstatement to say that most everything—the nation’s public health, economic recovery, and the political climate in the nation’s capital—hinges on the success of the coronavirus vaccine rollout.
When I wrote about megatrends last year, the predictions were, naturally, forward-looking. Telehealth, for example, was important because of increased healthcare consumerism and the convergence of technologies to make its use quick and easy for payers, providers and patients.
Now when I look at telehealth as one of several 2021 megatrends, it’s tinged by the coronavirus pandemic. Rather than telehealth being a nice-to-have in 2020 with adoption over time, the service has become a necessity needed in real-time caused by the pandemic’s social distancing mandate and the highly communicable nature of the virus.
Each 2021 megatrend has the pandemic front and center. The pandemic exposed many issues facing the healthcare industry. Challenges and problems that weren’t a surprise, but simply rose to the top astonishingly quickly as the healthcare industry responded to the pandemic. The pandemic is and will continue to propel many analytics challenges and needs throughout healthcare.
Coronavirus sets the stage
Now that we’ve established the pandemic as the dominant megatrend across healthcare businesses worldwide, we’re going to take a deeper look at the pandemic’s impact on the industry: payers and providers, members and patients.
As COVID-19 rapidly descended, many different types of organizations changed to partial or fully remote workforce operations and took necessary measures to preserve the safety and health of employees. After securing operations, organizations quickly started to understand how they could help clients navigate the pandemic.
Much of the work in healthcare IT (HIT) was shaped by COVID-19. We wanted to help payers and providers understand the impact of the pandemic on business, financial and clinical outcomes to help healthcare remain viable for the many people working for the organizations or receiving care.
The following are 2021’s healthcare megatrends.
Telehealth goes mainstream as the new normal
The first major pandemic-propelled trend that everyone is talking about is increased telehealth usage. Many of us, my family included, began seeing our doctors online for the first time because of the pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported a staggering change for Medicare and Medicaid populations. Telehealth use was 0.1% of overall health services in January 2020, but by April it had increased to 45.9% of utilization. (Telehealth use by Medicare and Medicaid patients later decreased to 20%.)
Meanwhile, Definitive Healthcare reported in June 2020 that 33 percent of inpatient hospitals offered telehealth in 2019. By June 2020 that was up to 75%; another staggering increase. We see telehealth here to stay after COVID-19 is controlled. Utilization likely will come down from current pandemic levels, but industry analysts almost universally predict telehealth adoption will remain high as mainstream patients adopt and become comfortable with the technology. (Last year, an increase in the use of telehealth was one of our megatrends, though for different reasons.)
By Ashley Joseph, senior director of client services, Infusion at LeanTaaS.
Ashley Joseph
Each new year brings about the opportunity to reflect, learn and welcome positive change in our personal lives. This ideology is also embraced by the healthcare industry, as we’re constantly looking to improve workflows and incorporate new technology to boost patient care and operational efficiency.
To say the healthcare industry has learned a lot from 2020 would be a drastic understatement. As we enter 2021, we have an opportunity to make improvements to the vulnerabilities exposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Infusion centers (and their patients) were forced to get creative “on the fly” in 2020. With the new year officially here, we expect to see more change and creativity from infusion centers around the country, in response to yet more new challenges.
Infusion centers may expand their scope
In the past, infusion centers have had occasional times when a chair or two was used for non-oncology treatments. Now, we’re seeing these various treatments pop up in centers more frequently, especially some COVID-19 treatments like monoclonal antibody infusions used to treat coronavirus patients. This not only increases the scarcity of chair resources, but also creates issues around trying to treat COVID-19 patients in the same vicinity as severely immunocompromised patients.
Process bottlenecks may come from new sources
Infusion chairs have traditionally been the limiting factor in how many patients can be treated per day. Today, though, nursing shortages are just as likely to be the limiting asset. These shortages are caused by unexpected, COVID-induced early retirements, quarantines required due to COVID-19 exposure, and the fact that infusion nurses are highly skilled – and thus among those who can easily provide support in inpatient units when those units experience sudden or unexpected nursing shortages.
Some centers have been forced to create/section off infusion areas for cancer patients who have also tested positive for COVID-19. Every time that the overall pool of available infusion chairs needs to be segmented such that any patient can’t go into any chair, efficiency in the center overall will decline.
The healthcare industry has seen one of the most significant growth spurts in the last two centuries. Now more than ever, we fall back on the medical sector in our times of crisis. We saw how vital the industry is for us during the pandemic and what role medical health officials play in keeping the general population safe and healthy.
