Here are a few I have come across this week.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iaFHrJKPoH8vrgUfqgnpoZaXBCIg
Experts agree on proposed global privacy standards
(AFP) – Nov 6, 2009
MADRID — Experts from 50 nations meeting in Madrid have reached a draft agreement on international standards for the protection of privacy and personal data, participants said Friday.
Under the proposed standards, data may only be processed after obtaining the "free, unambiguous and informed consent" of the data subjects and it should be deleted when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was gathered.
-----
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2253120/nhs-spending-way-under
NHS IT spending falls short of forecasts
Delays in implementing systems mean only a fifth of forecast money has been spent on paying contractors
Written by Tom Young
The Department of Health has spent only around £1.2bn of the £5.1bn it forecast on paying contractors in the five regions of the National Programme for IT, according to official figures.
-----
eHealth scandal claims deputy health minister
Grilled by legislature, Ron Sapsford suddenly quits his post
Ontario deputy health minister Ron Sapsford, a key player at the heart of the province's $1-billion electronic health record scandal, has resigned.
-----
Nurses Use iTouch and iPhones to Communicate and Stay Connected
Sarah Kearns, for HealthLeaders Media, November 13, 2009
Sarasota (FL) Memorial Healthcare System plans to bring peace and quiet, along with improved healthcare, to its hospital by supplying Apple's iTouch to all its nurses.
Sarasota Memorial was approached by Voalte to be part of a piloting program. Voalte is a startup developing point-of-care communications company that uses mobile technology, specifically applications from Apple, to send pages and alerts. During the 60-day pilot program that started in June, Sarasota Memorial handed out 25 iPod Touches to nurses on one specific floor with the goal of reducing the amount of noise and inefficiency involved in paging nurses.
-----
http://www.fortherecordmag.com/archives/110909p16.shtml
November 9, 2009
Dealing With Downtime — How to Survive If Your EHR System Fails
By Lindsey Getz
For The Record
Vol. 21 No. 21 P. 16
When a tree fell on an electrical line and Fletcher Allen Health Care suffered a power failure this past August, there wasn’t initial cause for concern. After all, the Burlington, Vt.-based facility’s new $57 million EHR system had an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system to provide backup. However, a few bad batteries made the UPS system useless, causing the EHR system to fail and forcing employees to put the facility’s “unplanned downtime plan” into effect. While the system was functioning again by noon, it was 5 pm before updates were verified and staff were allowed to access the system.
-----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221700080
Senate Bill Would Help Family Doctors Fund EHRs
The bill, introduced by Sen. John Kerry, would make small healthcare practices eligible for federal loans.
By Mitch Wagner
November 13, 2009 03:52 PM
Senator John Kerry introduced a bill designed to help family doctors fund conversion to electronic health records.
Kerry, D-Mass., a senior member of the Finance Committee, introduced the Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act of 2009 Tuesday. It would make family doctors and other small medical practices eligible for Small Business Administration loans to cover the cost of health information technology to create electronic health records and prescriptions.
-----
http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5380/newcastle_makes_switch_to_cerner
Newcastle makes switch to Cerner
12 Nov 2009
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has successfully gone live with its new Cerner Millennium hospital information system.
The trust says it achieved its main objective of ‘business as usual’, switching to the new system without disrupting patient services on Sunday night.
-----
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/issues/2009_72/-39273-1.html
The Medical Home
Health Data Management Magazine, November 1, 2009
The concept of the "medical home" has been kicking around since the 1960s, but how best to define the model for primary care is still the subject of intense debate. No matter how they precisely describe the model, however, many proponents say that information technology is vital to this patient-centered approach to care. Three key technologies to support the model are electronic health records, personal health records and health information exchanges.
Under the medical home model, "A primary care physician is the orchestrator of care for individuals, especially for those with chronic diseases," says Mitch Morris, M.D., national leader, health information technology for Deloitte Consulting, New York. The model also calls for "bringing together all the different resources in the community to advance the wellness of an individual and the community," he says. That means a primary care physician is the hub or "home," carefully coordinating care with a team of specialists.
"I.T. is the glue that holds it all together," Morris says.
-----
http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/5378/guernsey_progresses_intersystems_ehscr
Guernsey progresses InterSystems EHSCR
11 Nov 2009
InterSystems has announced that Guernsey Health and Social Services Department has gone-live with key elements of its island-wide Electronic Health and Social Care Record (EHSCR).
-----
ONC Readies NHIN Contracts
HDM Breaking News, November 10, 2009
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology later this year will solicit competitive bids for contracts to move the Nationwide Health Information Network to production readiness and status.
"This competitive contract process in late 2009 will result in the selection of a set of task order contractors which will provide the range of skills, knowledge and experience to advance the work toward a full production NHIN," according to a recently issued notice from the Program Support Center, on behalf of ONC.
-----
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110603473.html
A glut of Google can give you a virtual fever
Carolyn Butler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
It always starts out innocently enough -- for example, with an eye twitch. It's just a little tic, but it keeps coming and going over the course of a few weeks, and so I decide to do a little medical investigation online. I plug "recurrent eye twitch" into my friendly search engine and, after several hours poring over a range of health-related Web sites -- skimming over likely explanations such as fatigue, stress and too much caffeine in favor of dozens of worst-case scenarios, and growing increasingly panicky all the while -- I am utterly convinced that I have multiple sclerosis, at the very least, and quite possibly Lou Gehrig's disease.
-----
Google launches online flu shot finder
Tue Nov 10, 7:13 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Google on Tuesday launched an online tool for tracking down where to get vaccinations against H1N1 and seasonal influenza in the United States.
The flu-shot finder service went live online at google.com/flushot and will soon be available at flu.gov and websites of the American Lung Association, according to the California-based Internet giant.
-----
http://newsblaze.com/story/2009111002304300002.bw/topstory.html
Health Information Technology Market Will Show "Impressive" Worldwide Growth, Scientia Advisors Finds
BOSTON & PALO ALTO, Calif. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Health information technology (HIT) is the fastest growing segment of the $1 trillion global health care marketplace-and its "impressive" 11 per cent combined annual growth rate is likely to continue through 2013, according to a Scientia Advisors global industry review released today.
-----
http://www.who.int/goe/ehir/2009/10_november_2009/en/index.html
10 November 2009
eHealth Worldwide
In China, one of the major problems in upgrading rural health services is the difficulty of communicating between the rural and urban areas. Enabling local agencies to access the Internet in resource-poor areas can provide an efficient means of diffusing current training and information and will have far-reaching policy implications. To test the feasibility of using the Internet to deliver needed health information to the countryside, the UCLA School of Public Health and the Institute of Health Studies of Kunming Medical College (IHS-KMC) collaborated in an experimental website project to improve the quality of reproductive health services to promote women's health in three rural counties of Yunnan. The project involved the county government and the Bureau of Public Health, the Bureau of Family Planning; the Bureau of Education, Women's Federation, and the Maternal and Child Health Station targeting village health workers and teachers; women's cadres.
-----
Pay-for-Performance Participation Can Be Pricey for Docs
Cheryl Clark, for HealthLeaders Media, November 10, 2009
Pay for performance may be the rage, and the future of physician reimbursement—but it doesn't come cheap.
Responding to all those requests for data, proper planning, training, coding, data entry, and modification of electronic systems cost physician practices between $1,000 to $11,100 in implementation costs per doctor, and from about $100 to $4,300 per year per clinician after the program was launched, according to a survey of eight physician practices participating in four quality reporting programs in North Carolina.
-----
Strong E-Prescribing Growth for Walgreens
HDM Breaking News, November 10, 2009
Drug store chain Walgreens filled four million electronic prescriptions during October, nearly triple the number it filled in October last year. The current number represents 22% of all eligible prescriptions, the Deerfield, Ill.-based company has announced.
-----
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/genomics-39336-1.html
Supercomputer Maps HIV
HDM Breaking News, November 9, 2009
Researchers with the international Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology consortium recently used the Roadrunner supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory to map the largest family tree of HIV ever produced.
-----
Conversion of paper claims to digital form could save $11 billion annually
November 10, 2009 — 12:47pm ET | By Anne Zieger
Doubtless, MD On-Line CEO Bill Bartzak would like to make tons of money, but he's also a man on a mission. That mission? To help small medical practices move money in and out without touching a piece of paper.
Right now, 25 percent of claims are submitted on paper each year. That's a whopping 3 billion claims still being handled the old-fashioned way, notes Bartzak, who spoke at yesterday's session of the World Health Care Innovation and Technology Congress in Alexandria, Va. The vast majority of those claims are being filed by small provider offices with one to five physicians.
-----
Three Fundamentals When Designing for Digital Care
Carrie Vaughan, for HealthLeaders Media, November 10, 2009
I had the pleasure of moderating the design panel for the HealthLeaders Media Hospital of the Future Now conference held in Chicago last month. One of the learning objectives that was discussed is how should organizations be designing or renovating their facilities so they are equipped for a digital healthcare system. Here are some highlights of that discussion.
-----
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091106/REG/311069957/1029
Expect tougher privacy enforcement: IT experts
By Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer
Posted: November 6, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT
Part one of a two-part series.
You can blame the spotty record of the healthcare industry in protecting the privacy and security of medical records on lax enforcement of federal law, and you'd be right, according to healthcare information technology experts.
Or, you can blame the same poor record on the culture of the healthcare industry itself, and you'd be right, again, at least in the opinion of one those experts.
-----
http://www.boozallen.com/publications/article/42247908
Health Privacy Breaches Can Be Prevented
Why patient information is so often compromised - and what healthcare organizations can do about it.
Stemming the Rising Tide of Health Privacy Breaches
As personal health records are increasingly being stored electronically, the number of data and privacy breaches is also growing rapidly – despite safeguards such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA).
Healthcare organizations, already racing to prevent such breaches, now face new mandates from Congress that further tighten data-security requirements, and include greater penalties for non-compliance.
-----
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10392637-56.html
November 6, 2009 1:59 PM PST
Microsoft launching health tech video show
Aiming to reinforce its medical pedigree, Microsoft next week is launching a video show on developments in the health care technology arena.
The show's host, Bill Crounse, senior director of worldwide health at Microsoft, is a veteran of both broadcasting and medicine, having served as a broadcaster and practicing physician before joining Microsoft. In a chat on Friday, Crounse promised that the show itself won't be an ad for Microsoft's health care software, though the company is sponsoring the first few episodes with some short commercials.
-----
Mayo Clinic, STMicroelectronics to develop heart-monitoring platform
November 06, 2009 | Bernie Monegain, Editor
ROCHESTER, MN – The Mayo Clinic and STMicroelectronics, a Swiss-based semiconductor company, are collaborating on a platform for remotely monitoring patients with chronic cardiovascular disease.
-----
http://www.ethioplanet.com/vybes/2009/11/07/236m-went-into-ehealth-amid-scandal/
$236M went into eHealth amid scandal
The Ontario government quietly spent nearly a quarter-billion dollars on an eHealth deal that will link 5,700 family doctors to electronic medical records over the next three years, the Star has learned.
The $236 million investment was made in July by eHealth Ontario, just weeks after its CEO Sarah Kramer and board chair Dr. Alan Hudson resigned in the midst of a $1 billion scandal.
-----
http://www.docuticker.com/?p=28054
Evaluating eHealth: Undertaking Robust International Cross-Cultural eHealth Research
Evaluating eHealth: Undertaking Robust International Cross-Cultural eHealth Research
Source: PLoS Medicine
eHealth—the use of electronic tools in delivering health care—is rapidly emerging as an international priority in nations at all levels of development, yet the benefits and priorities have not clearly been defined. The result is that there is an urgent need for additional research in this area. International research to evaluate the impact of eHealth would be especially helpful, and unless this begins to take place potential economies of scale may not be realized.
-----
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091028_2840.php
Health Hazard
By Andrew Noyes, CongressDaily 10/28/2009
Warning: Patient privacy could complicate the blueprint for an electronic medical records system.
Implementing a nationwide system of electronic medical records as prescribed by President Obama's economic stimulus package is a herculean task that will require a complex new matrix of policies and standards. Two Health and Human Services Department advisory committees are hard at work on blueprints for both, but some worry privacy safeguards will be an afterthought.
-----
Enjoy!
David.
No comments:
Post a Comment