Category: Latest News

Bonus Features – February 19, 2023 – 80% of orgs collect SDOH data but struggle to make use of it, 2 in 3 cybersecurity pros say their orgs underestimate threats, and more

Bonus Features – February 19, 2023 – 80% of orgs collect SDOH data but struggle to make use of it, 2 in 3 cybersecurity pros say their orgs underestimate threats, and more

Healthcare IT Today

Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.
Surveys
A survey of 2,600 AHIMA members found that about 80% of healthcare organizations are collecting social determinants of health data. The bad news: Organizations face multiple challenges…

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Weekly Roundup – February 18, 2023

Weekly Roundup – February 18, 2023

Healthcare IT Today

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.
6 Organizations Approved As Initial QHINs Under TEFCA. CommonWell, eHealth Exchange, Epic, Health Gorilla, Kno2, and KONZA were named the inaugural QHINs. The announcement wasn’t much of a surprise, but John said it will be interesting to see which technology vendors ultimately get behind which QHINs. Read more…
Exploring LG’s Partnership With Amwell. LG…

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What Will Value-Based Drug Pricing Look Like By 2030? Experts Share 4 Predictions

What Will Value-Based Drug Pricing Look Like By 2030? Experts Share 4 Predictions

MedCity News

Editor’s note: This story is based on discussions at Abarca Forward, a conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, hosted by Abarca, a pharmacy benefit manager. MedCity News’ Editor-in-Chief Arundhati Parmar and Senior Reporter Katie Adams were invited to attend and speak at the conference. All travel and related expenses for the team were covered by Abarca. However, company officials had no input in editorial coverage. 
The U.S. healthcare systems spent a whopping $301 billion on specialty drugs in 2021, a 43% increase since 2016. These specialty drugs accounted for half of the year’s total drug spending, and the list prices for specialty…

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Apellis Drug Becomes First Approved Therapy for Vision-Loss Disorder Geographic Atrophy

Apellis Drug Becomes First Approved Therapy for Vision-Loss Disorder Geographic Atrophy

MedCity News

Geographic atrophy, an eye disorder that starts as a loss of central vision and progressively worsens to total blindness, now has its first treatment. The FDA on Friday approved an Apellis Pharmaceuticals drug that slows the progression of this disease, which affects more than 1 million people in the U.S.
Approval of the Apellis drug, pegcetacoplan, covers all patients with geographic atrophy, a broad label that reflects the representative patient population tested in pivotal studies, Chief Medical Officer Caroline Baumal said during a Friday evening conference call. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company plans to launch the drug in March, marketing the product under…

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PBMs Come Under Fire During Senate Hearing

PBMs Come Under Fire During Senate Hearing

MedCity News

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) took a hit from lawmakers during a Thursday hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee, with some questioning why the drug middlemen are even necessary.
“The way I see the situation on PBMs, I don’t know why the hell they even exist,” said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana. “They were set up with all the right reasons … But what I see them doing in my state, I don’t think the consumer gets much benefit and they’re shutting down small businesses on main street right and left and those are called our local neighborhood pharmacies.” The hearing discussed how…

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Decline of Telehealth During the Pandemic and After

Decline of Telehealth During the Pandemic and After

MedCity News

The pandemic has forced healthcare organizations to rely heavily on telehealth services. In 2020, virtual visits accounted for more than a quarter of all outpatient visits in the U.S., and they’ve been steadily increasing since then. But there is a flip side to this trend. Recent data shows that telehealth is declining in healthcare, which could create a burden for both healthcare systems and patients. Let’s take a look at why this is happening and what can be done about it.
Reasons behind the decline  There are several factors driving the decline in telehealth utilization in healthcare settings. One reason is cost…

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Q&A: Thrive Center’s CEO Makes Staffing Shortage Concerns a Top Priority

Q&A: Thrive Center’s CEO Makes Staffing Shortage Concerns a Top Priority

HealthTech Magazine

HEALTHTECH: What are the highest-priority issues for senior care organizations in 2023?ROSE: I think it would be workforce and staffing issues, especially in the post-acute area. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw so many people leave healthcare. Staffing has always been an issue, but it reached critical status during the pandemic. Now, organizations are really trying to recover, so they’re looking for solutions that can augment their workforce and make workflows seamless — not a lot of logins, not a lot of devices, more cloud-based solutions that will really drive efficiency and mobility, because that’s going to be key to a…

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Chiesi Wins FDA Approval for First Drug to Treat Ultra-Rare Enzyme Deficiency

Chiesi Wins FDA Approval for First Drug to Treat Ultra-Rare Enzyme Deficiency

MedCity News

A Chiesi Farmaceutici drug for a rare enzyme deficiency is now approved by the FDA, making it the first U.S. treatment for a disorder that leads to a range of cognitive and muscle problems.
The regulatory decision announced late Thursday covers the treatment of children and adults who have alpha-mannosidosis (AM), a disease caused by a genetic mutation that leads to defective or inactive forms of an enzyme called alpha-D-mannosidase. Chiesi’s drug, velmanase alfa, is an engineered version of that enzyme. The privately held Italian company will market its new FDA-approved drug as Lamzede, the same name for the product in Europe,…

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The Importance of Improving Healthcare’s Cyber Resilience

The Importance of Improving Healthcare’s Cyber Resilience

HealthTech Magazine

Listen Pause
Healthcare organizations have always needed to be prepared for unexpected events, from natural disasters to pandemic surges. Increasingly, cyberattacks must factor into their response plans, especially as threats grow more sophisticated and coordinated.
Ninety-six percent of executives across industries consider cyber resilience to be highly important to their businesses, according to a 2022 Cisco report. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they experienced a security incident that affected their resilience, with a majority happening over the past two years.
As cyberattacks continue to make headlines, organizations should think in terms of…

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Exclusive Look at HandX Robotic-Assisted Surgical Device from Human Xtensions

Exclusive Look at HandX Robotic-Assisted Surgical Device from Human Xtensions

Medgadget

Surgical robotics is dominated by various versions of the da Vinci system from Intuitive Surgical, a competent but expensive tool that’s become a standard in modern advanced hospitals. It took Intuitive about 30 years to achieve this status, but there are systems from J&J, Medtronic, CMR Surgical, and others that are chipping away at the company’s dominance. All of these systems operate under the “master-slave” concept, which involves a surgeon sitting behind a console, away from the patient, who manipulates the mechanical arms of the robot via some kind of joystick-like device. Thanks to kind support from Biomed Israel, the leading…

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