Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

2024 Health IT Predictions: AI Regulations and Ethics. This week, we published several more posts in our series on 2024 Health IT Predictions. We received a lot of interesting thoughts on the ethics of AI, including validating AI models, a tighter regulatory environment for AI tools, and managing the fast pace of innovation. Read more…

2024 Health IT Predictions: Generative AI and Data. Not surprisingly, we got a lot of good responses from the Healthcare IT Today community on this topic. The most pressing needs include better data collection, training AI models, privacy and security, and a smart approach to personalization. Read more…

2024 Health IT Predictions: The Healthcare Workforce. Amid staffing shortages and general hiring challenges, our experts see the industry improving training, automating administrative tasks, expanding the hospital at home, and improving workplace culture in 2024. Read more…

2024 Health IT Predictions: Interoperability, Data, and the Cloud. Our experts agreed that interoperability isn’t a goal unto itself but will continue to support efforts to provide clinicians with context at the point of care and make it easier for organizations to advance their cloud strategies. Read more…

2024 Health IT Predictions: AI in Pharma. Compliance monitoring, documentation, omnichannel physician engagement, and supply chain resilience are some of the areas where the experts see AI playing a more prominent role in pharma IT this year. Read more…

Putting Daily Data at the Center of Patient Engagement. John talked to Antoine Robiliard at Withings Health Solutions about using smart scales to measure more than weight – including body composition, and electrochemical skin conductance – to give patients and providers more insight into care needs. Read more…

What Topic Aren’t People Talking About Enough? CHIME 2023 Edition. In interviews from the recent conference, the Healthcare IT Today community discussed the need to pay attention to data quality, operational excellence, patient identification, and the implications of generative AI. Read more…

What’s the Biggest Challenge Facing Healthcare CIOs Today? We posed this question to CHIME 2023 attendees as well. Answers included technology debt, limited IT budgets, poor data hygiene, and finding ways to support clinical improvement. Read more…

Pharmacy Perspectives From the ONC Annual Meeting. John spoke to Cam Deemer at DrFirst and Pooja Babbrah at Point of Care Partners about ONC’s efforts to include pharmacists in interoperability conversations, especially as it relates to ePrescribing. Read more…

Healthcare IT Today Podcast: New Year’s Wish List for Healthcare. John and Colin shared their thoughts on the changes they’d like to see in healthcare in 2024, including regulatory changes. They also talked about a healthcare conference they’d like to see that doesn’t currently exist. Read more…

The Latest HHS Cybersecurity Concept Paper Falls Short. Chris Bowen at ClearDATA suggested that now’s the time for HHS to set a clear mandate for certain minimum cybersecurity standards – and not just focus on punitive action. Read more…

If Portals Improve Healthcare Outcomes, Why Don’t Patients Use Them? To understand why portal adoption lags, Oakkar Oakkar at Keona Health said organizations need to find out what’s holding patients back, improve digital literacy, and focus on intuitive design. Read more…

How AI-Powered Automation is Assisting Healthcare Workers. Jason Warrelmann at UiPath discussed AI’s role in decreasing repetitive tasks, redeploying resources, and improving the patient experience. Read more…

Navigating the Path to AI Adoption in Healthcare. AI success depends on clear objectives, robust infrastructure, good talent, the right technology, and a willingness to experiment, according to Archie Mayani at GHX. Read more…

What to Expect from Internet of Medical Things Cybersecurity in 2024. Organizations must move away from basic vulnerability management, Shankar Somasundaram at Asimily said. If nothing else, cyber insurers expect organizations to take on more responsibility. Read more…

Bonus Features for January 7, 2024: New executives at CitiusTech, MultiPlan, and NextGen, plus 15 other stories. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• CoachCare acquired Verustat; both companies specialize in remote patient monitoring.
• Credit balance and payment vendor TREND Health Partners acquired Advent Health Partners, which reviews medical records in RCM processes.
• Ambient AI assistant Nabla raised $24 million in Series B funding.
• Cosmetic care booking service Certainly Health raised $2.3 million in funding.
• Deep learning AI vendor Lunit acquired Volpara Health, a breast cancer detection software maker.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.