How Health Data Sharing Impacts How Clinicians Care for Patients
The following is a guest article by Dr. Guillermo Diaz, Chief Medical Information Officer at Los Angeles Department of Health Services – Ambulatory Care Network, and Ali Modaressi, CEO at Los Angeles Network for Enhanced Services (LANES) When Alex was brought into L.A. General’s emergency room, the hospital’s care team documented a number of indicators that appeared to be related to a neurological issue. As part of their intake process, the team checked Alex’s (a pseudonym) medical history through the hospital’s health information organization and discovered the patient had recently undergone a cardiac surger...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - April 22, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Analytics/Big Data Communication and Patient Experience Health IT Company Healthcare IT Interoperability Ali Modaressi Ambulatory Care Network Data Sharing Dr. Guillermo Diaz HIEs LANES Los Angeles Department of Health Services Los Source Type: blogs

The Long and Tortured History of Alpha-Synuclein and Parkinson ’s Disease
This study tracks the decades-long journey to harness alpha-synuclein as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Steven Zecola an activist who tracks Parkinson’s research and was on THCB last month discussing it, offers three key changes needed to overcome the underlying challenges. A Quick Start for Alpha-Synuclein R&D In the mid-1990’s, Parkinson’s patient advocacy groups had become impatient by the absence of any major therapeutic advances in the 25 years since L-dopa had been approved for Parkinson’s disease (PD). The Director of National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) se...
Source: The Health Care Blog - March 29, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Medical Practice Parkinson's Disease Steven Zecola Source Type: blogs

Supporting innovations in cancer treatment and prevention for our nation ’s most vulnerable
By KAT MCDAVITT and LESLIE KIRK Innsena has made a $100,000 contribution to CancerX, making Innsena the public-private partnership’s first Impact Supporter. Why? There are few conditions in which the disparity in innovations benefiting underserved communities is more apparent than in the treatment and prevention of cancer. Patients without insurance are more likely to present with more advanced cancers, and the cancer death rate for people of color is significantly higher than for white patients. More people die from cancer in rural communities than in urban settings.  In CancerX, we found a community of...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 13, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy CancerX DiME health equity Jennifer Goldsack Kat McDavitt Leslie Kirk Medicaid Moffitt Cancer Center Oncology Ventures Source Type: blogs

Patient Advocates Argue Exercising Bayh-Dole " March-In " Rights Reasonable to Ensure Ongoing Supply of an Insulin Novo Nordisk Intends to Discontinue
Back in 2016 (when President Obama was still in office), the trade group known as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (better known by the acronym PhRMA) claimed in an organization-published white paper (seehttps://web.archive.org/web/20161022175500/https://phrma.org/sites/default/files/pdf/bayh-dole-act-white-paper-summary.pdf for an archived copy of that paper from PhRMA; note that it has since been removed from PhRMA ' s website, hence I found a copy on the Internet Archive) that championed the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. Understand that what PhRMA really wants to prevent a particular provision...
Source: Scott's Web Log - February 11, 2024 Category: Endocrinology Tags: march-in rights 2024 Alliance to Protect Insulin Choice APIC Bayh-Dole insulin detemir Levemir Novo Nordisk Source Type: blogs

Electronic Prescribing for Controlled Substances Set to Take Off
This article explains the complexities that makes it so hard to implement electronic prescribing for controlled substances (EPCS), summarizes the intended impacts of the bills, and introduces Imprivata digital identity technology, which has been used in health care for such purposes for many years. Calling the Cops Health care advocates and reformers can show off plenty of war stories and wounds just from dealing with regulations and bureaucracies in health care. When it comes to controlled substances, toss in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for extra suspense. State governments are also roped in thanks to thei...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - February 7, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: Clinical Health IT Company Healthcare IT Interoperability Regulations American Telemedicine Association ATA Colin Banas Controlled Substrances DEA DrFirst Electronic Prescribing Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances EPC Source Type: blogs

A New Day for Parkinson ’s Disease Research Is Near
By STEVEN ZERCOLA The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (“HHS”) is responsible for a wide range of activities relating to medical and public health. It has 60,000 employees and a $1.7 trillion annual budget with approximately $140 billion for discretionary spending. For the past 13 years, HHS has been spearheading a National Plan for addressing Alzheimer’s disease – with some notable successes. Given its resources, expertise and charter, HHS should launch a National Plan to cure Parkinson’s disease patterned after its approach on Alzheimer’s disease. Legislation, or Not The U.S. House of R...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 6, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Drug discovery FDA Parkinson's Disease steve zecola Source Type: blogs

Bonus Features – February 4, 2024 – 67% of healthcare pros say the top use case for AI is improving the digital front door, 78% of healthcare shift workers have trouble covering living expenses, plus 25 more stories
This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job. News HHS released a set of Cybersecurity Performance Goals. There are 10 Essential Goals that set “a floor of safeguards,” such as multifactor authentication and data encryption, and 10 Enhanced Goals for maturing c...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - February 4, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Brian Eastwood Tags: Healthcare IT American Telemedicine Association Atropos Health Avaamo Avanade Bicycle Health Bruce Cerullo Datycs Department of Health and Human Services Deputy directtrust DUOS eClinicalWorks ECRI Institute Ensemble Health Par Source Type: blogs

The US needs a Chief Patient Officer
By KAT McDAVITT and LISA BARI Regulations are created by well-intentioned government employees who, understandably, focus on the loudest voices they hear. The loudest voices tend to be from organizations — vendors, associations, large corporations — that have the internal and external resources needed to access the federal government, navigate the 80,000-employee Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and ensure that the perspectives of their employers and members are heard. Patients do not have the resources to hire lobbyists or high-profile legal teams, nor do they have a large and well-funded tra...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 4, 2024 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Kat McDavitt Lisa Bari Patients patients rights regulatory capture Source Type: blogs

How Healthcare Can Manage Compliance with Fine-Grained Protection
The following is a guest article by Marlena Herrera, Director at Protegrity Healthcare organizations are becoming more lucrative targets for hackers, as their data is rich with extremely sensitive information and is often susceptible to vulnerabilities. In the same step, the number of regulations governing the sector has grown in complexity, which stems from movements including the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative and fallout from the reversal of federally protected abortion access. Combining this with the increasing number of digital-first health applications and services on the market, protecting data at every touchpoint...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - January 2, 2024 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Analytics/Big Data Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Security and Privacy Data Protection Fine-Grained Data Protection Healthcare Compliance HIPAA Marlena Herrera Protegrity RBAC Role-Based Access Control Source Type: blogs

What ’ s Special About AI Risks and Remedies in Health Care?
This article looks at what’s special about AI in health care, and some ways to address its needs. For this article, I spoke just to lawyers, because we’ve heard plenty from the technologists about AI’s potential and what they’re doing to minimize risk. The perspective of attorneys with an expertise in health care is illuminating. An anthology from STAT also contains some relevant analyses and case studies. Liability and Licensing Are clinicians facing the risk of lawsuits if they heed the advice of AI engines? Where do the new systems differ from older forms of clinical decision support—or the s...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 29, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andy Oram Tags: AI/Machine Learning Clinical Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Regulations Security and Privacy Bard Berger Singerman LLP ChatGPT Erica Kraus FDA FDA AI Regulations Google Bard Healthcare AI Healthcare Source Type: blogs

Trial By Error: Betsy Ladyzhets on New HHS Funding for Long Covid Clinics
By David Tuller, DrPH Investigative journalist Betsy Ladyzhets is a co-founder of The Sick Times, a new online publication covering long Covid and related disorders. Last week, she wrote about a new grant program for long Covid clinics from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), part of the Department of Health and … Trial By Error: Betsy Ladyzhets on New HHS Funding for Long Covid Clinics Read More » (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - December 23, 2023 Category: Virology Authors: David Tuller Tags: Uncategorized ahrq Ladyzhets long covid clinics sick times Source Type: blogs

New HIPAA Security Rule and Enforcement Coming in 2024
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it will update the HIPAA Security Rule in 2024 and will ask Congress for new laws and resources to increase civil money penalties for HIPAA violations, increase HIPAA enforcement, and conduct proactive audits. HHS released a new Healthcare Sector Cybersecurity strategy paper which cited a 93% increase in large breaches from 2018 – 2022 and a 278% increase in large breaches caused by ransomware. It specifically called out hospitals and health systems and said HHS will work with Congress to provide a financial incentive program for hospital cybersecurity and finan...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 22, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Mike Semel Tags: Administration Ambulatory Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC Security and Privacy Healthcare Cybersecurity HHS HIPAA HIPAA Enforcement HIPAA Penalties HIPAA Security HIPAA Security Rule HIPAA SUD M Source Type: blogs

Concerted Effort to Define Responsible Use of AI in Healthcare is Sorely Needed
The following is a guest article by Amy Hester, PhD, RN, BC, FAAN, Chairwoman and CEO at HD Nursing The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) across a number of industries, particularly in healthcare, has shown both great promise as well as cause for alarm.  A perfect example of not only misusing AI, but also continuing to use a model to make decisions affecting individual care that can be error-prone involves a recent class-action lawsuit filed against one of the nation’s largest health plans and its subsidiary.  Both companies stand accused of illegally using an algorithm to deny rehabilitation care to seriousl...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 22, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: AI/Machine Learning C-Suite Leadership Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Regulations Artificial Intelligence Dr. Amy Hester Ethical AI HD Nursing Healthcare AI Healthcare Automation responsible AI Source Type: blogs

Recent HHS Settlement Underscores the Importance Compliance Plays in Cybersecurity
The following is a guest article by Dotty Bollinger, JD, Healthcare Compliance Consultant, Compliancy Group The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reached a settlement with Doctors’ Management Services after the healthcare vendor succumbed to a ransomware attack. The settlement, announced in a press release on the HHS site, resulted in a $100,000 fine, two years of OCR monitoring, and the requirement to adopt a corrective action plan. “Our settlement highlights how ransomware attacks are increasingly common and targeting the health care system. This leaves hospitals and their pa...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - December 13, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Ambulatory Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System LTPAC Regulations Security and Privacy 21CO 21st Century Oncology AMCA American Medical Collection Agency Compliancy Group Cyberattacks Cybersecurity Departmen Source Type: blogs

Securing Healthcare Data in AWS: Best Practices and Compliance
The following is a guest article by Boris Dzhingarov. In today’s technologically advanced world, the healthcare system is also undergoing a rapid digital transformation, especially in regard to data storage and protection. Hospital records contain sensitive data, including diagnostic details and sensitive personal health information. This information must be protected to avoid any legal implications and ensure compliance with privacy regulatory laws, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform that allows you to process, store, and manage a...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - November 30, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Health IT Company Healthcare IT IT Infrastructure and Dev Ops Security and Privacy Amazon Web Service AWS Boris Dzhingarov Data Protection dzhingarov.com Electronic Protected Health Information ePHI Healthcare Data Healthcare Scene Source Type: blogs