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.

Automating For Workflow and Quality in Healthcare. John Lynn interviewed Jason Warrelmann at UiPath about helping organizations look for automation opportunities where lots of data exist, particularly in quality control, compliance, and imaging. After awhile, Jason said, organizations may find 300 to 400 use cases for workflow improvement or automation. Read more…

Staying Informed About Regulatory Changes, Industry Standards, and Technology Advancements. With so much happening in health IT, how do you keep up? Advice from the Healthcare IT Today community included treating vendors like trusted partners, joining professional organizations, and diving into emerging tech such as AI and telehealth. Read more…

Taking Clinical Notes Out of Physical Therapists’ Hands. In our latest look at ambient clinical voice, John spoke to Comprehend PT CEO CEO Jake Michalski about helping therapists dictate notes as they walk the floor – and distinguish what’s clinically valuable from the idle chatter that builds rapport with patients. Read more…

Why Electronic Prescribing for Controlled Substances Is Set to Take Off. ePrescribing involves several complex steps, and the Drug Enforcement Administration has been slow to standardize the process. Andy Oram outlined how Congress is pushing the DEA to act – and how technology is already in place to support ePrescribing workflows if laws are in fact passed. Read more…

How Envision Radiology Is Setting a Fast Pace for Interoperability. At RSNA, Colin Hung caught up with Beau Jones at DataFirst and Jeff Emery at Envision Radiology to learn how managing imaging workflows across disparate providers contributes to faster turnaround times and improves the patient experience. Read more…

How to Develop and Nurture Leadership Skills in Health IT. This was another great question to pose to the Healthcare IT Today community, given the breadth and depth of experience y’all have. Advice included engaging with multiple stakeholders in the organization and maintaining a focus on improving clinical care. Read more…

How Multiple Components Make a “Multi-scope” Device Widely Applicable. John spoke to Livia Robic at Withings about the BeamO device, which the company hopes to release by the end of 2024. BeamO combines a thermometer, EKG monitor, pulse oximeter, and stethoscope, while Wi-Fi connectivity lets users sync device readings with medical records. Read more…

Healthcare IT Today Podcast: The Promise of Ambient Clinical Voice. We’ve spent a lot of time learning about this topic over the last few months. Here, John and Colin discuss the key success factors for ambient clinical voice vendors and debate whether the technology can become a two-way assistant or will simply assist in documentation. Read more…

Why Generative AI Is the Payment Integrity Game-Changer. Inpatient and facility claims account for 45% of healthcare spending, but these claims rarely get audited due to their complexity. Enter generative AI, whish is poised to help organizations move audits upstream and stop bad payments before they start, said Dr. Musheer Ahmed at Codoxo. Read more…

Cybersecurity and the Chief Medical Officer. Effectively protecting organizations from cyber threats requires collaboration between the CMO and the CISO, according to William Thorn at Trellix. One critical step in achieving this is including CISOs in clinical technology decisions. Read more…

Bonus Features for February 4, 2024:  67% of healthcare pros say the top use case for AI is improving the digital front door; meanwhile,  78% of healthcare shift workers have trouble covering living expenses. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

• Patient data platform Innovaccer acquired Cured, a digital marketing and CRM platform.
• Collaboration vendor PointClickCare acquired American HealthTech, a subsidiary of CPSI with a post-acute care customer base.
• On-demand virtual care software vendor 98point6 acquired the remaining assets of Bright.md following the sale of its technology to Evernorth.
• Prescription decision support vendor DecisionRx entered a $100 million credit facility with global investment firm Carlyle.
• Precision neurology software and data company Rune Labs announced a $12 million strategic funding round.

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