Tag: Pandemic

What Is PHI, and How Can Healthcare Organizations Keep It Secure?

What Is PHI, and How Can Healthcare Organizations Keep It Secure?

HealthTech Magazine

What Is Protected Health Information?According to UC Berkeley’s Human Research Protection Program, PHI includes any information found in medical records or clinical data sets that can be used to identify an individual. In addition, this information must have been collected, used or disclosed while providing a healthcare service. PHI can be used during the diagnosis or treatment of a patient or in clinical research processes.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule require the protection of identifiable health information, such as:
Information collected by doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers in the medical record
Conversations between doctors and other healthcare providers about a patient’s…

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GSK’s Covid-19 Valentine to Vir Biotech: ‘You Can Go Your Own Way’

GSK’s Covid-19 Valentine to Vir Biotech: ‘You Can Go Your Own Way’

MedCity News

Vir Biotechnology’s Covid-19 research may yield more drugs and perhaps a vaccine, but no longer with the financial support of GSK. The collaboration agreement the two companies struck up in the early days of the pandemic has been amended, leaving Vir to either find another partner or continue its coronavirus research on its own.
The alliance did successfully develop the Covid-19 drug sotrovimab. GSK and Vir will continue to share responsibilities for that drug, which is available under the brand name Xevudy in more than 40 countries. The U.S. is no longer one of them. Last April, the FDA withdrew emergency authorization…

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How Mental Healthcare Access can Improve to Meet Patient Needs

How Mental Healthcare Access can Improve to Meet Patient Needs

DistilINFO Hospital IT

– Meeting patient needs for mental healthcare access will require industry leaders, clinicians, and healthcare policymakers to focus on giving clinicians the tools needed to meet patients in any care setting, as well as enable more ample access to mental healthcare providers, according to a new paper from the Alliance for Patient Access (AfPA). More patients than ever are seeking mental healthcare, with AfPA citing figures that 53 million Americans now live with some kind of mental illness. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this prevalence of mental illness has pushed the mental health space to face unheard-of patient demand. But patients…

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Mining EHR data to understand documentation burnout

Mining EHR data to understand documentation burnout

Healthcare IT news

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information found that hospitals’ access and analysis of documentation data in electronic health records has increased over the past five years, but gaps in access and use remain for some hospitals.WHY IT MATTERSData from EHRs can track the time clinicians spend documenting and carrying out certain tasks. To measure physician burden on a national scale, ONC analyzed four waves of a nationally representative survey of U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals.
Published in January, in the special health IT issue of the American Journal of Managed Care, Trends in Electronic Health Record Capabilities for Tracking…

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Leveraging EHR Audit Logs to Inform Clinician Burnout Interventions

Leveraging EHR Audit Logs to Inform Clinician Burnout Interventions

DistilINFO Hospital IT

– Healthcare organizations are continually looking for ways to tackle increasing clinician burnout with documentation burden at the forefront of their concerns. To better understand clinician workflow challenges, practices can leverage EHR audit logs to capture documentation behaviors and inform clinician burnout interventions, according to an ONC HealthITBuzz blog post. EHR audit logs are automated tracking features that monitor clinician activity within the EHR. Specifically, the automated tool can track the time clinicians spend documenting and carrying out certain tasks, such as chart reviews and messaging. Continuous monitoring of the EHR burden is needed to address any upcoming burnout challenges and…

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Epic MyChart Patient Portal Racks up 6th Best in KLAS Award

Epic MyChart Patient Portal Racks up 6th Best in KLAS Award

DistilINFO Hospital IT

– KLAS Research has once again named the Epic MyChart patient portal Best in KLAS, but the rest of the annual report highlights the numerous software solutions in the patient engagement technology market. While other healthcare market segments have dominant vendors—Epic Systems within the EHR space, for example—no single vendor came out on top across the numerous areas of patient engagement. Once again, the health IT vendor giant has come in as the top-rated patient portal solution, getting a score of 88.7 out of 100. Epic was followed by athenahealth, Greenway Health, Veradigm, Oracle Health (Cerner), and NextGen Healthcare. The annual…

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Singapore General Hospital shifts to gamified VR nurse training

Singapore General Hospital shifts to gamified VR nurse training

Healthcare IT news

The Singapore General Hospital has started training its nurses in IV cannulation using VR technology.A team of SGH nurses, together with Serious Games Asia and sensor solutions developer Microtube Technologies, developed an immersive gamified training module called IV NIMBLE (Nursing Innovation in Mobility-based Learning) to enhance nurses’ training.
The module comprises a virtual patient avatar with which nurses can practice talking; a 3D-printed hand which mimics the texture of human skin; and a pressure sensor glove that gauges the pressure of cannulation. It also captures and presents data via an analytics dashboard for review.
First tried out six months ago by about 120 SGH nurses,…

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Memorial Healthcare System grows its telehealth offering to 61 programs

Memorial Healthcare System grows its telehealth offering to 61 programs

Healthcare IT news

Before the widespread adoption of telemedicine technology, there were several problems that hindered the delivery of healthcare services for most healthcare organizations.THE PROBLEM
One of the main problems was access to healthcare, particularly with working families and those with chronic conditions. Many people lacked convenient access to medical care and providers, making it difficult for them to receive the care they needed.
Another problem was the cost of healthcare, which could be prohibitively expensive for many people. This was especially true for those without insurance or with limited coverage. Additionally, long wait times for appointments and limited availability of specialists further exacerbated the…

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Overhaul 'clunky' My Health Record, Medicare task force recommends

Overhaul ‘clunky’ My Health Record, Medicare task force recommends

Healthcare IT news

A task force of healthcare leaders has given their recommendations to invigorate Australia’s primary healthcare, including the need to upgrade My Health Record and enable more health data sharing. WHAT IT’S ABOUT
The Australian government assembled the Strengthening Medicare Task Force to help identify the “most pressing investments needed in primary care.” It is focused on pointing out immediate actions to strengthen Medicare, the country’s universal healthcare scheme, and lay the foundations for longer-term reform and investment in the primary care system. Their recommendations also build on the government’s 10-year plan for primary care.
One of the task force’s major recommendations is to “modernise” MHR….

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