UPMC researchers published a study demonstrating the efficacy of Pip Care, a surgical app and healthcare coaching platform. The research showed patients who used Pip Care reduced their hospital stay by nearly a day and cut in half their risk of readmission within a week of surgery compared to those who didn't.
Elektra Health, a virtual provider for menopause care, has secured $3.3 million in financing. With the funding, the company is focused on two areas: partnering with more payers and expanding its footprint to provide clinical care to more patients.
Some of the highest-ranked Medicare Advantage plans are SCAN Health Plan, Humana, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, UPMC for Life and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, according to a new J.D. Power report.
The Health3PT Initiative recently released recommendations on how providers can better address the cybersecurity risks linked to their third party reliance. Some of the group’s recommendations included ensuring that contract language ties financial terms to a vendor’s data management transparency and establishing metrics and reporting requirements for organization-wide vendor risks.
Researchers at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh created and deployed a machine learning algorithm that flags patients who are at high risk for postsurgical complications. The research team recently published research validating the tool in JAMA Network Open — the study found that the health system’s model outperforms the industry standard.
A group of labor unions have filed an antitrust complaint against UPMC. They alleged that the health system has prevented its workers from being able to advocate for themselves and their patients through “a draconian system of mobility restrictions and widespread labor law violations that lock in sub-competitive pay and working conditions.”
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.
A new report from Lown Institute examined the finances of 1,773 private nonprofit hospitals across the U.S. For more than three-quarters of these hospitals, their spending on charity care and community investment was less than the money they received in tax breaks in 2020. These combined deficits totaled $14.2 billion, which is enough money to relieve 18 million Americans’ medical debt or prevent 600 at-risk rural hospitals from closing, according to the report.
Many health system technology executives have found that a strong digital transformation strategy requires sustained cross-department collaboration. At a recent conference panel, tech executives from UPMC and LifeBridge Health discussed why partnerships with the marketing department and analytics team are essential.
Russian hacker group Killnet has claimed responsibility for a string of recent cyberattacks that took more than a dozen hospital websites offline across the U.S. — including the websites for Cedars-Sinai, Michigan Medicine, and UPMC. The group has been active for at least a year and is known to target countries that support and/or send resources to Ukraine.
Two Pennsylvania lawmakers are warning their constituents about UPMC, claiming the health system has built a monopoly that negatively affects both employee wellbeing and patient safety. They said UPMC has “considerable power over workers, which it wields to keep wages low, conditions unsatisfactory and prevent union organizing.”
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.
Arrive Health (formerly RxRevu) recently acquired a suite of technology developed at UPMC. The technology suite includes an AI-powered chatbot and customer relationship management platform, both designed to support improved medication adherence and prescription capture rates.
Health system leaders believe that improving patient access should be their top priority when strategically planning for 2023, according to a new report from the KLAS Research and UPMC’s Center for Connected Medicine. To improve patient access, respondents agreed that their health systems will need to make changes in three key areas — people, process and technology.
Abridge, a medical conversation AI startup, recently closed an oversubscribed $12.5 million Series A funding round. The company also launched a new app for physicians that listens to visits and creates a near-instant summary that adheres to their prototypical note structure.
Health systems are trying to deploy self-scheduling technology to meet patients' demand for consumer-friendly tools. However, a lack of physician buy-in is preventing the technology from taking off.
Though the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated some aspects of health IT, it slowed others, including EHR replacements and back-office system upgrades. CIOs from some of the nation's leading health systems shared not only the projects they put on hold, but also how they made those decisions and the challenges they faced when trying to reignite their efforts.
