Editor's Note: Ingrid Oakley-Girvan, Ph.D., M.P.H. is an epidemiologist trained at Stanford. She is the VP of Strategy at Medable, a Palo Alto-based health platform start-up.A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) finds that many health apps may be sharing patients’ health data without their knowledge. Four-fifths of 211 diabetes apps examined did not have privacy policies. And in January 2016, Fitbit was slapped with a class-action lawsuit alleging that its
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Data Breaches: Moving Security Perimeter Back to Server Level
Editor's Note: Jon Senger is the CTO of Vertiscale . He writes frequently on the on the topic of HIPAA compliance and the role of MSPs in healthcare security.The leading cause of data breach incidents in healthcare facilities is lost or stolen end-user devices, including laptops and tablets. Such breaches have led to six figure fines for HIPAA violations in some cases, and with the stepped up enforcement coming in 2016 promised by the Department of Health and Human Services, we can expect to
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ACA Exchanges: 3 Keys to Sustainability
Editor’s Note: Chris Althoff and Larry Briski are partners at Invoyent, a healthcare IT company focused on software implementations for hospital systems and the insurance industry.ACA exchanges. Is sustainable business to be found in the new marketplace? With industry powerhouses like UnitedHealth and several Blues reporting major challenges, the long-term viability of the healthcare exchanges is in question.The U.S. government needs to take steps to improve market viability, like closing
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Healthcare Lessons from Facebook: Connecting Your Enterprise with Social Networking Tech
Editor's Note: Andy Aroditis is CEO and founder of NextGate, ranked No.1 in KLAS for enterprise master patient index (EMPI). Users of Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media applications are often amazed by how omniscient the technology seems to be. How do a bunch of algorithms know, out of billions of users, who you might consider a friend, or which videos you should consider watching just because you liked “The Dark Knight”?A big part of the answer is a core social media technology that
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Are EHR Vendors Hackers’ Next Big Target?
Editor's Note: Mark Menke is the Chief Technology Officer of Network DLP at Digital Guardian, a data protection firm. Mark has over 20 years of experience in various roles from ASIC Design to IT and Security Consulting roles. Over the course of 2015, countless data breaches occurred within hospital networks, health insurers, physicians’ offices, and other organizations in the healthcare industry. In fact, Community Health Systems, Premera and Anthem were just a few of the most notable names who
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Beware the EMR “Ripple Effect” on Revenue Cycle
Editor's Note: David Dyke is the Vice President of Product Management at RelayHealth Financial. EHR-EMR conversions can be complicated and disruptive. So don’t make them more problematic by making unnecessary changes to revenue cycle management systems.Like any major IT system implementation, an EMR conversion can be seriously disruptive to hospital operations–and finances. In addition to the many technical and clinical considerations of these projects, hospitals and health systems typically
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How Close Are We To AI-Automated Healthcare?
Editor's Note: Alex Meshkin is the CEO of Flow Health. Flow Health provides longitudinal care plan coordination and chronic care management services built on top of its platform, which is The Operating System for Value-Based CareSM. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexMeshkinWe have seen incredible progress in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few years, especially through the application of deep learning algorithms. AI systems will get even better as more data is
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Ensuring EHR Data Quality: What Comes Out Must Go In
Editor's Note: Karen Conway is the Executive Director of Industry Relations at GHX, a provider of healthcare-focused supply chain solutions. Much of the conversation at this year’s HIMSS conference was removing the barriers to the data that exists in electronic health records (EHRs). At least one session- the HIMSS Supply Chain Special Interest Group – focused on the overlooked need to first populate EHRs with quality data about the products used in healthcare. Otherwise, you know the old
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In-Depth: Paper to EHR Journey of 3 Behavioral Health Providers
Editor’s Note: D’Arcy Guerin Gue is a co-founder of Phoenix, with over 25 years of experience in executive leadership, strategic planning, IT services, knowledge leadership, and industry relations — with a special focus on patient engagement and federal compliance issues. She currently serves as the Director of Industry Relations at Phoenix Health Systems, a division of Medsphere Systems
In the public mind, the needs of the mentally ill and addicted have always taken a backseat to those of
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Early Detection: The New Cancer Paradigm
Editor's Note: Amit Kumar, Ph.D, is an expert in cancer diagnostics with over 20 years of experience in cancer research. He is the Vice Chairman of ITUS Corporation and Executive Chairman of Anixa Diagnostics Corporation, which is developing a blood test (Cchek ™), for the early detection of tumor-based cancers. This article first appeared in The Journal of Antibody Drug Conjugates and has been republished with permission.
A seemingly healthy patient walks into the doctor’s office for a
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