Arien Malec Profile picture
SVP, R&D, Change Healthcare; member HITAC, former co-chair HITSC; Direct Project, S&I Framework for ONC; HIT, pharma geek. Randomly serious. Make many typo.
Lorraine Johnson, JD/MBA Profile picture 1 subscribed
Dec 31, 2021 6 tweets 2 min read
At various times, I've said "hey, let's not make the same mistake about public health funding that we made in 2001" & gotten the cold long "just the way the world works, son" stare from people who were there in '01 & look, I get it. There's so much stuff in public health that nobody thinks is sensible, but there's too much structural inertia to change.
- splitting public health from health care is dumb but secondary to how we fund health care in this country & *that's* been easy to change.
Dec 31, 2021 10 tweets 4 min read
@ezraklein Some structural issues here:
1) Congress allocates funding to Big Bang moonshots after major crises (e.g., 9/11/anthrax, now)
2) Most infrastructure needed at the STLT level, not Fed, but funding allocated at Fed level
3) Hard to hire technologists at SLTLs @ezraklein We *should* invest in modular services that are built around STLT needs; should sustain funding over time to avoid pinching public health in financial crises, and build multiple-use infrastructure (e.g., contact tracing infra for STDs/food-born illness usable in pandemics)
Jun 29, 2021 43 tweets 10 min read
1/

I'm just going to tweetstorm my mythical @onceuponA/@afract/@C_Garthwaite intro course

Looking for @chrissyfarr @Farzad_MD @dp_oneill @benmoscovitch @megcalpav @peterbachmd & any other friends people want to tag to chime in & provide 101 content, or ask questions. 2/

I'm going to take this as a "where does money flow in the US health care system". So where does every 💸 originate?

"Payers" right?

Nah.
Jan 17, 2021 12 tweets 4 min read
1/

Thinking about this tweetstorm, one of the issues I’ve run into as an engineering leader is what to call the software engineering stuff that’s “agile” given that the Agile Community(tm) has killed the brand. 2/

And by & large, I’ve taken to call it “DevOps”, because the DevOps community have taken up much of the mantle @KentBeck & the XP community started with. & Kent has independently focused on safe small changes deployed to production. Which is DevOps.
Jan 16, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
Here, by the way, was the #HITAC recommendations letter in question.

healthit.gov/sites/default/…

See page 25-26 For example:
Sep 6, 2020 8 tweets 2 min read
1/

If I were public health interoperability czar with the power to pull the Levers Of Power

A 🧵 2/

ELR:
- Unify FDA, CLIA & CMS powers to tie payment & lab certification to reporting, work w/ CDC to create a registry of reportable tests & include public health reporting in analyte machine test scenarios
- Require reporting of demographics & contact info as COP
Jun 11, 2020 15 tweets 3 min read
1/ Sorry for the top quote, but imma thread(*):

I'm on the "Intersection of Clinical and Administrative Data Task Force" which is a joint task force of NCVHS and HITAC.

So, there are *two* FACAs that deal with health technology standards.

(*) yes, I verbed "thread" 2/

NCVHS was created forever ago, but it's mission was updated w/ HIPAA to advise the secretary on, among other things, the administrative transactions created for HIPAA (& as a reminder, the privacy & security stuff in HIPAA was sideline in the day…
Apr 15, 2020 31 tweets 8 min read
1/

Participating in #HITAC call and will summarize here.

CDC rolling out eCR more rapidly & working on an eCR Now FHIR app for electronic case reporting. Epic streamlining implementation to 3 days.

May 1st for delivery of FHIR app...

@JoshCMandel are you involved? 2/

There's a process for submitting eCR triggers emergently & it seems to work, across a relatively small network.

Not clear if eCR Now is CDC Hooks based, will get the community rev'd up on this one. cc: @aneeshchopra @JoshCMandel @Farzad_MD @GrahameGrieve
May 15, 2019 13 tweets 3 min read
1/

A tweetstorm that will make some people mad. I apologize in advance.

There are two perspectives on the IHE SOAP-based specifications (primarily XDS, XCA and XCPD), not mutually exclusive 2)
a) They have worked in practice, so should not be ripped and replaced
b) They are legacy technology and we should work on more modern alternatives.

A 3rd perspective, enshrined in #TEFCA #QTF is:
c) We should continue to make them the core of our health infrastructure
Mar 16, 2019 11 tweets 2 min read
1/

#CuresNPRM pricing policy recommendations.

To start with, a basic question: are market forces for interoperability good, or nah? 2/

There are three basic positions that I hear articulated

a) "making money on interoperability is immoral"
b) "making 'unreasonable' profit on interoperability is immoral"
c) "extracting monopoly rents as an interoperability gatekeeper is immoral"
Mar 8, 2019 11 tweets 2 min read
1/

Who is a Heath Information Network under #CuresNPRM?

Easy, right? a HIN is a network that shares health information, yes? 2/

🤔🤔🤔

"Health Information Network or HIN means an individual or entity that satisfies one or both of the following—
(1) Determines, oversees, administers, controls, or substantially influences policies or agreements that define business, operational, technical, or…"
Feb 28, 2019 9 tweets 2 min read
1/

#CuresNPRM tweetstorm time!

For context, the way "Information Blocking" provisions work is that electronic health information *must* flow for all permissible purposes, unless there's a good reason.

171.201-7 enumerate the possible good reasons information wouldn't flow 2/

171.201 is the Good Reason to Block covering patient harm. Clearly, we wouldn't want to hurt the patient, yeah?

There are three subparts to 171.201 - (a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3)
Feb 20, 2019 4 tweets 3 min read
1/

A mega-meta-thread on Information Blocking threads I've done:

Overview on Information Blocking


7 Exceptions to Information Blocking


Contractual obligations not an Information Blocking Exception
2/

All about pricing:

Deep dive on pricing:


Cost recovery or profit?
Feb 13, 2019 8 tweets 3 min read
1/

An interesting wrinkle of #CuresAct

Adhering to contractual requirements is *not* one of the 7 exceptions to information blocking.

Tagging the smartest health policy lawyers I know:

@HealthPrivacy @JodiDaniel @SavageLucia

(Joy Pritts has no Twitter handle?) 2/

Historically, when BAA terms or other contractual terms conflicted with rights possible under #HIPAA, BAA terms have been deemed to hold.

E.g., famously, even though a clearinghouse is a HIPAA CE & has all the rights and obligations of a CE...
Feb 11, 2019 16 tweets 3 min read
0/

Verily this shall be an Account of the Seven Virtuous Exceptions to the Sin of Information Blocking.

For there are Seven. Not Six. Not Eight. Five is right out.

#CuresNPRM 1/

The First Virtuous Exception to the Sin of Information Blocking is:

Preventing Harm Including:
(a)(1) Corrupt/inaccurate data
(a)(2) Misidentified patient
(a)(3) Life & Safety

All policies need to be fair, and minimally targeted to prevent harm
Feb 11, 2019 17 tweets 3 min read
1/

#CuresNPRM Information Blocking deep dive.

As a reminder, the PHSA defines "provider" broadly & "permitted purposes" are purposes that are, well, permitted. 2/
Therefore, unless there are specific exceptions noted, the legislative intent of #21CC could be interpreted that....
Nov 3, 2018 7 tweets 1 min read
1/

I used to work for a company that did high end technology & engineering consulting mostly for the government.

They helped build ARPANet

We ran the NOC for the Internet in Boston & California 2/

The company started with MIT acoustical engineers. It got into computing early on b/c acoustic modeling is computationally expensive.

Anyway…
Nov 1, 2018 10 tweets 1 min read
Health Care Start-Up Ideas That Sound Plausible But Don't Work: A Random And Partial List Skin In The Game + Transparency