David Haselwood | ECRI Institute Preps Hospital Leaders on Top 10 Technology Issues to Watch in 2017

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Jan. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The new and emerging healthcare innovations of 2017 come with a lot of promises. And, just like every other year, hospital leaders must remain vigilant about what to bring into their hospitals—and what to keep out. However, separating the facts from the hype isn't easily done alone.

ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, announces the release of its annual Top 10 Hospital C-suite Watch List to help hospital leaders make tough decisions about new and emerging technologies in 2017 and beyond.

Available as a free public service, the list gives hospital leaders evidence-based perspectives on new and emerging innovations that promise to deliver safe and cost-effective patient care. Each entry includes actionable recommendations in a quick-glance "What to Do" section.

"As new technologies come and go, ECRI remains steadfast in its mission to keep healthcare leaders' technology decisions tethered to their patients' needs while keeping an eye trained on evidence-based research," says Diane C. Robertson, director of Health Technology Assessment Information Service, ECRI Institute.

In its 2017 list, ECRI Institute examines 10 topics poised to affect care delivery over the next 12-18 months:

1. Liquid Biopsies: The New Wave of Genetic Testing?
2. Opioid Addiction: Can Technology Predict Risks of Addiction and Relapse?
3. The Belly of the Presurgery Beast: An Initiative to Improve Outcomes and Costs of Abdominal Surgery?
4. Right-sizing Your Hospital: Is It Time to Refresh Your Purchasing and Implementation Processes?
5. Seeing the Disinfecting Light: Will Compact Deep Ultraviolet-C LEDs Zap Disinfection Rates?
6. Pepper, the Emotional Robot: Do You Have a Spot for Artificial Intelligence on Your 2017 Payroll?
7. Robotic Surgery: Could a Pricey Patient-repositioning Table Improve Workflow and Outcomes?
8. Adjusting the Endoscopy Picture: Is a New Imaging Technique a Better Way to Visualize Tissue Malignancies?
9. Crohn's Disease: Will Immunotherapy and Stem Cell Therapy Rescue Patients with Moderate-to-Severe Symptoms?
10. Sticking It to Diabetes: Will Novel Vaccines Prevent or Cure Type I Diabetes in Children and Adults?

"Navigating new technologies is one of the biggest challenges we hear about from hospital leaders," says Robert P. Maliff, director of Applied Solutions Group, ECRI Institute. "They simply can't afford to miss the mark on which clinical advancements to bring in to improve patient care."

The watch list draws upon ECRI Institute's nearly 50 years of experience evaluating and providing technical assistance on the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of health technologies. It reflects the unbiased, independent judgment of the Institute's multidisciplinary staff of clinical and technical researchers, engineers, risk management specialists, and healthcare planners and consultants.

ECRI Institute invites the press to learn more about the issues on this year's watch list by attending its media event, "Dismantling Device Dangers, Forecasting New Innovations," on Tuesday, January 31, at its headquarters in Plymouth Meeting, PA. Reporters will have the unique opportunity to interact with our health technology assessment, hospital consulting, patient safety, and medical device evaluation experts.

Professionals are also encouraged to join ECRI Institute's LinkedIn Group, "Emerging Healthcare Technologies in Patient Care," for further discussion of these topics.

 Read More........

David Haselwood | Rise of digital health technologies sparks urgent need for identity management, experts say

Consumers are becoming more concerned that the sharing of their personal and medical data by providers and other healthcare stakeholders will lead to security and privacy breaches, according to a recent study by Black Book Research.

Indeed, as electronic healthcare systems become more interoperable and as more digital patient information is collected and stored, the number of people and organizations trying to access this data – provider employees, colleagues, business partners, payers, pharmaceutical companies, and other healthcare stakeholders – has dramatically increased.

That reality has created an urgent need among healthcare providers for strong identity management.

“When we have users on our system, do we know if they’re the good guys or the bad guys?” asks Brian Decker, senior manager at Mayo Clinic and program manager for the clinic’s Identity Management Platform. “Who actually are users? Are they appropriate users? Who has access to what and why? Who’s accountable for our users’ access?”

The bottom line, Decker says, is “you’ve got to be sure the right people have the right access to the right things at the right time, and nothing else.”

What’s more, the emergence of digital technologies in healthcare, including electronic health records, revenue cycle management systems, connected health, cloud computing, and mobile devices and applications, necessitates a renewed focus on security, scalability, and improved experiences.

“Healthcare has gotten very complex, with lots of regulations and lots of changes,” said Munawwar Khan, senior principal healthcare consultant at Mayo Clinic. “As a result, not all vendor systems do everything, so health organizations have to purchase different apps or create their own.”

When that happens, Khan added, it can create a “black hole” within the organization that could lead to security vulnerabilities.

To avoid that black hole, Decker and Khan recommend identifying and implementing practical solutions for establishing an identity management program, instituting appropriate governance and creating organizational change management and communications challenges within the identity management operational infrastructure.  Read More.......

David Haselwood | 10 health IT conferences you shouldn’t miss in 2017

From 3D printing to digital records, technology has changed the healthcare industry. If you want to keep up to date on the latest emerging trends in healthcare, there is no shortage of events that will keep you in the loop. Here are 10 health IT conferences you can't miss whether you're a doctor, nurse, health IT pro or C-Level executive.

SX Health & MedTEch Expo

Part of the popular annual SXSW festival, the SX Health & MedTech Expo focuses on latest technologies in healthcare. Covering everything from startups to large corporations, this conference offers the latest innovations and emerging trends in healthcare. While this year's speakers haven't been announced yet, past years have included Bakul Patel, associate center director for digital health at the FDA, and Stanford and Harvard trained physician-scientist, inventor and entrepreneur, Daniel Kraft from Singularity University.

The SX Health and MedTech Expo takes place during the SXSW festival between March 10 and 18 in Austin, Texas, and registration fees vary depending on what level badge you purchase.

TEDMED

Affiliated with the popular TED conference, best-known for its Ted Talks, TedMed operates under a similar format with a focus on healthcare innovation. The conference promises to bridge "the gap between science and the public," through shared stories that help "inform, inspire, engage and provoke action."

This year's TedMed conference takes place in Palm Springs, California, from November 1 to 3, and registration costs $3,450. However, if you register before January 15, you will receive $1,500 off the cost of the registration process.

iHealth 2017 Clinical Informatics Conference

The iHealth Clinical Informatics Conference, held by the AMIA, is targeted at clinicians and informatics professionals, with a focus on innovations with health data and mobile health initiatives. The iHealth 2017 Clinical Informatics Conference takes place in Philadelphia, from May 2 to 4 at the Lowes Philadelphia Hotel. Registration is currently open, and starts at $430 for students, $745 for members and $1,120 for nonmembers; rates go up if you register after March 15.

HIMSS Conference

Targeted at health IT professionals, executives, vendors and clinicians, the HIMSS17 conference promises to offer educational programs, keynote speakers, thought leader discussions, workshops and networking opportunities. This year's keynote speakers include Ginni M. Rometty, chairman, president and CEO of IBM as well as former speaker, John Boehner.

The 2017 HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition takes place in Orlando, Florida, in the Orange County Convention Center February 19-23.

Health 2.0

Health 2.0 conferences, areaimed at everyone from digital innovators to nurses to CIOs. These conferences focus on innovation, networking, emerging trends and you'll find no shortage of impressive keynote speakers at any event. You can find conferences in San Francisco and Santa Clara, California; Barcelona, Spain and Hyderabad, India. Dates and registration fees vary depending on the conference you choose. Unlike other annual conferences, you don't have to worry if you can't make one Health 2.0 event, because it's likely there is another just around the corner.

Connected Health Conference

Formerly the mHealth Summit, the Connected Health Conference heavily focuses on the digital aspect of healthcare and facilitating healthcare access around the globe. While the 2017 conference hasn't been announced just yet, last year's conference included the chief health officer at IBM, Kyu Rhee, and the vice president of digital health at Fitbit, Adam Pellegrini.

This year's Connected Health Conference doesn't have a date yet, but the last conference took place during December in Washington, D.C. The cost of registration will vary depending on how many sessions you choose to go to, how early you register and how many ad-on sessions you opt for. Read More......

David Haselwood | 2017: The Year Ahead in Healthcare Information Technology

Cybersecurity, analytics and population health have the attention and dollars of healthcare organizations, which also are beginning to invest in prescriptive analytics and artificial intelligence, a new Healthcare IT News survey finds.

The need for greater cybersecurity protection is sinking in. The desire to better understand mountains of untapped data is on the rise. And the necessity to start improving the health not just of patients but of whole populations is being taken quite seriously.

These are some of the conclusions from “2017: The Year Ahead in Health IT,” a new survey of healthcare organizations from Healthcare IT News. We polled 95 healthcare executives in October 2016.

Asked which technologies they are planning to upgrade in 2017, 52 percent of survey respondents said security, 51 percent analytics, 44 percent patient engagement, 44 percent population health, 31 percent EHRs, 24 percent remote patient monitoring, and 22 percent revenue cycle management.

Joe Fisne, associate chief information officer at Geisinger Health System, observed that this spread makes sense.

“From the standpoint of security being No. 1, it certainly is one of the most critical things in healthcare today,” Fisne said. “We are in an age where technology has extended so far into the realm of healthcare that it has become one of the most critical things, so the heightened need for security follows. And analytics is key, as well. We are investing in some of the Big Data platforms to take information and demonstrate trends, practices and patterns of care, as well as patterns of illness along the way. And that goes hand in hand with population health.”

2017 also will see the arrival of technologies at many healthcare organizations. Asked which technologies they plan to introduce or investigate in 2017, 45 percent of survey respondents said analytics, 45 percent workflow improvement, 44 percent telehealth, 41 percent population health, 41 percent smart medical devices, 34 percent remote patient monitoring, and 21 percent precision medicine.

“What stands out here is the increasing importance of telehealth as a different form of access as well as a different form of connecting with consumers,” said Brian Kalis, managing director of the health practice at research and consulting firm Accenture. “Seeing telehealth with increased importance can help address labor productivity challenges in healthcare.”

Though lower in the survey results, Kalis said he finds the interest in precision medicine quite promising.

“This foreshadows what we might see accelerate in 2017 – the focus on precision medicine and the initial investments in using precision medicine to improve care,” he said. “This is an early stage trend. As well as the survey respondents’ fairly high prioritization of smart medical devices; we’ve heard from a number of health systems looking at new strategies to use patient-generated health data to improve care.”

2017 will be no different than years past with healthcare organizations will be working on their electronic health records. But the priorities for 2017 are unique to the time. Asked which types of EHR development projects are or will be in the works within their enterprises in 2017, 60 percent of survey respondents said improving interoperability, 55 percent improving workflow, 47 percent improving usability, 37 percent adding population health tools to the EHR, 28 percent migrating to the cloud, 24 percent performing a major EHR system upgrade, and 21 percent replacing the EHR at one or more sites.

All of this adds up to a very natural evolution based on the healthcare landscape today, said John Halamka, MD, CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess System and a professor of medicine at Harvard University.

“When you look at the quality programs and MIPS and MACRA, suddenly you are seeing a realignment of incentives where doctors are paid for wellness and quality as opposed to quantity,” he said. “Unless you are collecting data about patients across the population, it’s really hard to control expenses, enhance quality and improve workflow. EHRs were put in basically as dumb data communication systems without emphasis on exchange and workflow. But because of payment reform, we have incentives to do data exchange. Different things are bubbling to the top.”

One aspect of EHRs many healthcare organizations continue to work on is caregiver acceptance. Asked what actions will they take in 2017 to get more physicians and nurses to fully embrace EHR technology, 60 percent of survey respondents said integrate EHRs with other technologies that, for example, advance population health or best practices, 47 percent improve EHR system interfaces, 40 percent clearly show EHRs help the organization profitably manage value-based care, and 38 percent clearly show how the technology markedly reduces time spent on tasks outside of direct patient interaction.

The “2017: The Year Ahead in Health IT” survey found population health to be a high priority with a great many healthcare organizations. Asked if their organization plans to implement a population health system in 2017, 20 percent of survey respondents said yes, they are planning to deploy a new system, a big 42 percent said yes, they will be adding tools to existing systems, 9 percent said no, they have finished their population health project, and a significant 29 percent said no, population health is not in their plans for 2017. Read More......