US Healthcare – ProfoMedia

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

Cyber Security in Healthcare.

It is commonly understood that the recent UK hacking situation in the NHS, was via its connected machinery, rather than direct into the hospital servers. We focus on what’s up at the forthcoming conference in San Francisco, with this timely announcement from Tel Aviv based company Cynerio, who today announced its mission to protect the future of healthcare by focusing on its weakest link – the connected medical device ecosystem.

What they say is, by building a tailor-made solution for healthcare providers, they deliver complete visibility into a healthcare organization’s medical device ecosystem, protecting it from cyber threats and helping the organization meet HIPAA regulatory requirements.

The company was founded by cybersecurity experts Leon Lerman, CEO, and Daniel Brodie, CTO, to deliver a cybersecurity solution specially designed for healthcare providers, based on the industry’s first technology that combines device behavior modeling with medical workflow analysis to provide full visibility into medical device behavior and activity on the network, accurately detect anomalies with deep understanding of the medical context and stop the threat to ensure patient safety and data protection.

“Connected medical devices are delivering a new level of patient care, but present new challenges of managing and securing the growing clinical ecosystem. For attackers, medical devices are easy targets, as the devices aren’t built with security in mind and healthcare security teams have limited ability to protect these devices with traditional IT security solutions that are more focused on standard platforms. Our technology offers a comprehensive solution, purposely built to protect the medical device ecosystem and their sensitive data,” explained Lerman.

HIMSS 2018 – What to Look Out For…

As usual, we are pleased to do our annual Advance Report on those Announcements that have caught our attention.

Best among many, are Dave Anderson, and Stephanie Fraser, – who have made respective polite efforts to reach out to us on behalf of their respective clients EHNAC, and GDPR people Nextgate, and Moran Faibish and her very interesting Healthwatchtech company. But there are dozens of others, and here are just a few:

• Influence Health’s CEO, Rupen Patel and CHRISTUS Health’s VP of marketing, Preston Gee, will also be presenting on 3/7 @ 11:30 am in Palazzo B (ID: 140) – A New Era: The CMO’s Role at the Healthcare Consumerism Table. Both executives are available to address how the consumerization of healthcare is fundamentally changing the way healthcare organizations need to market themselves by creating Amazon-like experiences for patients, or risk losing market share.
•
• Greenway Health, which recently earned the highest KLAS rating for Ambulatory Revenue Cycle Management Services, Small Clinics, will be announcing its next phase of Project Polaris, a next-generation practice management and EHR platform that will combine the best attributes from all of the company’s market-driven solutions to help providers effectively leverage a value-based healthcare environment for greater success.

Peter Hesse, 10Pearls’ CSO, will be presenting Magnetic PX: Building Secure, Engaging Experience, and would be happy to chat about the importance of security in providing patient experiences. He can also discuss how healthcare companies will need to adjust to meet HIPPA requirements as they implement emerging technologies such as AI and ML.

Ghazanfar Ghori, 10Pearls’ CTO, will be attending the event and available to discuss the solutions that his team has developed for their healthcare clients, such as HIPAA-compliant telehealth solutions that deliver care to patients in rural areas, online communities that connect caregivers to resources, and voice enabled AI applications capable of detecting dementia.

You can also arrange a meeting with data management provider Commvault’s General Manager of Worldwide Healthcare Business, Ananth Balasubramanian while at the show.

Ananth is available during the conference and can discuss, but not limited to:
·         What HIT executives must know about GDPR ahead of May’s deadline, and how they can become compliant
·         What HIT executives must know about ransomware, and how they can protect their organization and patients from increasingly savvy hackers
·         What HIT executives should know if they are considering migrating data to the cloud, and how to most strategically plan this (multi-cloud vs. public vs. private)
·         How healthcare entities can prepare and future-proof amid looming uncertainty as the administration deliberates how to make changes to healthcare reforms
·         Amazon / JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway’s new healthcare behemoth, and what it could potentially mean for the broader industry
·         How Commvault’s customers, such as Prime Healthcare and Montgomery County Memorial Hospital (and their patients) are benefitting from stronger, more secure data protection, recovery, backup and management in the cloud and on-premises.

David Dimond, CTO, and Dan Trott, Healthcare Field Director, Dell EMC Healthcare and Life Sciences, will also be there:

David and Dan will be onsite to discuss:
• Embracing a Digital Future and a supporting study commissioned by Dell EMC with Vanson Bourne Research
• Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption
• Changes in the healthcare technology landscape and high-profile mergers
• Leveraging multi-cloud environments

Dell EMC executives will be available to host industry discussions, providing perspective on these themes and how they support digital transformation in an ever-changing healthcare field. Along with these discussions, Dell EMC will host a number of interactive technology experiences, social media activities and customer events.

Courtney Cohen writes to say that; AI and natural language processing is starting to make waves in the healthcare space and Health Fidelity, industry leaders in providing scalable risk adjustment solutions, is bringing the technology to providers to use in a way like never before, such as discovering chronic conditions.

Why not come to meet with the Health Fidelity company, to discuss the advances NLP is making, as well as their recent partnership with Mount Sinai.

And then there are nice and polite invites; Amy Dardinger writes; The past few years, interoperability and AI have been the biggest trending topics at HIMSS. Many organizations are starting to get their systems in order, collecting more data points every day. This makes it even more difficult to synthesize the information to make it accessible and meaningful for healthcare providers.

Would you be interested in speaking with Gary Palgon, VP Healthcare and Life Science Solutions at Liaison Technologies, at HIMSS about the complexities of data integration in healthcare?

We invite any of our Readers to makle direct contact with any of the above vendors. We are simply passing on what they themselves are saying, without obligation or endorsement – They have taken their trouble to write to us. But equally there are dozens more. We will be producing our annual Report of HIMSS, towards the end of March 2018, but please contact us if you are looking for any specific health tech, and we will be pleased to point you where possible in the right direction.

Telehealth is Tumbling 30-Day Readmissions Penalties

In time for this year’s HIMSS – Lee Horner, President of Stratus’s Telehealth Division, explains how Telehealth can reduce re-admisisons.
High readmission rates are a $17 billion problem across the U.S. for hospital administrators.
What’s even more alarming is that a portion of 30-day readmissions are preventable. According to a recent University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 27% of readmissions could be avoided. This study shows that hospitals must improve communications between patients, physicians, hospitals and primary care providers, while providing better post-discharge resources.
Upon discharge, if a patient is readmitted within 30 days, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires payment from the hospital due to the guidelines of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which penalizes preventable readmissions. However, the burden of keeping abreast of each patient’s unique recovery isn’t an easy task for both providers and hospitals.
Imagine that, as a patient, you are sent home from the hospital with a stack of discharge papers. Are you more likely to read every sheet carefully or to stack it in a corner, never to be looked at again?
Solutions to the readmissions problem are emerging in today’s market and are designed to support the management and monitoring of every patient’s unique recovery during their most critical time post-discharge from the hospital: the first 30 days. By offering a workflow that aligns with the patient’s recovery period, such solutions automate follow-up reminders, connecting patients and providers over a secure video call, and allows for patient Q&A.
Now, imagine the patient with the stack of post-discharge instructions. Instead, these emerging solutions have the ability to send a text or email at discharge with a link to join a video conference. The patient simply clicks the link and the automatic video call distribution will identify the next available provider for a telehealth follow-up via computer, tablet or smartphone. New telehealth developments can even send reminders to the patient until they participate in a follow-up call and through this continuous follow-up, ensuring reduced readmission rates which help both the patient and provider alike.
According to a 2016 Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) survey, connected health tools (mobile and wireless devices) are changing patient care delivery.

The survey also found:
67% of healthcare organizations utilized multiple connected health technology solutions
58% used mobile optimized patient portals as an important patient engagement tool in their connected health strategy
47% stated that they expect to add additional connected health technologies to their platform.
It is great news for patients and providers that telehealth and connected health tools, are growing and will continue to do so while supporting hospitals in meeting CMS guidelines and preventing 30-day readmissions.