Vendor Notebook: Salesforce Expands AI to Public Health Services, DrFirst Acquires Myndshft
Improvements in public health administration, faster prior authorization for specialty medications, and the delivery of wellness lab kits through drive-throughs are just some of the exciting goals that made supplier news in April.
Salesforce for Public Health and other government agencies could integrate natural language processing to reduce administrative burden and generate richer records.
And DrFirst’s integration with a medication management platform could speed approval of infusions and other medications in more than 270 electronic health record systems.
But it’s not just the big names thinking of ways to solve the challenge of healthcare silos: a West Coast startup has found a way to get health tests into the hands of patients in under an hour – wherever they are.
Salesforce integrations can improve social services
By combining customer relationship management, artificial intelligence and data integrations, government agencies, including public health, can generate richer case reports and automate administrative tasks such as documenting interactions, Salesforce announced
With the integration of a generative AI copilotthe Einstein 1 Field Service Edition platform for the public sector, social workers can compile and generate case notes into customized summaries after field interviews, saving time on manual administrative tasks, Salesforce announced this month.
With the Einstein Service Edition platform, email exchanges between a caseworker and a customer would be automatically extracted and stored in Salesforce, the company said in a statement.
By using Salesforce’s Data Cloud, agencies can consolidate data from disparate sources into a standardized data model, create detailed profiles and personalize their services. With the new platform, government users would also be able to use Appointment Assistant, Slack and Visual Remote Assistant.
“Public sector organizations want to simplify their technology suite, better engage with their constituents and reduce employee administrative burdens while improving employee productivity,” said Nasi Jazayeri, executive vice president and general manager of public sector at Salesforce, in a statement.
DrFirst to accelerate drug approvals
Rockville, Maryland-based DrFirst announced that it has purchased all assets of Myndshft Technologies, a software-as-a-service focused on automated prior authorization services for both medical and pharmaceutical benefits.
Myndshft provides eligibility and benefits verification for 95% of insured patients in the United States and verifies prior authorization requirements for thousands of health plans and payers, the announcement said.
DrFirst, a network of 270 EHRs, 500,000 healthcare providers and nearly 100 million patients, said that by acquiring the technology, healthcare providers could accelerate access to critical specialty medications and reduce prior authentication and other burdensome administrative tasks.
Myndshft uses AI, machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline benefits, pricing and PA processes across payers and therapeutic classes, the company said.
“The category of insurance benefits – pharmacy versus medical – should not dictate a lower level of transparency or efficiency for prior authorizations,” DrFirst CEO G. Cameron Deemer said in a statement.
“It is unacceptable that the patients who most urgently need these life-saving therapies typically wait the longest to receive them. This acquisition will allow us to accelerate patient access to these critical treatments.”
“The combined expertise of DrFirst’s scale and success in medication management with the AI-driven Myndshft platform provides the foundation for delivering improved patient experiences and reducing healthcare costs, both of which are industry imperatives today,” says Added Seth Feder, founder of OnTarget Advisors and expert healthcare advisor at Third Eye Advisory.
Lab kits provided by Uber for preventive care
Portland, Oregon-based startup Reperio Health, which offers test kits by delivery, has signed a deal with Uber to deliver a kit to someone’s home within an hour of ordering, GeekWire reported this month.
The kits, which could cost $75 if subsidized by an employer wellness plan, measure blood pressure and heart rate, determine body mass index and blood tests that can instantly generate cholesterol, triglycerides and other results, according to the story.
About 90% of those who receive the test kits complete the tests, Travis Rush, CEO and co-founder of Reperio, said in the story.
The company’s application guides users through tests and uploads results via Bluetooth.
The GeekWire report said the startup is additionally working with hospital networks and Medicaid providers to reach patients who face challenges accessing traditional healthcare facilities and life insurers.
In the future, Reperio can offer AI-powered nurse follow-ups to remove as many barriers to healthcare access as possible, Rush said.
Andrea Fox is editor-in-chief of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.