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For the U.S. to effectively digitize their infrastructure, the National Association of State CIOs said a stable and talented workforce is needed.

Healthcare IT News and HIMSS are accepting speaking proposals for the annual Big Data Healthcare Analytics Forum to be held in Boston, October 24-25. The deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. June 17. Submit a proposal today. Submissions are limited to healthcare providers and payer organizations, government agencies and academic institutions. Presentations should be practical, actionable and solutions-based. Case studies are a priority for this event. An anticipated 300 healthcare provider and payer organizations are expected to attend the forum. Proposals should focus on how provider and payer organizations are using analytics to, among other things, improve clinical care, patient safety, succeed at population health, reduce readmissions, treat high-risk patients, streamline operations and reduce the overall cost of healthcare. Twitter: @HealthITNews Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

Now that almost all U.S. hospital are using electronic health records, the industry is ready for the next phase of information sharing, improved outcomes and collecting the digital dividend.

By Mike Willingham, Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs, Caradigm The mandate for healthcare information security is clear. Our industry has to raise the bar. We are reminded of this by the constant stream of breaches affecting healthcare providers such as the recent incidents impacting 21st Century Oncology and Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Industry reports like this one from the Ponemon Institute state that healthcare organizations face cyberattacks every month and are still struggling to find effective strategies to keep systems secure. One of the core vulnerabilities facing healthcare is identity and access risk as that most healthcare organizations have vulnerabilities, but don’t realize their security strategies are insufficient. With frequent industry consolidation and the emergence of population health, information security is becoming increasingly more challenging to manage. Data is now being shared from a multitude of applications with both employed and non-employed physicians. Managing this risk is further complicated because it has multiple layers. You have to consider elevated privileges, remote and mobile access, multi-factor authentication, and balance these concerns with providing efficient access. While single-sign on (SSO) tools are often looked upon as the first line of defense in controlling identity and access risk, providers need additional capabilities because the threat landscape has evolved. Providers need to assume that insiders and outsiders with malicious intent are attempting to gain unauthorized access. In order to reduce this risk, providers need greater visibility so that they can be more diligent. This entails a major shift in philosophy to a more proactive strategy that is constantly managing credentials and access rather than just reacting. The key to succeeding with this approach is to leverage automation. With the exploding number of applications and clinicians that must be managed, security teams must use tools that can automate manual security related processes. Here are a few examples of how automation can help manage risk: Provisioning and de-provisioning processes, which provides consistency in the process, saves IT many hours of work and prevents errors User, entitlements and behavior data can be brought together in a single view so you have all the information you need to take action A governance, risk and compliance (GRC) dashboard can be set up with analytics to monitor and proactively manage risk efficiently (e.g. an orphaned accounts report) Real-time alerting can identify a potential incident as it happens to minimize damage Remediation can be simplified so that access can be removed or suspended in just a couple of clicks Given the increased threats we face, healthcare needs to change its approach to security and privacy. Ultimately, the key is greater due diligence, day in and day out. If we use tools that help us accomplish this, then we give ourselves the best chance to win this battle.  

Intermountain also led a $12 million funding round that Zebra said it will use to build out its analytics engine with machine learning algorithms for diagnosing imaging scans. 

Nearly two years after implementing workforce analytics, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital has saved more than $10 million on costs by addressing staff issues and increasing employee engagement.

By Marc Sebes, VP of Product Management In-home clinical devices are among a number of digital health technologies that are being used to streamline clinical trial processes and enable pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CROs) to monitor participants remotely. As partially or fully remote clinical trials gain market momentum, these particularly impactful devices enable the remotely collected participant data to be integrated into a clinical trial system, patient community application or engagement platform. Researchers and clinicians are then provided with access to real-time participant data at a reduced collection cost. Clinical devices are instruments, implements or machines intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or monitoring of conditions. Examples of commonly used in-home clinical devices include blood pressure cuffs, blood glucose meters, sleep tracking devices, spirometers and weight scales. Three factors have led to the increased usage of these devices in clinical trials. First, the escalating competition caused by new entrants providing in-home clinical devices has led to better usability and accuracy from all vendors. Second, as evidenced by the specialized digital health displays in retail stores like Target, consumer demand and adoption of in-home monitors is growing. Third, as data from these devices has become more accessible for clinicians, the value of utilizing these devices in trials has increased. Delving further into the increased value of real-time connectivity, the previous lack of device connectivity in the market placed a substantial burden on trial participants and researchers required to routinely collect data. Previously, patients were required to either manually record the readouts or take the device to a trial site for the data to be downloaded by a clinician. This made conducting effective remote clinical trials nearly impossible; mandating participants to self-report data multiple times a day is not only an inefficient means for data acquisition, but it also greatly heightens the risk of incomplete and inaccurate data being provided to researchers. Today, however, devices are becoming increasingly connected via Bluetooth Smart technology or application program interfaces (APIs). This growing device connectivity is enabling data to pass wirelessly in real-time from a blood pressure cuff, for example, to a smartphone and into the clinical trial’s platform or system. Unfortunately, some widely-used legacy devices remain unconnected. To bridge the gap, new data capture technologies have been developed to quickly digitize biometric readings from non-connected devices. Validic’s VitalSnap, which leverages optical character recognition (OCR) software, enables participants to capture health data via their smartphone’s camera from non-connected medical devices and automatically transfer it to a clinician. This provides researchers with the ability to access data from devices that are already clinically validated and being used in the trial.   As clinical devices continue to mature and are integrated into the connected health ecosystem, they will become an increasingly vital component for creating better results for both clinical trial participants and sponsors. Regulators expect clinical devices that generate these data to meet certain standards, therefore most are FDA-approved Class II devices that follow the 510(k) pathway. And, the data generated by these devices are generally accepted in clinical trials. In-home clinical devices are already benefiting and supporting trials today. As data is delivered in more real-time, there is less need for participants to spend time at sites. Additionally, in-home devices allow for more frequent empirical data to be collected throughout the trial. Utilizing the increased number of readings, additional correlations can be drawn from patient-reported outcomes, resulting in less uncertainty and more confident results. In summary, connected in-home clinical devices are allowing for more passive data collection that enables participants to have a more active and engaged role in clinical trials, leading to better results at a lower cost.

Half of hospitals routinely use patient information received electronically from other providers, which National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD said is an indication of how far the healthcare industry has come for both patients and clinicians.

Mayo Clinic will provide the infrastructure to store, analyze and host data for researchers as part of a program that aims to enroll one million people to boost President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

Simplified regulations around MACRA meaningful use could address the loss of efficiency and usefulness of electronic health records software to enable more flexibility for the doctors using them, said Shawn Griffin, MD, of Memorial Hermann Physician Network.