Interoperability

HIMSS on Friday issued a call to the healthcare industry to take action in battling the ongoing opioid crisis in America by using health information and technology. While reported opioid drug overdoses killed more than 42,000 Americans in 2016 and nearly 48,000 in 2017, both tech and policy must align in the fight. Specifically, HIMSS recommended four ways: 1. Leverage Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). A number of states and hospitals are already working on PDMPs to reduce opioid misuse and abuse, beginning with only prescribing opioids when entirely appropriate in the first place. They’re also tracking all prescription data with the aim of preventing avoidable deaths by overdose, allergies or drug-drug interactions. 2. Equip health workers on the front lines of battle against opioids with interoperable electronic health information. HIMSS said this will enable clinicians to make better decisions and, in turn,  more effectively engage patients as partners. 3. Use secure, interoperable technology across the care continuum. This includes integrating acute care, addiction and mental health data, counseling and community support, outpatient services and public health. 4.  Leverage today’s tech advances to appropriately and securely share information across disciplines. Doing so could enable “law enforcement, social services, behavioral health, healthcare, and public health departments to give care where it’s needed and better understand prescribing patterns, overdose rates and movement of the epidemic.” The HIMSS call comes days before its CEO, Hal Wolf, is scheduled to present on the crisis Monday, Sept. 24, at the Canada-U.S. Roundtable on Strategies to Combat the Opioid Crisis in Washington, D.C. Wolf will present the Honorable Mary Taylor, lieutenant governor of Ohio and the Honorable Margaret “Maggie” Hassan, senator of New Hampshire, who are on the front lines of fighting the epidemic in their respective states. HIMSS is the parent organization of Healthcare IT News. Twitter: @SusanJMorse Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com

The National Health Service in England has announced two new innovator programs to accelerate the use of digital health tools that benefit patients and remove barriers slowing adoption of innovation.  NHS England is funding a small number of proven innovations through the Innovation Technology Payment (ITP) 2019/20, part of a wider effort led in collaboration with the country's Academic Health Science Networks. Solutions eligible for the programme have to be used in at least three NHS sites and demonstrate the potential for a return on investment within a year of deployment. A PUBLIC report published earlier this year, authored by former Health Minister Nicola Blackwood, found that partial interoperability and poor procurement practices were some of the key hurdles to selling new tech into the NHS, making the health service a 'challenging digital terrain'.  Recent innovations selected to take part in the ITP scheme include the HeartFlow FFRct (fractional flow reserve) Analysis technology from California-based company HeartFlow, which uses data from CT scans to create a personalised 3D model of the coronary arteries and then analyse the impact of blockages on blood flow to help clinicians diagnose coronary artery disease by eliminating the need for patients to undergo invasive procedures. Applications are also open for the 4th call of the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), providing bespoke support, aimed at innovators whose solutions are addressing one or more of the following priorities: prevention and early diagnosis, mental health, and primary care. “These two programmes will allow exciting innovations to flourish and spread as NHS England is once again prepared to support innovators and foot the bill for a select group of products so patients can benefit faster,” said Professor Tony Young, NHS England National Clinical Lead for Innovation. Innovations supported through the last round of the NIA include Healthy.io’s Dip.io tool, a home-based urinalysis kit that turns a smartphone into a clinical-grade diagnostic device. The start-up, which recently received FDA 510(k) clearance for Dip.io, announced in June that it was partnering with the UK's Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust in a project known as the ‘virtual renal clinic’. “Technology has the potential to transform healthcare and we must do all we can to break down the barriers that prevent patients from accessing the best possible treatment," added Health Minister Lord O'Shaughnessy.  Innovators have until 3 October to apply for the ITP programme and until 24 October to submit their applications for the NIA.  .jumbotron{ background-image: url("https://www.healthcareitnews.com/sites/default/files/u2231/Innovation-month-jumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Focus on Innovation In September, we take a deep dive into the cutting-edge development and disruption of healthcare innovation.

And there’s already one in the JASON Report from 2014 that was eclipsed by the industry’s excitement about open APIs.

CareCloud and Google on Tuesday announced that CareCloud is joining the Google Cloud Technology Partner Program. CareCloud said it will use Google’s Healthcare API to extend its interoperability, patient experience, and practice management services to ambulatory customers. In a steady stream of developments, Google and rivals Amazon Web Services, IBM and Microsoft are gearing up next-generation cloud offerings and research firm Black Book predicted recently that 30 percent of practices will replace their electronic health record within three years and the majority of those are investigating cloud options. CareCloud Chief Technology Officer Josh Siegel explained that aligning with Google enables the company to bring economies of scale to providers for addressing problems unique to ambulatory medicine, even those physician groups aligned with an ACO of clinically integrated network, in a way it otherwise could not. "We are both focused on interoperability and machine learning to improve clinical quality and practice efficiency," Siegel said. "We at CareCloud believe this will add unique perspective that can be combined with the work Google is doing with research hospitals and health systems to bring these new capabilities to the hands of providers." Google Cloud, for instance, joined the National Institutes of Health Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, or STRIDES Initiative, in July to help NIH unlock large biomedical datasets for researchers. That announcement came during the same week that former Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD, joined Google Cloud as an advisor to the health and life sciences team. Twitter: SullyHIT Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com

The first House VA Subcommittee on Technology Modernization hearing revealed that officials and congressional members are not on the same page when it comes to governance.

Cerner President Zane Burke, who first joined the company in 1996 and held several executive roles there before being named president, will step down on Nov. 2. John Peterzalek, Cerner's executive vice president of worldwide client relationships, will take on Burke’s responsibilities, with the title of Chief Client Officer, the company said. Over his two-decades at Cerner, Burke had a range of executive positions, ranging from sales and finance to technology implementation and support. He was named president five years ago, reporting to Cerner founder and CEO Neal Patterson, who died in 2017. Brent Shafer, former CEO of Philips North America, was named CEO of Cerner early this year. In recent years at Cerner, Burke was instrumental in helping the company win two massive electronic health record modernization contracts, from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. In addition to helping grow the company's client base, he's also helped innovate its technology, whether it's by partnering with Apple to help move the needle on patient engagement and interoperability or touting the value of open APIs, a focus on consumerism or more innovative strategies for revenue cycle management. "We thank Zane for his contributions to Cerner across more than two decades," said Shafer in a statement. "Zane leaves the company with a strong client focus and commitment to continued innovation, partnership and sustainable growth deeply ingrained in our culture and leadership philosophy." Burke added that is he pleased with the disruptive accomplishments and positive change Cerner and its clients have achieved. "Complex and evolving challenges remain, and Cerner is positioned to continue innovating for the good of consumers and health care providers," Burke said.   This past week, the Kansas City Business Journal reported that Burke had exercised options to sell almost $10 million in company stock. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

Add this to blockchain’s growing list of innovative use cases: tracking prescription and population health data.

New HIMSS Media research spotlights what innovations are needed most, top areas hospitals are prioritizing and sticking points to avoid.

The bipartisan legislation would require HHS to work with the private sector to analyze data from payers and pharmacists, flagging patients at risk of overuse based on prescription history.

Epic is working to take interoperability global, CEO Judy Faulkner told more than 10,000 attendees at the company's annual Users Group Meeting. "You've eliminated the silos from within your organization," said Faulkner, speaking at Epic's headquarters in Verona, Wisconsin, according to the Madison Capital Times. "Now it's time to eliminate the silos from outside." Faulkner was referring to Epic's One Virtual System Worldwide initiative, which it launched early this year. The initiative enables "clinicians across all organizations using Epic" to more easily gather, share and interact with health data no matter the location and presents it in a unified view. "We’re taking interoperability from being able to 'view more' to being able to 'do more,'” said Dave Fuhrmann, Epic's vice president of interoperability, when the project was first announced. This spring, for example, UNC Health announced it was using the "Happy Together" component of One Virtual System Worldwide to pull in EHR data from other health systems to create a more comprehensive narrative view of its patients – improving care for diabetes patients. As is often the knock against the company, the focus on exchange across Epic customers is not quite the same as true interoperability. But Epic said the initiative does include "organizations that use other EHRs." It certainly represents an Epic-esque approach to the idea of more widespread data sharing. Given the scope of Epic's customer footprint, with nearly two-thirds of U.S. patients and increasingly more in Europe, it's on a scale that could credibly live-up to the project's bold name. In some ways, the One Virtual System Worldwide concept is similar to Epic's ideas for "comprehensive health records" – CHRs, not EHRs – that incorporate more and bigger data. It's a branding of sorts, that reflects the new scope of tech-enabled 21st Century healthcare but also highlights Epic's own outsized ability to shape the conversation – even if some healthcare professionals take issue with that branding. In Verona, Faulkner told the customers assembled in Epic's 11,000-seat Deep Space Auditorium that the possibilities enabled by the shared network of One Virtual System Worldwide were huge. By connecting its customers across the globe and making data more seamlessly available and actionable within their and others' clinical workflows, Faulkner said Epic could help a wide range of organizations improve care for their patients and collaborate on medical advances that could have a global impact. "Together, we can find answers to many puzzling questions, and prevent many diseases," said Faulkner, according to the Cap Times. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com