Tag: covid-19

Intermountain and Story Health partner on specialty care for heart failure

Intermountain and Story Health partner on specialty care for heart failure

Healthcare IT news

Intermountain Health is looking to artificial intelligence and high-touch coaching to increase care personalization and medication adherence for patients with heart failure.WHY IT MATTERS 
Coaches from Story Health, which helps develop personalized care plans using clinical data, will be available to answer Intermountain patients’ questions via text or call. They’ll also remind them about essential medication changes and ensure that vascular patients have access to the medications they need between visits.
“Patients have long journeys with their health, and a significant part of that journey takes place after they leave the clinician’s office,” said Tom Stanis, CEO and cofounder of Story Health, in…

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Australian Health Dep't failed to manage risks in expanding telehealth: state auditor

Australian Health Dep’t failed to manage risks in expanding telehealth: state auditor

Healthcare IT news

The Australian National Audit Office has conducted a review of the expansion of telehealth services across the country by the Department of Health and Aged Care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.FINDINGS
Based on the state audit, the department fell short in governance, risk management, and evaluation of the telehealth expansion. 
While it made “significant” changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), the expanded telehealth services were “only partly supported by sound implementation arrangements.” 
The audit found that it did not require key implementation decisions and plans to be documented. 
It was also noted that the department did not manage implementation risks associated with temporary…

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Orlando Health to launch AI-driven hospital-at-home services

Orlando Health to launch AI-driven hospital-at-home services

Healthcare IT news

Data from the new hospital-at-home platform will be accessible through Orlando Health’s Epic electronic health records through a multiyear agreement with the connected health and digital therapeutics company.WHY IT MATTERS
Orlando Health – a nonprofit health system with 18 hospitals and emergency rooms, with five in development, serving the southeastern United States – is expected to launch the new advanced remote patient monitoring capabilities in early 2023.
Adding a virtual provider network can improve patient outcomes, prevent hospital readmissions, accelerate drug development and close critical gaps in care, according to the Biofourmis announcement. 
The data-driven platform takes physiological signal data from patient sensors – like…

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Geisinger solves behavioral health access problem with telemedicine

Geisinger solves behavioral health access problem with telemedicine

Healthcare IT news

Benjamin C. Gonzales, operations manager II, virtual care, at Geisinger, said the prominent health system has faced a problem that is the biggest problem in behavioral healthcare: access. And while Geisinger’s population certainly has experienced its own challenges with behavioral health access like other communities, the problem has been significantly compounded by three things.THE PROBLEM
“First and most obvious, the pandemic,” Gonzales stated. “Unsurprisingly, we experienced a surge in demand much like other specialties in our system. Before the pandemic, it was common for our department to have a couple hundred outstanding referrals.
“We quickly saw that increase to a maximum of 19,000…

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Hyndman Area Health Center cuts IT bill in half with the cloud

Hyndman Area Health Center cuts IT bill in half with the cloud

Healthcare IT news

Hyndman Area Health Center – a holistic Pennsylvania-based health center providing family medicine, dental health, behavioral health and more – transitioned from client-hosted servers to eClinicalWorks cloud-based servers to expand its network capacity and meet a rising data demand.Since then, it has experienced a more than 150% increase in patients and has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few years since it no longer relies on physical servers.
Healthcare IT News sat down with Bill Kurtycz, CEO of Hyndman Area Health Center, to discuss cloud technology, cloud EHRs and telehealth, and how the technologies have benefitted the provider organization.
Q….

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This World AIDS Day – Reflecting on Health IT as a Tool for Advancing Health Equity and Ending the HIV Epidemic

This World AIDS Day – Reflecting on Health IT as a Tool for Advancing Health Equity and Ending the HIV Epidemic

Health IT Buzz

December 1st is World AIDS Day, when we collectively remember those who died due to AIDS-related illnesses and renew our commitment to work together to end the HIV epidemic and support people with HIV. This year’s theme, “Putting Ourselves to the Test: Achieving Equity to End HIV,” emphasizes accountability and action. Collaborative, community-based, cross sector, and whole-of-government approaches that address clinical and social determinants of health (SDOH) are needed to support communities disproportionally affected by HIV and achieve national HIV/AIDS goals. Interoperable health IT, with health equity as a fundamental design feature, is an important tool to enable these efforts.Health IT…

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STAR HIE Program Helps Unlock Powerful Public Health Data in West Virginia

STAR HIE Program Helps Unlock Powerful Public Health Data in West Virginia

Health IT Buzz

ONC launched the Strengthening the Technical Advancement and Readiness of Public Health Agencies via Health Information Exchange (STAR HIE) Program in 2020 using funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). The program was expanded in 2021 to increase support for efforts to improve vaccination data sharing between jurisdictional Immunization Information Systems (IIS) and HIEs. The West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN) was among the 22 recipients that received a combined $20 million in funds from ONC via the CARES Act.We sat down with WVHIN’s Executive Director, Sonia Chambers, to learn how the STAR HIE Program helped…

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