Hospital Beds Get Digital Upgrade

A major manufacturer of hospital beds is seeking to transform the ubiquitous furniture into a source of medical data, the latest sign of hospitals’ digital transformation.

Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. said its newest hospital-bed model will include sensors to monitor patients’ heart and respiratory rates. The sensors will check a patient’s vital signs 100 times a minute and alert nurses when signs suggest the patient’s condition may worsen, said Hill-Rom Chief Executive John Groetelaars.

The full Wall Street Journal article can be viewed at this link.  

How Blockchain Technology Could Disrupt Healthcare

From managing patient data to tracking drugs through the supply chain, blockchain could solve some of the healthcare industry’s biggest problems.

The healthcare industry is plagued by inefficiencies, errors, bureaucracy, and high administrative costs.

Could blockchain technology help solve some of these challenges?

For all the hype, there’s no question that blockchain’s distributed ledger technology can offer real value for the healthcare industry.

Blockchain could help solve some of the industry’s most pressing compliance, interoperability, and data security issues, as well as enable new patient-centric business models.

But unlocking blockchain’s potential for healthcare will be a slow process, and change is unlikely to come fast.

In this report, we analyze where blockchain is likely to be integrated into healthcare in the short, medium, and long term, based on known stakeholders, scalability requirements, and necessary safeguards.

The full CB Insights report can be viewed at this link.  

From Point-of-Care Testing to eHealth Diagnostic Devices (eDiagnostics)

Point-of-care devices were originally designed to allow medical testing at or near the point of care by healthcare professionals. Some point-of-care devices allow medical self-testing at home but cannot fully cover the growing diagnostic needs of eHealth systems that are under development in many countries. A number of easy-to-use, network connected diagnostic devices for self-testing are needed to allow remote monitoring of patients’ health. This Outlook highlights the essential characteristics of diagnostic devices for eHealth settings and indicates point-of-care technologies that may lead to the development of new devices. It also describes the most representative examples of simple-to-use, point-of-care devices that have been used for analysis of untreated biological samples.

The full article can be downloaded below.  

AI and the NHS: How artificial intelligence will change everything for patients and doctors

The current UK government has made its vision for artificial intelligence use in the NHS very clear. It wants AI, data and innovation to "transform the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases by 2030", with the UK to be "at the forefront of the use of AI and data in early diagnosis, innovation, prevention and treatment".

Under this vision, AIs could ultimately become the first point of contact for the sick instead of a human doctor, could help healthcare professionals to diagnose medical conditions, and even monitor individuals' health by analysing data from their wearable devices or smart-home sensors.

It's a huge ambition for a set of technologies that are still developing, and whose use is relatively restricted in the health service today. Can AI really make a difference to the future of the NHS?

The full ZDNet article can be viewed at this link.  

AMIA calls for tighter coordination of data privacy rules

The American Medical Informatics Association is asking the Trump administration to take a close look at both HIPAA and the Common Rule to see how they might be updated or harmonized for a new era of privacy policy.

Specifically, the AMIA wants a more integrated approach to how policies aimed at both the "health sector" and "consumer sector" are defined.

The full Healthcare IT News article can be viewed at this link.  

Primary care physicians’ attitudes to the adoption of electronic medical records: a systematic review and evidence synthesis using the clinical adoption framework

Recent decades have seen rapid growth in the implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) in healthcare settings in both developed regions as well as low and middle income countries. Yet despite substantial investment, the implementation of EMRs in some primary care systems has lagged behind other settings, with piecemeal adoption of EMR functionality by primary care physicians (PCPs) themselves. We aimed to review and synthesise international literature on the attitudes of PCPs to EMR adoption using the Clinical Adoption (CA) Framework. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and EMBASE were searched from 1st January 1996 to 1st August 2017 for studies investigating PCP attitudes towards EMR adoption. Papers were screened by two independent reviewers, and eligible studies selected for further assessment. Findings were categorised against the CA Framework and the quality of studies assessed against one of three appropriate tools. Out of 2263 potential articles, 33 were included, based in North and South America, Europe, Middle East and Hong Kong. Concerns about the accessibility, reliability and EMR utility exerted an adverse influence on PCPs’ attitudes to adoption. However many were positive about their potential to improve clinical productivity, patient safety and care quality. Younger, computer-literate PCPs, based in large/multi-group practices, were more likely to be positively inclined to EMR use than older physicians, less-skilled in technology use, based in solo practices. Adequate training, policies and procedures favourably impacted on PCPs’ views on EMR implementation. Financial factors were common system level influencers shaping EMR adoption, from start-up costs to the resources required by ongoing use. By using the CA Framework to synthesise the evidence, we identified a linked series of factors influencing PCPs attitudes to EMR adoption. Findings underline the need to involve end-users in future implementation programmes from the outset, to avoid the development of an EMR which is neither feasible nor acceptable for use in practice.

The full article can be downloaded below.  

Professional culture, information security and healthcare quality—an interview study of physicians’ and nurses’ perspectives on value conflicts in the use of electronic medical records

Digital healthcare information systems impose new demands on healthcare professionals, and information security rules may induce stressful value conflicts, which the professional culture may help professionals to handle. The aim of the study was to elucidate physicians’ and registered nurses’ shared professional assumptions and values, grounded in their professional cultures, and how these assumptions and values explain and guide healthcare professionals’ handling of value conflicts involving rules regulating the use of electronic medical records. Healthcare professionals in five organisations in two Swedish healthcare regions were interviewed. The study identified ensuring the patients’ physical health and well-being as the overarching value and a shared basic assumption among physicians and registered nurses. A range of essential professional and organisational values were identified to help attain this goal. In value conflicts, different values were weighted in relation to each other and to the electronic information security rules. The results can be used to guide effective design and implementation of electronic medical records and information security regulations in healthcare.

The full pdf can be downloaded below.  

THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION’S POLICIES AND PROCEDURES SHOULD BETTER ADDRESS POSTMARKET CYBERSECURITY RISK TO MEDICAL DEVICES 

FDA had plans and processes for addressing certain medical device problems in the postmarket phase, but its plans and processes were deficient for addressing medical device cybersecurity compromises. Specifically, FDA's policies and procedures were insufficient for handling postmarket medical device cybersecurity events; FDA had not adequately tested its ability to respond to emergencies resulting from cybersecurity events in medical devices; and, in 2 of 19 district offices, FDA had not established written standard operating procedures to address recalls of medical devices vulnerable to cyber threats. These weaknesses existed because, at the time of our fieldwork, FDA had not sufficiently assessed medical device cybersecurity, an emerging risk to public health and to FDA's mission, as part of an enterprise risk management process. We shared our preliminary findings with FDA in advance of issuing our draft report. Before we issued our draft report, FDA implemented some of our recommendations. Accordingly, we kept our original findings in the report, but, in some instances, removed our recommendations.

We recommend that FDA do the following: (1) continually assess the cybersecurity risks to medical devices and update, as appropriate, its plans and strategies; (2) establish written procedures and practices for securely sharing sensitive information about cybersecurity events with key stakeholders who have a “need to know”; (3) enter into a formal agreement with Federal agency partners, namely the Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, establishing roles and responsibilities as well as the support those agencies will provide to further FDA's mission related to medical device cybersecurity; and (4) ensure the establishment and maintenance of procedures for handling recalls of medical devices vulnerable to cybersecurity threats. FDA agreed with our recommendations and said it had already implemented many of them during the audit and would continue working to implement the recommendations in the report. However, FDA disagreed with our conclusions that it had not assessed medical device cybersecurity at an enterprise or component level and that its preexisting policies and procedures were insufficient. We appreciate the efforts FDA has taken and plans to take in response to our findings and recommendations, but we maintain that our findings and recommendations are valid.

The full Office of Inspector General report can be downloaded below.  

The real victim in health data breaches? Patients' medical identities

Data breaches are happening everywhere these days, not just in healthcare. But the healthcare industry has its own set of problems when it comes to the aftermath of a security incident: unknown impact and the rise in medical fraud.

“It’s a rampant problem, and it’s not talked about enough,” said Chris Bowen, ClearDATA founder and chief privacy and security officer. “There are victims out there, and it can take years to clean up after the mess. They have to take a lot of time to correct that record. But where do you go to correct it?

The article advocates for organizations to perform data inventory, and provides a checklist for patients to protect against medical fraud.  

The full Healthcare IT News article can be viewed at this link.