Newsbytes

As part of the RPA initiative, Sonora Quest and Disys have trained as “citizen bot developers” employees from operations, performance excellence, billing, and other departments within Sonora Quest. Training non-IT staff to assist with automation has helped move these types of initiatives forward at a more rapid pace, Hammelev says. This grassroots approach to training, Reinhard adds, has empowered “the boots on the ground” to identify good targets for RPA.

Working together, Sonora Quest and Disys have built 12 bots, many of which address billing operations, and are investigating the need for others. One of the bots, known as Billy, was developed to automate the insurance resubmission process to improve reimbursement collection. “RPA has created the capability to obtain lost revenue that we were previously unable to collect,” Hammelev says. The other billing bots largely address missing information related to error reports. Because billing involves a good amount of manual labor, it has “low-hanging fruit for RPA,” Reinhard adds.

Another bot codeveloped by Disys and Sonora Quest provides new employees with access to the software and hardware they need to do their jobs, such as access to the lab information system or anatomic pathology software. When supervisors request a new hire via Sonora Quest’s electronic processes, they also flag a staff member who has access to the same technology the new employee will need. The bot, IT4U, then creates a new user in the system that mirrors the flagged employee’s permissions, before the position is filled.

While developing the bots is serious business, naming them is not. Hammelev came up with the idea of having informal competitions to name the bots, Reinhard says. While they aren’t meaningful from a programming perspective, the names allow the bots to be identified more easily and give bot developers a greater sense of ownership. And “it brings a little fun in,” he says. Reinhard cites as an example an employee in human resources who worked on the front end of IT4U and now has an idea for an employee onboarding bot: “He wants to call it The Onboardi­nator.”—Charna Albert

Proscia and Royal Philips create open digital pathology ecosystem

The artificial intelligence-enabled digital pathology company Proscia has announced that it is collaborating with Royal Philips on an open digital pathology ecosystem.

Under the arrangement, users of Proscia’s Concentriq open digital pathology platform and AI modules can access the Philips Pathology SDK software development kit to incorporate Philips’ iSyntax image format into Concentriq.

“Through our open digital pathology platform approach, we are pleased to provide Proscia with the Pathology SDK to empower laboratories to realize the full potential of digital pathology,” said Nimish Parikh, head of product management for Philips Digital and Computational Pathology, in a press statement. “Laboratories can now view, manage, and analyze their iSyntax images alongside all of their other pathology data in Concentriq to eliminate silos, drive efficiencies, and unlock a wealth of new information.”

Concentriq can be used to view, manage, and analyze whole slide images at an enterprise scale. It is interoperable with whole slide image scanners, laboratory information systems, and image analysis applications.

Proscia, 877-255-1341

New coalition advocates for stronger patient ID measures

Six health care organizations recently formed Patient ID Now, a national coalition committed to advancing a nationwide strategy to improve patient identification through changes to federal regulations and legislation.

Among the founding member organizations, which put forth their agenda at www.patientidnow.org, are the American College of Surgeons, American Health Information Management Association, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Intermountain Healthcare, and Premier Healthcare Alliance. Other members are 4Medica, NextGen Healthcare, NextGate, and the Joint Commission.

The coalition’s efforts include lobbying the federal government to remove section 510 of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2020, which prohibits HHS from providing funding for a national patient identifier. Language blocking the creation of a national patient identifier has been included in every spending bill since 1999, despite the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act having called for the creation of a unique patient identifier in 1996.

“Despite the ban, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other government agencies have, on occasion, opined on how to improve patient matching in health information exchange,” according to a post on the Patient ID Now website.

The coalition asserts that narrow interpretation of the language in section 510 runs counter to a mandate in the HITECH Act for U.S. health care systems to adopt EHR and health information exchange functionality.

The Patient ID Now website provides a resource center that includes studies, reports, press releases, advocacy letters to the federal government, and other documents to support its mission. It also provides a link to obtain information on becoming a member.

Roche collaborates with Summit Cancer Centers

Roche has reported that it is working with the Spokane, Wash.-based Summit Cancer Centers network to explore the use of clinical decision support tools and artificial intelligence to manage the health information of cancer patients and provide more personalized care.

The initial phase of the collaboration will involve implementing Roche’s Navify tumor board software to automatically pull relevant patient health data and other information from fragmented sources. This information will be used to compile a single, holistic patient dashboard to facilitate Summit’s multidisciplinary tumor board discussions. The cloud-based Navify software will be integrated with the OncoEMR electronic medical record system used throughout the Summit network so users can incorporate patient health information from the EMR in tumor board reviews.

As part of the collaboration, Summit will also investigate the use of several clinical decision support applications in the Navify portfolio. The integrated apps can provide oncology care teams with information about clinical guidelines, published studies, and clinical trials.

Summit has cancer treatment and imaging service centers throughout eastern Washington and Idaho.

Roche, 800-428-5076

Paige secures additional series B funding

The computational pathology company Paige recently announced that it has received $70 million in series B financing with the recent contribution of an additional $15 million from Goldman Sachs’ merchant banking division and an additional $5 million from Healthcare Venture Partners. Goldman Sachs and Healthcare Venture Partners had previously contributed $5 million and $10 million, respectively.

Paige will apply the capital to improving pathology workflows for cancer and its work with biopharma companies to create custom diagnostic and clinical trial products, according to a press release from the company.

The additional funding brings Paige’s total capital raised to more than $95 million. The firm is a spin-off of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Aller practices clinical informatics in Southern California. He can be reached at raller@usc.edu.