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April 2019
Baker-Polito Administration Launches
Digital Health Sandbox Program
On Wednesday, April 24, 2019, Governor Charlie Baker announced a new grant program administered by MeHI and designed to open doors for healthcare technology startups to access cutting-edge research and development facilities, or ‘sandboxes.' 

 Massachusetts sandboxes offer many benefits to startups, but the cost of entry is often prohibitive for small digital health companies. The Digital Health Sandbox Grant Program provides financial assistance so that they can access these R&D sandboxes, allowing them to test existing technologies, develop new products and services, and evaluate their company’s value proposition.

The Program was recommended by the Massachusetts Digital Health Council and will be advised by an Independent Steering Committee. Worcester Polytechnic Institute's PracticePoint research, development, and commercialization alliance, previously funded by the Commonwealth, is the first sandbox approved under the program.

Are you or do you know a 'Made in Mass.' digital health company that would be interested?

Does your healthcare institution have a R&D center or lab that could host startups?
Events
Process Improvement Workshops
Join us for a free Process Improvement Workshop to improve Meaningful Use (MU), health information exchange (HIE), or other clinical care practices.

The goal of the workshop is to provide you with broadly applicable tools to improve your MU and HIE practices and workflows. The content is people and process-oriented, and only touches lightly on technical aspects. You'll engage in discussions to share your own experiences, team-building activities to get to know the other participants, and hands-on exercises to select and address process challenges of interest to the group.

Each Process Improvement Workshop consists of two in-person sessions presented at MeHI’s Weiss Conference Center in Westborough, MA. A light breakfast and lunch will be served.

As the first session prepares you for the second, we advise you to attend both sessions. We also encourage you to attend with multiple people from your organization.  
May Process Improvement
Workshop (2 sessions)

Friday, May 10th
9:30am-3:00pm
and
Friday May 17th
9:30am-3:00pm

June Process Improvement
Workshop (2 sessions)

Friday, June 14th
9:30am- 3:00pm
and
Friday June 28th
9:30am-3:00pm

Mental Health 'First Aid'
for Older Adults 
Presented by MeHI's grantee, AGENCY , in partnership with Shrewsbury Youth & Family Services , this educational event will cover how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders for adults 65+ years old. This evidence-based, SAMHSA approved, 8-hour workshop and certification is for families and caretakers, as well as for innovators who want to develop a deeper sense of empathy as they develop products/services for older adults who are experiencing depression, early signs of dementia, and potential substance abuse.
Date and Time: 
Tuesday, May 7, 4pm-8pm
AND
Tuesday, May 14, 4pm-8pm
Location: 
AGENCY
3rd floor Mosaic Room
245 Main Street
Cambridge, MA
State-of-the-Art Voice Technology
for Older Consumers
Another event from our grantee AGENCY, in partnership with Aging 2.0 Boston , will explore the use of voice technology in meeting the unique needs of older adults. Over 50% of consumers in the developed world use voice assistants in their everyday life, from calling home from their car, to searching the internet, bringing up their favorite music, and ordering products and services. Learn how companies that create products geared to the 50+ demographic have integrated voice into their designs. Our speakers have deep experience in voice technology, as well as first-hand knowledge of what works -- and what doesn’t -- to incorporate voice into a product and design experiences to match the unique needs of older users.
Date and Time:
Wednesday, May 8
from 5:30pm-8:00pm
Location:
AGENCY
245 Main St
Cambridge, MA
Tap into TechSpring
Telehealth: It’s here. It’s there. It’s everywhere…. or is it?
Telemedicine is revolutionizing how we give and receive care, and it’s happening here and now. Join TechSpring to learn what’s happening today in the telehealth industry, what’s available in our region, and what’s coming next. Guest speaker Badal Kalamkar, MD , Medical Director of Telehealth at Baystate Medical Center, will share his passion for exploring innovative healthcare delivery methods and explain how telehealth is impacting all of our lives.
Date and Time:
Thursday, May 9
from 5:00pm-8:00pm
Location:
TechSpring
1350 Main Street, 5th floor
Springfield, MA
Enabling Healthy Aging
with Advanced Technologies
The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center at the Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with AGENCY , will present this one-day event exploring the medical trends and innovations that are designed to support the aging population, with a specific focus on device and technology development. Take a deep dive into patient needs and business/medtech solutions, led by Joe Kvedar, MD, VP Connected Health, followed by conversations with AGENCY startup founders and innovation leaders in gerontology and the healthcare industry.
Date and Time:
Thursday, June 6
from 8:30am-2:30pm
Location:
Minot Room, 5th Floor
Countway Library
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
5th Annual d.health Summit
Aging Innovation Conference
On June 11, 2019, in collaboration with West Health, the University of Rochester will host the 5th annual d.health Summit. The summit is a national forum for health and technology leaders, entrepreneurs, senior care advocates, and policymakers to exchange ideas, create new relationships, and foster disruptive technological and process innovations to improve the lives of the nation’s aging population.

On June 10, MeHI and AGENCY , the Cambridge Innovation Center's Global Longevity Collective, are collaborating with d.health to host a special pre-summit event called " Transforming the Way We Care ” at the CIC in Cambridge, MA . This event will:

  • Identify key opportunities for the digital health industry to support the unique challenges of informal caregivers;
  • Provide a forum to hear from experts; and
  • Offer an opportunity to network with fellow d.health attendees prior to the main conference

To attend the pre-summit event, registration and attendance for the Summit is required . Find more details about the summit, and how to register for both events, below.
d.health Summit

Date and Time: 
Tuesday, June 11 from 8:00am-5:00pm

Location: 
State Room Boston
60 State Street, 33 rd Floor
Boston, MA
Medicaid Updates
Webinars
HIE for Meaningful Use

Monday, May 13 from Noon-1:00pm Register
or
Tuesday, May 21 from Noon-1:00pm Register


Clinical Decision Support for Meaningful Use

Tuesday, May 14 from Noon-1:00pm Register
or
Monday, May 20 from Noon-1:00pm Register


Patient Engagement for Meaningful Use

Tuesday, June 4 from Noon-1:00pm Register



Tuesday, June 11 from Noon-1:00pm Register
MU Info Sessions
We invite you to learn about Program Year 2019, Stage 3 Meaningful Use (MU), and related topics at our summer MU Information Sessions. The same information will be covered at both sessions, so you only need to attend one.

These interactive, all-day sessions are designed to explore the Program Year 2019 and Stage 3 MU requirements, including topics such as health information exchange (HIE), clinical decision support (CDS), patient engagement, supporting documentation, Patient Volume Threshold (PVT), and more. The MU Info Sessions will be held at our Westborough location, and a light breakfast and lunch will be served.
Tuesday, June 18 th
from 9:30am-3:00pm
Thursday, August 29 th
from 9:30am-3:00pm
Opportunities
Program Year 2019
Meaningful Use Survey
Over the course of the next few months, MeHI is hosting a number of events to help you prepare for Program Year 2019 and Stage 3 Meaningful Use. If you would like to help us refine and tailor these events to better meet the current needs of the provider community, please click here to take our brief survey. Please complete by May 10th.
Mass HIway Updates
2019 Connection Requirement
For 2019, the Mass HIway Regulations (101 CMR 20.00) require all Acute Care Hospitals, all Community Health Centers, and Large and Medium Medical Ambulatory Practices to connect to and use the Mass HIway. These organizations must have met the requirements by January 1, 2019 and must submit an attestation to the Mass HIway between June 1 and July 31, 2019.

If a Provider Organization cannot meet the specified requirement, it must complete an Exception Form for review and consideration by the Mass HIway.
Acute Care Hospitals are required to both send AND receive information over the Mass HIway to support a provider-to-provider communications use case, and must submit their Year 3 Attestation Forms.
Large Community Health Centers and Large and Medium Medical Ambulatory Practices must either send OR receive information as part of a provider-to-provider communications use case and submit their Year 2 Attestation Forms.
Small Community Health Centers are required to submit a Year 1 Attestation Form and use the Mass HIway to support any qualified use case (provider-to-provider communications, public health reporting, quality reporting, OR payer case management).
The following resources can help your organization implement a provider-to-provider communications use case with a trading partner and be prepared to meet this requirement:

Webinar: HIway Connection Requirement

Webinar: Care Coordination using HIE and Mass HIway

Webinar: HAUS for Providers Who Need to Meet the 2019 Connection Requirement
The 2019 Mass HIway Attestation Forms and Exception Form are now available here . The PDF forms are for planning purposes only. All Provider Organizations must attest using the online version of these forms (which will be available later this spring).