Becker's Hospital Review

40 INNOVATION Providence to focus on digitally enabling patients, genomics & more moving forward from $1.1B Q1 loss By Laura Dyrda R enton, Wash.-based Providence is focused on digital health and personalizing the healthcare experience to move health- care forward amid the pandemic. "We respond to the evolving healthcare landscape, pursuing new op- portunities that transform our services, in a strategic and effective manner," the system stated in its first-quarter financial report. e system aims to expand and sustain its mission through several action steps, such as "digitally enabling, simplifying and personalizing the health experience" and "creating an integrated, scientific wellness, clinical research and genomics program that is nationally recognized for breakthrough advances." e health system also aims to use the insights from big data as a focal point of its strategic transformation. Providence is also open to exploring affiliations and partnerships, although it did not dis- close the discussions it's currently in with outside companies and organizations. During the first quarter of 2020, the health system reported a $1.1 billion net loss due to a decline in patient volume and increased expenses related to the pandemic. e system's operating expenses were up 10 percent year over year, as the system paid caregivers as normal through April and offered emergency child care subsidies as well as other temporary benefits during the pandemic. Going forward, the health system's strategic plan includes ensuring patients are digitally enabled and delivering quality, patient-centered care. It will also seek to diversify its sources of earnings, according to the report. n Epic creating tool to disrupt racial disparity in birth outcomes By Katie Adams E pic is developing a software tool to help address ra- cial disparities in birth outcomes by connecting black mothers' prenatal care process with their social needs, according to The Cap Times. The software tool, called Coordinated Care Management, is being developed by Epic in partnership with Madison, Wis.- based Dane County Health Council to help streamline the medical and nonmedical care black mothers need during and after pregnancy. Data from the health system shows that the countywide black infant mortality rate was as high as 15.4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births from 2015-17. Dane County babies born to black mothers are also two times more likely to be deliv- ered at a low birth weight than babies born to white mothers, which often leads to significant health challenges as the infant grows up. Coordinated Care Management seeks to facilitate effective communication between the patients, healthcare providers and community services. Healthcare providers regularly track risk factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption in pre- natal patients, but it is currently very rare to track factors like housing or food insecurity. "A person's healthcare is more than just what's happening in the walls of the clinic or the hospital. Social factors play a major role in a person's health," Cameron Kunkel, a project manager for Epic, told The Cap Times. Dane County healthcare providers will tailor the program to each patient's needs, assigning case managers to those who need the most support navigating social services. Black moth- ers who enroll in the program will be assigned a community health worker or doula, who will attend appointments and of- fer support throughout the pregnancy, based on risk factors they self-identify. n Brigham and Women's Hospital, MIT create system that customizes air supply for patients sharing ventilator By Jackie Drees W hile ventilators can support more than one patient at a time, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a system that improves safety by customizing air pressure and volume of the device, STAT reported. A team of physicians at the Boston-based hospital and re- searchers at Cambridge-based MIT jointly developed the system, dubbed the individualized system for augmenting ventilator efficiency, or iSAVE for short. The team is working to get emergency use authorization from the FDA to help ease ventilator shortages in hospitals around the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. iSAVE aims to solve the challenge of air supply, which typ- ically cannot meet two patients' individual needs when sharing a ventilator. While iSAVE is not the standard of care, it can help in extreme circumstances such as the cur- rent pandemic, said Giovanni Traverso, PhD, assistant pro- fessor at MIT. There are issues that could come from a system such as iSAVE, including increasing the chance that one of the pa- tients becomes disconnected from the ventilator, accord- ing to Richard Branson, surgery department professor at the University of Cincinnati and co-author of two recent studies on ventilator-sharing. n

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