The quest to digitize behavioral health data has focused on doing a better job of integrating what have historically been disconnected parts of healthcare — mental health treatment and primary care. Much of the mental health community have resisted the push to go digital over concerns that patients’ psychiatric data will be less secure and vulnerable to the kind of cyberattacks we’ve witnessed in the healthcare industry with greater frequency. And yet, that has not deterred digital health companies such as Quartet Health, Lantern, AbleTo, and SilverCloud Health from developing products aimed, at least in part, at resolving this integration of care challenge.
This effort dovetails with the management of substance abuse treatment records, which in some ways is just as sensitive an issue, if not more so. In an effort to make information about patients’ substance abuse history more accessible to clinicians as a way to improve their treatment, Pennsylvania Congressman Tim Muphy has introduced a bill that would extend Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protection to the records of patients treated for substance abuse. The Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety Act would also make it easier for patients to allow these records to be shared between physicians at different health systems. Current law requires patients to sign off on each individual provider who can view these records.
The idea is that if clinicians have a better understanding of their patients’ entire medical histories including their “addiction treatment” histories, they will avoid prescribing opioids to patients in recovery, reducing the likelihood of a relapse or drug interactions.
Rep. Murphy, from the 18th Congressional District in Pennsylvania, said in a news release that having a complete record would help physicians prevent more drug overdose deaths.
“This deadly segregation of medical records is wreaking havoc on our nation’s ability to respond to the ongoing opioid crisis…You cannot treat the whole patient with half of their medical record.”
Several healthcare statups have turned their attention to opioid and other forms of substance abuse such as Annum Health, Pear Therapeutics, Workit Health, and Sparkite.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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