We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 10/25 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Gail Zahtz (@GailZahtz) on the topic “The Future of #AI and #HIT: Solving #SDoH for the Home”.
As an executive consultant at the intersection of health and design, I’m asked daily to evaluate the market opportunities for the commercialization of new technologies. This week at #HITsm we’re looking at the future of #AI and #HIT at solving today’s challenges, particularly in the home.
To help frame the conversation, I just so happen to be involved with some projects to use as examples of potentials and considerations when discussing the impact technology is having on home health care, and by extension #SDoH (social determinants of health.)
Innovation Examples
Smart Toilet Home Monitoring
Heart Health Intelligence is integrating the power of machine learning (#AI) with one of the most ubiquitous home design products (the toilet seat) to provide real time home monitoring of cardiac activity for home diagnostics, ongoing monitoring and early prevention of a major health crisis. Sit on the toilet at home, in the hospital or at a residential care facility, and your heart stats are read by integrated sensors, analyzed by algorithms, monitored by clinical providers with notification to the cardiology team of any validated abnormal readings. This technology is facing down heart failure which accounts for $34 Billion a year in healthcare costs and is the leading cause of penalties to health systems by CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for “excess” readmission. With the use of #HIT, patients do not need to put on a blood pressure cuff, wear a device or participate in their monitoring in any way outside of their daily routine. HHI is completing a significant round of funding and strategic partnerships which will fuel their way through the FDA process and additional clinical trials.
3D Printing Healthy Homes
How can #HIT and #AI solve the housing crisis that impacts health, affects over half of all renters and millions of homeowners, and is a major focus of #SDoH? One company, Inzio, is integrating machine learning into excavators to 3D-print concrete walls and homes within a day. Since a drone reads the landscape when it’s airborne and sends the information to the unmanned computer in the excavator, homes will be able to be built in post disaster and rural areas immediately, without having the prepare the ground: replacing costly, dangerous and often health hazardous temporary mobile units, shelters and other emergency housing with permanent structures. The use of technology will also reduce costly trained construction teams and traditional concrete pouring forms to save the construction industry hundreds of millions a dollars a year, reduce workplace safety and fill a labor shortage of over 250,000 job openings. Here is an example of where solving an issue for health using technology and AI solves other industry needs as well. This company is completing the transfer of 3 initial patents and will be announcing the company landmarks and starting it’s post-seed funding round fall of 2019.
Mobile Testing of Water Hazards and Biomarkers in Urine
Here is an example of technology using #AI for other industries is being brought into solution sets for healthcare: A mobile underwater mass spectrometer has been successfully tested in ocean depths of over 2,000 meters to detect dangers in water (security), sites for underwater resource excavation (energy) and safe water for drinking (government). Sensors in the water work with software in the cloud to deliver real-time information on water safety. Further development found that this also worked in finding bio-markers in urine- making it possible to test anything from drug use to sugar levels at home in real time. After over $6 Million in development, and major customers including top teaching universities and energy companies, the inventors are currently talking with buyers so that a larger organization can support the significant commercial opportunity as this rolls out to major markets.
What do these 3 seemingly unrelated examples tell us about the use of #AI and #HIT for the home-health market? How does this tie in to the ongoing development of solving #SDoH (social determinants of health) and new funding opportunities? And what role do we have as #HIT leaders in shepherding the growth of technology to keep people safe, healthy and at home for much longer? Let’s first look briefly at the environment impacting technologies growth at home.
Market Environment
SDoH: Long before SDoH was a hashtag, the World Health Organization talked and published about the impact of how people live and grow has on their health. This includes social, environmental and economic matters and how they create health and (dis)ease. The WHO has increased their work in this area with multiple new initiatives.
CMS: At the same time, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have been increasing their reimbursements for SDOH. Waivers at the state level allow for further reimbursements in Medicaid and Medicare funding with an emphasis on keeping people at home rather than the more costly and less preferred method of treating people in long term residential facilities like nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The growth in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and Medicaid waivers for pre and post FDA approved medical equipment (eg HIT in the home) are leading to private insurance companies and health systems providing targeted reimbursements for new technologies, solutions and even housing developments.
At the global level the developments of new technologies, the integration of tech in the home, and the funding reimbursement opportunities for HIT and AI in the home are opening up a large opportunity for the growth of home health technology solutions. What does this mean for HIT professionals, for patients and caregivers and for the state of healthcare?
Join us for this week’s #HITsm chat where we can discuss these technologies and trends and how they will impact healthcare.
Topics for this week’s #HITsm Chat:
T1: Including our toilet sensor examples, how does technology in home diagnostics improve patient care? #HITsm
T2: Using #AI, data can be sent in real time from home to hcp’s- what does this mean for healthcare? #HITsm
T3: What should tech startups and solutions from other industries consider when approaching the home and health markets? #HITsm
T4: Thinking about #SDoH –is 3D printing of homes and other multi-industry solutions being fairly called a “health” technology? Why or Why not? #HITsm
T5: What does the increase in reimbursements for #SDoH mean for #HIT and #AI companies? #HITsm
Bonus: As someone involved in #HIT – what do you see as your role in the growth of #AI and other #HIT in home health and #SDoH solutions? #HITsm
Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
11/1 – Accelerating Healthcare Innovation with DevOps
Hosted by Nichole Gunderson (@nicholeg514) and Ed Keen (@EdKeen5) from @burwoodgroup
11/8 – Government and SDoH
Hosted by Susan Houck Clark (@SusanHouckClark)
11/15 – TBD
Hosted by Richard Corder (@RichardCorder) from @t1healthcare
11/22 – How Does Health IT Enable Accountable Care?
Hosted by Travis Broome (@Travis_Broome)
11/29 – Happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday – No Chat
12/6 – Seniors and Technology
Hosted by @naviHealthPAC
We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.
If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.