Morning Headlines 4/20/17

Innovative EHR Platform Brings 11,000 True-life Cases to Med Ed

AMA introduces a web-based EHR training tool developed by Regenstrief Institute that uses records from 11,000 de-identified patients with built-in medical histories going back as far as 40 years. The EHR training platform includes functionality based on Meaningful Use Stage 2 certification criteria so that the workflows will be similar to what residents will see in a hospital setting.

Alphabet will track health data of 10,000 volunteers to ‘create a map of human health’

Alphabet’s life sciences business Verily launches its Project Baseline initiative, a 4-year project aimed at creating a database that will be used to look for early warning indicators for a variety of illnesses. The project will sequence the genomes of 10,000 volunteers and then use an activity tracker to monitor participant’s sleep, activity, heart rate, and other health metrics over the next four years.

Social networks push runners to run further and faster than their friends

A study published in Nature finds that sharing exercise activity over social networks does have a positive influence on the exercise habits of friends.

Health Insurers Make Case for Subsidies, but Get Little Assurance From Administration

At a Tuesday meeting with White House officials, health insurance lobbyists and executives seeking assurances that subsidies would continue to be paid for low-income consumers buying individual marketplace plans, a step seen as critical to stabilizing the individual markets, were given no assurances and were instead told to take the matter up with Congress.