COVID Pharma Update
Therapeutics
Blood thinners help patients with moderate COVID, clinical trials find
CBC News reports that global clinical trials examining the potential of blood thinners to treat moderately ill COVID-19 patients have proven so successful that doctors should immediately start using them in standard care, some Canadian physicians say.
Patients Fend for Themselves to Access Highly Touted Covid Antibody Treatments
KHN (@KHNews) reports that months after Trump emphatically credited an experimental antibody therapy for his quick recovery from covid and even as drugmakers ramp up supplies, only a trickle of the product has found its way into regular people. While hundreds of thousands of vials sit unused, sick patients who, research indicates, could benefit from early treatment — available for free — have largely been fending for themselves.
Vaccines
COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States
Get the latest Maps, charts, and data provided by the CDC, updated daily by 8 pm ET.
Updox Survey: Healthcare Providers Viewed as #1 Most Trusted Source for COVID-19 Vaccine Information
Updox (@updox), a complete healthcare communication platform for in-person and virtual care, announced the results of a new study designed to better understand the public’s view on the COVID-19 vaccine. The survey underscores the strong need for more frequent communications between healthcare providers and patients and demonstrates the critical role technology plays in ensuring an effective vaccine rollout, with information such as vaccine education, eligibility and scheduling. The survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Updox among 2,057 U.S. adults aged 18+.
EmblemHealth study finds language matters when communicating about COVID-19 vaccinations
EmblemHealth (@emblemhealth), a national nonprofit health insurer, released initial results of a new study on the importance of terminology and how it affects Americans’ openness to receive immunizations and vaccinations. The study found that people generally understand the difference between the terms “shot,” “vaccination” and “immunization,” with the latter two being the preferred terms across all groups—a finding that has broad implications for communications strategies as government agencies, health plans, employers and consumer groups disseminate information about the COVID-19 vaccine.
U.S. to escalate tracking of COVID variants as confirmed cases top 25 million
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stepping up efforts to track coronavirus mutations and keep vaccines and treatments effective against new variants until collective immunity is reached, the agency’s chief said on Sunday.
Leading Corporations and Foundations Come Together to Support National COVID-19 Vaccine Education Effort from the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative
The Ad Council announced that the organization has raised $37 million of its $50 million goal for a national communications effort to increase confidence in vaccination against COVID-19. Developed in partnership with COVID Collaborative, the initiative will reach key audiences across the country through research-driven creative campaigns, strategic media placements, community outreach and trusted messenger engagement–representing one of the largest public education efforts in history.
Vaccine Administration and Management
PatientTrak Enables Covid Vaccine Rollout for Fairfax County Residents
PatientTrak (@PatientTrak), a company focuded on patient engagement is pleased to be a key component of Fairfax County Health Department’s Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout. PatientTrak’s HIPAA compliant text messaging had already been in use at Fairfax to text message patients for Covid-19 testing and was expanded to schedule, arrive, message and track patients receiving the vaccine.
Black Americans Are Getting Vaccinated at Lower Rates Than White Americans
Black Americans are receiving covid vaccinations at dramatically lower rates than white Americans in the first weeks of the chaotic rollout, according to a new KHN (@KHNews) analysis.
45% of Adults Over 65 Lack Online Medical Accounts, Which Could Affect COVID-19 Vaccination
According to the newly analyzed data from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, based at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, as the vaccination of older adults against COVID-19 begins across the country, new poll data suggests that many of them don’t yet have access to the “patient portal” online systems that could make it much easier for them to schedule a vaccination appointment.
COVID Vaccine Alert: DrFirst Survey Finds People Often Forget to Get the Second Dose of Multi-Dose Vaccines
As COVID-19 vaccines that require two doses become more widely available across the U.S., a survey by health technology pioneer DrFirst (@DrFirst) reveals many Americans miss the critical second booster shots of multi-dose vaccines. Sixty percent of survey participants who missed their second dose stated it was related to forgetfulness.
hims.ai rolls out no-code COVID-19 vaccine administration, tracking, and reporting apps to help hospitals and health care providers
hims.ai (https://www.hims.ai) announced expanded capabilities that enable hospitals and health systems to effectively administer, manage, track, report, and meet CDC reporting requirements around Covid-19 vaccine distribution. Using AI and automation technology, hims.ai offers a range of pre-built apps that track patients through their vaccine journey, inform them if they qualify, send second-dose reminders and facilitate sharing of vaccination data with government agencies. These apps can be deployed within a week.
Leading Healthcare Organizations Successfully Launch COVID-19 Vaccine Outreach Campaigns With Arcadia Analytics
Arcadia (@ArcadiaHealthIT), a population health management and healthcare intelligence platform company, announced that its healthcare customers have successfully begun nationwide multilingual COVID-19 vaccination outreach campaigns using tools launched earlier this month. Health plan, ACO, and IDN customers across the country are now engaging patients on COVID-19 safety, testing, resources, and vaccination.
Software Management Tools
Qure4u Introduces the Digital Health Key™
Qure4u Inc. (@Qure4u), a company offering a complete virtual care and patient engagement platform, launched its innovative Digital Health Key™, providing convenient access to care at patients’ fingertips.
WinWire launches Vaccine Management Solution Built on Microsoft Azure
WinWire Technologies (@winwire), a digital engineering services company, launched its Vaccine Management solution built on Azure. Healthcare organizations need to create new business processes to deliver vaccines to patients. The WinWire solution enables them to efficiently develop and manage vaccine programs at scale, speeding up vaccine delivery.
Lumeon Eases the Burden on Care Teams with the Rapid Deployment of COVID-19 Vaccination Self-Scheduling
Lumeon (@lumeon_), a care journey orchestration company, announced the launch of its COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign Management solution, allowing healthcare providers to rapidly deploy vaccination programs and alleviate the pressure on care teams with automated patient outreach, self-scheduling, and surveys.
CipherHealth Releases COVID-19 Vaccine Communications Solutions to Keep Communities, Patients, Staff and Caregivers Connected and Informed During the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
As providers grapple with a vaccine rollout of unprecedented complexity, patient engagement leader CipherHealth (@cipherhealth) has announced its COVID-19 Vaccine Communications solutions, a set of proven communications and outreach solutions specifically designed to help healthcare organizations keep their patient population informed and educated on the rollout of vaccines in their communities amid rapid change.
Notable Health First to Launch Automated Identification and Engagement of Patients Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccine
Notable Health, an intelligent automation company for healthcare, announced it has extended its platform capabilities to support automating COVID-19 vaccine administration workflows. US healthcare systems face a massive logistical challenge in identifying patients who meet state or federal criteria for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, and engaging with these patients to schedule as effectively as possible. Health systems can now use Notable to automatically identify eligible patients and educate them on how to receive the vaccine. This enables health systems to support more rapid administration of vaccines to their patient population.
Kyruus Enables Online Scheduling for COVID-19 Vaccine Visits and Facilitates More Than 100,000 Appointments in the First Month
Kyruus (@kyruus), a company offering provider search and scheduling solutions for health systems, announced that it has expanded its patient access platform to enable customers to offer online consumer scheduling for COVID-19 vaccine visits. The vaccine scheduling capabilities are available within the company’s award-winning online scheduling solution. Almost 10 health systems have already activated vaccine scheduling with Kyruus, cumulatively booking more than 100,000 appointments in the first month alone.
eTrueNorth Leverages Its Technology Platform to Enable COVID-19 Vaccines at Retail Pharmacies
eTrueNorth is now empowering retail pharmacies to offer COVID-19 vaccines increasing access for all Americans. The company is utilizing its proven technology platform that has successfully enabled COVID-19 testing at more than 1,450 sites across the country.
QliqSOFT Announces Integrated Self-Scheduling Into COVID-19 Vaccine Assistant Chatbot
QliqSOFT Inc. (@qliqSoft), specializing in HIPAA-compliant clinical collaboration and patient communication solutions, announced the inclusion of fully integrated self-scheduling into their COVID-19 Vaccine Assistant chatbot, which launched in December of 2020 and is already deployed across 500+ healthcare organizations.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Expand Patient Verification Integration Capabilities to Support National COVID-19 Vaccination Rollout
with Epic
The Health Care business of LexisNexis® Risk Solutions (@LexisNexisRisk) has collaborated with Epic, the creator of the leading electronic health record (EHR) at the scale of 250 million patient records worldwide, to offer simplified, quick-to-implement identity verification and authentication solutions to healthcare providers using the MyChart® patient portal.
As Pharmacies Rally to Support Communities Thru COVID, FDS Experiences Significant Demand for Medical Billing/Medicare Selection Tools
As pharmacies across the U.S. step up to support their communities during COVID-19, FDS, Inc. (@FDSRx), a pharmacy technology provider, is experiencing significant growth in delivering financial, analytics, and clinical care solutions to meet their growing needs.
Testing
MDHHS to expand mobile COVID-19 testing to West Michigan
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services partnered with Wayne State University and Wayne Health to offer mobile COVID-19 testing.
The Latest Hotel Perk for Overseas Travelers: Covid Testing
According to the WSJ a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order that requires anyone entering the U.S. to have a Covid-19 test within 72 hours of boarding triggered a massive travel-industry effort to make it easy for guests and passengers to comply. PCR tests and rapid antigen tests satisfy the requirement; rapid antibody tests don’t.
These Sites Offer Free COVID-19 Tests for the Uninsured. So Why Are So Many Insured Kaiser Patients Using Them?
KQED reports that nonprofit clinics and coronavirus testing centers that don’t require insurance are seeing large numbers of people with insurance seeking tests. People running these centers say that’s taking resources away from the low-income communities they’re meant to serve.
Fewer Americans Are Getting COVID-19 Tests
The Atlantic reports that much of the data we have about the pandemic are messy, but that is especially true with testing. The numbers of tests that are used, and the results of those tests, are disrupted by weekends and holidays, and the results of many rapid tests aren’t reported at all.
Burned by Low Reimbursements, Some Doctors Stop Testing for Covid
The New York Times reports that some insurers pay pediatricians less than the cost of the test itself, jeopardizing a tool to help control the pandemic.
To Read
6 Ways to Ensure Patients with LEP have a Seamless COVID-19 Vaccine Experience from United Language Group (@UnitedLanguage) – The COVID-19 pandemic has shed a spotlight on the systemic inequalities and lack of access to health care for patients and members with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Across the care continuum you can find critical touch points where disparities are present but you can also implement ways to make them disappear.
Younger adults fuel COVID-19 spread in U.S., study finds from UPI (@upi) – Young adults are driving the spread of COVID-19 across the United States, accounting for nearly two-thirds of new cases nationally, according to a study published Tuesday by Science.
Analysis: What went wrong with COVID-19 vaccine distribution and how it has tarnished the ‘miracle’ from USA Today – A laundry list of issues slowed the vaccine rollout, USA TODAY found, ranging from unrealistic public expectations and a lack of communication to overwhelmed software and competing visions for the role of government. All taking place amid a seismic shift in White House leadership.
Clinical Trials
LI Volunteers Sought For Virtual Coronavirus Clinical Trial
Patients are being sought to volunteer for a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a potential outpatient treatment for the coronavirus, The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory announced.
New clinical trials raise fears the coronavirus is learning how to resist vaccines
The Los Angeles Times reports that new data showing that two COVID-19 vaccines are far less effective in South Africa than in other places they were tested have heightened fears that the coronavirus is quickly finding ways to elude the world’s most powerful tools to contain it.
Moderna Needs More Kids for COVID Vaccine Trials
WebMD reports that Moderna’s clinical trials for 12- to 17-year-olds started 4 weeks ago, but the company is having trouble getting enough participants, said Moncef Slaoui, PhD, the scientific head of Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government’s vaccine effort. That could delay FDA approval, he said.
Phase 3 trial of Novavax investigational COVID-19 vaccine opens
NIH (@NIH) reports that the Phase 3 trial of another investigational coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine has begun enrolling adult volunteers. The randomized, placebo-controlled trial will enroll approximately 30,000 people at approximately 115 sites in the United States and Mexico
To Listen
COVID-19 Episodes
We have compiled a playlist from all our shows and podcasts on our network that discuss the current COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 Resources
HealthcareNOW Radio rounded up some health IT resources being offered by companies to help healthcare professionals, American citizens and all of those affected in the fight against the coronavirus.
COVID-19 Reports
We’ve rounded up some of the latest news and announcements pertaining to the coronavirus and the healthcare industry.
