Industry Insight

AI Models Can Predict Individual Risk of Hospitalization for COVID Using HIE Data

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted both the necessity and the difficulty of using clinical data to inform state and national public health policymaking. In a new study, Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University researchers demonstrate that machine learning models trained using clinical data from a statewide health information exchange can predict, on a patient level, the likelihood of hospitalization of individuals with the virus.

“It has been quite challenging to bring the bread-and-butter data generated by health care systems together with public health decision-making—entities which have long been separate and distinct,” says study senior author Shaun Grannis, MD, MS, Regenstrief Institute vice president for data and analytics and professor of family medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. “Our work shows how you can build and employ AI [artificial intelligence] models to securely utilize the clinical information in a health information exchange to support public health needs such as predicting hospital utilization within one week and within six weeks of onset of COVID infection.

“When new circumstances requiring rapid response arise, such as emergence of Omicron or other new variants, once there are sufficient cases to train models, one can confidently access and plug clinical data into these readily available models to make accurate public health predictions and provide valuable insights into patient-level need for health care resource utilization,” Grannis says.

The researchers used clinical data from 96,026 individuals from all 957 zip codes in Indiana to train decision models that predicted healthcare resource utilization.

“Since the onset of COVID-19, researchers, health care systems, public health departments, and others have leveraged existing data repositories and health information infrastructure for rapid analytics,” says study first author Suranga Kasturi, PhD, a Regenstrief Institute research scientist and an assistant professor of pediatrics at IU School of Medicine.

“Machine learning has been invaluable in these efforts, but any model is only as good as the data that go into it,” he adds. “The broad, robust data from the Indiana Network for Patient Care are representative of the US population. What we have done could be characterized as a precursor of how AI tools can be deployed across the entire country with the important caveat that whatever models are used should be evaluated for fairness across all subpopulations.”

The Indiana Network for Patient Care, a regional health information exchange developed by Regenstrief Institute and managed by the Indiana Health Information Exchange, is the nation’s largest interorganizational clinical data repository and houses more than 14 billion pieces of patient data.

“Predicting COVID-19–Related Health Care Resource Utilization Across a Statewide Patient Population: Model Development Study” is published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Authors in addition to Grannis and Kasturi are Regenstrief Institute research scientists and IU School of Medicine faculty members Babar Khan, MD, MS, and David A. Haggstrom, MD, MAS, and also Jeremy Park, BS, and David Wild, PhD, both of the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at IU-Bloomington.

The study was supported by a Regenstrief Institute COVID-19 research pilot grant and by Indiana University.

— Source: Regenstrief Institute

Michigan Health Systems Form EMR Partnership

Helen Newberry Joy Hospital and Healthcare Center (HNJH) and MyMichigan Health jointly announced they will be partnering together to provide a new Epic EMR at Helen Newberry Joy Hospital. The new system offers patients several benefits including timely access to medical information, immediate safety checks on prescriptions, one-time collection of information, and advanced security of records.

Hunter Nostrant, FACHE, CEO of HNJH, says the organization’s current EMR system will sunset in late 2022, creating an opportunity to work together with MyMichigan Health. “The prospect of collaborating with MyMichigan and implementing the EPIC software system is exciting. It will bring our system to an entirely new level by providing a robust integrated platform that will better meet the needs of our patients and health care providers. This agreement focuses solely on partnering to strengthen our electronic medical record and provide patients secure access to their protected health information.”

MyMichigan Health, a nonprofit health system headquartered in Midland, Michigan, is a leader in providing award-winning, high-quality care to the 23-county region it serves. With Medical Centers in Alpena, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Midland, Mt. Pleasant, and West Branch, MyMichigan Health provides a full continuum of care across a wide array of settings, including urgent care centers, home health, virtual care, as well as medical offices in more than 30 specialties and subspecialties including cardiology, hematology/oncology, orthopedics, vascular surgery, family medicine, pediatrics, and more. MyMichigan is affiliated with Michigan Medicine, the academic medical center of University of Michigan.

According to Diane Postler-Slattery, PhD, FACHE, president and CEO of MyMichigan Health, “We are so pleased to partner with Helen Newberry Joy Hospital on the EMR program and provide a resource that will benefit their hospital and health center, providers, staff, patients, and community.”

— Source: MyMichigan Health

California Health System to Outsource RCM Jobs to Optum

MarinHealth Medical Center and Optum announced a strategic relationship to advance MarinHealth’s operational objectives and support MarinHealth’s continued commitment to providing high-quality, affordable, convenient, and accessible care for North Bay residents.

Optum and MarinHealth will work together to increase operational efficiency for MarinHealth using innovative technology solutions to help streamline nonclinical administrative processes and simplify experiences for patients and providers. Optum also will provide comprehensive revenue cycle management services and supporting technologies to MarinHealth.

This relationship equips MarinHealth with tools and resources to improve business processes, enhance infrastructure, and navigate change in achieving its goal of remaining an independent health system, providing the best quality of care to the community it serves for years to come.

“We look forward to working with Optum to improve business processes through cutting-edge technologies and actionable strategies,” says David Klein, MD, CEO of MarinHealth. “This new relationship allows our doctors and nurses to focus on what they do best, which is take care of patients, while Optum helps us to support some of our operational and administrative functions.”

To serve the health care needs of the residents in Marin County, MarinHealth and Optum will do the following:

• optimize technology and processes, to foster more transparency to simplify, personalize, and improve the health care experience for patients and providers;
• improve revenue cycle management, using technologies to streamline the billing process for patients and administrators;
• operational efficiencies to simplify patient registration, health plan services and coding, and the modernization of patient accounts; and
• streamline supply chain processes and procedures in support of the overall system, allowing caregivers access to the products and services they need to provide high-quality patient care.

“Like our partners at MarinHealth, we believe people are best served by health systems and caregivers who are embedded in their local communities,” says Rick Hardy, CEO of Optum Insight. “This relationship is another example of Optum’s ongoing support of local care systems across the country, and we are privileged to help MarinHealth continue to provide high-quality care to patients, as they have done for years.”

As part of this comprehensive relationship, certain MarinHealth employees will become employees of Optum. These employees will continue to directly support MarinHealth’s work and mission. With access to new skill development opportunities, technologies, and processes at Optum, these team members will continue to build on their successful work at MarinHealth. Both MarinHealth and Optum are committed to ensuring a smooth transition and exceptional experience for patients, employees, and providers.

— Source: Optum

MRO Names New CEO

MRO, Corp. (MRO), the leading clinical data release platform in health care, announced that Jason Brown has joined the company as its new CEO. A long-time veteran in health care, Brown has deep experience leading companies that connect and empower the health care ecosystem through data and technology.

During his career, Brown has been part of building some of health care technology’s most innovative and impactful companies, including Evolent Health, Valence Health, and MedAssets. Most recently, Brown served as CEO of Discovery Health Partners, which was acquired by MultiPlan. Brown is a graduate of Morehouse College and Harvard Business School and serves on the Board of Directors of TIAA. Brown joins MRO as the CEO and a member of the Board of Directors.

“MRO’s mission is to acquire, manage, and circulate clinical data and medical chart information throughout the health care ecosystem on behalf of providers and third-party requesters,” says Steve Hynes, MRO’s cofounder. “Our long heritage in release of information and disclosure management, combined with our innovative FIGmd clinical data release platform, positions us to address the myriad of industry challenges related to clinical and quality data acquisition, ingestion, and release. We are thrilled to have Jason joining us to lead the company during the next phase of our growth. Jason brings a strong track record of customer success with providers, payers, and other health care constituents; a deep experience leading strong teams; and a unique understanding of product and platform development to meet a market’s evolving needs.”

“I’m thrilled to be joining MRO. Requests for clinical information are rapidly growing in terms of both volume and complexity, as are the demands on health care providers to make clinical and quality data available to the health care system. MRO is at the epicenter of this industry challenge and is positioned to continue to bring unique enterprise clinical data release solutions to the market. I’m excited to join a company with deep expertise and advanced technology in clinical data release and a track record of outstanding customer service and results,” Brown says. “On behalf of MRO, I’d also like to recognize Steve’s many contributions leading the company from its early days to an industry leader in clinical data. I look forward to Steve’s continued involvement in MRO going forward as president of our Provider Solutions business unit.”

MRO is supported by Parthenon Capital, a leading growth oriented private equity firm focused on building franchise companies in health care.

— Source: MRO