New Hampshire HIE Establishes links with VA to serve veterans

The New Hampshire HIE or New Hampshire Health Information Organization (NHHIO), which operates a statewide health information exchange (HIE), recently developed a connection with the Veterans Administration (VA) to enable hospitals and other provider agencies to get extra health information about vets they are treating.

Veterans mostly do not get their entire healthcare through the VA, and other providers generally have had to depend on paper-based methods when dealing with VA, claims Jeff Loughlin, a veteran and executive director of NHHIO.

Thus, an electronic link will speed and make better the quality of care, he believes. “This connection assists to remove few of the hurdles in communication and care that veterans face on a daily basis.”

The initiative was started after an outreach coordinator at the Manchester VA contacted Loughlin and they worked to enable an electronic exchange of information. To accomplish their mission, they required establishing and signing several contracts—the project uses the Direct Protocol secure messaging standard for exchange of health information, and VA, which wasn’t utilizing Direct, required contracts written and signed to ensure participants follow certain procedures of the VA.

Most states linked to VA use a shared data repository to exchange information; New Hampshire HIE is one of a handful of states that has shifted to the Direct Protocol, Loughlin says.

Because electronic communication just started 2 weeks ago, it is hard to assess progress thus far. Orion Health is the vendor offering Direct services. 2 other VA offices in New Hampshire HIE are getting ready to enable providers in their regions to exchange data electronically with the VA.

Along with the connections will come educational steps to explain to providers the benefits of electronic connectivity with VA and workflow changes they will require making. The benefits involve improved patient safety and data security, and putting data in providers’ hands quicker, while no longer depending on faxes.

One reason the connectivity came together was because the timing was correct, Loughlin elaborates. Linking with VA wasn’t a priority because providers were concentrated on achieving meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs), and VA was not ready for Direct during that period, anyway. With meaningful use winding down, VA’s outreach to Manchester was the impetus to get Direct secure messing rolling, with assistance from a Manchester VA board member who was a veteran and served as a patient advocate.

Providers will have the choice of getting PDF files, discrete data elements, a summary of care or a progress note, deployed on the workflows of providers, the technical capability of their staffs or the capabilities of the providers’ vendors.

Direct connectivity is just one piece of improved sharing of health information in New Hampshire, Loughlin contends, as the industry waits for more modern and advanced capabilities like the CommonWell, CareQuality and FHIR interoperability initiatives to mature. “There is no single solution, so we’re attempting to maximize the advantages of all of the solutions,” he further adds.

 

Latest connections and platform expands Rochester RHIO

Rochester RHIO, a health information exchange facilitating 1.4 million consumers in thirteen upstate counties in the city of New York, has become the last of 8 regional HIEs to build links to the Statewide Health Information Network for New York, known as SHIN-NY.

The RHIO, which has been operating for ten years, has focused on developing, expanding and maintaining its business while linking to other regional HIEs in the upstate region, because that is where 90% of its business comes from, claims Jill Eisenstein, executive director.

The agency also recently completed a major platform migration, expanding its ability to send queries to downstate RHIOs, including SHIN-NY, to which it made more than 600 queries in the past month.

The new platform hosts an enterprise master patient index to recognize and reconcile duplicate patient records and an interface engine. It also supports clinical alerts to let physicians know when sufferers have been admitted to a hospital or discharged, and broadens support for HL7 CCD and CCA document exchange standards.

Virtual Physical Therapy Assists to Enhance Home Health Care

Reflexion Health introduces VERA to empower patients and improve outcomes.

The explosion of creation in technology is vitally transforming the way healthcare is administered and handled around the world. From diagnosis to treatment and chronic condition management, telehealth has become a reality. And in the wake of an ever-changing healthcare landscape, meaningful care is on the rise. There is also increasing pressure to deal excessive healthcare spending and inefficient care pathways to decrease costs and improve results.

One of the newest fields to be handled through innovative technology is physical therapy. Previous year, a pilot program was made by researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas to connect wounded veterans with physical therapy through real-time video, 3D computer-generated worlds, and force-feedback “haptic” devices that could reestablish a physical therapist session between sufferers and therapists remotely over high-speed networks, as Live Science reported.

Now, Reflexion Health, a digital healthcare company committed to transforming traditional medicine, has developed VERA™, a virtual exercise rehabilitation assistant that remotely brings physical therapy to the home, empowering sufferers and providers to save time, steps, and money.

The Act would offer professional development Services to rural providers

The U.S. Senate on a 97-0 vote has approved the Expanding Capacity for Health Outcomes Act to expand Project ECHO, a step to offer professional development services and other support to healthcare rural providers in remote and underserved regions.

Project ECHO is modeled after a step at the institute of University of New Mexico that connects rural patients to rural providers through telemedicine. Project ECHO previously concentrated on care for patients with hepatitis C.

Under the legislation, which moves to the U.S. House that has a companion bill, Project ECHO now will extend across the rural areas of nation to serve a wide variety of healthcare requirements. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) sponsored the bill.

Project ECHO will utilize videoconferencing technology to link specialists with rural primary care providers or rural providers. Weekly “teleECHO clinics” will combine didactic teaching (ways to better manage work) with mentoring and case-based learning, in accordance to a statement from Hatch.

These clinics, or lectures, could cover such areas as treatments for several diseases, offering behavioral health treatment in rural areas, and making improvements in public health interventions like HIV and tuberculosis.

The aim, in accordance to Hatch, is to increase expert knowledge among rural providers while giving a network of assistance, helping the provider retention rate, decreasing isolation and offering more access to specialists.

The legislation needs the Department of Health and Human Services to assess if Project ECHO improves the quality of care, and calls for the Government Accountability Office to assess increased efficiencies and cost savings via the program.

“We are now one step closer to supporting new ways to train health providers and deliver health care,” Sen. Schatz stated in a statement. “Technology is modifying and changing the way medical professionals connect with each other and their sufferers. Our bill capitalizes on this technology to give health experts in hard-to-reach areas the specialized training they need and assist them to reach more patients.

 

Northwell Health, Siemens teams up for population health effectiveness research

Northwell Health and Siemens Healthineers have teamed up in a research partnership targeted at gauging clinical effectiveness and performing research utilizing analytics-based population health evidence.
Siemens will provide funding and research support over the next 4 years to Northwell's Imaging Clinical Effectiveness and Outcomes Research Program, or iCEOR. It will also commit full-time workers to work with Northwell Health on its population health management initiatives.
This partnership is first-of-its-kind for both Siemens and Northwell Health, stated August Calhoun, senior vice president of services, Siemens Healthineers North America. The aim, he said, is to collaborate on research that could "potentially define care pathways for several populations in the future."

Workers Ready for Wearable devices at Work, Study concludes

Jiff data indicates that there is great promise for the inclusion of wearable devices in the workplace.

In a recent study, workers at 14 large employers demonstrated that they are ready for wearables at work, according to data from Jiff. And while doctors perceive they are on board with the wearables movement, sufferers aren’t so sure.

In fact, a latest Nielsen survey discovered while 40% of physicians said they have suggested wearables to their patients, less than 5% of patients say that their doctor has recommended the technology to them. One way to bridge this gap is through workplace adoption and support of the devices.

Almost one-half of employees have participated in a well-being activity or wellness program in the last year, in accordance to the survey, while almost two-thirds of employees said employers should actively motivate employees to live a healthy lifestyle. And nearly one in 3 employers surveyed offered a wellness program that incorporated wearables; another 23% considering a wearable program in the future.

With consumer health and wellness representing a $135 billion market, it’s not surprising consumers are open to employer support in their attempts to attain improved health. Yet the real value of wearables devices in making better the healthcare outcomes is still not completely proven. One recent study found wearable devices did not assist patients to achieve better results in a weight loss intervention program.

Secure Mobile Communication permits shift in practice’s care model

Getting in contact with the physicians of Direct Care Clinic of Northwest Arkansas is convenient—they are only a text or email away. Secure mobile communication with sufferers has become a key source of communication that permits the Rogers, Ark.-based practice to serve patients and provide them personalized care.

The physicians of the practice would not have it any other way.

“This is the way primary care should be done,” claims Dan Weeden, MD, one of the 2 physicians in the practice. “It is a good way to do primary care.”

Weeden and Joel Frankhauser, MD, have modified the practice’s approach, in part enabled by new IT systems. It is changed electronic health records (EHRs) systems, deployed a smartphone app and adopted the secure mobile communication or messaging software to enable better communication.

Direct Care now provides direct primary care to over 700 patients who pay a set amount each month—less than $50—for entire treatment and services. That is moderately different model than concierge service, under which a person or family pays an annual fee for care. And it is a far cry from the conventional fee-for-service model the practice employed before the change, when it treated more than 2,000 patients.

Before the switch, the practice utilized an EHR from Epic, and followed the conventional way of filing claims with insurers, which paid varying amounts for care. In making the switch, it is shifted to the InLight EHR system from Amazing Charts, which has better enabled the shift to direct primary care, assisting it offer the more consistent monthly fee approach.

Weeden claims that the new approach has opened up communication with sufferers, who might need an often visit but frequently just want a rapid answer to a medical query. This year, the practice sought a secure mobile communication or secure messaging application that could be integrated into the InLight EHR and discovered Twistle, which enables sufferers to use smartphones to send messages to the practice.

The app brings ease to the practice and patients, in accordance to Weeden. It mitigates the need for office visits and provides patients peace of mind while, at the similar time, quickly alerting clinicians to potential issues.

Patients who’ve the free Twistle app on their phone can send messages to the practice that go into nurse and physician computers as well as their smartphones.

Direct Care chose Twistle secure messaging because it is HIPAA compliant, but Weeden worries that few other doctors using the direct primary care model don’t follow HIPAA “and it’s imperative that they do so,” he states.

 

People Need mHealth Convenience, But Payers Are not Ready

8 in ten consumers would rather see their doctor online than in person, the mHealth convenience survey claims. But insurers are not prepared to make that an easy procedure.

A new study finds that people overwhelmingly prefer online interactions with their doctor over in-person visits, and they will even risk the security of their health information for the mhealth convenience.

In all, 8 out of every ten people surveyed by West Monroe Partners prefer real-time contact through a portal or mHealth app over a visit to the doctor’s office. And 31% have used an mHealth app in the last 2 years to talk to their doctor about a particular medical condition.

In accordance to the survey of more than 1,300 consumers, 86% are using their healthcare provider’s online portal, and two-thirds of those people whose doctors do not have a portal what their doctors to make that leap. The public claim for mHealth is even higher: 91% of those surveyed would use a mHealth app if they could.

The shift in people’s thinking is not lost on doctors.

“Healthcare providers are realizing the affect of digital communication channels and are beginning to adapt,” Will Hinde, senior director of healthcare for West Monroe Partners, claims in the report. “We are initiating to see more providers incorporate the digital experience with their office visit, by moving to more online scheduling of appointments, paperless office interactions, following up through e-mail, portals, and mobile apps and taking measures towards higher cost and quality transparency.”

The issue to mHealth convenience adoption comes not from those providing healthcare, but those holding the purse strings.

In accordance to the survey, 85% of payers are not sure their company has the technology in place to meet the needs of consumer, and 54% are not sure they have the procedures to create a mobile, consumer-centric platform.

Part of the challenge lies in what payers think their members want. Several currently offer awards, like gift cards, and redeemable points to prompt members to share their health data online. But with less than 50% of consumers surveyed saying they trust their doctor with their personal health information, those rewards are not cutting it.

“Provided the volume, scale, and visibility of healthcare-based cyberattacks, it is no surprise less than half of consumers (48%) entirely trust their provider with their personal data,” the study points out. “This deficiency of trust poses an important business hurdle for the roughly 70% of healthcare insurers presently offering rewards programs built around consumers sharing data collected from their health tracking devices and apps – which can assist insurers to provide more individualized care. Confronted with a customer base that is reticent to share personal health information, these insurers can seek their rewards programs stagnating, with customer retention, loyalty, and actionable data collection suffering as an outcome.”

In accordance to the survey, consumers will share their health information with doctors if the rewards are more meaningful – that means better rates, better service or convenient access to doctors.

The West Monroe Partners survey recommends that consumers are demanding mHealth convenience or easier online access to their doctors, and they will even forego a minor bit of privacy and security in exchange for cost savings. But healthcare providers are shifting too slowly to provide them that convenience, and the payer industry is even farther behind.

 

1 Million Google accounts hacked Via Android malware

More than one million Google accounts – involving authentication tokens – have been compromised by the Android malware strain called as Gooligan, security firm Check Point reported on the day of Wednesday.

Hackers can utilize the stolen credentials to gain access to Gmail and Google Photos, Docs, Drive, Play and GSuite. Moreover, the cybercriminals can generate revenue by installing apps from Google Play and rating the apps on behalf of the user. Hackers also profit from the adware installed by Gooligan.

1^st spotted in the wild in the year of 2014, this most recent campaign that started in August has infected about 13,000 devices per day by targeting Android 4 and 5 devices. Checkpoint officials estimate that accounts for almost 74% of Android users.

Presently, Gooligan installs 30,000 apps a day on breached devices – or two million fraudulent apps since the campaign started.

The researchers also discovered Gooligan in several legitimate-looking third-party app stores, but users also downloaded the app straightly from malicious links found in phishing messages.

Check Point researchers contacted Google's security team with their findings, and the firm is providing a free online tool that lets users determine if their account is part of the breach.

Four more regional Zika cases Reported in Miami-Dade

State health officials said on the day of Wednesday that they have discovered four more locally transmitted cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in Miami-Dade County, while 2 "travel-related" cases were reported in the Orlando place.

The 4 cases in Miami-Dade brought the total of locally transmitted cases in the state to 244, in accordance to the Florida Department of Health website.

Investigators were attempting to determine where exposure occurred in the 4 cases. Meanwhile, one travel-related case was reported in Orange County, while another was reported in Osceola County.

In such cases, individuals are infected elsewhere and then bring Zika into the state.

In all, Florida has had 1,219 reported cases of Zika, in accordance to the department.