Literature Review

Lawmakers say CMS should ban Medicare Advantage’s use of AI to deny care McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Josh Henreckson; 6/26/24 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should consider banning artificial intelligence from being used to deny Medicare Advantage coverage pending a “systematic review,” a group of 49 congressional leaders is urging. ...  Skilled nursing providers have been sounding the alarm for years on Medicare Advantage coverage access, especially when informed by AI and other algorithms. Sector leaders have frequently noted that these methods can deny or prematurely end coverage for patients who need it to afford necessary long-term care. Providers and consumer advocates both spoke out in favor of the lawmakers’ letter this week. “LeadingAge’s nonprofit and mission driven members … have firsthand experience of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans’ inappropriate use of prior authorization to deny, shorten and limit MA enrollees’ access to medically necessary Medicare benefits,” wrote Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge. ... “Implementation by [the] Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which we fully support, would ensure MA plans fulfill their obligation to provide enrollees equitable access to Medicare services.”

How 'Human-Kind' AI can reshape your business Forbes; by Mark Cameron; 7/1/24 As AI models mature, their impact on the economy is becoming increasingly profound. They offer unprecedented opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Here's how. ... AI enables traditional businesses to accomplish more with fewer resources. ... As AI begins to take over mundane tasks, the role of the human workforce is evolving. Employees are no longer cogs in the machine—they're becoming value creators. The focus is evolving toward roles that require critical thinking, creativity and emotional intelligence—areas where humans excel, but AI still has limitations. This shift necessitates upskilling and reskilling initiatives to prepare the workforce for new, high-value roles in an AI-driven economy.

7 of the top tech and IT jobs in demand for the future TechTarget; by David Weldon; 6/24/24 Businesses of the future will rely on workers with IT skills even more than they do today. Find out which jobs might be most in demand and what those roles entail. ... Organizations are having to create new tech roles and redefine existing ones to manage the integration of AI and data into core business functions. Meanwhile, cybersecurity continues to be a top concern, as do digital transformation and cloud computing. These challenges are increasing the demand for job roles that merge technical expertise with strategic business acumen. ... So, what will be some of the hottest IT jobs of the future? ... Roles are listed in alphabetical order. 

'We may not ever be fully staffed': Health system C-suites plan for the future Becker's Hospital Review - Leadership & Management; by Laura Dyrda; 6/24/24 After the pandemic, most healthcare leaders experienced a "great resignation" as workers left for other service industries and ever since health systems have been dealing with a lack of skilled labor to backfill the vacancies. "As we have realized we may not ever be fully staffed to the degree we were pre-COVID, we now must augment our existing workforce with technology that extends their capabilities," said Mark Moseley, MD, president of USF Tampa General Physicians and executive vice president of Tampa General Hospital. "This is a two-part challenge. First, we need to deploy technology thoughtfully with sound blocking and tackling, which is expensive in both time and capital. Second, we must train our workforce to use these new technologies to aid them in their daily responsibilities in a manner that does not diminish the ethos of why many of us went into healthcare: the interactions with patients and members of the healthcare team." Physicians and nurses can fall on a wide spectrum of excitement or distaste for incorporating technology into their practice. Some may find it impersonal and challenging to understand while others see it as a tool boosting their capacity. ... [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

A paradigm shift for healthtech CEOs: Increasing patient satisfaction and retention Forbes; by Eric Giesecke; 6/24/24In our hyperconnected world, seamless communication is the norm. From the latest news to customer service chats, consumers expect streamlined interactions. However, the healthcare and healthtech industries have lagged in adopting consumer-friendly practices. ... A patient’s experience is extremely important for healthcare organizations to thrive. It’s important to remember that in the digital age, competitors are not just other healthcare companies. ... So how can we customize experiences better than ever before? One important step is taking the time to understand your organization's current technology. ...

Rendever and Lenovo collaborate to bring virtual reality experiences to Carolina Caring seniors Fox 8, Boston, MA; by Rendever; 6/19/24 Rendever, the Boston-based company pioneering the future of aging through virtual reality (VR), announces the deployment of its virtual reality platform with Lenovo to Carolina Caring patients. The rollout allows clinicians and caregivers to bring expansive, once-in-a-lifetime VR experiences to older patients whose worlds have become limited. Over the last year, Rendever and Lenovo combined their products into a joint solution that senior living providers can easily adopt to improve the quality of life for older adults through positive shared experiences. Rendever’s award-winning virtual reality solution delivered on Lenovo’s ThinkReality VRX headset provides an all-in-one standalone solution that meets the evolving needs of enterprises with modern virtual reality with six degrees of freedom, full color, and high-resolution experiences. Rendever is deployed in over 700 communities nationwide and looks to further expand with the addition of Carolina Caring in collaboration with Lenovo. 

Better manage privacy concerns related to AI in healthcare Fior Reports; by Becca Roberts; 6/17/24 Artificial intelligence technologies offer tremendous potential in healthcare, but it is critical for organizations to carefully consider the complex privacy concerns associated with different types of AI products and deployments, says Karen Habercoss, privacy officer at UChicago Medicine. “It’s critical to really understand what the use cases are and how we can minimize the amount of data we share to protect our patients, their privacy and their data,” she said. “I'm very much in favor of AI. I think it will bring about a fundamental change in the way we care for patients clinically in healthcare. Those are the very positive things that will come out of it. But with that comes a great responsibility to protect our patients from things they may not understand,” she said. 

Hope in oncology: Where art and science collide Medscape; by Sharon Worcester, MA; 6/12/24 Carlos, a 21-year-old, laid in a hospital bed, barely clinging to life. Following a stem cell transplant for leukemia, Carlos had developed a life-threatening case of graft-vs-host disease. But Carlos' mother had faith. "I have hope things will get better," she said, via interpreter, to Richard Leiter, MD, a palliative care doctor in training at that time. "I hope they will," Leiter told her. "I should have stopped there," said Leiter, recounting an early-career lesson on hope during the ASCO Voices session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2024 annual meeting. "But in my eagerness to show my attending and myself that I could handle this conversation, I kept going, mistakenly." ... Carlos' mother looked Leiter in the eye. "You want him to die," she said. ...Editor's Note: Click on the title's link to continue reading this insightful reflection and discussion about the importance of "hope." Engage your oncology/palliative/hospice chaplains (hopefully CPE trained and Board Certified) with your medical team members to explore this core belief in "hope." Alert: AI referrals for palliative and hospice care are increasing exponentially. Clinicians must be sensitive to the human dimensions and dynamics of "hope" (which shift and change), and not be driven just by technological data.

Prisma uses VR tech to bring outdoors to hospice patients UpstateToday.com, Seneca, SC; by Andrea Kelley; 6/8/24 Years ago, Lisa Dwiggins headed out West to visit her father, Bobby Finch. They hopped on his motorcycle — a Harley Davidson — and wound through the canyons, taking in the view. Thanks to a new virtual reality program at Prisma Health Hospice of the Foothills, Dwiggins and Finch were able to visit those places again — together. ... “Those were areas Dad talked about over the years,” Dwiggins told The Journal. “He lived in Las Vegas for over 30 years, rode his Harley all through the canyons and up along the coast, and talked about the sunsets at Huntington Beach. It’s been 6 years since Dad has been back there, and he has been trying to get back to visit but his health prevented him to getting back. This program at least allowed him to reminisce the good times he had.” The experience was made even more special because with Tandem VR, Dwiggins could join Finch.

WorldView announces Referral AI, the most accurate referral classification platform to increase home health and hospice revenue Investors Observer; by PR Newswire; 6/10/24 WorldView , a leading provider of integrated healthcare technology to the top home health and hospice EHR/EMR platforms, today announced the upcoming launch of Referral AI, an enhancement to automate intake referrals using a custom AI/ML model built specific for the healthcare industry. ... Home health and hospice agencies receive many forms of electronic documents in their inbox, including referrals for new patient service. Referrals must be acted on quickly, but with documents being dozens of pages, they often sit unread or, worse, are missed or overlooked. Over time, the referral can become invalid, resulting in lost revenue for the agency and posing a risk of delayed service for patients.

Leading healthcare transformation: Strategic growth through generative AI Forbes; by Ashu Goel; 6/5/24 When ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, most of us experienced a “wow” moment. Its capabilities seemed magical. Generative AI (GenAI), led by ChatGPT, has taken the industry by storm, emerging as one of the most disruptive technologies of our era. Given the widespread discussion around GenAI, it's clear that its impact is profound and far-reaching. Yet, adopting generative AI has been a significant challenge for many organizations. Gartner's insight highlights this struggle, predicting that at least 30% of generative AI projects will be abandoned throughout the next year due to issues like poor data quality and unclear business value. This prediction alone paints a picture of the adoption hurdles. ... Editor's Note: This is not not a black and white right-wrong, good-bad conflict. Notice in numerous articles we post the valid concerns expressed by hospice and palliative clinical professionals. Practical, effective implementation must reconcile these differences.

More older adults becoming comfortable with using technology to help them age in placeMcKnight's Senior Living; by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 5/28/24Although fewer older adults say their homes are equipped to allow them to age in place in 2024 compared with 2023, more of them are getting comfortable with the idea of using assistive or health-related technologies to keep them living where they are, according to the results of a US News & World Report survey. ... The majority of survey participants (95%) agreed that aging in place was an important goal, up from 93% in 2023. The 2024 report took a deeper look at why older adults are — or are not — using assistive and health-related technologies, which technologies they use the most and their experiences with that technology.