This is Naomi Diaz with the Becker's Digital
Health podcast. Here's your daily industry news briefing
for today, April 7.
First, president Donald Trump's tariffs could cause AI
prices to rise, hampering CIOs amid tightening IT
budgets, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Mister Trump's sweeping tariffs could increase the cost
of components for big tax firms' cloud centers,
which AI companies rely on for computing powder
for their software according to the story.
Matthew Mittelstaedt, technology policy research fellow at Washington
C DC think tank Cato Institute, told the
newspaper, quote, the AI future is now being
taxed, end quote. If cloud costs rise, CIOs
may need to lower directionary spending and delay
hardware refresh cycles with budgets already tight for
macroeconomic
concerns.
According to Lucia Sorareris,
CIO and head of technology transformation and investment
firm, Carlisle.
Miss Sorareris told the news outlet, quote, many
of us will need to rebalance our portfolio
of technology projects and investments without the benefit
of
end quote.
Second,
a growing number of older Americans are relying
on patient portals to communicate with their health
care providers, but only a small share report
being charged a co pay for doing so,
An April 4 study from the University of
Michigan
found. The study published in JAMA health forum
was conducted in early twenty twenty four through
the national poll on healthy aging. It surveyed
patient pearl messages habits among US adults 50
and older.
Of the 3,200
respondents, more than three quarters reported having access
to a patient portal, and nearly two thirds
said they had used it to message a
clinician within the past year. Here are four
additional findings from the study.
One, despite concerns that billing for portal messages
could deter use, especially among those with lower
incomes, just 13% of portal users said they
were charged a co pay.
Two, privately insured patients were most likely to
report a fee with about 17%
saying they were billed. Three, dual eligible or
Medicaid patients followed closely at nearly sixteen percent.
And four, those with veterans affairs coverage reported
the highest portal usage, but were among the
least likely to face a co pay.
Researchers noted the study's limitations, including reliance in
self reported data and the inability to distinguish
between billable and non billable messages.
Still, they said the results weren't further exploit
exploitation,
particularly into how coverage differences may affect communication
between low income patients and their care teams.
Third,
Seattle Children's partnered with Google Cloud to develop
an AI powered tool called Pathway Assistant.
The tool built using Google's Gemini models on
its Vertex AI platform is designed to help
health care providers quickly access and apply critical
medical information.
Traditionally, retrieving such data could take up to
fifteen minutes. With pathway assistance, clinicians can pull
information from clinical standard work pathways in seconds
according to Google.
The tool builds on Seattle children's clinical effectiveness
program, which includes CSW pathways for more than
70 diagnosis.
The hospital has used these standardized protocols since
2010.
More than 50 clinicians collaborated to refine the
AI tool on early pilot suggested may reduce
administrative burden and improve both provider efficiency and
patient outcomes.
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