Government & Policy

In their HIMSS20 Digital session, privacy policy experts Deven McGraw and Jodi Daniel offer a deeper look at digital patient access, the APIs that enable it – and the mistakes healthcare organizations make when providing medical records.

The round-the-clock response of the NHS’s internal and external digital health community to COVID-19 has been more than impressive. But the ad hoc and rapid arrival of so many new applications also raises concerns about compliance and standardisation – and the role of the very unit that is supposed to be directing the operation.

Patients want access to everything, according to focus groups interviewed by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The public-private partnership has been re-upped for another year as Sequoia continues to help implement and build out community support for TEFCA.

The Mayo clinician leading the expanded access program describes how it's managing the task of plasma collection, with hopes that COVID-19 antibodies can help other patients fight off the disease.

CMS said it wanted to finalize some proposed policies before the MA and Part D bid deadlines on June 1 for the 2021 plan year.  

In addition, broader embrace of APIs and more concerted strategy for patient matching could help public health agencies combat the pandemic and boost pop health.

Let’s invest in an interoperable health data system that connects all providers, hospitals, nursing homes, insurance companies, state and local governments, public health and patients who need access to medical records.

Two recent programs deploying telemedicine in Zimbabwe and Ghana highlight common hurdles programs that deliver these technologies to underserved areas will likely encounter.  

Learning from the pandemic quickly, in order to take the digital health standard forward globally, was the sentiment voiced by leading stakeholders in a recent World Health Assembly virtual panel hosted by HIMSS.