Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.
News and Studies
Research from security vendor Utimaco showed that 63% of U.K. residents would use digital services to access healthcare. However, only 46% consider the information they send to the National Health Service to be secure, and only 40% would be willing to share information digitally with providers who aren’t part of the NHS system. These figures reflect a larger trend, as 70% of respondents said they worry about their security when using digital services of any type (including healthcare apps).
According to a survey of 500 senior leaders conducted by marketing agency Allison + Partners, healthcare is poised to connect fragmented organizations and provide a seamless patient experience within the next five years, achieving a state the firm described as “Health 4.0.” While leaders recognized the need to address issues such as policy, talent acquisition, and a need for robust back-end technology, accelerated tech adoption in the last two years has leaders confident that the opportunities outweigh the challenges.
A report from security threat monitoring firm ExtraHop found that 51% of healthcare organizations face a security risk from the SMB protocol. Seven devices out of 10,000 used in healthcare expose the Server Message Block (SMB) file-sharing protocol, which doesn’t require encryption and has been exploited in attacks such as WannaCry and NotPetya. While 7 out of 10,000 may not seem like a lot, a large hospital with up to 20 connected devices per patient room could have several devices at risk.
Cybersecurity company Surfshark found the number of government requests for user data increased 4x from 2013 to 2020 among Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Facebook accounted for 40% of all requests, compared to just 7% for Apple. The four companies submitted user data to governments between 69% and 80% of the time.
Partnerships
- Real-world evidence analytics company Aetion integrated its platform with Evio, a pharmacy support system backed by five Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
- Care collaboration vendor Bamboo Health expanded its partnership with the Iowa Board of Pharmacy to integrate its prescription monitoring program with EHR and pharmacy management systems throughout the state.
- athenahealth is using the DrFirst RxInform patient engagement tool to provide patients with information about their prescriptions, including cost-saving opportunities.
- Wolters Kluwer has donated three clinical decision support tools to Mercy Ships, a humanitarian organization that operate two floating hospitals in remote areas of Africa.
- Care management platform MedArrive partnered with Brave Health, which provides behavioral health to Medicaid populations, to make real-time referrals available to MedArrive’s field-based provider network.
- Data analytics platform MDClone collaborated with MCI Onehealth Technologies, a Toronto-based primary care network and technology provider, to improve data collection and real-world evidence processing.
- Data platform H1 is teaming with Lokavant, a clinical trial analytics vendor, to help clinical trial teams determine the best sites for trials in an effort to accelerate drug development.
Products
- AI startup Dandelion launched an integrated platform for clinical data and announced two clinical partners: San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare and South Dakota-based Sanford Health.
- Physical therapy smartphone app OneStep announced fall risk detection capabilities based on gait analysis.
- Value-based payment platform Clarify Health launched Clarify Advance to help providers select high-value sites of service as part of upside-only risk models.
Sales
- Indian Health Service renewed its contract with Avel eCare; the telemedicine vendor will continue to provide specialty clinic services across five Great Plains states and provide additional emergency department support.
- National community health provider LifePoint Health chose Health Catalyst as the analytics vendor to support its National Quality Program and other initiatives.
- Maryland-based Adventist HealthCare chose Innovaccer as its population health management and value-based care platform.
- New Mexico-based Presbyterian Health Services selected the Commure Strongline alert system, which lets staff members call for help by pressing a small button on their badge.
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