The availability of innovative technologies affords us the opportunity to chart a more patient-centric, efficient, and secure path to managing and leveraging PHI.
Today, clinicians have to spend an inordinate and impractical amount of time combing through the EHR just to find the information they need to provide that level of care. All of that back-end administrative work should be the function of technology.
CPSI sold American HealthTech — its subsidiary that provides an EHR platform for the post-acute care market — to post-acute health IT vendor PointClickCare. American HealthTech's customers have already begun transitioning to PointClickCare's platform.
Right-now value could come from extractive AI, a tool that gives organizations the power to put even handwritten text sent via images or PDF by digital fax into a structured data play.
Elation Health released results of a survey it conducted to learn more about how primary care physicians feel about AI scribes. It found that they haven't really experienced the benefits of these tools yet, but they hope AI scribes can lead to time savings, reduced cognitive burden, improved job satisfaction, better patient focus and more time for care coordination.
HealthBook+ provides a way for individuals to aggregate and use their personal health information safely and securely to power AI engines that direct people to their next best health action. Importantly, it also gives employers predictive insights to help them provide the most relevant benefits for their employees.
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.
Over the past year, Meditech has deepened its relationship with Google Cloud by exploring ways to embed Google's generative AI into its EHR. Some of the use cases the EHR vendor is exploring include an enhanced search and summarization tool that would present clinicians with a longitudinal view of their patient and a tool that would auto-generate clinical documentation for the hospital course summary.
Epic announced that it will integrate Abridge’s clinical documentation tool into its EHR workflow. The startup’s generative AI tool listens to visits and creates a near-instant summary that adheres to physicians’ prototypical note structure.
Suvida Healthcare — a startup providing primary care for Medicare-eligible Hispanic adults — is adopting Elation Health’s primary care-specific technology platform. The platform comprises an EHR, as well as software for patient engagement, telehealth and revenue cycle management. Suvida's chief medical officer said Elation beat out the competition due to its focus on both primary care and value-based care.
NYU researchers conducted a study this year in which nearly 400 people were asked to identify whether responses to patient questions were produced by human providers or ChatGPT. Participants had a limited ability to tell the source of the responses apart, so the study authors concluded that the use of LLMs like ChatGPT could be an effective way to streamline healthcare providers’ communication with patients.
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
The OIG recently added some teeth to the anti-information blocking regulations laid out in the 21st Century Cures Act. The office finalized penalties, including fines of up to $1 million for health IT companies found blocking the electronic flow of health data. Interoperability expert Troy Bannister said that these fines are a good starting point for ensuring greater interoperability, but he isn’t too sure the OIG will be able to effectively enforce them.
Zocdoc recently struck a partnership with Elation Health to increase patients' access to care. Now, any provider who uses Elation’s primary care-specific EHR can integrate their calendar into Zocdoc’s platform — meaning that the millions of patients who search for care via Zocdoc each month will have access to these providers’ real-time appointment availability.
Although the flight check-in process is quick and easy, it lacks the intelligence and personalization that would make it truly exceptional. When I say I am optimistic that we can do better in healthcare, it’s because we are sitting on a wealth of data that lives, largely untapped, in the electronic health record
Epic is welcoming generative AI’s entrance into healthcare. The company is expanding its existing collaboration with Microsoft by integrating OpenAI services, such as GPT-4, into its EHR. The partners have already begun piloting OpenAI services at a few health systems, including UC San Diego Health, UW Health and Stanford Health Care.
Ultimately, the question is whether technology can provide a positive path forward. The answer will not rest in the capabilities of the modern EHR.
