Useful and Interesting Health IT Links from the Last Week – 05/10/2008

Again, in the last week, I have come across a few reports and news items which are worth passing on.

These include first:

Register shines light on burns

Adam Cresswell, Health editor | October 04, 2008

THE home treadmill might not strike everyone as a particularly dangerous object. Although it strikes fear into some hearts, that is almost certainly more to do with the guilt it inspires rather than some apprehended threat.

Peter Maitz, left, and Bali bomb survivor Julian Burton with a patient injured in a gas explosion. Picture: Jeremy Piper

But this year in NSW there have already been more than a dozen cases of people, often young children, receiving friction burns after falling off the increasingly popular exercise contraptions. Five years ago the number would have been next to zero, according to Sydney burns specialist Peter Maitz.

Being burned after falling from a treadmill is self-evidently something that should prove easily preventable, particularly if owners are alerted to the risks. But while reasonably good data on burn injuries is gathered in NSW, there is no comparable national system for tracking cases, which in turn is leaving researchers in the dark in terms of being able to target prevention messages at the people who need them most.

It also means they don't have the hard data needed to approach manufacturers with a convincing case that products need to be improved.

That's about to change following the announcement this week that a bi-national register of burns, spanning Australia and New Zealand, will be set up as part of a partnership between the Australian and New Zealand Burns Association (ANZBA), which represents burns specialists, and the Julian Burton Burns Trust, a not-for-profit organisation set up by Bali bombing survivor Julian Burton.

The trust, set up in 2003, has committed $150,000 to cover the register's first two years, after which it will seek further funds to keep it running. Burton, the trust's founding CEO, was in the Sari Club and suffered third-degree burns to 23 per cent of his body while on an end-of-season trip with mates from the Sturt football club. Two in the group of 20 died.

Much more here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24437606-23289,00.html

Registers such as this are important tools in improving the quality of care and understanding what we are doing well and badly. Such efforts are to be strongly encouraged.

Second we have:

CIO leaves as Fleming takes over as e-health chief

Karen Dearne | September 30, 2008

THE National E-Health Transition Authority has become a revolving door, with former chief information officer Mark Gibson departing ahead of yesterday's arrival of new chief executive Peter Fleming.

A NEHTA spokeswoman said Mr Gibson left the company two weeks ago. The authority is seeking a new chief financial officer to replace Sally Pearce, who announced her resignation in mid-September. Ms Pearce takes up a new position elsewhere at the end of October.

Meanwhile, Mr Fleming was meeting yesterday with senior team members and settling in, the spokeswoman said.

No decision had been made on advertising for a new CIO. "Mr Fleming will assess the situation," she said.

Mr Fleming has taken over the role of the nation's e-health boss in place of former chief Ian Reinecke, who departed suddenly in April. Dr Reinecke's resignation followed criticism of the authority's structure and lack of consultation with other stakeholders, contained in a Boston Consulting review.

The shakeup led to new blood on the board, including the appointment of Australian Securities Exchange chairman David Gonski as chairman. Mr Gibson yesterday confirmed he had left the organisation and declined to comment further, except to say, "There's a new chief executive starting, and he needs to be given a good chance to get on with things without any outside complications."

More here:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24423947-15306,00.html

The rate of turnover in NEHTA is quite something. Maybe with a new CEO and the loss of so many senior staff we may just see the culture change and improvement in engagement approach that NEHTA so badly needs.

Third we have:

Vic rethinks e-health

Karen Dearne | September 30, 2008

VICTORIA is ruling a line under its patchy HealthSmart IT rollout, and has returned to the drawing board with plans for a new whole-of-health ICT strategy for the period 2009-2013.

When the now-$427 million program began in 2003, it was hoped that the ICT refresh and rebuild across the state's public hospitals, rural alliances and community health providers would be complete within four years.

But in April this year, Victoria's auditor-general Des Pearson said HealthSmart had been overly ambitious in its targets, and was at least two years behind schedule.

More than half of the original budget had been spent with only 24 per cent of the planned installations complete.

The audit office found that HealthSmart had failed to get the cornerstone Cerner clinical system working at any of its sites, and had replaced only one of 10 HOMER hospital systems which were obsolete when the program began.

Mr Pearson said the project judged most at risk, but with the greatest potential benefit, was Cerner's Millennium suite of e-health records, appointments scheduling, diagnostic services, results reporting and e-prescribing applications.

A $79 million deal with Cerner was signed in March 2006, but costs had risen by $17 million to $96 million in 2006 - the biggest price blowout so far, the audit office found.

More here:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24425818-15306,00.html

It is going to be important that Victoria regroups and has a well thought out new strategy to move forward with the recent change of senior management.

Some very interesting working documents are found here:

http://www.health.vic.gov.au/ictstrategy/news.htm

Fourth we have:

iSOFT wins $7.6 million LORENZO deal at new Australian hospital

02 Oct 2008

Sydney – 2 October 2008 – iSOFT, an IBA Health Group Limited (ASX: IBA) –today announced that the Macquarie University Private Hospital is set to become its first customer in the southern hemisphere for LORENZO Acute Care under a deal worth up to $7.6 million for a range of advanced healthcare IT applications at the new state-of-the-art hospital opening in the latter half of 2009.

Macquarie University Private Hospital will install iSOFT’s innovative suite of clinical, administrative and financial applications delivering healthcare information to clinicians based in the hospital and in multi disciplinary clinic environments. The contract includes support and maintenance for six years with an option to extend for another three years. The hospital is taking LORENZO Acute Care for advanced clinical functionality to provide a full electronic medical record. The fully integrated solution for all administrative, clinical and management functions will also link to new systems for radiology and pathology.

The LORENZOAcute Care platform is based on a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) which is a relatively recent approach to designing software solutions that are inherently standards based whilst delivering the interoperability necessary to connect people and processes across the hospital and multi disciplinary care settings.For hospital and clinic patients continuity of care will be assured at all points of need, whether in the hospital or clinic settings, or in ordinary living environments.

SOA based solutions are already widely used in many industry and commercial settings where the benefits of interoperability and support for process re-engineering have been proven. Now LORENZO represents the first substantial opportunity for the use of SOA in the healthcare market place.

Macquarie University Private Hospital will also be the first hospital in Australia to implement iSOFT Financials, an integrated suite of web-enabled financial and purchasing solutions.

The Macquarie University Private Hospital at North Ryde, Sydney is an $140 million joint venture development between Macquarie University and Dalcross Private Hospital and will provide 180 beds initially, increasing to 230 within two years, an advanced postgraduate medical school and specialists rooms. Sited on the university research park, the hospital will not only provide the highest quality of care, but also cutting-edge post graduate medical training and research.

iSOFT’s solutions are fundamental in the drive to create one of the world’s foremost technology-led hospitals. Information technology will be the key enabler across the hospital and university campus designed to set new standards in care, education and research.

Carl Adams, CEO of Dalcross Private Hospital, said: “The investment in iSOFT’s solutions allows Dalcross to manage the new Macquarie facility with a confidence that the essential administrative and clinical requirements can be achieved immediately while simultaneously ensuring a pathway to the next generation of health information systems. As an early adopter of LORENZO Acute Care, we aim to play an active role in the development program and, with other users, help shape the future of healthcare IT systems.”

Gary Cohen, IBA’s Executive Chairman and CEO, said: “This contract marks a key milestone for the company giving us reference-ability and a foundation to drive sales of LORENZO Acute Care in the region. With LORENZO, everyone has the opportunity to play an active role in the delivery of care. It breaks down barriers to critical clinical information helping healthcare professionals to make faster, informed decisions. There is a revolution in healthcare in which LORENZO will have a central role.”

The full release is here:

http://www.ibahealth.com/html/isoft_wins_7_6_million_lorenzo_deal_at_new_australian_hospital.cfm

This seems to be good news in that we have another advanced provider of Hospital systems in the Australian market place. It will be interesting to hear, over time, how the implementation goes and what benefits flow. (Usual disclaimer that I have a few IBA shares)

It’s also good they are making a profit!

IBA Health posts record earnings

Karen Dearne | October 01, 2008

IBA Health Group has claimed the title of Australia's leading health software company with revenues of $361 million for the 2008 financial year, up by 381 per cent over the previous year.

Chief executive Gary Cohen announced a net profit of $49 million, up 113 per cent, after completing the takeover of its former rival, iSoft, in October last year. However, the profit result included $35 million in acquisition, integration and other one-off costs.

More here:
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24432922-15306,00.html

Fifth we have:

e-Health Clinical Trial To Increase Patient Safety And Quality Of Care

Public hospital patients are benefiting from wireless mobile computer technology being trialled by doctors on the Gold Coast. Health Minister Stephen Robertson today visited Robina Hospital to meet with junior doctors and other clinical staff trialling Tablet PCs on their medical rounds.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Public hospital patients are benefiting from wireless mobile computer technology being trialled by doctors on the Gold Coast.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson today visited Robina Hospital to meet with junior doctors and other clinical staff trialling Tablet PCs on their medical rounds.

Mr Robertson said the use of Tablet PCs had potential benefits for patient safety and quality of care.

“Junior doctors and other clinicians are essentially mobile workers, so providing them with Tablet PCs they can take on their rounds will increase efficiency and deliver better outcomes for patients,” he said.

“Tablet PCs enable doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to obtain the information they require as they are performing clinical duties at the point of care.

More here:

http://media-newswire.com/release_1074516.html

This all sounds like good news until you ask yourself just what the tablet computers are being used for..absolutely no details are provided sadly. One wonders if it was simply a slow news day?

Last we have the slightly more technical article for the week:

Browser metrics: IE slide continues, Firefox users update

Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari continue to eat away at IE's dominance.

Gregg Keizer (Computerworld (US)) 02/10/2008 08:33:00

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) continued to lose market share in September, Google's Chrome stabilized at under 1 percent and more than half of Firefox 2.0 users accepted an offer to update to Version 3.0, a Web metrics firm said Wednesday.

For the seventh month this year, and the second consecutive month, Internet Explorer (IE) lost ground in the battle for browser market share, Net Applications reported. During September, IE accounted for 71.5 percent of the browsers used to connect with 40,000 sites that the vendor monitors, down from August's 72.2 percent.

IE's share is down 4.5 percentage points since the first of the year.

Net Applications attributed part of September's IE decline to the introduction of Chrome, which Google launched early last month as a beta for Windows XP and Vista.

Even though Chrome came out of the gate strong -- it garnered a 1 percent share within hours of its debut -- it has faded somewhat since then. According to Net Applications, Chrome's share has stabilized at about 0.7 percent, just slightly more than Opera ASA's flagship, which had previously held down the No. 4 spot, behind IE, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari.

Many more statistics here:

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1666968518&eid=-50

I must say that I find it interesting that near 20% of users choose to replace the default IE with Firefox – given the fact that active effort is involved. Certainly seems Firefox has a lot that is attracting new users. Good on them !

Another interesting tech statistic is here:

Mac OS X market share cracks 8 percent

Windows, meanwhile, descends ever closer towards the 90 percent mark.

Gregg Keizer (Computerworld (US)) 02/10/2008 10:18:00

Apple's Mac OS X market share has passed the 8 percent mark for the first time, a research company reported Wednesday.

In September, Apple's operating system ran on 8.2 percent of the computers that accessed the 40,000 sites monitored by Net Applications for clients, the company's data showed. The Mac's share of the OS market was up over August's by nearly four-tenths of a percentage point, the biggest one-month gain since May.

Much more here:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=1764879402&eid=-6787

I had not realised the Mac share had risen so high – almost mainstream!

More next week.

David.