Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Something the Therapeutics Goods Administration Should Do ASAP.

The following was published a few days ago.

New network delivers safety warnings via e-mail

By: Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer

Story posted: March 25, 2008 - 5:59 am EDT

Physicians can begin signing up online for a free, electronic patient-safety alert system that will notify them via e-mail as well as by letter of Food and Drug Administration warnings for drugs and medical devices.

The launch of the Health Care Notification Network is the culmination of an effort by the DFA and the iHealth Alliance, a not-for-profit consortium of the American Medical Association and other medical societies, medical malpractice insurance carriers and healthcare organizations.

“The HCNN is a separate network, but it is a by product of a conversation we had with the FDA three years ago,” said Ed Fotsch, a physician and chief executive officer of Medem, the developer of a physicians' communication portal and patient personal health-record service founded in 1999 by the AMA and several national medical societies. The Medem personal health record is overseen by the iHealth Alliance.

“We told them (the FDA) we wanted a data feed. If there was a recall or a warning we wanted to be able to send it directly to the patients,” Fotsch said.

More here:

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080325/REG/488957431/1029/FREE

It would the really good to see the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) follow up on this initiative and implement something similar. It surely would not be too hard and it seems highly likely to make a real difference.

David.

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