Faulkner Touts " Interoperability " at Annual Epic Users Conference
I have posted a number of previous notes about the need for interoperability among the various hospital and health system EHRs (see, for example: Do Hospitals Really Want Interoperable E-Health Records?; NYT Op-Ed on EHR Interoperability Blames Vendors and Greedy Hospitals). I believe that the lack of such a solution has partly been the fault of hospital executives who did not want to make their hospital records portable and partly the fault of EHR vendors who wanted to enhance their market position and please their client base. Well, a decade has passed and Judy Faulkner, the CEO of Epic, has suggested at her ...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 2, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Computer Security Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Upload Your DNA to a Web Site to Generate Risk Scores for Five Diseases
I have posted a few notes about predictive diagnostic algorithms (see:An Algorithm Using Medical Record Data Predicts Risk for Parkinson's Disease;Should the Work Product of"Non-Explainable" Medical Algorithms Be Ignored) and disease risk scores (see:Genetic Risk Scores: Ready for Inclusion in the Medical Record?). Using AI techniques, researchers at Massachusetts General are developing a web site that will display a risk score for five common diseases after consumers upload their DNA to the site (see:Clues to Your Health Are Hidden at 6.6 Million Spots in Your DNA). The algorithm takes into account mil...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 28, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Genomic Testing Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Lab Processes and Procedures Medical Consumerism Medical Research Source Type: blogs
Ten Suggestions for Young People from Warren Buffett
In arecent tweet,Warren Buffett, the"sage of Omaha," posted the following ten points that he described as advice to young people:Read and write more.Stay healthy and fit.Networking is about giving.Practice public speaking.Stay teachable.Find a mentor.Keep in touch with friends.You are not your job.Know when to leave.Don ’t spend what you don’t have.A very useful list and one that I have personally tried to adhere to. For me, the hardest one to achieve has been to"know when to leave" because this has never exactly been obvious for me. Perhaps he is referring here mainly to investments rather than, sa...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 27, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Medical Education Medical Ethics Medical Research Medicolegal Issues Source Type: blogs
Surprise Free Gift: Free Tuition at NYU Medical School
In a surprise movie, NYU School of medicine recently announced that it will cover the tuition of all its students going forward (see:Surprise Gift: Free Tuition for All N.Y.U. Medical Students).This sets a very high bar for the top-ranked medical schools in the country. Undoubtedly, this news will force many of them to follow suit although not all may be able to tap into a comparable philanthropic pool than what is available in New York City. Below is an excerpt from the article:The New York University School of Medicine announced...that it would cover the tuition of all its students, regardless of merit or need, cit...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 23, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Medical Education Source Type: blogs
The Quest for a Fail-Safe Patient Identification Solution in the U.S.
A recent article on the challenges posed by mistakes in patient identification was rather pessimistic about the amount of progress that has been made in the field (see:Fail-safe patient ID matching remains just out of reach patient-id). This boils down to the challenge of ensuring that the EHR record of"Mary Smith" who is admitted today is uncorrupted by data from a different"Mary Smith" who was admitted to the hospital yesterday. Below is an excerpt from the article. It's long so read the whole thing if you are interested.[D]igital technologies —electronic health records in particular—hav...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 21, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Computer Security Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Research Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Ohio Medicaid Department Directed to Quit Its PBM Contracts
It seems like this has been a long time coming but at least one set of state officials is taking action regarding the excess profits and business model of their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) (see: Ohio Medicaid to try out transparent PBM pricing model). Below are some details from the article:Ohio's Medicaid department is directing its managed-care organizations to quit their contracts with pharmacy benefit managers because of opaque pricing practices officials said cost the state millions of dollars. The state's five managed-care plans must strike up new contracts with companies able to manage pharmacy se...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 17, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Business Healthcare Insurance Medical Consumerism Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs
Need for More " Disruptive " CEOs of Health Systems; What Does This Mean?
Some critics of the current health system CEOs assert that some of them are unprepared for what lies ahead in the field. Their primary expertise is often in revenue management and M&A. For most hospitals, however, revenue is shrinking (see: Why Major Hospitals Are Losing Money By The Millions) and many potential mergers have already been achieved. Inpatient stays have also been shrinking (see:Trends in Hospital Inpatient Stays in the United States, 2005-2014) and threats to outpatient revenues are presented by walk-in retail clinics, urgent care clinics, and UnitedHealth as a major physician employer (see:3...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 15, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Hospital Financial Source Type: blogs
Successfully Screening for Lung Cancer Based on Predictive Analytics
I have blogged a number of times about predictive analytics (see, for example: Identifying Patients for Remote Monitoring with Predictive Analytics;Eric Schmidt Discusses the Potential Value of Predictive Analytics in the ER). Much of the hype about this technology and set of products is largely theoretical at this time but great potential looms in the future. I therefore was very interested in a recent article that provided a very pragmatic perspective on the topic (see:Big data and predictive analytics pull in smokers for lung screening). Below is an excerpt from it:Virginia-basedChesapeake Regional Healthcare soug...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 14, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Hospital Financial Medical Consumerism Medical Research Preventive Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
Announcing the Second Annual API Digital Pathology and AI Workshop
On December 8-9, 2017, theAssociation for Pathology Informatics offered for the first time a workshop on digital pathology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. This conference was somewhat unusual in that it was located in a hospital rather than a hotel or conference center. A tour of the automated lines in the pathology department of Henry Ford was included. Navigate to the above link to review the faculty and lectures that were offered at that time. It was very well received and highly successful with all seats filled.The second workshop in this series is now being offered on December 7-8. 2018, but w...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 9, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Digital Imaging in Pathology Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Lab Processes and Procedures Pathology Informatics Surgical Pathology Source Type: blogs
During an EHR Crash, Don't Disturb the Worker Bees
In response to my blog note yesterday suggesting the need for frequent updates during major EHR crashes (see:Hospital Computer Crashs Show EHR Vulnerabilities; Need for Better Explanations), a reader of Lab Soft News submitted the following comment:I suspect those who desire frequent updates have never lived on the"IT" side of one of these crashes. Interrupting the staff who are working to resolve the issue will only delay the resolution.It is not practical to have them stop"frequently" to give their leadership updates, unless that is considered a higher priority than restoring the system.I personally l...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 7, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Computer Security Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Hospital Executive Management LIS Definitions and Strategy Source Type: blogs
Hospital Computer Crashs Show EHR Vulnerabilities; Need for Better Explanations
A recent EHR crash atSutter Health was managed in about the same (ineffective) way as most of the other similar health system disruptions. Sutter disclosed little about what was happening during and after the crash. The outage was discussed in a recent article (see:How a Major Computer Crash Showed the Vulnerabilities of EHRs). Below is an excerpt from it:The...[recent] communications outage at Sutter Health, the largest health system in northern California, which cut off access to electronic health records (EHRs), highlighted the frequency of such outages and the need for backup plans and drills nationwide (see:Sutt...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 7, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Medical Consumerism Medicolegal Issues Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
A Look Back in Time: Free Internet Access in Hospitals
This note marks the beginning of a new continuing series in which I will look back in time and quote an earlier blog note. I will then comment about how the key ideas covered earlier have changed in the ensuing years.In January, 2006, I posted a note about the innovative idea at that time of providing free Wi-FI to patients and visitors in a hospital (see:Free Wi-Fi for Patients in Hospitals). Here is a quote from the article:TheRichardson Regional Medical Center now provides free Wi-Fi Internet access to patients and visitors throughout the hospital.What started as a WLAN to support paperless charting became a broader dep...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 3, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Toby Cosgrove Appointed as an Advisor to Google Cloud; Where Is Google Headed?
Dr. Delos"Toby" Cosgrove who stepped down as CEO of the Cleveland Clnic in May, 2017, has been appointed as an executive advisor to the Google Cloud team (see:Toby Cosgrove joins Google Cloud). This may be mainly a ceremonial appointment or Google may be seeking to gain expertise from him regarding the relevance of the cloud for the future of healthcare. Below is an excerpt from the article:[Gregory] Moore,...[Vice President of Healthcare], noted that Cosgrove would take on the challenges of the Triple Aim, a framework aimed at improving the patient care experience, improving population health and red...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 2, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Research Public Health Source Type: blogs
Big Pharma Wants Your DNA (But What Will They Do With It?)
It's never been a secret that the consumer DNA labs like23andMe have always intended to sell their anonymized data to other parties such as pharmaceutical companies (see: Helix Makes DNA Sequencing Available to Consumers;Where Do We Go From Here?,23andMe Customers: Suckers or Empowered Consumers?).This has always been the rationale for offering DNA testing to consumers at very low prices. After a few years, the details of such deals are beginning to emerge. A recent article spelled out some of them (see:Big Pharma Would Like Your DNA). Below is an excerpt from it:...[T]his week ’s announcement that GlaxoSmithKl...
Source: Lab Soft News - July 31, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Electronic Health Record (EHR) Genomic Testing Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Medical Consumerism Medical Research Pharmaceutical Industry Source Type: blogs
CMS Adds Home Monitoring Reimbursement to Home Health Payments
I have blogged previously about the growing decentralization in healthcare with an increasing number of services provided away from hospitals and with movement toward consumer homes (see:TEN MAJOR TRENDS FACING THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY IN THE AMBULATORY SPACE ON A FIVE-YEAR HORIZON;Mobile Health Teams as a Variant on the Theme of Decentralized Acute Care in the Home). New technology is providing cost-effective and useful solutions in terms of home monitoring devices (see:Top 10 Remote Patient Monitoring Companies for Hospitals).A key element in the success of new ways to deliver healthcare has always been whether reimbursem...
Source: Lab Soft News - July 28, 2018 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Healthcare Insurance Public Health Source Type: blogs
