Population Health

Aaron Crowell, head of Uber Health, talks about how rideshare technology is removing transportation as a barrier to care, assisting the elderly, low-income patients and those who have chronic and complex care needs.

The health system has identified tens of millions of dollars in potential savings in the area of cost avoidance through intervention.

ZIP code-level data about risk indicators and social vulnerability of patients and populations exists, and making it actionable is key, says Dr. David Nace, chief medical officer of Innovaccer.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health will provide access to two core national systems - the National Health Index (NHI) and Health Practitioner Index (HPI) – using FHIR interfaces. Group manager digital strategy and investment Darren Douglass said that by improving access to these core data sets as FHIR resources, the Ministry expects to make it easier for healthcare organisations and vendors to use them within their health applications. The staged release of NHI and HPI production FHIR APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) is planned from mid-2020.     “New Zealand has adopted the HL7 FHIR (Health Level 7, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard for exchanging healthcare information electronically as a core component of our interoperability architecture and standards, along with SNOMED CT and other health terminology services,” said Douglass. The NHI is a unique identifier assigned to every person in New Zealand and the HPI identifies health professionals. “These two foundational data sets are already widely used across the NZ health sector so it made sense to provide access to these first,” he said.   HL7NZ chair emeritus David Hay is working with the Ministry on the project and says there are big gains to be had by opening up health data to multiple players. Existing players like GP and hospital system suppliers generally already have access, but the interfaces are not that standardised or widely used, he explained. “My vision is that we have an eco-system where smaller specialist systems can be created that nevertheless utilise these core national systems,” said Hay. “This is a critical first step on the road to allowing that and I’m really delighted the Ministry is making this step and putting funding behind getting this working.” Hay is assisting with the design and community engagement as a large part of FHIR is the community of people who can assist with both the design of the interfaces and implementation of them. Initial work has been on the NHI interface with a draft design due to be completed before a HL7 FHIR and SNOMED CT Implementation Workshop in Auckland on June 19, where it will be tested by the community. Hay said by involving the FHIR community in the process, it ensures changes to the design are made early on in the process rather than needing expensive re-working at a later date. Once the necessary security and privacy protections are in place, Hay hopes to see other data sets exposed in the same way, such as prescribing data. “FHIR is emerging internationally as the next generation of interoperability standards,” he said. “New Zealand has the potential of becoming leaders in some of this space because we are relatively small, we have national systems already in place and we’re willing to give things a try.” Douglass said the changes are part of the wider Digital Health Strategic Framework objective of accessible trusted information. Some read-only APIs are planned for earlier release to add and update functionality and guides for testing and implementation will be released in advance of each production release. This article first appeared on eHealthNews.nz.

The Regenstrief Institute is working to automate the delivery of data into dashboards to reduce the burden of professionals looking at population data, says Health Informatics Director Brian Dixon.

Using genomics to pick the right test for patients can result in getting five times the diagnoses at half the cost and better answers for more people, says Kate Birch, data and technology program manager at Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance.

Health application developer Clarigent Health is teaming up with The Children’s Home of Cincinnati to complete a pilot study using Clarigent’s artificial intelligence-powered mobile decision support app. The platform works by analyzing linguistic and vocal characteristics of sessions between therapists or physicians and patients to provide a near real-time assessment of a patient at risk for suicide or mental health conditions. WHY IT MATTERS Clarigent’s application uses advanced algorithms to analyze linguistic and vocal characteristics collected during therapy sessions from clients of The Children’s Home, a provider of education and mental health treatment for children. In the pilot, titled Classification and Assessment of Mental Health Performance Using Schematics, or CAMPUS, 20 therapists working in multiple elementary, middle and high school settings across southwest Ohio will deploy the mobile app to record regularly scheduled sessions with students. "This technology has the potential to change how mental health services are administered on a global scale,” Children’s Home President and CEO John Banchy said in a statement. While previous clinical studies have tested the technology in hospital and emergency room settings, with results published in peer-reviewed journals, CAMPUS marks the debut of the app in a school environment. Participation in the pilot and recording requires the consent of the student and parent or guardian, and the schools have also granted consent. The research team hopes to obtain 400 to 600 recordings in this initial phase, before progressing to a larger study in the fall involving several thousand students. Clinicians, who make the ultimate decisions on treatment, can use the app's assessment and recommendations to help inform and guide them. The goals for the pilot aim to show the app can be integrated into a normal therapy session without interfering with the session, and to ensure the app can receive audio of sufficient quality in a school setting to enable analysis by the app. The fall study will include control participants from the general student population in addition to screening for a more diverse set of behavioral health conditions. THE LARGER TREND While initially focused on suicidality and mental health, Clarigent is looking at other areas – both inside and outside of healthcare – where its technology platform can also be leveraged. In addition, Clarigent intends to conduct and publish additional studies supporting and underlying the rationale for the recommendations provided by the app to better enable clinicians to independently review the basis for the recommendations. ON THE RECORD "This technology was invented in response to a need expressed by medical professionals who work with young people in crisis,” Clarigent Health CEO Don Wright said in a statement. “This study is an important first step in moving the technology from the hospital and research bench into the real world where kids are every day." .jumbotron{ background-image: url("https://www.healthcareitnews.com/sites/hitn/files/u6245/digital%20transformation%20jumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Digital Transformation in Healthcare In May, we'll talk to experts and professionals on the front lines about what's really happening today with the digital transformation in healthcare and what hospital executives need to be doing right now. Twitter: @SullyHIT Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.  Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin. Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com Twitter: @dropdeaded209  Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication. 

Dr. Chris DeRienzo, chief quality officer at Mission Health, says the industry is on the precipice of making fundamental improvement in population health with machine learning models.

Dr. Sebastian Krolop, a physician, economist and technology consultant, will help chart worldwide plans and policies for HIMSS. He says he's focused on member experience and enabling more patient-centered healthcare.

A new cross-sectional study from Austria shows that more often patients go straight to the specialist.