Roundup: First insomnia DTx in South Korea gets regulatory nod and more briefs

Roundup: First insomnia DTx in South Korea gets regulatory nod and more briefs

South Korea clears first local insomnia DTx The South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has given its first market approval for a digital therapeutic device for treating insomnia, according to a news report.
The mobile-based medical device-as-a-software called Somzz by Aimmed delivers a CBT programme that helps increase sleep duration.
India OKs health monitoring smartwatch CardiacSense
Xplore Health, a medical tech company in India, has received approval from the Indian Regulatory Authority for a wearable health monitoring device it carries.
The company is the distributor of the medical smartwatch product of Israeli medical device developer CardiacSense.
Based on a news report, the smartwatch enables continuous monitoring of vital…

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News 2/17/23

News 2/17/23

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Unified communications and collaboration services vendor Avaya, whose healthcare offerings include solutions for virtual care, collaboration, and patient access technology, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in six years.
The Durham, NC-based company reported lower than expected revenue and earnings last year, blaming accounting problems with its cloud subscription revenue, after which it replaced its CEO.
AVYA share price has dropped 98% in the past 12 months, valuing the company at $24 million.

Reader Comments From Baby Payer: “Re: IVF coverage. In an example of our messed up healthcare system, women are taking Amazon jobs and quitting after…

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Retail disruptors face big strategy questions in 2023, says AHA

Retail disruptors face big strategy questions in 2023, says AHA

A new report from the American Hospital Association Center for Health Innovation explores how retail companies and tech giants like Apple and Google will drive transformational change in healthcare delivery in 2023 and beyond.WHY IT MATTERS
With billions of dollars invested this past year, such as CVS Health’s purchase of Signify Health, the AHA report highlights retail healthcare companies having grabbed significant market share in primary care, concierge medicine, virtual care and in-home medical services. 
They’ve also broadened their reach into pharmacy benefits management, behavioral health and other areas, said AHA researchers in the report.
One example is Amazon. While the company is in the process of buying…

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Health equity hindered by SDOH coding roadblocks

Health equity hindered by SDOH coding roadblocks

A new American Health Information Management Association study aimed at finding a better understanding of the operational realities of how social determinants of health data is used in real-world healthcare scenarios, finding a lack of standardization, insufficient training and limited cross-sector use.WHY IT MATTERS
The study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, surveyed more than 2,600 AHIMA members and nonmembers from a pool of 41,000 potential respondents between August 24 and September 9, 2022.
Respondents included coding professionals; managers, directors and vice presidents of health information management; HIM team members and executives. 
SDOH data can offer additional insights to help enrich clinical decision-making…

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How to Leverage Diagnostic Development to Guard Against RSV, Flu and Covid-19 [Sponsored]

How to Leverage Diagnostic Development to Guard Against RSV, Flu and Covid-19 [Sponsored]

For the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals focused on understanding the Covid-19 virus, how best to guard against it, and developing tests to detect it. They also tracked, aggregated, and analyzed health data to assess and monitor the public health threat on a regional, state and country-wide level. In the longer term, vaccine development and distribution were used to slow the spread to avoid a collapse of the health system and to reduce the potency of the virus for the majority of people.
More recently, attention has shifted to the long perceived threat of viruses coming together with…

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The Federal Trade Commission Accuses GoodRx Of Multiple Data Sharing Fails, Demands It Pay $1.5 Million Fine and Make Reforms

The Federal Trade Commission Accuses GoodRx Of Multiple Data Sharing Fails, Demands It Pay $1.5 Million Fine and Make Reforms

The Federal Trade Commission has cited telehealth and prescription drug discount provider GoodRx for sharing sensitive consumer health data with several advertising platforms, in violation of its own privacy promises to consumers.
The agency has filed a proposed order demanding that GoodRx pay $1.5 million in civil penalties for failing to let consumers know about unauthorized disclosures of its data to a list of advertiser platforms. including Facebook and Google.
The company, which is based in California, operates a digital health platform offering prescription drug discounts, telehealth visits and other health services. It captures a wide range of data from consumers who use…

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Singapore's iHiS taps Google Cloud, Accenture to drive healthcare innovation

Singapore’s iHiS taps Google Cloud, Accenture to drive healthcare innovation

Integrated Health Information Systems, Singapore’s national healthcare technology agency, has collaborated with Google Cloud and Accenture to promote the development of data-driven applications to “deliver more high-quality and digital-first healthcare experiences.”Accenture is helping deploy Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, which will provide third-party developers access to data and services across iHiS’s managed systems to create new applications and capabilities. 
The resulting flexible API-based architecture from this collaboration will serve as a “connective tissue across data sources and applications,” as per iHiS assistant chief executive Alan Goh. 
Google Cloud has also built security features into the Apigee platform to provide iHiS full visibility over…

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Federal agencies offer updates on TEFCA, interoperability milestones

Federal agencies offer updates on TEFCA, interoperability milestones

On February 13, the government leaders thanked the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and six Qualified Health Information Networks (QHIN) for working to create a nationwide interoperability network under the 21st Century Cures Act. The ‘Network of Networks’ 
At the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, Secretary Xavier Becerra presented certificates of recognition to the CommonWell Health Alliance, eHealth Exchange, Epic TEFCA Interoperability Services, Health Gorilla, Kno2 and KONZA for moving into the pre-production testing process of the Trusted Exchange Framework and the Common Agreement.
With the framework, ONC and the Sequoia Project, TEFCA’s recognized coordinating entity, seek to establish…

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Epic, eHealth Exchange and CommonWell among HHS-approved QHIN candidates

Epic, eHealth Exchange and CommonWell among HHS-approved QHIN candidates

A half-dozen organizations on Monday were approved by the Department of Health and Human Services as the inaugural batch of candidates to participate as qualified health information networks as part of ONC’s Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.During a Feb. 13 event at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, six healthcare organizations were approved to implement TEFCA as prospective QHINs: CommonWell Health Alliance, eHealth Exchange, Epic TEFCA Interoperability Services, Health Gorilla, Kno2, and KONZA National Network.
In a blog post, National Coordinator for Health IT Micky Tripathi recognized those organizations, “for their willingness to voluntarily step up and meet the…

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95% of Certified Health IT Developers Met ONC Cures Act Deadline

95% of Certified Health IT Developers Met ONC Cures Act Deadline

– More than 95 percent of certified health IT developers met the Cures Act Final Rule compliance deadline to provide customers with new technology, according to an ONC HealthITBuzz blog post. The Cures Act Final Rule mandated many changes to the Certification Program, including four updates set to have long-lasting interoperability impacts on patients, clinicians, and developers. ONC Certified Health IT developers must: Advance interoperability for patients and providers through the use of FHIR-based application programming interfaces (APIs);Enable patients, providers, and other stakeholders to have access to consistent data elements represented in at least version one of the United States Core…

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