October 14, 2021 | Broadband is essential to health care. Who pays?

INDUSTRY NEWS

Broadband is essential to health care. Who pays?

During a hearing last week, senators and health IT experts raised concern that many Americans won't be able to benefit from virtual care services without affordable high-speed internet access across the country. But who pays? "The digital divide is standing in our way of connecting all Americans to this vital service," said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, chair of the Senate's Subcommittee on Communications, Media and Broadband. "Congress should ensure that small practices are adequately supported," Dr. Sterling Ransone, Jr., president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said at the hearing. (Modern Healthcare*)

Commentary: Rein in the algorithms

Many medical algorithms are flawed, according to an opinion piece in Scientific American. Examples abound, from sexual trauma victims being unfairly labeled as “high-risk” by substance-abuse-scoring algorithms to diagnostic algorithms failing to detect sepsis to clinical decision support software systematically discriminating against Black patients by discouraging necessary referrals. “It is time for America to pay more attention to the regulatory system that lets these algorithms enter the public domain to begin with. For in health care, if your decisions affect patient lives, 'do no harm' must apply—even to computer algorithms.” (Scientific American)

INNOVATION & TRANSFORMATION

Incentivize PCPs to participate in clinical trials

It’s time to include more primary care physicians in clinical trials, according to a commentary published in Newsweek. Physicians in academic medical centers play an outsized role in enrolling their patients in clinical trials. This can lead to disparities in access to innovative drugs. It can also inhibit trust. “Given the misinformation and lack of trust that is hindering ongoing vaccination campaigns, engaging community physicians in the clinical trials process would better help physicians address patients' concerns in a scientifically accurate manner.” (Newsweek)

Paper explores CMM’s role in transitions

Comprehensive medication management can be used to cultivate best practices in care transitions, according to a paper published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. Roughly 20% of patients experience a post-discharge adverse event in the 30 days after hospital discharge, and most are preventable or ameliorable. Numerous transitional care interventions have been developed and implemented by clinical pharmacists to reduce post-discharge adverse drug events and readmissions, but health care organizations are unsure which interventions provide the greatest value. (Journal of the American Pharmacists Association)

CONSUMERS & PROVIDERS

Teamwork key to antibiotic stewardship

An AHRQ national antibiotic stewardship program at ambulatory care centers was associated with reduced antibiotic prescribing, MedPage Today reports. There were nine fewer antibiotic prescriptions for every 100 visits by the end of the intervention, as well as 15 fewer prescriptions for every 100 acute respiratory infection-related visits, according to investigators. "A key part of our program was to enable practices to talk among themselves—everybody in the practice, the front office staff, clinicians, rooming staff—about antibiotic prescribing," co-investigator Jeffrey Linder, MD, MPH, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said at a briefing. (Medpage Today)

Crossfit enters precision primary care

CrossFit recently announced that, in partnership with WildHealth, it will launch CrossFit Precision Care. It was founded by, among others, a family physician. Through use of Wild Health's precision services and algorithms, CrossFit Precision Care plans to connect its users with “CrossFit-trained healthcare practitioners” who understand the CrossFit lifestyle. The goal: Provide individualized care, data-driven recommendations, proactive lifestyle changes and continual health optimization. CrossFit Precision Care is being beta tested in eight states. (Medscape Medical News; press release)

NEW & NOTED

Mandatory models to continue: The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation will continue to use mandatory payment models for physicians, CMMI Director Elizabeth Fowler said last week. Another one of her goals is to reduce administrative hassles: “I think we need to do a better job on that front.” (MedPage Today)

What did she call me? Medical jargon can be confusing and, misinterpreted, it can also sometimes hurt a patient’s feelings. On Twitter, a group of health care workers shared stories of patients who became upset after reading the physician notes in their medical records. (New York Times*)

Moderna resists: Vaccine maker Moderna continues to resist White House pressure to ramp up COVID-19 vaccine production for international donations, Politico reports. (Politico)

MULTI-MEDIA

Burnout: It’s not new, and it’s serious

PwC's Next in Health podcast features PwC Health Research Institute's Trine Tsouderos, in discussion with PwC Principal Katie Burg Plaza, on how health organizations can combat and prevent provider burnout and staffing shortages. They discuss the implications of provider burnout pre-COVID-19 and look at the downstream impact of provider burnout, including on patient care. (Next in Health)

MARKETVOICES…QUOTES WORTH READING

“So I think we should look down the mandatory model line, but—and I have said this in other settings—we need to move away from having a model for every episode, and every specialty. I think doing so perpetuates some of the fragmentation in the healthcare system, so if we do mandatory models, they need to be brought up very carefully in the context of the rest of our strategy," CMMI Director Elizabeth Fowler, quoted in MedPage Today