Continuing Discussion about the Epic/Faulkner Opposition to Interoperability
In response to my note yesterday concerning Epic and Judith Faulkner's opposition to the proposed HHS rules about EHR interoperability, a reader of this blog, Ivan Miller, submitted the following comment:Faulkner replicated Steve Jobs business model. He made a proprietary, locked system that he guaranteed would work-- and consumers were willing to pay a huge price for his product. Healthcare providers were no different. There is one notable difference however -- Jobs focused passionately on his product, and the free market rewarded his innovation. Judy was placed as chair of the EHR oversight/ i...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 14, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Business Healthcare Information Technology Medical Ethics Source Type: blogs
Faulkner Opposes Proposed HHS Hospital Interoperability Rules; No One Surprised
Much in the EHR news lately has been about Judith Faulkner and Epic's opposition to the proposed HHS interoperability rules (see:Epic may sue HHS over interoperability rules concerns, Judy Faulkner says). Almost 60 health system CEOs have stated that they are in agreement with Faulkner and Epic on this matter (see:Epic Leads Almost 60 Health Systems Against Interoperability Rule; ONC's Rucker calls out hospital leaders who signed Epic's opposition letter; Epic Founder Faulkner Gives Hospital Executives Exactly What They Want). Most EHR executives have stayed out of this dogfight but Jonathan Bush ha...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 13, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Hospital Executive Management Medical Consumerism Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Bundled Cash Pricing May Provide an Ideal " Transparency " Solution for Many Hospitals
Major changes are now underway in the healthcare industry including the impending CMS price transparency rules that are eliciting marked opposition from various segments of organized medicine (see:Ohio Healthcare Network Serving Amish and Anabaptist Communities Could Provide Blueprint for Hospital Price Transparency). Below is an excerpt from an article on this topic inDark Daily:.... [O]n Jan. 1, 2021, a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) final rule (CMS-1717-F2) on price transparency goes into effect. It requires hospitals to publish their standard chargemaster prices, as well as payer-negotiated ...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 11, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Hospital Financial Medical Consumerism Source Type: blogs
Health Insurers and Retail Pharmacies Expand Primary Care Services
I have blogged extensively about how health insurers and retail pharmacies have been entering the primary care market.Market Watch recently published an article informing the investor community about this trend (see:Health insurers and retail pharmacies are making a play for primary care). Below is an excerpt from this article:CVS Health..., Humana..., Walgreens..., Walmart...and UnitedHealth Group now operate hundreds of clinics that directly market themselves as primary care providers or provide a majority of primary care services. And they all plan to open more clinics in 2020....As the U.S. health care system has...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 6, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Insurance Public Health Source Type: blogs
Express Scripts Throws Lifeline to Some Digital Health Startups
I have blogged extensively about pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in the past (see, for example:Pharmaceutical Companies and PBMs Helped to Create Our Opioid Crisis;CVS's Caremark Expands Its Diabetes Care Program with Analytics and Coaching;Amazon-PillPack Pushes Against CVS with Prescription Deliveries; Also Seeking PBM Status). Now comes news thatExpress Scripts is taking some measures to assist selected digital start-ups with apps and devices that can be used to optimize the use of prescription drugs (see:Express Scripts throws a lifeline to digital health start-ups). Below is an excerpt from the articl...
Source: Lab Soft News - February 4, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Innovations Healthcare Insurance Medical Consumerism Pharmaceutical Industry Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
" Deaths of Despair " in the U.S. Require Broad Federal Policy Initiatives
It seems to me that there has been relatively little written about the current major public heath crisis in the U.S., the opioid epidemic and deaths of despair. (see:Every American family basically pays an $8,000 ‘poll tax’ under the U.S. health system, top economists say)...[Princeton University economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton] have risen to prominence in recent years for their work on America ’s “deaths of despair.” They discovered Americans between the ages of 25 and 64 have been committing suicide, overdosing on opioids or dying from alcohol-related problems like liver disease at skyrocketing rates sinc...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 30, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Medical Consumerism Medical Research Medicolegal Issues Pharmaceutical Industry Population Health Preventive Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
New Technology to Destroy Cancer Cells, Oncotripsy, May Offer Promise
Many of the readers of this blog will be familiar withlithotripsy which involves the use of shock waves to disintegrate stones in the kidneys, bladder, and ureter (see:Lithotripsy). Scientists are now experimenting with the use of ultrasound to selectively kill cancer cells (see:Ultrasound selectively damages cancer cells when tuned to correct frequencies). They have called this type of treatment oncotripsy. Below is an excerpt from the article:A solid mechanics lab at Caltech first developed the theory of oncotripsy, based on the idea that cells are vulnerable to ultrasound at specific frequencies —like how ...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 28, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Innovations Medical Research Source Type: blogs
Companies Emerge Offering Remote Text-Based Primary Care Consultations
In a recent note, I explored the difference betweenvirtual care andtelemedicine (see:Understanding the Distinction between Virtual Care and Telemedicine). Here is the explanation copied from the note:Simply put, the term virtual care is a way of talking about all the ways patients and doctors can use digital tools to communicate....While telemedicine refers to long-distance [direct and visual] patient care, virtual care is a much broader term that refers to a variety of digital healthcare services.This made a lot of sense to me when I wrote the note but long-distance care is growing more complex. A recent article described...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 23, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Public Health Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
What Part of the Wellness Economy Should Be Pursued by Health Systems?
I came across an article inForbes discussing beauty and wellness trends for 2020 (see:9 Beauty And Wellness Trend Predictions For 2020 And Beyond). Included in the article was the graphic shown below that categorizes the global wellness economy for 2017 into various segments. All of this raised the question in my mind about how health systems can pursue a portion of this huge wellness market without straying too far from their roots. First, take a look at the graph below.I believe that it would be relatively easy for health systems to become more engaged in three segments of the global wellness industry as shown abov...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 21, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Health Wearable Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Population Health Public Health Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Virtual Personal Assistants as a Key Factor in Wearable Health Ecosystems
I have posted a number of notes pertaining to wearables and wearable health ecosystems (see, for example:Sony Develops Health Wearable Providing Connectivity, Stipulating That It's Not a Smartwatch;The Evolution of"Wearable Health Ecosystems" and Associated Partnerships;Status Reports and Hospital Referrals from Wearable Health Ecosystems). I have not yet raised the issue of providing a virtual personal assistant (VPS) with these home-based health systems. This idea was discussed in a recent article (see:Wearables Hold the Key to Connected Health Monitoring) and below is an excerpt from it:As voice inte...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 16, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: AI Health Wearable Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Point-of-Care Testing Public Health Test Kits and Home Testing Source Type: blogs
Amazon and AWS Help Improve Hospital Efficiency and Reduce Costs
In a recent note, I discussed howCerner was turning to Amazon/AWS for help in providing assistance with AI technology that an be embedded in its EHR product. One example was the deployment of a chatbot that can be used to interrogate the EHR for critical information that can be difficult to extract, particularly in the form of natural language (see:EHR Vendor Cerner Turns to Amazon Web Services for AI Development). In a recent article about Amazon's healthcare strategy for 2020 (see:15 things to know about Amazon's healthcare strategy heading into 2020), I was reminded of the relationship between Amazon andBe...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 14, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: AI Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Business Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Cigna Unveils App to Monitor and Improve Medication Adherence
It's well known that non-adherence to prescribed drugs is a major problem in healthcare (see:Medication Adherence: The Elephant in the Room). A quote from this article places the problem in the proper context:According to the World Health Organization, medication adherence can have a more direct impact on patient outcomes than the specific treatment itself.1 Medication adherence can affect quality and length of life, health outcomes, and overall healthcare costs.Nonadherence can account for up to 50% of treatment failures, around 125,000 deaths, and up to 25% of hospitalizations each year in the United States.Putting a...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 10, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Diagnostics Electronic Health Record (EHR) Health Wearable Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Pharmaceutical Industry Preventive Medicine Public Health Test Kits and Home Testing Source Type: blogs
A " Preventive " Genomics Clinic Opens Its Doors at the Brigham and Women's Hospital
There is a new vocabulary that is evolving in healthcare relating to genomic testing and treatment. The latest phase that I have come across ispreventive genomics and its corollary,preventive genomic clinic. Below is a description of a clinic by this name that has opened at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston (see:Preventive Genomics Clinic):The Genetics and Genomic Medicine Service at Brigham and Women ’s Hospital...is pleased to announce [opening of] the Preventive Genomics Clinic. The Preventive Genomics Clinic...provides innovative screening and cutting edge genomic information for healthy adults in ...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 8, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Diagnostics Genomic Testing Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Medical Research Preventive Medicine Source Type: blogs
Possible Funding Tension Between Wellness Programs and End-of-Life Care
It is a well known that a large percentage of the total U.S. healthcare spend is devoted to end-of-life care (EOLC) for a small number of patients (see:How We Spend $3,400,000,000,000). To quote the subtitle of the article:..."[M]ore than half of America's healthcare spending goes to five percent of patients."I think that we are approaching the time for an earnest discussion about this disproportionate allocation of healthcare resources and whether some of these resources could and should be reallocated to wellness programs. In my mind, it is out of the question about whether to increase spending for�...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 6, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Health Wearable Healthcare Insurance Hospital Financial Medical Consumerism Public Health Source Type: blogs
EHR Vendor Cerner Turns to Amazon Web Services for AI Development
We have reached the point when one of our major EHR vendors,Cerner, has come to understand that it can no longer rely on its own internal resources for AI and predictive analytics development (see:Cerner builds machine learning platform on Amazon Web Services). AI has become so sophisticated that EHR vendors like Cerner can't hope to compete in the field without support from experts such as those working for EWS. An excerpt from this article is presented below: In July...[Cerner] named AWS its preferred cloud provider. Under the agreement, Cerner is transitioning its artificial intelligence and machin...
Source: Lab Soft News - January 2, 2020 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: AI Diagnostics Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Pathology Informatics Predictive Analytics Source Type: blogs
