Raising the Bar for COVID-19 Data Integrity and Disease Surveillance
The recent spike in illness – 1.9 million new US cases in July, more than double any other month – is a sobering reboot on a crisis we now understand needs far more IT and data coordination than previously recognized. (HIT Consultant)
Analysis: August Health IT M&A Activity; Public Company Performance by Healthcare Growth Partners (HGP)
Healthcare Growth Partners’ (HGP) summary of Health IT/digital health mergers & acquisition (M&A) activity, and public company performance during the month of August 2020. (HIT Consultant)
WHO Guidelines on Digital Health
This e-seminar is a review of the WHO Guidelines on Digital Health: Process and Next Steps by Prof Alain Labrique and Dr Smisha Agarwal from Johns Hopkins University. (Health Informatics Forum)
mHealth for Diabetes Self Management
Using text messaging to extend diabetes self management support outside the clinic environment Innovative interventions are needed to address the growing burden of diabetes and associated costly and debilitating long-term complications. (Health Informatics Forum)
Leveraging standardized clinical data to advance discovery
Opportunity knocks for NIH researchers, who will be able to leverage clinical data from electronic health record (EHR) systems with increased frequency and consistency. The passage of the 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) has charted a path toward increasing access to and interoperability of electronic health information for clinical care. (HealthIT.gov)
Here's what primary care clinicians say they need to effectively implement telehealth
Researchers surveyed hundreds of primary care providers in the New York City area about the hurdles they're still facing to integrating telemedicine into their practices. (Healthcare IT News)
HIMSSCast: The US needs a patient identification strategy yesterday
Joined by Tom Leary and David Gray of HIMSS Government Relations, the team recaps the recent HHS working session. (Healthcare IT News)
Five ways data can improve patient outcomes
To improve patient outcomes and drive value-based care success during COVID-19 and beyond, health plans need to use data for efficient and effective decision-making. However, many health care organizations struggle to provide the right data at the right time to the people who need it. Having seamless data aggregation, enrichment, refinement and transparency is crucial to leveraging data to achieve improved patient outcomes. (Becky Pelov)
Georgia Department of Public Health: Keeping Doctors and Patients Connected
Follow along with our new blog series #HealthcareNow and #PublicSectorNow, where we’ll address healthcare innovation around the world and how to maintain business continuity in today’s health climate. Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) needed a way to continue critical healthcare services without in-person visits when the pandemic hit. (Amit Barave, Cisco Healthcare Blog)
Healthcare analytics: Leveraging data as a strategic asset
Those in the healthcare industry are under pressure to deliver better outcomes. Analytics can provide the mechanism to sort through all the complexity. And leveraging data as a strategic asset is key to customer satisfaction. (IBM Services Blog)
Amazon Just Did What?
“The future points to remote patient monitoring for consumers in the home,” shared Silver, “We’ll see more embedded analytics, data streaming, and general at-home monitoring.” (Perficient)
HIPAA Compliance – Top Priority in Medical Software Development
In the article, Natallia shows how to make healthcare software HIPAA-compliant following the example of 2 ScienceSoft’s healthcare IT projects. She also shortly covers common measures to achieve HIPAA compliance and dispels several myths related to HIPAA-compliant software. (SCN Soft)
Telehealth Statistics – Recent Trends and Forecasts
Daria overviews the current state of the telemedicine market, looks into telehealth app development forecasts and provides the most relevant statistics on the topic. (SCN Soft)
AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting: Virtual, but Vital as Ever
AcademyHealth’s 2020 Annual Research Meeting , which kicks off today, will of course be a virtual event. (AcademyHealth)
Facebook to limit spread of groups offering health advice
Facebook announced Sept. 17 it will start scaling back the spread of health information on its social media platform by removing health groups from recommendations. (Beckers Hospital Review)
NIH awards 7 contracts worth up to $22.8M for COVID-19 digital health projects
The National Institutes of Health has contracted with seven companies and academic institutions to develop digital health solutions to help with the COVID-19 response.The NIH selected seven recipients from nearly 200 project ideas covering public health needs, especially in underserved areas and populations. The seven contracts could be worth $22.8 million if all contracts are taken to the second phase, which should be completed in one year. (Beckers Hospital Review)
Colleges struggle to maintain student privacy while reporting COVID-19 data
Colleges are caught in between transparency and privacy concerns as they establish COVID-19 data reporting procedures, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Beckers Hospital Review)
McKinsey: Up to $250B of US health spending could become virtual
A recent report analyzing claims data identified virtual care use cases estimates that could comprise roughly 20% of all Medicare, Medicaid and commercial spend across outpatient, office and home health. (MobiHealth News)
Despite some hiccups, COVID-19 is VR's time to shine
Healthcare VR researchers say that certain projects have stalled during the pandemic, but strong demand and emergency reimbursement decisions out of CMS have raised hopes across the industry. (MobiHealth News)
COVID-19 apps want user data, but few say they'll protect it
Of 50 worldwide COVID-19 apps analyzed in Nature Medicine, only 16 promised to anonymize, encrypt and secure the data they collect. (MobiHealth News)
Harnessing Technology to Address Loneliness and Social Isolation
Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic is a public health concern. Resources are available to help people stay connected even while physically distanced. (HHS.gov)
The State of Health Informatics Capacity and Needs of Local Health Departments
NACCHO, in collaboration with Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University and supported by the CDC, conducted the 2015 Informatics Needs and Capacity of Local Health Departments survey to assess the informatics capacity, gaps, threats, and opportunities of 650 local health departments in the United States. (NACCHO)
State Approaches to Contact Tracing during the COVID-19 Pandemic
To contain the spread of COVID-19, states are rapidly ramping up their contact tracing efforts. Click on a state to learn about its contact tracing program model, lead agencies, tracing process, workforce, technology, and funding, or use the tabs on the left to view states’ approaches by category. (NASHP)
Decision-Support Tools, Tinged with Race and Gender Bias, Draw Regulator Scrutiny
Healthcare providers that use artificial intelligence (AI) programs to assist with diagnostic and care-related decisions should expect scrutiny from state and federal regulators due to concerns about the potential age, race, and gender biases that have been built into these systems. (AHIMA)
Modernizing our Public Health Surveillance Systems
CDC’s surveillance systems serve critical public health functions but many of our systems use aging technologies that have been patched together over time and need to be rebuilt or replaced. (CDC.gov)
Improving Public Health Surveillance Through Interoperability, Data Standards, and Legislation
Emerging infectious diseases and natural disasters, as well as the ever-increasing prevalence of chronic disease, greatly increases the need for public health agencies to have more comprehensive knowledge of patients’ health coupled with an understanding of how to appropriately use technology. (ASTHO)
Even more resources are available in last month’s Informatics Roundup, available here!
Cover image created by Makyzz at freepik.com.
