The Collective Voice of Health IT, A WEDI Podcast

This episode is sponsored by Avaneer Health Matthew discusses data liquidity and the need for improve healthcare efficiency with Avaneer Health Chief Commercial Officer Ray Jebsen.  In 2019, Avaneer Health was founded by a consortium of top industry leaders on a mission to unlock the full potential of healthcare by improving transparency and enhancing interoperability. The consortium included Aetna, a CVS Health company; Anthem; Cleveland Clinic; Health Care Service Corporation, a Mutual Legal Reserve Company (HCSC); The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; and Sentara Healthcare. Incorporated in 2020 as the Health Utility Network, they are now known as Avaneer Health. With continuing support from their partners and the biggest players across the healthcare space, Avaneer aims to play a key role in transforming how the healthcare industry operates to address consumers' needs more efficiently and effectively Learn more at https://avaneerhealth.com/

Matthew welcomes Heather McComas, Director, Administrative Simplification Initiatives and Tyler Scheid, Senior Policy Analyst with the American Medical Association to discuss findings from the AMA's recent prior authorization survey. Heather and Tyler address the AMA's advocacy on AMA, the survey results and more.  Helpful links: Prior Authorization and Utilization Management Principles: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/principles-with-signatory-page-for-slsc.pdf Consensus Statement on Improving the PA Process: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/data/multimedia/10.1001ama.2018.0080supp1.pdf 2021 AMA Prior Authorization Physician Survey- Wave 1: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/prior-authorization-survey.pdf 2021 AMA Prior Authorization Physician Survey- Measuring Progress in Improving PA: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/prior-authorization-reform-progress-update.pdf

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) Standards Subcommittee held a Listening Session June 9 on Standardization of Information for Burden Reduction and Post-Pandemic America “Convergence 2.0.” The Subcommittee conducted three panels: (i) Advance HIPAA Standards Adoption; (ii) Address Standards Integration and Collaboration; and (iii) Measure the Value of Standards. WEDI Board Chair Nancy Spector represented WEDI on the first panel and joins Matthew this week to discuss more about WEDI's suggestions on when electronic standards should be adopted by the industry

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) Standards Subcommittee held a Listening Session June 9 on Standardization of Information for Burden Reduction and Post-Pandemic America “Convergence 2.0.” The Subcommittee conducted three panels: (i) Advance HIPAA Standards Adoption; (ii) Address Standards Integration and Collaboration; and (iii) Measure the Value of Standards. WEDI Board Chair-Elect Ed Hafner (Assistant VP of Payer Strategy, Medical Network, Change Healthcare) represented WEDI on the third panel. Matthew chats with Ed on his participation at the listening session and the future of healthcare standards. 

Matthew welcomes Steven Kupferman, DMD, MD, the Co-founder and Chairman of MedVA.com a premier healthcare Virtual Assistance Service, designed to improve patient care within thriving medical and dental practices. Dr. Kupferman discusses how virtual assistants support staffing shortages and administrative burden while also adhering to privacy and security policies. 

We chat with Unmesh Srivastava, Chief Technology & Digital Innovation Officer with Clever Care Health Plan. Unmesh covers a great deal of topics, including how technology in health care is affecting health equity, value based care and the "digital divide". A engaging conversation with a true subject matter expert sharing his insight on how technology is growing and changing the way we address and will address healthcare in the country. 

WEDI Education Director Michael McNutt sits in for Matthew and chats with Denis O'Shea, founder of Mobile Mentor, a global leader in endpoint ecosystem, helping clients navigate the right balance between security and employee experience. The pandemic has changed the landscape and ushered in a new level of remote working. The two discuss the changes in remote working over the past 2 years, how it has affected healthcare data security and how the industry's youngest employees, Generation Z, may hold the secret to how employers need to evolve their policies on privacy and security.   Read Mobile Mentor's study here, Healthcare Endpoint Ecosystem Study — The Endpoint Ecosystem

Matthew speaks with Paddy Padmanabhan, award-winning business leader, entrepreneur and best-selling author Paddy Padmanabhan, CEO of Damo Consulting.  The two discuss what healthcare orgs should be prioritizing regarding digital health transformation, creating a frictionless digital health experience for all parties and assessing digital maturity in an organization. 

Matthew has a fantastic conversation with Kendal Whitlock, Chair of Product Development and Clinical Research for the Med Tech Color Collaborative Community. MedTech Color has convened this Collaborative Community to create a forum where medtech professionals and other stakeholders can address minority health issues in medical device product development and clinical research.    The community develops strategies, resources, best practices and thought leadership to increase awareness and mitigate the impacts of unconscious bias, social determinants of health and lack of inclusion or consideration of racial and ethnic minorities in critical aspects of the product development lifecycle. Learn more at MedTech Color Collaborative Community

Matthew welcomes Kimberly Lomis, MD, vice president of undergraduate medical innovations at the American Medical Association. Dr Lomis participated in a National Academy of Medicine Discussion Paper titled Artificial Intelligence in Health Professions Education. The paper examines how training in appropriate use of AI will become increasingly important for health professions educators, and highlights AI’s ability to supplement, not replace, health care workers.   Read the paper here- Artificial Intelligence for Health Professions Educators - National Academy of Medicine (nam.edu) and learn more about the AMA's guidance and resources on Artificial Intelligence here- Augmented intelligence in medicine | American Medical Association (ama-assn.org)