Using AI to Ensure Follow-Up of Suspicious Nodules in Radiology Reports
Nearly every day exciting articles are published about how AI is being used in pathology and radiology to improve the quality of reporting and the follow-up of salient findings. A recent article discussed such AI software (see:How University of Rochester uses AI to reduce risk of failed follow-up). Below is an excerpt from it:TheUniversity of Rochester Medical Center needed a better way to ensure that its many patients with incidental radiology findings received their recommended follow-up care in a timely manner. Failure to follow up happens for a number of reasons, including inconsistent communications during care transi...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 22, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Diagnostics Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Lab Industry Trends Medical Research Pathology Informatics Radiology Surgical Pathology Source Type: blogs
Behavioral Health as the Wellness Component Favored by Employers
It makes perfect sense to me that employers would be very enthusiastic aboutbehavioral health as a component of their corporate wellness programs. The term is defined in the following way (see:Defining Behavioral Health):Behavioral health is the scientific study of the emotions, behaviors and biology relating to a person ’s mental well-being, their ability to function in every day life and their concept of self.“Behavioral health” is the preferred term to “mental health.” A person struggling with his or her behavioral health may face stress, depression, anxiety, relationship problems, grief, addiction, ADHD or le...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 19, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Population Health Preventive Medicine Public Health Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
Anonymization of Health Data Offers Scant Protection of Identity
I have opined for more than a decade that it's not worth worrying too much about unauthorized access to your personal health and research data because"that horse has already left the barn" (see:On the Privacy of Health Information: The Horse Is Already Out of the Barn). The security of anonymized health data was discussed in a recent blog note in a Q and A with Hank Greely, a Stanford law professor who focuses on the ethics behind new technologies related to neuroscience and genetics (see:Genetic Testing: Who Owns Your Data?). This site is calledBeing Patient. Below is the excerpt from the article...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 17, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Clinical Lab Testing Diagnostics Genomic Testing Healthcare Information Technology Lab Industry Trends Lab Regulation Medical Consumerism Medical Ethics Reference Laboratories Test Kits and Home Testing Source Type: blogs
Wearable Device Offering " Cuff-less " Blood Pressure Monitoring Approved by FDA
Health wearables and other mobile measuring and monitoring devices are emerging as key elements in the consumer-oriented first tier of healthcare (see:Defining and Delineating the Changing First Tier of Healthcare). In the emerging scenario, smartphones will serve as mini-computers to integrate and communicate health data generated at home (see:Smartphones Provide a Key Element in Our Personal Health Management Systems). When relevant and necessary, such data will be communicated to the cloud for access by healthcare professionals for further action. Given this backdrop, I pay particular attention to announcements about ne...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 12, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Diagnostics Electronic Health Record (EHR) Health Wearable Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Medical Research Point-of-Care Testing Population Health Public Health Test Kits and Home Testing Source Type: blogs
Cerner's VA EHR Rollout Experiences Months' Long Delay and Rising Costs
Here's a report from theDark Daily about the increasing cost of the Cerner/VA contract for a new EHR to replaceVistA (see:Implementing a New EHR at the Veterans Administration Is Taking Longer and Costing More than Earlier Estimates) and below is an excerpt from the article: Originally estimated to cost $10 billion, a contract to replace the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic health record (EHR) system will now cost $16.1 billion, according to new estimates, and this has drawn increased scrutiny from regulators and the media.ProPublica reports that the initial deal signed in May 2018 between t...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 10, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Business Healthcare Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Epic Gathers Medical Record Data from 20M Patients for Medical Research
Epic is planning on developing a clinical data warehouse incorporating records from 20 million patients. The project is calledCosmos and, needless to say, will be a remarkable resource for research (see:Epic to gather records of 20 million patients for medical research). Below is an excerpt from an article discussing it:Epic is unveiling a massive data compilation effort intended to gather de-identified patient information from participating systems that eventually could be used by clinicians to improve care decisions. Called Cosmos, the initiative aims to aggregate patients ’ medical information from its customers...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 5, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Industry News Diagnostics Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Lab Information Medical Ethics Medical Research Population Health Source Type: blogs
VA Pathologist Indicted for Multiple and Continuing Errors, Resulting in Deaths
In what can only be described as a disaster due to organizational failure, a pathologist working at theVeterans Health Care System of the Ozarks has been charged with involuntary manslaughter (see:Former Arkansas VA Doctor Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter In 3 Deaths). Below is an excerpt from the article with the details: A former pathologist at an Arkansas veterans hospital was charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three patients whose records he allegedly falsified to conceal his misdiagnoses. According to federal prosecutors, Dr. Robert Morris Levy, 53, is also ch...
Source: Lab Soft News - September 3, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Diagnostics Hospital Executive Management Lab Processes and Procedures Lab Standards Medical Ethics Quality of Care Surgical Pathology Source Type: blogs
Fitbit Shifts Its Business Model Toward Services with Attention to Chronic Diseases
Pursuing a strategy shift similar to a number of IT companies like IBM and Cisco, health wearable companies likeFitbit are beginning to emphasize services rather than hardware as discussed in a recent article (see:Fitbit expands healthcare ambitions with new devices, subscription service). Below is an excerpt from it:Wearables company Fitbit is deepening its reach into healthcare with a new premium subscription service for users that offers coaching and personalized insights mined from the health data it collects from 27.3 million users....Fitbit executives...announced the company plans to roll out a one-on-one coach...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 30, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Diagnostics Health Wearable Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Point-of-Care Testing Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
New Twist on Medical Tourism; American Surgeon Travels to Cancun Hospital
I have posted a number of blog notes over the years about medical tourism. The options when seeking medical care abroad have taken many twists and turns (see, for example:Medical Tourism Business Model in Thailand Extends to Airport Facilities;A Competitive Threat to U.S. Healthcare in the Cayman Islands?). The latest twist entails having an American orthopedic surgeon travel to a Mexican hospital to perform the operation (see:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5,000 Check (Yes, a Check)), Below is an excerpt from an article on this topic:For...[her knee replacement],...[Donna Ferguson] would not only receive ...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 28, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
Medical Community Braces for Algorithm to Reduce Unnecessary Imaging Orders
Eventually, algorithms will be broadly used to assess the appropriateness of diagnostic imaging orders by clinicians, but not by January 2020. That's the date CMS has mandated that such algorithms will be deployed as part ofPAMA (Protecting Access to Medicare Act). This topic was discussed in a recent article (see:Docs Brace for Medicare'Appropriate' Imaging Rule). It's long so link to it if you are vitally interested. Below is a short excerpt from it:As the medical community braces for implementation of theProtecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) by the Jan. 1, 2020 deadline, some wonder if it&...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 27, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Diagnostics Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Medical Research Predictive Analytics Radiology Source Type: blogs
Push-Pull at Work in the Expansion of CVS Health into Primary Healthcare
I have extensively documented CVS Health's into the first-tier or primary healthcare (see, for example:Retail Drug Stores Emerging as Healthcare Hubs for First-Tier Primary Care;Defining and Delineating the Changing First Tier of Healthcare). I must to admit that I have been primarily focusing here on the"pull" associated with this expansion of CVS services. This is to say that CVS was obviously aware of the size of the primary healthcare market, health systems were lagging in their adoption of wellness services, and such an expansion would continue to drive sales in their retail pharmacy business. All of the...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 24, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Healthcare Business Healthcare Innovations Medical Consumerism Pharmaceutical Industry Public Health Source Type: blogs
Funding the National Health Service by Selling Access to Patient Data
In a recent note, I discussed the challenges facing theNational Health Service (NHS) in the deployment of IT across this huge health system (see:National Health Service a"Balkanized" Mess; Special Problems with IT). Now comes news that a former British politician is advocating the sale of NHS health data as a source of new revenue (see:A Former Science Minister Wants to Fund the NHS by Selling Access to Patient Data). Below is an excerpt from the article:Now, as...[NIH] finances face increasing pressure, [Paul] Drayson, a former U.K. science minister, is on a mission to help save the government-funded NHS by sell...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 20, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Genomic Testing Healthcare Business Healthcare Innovations Hospital Financial Medical Consumerism Medical Ethics Medical Research Pharmaceutical Industry Public Health Source Type: blogs
Mismatched Patient Records Are a Major Barrier to the Pursuit of EHR Interoperability
I have blogged extensively about the urgent need for EHR interoperability to support patient movement across different health systems (see, for example:Integration and Interoperability Are Essential for Growth of Digital Pathology). However, I probably have focused too much on technical and strategic barriers to interoperability and spent insufficient time addressing faulty patient identification problems as a barrier to interoperability. Here's the link to my note on this issue (see:The Quest for a Fail-Safe Patient Identification Solution in the U.S.) and below is an excerpt from from that note:The search for a...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 17, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Pathology Informatics Preventive Medicine Public Health Source Type: blogs
National Health Service a " Balkanized " Mess; Special Problems with IT
For many years, the U.K. healthcare system, theNational Health Service (NHS), has been referred to in the U.S. as a prime example of the success of a national healthcare system. Here's a brief summary of the NHS from Wikipedia:The National Health Service (NHS) is the publicly funded national healthcare system for England and one of the four National Health Services for each constituent country of the United Kingdom.It is the largest single-payer healthcare system in the world. Primarily funded through the government funding and overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England provides healthcare to all...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 15, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Cost of Healthcare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Hospital Financial Public Health Source Type: blogs
Improved Quality of Care as the Major Goal for the Merger of Pathology and Radiology
I recently returned to the topic of merging pathology and radiology after a thirteen year hiatus (see:Increasing Interest in Merging the Specialties of Pathology and Radiology). This caused me to reflect on the question of why this idea has remained dormant despite the fact that (I believe) it's worthy of serious consideration. This question, in turn, caused me to think about the factors that serve as incentives for major changes in hospitals and healthcare. I came up with the following four drivers for change emanating from either the C-suite or hospital physician leadership. These factors may operate singly or ...
Source: Lab Soft News - August 13, 2019 Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Clinical Lab Testing Diagnostics Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Business Healthcare Innovations Hospital Financial Lab Industry Trends Quality of Care Source Type: blogs
