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A new partnership with Holon Health enables real-time push of key patient information to network providers, regardless of their IT system, cluing them in to data they need to tackle care variation across the ACO.

As healthcare startups boom, providers must embrace disruption and forge new relationships with tech companies, says a new report from the Chartis Group.

The endpoint safeguard tech is finding multiple unusual issues, such as a suspicious executable from China in a common Windows app used by physicians.

seeCOLe integrates with FHIR and APIs to work with a variety of EHRs.

Azure Sentinel and Threat Expert are designed to help separate signal from noise, the company says.

Yesterday, Icon Group (Icon), Australia’s largest dedicated private provider of cancer care, officially signed an agreement with China’s Sanbo Brain Hospital Group (Sanbo) to deliver radiation oncology services, which are set to open later this year in their Chang’an hospital in Chongqing. Sanbo is a group of Chinese hospitals internationally recognised for delivering specialist neurological services, including treatments for brain cancer. The group operates six brain hospitals in Beijing, Chongqing, Kunming, Fuzhou and Jinan. The agreement will see Icon operate the Chang’an Chongqing centre, with the site already in initial stages of development. Why it matters Icon will manage the facility in partnership with Sanbo, embedding a blend of international expertise to deliver a high-quality approach to cancer care. The centre will have the capacity to treat 900 patients annually. Through the partnership, Icon will be sharing their expertise in radiation therapy, including remote radiation therapy planning with Sanbo. Icon’s centralised remote planning function, performed by a specialist, highly-skilled workforce of radiation therapists, uses advanced software systems to create individual, high-quality radiation therapy treatment plans for patients regardless of location. What’s the trend In June 2016, Icon signed a joint venture with China-based Yibai Healthcare to provide world-class radiation therapy services to 50 cancer centres across China. Yibai Healthcare is part of the Shanghai-listed GuiZhou YiBai Pharmaceutical company which engages in the research, development, production, and sale of pharmaceutical products in China. The joint venture saw the launch of Icon’s newest arm – Icon Plan. Icon Plan is a centralised, remote radiation therapy dosimetry function for radiation oncology. Dosimetry involves data obtained during the planning consultation with a radiation oncology patient and uses that data to plan how the machine will target and deliver radiation to the tumour. On the record “The collaboration with Icon Group will increase Sanbo’s capacity in radiation therapy and chemotherapy, improve comprehensive cancer treatment, and provide an exceptional service to patients,” said Yang Zhang, General Manager of Sanbo. Icon Group CEO, Mark Middleton said, “Cancer incidence in China alone are expected to increase by 70% by 2025, we are dedicated to helping reduce that burden. Icon is the first Australian healthcare company to export Australian cancer expertise into China, further providing training and education for local clinicians and staff and helping China deliver the best possible care to their people.”

Integrated care and interoperability is complex if it has to be managed by experts. It becomes pretty easy once you let the patient have a say, according to Philipp Grätzel von Grätz, editorial director of HIMSS Insights.

Murdoch University has opened the doors to a new research centre at its Perth campus, with a focus on precision medicine. Named the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Innovative Therapeutics (CMMIT), the research centre aims to lead transformation in healthcare by delivering precision medicine to people with life-threatening diseases. A joint venture between Murdoch University and the Perron Institute, the CMMIT brings together scientists and clinicians from different fields of expertise to focus on the unique molecular and genetic makeup of individuals. This approach is, according to the university, to “ensure that a person receives the right treatment at the right time”. CMMIT Director Professor Steve Wilton will lead the team of researchers at the centre to develop specific treatments for serious health conditions such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and blood disorders. Wilton said the challenge for the future was to develop therapies to treat individuals with a variety of different diseases. “Precision medicine has the potential to transform healthcare on a scale equivalent to the way antibiotics transformed the fight against infectious diseases,” he said. “The concept behind precision medicine is simple. It’s about designing a treatment that specifically targets the genetic makeup and other unique features of individual patients as a way of improving effectiveness and lessening side-effects. Doing this, however, is far from simple.” [Read more: Precision medicine: huge promise, high hurdles | Technology underpins the clinical genomics movement in Australia] Perron Institute Chair Professor Alan Robson said the launch of the centre is just the start in enabling Murdoch University and the Perron Institute to collaborate more effectively with other partners around the world. “This centre will greatly expand our capacity to develop precision medical approaches that have the potential to change millions of lives in a truly significant way,” Robson said. “New and exciting partnerships with industry partners in Australia and beyond will open up as the centre brings a new range of medical techniques to the world.” The university has also welcomed $10 million in Federal Government support for an Australian National Phenome Centre (ANPC). “The ANPC will put WA and the nation on the global stage, pioneering research that will translate into transformational benefits across human health, animal health, agriculture and food," Murdoch University Vice-Chancellor Eeva Leinonen said. The CMMIT launch comes just days after Deakin University unveiled its new Institute for Health Transformation, bringing together more than 200 multi-disciplinary researchers and industry partners to address complex healthcare challenges of today.  

Speaking during a panel session at the recent AFR Healthcare Summit, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) President Dr Harry Nespolon said the way remote healthcare and telehealth is offered has changed little since the 1960s.   “Doctors still need to see patients in front of them to dispense care. It hasn’t changed much over the last 50 years. I used to work for the AMA [Australian Medical Association] and my boss once said, ‘fish and chips shops today have more technology than most GPs’. There is still some truth in that,” he said. NSW Health Secretary Elizabeth Koff addressed the need for industry, governments and patients to grasp the concept of new-age telehealth and remote care as virtual care delivery models see traditional provider-patient interactions evolve. “Not everyone universally understands what we’re trying to achieve with telehealth. It’s not just about providing face-to-face communication in an effectively and timely manner in rural and remote Australia,” she said. “It’s also about data and information exchange that we can do in a systematic way to enhance patient care.” According to Silver Chain CEO Dale Fisher, consumers are ready and asking for changes to how remote care is offered, but there are some setbacks. “Consumers are directing the future of care and are asking for changes to how remote care is offered. The policies exist, but there needs to be funding flow from governments to support those policies,” she said. “The funding needs to flow into innovative programs that consumers are asking for. Digital disruption and innovation has already happened. What we haven’t done as a health system is adapt and take advantage of the digital revolution.”    Nespolon agreed, adding that general practice needs to be freed from its current regulatory and financial constraints and that’s something that needs to be worked towards. “Medicare and Medibank were set up as face-to-face systems and they still are face-to-face systems. Over the years, successive governments have credibly tried to resist the idea of breaking that nexus. That is about to change and both the potential governments are interested in delivering on what consumers want, which is the ability to access their healthcare in a variety of ways depending on their needs.” Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS) CEO Dr Martin Laverty said telehealth is part of the organisation’s DNA, but part of the challenge it faces is that the latest technologies don’t work without proper broadband coverage.   “If the pipe doesn’t deliver broadband into remote areas, the devices aren’t going to work. The promise of recent times, for high-speed broadband into the bush is not yet clinically-grade reliable. And until this happens, we’re going to be held back in our next investment.” Securing the nuts and bolts in healthcare Koff said having an agile system in place would enable interoperability, allowing care at a local district level or hospital level be fully integrated with primary care and other services. “The issue around digital enablement and being agile is something health is not known for. And that’s something we struggle with at a system manager level. Whilst we’re keen to have the architecture right, we need interoperability so it can be integrated,” she said.     According to Laverty, some of the challenges of telehealth will be eradicated with the next layers of development in broadband delivery. “The problem has not been solved with the existing satellite and mobile reach of broadband connectivity. That's the difference between consumer and clinical grade. We haven't achieved clinical grade, even if we've got patchy consumer-grade broadband access across remote areas today.” Fisher said in the lead-up to a working virtual hospital system, industry needs to be designing innovative programs in partnership with other organisations. “Rather than worrying about where the money comes from, we need to invest in our organisations to bring siloed parts of our operations together to demonstrate that there is a new way of doing things to deliver good care,” she said.    Nespolon concluded the session by saying that a barrier isn’t necessarily technology, but rather, people. “You can’t force technology on to people. It’s whether people want to use it and how they use it. For example, electronic health records have the potential to do great things, but hasn’t taken people all the way through. A more gentle approach is necessary in getting this message across,” he said. Carelink Managing Director Craig Porte, who spoke at a separate session during the summit, said there is still a heavy reliance in traditional delivery models of care in rural areas of Australia, resulting in an unequal distribution of benefits. “Interoperability, unreliable internet, a lack of offline solutions and investments are only some of the problems in remote Australia. There are plenty of amazing technologies that work out there, but for true remote care, they all need to be connected,” he said. “Face-to-face care is still necessary in rural and remote Australia. Interoperability – offline and online systems working together seamlessly – is key. AI will play a role going forward too; simple things like driverless cars will be essential in delivering remote care. Mobile solutions delivering care to the home will also need to become more mainstream. “But we have to keep in mind that technology is only an enabler in keeping people in their communities. Our challenge, as an industry, is to take the next leap in delivering true remote care.”  This article first appeared on Healthcare IT News Australia.

Through the UVA Center for Telehealth, the organization will also develop training courses for healthcare providers that help them identify and treat chronic diseases.