Newsbytes

It is important that graduates of the medical school and residency program not only become familiar with the medical system’s analytics resources but, through their research and training, develop an understanding of how to extract intelligence and insight from data that impacts patient care, Dr. Levy emphasizes.

To any health care system or medical school focused on informatics education, Dr. Levy offers one overarching piece of advice: Use modern educational methods. “Develop, identify, and use asynchronous materials whenever possible,” he advises. “And the material you create, treat it like a precious metal. Reuse it over and over again.” —Renee Caruthers

Ibex Medical Analytics and Indica Labs forge partnership

Indica Labs and Ibex Medical Analytics have announced an agreement to integrate Ibex’s Galen artificial intelligence-based cancer diagnostics platform into Indica’s Halo AP digital pathology workflow platform for anatomic pathology laboratories.

Galen’s AI-powered cancer detection, case prioritization, grading, and other insights will be displayed in the Halo AP platform to alleviate the need for a separate viewer. Applicable data will be communicated with the laboratory or hospital information system automatically.

“By joining forces with Indica Labs, we can jointly offer end-to-end solutions, enabling pathologists to accelerate adoption of new technologies, strengthen the business case for digitization, and improve the quality of cancer care,” said Joseph Mossel, CEO and cofounder of Ibex Medical Analytics, in a press release.

Indica’s Halo AP platform can be fully integrated with an LIS or HIS or operate as a standalone case- and image-management system. It supports a full range of tissue-based assays and synoptic reporting, tumor boards, secondary consults, quantitative analysis, and AI-assisted workflows.

Indica Labs, 505-492-0979

Ixlayer collaborates with FrontRunnerHC

The telehealth company Ixlayer has partnered with the software-as-a-service provider FrontRunnerHC to connect revenue cycle, patient management, and diagnostic testing systems in a virtual environment via a streamlined process.

Integration of FrontRunnerHC’s software into the Ixlayer platform is intended to help ensure that Ixlayer’s clients have up-to-date patient demographic, insurance, and financial information and make the billing process more transparent for patients.

“Our mission is to make diagnostic testing and telehealth services as seamless as possible for administrators, clinicians, and patients,” said Ixlayer CEO Pouria Sanae, in a press release.

The Ixlayer platform allows health care systems, payers, biopharma, and other companies to offer health testing in a virtual environment. It delivers end-to-end solutions for the technical, security, regulatory, and user experience components of complex health testing. The solution can be added to patient-engagement platforms and patient portals to enable real-time testing.

FrontRunnerHC’s portfolio of software features benefits investigation capabilities and is interoperable with patient records and billing systems. It is supported by a team of health care claims and insurance experts.

FrontRunnerHC, 508-746-5500

Proscia upgrades digital pathology platform

Proscia has introduced the next generation of its flagship Concentriq digital pathology platform.

The latest version of Concentriq mimics a microscope-like viewing experience from within a digital pathology environment.

A single deployment of the upgraded software supports an unlimited number of sites and users. It can interface with numerous laboratory information systems and image scanners from a variety of vendors at once.

The platform’s open application programming interface allows users to seamlessly incorporate artificial intelligence applications, developed by Proscia and third parties, into routine operations and view results alongside other pathology data.

Proscia, 877-255-1341

Quest and Paige team up to advance use of AI in disease diagnosis

Quest Diagnostics and Paige have entered a collaboration designed to use artificial intelligence to improve and hasten the diagnosis of cancer and other diseases that rely on pathologic assessment.

The collaboration involves using Paige’s proprietary AI-based software to analyze digitized pathology slides from Quest and its AmeriPath and Dermpath businesses to uncover markers of cancer and other diseases. The partnership initially will focus on solid tumor cancers, such as prostate, breast, colorectal, and lung.

“The parties intend to develop new software products which, following regulatory approval, will be marketed to pathologists, oncologists, and other providers to support disease diagnosis,” according to a press release from Quest. “Near term, the parties also intend to license the insights to biopharmaceutical and research organizations to aid biomarker discovery, drug research and development, and companion diagnostics.”

The agreement involves sharing revenue for reaching certain product and commercial milestones and establishing arrangements for Quest to use software that receives regulatory approval in its pathology operations and joint marketing and research operations with Paige. In addition, Quest’s pathologists will help define pathology workflows in which the products are used to support diagnostic decision-making.

Quest, 866-697-8378

ONC focuses on new health interoperability initiative

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has launched a project called Health Interoperability Outcomes 2030.

The ONC plans to publish, this fall, “a prioritized set of interoperability outcomes that align with ONC’s interoperability vision for the nation and the 2020–2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan,” said Steven Posnack, ONC deputy national coordinator for health information technology, in a Health IT Buzz blog post. The project will synthesize and take into consideration public feedback the ONC receives about desirable health interoperability outcomes for the next decade.

“Before anyone gets snarky about ‘having to wait until 2030’ to reach certain outcomes, we view any of the potential outcomes as having a ‘no later than’ timing to them,” Posnack posted. “In other words, some outcomes could and would be expected to be achieved well before 2030.”

To contribute a health interoperability outcome statement for consideration, go to HealthIT.gov/HealthInterop2030. Submissions are due by July 30.

Dr. Aller practices clinical informatics in Southern California. He can be reached at raller@usc.edu. Dennis Winsten is founder of Dennis Winsten & Associates, Healthcare Systems Consultants. He can be reached at dwinsten.az@gmail.com.