Dive Brief: Nearly one in five health IT executives reported a malware or ransomware attack affected medical devices at their provider organizations in the last 18 months, according to a new report by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and Klas Research. Only 39% of survey respondents said they were confident or very confident that their organization’s current cybersecurity strategy protects patient safety and prevents disruptions in care. Most (96%) cited factors related to manufacturers as a root cause of medical device security issues, with out-of-date operating systems or unavailability of patch solutions being major security risks. Dive Insight: FDA believes a cyber attack on medical devices remains a persistent threat, more than a year after the May 2017 WannaCry global ransomware attack froze computers at U.K. hospitals and affected over 200,000 businesses and organizations across more than a hundred countries. The agency last month said … [Read more...] about One in 5 health IT execs says malware has hit devices
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Nearly a third of health IT developers producing FHIR products, ONC says
Dive Brief: Nearly a third of health IT developers preparing to meet 2015 Edition EHR certification requirements are using the Fast Health Interoperability Resources standard, specifically FHIR Release 2, a new report from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology finds. More than half (51%) of health IT developers are using FHIR combined with OAuth 2.0, the industry standard for authorization, ONC said. Apple is an early champion of the FHIR Release 2, with a FHIR-based client app, but other large tech companies are also making the shift to the new standard, according to the report. Dive Insight: FHIR is a key metric for interoperability and meeting overall connectivity goals. CMS has set a 2019 deadline for providers to update their EHRs to 2015 certification. During HIMSS18, CMS Administrator Seema Verma warned that the days of data blocking are over and the industry must move to open APIs to ensure data sharing. The 32% of health IT … [Read more...] about Nearly a third of health IT developers producing FHIR products, ONC says
Leslie Krigstein of CHIME on Health IT Challenges and Opportunities – Harlow on Healthcare
September 3, 2018 Leave a Comment Leslie Krigstein comes to the health IT policy arena both as the VP of CHIME for congressional affairs and as a family member of a cancer patient. These perspectives reinforce each other as she works to improve the regulatory landscape shaping security and interoperability in her role at CHIME overseeing congressional engagement efforts focused on effective use of health IT. We spoke recently about health IT issues ranging from patient matching to cybersecurity to interoperability, in the context of current and pending regulatory developments and the continuing opioid crisis. Listen live at 8:30 AM, 4:30 PM or 12:30 AM ET, Monday through Friday for the next two weeks at HealthcareNOW Radio. After that, you can listen on demand (See podcast information below.) Join the conversation on Twitter at #HarlowOnHC. Leslie noted that patient matching is a significant issue for her organization’s constituency – health care organizations’ … [Read more...] about Leslie Krigstein of CHIME on Health IT Challenges and Opportunities – Harlow on Healthcare
Women, people of color experiencing stubborn pay gap in health IT field
About Rebecca Vesely Rebecca Vesely is AHCJ's topic leader on health information technology and a freelance writer. She has written about health, science and medicine for AFP, the Bay Area News Group, Modern Healthcare, Wired, Scientific American online and many other news outlets. View all posts by Rebecca Vesely → Photo: Dan Simpson via Flickr Women and people of color are experiencing stubborn pay gaps in one of the more lucrative and in-demand fields of health care – health IT. While the movement towards equal pay for equal work continues to grow, there is little data on compensation disparities in health IT, in part because the field is so new. Officials from HIMSS – the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society – recently held a webinar to delve into the issue. The webinar highlighted relevant findings in the 2018 HIMSS U.S. Compensation Survey, which was released this spring. Among the findings: The average annual salary of a … [Read more...] about Women, people of color experiencing stubborn pay gap in health IT field
AARP partners with startups to advance health IT solutions
Dive Brief: As health IT companies develop new technologies for the elderly, AARP is throwing its hat in the ring through collaborations with three healthcare startups. The powerful seniors lobbying group is collaborating with Pillo Health to study diabetes management using an AI-enabled countertop healthcare assistant. The study will launch this summer in Boston area homes. AARP is also teaming on a study with Orbita to assess AI-assisted voice applications in remote patient monitoring and to reduce social isolation. The third project, with Folia Health, involves use of digital tools to improve diabetes management in patients aged 50 and older. Dive Insight: The graying of the population is fueling big business opportunities in the healthcare and assisted living fields. More than 10,000 Americans age into Medicare each day, and increasingly those seniors are looking to remain in their homes. Technologies that promote wellness and independent living such as medical alert … [Read more...] about AARP partners with startups to advance health IT solutions