Healthcare – Page 2

HAS HEALTHCARE CHANGED FOR EVER, BECAUSE OUR LIFESTYLES HAVE CHANGED FOR EVER?

We chat with HIMSS Global Clinical Director, Charles Alessi, about where healthcare is going for all of us, and what will be the key changes. It’s a wide ranging discussion…

It’s an obvious question with no obvious answer, because our original assessments of just 10 months ago, may well be incorrect.

Charles Alessi looks intently at me across the screen, we are on FaceTime, – he is dressed casually in a pastel coloured polo shirt, sitting in his relaxed lounge area of his home in south west London, there are rows of books behind, a sort of academic university professor ambience and it reminds me of my own one/one sessions all those years ago. As a former Chair of the UK’s National Association of Primary Care, and as an advisor to WHO – Charles is well placed to be talking about the problems of our time.

And COVID per se, may not be one of them. “There have always been pandemics,” he says. This particular COVID-19 is really a child of the 21st century, perfectly suited to our super connected societies where global travel between dense population centres is as common as a daily commute” Charles is more referring to our personal ability to survive and manage ourselves in lockdown, or rather – survive the absence of face/face proper contact, and the distance management that is the glue that holds us all together and allows us to cope.

“Starting the day at 08.00am, from my living room, with a call to Tokyo – and then a 10.00 call to Berlin – with London time zone calls in between – and then the 17.00 call with California – all whilst sitting in my own arm chair and not having moved an inch – is not what our bodies and brains are designed for. We as humans, need the travel time, to adjust, to refocus, to wind down between sessions, so to say.”

So no – our Lifestyles have not changed for ever. We will inevitably return to the travel to meetings, as soon as it is safe to so do – because we are becoming disorientated without doing so.

Healthcare on the other hand, has indeed changed, and we cannot put the genie back in the bottle. It is obvious that telehealth, or telemedicine, and the remote monitoring of our conditions by clinicians, makes sense, and reduces costs. And where all of us are moving towards a single version of truth of our own health. And yet, this democratising of healthcare – Charles argues – has not happened. And so we have systems and processes designed to fix individual instances, but where in times of a pandemic, are forcing whole decades of instances into just a few months or even weeks. How can we possibly cope?

The key to where our health processes should be going, is at the beginning, where we stop being a binary society, – assuming we are all “well” – until we flick the switch one random day and find we are sick, we have a lump, a pain, whatever. And then we go to places called hospitals to fix the issue.

Our focus now should be the age of precision early management of our individual health. At a time when you and I as individuals already know from the data on our wrist, what is wrong with us even before the doctor ever speaks to us, we are now in a position to manage where our own health data and symptoms, and what Charles calls “non communicable diseases” , can take us, for our own good.

I was expecting somehow a medical discussion and yet this was not it. This was a look at where society is going, and what are we doing as society. But you and I as individuals, are society.

I always remember being late substantially for a meeting. I called ahead, as if my excuse – “I am in traffic!” – was good enough.

“But you are the traffic”, was the response.

WHAT NOW, FOR HEALTHCARE IN EUROPE?

We interview the VP of HIMSS EMEA, Sean Roberts, newly moved to the UK from his native California, for his plans for HIMSS over the next twelve months – and his view of healthcare on this side of the Atlantic. HIMSS is the largest healthcare trade association in the world. Its annual Global Conference resonates around the world; European healthcare vendors, particularly from Scandinavia, use the USA as their launch pad for their European and even domestic healthcare promotion.

It is not the first time that Sean and I have met. Sean is an anglophile. The last time of any significance, that we met, we went to a rather bijou little restaurant somewhere in south west London on one of his frequent stop-offs. It is rare to find an American with such a detailed knowledge of eating places in London where tourists don’t go.

This time it is different. We are in Zoom territory now. Sean has much shorter dark hair this time – he is wearing a dark blue t-shirt, the background in his home office is bare white, and he looks quizzically at the PC screen;

“Can you hear me now?

I get up and move around my own office.

“Yep! I’ve got a better connection if I stand just here….”

And this is no stop-off. Sean has moved his whole family, wife, and dog – across the Atlantic, to use London as the base so to say, for promoting better clinical management and outreach, in Europe. It is an irony compounded by the fact that the HIMSS Global Chief Clinical Director, who advises the PHE – is also already UK based.

Obviously, COVID dominates the first part of the conversation. And I ask; “So, at a time when each European country is fending for itself, why choose the UK?”

Sean hesitates and replies; “it is because English is de facto the international language, but above all, because your frontline NHS worker bees, are so “resilient”.” It is a word Sean uses several times in our conversation.

And it is not because the UK has best healthcare COVID outcomes. That accolade goes to Denmark. They plan on doing 5.5 million vaccinations, by July 2021 and everyone’s bet is that they will do this. I concur; my last time running through CPH just a few months ago, my passport control took just a few seconds and even before getting my bag, there was a nice young Danish girl in blue uniform asking me “would I like a COVID test? It’s free of charge for all visitors”. I was directed through the arrivals area, up some steps and into a covered area, and within twenty minutes tops, I had my first COVID test. “Yes, we will call you at your Hoel in day or two of there are any probs”, the nice nurse said.

What Sean is able to do, is make comparisons between one country and another, and make suggestions to each government, each hospital -“Look, have you thought about mirroring how these other people do it? Their outcomes are better”.

Looking outside one’s own internal bubble, and learning from others, is a key message that Sean is trying to promote in the UK. And the delivery of this message is not without its problems. It may not all be to do with technology, but more about national culture. Those countries that do best in containing COVID, are those who have an implicit trust in their governments. If the government says this is the right road, then this is what we will do.

Despite the fact that we are a Telehealth society now, we are hampered by the lowest common denominator in terms of wifi connectivity. The growth of Telehealth, of video conferencing, has not been because surgeries and hospitals want to go down that road, it is because they have had to take that avenue. The success of Telehealth and remote consultation at surgery and hospital vet, is directly related to each individual organisation’s willingness to adopt these new processes.

But having said that, Sean continues, these messages are getting through. IHE and HL7 and links with the WHO, are the new common standards, and HIMSS has a programme for 2021, for increasing its pan Europe roll out. The next Conference, which may well be hybrid, will be again based around Finland and their new initiatives, – it is scheduled for 7th-10th June.

Scandinavia remains a natural point of departure for HIMSS EMEA, and there is a sadness that only 5% of visitors to HIMSS events are from the UK. In the same way that just a year ago, nobody had heard of COVID – so life and healthcare is a different process now. Let’s see in June if the message has got through.

COVID; Analysis of Key Commercial Benchmarks

We look at the past twelve months and ask – if everything has gone wrong, was that simply because of COVID, or were the downsides always there, it’s just that Covid was the excuse of choice? Or are there new trends and behaviours come to the surface that we never considered until now?

Looking at the obvious – you can say that 2020 was the death knell of Events and Conferences. Major companies globally are in trouble and have not been able to rediscover a new secret sauce as to why you and should even bother to attend an online event. As long as COVID continues, it is doubtful whether many will still be around with their current offering, thru to the end of 2021. In our discussions with vendors, we have yet to find any vendor that is satisfied that being part of a virtual event has has offered them any benefit at all. Criticisms range from “ this is a scam”, to the more polite “ it’s not the fault of the organiser, they are doing their best” etc.

It is made doubly worse by the lack of interest from so many delegates. Worst in our discussions, were anything to do with the UK NHS. Even those that attend workshops have almost nil interest in pursuing a discussion after they have gone offline and in almost all cases there is no way for a vendor to progress a discussion. Much better are the Financial events; there is a clear monetary and commercial objective – but even then – online workshops that we looked at – were sparsely attended, the vendors themselves outnumbering the delegates.

This situation is made worse alas by the naivety and astonishing optimism of the conference organisers themselves, who routinely do not bother to answer emails from apparent interested parties, preferring to have a voicemail, saying “we are working from home”. Or those who publish and write to us with sentences such as:”We bring people together and excite them with truly life-changing experiences. Creating the ideal environment for doing business, learning about new trends and innovations, and cementing relationships. Discover our unique mission, vision and values.”

This is not what people are saying to us.

At least some organisers are trying tho. This one in Liverpool, sent us a nice paragraph:

It is all down to simplicity and not trying to recreate a inperson conference. It is impossible to recreate an inperson event so why not shake things up and cater for what you have in hand. By having more focused sessions and pre arranged 1-2-1’s rather than a networking area sponsors, delegates and speakers have a much more comprehensive experience’

The trouble is – this is alas not our experience, as well intentioned as it may be.

In short – the market exists on two levels; established vendors who just want to support their brand. They are not so dependent on people coming to see them. Or at a deeper level – the vendor who has something new to say – in which case, the conference has work to do to keep the delegate focussed and on-message. One thing is clear; the lack of face to face contact will continue for longer than we care to admit.

Looking at our work habits, what is clear is that we all accept, employers and employees, that work is a thing we do, rather than a place we go. The problem is, that the novelty has worn off. What started as a great experiment, working from home – an increasing number of people have told us that six months in, they are much less focussed, and that work expands to fill the entire day. There is no “me” time. We frequently receive emails at 23.00, from companies and even prospects, wanting our attention. This is damaging to both our work performance and our personal health.

The good people at the property rental specialists Knotel company in London, who we have spoken to, tell us that corporates are looking in increasing numbers for short term flexible packages and locations.

All of which is good, for them, but we expect to see as the vaccine kicks in, a gradual return to the heady days of returning to an office to work. It has to be like this, for reasons of sharper contact with one’s colleagues, as well as the dependence on infrastructure, theatres, social gathering, that we all need as human beings. The only question is one of size; just how many people will indeed retreat from corporate values, and decide they actually like to earn less but are happier in themselves.

Moving on…..as of today (at time of writing I have just received a News Item that we have a Brexit deal, that will deliver us more or less half of what we already had anyway – clearly good news….) – this is a good moment to take stock and see which markets are now relevant, or have changed.

Talking to my colleagues in La Rochelle and Toulouse, and Paris, France; this is not a market that is worth exploring for the time being. The South West France in particular is in deep depression. The empty streets, the 20.00 curfew, has demoralised the french psyche.

Similarly, the failure of COVID free expression in Sweden, has created a sense of uncertainty among an increasing number of areas of Sweden, particularly around the Goteborg area. There are no such hesitations from the south of Sweden, or Norway.

Two things are of interest; there is a new vigour in the UK, to going and doing things. What was unmitigated disaster some nine months ago, has now manifested into something more positive. Similarly, my colleagues in Switzerland are saying “2020 was our best year”, from technology services to consumer drinks. However – this growth has all been domestic. We would like to see more outreach from Swiss companies internationally.

Ultimately, it will in both the consumer/delegate, as well as vendor and organiser, to increase their appetite for being serious and implemting change. That thread is the common denominator of both avenues. It will be interesting to see in twelve months time, which industries and geo areas have risen to the challenge.,

Introducing A New Innovative, Incision-Free Treatment from Gynesonics.

MedStar Health is the first health system to provide Sonata, an incision-free, uterus-preserving, outpatient treatment option for women with symptomatic Uterine Fibroids

Gynesonics®, a women’s healthcare company focused on the development of minimally invasive solutions for symptomatic uterine fibroids, announced today that MedStar Health, a not-for-profit health system of 4,300 affiliated physicians and 10 hospitals, ambulatory care and urgent care centers, has introduced the Sonata® Procedure in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area. The first case at MedStar Health was performed by Vadim Morozov, M.D., the Director of the American Academy of Gynecologic Laparoscopists (AAGL) Fellowship in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Fibroids are benign growths in or around the uterus, with about 70 percent of white women and more than 80 percent of black women having uterine fibroids before the age of 50. Uterine fibroids may cause significant and debilitating symptoms, including heavy menstrual bleeding. Symptoms may worsen over time if fibroids are left untreated, which leads to more than two million women in the U.S. undergoing treatment for uterine fibroids each year.

“Invasive surgery can be a major deterrent to women who would otherwise seek treatment,” said Chris Owens, President and CEO of Gynesonics. “We are committed to making Sonata available to all women who suffer from symptomatic uterine fibroids. This acknowledgment of the clinical importance of Sonata by Dr. Morozov and MedStar Health is important for patients in the Washington D.C./Maryland area. We are excited to be accelerating our commercial efforts and launch of the Sonata System across the United States and globally.”

The Sonata procedure offers women with symptomatic uterine fibroids an option that is incision-free, has a quick recovery with excellent reduction in heavy menstrual bleeding symptoms, and provides an option to avoid invasive surgery. Sonata uses a unique intrauterine ultrasound handpiece to locate and target the individual fibroids. Radiofrequency energy is delivered to shrink the fibroid and reduce symptoms. The Sonata Treatment is a breakthrough alternative to hysterectomy and myomectomy, and can treat a wide range of fibroid types, sizes, and locations. The fibroids are treated from inside the uterus, so the Sonata Treatment requires no incisions, no tissue is surgically removed, and the uterus is preserved. Clinical studies demonstrate that nearly 90 percent of women showed a reduction in menstrual bleeding at three months and 95 percent had a reduction in bleeding at 12 months. Additionally, 50 percent of women returned to normal activities the next day.

The Sonata System uses radiofrequency energy to ablate fibroids under real time sonography guidance from within the uterine cavity, utilizing the first and only intrauterine ultrasound transducer. The System includes a proprietary graphical user interface (SMART Guide), enabling the operator to target fibroids and optimize treatment. The Sonata system provides incision-free transcervical access for a uterus-preserving fibroid treatment. This intrauterine approach is designed to avoid the peritoneal cavity. The Sonata System is CE marked and is approved for sale in the European Union and the United States.

For more information on the Sonata Treatment and to watch patient testimonials, please visit http://www.sonatatreatment.com.

Coronavirus in Hull.

At a time when the North East city of Hull has become one of the highest rate of COVID in the Uk, – Amelia Grace, leading young blogger in East Yorks in the UK, gives a first hand assessment of where it is going wrong – and where does that leave the uk?

Coronavirus has been a common part of life for close to a year now. It’s plastered all over the news, it’s a massive topic of conversation and it’s all anyone seems to talk about. What do you think about the pandemic? Has the government handled it in the right way? When will we have a vaccine and will it have an impact? Will life ever be normal again?

These are some of the things I’ve discussed with people and I have wondered since March and the first lockdown.

More recently, the government has tackled the situation with a tiered approach, categorising places into medium, high or very high in terms of covid alert level. I’m a resident of Hull, a city in Yorkshire which started off in tier 1 and entered tier 2 just before the whole country was thrust into a lockdown on 5 November. Now, we have the most cases out of the whole of the UK and are set to enter tier 3 once we are released from lockdown. What went wrong in Hull?

Complacency. In my opinion, that is how Hull’s cases have suddenly projected so high. Starting off in tier 1, many of us were holding our breath, waiting and expecting to be moved up to tier 2 because our number of covid cases were closer to that of towns and cities in tier 2. Since tier 1 has the least amount of restrictions, people could still meet up in groups of 6 indoors and outdoors, visit cafes, restaurants and shops and basically live their lives in a fairly normal fashion. The fact Hull spent so long in tier 1 meant some of its people became more relaxed as you would if you were in the bottom tier and abandoned their more cautious attitude towards the virus. From my perspective, I typified this stereotype, spending much of my time in September and October, meeting up with my friends and family in a mixture of indoor and outdoor settings. Towards the end of October, I did start to get more anxious about having to isolate or catching the virus but it didn’t stop me from carrying on with life as normal.

Then all of a sudden, we were in tier 2. But it wasn’t all of a sudden. The truth was Hull had needed to be in the middle of the three tiers for a while. The citizens of Hull turned to outdoor gatherings as opposed to indoor ones and had their Halloween and Bonfire night parties before the 31st October when we were still under tier 1 rules. Was it a little too late though? The cases were already rising and had been ever since September. Alas, we will never know because the day that we moved into tier 2 was the day Boris Johnson announced a lockdown for the whole country. We spent less than a week enduring those tighter restrictions trying to get everything done for Christmas before we were locked back up in our homes.

Could the problem even be tracked back to March? Evidence shows that the first wave of the virus didn’t hit people in Hull nearly as badly as it did in other places. After the first lockdown, I could only name people who I had a very distant social connection to who had contracted the virus. Now, in November, I can name many. My teacher. My classmate. A member of my church. The personal connection to the virus that wasn’t there previously is now in full effect and it’s frightening to know that people you’ve seen recently have experienced the virus. It causes you to worry for your friends and family in a way you didn’t in the first wave and it proves it’s authenticity. It’s real. And it’s not going away.

The virus has affected me in a personal way as I am now isolating for two weeks after being in contact with someone at college who has contracted the virus. All things considered, it may be a blessing in disguise with the rapidly growing amount of cases in Hull. Even before our year group was sent home for this reason, some of my friends were already isolating due to being in contact with the virus. It has been spreading for a while and the hope of the city is that this lockdown will serve to break the chain in terms of infections and stop more people from overwhelming the NHS and ultimately dying from it.

Some positivity that has shone through all the bleakness is the way that the local media have handled the second wave as of recent times. Look North, our local news for East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire, have covered stories where they have spoken to people with the virus and hospital staff. Their aim is to spread awareness about the virus and the effects it can have and it is so refreshing to see this sector of the media using their influence for good. Instead of scaremongering or downplaying the virus, they have presented it as it is and are trying their best to help with the worsening situation.

Can Hull turn it around? Only time will tell. With this current lockdown and the tightened tier 3 measures this city could potentially face in December, it looks achievable. However, after the cases in Hull fall again, another area will assume the top spot of the most covid cases in England list. This cycle will continue over and over again until one day we beat the virus. Hopefully, that day will come soon.

NEW PANDEMIC ADVISORY BOARD TAKES SHAPE

The Pandemic Security Initiative Introduces Scientific Advisory Board Founding Members, Leading Scientists Join Together to Prepare for the Next Global Pandemic

In Cambridge, MA; Lebanon, NH; and New York, NY – Celdara Medical announced today the launch of the Pandemic Security Initiative’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), a group of outstanding scientists and infectious disease experts. The SAB is an integral part of the initiative, and informs the initiative’s priorities, approaches, and opportunities for collaboration, all in the pursuit of pandemic preparedness.

Amidst a second wave of Covid-19 infections with still no definitive end in sight, the key structural issue in resolving pandemic scale threats continues to be the lack of commercial incentive for proactive development of diagnostics, prophylactics, and therapeutics, especially for diseases without incidence.

The Pandemic Security Initiative is addressing this issue by bringing together public and private expertise and resources to identify, vet, and develop tests and medicines in preparation for future pandemics. It seeks to unleash and accelerate the copious innovation already present in our universities, government labs and small businesses to prepare and protect the country from future pandemics. Assembling the Scientific Advisory Board is the next step in the public-private partnership launch plan, bringing the leading minds and labs together to dramatically improve our collective readiness.

The Pandemic Security Initiative is pleased to welcome the following Founding Members to its Scientific Advisory Board:

Jason Botten, Ph.D. – Associate Professor of Medicine, Immunobiology Unit Department of Medicine at University of Vermont;
Dr. Botten’s research focuses on host-pathogen interactions among pathogenic RNA viruses (e.g. arenaviruses, coronaviruses, hantaviruses, and flaviviruses) and their human hosts and natural animal or insect reservoirs. His research goals include understanding protective immune responses to infection, discovery of key virus-host interactions that can be targeted for the development of therapeutics and vaccines, developing new cutting-edge assays and reagents for the field, and translating the most promising discoveries into therapeutics and vaccines.

Colleen Doyle Cooper, Ph.D. – Principal Scientist, Celdara Medical;
A key member of the Celdara Medical team, Dr. Cooper has led and participated in R&D programs ranging from oncology to fibrosis to infectious disease. She is trained in immunology with specific interests in autoimmunity and infectious disease.

Kendall Hoyt, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of Medicine, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College;
Dr. Hoyt is an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a lecturer at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College where she teaches courses on technology and biosecurity. She serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on the Department of Defense’s Programs to Counter Biological Threats and on the advisory board of the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Jonas Klingström, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, Group leader at Karolinska Institute;
The Klingström group aims to understand the mechanisms behind hantavirus pathogenesis and the consequences of infection, focusing on the capacity of viruses to affect normal cell signaling and functions, especially cell death, immune and inflammatory responses. The ultimate goal is to generate a better understanding of the details of virus-induced pathogenesis to aid in the development of specific treatment of patients.

Richard Kuhn, Ph.D. – Trent and Judith Anderson Distinguished Professor in Science, Department of Biological Sciences and Krenicki Family Director, Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease;
Interested in the replication, assembly and structure of RNA viruses with an emphasis on their host interactions, Dr. Kuhn’s molecular studies utilize cutting edge tools in functional genomics, high throughput systems technologies, cell biology, and structural biology. His recent focus has been on model systems in the enterovirus, alphavirus, flavivirus groups, and include viruses such as EV68, EV71, Sindbis, Chikungunya, dengue, Zika, and hepatitis C viruses.

Jonathan Lai, Ph.D. – Professor, Department of Biochemistry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine;
Dr. Lai’s group is broadly interested in the application of peptide, protein and antibody engineering methods for the discovery and development of novel immunotherapies and vaccines. His projects are highly interdisciplinary and involve aspects such as phage display, structure-based protein design, bispecific antibody engineering, structural biology, virology, and cancer biology.

Carolina Lopez, Ph.D. – Professor and BJC Investigator in the Department of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University;
The Lopez Lab uses a multidisciplinary approach to study the intimate relationship of a virus and the organism it infects. It focuses on dissecting the early events that determine the course of infection with various respiratory viruses. The laboratory places particular attention to the role of defective viral genomes generated during virus replication in determining the outcome of infection.

Jason McLellan, Ph.D. – Jason McLellan, Ph.D. – Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin;
McLellan Lab seeks to obtain structural information on proteins and their interactions with host macromolecules and translate this knowledge into the rational development of therapeutic interventions such as small-molecule inhibitors, protective antibodies and stabilized vaccine immunogens. These efforts are highly collaborative and involve domestic and international investigators from academia, government, and industry.

Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D. – Professor of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology;
Dr. Saphire has galvanized five continents of scientists into a unified force to discover, develop and deliver antibody therapeutics against multiple families of emerging infectious diseases, including most recently SARS-CoV-2. Her research explains, at the molecular level, how and why viruses are pathogenic and provides the roadmap for medical defense. Her team has solved the structures of the Ebola, Sudan, Marburg, Bundibugyo and Lassa virus surface glycoproteins, explained how they remodel these structures as they drive themselves into cells, how their proteins suppress immune function, and where human antibodies can defeat these viruses.

Ben tenOever, Ph.D. – Professor of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai;
The tenOever lab is interested in the way cells have evolved to defend themselves against virus. More specifically, the lab focuses on what constitutes different cellular defense systems, how these systems have been shaped over time, and how viruses circumvent them and cause disease.

“The Pandemic Security Initiative is honored to collaborate with the best and brightest infectious disease researchers in the country, and beyond” said Dr. Jake Reder, co-founder and CEO of Celdara Medical. “This hand-selected group of experts within the scientific, academic and medical communities will continue to help us advance the Pandemic Security Initiative’s goals by providing insight, innovation, criticism, project selection and more.”

The Pandemic Security Initiative provides a potent layer of security that was previously absent – the proactive development of innovative, purpose-built diagnostics, medicines and devices in anticipation of future pandemic threats. By unleashing the innovative power of America’s university systems and the $6 billion per year in National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) support allocated to the most promising researchers in the country – including those on this SAB – the Pandemic Security Initiative has a singular mission: to secure our nation against future pandemic threats.”

Our Comment; Whilst this is a profoundly US momentum – there is still one European member, from Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. There are no British or other EU protagonists, which we think is a pity. If you are interested in keeping up to date with this Organisation, please get in touch with us at ProfoMedia, and we will do our best to link you.

TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTHCARE. WELCOME TO AHIMA20

OUR REPORT BELOW LOOKS AT THE BEST OF USA HEALTH NEW SOLUTIONS.

The AHIMA Trade Association is the bible for healthtech specialists in the USA. Its is far removed from its HIMSS cousins, despite the fact that both are in the same Chicago metropolis. The difference being that AHIMA looks at how do you deliver the technology that will drive patient health in the future. And by that they mean, what is the programming, the system design, the architecture – the digital roadmap.

What AHIMA is not – is a vendor jamboree full of thousand of vendors. The current list of suitable vendors is probably less than 100. You could say it is quality over quantity but even that criticism is not correct. AHIMS is not interested in quantity per se. It is interested in “what is the best tech”. And that does not mean there is no commercial outreach. This is USA after all.

And there is a definite link and focus on American political and government progress; the recent announcement back in July is typical:

“Patient ID Now Coalition Pleased Congress is Addressing Patient Misidentification”

CHICAGO – July 31, 2020 – Patient ID Now, a coalition of leading healthcare organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Intermountain Healthcare and Premier Healthcare Alliance, is pleased that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove the longstanding ban in its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill that stifles innovation around patient identification.

Our Report published here today, the opening day of this Conference, gives you an immediate insight into what Seminars are upcoming this week – what are American hospitals and clinics focussing on – and who will wi this year’s prize for the best “pitch”.

Best and winning “pitch” last year 2019 – was the Drugviu company, (www.drugviu.com). Their photo is above. What they say about themselves is this:

Drugviu is a population health platform empowering communities of color to use data to improve health outcomes. Our data helps minority populations know the experiences and side effects of others who have taken similar medication. Our customers are pharmaceutical and insurance companies, and our team consists of health tech executives and medical advisors. Our mission is to help improve the health outcomes of 40% of Americans and empower them to be more engaged in their health. Drugviu was launched in March 2019.

But this year is 2020, and today is today. The AHIMA Conference is a series of jam-packed Education Sessions, covering a wide variety of; What they say is –

“With you in mind, we are advocates and educators in an ever-evolving space, dedicated to providing industry leaders like you with the knowledge and insights you need to continue leading the evolution of healthcare.

Educational Topics include: Clinical Coding • Clinical Documentation Integrity • Information Protection: Privacy and Security: Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies • Informatics, Analysis, and Data Usage: Innovation • Patient Identification and Matching • Social Determinants of Health Organizational Management and Dynamic Leadership • Revenue Cycle Management.”

The Link to see ALL of the Sessions, is:

https://conference.ahima.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/FINAL-Agenda-as-of-10.01.2020_ML.pdf.

And the Sessions are more than just a tech discussion. They focus on the key practical issues such as “innovation”, through to actual health examples; “Critical Cancer Registry Data”. They are divided daly into seven vertical markets, ranging from “clinical Coding” on the left of the agenda – through to more philosophical aspects such as “organisational Management and Dynamic Leadership” on the right of the table.

There is a clear focus on connecting you with best-practice providers. The Link rot access these every morning is:

https://conference.ahima.org/exhibits/?utm_campaign=Conference&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97205242&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–393-Om_ivR_kR-caPUXW_iMAObfFaaHlUKq9PC4EVa1WmV0jB5yqjR_eYP3n94BFbLAZgcv-icd07yj-WHT8imEEskw&utm_content=97205242&utm_source=hs_email#expert-theater.

Plus a whole series of tech demo sessions. That Link is as follows:

https://conference.ahima.org/exhibits/?utm_campaign=Conference&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=97205242&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–Y9R8hg02QfeaTQlBi6zMqBEnmh2b-Gl3AQ9hQSbD4XCVymt_-PeniiDrmgevp5k-b6oXllkz5fk8gwSfggtR_vRk8fg&utm_content=97205242&utm_source=hs_email#tech-demo

Where AHIMA scores, is the link between technology and such actual healthcare problems that clinicians face daily, and where they look to IT to help. You can stop by the AHIMA Virtual Booth, and discuss such items as “Practicing Medicine: It is not a Misnomer”. And “Getting More Out Of Your Healthcare “Investments”.

Talking with Mike Bittner, Head of Media at AHIMA just a few days ago, his view is that “the biggest problem for healthcare professionals is he mix of technology and how can that best be used – in conjunction with a mindset that encourages that exploration”.

This Report gives you the opportunity to register right now – on impulse – and explore the Session that best fit your own ideas and plans for the future, or whether you have no specific plans. The Link to register is:

https://conference.ahima.org.

Ends

AHIMA launch new EU collaboration in AI and Telehealth.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and Frontiers Health, along with the Healthware Group, recently agreed to a content collaboration that will serve health care professionals in both Europe and the United States.

It comes just prior to the launch of the annual AHIMA Conference, this time Virtual, in just 10 days time. (We will be talking with Michael Bittner, AHIMA Media Director, early next week, on the key notes to be covered) In meantime – What they say is this:

“Frontiers Health is recognized across Europe as a transformative organization with a long history of promoting innovation in health care,” said AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE. “Like AHIMA, they see the human behind health information and health policy, making our collaboration a natural fit.”

Frontiers Health, in cooperation with Healthware Group, is hosting two education sessions, focusing on telehealth and artificial intelligence in health care, at the AHIMA20 Virtual Conference taking place October 14-17. The sessions will feature speakers from companies like CarePredict, Intouch Group, Kaia Health, Vitality, and Wysa, as well as other global players from the digital health space.

In addition, both organizations will collaborate on sessions at the Frontiers Health Hybrid Conference this November. AHIMA’s international team will host several sessions within an overarching theme of “Data Driving the Future of Health.” AHIMA experts will discuss data consent, privacy, interoperability, patient access to their health information, and more.

“This collaboration serves AHIMA members and health care professionals in Europe, as both groups will have access to new content and resources with a global perspective,” Harris said. “It will also help AHIMA increase its international footprint and reach health care audiences around the world.”

“I am pleased to expand our collaboration with AHIMA and look forward to hosting two dedicated Frontiers Health sessions at the AHIMA20 Virtual Conference,” said Roberto Ascione, conference chairman of Frontiers Health and CEO & founder at Healthware Group. “Frontiers Health will share its extensive knowledge and first-hand experience in strategic spaces like telehealth and artificial intelligence. Through its cooperation with AHIMA, Frontiers Health will promote and contribute to the pivotal role of digital health innovation in the new normal.”

EUROVISION ON STEROIDS. WELCOME TO THE HIMSS 2020 EUROPEAN DIGITAL CONFERENCE.

With decision-makers from healthcare in some 98 Countries – including Russia, Israel etc – booked to attend; and around 172 Speakers, including 45+ keynote Speakers, including the WHO, the US ONC, and of course the key Partners from Finland (whose are supporting this Conference) – this five day event is as good as it gets in terms of bringing together where healthcare is going and needs to go.

It is an interesting comparison. This Conference is just a week or two after the Nordic more local VITALIS event in Goteborg, but whilst VITALIS is essentially inward looking, a focus for its local market – HIMSS Europe has always been an outreach for its Nordic contingent. Nothing has changed here.

When I spoke a few days ago with Sean Roberts, the VP EMEA of HIMSS, he told me that the clear focus of this year’s HIMSS Europe – is Innovation; the bringing together of the smaller and new vendors alongside their bigger and more established sponsor brothers, and taking new ways of doing things, into healthcare management.

Sean has decamped with his wife and his dog, from California to the leafy environment of Berkshire, just a 30 minute train ride into the UK capital. He is an anglophile who knows the restaurants of Chelsea even better than I. Despite the Finland original focus, the bedrock of this virtual event is a TV Studio in West London, and the biggest beneficiaries of this event may well be the domestic UK NHS. It is a journey for both of them.

What HIMSS says about itself is you can expect a “Powerful 5-day virtual experience facilitating partnerships and collaborations for digital healthcare transformation; a Unique combination of live, and “simulive” and on-demand sessions, with the opportunity to participate in live polling and Q&A throughout. Plus an Interactive, robust chat and networking capabilities that will allow you to connect with your peers and solution providers, with an unrivalled opportunity to pitch, profile and connect with key industry stakeholders”.

If there is a major and standout difference from earlier years or indeed other events organisations – it is the 3D Exhibit floor; the Lobby (see our image above) – and the virtual networking. HIMSS has been preparing for this sort of virtual reality for some years, even since the days of Steve Lieber – and you can say that COVID has been a wake up call – but looking back, it has been obvious that this is a way of interfacing that makes sense if done properly. The TV and “games” look and feel of the Lobby equals anything redolent of PS2 entertainment.

We are looking forward to the mix of protagonists as much as the Speaker advice. No doubt see you there.

Digital Therapeutics and Care at Home. Webinar 3rd June.

We focus on the latest EHTEL’s “Second Imagining 2029*” webinar. This virtual meeting is part of the EHTEL Innovation Initiative agenda for 2020 on Exploring Digital Therapeutics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Coaches.

With the Imagining 2029 series of webinars – hosted by its working groups – EHTEL invites the digital health community to reflect jointly on accelerating digital transformation – acknowledging the opportunities and challenges raised by the current COVID-19 crisis. This is what they say

Given today’s situation in which health systems, and especially hospitals, need to manage ever more knowledge and increasing amount of data, they are faced with a number of challenges. These relate to e.g., increasing clinical benefits, providing treatment in a variety of locations (in the hospital itself, in new forms of hospitals, at home), and involving health and care staff effectively in the changes occurring.

The objectives of this first webinar on digital therapeutics and care at home are to:explore how, throughout Europe, care is shifting from the hospital to the home, explore what digital therapeutics has to offer in terms of this paradigm shift, and identify in what ways AI and digital therapeutics work together.

The Date: Wednesday 3 June 2020, Time: 12:00 – 13:30 CET (90 min)

The first part of the webinar is a brief welcome and introduction by TicSalutSocial member, Juan Guanyabens, and EHTEL Principal eHealth Policy Analyst, Diane Whitehouse.

The shift of care from hospital to home: Example 1 – Presenter: Astrid van der Velde and Ed de Kluiver, Isala Heart Centre, Netherlands (NWE-Chance).

The shift of care from hospital to home: Example 2 – Presenters: Massimo Caprino and Riccardo Re, Casa di Cura del Policlinico – CCP, Italy (vCare).

What digital therapeutics has to offer and the relationship between AI and digital therapeutics. – Presenter: John Crawford, CrawfordWorks, United Kingdom and EHTEL Honorary Member.

The discussion will be based around several key questions, that should provide concrete evidence of developments in the field. After the discussion, the moderators will summarise the key messages of the webinar as preliminary conclusions.

The Virtual Meeting is on invitation. Please register your interest via the Webinar Event and Registration Page and find here More on Innovation Initiative workstream in the EHTEL website.