- Pharmacist Home Visits Improve Heart Failure Management (pharmacytimes.com)
Community pharmacists (University of Rhode Island) who expand their roles and make home visits to heart failure patients after hospital discharge can improve outcomes… investigators created a community pharmacist-provided home health service…this program facilitated successful transitions of care, improved medication adherence, and decreased 30-day HF-related (heart failure) hospital readmission rates…
- HIPAA technical controls no silver bullet for securing patient data (fiercehealthit.com)How to Implement Strong HIPAA Technical Safeguards (healthitsecurity.com)
Putting too much trust in technical controls could be a big mistake in a provider organization's security strategy… encryption and access management go a long way toward securing patient data, employee training remains "absolutely indispensable, absolutely top of the priority list"..
- CVS, Watson confront chronic disease (healthcareitnews.com)
CVS Health, …and Watson, IBM's cognitive computing platform, are joining forces to take on chronic diseases. The plan? Eradicate conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and obesity… to advance care management beyond programs and services typically available today,…has to do with Watson’s ability to read and understand vast amounts of information, and to continuously learn.
- NIST releases first-ever mobile device security guidelines (healthcareitnews.com)SECURING ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS ON MOBILE DEVICES (drive.google.com)
National Institute of Standards and Technology,…has unveiled its long-awaited mobile security guide, specifically written for safeguarding medical data… myriad reasons for compiling such a guide…"many healthcare providers are using mobile devices in healthcare delivery before they have appropriate privacy and security protections in place."
- Centennial Hills Hospital earns Consumer Reports’ top score (reviewjournal.com)
Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas today was among nine hospitals nationwide to earn Consumer Reports' highest rating for avoiding infections....Centennial Hills got 61 out of 100 on....overall safety score based on avoiding infections, readmissions, C-sections and adverse surgical events.
- Proof-of-concept study shows successful transport of blood samples with small drones (medicalxpress.com)Can Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones) Be Used for the Routine Transport of Chemistry, Hematology, and Coagulation Laboratory Specimens? (journals.plos.org)
proof-of-concept study…researchers have shown that results of common and routine blood tests are not affected by up to 40 minutes of travel via hobby-sized drones… investigators say that's promising news…people ..in rural and economically impoverished areas ...give health care workers quick access to lab tests.. Drones already have been tested as carriers of medicines…
- Rite Aid brings cutting-edge patient care to Ohio (drugstorenews.com)
HealthSpot's…telehealth stations went live inside 25 Rite Aid locations… first-of-its-kind model pairs licensed healthcare providers with state-of-the-art technology…consumers looking for convenient and quality healthcare… allows users to interact with…providers in a private, 40-square foot station using high-definition videoconferencing and interactive medical devices...
- Doctor Whose Drug Killed Teen Returns as Gene Tech Booms Again (bloomberg.com)
Jesse Gelsinger died from a medical experiment led by James Wilson (biotechnology pioneer)… Gelsinger was confronting a rare metabolic disorder,..held out hope with an unproven treatment that was supposed to rewrite the young man’s DNA….the therapy killed him.
- AHIP(America’s Health Insurance Plans): How insurers offset rising specialty drug costs (fiercehealthpayer.com)
specialty drug costs continue to rise, insurers are working to implement innovative strategies to offset those increased prices, while still helping their members gain access to important treatments,...
- personalized care programs
- copayment assistance programs
- community support programs
- integrated condition-level therapy management program
- condition-specific fulfillment teams
- drug-specific coaching and support
- Pfizer Quits Over-the-Counter Lipitor Program After Trial Fails (bloomberg.com)
Pfizer… won’t bring an over-the-counter version of its cholesterol pill Lipitor to the U.S. market, after a trial found that patients couldn’t take the drug correctly without a doctor’s help…. trial looked at whether (patients)… would check their cholesterol after starting the drug, and take the right medical action after getting the results. The tests found that they couldn’t.