healthcare data storage options: on-premise, cloud and hybrid data storage

Healthcare organizations are challenged with selecting the on-premise or cloud storage solution that best suits their health IT infrastructure.

Healthcare organizations are building their IT infrastructures to be more flexible and scalable to meet the growing data demand. With value-based incentives for data analytics and the increased number of connected medical devices constantly collecting data, organizations are challenged with storing clinical data in a way that is both HIPAA-compliant and easy for authorized users to access.

Traditionally, healthcare organizations have shied away from cloud data storage in favor of on-premise options because of the control IT administrators have over physical datacenters. However, entities are recently more likely to implement cloud storage into their IT infrastructure to some extent because of the reduced maintenance costs and improved HIPAA-compliance.

Cloud data storage options offer a flexible and scalable environment at a lower cost than on-premise deployments, which is appealing to covered entities. Organizations exploring data analytics are expecting their storage requirements to steadily increase as Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices collect data that needs to be stored.

One of the biggest data storage challenges healthcare organizations face is how to piece together legacy systems while integrating new systems into the infrastructure. Many entities cannot afford to mass migrate data from one storage system to the other, which is why interoperability between different cloud vendors is necessary for a smooth transition.

Not every healthcare organization will benefit from the same type of data storage, which makes choosing a storage deployment a challenge for any organization. HITInfrastructure.com will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of different storage options and explore the potential of on-premise hosted virtualized storage solutions.

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understanding physical safeguards, healthcare data security

Physical safeguards still present a great opportunity for healthcare organizations to ensure health data security.

When creating strong healthcare data security measures, physical safeguards serve as a primary line of defense from potential threats.

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) defines physical safeguards as the following:

Physical safeguards are physical measures, policies, and procedures to protect a covered entity’s electronic information systems and related buildings and equipment from natural and environmental hazards, and unauthorized intrusion. The standards under physical safeguards include facility access controls, workstation use, workstation security, and device and media controls. The Security Rule requires covered entities to implement physical safeguard standards for their electronic information systems whether such systems are housed on the covered entity’s premises or at another location.

Although the majority of health data storage is being transitioned into digital formats, thus elevating the importance of technical safeguards, physical safeguards still hold a vital role in protecting against healthcare data breaches.

By implementing proper and effective physical safeguards, healthcare organizations are able to mitigate many potential healthcare data breaches.

Proper PHI Disposal

As healthcare organizations transition patient health information from paper to electronic files, it is important that they ensure those paper files are eventually disposed of properly.

According to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, acceptable methods for paper PHI disposal include burning, shredding, pulping, or pulverizing the records until they are unreadable.

Improperly disposed paper records pose a notable threat to the healthcare industry as organizations are seeking to get rid of these kinds of records. Between shut down clinics and clinics transitioning to EHRs, data breaches due to improperly disposed of paper records are increasing.

For example, a defunct medical testing facility left paper records containing PHI for 170 individuals in a dumpster. According to the NWITimes.com, a local restaurant worker found the files in the dumpster and then contacted the media outlet.

The paper files included such information as patient names, addresses, phone numbers, blood types, and credit card numbers with expiration dates and security codes. The files also included Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, health insurance cards, prescriptions for lab work, lab results, and medical diagnoses.

After being contacted, the media company consulted with the Indiana Attorney General turned the paper records over.

Facility Security

Healthcare facilities also need to ensure facility security to protect from potential thieves. Stealing health information storage devices is appealing to thieves because it allows them to access a large amount of that sensitive data in one place.

There is also the issue of thieves who may not necessarily wish to access patient data and just want to steal devices. Because of the value of the equipment, hospitals are lucrative targets from those looking to sell medical devices for profit. Although these thieves may not be interested in the health data, the information is still improperly disclosed and it is imperative that healthcare organizations protect against these kinds of issues.

Device theft that can result from improper facility security includes the theft of thumb drives and even laptop computers. In October 2015, for example, a thumb drive was stolen from St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital.

The drive contained patient names, medical record numbers, dates of services, types of imaging services provided, and administrative information.

Although St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital did not disclose much information regarding their typical facility security measures, they may have potentially had gaps that allowed this breach to happen.

By implementing proper security protocol, facilities can prevent device thefts such as that.

Access Controls

Access controls, or the way a covered entity vets and controls who is viewing health information, are critical to implementing adequate physical safeguards. By restricting someone’s access, a healthcare organization can control for information falling into the wrong hands.

Generally speaking, healthcare professionals should only access the minimum amount of patient information necessary in order to complete their care. For example, if a physician doesn’t need to know about a patient’s mental health, they will not be able to access their mental health records.

However, studies show that these kinds of access controls are not adhered to.

In a Ponemon Institute study commissioned by Varonis Systems, Inc., researchers found that 56 percent of respondents felt their organizations only put a low to moderate priority on protecting company data. Additionally, 65 percent of providers reported having access to patient information that they do not need in order to fulfil their job duties.

That said, industry experts predict that as healthcare data breaches continue to plague the industry, hospitals will place a higher priority on adhering to these “minimum necessary” rules.

“The damage can be greatly reduced by managing data access permissions, making sure employees only have access to the data they need to do their jobs, and by monitoring for unusual activity,” said Varonis co-founder and CEO Yaki Faitelson.

As healthcare data breaches grow more prevalent, covered entities might find that attacks come in all forms. Although there is a growing threat of technical and hacking-related attacks, healthcare organizations should still go the extra mile to implement physical safeguards to protect from non-hacking-related attacks.

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latest trends on secure texting and app security

There have been several key changes in 2016 in terms of mobile health security, including debates in secure texting and concern over app security.

With more covered entities beginning to consider secure texting options or BYOD implementation, it makes sense that certain app security and mobile health security concerns also arise.

However, the implementation process can be done securely, and organizations can take advantage of technical innovations to stay connected and further patient care. Facilities just need to ensure they consider how federal regulations, such as HIPAA rules, apply so that patient data stays secure.

Recent cases of secure messaging implementation
As previously mentioned, both secure texting and secure messaging options are increasing in popularity for providers. OhioHealth is one such organization, and its Mobile Device Deployment Manager James Sturiano told HealthITSecurity.com earlier this year how OhioHealth is utilizing mobile device management (MDM) to ensure security.

The University of Louisville (UofL) School of Dentistry also implemented secure messaging options this year. Director of Informatics Christopher Morgan explained that there was a bit of a technology gap at the school, and secure messaging was the necessary bridge.

“We have email, we have a messenger within our EHR system, and those worked really well for what they’re good at,” Morgan said. “For sending longer [secure] messages, there are ways to prioritize them so that they pop up when the user wants to get urgent status. We were really limited by the availability of those other systems.”

Secure messaging also helped ensure that students, staff members, and faculty were not going to be restricted by location. Previously, individuals had to be on-campus or log on through authorized computers in order to use the messenger system within the UofL EHR.

Covenant Medical Group and Covenant Health Partners also implemented secure messaging out of necessity, according to IT Systems Director Seth Crouch, MBA, CPC, CMPE, CHFP.

“The way we decided to roll this out in order to gain adoption, was to get our very busy, high-profile physicians to use this and to start the communication process that way,” Crouch said. “And they did. That sort of set the stage up for everyone else below them, where if they wanted to talk to these high-profile physicians, they had to use PerfectServe.”

When making the case for why Covenant should take advantage of secure messaging, Crouch explained that he emphasized the PHI security benefits. Standard SMS texting would not be able to promise that same security.

The debate over secure texting for physician orders
A key highlight in 2016 for mobile health security was when the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare (JCAHO) lifted its ban on clinician secure texting and secure messaging options. Specifically, JCAHO said that physician orders could be sent through secure messaging. However, certain components must be in place.

The decision did not last long though, as JCAHO reversed its decision just a couple of months later.

More guidance is needed “to ensure a safe implementation involving the secure texting of orders for those organizations desiring to employ technology supporting this practice,” federal officials explained in the JCAHO June newsletter.

“The Joint Commission and CMS will develop a comprehensive series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) documents to assist health care organizations with the incorporation of text orders into their policies and procedures,” the newsletter stated. “This guidance information is designed to supplement the recommendations in the May 2016 Perspectives article permitting the use of secure text messaging platforms to transmit orders.”

When JCAHO first announced the lift on using secure messaging for physician orders, some industry stakeholders praised the move.

TigerText CEO Brad Brooks told HealthITSecurity.com in a May 2016 interview that providers were beginning to organically gravitate toward using secure messaging in more ways.

“This has been a major friction point, or impediment to more comprehensively integrating and adopting messaging within the healthcare workflow,” Brooks explained.

What are potential mobile device security concerns?
Mobile device security concerns have certainly continued to grow as more covered entities implement BYOD policies and adopt more mobile options.

For example, the Spyglass Point of Care Communications for Nursing 2016 survey found that hospitals may not be entirely confident in their ability to keep information on mobile devices secure. Specifically, 82 percent of respondents said they had grave concerns about their ability to support and protect mobile devices, patient data, and the hospital’s technology infrastructure as a result of the growing threat of cybersecurity attacks.

Surveyed hospitals said they were worried about both personally owned mobile devices and hospital-owned and managed devices.

Even so, 71 percent of respondents said that mobile communications is an emerging investment priority, largely fed by patient centered care models and value‐based purchasing adoption.

It is also important for individuals to take care as they use personal fitness devices, as lackluster security policies could make their personal information more readily available to third parties than originally realized.

A Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) Mobile Apps Study found that only 70 percent of top health and fitness apps had a privacy policy, which is 6 percent lower than overall top apps. Furthermore, 61 percent of top health and fitness apps linked to the privacy policy from the app platform listing page. This is 10 percent lower than overall top apps.

“Even though a privacy policy is not the be all and end all for building consumer trust, there is no excuse for failing to provide one – doing so is the baseline standard,” FPF’s Vice President of Policy John Verdi said in a statement. “App platforms have made it easier for developers to provide access to privacy policies. Consumers expect direct access to privacy policies, and users can review them before downloading an app.”

Earlier this year, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) also discussed potential legal concerns with mobile security, and how it should be a key consideration as technologists, clinicians, or even patients work on developing healthcare applications.

The ONC created an online tool in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

“This interactive tool helps guide developers through a short assessment of their app with a series of questions about the nature of the app, including its function, the data it collects, and the services it provides to its users,” ONC Chief Privacy Officer Lucia Savage, JD and ONC Senior Health Information Privacy Program Analyst Helen Caton-Peters, MSN, RN explained in a blog post.

Mobile application developers must also be sure to consider HIPAA regulations, and whether or not they would apply. Furthermore, any laws or regulations in regard to the FTC, FDA and the OCR “all could influence the development of a new health-related product.”

“As the number of mobile health products available today continues to rise, it’s important to clarify for developers how FDA and other agencies’ regulations would apply to their app,” said Bakul Patel, associate director for digital health in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “This effort is part of the FDA’s continued commitment to protecting patient safety while encouraging innovation in digital health.”

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mobile devices are transforming home healthcare

With the first of our highly independent Baby Boomers entering into their 70s, home-based healthcare will undoubtedly become a high-growth segment. Because this ever-growing population now prefers to stay in its home longer, providers now need to figure out how to bring healthcare to them. Utilizing mobile devices that most of us already use is the most effective method for doing so. For even the most stubborn technology stragglers, today’s mobile devices should be recognized as indispensable tools in home healthcare. They are easy to use, provides round-the-clock monitoring (on the provider and patient end) and reduces the need for doctor office visits.

Mobile Devices Are Easy to Use
Mobile devices are both hand held computers and telephones, allowing for owners to make a phone call and use it to document patient notes. They are portable, lightweight and often times have larger screens and buttons to make it easier to view images or read documents and input data. Most mobile devices are also now touch screens or equipped with digital pens for convenient note taking. They are battery charged, which means they don’t have to be plugged in to be used. Designed properly, mobile devices and wearables can be easy for seniors or fragile patients to read, use or wear.

Can Provide Remote Patient Monitoring
The use of mobile devices allows for wireless communication of real-time data from remote employees out at a job. Caregivers can relay relevant patient history notes and transmit this information to the doctors and staff. The ability to use mobile devices in remote patient monitoring also gives us access to patients 24/7. Use assisted living as an example: Caregivers and hospital staff can track a patient’s location and motion and issue an alert if he/she stops moving or if a dementia patient walks outside of predetermined boundaries. Monitoring patients from home can help the elderly live independently in their own home for a longer period of time while drastically improving the quality of caregiver decision-making.

Reduces the Needs for Doctor Visits

Instead of having to leave the home to go to a doctor to get diagnosed on an ailment, home caregivers can conveniently access up-to-date data on their mobile devices. Traditional medical references and tools, such as drug guides, medical calculators and patient symptom guides, have been translated into readily available mobile apps for easy access and caregivers to pull up immediately at an appointment. An example of how mobile devices can reduce a trip to the doctor is those patients with chronic diseases. Chronic disease management can be maintained at home with proper instruction and regular visits from home healthcare staff. Specially designed mobile monitors and meters can transmit blood pressure, glucose levels, heart rate and oxygen levels to a patient’s care team at the hospital or clinic, which will help the staff oversee conditions such as cardiac disease, asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Similar conditions can also be monitored after returning home from an extended hospital stay. Mobile devices can help track physical therapy and rehab activity. Early detection of problems enables quick intervention and reduces hospital readmission rates. Using mobile devices in home healthcare also gives staff the ability to access and view patients’ CT scans, x-rays, and MRIs without having to be in-house. While at a job, caregivers can also consult with other clinicians or staff in real time since mobile devices now have high-resolution cameras, microphones and sound. A caregiver can upload photos of the patient’s current medical condition, share it with staff and obtain immediate feedback and advice. Mobile videoconferencing is also an option for caregivers who need help from relevant experts.

Since the Affordable Care Act has passed, this has resulted in more insured capable of affording in-home care. This is where technology steps in and can be a bridge to this population and care providers through the use of mobile devices. Wireless technology should be viewed as another major force for change in home healthcare. Providers can now harness the power of smartphones, tablets and wearables to better manage mobile employees, decrease administrative paperwork, comply with regulations and ultimately increase the quality of patient care.

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5 ways secure messaging can improve patient care

According to a recent report from healthcare start-up accelerator Rock Health, venture capitalists poured more than $3 billion into digital health companies in the first three quarters of 2014. But where’s most of the money going? Toward efforts that “improve patient care and reduce costs,” the analysis said.

Studies show that as more clinicians and healthcare facilities adopt the use of mobile technology in their daily healthcare practices, the positive impacts on patient care, organizational efficiency and workflow multiply. So how do patients benefit from the increased use of mobile health technology?

1. Communication

Better communication reduces the risk of serious medical errors. For example, the Joint Commission estimates that 80 percent of medical mishaps occur due to miscommunication. One example of this includes when patients are handed off to a new physician or specialist. For clinicians, the ability to send a secure text message facilitates a real-time exchange of health information and removes the need for pagers, email and voicemail, which are not timely and often not secure.

2. Compliance

Secure text messaging can be used to remind patients to take prescribed medicines and to comply with recommended care practices, such as pre-surgical procedures designed to reduce infections. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons found that patients prefer text messaging when partnering with their physicians on the specifics of their health management. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, used texts, emails and voicemails to remind patients to take antiseptic showers 24 to 48 hours before a scheduled surgery. Text messages were the most popular electronic communication method (80 percent) among the patients. Those who received the texts were significantly more compliant with the preadmission orders.

Other examples include the numerous Text4Health projects recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. These initiatives show the immense opportunities to engage underserved groups and improve health. For example, the National Cancer Institute’s SmokeFreeTXT effort more than doubled the smoking quit rate among teens by texting smoking cessation messages to them.

3. Care coordination

When physicians and nurses collaborate on a patient’s care plan, the ability to exchange electronic protected health information (ePHI) in real time makes a difference. We’ve found that 70 percent of users of secure texting say the seamless mobile health platform delivers better patient care.

“Nearly every clinician in your organization uses a smartphone, and in nearly every case the device contains PHI in the form of an email or text messages. That’s not entirely a bad thing: The fact is, smartphones make clinicians more productive and lead to better patient care. Healthcare providers depend on texts to discuss admissions, emergencies, transfers, diagnoses and other patient information with colleagues and staff.”

4. Patient engagement

When mobile communications are used to deliver a call to action, patients and their families become empowered to take responsibility for their health. Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine developed an automated phone interview system that boosted the quality of care pediatric patients received at their routine appointments. Dr. William Adams and colleagues studied what happened when parents took the survey and physicians had time to review the responses. The results, published in Pediatrics, show that parents were more prepared for the doctor’s visit, more of their needs were met and more of their questions were answered. From the physicians’ perspective, mobile tools ease the burden of providing a myriad of recommended services in a clinical setting. “Systems like (this) can enhance adherence to guidelines and improve the availability of needed patient information,” the study authors wrote.

In addition, we’ve noted that texting between providers and patients can improve care in a variety of scenarios, not to mention the ways it strengthens the doctor-patient relationship.

5. Productivity

An analysis in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found the use of a secure messaging tool within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs patient portal (MyHealtheVet) increased patient’s ability to communicate effectively with their primary care team. Veterans who tested the secure messaging system said it saved them time and resources by giving them “24/7” access to their providers. These patients used secure messaging to make appointments, get referrals and fill prescriptions – without spending hours on the phone or driving to a VA facility to complete these tasks in person. The study also found that secure messaging “afforded (veterans) the ability and confidence to draft a question to their provider in their own time and without the pressure of having to relay the same question over the phone or in person.”

Secure Messaging and Healthier Patients

As all of this news indicates, the boom in mobile health and health IT shows no signs of slowing. The availability of technologies such as secure text messaging delivers benefits on many levels:

• Promotes continuous and coordinated patient-centered care;
• Fosters real-time communication among clinicians; and
• Encourages conversations between physicians and patients

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mobile's impact on healthcare

Mobile Technology can ‘profoundly reshape the healthcare industry.

A study published by the Economist Intelligence Unit has found mobile technology has the potential to profoundly reshape the healthcare industry, altering how care is delivered and received.

Power To the Patient: How Mobile Technology is Transforming Healthcare surveyed 144 industry leaders in public and private healthcare, biotech, pharma, and medical devices to examine the impact of mobile technology across the international healthcare environment. According to the findings, physicians in both public and private healthcare anticipate mobile health will give individuals the power to be more proactive in their own healthcare decisions.

The study found 64 percent of healthcare execs feel mobile health could result in dramatically improved outcomes by providing patients with greater access to medical information, and 79 percent of healthcare professionals report that mobile technologies are now providing education and information.

And the opportunities are not limited to healthcare providers. Digital health technologies also provide pharmaceutical companies with “a clear opportunity to play a greater role in delivering a better experience for patients, improving clinical outcomes, and reducing the total cost of care,” according to a recent report from Strategy.

Half of those surveyed predicted that, within five years, mobile health will allow patients to be more proactive in their own healthcare and treatment, although 49 percent also believe concerns regarding privacy could pose obstacles for adoption, with 51 percent citing data privacy risks as the largest worry.

Robert B. McCray, president and CEO of the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliances, stated in the report, “If people won’t use the technology because of data breaches, we run the risk of losing the benefits of these technologies.”

An infographic accompanying the report stated notes and Arizona trial found mobile technologies tracking weight, blood pressure, and heart rate were used to treat patients in rural communities, saving $90,000 per patient in reduced hospital stays. The study further found, “Mobile health is changing healthcare and could transform it by acting as a conduit for personalized advice, information, and even treatment – if concerns about privacy and security are addressed.”

Ultimately, the study concludes, “If mobile devices enable people to monitor their vital signs, conduct tests, diagnose diseases at home, and communicate remotely with their doctors, then much of the current health infrastructure in developed countries become potentially unnecessary. At the very least, such a shift would remove pressure form overloaded hospitals and clinics. Meanwhile, the need for routine doctor visits plunges. Hospitals might be needed only for the acutely ill and for operations or even, as Scripp’s Dr. Eric Topol suggests, be ‘on their way out over time.’”

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india in 10 years: subscriptions, the future of healthcare

In the past few years, the healthcare sector has made significant advancements owing to technology. The miniaturization of medical devices and more powerful wearables will continue to transform both prevention and cure in healthcare. Due to this, we now have access to large amounts of real-time data serving as the foundation for AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) to create solutions for the sector.

In the future, the healthcare industry will become smarter to ensure better delivery of care. Predictive analysis will aid doctors with smart algorithms that mine their patient’s data set; complete with previous diagnoses, treatments or genetic information. AI and ML will help doctors diagnose and predict the likelihood of treatment success.

Technology will help support doctors’ decisions but will not replace them—the doctor will always have more context to patients, mainly because of the complex and intuitive nature of patient care that only a doctor can provide. The technology will help doctors in treatment but interpreting the qualitative signals and personalized nuances that patients reveal will always rest with doctors.

Today, people generally go to a doctor or a provider when they are sick; it is more episodic. In the future, we will see healthcare being delivered as a subscription where providers are actively involved in your care and reach out to you for an intervention instead of the other way round. This will be made possible with wearables, as providers will have access to real-time data. Access to patients’ digital health records will also help greatly; analytics will help a provider understand and take decisions faster, even predict if the patient is likely to fall sick and, thus, take measures. Electronic health records will not only map the patient’s medical history but also allow healthcare institutes and doctors to access information without having to sift through piles of paper notes.

Thus, with access to data and analysis, health practitioners can also practise remote monitoring in real time, which means doctors can take the help of technology to diagnose accurately; the information will also be pre-analysed so that doctors can take decisions faster. Maybe there could be alerts set up as well in case there is an immediate need or change in a patient’s condition. If, say, a diabetic’s glucose levels are within a predetermined range, the information is just recorded for future reference. If the glucose levels are problematic, both caregiver and patient will get a message saying, “We need to connect.”

This will also help in better continuum of care, further bridging the gap between the patient and healthcare provider; it will revolutionize patient-doctor relationships. Imagine that your grandmother is a hypertension patient—you open the healthcare app on your smartphone and log in to her digital health record, which shows that according to her cardiologist, she needs to take the prescribed medication to lower her blood pressure and, based on her lab test, she needs to get an ECG check periodically. The software will update you on when your grandmother’s next check-up is due and book an appointment based on your preference. It will also alert you on her medicine intake schedule.

Thus, the way healthcare practitioners deliver care will change as it becomes more personalized, faster and more accurate.

This will also help patients take better care of themselves, for access to data and analysis will enable wearables to predict health problems and offer advice on potential lifestyle changes based on one’s health and genetic history, predict recovery duration, and suggest the right doctor in accordance with the patient’s profile. In the future, algorithms will help to map patient history to the extent that they will be able to predict the future generation’s health/disease patterns, making treatment faster and more effective.

With tremendous scope for innovation, the possibilities for ensuring better healthcare outcomes are enormous. I think we have just scratched the surface of what technology and healthcare can do together…the best is yet to come.

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healthcare in your pocket? the mobile phone phenomenon

The number of studies involving mHealth technology registered with the ISRCTN registry has been increasing in recent years. With this in mind, we thought it would be a good opportunity to investigate this a little further and learn more about this new field of research.

Unless you have been living on Mars for the last few months, you couldn’t possibly have failed to come across the latest smartphone app craze, Pokémon Go. Admittedly I haven’t downloaded it on my own phone (perhaps I’ll use writing this blog as an excuse to do so), but this augmented reality game has become something of a global phenomenon. Amazingly, it’s also been credited with both physical and mental health benefits

Not all mobile phone apps with a health benefit tag capture the public imagination in quite the same way as Pokémon Go of course, but they are certainly big business. According to a recent article in The Economist, there are currently around 165K health-related apps available for either Apple or Android phones and it’s been predicted that the global revenue from these products will reach $21.1 billion in 2018.

Healthcare services by phone, however, don’t have to be high tech. Although many people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) own a mobile phone, far fewer of them own a smartphone compared to people living in high income countries, and simple text messages are increasingly being used as a tool in a number of healthcare-related settings.

As a Database Editor for the ISRCTN registry, I’ve noticed an upsurge in the number of studies being registered that involve the testing of mHealth technology, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce just some of the research happening in this area.

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app doctor update: how AI is personalizing healthcare

These days, many people are content to just Google their symptoms and self-diagnose for whatever ails them. This is dangerous, however, as, without the proper medical training and necessary tests, crucial details affecting treatment (like congenital predispositions, allergies, etc) is left out. The implementation of an AI, like ADA, could go a long way to solving this self-diagnosis problem.

Healthcare has always been a field to push towards the development of new technologies and one to adopt them as soon as possible. AI and machine learning technologies bring useful perspectives for health-related diagnosis and data analysis, affecting both the patient and healthcare professionals.

In many places, healthcare is still relying on paper-based data recording that is time-consuming. Leveraging Big Data, processing power, and trained algorithms, an AI-powered system can properly diagnose and treat diseases. In many cases, these systems have the time to analyze patient data and predict disease occurrence before later stages.

AI Poised to Reinvent Public and Individual Health

Healthcare IT News and HIMSS Analytics conducted a survey of 85 CEOs, health professionals, medical information officers and IT experts to gauge the potential of AI in the healthcare landscape.

Among the survey’s chief findings is that population health, clinical decision support, patient diagnosis and precision medicine are, in that order, the top areas where AI is expected to have the greatest impact. Against 4.7% already using AI technologies, over 10% of respondents intend to do so within a year, 23.5% said they would within two years and 24.7% within three to five years.

The survey found that the lack of executive and physician buy-in, data integration and infrastructure constraints are the main barriers standing in the way of AI adoption in healthcare organizations.

ADA, Your Personal AI Healthcare Companion

ADA is an AI-powered app for people who want better control over their health. ADA collects data on the go and stores them after encryption in the cloud. The smart symptom checker allows the user to check the symptoms of any disease via simple, jargon-free and personalized questions. ADA also learns over time and becomes more familiar with the specific conditions and history of the user.

Designed by doctors, the app also serves doctors by a decision support system and assessments based on individual data and history of the patient.

A health companion for patients and assistant for doctors, ADA is already the no. 1 medical app in the App Store in over 120 countries. Within the first week of launch in the US, ADA has been downloaded more than 25,000 times.

Perhaps, when combined with biometric sensing technologies, apps like ADA could take their health-diagnosing power to the next level. What would it take for you to trust your health to an AI?

most healthcare institutions using non HIPAA-compliant messaging apps

Dive Brief:
A new study from Infinite Convergence Solutions finds just 1 in 4 healthcare institutions that have designated an official mobile messaging platform are using an internal app. The others are directing staff toward regular consumer messaging apps that do not provide the security required to comply the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

The study also finds just 8% of healthcare institutions prohibit the use of consumer apps for employee communication.

The company concludes many healthcare institutions lack the knowledge popular consumer apps do not meet the technical safeguards that HIPAA requires.

Dive Insight:
While much of the issue is around lack of knowledge by healthcare institutions, those grappling with the issue may be pleased to hear employees overwhelmingly say they would embrace a secure solution.

According to the study, 51% of healthcare employees report their institution does not have an official messaging platform, but 92% of them say they would use a company-wide platform if one was implemented, and 64% said it would make communication at their job easier.

"Healthcare institutions need to get serious about meeting their employees’ needs and providing a secure, internal messaging platform that not only allows HIPAA compliance, but also replaces outdated communication systems, like pagers, in order to increase productivity and serve patients faster,” Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence Solutions, said in a prepared statement.

The company launched the study in October and surveyed 500 professionals in the finance/banking, healthcare, retail and legal industries.

Among its other findings:
Sixty-five percent of healthcare respondents said they use email the most for business communication, followed by 22% using mobile messaging the most and 13% using voice-calling the most.

As for why more respondents aren't using mobile messaging the most: Thirty-one percent prefer email or phone; 19% say there’s no paper trail; 18% say it’s not as secure as phone or email; 17% say it’s too informal; and 16% say it isn't authorized by their company.

Vectramind Healthcare messaging Platform

Message security is the top concern with mobile messaging for business communication.

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