Researchers at the institutes of Binghamton University, State University of New York have devised a latest way to secure personal electronic health records (EHRs) by utilizing a patient's own heartbeat. Heartbeat can be possibly used as password to access EHRs.
"The charges and complexity of traditional encryption solutions stop them being straightly applied to telemedicine or mobile healthcare. Those systems are steadily replacing clinic-centered healthcare, and we needed to find a distinctive solution to secure sensitive personal health data with something simple, available and cost-effective," claimed Zhanpeng Jin, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University. Jin is the co-author of a new paper entitled as "A Robust and Reusable ECG-based Authentication and Data Encryption Scheme for eHealth Systems."
Traditional security measures--like cryptography or encryption--can be costly, time-consuming, and computing-intensive. Binghamton researchers encrypted patient data by utilizing an individual’s unique electrocardiograph (ECG)--a measurement of the electrical activity of the heart measured by a biosensor attached to the skin--as the key to lock and unlock the files.
"The ECG signal is believed to be one of the most vital and common physiological parameters collected and observed to understand a sufferer’s health," said Jin. "While ECG signals are collected for clinical diagnosis and transmitted through networks to electronic health records (EHRs), we strategically reused the ECG signals for the data encryption. Through this strategy, the security and privacy can be modified while minimum charges will be added."
Essentially, the sufferer’s heartbeat is the password to access EHRs.
The identification scheme is a combination of initial work by Jin using a unique brainprint of person rather than traditional passwords for access to computers and buildings combined with cyber-security work from Guo and Chen. Heartbeat can be possibly used as password to access EHRs.
"This research will be very useful and important for next-generation secure, personalized healthcare," stated Jin.
Since an ECG might change because of age, illness or injury--or a patient might just want to change how their records are accessed--researchers are presently working out ways to incorporate those variables.
Assistant Professor Linke Guo and Associate Professor Yu Chen, along with PhD candidates Pei Huang and Borui Li, are co-authors of the paper.
The research was presented at The IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2016) in Washington, D.C., in the month of December 2016.\
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Saturday, January 21, 2017
HIPAA privacy violations, stolen USB drive costs MAPFRE $2.2M
MAPFRE Life Insurance Company of Puerto Rico has accepted to pay a fine of $2.2 million and enter into a settlement with the HHS Office of Civil rights for violations of the HIPAA privacy violations and security rules that resulted in a breach in the year of August 2011.
MAPFRE had a USB drive consisting of protected health information stolen from its information technology department. Data on the drive involved member names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, impacting 2,209 individuals.
But it was prior representations to OCR of MAPFRE’s HIPAA agreement that got the company in trouble, with an actual level of non-compliance, in accordance to OCR that triggers multi-million dollar fines.
“The investigation of OCR disclosed MAPFRE’s noncompliance with the HIPAA privacy violations rules, particularly a failure to conduct its risk analysis and implement risk management plans, contrary to its prior representations, and a failure to deploy encryption or an equivalent alternative measure on its laptops and removable storage media until the day of Sept. 1, 2014,” OCR asserts in a statement. “MAPFRE also failed to execute or delayed implementing other corrective measures it informed OCR it would undertake.”
In a resolution agreement that MAPFRE accepted, OCR points out the company further failed to execute a security awareness and training program for all workers, failed to implement encryption and failed to execute reasonable and suitable policies and procedures to comply with HIPAA privacy violations rule.
Now, MAPFRE will step into a 3-year corrective action program that involves a risk analysis, a risk management plan and an initiative to implement procedures to evaluate environmental or operational changes that could impact the security of electronic protected health information.
In the last year, OCR has importantly ramped up HIPAA enforcement and the size of financial penalties, having determined that the industry wasn’t taking protection of patient data seriously enough and required a wake-up call.
After Advocate Health Care in Illinois was hit in the year of August 2016 with a $5.5 million fine—the largest to date—OCR director Jocelyn Samuels had a stern message for the industry. “We expect this settlement sends a powerful message to covered entities that they must include in a comprehensive risk analysis and risk management to make sure that individuals’ electronic protected health information is safe and secure.”
The resolution agreement and corrective action plan are available here.
MAPFRE had a USB drive consisting of protected health information stolen from its information technology department. Data on the drive involved member names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, impacting 2,209 individuals.
But it was prior representations to OCR of MAPFRE’s HIPAA agreement that got the company in trouble, with an actual level of non-compliance, in accordance to OCR that triggers multi-million dollar fines.
“The investigation of OCR disclosed MAPFRE’s noncompliance with the HIPAA privacy violations rules, particularly a failure to conduct its risk analysis and implement risk management plans, contrary to its prior representations, and a failure to deploy encryption or an equivalent alternative measure on its laptops and removable storage media until the day of Sept. 1, 2014,” OCR asserts in a statement. “MAPFRE also failed to execute or delayed implementing other corrective measures it informed OCR it would undertake.”
In a resolution agreement that MAPFRE accepted, OCR points out the company further failed to execute a security awareness and training program for all workers, failed to implement encryption and failed to execute reasonable and suitable policies and procedures to comply with HIPAA privacy violations rule.
Now, MAPFRE will step into a 3-year corrective action program that involves a risk analysis, a risk management plan and an initiative to implement procedures to evaluate environmental or operational changes that could impact the security of electronic protected health information.
In the last year, OCR has importantly ramped up HIPAA enforcement and the size of financial penalties, having determined that the industry wasn’t taking protection of patient data seriously enough and required a wake-up call.
After Advocate Health Care in Illinois was hit in the year of August 2016 with a $5.5 million fine—the largest to date—OCR director Jocelyn Samuels had a stern message for the industry. “We expect this settlement sends a powerful message to covered entities that they must include in a comprehensive risk analysis and risk management to make sure that individuals’ electronic protected health information is safe and secure.”
The resolution agreement and corrective action plan are available here.
Friday, January 20, 2017
Why interoperability is a significant component for improving research?
Interoperability is considered to be a significant component for improving research and the capability of healthcare investigators to acquire improvements, claims one of the nation’s greatest healthcare IT organizations.
That is among the comments submitted by the American Medical Informatics Association, known as AMIA, for ways to compel researchers to make better the sharing of their work.
The National Institutes of Health, which is the nation’s medical research agency, in the month of November released a request for information on strategies for standardizing how the agency handles data, cites shared data and software, and makes findings and conclusions publicly available.
“Data sharing has become such a vital proximal output of research that we consider the relative value of a proposed project should involve consideration of how its information will be shared,” AMIA stated in its comments. “By utilizing the peer-review procedure, we’ll make incremental improvements to interoperability while recognizing approaches to better data sharing practices over time.”
Interoperability is the key to better sharing of research, claims Jeffrey Smith, vice president of public policy at AMIA. “The purpose is to make sure that whatever data is utilized and created toward results of research will be available for secondary use and reanalysis and reproducibility.”
In the past year, the Cancer Moonshot Initiative championed by Vice President Joe Biden and the Precision Medicine Initiative has put a spotlight on how siloed research data can be, Smith elaborates. Now, the NIH is attempting to break down the silos.
“We can leverage computer speeds and storage at levels not possible a decade ago,” Smith asserts. “Still we’ve very some institutional ways to applaud the worth of data sets and software.”
Subsequently, the NIH RFI concentrates on data management and sharing strategies to make sure that data generated in public research is made available and accurately cited. The NIH initiative, Smith considers, also will shine a spotlight on how some clinical trial agencies actually deposit their data into the NIH clinicaltrials.gov web site.
When researchers submit applications for government grant-supported projects, NIH convenes professionals to analyze and score the projects to evaluate overall quality of the application. The application must have a sharing component, but that component isn’t part of the overall scoring procedure, in accordance to Smith, who calls it “a check-the-box exercise.” interoperability is a significant component for improving research.
Subsequently, AMIA advocates that a plan to share data should be scored during the expert review procedure of grant applications. “Making it scorable means you’ve to spend time and attention on data sharing,” Smith claims, while appreciating this would be a new and key step for researchers for improving research. “Few researchers are not well-versed in collecting, handling and sharing data.”
That is among the comments submitted by the American Medical Informatics Association, known as AMIA, for ways to compel researchers to make better the sharing of their work.
The National Institutes of Health, which is the nation’s medical research agency, in the month of November released a request for information on strategies for standardizing how the agency handles data, cites shared data and software, and makes findings and conclusions publicly available.
“Data sharing has become such a vital proximal output of research that we consider the relative value of a proposed project should involve consideration of how its information will be shared,” AMIA stated in its comments. “By utilizing the peer-review procedure, we’ll make incremental improvements to interoperability while recognizing approaches to better data sharing practices over time.”
Interoperability is the key to better sharing of research, claims Jeffrey Smith, vice president of public policy at AMIA. “The purpose is to make sure that whatever data is utilized and created toward results of research will be available for secondary use and reanalysis and reproducibility.”
In the past year, the Cancer Moonshot Initiative championed by Vice President Joe Biden and the Precision Medicine Initiative has put a spotlight on how siloed research data can be, Smith elaborates. Now, the NIH is attempting to break down the silos.
“We can leverage computer speeds and storage at levels not possible a decade ago,” Smith asserts. “Still we’ve very some institutional ways to applaud the worth of data sets and software.”
Subsequently, the NIH RFI concentrates on data management and sharing strategies to make sure that data generated in public research is made available and accurately cited. The NIH initiative, Smith considers, also will shine a spotlight on how some clinical trial agencies actually deposit their data into the NIH clinicaltrials.gov web site.
When researchers submit applications for government grant-supported projects, NIH convenes professionals to analyze and score the projects to evaluate overall quality of the application. The application must have a sharing component, but that component isn’t part of the overall scoring procedure, in accordance to Smith, who calls it “a check-the-box exercise.” interoperability is a significant component for improving research.
Subsequently, AMIA advocates that a plan to share data should be scored during the expert review procedure of grant applications. “Making it scorable means you’ve to spend time and attention on data sharing,” Smith claims, while appreciating this would be a new and key step for researchers for improving research. “Few researchers are not well-versed in collecting, handling and sharing data.”
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Cyberattack: Virginia-based Sentara Healthcare informs patients after vendor is hacked
A third-party vendor serving Virginia-based Sentara Healthcare faced a cyberattack, resulting in the twelve-hospital delivery system sending breach notification letters to almost 5,454 affected sufferers.
Law enforcement notified Virginia-based Sentara Healthcare of the breach on the day of Nov. 17, 2016, and a Sentara investigation highlighted the vendor, which it declined to recognize in its announcement, as the target. Healthcare agencies mostly learn of cyberattacks as police in the course of investigating a tragedy find other facilities that also were affected. Police, Sentara and the vendor sustain to investigate the tragedy, in accordance to the notification letter.
The vendor doesn’t give direct care to patients, in accordance to a Sentara spokesperson; it gives information reporting and data benchmarking services. With the investigation ongoing, the agency won’t provide extra information about the vendor or its current relationship with the vendor.
The compromised sufferer information “relates to vascular and/or thoracic processes that took place between the time period of 2012 and 2015 at a Sentara hospital in Virginia, and was inappropriately accessed,” the agency has informed patients.
Data at risk involves sufferer names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, procedures, demographic data and medications.
Affected people are being offered one year of credit monitoring and recognize theft protection in the ProtectMyID Alert service of Experian. The vendor, in accordance to Sentara, is enhancing its security posture.
Law enforcement notified Virginia-based Sentara Healthcare of the breach on the day of Nov. 17, 2016, and a Sentara investigation highlighted the vendor, which it declined to recognize in its announcement, as the target. Healthcare agencies mostly learn of cyberattacks as police in the course of investigating a tragedy find other facilities that also were affected. Police, Sentara and the vendor sustain to investigate the tragedy, in accordance to the notification letter.
The vendor doesn’t give direct care to patients, in accordance to a Sentara spokesperson; it gives information reporting and data benchmarking services. With the investigation ongoing, the agency won’t provide extra information about the vendor or its current relationship with the vendor.
The compromised sufferer information “relates to vascular and/or thoracic processes that took place between the time period of 2012 and 2015 at a Sentara hospital in Virginia, and was inappropriately accessed,” the agency has informed patients.
Data at risk involves sufferer names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, procedures, demographic data and medications.
Affected people are being offered one year of credit monitoring and recognize theft protection in the ProtectMyID Alert service of Experian. The vendor, in accordance to Sentara, is enhancing its security posture.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Acquisition: Security vendors combine as Auxilio purchases CynergisTek
CynergisTek, a famous healthcare privacy and information security consultancy, now is part of document management/information technology security firm Auxilio following an acquisition. Security vendors will combine as Auxilio buys CynergisTek.
Auxilio will pay as much as $26.8M in cash, stock and seller debt with extra payments of as much as $7.5 million over 5 years if CynergisTek meets some financial performance metrics, for a possible complete cost of $34.3 million. Auxilio already owns data security vulnerability testing and assessment services firm Redspin and risk management vendor Delphiis, which will be combined into CynergisTek.
CynergisTek leaders Mac McMillan and Michael Mathews will merge with the board of the combined entity and have important ownership stakes. CynergisTek will operate independently, but chances exist to provide combined services over time, claimed Auxilio CEO Joe Flynn in a statement. “We’ve long stated our wish to expand our reach in healthcare information technology security, and this acquisition puts us in an instant leadership position in the category,” Flynn added.
Auxilio competes against such heavyweight document management firms as HealthPort and MRO, but is well-capitalized with great management, claims John Osberg, a merger and acquisition specialist at consultancy Informed Partners.
Auxilio purchasing CynergisTek to expand into the advisory services market is a smart move, Osberg considers. Auxilio has electronic technology to assist hospitals secure their written documentation by controlling whom, when and where documents can be printed. In essence, it specializes in automated risk assessment procedures. Security vendors will combine as Auxilio purchases CynergisTek.
Now, Auxilio will integrate its existing security holdings—Delphiis, RedSpin and CynergisTek--into a single cybersecurity agency. CynergisTek will increase its capability to offer information technology staffing services to hospitals.
Merging into Auxilio was a chance for CynergisTek to continue growth as a publicly held company, McMillan further adds. “The logic of the matter is, to take it to the next level will take more than our energy.”
While the final name of the entity isn’t still clear, McMillan, who’ll serve as president of Auxilio and CEO of CynergisTek, expects to keep the CynergisTek brand alive to maintain industry recognition.
CynergisTek, identified by security vendors research firm KLAS as the largest-rated healthcare firm for security consulting in the year of 2016, also brings revenue to Auxilio; having produced $15 million in revenue during the year of 2016 and $5 million in earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization.
Auxilio will pay as much as $26.8M in cash, stock and seller debt with extra payments of as much as $7.5 million over 5 years if CynergisTek meets some financial performance metrics, for a possible complete cost of $34.3 million. Auxilio already owns data security vulnerability testing and assessment services firm Redspin and risk management vendor Delphiis, which will be combined into CynergisTek.
CynergisTek leaders Mac McMillan and Michael Mathews will merge with the board of the combined entity and have important ownership stakes. CynergisTek will operate independently, but chances exist to provide combined services over time, claimed Auxilio CEO Joe Flynn in a statement. “We’ve long stated our wish to expand our reach in healthcare information technology security, and this acquisition puts us in an instant leadership position in the category,” Flynn added.
Auxilio competes against such heavyweight document management firms as HealthPort and MRO, but is well-capitalized with great management, claims John Osberg, a merger and acquisition specialist at consultancy Informed Partners.
Auxilio purchasing CynergisTek to expand into the advisory services market is a smart move, Osberg considers. Auxilio has electronic technology to assist hospitals secure their written documentation by controlling whom, when and where documents can be printed. In essence, it specializes in automated risk assessment procedures. Security vendors will combine as Auxilio purchases CynergisTek.
Now, Auxilio will integrate its existing security holdings—Delphiis, RedSpin and CynergisTek--into a single cybersecurity agency. CynergisTek will increase its capability to offer information technology staffing services to hospitals.
Merging into Auxilio was a chance for CynergisTek to continue growth as a publicly held company, McMillan further adds. “The logic of the matter is, to take it to the next level will take more than our energy.”
While the final name of the entity isn’t still clear, McMillan, who’ll serve as president of Auxilio and CEO of CynergisTek, expects to keep the CynergisTek brand alive to maintain industry recognition.
CynergisTek, identified by security vendors research firm KLAS as the largest-rated healthcare firm for security consulting in the year of 2016, also brings revenue to Auxilio; having produced $15 million in revenue during the year of 2016 and $5 million in earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Rise of Blockchain technology merits full-day conference at HIMSS17
The growth of blockchain technology as a potential tool within healthcare will rate closer examination during a day-long conference during HIMSS17 in the region of Orlando, Fla.
The conference, termed as Blockchain in Healthcare, a Rock Stars of Technology Event, will be on the day of Wednesday, February 22, at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition.
The event is being provided by the IEEE Computer Society and is being co-hosted with the Personal Connected Health Alliance. Organizers say the event will give healthcare business and Information technology professionals with the knowledge they require protecting and secure data; electronic health records (EHRs), connected devices and health information exchanges with blockchain technologies.
Proponents of blockchain technology consider that it could have wide applicability in healthcare. It enables the collection of data from a variety of sources, and keeps an audit trail of transactions, hence developing accountability and transparency in the data exchange procedure.
The utilization of blockchain in healthcare is emerging as one of the most controversial technologies of 2017, providing the promise of dealing security and data integrity problems related to the increasing volume of patient data handled by physicians, hospitals and insurance companies.
Key topics of the blockchain event at HIMSS17 involve:
The event at HIMSS17 will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. February 22 in room 414B, discovered on level 4 of the West Concourse of the Orange County Convention Center.
Further knowledge on the event, and links for registration can be found here.
The conference, termed as Blockchain in Healthcare, a Rock Stars of Technology Event, will be on the day of Wednesday, February 22, at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition.
The event is being provided by the IEEE Computer Society and is being co-hosted with the Personal Connected Health Alliance. Organizers say the event will give healthcare business and Information technology professionals with the knowledge they require protecting and secure data; electronic health records (EHRs), connected devices and health information exchanges with blockchain technologies.
Proponents of blockchain technology consider that it could have wide applicability in healthcare. It enables the collection of data from a variety of sources, and keeps an audit trail of transactions, hence developing accountability and transparency in the data exchange procedure.
The utilization of blockchain in healthcare is emerging as one of the most controversial technologies of 2017, providing the promise of dealing security and data integrity problems related to the increasing volume of patient data handled by physicians, hospitals and insurance companies.
Key topics of the blockchain event at HIMSS17 involve:
- Advancing Progress towards a Safe and Secure Nationwide System of Interoperable Health IT
- Blockchain Use-Cases and Opportunities in Healthcare
- Blockchains: Revealing the Hidden Cost of Trust
- Blockchain and Its Practical Use-Cases in Healthcare
- Computing the Contract: Why Smart Contracts are the Asset
- Defining a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with Blockchain in Healthcare: Challenge and Opportunities
The event at HIMSS17 will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. February 22 in room 414B, discovered on level 4 of the West Concourse of the Orange County Convention Center.
Further knowledge on the event, and links for registration can be found here.
Monday, January 16, 2017
Organizational complexity is the highest risk to cybersecurity
Some 83% of agencies consider that they are most at risk for cyberattack due to the organizational complexity, in accordance to a latest survey of organizations by the Ponemon Institute.
“Workers aren’t following corporate security requirements as an organizational complexity because they are too tough to be productive, plus policies hinder their capability to work in their preferred manner,” the research noted. “It’s no surprise that shadow IT is on the rise because workers need simpler ways to get their work done.”
The research, which was sponsored by Citrix, finds that workers are increasingly putting data on their personal devices, meaning vital organization information is accessible from any laptop, phone or tablet left sitting at a desk or coffee shop. And data assets are increasing, putting more data at risk, in accordance to 87% of survey respondents.
Survey results also discovered that security and IT experts are increasingly concerned about their current operations:
As for planning for the future:
“In every region of the world, businesses must agree to the fact that security practices and policies require evolving in case to deal with threats from disruptive technologies, cybercrime and compliance,” in accordance to Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute.
The organizations consider that they are most at risk for cyberattack due to the organizational complexity, in accordance to a latest survey of organizations by the Ponemon Institute.
“The research discloses respondents’ awareness of the need to challenge the status quo of their Information technology security strategies and consider a latest IT security architecture to safeguard their agencies from cyber risks,” Ponemon adds.
“Workers aren’t following corporate security requirements as an organizational complexity because they are too tough to be productive, plus policies hinder their capability to work in their preferred manner,” the research noted. “It’s no surprise that shadow IT is on the rise because workers need simpler ways to get their work done.”
The research, which was sponsored by Citrix, finds that workers are increasingly putting data on their personal devices, meaning vital organization information is accessible from any laptop, phone or tablet left sitting at a desk or coffee shop. And data assets are increasing, putting more data at risk, in accordance to 87% of survey respondents.
Survey results also discovered that security and IT experts are increasingly concerned about their current operations:
- 79% of respondents are worried about security breaches including high-value information.
- The protection of apps and data is more critical than ever, with 74% of organization saying that a latest IT security framework is required to improve security posture and decrease risk.
- 71% say there is threat from their inability to control employees’ devices and apps.
As for planning for the future:
- 73% say data management, 76% say configuration management, and 72% say app management, are the keys to decreasing the security risk over the next 2 years in building a new information technology infrastructure.
- 75% say their agency is not completely prepared to deal with the potential security risks resulting from Internet of Things (IoT).
“In every region of the world, businesses must agree to the fact that security practices and policies require evolving in case to deal with threats from disruptive technologies, cybercrime and compliance,” in accordance to Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute.
The organizations consider that they are most at risk for cyberattack due to the organizational complexity, in accordance to a latest survey of organizations by the Ponemon Institute.
“The research discloses respondents’ awareness of the need to challenge the status quo of their Information technology security strategies and consider a latest IT security architecture to safeguard their agencies from cyber risks,” Ponemon adds.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Genomic data sharing needs clinical information and standardization of lab
Michael Watson, executive director of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), knows about the worth of laboratory standardization and clinical genomic data sharing in case to deliver the best possible patient care.
Watson asserts that genomic data sharing is crucial to advancing medical breakthroughs for the estimated 5,000 to 7,000 rare genetic ailments, each of which can vary dramatically and be caused by a multitude of various genetic changes.
“I was a laboratory director for twenty years and rare diseases aren’t easy,” claims Watson. “No one person, no one institution, and no one state will ever have sufficient data to actually inform them to the degree that they could be informed to make better the healthcare.”
That is the stark realization behind the latest position statement that ACMG released previous week calling call for “broad sharing” of laboratory and clinical data derived from people who have undergone genomic testing.
“Data that underpins healthcare service delivery should be treated neither as intellectual property nor as a trade secret when other sufferers might benefit from the knowledge being immensely available,” in accordance to ACMG’s position statement.
Although, Watson is the first to appreciate that translating genetic data into healthcare use is a significant challenge.
“It is relatively straightforward to put out a position statement—executing what you are suggesting is the hard part,” he claims. “It takes lots and lots of information from people all over the country, both labs and clinics, to get the kind of information we require helping everybody improve the way they deliver care.”
ACMG’s position statement makes the case that extensive genomic data sharing is important and to improve care by making available the best genomic data sharing possible by which:
“Broad genomic data sharing is going to be significant,” Watson adds. “But, I think we are still trying to figure out how we do that.”
At the similar time, the ACMG points out that the “analytical issues of migrating and integrating clinical and laboratory data across the genome are daunting.” To deal these issues, the group calls for the standardization of laboratory and clinical data to enable data compatibility as well as interoperability between systems.
“If you are going to work out of an electronic health record (EHR) system, you need that type of consistency across labs and clinics all over the country so that the information that is put in the EHR is completely compatible with everybody else’s,” Watson claims.
He points to the Precision Medicine Initiative, an attempt to map the genomes of a million or more Americans and make the data available to researchers. Particularly, PMI is going to leverage EHRs to assist gather information for the national research cohort, with data about the study’s volunteers that can be derived from their records in terms of medical diagnoses, lab results, and what medications they are on.
Nevertheless, standards by which labs assess genomic variant classification are also significant to finally individualize and tailor treatments for sufferers, in accordance to Watson.
“If you look at the Precision Medicine Initiative, it is predicated on being capable to take data out of electronic health records (EHRs),” summarizes Watson. “That is a pretty complex issue to get your arms around in the absence of underlying standards.”
Watson asserts that genomic data sharing is crucial to advancing medical breakthroughs for the estimated 5,000 to 7,000 rare genetic ailments, each of which can vary dramatically and be caused by a multitude of various genetic changes.
“I was a laboratory director for twenty years and rare diseases aren’t easy,” claims Watson. “No one person, no one institution, and no one state will ever have sufficient data to actually inform them to the degree that they could be informed to make better the healthcare.”
That is the stark realization behind the latest position statement that ACMG released previous week calling call for “broad sharing” of laboratory and clinical data derived from people who have undergone genomic testing.
“Data that underpins healthcare service delivery should be treated neither as intellectual property nor as a trade secret when other sufferers might benefit from the knowledge being immensely available,” in accordance to ACMG’s position statement.
Although, Watson is the first to appreciate that translating genetic data into healthcare use is a significant challenge.
“It is relatively straightforward to put out a position statement—executing what you are suggesting is the hard part,” he claims. “It takes lots and lots of information from people all over the country, both labs and clinics, to get the kind of information we require helping everybody improve the way they deliver care.”
ACMG’s position statement makes the case that extensive genomic data sharing is important and to improve care by making available the best genomic data sharing possible by which:
- Important clinical attributes of the phenotype of those with genetic diseases can be described
- The qualitative strength of the link between genetic diseases and the underlying causative genes can be developed
- The classification of genomic variants across the range of benign to pathogenic can be created
- Differences in variant interpretation among laboratories can be reconciled
- The suitable classification of variants of uncertain significance can be made
- Standards used in variant classification can be improved
“Broad genomic data sharing is going to be significant,” Watson adds. “But, I think we are still trying to figure out how we do that.”
At the similar time, the ACMG points out that the “analytical issues of migrating and integrating clinical and laboratory data across the genome are daunting.” To deal these issues, the group calls for the standardization of laboratory and clinical data to enable data compatibility as well as interoperability between systems.
“If you are going to work out of an electronic health record (EHR) system, you need that type of consistency across labs and clinics all over the country so that the information that is put in the EHR is completely compatible with everybody else’s,” Watson claims.
He points to the Precision Medicine Initiative, an attempt to map the genomes of a million or more Americans and make the data available to researchers. Particularly, PMI is going to leverage EHRs to assist gather information for the national research cohort, with data about the study’s volunteers that can be derived from their records in terms of medical diagnoses, lab results, and what medications they are on.
Nevertheless, standards by which labs assess genomic variant classification are also significant to finally individualize and tailor treatments for sufferers, in accordance to Watson.
“If you look at the Precision Medicine Initiative, it is predicated on being capable to take data out of electronic health records (EHRs),” summarizes Watson. “That is a pretty complex issue to get your arms around in the absence of underlying standards.”
Saturday, January 14, 2017
FDA, IBM Watson Health partners to investigate application of blockchain technology
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and IBM Watson Health are establishing a partnership to examine potential ways that blockchain technology can be utilized in healthcare.
The agency and IBM subsidiary have signed a 2-year contract that will enable them to jointly investigate ways to use the emerging technology. Initial attempts will concentrate on oncology-related data.
Proponents of blockchain technology consider that it could have wide applicability in healthcare. It enables the collection of information from a variety of sources, and keeps an audit trail of transactions, thus developing accountability and transparency in the data exchange procedure.
The FDA and IBM Watson Health will look at ways blockchain technology can enable healthcare entities to work together with more trust. They consider the technology can support the exchange of “owner-mediated data from various sources,” like electronic health records (EHRs), clinical trials, genomic data and information collected from presently untapped information sources, like mobile devices, wearable’s and Internet of Thing devices.
Initial attempts of the partners will focus on how a blockchain framework can help public health efforts.
“One aspect of the role of FDA as a regulatory science agency is to conduct research that informs the development of latest tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of all FDA-regulated products,” claimed Sean Khozin, MD, senior medical officer, Office of hematology and oncology products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA. “By studying blockchain technology, the FDA is investing to the advancement of clinical research by testing novel frameworks for protective exchange of worthy patient-level health data at scale.”
It is this wider view of patient data that will help researchers in making better research initiatives, states Shahram Ebadollahi, vice president for innovations and chief science officer for IBM Watson Health.
“One of the problems in research is the availability of a longitudinal record of patient information that gives a 360 degree view of the patient,” Ebadollahi claims. “There is been no central place to put the data. Blockchain provides the chance to produce value and outcomes on the distributed ledger, interoperability, privacy and security, while putting the sufferer in the center.
The initiative will be constructed on IBM’s work in establishing and advancing blockchain technology, Ebadollahi adds. For instance, IBM is a founding member and key contributor to the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger project, a key underpinning for blockchain.
Under the research contract, the FDA will work straightly with IBM Watson Health. It will leverage the agency’s technical and organizational resources from its Information Exchange and Data Transformation (INFORMED) initiative. “That is an FDA big data initiative created to support novel scientific research using huge clinical trial datasets and emerging pipelines of data from sources like electronic medical record systems, biometric monitoring devices and wearable technologies,” Khozin asserts.
IBM Watson Health and the FDA plan to share earlier or initial research findings by the end of 2017 year, he adds.
The federal agency observes a variety of potential benefits from inquiring how blockchain could be used in healthcare and focusing efforts on indicating its value in specific use cases, Khozin adds.
“Huge amounts of patient data are generated in the public health sector,” he notes. “This data has the potential to assist researchers to develop more effective and safer treatments for sufferers, particularly in life-threatening disease areas such as cancer, which has observed a huge rise in the use of personalized and targeted therapies for disease treatment.
“Blockchain technology has the potential to support secure exchange of huge volumes of data while ensuring sufferer privacy and maintaining data integrity,” he adds. “These are crucial features of a scalable data exchange ecosystem that can support high-quality research while protecting against breaches of sensitive patient-level information.”
The initiative offers IBM and its Watson Health division a chance to demonstrate whether blockchain can live up to the hype that is growing around its potential to meet vexing problems in healthcare IT.
As the promise of blockchain in healthcare becomes more obvious, IBM will work to define and develop the technological solution for a scalable and decentralized information sharing ecosystem, Ebadollahi says.
“The healthcare industry is undergoing important modifications because of the vast amounts of disparate data being generated. Blockchain technology gives a greatly secure, decentralized framework for information sharing that will accelerate innovation throughout the industry,” he claims.
The initial focus on oncology with the FDA makes sense because it is “a domain to test the technology and observe how it maps to several use cases,” he further adds. “We are looking to build a patient-mediated electronic health data exchange. There are several reasons for doing this, chief among them the problem of trust—can you put faith in the data you are looking at. With blockchain, we feel it can be a remedy for that.
“We are very excited about this, and there is no better partner for us than the FDA,” Ebadollahi claims. “They know about our information of blockchain, and this offers us a matter of mutual interest from which the public can gain benefit.”
The agency and IBM subsidiary have signed a 2-year contract that will enable them to jointly investigate ways to use the emerging technology. Initial attempts will concentrate on oncology-related data.
Proponents of blockchain technology consider that it could have wide applicability in healthcare. It enables the collection of information from a variety of sources, and keeps an audit trail of transactions, thus developing accountability and transparency in the data exchange procedure.
The FDA and IBM Watson Health will look at ways blockchain technology can enable healthcare entities to work together with more trust. They consider the technology can support the exchange of “owner-mediated data from various sources,” like electronic health records (EHRs), clinical trials, genomic data and information collected from presently untapped information sources, like mobile devices, wearable’s and Internet of Thing devices.
Initial attempts of the partners will focus on how a blockchain framework can help public health efforts.
“One aspect of the role of FDA as a regulatory science agency is to conduct research that informs the development of latest tools, standards, and approaches to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of all FDA-regulated products,” claimed Sean Khozin, MD, senior medical officer, Office of hematology and oncology products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA. “By studying blockchain technology, the FDA is investing to the advancement of clinical research by testing novel frameworks for protective exchange of worthy patient-level health data at scale.”
It is this wider view of patient data that will help researchers in making better research initiatives, states Shahram Ebadollahi, vice president for innovations and chief science officer for IBM Watson Health.
“One of the problems in research is the availability of a longitudinal record of patient information that gives a 360 degree view of the patient,” Ebadollahi claims. “There is been no central place to put the data. Blockchain provides the chance to produce value and outcomes on the distributed ledger, interoperability, privacy and security, while putting the sufferer in the center.
The initiative will be constructed on IBM’s work in establishing and advancing blockchain technology, Ebadollahi adds. For instance, IBM is a founding member and key contributor to the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger project, a key underpinning for blockchain.
Under the research contract, the FDA will work straightly with IBM Watson Health. It will leverage the agency’s technical and organizational resources from its Information Exchange and Data Transformation (INFORMED) initiative. “That is an FDA big data initiative created to support novel scientific research using huge clinical trial datasets and emerging pipelines of data from sources like electronic medical record systems, biometric monitoring devices and wearable technologies,” Khozin asserts.
IBM Watson Health and the FDA plan to share earlier or initial research findings by the end of 2017 year, he adds.
The federal agency observes a variety of potential benefits from inquiring how blockchain could be used in healthcare and focusing efforts on indicating its value in specific use cases, Khozin adds.
“Huge amounts of patient data are generated in the public health sector,” he notes. “This data has the potential to assist researchers to develop more effective and safer treatments for sufferers, particularly in life-threatening disease areas such as cancer, which has observed a huge rise in the use of personalized and targeted therapies for disease treatment.
“Blockchain technology has the potential to support secure exchange of huge volumes of data while ensuring sufferer privacy and maintaining data integrity,” he adds. “These are crucial features of a scalable data exchange ecosystem that can support high-quality research while protecting against breaches of sensitive patient-level information.”
The initiative offers IBM and its Watson Health division a chance to demonstrate whether blockchain can live up to the hype that is growing around its potential to meet vexing problems in healthcare IT.
As the promise of blockchain in healthcare becomes more obvious, IBM will work to define and develop the technological solution for a scalable and decentralized information sharing ecosystem, Ebadollahi says.
“The healthcare industry is undergoing important modifications because of the vast amounts of disparate data being generated. Blockchain technology gives a greatly secure, decentralized framework for information sharing that will accelerate innovation throughout the industry,” he claims.
The initial focus on oncology with the FDA makes sense because it is “a domain to test the technology and observe how it maps to several use cases,” he further adds. “We are looking to build a patient-mediated electronic health data exchange. There are several reasons for doing this, chief among them the problem of trust—can you put faith in the data you are looking at. With blockchain, we feel it can be a remedy for that.
“We are very excited about this, and there is no better partner for us than the FDA,” Ebadollahi claims. “They know about our information of blockchain, and this offers us a matter of mutual interest from which the public can gain benefit.”
Friday, January 13, 2017
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta reaches HIMSS Stage 7 of EMRAM
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, one of the greatest pediatric clinical care providers in the country, has reached HIMSS Stage 7 of Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), becoming the 1st hospital in Georgia to acquire acute care Stage 7.
The 3-hospital pediatric healthcare system indicated advanced use of information technology (IT) to make better patient care and advanced data analytics capabilities to drive improvements predicting claim for emergency services and patient acuity changes, in accordance to HIMSS Analytics executives.
EMRAM of HIMSS Analytics is a methodology for verifying the progress and affect of electronic health record (EHR) systems at hospitals, which involves 8 stages (0-7) that measure a hospital’s implementation and utilization of information technology to optimize healthcare and the treatment sufferers get.
An Epic electronic health record system (EHR), which was 1st implemented in the year of 2004, integrates research, quality and clinical care components across Children’s several hospital and outpatient facilities in the region of Georgia.
“Particularly in the inpatient space, we’ve been a ground-breaking agency building out in pediatrics Epic content and workflows long before most folks were,” claims Jeremy Meller, vice president of information technology at Children’s. “It has assisted us to build a powerful foundation over time to be capable to execute the more advanced capabilities of Epic, including patient safety such as barcode medication administration.”
Among Children’s technology capabilities, the pediatric provider is capable to capture discrete information into the EHR as well as big data systems to give advanced analytical capabilities to improve care.
“We’ve a complete continuum of capabilities involving population and disease management, where we can take the data and recognize trends in sufferer health status, as well as the capability to integrate external data,” claims Meller.
“One of the regions of predictive analytics we’ve is predicting emergency department volumes,” he further adds. “Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has one of the busiest pediatric emergency departments in the whole country, and it is very significant that we’re capable to precisely predict volumes so that we can give suitable staffing and expertise to look after the patients. We are capable to take in everything from seasonal trends to disease or infection patterns, as well as air quality—which all have an effect.”
As the healthcare industry transitions from fee-for-service to value-based care, Meller asserts that Children’s Healthcare is well positioned to deliver quality care to its sufferers through advanced analytics capabilities.
“Their data analytics are cutting edge,” claims Philip Bradley, regional director in HIMSS Analytics’ healthcare advisory services group.
HIMSS Stage 7 represents the greatest EMRAM level. Only 4.6% of hospitals in the U.S. have acquired Stage 7 and with the designation Children’s Healthcare has become the 1st hospital in Georgia to achieve acute care HIMSS Stage 7.
Children’s Healthcare will be honored next month at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in the place of Orlando, Fla.
The 3-hospital pediatric healthcare system indicated advanced use of information technology (IT) to make better patient care and advanced data analytics capabilities to drive improvements predicting claim for emergency services and patient acuity changes, in accordance to HIMSS Analytics executives.
EMRAM of HIMSS Analytics is a methodology for verifying the progress and affect of electronic health record (EHR) systems at hospitals, which involves 8 stages (0-7) that measure a hospital’s implementation and utilization of information technology to optimize healthcare and the treatment sufferers get.
An Epic electronic health record system (EHR), which was 1st implemented in the year of 2004, integrates research, quality and clinical care components across Children’s several hospital and outpatient facilities in the region of Georgia.
“Particularly in the inpatient space, we’ve been a ground-breaking agency building out in pediatrics Epic content and workflows long before most folks were,” claims Jeremy Meller, vice president of information technology at Children’s. “It has assisted us to build a powerful foundation over time to be capable to execute the more advanced capabilities of Epic, including patient safety such as barcode medication administration.”
Among Children’s technology capabilities, the pediatric provider is capable to capture discrete information into the EHR as well as big data systems to give advanced analytical capabilities to improve care.
“We’ve a complete continuum of capabilities involving population and disease management, where we can take the data and recognize trends in sufferer health status, as well as the capability to integrate external data,” claims Meller.
“One of the regions of predictive analytics we’ve is predicting emergency department volumes,” he further adds. “Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has one of the busiest pediatric emergency departments in the whole country, and it is very significant that we’re capable to precisely predict volumes so that we can give suitable staffing and expertise to look after the patients. We are capable to take in everything from seasonal trends to disease or infection patterns, as well as air quality—which all have an effect.”
As the healthcare industry transitions from fee-for-service to value-based care, Meller asserts that Children’s Healthcare is well positioned to deliver quality care to its sufferers through advanced analytics capabilities.
“Their data analytics are cutting edge,” claims Philip Bradley, regional director in HIMSS Analytics’ healthcare advisory services group.
HIMSS Stage 7 represents the greatest EMRAM level. Only 4.6% of hospitals in the U.S. have acquired Stage 7 and with the designation Children’s Healthcare has become the 1st hospital in Georgia to achieve acute care HIMSS Stage 7.
Children’s Healthcare will be honored next month at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in the place of Orlando, Fla.
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