With colder weather swooping in across the country, you might be looking to stay inside and add a couple more things to your reading list. Our team pulled together their top 6 articles to read this winter.
1. A.I. Is Learning to Read Mammograms [New York Times]
Google commissioned a study with the help of Northwestern and 2 British medical centers to test the accuracy of AI in diagnosing cancer from mammograms versus radiologists. The researchers used mammograms with known results to train the AI to recognize cancer. They then had the AI and radiologists analyze mammogram results and compared their accuracy. Overall, the AI performed better than the physicians although both had instances where they misdiagnosed the scan. While these results are promising, we are far from seeing these tools in practice. The next step is to see how physicians use AI in their workflow and if they are willing to adopt such technology.
2. A Care Model for the Sickest Patients Doesn't Work [Axios]
A study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that providing more intense follow-up care to sicker and more vulnerable patients did not reduce the readmission rate. This method was previously thought to be beneficial to patients and to save money. However, the reason it is not successful is that it ignores the social determinants of health that can lead to readmission or re-hospitalization for patients, regardless of how sick they were when in the hospital.
3. Overwhelmed by Medical Bills, and Finding Help on TikTok [New York Times]
Shaunna Burns became a viral sensation when she made a Tik Tok, stating to ask the hospital for an itemized bill of charges because oftentimes they will take off the ridiculously inflated charges when they are not hidden within a total amount.
4. Google can view millions of patient health records in most states [Axios]
Google has stacks on stacks on stacks of data. So it comes as no surprise that they have access to our health data, as well. Aside from storing all of Epic’s data they also have information from various partnerships with healthcare organizations. Even worse, the data is not de-identified. Epic’s move away from Google will likely not impact them too much. They are working on their own health tool that stores and analyzes data to be used by medical teams and patients alike.
5. HHS Outlines Next Five Years of IT in Strategic Plan [Government CIO]
Health and Human Services released their 5-year plan and it is largely centered around technology. They plan to improve and increase patient access to health information and price transparency. The most controversial aspect of their plan is increasing interoperability between EHRs and other healthcare data storage systems through APIs. Judy Faulkner, Epic CEO, spoke out against the proposed interoperability initiatives saying it will compromise patient data.
6. A 5-Step Framework for Effective Content Planning [True North Custom]
The steps include: (1) match your audience to your goals (2) involve stakeholders (3) review (and use) data for decision making (4) define your content areas (service lines, hospital news, holidays, etc) and generate topics within each based on channel (5) map out your plan.