Analytics

The deadline to submit a speaking proposal for the HIMSS Machine Learning & AI for Healthcare event is 5 p.m. on Monday, March 18. The event will be held in Boston on June 13-14. Event Overview: The influence of machine learning and artificial Intelligence is being felt throughout healthcare, but with it come big challenges with technology, terminology, domain expertise, and, perhaps most daunting, how to introduce this transformative tool into existing clinician workflows. Topics of interest and who can submit: This event presents peer-to-peer education and will look at the state of ML & AI in healthcare and separate what’s hype from what’s really happening in the field. Speakers will share success stories, lessons learned, and discuss challenges. We are particularly interested in how hospitals and health systems have implemented machine learning and AI to improve care, control costs, and drive operational efficiencies – in short, to transform healthcare to a better, more patient-centric and sustainable system. We also value submissions from other healthcare providers and payer organizations, academic institutes, and government agencies. We want sessions that share practical tips and actionable insights that our attendees from healthcare organizations can use to meet clinical and operational goals. Click here for more information and to submit a speaking proposal.

Despite understanding the big ROI that can come from supply chain analytics, too many health systems aren't efficiently or effectively making use of their operational insights, a new study shows.

More than a year after it was first announced, the joint venture between Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase finally has a new moniker. The company will be called Haven. The brainchild of heavy-hitting CEOs Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Diamon, the Boston-based company aims to "bring together the resources and capabilities of the three companies to create better outcomes, greater satisfaction, and lower costs for their U.S. employees and families," according to a statement on its new website. It will start this large undertaking by reimagining the way healthcare is delivered to the 1.2 million employees of those three companies. But it clearly has bigger goals, as evidenced by its hiring of renowned surgeon, author and health policy expert Atul Gawande as CEO this past June. "I feel incredibly lucky in this role," Gawande said. "I will get a million new patients." In a statement on Wednesday, he explained that the new company wants to "change the way people experience health care so that it is simpler, better, and lower cost. We'll start small, learn from the experience of patients, and continue to expand to meet their needs." On its website, the company says its name was chosen because it "reflects our goal to be a partner to individuals and families and help them get the care they need, while also working with clinicians and others to make the overall system better for all." Information and technology are going to be key in driving that vision. In November, for instance, Haven hired Dana Gelb Safran from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts to oversee its analytics and quality improvement efforts, with the innovative title "Head of Measurement." Haven's aim, officials said, is to "deliver simplified, high-quality, and transparent health care at a reasonable cost. We are focused on leveraging the power of data and technology to drive better incentives, a better patient experience, and a better system. Our work may take many forms, and solutions may take time to develop, but Haven is invested in making health care much better for all of us." While it's initially focused on Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase employees, "in time, we intend to share our innovations and solutions to help others," said Haven officials. I’m not a branding pro, but in thinking about it more, Haven seems like the perfect choice if you want to send a message to the industry that you’re not intending to disrupt anything. It invokes calm, tranquility, friendliness. I’m sure a very thought out and delibeate choice. — Christina Farr (@chrissyfarr) March 6, 2019 From a branding perspective, I agree. And in an industry that feels chaotic and under attack it works on many levels. — Daniel Fell (@danfell) March 6, 2019 Also a destination - a place you want to get to - clever — Chris Steel (@chrissteel1) March 7, 2019 Haven for whom though? Consumer? Payer? Hospital system? Not sure it can or will be Haven for all constituents — John Moore (@john_chilmark) March 7, 2019 Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication. 

Snowflake Computing can help as more and more providers make the transition to the cloud, claims Todd Crosslin, VP of healthcare strategy.

A new poll of CHIME members by LexisNexis Risk Solutions finds that technology execs' priorities vary widely depending on the maturity of their IT infrastructure.

Analytics usage for major decision making varies widely across hospitals and health systems, and still often happens in a siloed or ad hoc way, according to a new study from HIMSS Analytics

Southern District Health Board (DHB) in New Zealand has kicked off its Digital Health Maturity Models project with the Ministry of Health. Southern and Mid Central DHBs were chosen by the Ministry last year to pilot three HIMSS Analytics maturity assessments: the electronic medical record adoption model (EMRAM), outpatient EMRAM (O-EMRAM) and the continuity-of-care maturity model (CCMM). Southern DHB business solutions manager Jack Devereux says the CCMM assessment project started in late February and involves filling out questionnaires based on five care settings: acute, secondary, primary, home support and residential care. For each of these settings there are three stakeholder groups – governance, clinical and information technology. Each of these has 250 questions to answer and around three weeks to respond. The HIMSS website says CCMM focuses on the capabilities needed in order to “seamlessly coordinate patient care across a continuum of care sites and providers”. On March 27, a training workshop with HIMSS, the Ministry, Mid-Central staff and DHB representatives from each region will introduce the assessments nationally. The following training days are an opportunity for the CCMM surveys to be reviewed and discussed with the Southern DHB stakeholder groups. Preliminary findings from all three assessments will be presented back on day four of the workshop. “That’s just a starting point, as the idea around the training is to identify people who can assess progress on an ongoing basis as we look to implement some of the actions identified,” Devereux says. HIMSS EMRAM scores hospitals internationally on their adoption and use of electronic medical records on a scale from 0–7, and O-EMRAM is used to evaluate services provided outside of a hospital or acute care environment. Devereux says the EMRAM and O-EMRAM surveys will be completed predominantly by the information services team, with pharmacy and clinical directors potentially being involved. He says the DHB is focused on implementing electronic health records as part of its digital transformation strategy. “We want to use this opportunity to inform our actions over the next few years as we head towards a new digital hospital being built here,” says Devereux. Mid-Central DHB will be next to assess its digital maturity. Ministry of Health group manager digital strategy and investment Darren Douglass said last year that the success of the pilot programmes will inform whether the assessments are rolled out nationally. This article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.

Windsor Dermatology made the switch from paper to digital, and says the key was finding a records system specific to the specialty.

The Palmerston North-based Health Hub Project in New Zealand is aiming to reduce health inequities and increase access to care with the help of artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain. Project co-founder David Hill is a GP at the Health Hub Project in Palmerston North, which runs four general practices with around 9000 patients. Hill says clinically trained people are a diminishing resource in healthcare and the system cannot rely on that to ensure its sustainability in the future, therefore technology needs to be used to “balance that inequity of supply and demand”. “The whole point of what we are doing is trying to make sure that we use IT in a way that allows or permits greater equity of access to patients and starts to reduce the reliance on the ever-dwindling resource of healthcare workers,” he says. “Also, to advance the value proposition that we give to patients.” The first stage of the Health Hub Project is developing a New Zealand-focused model of risk stratification to identify those patients who are most at risk and in need of services. “We want to look at a much more integrated model of risk stratification, so it’s not just clinical but psychosocial factors like housing and education as well,” explains Hill. He says these factors are drivers of poor health, which impact Māori and Pasifika people disproportionally, and the model could help differentiate other drivers. He is also working with researchers at Massey University to develop a social exclusion measurement for New Zealand, which will be incorporated into the risk stratification. The project’s aim is to create a database of patient information and to use AI and machine learning to develop the risk stratification score and enable researchers to look at the impact of health interventions. Hill says the database will start with the 9000 patients at the Health Hub Project practice. Patients will have access via an app to their own data, and be able to input it, as well as choose how it is shared with researchers. The organisation is working with a small team of New Zealand-based software architects to design, develop and implement into practice a secure application, using blockchain technology. “The nice thing about blockchain is it allows you to identify each block of data and anonymise it,” he says. The data will be housed in a data warehouse and the primary use will be for the direct care of that patient. “So, when a patient phones for an appointment, we know their risk stratification score and that allows us to allocate appropriate resource for the patient when they come in,” he says. The current thinking is that if patients want an expanded analysis that includes comparing their diagnosis with larger populations, they would have to opt in to sharing their information anonymously for research purposes. Hill says they are talking to a number of potential investors locally and internationally about the data analysis tool and app to progress the development of the software. This article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.

Four experts in artificial intelligence technology offer advice to healthcare CIOs on how to best begin implementing an AI system.