Cloud Computing

Watson, IBM's supercomputing brainchild, will soon have its own pied-à-terre across the pond. Big Blue announced Thursday it would launch its first Watson Health European Center of Excellence in Milan near the Human Technopole Italy 2040 research campus. Watson will become part of Italy's initiative to establish an international hub for the advancement of genomics, big data, aging, and nutrition, officials said. IBM plans to invest up to $150 million over the next several years in the project that will bring together Watson Health data scientists, engineers, researchers and designers to develop new data-driven healthcare applications and solutions. IBM data scientists, engineers and programmers will collaborate with organizations across Europe to create a new class of cloud-based connected solutions to help speed research of new treatments, personalized medicine, and discoveries to boost public health management while advancing sustainable health systems. Watson, of course, is all about data. Just this past February, IBM Watson announced it would buy data giant Truven Health for $2.6 billion, adding a huge repository of health data to the Watson Health Cloud. [Also: IBM Watson buying Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 billion] "Italy is important to IBM not only because of the creativity, skills and talent of the country's workforce, but also because of the government's efforts to digitize Italy's economy," said Erich Clementi, senior vice president, IBM Europe, in a news release. "This new era in health will not be achieved through solitary efforts," added Deborah DiSanzo, general manager for IBM Watson Health. "It will require the work of countless experts together in an ecosystem where ideas are easily shared to improve and save lives around the world." The Watson Health European Center of Excellence builds on IBM's recent investments in Italy and across Europe, including a new IBM Cloud data center in Milan, and the opening of the Watson IoT Global Headquarters in Munich, Germany. IBM has been operating in Italy since 1927, with multiple business divisions in various technology sectors, from energy to transport and healthcare. IBM Italy headquarters are in Segrate, R&D Software center and its Fondazione IBM Italia in Rome. Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn

Researchers say that pilot program demonstrates how readily available technologies can be used along with an EHR to improve communication between doctors and patients with type 1 diabetes.

A Navy Seal-like analytics team at the University of Michigan Health System eliminated 10,000 hours of work and recovered $3 million in RAC money. Here’s how an experimental, try-and-fail approach helped them do it.

The software giant debuted cognitive computing and machine learning tools on Wednesday with an eye toward "reinventing" healthcare.

The company unveiled Cloud Machine Learning for analysis, exploration, processing and storage of large data sets, services that could at some bring deep learning techniques to healthcare and fuel visions like precision medicine and population health. 

While mobile apps are new enough on the care delivery scene that many providers have only begun dabbling, consumers are sending a strong message that forward-thinking hospital executives can translate into an opportunity for improving population health management programs. Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine is conducting clinical trials that use mobile health apps to do much more than just communicate with patients — the software teaches mental health patients cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, techniques designed to improve population health and reduce mental healthcare costs. This story is part of a reporting package on the rise of population in health in healthcare IT management. Stories include our analysis of health system strategies, an overview of the work done by Essentia Health and a look at how mobile apps are supporting initiatives. Designed by Northwestern's Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies, the ThinkFeelDo website (a responsive design site built to render effectively on any device) and the IntelliCare suite of mobile apps (available in the Google Play store for Android devices, with Apple iOS apps in the works) break up the various CBT techniques into separate modules to make learning the techniques and applying them in situations an easier task. The modules include text, animation and video. Caregiver coaches, on the other end of the mobile site and apps, review patient progress and can intervene during lessons to help patients with any challenges or issues and to provide encouragement. "Costs can be saved by giving depressed patients these kinds of tools, decreasing overall health care utilization for an individual," said Kenneth R. Weingardt, scientific director at the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies. Weingardt also is a licensed psychologist. "We are now saving more money because the cost of the app is much lower than the cost of face-to-face. For some folks who are fairly well-functioning and can go it alone, these types of technology may provide them with what they need so they do not have a long depressive episode that impacts their health and costs a health plan money." ThinkFeelDo and IntelliCare are still in clinical trials at Northwestern, though CBITs is in discussions with Kaiser about deploying IntelliCare through its patient portal. "Mobile interventions have much farther reach than individual providers can have," Weingardt said. "They can reach many more people beyond those we can see in our clinic. And a health system that adopts these kinds of tools can improve their bandwidth and their ability to address these problems beyond the capacity of their workforce.” [Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook] In the Northwestern’s clinical trials, Weingardt added, that means giving participants tools to get symptoms under control and making it less likely they will come back with complaints. Providers such as Northwestern and other simply cannot ignore the trend toward mobile tools any longer, said population health management vendor Enli Health Intelligence chief medical officer Joseph Siemienczuk, MD. "We have to follow the communication preferences of the community and and it is clear that their communication preferences have moved to mobile technology,” Siemienczuk said. "As we pursue effectiveness, moving patient engagement activities to mobile technology is an imperative." Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT

The technology pioneer offered his thoughts on funding new projects and keeping up with change at his HIMSS16 keynote earlier this month. Here are seven takeaways.

The HIMSS16 show floor was a busy place last week as thousands packed booths from technology and services vendors to get caught up on the newest systems for managing healthcare providers. But the big show also played host to big announcements from exhibitioners choosing to use the attention that comes with HIMSS16 to debut new products. The list below includes dozens of product announcements that we covered at the show: IBM Watson adds Tiatros patient-centered social network to system The University of California San Francisco was the first to leverage the physician-driven network is using Tiatros to address the behavioral health needs of young veterans. Epic and Tableau deal links analytics to electronic health records The EHR vendor and analytics company sign an agreement to facilitate greater clinical insights for caregivers within the records system. HealthPort, IOD, Care Communications, ECS merge into new company CIOX Health The four vendors, who announced the news at HIMSS16, seek to create a single access point for patient information. Oracle debuts the next generation healthcare analytics suite at HIMSS16 Oracle Healthcare Foundation provides organizations with a consistent and complete view of their clinical, financial and genomics data across an enterprise. Inova Health creates new health plan, population health strategy Partnership with Aetna and purchase of Medicaid group gets new plan closer to million-member goal. Accenture study: Patients more engaged, willing to share data with doctors Report also shows 85 percent of doctors said that using wearables can help patients become more involved. Xerox launches population health platform The new software combines analytics, patient outreach, telehealth and administrative tools to help providers adjust to new reimbursement reality with a 'lifecycle' approach to value-based care. Transcend Insights unveils population health, patient engagement, mHealth apps Humana subsidiary says the three apps use the HealthLogix technology platform to tackle population health, patient engagement and mobile health. IBM Watson launches SleepHealth app to explore connection between health and sleep It will be the first ResearchKit study to run on Watson Health Cloud Surescripts activates National Record Locator Service, includes data on 140 million patients Platform is designed to give providers a way to see a more complete view of a patient’s health history. West Healthcare launches communication system to aid patient engagement, pop health West TEC Pathways delivers the so-called "last mile" of patient communication, aligning that communication with clinical guidelines and care plans. Medisafe launches provider link to mobile health app for consumers Medisafe Providers enables physicians, care teams and pharmacists to track their patients’ medication adherence between visits. MDLIVE to integrate with Office 365 and Skype for Business The telemedicine tech vendor is betting the ubiquitous Microsoft systems will enable a more robust, secure and scalable collaboration platform. MITRE shares an open source FHIR testing tool At the Federal Health IT Solutions Pavilion, a solution to FHIR "ambiguities." WellDoc collaborates with Johnson & Johnson's LifeScan on mobile tech for diabetes In addition to the collaboration, Johnson & Johnson Innovation has participated in WellDoc’s Series B financing round that has raised $29.5 million. Modernizing Medicine highlights new surgery center suite, imminent practice management tools  The company is also showing enhancements it made to its ASC suite since acquiring gMed in late 2015, CEO Dan Cane said. Intermountain to deploy clinical variation management software from Ayasdi The prominent Utah health system believes the software can quickly boost the insights it can gain from its mountain of health data, helping with value-based care. TigerText partners with Salesforce, Box, adds program for startups The secure healthcare communications tech vendor says the partnerships will enable streamlined communication across the continuum of care. Signet Accel debuts Avec database-agnostic data integration platform The healthcare software company is targeting interoperability, unveiling the commercial federated data integration platform at HIMSS16. Translational Software launches genetic-oriented medication alerting system The vendor of clinical decision support and precision medicine technology is working with First Databank on the new gene-based drug-drug interaction capability. Citra Health acquires care management services vendor SironaHealth The purchase is the next step in Citra’s ongoing plan to extend its population health systems in the value-based healthcare market, the company said. ExtraHop announces new healthcare analytics product The technology delivers stream analytics designed to unlock insights into the relationship between IT performance and clinical workflows, the vendor said. ClearDATA releases cloud-based HIPAA compliance dashboard The ClearDATA Active Compliance and Security Monitoring Dashboard is designed to safeguard electronic health data and provider reputations. Talix partners with NextGen, Allscripts and Capstone on coding The three vendors will offer Talix’s Coding InSight as part of their suites to help providers better manage patient risk and optimize risk-based reimbursements. Doc Halo debuts Pronto, mobile enterprise-wide scheduling and messaging system Caregivers using Pronto can access up-to-the-minute schedules, find and message on-call providers, activate critical-care teams, and enable care coordination. American HealthTech and Medtelligent partner for senior care technology The Assisted Living Solution is designed to help providers navigate the tech challenges of caring for seniors who move across the spectrum of care. par8o expands relationship with WellHealth Quality Care accountable care network The referral management tech vendor will use its platform to enable a patient-centered medical home model for 17,000 members of the Nevada Teachers Health Trust. Experian merges healthcare brands under Experian Health name Experian Health is the new brand for what were 11 businesses that serve the healthcare field. DataMotion and etherFAX partner for new fax-to-direct system The combined technology enables healthcare professionals to send and receive fax documents and other protected health information securely using the Direct Messaging standard. TCI, ONYX Healthcare and CliniLinc launch 8-inch medical tablet TCI’s Rounds software is pre-loaded onto the new, lightweight medical tablet from ONYX Healthcare, enabling hospitals to upload patient discharge data in real time. DataMotion debuts enhanced patient collaboration platform New to the platform are major enhancements in patient consent, identity validation and authentication, workflow integration, and mobile case management. Seal Shield debuts UVC LED-based mobile device sanitizer at HIMSS16 ElectroClave is an enterprise mobile device management system that uses low-power UVC LED to disinfect tablets and smartphones while charging, syncing and managing them. ELLKAY bulks up its interoperability offerings, rolls out new tech Direct Project enhancement and new analytics technology highlight four product announcements. Aventura partners with HealthCast for single sign-on technology The partnership will help providers using Aventura’s Sympatica clinical desktop platform to more quickly access electronic health records systems. Commvault unveils new clinical data sharing technology Through integration with vendor Laitek, the Commvault Clinical Archive can address data management on both the clinical and business sides of healthcare in a single platform. CPSI debuts new EHR financing program for hospitals, skilled nursing facilities Through financial management services, the nTrust program eliminates upfront EHR costs. UnitedHealthcare, Qualcomm collaborate on wellness mobile app powered by wearables The goal is to help UnitedHealthcare plan participants enrolled in high-deductible health plans improve their health and save money by encouraging daily walking. ZeOmega launches value-based care performance management system The new offering can help healthcare organizations measure clinical and financial performance across multiple value-based care contracts. Microsoft eyes patient engagement, emerging care scenarios for HIMSS16 Software giant is working to tie together Skype, Windows, Office, Surface Hub and Band to better connect doctors with patients.  American Well unveils software development kit, Uber-like switchboard  Telehealth specialist showed off its SDK for portals and apps as well as multi-way videoconferencing.  SAP gets in the patient engagement game The vendor unwrapped Patient Engage to enable technology vendors and independent software vendors to build apps for specific use cases.  Twitter: @HenryPowderly This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

San Francisco start-up Tiatros, a doctor-driven, patient-centered social network, has joined the IBM Watson Ecosystem, the companies announced March 2 at HIMSS16. Tiatros was designed to allow physicians, with the consent of patients, to create a social network around the patient, including all doctors involved in their treatment and their family members. The first user of the platform was the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. UCSF hopes to leverage Watson to analyze personality insights for more personalized treatment, officials say. [Also: See photos from Day 3 of HIMSS16] Currently, UCSF is using Tiatros to address the behavioral health needs of young veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq to keep all parties connected to the patient – whether family or multiple providers – in the loop. "The real measure of how a patient is doing is the story they tell, not the boxes they check; that tells part of the story, not the whole story," said Kim Norman, MD, psychiatry professor, UCSF. "I think the online treasure trove of data in clinical practice is in the unstructured data and the story it tells. "I feel Watson gives you the tool to really analyze and extract that data, patient by patient and aggregate that data to really understand populations," he added. Data is entered in increments of 2,000 words through an essay format or using the most recent text messages from a patient. With the addition of Watson, the platform can analyze the information to accurately assess the personality traits, human values and needs of a patient. For veterans, this means Watson can determine patients with pre-imposed personality traits to be the most resilient in preventing posttraumatic stress disorders and those more likely to respond to an intervention, Norman said. Furthermore, interventions can be modified to match the traits. Additionally, Watson analytics can provide themes and allow providers to measure how patients are doing based on their stories. Twitter: @JessiefDavis This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

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