8 Tech Highlights from HIMSS

Originally published February 15, 2019 by Amy Kluber at GovernmentCIO Media

Floor demonstrations and announcements include a cybersecurity best practices guide, wearable devices and more.

This week’s Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society conference in Orlando, Florida, uncovered topics of discussion surrounding the Health and Human Services Department’s proposed new rules to increase interoperability of electronic health information, including APIs and information-blocking guidelines. Aside from perhaps the biggest announcement in government IT this week, we took a look at the other developments and technology highlights for the healthcare industry from the show floor.

Health Cybersecurity Best Practices

A task force convened by HHS presented recently published guidelines on cybersecurity best practices for the healthcare industry to raise security awareness for executives, healthcare professionals, providers and organizations. The document, “Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP): Managing Threats and Protecting Patients,” which was released in December 2018, was presented Tuesday by task group co-chairs Erik Decker, chief information security and privacy officer at University of Chicago Medicine, and Julie Anne Chua, risk management branch chief at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS, leveraging the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC), convened the CSA 405(d) Task Group in 2017. Comprising more than 120 stakeholders within the healthcare industry, the group met six times before publishing its document for industry use.

“This task group is doing important work to protect healthcare organizations from cybersecurity threats,” Chua said. “The ‘Medical Device Security’ section of the HICP incorporates hands-on healthcare experience and insight from real-world applications that proved to be invaluable to our team. We can all be proud of the result and the impact it will have on the healthcare industry.”

Netsmart

Netsmart showcased the value of connectivity and integration across healthcare with a modernized electronic health record. Its platform provides accurate information easily accessible to care team members in behavorial health, care at home, senior living and social services. Providers can seamlessly and securely integrate information across communities. The system is currently employed with more than 25,000 organizations across the U.S.

“For healthcare to be considered truly integrated, providers must have access to complete health histories across all settings to view the full picture that is the patient or consumer,” said Netsmart CEO Mike Valentine. “Providers must be empowered with tools that can deliver a complete view of even the most complex individuals – and that extends to features outside the typical EHR.”

Change Healthcare

Change Healthcare is using AI to streamline administrative healthcare processes and also announced free clinical data interoperability services for the healthcare industry.

Its new AI capability, the Claims Lifecycle Artificial Intelligence, integrated into the company’s Intelligent Healthcare Network and financial solutions will allow providers and payers to optimize the entire claims processing lifecycle.

The service is trained on more than 500 million service lines to help customers improve payment accuracy, reduce denials, enhance payment forecasting and reduce administrative overhead, according to a company press release. The product will be implemented in Change Healthcare’s Assurance Reimbursement Management, Revenue Performance Advisor and Medical Network Solutions.

Its interoperability services include a record locator service, indentity management and document retrieval solution with protection of patient privacy removes cost barriers to interoperability. They will run on Amazon Web Services Cloud

Samsung Digital Health Solutions

Samsung Electronics America demonstrated various mobile and wearable solutions that the company said addresses major healthcare challenges.

Some technology on display included wearable and tablet-based solutions for senior patients, digital solutions for clinicians that ensure HIPAA compliance, remote patient monitoring and its own smartphones configured to serve as a consumer’s primary care management platform and allow for more seamless and discreet condition management.

Uber Health

The world’s largest on-demand ridesharing company is venturing into the healthcare market with a new service. In 2018, Uber launched Uber Health, a HIPAA-compliant transportation platform for healthcare organizations. The web-based platform allows healthcare organizations to help patients get to and from hospitals. The interface looks similar to its taxi counterpart and even leverages its existing network of drivers.

ClearDATA

Healthcare cloud provider ClearDATA’s new solution allows for the visibility and detection of protected health information for healthcare organizations. The Healthcare Aware Distributed Tracking solution leverages machine-learning technology for users to observe sensitive data in transit.

“As data volumes grow and systems become increasingly complex, we have to find new technologies to meet our fundamental obligations to protect sensitive patient data,” said Adam Greenfield, ClearDATA’s Vice President of Architecture. “For the first time this solution provides us with visibility into the massive amount of encrypted data flowing between microservices in complicated healthcare workloads.”

Spok

Spok demonstrated its latest integrated healthcare communication platform, Spok Care Connect. The so-called “first-of-its-kind” cloud-native enterprise communication platform includes a fully integrated healthcare contact center, clinical alerting and alarm management solution, and a multi-device app for care team messaging. The tech allows hospital teams to streamline communication to focus on taking care of patients.

Jamf

With an oversized tablet on display, Jamf demonstrated for the healthcare industry its Apple-based management platform to remotely enroll, deploy and manage iPad and Apple TV devices for patients.

“Patients want more control and a better overall experience,” reads a description on its website. “Imagine a world that allows patients to see their medical records, close the blinds and call a nurse – all from an iPad paired with an Apple TV.”

Jamf allows patients to interact with caregivers, read details about care plans, control room environment and use apps for entertainment and patient care all from an iPad.