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Mary Washington Healthcare Regional Cancer Center Earns Novalis Radiotherapy Certification

The Mary Washington Healthcare (MWHC) Regional Cancer Center has been recertified as a Novalis Certified Cancer Center after a rigorous evaluation process conducted by an independent, third party panel of experts in radiation therapy.

Intermountain Healthcare Researchers Receive $4.6 Million NIH Grant to Study Mechanical Ventilator Protocols for COVID and Other Critically-Ill ICU Patients

Hospital Systems

Researchers at Intermountain Healthcare have received a $4.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the best ways to implement recognized standards of care to determine when ICU patients on mechanical ventilators, including those being treated for severe COVID illness, should be taken off the ventilators to resume breathing on their own.

New Treatment Approach for Advanced Coronary Artery Disease Leads to Improved Outcomes

Academic Research, Hospital Systems

Use of a novel technique called the quantitative flow ratio (QFR) to precisely identify and measure the severity of artery blockages can lead to significantly improved outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), according to a new study done in collaboration with Mount Sinai faculty.

Novel Tool for Reporting Symptoms After Vaccination Helped Healthcare Workers Discern Injection Side effects from COVID-19 Symptoms

A decision-support tool helped health care workers distinguish symptoms associated with COVID-19 vaccinations from symptoms of the virus itself, found a study by a team of investigators at several hospitals in the Mass General Brigham (MGB) system.

Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital to Delay Non-Urgent Procedures and Surgeries Due to High Volumes of Patients

Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital caregivers have been caring for extremely high numbers of patients for many months. This includes COVID and non-COVID patients, an influx of patients with respiratory illnesses, such as RSV, and trauma-related injuries.

How AI and ML Can Manage Your Third Biggest Payer: Patients

After Medicare, Medicaid, managed care and commercial health plans, the remainder of a hospital or health system’s revenue comes from patients. Those balances already comprise more than 30 percent of a large health system’s revenues and are rising rapidly. An analysis released last year found an 88 percent increase from 2012 to 2017 in total hospital revenue attributed to patient balances after insurance reimbursement.

What the Pharmaceutical Industry Can Learn from Peloton about Patient Retention and Engagement

Today’s mostly paper-dependent clinical trials pose fundamental challenges to the pharmaceutical industry. Such trials can be prohibitively expensive, struggle to enroll and retain a sufficient number of participants, and have difficulty maintaining compliance and data reliability. But with the advent of virtual and partially virtual trials using digital tools and devices, we have the opportunity to substantially improve efficiency by deploying the same design principles that make consumer apps so successful.

To Prepare for a Digital Future, Healthcare Organizations Should Look to Cloud-Based Data Management

A few years ago, a technologist in a healthcare organization’s IT group would view data in the cloud skeptically, if at all. Today, that position is fading fast, with data to support it: IDC estimates that the healthcare industry’s spending on cloud technologies would surge to $13.6 billion in 2019[1].

Solve Revenue Cycle Delays (and Make New Friends in IT) with Real-Time Provider Enrollment in EHRs

The health system revenue cycle is a complex process, starting with registration and scheduling, and ending with claims submitted and processed and payments received. Removing bottlenecks that prevent faster receivables has been a constant challenge facing revenue cycle leaders. Missing providers in EHRs is a major root cause of bottlenecks and rework. The advent of promising new digital provider enrollment workflows may, someday soon, eliminate them.

National Healthcare Leaders Embrace Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances

In October of 2018, President Trump signed into law the “SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act,” a comprehensive bill designed to address the opioid abuse epidemic. This landmark legislation presents a unique opportunity for the healthcare IT community: we now have a real chance to position electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) as a crucial technology component of the national fight against opioid abuse.

EHR Integration is Key to Patient Communications

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) has been positioned as the source of truth, delivering real-time patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. The dirty little secret is that hospitals initially invested in EHR systems to primarily track billing and coding, helping them run their business (not necessarily improve their care) more efficiently.

Artificial Intelligence: Smart Enough for Healthcare?

Visionary pundits have already painted pictures of futuristic healthcare scenarios with robots strolling through hospital corridors in place of doctors – examining patients, making diagnoses, and prescribing medications. A lot of hype surrounds artificial intelligence (AI) and its application in healthcare resulting in questions about its usability, safety, and practical value– and for good reason. We’re still a long way off from completely replacing human medical practitioners, and perhaps we never will. The objective for healthcare today is to move past the hype and chart a course for AI that balances its opportunities and liabilities, while understanding its current limitations and finding areas where it can create real value and solutions.

What’s big in 2019? Value-based care, the patient experience and the digital workspace

Value-based care, the practice of compensating healthcare providers based on positive patient outcomes rather than on procedures executed, is rapidly becoming industry standard. To support it, healthcare organizations need to equip their staff with a new set of tools that enables them to streamline workflows and focus on patients. The best solution? A digital workspace, in which clinicians and healthcare providers can quickly and easily access the information and systems they need to do their jobs anywhere, anytime from any device.

How BI and Analytics Improve Clinical Care, Reduce Costs, and More

It may seem intuitive that business intelligence (BI) and analytics can help to improve clinical care, reduce costs and more. What may not be as intuitive is developing a strategy to achieve this in an efficient, scalable and sustainable way.

HHS Announces Next Steps in Advancing Interoperability of Health Information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued for public comment draft 2 of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) that will support the full, network-to-network exchange of health information nationally. HHS also released a notice of funding opportunity to engage a non-profit, industry-based organization that will advance nationwide interoperability.