2021 Tech Forum: Integrating SDOH Data Into Clinical Systems & Connecting with Human Services

2021 Tech Forum: Integrating SDOH Data Into Clinical Systems & Connecting with Human Services

September 10, 2021Providers are increasingly capturing SDOH data from patients as part of a clinical encounter and using this data to help inform clinical care delivery and to support social care referrals in the community. Existing and emerging health IT standards and codes sets specific to SDOH enable this data to be integrated into a care record and exchanged to support referrals aligned with an individuals’ social need(s). This session will outline technical workflows and use cases for integrating SDOH data into an EHR and as part of a shared care plan and will describe the applicable standards and codes sets…

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How Technology Is Improving Healthcare

How Technology Is Improving Healthcare

The world of healthcare is rapidly changing, and technology is playing an increasingly important role in the industry. From smart devices that can detect symptoms early on to remote patient monitoring, technology is allowing healthcare professionals to provide better care than ever before. Let’s take a look at some of how technology is revolutionizing healthcare today.
Healthcare and Smart Technology
Smart technology for healthcare has made it easier for doctors and patients to communicate and monitor health conditions more closely. Smartwatches and wristbands can now track vital signs like heart rate, oxygen levels, sleep patterns, and more. This information can be…

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How Technology Integration Supports Precision Medicine

How Technology Integration Supports Precision Medicine

Precision Health Can Be Applied to All DisciplinesThe University of California, Irvine, has integrated its technology to create targeted health and wellness strategies for patients. In February 2022, the university launched the Institute for Precision Health, an interdisciplinary campuswide initiative to develop solutions in precision medicine. A future brick-and-mortar home for IPH will let data scientists collaborate with clinicians to develop analytics tools.
“Precision health is truly an amalgamation of multiple critical pillars. Understanding the multidisciplinary nature of this work is really how IPH came about,” says Dr. Peter Chang, ­assistant professor in residence at UCI’s Department of Radiological Sciences. He formed…

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CDS Coalition requests FDA rescind final decision support guidance

CDS Coalition requests FDA rescind final decision support guidance

The CDS Coalition is asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to pull back on its clinical decision support guidance in order to ensure that the agency better balances its regulatory oversight with the healthcare sector’s need for innovation, while comporting with the statutory language of the 21st Century Cures Act. ‘Flagrant’ disregard for Congressional law and intent
The coalition’s stakeholders – clinical decision support software developers, patient advocacy organizations, clinical societies, healthcare providers and healthcare payers – say the FDA’s guidance exceeds Congress’s statutory definitions of what is considered CDS and threatens to undermine lawmakers’ goals.
“The Office of the National Coordinator for…

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Community Clinics Look to EHR Implementation to up Patient Experience

Community Clinics Look to EHR Implementation to up Patient Experience

– Texas-based Legacy Community Health Clinic has announced it will transition from its outdated legacy system and move forward with an EHR implementation that will drive the patient experience while improving patient data access. The project, funded by a $1 million federal grant, will connect the health clinic’s 55 locations through one system and provide over 200,000 patients with continual data access. Providing patients access to their medical records was challenging for the community health providers, who previously had to fax health information. Faxed patient health data often sits on the fax machine for hours or even days before it gets…

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4 technologies shaping the future of healthcare

4 technologies shaping the future of healthcare

Technological innovation is the key to improving human living standards.
This is especially true in healthcare, which is why research is constantly being done to discover ways that up-and-coming technology can be implemented.
In this article, we’ll explore four technologies that are shaping the future of healthcare.

Artificial intelligence

Machine learning is being increasingly applied across a wide variety of industries, including healthcare. With the ability to quickly and accurately extract patterns from data using algorithms, artificial intelligence is able to sift through information more efficiently than healthcare professionals.
Moreover, artificial intelligence programs can process symptoms and patient information to suggest possible diagnoses. A…

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Epic remains Best in KLAS for overall software suite for 13th year

Epic remains Best in KLAS for overall software suite for 13th year

In addition to winning overall, Epic was named top Overall Physician Practice Vendor based on provider feedback in this year’s Best in KLAS awards. The health IT giant also earned plaudits in 13 other categories, the research firm announced Wednesday.Of note, Impact Advisors and Nordic are tied as co-winners of the Overall IT Services category. 
Impact Advisors also took top placements in ERP Implementation Leadership, Financial Improvement Consulting and Security & Privacy Consulting Services categories while Nordic won for HIT Core Clinical Implementation Leadership.
The KLAS announcement noted that Nordic also scored above 90 in four separate services segments, which is detailed in 2023…

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Leveraging EHR Audit Logs to Inform Clinician Burnout Interventions

Leveraging EHR Audit Logs to Inform Clinician Burnout Interventions

– Healthcare organizations are continually looking for ways to tackle increasing clinician burnout with documentation burden at the forefront of their concerns. To better understand clinician workflow challenges, practices can leverage EHR audit logs to capture documentation behaviors and inform clinician burnout interventions, according to an ONC HealthITBuzz blog post. EHR audit logs are automated tracking features that monitor clinician activity within the EHR. Specifically, the automated tool can track the time clinicians spend documenting and carrying out certain tasks, such as chart reviews and messaging. Continuous monitoring of the EHR burden is needed to address any upcoming burnout challenges and…

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Epic MyChart Patient Portal Racks up 6th Best in KLAS Award

Epic MyChart Patient Portal Racks up 6th Best in KLAS Award

– KLAS Research has once again named the Epic MyChart patient portal Best in KLAS, but the rest of the annual report highlights the numerous software solutions in the patient engagement technology market. While other healthcare market segments have dominant vendors—Epic Systems within the EHR space, for example—no single vendor came out on top across the numerous areas of patient engagement. Once again, the health IT vendor giant has come in as the top-rated patient portal solution, getting a score of 88.7 out of 100. Epic was followed by athenahealth, Greenway Health, Veradigm, Oracle Health (Cerner), and NextGen Healthcare. The annual…

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Regenstrief Institute names new president and CEO

Regenstrief Institute names new president and CEO

Indiana University School of Medicine this week announced that Rachel E. Patzer, an expert in epidemiology and health services research, has been appointed to be president and chief executive officer of the school-affiliated Regenstrief Institute.WHY IT MATTERSPatzer, who holds degrees including a masters in public health and a doctorate in epidemiology, will begin the new role on May 1. She currently works at Emory University School of Medicine, where she serves as the founding director of its Health Services Research Center and is a tenured professor there in the school’s department of surgery.
She founded the Health Services Research Center at Emory…

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