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The project team’s end goal is for the dashboard to be used as a suggestion tool to assist billers during the coding process or as a review tool that verifies and validates billing codes that have been assigned manually.

“This is a semiautonomous diagnostic aid,” says Dr. Vaickus, “and it’s not meant to replace anyone’s job. It’s meant to make people’s jobs easier.”

—Renee Caruthers

Clinisys introduces Clinisys Laboratory Solutions

Clinisys has launched Clinisys Laboratory Solutions, which comprises Clinisys Toxicology Laboratory, Clinisys Public Health Laboratory, Clinisys Environmental Laboratory, and Clinisys Water Quality.

“Clinisys Laboratory Solutions are discipline-specific laboratory information-management systems built upon the Clinisys Platform, a shared services architecture and data model for SaaS [software-as-a-service] laboratory informatics,” according to a company press statement.

The discipline-specific products are scalable and support end-to-end workflow automation and integration with other related information systems and instruments.

Clinisys acquired Horizon Lab Systems early last year and with it the company’s toxicology, public health, environmental, and water/wastewater technology expertise.

Clinisys, 520-570-2000

WHO and HL7 partner on global interoperability standards

The World Health Organization and the nonprofit standards-development organization Health Level Seven International have announced that they will collaborate to advance the adoption of open interoperability standards worldwide as part of an effort to further the adoption of digital technologies in health care.

The five-year-long collaboration, according to WHO, will make HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)-enabled SMART (Standards-based, Machine-readable, Adaptive, Requirements-based, and Testable) guidelines with multilingual support available free of charge.

The collaboration targets “countries enabled to provide high quality, people-centered health services based on PHC [primary health care] strategies and comprehensive essential service packages and . . . countries enabled to strengthen health information and data systems, including at the subnational level, and to use this information to inform policymaking,” according to a posting on the WHO website.

Under the collaboration, WHO will lead the normative standard for health content and the SMART guideline-development process; identify and coordinate the needs of the global health community and share its findings with HL7 as appropriate; and ensure correct representation of the WHO Family of International Classifications and Terminologies within HL7.

HL7 will provide technical inputs and recommendations to WHO that may assist the latter in developing SMART guidelines, which are intended to advance clinical and data practices and comprise such components as interoperability standards, code libraries, algorithms, and technical and operational specifications. HL7 will also create the technical mechanisms for FHIR-based standards, including those developed by WHO, and translate them into the six official languages of the United Nations—Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. It will assist with the translation process as needed.

This collaboration “will further enable the equitable development of and access to health interoperability standards, evidence-based guidance, and foundational architectural building blocks for digital health to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage,” according to a WHO press statement.

Proscia and Mindpeak announce collaboration

Proscia and the German company Mindpeak have formed a partnership to provide integrated artificial intelligence-powered pathology workflows to aid in clinical decision-making for cancer patients.

The joint venture will create a solution that brings together Mindpeak’s algorithms for immunohistochemistry quantification and Proscia’s Concentriq Dx software platform, both of which are CE-marked under the European In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation. Mindpeak’s AI products automatically detect and measure biomarkers, including HER2, Ki-67, and estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor for breast cancer and PD-L1 for lung cancer.

The Concentriq Dx digital pathology open platform is designed to integrate AI applications from Proscia, the company’s customers, and third parties, including Mindpeak, into routine pathology workflows.

Concentriq Dx is available for primary diagnosis in the United States under the COVID-19 enforcement policy for remote pathology devices. Mindpeak’s AI algorithms are available for research use only in the United States.

Proscia, 215-608-5411

Haemonetics gets FDA nod for upgrade to plasma system

Haemonetics has received FDA clearance for enhancements to its NexSys PCS plasma-collection system. The enhancements include a plasma-collection bowl with a patented design and Express Plus Technology, for reducing procedure time.

“With the latest advancements, Haemonetics expects an average procedure time of 33 to 38 minutes using the standard FDA nomogram,” according to a press statement from the company.

Haemonetics reported that it plans to release the enhancements in the coming months.

Haemonetics Corp., 800-537-2802

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 dennis.winsten@gmail.com.