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The provider is integrating translation technology to successfully communicate with its many monolingual Chinese patients to gain further efficiencies.

The final closing keynote of the HIMSS & Health 2.0 saw top-level international health leaders highlight key elements of their national strategies in response to COVID-19.

TechCrunch reports that the EHR and practice management vendor left sensitive patient information unencrypted and vulnerable to exposure on a Microsoft Azure-hosted server.

The international quality standard demonstrates the use of technology, data and analytics to support inpatient care. 

Moderated by Prof. Mahmood Adil, public health director at NHS Scotland, the session around ‘International Outlook on Community-Based Care’ featured two renowned experts from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the US: Dr Nasser Aljehani, family medicine consultant physician and chief medical information officer at King Fahad Medical City, and Dr Jeffrey Hoffman, clinical associate professor and chief medical information officer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital - the second largest children’s hospital system in the USA. The session highlighted global trends for community-based care and then focused on how they applied to the new models of care being currently developed in the Kingdom. Dr Hoffman highlighted that care started in the community in the first place, with most medical treatment being dispensed in patients’ homes and most physicians being general practitioners. Technology was one reason health systems became hospital-centric as physicians started to convene around expensive equipment and knowledge centres that allowed them to specialise. As a result, in the USA between the 1920’s and 1980’s, the number of general practitioners dropped from 75% to 14% of all physicians and the number of house calls to fewer than 1%. “The latest advances in medical knowledge and technology, which ironically forced health care behind hospital walls in the first place, has now given us the tools to extend care back beyond the hospital walls, into homes and communities like never before”, stated Dr. Hoffman. This shift is about integrating primary, secondary and social services to include hospitals as part of a broader digital continuum of care that is more patient-centric and spans across wellness, prevention, early detection, acute and post-acute care. Dr AlJehani, also model of care lead for the Second Health Cluster in the Kingdom’s Central Region at the Ministry of Health, focused his address on the Saudi strategy to extend care beyond hospital walls. He started by describing a radically new organisation for health and care in the Kingdom. While the roles of payer, regulator and provider have historically been concentrated in the hands of the Ministry, the Kingdom is now working on separating these roles: in the future, PHAP (Saudi’s national health insurance authority) will be the payor, the Health Holding Company (still owned by the government) will be the provider, and the Ministry will focus on the role of regulator. This reorganisation includes a complete redesign of care models and the implementation of five specific pathways addressing five specific needs and objectives: Keep Me Well, Planned Care, Maternal Care, Urgent Care, Chronic Care and End of Life. The new Saudi model starts with an empowered and engaged citizen at the very centre of the health system. The next ‘circle’ of health and care is healthy communities, nurtured to support activated citizens. When additional assistance is needed, the next escalation circle is virtual care. General hospital care and specialised hospital care are respectively the last two circles, when previous ones have proven insufficient. From activated citizens to specialised hospital care, an integrated personal record aims to support the entire continuum. Of course, the new health system will need to provide essential knowledge and skills to empower and engage citizens. However, 70% of the Kingdom’s population is under 30 and already tech-savvy, and will most likely help with this challenge. Dr AlJehani also recognised that primary care had been a weak link in the Kingdom and its development is now a core objective of the digital transformation strategy, creating a well-distributed primary care network with centres located within short distances from each other and from citizens. WHY IT MATTERS With ageing populations and the increasing burden of chronic conditions, sustainability is a common challenge for health systems around the world. Keeping patients in their homes for as long as possible will be key to reducing costs. Nationwide highlighted their use of AI-powered advanced analytics and predictive models to identify populations at risk, detect any needs for early interventions, but also to anticipate which patients would be more open to care coordination and outreach programmes. These algorithms, developed in-house, have allowed the hospital group to increase care coordination by 300% (without increasing outreach attempts), reduce emergency department visits by 40%, and decrease the average number of in-patient hospitals days by 65% - all this in only two years. Self-monitoring tools, medical adherence solutions or early detection programmes will allow a much-needed shift from acute to preventive care and a continuous monitoring of patients in between consults, which will also improve clinical and financial outcomes. THE LARGER TREND Survey data shows most patients prefer to be treated, for as long as possible, from the comfort of their homes. From this point of view, community-based care should improve the patient experience and place citizens back at the centre of health services. It will also increase health professionals’ awareness of any specific individual situations and help address any social determinants of health such as mental wellness, food insecurity, isolation or abuse.  Prof. Adil highlighted five key trends in healthcare around the world: shifting balances from care to health, from patients to populations, from data to health intelligence, and finally from treatment to prevention. This is not unique to KSA or the USA, as it is clearly a global trend for many health systems trying to enhance the patient experience while improving clinical and financial outcomes. You can find out more about the HIMSS & Health 2.0 Middle East Digital Conference & Exhibition and learn more about the latest news and developments from the event here.

Self-care platform Healthily has commissioned a survey on the importance of Brits practising better self-care.

The collaboration includes the installation of a large number of HemoScreen devices that provide the full 5-part differential CBC test with comprehensive abnormal cell flagging.

The National Governors Association released a white paper this week examining state policies around telehealth and outlining key considerations for governors to assess the potential implications of said policies going forward.   As the report notes, although policies vary from state to state, there have been more telehealth policy changes this year than in the past two decades, with a dramatic uptick in virtual care services to match. As of last week, telehealth legislation extending beyond the pandemic has been passed in 23 states.   "While we cannot assume that the higher uptake of telehealth will continue at the same rate post-pandemic, as patients may have felt they had little choice but to receive services virtually, payers are amassing extensive data upon which to measure outcomes in the short and long-term," the report read.   WHY IT MATTERS The report offered several key considerations for governors with regard to telehealth policies, including with regard to:   Licensure Coverage Pairing payment models and incentives Narrowing the digital divide Interoperability of platforms Privacy protections Engaging stakeholders   The matter of licensure is a particularly notable one, given that state legislators and licensing boards are primarily responsible for it.    Although 53 states and territories temporarily enabled providers to practice across state lines during the pandemic, the future of these policies remains murky. Some federal legislators have taken steps to push for interstate compacts that would ease the way toward clinicians practicing in multiple states. Professional organizations, meanwhile, have raised alarm about long-term relaxation of regulations.  Coverage of services is also a major potential future sticking point: Some payers have already begun to ease back on payment parity for telehealth services, potentially endangering the longevity of virtual care. The report notes that some states have limited coverage to certain modalities, such as excluding audio-only services – a practice that may make telehealth inaccessible for certain groups. The report noted, too, that pairing payment models and incentives to move toward more value-based models may support telehealth use without unduly increasing healthcare costs.   "As more providers participate in value-based arrangements with prospective payments, including capitated population-based payments, payment parity becomes less relevant because a lower percentage of payments are based on volume," according to the report.   THE LARGER TREND   The emergence of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, along with the forthcoming transition of presidential powers, has raised new questions about the future of telehealth policy.  Although President-elect Joe Biden has supported digital health advancements in the past, he hasn't taken major steps yet to throw his support behind the expansion of virtual care.    On the agency side, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released final rules last week that could smooth the way toward telehealth adoption in the longer term.   "These new rulings move us closer to a value-based care model that will allow our healthcare system to reimagine how care is delivered and integrate telehealth with in-person care," said American Telemedicine Association CEO Ann Mond Johnson in a statement.   ON THE RECORD   "Telehealth has the potential to increase access to care, particularly for individuals in rural and underserved areas, as well as during a time when the nation is encouraged to physically distance," said the authors of the NGA report. "It is unlikely that policymakers will uniformly codify temporary measures after COVID-19 ends, but incremental change paired with advances in payment models, technology and evidence may lead the way to improved long-term changes."     Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News. Twitter: @kjercich Email: kjercich@himss.org Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

From genetic sequencing to symptom tracking to vaccine development, machine learning algorithms have been instrumental in helping uncover hidden clues about the novel coronavirus, says Cris Ross.