Health IT Briefing April 1-5

by | Apr 1, 2019 | Health IT Briefing | 0 comments

Epic’s April Fools’ prank has company buying Fitbit, hiring Jim Cramer and seeking Fortnite developers

Epic, an electronic health record vendor has used April 1st to have some fun with pranks over the years.  This year, the company’s homepage features pieces titled “Epic hires Mad Money host Jim Cramer as financial advisor,” “Epic to introduce MyMom interactive patient module” and “Now hiring Fortnite Support and Dev Staff.”  Epic has used April fools day as an effective marketing tool to not only launch new programs and products but to also create successful partnerships.

HHS security policies should focus on incentives, not penalties, health IT leaders say

With the increasing security issues health care providers face has resulted in a call for the federal government to step up in providing more resources and incentives to help healthcare organizations better protect their IT systems and data from cyberattacks.  Currently, industry leaders argue that the federal government is too focused on compliance and are extremely penal to healthcare provider organizations when a breach occurs.  Now industry leaders are requesting that the federal government turn their focus from penalties to incentives that support cybersecurity efforts. They believe, more incentives and support could prevent OCR penalties for organizations.

Low adoption of telemedicine may spur patient migration away from traditional providers

Telehealth services provides virtual physician visits from the comfort of the patients home.  Stanford Children’s Health integrated telehealth services slowly a decade ago, they choose to focus on providing virtual physician visits with limited capability to consult directly with patients in their homes.  About three years ago, a strong demand for these services has prompted the system to increase the size and scope of its telemedicine program.  Although Stanford Children’s program continues to grow quite rapidly many healthcare providers and administrators are not eager to implement this model for care delivery.  As a result, only a fraction of hospitals and health systems have adopted telemedicine, which in the coming years could cause them to lose clients to the booming market of convenient-care options.

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