Health IT Roundup—Cedars-Sinai Accelerator reveals new startup class; CHIME pushes ‘responsible innovation’

Cedars-Sinai unveils new accelerator class

Nine health startups have been accepted into the fourth class of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator.

The startups focus on a range of issues, including reducing the technological burden on physicians, providing patient support and integrating medical devices and genetic testing into provider workflows.

“While each company is unquestionably impressive on its own merits, when taken as a group, this class illustrates the complex nature of healthcare and highlights specific themes that are currently highly relevant to the industry,” Anne Wellington, managing director of the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator, said in a post announcing the new class. Post

Speech recognition software comes with 7% error rate

New research shows speech recognition software that can be useful in physician documentation can also produce unintended errors.

According to a study published in JAMA Network Open, dictated clinical notes from Partners HealthCare System and the University of Colorado Health System had a 7.4% error rate. The notes were generated using Dragon Medical 360 eScription manufactured by Nuance.

Nearly 16% of those errors involved clinical information. However, that error rate dropped significantly after the notes were reviewed by a transcriptionist and later signed by a physician, underscoring the need for manual review. (Study)

CHIME wants HHS to consider ethics of innovation

The College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) urged the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a set of innovation standards that companies can use as a voluntary framework for “responsible innovation.”

Responding to a request for information about an HHS innovation workgroup, CHIME recommended HHS account for “downstream ethical considerations” that can be significant for patients and providers but are often overlooked by innovators. The group also urged HHS to focus on incorporating patients and clinicians early, addressing cybersecurity threats, closing the digital divide between well-sourced and under-resourced providers, and building in patient identification mechanisms.

“We recognize that this balance is often a delicate one such that innovation is not stifled, yet ethical considerations must continuously be at the forefront as technology is being developed and rolled out,” the group wrote. (Letter-PDF)

FDA officials tout new digital health approach

Three of the Food and Drug Administration’s top officials said the agency’s new precertification program for digital health will help streamline approvals while ensuring the safety of medical apps and tools.

In a viewpoint published in JAMA, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and Bakul Patel, associate director of digital health at the FDA, said focusing developers rather than products will encourage a “race to the top in medical app development.”

“The goal of this program is to collaboratively develop a tailored and pragmatic framework that trusts the excellence of organizations, but continually verifies the safety and effectiveness of [software as a medical device],” they wrote. (JAMA)