Technology

What we're reading, February 16, 2016: Affordable Care Act enrollment for 2016 is far below initial estimates; healthcare record hacks increased 11,000% in 2015; and genetic testing hasn't seen wide adoption among consumers.

At the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, introduced Cancer MoonShot, his vision for a coalition to improve cancer outcomes. His claims on federal support for the project, however, stirred some controversy.

Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD, explains the importance of technology as a supporting factor in healthcare delivery, saying that it will enable patients to access their data and become more involved in their healthcare.

Widespread adoption of telemedicine has not been documented, and a session at the 2016 National Health Policy Conference hosted by AcademyHealth addressed some of the current challenges.

What we're reading, February 5, 2016: new legislation could expand the use of telehealth under Medicare; Massachusetts finds its physicians only screen for depression half the time; and Martin Shkreli pleads the Fifth during most of his testimony before Congress.

What we're reading, January 26, 2016: Republicans will use Congressional Budget Office report to justify steep spending cuts; Centene has misplaced 950,000 files of personal health information; and the US is facing a troublesome shortage of geriatricians.

What we're reading, January 19, 2016: the Obama administration is looking to make it easier for patients to access their medical records; a clinical trial has left 1 brain dead and 4 hospitalized; and hospitals are experimenting with mobile technologies to track patient health at home.

What we're reading, January 18, 2016: even if there is no drug price control legislation, pharmaceutical companies may bow to political pressure; study finds physician-led hospitals perform better; and Twitter can be used to obtain the patient perspective on medical errors.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Health Catalyst will join their technologies and personnel in order to help health systems measure the real cost of healthcare delivery per patient.

The largest US hospitals are hardly using hospital-based mobile apps, and are thus missing opportunities to engage patients.

The digital health panel at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference analyzed how the industry can move from collecting data to turning it into actionable and useful information.

What we're reading, January 14, 2016: President Obama proposes extending financial assistance for new states expanding Medicaid eligibility; Hillary Clinton goes hard after Bernie Sanders on single-payer healthcare; and health information exchanges reduce repeated imaging procedures.

Tele-ICU has been part of a model of care that has tremendous potential to positively affect patients and their families; however, the concept of tele-ICU still faces a few challenges.

A new survey by a healthcare technology solutions company has identified that manual follow-up procedures on late payments from insurance companies costs the organization 33% more per claim than previous estimates.

Neglecting patient and caregiver preferences hamstrings the development of medical technologies and engaging these stakeholders is vital, said John Bridges, PhD, associate professor of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Telemedicine in mobile stroke treatment can reduce time to evaluation and thrombolysis.

Most physicians consider telehealth a promising tool in improving patient access to primary care services, but only 15% use it in their practice.

E-consult implementation grew from 12 to 122 VHA sites with multiple specialties. The adjusted e-consult rate of 1.93/100 consults saved significant patient travel miles and costs.

Consumer demand for engagement in health information technology is a vital aspect of achieving national health goals, but multiple barriers prevent this demand from being filled.

An automated cancer screening outreach tool implemented in a mature health information technology environment can achieve cost savings through reduced clinician time devoted to screening efforts.

Electronic health record data can be used to predict patient absenteeism accurately. Predictive overbooking of missed appointments can significantly increase service utilization.

Patients with diabetes that are cared for by primary care teams with higher cohesion experienced greater EHR-related outcome improvements, compared with patients cared for by lower cohesion teams.

What we're reading, December 9, 2015: the federal government recovered $200 million from state's whose health insurance exchanges faltered; drug cocktails are responsible for majority of drug overdose deaths in Massachusetts; and healthcare organizations are not confident in their ability to share patient data while protecting patient privacy.

The challenge with data in oncology is making sense of it and connecting it in a way that clinicians can make insights that inform the care they provide patients in real time, said Robert J. Green, MD, vice president of clinical strategy and senior medical director at Flatiron Health.

This paper identified 4 factors associated with implementation success of e-consults in 8 VA medical centers, with implications for implementing similar health IT initiatives elsewhere.

Health IT—enabled information sharing promotes communication within care teams. This study examined health IT adoption rates among practices that employ nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Electronic health record adoption in US hospitals has progressed well, but small and rural hospitals remain behind and face financial penalties.

What we're reading, December 3, 2015: health spending in the US topped $3 trillion in 2014; experts debate the true impact of proposed health insurer mega-mergers; and a survey finds ICD-10 transition has been mostly without trouble.

Hospitals are facing hundreds of millions in penalties for readmissions, and they are trying coding gimmicks to avoid these. Instead, it's time send a nurse home with every discharge.

Compared with patients who had clinical encounters involving low computer use, those who experienced high computer use by their physicians were less likely to rate their care as excellent, a study reports.