CHIME-KLAS Study: Cybersecurity A Central Concern for Healthcare C-Suite
Cybersecurity has been elevated to a central concern for healthcare providers, with more attention at the board level and the C-suite, according to a new survey by KLAS Research and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). For the study, KLAS conducted nearly 200 interviews of chief information security officers, chief information officers, chief technology officers and other security professionals on provider adoption of and experiences regarding specific cybersecurity solutions.
The study reveals that 42 percent of organizations have a vice president or C-level official in charge of cybersecurity; 62 percent report that security is discussed quarterly at board meetings. 16 percent of providers at mostly large hospitals or integrated delivery networks, reported having “fully functional” security programs. Another 41 percent reported that they’ve developed and are starting to implement a program. Smaller hospitals and physician practices lagged behind in their program development.
EHR Study: Speech recognition, Mobility and Computer-assisted Physician Documentation tools Are Top 3 Investments to Optimize EHRs
Majority of healthcare leaders plan to use additional technologies and tools to realize the full intended benefits of electronic health records (EHRs) and to improve clinician satisfaction with using them, according to a Nuance EHR study conducted by HIMSS Analytics. The study reveals that improved clinical documentation resulting from EHRs and related technologies will drive positive financial impact for their institutions, including appropriate reimbursement and increased patient flow.
Today, organizations are investing heavily in resources to support EHR use and documentation of patient information. Three quarters have added training and support resources, and two-thirds have increased staff in at least one IT area since moving to an EHR.
A majority of respondents identified three primary ways healthcare institutions are working today to improve clinician satisfaction around EHR use:
– 82% provide clinician training and education
– 75% enhance existing technology and tools
– 68% adopt new technology and tools
NATE Unveils FHIR-Based Blue Button Directory to Streamline Patient Access to Data
The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) today unveiled NATE’s Blue Button Directory, a FHIR-based solution is the newest prototype being developed by NATE to make it easier for consumers and providers to share data to improve outcomes. The NBBD prototype allows patients to discover online how best to submit their request for health information and establishes a secure end-point for the HIPAA-covered entity’s staff responsible for managing these requests. NATE is currently seeking partners to bring the NBBD prototype into full production.
HealthTap Launches Voice-Activated Doctor A.I. Through Amazon’s Alexa
HealthTap, a Global Health Practice providing 24/7 immediate access to top doctors via video, text, and voice has launched a voice-activated Doctor A.I. through Amazon’s Alexa. Powered by artificial intelligence and a voice-activated interface, Doctor A.I. gives Alexa users personalized, doctor-recommended insights, helping them find the right care at the right time at the right cost. Like a sympathetic physician, Dr. A.I. is trained in bedside manner to ask intelligible, dynamically generated questions in natural language via an intuitive conversational user interface.
VMware, Intel Collaborate on Healthcare IT Breach Readiness Program
VMware, Inc. has teamed up with Intel Health and Life Sciences to help global healthcare organizations better understand the current state of their security readiness. The complimentary program allows healthcare IT teams to gain valuable insight into their security postures for breach mitigation relative to other healthcare organizations, helping identify and implement solutions to further reduce risks.
As a participant in Intel’s Healthcare Security Readiness Program, VMware offers healthcare organizations a one-hour, complimentary, confidential engagement with a security assessor to measure their organization’s technical security priorities and safeguards using a unique healthcare security maturity model. To date the model has been used by more than 60 healthcare organizations across nine countries to create a baseline against which participating organizations can measure their technical readiness across 42 security capabilities. The model also looks at administrative controls such as policies, incident response plans and business continuity/disaster recovery capabilities.
drchrono Opens New Office in Baltimore to Support Growing Revenue Cycle Management Division
drchrono, Inc., an EHR and medical billing platform on the web, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch, serving thousands of clinicians in the United States, today announced the opening of a new office in Baltimore, MD to support the growth of its Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) software and services division.Axel Perez, Vice President of Revenue Cycle Management, also joins drchrono to oversee the new Baltimore location with the goal to create the best medical billing software and services experience possible for all drchrono users.
NTT Data, Oracle Collaborate to Bring Healthcare Big Data to the Cloud
NTT DATA, Inc. expands its existing relationship with Oracle to include end-to-end cloud capabilities for Oracle’s Healthcare Foundation, a unified healthcare analytics platform. The platform provides data integration and warehousing of clinical, financial, administrative and -omics modules in a cloud solution to customers worldwide. The healthcare cloud offering will provide organizations the ability to easily unify, grow or replace their existing healthcare data warehouse and data aggregation solutions.
NTT DATA and Oracle will provide a comprehensive, end-to-end offering that includes consulting and implementation, as well as maintenance and IT services. The solution provides healthcare organizations with the flexibility to replace aging systems with an enterprise data warehouse or to maintain their existing investments with an on-site solution, which will be transferred to an enterprise data warehouse.
Ambra Health Unveils Cloud Development Platform for Medical Imaging
Ambra Health, a medical data and image management SaaS company launches Ambra for Developers, a cloud development platform for medical imaging. Built around modern, RESTful web-services, this is the first cloud development platform designed specifically for medical imaging. With these new APIs, IT departments at health systems and hospitals can easily extend imaging and imaging data into other applications such as population health or reporting tools.
In addition, third-party developers can rapidly incorporate Ambra imaging technologies as part of a wide variety of healthcare applications, providing users with new capabilities for better patient care. The Ambra Solution Directory showcases 12 of these next-generation solutions for easy evaluation by providers, including Elsevier STATdx®, Realize AI, USARAD, Blackford Analysis and READS for RADS.
assessURhealth, athenahealth Integrate to Enhance Access to Mental & Behavioral Health Screening Tool
assessURhealth, LLC, a provider of mental and behavioral health screening software, is working together with athenahealth, Inc., to integrate their preventive screening application and improve access to the tool. Through the integration, assessURhealth will link to athenahealth’s 85,000+ provider network, promoting better mental health care and patient engagement among providers.