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For a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic, there is nothing scarier than having your blood sugar bottom out. One minute you’re fine, the next you’re sitting in a pool of your own sweat trembling and struggling to put a coherent thought together. MORE
106 
A recent study published in Science, one of the world’s leading academic journals, found that a predictive health care algorithm discriminated against black patients. MORE
One of the big challenges healthcare faces is sharing data between healthcare organizations who need that data. Healthcare interoperability, as we call it, has been a challenge for a long time. However, we’ve known that it is much less of a technical challenge and more of a business challenge. MORE
We are experiencing severe overload of our system, but doing everything we can to remedy this. We hope to be back to normal operation soon. Our engineers are working around the clock to try to handle the increased volume but we don’t have an ETA on when this will be fully resolved. We are so sorry for the convenience this is causing during this crucial time, and thank you for your patience MORE
Digital tools such as telehealth, remote patient monitoring, data analytics and even consumer-facing AI-based chatbots could play a key role in containing the outbreak of COVID-19 and help people who think they've been exposed to the novel coronavirus – but experts warn that such tools are not a cure-all. For example, AI-based algorithms could be most helpful in providing information about patients who have already been diagnosed with COVID-19 or who are suspected of being infected. Monitoring these patients remotely with clinical-grade sensors and collecting data on numerous physiological signals could improve clinical decision-making for providers, and the process can also help them learn more about the disease so they can better treat it. The learning from the AI-based algorithms could then be combined with other information such as laboratory and imaging tests to create a composite mechanism that could help clinicians understand the disease better, and ultimately lead to better detection or prediction of the early signs of infection. Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO of Biofourmis, a Boston-based specialist in digital therapeutics, told Healthcare IT News that there are clinical-grade wearables now available that can monitor patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 who are under quarantine, whether it's in a home or healthcare setting. The wearable biosensors capture multiple physiology signs. And when combined with advanced analytics, Rajput says there is a "huge opportunity" to detect physiology changes indicative of clinical deterioration that require medical intervention. "While there's still much the medical community does not know about COVID-19, there are known signs and symptoms such as fever, increased respiration and shortness of breath," he explained. "Physiological signals such as temperature, respiration rate and heart rate can be measured by wearables while a patient is in quarantine to detect worsening conditions and impending issues." Dr. Saif Abed, director of cybersecurity advisory services at AbedGraham, explained that any platform that allows the general public to self-screen, virtually seek clinical guidance, be triaged or receive support during self-isolation/quarantine is going to be beneficial, not just in terms of diagnosis, but also in terms of containment as a preventative measure for public health. "Containing something as transmissible as COVID-19 means we shouldn't be flocking to a family physician or emergency room at the slightest symptom, because that can exacerbate spread, so remote monitoring could be powerful," said Abed. He noted that during a public health crisis, the more high-quality data that is available, the better organizations will be at forecasting and planning for multiple scenarios based on their likelihood. "The right platform processing datasets at volume, speed and with sophistication could significantly impact our ability to take more precise measures for containment," he said. Abed pointed to AI-based technologies like chatbots, saying they could be effective for triaging and guiding that general public for self-isolation. "It will not be 100 percent accurate, as not every person will be classically symptomatic when they used a bot and might simply be an atypical case," he noted. "However, the goal at a public health level is to minimize spread so chatbots could be useful to guide human behavior and be an efficient resource when a health system is short on staff to take calls." Rajput agreed chatbots can have some advantages. For example, they can engage people and provide education about their disease or ask them to take certain precautions. "This type of automated engagement can support the interactions patients have with their clinicians, but its value does not come close to other AI-based tools such as AI-driven analytics combined with a clinical-grade wearable for remote monitoring," he noted. Dr. Jay Anders, chief medical officer of Medicomp Systems, a provider of physician-driven point-of care solutions that fix EHRs, said with the outbreak of COVID-19, quick identification and accurate diagnosis of the condition is critical to help prevent the spread of the virus. "Our clinical knowledge base team is constantly monitoring new and existing diagnoses, guidelines and terminologies to ensure our clinical data engine is up to date and accurate," Anders explained. "As new diseases or illnesses are identified, we enter the clinical guidelines into our database, along with any clinically-relevant terminologies, symptoms and information." However, Anders noted that preventing the further spread of COVID-19 requires more than entering in the terminologies and diagnosis protocols into a clinical database. "The quick identification of the virus is critical, and the best way to get clinical guidelines and terminologies in front of a physician is to provide them at the point of care," he said. When treating a symptomatic patient, physicians should be presented with a clinically relevant diagnosis when documenting the chart note, because when armed with the most current information at the point of care, physicians can make accurate and timely diagnoses. He said the greatest challenge of compiling and distributing clinical information is that existing EHRs are inundated with too much data that is neither structured nor accessible. "When time is of the essence – which it currently is with the coronavirus outbreak – physicians do not have time to search through screens upon screens of data to find the information they need," Anders noted. He explained that clinicians need data that is compiled, stored, and distributed in a structured, clinically relevant format, which not only allows for quicker identification of presenting symptoms, but also makes it easier to interpret and share with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other physicians. "To slow the spread of COVID-19, clinicians need tools that help them to quickly and accurately identify potentially infected patients, and efficiently and effectively share critical disease information," he said. Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin. Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com. Twitter: @dropdeaded209. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication. MORE
Should you get a mammogram at age 45? Should you start taking a statin? Is now the time to get a hip replacement? You can go down rabbit holes trying to research these online, talk to friends about their experiences, or have a few too many opinions thrown at you in online communities. MORE
Due to the dramatic increase in demand for telehealth services, Clocktree’s system has experienced times of overload, making some services very slow or unavailable. We will post current updates here, letting everyone know the current status. Thanks for your patience through this time, and please know we are doing everything we can to make things go smoothly for you and your clients: Wednesday 3/25, 6am PST: System functional, no reported issues. MORE
120 You have probably never heard the term “insulin fibrillation” before or have even the slightest idea of what it means. But, if you are a type 1 pump user, odds are, this little-known chemical process affects you on a daily basis. MORE
Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR) Population Health Telehealth Workflow Workforce On the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, UW has ramped up telemedicine capabilities and made immediate changes to its EHR to support COVID-19 care. Eric J. MORE
After escaping the revolution in Iran, Sean Khozin found his way to the United States, harmonizing his passion for patients and data into a career that’s led him into startups, the FDA, and most recently J&J, where he’s now Global Head of Data Strategy – all while pursuing his love of music. MORE
Seth Feuerstein’s grandfather was a physician and his parents were both attorneys, so naturally his parents thought he would become…a comedian! While that didn’t come to be, he did end up as both a doctor and a lawyer who practiced neither discipline full time. MORE
uctThose of us who evaluate business plans for a living, or at least for part of a living, are accustomed to reviewing dozens, maybe even hundreds of plans before finding one that gives us a rush of excitement. MORE
212 As COVID-19 continues to spread across the US, healthcare providers and industry experts take to Twitter to dispel myths. MORE
From testing backup and disaster recovery plans to ensuring the right pieces are in place to facilitate telehealth, there are several steps healthcare IT leaders can take to overcome the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. MORE
Elder Home Monitoring 2.0 – it may fill a growing need. Several companies noted were at CES or with announcements at or around that time offered up the possible – a dashboard or collected insights about the wellbeing of an older adult at home. MORE
The crisis is opening up new opportunities for health and tech, but it is also bringing new challenges. MORE
Banner Health VeeMed partnership Banner Health Telehealth Network Acute Virtual Care virtual primary care virtual urgent care tele-behavioral health MORE
Latest stimulus bill offers plenty for digital health — Telehealth in the states MORE
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted instant behavior and tech changes. And not just about hand washing and social distancing. For the past two days, it’s apparent that the seemingly forever slow growth of telehealth adoption has entered a new, “When can I have that? Yesterday?” phase. MORE
The Centers for Disease Control has released helpful steps for Americans to take to prepare for a possible outbreak of the novel coronavirus. One of these steps is to make sure you have a plan to manage your family’s healthcare online. Now is a good time to access your Clocktree account and make sure you know how to contact your healthcare professionals online, should the need arise. MORE
Online mental health support is increasingly important as communities face lockdown and social distancing measures MORE
Next week, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) will convene CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, where over 180,000 tech-minded people from around the world will convene to kick the tires on new TVs, games, smart home devices, 5G connections, 3-D printing, drones, and to be sure, digital health innovations. At #CES2020, exhibitors in the health/care ecosystem will go well beyond wearable devices for tracking steps and heart rate. I’ll be meeting with wearable tech innovators along with consumer electronics companies and retailers. I’ve also scheduled get-togethers with pharma and life science folks, health plan people, and execs from consumer health companies. And with organizations you might not yet connect to health, well-being, and medical care. Mainstream media have been covering every angle on CES for the past few weeks. Entrepreneur identified five innovations that will dominate CES 2020, and I see health/care in all of them: wearable AR/VR, autonomous farming, IoT in the kitchen, personal translators, and remote health monitoring. Forbes ran a column on CES 2020 discussing AI in hearing and vision. Hearables have been emerging at CES for a few years, and now vision will be a newer category to watch. (As a sidebar, note that the American Girl Doll of the Year for 2020 is Joss , who surfs and wears a hearing aid). And in FierceHealthcare , CTA President Gary Shapiro wrote this column last week on how technology is a key to enabling value-based care. To give you a sense of how health and wellness at CES have grown since 2013, consider Asthmapolis, a pioneer in digital respiratory health. At CES 2013, David Van Sickle, CEO and founder of Asthmapolis, spoke in a CES keynote panel about the usefulness of health data in the cloud. Later in 2013, Asthmapolis changed its name to Propeller Health. The company was acquired by ResMed exactly one year ago during CES 2019. Subsequently, ResMed joined with Dr. Oz to launch SleepScore Labs – an exhibitor at CES 2020 in the fast-growing sleep category at the Show. Healthcare is getting serious at #CES2020, blurring into the medical and FDA regulated turf which Omron pioneered last year launching its 80+-patented blood pressure watch, the HeartGuide. This year, Omron garnered a CES 2020 innovation award nomination for its new “Complete” device embedding EKG with the blood pressure monitor. Heart monitoring is now table stakes for wearable tech in health, with many wrist-worn wearables tracking heart rate. The signal that CTA “hearts” health this is year is that CTA is partnering with the American College of Cardiology to grant physicians attending CES to earn Continuing Medical Education credits as part of a new “Disruptive Innovations in Health Care” conference. This is something that we forecasters would have put in the “wild card” category nine years ago. The agenda for that session looks like a blur between HIMSS, Health 2.0, Connected Health and the ATA Conference – covering digital health and value-based care, reimbursement, home care, and clinician/technology partnerships. I have also heard that several hundred physicians are signed up to attend CES – again, showing this meeting has become an important forum for healthcare. The Digital Health Summit celebrates a decade at #CES2020, and I’ll be participating in this all-health-meeting within CES, as well — especially looking forward to brainstorming “Smart Health Just Got Smarter” with Roy Jakobs who leads Philip’s consumer health business. Year on year for the past decade, digital health has grown at CES: this year will the category will expand by 25% which is the kind of growth seen since I began to attend the conference nine years (and about 30,000 fewer attendees) ago. I called out this growth and importance of CES for health/care in my book, HealthConsuming: From Health Consumer to Health Citizen , published in May 2019. I am gratified that the book was chosen for Gary’s Book Club at CES 2020, where I’ll be interviewed by CTA’s Kinsey Fabrizio (who has driven health and fitness at the Association for many years) and do a book signing. Aside from feeling excited and humbled by this on a personal level, it’s important to see this choice of a book theme by CTA as recognition that health/care, for both self-care DIY and clinical medical applications, make up an important component of the consumer electronics industry. Here is my pre-look into what I expect to explore at #CES2020 through my health/care-is-everywhere lens…. The next era for health-wearables isn’t about the wearable device — it’s about the data. A recent blog from Valencell, a long-time digital health exhibitor at CES, pointed out “ why this time is different for wearables.” The essay pointed out four factors identified by Andreessen Horowitz’s Vijay Pande: machine learning, biometric sensor data, at scale, in context. Vijay observed that it’s the aggregation of data emanating from wearable tech and remote health monitoring devices, along with other observed behavior from, say, voice tech or driving a car, that’s driving the next phase of wearable tech growth. Digital Swiss Army knives for health: devices do more. The launch of Omron’s Complete is an FDA-cleared innovation so it’s clinically accurate for healthcare providers to trust in their workflow. The product combines blood pressure monitoring and EKG in one device. This is significant for medical care, addressing the public health challenge of AFib, atrial fibrillation, which is a risk factor for increased risk of stroke and heart failure. Complete is an early example of a concept that does “more than one thing.” Just as we see with polypills in pharmacy – therapies that address more than one condition, making it easier for patients to be adherent to prescription drug regimes – having digital health tools that serve more than one function adds value to the wearable or monitoring device, serving up greater convenience and value to the patient and the provider. Your car as a third space for health. True to my Detroit birth-roots, I’ve been following connected cars for health and well-being for several years. In 2017, I wrote about your car as a mobile platform for health , a new definition for the phrase “mHealth.” This year we’ll see more concept cars embedding health, wellness and well-being (HWW) that are using AI to feed back data and coaching to the driver. Last year, Kia worked with Affectiva, demonstrating a car that could sense a passenger’s mood and emotions, triggering the use of aromatherapy and lighting to bolster the person’s well-being. My 2017 post in Health Populi explained Mercedes-Benz’ prototype for health using scents and music to boost the passenger’s energy or calm a stressed person down. This year, connected cars will incorporate more data analytics, safety objectives, voice and camera devices for cars to evolve toward business models for health. A key part of a business model could be a consumer’s willingness to trade-off personal information about their time in the car with, say, a discount for car insurance or other financial inducement. The mouth as gateway to health. Oral care is a huge consumer packaged goods category for self-care, and the electronics aspects of toothbrushing has heated up in the past few years. Last CES, Philips Sonicare line introduced a tele-dentistry program which connected consumers to dentists in the community. At CES 2020, Colgate, the toothpaste and oral care brand favorite is rumored to be introducing a new smart toothbrush. Colgate has been collaborating with Apple Health and Research Kit for over a year, so we can expect collaborations like this to be expanding to oral care – where evidence has been building connecting physical health (such as diabetes, heart conditions and stroke) to oral health. Caregiving is the new black – watch for voice and robots to help. The Longevity Economy is an important through-line at CES 2020 with the likes of Philips Lifeline, Samsung’s piBo the robot, LiveFreely’s Buddy, Addison the Virtual Caregiver (who first appeared last year), and PECOLA , the “Personal Companion for Older People Living Alone” which is an honoree in the Smart Home category this year. I expect to see more such developments that will enable people to age-in-place longer. No question, too, that Alexa and other voice assistants will continue to have skills developed aimed at enhancing older peoples’ lives and ability to stay in their homes safely and securely. Laurie Orlov, author of the Aging in Place Technology Watch , writes in her new report on Voice, Health and Wellbeing 2020 (launching today at CES) that voice technology is particularly suited for older adults and those with disabilities. Laurie’s pioneering research into the voice market for health and wellness found that, “speaking to a device was going to be one of the most significant technology enablers for seniors, their caregivers and families.” In addition to voice, we’ll find more robots featured at CES across applications; I look forward to meeting and petting TomBot, a robotic puppy that was designed with folks from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. While it looks like a toy, TomBot was designed for people dealing with dementia. Food-tech for health. With growing attention to the role of food in health and local food gaining traction in many parts of the world, 2019 ushered in a new era of grocery chains bringing agriculture inside their brick-and-mortar stores. Walmart and Kroger have both entured into this area. Increasingly, as consumers take on more DIY lifestyles, gardening and especially home-growing healthy food is an expanding market. At CES 2020, LG will announce an indoor gardening appliance as part of this growing movement among people keen to know the provenance and quality of their food and living healthier, greener lifestyles, LG observed in its press release. The home as health hub. At CES 2019, I happened upon Stanley Black & Decker. To me, the company has been long associated with DIY home-making, supplying my family with quality tools that help us make our house our safe and comfortable nest. Last year, the company’s innovation team in Boston launched SB&D’s entry into health through the prototype of Pria, a medication adherence concept, which I discussed here in Health Populi. From Stanley Black & Decker, I point you to Whirlpool, with whom I met several years ago at CES 2015 when I looked up to the ceiling to see the company mantra, “Every day, care.” I thought to myself, “wait – these are home appliances” in this lovely homey booth. Fast forward to today, and Whirlpool is bolstering social determinants of health via the #CareCounts program, granting washing machines to schools that help students stay in school wearing clean clothes. This bolsters education which further reinforces a young person’s odds of finishing school, getting a good job, and increasing income opportunities and financial health. These factors, my friends, underpin economic justice, health equity and longer quality life-years. Big Tech and Health at CES: privacy and products. Of course, Big Tech companies will be at CES – Google, Facebook, Amazon, and this year for the first time in a long time, Apple, will all feature developments. Bloomberg’s story noted that the last time someone from Apple spoke at CES was in 1992 when Richard Sculley was on the dais. Apple’s decision to attend this year has been widely covered in tech media, with the overall headline that Jane Horvath, Apple’s Senior Director of Global Privacy, will speak at CES during a roundtable discussion about digital privacy. She’ll talk alongside top execs from Facebook, the USA’s FTC regulator, and Procter & Gamble. Apple is not expected to make a big product announcement at CES2020, but those of us in health/care should be mindful that this privacy discussion is a critical pillar in health data – especially as California’s CCPA is now enacted in this new year, and the GDPR is fully in force through Europe. Beyond my own checklist, you can check out what’s next and new at CES 2020 in this CTA press release : there’s health embedded everywhere as I see it, which is why I spend an entire week at this conference to meet up with folks innovating in autos, on TVs, via fast connections, in media, building smart cities, washing laundry, sex health and, yes, medicine and wellbeing, too. I conclude HealthConsuming in a few paragraphs under the section heading, “Home is not just where the heart is: it’s our health hub.” At #CES2020, we’ll see more connected “things” in the IoT for health and wellness at home and in our vehicles. There a global trend for self-care bolstered by over-the-counter products, exercise equipment and subscriptions, food-as-medicine, direct-to-consumer genetic and ancestry testing, and to be sure, digital health tools taking the form of wearable tech, remote health monitors, and data mash-ups. There will be plenty of technologies and “things” to explore that can help our health. Tech and things won’t be the barriers to improving health. Public policies, lagging regulations, economic opportunity, political will, and our personal commitments to owning rather than “renting” our health, will be the limitations to tech realizing its full potential for health and wellness in 2020 and beyond. The post What HealthyThinker Is Thinking About Health at CES 2020 appeared first on HealthPopuli.com. Aging Aging and Technology Amazon Artificial intelligence Autonomous cars Big data and health Broadband Caregivers Chronic disease Cognitive computing and health Computers and health Connected health Consumer electronics Data analytics and health Design and health Diabetes Digital health Digital therapeutics FDA Food and health GDPR Health and Beauty Health and safety Health at home Health Consumers Health ecosystem Health equity Heart health Home care Internet of things Medication adherence mHealth Mobile health Nutrition Popular culture and health Prescription drugs Prevention and wellness Remote health monitoring Retail health Robots Robots and health Self-care Sensors and health Sex and health Shopping and health Smart cities Smartwatches Telehealth Telemedicine Value based health Voice technology Wearable tech Wearables Wellbeing MORE
With President Trump’s somber speech from the Oval Office last night, we wake up on 12th March 2020 to a ban on most travel from Europe to the U.S., recommendations for hygiene, and call to come together in America. MORE
More details on Google’s coronavirus site — A call for health data donations MORE
Millions of dollars and developers’ time have been invested in conceiving and making digital health tools. MORE
While there is a large and growing market for remote patient monitoring technologies, with particular benefits for the older population, simplification of connection technologies – Bluetooth for one – will be key to the broader adoption of RPM in 2020. MORE
KevinMD
JANUARY 7, 2020
A recent study published in Science, one of the world’s leading academic journals, found that a predictive health care algorithm discriminated against black patients.
Health Populi
MARCH 10, 2020
Millions of dollars and developers’ time have been invested in conceiving and making digital health tools.
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Digital Health
FEBRUARY 10, 2020
uctThose of us who evaluate business plans for a living, or at least for part of a living, are accustomed to reviewing dozens, maybe even hundreds of plans before finding one that gives us a rush of excitement.
Mobi Health News
MARCH 11, 2020
As COVID-19 continues to spread across the US, healthcare providers and industry experts take to Twitter to dispel myths.
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As the healthcare system faces unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 crisis, it’s more important than ever to make the most of clinical resources. Automation holds the key to drastically increasing clinical capacity and flattening the curve.
Clocktree
MARCH 25, 2020
Due to the dramatic increase in demand for telehealth services, Clocktree’s system has experienced times of overload, making some services very slow or unavailable. We will post current updates here, letting everyone know the current status. Thanks for your patience through this time, and please know we are doing everything we can to make things go smoothly for you and your clients: Wednesday 3/25, 6am PST: System functional, no reported issues.
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Connected Health Pulse brings together the best content for digital health professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
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Morning eHealth
MARCH 23, 2020
Latest stimulus bill offers plenty for digital health — Telehealth in the states
Insulin Nation
MARCH 3, 2020
For a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic, there is nothing scarier than having your blood sugar bottom out. One minute you’re fine, the next you’re sitting in a pool of your own sweat trembling and struggling to put a coherent thought together.
Aging in Place Technology Watch
MARCH 19, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted instant behavior and tech changes. And not just about hand washing and social distancing. For the past two days, it’s apparent that the seemingly forever slow growth of telehealth adoption has entered a new, “When can I have that? Yesterday?” phase.
Healthcare IT Today
MARCH 26, 2020
One of the big challenges healthcare faces is sharing data between healthcare organizations who need that data. Healthcare interoperability, as we call it, has been a challenge for a long time. However, we’ve known that it is much less of a technical challenge and more of a business challenge.
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The primary care system is failing patients and providers. Capacity shortages have led to long wait times and physician burnout. To fix the system, we must find innovative ways to boost capacity and meet patient-consumers’ shifting expectations.
eVisit
JANUARY 21, 2020
Banner Health VeeMed partnership Banner Health Telehealth Network Acute Virtual Care virtual primary care virtual urgent care tele-behavioral health
KevinMD
MARCH 3, 2020
I work for a hospital network with the world's slowest computers. I timed it: Last shift, it took me fifteen minutes to log on. The first computer obtained didn't function at all. It had been worked on the day before by information technology services (IT).
Health Populi
MARCH 12, 2020
With President Trump’s somber speech from the Oval Office last night, we wake up on 12th March 2020 to a ban on most travel from Europe to the U.S., recommendations for hygiene, and call to come together in America.
Digital Health
FEBRUARY 17, 2020
Seth Feuerstein’s grandfather was a physician and his parents were both attorneys, so naturally his parents thought he would become…a comedian! While that didn’t come to be, he did end up as both a doctor and a lawyer who practiced neither discipline full time.
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Mobi Health News
MARCH 11, 2020
The crisis is opening up new opportunities for health and tech, but it is also bringing new challenges.
Clocktree
MARCH 24, 2020
We are experiencing severe overload of our system, but doing everything we can to remedy this. We hope to be back to normal operation soon. Our engineers are working around the clock to try to handle the increased volume but we don’t have an ETA on when this will be fully resolved. We are so sorry for the convenience this is causing during this crucial time, and thank you for your patience
Healthcare IT News - Telehealth
MARCH 5, 2020
Digital tools such as telehealth, remote patient monitoring, data analytics and even consumer-facing AI-based chatbots could play a key role in containing the outbreak of COVID-19 and help people who think they've been exposed to the novel coronavirus – but experts warn that such tools are not a cure-all. For example, AI-based algorithms could be most helpful in providing information about patients who have already been diagnosed with COVID-19 or who are suspected of being infected. Monitoring these patients remotely with clinical-grade sensors and collecting data on numerous physiological signals could improve clinical decision-making for providers, and the process can also help them learn more about the disease so they can better treat it. The learning from the AI-based algorithms could then be combined with other information such as laboratory and imaging tests to create a composite mechanism that could help clinicians understand the disease better, and ultimately lead to better detection or prediction of the early signs of infection. Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO of Biofourmis, a Boston-based specialist in digital therapeutics, told Healthcare IT News that there are clinical-grade wearables now available that can monitor patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 who are under quarantine, whether it's in a home or healthcare setting. The wearable biosensors capture multiple physiology signs. And when combined with advanced analytics, Rajput says there is a "huge opportunity" to detect physiology changes indicative of clinical deterioration that require medical intervention. "While there's still much the medical community does not know about COVID-19, there are known signs and symptoms such as fever, increased respiration and shortness of breath," he explained. "Physiological signals such as temperature, respiration rate and heart rate can be measured by wearables while a patient is in quarantine to detect worsening conditions and impending issues." Dr. Saif Abed, director of cybersecurity advisory services at AbedGraham, explained that any platform that allows the general public to self-screen, virtually seek clinical guidance, be triaged or receive support during self-isolation/quarantine is going to be beneficial, not just in terms of diagnosis, but also in terms of containment as a preventative measure for public health. "Containing something as transmissible as COVID-19 means we shouldn't be flocking to a family physician or emergency room at the slightest symptom, because that can exacerbate spread, so remote monitoring could be powerful," said Abed. He noted that during a public health crisis, the more high-quality data that is available, the better organizations will be at forecasting and planning for multiple scenarios based on their likelihood. "The right platform processing datasets at volume, speed and with sophistication could significantly impact our ability to take more precise measures for containment," he said. Abed pointed to AI-based technologies like chatbots, saying they could be effective for triaging and guiding that general public for self-isolation. "It will not be 100 percent accurate, as not every person will be classically symptomatic when they used a bot and might simply be an atypical case," he noted. "However, the goal at a public health level is to minimize spread so chatbots could be useful to guide human behavior and be an efficient resource when a health system is short on staff to take calls." Rajput agreed chatbots can have some advantages. For example, they can engage people and provide education about their disease or ask them to take certain precautions. "This type of automated engagement can support the interactions patients have with their clinicians, but its value does not come close to other AI-based tools such as AI-driven analytics combined with a clinical-grade wearable for remote monitoring," he noted. Dr. Jay Anders, chief medical officer of Medicomp Systems, a provider of physician-driven point-of care solutions that fix EHRs, said with the outbreak of COVID-19, quick identification and accurate diagnosis of the condition is critical to help prevent the spread of the virus. "Our clinical knowledge base team is constantly monitoring new and existing diagnoses, guidelines and terminologies to ensure our clinical data engine is up to date and accurate," Anders explained. "As new diseases or illnesses are identified, we enter the clinical guidelines into our database, along with any clinically-relevant terminologies, symptoms and information." However, Anders noted that preventing the further spread of COVID-19 requires more than entering in the terminologies and diagnosis protocols into a clinical database. "The quick identification of the virus is critical, and the best way to get clinical guidelines and terminologies in front of a physician is to provide them at the point of care," he said. When treating a symptomatic patient, physicians should be presented with a clinically relevant diagnosis when documenting the chart note, because when armed with the most current information at the point of care, physicians can make accurate and timely diagnoses. He said the greatest challenge of compiling and distributing clinical information is that existing EHRs are inundated with too much data that is neither structured nor accessible. "When time is of the essence – which it currently is with the coronavirus outbreak – physicians do not have time to search through screens upon screens of data to find the information they need," Anders noted. He explained that clinicians need data that is compiled, stored, and distributed in a structured, clinically relevant format, which not only allows for quicker identification of presenting symptoms, but also makes it easier to interpret and share with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other physicians. "To slow the spread of COVID-19, clinicians need tools that help them to quickly and accurately identify potentially infected patients, and efficiently and effectively share critical disease information," he said. Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin. Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com. Twitter: @dropdeaded209. Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
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Insulin Nation
FEBRUARY 20, 2020
You have probably never heard the term “insulin fibrillation” before or have even the slightest idea of what it means. But, if you are a type 1 pump user, odds are, this little-known chemical process affects you on a daily basis.
Aging in Place Technology Watch
JANUARY 21, 2020
Elder Home Monitoring 2.0 – it may fill a growing need. Several companies noted were at CES or with announcements at or around that time offered up the possible – a dashboard or collected insights about the wellbeing of an older adult at home.
Healthcare IT Today
FEBRUARY 20, 2020
Should you get a mammogram at age 45? Should you start taking a statin? Is now the time to get a hip replacement? You can go down rabbit holes trying to research these online, talk to friends about their experiences, or have a few too many opinions thrown at you in online communities.
Health System CIO
MARCH 26, 2020
From testing backup and disaster recovery plans to ensuring the right pieces are in place to facilitate telehealth, there are several steps healthcare IT leaders can take to overcome the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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KevinMD
JANUARY 31, 2020
What if I told you just a few years ago that Amazon — a budding e-commerce startup — would come to disrupt the multi-billion dollar retail industry. I seriously doubt that anyone could have given it a serious thought.
Health Populi
JANUARY 2, 2020
Next week, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) will convene CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, where over 180,000 tech-minded people from around the world will convene to kick the tires on new TVs, games, smart home devices, 5G connections, 3-D printing, drones, and to be sure, digital health innovations. At #CES2020, exhibitors in the health/care ecosystem will go well beyond wearable devices for tracking steps and heart rate. I’ll be meeting with wearable tech innovators along with consumer electronics companies and retailers. I’ve also scheduled get-togethers with pharma and life science folks, health plan people, and execs from consumer health companies. And with organizations you might not yet connect to health, well-being, and medical care. Mainstream media have been covering every angle on CES for the past few weeks. Entrepreneur identified five innovations that will dominate CES 2020, and I see health/care in all of them: wearable AR/VR, autonomous farming, IoT in the kitchen, personal translators, and remote health monitoring. Forbes ran a column on CES 2020 discussing AI in hearing and vision. Hearables have been emerging at CES for a few years, and now vision will be a newer category to watch. (As a sidebar, note that the American Girl Doll of the Year for 2020 is Joss , who surfs and wears a hearing aid). And in FierceHealthcare , CTA President Gary Shapiro wrote this column last week on how technology is a key to enabling value-based care. To give you a sense of how health and wellness at CES have grown since 2013, consider Asthmapolis, a pioneer in digital respiratory health. At CES 2013, David Van Sickle, CEO and founder of Asthmapolis, spoke in a CES keynote panel about the usefulness of health data in the cloud. Later in 2013, Asthmapolis changed its name to Propeller Health. The company was acquired by ResMed exactly one year ago during CES 2019. Subsequently, ResMed joined with Dr. Oz to launch SleepScore Labs – an exhibitor at CES 2020 in the fast-growing sleep category at the Show. Healthcare is getting serious at #CES2020, blurring into the medical and FDA regulated turf which Omron pioneered last year launching its 80+-patented blood pressure watch, the HeartGuide. This year, Omron garnered a CES 2020 innovation award nomination for its new “Complete” device embedding EKG with the blood pressure monitor. Heart monitoring is now table stakes for wearable tech in health, with many wrist-worn wearables tracking heart rate. The signal that CTA “hearts” health this is year is that CTA is partnering with the American College of Cardiology to grant physicians attending CES to earn Continuing Medical Education credits as part of a new “Disruptive Innovations in Health Care” conference. This is something that we forecasters would have put in the “wild card” category nine years ago. The agenda for that session looks like a blur between HIMSS, Health 2.0, Connected Health and the ATA Conference – covering digital health and value-based care, reimbursement, home care, and clinician/technology partnerships. I have also heard that several hundred physicians are signed up to attend CES – again, showing this meeting has become an important forum for healthcare. The Digital Health Summit celebrates a decade at #CES2020, and I’ll be participating in this all-health-meeting within CES, as well — especially looking forward to brainstorming “Smart Health Just Got Smarter” with Roy Jakobs who leads Philip’s consumer health business. Year on year for the past decade, digital health has grown at CES: this year will the category will expand by 25% which is the kind of growth seen since I began to attend the conference nine years (and about 30,000 fewer attendees) ago. I called out this growth and importance of CES for health/care in my book, HealthConsuming: From Health Consumer to Health Citizen , published in May 2019. I am gratified that the book was chosen for Gary’s Book Club at CES 2020, where I’ll be interviewed by CTA’s Kinsey Fabrizio (who has driven health and fitness at the Association for many years) and do a book signing. Aside from feeling excited and humbled by this on a personal level, it’s important to see this choice of a book theme by CTA as recognition that health/care, for both self-care DIY and clinical medical applications, make up an important component of the consumer electronics industry. Here is my pre-look into what I expect to explore at #CES2020 through my health/care-is-everywhere lens…. The next era for health-wearables isn’t about the wearable device — it’s about the data. A recent blog from Valencell, a long-time digital health exhibitor at CES, pointed out “ why this time is different for wearables.” The essay pointed out four factors identified by Andreessen Horowitz’s Vijay Pande: machine learning, biometric sensor data, at scale, in context. Vijay observed that it’s the aggregation of data emanating from wearable tech and remote health monitoring devices, along with other observed behavior from, say, voice tech or driving a car, that’s driving the next phase of wearable tech growth. Digital Swiss Army knives for health: devices do more. The launch of Omron’s Complete is an FDA-cleared innovation so it’s clinically accurate for healthcare providers to trust in their workflow. The product combines blood pressure monitoring and EKG in one device. This is significant for medical care, addressing the public health challenge of AFib, atrial fibrillation, which is a risk factor for increased risk of stroke and heart failure. Complete is an early example of a concept that does “more than one thing.” Just as we see with polypills in pharmacy – therapies that address more than one condition, making it easier for patients to be adherent to prescription drug regimes – having digital health tools that serve more than one function adds value to the wearable or monitoring device, serving up greater convenience and value to the patient and the provider. Your car as a third space for health. True to my Detroit birth-roots, I’ve been following connected cars for health and well-being for several years. In 2017, I wrote about your car as a mobile platform for health , a new definition for the phrase “mHealth.” This year we’ll see more concept cars embedding health, wellness and well-being (HWW) that are using AI to feed back data and coaching to the driver. Last year, Kia worked with Affectiva, demonstrating a car that could sense a passenger’s mood and emotions, triggering the use of aromatherapy and lighting to bolster the person’s well-being. My 2017 post in Health Populi explained Mercedes-Benz’ prototype for health using scents and music to boost the passenger’s energy or calm a stressed person down. This year, connected cars will incorporate more data analytics, safety objectives, voice and camera devices for cars to evolve toward business models for health. A key part of a business model could be a consumer’s willingness to trade-off personal information about their time in the car with, say, a discount for car insurance or other financial inducement. The mouth as gateway to health. Oral care is a huge consumer packaged goods category for self-care, and the electronics aspects of toothbrushing has heated up in the past few years. Last CES, Philips Sonicare line introduced a tele-dentistry program which connected consumers to dentists in the community. At CES 2020, Colgate, the toothpaste and oral care brand favorite is rumored to be introducing a new smart toothbrush. Colgate has been collaborating with Apple Health and Research Kit for over a year, so we can expect collaborations like this to be expanding to oral care – where evidence has been building connecting physical health (such as diabetes, heart conditions and stroke) to oral health. Caregiving is the new black – watch for voice and robots to help. The Longevity Economy is an important through-line at CES 2020 with the likes of Philips Lifeline, Samsung’s piBo the robot, LiveFreely’s Buddy, Addison the Virtual Caregiver (who first appeared last year), and PECOLA , the “Personal Companion for Older People Living Alone” which is an honoree in the Smart Home category this year. I expect to see more such developments that will enable people to age-in-place longer. No question, too, that Alexa and other voice assistants will continue to have skills developed aimed at enhancing older peoples’ lives and ability to stay in their homes safely and securely. Laurie Orlov, author of the Aging in Place Technology Watch , writes in her new report on Voice, Health and Wellbeing 2020 (launching today at CES) that voice technology is particularly suited for older adults and those with disabilities. Laurie’s pioneering research into the voice market for health and wellness found that, “speaking to a device was going to be one of the most significant technology enablers for seniors, their caregivers and families.” In addition to voice, we’ll find more robots featured at CES across applications; I look forward to meeting and petting TomBot, a robotic puppy that was designed with folks from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. While it looks like a toy, TomBot was designed for people dealing with dementia. Food-tech for health. With growing attention to the role of food in health and local food gaining traction in many parts of the world, 2019 ushered in a new era of grocery chains bringing agriculture inside their brick-and-mortar stores. Walmart and Kroger have both entured into this area. Increasingly, as consumers take on more DIY lifestyles, gardening and especially home-growing healthy food is an expanding market. At CES 2020, LG will announce an indoor gardening appliance as part of this growing movement among people keen to know the provenance and quality of their food and living healthier, greener lifestyles, LG observed in its press release. The home as health hub. At CES 2019, I happened upon Stanley Black & Decker. To me, the company has been long associated with DIY home-making, supplying my family with quality tools that help us make our house our safe and comfortable nest. Last year, the company’s innovation team in Boston launched SB&D’s entry into health through the prototype of Pria, a medication adherence concept, which I discussed here in Health Populi. From Stanley Black & Decker, I point you to Whirlpool, with whom I met several years ago at CES 2015 when I looked up to the ceiling to see the company mantra, “Every day, care.” I thought to myself, “wait – these are home appliances” in this lovely homey booth. Fast forward to today, and Whirlpool is bolstering social determinants of health via the #CareCounts program, granting washing machines to schools that help students stay in school wearing clean clothes. This bolsters education which further reinforces a young person’s odds of finishing school, getting a good job, and increasing income opportunities and financial health. These factors, my friends, underpin economic justice, health equity and longer quality life-years. Big Tech and Health at CES: privacy and products. Of course, Big Tech companies will be at CES – Google, Facebook, Amazon, and this year for the first time in a long time, Apple, will all feature developments. Bloomberg’s story noted that the last time someone from Apple spoke at CES was in 1992 when Richard Sculley was on the dais. Apple’s decision to attend this year has been widely covered in tech media, with the overall headline that Jane Horvath, Apple’s Senior Director of Global Privacy, will speak at CES during a roundtable discussion about digital privacy. She’ll talk alongside top execs from Facebook, the USA’s FTC regulator, and Procter & Gamble. Apple is not expected to make a big product announcement at CES2020, but those of us in health/care should be mindful that this privacy discussion is a critical pillar in health data – especially as California’s CCPA is now enacted in this new year, and the GDPR is fully in force through Europe. Beyond my own checklist, you can check out what’s next and new at CES 2020 in this CTA press release : there’s health embedded everywhere as I see it, which is why I spend an entire week at this conference to meet up with folks innovating in autos, on TVs, via fast connections, in media, building smart cities, washing laundry, sex health and, yes, medicine and wellbeing, too. I conclude HealthConsuming in a few paragraphs under the section heading, “Home is not just where the heart is: it’s our health hub.” At #CES2020, we’ll see more connected “things” in the IoT for health and wellness at home and in our vehicles. There a global trend for self-care bolstered by over-the-counter products, exercise equipment and subscriptions, food-as-medicine, direct-to-consumer genetic and ancestry testing, and to be sure, digital health tools taking the form of wearable tech, remote health monitors, and data mash-ups. There will be plenty of technologies and “things” to explore that can help our health. Tech and things won’t be the barriers to improving health. Public policies, lagging regulations, economic opportunity, political will, and our personal commitments to owning rather than “renting” our health, will be the limitations to tech realizing its full potential for health and wellness in 2020 and beyond. The post What HealthyThinker Is Thinking About Health at CES 2020 appeared first on HealthPopuli.com. Aging Aging and Technology Amazon Artificial intelligence Autonomous cars Big data and health Broadband Caregivers Chronic disease Cognitive computing and health Computers and health Connected health Consumer electronics Data analytics and health Design and health Diabetes Digital health Digital therapeutics FDA Food and health GDPR Health and Beauty Health and safety Health at home Health Consumers Health ecosystem Health equity Heart health Home care Internet of things Medication adherence mHealth Mobile health Nutrition Popular culture and health Prescription drugs Prevention and wellness Remote health monitoring Retail health Robots Robots and health Self-care Sensors and health Sex and health Shopping and health Smart cities Smartwatches Telehealth Telemedicine Value based health Voice technology Wearable tech Wearables Wellbeing
Digital Health
FEBRUARY 3, 2020
After escaping the revolution in Iran, Sean Khozin found his way to the United States, harmonizing his passion for patients and data into a career that’s led him into startups, the FDA, and most recently J&J, where he’s now Global Head of Data Strategy – all while pursuing his love of music.
Mobi Health News
MARCH 18, 2020
Online mental health support is increasingly important as communities face lockdown and social distancing measures
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90 percent of patients feel no obligation to stay with a healthcare system that doesn’t offer digital tools. What can you do in the face of such a sobering statistic? Patient-facing telehealth options that allow patients to get virtually instantaneous care privately, securely, and from anywhere can keep your patients from seeking care from the easiest, nearest, and cheapest provider.
Clocktree
MARCH 4, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control has released helpful steps for Americans to take to prepare for a possible outbreak of the novel coronavirus. One of these steps is to make sure you have a plan to manage your family’s healthcare online. Now is a good time to access your Clocktree account and make sure you know how to contact your healthcare professionals online, should the need arise.
Healthcare IT News - Telehealth
JANUARY 21, 2020
While there is a large and growing market for remote patient monitoring technologies, with particular benefits for the older population, simplification of connection technologies – Bluetooth for one – will be key to the broader adoption of RPM in 2020.
Morning eHealth
MARCH 16, 2020
More details on Google’s coronavirus site — A call for health data donations
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