National Report: Towards a healthier nation; No Health without Mental Health

The Americans’ health is deteriorating rapidly because of chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. The debate over health care has resulted in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has given health insurance to 20-million more Americans than 4 years ago. But is the access to health care making better the mental health of the nation? The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is issuing a latest report which is a compendium of research supporting the requirement to treat clients with a holistic approach that enables mental and physical health.

Toward a Healthier Nation: No Health Without Mental Health is a basic national report on the status of mental health. It investigates 3 promising approaches embedded in the ACA. Each place has the potential to be "a game changer" in how mental and physical health problems are dealt. The report depicts the strategies to stop common mental health concerns, like depression, from escalating into health-threatening issues. The report outlines how the use of inter-professional teams from physical and psychological perspectives, as well as technological innovations, gives an extra layer of day-to-day support.

The research was conducted by psychology experts who have witnessed the harsh realities of the failure to care for the whole person during office visits, in hospitals, schools, prisons, and on the streets of our communities. This 3-part report discusses the critical need to deal mental and physical health problems as one process. The report is created to advance the way psychology and medicine are considered and practiced. Toward a Healthier Nation: No Health Without Mental Health, also calls for more mental health experts who can deal the increasing cultural diversity in the U.S.

House of Representatives set to vote today on 21st Century Cures bill

After 2 years of legislative wrangling, the House of Representatives is all ready to vote today on the 21^st Century Cures Act bill involving various health IT provisions created to deal the issues of electronic health record usability, interoperability, and data blocking.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate yesterday in advance of today’s House vote, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) applauded the legislation’s $6.3 billion in appropriations to support the Obama administration’s Cancer Moonshot ($1.8 billion), Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neuro technologies ($1.6 billion), and Precision Medicine Initiative ($1.4 billion). The bill finds to speed the approval of latest medicines and medical devices, among other provisions.

Alexander, chairman of the Senate health committee, also termed out the 21st Century Cures bill’s attempts to make better the health IT. Noting that the federal government has spent more than $30 billion on incentives to get providers to accept electronic health records (EHRs), he charged that EHR systems are a “mess” and desperately require fixing.

“Various portions of the bill concentrate on 2 critical areas where improvement is required to better leverage health IT and EHRs to their full potential,” claims Ben Moscovitch, manager of HIT at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “Those 2 areas are enhanced interoperability and improved usability and patient safety.”

Radiologists ready to utilize criteria for imaging orders

Much concerns and minor industry awareness surround a latest program that will need physicians ordering outpatient radiological processes for Medicare beneficiaries to justify ahead of time that the imaging orders are important.

The reimbursement approach targets to have physicians refer to industry-developed appropriateness criteria before ordering advanced—and costly—imaging processes for sufferers, utilizing clinical decision support modules that will be tied into agencies’ electronic health records systems (EHRs).

The program, one of the provisions of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 year, will go into effect on the day of Jan. 1, 2018, but several specifics of how the program will work are yet in development, claimed presenters at a session during the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

The utilization of criteria is hoped to be applied to imaging orders for outpatients for 8 types of studies, termed priority clinical places—coronary artery disease, suspected pulmonary embolism, headache, hip pain, low back pain, shoulder pain, cancer of the lung, and cervical or neck pain, claims Joseph Hutter, MD, a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service.

The program will have important impacts on ordering physicians, radiological experts and healthcare agencies, which will require adding imaging-specific modules to their EHR systems and adjusting workflows. Additionally, it could affect the payments for radiology experts in the year of 2018 and force a minor percentage of physicians who regularly override appropriateness criteria to seek pre-authorization for studies starting in the year of 2020.

Criteria to justify contemporary radiological processes for those clinical reasons have been hammered out by RSNA and other professional agencies, presenters claim. Before physicians imaging orders tests, they will require using a clinical decision support module, hoped to be embedded in their EHR systems.

The program has been established through a partnership between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and various professional radiological groups as a way to make sure that imaging services like MRI, CT and nuclear medicine scans meet suitable use criteria. The intent of the attempt is to decrease duplicate or unimportant procedures, states Curtis Langlotz, MD, professor of radiology at the Stanford University Medical Center.

Ordering physicians can select to override the decision on appropriateness given by the module, but outcomes will be compiled over time to assess how regularly physicians comply, or do not comply, with appropriate use criteria, Langlotz claims. By the year of 2020, the top 5% of physicians overriding CDSM decisions will be believed to be outliers and will require having orders for advanced radiological processes subject to pre-authorization.

When the program begins in the year of 2018, it’ll have an instant impact on radiology professionals. Physicians that utilize CDSMs to assess the appropriateness of processes will get a code from the module, which radiologists will require submitting on claims sent for payment to Medicare. Radiologists that do not submit the code to CMS will not be paid, Hutter states.

 

UMass agrees to pay fine of $650,000 for exposing electronic health records

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) has accepted to pay the federal government a fine of $650,000 to settle a 3-year-old healthcare privacy violation of exposing electronic health records that resulted from a malware infection. That’s why it has agreed to pay fine of $650,000 for exposing electronic health records.

In the year of June 2013, the center of university for language, speech and hearing reported a malware infection to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights that resulted in the unauthorized disclosure of the personal health and financial data of over 1,670 people. The malware infection had resulted in the unauthorized exposure of a host of sensitive information involving sufferer names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth, health insurance information, diagnoses and procedure codes.

Few details about the malware attack are vague, like how many unauthorized users had access to the sufferer information and for how long. The University of Massachusetts Amherst claims that the information breach happened due to a Trojan horse attack, a kind of malware that is mostly disguised as legitimate software.

The federal government levied the fine in huge measure because at the time period the University of Massachusetts Amherst did not have a firewall in place securing the electronic health records at its center for language, speech and hearing. “UMass failed to execute technical security measures at the Center to guard against unauthorized access to electronic protected health information transmitted over an electronic communications network by ensuring that firewalls were in place,” in accordance to a statement from the Office for Civil Rights, the branch of the federal government that enforces The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, a law that targets to ensure the confidentiality of sufferer medical records.

The Office for Civil Rights determined that in hindsight University of Massachusetts Amherst should have implemented a better job ensuring that the center for language, speech and hearing was part of a protective electronic health network that complied with HIPAA and had adequate firewalls in place to stop the unauthorized approach. The federal government also fined the University for not performing a precise and thorough risk analysis until the month of September 2015 and was enabled of exposing electronic health records.

In addition to the monetary settlement, the UMass has accepted to a corrective action plan that needs it to perform an enterprise-wide risk analysis and establish and implement a risk management plan, claims the Office for Civil Rights.

The UMass also has been needed to revise its policies and processes and train its staff on the HIPAA safeguards being put in place. “HIPAA’s security needs are a significant tool for securing both patient information and business operations against threats like malware,” claims Office for Civil Rights director Jocelyn Samuels.

 

Mayo Clinic utilizes emergency telemedicine for newborn resuscitations interventions

The Mayo Clinic is utilizing emergency video telemedicine to effectively help community hospitals less familiar with modern newborn resuscitation interventions during high-risk, complex deliveries.

Mayo’s Division of Neonatal Medicine previously provided newborn telemedicine consultations to 6 of its health system sites, where regional care teams used wireless tablets running HIPAA-compliant video conferencing software from Vidyo to interact with neonatologists at Mayo in Rochester, Minn. Video consults are now conducted at all ten of Mayo’s health system sites that deliver babies in the Rochester region.

The technology integrates neonatologists to “visually assess the babies and co-handle them together with local care teams more efficiently utilizing video and better communication,” claims Jennifer Fang, MD, a Mayo Clinic fellow in neonatal-perinatal medicine. “With telemedicine now, we are capable to bring our neonatologists to the bedside remotely to really assist guide to these local care teams with complex deliveries.”

Business associate breach struck healthcare industry

More hospitals are claiming that they have suffered a breach of protected health information after a worker working for a contractor was discovered to have downloaded a range of sufferer demographic data without authorization.

Information the employee downloaded to a flash drive involved the patient names, birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, diagnoses, medications, as well as sufferer identification numbers and physician names, among other data.

Healthcare agencies are seeking out about the breach from Ambucor Health Solutions, a business associate that provides contracted cardiac and labor monitoring services. The number of impacted providers and patients isn’t still publicly known.

Although, agencies that have notified patients of the breach involve Carolina Cardiology Consultants in Greenville, S.C.; New Mexico Heart Institute in Albuquerque; Conemaugh Physician Group Cardiology in Johnstown, Penn.; Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass.; and Cleveland Clinic Akron General, among others.

A representative of Ambucor wasn’t instantly available for comment.

While noting that no information seems to have been misused, Ambucor is providing affected sufferers 1 year of identity theft protection. The vendor is a subsidiary of ScottCare Corp.

Massachusetts Digital Health Council to Advise on State Health IT Growth

The Massachusetts Digital Health Council will advise the Governor and his administration in how to use health IT to improve care and job growth.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker declared the state’s Digital Health Council recently during its 1^st meeting last week at the Massachusetts General Hospital Museum of Medical History and Innovation..

An offshot of the state’s Digital Health Initiative, the Council is a public-private coalition of industry experts planning to advise the Baker Administration on the state’s health IT use. These experts involve technology, healthcare delivery, insurance, medical device, life science, academic, and government experts.

The Digital Health Council will work to assist steer the state’s Digital Health Initiative, which Governor Baker announced in the year of January 2016. The Council will work with information developed from the Initiative to make a 3-year growth plan, and will sustain to support programs to carry out the plan and report yearly on its progress.

Health IT Standard eDOS integrates EHR Interoperability and Savings

A health information technology standard for lab tests could make better the EHR interoperability and decrease costs.

Officials from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA) claim that a lesser-known health IT standard for ordering laboratory tests and services both enables EHR interoperability and the capability to generate cost savings.

The Laboratory Test Compendium Framework established by Health Level Seven International (HL7) involves an electronic Directory of Service (eDOS). The standards developing organization has iterated on the framework over the some past years with the support of the ONC Standards & Interoperability Framework.

In the year of 2015, HL7 issued a guide for implementing the framework and the eDOS service. Now, ONC and ACLA are touting the framework’s potential to make lab test ordering more efficient and less expensive.

Sequin Dermatology Hit by ransomware attack

Sequin Dermatology, a solo practice in the region of Seguin, Texas, fell victim to a serious ransomware attack in the time period of mid-September after its server was encrypted.

A contractor was capable to eliminate the ransomware but a forensic examination discovered a high likelihood that protected health information was approached, Robert Magnon, MD, told sufferers in a notice sent initially this month. “Also, it couldn’t be ruled out that confidential data might have been removed from the server,” he further added. Sequin Dermatology was recently struck by ransomware attack

The server didn’t consist of medical records and financial data, but compromised data that involved patient name, address, and telephone number, date of birth, as well as insurance billing information and CPT codes.

An unrevealed number of sufferers also had their Social Security numbers compromised and as an outcome the practice is providing these patients identity and credit monitoring services from Equifax.

“To stop this from happening again, we’re performing a review of our physical and computer security, reassessing our policies of our office and procedures, and performing staff training,” Magnon told sufferers. “We sustain to monitor the case and will notify you as necessary.”

Magnon included a detailed seven-page notice of privacy practices in patient letters explaining their rights to access their electronic health records (EHRs), the capability of patients to share the data as they wish, the ability to ask Magnon to restrict the information he uses or shares, and to know with whom information is being shared. This kind of information normally is not included in notices to sufferers following a breach.

The practice didn’t respond to a request for extra information.

 

Apple Dives into the world of Digital Health Care

After providing solutions for fitness tracking, tech giant Apple is planning to plunge into the Digital Health Care. Soon Apple will be enabling a sound utilization of its earlier inaugurated Apple Watch and Health Kit, by integrating the 2 into a useable health registering portable system. Apple will now upend its expertise towards Digital Health Care solutions.
Previously Apple has been concentrating more towards the fitness conscious user base. Introduction of smart watch and Health Kit provided fitness solutions;
Adding Apple Health Kit into your iOS and Apple Watch OS apps develops a more integrated user experience. When a customer gives permission for your app to read and write health and activity data to their Health app, your app can become a precious health data source and it can use the shared data to bring more strong health and fitness solutions.
Apple Watch is a line of smartwatches, or a touch-screen multi-performance watch, established by Apple Inc. It involves fitness tracking and health-oriented capabilities with integration with iOS and other Apple products and services. The original generation of the device is present in 4 variants: Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Hermès, and Apple Watch Edition, distinguished by several combinations of cases and first or third party interchangeable bands. Apple Watch relies on a wirelessly connected iPhone to conduct many of its default functions such as calling and texting.
It is a good idea for Apple to come up with Products like the Apple Watch and Health Kit but individuals are also expecting to see it do more. Lets see to what extent Apple gets smart in giving solutions for the other lot.

IoT to majorly expand' types of cyberattacks hospitals suffer, economist claims

When healthcare executives consider about economics, their 1^st thought no doubt is of money. But that is not essentially the right thought when it comes to the economics of cybersecurity, said Scott Borg, chief economist at the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit.

The independent, nonprofit research institute investigates strategic and economic consequences of cyberattacks.

“A significant thing to realize in economics is it is not merely about money, it is about choices – economics is about making the best decisions and developing the most value you can,” Borg elaborated. “In terms of cybersecurity, economics is about securing your organization’s capability to create value. Cybersecurity executives require understanding how the systems that are protecting assets create value, and they have to know how much value they are creating.”

Chief information security officers and other executives responsible for security cannot just be securing systems, they must also clearly understand what their agencies actually do, Borg added.

Considering about where value is created within a healthcare agency can assist cybersecurity executives to start customizing security to fit their agencies, Borg explained.

Good Shepherd Health seems to reduce prescription costs

Pharmacist Philip Baker launched the doors of Good Shepherd Health more than a year ago to offer free or at-cost prescriptions to uninsured people in the region of Memphis. Baker rapidly discovered that individuals covered by Medicare required the services of the nonprofit pharmacy. He founded that even individuals with insurance too often could not afford the high cost of drugs or prescription costs.

Now, he has set his sights on advancing the way self-insured employers pay for medicines of their employees. Good Shepherd plans to give its at-cost model for prescriptions to chop the drug costs of employers, competing with for-profit pharmacy benefit managers like Express Scripts Inc.

“I’ve a vision to entirely revolutionize the whole industry and that is by making PBMs, pharmacy benefit managers, obsolete,” Baker stated.

According to Baker, employers are paying the complete price for prescription costs and the mark-up on those drugs can be breathtaking.

Plavix, a drug utilized to stop blood clots and one of the most usually used, is his favorite instance.

Huge drug companies get a worse rap, and they should, for pricing brand-name drugs too high, he stated. Although, the major majority of drugs on the market are generic and he claimed for-profit pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers are marking those up.

By eliminating the profit and giving its medication management service for employers for a fee, Baker stated “merely initial numbers we are looking at we can decrease the company’s drug costs by thirty or forty percent right off the top.”

Good Shepherd has not sold the idea yet, but is in talks with various companies, stated Baker, 40, a University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy graduate and former rehabilitation hospital director of pharmacy.

With a half dozen workers and headquartered in the Hickory Ridge Towne Center mall, Good Shepherd has offer $1.3 million worth of free medicines and served over 1,000 since opening in the year of September 2015, Baker claimed.

Despite nationwide attempts to assist uninsured individuals with the prescription costs drugs, charity pharmacies like Good Shepherd have sprung up to help meet the requirement in the last decade, stated Chris Palombo, chief executive of Dispensary of Hope in Nashville.

Dispensary of Hope is basically a nonprofit drug distributor that gets donated drugs from manufacturers and physician practices and supplies them to free and federally qualified clinics across the country, involving Good Shepherd, Palombo stated.

With estimates of more than thirty million uninsured persons nationwide, the requirement is massive and uninsured and low-income indivudals also suffer more chronic sicknesses, he claimed.

Help with prescriptions is falling short for millions, in spite of the Affordable Care Act, a separate federal program called as “340B” that gives steeply discounted drugs to several hospitals and federally qualified health centers, and drug manufacturers’ patient assistance programs.

Baker is crucial of the federal programs and said Good Shepherd does not participate in Medicare or any insurance program.

Huge deductibles that must be met before insurance pays under coverage available through Affordable Care Act leaves few sufferers unable to afford their drugs, he stated. And he called the 340B program “corrupted,” utilized as a profit-center for hospitals and health centers that need to treat it as one.

By giving free prescriptions to those with incomes that are eligible, at-cost drugs and tapping in to manufacturers’ patient assistance plans, Baker said Good Shepherd stitches together policies for both the uninsured and the insured. Sufferers with chronic conditions have become the major niche of agency.

Good Shepherd’s vision for providing services to employers and revolutionizing the industry also will assist to subsidize its charitable work and other ventures and will try to reduce the prescription costs.

 

Six Tips to Avoid Data Breaches in Healthcare Industry

Data violations and breaches target businesses and organizations from every industry, and the healthcare industry isn’t spared. Patients’ sensitive medical records are at threat of being exposed to the public, or being utilized by cyber crooks to blackmail helpless victims. Furthermore, the damages that breaches stands at an average of $5.9 million. Without a doubt, breaches are a serious problem and must be addressed with by all industries.

In this light, here are 6 tips on how agencies and business from the healthcare industry can avoid data breaches:

1. Knowledge is Power: Educate and Train workers on Security threats


2. Upgrade System Patches


3. Select your Data Storage Provider wisely


4. Think in-depth on implementing “Bring Your Own Device” Policy


5. Assess Weaknesses, Solve through New Policies


6. Believed only in the Experts

 

Scientists Invent Mechanism In Potent Antibody For Neutralizing Zika Virus

The battle against Zika intensifies, and researchers from the institute of University of North Carolina and the Duke University-National University of Singapore Medical School are doing their part by uncovering the mechanism behind how a potent antibody known as C10 can stop Zika infections from taking place.

Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers stated that outlining the structural basis of neutralization provides support that C10 can be utilized in fighting Zika infections. A reaction between the antibody and the Dengue virus was earlier identified.

Generally, viruses undergo 2 steps to carry out cell infections: docking and fusion. When it docks, a virus particle recognizes a certain site on the cell and binds to that spot. In the situation of the Zika virus, docking starts the process of the cell taking in the virus through an endosome, or a separate compartment in the cell's body. Proteins discovered on the virus' coat start undergoing structural changes to prepare for fusion with the endosome's membrane, which will signify release of the virus genome into the cell and the completion of the infection.

In the month of September, researchers from the institute of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recommended that the Zika virus might be spread from infected eyes after analyzing a transmission case that occurred without all of the previously defined modes of contact. Considering the eyes as a source of Zika infection is significant because a third of babies infected in the womb are born with optic nerve inflammation while infected adults end up with conjunctivitis.

 

Zika Virus Prevention: People planning Holidays, still need to worry about Zika

In accordance to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Zika virus is here to stay. And with people planning their winter holidays, travelers are being suggested to pack bug spray and long sleeve clothing for Zika Virus Prevention.

Travelers are busy searching for last minute vacation plans.

Deanna Sutherland Rigby from Vision Travel claims that the warmer destinations are the most famous this time of year.

“Dominican, Cuba, Mexico and other southern Caribbean Islands.”

They are also regions with the highest threats of contracting Zika.

Sutherland Rigby states that while it’s not top of mind for several vacationers it has been a subject of discussion this season.

Numerous cases of Zika Virus have now been pointed out in about fifty countries.

“You actually cannot go anywhere now that there is not Zika virus.”

Dr. Fiona Hunter is studying and researching how the virus spreads to mosquitoes. She travelled to the region of Brazil recently, another hot place for the virus, and even plans on taking her family to the Dominican Republic this year.

“This is the latest normal- having Zika virus in the side of south and if you do select to go somewhere you’ve to look after yourself.”

She recommends vacationers to bring bug spray with them because few places do not sell them.

In accordance to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, mosquitoes that spread Zika do not live at elevations above 2000 meters.

Dr. Hunter claims that there is yet a lot not known about Zika, which has been associated to severe and extreme birth defects.

In accordance to Dr. Brett Belchetz, anybody out there who is either not pregnant or not planning on getting pregnant – Zika virus is actually nothing to stress about.

Males and females are emphasized to practice safe sex for 6 months after travelling to Zika infected places for the sake of Zika Virus Prevention.

 

Hospital IT: CIOs reveals their worst nightmares

Natural disasters, electronic health records downtime, Data breaches. They are all on the list. The more shocking ones? Not being disruptive sufficient and building systems that do not match what clinicians and patients really require.

When inquired what IT-related event frightens them most, several of the CIOs whose teams achieved the Best Hospital IT Departments rattled off a list of somewhat common dangers. Other executives, meanwhile, were more stressed with under-delivering on innovation.

"I do not need to get a phone call one day telling me our datacenter is on fire," stated Jesse Diaz, CIO of Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany, Georgia.

Henry County Medical Center IT director Pam Ridley added that a disaster – weather-related or otherwise – that knocked its information or data center out would be an information technology nightmare for her.

"Downtime. Mine is downtime," claimed Inspira Health Network CIO Tom Pacek. "Everything is electronic so we cannot have downtime. Clinicians do not know what to do when the systems aren’t up."

Silver Cross Hospital CIO Kevin Lane pointed to security tragedies from outside the system as a specifically thorny risk. Sonney Sapra, CIO of Tuality Healthcare stated "security breaches are the one thing that keeps me up at night."

But 2 CIOs interviewed for the Best Hospital IT Departments 2016 awards ranked disasters, downtime and data breaches lower than technology and innovation issues.

Now tell us what is your worst IT nightmare?

WHO announces end of Zika Virus public health emergency

The Zika virus is no longer termed as a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) claimed on the day of November 18.
The Zika virus was rather reclassified as a "long-term epidemic," in contrast to other mosquito-borne diseases like yellow fever and malaria. WHO emphasized that the disease yet remains a public challenge and needs a long-term focus to deal its impacts: birth defects, neurological complications and others.
The virus, which has been discovered in sixty different countries, will continue to spread in locales with mosquitoes that carry the virus, officials stated.
"Several aspects of this disease and associated consequences yet remain to be understood, but this can best be done through sustained research," WHO stated in a statement. "The emergency committee suggested this should be escalated into a sustained program of work with dedicated resources to deal the long-term nature of the disease and its associated consequences."
WHO announced the virus a global emergency in the month of February, compelling countries to report any outbreaks. In a press call Friday, David Heymann, MD chair of the Zika Emergency Committee stated that the emergency status was designed to contain Zika's spread and to encourage research funding.

Philips, Westchester decides to contract on precision medicine initiative

Ten-facility Westchester Medical Center Health Network in the region of Valhalla, N.Y., has inaugurated a precision medicine initiative to make better the cancer care enterprisewide across its acute and ambulatory facilities and services, and it has tapped Philips Healthcare as a primary supporting vendor.
The delivery system will utilize IntelliSpace Genomics product of Philips to combine and merge genomic sequencing information with clinical data, involving pathology, medical images, genomic databases and longitudinal patient records, and supported with health data exchange services to tailor treatment to genomic makeup of patient, and then establish therapy strategies at the point of care.
“Our precision medicine initiative for oncology is created to leverage entire available sources of critical information or data to help make the most informed decisions about each patient’s care,” claims John Fallon, MD, director of the department of clinical pathology at Westchester.
Westchester Medical Center has extra precision medicine initiatives in the works, like the new cellular and tissue engineering laboratory that supports and motivates cellular therapy under investigational latest drug applications covering hematological and oncological ailments.
The recently declared initiative follows the announcement previous year that Royal Philips and Westchester Medical Center had inaugurated a fifteen-year, $500 million partnership to transform and improve healthcare. The attempt is using an enterprise managed services model through which Philips gives the organization with a range of clinical and business consulting services, as well as advanced medical technologies. The partners claimed that they were seeking to “redefine how quality care is delivered.”

Indiana University Health appoints new CISO

Indiana University Health, the greatest healthcare system in the state, has named Mitch Parker as executive director of Information Security and Compliance.

Parker comes to IU Health from Temple Health, where he was appointed as chief information security officer for 8 years

At IU Health, Parker, who assumed the position in the month of September, leads a team within Information Services committed to protecting the systems and data of organization. He reports to Chief Information Officer Mark Lantzy.

IU Health has fifteen affiliated hospitals and nearly 30,000 workers. It also partners with Indiana University School of Medicine.

Parker has a BS in the field of computer science from the institute of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, an MS in the department of information technology leadership from LaSalle University and an MBA from the Fox School of Business, Temple University.

He is an adjunct professor with the IT and Cyber Security program at the Fox School of Business at the institute of Temple University, as well he as a famous presenter at professional conferences and webinars.

UMass Amherst Agrees to Pay $650,000 HIPAA suit Fine

The Institute of University of Massachusetts Amherst has accepted to pay $650,000 to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The fine is lower than it might have been and the $650,000 settlement depicts the fact that the university operated at a financial loss in the year of 2015, in accordance to a statement from the Office for Civil Rights, which oversees HIPAA enforcement.

The breach happened on June 18, 2013, when a workstation in the university’s Center for Language, Speech, and Hearing was infected with a malware program. This resulted in the impermissible disclosure of electronic protected health information of 1,670 people, involving names, addresses, social security numbers, dates of birth, health insurance information, diagnoses and procedure codes.

In this situation, the malware was a generic remote access Trojan that infiltrated the system, the university evaluated. It gave impermissible access to ePHI, because UMass didn’t have a firewall in place.

Healthcare: A key target of Gatak Trojan Malware

The industry of healthcare is the most affected by a strain of malware known as the Gatak Trojan Malware, in accordance to Symantec, a data security firm.

The latest Gatak Trojan malware can lie undetected and untraced for extended time periods, and also is capable of extending to other computers on a network in several cases, the company discloses.

In a just released blog posting, Symantec informed that healthcare agencies comprise 40% of Gatak victims. The automotive, construction, education and gambling industries each account for 5% of victims, with another 40% unclassified.

It is still unclear how Gatak benefits from attacks, but one potential reason is the selling of personally identifiable data, which could explain the focus on healthcare agencies, because health records typically command a higher price, Symantec points out.

Furthermore, healthcare agencies mostly do not have sufficient security resources, which could lead to taking shortcuts and utilizing pirated software, increasing the vulnerability to malware attacks.

What makes the Gatak Trojan Malware so dangerous and risky is its capability to lay dormant for long periods after infection, thus evading tracking and detection. Gatak is keenly accepted by victims because it seems to be from a vendor and provides product licensing keys for pirated software.

“The malware is bundled with the product key, and if the victim is trapped into downloading and opening 1 of these files, the Gatak Trojan is surreptitiously installed on their computer,” Symantec elaborates. The key module of the malware then steals important data from the infected computer.

Software product keys being provided are those most likely to be utilized in expert environments, in accordance to the firm.

Software brands used to lure victims to download Gatak malware involve, Native Instruments Drumland, SketchList3D, BarTender Enterprise Automation, BobCad-CAM, HDClone, Siemens SIMATIC STEP 7, CadSoft Eagle Professional, Originlab Originpro, PremiumSoft Navicat Premium, Manctl Skanect, and Symantec System Recovery (part of Veritas).

The complete blog of Symantic is available here.

Almost 28% of total IT budgets go for hosting, cloud services

Agencies now spend 28% of their total IT budgets on hosting and cloud services, in accordance to 451 Research’s Voice of the Enterprise: Hosting and Cloud Managed Services study.

Next year, that figure is hoped to increase to 34%, demonstrating an increasing reliance on external sources of infrastructure, application, management and security services, the report pointed out.

However hosting and cloud providers frequently position themselves as primarily providers of infrastructure, 451 Research discovered that merely 31% of spending goes toward infrastructure services while almost 70% of enterprise budgets for hosting and cloud is being spent on other services. These involve managed services (14%), application services (42%), security services (9%); and professional services for cloud enablement (5%).

The research indicates that an important portion of hosting and cloud services spending is on unmanaged or self-managed infrastructure or application services.

Could healthcare IT be the key sign to improved addiction treatment?

In a latest report on the subject of addiction, the United States surgeon general made an argument for the role of health information technology in making better the treatment of sufferers with drug or alcohol abuse as well as behavioral health issues.
Dr. Vivek Murthy's office emphasized for higher health IT adoption and use by providers of alcohol, drug abuse and behavioral health treatment. But it took no position on a pending federal rule that could relax the present strict privacy protections covering the medical records of several patients getting those treatments.
The report, Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health, mentions a fundamental health IT dichotomy: Patients get better care if their records are shared among providers, but patients will not seek treatment if they consider their data will be widely revealed.

mHealth Use for Long Period Might Improve Patient Self Management

mHealth apps could assist to make better the patient self management as long as sufferers use them for long periods of time, research indicates.

mHealth and electronic patient self management devices might impact positive patient behavior changes when paired with powerful patient engagement and prolonged use, in accordance to a recent research in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

With 69% of Americans keeping track of few sort of health factor, and another 21% using mHealth to do so, latest study highlights the significance of healthcare experts better understanding how these tools affects the patient self management.

 “These proposed factors have led to a fact in integrating novel self-monitoring systems into wellness programs, chronic condition management, and the diagnosis of acute episodes,” Steinhubl et al. wrote. “This makes understanding the health self-monitoring in these proposed systems a vital first action in engaging these technologies into routine patient care.”

The researchers utilized the web-based Walgreens Balance Rewards for health choices program to highly understand how incentives-based patient self management tools impacts the behavior change. The Walgreens app rewards sufferers for recording their healthy attitudes with points they can apply to their Walgreens purchases. Through a portal app, sufferers can also set wellness targets.

Utilizing data gathered from the year of 2014, the team analyzed overall participation patterns and how automatic activity tracking contributes to tool utilization.

Overall, 455,341 consumers enrolled for the Walgreens app in the year of 2014. Although, 34% stopped utilizing the app after their 1^st log-in. The researchers discovered that this to be consistent with published literature.

“In this regard, we consider that identification and understanding of the characteristics of these people, and factors that promote interest or encourage behavior change is seriously significant in this quickly evolving field,” the researchers contended.

The research team also recognized sufferer populations who stayed adherent to the program. Overall, 31.2% of consumers quit within 1 week of app use, and 49.88% quit within 1 month of use.

These sufferers might have stopped using the Walgreens app due to the several technological problems. For instance, they might have encountered usability problems, a deficiency of provider feedback, or a perceived deficiency of results.

A very minor percentage of users had powerful and prolonged app use, tracing at least 8 or 9 activities weekly for over twenty weeks.

While most of these sufferers recorded their information manually, those who automatically integrated information from a wearable or other mHealth app were more likely to utilize the app for a more prolonged period of time.

Nevertheless, the researchers claimed that these sufferers had high levels of health engagement, prompting them to utilize the tool and integrate it into their routine lives.

Furthermore, the researchers claimed that these consumers were more likely to see tangible health behavior changes, likely due to their prolonged app use. Healthcare professionals should think how to motivate more app use, in accordance to the research team, thus spurring widespread sufferer behavior changes.

 

Horizon Family Medical Group receives Ambulatory Davies award

Based on its capability to utilize record systems to make better the patient treatment and results in care, Horizon Family Medical Group (HFMG) has been chosen as a winner of Ambulatory Davies Award of Excellence for 2016 year.

The provider organization reflects a hug network of ambulatory care providers in the Orange County, New York. Horizon Family Medical Group has more than 100 physicians working out of forty locations in the place of Hudson River Valley; its physicians provide care in seventeen specialties.

The honor applauds HFMG for results from its use of electronic health records (EHRs) in improving care.

In its implementation, Horizon Family Medical Group provided 3 case studies indicating how it has used healthcare information technology to improve patient and business results.

• HMFG decreased thirty-day readmissions by 30% in a year. Its thirty-day readmission rate of 10.5% is 50% below the national average. The medical group leveraged transition of care managers with a transition of care management tool constructed into the EHR with the patient’s risk status assessed at the bedside. The care management tool offered standardized approaches for patient follow-up, appointment scheduling and care plan adherence monitoring.

• High alcohol consumption has been decreased 18% for at-risk patients. HMFG leveraged clinical decision support and analytics-driven huddle reports to make sure the high compliance with standardized care for drug and alcohol screening and weight management.

• Provider time with sufferers increased by 27% for scheduled fifteen-minute appointments permitting more direct patient counseling. Analytics-driven huddle reporting and EHR-enabled workflows improved provider efficiency, resulting in more time for sufferers with their providers.

The HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence has acknowledged remarkable achievement of organizations using health IT to substantially improve patient outcomes while gaining a return on investment.

 

Deficiency of testing rules would annoy EHR oversight of ONC

A latest regulation from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology created to increase federal EHR oversight needs better testing requirements for electronic health record vendors. Because lack of testing rules could annoy EHR oversight of ONC.

Without an upgrade in testing needs, the rule will attempt to acquire its stated goal of making better the patient safety, claims Ben Moscovitch, manager of health IT at The Pew Charitable Trusts. Moscovitch authored a report giving an assessment of ONC’s Enhanced Oversight and Accountability Rule released previous month.

In theory, the regulation would determine ONC to analyze electronic health records or EHR oversight suspected of posing crucial risks to sufferers, need the developer of an electronic health record to correct identified errors, and, if important, suspend the certification of products with unresolved problems.

 “Sadly, even with this rule in place, gaps persist in the capability of providers, hospitals, vendors, and other agencies to gain data on the safety implications of electronic health record usability and establish best practices to deal safety errors that are identified,” claims Moscovitch.

In accordance to Moscovitch, the issue is that the ONC’s new rule needs just limited testing of EHRs to monitor for flaws before the products are installed, and no comprehensive system exists to gather data on safety problems regarded to these records.

To deal these problems, he makes two suggestions to help detect and prevent safety issues during the development and execution of EHRs, while decreasing patient harm related to these products:

• ONC should need vendors to better test EHRs for safety before their products are brought to market and after the products have been installed and customized at facilities. This would assist to reduce the requirement for the agency to perform a straight review of an installed product, because errors or mistakes would have a higher likelihood of detection beforehand.

• EHR vendors, government, clinicians, hospitals, patient agencies, and other healthcare stakeholders should come together to recognize the most common and important safety issues associated with electronic health records and work together on solutions as well as disseminate those great practices.

When it comes to the 2^nd suggestion, Moscovitch claims that he would like to see Congress pass legislation to develop a Health IT Safety Collaborative, which an expert panel from the Institute of Medicine recommended creating in the year of 2011.

On the day of December 6, ONC and The Pew Charitable Trusts will co-host a Health IT Safety Day in the Washington to identify the root causes of and solutions to patient safety flaws linked with EHRs. Particularly, the meeting will look at how the EHR certification criteria and testing programs can assist to improve patient safety and how the federal government and private sector can advance the establishment of a HIT Safety Collaborative.

The Worth of chiropractic patients with ACOs

Together with the other providers, Chiropractors and chiropractic patients can work with Accountable Care Organizations. These groups of primary medical care experts give coordinated care for Medicare sufferers. Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are created to make Medicare more effective by instructing patients to get the right services.

As an outcome, the aim is to decrease medical flaws and unessential services. When the Medicare program saves and secures funding from these programs, a portion of the savings are passed on as an incentive for ACO providers.

For chiropractors and chiropractic patients who are fascinated in working with ACOs, this depicts a chance to generate extra revenue while also making better the care of Medicare sufferers. Medical providers aren’t needed to engage in an ACO, although Medicare motivates participation and provides incentives to do so.

Primary care is the significant focus of this program, so specialty care providers aren’t eligible. Chiropractors might not register individually as ACOs, but they are eligible to work with other kinds of providers like MDs or DOs who made an ACO as a group.

Medicare shared savings program

This program permits Medicare providers to make new ACOs. During the yearly or annual application time period, Medicare accepts latest ACO applicants to the Shared Savings Program. Generally, applications are accepted early in the year for participation that starts the following year. ACOs in this program are provided a portion of the savings they generate.

From there, this incentive can be categorized among participating providers in the ACO according to the contractual contract formed by the member providers of ACO. At this point, revenue-sharing isn’t available to chiropractors but might be in the future.

If you are considering of partnering with an ACO as a contracted provider, be certain to read and review the agreement carefully. You need to find an agency that fits your requirements and respects your contribution. And you’ll be working with other providers to ensure your sufferers get the best care. Sufferers are free to see any Medicare provider, regardless of affiliation with an ACO, however ACO membership might generate referrals from other providers you’re affiliated with.

Engaging in an ACO

By contracting with an ACO, you’ve an opportunity to represent chiropractors to members of other healthcare professions. ACOs generally deal a range of different patient care requirements, so finding an agency to partner with permits you to find more chiropractic patients.

Few MD and DO physicians might be interested in referring their sufferers, so you should consider ACOs as a potential source of new patients. Your work will likely motivate more providers to value the contribution chiropractic care makes to holistic sufferer treatment.

You could generally form an agreement with an ACO as a contracted provider or, alternatively, work as part of a group practice. As the healthcare industry grows and transforms, ACOs will likely become a major part of Medicare. More providers are hoped to join and form new agencies, making ACOs a primary part of healthcare’s future.

You can have a role within this future and demonstrate the value of chiropractic patients. This might just be your opportunity to shape the future of Medicare and of primary care. By becoming engaged with an ACO, you are fulfilling a requirement and assisting to give chiropractic patients a voice in the next level of healthcare as Medicare searches improved coordination and greater savings.

 

Cerner partners with American Well telehealth platform

Health information technology vendor Cerner has decided to partner with company American Well telehealth platform to provide present and future consumers an integrated electronic health record-telehealth solution that delivers a virtual healthcare experience to providers as well as sufferers.

The 2 companies made the declaration at Cerner’s yearly health conference this week in Kansas City. By integrating American Well telehealth platform with the Cerner EHR, contributors will be capable to virtually handle patient care beyond the physical walls of their healthcare agencies, in accordance to company executives, who contend the EHR-telehealth integration is one of the industry’s first.

Don Bisbee, senior vice president at Cerner, claims the impetus for the cooperation was driven by present trends in healthcare towards lower prices, better access, as well as better connection and convenience for sufferers.

Bisbee states that embedding telehealth capabilities in Cerner’s EHR will enable providers to facilitate remote patient monitoring and video visits regardless of location, while maintaining the similar technique of documentation and order entry in a “natural workflow” that they are utilized to.

In accordance to Bisbee, sufferers will be capable to communicate with the EHR-telehealth solution through Cerner’s HealtheLife patient engagement portal, which gives access to health information, provider messaging, and interaction with care teams.

Bisbee applauds that limits on reimbursement for telehealth services have historically been hurdles to adoption of the technologies by providers. Although, he observes the healthcare industry making important progress in that area.

“There are thirty states that have already adopted parity in payment around a video visit,” Bisbee summarizes. “And, if you look at it from the Medicare perspective, they have already started to permit some of the reimbursement around remote patient monitoring and are taking the logical measures.”

 

We require national cyber leader, says HIMSS

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) are calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to elect a national cyber leader who would facilitate in an elevated chief information security officer position.

In specific, a latest HIMSS policy paper touts an expanded position for the HHS chief information security officer, with responsibilities inside the organization but also working with outside healthcare stakeholders to instruct cyber security attempts. Leo Scanlon is the present CISO at HHS. In accordance to HIMSS, they need a national cyber leader.

To become less of a target, HIMSS calls on entire stakeholders to exchange data on cyber risks, threat actors, susceptibilities and mitigation attempts. This level of collaboration, which Scanlon or another CISO could assist with, could eliminate policy, cultural and financial roadblocks that inhibit establishment of latest cyber security solutions.

The association also is pitching for adoption of a universal privacy and security framework across the company. Particularly, it suggests the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

HIMSS doesn’t find a mandate for use of the NIST Cybersecurity Security Framework, as its members have made it obvious that they are overwhelmed with plans and do not need new rules or laws, claims Lee Kim, director of privacy and security at HIMSS.

Moreover, setting a mandated security framework in law wouldn’t be practical, Kim further adds. “We’ve observed how steadily regulations and laws get written and put into force. By that period, the threat landscape will have completely changed.”

The policy statement, Kim points out, is aspirational with a message that the industry requires getting better and increase its cyber protection capabilities.

Any framework should involve model cybersecurity architectures, risk assessments, business associate agreements, support of individual privacy/security rights, and a national strategy for patient identification and matching.

Particular aims for national cyber leader to target involve expanding the pool of qualified cyber personnel, making sure the adequate risk and asset response, advancing education, accepting lessons from HITECH-funded Regional Extension Centers to impress small providers and timely sharing of threat data, among others. The HIMSS position statement is present here.

Blood Donations prove Zika Virus to be Still Rare So Far in U.S.

By the end of this week, entire blood banks in the continental USA must start testing donated blood for contamination with the Zika infection. Several banks are doing so already, and the early outcomes demonstrate that the country has dodged a bullet — for now. Screenings in a dozen states recommends that infections of Zika virus remain exceedingly rare. Among the nearly 800,000 blood donations tested in the past 6 months or so, about forty were previously positive for the virus.

“It is great news that we are ignoring the transmission of Zika,” stated Dr. Susan Rossmann, the chief medical officer at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Houston.

Still, she pointed out, it might not be surprising there are so few potential positive cases, because blood banks have been dissuading individuals from donating if they recently traveled to a place in which the virus is circulating.

Blood donations screening for Zika infection is performed with tests made by Roche Molecular Systems or by collaboration between 2 medical companies, Hologic Inc. and Grifols.

The screening attempt is regulated as 2 gigantic clinical trials in which every blood donor is enrolled as a participant. All the outcomes, hence, are reported to the companies.

By the day of Friday, Roche’s machines had screened 475,000 donations in the US, excluding Puerto Rico. Merely 25 have been “initially reactive” for Zika virus, claimed Tony Hardiman, who leads the blood screening program of the company.

“Compared to Puerto Rico, it is tiny,” he stated.

Almost, 1% of the blood donors in Puerto Rico were infected by the month of July, with 1.8% of them testing initially positive in the previous week of surveillance, in accordance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By the month of mid-October, approximately 348,000 donations had been screened utilizing the test made by Hologic Inc. and Grifols. 14 were initially positive for the Zika virus.

It might be that not all of these samples are really contaminated. The technology is still in development, and the manufacturers are scrambling to confirm their results with further examinations of the donors.

Viral material traced after forty days is unlikely to be live virus, stated Dr. David O. Freedman, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Florida is the mere state with documented regional transmission of the virus. In the month of July, the F.D.A. temporarily halted collection of blood donations in the Miami-Dade and Broward Counties until screening for the Zika infection could be put in place.

Blood banks had been inquiring donors about their travel history and that of their sexual partners, and then inquiring them to postpone donating for almost a month.

The Community Blood Bank of Northwest Pennsylvania and Western New York, based in Erie, Pa., has been drawing additional tubes of blood from donors to fly overnight to a place of Houston laboratory for Zika infection screening at $6 to $10 a sample.

SSA and VA utilize eHealth Exchange for sharing veteran medical records

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) have started a latest initiative that enables the VA to share veteran medical records electronically with SSA to more rapidly make decisions about disability claims.

For decades, SSA gained veteran medical records through a manual procedure that involved fax and regular mail. Although, the VA claims that the latest national initiative puts in place an automated procedure to get these records completely through electronic sharing.

“VA’s partnership with Social Security will finally make better the quality of life for veterans and their dependents by determining veterans to share their health data within a protective and secure health-related consumer application,” claimed VA’s Under Secretary for Health David Shulkin, MD.

The VA shares health information with SSA through The Sequoia Project’s eHealth Exchange, a national network for safe sharing of veteran medical records, which enables disability processing sites to get the medical records of VA electronically upon request.

“It took much time to get a disability determination from the SSA, significantly due to the slow, snail mail manual procedure of getting medical information,” stated by Michael Matthews, eHealth Exchange coordinating committee member and board chair for The Sequoia Project.

The latest automated procedure basically has 3 steps:

• SSA 1^st receives the veteran consent—good for 1 year from the veteran signature date.


• SSA sends message electronically to VA attesting to the consent, following the standards of national eHealth Exchange.


• SSA then can retrieve the veteran’s continuity of care document in real time.

In accordance to the VA, the capability to share records electronically with Social Security disability processors saves time and money for those veterans and dependents applying for benefits. While the companies have been exchanging live data since the day of October 11, they said it is “too early to verify an actual cost savings as the partnership is in its initial stages of deployment.”

The Sequoia Project asserts that its eHealth Exchange is the “greatest health data sharing network of its kind.” In addition to SSA and VA, the national network also serves data sharing by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as well as the Department of Defense.

Mainframes IT platform still have primary role storing, exchanging information

Mainframes IT platform are supporting the volume and velocity of information, and transactions being developed by digital business, in accordance to a latest research report by enterprise software company BMC.

Almost 60% of the 1,200 companies internationally surveyed for the study are seeing increased information and transaction volumes and an increasing number of databases.

A key majority of the survey respondents (89%) hope continued powerful support for the mainframe. Respondents fall into 3 groups deployed on their mainframe investment strategies: 58% are searching to grow their investment and use of the mainframe; 23% demonstrate that they will keep a steady amount of work on the mainframe; and 19% plan to decrease the usage of the platform.

Executives planning to expand their investment see value in the mainframe for its reliability, availability, performance and security strengths. These respondents are concentrated on modernization and taking benefit of technologies like advanced automation, Java and lower-cost specialty mainframes, the report stated.

Respondents who are planning to remain steady view Mainframes IT platform as a secure and largely available engine for running their businesses, but aren’t looking to add new workloads.

Many companies surveyed are concentrated on dealing increasing demands, involving the rapidly growing speed of application needs, and larger levels of volatility and workload unpredictability.

“Digital technologies are changing the ways in which agencies of all types conduct business and communicate with their customers,” stated Tim Grieser, program vice president of enterprise system management software at International Data Corp. “Mainframes IT platform play a vital role in digital business as many digital applications are deployed on mobile or handheld-device access to information stored on the mainframe. This is driving progress in mainframe transactions and information or data volumes.”

 

CMS Announces $66.1 million Funds for Zika prevention and treatment

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the day of Wednesday declared $66.1 million funds for Zika prevention and treatment to combat Zika virus.

Puerto Rico will get $60.6 million due to its high incidence of regional Zika cases, CMS stated.

Other regions that are eligible for the funds involve American Samoa, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They are eligible because they have active or regional Zika virus transmissions that have been assured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health departments eligible to apply for funding involve territories, states, tribes or tribal agencies.

Applicants must indicate that their capability to rapidly and efficiently expand existing Zika response attempts and further determine the most effective use and dissemination of funds in their respective jurisdictions.

The money is to support Zika prevention and treatment services for health conditions regarded to the Zika virus, CMS claimed.

Funds will be available for healthcare services regarded to the family planning, screening, diagnostic testing, and counseling, medical care, case management and treatment, and making better provider capacity and capability.

Funds to Puerto Rico will go to resources to assist stop transmission of the virus and to give diagnostic, screening and treatment for pregnant ladies, newborns and others, CMS stated.

Congress approved the funds in the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and the Zika Response and Preparedness Act.

Zika virus is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. The virus can be passed from a pregnant lady to her fetus, causing extreme birth defects.

"This proposed funding will increase attempts to give access to important healthcare services for people, in specific pregnant women and kids, living in areas with local active Zika transmission," stated Vikki Wachino, deputy administrator, CMS.  "Giving instant help to regions impacted by Zika is critical.  Powerful coordination by health departments is important to deal the Zika prevention and treatment needs of people at threat from Zika."

Trump willingly to adopt military approach to cybersecurity

Donald Trump takes over the presidency at a period of increased stress over cyber-security and consumer privacy. High-profile information breaches at insurance agencies, healthcare contributors, major retailers, government agencies – and his vanquished opponent’s own aides-- elaborate a requirement for action. That’s why, Trump has decided to adopt military approach to tackle cyber security.

“Government regulations are compelling us to open up our systems and transmit our information, still we’re left to protect and defend ourselves from the hackers who need to steal all the free-flowing information,” claims Pamela McNutt, senior vice president and CIO at Methodist Health System. “As dangers grow, so does the amount of money providers must spend to protect their environments.”

On the stump, Trump was sometimes aloof over the cyber risk.

“Hillary Clinton's mere experience in cybersecurity includes a criminal scheme to breach federal law, engineering a huge cover-up and putting the nation in harm's path," Trump stated to the Retired American Warriors PAC in the month of October.

In terms of his true policy, Trump gave priority in speaking of the cyber threat in military approach terms. His site claims that he plans to decide and order “an immediate review of entire U.S. cyber defenses and susceptibilities, involving critical infrastructure, by a Cyber Review Team of people from the military, law enforcement, and the private sector.” That group would be tasked with “suggestions for protecting different entities with the great defense technologies tailored to the likely risks and dangers, and will followed up daily at several Federal agencies and departments.” That’s why; Trump has decided to adopt military approach to tackle cyber security.

He also proposes:

• Compulsory cyber awareness training for entire government workers while remaining current on evolving techniques of cyber-attack.


• Order the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to give suggestions for modifying U.S. Cyber Command, with a concentration on both offense and defense in the cyber domain.


• Joint Task Forces developed by the Department of Justice that would coordinate federal, state, and local law enforcement responses to cyber risks.


• Establish the offensive cyber capabilities we require deterring attacks by both state and non-state actors and, if essential, to respond suitably.

 

OVERCOMING PAIN WITHOUT THE NEED OF DRUGS

Pain impacts more Americans than the heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined. It is the most usual cause of long-term disability, and it mostly leads to the depression and painkiller addiction. But what if there was a solution to heal the pain or overcoming pain without the need of drugs or meds? Martie salt indicates us how one famous hospital is providing an alternative access that is covered by insurance.

Horse shoeer Chris Wightman has lived a life of pain and adventure.

He claimed, "My lifestyle is a wanna-be cowboy!"

He had compressed discs, knee surgery, sciatica, torn rotator cuffs, arthritis, pinched nerves and tennis elbow. To make situation worst, Chris has a blood vessel and liver condition that makes using pain meds risky.

Chris stated, "I did not have much at my disposal. I was very depressed, and i was self-medicating with alcohol."

But today, pain of Chris is under control thanks to a unique program provided at the Cleveland Clinic. All credit goes to Cleveland Clinic for helping people in overcoming
pain without the need of drugs.
It combines alternative approaches such as yoga, hypnotherapy, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic care, Chinese herbal medicine and emotional health training, all in 1 place.

Josie Znidarsic, DO, staff physician from the Cleveland Clinic, stated, "We utilize everything that we’ve here to offer them as many choices as we can."

An in-depth analysis of twenty-nine researches involving almost 18,000 people discovered acupuncture led to a 50% reduction in pain. A research in the annals of internal medicine indicated patients with neck pain who utilized a chiropractor or exercised were more than twice as likely to be pain-free after twelve weeks as those who took meds.

It is been over one year since Chris has utilized alcohol or drugs for pain-relief.

He claimed, "I am high on life. It totally changed my life."

Doctors considered the Cleveland Clinic's drug-free pain management program is the mere one of its kind in the country for overcoming pain without the need of drugs or meds. They presently have a waiting list of almost 100 sufferers who need to participate, and they are putting together a research report to share their processes and techniques with other hospitals.

 

Computer models assist forecast spread of Zika virus

With about sixty countries and territories worldwide reporting active forecast spread of Zika virus transmission, assuming the international spread of the mosquito-borne sickness has been challenging for public health officials.

Although, researchers are leveraging large-scale computational models that help socio-demographic and travel data as well as simulations of infection transmission—needing the computing power of 30,000 processors simultaneously—to project the path of the infection.

The Global Epidemic and Mobility (GLEaM) model has been utilized in the past to evaluate the spread of Ebola, H1N1 flu, and other outbreaks on a global scale. Although, in forecast spread of Zika, researchers have depended more on the ancient patterns of mosquito-borne diseases like chikungunya and dengue.

While the forecast spread of Zika virus can also be transmitted sexually, their computer model doesn’t take that mode of transmission into consideration.

In fact, mosquitoes bring an added level of complexity to the equation, provided the uncertainty of their travel behaviors, abundance and lifecycle relying on temperature, as well as the relationship between Zika and its host mosquitoes.

In accordance to Alessandro Vespignani, professor of physics and director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University, what makes Zika such an issue to detect and predict is that as many as 80% of individuals infected with the virus are asymptomatic, and it is significantly transmitted by mosquitoes and spread globally through travel.

But by merging real-world data on populations, human mobility and weather with elaborate stochastic models of disease transmission, a group of fourteen researchers—half drawn from Northeastern—has devised projections for Zika cases in the Americas through the year of January 2017.

The great news is that modeling algorithms don’t predict very huge Zika outbreaks in the continental USA, in accordance to Vespignani. While the Florida has had the greatest threat for Zika transmission, he notes that researchers “project at most a total of a some hundred cases in Florida in the next 3 months” and “in other regions of the continental USA, there are very minimal probabilities of certain cases.”

This downward pressure on the forecast spread of Zika virus is being assisted by the end of mosquito season which is reliant on climate conditions. Mosquitoes multiply fastest in tropical and sub-tropical habitats, and decreasing or dropping temperatures this fall and into winter are unfavorable for mosquitoes to thrive.

Yet, there is continued worse news for the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which has been ravaged by the virus, and, if present trends continue, as many as 25% of the population of nearly 3.5 million will become infected with Zika virus by the end of the year.

Just like chikungunya and dengue, Vespignani claims that forecast spread of Zika virus is not a danger that is going away anytime soon, and he assumes that it will come in waves as a seasonal phenomenon. “The primary query now is what will happen in the continents of Asia and Africa?” he summarizes, where more than 2 billion individuals could be at threat from contracting the virus.

In addition to the institute of Northeastern University, the research team modeling Zika involves Bocconi University in Milan, the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., Italy, Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Italy, Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation in Torino, Italy, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and the University of Washington.

 

CHIME Acknowledges Phoenix Children’s Higginson for innovation

A Lean measure or step powered by numerous IT-supported attempts achieved efficiencies at Phoenix Children’s Higginson, leading to savings, as well as betterment in operations and sufferer satisfaction.

The outcomes of these attempts at the pediatric facility were among the reasons that its CIO, David Higginson, achieved the 2016 Innovator of the Year award at the Fall CIO Forum of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

Higginson achieved the award on the day of Wednesday at the CHIME occasion, in Scottsdale, Ariz. CHIME acknowledged the Phoenix Children’s Higginson for innovation.

For instance, rather than spending millions of dollars on a sufferer education and entertainment system, Phoenix Children’s Higginson put customizable iPads in sufferer rooms, enabling patients and their parents to access a host of facilities and services, involving clinical results, discharge instructions, educational resources over their treatment and more. One-time charges for the initiative were covered by support and grant from the James M. Cox Foundation, permitting the hospital to move resources to other areas.

“When you’re confronted with the choice of making a new emergency department to replace one that is seeing 3 times the number of sufferers it was constructed for, or spending $100 million on a piece of software, the answer appears to be obvious – search a way to do the system for a reasonable amount and leave the capital for the direct requirements of the patients and families we serve,” Higginson stated.

Various other annual awards were honored at the conference:

University of Colorado Hospital teamed up with analytics firm LeanTaaS to establish a solution that has provided patients larger access to life-saving dialysis treatments with far less wait times. This inventive partnership gained UCHealth and LeanTaaS CHIME’s 2016 Collaboration Award.

Pamela Arora, senior vice president and CIO at Children’s Health in Dallas; and Bryan Bliven, CIO at the University of Missouri Health Care were honored with the 2016 Transformational Leadership Awards for their remarkable work on cybersecurity. The award is sponsored by CHIME and the American Hospital Association.

Randy McCleese was awarded with CHIME’s 2016 Outstanding Service Award for his devotion to the profession and his endless affords to transform healthcare, in recognition of his work in policy and regulation attempts for healthcare IT.

Linda Hodges, ex-senior vice president and IT practice leader at Witt/Kieffer, was honored by the CHIME Foundation with the 2016 CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award.

Philips was awarded with the inaugural CHIME Foundation Partner Award. Sara

 

Smartphone app assists to triage dental emergencies

A smartphone app could assist those with triage dental emergencies to avoid unimportant trips to the ER by enabling dentists to make clinical decisions despite not being capable to take a physical examination.

Because sufferers mostly experience dental emergencies when dentist offices are closed, they are compelled to seek relief at a hospital ER where they are generally treated for their pain. Although, the DentaCom app permits and helps people at time of triage dental emergencies to communicate an emergency straightly to a dentist, while potentially removing the requirement to visit an ER.

Established and tested by the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Dentistry, the smartphone app captures and transmits images from inside a sufferer’s mouth—along with details on the vulnerable dental emergency—offering the data to a dentist in case to determine the best course of treatment.

The app instructs users through a series of queries a dentist would inquire that are made to solicit clinically meaningful data to assess the severity of the situation. In a study, issued in the Journal of the American Dental Association, researchers indicated that all 20 participants using the app were capable to victoriously complete a guided report on their dental emergency and take photos of the problem area of the mouth within 4 minutes.

 “Patient-provided data accompanied by high-resolution images might assist dentists substantially in predicting urgency or preparing important treatment resources,” summarizes the study. “The results explain the feasibility of patients utilizing smartphone applications to report triage dental emergencies. This technology permits dentists to assess care remotely when direct sufferer contact is less practical.”

Regenstrief Institute investigator Thankam Thyvalikakath, who guides dental informatics at the institute of Indiana University School of Dentistry and is senior author of the study, claims that a participating dentist would get a summary report from a patient that consists of answers to the app’s questionnaire as well as images.

“Dental emergencies are among the top ten reasons why individuals visit the ER,” asserts Thyvalikakath. Although, she considers the app could also be precious in non-emergency cases for individuals requiring routine dental care but who lack dental insurance or physical access to a dentist.

At the similar time, Thyvalikakath contends that the DentaCom app is just meant for “preliminary analysis” and should not be observed as a replacement for a face-to-face dental examination in a dentist’s office. She further adds that the prototype app runs on an Android smartphone but the aim is to have it available on iOS mobile devices as well.

CMS rule Finalizes Changes in meaningful use reporting

CMS will just need doctors and hospitals to track meaningful use reporting data for ninety continuous days this year and next under a policy finalized on the day of Tuesday. For 2 years, at least, the move will settle the debate over the hotly contested need. Hospital and doctor groups — along with sympathetic members of the Congress — had made a complain that a year-long reporting period was too complicated and would compel providers to abandon the meaningful use program, putting it at danger. The American Hospital Association claimed that it was “glad” and “motivated” by the rule of Tuesday.

More meaningful use reporting changes in the rule:

— Removal of clinical decision support and computerized provider entry measures in the year of 2017 and subsequent years for hospitals.

— Establishment of a 1-time hardship exemption from 2018 penalties for doctors who are new to the program in the year of 2017 and transitioning to new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System of MACRA.

— CMS will sustain to work on incorporating electronic clinical quality measures into quality reporting program of Medicare for hospitals, despite commenters who stated that this would duplicate meaningful use reporting.

Modifications in requirements to Stage 3, which is optional in the year of 2017 and required in the year of 2018:

— Decreasing the percentage of sufferers whom hospitals must securely message from 25% to 5%.

— Dropping to a single patient the number of patients who must view, download and transmit their records.

— Dropping from 40% to 10% the number of electronic patient records that hospitals must get, and the summary of care documents they must incorporate.

The changes do not apply to hospitals merely attesting to Medicaid meaningful use.

The AHA was dissatisfied CMS kept a 2018 start for Stage 3, stated Ashley Thompson, the group’s senior vice president of public policy. Also, the need that hospitals make application program interfaces — APIs — available to third-party app developers is “concerning” provided the security threats and the absence of standards, she claimed.

For Further information, please visit these links mentioned below:

Find the final rule here. CMS’s release here. The AHA’s full statement here.

CIOs hope healthcare IT spending to increase in 2017 year

Healthcare CIOs are more likely to grow healthcare IT spending over the next twelve months in contrast to top IT executives in other industries, as providers seek to make better the efficiency and business procedures. That’s why CIOs expect healthcare IT spending to increase in the year of 2017.

Healthcare IT executives also claim that they hope to sustain to struggle with important shortages in staff with required technology skills, in accordance to outcomes of a new survey from Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey.

The survey of 190 healthcare CIOs indicates that 52% expect increases in Healthcare IT spending budgets over the next year, while 35% assume unchanged budgets. By contrast, 45% of CIOs from entire industries say they hope budgets to increase, while 33% of them anticipate budgets to remain unchanged.

 “The Healthcare industry IT spend has been significantly low, but latest high profile security breaches, uncertainties over regulatory compliance, growing complexity of health IT systems and the deployment of digital and mobild healTh services to make better the patient access, satisfaction and brand loyalty have elevated the priority and spend in the board room for longer term investments,” summarizes a report on the survey’s findings.

Nevertheless, however 80% of CIOs show that there is an increasing strategic role for IT in their agencies, in contrast with 67% from all industries, only half of those surveyed claimed that they have a clear digital business vision and strategy, while the survey discovered that 39% of respondents were presently working on a digital business strategy.

In fact, healthcare agencies are less likely to have a digital business strategy, within business units or enterprise wide, than the all-industries average.

“Despite important increases in Healthcare IT spending in recent years, the maturity of IT contribution or investment in healthcare is yet lagging in comparison with other industries, and healthcare companies know they require catching up,” analyzed Vince Vickers, an advisory principal for healthcare and life sciences at KPMG.

“Healthcare agencies have primary operational cost pressures now more than ever, and there is a chance to close that gap rapidly with disruptive technologies and analytic devices that open the door to the notion of the ‘creative CIO,” he states.

Although, as Vickers points out, the survey discloses that healthcare lags other industries in vital technology skills. When inquired in what areas their agencies are suffering from skills shortages, 45% of healthcare CIOs said big data/analytics, 36% reacted to project management, 30% indicated change management, and 29% said security/resilience.

One sector that is gaining interest from healthcare agencies as a “means to leapfrog to more contemporary technology” is cloud computing, in accordance to Vickers. “No industry has a greater chance than healthcare to leverage the cloud to change its operations, decrease cost and make better its customer satisfaction (patient care) than healthcare,” he stated.

The top 3 reasons CIOs provided for utilizing the cloud were to make better the availability and resiliency (45%), to use the best solution available (35%) and to make better the agility and responsiveness (34%).

Still, at the similar time, those surveyed showed that the top 3 issues to adopting cloud computing were data loss and privacy risks (55%), integration with existing architecture (46%), and legal and regulatory compliance problems (42%). In specific, Vickers pointed out that one of the issues facing healthcare agencies is that few clinical software and electronic health record (EHR) systems are yet not available or optimized for the cloud.