February 2020 | Volume 1
MOVING INTELLIGENT CHANGE FORWARD
INNOVATION DIGEST
When I was growing up, my medical data traveled all over the world in a paper folder, courtesy of the U.S. Army. Even today, I can read the notes from my birth until the year I graduated college — the same year I lost my mother to aggressive metastatic breast cancer and learned to ask hard questions about health care. I’ve combed that file many times looking for information that might have been shared as part of a medical history. It’s the only trail I can follow. At the same time, I contribute information about me to a national longitudinal study on breast cancer, in hopes that information about my habits, health status and (periodically) blood tests can give insight into better prevention and treatment for anyone who might confront this disease. Today, I watch my children growing up and every bit of our health data is locked in an electronic record. Sure, I may have portal access, but the data is spread over multiple systems; I can’t get to it easily; it’s not tangible and I can’t see it all in one place to read it in context. I grow frustrated reading all the exciting, innovation-focused news that swoons over the promise of AI and big data to solve some of our challenging conundrums in healthcare. I know there is merit in the notion that technology and fancy systems can help us see signals, create more consistency in care and improve outcomes. At the same time, I wish for a simpler reality, where I have control and full access to all my medical information in real-time, that I can use to help me live my healthiest life and that I can choose to share to common use (i.e. research). While there’s a horse race for dominance in data access, ownership, interoperability and analytics, we need to remember who it’s for.
How one medical checkup can snowball into a ‘cascade’ of tests, causing more harm than good
My pager emits the same urgent beep no matter the occasion. That afternoon, it was the local preoperative clinic to say my 80-something patient, Lily, had been given an electrocardiogram (EKG) “just to be safe” before a minor office procedure.
Industry Voices—Building it right from the beginning: Measuring the impact of SDOH interventions
Health is foundational for personal and community well-being for all people in America. Yet, the nation struggles to achieve health compared to our international peers and now, compared to even to prior United States health statistics.
Rethink Your Values and P-Values — The dangers of algorithmic thinking
People will believe what they want to believe. This is one of the things I've learned about people this year.
In the hospital, if a patient even hints at needing that Dilaudid ("you know, that one med that starts with a D"), they're automatically suspected of having drug-seeking behavior. This is a subconscious action that I will admit to being guilty of despite my disdain of such reflexive thinking.
Sharing Patient Data Without Exploiting Patients
In November 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google had acquired access to millions of patient records through a partnership with the nonprofit hospital chain Ascension.1 Coming just months after Google and the University of Chicago were sued over a similar arrangement, news of the Ascension deal renewed debate about the ethics of health systems sharing data with big tech.
Why Aren’t More Patients Electronically Accessing Their Medical Records (Yet)?
In November 2019, Health Affairs published an article by Sunny C. Lin and colleagues that analyzed data on the number of patients who accessed their health records online as a result of the federal Promoting Interoperability Program (formerly known as Meaningful Use). The low proportion (10 percent of patients with online access to their records used it) led the authors to conclude that the patient access aspect of the program was a “public policy failure.” 
Hospitals Give Tech Giants Access to Detailed Medical Records
Hospitals have granted Microsoft Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. the ability to access identifiable patient information under deals to crunch millions of health records, the latest examples of hospitals’ growing influence in the data economy.

Passion + Quality = Change That Matters
  
I embrace the powerful opportunities in our evolving health care landscape. I founded Momentum Health Strategies to be a catalyst for change through continuous learning, diverse engagement and thoughtful policy and practice initiatives. I deliver innovative, strategic thinking and a passion for improving the patient experience. My personal drive and dedication to high-quality results will help you navigate the competitive terrain you face and convert your vision to action.

Momentum Health Strategies

Jennifer L Bright, MPA
(703) 628 - 0534
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