USA: Patients obtain a right to get their electronic health records

Health care organizations must provide patients with unfettered access to their digital health records under new federal rules taking effect October 6, 2022.  Under the 21st Century Cures Act, new federal rules are designed to shift the balance of power so that patients can not only get their data, but also choose who else can access it. Using this system, health care consumers can use the fluidity they’ve enjoyed in banking for decades in a patient-mediated data economy: they can move their information easily and electronically, and they can connect their accounts with new software and services.

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Healthcare IT experts find 3 ways to fight ransomware

By ensuring vulnerability management, focusing on remediation, and learning from other victims, organizations can minimize their chances of becoming repeat victims of healthcare ransomware attacks, Health IT Security reports. A ransomware attack on healthcare can disrupt EHRs, cause data encryption, divert ambulances, and cause other disruptions. After an attack, healthcare organizations must work quickly to restore critical operations and ensure patient safety. Despite a comprehensive incident response plan, organizations may overlook critical considerations during the rapid response and recovery process, making them vulnerable to future attacks. A 2022 study by Cybereason found that organizations that pay the ransom are more likely to be victimized again in the future. Surveyed cybersecurity professionals from diverse sectors (including healthcare) were hit again for a higher ransom less than a month after paying the ransom. Even though risk cannot be eliminated, organizations can reduce the likelihood that they will fall victim to repeat healthcare ransomware attacks. This is done by ensuring that they have a thorough vulnerability management process, learning from other healthcare organizations, and remediating properly the first time around. According to a Sophos report from August 2022, more organizations in a variety of industries have been attacked multiple times within a few hours, days, weeks, or months. According to Sophos, most of these incidents were caused by exploitable vulnerabilities and misconfigurations left by earlier attackers.  “If you get hit, make sure you fully remediate,” Erick Galinkin, principal researcher at Rapid7, said in an interview with Health IT Security. “Getting back to working order is all well and good, but if you are already having downtime because of a successful attack, adding a couple of minutes or hours to that downtime to make sure it doesn’t happen again is a worthwhile investment.”

UK NHS opens tender for electronic patient records to ambulance trusts

The UK National Health Service (NHS) enacts the national framework agreement to seek bids for the provision and support of electronic patient records (EPR) for ambulance trusts, according to Digital Health. In partnership with the National Ambulance Procurement Board, the East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub has launched an invitation to tender. EPRs will be procured by UK ambulance services through the framework agreement. The tender notice sets out the intended benefits including: working in partnership with Ambulance Services in the UK to aggregate spend; driving cash, releasing savings for reinvestment in front-line services; improving processes for staff in terms of accessing products and services they require; contributing to improvements in patient care; and supporting efficient handover of care to other providers.  It adds: “The contracting authorities (ambulance trusts) wish to procure an integrated electronic patient care record (ePCR) system for the ambulance services across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Isle of Wight. The system will be available to the ambulance services who may wish to replace the current system and other associated paper based processes, exploiting the technological advantages an electronic system can provide with integration with hardware installation or cloud services to other organisations.”  A two-year EPR framework agreement may be extended by two, one-year periods.

French “My health space” expands the catalog of digital services

“My health space”, the French national electronic health record, launched at the start of the year, has expanded its catalog of certified digital services, L’usine Digital reports (in French). In total, 12 sites and applications are now offered to the 65.4 million users, who have activated their online personal spaces, as well as those who have not opted out. The catalog includes, for example, the Ameli Account, the Santé.fr directory, Libheros, and My medicines. To appear on the portal, these services must comply with more than 150 interoperability, security and ethical requirements, in accordance with the framework defined by the Digital Health Agency (ANS), and more than be GDPR compliant. In particular, they must have obtained the Health Data Host (HDS) certification. “There are regulatory tools to ensure that all players follow the same rules to guarantee data transparency to users and data control by users”, explained Hela Ghariani, the ministerial delegate for digital health.

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Willum Þór: The question remains if our healthcare system is sustainable

On January 1st, Iceland took over the Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers. This intergovernmental organisation plays an important role in promoting innovations, health data integration, and cooperation between all major stakeholders in the Nordic healthcare. The Icelandic Health Minister elaborates on his vision to future health in the Nordic region, the Nordic strengths, Iceland’s plans for the Presidency with regards to health innovations, and the coming collaboration with Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

CIFS ran an all-day session at the Week of Health and Innovation (WHINN) in Odense

Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies ran an all-day session at the annual Week of Health and Innovation (WHINN) in Odense, Denmark. CIFS’ program attracted over 40 experts from health and data organisations. We presented strategic foresight and futures studies in the health sector, concepts that are used to reimagine the future of the health sector, such as the Humanome and decentralised clinical trials. Also, we had a panel discussion on the newly started Phase V project on decentralised clinical trials, where CIFS is a contributing partner

New HIMSS book out on blockchain in healthcare

The HIMSS Series has a new book on blockchain in healthcare. “Blockchain in Healthcare: Innovations that Empower Patients, Connect Professionals, and Improve Care” is the title of the book. According to the book’s authors, Vikram Dhillon, John Bass, Max Hooper, David Metcalf, and Alex Cahana, blockchain technology may hold the greatest potential in healthcare. Some of the first use cases in medical payments, electronic health records, HIPAA/data privacy, and drug counterfeiting have been explored by early pioneers. There is still much work to be done in order to automate the complexities of today’s healthcare systems and design new systems that are focused on trust, transparency, and aligning incentives. In this book, Metcalf, Bass, Hooper, Cahana, and Dhillon have assembled over 50 contributors, including early adopters, thought leaders, and health innovators. They tell their stories and share their knowledge. The videos and transcripts provided by many authors and contributors humanize the technical details and abstract aspects of blockchain. Using the fundamentals of blockchain, the authors curated a collection of future-oriented examples that build on early successes. After a brief introduction to the fundamentals and the protocols available, as well as early blockchain efforts specific to health and healthcare, the authors discuss the promise of smart contracts and protocols to automate complex, distributed processes and some of the early consortiums that are exploring the possibilities. Throughout the book are examples and use cases, with special attention given to the more advanced and far-reaching examples that can be scaled at an industry-level. In addition, a discussion of integrating blockchain technology into other advanced healthcare trends and IT systems – such as telemedicine, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, value-based payments, patient engagement solutions, big data solutions, medical tourism, and clinical trials among many others – is presented. The final section provides a glimpse into the future using blockchain technology and examples of research projects that are still in labs across the globe.