Rochester RHIO has released its inaugural population health study—the Community Health Indicators Report—based on the analysis clinical data points from more than 600,000 screenings. The report provides a glimpse into residents’ well-being across New York State’s Greater Finger Lakes region, for which Rochester RHIO is the secure electronic health information exchange (HIE).
The report was made possible, in part, through Rochester RHIO’s implementation of Stella Technology’s Prism, a big data analytics platform that makes best of class advances in agile analytics, and optimizes them for specific use cases, including large scale population health analysis.
Four key health measures were assessed using full-year 2017 anonymized data, including Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure, diabetes risk (HbA1C) and smoking status. While the report is intended to serve as a benchmark for the community, it can also be used for incorporation by regional leaders in their own health programs.
Jill Eisenstein
“The Community Health Indicators Report is a first-of-its-kind report and a rich resource for public analysis and planning,” said Jill Eisenstein, president and CEO, Rochester RHIO. “Population health data is often based on health insurance claims data or self-reporting. Now we have actual clinical inputs that help us better understand our community and can set the stage for health improvement concepts and programs in the years to come.”
“We are thrilled that Rochester RHIO was able to achieve this breakthrough and derive actionable insights from the clinical data they have worked so hard to gather over the years,” said Lalo Valdez, president and CEO of Stella Technology. “In times of an ever-shifting healthcare landscape, Stella Prism, with its unparalleled scalability and flexibility, allows healthcare organizations to not only find key insights from their data today, but also harness the power of that rich data set to future-proof their business. Rochester RHIO and Stella teams worked hand-in-hand to produce this first of many reports. We look forward to continued collaboration with Rochester RHIO and other HIE initiatives to identify additional population health insights and opportunities in the future.”
Leaders from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Harvard Business School’s (HBS) Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness have announced a new partnership aimed at improving healthcare value. The two organizations, recognized as global leaders in quality and cost measurement, announced a new program to help hospitals and surgical practices improve patient outcomes while lowering the cost of delivering care. Better measurement of quality and costs will enable hospitals to improve the value they deliver to patients while positioning them for success as reimbursement shifts to bundled payments, an approach that increases transparency and accountability.
“Clearly defining the value of patient care is critical to our nation’s healthcare system,” said David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, executive director of the American College of Surgeons. “As the patient care model continues to evolve, we must place a premium on providing the utmost quality and efficiency in our hospitals. This program will help hospitals identify clear opportunities to do that.”
At the event on Capitol Hill, leaders of the program, called ACS THRIVE (Transforming Health care Resources to Increase Value and Efficiency), discussed the challenges the nation’s health system faces as it moves from volume to value-based payment models, the changing team dynamics within hospitals, and the new care models that health systems must adopt.
“We want to reduce the high costs incurred in the U.S. healthcare sector, but do this in ways that don’t compromise the quality of care or a patient’s access to it,” said Prof. Robert Kaplan, MS, PhD, senior fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development, Emeritus, HBS. “Cutting costs by arbitrary reduction in headcount is not a sustainable solution. True cost improvement requires that we first measure what it costs today to treat a patient’s medical condition, and then redesign the care model to deliver the same or, preferably, better outcomes with a lower-cost mix of resources, especially personnel, equipment, devices and drugs.”
“Surgical care is more than just the operative procedure,” said Frank G. Opelka, MD, FACS, medical director, ACS quality and health policy. “Surgical care involves teams of clinicians who begin delivering care in the preoperative phase, include anesthesia, nursing care and medical specialties and continues through to postoperative rehabilitation. As a team, we need to optimize each phase of care to provide the best outcomes for patients and meet their goals.”
Initially, ACS THRIVE leaders will pilot the value-measurement process with 10-15 hospitals in the U.S., focusing on measuring the full cycle of care – including its key surgical, medical, behavioral and social elements – for three surgical conditions. Results from the pilot will be used to create a scalable approach that all hospitals can use to measure and improve value. The method will also include risk-adjusted benchmarks, so hospitals can compare their value with one another to generate system-wide improvement. High-value providers will be recognized, while those with opportunities for improvement can learn from the best practices of the high-value hospitals and health systems.
The new program will build on the two organizations’ expertise in cost and quality measurement. ACS has been a leader in hospital quality since it first proposed its Hospital Standardization Program in 1912, which evolved to become The Joint Commission. In 1922, the ACS created the Commission on Cancer, which today sets standards used by 80 percent of U.S. cancer centers. In the 1960s, the ACS Committee on Trauma was an instrumental leader in helping establish the nation’s trauma system. And in the early 2000s, the ACS launched the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP), recognized as the gold standard for collecting clinical, risk-adjusted, 30-day surgical outcomes data.
“We know quality improvement requires accurate and reliable data, with risk and case-mix adjustment,” said Clifford Ko, MD, MS, MSHS, FACS, FASCRS, director of the ACS division of research and optimal patient care. “Clinical data, not claims data, are routinely the best data to use. However, data alone are not sufficient. Appropriate and adequate resources, infrastructure and adherence to evidence-based standards are all likewise needed to provide high-value care. ACS has a long history of helping providers and hospitals achieve these aspects reliably.”
Rhapsody, a global leader in healthcare data interoperability, today announced that the company will merge with Corepoint Health, the supplier of the Best in KLAS healthcare integration platform. The transaction will bring together two companies at the forefront of interoperability and create a dynamic combination of technology, talent, services, and trusted customer relationships to address the most complex healthcare interoperability challenges.
Both
companies will continue to support and advance their respective solutions,
while the combined entity will also devote its expanded resources to addressing
the growing need for interoperability among regional, national and
international healthcare providers and vendors.
“Corepoint’s platform offers incredibly fast, turn-key operations for provider organizations, HIEs and OEM partners, all with industry leading customer satisfaction. Complementing this with Rhapsody’s fully customizable and multi-platform capabilities creates great synergies for our current and future customers,” said Erkan Akyuz, president and CEO, Rhapsody. “Both entities share great technical depth and breadth and both have maintained long-standing customer relationships, which together yields a broader foundation on which to build the future of interoperability in healthcare. Together, we can better support our customers to fulfill all of their changing and future needs.”
Available on premises and as a cloud-based service, the Rhapsody and Corepoint interoperability platforms offer comprehensive routing and transformation functionality for every operating environment, offering highly differentiated features, applications and end customer focuses. The two platforms also support commonly used messaging standards and protocols such as FHIR, HL7 V2, CCD/C-CDA and DICOM.
These integration engines are among the most secure technology platforms in the healthcare industry, with customer bases that include the entire healthcare ecosystem and across the globe, including provider organizations, technology vendors, HIEs and public health systems.
“We are entering a new era in healthcare where the emphasis will be on expanding ecosystems and establishing new data trading partner relationships to optimize clinical and operational workflows. These initiatives will be powered by interoperability and data management: healthcare organizations that can excel in these areas will have a significant competitive advantage,” said Sean Cassidy, CEO of Corepoint Health.
“The combination of Rhapsody and Corepoint enables our customers to continue to get tremendous value out of the products and services they love, while having the confidence that their interoperability partner is heavily invested in helping them confront the challenges they will face in the future,” Cassidy added.
AdhereHealth has announced a partnership with Papa, a companionship platform company serving the elderly, blind and disabled. A growing issue for millions of Americans enrolled in Medicare are SDoH, such as loneliness, food insecurity and transportation, any one of them impeding optimal healthcare and medication adherence. This combined relationship addresses foundational barriers to care through advanced technologies and a compassionate, personal interaction.
“We could not be more excited about this
partnership as it extends the Adhere platform’s reach into the home with Papa
assisting those most in need of personal support,” said Jason Z. Rose,
AdhereHealth CEO. “Our analytics and clinical workflows will help direct Papa
Pals to address a myriad of SDOH issues our consumers face, such as
transportation to doctor appointments and local pharmacies, grocery shopping,
housing chores, and other senior services.”
In 2018, CMS announced
a new policy allowing Medicare Advantage and Part D health plans to pay for
SDOH services as a medical expense for seniors with chronic diseases. Now
AdhereHealth can deploy “Papa Pals” to consumers at risk for poor health
outcomes for face-to-face support. Most Papa Pals are college students
majoring in nursing, social work, or hospitality that desire to improve
consumer quality of life.
Andrew Parker, founder and CEO of Papa, shared,
“We have realized that social determinants of health in America is an
increasing factor in medical non-compliance.” He continued,
“Collaborating with AdhereHealth will allow Papa’s team of personal
companions to make an intergenerational impact on the most vulnerable in our
society, providing them the freedom to age in place while having an advocate at
their side to aid them in the journey through health care.”
Graduating from Silicon Valley’s prestigious Y
Combinator accelerator program, Papa works with large Medicaid and Medicare
clients who have embraced companion health for their members. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention uses the healthy days metric to measure consumer
quality of life. This partnership is immediately available to over 20 million
American’s covered by Medicare Advantage plans, plans interested can visit www.adherehealth.com/papa.
CynergisTek, Inc. recently announced findings from its first “CAPP Conference Survey.” The survey was administered to attendees of the company’s first inaugural CAPP Community Conference: Cybersecurity 2019 this past May, which focused on tackling some of the most pressing issues facing healthcare cybersecurity and privacy, including vendor breaches and risks, new state privacy laws, privacy and security culture, and medical device security. The survey of approximately 60 C-level healthcare executives revealed the greatest perceived threats and current challenges these organizations are facing in cybersecurity and privacy.
Overall, the findings highlighted that the issues
respondents were most concerned about were the risks associated with Internet
of Things (IoT), medical devices, third-party vendors, and program
development/management. However, the data also pinpointed some of the barriers
or disconnects within the organization to solve these issues, like executive
leadership buy-in. Most notably:
40% responded that third-party risk is the threat that concerns them the most.
Of the emerging threat areas (5G, AI, IoT, and supply chain) discussed, more than 50% responded that they were the most concerned about IoT.
Nearly one third of respondents reported that medical device security is one of the top five risks facing healthcare according, to the Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices, however most reported not having an effective strategy in place to assess the risks posed by medical devices. Even more alarming, 26% said they don’t have any process in place at all.
Almost half of the organizations reported to have conducted an incident response exercise only one time, or to have never done one at all.
“Culture” was listed as the leading difficulty (over compensation and training) in retaining cybersecurity professionals.
54% of those surveyed said the biggest barrier to meeting privacy and security challenges was because of a lack of adequate resources (tools, money, or people), and only 13% was due to senior management buy-in. However, in a follow-up question, 40% responded that they didn’t know if their Boards were more or less involved with cybersecurity and privacy programs than they previously had been.
“The fact that the vast majority of respondents report a lack of resources as a serious constraint against their cybersecurity program, and senior management buy-in as the least concern, shows there is a huge disconnect happening and is extremely troubling,” said David Finn, executive vice president of strategic innovation at CynergisTek. “If executive leadership truly understood the business risks posed by inadequate cybersecurity and realized the major operational, financial, and patient safety implications a security incident can have, they would ensure any and all resources needed were available. We need to make sure we are effectively communicating these issues to executive leadership so they make cybersecurity a business priority.”
The “CAPP Conference Survey” findings reiterate the issues
facing the healthcare industry today and the difficulties to keep up with the
ever advancing cybersecurity world. The disparity between the severity of these
cybersecurity threats and the lack of urgency from organizations to implement a
plan or solution is creating a dangerous landscape that many healthcare
organizations have fallen victim to. The CAPP Conference provided a platform to
help bridge this gap by bringing together industry experts and CynergisTek’s CAPP community members to serve as
resources to one another to help address these common issues and work together
to find a resolution.
Inc. magazine has revealed that Vyne is No. 3723 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. Vyne’s 2019 ranking marks the organization’s 12th consecutive year on the list, which honors the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment — independent small businesses.
Vyne’s technology provides health systems, dental
providers, and insurance payers the ability to exchange health information in a
compliant manner and improve revenue cycle management processes. Its HITRUST CSF
Certified solutions – the Trace platform
for health systems and the FastAttach software
for dental practices are leading technologies in their respective market
sectors.
Lindy Benton, president and CEO of Vyne, said: “Our
overwhelming commitment to healthcare innovation drives our success, and being
recognized by Inc.
for the 12th consecutive year proves that the role we play in
helping medical and dental businesses run more efficiently and profitably is
vital for their success.”
“We are proud of this honor and remain dedicated to
serving the more than 800 hospital and health system clients, more than 73,000
dental providers, and the more than 750 payers and health plans that place
their trust in us,” Benton added.
Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company
profiles and an interactive database — sorted by industry, region and other
criteria — are available at www.inc.com/inc5000.
About Vyne®
Vyne is a recognized leader in health information
exchange and electronic healthcare communication management. The company’s
robust technology platform facilitates the electronic capture, storage, and
submission of healthcare data in any form – voice, document, image, data, fax,
or electronic interface. Vyne’s solutions connect disconnected data to close
gaps in documentation and improve the continuum of care through a more complete
and fully accessible patient record. Outcomes include improved financial strength,
operational performance, and patient experience for medical and dental
providers and payers. For more information, visit vynecorp.com.
About Inc. Media
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto
Ventures, Inc. is
the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing
private companies, to deliver real solutions for today’s innovative company
builders. Inc. took
home the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in both 2014 and 2012.
The total monthly audience reach for the brand continues to grow significantly,
from 2,000,000 in 2010 to more than 25,000,000 today. For more information,
visit www.inc.com.
The Inc. 5000 is a list of the fastest-growing private
companies in the nation. Started in 1982, the list has become the hallmark of
entrepreneurial success.
Disclaimer:
Vyne, Trace and FastAttach
are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vyne and/or its affiliates. Other
company and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks are the property
of their respective owners.
While cybersecurity is an issue constantly addressed by the media and something small and large businesses alike are consistently focusing on, one of the biggest digital dilemmas comes from the healthcare system. This may be unsurprising, given that financial records and personal data are all stored within patient care files. Hackers are fully aware of the value of this data, and it’s about time that the medical industry shows that it does as well.
Sadly, one in four consumers have had their
healthcare data breached. This calls for swift action by the players in the
field. Some experts think that the answer can be found in blockchain. That’s
right — the same technology that secures Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
could soon become the key to protecting patient records.
While there have been ongoing discussion among
government and finance officials about the actual risks of cryptocurrency, it’s
generally agreed upon by tech experts that blockchain is one of the most secure
ways to go. Will the world see this technology implemented into its healthcare
systems soon, though? It’s very possible that the answer is “yes.”
The Security of Blockchain Makes
It the Best Ledger for Healthcare Networks
The reason that blockchain technology a
regular part of public discussion and being normalized in new industries so
frequently is its transparency and security measures. It’s garnered public,
private, criminal, and government interest due to this, and it’s doubtful that
its popularity will stop anytime soon. But what is it about the ledger that
makes it so safe?
Primarily, it’s the unique approach it takes
to security keys. There wouldn’t be a way for someone to modify or corrupt
information within a blockchain system without the relevant key. At one point
it was even believed that the technology was unhackable.
While there is still debate over what it means to hack blockchain networks and
whether or not it’s even been done, that debate still points to the safety of
those networks at large. Without a doubt, it is the most secure ledger for
protecting personal data — and hospitals may need it the most.
Making It Official
The lengths at which blockchain is being
adapted cannot be understated. Government officials are starting to explore the
technology, and the big four investment firms are even beginning to pay attention to it. But what
does this mean for the healthcare industry?
Well right now, blockchain still is not the
norm. Currently, if a hospital or healthcare organization wants to adopt it,
they are probably making the best move in terms of security.
While there are downsides to this kind of mass
adoption (discussed at further length below), it also calls for advancements to
be made, which could better these systems as a whole. It should be noted that
with something as new as blockchain technology hitting the greater market,
there are a lot of changes bound to happen that cannot be accurately predicted
right now.
The Adaptation of Blockchain in
Culture May Challenge Security
Granted, it is very important to recognize
that blockchain’s mass acceptance could adulterate the technology. With
businesses at large implementing it into their operations and the parallel use
of mobile money tools in modern society, people are going to start looking for
loopholes. Hackers are going to make it their duty to try and disrupt it.
For this reason, there needs to be external precautions set up for security. A good example is business insurance — something necessary for every hospital, even with blockchain implementation. The loss of mass amounts of data is bound to occur, so hospitals need to be protected, even when their systems seem foolproof.
Right now, hospitals and organizations at
large need to understand that blockchain is a very important technology to the
future of healthcare. But it cannot be solely depended on, either. Other
precautions need to be taken to protect patient data by the healthcare
industry. Blockchain may be the best option healthcare networks have for data
security.
By Sachin Kalra, vice president of customer success, Infostretch.
Rapid advances in technology mean the chatbot market
is now one of the fastest-growing segments in healthcare, with the market
expected to be worth more than $314 million by 2023.
Sachin Kalra
In some ways, this growth is not surprising. Combined with the commercial benefits for healthcare providers, there is a genuine appetite for more advanced technologies to form part of patients’ healthcare. A recent study in the US revealed that more than half of consumers would use an app for remote general consultation if given the option, while research in the UK found that apps would be used by 47 percent of patients to book appointments, and 42 percent to manage prescriptions.
Before long, it is likely to be very commonplace for prescriptions to be re-ordered through your smart speaker, for medical appointments to be made by Alexa, and for medical disclaimers and drug side effects viewed in augmented reality (AR) via Google Home. In fact, chatbot applications such as these already exist as proof of concept projects and even, in some cases, as deployed systems in the US. The providers that successfully deliver systems like these which make the lives of patients fundamentally easier will inevitably gain mind share and market share, as the good news of the improved service spreads.
Beyond these immediate applications, the potential of
chatbot systems in healthcare is virtually endless, limited only by the
imagination and needs of physicians and their patients.
The three types of chatbot
Whether they’re employed in healthcare, customer
service or simply for general consumer use, there are three main types of chatbot.
The first of these is the task-oriented chatbot,
designed to deal with specific scenarios such as placing orders or scheduling
appointments.
The second type are information-oriented chatbots,
which are more focused on the generative aspect of a conversation. Relying on
AI and expert systems, they’ll offer answers as creatively as possible,
avoiding repetition and attempting to keep the conversation interesting for the
person they’re chatting with. In the context of telemedicine, for example,
these chatbots could be used to explain side effects or to discuss concerns
over drug interactions.
The third type of bots are either open-domain,
designed to retrieve information for questions such as what the weather will be
like in a week’s time, or closed-domain. Also known as domain-specific, these
chatbots operate with regard to a particular area of interest, aiming to give
answers to narrow scenarios such as offering guidance through a museum by
providing visitors with very specific types of information.
Most healthcare chatbot apps would typically fall into this latter, closed-domain category. Whatever the category of chatbot, so long as they provide users with an improved quality of experience, healthcare providers will be able to deliver a better service to more people at a lower cost.
Applying artificial intelligence
The performance of these chatbot apps – especially
their ability to adapt as required – can be largely impacted by AI and machine
learning technology, the application of which can enhance a number of areas.
By eliminating human bias from interactions, natural
language processing can widen the topic of conversation, and increase the
number of valid responses available to a chatbot. Of course, being able to
answer a wider range of specific questions and provide more information will
only make these apps more useful.
AI can also improve business performance for
internal-facing bots which, in turn, will improve the customer experience for
both practitioners and patients. Automating patient/admin interaction will
enable more flexible scheduling options, for example, while the ability to more
thoroughly convey information on side effects and conflicts from drug
interactions will only improve patient outcomes.
What’s more, chatbots known as cognitive bots can use deep/machine learning to continually learn from their ongoing interactions, in order to provide more tailored responses to a patient’s needs. Accessing massive data sets and rapidly extracting insights from them is a task much better suited to AI versus humans who are limited by time. Longer term, cognitive bots will deliver improved healthcare outcomes for more patients at a lower cost to the provider.
Adoption and appetite
The growth in the adoption of chatbot technology is likely to be organic. With each success that is achieved, a wider set of needs will be recognized and the technology developed further to address them. Its adopters will range from the largest healthcare innovators, where we would expect to see such innovation, to the smaller rural healthcare facilities who are set to benefit most from the resource and cost efficiencies it offers.
Within the last few years many of us have become accustomed to using Alexa, Siri and Google Home in our daily routines. As the healthcare industry continues to embrace chatbots, it won’t be long before we think nothing of asking them for medical advice, to carry out administrative tasks, or even to speak directly with our doctors. And given the rate at which this technology is evolving, who knows what the next few years might hold?
