Here are a few I have come across this week.
http://e-caremanagement.com/medicare-extends-phr-pilot-big-mistake/
Medicare Extends PHR Pilot — Big Mistake!
November 19, 2009
Medicare announced today that it is extending its Personal Health Record (PHR) pilot
project for residents of Utah and Arizona.
This is a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. Those of you who read my blog know that I’m a big fan of PHRs, but you have to know when you’re backing the wrong approach.
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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091120/REG/311209987
Current security standards too complex, expert says
By Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer
Posted: November 20, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT
A federal health information technology advisory panel heard a whole day of testimony on the state of data security, and, not surprisingly, the testimony reflected the findings in a recent spate of public reports: Data security breaches are on the rise and healthcare organizations are ill-prepared to deal with them.
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Eight Tips to Polish Your Hospital's Patient Breach Response
Dom Nicastro, for HealthLeaders Media, November 18, 2009
Editor's note: This is the third in a three-part series about breach notifications. Part one focused on how to prevent breaches. Part two tackled how to handle breaches. This installment offers some final tips if a breach occurs. focused on how to prevent breaches.
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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091119/REG/311239934
Conn. health insurer acknowledges missing data
By Associated Press
Posted: November 19, 2009 - 10:45 am EDT
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that health insurer Health Net lost financial, health and personal information of nearly 450,000 state residents and failed to inform consumers for six months.
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http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=72449
Meaningful use rule ‘on target’ for end of year
By Brian Robinson
Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still on target to publish by the end of the year a proposed rule on the meaningful use of electronic health records, despite growing fears from industry about the possible impact of the regulation.
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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ecri-picks-top-7-health-plan-it-trends-watch
ECRI picks top 7 health plan IT trends to watch
November 16, 2009 | Diana Manos, Senior Editor
PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA – Genetic testing and electronic medical records are top of the ECRI Institute's 2010 technology watch list for health plans.
ECRI officials said the list represents important technologies and technology-related issues that private and public payers should pay close attention to in 2010.
.....
The white paper on the watch list can be downloaded free at https://www.ecri.org/Forms/Pages/Top_Technologies_Health_Plans.aspx.
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Study: RTLS technology can save hospitals time and money, boost care
November 17, 2009 | Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor
LUMBERTON, NC – A study of the use of a real-time location system (RTLS) at Southeastern Regional Medical Center indicates the technology can save hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, improve clinical outcomes and boost staff morale.
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Healthcare Affiliates Unprepared For Data Breaches
Patient privacy is at risk from the companies that healthcare providers do business with, study says.
By Mitch Wagner
InformationWeek
November 17, 2009 05:13 PM
Companies that do business with healthcare providers, including accounting firms and offshore transcription vendors, are unprepared to meet data breach obligations included in new federal regulation, according to a survey released Tuesday.
The survey by Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics, commissioned by security vendor ID Experts, looked at preparedness for healthcare providers business partners, such as billing, credit bureaus, benefits management, legal services, claims processing, insurance brokers, data processing firms, pharmacy chains, and temporary office personnel providers.
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Nova Scotia Paramedics Gain In-ambulance Access to Patient Records
November 18, 2009 (Halifax, NS) - The first system in Canada to provide paramedics with instant access to MedicAlert health records has been successfully launched in Nova Scotia. Within hours of the system going live, a paramedic in Halifax accessed potentially life-saving information en route to the hospital with a patient.
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http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/-/539444/687950/-/s13t3j/-/
Why Kenya needs to implement e-health
By HARRY HARE (email the author)
Posted Thursday, November 19 2009 at 00:00
In Summary
- A basic health information management system can improve the ability to collect store and analyse data
- Integrating e-health into healthcare practice can help increase data accuracy and improve the tracking of health trends
- E-health can help improve the level of efficiency in medical facilities
- With information on hand, healthcare practitioners can work more professionally and make better, more accurate decisions.
- E-health can improve the tracking of health health trends which can lead to better healthcare planning
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http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5392/kingston_to_go-live_on_30_november
Kingston to go-live on 30 November
18 Nov 2009
Kingston Hospital NHS Trust plans to go live with Cerner Millennium on 30 November, in what has become a critical milestone for the £12.7 billion NHS IT programme.
If successful, the South West London NHS trust will become the first in the capital to go live with the US system in 18-months.
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http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/5379/rx_systems_accredited_for_eps_r2
Rx Systems accredited for EPS R2
12 Nov 2009
Pharmacy software supplier Rx Systems has become the second pharmacy supplier to achieve technical accreditation for Release 2 of the Electronic Prescription Service.
The company’s ProScript dispensary management system will now be tested with TPP’s SystmOne - the only GP system to be accredited for R2 - at Burrows and Close Pharmacy in Kimberley, Nottingham.
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http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/5385/london_scr_roll_out_announced
London SCR roll out announced
16 Nov 2009
The Department of Health has announced that the Summary Care Record is to be rolled out across London from this week.
The Princess Street Group Practice in Southwark will be the first GP practice in the capital to upload SCRs, with this scheduled to happen on 19 November.
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http://health-care-it.advanceweb.com/Editorial/Content/Editorial.aspx?CC=210814
Posted on: November 18, 2009
Semantic Technology: The Next Step for Health Care IT
Web 3.0 technology is making its way to the mainstream, and savvy health care providers are adopting it to address data challenges.
Over the past few decades, the nature of the Internet has transformed from static, individual Web pages and basic e-mail (Web 1.0) to the current Web (Web 2.0), where a host of new capabilities such as social networking, wikis and instant messaging have transformed the way individuals and enterprises use the Web.
Today, Web 3.0 technologies, also known as "the Semantic Web," are beginning to gain traction on both sides of the firewall and are making their way to the mainstream. Semantic technologies are backed by a set of standards that have been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and promise to enable a whole new level of data collaboration. So dramatic, in fact, that Sir Tim Berners-Lee himself -- the inventor of the Web -- has identified semantics as the key technology for the next generation of the Internet, and leading companies from health care and biopharmaceuticals to finance, oil, gas and retail have begun to adopt it.
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http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/5389/hundreds_of_records_breached_in_hull
Hundreds of records breached in Hull
16 Nov 2009
More than 350 patients in Hull have had their electronic medical records accessed by a member of NHS Hull's staff who should not have had access to them.
A primary care trust employee, who was authorised to use collated and anonymous patient data for research, but not permitted to access individual patient records, accessed a total of 358 across 20 GP practices.
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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091117/REG/311179985
West Coast ‘code-a-thon’ set for Connect software
By Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer
Posted: November 17, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT
So far, about 180 federal officials and representatives from a host of private organizations have registered to convene on the campus of Portland State University later this week for a two-day Code-A-Thon to enhance the code base of Connect, the open source gateway to the proposed national health information network.
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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091117/REG/311179986
IT effect on patients, providers most vital: Blumenthal
By Rebecca Vesely / HITS staff writer
Posted: November 17, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT
Proposed rules on the meaningful use of electronic health records will be made public by the end of the year or perhaps sooner, said David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology at HHS.
In a speech before the American Medical Informatics Association's annual symposium in San Francisco, Blumenthal stressed that health IT must be focused on the goal of making the healthcare system work better for patients and providers.
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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091117/REG/311179984
HITrust launches IT security certification program
By Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer
Posted: November 17, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT
The Health Information Trust Alliance, commonly known as HITrust, a consortium of health plans, pharmacy benefits managers, information technology vendors and data-miners formed to address health IT security issues, has announced the formal launch of a two-tier health IT security and privacy certification program.
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Why Do Some Hospitals Successfully Implement EHRs and Others Fail?
Carrie Vaughan, for HealthLeaders Media, November 17, 2009
There are pieces of advice I hear repeatedly when talking with technology executives about implementing electronic health records and why some organizations are successful whereas others struggle. Phrases like "get physician buy in," "allocate more resources for training," and "spend more time planning on the frontend" come to mind. Unfortunately, the advice doesn't always come with strategies on how accomplish it.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Blumenthal Thanks Informatics Leaders, Predicts Big Changes
SAN FRANCISCO – If any of the 2,000-plus attendees of the American Medical Informatics Association annual symposium were hoping for a little preview of what to expect when the federal government unveils its definition of "meaningful use" next month, they didn't get it from David Blumenthal.
What they did get from the country's national coordinator of health IT during his keynote address Monday was a vote of confidence and his assurance that big changes are just around the corner.
"We're going to see major, major changes in the near future -- positive changes. And in many ways, we have you in this room to thank for them. You all saw the future way in the past," Blumenthal told a standing room-only crowd.
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http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221601130
Information Exchanges Let Doctors Share Patient Data Efficiently
Several new networks are being launched across the country, and while they vary in size, scope, and clientele, the goals and challenges are similar.
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek
Nov. 17, 2009
As more doctors and hospitals make use of electronic health records, the next step in healthcare's transformation will be to ensure that doctors and other healthcare providers can exchange of patient data.
Multifaceted healthcare organizations are setting up internal data exchanges so their affiliated doctors, outpatient facilities, and hospitals can easily share data. But larger health information exchanges are also being launched that let unaffiliated providers within a state or region share patient information. All of these efforts potentially play a role in the federal government's vision of building a national health information network that would serve as a "network of networks."
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http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2009/16/c9695.html
eHealth Ontario improves the way Ontarians with diabetes receive care
TORONTO, Nov. 16 /CNW/ - The value of ehealth was brought to life today by Rob Devitt, Interim President and CEO of eHealth Ontario, as he told a packed room at the Ontario Hospital Association's 2009 HealthAchieve conference that eHealth Ontario was the driving force behind the work to identify the 906,577 patients living with diabetes and match them with their almost 9,000 family physicians.
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Quality Forum Releases Health IT Data Framework
Janice Simmons, for HealthLeaders Media, November 16, 2009
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has released the Quality Data Set (QDS), a common technological framework to assist in defining clinical data used in measuring performance and evaluating improvement in patients' quality of care. The QDS framework will provide a standardized set of data that should be captured in patients' electronic health records and is applicable to all care settings a patient is likely to use in his or her lifetime.
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http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_13784393
Wireless medical device a winner
3M collaborates on Bluetooth scope
By Robert Downs
Pioneer Press
Updated: 11/13/2009 09:11:50 PM CST
Most people would not want their doctors chatting on a Bluetooth headset during a checkup. But what if that technology could save patients thousands of dollars?
A first-of-its-kind stethoscope developed by Maplewood-based 3M Co. and Connecticut-based Zargis Medical uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly transfer sound waves from the heart and lungs straight to a computer. After 20 seconds of processing, software helps doctors identify heart murmurs or other ailments, Zargis CEO John Kallassy said.
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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.
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.
Link to report:
Stemming the Rising Tide of Health Privacy Breaches: The Need for a More Holistic Approach
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http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/2009.1670v1?papetoc
Telephone-Delivered Collaborative Care for Treating Post-CABG Depression
A Randomized Controlled Trial
Bruce L. Rollman, MD, MPH; Bea Herbeck Belnap, Dr Biol Hum; Michelle S. LeMenager, BS; Sati Mazumdar, PhD; Patricia R. Houck, MS; Peter J. Counihan, MB, BCh; Wishwa N. Kapoor, MD, MPH; Herbert C. Schulberg, PhD, MS Hyg; Charles F. Reynolds III, MD
JAMA. 2009;302(19):(doi:10.1001/jama.2009.1670).
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http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/190826.html
Medicine examines electronic records
The push for health care reform is spurring discussion about the industry adopting electronic medical records. Advocates point to the cost savings and efficiency that will occur when the medical industry is brought into the digital age. Critics worry about issues such as security and the expense of new technology.
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Blumenthal: Tear Down E-Health Barriers
Posted by Mitch Wagner on November 16, 2009 02:29 PM
The U.S.'s top e-health official urged healthcare organizations to tear down the barriers to effective exchange of e-health records in a message to healthcare providers.
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http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=72350
Health info security laws a hurdle to health Internet
By Mary Mosquera
Friday, November 06, 2009
Federal agencies hope to use the government’s Connect software to share health information with private healthcare providers, but current information security and privacy laws significantly block their way, government health IT executives said yesterday.
Two key laws – the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – are a particularly steep hurdle to electronic record sharing among federal agencies and private sector providers, they said.
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CCHIT Chair Announces Retirement
John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, November 13, 2009
The organization that certifies electronic health records will soon search for a new chairman.
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology announced today that Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD, is retiring from his position as chair of the commission on March 31, 2010.
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Enjoy!
David.
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