News about all the “waves” of the future has become difficult to keep up with. We’re making leaps and bounds with this stuff, people! But, there is a reason they say a wave “crashes;” it breaks into pieces and is irrecoverable, absorbed back into the body from which it came. All too often, this is what happens to the news – it breaks and is right up front, for just a moment, until it is inevitably absorbed by yet more news breaking. So, to solve that problem, consider us your “smart bucket,” so to speak. We’ll collect, sure, but we’ll also curate. So here, after sieving the sand away, we present you with those gems worth keeping from the Last Week in Health Tech.
Other articles or items worth noting include that three more providers were added to the list of HIMSS Davies Awards for “healthcare technology innovations that improve patient outcomes.” It was also argued that technology is a necessary condition to providing “world-class patient-centered healthcare.” But it’s not just “world-class” providers turning to technology. For instance, Computer Weekly would argue that technology is transforming healthcare delivery in the Gulf region, not to mention the many other items in this very post. It would also just be uncool not to note that a company called Shoulder Innovations is developing a new shoulder implant technology that looks quite promising.
As happened last week, we learned more about EHRs, this time specifically burnout related to their current level of density and maze-like complexity… and how that burnout can be fought. It is certainly something about which almost every healthcare professional can agree, and one does not get to say that every day. It was also repeatedly reported that providers within the healthcare industry are turning to predictive modeling to help them improve retention rates among staff.
Also, in a bit of headline-grabbing, Spok (no, not the Spok you may be thinking of) Brings Healthcare Leaders Together to explore the same things most of the news on this blog is about: the intersection of technology and clinical healthcare at their conference in Virginia.
As was reported by multiple sources, The American Medical Association announced a new initiative to help organize the enormous amounts of health data under the weight of which the healthcare system struggles. They call the new model the “Integrated Health Model Initiative,” and are attempting to bring together the innovators of tech and those of healthcare, respectively, in an attempt to see what might be done to catalyze a new generation of healthcare technology. In what might have been a precedent-setting push, New Jersey recent attempt to put limits on doctors’ compensation is getting quite a bit of blowback from both pharmaceutical and medical groups. Over in the eastern hemisphere, Nigeria is getting a little bit of special attention from M-Health, who believe that they can bring “qualitative healthcare” to the nation.
A quick clap for BioLargo, who won the 2017 High Tech Innovation Award. BioLargo has a number of ongoing concerns, including creating potable water. Another little clap for M*Modal, ranked #1 Vendor and Top 50 Innovator in healthcare technology in respective reports from BlackBook.
In other news, Anthem is in the process of building a major new technology center in Atlanta, which from a pure connectivity point of view is great – Atlanta is a major internet hub and also has a highly-trained workforce thanks to Georgia Tech University’s location inside the city. It was also good to learn that some engineers are willing to put themselves in the metaphorical shoes of the patient for whom they are designing technology.
One very interesting article posted on the Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry (MDDI) website points out the differences between being labeled a “medical device,” and what rigors that brings from the FDA. This has major implications for the use of that device, the article argues, going on to note the further details of the different FDA “classes” for medical devices and looks at the issue from two key perspectives: firstly, by answering the obvious question of how the qualification of Medical Devices works; secondly, by asking the question by coming at it from a different angle entirely, by answering the question of how one might confirm their device is not a medical device. Though the post at times comes off as very technical, it effectively uses analogy to mediate that headache and even devotes an entire section to a useful and insightful, comparison of healthcare products from six years ago as compared to today.
Despite not doing anything, Apple managed to get some major publicity: more than one media outlet reported on the Apple corporation very nearly acquiring the medical clinic startup “Crossover Health”. As CNBC described, this acquisition would have potentially put Apple into position to create kiosk-style healthcare device dispensaries, or perhaps create an equivalent of the “Apple Store” for healthcare. Since the acquisition did not go through, for the moment, we can rule out Apple Insurance (unless one happens to work there), but it certainly speaks to the company’s emerging goals.
Meanwhile, Iggbo and Halfpenny Technologies announced a new partnership and the launch of their clinical data exchange platform. Nuno Valentine, co-founder and CEO of Iggbo said the partnership is “opening a new chapter of on-demand healthcare delivery” by affording healthcare organizations new options. “Healthcare organizations can now leverage their own bevy of labor or tap into a high-quality, curated network of third-party clinicians.” For those of you keeping score at home, this makes the fourth home-healthcare related article in the last two weeks (last week’s post briefly covers the other three).
A related but very different piece by Allison Suttle, MD (CMO at the Sanford Health System) was published in The Harvard Business Review on the more general topic of “Using Technology to Improve Rural Health Care”. Doctor Suttle tackles some of the “initiatives,” such as telemedicine, that “have helped Sanford Health improve and become a model system for rural health…but…these same tactics [are] of value to providers and patients in other settings, including the most urban.”
Regardless of the urban applications to which Suttle alludes, it is becoming clearer with each passing week that homebound or otherwise not-very-mobile patients can expect a market designed for them to arrive within the next few years. The Free Press journal agrees, at least in spirit, as they published their thoughts last week on “How medical technology is opening new possibilities.” The UK’s Telegraph also has an excellent, in-depth report on many exciting new technologies (including but not limited to real-time, transatlantically-operated robotic surgeries), although the lens through which the Telegraph explore them is focused more on economics than the pieces we usually feature.
Aside from home healthcare, the other trend that was continuing to emerge is one we’ve already covered to some extent: blockchain. This week, a new project from the tech company Hyperledger, called “Quilt,” was announced, and, according to the latest article, “it provides us with another potential framework for organizations to develop their healthcare blockchain solutions.” This article, too, is somewhat dense and requires some literacy in “technicalese”, but the real takeaway is that they are contributing to open source projects related to the development of blockchain for healthcare purposes.
A special note this week: perhaps the two most startling news related to technology last week were the revelations of a security flaw in certain implementations of the most current Wi-Fi encryption standard followed by the revelation that RSA keys produced by Infineon chips are insecure. I merely link you to these two articles, because although they are outside the purview of this post, they are certainly important to understand.
That’s it for this week. Till next time, happy reading!