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While early-adopting healthcare organizations are seeing strategic value by leveraging predictive analytics to inform their plans and programs, most providers are only in the initial phases of implementation. “The question in healthcare now is how to budget and manage care with the proliferation of new data,” said Scott Allister, senior manager of health analytics with Accenture. “What do we do about it?” [Also: NorthShore University Health System leverages predictive modeling] Allister said the value of predictive analytics for providers is becoming more apparent every day. Providers are exploring multiple uses for analytics, he added, such as “how you work with analytics, including how you can manage medication, how you can set up your infrastructure, how you can govern your data in specific ways, and how you manage the culture of the enterprise.” The transition to a service informed by predictive analytics, however, is not always easy. Organizational silos must be broken down, and new ways of decisionmaking enacted. “This is a journey,” Allister said. Among the hospitals making great strides in adoption of analytics, Allister said, is Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a private, nonprofit healthcare system with eight hospitals, a statewide health plan and a multi-specialty medical group. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] Allister, along with Soyal Momin, vice president of analytics at Presbyterian Healthcare Services, will show how Presbyterian has moved toward an integrated system in a presentation at HIMSS16, which kicks off in late February. Their talk, “Data and Analytics Done Right: Driving Value Creation” will examine how the healthcare provider recognized the need to optimize the growing amounts of electronic data that it was capturing, and thus sought a data and analytics transformation strategy. Among the points covered in the talk will be how to recognize the changing data and analytics requirements faced by healthcare providers with health plans, as well and assessing the benefits an end-to-end data and analytics transformation can deliver. See all of our HIMSS16 previews Allister said that Presbyterian so far has overcome many of the barriers often facing providers as they adopt an analytics strategy. “They recognized the problems of really getting value out of data,” he said. “A lot of organizations have plans, but Presbyterian stuck to it and they are starting to show some important results.” The session “Data and Analytics Done Right: Driving Value Creation,” is scheduled to take place on March 2, from 10-11 a.m. in the Sands Expo Convention Center Marcello 4401. Twitter: @HealthITNews This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

For hospitals and provider networks to successfully navigate the transition to value-based care, they must develop new care models that emphasize education and outreach to patients, experts say. This is particularly important in the case of patients with chronic conditions, many of whom ineffectively manage their health and medications, resulting in expensive emergency room treatment, readmissions, and unfavorable outcomes. Winona Health has been practicing outreach on a number of fronts and, in fact, was among the Office of the National Coordinator’s Beacon programs, winning a grant as a participant of the Southeast Minnesota beacon Community Project. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] The Minnesota-based health network with more than 60 physicians and associate providers, 1,100 employees and 400 volunteers, a hospital, nursing home and two assisted-living communities, also launched an initiative called the Community Care Network. "Many of the reasons people come into the ER and have these re-hospitalizations aren’t necessarily medical," said Rachelle Schultz, president and CEO of Winona Health. "It’s often a home situation: Do they have enough food to eat? Do they have social support?" In a talk at HIMSS16 titled, "Building a Community Care Network for High-Needs Patients," Schultz will describe how Winona enlisted volunteers from a local university to act as its eyes and ears in the community, thus providing the hospital with ground-level information, an essential ingredient of effective population health management. "When we see the same patient coming back for readmission, for ED visits on some level of frequency, something’s happening that we don’t know about," Schultz said. "This initiative allows us to see what’s broken outside of our walls." Hospitalized patients are asked if they would like to take part in the program, which sends volunteers into their homes and communities. Participants range in age from 19 to 91, with an average age of 62. Most typically have multiple chronic conditions such as diabetes and COPD, while 25 percent to 30 percent have a primary diagnosis of a mental health condition. See all of our HIMSS16 previews The volunteers don’t provide clinical care; rather, they act as a partner and resource for patients, meeting them for coffee, walking them around the block, making sure they’re eating the right foods, listening to them, and suggesting small changes that will improve the patient’s health. Volunteers also use positive messaging to encourage healthy patient behavior. Winona’s population health initiative also relies on smart registries to learn where else patients may be seeking care in the area or region. In the first year of the program, Winona Health achieved an 85 percent to 95 percent decrease in readmissions and preventable visits, saving more than $250,000. But Schultz said the initiative isn’t about money. "We talk about patient-centered care in healthcare, but we don’t really do it," she said. "This is the most patient-centered care we could possibly provide. Based on what we’ve seen, I know we’re making a big impact in people’s lives. We’re transforming how we deliver care." Schultz said C-suite healthcare professionals attending HIMSS16 would benefit from attending her session because "if they don’t buy off on this kind of initiative, it won’t go anywhere." The session, "Building a Community Care Network for High-Needs Patients," is slated to take place Tuesday, March 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Center Palazzo I at the Sands Expo Convention Center. Twitter: @HealthITNews This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

As policy wonks and advocates battle over just how much meaningful use will likely change in 2016, the Physician Quality Reporting System might have snuck up on healthcare IT staffs tasked with implementing new technology platforms. "The focus for most of the health IT folks has obviously been meaningful use regulations, and there hasn’t been a lot of focus on the PQRS," said Deborah Gash, CIO of Kansas City, Missouri-based St. Luke's Health System. In fact, Gash said she actually had what she called an "aha!" moment when colleagues at St. Luke's began asking her about how best to address PQRS stipulations in concert with other reporting requirements. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] Gash and Anantachai Panjamapirom, senior consultant at The Advisory Board Company, will present on St. Luke's experience in "PQRS and Alignment Opportunity — Concept to Operationalization," during HIMSS16 beginning in late February. "Bringing awareness to what this program is, how we were able to work through all the operational issues, and create a program to allow us to follow through and successfully meet the requirements was something we thought would be worthwhile to share," Gash said. Panjamapirom said numerous Advisory Board clients, such as St. Luke's, have already taken steps to align not only MU and PQRS, but also try to devise strategies to bring other programs, such as Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting and the Value-Based Payment Modifier, into efficient alignment. Twitter: @HealthITNews "Most of what you have to do is workflow and culture changes," Gash said, "such as documenting the right elements and being consistent about it, plus developing workflows and decision support tools in your EHR to ensure you're getting the quality data captured. That's really where the lion's share of the work is for organizations." Gash also said larger organizations are not necessarily better prepared to operationalize alignment. "I think the complexity of the organization can increase your risk," she said. "I find smaller practices that are paying attention do quite well.  It's that lack of awareness and understanding of what you have to do in the requirements that puts you at risk." "PQRS and Alignment Opportunity - Concept to Operationalization" will be presented March 1 from 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. at Sands Expo Convention Center, Palazzo D. Twitter: @HealthITNews This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

While it may not sound all that exciting at first blush, a working knowledge of the low-, mid- and high-risk stratification of populations is key to successfully moving toward value-based care. “The way stratification works is based on medical history and health history,” said Gaurav Nagrath, a senior strategist of population health and analytics at Cerner. “The population is classified into designated risk groups using claims data, clinical results, health assessments, and demographic information to predict future health risk levels and health care spend levels. Your highest risk patients are hard to manage without concerted effort.” Getting the needed stratification for population health models requires analytics, some of which are already available, Nagrath said. Registration and claims data are among the resources that can show the risk attributes of a population. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] Identifying high-risk consumers, for instance, lets providers know who may become a user of inappropriate services, such as avoidable emergency room visits, Nagrath said. “It makes sure they’re being taken care of at right time in the right care setting and helps contain costs,” he said. “Something as seemingly simple as drug adherence.” Most of the time, healthcare providers don’t know if a patient is taking the prescribed medication. “If you have a care plan, and a care manager who’s calling, making sure that they’re complying, or making sure they’re coming in for monthly visits, then you can start managing complex conditions well,” Nagrath said. “When non-compliance starts happening, they’re not taking their meds, you start getting into episodes of high cost care.” The next step is to address what providers do with the information once they know the high-risk patients, he said. “Right now we’re in the middle of understanding the population,” Nagrath said. “We are beginning to identify the ‘at-risk’ population cohort.” [Poll: What topics will define HIMSS16?] Nagrath and Michael Aratow, MD, chief medical information officer at San Mateo Medical Center, will talk about the broad spectrum approach being taken at the health system in the move to value-based care at HIMSS16, which kicks off on February 29, 2016 in Las Vegas. Nagrath and Aratow will also address the need for providers to have an integrated data warehouse to reduce the lag time to actionable knowledge; having targeted metrics which educate and inform meaningful action; and creating risk models which give population disease patterns and preemptive risk assignments. In performance programs, Nagrath said, providers are dependent on data and metrics, trying to nudge the shift from volume to value by focusing on understanding the issues involved; understanding the role of restratification in the process; and understanding the part innovation plays. See all of our HIMSS16 previews “Changing data into knowledge that can be used in the clinical workflow,” Nagrath said, “will propel our healthcare system closer to Triple Aim objectives.” Aratow and Nagrath’s session, “The Drive Toward Value Based Care,” is scheduled for Thursday, March 3, 2016 from 8:30-9:30 AM in the Sands Expo Convention Center Palazzo E. Twitter: @SusanJMorse This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

The Internet of Things is set to explode. Forecasters expect more than 6 billion objects connected to the Internet this year and some expect 50 billion by 2020. But with connectivity comes risk. For healthcare providers trying to leverage what is emerging as the IoT for healthcare – that growing universe of wearable sensors, networked devices and home monitoring systems deployed to collect medical data and even treat patients – ineffective cybersecurity can have potentially dangerous consequences. See all of our HIMSS16 previews “The Internet of Things is different from the Internet of Things for healthcare in terms of risk,” said Eric Miller, senior director of IT at Ascension Information Services. Miller pointed to a recent initiative in which white hat hackers working with the Mayo Clinic were easily able to hack into numerous connected medical devices, including an infusion pump that delivers drugs and fluids into patients. One of the hired hackers, in fact, was able to connect an infusion pump to his computer network and manipulate the dosage remotely. Miller and Paul Unbehagan, chief architect of Avaya, will discuss technologies that enable the security of connected devices and how providers can recognize and mitigate these cyber security risks during a HIMSS16 session on March 1, 2016. [Poll: What topics will define HIMSS16?] “Our goal is to show how to reduce the risk from connected medical devices in a manageable way,” Miller added. “There’s a process side to it and a technology side, and we will discuss both,” Miller said. The session will cover how providers can get a handle on the number and types of Internet of Things for healthcare devices connected to their network; how to apply risk models to device classifications in order to clarify the threat level; how to implement automation to manage the security of the growing number of connected devices; how to evaluate inventory management options against existing technologies; and how to create an implementation plan. “We want attendees to leave this session with an understanding of how to improve their risk posture for the existing Internet of Things for healthcare as well as the connected devices to come,” he said. “The Internet of Healthcare Things” will be held Tuesday, March 1, from 1 - 2 p.m. PST in the Sands Expo Convention Center Human Nature Theater. Twitter: @HealthITNews This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

The HCI Group, a healthcare IT services consultancy, will highlight at HIMSS16 its new partnership with HIMSS to become the healthcare IT society’s first EMRAM global education provider. HIMSS Analytics provides the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model with a focus on important areas of healthcare advancement. EMRAM is used globally as a measurement of the maturity of healthcare facilities as they leverage technology to improve the quality of healthcare. [Also: 21 awesome photos from past HIMSS conferences] As a HIMSS global EMRAM education partner, HCI will provide client education and consulting to healthcare provider organizations to help them improve electronic health records EMRAM scores and prepare them for HIMSS Analytics validation as Stage 6 and Stage 7 organizations on the world scale. HCI Group CEO Ricky Caplin said the certification enables HCI “to become expert partners with HIMSS Analytics and support the values brought by EMR adoption.” See all of our HIMSS16 previews Also at HIMSS16, HCI Group executives will be highlighting the results of a new partnership with data security intelligence firm Securonix. The deal is designed to bolster HCI Group’s adaptable security capabilities in a range of environments. Caplin said the partnership with Securonix addresses healthcare organizations’ need to move beyond using HIPAA as the standard for security and allow HCI to offer security-focused solutions. The companies will demonstrate their enhanced security service platform at HIMSS16 at The HCI Group’s booth, No. 6832. Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

The second version of the device for inpatient settings features a camera, updated operating system, new carrying options and more.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires certain healthcare organizations dealing with protected health information to implement stringent security measures to safeguard that data. Yet executives at many healthcare organizations are in the dark – sometimes willfully – regarding how compliant their covered entities are to HIPAA privacy and security rules, according to Brand Barney, a security analyst for SecurityMetrics. Barney will be running a session at HIMSS16 in Las Vegas next week on the importance of gaining a realistic assessment of your organization’s ability to meet HIPAA compliance mandates. [Also: 8 out of 10 mobile health apps open to HIPAA violations] In his role at SecurityMetrics, Barney consults with companies and conducts audits on their data security and compliance. “What I’m seeing in the industry is a massive gap between IT professionals and executives regarding HIPAA,” he said. “Most executives believe they are HIPAA-compliant, but few really even understand what HIPAA is. They don’t know what it does for them. They say, ‘I got sold an EMR, or my attorney handles my privacy, or my IT professional covers security.’” That gap between perception and reality is where danger lies, Barney added. “Patient data is being removed from your organization and you don’t even know,” he said. “We’re not talking about credit card information; my HIPAA information has 18 identifiers, and it’s unique.” Even worse, some C-suite members are willfully ignorant about the source of data privacy and security dangers. [Also: 11 essential quotes from notable HIMSS keynotes] “There’s a lot of avoidance,” Barney said. “They don’t want to even think about insider threats. But people with privileged use levels, such as managers with access to PHIs, pose the greatest insider threat to an organization. And business associates are a major liability.” During his session Barney will explore widespread HIPAA and data security assumptions among healthcare industry executives and IT, common barriers preventing organizations from implementing crucial security improvements, and he’ll take a look at how to minimize organizational data breach probability based on vulnerabilities, threats, and risks. “HIPAA Reality Check: The Gap Between Execs and IT” is scheduled to be held on March 1 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PST in Sands Expo Convention Center Palazzo L. Twitter: @HealthITNews This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

Group joins with insurance broker Willis Towers Watson on new program.

Kalorama Information says electronic health record systems are here to stay after recent situations in Flint, Michigan and Hollywood Presbyterian in which electronic medical records played key roles in times of crisis. In Flint, Michigan, where residents are dealing with a lead poisoning water crisis, the lead was discovered as the result of searches conducted using data from an Epic EHR system. [Also: Flint hospital hit with cyberattack tied to hacker group Anonymous] Paper records would have failed the community, Kalorama claimed in its report, "EMR 2015: The Market for Electronic Medical Records." In Flint, the key physician involved in the case reviewed the EHRs of the children whose blood had been tested at the local hospital. Paper records alone would not have lent themselves to the kind of research needed to detect patterns, Kalorama researchers said. "The side benefit of EMR conversion, aside from cost savings, is that practice would improve and providers, academics and governments could obtain better epidemiological information," said Kalorama Information Publisher Bruce Carlson in a statement. "The visibility of the Flint, Michigan, story provides a real-world example of the benefits oft-stated during the conversion and incentive campaign," he said. [Also: Hollywood Presbyterian gives in to hackers, pays $17,000 ransom] The Kalorama report also points to EHR's vulnerabilities – most notably the recent case of medical data being held hostage by hackers at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, which ultimately opted to pay $17,000 to rescue its information from cybercriminals. Kalorama points to questions raised in that ransomware incident: whether the hospital properly encrypted information, whether staff was properly trained in anti-phishing techniques, whether EMR use audits were conducted, and if anyone was designated as chief security officer at the hospital. "Such services and consulting offer opportunities for the industry, which has always been as much of a service industry as a software one," the Kalorama report said. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] The incident comes a time when many physicians and hospitals have and are continuing to convert to electronic records, driven by federal government incentives, Carlson points out. Three out of four U.S. hospitals have a basic EMR system and most EMRs are being used without incident," Carlson said. "Ransomware attacks are not limited by any means to EMR or healthcare facilities as corporations and even police departments have suffered attacks." Twitter: @HealthITNews