About healthcare IT
Humana, Salesforce team on connected care platform:”Humana will deploy Salesforce’s Health Cloud platform as part of its new Enterprise Clinical Operating Model, which aims to boost care coordination between members, care teams and providers.
The platform is designed to streamline collaboration, Humana said, by allowing care teams access to the member’s complete clinical history and insights on social, environmental and lifestyle factors that may impact their care.”
Multichannel Electrocardiograms Obtained by a Smartwatch for the Diagnosis of ST-Segment Changes: “The findings of this study suggest agreement between the multichannel smartwatch ECG and standard ECG for the identification of ST-segment changes in patients with acute coronary syndromes.”
Deep Learning Using Chest Radiographs to Identify High-Risk Smokers for Lung Cancer Screening Computed Tomography: Development and Validation of a Prediction Model: ”Lung cancer screening with chest computed tomography (CT) reduces lung cancer death. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) eligibility criteria for lung cancer screening with CT require detailed smoking information and miss many incident lung cancers. An automated deep-learning approach based on chest radiograph images may identify more smokers at high risk for lung cancer who could benefit from screening with CT…
[The] CXR-LC [convolutional neural network] identified smokers at high risk for incident lung cancer, beyond CMS eligibility and using information commonly available in the EMR.”
Health tech funding snapshot—Withings nabs $60M to expand into healthcare; Ro raises $200M: Some updates on financing for IT and tech companies.
Konica Minolta will pay $500K to settle lawsuit alleging EHR software flaws: ”The complaint from the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that Viztek violated the False Claims Act by cheating on certification tests for its electronic health record (EHR) system. The company falsely represented that its EHR met the criteria for certification, which would allow it to receive incentive payments through the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program.
This resulted in providers filing false claims for incentive payments with the Medicare program…”
About the public’s health
The COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel’s Statement on the Emergency Use Authorization of Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of COVID-19: In today’s top news story, the NIH declared: “There are currently no data from well-controlled, adequately powered randomized clinical trials that demonstrate the efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19.” [Emphasis added.] Read the article for supporting details.
C.D.C. Tells States How to Prepare for Covid-19 Vaccine by Early November:”The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified public health officials in all 50 states and five large cities to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November…
Over the past week, both Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, who heads the Food and Drug Administration, have said… that a vaccine may be available for certain groups before clinical trials have been completed, if the data is overwhelmingly positive.”
Federal panel lays out initial priorities for COVID-19 vaccine distribution:”Initial doses of a COVID-19 vaccine should go to front-line health workers, first responders and people at serious risk for infection, according to new draft guidelines released Tuesday by a federal advisory panel.
The draft guidelines were developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to help U.S. officials plan for an equitable allocation of an eventual vaccine.
The final report will be released later this fall.”
The Most American COVID-19 Failure Yet:This article from The Atlantic makes the case that we could have shut down COVID-19 if we had a coordinated national contact tracing strategy (for example, like New Zealand). A similar argument was made this weekend in an opinion piece in The Financial Times.
Florida cuts ties with Quest Diagnostics lab for 75,000 withheld coronavirus tests:”Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the Florida Department of Health to no longer work with Quest Diagnostics after the laboratory violated state law and failed to report nearly 75,000 coronavirus tests that date back to April in a timely manner.”
White House to Target Hospitals for Uneven Covid-19 Data Reporting: “In a move expected as early as next week, the administration is planning to publicize the names of hospitals with data missing from the federal pandemic reporting system, according to people familiar with the discussions.”
US says it won’t join global effort to find COVID-19 vaccine:”The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will not work with an international cooperative effort to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine because it does not want to be constrained by multilateral groups like the World Health Organization…
Some nations have worked directly to secure supplies of vaccine, but others are pooling efforts to ensure success against a disease that has no geographical boundaries. More than 150 countries are setting up the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX.”
Humoral Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 in Iceland:”Our results indicate that antiviral antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 did not decline within 4 months after diagnosis. We estimate that the risk of death from infection was 0.3% and that 44% of persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Iceland were not diagnosed by qPCR.” Good news for lasting immunity- either natural or, hopefully, with a vaccine.
Two-thirds of healthcare experts plot virtual trial use as a result of COVID-19: report:”A new report from life science data analytics firm GlobalData has found that two-thirds of healthcare experts surveyed over the summer plan to use decentralized clinical trials.This is a direct result of COVID-19, during which the use of siteless tech related to home visits, deliveries and telehealth was actively encouraged by the FDA and a necessity in allowing trials to continue during the pandemic lockdown.”
Coronavirus may survive on outdoor surfaces for longer in autumn, US study suggests:”Researchers found that in lower temperatures and humidity, the virus could, for example, remain on a hiker’s jacket if it was outside for a week – and remain infectious for that time – whereas in summer its lifespan was estimated to be one to three days.
The prolonged survival of the virus on surfaces in autumn could “potentially contribute to new outbreaks”, the team led by Juergen Richt, professor of veterinary microbiology at Kansas State University, wrote in a non-peer-reviewed paper posted on preprint website bioRxiv.org on Monday.”
It’s time to talk about how toilets may be spreading covid-19: A really good review of this topic and what to do to mitigate risk in that setting.
Roche to launch 40M rapid coronavirus antigen tests per month, starting in Europe: “Roche plans to make a rapid antigen test for the novel coronavirus widely available in Europe later this month, while also submitting it to FDA reviewers for an emergency authorization in the U.S.
The point-of-care diagnostic aims to provide a result within 15 minutes, as a way to screen people with or without symptoms for COVID-19.
The Big Pharma said it will start off with 40 million tests in stock at launch and plans to ramp up production to more than twice that number, per month, by the end of the year.”
Perhaps with this test and the rapid Abbott test, the goal of more universal and continuous testing can be realized.
About pharma
Association Between Administration of Systemic Corticosteroids and Mortality Among Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19:A Meta-analysis: This recommendation comes from a meta-analysis done by the WHO: “In this prospective meta-analysis of clinical trials of critically ill patients with COVID-19, administration of systemic corticosteroids, compared with usual care or placebo, was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality.” The article is one of several published online today in JAMA.
See, also, this editorial: Corticosteroids in COVID-19 ARDSEvidence and Hope During the Pandemic. It is a great review of the topic. It seems the type of steroid does not matter in producing a benefit.
U.S. House Oversight Committee to subpoena AbbVie in drug-pricing probe:”The U.S. House Oversight Committee on Tuesday decided to subpoena AbbVie Inc to seek documents on the drugmaker’s blockbuster treatments, Humira and Imbruvica, as part of its investigation into drug-pricing practices.
The committee began the probe last year and had sought information from 12 drugmakers on price increases, corporate strategies to preserve market share and pricing power.”
Trump says he will meet with drugmakers this week over pricing: Despite this announcement, the “Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)… is not aware of a meeting scheduled for this week, spokeswoman Nicole Longo said.”
About health insurance
AMA releases 2021 CPT code set: “The first major overhaul in more than 25 years to the codes and guidelines for office and other outpatient evaluation and management (E/M) services was included in [Tuesday’s] release of the 2021 Current Procedural Terminology (CPT®) code set published by the American Medical Association (AMA)….
The changes to CPT codes ranging from 99201-99215 are proposed for adoption by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Jan. 1, 2021.
The E/M office visit modifications include:
Eliminating history and physical exam as elements for code selection.
Allowing physicians to choose the best patient care by permitting code level selection based on medical decision-making (MDM) or total time.
Promoting payer consistency with more detail added to CPT code descriptors and guidelines…
The revised E/M office visit codes are among 329 editorial changes in the 2021 CPT code set, including 206 new codes, 54 deletions, 69 revisions.
See, also: Proposed 2021 Medicare pay schedule: 9 things doctors should know
DOD Releases Draft RFP for New $58 Billion Health Care Contracts: “The Pentagon released a draft request for proposal (DRFP) for the next generation of its massive healthcare contracts on Aug 28. The two contracts are potentially valued at more than $58 billion.
The DRFP is for the fifth-generation of managed-care support contracts, known as T-5, for the military’s TRICARE health services program. T-5, will deliver health care services for the approximately 9 million military personnel, retirees and dependents enrolled in the military’s TRICARE health system in the United States. Healthcare for about half a million people overseas is provided through a separate contract.”
Hospitals want redo in site-neutral payment case:”The American Hospital Association and dozens of individual hospitals filed a petition Aug. 31 asking a federal appeals court to rehear a case challenging HHS' site-neutral payment policy that cuts Medicare payments for hospital outpatient visits.” Read the article for a history of the suits.
About healthcare technology
Baxter nets FDA de novo clearance for a new class of dialysis filter, closer to the human kidney: “Baxter has received a green light from the FDA for a new type of dialysis filter that sifts out a wider range of molecules from the blood compared to traditional membranes—including those associated with the heightened inflammatory and cardiovascular disease seen in patients suffering from kidney failure.
The Theranova cartridge is designed to be used with existing dialysis machines with little change in treatment, while offering a filtration profile that more closely mimics the natural kidney, the company said.”
U.S. Medical Supply Shortage Plaguing More Than Just Tests for Covid-19: Such items include chemical reagents, gloves, pipettes and tests for a variety of diseases.
Syringe technology could enable injection of concentrated biologic drugs: A truly disruptive technology that would enable patients to self-inject the medication, rather than going to an infusion center or physician’s office. See the video in the article for the best explanation of how it works.