Population Health

Ohio Governor John Kasich said during Tuesday night's Presidential Town Hall that he has a plan to replace Obamacare while Texas Senator Ted Cruz pointed to the VA as an area that needs greater accountability when it comes to healthcare.  

Many analytics programs are well underway but demand more resources, while just as many are nascent and require more development, Stoltenberg Consulting said.

Leading providers are already thinking about how to transform themselves from data-driven to information-driven organizations, able to offer drastically improved patient experience akin to Amazon and Google. But it's not easy.

EHR makers including Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, drchrono, Epic and McKesson said they will embrace open specs including S4S APIs and FHIR to connect research apps to electronic health records software.  

The Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance also announced that it will begin working on apps to help prevent falls, share medication lists, and reduce hospital-acquired ulcers.

Blain Newton, EVP of HIMSS Analytics, opines on the role of health IT in shaping the future of healthcare and introduces Logic, a global healthcare market intelligence tool from HIMSS Analytics.

Hospital is looking to the public to nominate one of three initiatives: a patient identification shield, a surgery blood loss manager, or a bioprinter to produce living tissue replacement.

With estimates that such programs can reduce costs by $3.27 for every dollar spent and building wellness centers can bring a 10 percent return, more and more providers and payers are getting into the wellness game.

Pieces Technologies announced $21.6 million in its first round of funding to advance its cloud-based population health management tools. The Pieces platform provides integrated monitoring, prediction, workflow optimization and organizational learning services specifically for hospitals, health systems. Its cloud-based software is also designed to connect to hospitals’ information systems to provide a holistic view of patients and their healthcare needs. [Also: Hospitals driving population health with data analytics, mobile apps, telehealth tools] The goal is to identify and prevent adverse events, such as avoidable mortality and hospital readmission for chronic diseases and illnesses, according to Pieces CEO and founder Ruben Amarasingham, MD. “Pieces Tech’s solutions are helping us redesign and transform our healthcare delivery models for better population health management,” Fred Cerise, MD, Parkland Health and Hospital System’s president and CEO, said in a prepared statement. Parkland’s non-profit research and development arm, Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, served as an incubator for the platform. [Also: Healthcare IT startups to watch in 2016; Running list of big news]  “While many purport to have solutions for population health, over the last several years the team has stealthily built and validated a robust healthcare IT and clinical services platform that has clinically proven to truly bend the cost curve on quality and care across diverse constituencies,” added Garrett Vygantas, MD, Partner at Jump Capital. Jump Capital and Pacific Advantage Capital led the funding, along with participation from Children’s Health in Dallas, Order of Saint Francis Healthcare System in Peoria, Ill, PCCI, select Dallas investors and others. Twitter: @HealthITNews

A new report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology claims technologies such as telehealth and wearable sensors should be put to work to help more elderly Americans stay healthy and connected as they age. The report by PCAST, an advisory group of scientists and engineers appointed by President Barack Obama to make policy recommendations related to technology and science, found these types of technologies can help elderly Americans face challenges tied to social connectivity, emotional health and cognitive and physical ability. "With many Americans wishing to live in their homes and communities for as long as possible, technology such as prosthetics, wearable sensors, and other tools for daily living can make that possible," said PCAST members Christine Cassel and Ed Penhoet. [Also: Mobile apps emerging as essential population health tools] As of 2014, an unprecedented 15 percent of the U.S. population was over the age of 65, according to the Census Bureau, and many of them remain active. Recommendations also include creating better access to the Internet as something essential to health, social engagement and well-being, and offering more education and training for seniors in online technologies. PCAST also suggests greater efforts by technology providers to develop monitoring tools for frail and vulnerable elders. But the report also calls on a federal agencies to make changes. Specifically it pointed to telehealth as something with clear benefits for seniors living remotely or with limited mobility – but said the government needed to update regulation and payment policies to reflect recent innovation in the space. For another example, the Federal Trade Commission should continue to enforce regulatory review and guidelines for commercial cognitive training products, PCAST said. [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] And the group called upon an array of federal agencies – from the National Institutes of Health to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA – to expand research on projects such as robotics and advanced mobility technology. It also recommended that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services payment policies should be adapted to increase seniors' access to those next-generation tools. "Technology has played an important role in increasing life expectancy, but it also has an important role to play in increasing the quality of life by maximizing Americans’ ability to function in their later years," PCAST Chairs John Holdren and Eric Lander wrote in a letter to President Obama. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN