Joe Hannan

home

authors

joe-hannan

If you think of keeping your healthcare organization’s data secure as an “administrative nuisance,” then you need to think again.

 The recent attacks against the National Health Service and a Pennsylvania-based organization highlight how cybersecurity needs to be at the forefront of industry leaders’ minds, the article authors wrote.

The threat against healthcare systems, they said, is mounting. Citing a study by the independent 

, the authors said that about 90% of surveyed healthcare organizations have experienced data breaches during the past two years, with 64% saying the attacks were directed toward medical files in 2016. That’s a year-over-year increase in medical-file attacks of 9%.

There’s a reason why medical files are especially valuable to hackers, the authors explained. That’s because the information contained in those files is “durable.” Unlike social security numbers, credit card numbers and insurance information can all be changed. A patient’s medical records cannot. This means hackers can sell this type of information at a premium. The authors cited the example of a hacker who sold 600,000 medical records on the dark web in June 2016.

Many of these attacks, the authors wrote, are of the denial of service (DoS) variety. Hackers behind DoS attacks often demand a ransom for the healthcare system to retrieve its data. They don’t necessarily result in exposure of patient data, but they usually derail business. Hollywood (California) Presbyterian Medical Center recently paid hackers $17,000 to free its data.

There’s also the possibility of outright manipulation of patient files and devices, the authors wrote. They cited a 2015 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team alert about an infusion system that could be controlled remotely by hackers.

So what should healthcare system administrators do? The authors have two recommendations:

Be practical. You could have the most secure systems in the world, the study authors wrote, but if using them is so burdensome to employees that they operate outside of those systems, then you’ve defeated the purpose. “A highly secure system that is not usable (and therefore not sued) is less secure than a moderately secure system that is adopted widely.” The authors provided the example of requiring frequent password changes. What’s to stop an employee from writing their 

Educate. “Unintentional negligence remains the biggest risk,” the authors wrote. Don’t assume your employees know the hazards of unsolicited email attachments, or questionable embedded links. Your employees need to be trained. “People are the weakest link in the security infrastructure: our systems are only as secure as the gatekeepers who use them.”

Stay up to date on the latest healthcare analytics news, views, and insights by signing up for our newsletter

Data Breach at Neurological Clinic Highlights Threat Against Smaller Practices

How AI Could Thwart The Next Large-Scale Cyberattack

Cybersecurity: How the World Measures Up, Country by Country

Articles

A recent New England Journal of Medicine article provides healthcare cybersecurity guidance.

Two Quick Steps to Jumpstart Your Cybersecurity Plan

A San Francisco and London-based health startup has received $8 million in Series A investment to develop technology to combat musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries.

The company, Hinge Health, made the announcement in a 

 earlier this week. Hinge Health said that the international venture capital firm, 

, led the Series A investment with all seed investors also contributing. 

, an Atomico partner, will now sit on the Hinge Health board, according to the news release.

Hinge Health is working to create remote physical therapy and behavioral health treatment using wearables and software. The new stream of funding will support development of new products to address lower back and knee pain as well as create new programs to treat hip, shoulder, and neck pain. Current Hinge Health kits include two wearables with motion sensors, a tablet loaded with Hinge software, and some tablet accessories.

Hinge Health sees itself addressing an unmet healthcare need with its devices and software — a view that seems to be supported by data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 that the median number of workdays missed by American workers due to MSK injuries stood at 8. Injuries of this variety accounted for 70 million visits to physicians during the same time, also representing an estimated 130 million health care encounters.

For record-keeping purposes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor considers MSK injuries to be:

Tears, sprains, and strains within the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue.

Injuries or disorders called by slips, trips, or falls are not included in the CDC’s estimates.

In its news release, Hinge Health said that it has data on 1,000 patients. Using that data, the company said it has seen chronic knee and low-back pain improve by 50%. The software and data have also helped patients avoid 60% of surgeries, Hinge Health said.

Hinge Health co-founder and CEO Daniel Perez highlighted the need for more evidence to support clinical guidelines for MSK injuries, as well as more support for patient adherence to non-surgical treatment options.

“The result is that patients are shunted onto opiates and eventually surgery,” Perez said. “Our vision to improve the scale, experience and ultimately outcomes for patients by using technology to better deliver evidence-based care, with MSK as our first beachhead.”

Hinge Health had previously received $1.3 million during a seed round that concluded in June 2016, bringing its total funding level to $10 million, the company said.

Google Glass Wants to be Your EHR Solution

Sticky Situation: New Nanomesh for Wearables is Safer, Comfortable, Researchers Say

Verily Incorporates Study Watch into AURORA Research

Hinge Health is working to create remote physical therapy and behavioral health treatment options using wearables and software.

Startup Nets $8 Million in Series A Investment to Treat, Prevent Musculoskeletal Injuries

A new study shows that tracking Google searches may be an effective means of monitoring mosquito-borne disease activity.

, suggests that a similar framework used to track influenza globally can also apply to diseases such as dengue. In other words, Google searches pertaining to dengue — when put through a statistical model – correlate to dengue activity, researchers say.

, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that as much as 

 is at risk for dengue infection. The virus is one of the chief causes of death and illness in the planet’s tropic and subtropic regions. The CDC puts annual infection estimates at about 400 million people. The study authors called it one of the fastest-growing global diseases.

Verily Looks to Swat Zika with Population Health Initiative

In response to the World Health Organization’s call for better early detection methods of dengue, the study authors investigated whether internet searches could serve as a disease activity barometer. The team turned its attention to data from Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan. They then compared aggregated dengue time-series data from government agencies in each country to online search volume and online search term selection in Google.

“We used the multivariate linear regression modeling framework ARGO (AutoRegressive model with Google search queries as exogenous variables), previously used to track flu incidence using flu-related Google searches, to combine information from historical dengue case counts and dengue-related Google search frequencies with the goal of estimating dengue activity one month ahead of the publication of official local health reports,” the researchers wrote.

The comparison showed that the ARGO model outperformed current disease-tracking methodologies in 4 of 5 studied countries. Researchers saw fewer errors during periods of low infection and peaks of activity.

Current models in Taiwan outperformed ARGO, with internet access likely being a contributing factor. Internet penetration in Taiwan, researchers noted, may cause an inflated level of perceived disease activity. They added that ARGO outperformed current models in Brazil and Singapore — where the level of internet access is moderate – compared to Mexico and Thailand, where levels are lower.

“Web penetration is nevertheless still an important factor,” researchers said.

Despite the limitations, the researchers concluded that using Google and the ARGO method offers useful insights regarding disease activity.

“Our findings confirm that combining historical dengue incidence information with dengue-related Google search data, in a self-adjusting manner, leads to better near real-time dengue activity estimates than those obtained with previous methodologies that exploit the information separately.”

Keep up with the latest news, views, and insights by signing up for our newsletter

Microsoft, Machine Learning, and Better Mosquito Defense

Infants Potentially Exposed to Zika Virus Should Undergo Routine Eye Exams

Using Google to Gauge Dengue Disease Activity

Being a small or single-practice facility doesn't make you any less appealing as a target for cybercrime.

That’s the takeaway from the recent news of a malware attack at an Atlanta-based neurological clinic. Administrators there discovered while investigating a malware attack that the clinic unknowingly was the victim of another breach that went undetected for more than a year.

Peachtree Neurological Clinic broke the news to its patients earlier this week in a 

According to the clinic, its computers were recently hit with a ransomware attack that encrypted all its EHRs. The attacker then demanded money, which the clinic did not pay, to decrypt the files. Peachtree retrieved the patient data from backups and has since recovered from the attack. In the letter, the clinic’s administrator, Dr. Lawrence Seiden, M.D., says that subsequent scans revealed that the clinics computers are malware free.

However, the ensuing investigation showed that a second undetected breach had gone on from February 2016 to May 2017.

“We are not able to confirm which, if any, files or patient information was accessed by these unauthorized individuals,” the letter reads. It notes that the cyber criminals may have had access to names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, insurance information, as well as data on treatments or procedures.

The clinic says that the investigation continues and it has offered identity-theft monitoring to those affected.

 were the predominant victims in the recent spate of headline-grabbing cyberattacks, the incident at Peachtree highlights how small- and single-practice facilities can also fall victim. At the recent American Academy of Orthodontics 2017 meeting in San Diego, Steve McEvoy, an IT consultant demonstrated the severity of the issue by 

Logging into the system McEvoy uses to monitor security for his clients, he showed one practice that had successfully repelled 1,200 cyberattacks from Russia during one day. This was not, he said, an atypical example.

According to Pat Little, D.M.D., who runs a private security consulting firm for dental practices, the source of breaches in small-office settings are often easily correctable.

“It’s also amazing when I go into offices, just how many times I see open charts,” he said. “But even passwords that are stuck on sticky notes that are sitting right up on the monitor. Not secure at all,” he said.

Other common sources of breaches, he said, include removing unencrypted laptops from the office or backing up to external hard drives.

Our sister publication Dentist’s Money Digest® contributed to this report

Google Finds Another Privacy Controversy in Healthcare

Being a small or single-practice facility doesn't make you any less appealing as a target for cybercrime. That’s the takeaway from the recent news of a malware attack at an Atlanta-based neurological clinic.

Remember Google Glass? It’s back, and pushing to become your healthcare organization’s EHR solution.

In what the X team is calling a “new chapter,” Glass project lead 

 earlier this week that Glass is pivoting away from consumers and toward industry, with healthcare being a primary focus.

While most of us forgot about the wearable du jour released to much fanfare and controversy in February 2013, the device did not die a quiet death. Instead, Google and Google-affiliated developers at X have been working on refining the device for business and industry. Healthcare is among the industry successes X is touting.

Kothari’s blog post cites two examples that are meaningful for any doctor or healthcare facility that’s under the strain of EHRs. A 

Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics

 provided enhanced clarity as to just how maligned EHRs are by doctors. One doctor went as far as to call them the equivalent of “texting at the dinner table.” The common thread from the study was that EHRs interfere with patient communication and distract doctors from their primary mission. That’s where Glass would come in (if X has its way).

Study Sheds New Light on Physicians’ Views of EHRs

In his blog post, Kothari says Glass is in use in two healthcare settings. Physicians at San Francisco-based 

 are using Glass during face-to-face patient interactions to call up health records. Additionally, they have paired Glass with an application partner called 

 to take notes during consultations. You can see a demo of Glass in action 

. Dignity Health reports in the blog post that they’ve reduced time spent on patient notes and administrative work from 33% to less than 10%.

Sutter Health, based in Sacramento, reports a similar success story. The healthcare system reports that doctors are now spending 2 fewer hours on EHRs daily.

Kothari writes, “Now, instead of typing on a computer during consultations, (doctors) can connect with patients by looking them in the eye, listening as they talk, and asking questions—all with confidence that all the note taking work is being done in the background.”

Study Highlights Power of IBM Watson’s AI for Genomic Sequencing

App Wrap: The Best Mobile Applications for Medical Professionals

NewYork-Presbyterian Expands its Telehealth Offerings

Glass developer X has announced a pivot toward industry, with healthcare being an emphasis.

A new genetic sequencing study highlights IBM Watson’s potential power to enhance precision medicine.

The proof-of-concept study, which was published in the July issue of 

, demonstrated that Watson could analyze a tumor sample using whole genomic sequencing (WGS) and produce actionable clinical data in about 10 minutes. Comparatively, the study showed that human analysis required 160 hours to achieve similar results.

Researchers used 3 platforms to examine a tumor specimen, including a commercial targeted panel, WGS, and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). A team of cancer oncologists and bioinformaticians scrutinized the WGS and RNA-seq data. IBM Watson Genomic Analytics (WGA) also reviewed the data from both. WGA offers an automated solution for assigning priorities to somatic variants and identifying potential therapies.

The difference between acquiring actionable data in 10 minutes versus 160 hours could mean the difference between life or death for cancer patients. This could have been the case for the study participant, the researchers noted. The study involved a glioblastoma tumor specimen from a deceased 76-year-old man. Researchers say that the participant died prior to the median survival time for his tumor type. His oncologist had recommended that he be enrolled in a clinical trial, but the 76-year-old’s condition declined, prohibiting enrollment. With more actionable clinical data available earlier in the diagnosis process, this may not have been the case.

“This highlights one of the challenges of the clinical application of precision medicine technology,” the researchers wrote. “The identification of targets and potentially useful drugs in a timely manner is only the first step. … This is critical of sequencing is to be brought out of the research out of the research arenas and into the scaled, real-world clinical realm.”

In addition to saving time, Watson was also able to identify more actionable genetic mutations than the current approach of using a targeted panel.

The research “suggests that pursuing a more extensive comparison of panel and deeper sequencing (e.g. WGS and RNA-seq) will be of interest,” the team concluded.

Watson also incorporated abstracts and full articles from PubMed to inform its analysis, according to a 

“This study documents the strong potential of Watson for Genomics to help clinicians scale precision oncology more broadly,” said Vanessa Michelini, Watson for Genomics Innovation Leader, IBM Watson Health. “Clinical and research leaders in cancer genomics are making tremendous progress towards bringing precision medicine to cancer patients, but genomic data interpretation is a significant obstacle, and that’s where Watson can help.” 

Stanford Doctors Urge Realism Toward Machine Learning

Mayo Clinic Attorney Tiptoes Through the Legal Landmines of Genomics

ResearchKit Asthma Study Highlights Pros and Cons of Mobile Research

The study showed that Watson could produce actionable clinical data in 10 minutes that would ordinarily take humans 160 hours.

Study Highlights Power of IBM Watson's AI for Genomic Sequencing

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has expanded its telehealth offerings to include an option for pediatric patients.

Pediatric Urgent Care will be available daily between 6 p.m. and midnight. Patients can access the telehealth service via NYP.org or the hospital’s mobile application.

The hospital’s telehealth system connects parents or caregivers with emergency room physicians over high-definition video. Doctors will then assess, diagnose, and prescribe treatment over the video connection. They may also recommend that the child come in for an in-person visit.

“Nothing is more difficult than when your child is sick or injured,” said Dr. Shari Platt, chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Our goal is to deliver immediate guidance and advice to a concerned parent, and to provide children with the best possible care,” Platt said in a 

As of publishing this story, the hospital only offers services to New York state residents, but plans to expand to people in New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida in the months ahead. The hospital says its telehealth service is HIPAA compliant.

bourgeoning suite of telehealth offerings

 from NewYork-Presbyterian. The hospital currently offers:

Second Opinion, which allows patients to get a fresh take on their symptoms, treatment, or diagnosis.

Virtual Visit, which saves patients a trip to the office for scheduled appointments.

Express care, which puts ER patients in touch with a physician located remotely to reduce wait time.

Urgent Care, which can be used for illnesses and injuries that aren’t life threatening.

Inter-Hospital Consult, which allows doctors throughout NewYork-Presbyterian’s network to consult on complex cases.

Digital Communications with Younger Patients Can Yield Both Benefits and Ethical Pitfalls

Pennsylvania Lawmaker Aims to Broaden Telehealth Access

Despite Uncertainty, the ‘Uber of Health Insurance’ is Expanding

The hospital will now offer a telehealth service for pediatric patients.

Verily’s latest population health initiative has taken flight from the laboratory into two California neighborhoods. The life science research organization recently announced that it has released a population of sterile mosquitoes as part of a research initiative to stop the spread of the 

 field study began on Friday, Verily reported in a recent 

 is an invasive species that favors tropical, subtropical and some temperate climate. This species is primarily responsible for spreading chikungunya and dengue, in addition to Zika and other viruses.  

 have become prevalent in Fresno County, where Verily’s research will be taking place. The mosquitos Verily is releasing there are all non-biting males that have been sterilized with the bacteria 

. This naturally-occurring bacteria, which experts say is present in between 40-60% of insect species, grinds the mosquito breeding process to a halt. When an infected male mates with a female, the resulting eggs will not hatch.

Verily’s efforts will take place over 20 weeks. The male mosquitos will be released in two neighborhoods, each about 300 acres in size. Each release will include about a million mosquitos.

The releases are being coordinated by Verily’s automated mass rearing and sex-sorting process. Verily says the organization will use algorithms and release devices to ensure even distribution of the mosquitos. Researchers will compare population density in these two areas to two control areas where no infected mosquitos are being introduced to the population.

“We believe that these advancements could have a meaningful impact on what is traditionally a very labor-intensive process and could reduce the number of biting 

 in Fresno County,” the blog post reads.

Study Finds That More Initial Spending on Emergency Care Can Reduce Mortality

The research organization is introducing a population of sterile mosquitos in California to curtail disease.

Continuous health monitoring without the discomfort caused by adhesives is now a reality, a group of Japanese researchers say. The team has developed a skin-friendly nanomesh structure that can be worn for up to a week without discomfort. The scientists say the nanomesh allows skin to breathe, avoiding inflammation.

The data-gathering ability of wearables is undeniable. But to obtain that data, end users must consistently wear the devices. Adhesion is the primary obstacle to adherence in a monitoring regimen, the researchers say. In addition to discomfort, previous iterations of on-skin devices were not breathable, posing a safety risk to humans.

“We learned that devices that can be worn for a week or longer for continues monitoring were needed for practical use in medical and sports applications,” researcher Takao Someyea said in a 

The University of Tokyo scientists say in their recent 

study that their stretchable sensors are minimally invasive and cause little discomfort. This breakthrough, they say, will lead to more insights about how the human body operates on a day-to-day basis. They attribute their success to developing a material that can conform to the contours of the human body while remaining attached and permeable.

The researchers created an electrode consisting of nanoscale meshes. The meshes have several components: a gold layer, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and a water-soluble polymer. These materials are considered safe for use on human skin. Getting the nanomesh to stick is simple: a small spritz of water and the PVA nanofibers dissolve, adhering to the skin. The nanofibers are also key to the mesh’s breathability. The researchers describe them as “sparsely overlapping and spaghetti-like.” This porous structure allows skin to breathe.

Researchers then assessed the safety of the nanomesh with a skin patch test. The team worked with a dermatologist to evaluate 20 test subjects over the course of the week. The dermatologist compared the subjects’ skin before and after application, and found few negative effects. Researchers also asked participants to report on their level of comfort while wearing the nanomesh on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 representing no discomfort. The nanomesh earned an average rating of 1.16.

In addition to being comfortable, researchers say their nanomesh is also durable. They attached it to a forefinger, then bent and stretched it by opening and closing the finger. The material held up after more than 10,000 repetitions.

“Our approach has opened up a new possibility for the integration of thin-film electronic devices with skin for systematic, continuous, long-term health monitoring,” the researchers concluded.

For a more in depth discussion on how wearables will impact the future of healthcare, listen in to HRA's webinar 

"Patient Centricity: Role of Wearable Technology in Patients with Chronic Conditions."

Japanese researchers have developed a nanomesh for wearable health monitoring that they say can be worn for a week without discomfort.

Verily, the life science research organization, will work the University of North Carolina and Harvard to gain a better understanding of posttraumatic stress, post-concussion syndrome, and depression.

The Alphabet Inc.-owned group will work in partnership UNC and Harvard in the AURORA study, Verily announced in a 

 on Monday. Verily brings to the table an innovative approach to gathering study data with its wearable, 

The National Institute of Mental Health-backed 

 is following 5,000 people who have visited emergency rooms at 1 of 19 participating institutions after experiencing trauma. The study will gather data on factors such as mood, activity, and sleep and attempt to glean insights as to how these factors relate to the development of mental disorders.

Collecting this data presents its own set of challenges. That’s where Verily comes in with its wearable, Study Watch. Verily introduced Study Watch in April with the intent of streamlining and improving how study data gets collected.

Study Watch offers certain advantages, according to its creators. Features include extended battery life, multiple physiological and environmental sensors, expanded data capacity, enhanced processing capability, flexible firmware for future updates, and a display that’s always on (displaying the time) without draining the battery. Verily notes that the wearable provides users with the time and instructions only. Study Watch also features the added security precuation of encrypting all stored data.

The AURORA study will also include data gathered from smartphones.

The purpose of the AURORA study, and Verily’s participation, is to determine if there are certain physiologic data points that indicate a person is at risk for trauma-related mental disorders. In addition to the data collected by smartphones and Study Watch, investigators will also incorporate information collected during in-person visits, genomics, neurocognitive testing, patient surveys, and reviews of medical records, Verily said in its blog post.

“We believe this study could serve as a model for collecting and synchronizing multidimensional datasets that touch the full lives of participants and has the potential to be transformative for mental/brain health research and care,” Verily said. 

Novo Nordisk, Glooko Launch New Diabetes-Management App

Worldwide Smartphone Study Models Correspondence Between Inactivity, Obesity

The life science research organization will use its wearable, Study Watch, to work with UNC and Harvard on the expansive mental health study.