Morning Headlines 3/31/17

IBM X-Force Finds Historic Number Of Records Leaked And Vulnerabilities Disclosed In 2016

An IBM cybersecurity report finds that the healthcare industry fared better in 2016 than it did in 2015, with only 12 million records exposed to cyberattacks throughout the year, compared to more than 100 million in 2015, representing an 88 percent decrease.

WHO Launches Global Effort to Halve Medication-Related Errors in 5 Years

The World Health Organization announces the Global Patient Safety Challenge, an initiative to aimed at reducing avoidable medication errors in all countries by 50 percent over the next five years.

Ontario Hospitals Join Partnership to Deliver Seamless Patient Care with MEDITECH’s Web EHR

In Ontario, Markham Stouffville Hospital, Southlake Regional Health Centre, and Stevenson Memorial Hospital will partner to implement Meditech’s 6.1 Web EHR.

Alexander, Corker Introduce Bill To Rescue Americans With No Options For Insurance

Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Bob Corker (R-TN) introduce legislation that will allow consumers living in counties where no ACA insurance plans are offered to use the federal subsidies they qualify for to buy insurance from any company willing to sell it to them.

Morning Headlines 3/30/17

AI versus MD  

Pulitzer prize-winning oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD describes recent advances in AI-based image recognition algorithms and their potential use as a diagnostic tool for future radiologists.

This Is How Bipartisan Health Care Reform Could Actually Happen

In a Time Magazine op-ed, Former National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD discusses various health reform options that could win bipartisan support.

Rupert Murdoch reportedly sold $125 million in Theranos stock for just $1

Rupert Murdoch walks away from his $125 million stake in Theranos, selling his shares for $1. Meanwhile, Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has agreed to give existing investors more shares from her personal stock if they agree not to sue the company.

The Patent Battle Over Revolutionary CRISPR Gene-Editing Tech Just Went Global

While the US Patent Office awarded CRISPR rights to researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, the European Patent Office just issued the same patent to UC Berkley, setting the stage for another round of patent disputes between the two organizations.

Trump taps Chris Christie to lead fight against nation’s opioid addiction crisis

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is selected by President Trump to lead a commission combating drug addition and the nation’s growing opioid addition.

Morning Headlines 3/29/17

Cyber Criminals Targeting FTP Servers to Compromise Protected Health Information

The FBI’s cyber division issues an alert warning healthcare organizations that hackers are targeting FTP servers operating in anonymous mode to access PHI and launch ransomware attacks.

Virtual System Works in Managing Diabetes for Hospital Patients

UCSF researchers piloting a centralized dashboard designed to help diabetes specialists monitor the glucose levels of hospitalized diabetes patients find that the new system led to a 39 percent decrease in hyperglycemic patients and decreased the number of hypoglycemic events from 40 to 15 over a 12 month period.

Putting Patients First by Reducing Administrative Tasks in Health Care: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians, written by ACP’s Medical Practice and Quality Committee discusses the need to reduce administrative burden being placed on physicians.

Leading Wisely: Better Executive Decision Support

Health Catalyst launches Leading Wisely, a near real-time executive decision support dashboard for healthcare leaders.

Morning Headlines 3/28/17

Trump taps Kushner to lead a SWAT team to fix government with business ideas

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior advisor to President Trump, will lead the newly created White House Office of American Innovation, which will borrow ideas from the business world to help solve national issues, including improving care for veterans and fighting the opioid crisis.

Ransomware attack on Urology Austin compromises patient info

Urology Austin (TX) is alerting 200,000 patients that their information was exposed to hackers after ransomware attack on January 22. Officials from the practice report that no ransom was paid to the hackers and that access to patient information was restored from a backup.

Soon-Shiong’s promotion of ‘breakthrough’ cancer therapy raises questions

A STAT article questions whether pharmaceutical billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong violated FDA regulations when he tweeted a promotional video about a cancer therapy his company is developing that does not yet have FDA approval. A spokesperson for Soon-Shiong responded, saying the video was not intended to be promotional, calling it an educational tool for patients.

Cota Healthcare Announces Major Multi-Year Collaboration With Global Pharmaceutical Leader To Advance Innovative Therapies For Breast Cancer Patients

Novartis signs a multi-year deal to use Cota Healthcare’s data analytics software to help it develop targeted therapies for breast cancer.

Morning Headlines 3/27/17

Heritage Foundation Alum Critical of Transgender Rights to Lead HHS Civil Rights Office

Former Heritage Foundation director Roger Severino is appointed as as director of HHS’s Office for Civil Rights.

Ryancare Failed Because Paul Ryan Is Still Learning How To Govern

Commenting on the GOP’s failed attempt to pass the AHCA, House Speaker Paul Ryan explains “We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do. You just had to be against it. Now, in three months’ time, we tried to go to a governing party where we actually had to get 216 people to agree with each other on how we do things.”

HHS inspector general is investigating pullback on HealthCare.gov ads

The HHS OIG is investigating the administration’s decision to suspend HealthCare.gov ads before the end of the 2017 enrollment period.

Regional West chooses new electronic health record provider

Regional West Health Services (NE) announces that it will implement Cerner across its hospital and outpatient clinics.

Morning Headlines 3/24/17

Mortality and morbidity in the 21st century

A study on mortality and morbidity among middle-aged, white non-Hispanic Americans finds that mortality rates are decreasing for those with a college degree, but are increasing for those without, leading authors to conclude that poor job prospects and low levels of education are driving up drug overdoses, suicide rates, and alcohol-related liver mortalities, or in the authors words “deaths of despair.”

Information Blocking: Is It Occurring and What Policy Strategies Can Address It?

Results from a survey on information blocking find that half of respondents report that EHR vendors routinely engage in information blocking, while 25 percent of respondents report that hospitals and health systems also do.

FHIR Release 3 Posted

HL7 releases FHIR 3.0 which adds support for key clinical workflows, clinical decision support, and CQMs.

GE to Invest $500 Million in Healthcare Unit

GE Healthcare plans to invest $500 million over the next three years, hiring 5,000 additional software developers.

Morning Headlines 3/23/17

GOP Leaders Search for Health-Care Bill Votes

The Wall Street Journal reports that House Republicans do not appear to have enough votes to pass AHCA during its scheduled voting session Thursday.

Latest draft of AHCA still doesn’t measure up

AMA President Andrew Gurman, MD voices concerns with the revised AHCA, saying that the tax-credit structure will not maintain health coverage gains achieved in recent years.

Cleveland Clinic’s financial results worse than predicted

Cleveland Clinic reports a 2016 operating income of $139.4 million, a 71 percent drop from 2015’s year end numbers. In February, CEO Toby Cosgrove said during a “state of the clinic” address to staff that operating income for the year would be $243 million, but that was prior to audits.

Science sting exposes how corrupt some journal publishers are

A investigation of pay-for-publication “predatory journals” finds that 48 questionable journals accepted a fictional researcher onto their own editorial boards based on a fake CV.

Morning Headlines 3/22/17

Former Louisiana Rep. John Fleming to join HHS under Trump

President Trump appoints former House Representative John Fleming (R-LA) to the newly created position as deputy assistant secretary for health technology within HHS.

A 40-year ‘conspiracy’ at the VA

Politico recounts the history of the VA’s homegrown VistaA EHR, as it moves forward with plans to replace the 40-year-old with a commercial system.

Patient Mortality During Unannounced Accreditation Surveys at US Hospitals

A JAMA study finds that patients admitted to the hospital during Joint Commission inspections have significantly lower mortality rates than those admitted during the three weeks prior, or after, the inspection.

The World’s Billionaires

Forbes releases its list of the richest people in the world, with Epic’s Judy Faulkner listed at  number #867 with $2.4 billion, and Cerner’s Neal Patterson listed at #1376 with $1.5 billion.

Morning Headlines 3/21/17

Common Blood Tests Can Help Predict Chronic Disease Risk

Researchers at Intermountain Health report that a risk stratification algorithm they developed can predict whether someone would be diagnosed with diabetes, kidney failure, coronary artery disease, or dementia in the next three years with a 78 percent accuracy by analyzing the results of two common lab tests: a comprehensive metabolic profile and a complete blood count.

IBM launches enterprise-ready blockchain service

IBM announces that developers building enterprise applications on its cloud service can now use blockchain technology within their applications.

Google DeepMind and healthcare in an age of algorithms

In England, a Cambridge University law professor and an Economist journalist co-author an academic paper in Health and Technology arguing Google’s DeepMind partnership with the Royal Free Hospital has suffered from “a lack of clarity and openness, with issues of privacy and power emerging” in response to public privacy concerns.

iPads In Every Hospital: Apple’s Plan To Crack The $3 Trillion Health Care Sector

Fast Company profiles Apple’s continued effort to enter the enterprise healthcare market.

Morning Headlines 3/20/17

Medication Errors Attributed to Health Information Technology

Analysis of a Pennsylvania medical error reporting database that allows submitting agencies to indicate when health IT was a contributing factor finds that system downtime and incorrectly entered patient weight are both contributing to medical errors.

Developing and Evaluating an Automated All-Cause Harm Trigger System

A review of Adventist Health System’s use of IHI’s Global Trigger search algorithms to find possible medical errors in EHR data turns up far more potential errors than manual chart audits.

Stratasys and VA hospitals create first hospital 3-D printing network

Five VA hospitals are working together to incorporate 3D printing into care delivery, allowing doctors to make customized prosthetic and orthotic devices for veterans.

Doctor’s lawsuit against hospital turns on care v. market share

The former chairman of the surgery and cardiovascular departments at Memorial Hermann hospital (TX) is suing the hospital for defamation, arguing that after he told executives he planned to leave the hospital to work for Houston Methodist Hospital, his former employees began distributing manipulated outcomes data questioning the quality of his care.

Morning Headlines 3/17/17

HHS Should Assess the Effectiveness of Its Efforts to Enhance Patient Access to and Use of Electronic Health Information

A GAO report investigating why so few patients access patient portals despite widespread availability concludes that having different portals for each provider, with no longitudinal view of data, combined with poor user interface designs, limits the consumer appeal.

The man who helped save HealthCare.gov wants a bipartisan solution to health care

Andy Slavitt, former acting administrator for CMS, has accepted a position as a senior advisor with the Bipartisan Policy Center.

AliveCor raises $30 million for its credit card-sized heart monitor and app

EKG app vendor AliveCor raises $30 million to hire AI engineers and expand the platforms ability to analyze and interpret EKG waveforms.

Dallas City Leaders, T-Mobile Vow to Find Solutions as 2nd Death is Publicly Connected to 911 ‘Ghost Calls’

A still unresolved bug unique to T-Mobile customers in Dallas is causing 911 phone lines to be flooded with hundreds of phony calls, leaving legitimate callers to wait on hold while dispatchers clear the lines. The issue has been a problem for months, but generated national attention when a six month old died while his babysitter waited on hold for more than 30 minutes.

Morning Headlines 3/16/17

Health Insurance Marketplaces 2017 Open Enrollment Period Final Enrollment Report

CMS reports that this year’s final ACA enrollment total was 12.2 million individuals, half a million less than last year.

It’s Time to Adopt Electronic Prescriptions for Opioids

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH calls for greater use of electronic prescribing for opioid prescriptions in an Annals of Surgery article.

What Your Therapist Doesn’t Know

The Atlantic describes new algorithms being used to predict which patients are at risk of dropping out of therapy treatment.

CRISPR Could Change The World, But Right Now $90 Million Is Enough

Botox-maker Allergan will pay $90 million for exclusive rights to CRISPR-based treatments being developed by Editas Medicine that are targeting a rare form of blindness called Leber Congenital Amaurosis.

Morning Headlines 3/15/17

Senate confirms Seema Verma to head Medicare and Medicaid

Healthcare consultant Seema Verma, an advisor to Vice President Pence when he was Governor of Indiana, is confirmed by the Senate as the next CMS administrator in a 55-43 vote.

Can a Machine Predict Your Death?

A Slate article discusses the use of data analytics in healthcare, including a project aimed at helping doctors more accurately predict life expectancy for terminally ill patients.

The Asthma Mobile Health Study, a large-scale clinical observational study using ResearchKit

A Nature study using an Apple ResearchKit-based mobile health app to conduct a large scale clinical study on asthma observes that while 40,000 participants downloaded the researcher’s app, only 8,000 went on to enroll in the study, and only 175 participants were still engaged at the 6-month period.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement and National Patient Safety Foundation Agree to Merger

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement announces plans to merge with the National Patient Safety Foundation, effective May 1.

Morning Headlines 3/14/17

 ECRI Institute Names Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2017

ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2017 includes information management in EHRs and use of clinical decision support tools.

Trump chooses Gottlieb to run FDA; Pharma breathes sigh of relief

President Trump nominates industry favorite Scott Gottlieb, MD to lead the FDA.

HHS secretary expresses concern on bill allowing employers to demand genetic tests

HHS Secretary Tom Price voices concern over the a House bill that would grant employers access to employee genetic test results.

Former Vice President Joe Biden at SXSW 2017: ‘Your government’ is how curing cancer ‘gets done’

Joe Biden speaks about the Cancer Moonshot Task Force and its future with the new administration at SXSW.

Morning Headlines 3/13/17

House Republicans would let employers demand workers’ genetic test results

HR 1313, which made its way through the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, approves a bill that would allow employees to offer significant reductions on insurance premiums if they participate in workplace wellness programs. Employers would be granted access to results from genetic screenings conducted as part of the program.

Following Health-Care Tweet, Medicaid Official Cancels SXSW Appearance

Medicaid’s chief medical officer Andrey Ostrovsky abruptly cancels his scheduled SXSW appearance after publishing a tweet critical of the AHCA bill.

Top neurosurgeon Johnny Delashaw resigns from Swedish

Johnny Delshaw, MD and chair of Swedish Neuroscience Institute has stepped down from his role at Swedish Health following a Seattle Times investigation that exposed widespread concerns about his practices.

Q&A: Healthcare software ‘should be a joy to use’

In an interview with Modern Healthcare, Epic CEO Judy Faulkner discusses physician burnout, EHR dissatisfaction, increased cybersecurity threats, and the future regulatory burdens the health IT industry will face.

Morning Headlines 3/10/17

GOP Health Bill Clears 2 House Panels After Marathon Sessions

The AHCA bill passes votes in the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means committee, leading up to a final House vote tentatively scheduled for the week of March 20.

Cerner, State and Local Leaders Commemorate Innovations With Ribbon-Cutting

Cerner opens the first of two towers at its new Innovation Campus.

Partners gets a fiscal health warning

Partners Healthcare (MA) has its credit outlook downgraded from stable to negative, with analysts noting that they are not concerned with the temporary bottom line hit from its Epic implementation.

Trust, confidence and Verifiable Data Audit

Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind announces that it will build out a blockchain-like data audit tool for its healthcare customers.

Morning Headlines 3/9/17

Investor sues Soon-Shiong for alleged securities violations after STAT report

NantHealth stock is down 35 percent following a scathing STAT investigative report on questionable charitable donations. In response, a NantHealth investor files suit against the company, claiming that it artificially inflated the market price of its stock and  reserving the right to expand the complaint  into a class action suit.

Price breaks public silence on health IT policy

HHS Secretary Tom Price lays out his position on health IT in a written response to questions from Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), saying one way to improve care and reduce costs would be “for the federal government to continue to promote the growth of health information technology and electronic health records.”

Ron DePinho resigning MD Anderson Cancer Center presidency

MD Anderson Cancer Center President Ron DePinho resigns. He reflects on his time at the helm as one that brought positive change, but acknowledges that “there was a cost for that change, and I have added to that cost.” He says the organization needs a new president that will bring “a sharp operational focus on navigating the tectonic changes in healthcare delivery and economics.”

How Republican opposition to healthcare reform is taking shape

The Guardian analyzes the likelihood of passage for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the Republican ACA repeal and replace bill.