Is cloud-based medical imaging archiving the future of PACS?

Ed Marshall, CPO,
Ambra Health

Ed Marshall is chief product officer at Ambra Health, a provider of healthcare cloud services. Before Ambra, Ed held roles as senior vice president and general manager of the Services Industry business unit at NetSuite, as well as vice president of sales and marketing for OpenAir, which was acquired by NetSuite. A seasoned speaker, Ed has presented at industry events such as the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, the annual Technology Services World (TSW) conference, and the CFO Leadership Council.

First digital pathology system gets FDA go-ahead

PARCA eNews – April 12, 2017 – Phillips IntelliSite Pathology Solution (PIPS) announced today it has been given FDA approval to market its first whole slide imaging system ushering in the era of digital pathology.

The FDA evaluated data from a clinical study of approximately 2,000 surgical pathology cases using tissue from multiple parts of the body (anatomic sites). Results of the study found that clinical interpretations (diagnoses) made based on the PIPS images were comparable to those made using glass slides.

HHS Office of Civil Rights Guidance on HIPAA specific to WannaCry

PARCA eNews – May 22, 2017 – Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights issued breach notification guidance on it’s website in the wake of the WannaCry ransomware attack last week.

As outlined in its guidance available on its website, OCR presumes a breach in the case of ransomware attack.

Lucky is back with new ransomware attacks

PARCA eNews – April 21, 2017 – Phishing security company PhishMe is reporting that the Locky ransomware that staged many of the ransomware attacks in 2016 has re-emerged with a PDF twist.

On their blog, the anti-phishing firm is reporting that the methods used to deliver the Locky payload are significantly different that the previous version. The new version uses the Dridex malware in conjunction with a PDF document that breaks from the expectations for how IT security and potential victims about how this threat looks.

Homeland Security alert warns of emerging malware campaigns

PARCA eNews – April 27, 2017 – The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) has become aware of an emerging sophisticated campaign, occurring since at least May 2016, that uses multiple malware implants. Initial victims have been identified in several sectors, including Information Technology, Energy, Healthcare and Public Health, Communications, and Critical Manufacturing.

A win in Congress for patient data matching

Copyright: robeo / 123RF 

PARCA eNews – May 9, 2017 – Congress unexpectedly gave a big boost to proponents of developing a national patient identifier system that would accurately link patients to their health information.

Less than a month after a coalition of providers, payers, and Health IT companies joined forces to ask Congress in a jointly signed letter to clarify its 1999 ban on universal patient identification, the group was pleasantly surprised by the FY 2017 Omnibus bill. The bill included language from the letter allowing HHS through the ONC and CMS to provide technical assistance to private-sector led initiatives to develop a coordinated national strategy that will promote accurate identification of patients and their health information.

The rapid response to their letter was so unexpected that the group had already made plans to repeat the request for the FY18 Labor-HHS spending bill, however, Congress seems to have agreed to the request by industry, putting the changes in place less than a month after the letter was submitted.

Read more …

Sources: EHR Intelligence, HiMSS press release

4 Initiatives aim to advance interoperability in 2017

Providing timely, seamless patient information across the spectrum of the US healthcare system is key to improving patient care. While progress has been made, additional efforts are needed to continue the progress. 

Four initiatives have been announced in the past few weeks that aim to continue the progress toward interoperability.