Business Council Of Australia Tell Rudd to Get on with E-Health.

The following release came out yesterday.

Health Information Needs an Urgent Technological Injection

23 November 2009

The Business Council of Australia has called on the federal government to lead an urgent implementation of the national e-health strategy.

In a letter sent to the Prime Minister last month and released today, BCA Chief Executive Katie Lahey says e-health – that is, using communication technology to improve the flow of health information – is a key to a more efficient health system.

But e-health “will require national leadership and commitment to investment in national infrastructure to make it happen”, the letter says.

Private investment as well as public investment will be needed to make e-health effective, it notes. But before business can begin to invest, state and federal governments must commit to making their own investments in the national infrastructure. Governments must also commit to invest in connecting public health providers to realise the potential benefits for patients and the sector.

The letter is supported by a paper summarising the proposed implementation plan for e-health. It endorses the national e-health strategy adopted by the ministers for health, and the draft implementation plan produced recently by the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA).

The paper reiterates that the estimated e-health benefits of $27.8 billion in the first eight years of implementation outstrip the costs of e-health investment – $6.3 billion over five years.

The economic imperatives for healthcare reform are set out in the BCA’s Fit for the Job paper, published in March 2009. That paper said Australia’s healthcare services needed to be fully integrated to both provide for patient needs and drive efficiency.

For further information contact:
Scott Thompson, Manager, Public Affairs, Business Council of Australia
Telephone (03) 8664 2664, mobile 0403 241 128

http://www.bca.com.au/Content/101627.aspx

The two page letter and an 8 page summary report can be found from the link above or here:

Letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the National E-Health Strategy

All in all a very good thing to see this sort of advocacy.

Note that the letter is not, of course, to Ms Roxon!

David.

Anonymous Really Hits the Spot Again! And a Few Mates Chime In!

I don’t plan to make this a habit but this Comment was so spot on I really felt it needed to be brought more into the open!

Begin Comment -----

"NEHTA would like to offer Software Vendors the opportunity to participate in a 1 day workshop to review the Draft Electronic Transfer of Prescription (ETP) Release 1.0 package."

I really am at a total loss to see what intrinsically concrete value NEHTA can bring to the table that is worth giving any attention to.

Look at it this way. The Gov't (DOHA) and NEHTA have been left behind in the dust by the two private script exchanges. It will be impossible for Gov't and/or NEHTA to claw back the initiative and lead the way. Therefore, whatever 'stuff' NEHTA pontificates on will be just that - 'stuff' - stuff that the private exchange vendors can look at, consider at their leisure, take on board any ideas that they like, reject what they don't like, continue to develop and expand their services, lock-in their growing customer base, compete with each other, and find ways to make Gov't pay the price they seek to be involved in their exchange services.

Tell me how NEHTA can in any way influence this outcome in any meaningful way.

Tell me how NEHTA can become relevant in the ETP space.

And above all - tell me why NEHTA should continue receiving bucketloads of our hard earned dollars to pontificate over the ETP space where it would seem NEHTA has absolutely no way of exercising any real influence on the outcomes despite its misguided wishful thinking to the contrary.

Sunday, November 22, 2009 12:35:48 PM

End Comment -----

Can I say these all seem to me to be very fair questions!

Some of these commenters really should start their own blogs – but they are probably smart enough to realize that is a career ending, and very time consuming step!

Thanks anon.

David.

------- End of Initial Draft of posting.

Since then we have had two more comments – both of which continue the theme.

Number 1:

Your last commentator makes some very good points, particularly "How can NEHTA become relevant in the ETP space".

That is an excellent question. Does anyone know the answer?

Could NEHTA please give us the answer?

Number 2:

I doubt anyone can provide an answer to the above question. As in so many areas of endeavour market forces will eventually prevail. Even Peter Fleming said as much when he stated recently that he was very excited that two script exchanges had started up and that NEHTA was looking forward to working with them. What influence does he think NEHTA can possibly have on what they do? Surely it's time to come clean.

David, in the context of the private ETPs, do you know if NEHTA has documented answers to the following basic questions:

- this is what we can do?
- this is what we will do? and by when.
- this is how we will do it? and with whom.
- this is the impact we will have as a consequence.

-----

All these are very good questions and I don’t have the answers! Maybe one of the NEHTA readers could pass them on to the relevant people and post a response?

And as a second little postscript:

I wondered about why I missed the meeting notification from NEHTA and then I noticed the following.

From Wed 18 Oct 2009 15:35:05 +1000

From: NEHTA RSS <>

Date: Wed 18 Oct 2009 15:35:05 +1000

Message-Id: http://nehta.gov.au/media-centre/nehta-news/562-invitation-to-participate-in-electronic-transfer-of-prescription-workshop-27-november

X-RSS-Link: http://nehta.gov.au/media-centre/nehta-news/562-invitation-to-participate-in-electronic-transfer-of-prescription-workshop-27-november

X-RSS-Comments:

Delivery-Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:46:51

Status: U

Subject: Invitation to particpate in Electronic Transfer of Preescription workshop

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

X-Poco-UID: 41795840

X-Poco-Status: R

X-Account: NEHTA

Invitation to particpate in Electronic Transfer of Preescription workshop

-----

This is what my RSS feed from NEHTA gave me: A month delay and riddled with typos.

Odd that.

Seems I was not alerted about the meeting in a timely fashion – not that I would want to attend for the reasons outlined above!

D.

And in late breaking news – for all those planning to attend the Forum has now been moved to December 1 and to the Stamford Airport Hotel at KSA (Sydney Airport). Talk about the inability to organise a large drinking party in a brewery with unlimited funds – or equivalent!

D.

NEHTA is Swimming Against the Tide of Expert US Opinion on Health IT Standards.

With the passage of the US HITECH Act which provides massive financial stimulus for ‘meaningful use’ of Electronic Health Records in patient care there has been renewed focus on US Health IT Standards and how they may be best used – as well as how to fill what gaps there are!

The first few paragraphs of reporting – in draft – the November 19^th Meeting of the key Committee (provided as audio, video, transcripts and presentations as opposed to the secrecy we get from NEHTA) make for very important reading.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

HIT Standards Meeting 11-19

The HIT Standards Committee met on Thursday, November 19, 2009. The meeting distilled much of their work and there were some great presentations from the committee, workgroups and stakeholders. The meeting materials from the ONC website and the rough draft transcript of the meeting are below. Also be sure to check out the FACA blog and join the conversation to help "pull adoption forward" and bring our healthcare system into the 21st century.

John Halamka, co-chairman of the committee, gave the following list of guiding principles for standards recommendations which were polished at the meeting:

• Keep it simple; think big, but start small; recommend standards as minimal as possible to support the business goal and then build as you go
• Don’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good enough”; go for the 80% that everyone can agree on; get everyone to send the basics (medications, problem list, allergies, labs) before focusing on the more obscure
• Keep the implementation cost as low as possible; eliminate any royalties or other expenses associated with the use of standards
• Design for the little guy so that all participants can adopt the standard and not just the best resourced
• Do not try to create a one size fits all standard, it will be too heavy for the simple use cases
• Separate content standards from transmission standards; i.e., if CCD is the html, what is the https?
• Create publicly available controlled vocabularies & code sets that are easily accessible / downloadable
• Leverage the web for transport whenever possible to decrease complexity & the implementers’ learning curve (“health internet”)
• Position quality measures so that they will encourage adoption of standards
• Create Implementation Guides that are human readable, have working examples, and include testing tools

----- End Quote from Brian Ahier’s blog.

The full blog with audio links, presentations and transcript is here:

http://ahier.blogspot.com/2009/11/hit-standards-meeting-11-19.html

John Halamka’s (CIO Harvard Medical School) blog where these ideas were first published is on the link above.

For what it is worth everything that John states as guiding principles for Health Information Technology Standards setting I pretty much totally agree with and those who have read my blog will have seen many of these points mentioned – if not so succinctly and clearly.

I leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out for themselves just how far NEHTA is off beam with all their theoretical complex documentation and so on.

It just makes you weep we are all being so badly led in all this. Don't they get, as the Americans surely do, that if you open up your processes you get much better outcomes for all concerned. Nah, not these turkeys!

David.

Just in case you were wondering, here is the brief of the committee:

Health IT Standards Committee (a Federal Advisory Committee)

The Health IT Standards Committee is charged with making recommendations to the National Coordinator for Health IT on standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria for the electronic exchange and use of health information. Initially, the Health IT Standards Committee will focus on the policies developed by the Health IT Policy Committee’s initial eight areas. Within 90 days of the signing of ARRA, the Health IT Standards Committee must develop a schedule for the assessment of policy recommendations developed by the Health IT Policy Committee, to be updated annually. In developing, harmonizing, or recognizing standards and implementation specifications, the Health IT Standards Committee will also provide for the testing of the same by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).

Lots more here:

http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=1271&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=3&mode=2&in_hi_userid=10741&cached=true

As you can see from the membership list – a very serious, very important and very smart lot indeed. We won't have a hope in hell of "fast following" this lot. We have already been left behind and will likely never catch up.

D.

A Useful Report on Cloud Computing and Its Implications.

The following has just been released.

ENISA clears the fog on cloud computing security

How can businesses and governments get the obvious benefits of cloud computing without putting their organisation at risk? The EU’s ‘cyber security’ agency, ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) answers this question in a comprehensive, new report on “Cloud Computing: Benefits, risks and recommendations for information security”. It covers the technical, policy and legal implications and most importantly, makes concrete recommendations for how to address the risks and maximise the benefits for users.

ENISA’s new report is the first to take an independent, in-depth look at all the security and privacy issues of moving into the cloud, outlining some of the information security benefits of cloud computing, as well as 35 key security risks. ENISA and their expert group started with a survey asking businesses their main concerns in moving into the cloud. “The picture we got back from the survey was clear:” says Giles Hogben, an ENISA expert and editor of the report - “the business case for cloud computing is obvious – it’s computing on tap, available instantly, commitment-free and on-demand. But the number one issue holding many people back is security – how can I know if it’s safe to trust the cloud provider with my data and in some cases my entire business infrastructure?”

The report answers this question with a detailed check-list of criteria which anyone can use to identify whether a cloud provider is as security-conscious as they could be. “This is the most important result of our report: our check-list isn’t just pulled from thin-air,” says Daniele Catteddu, the ENISA report co-editor – “we based it on a careful risk analysis of a number of cloud computing scenarios, focussing on the needs of business customers. The most important risks addressed by the check-list include lock-in, failures in mechanisms separating customers’ data and applications, and legal risks such as the failure to comply with data protection legislation.” With the security check-list, customers now know the right questions to ask and providers can answer those questions just once instead of being overloaded with requests for assurance about their security practices.

Cloud computing also entails great economic interests, e.g. the IDC forecasts a growth of European cloud services from €971m in 2008 to €6,005m in 2013.

But as the report points out, cloud computing is also a security enabler. The Executive Director of ENISA, Dr Udo Helmbrecht, underlines: “The scale and flexibility of cloud computing gives the providers a security edge. For example, providers can instantly call on extra defensive resources like filtering and re-routing. They can also roll out new security patches more efficiently and keep more comprehensive evidence for diagnostics.”

The full report is available for download:

http://www.enisa.europa.eu/act/rm/files/deliverables/cloud-computing-risk-assessment/

Cloud Computing Risk Assessment

ENISA, supported by a group of subject matter expert comprising representatives from Industries, Academia and Governmental Organizations, has conducted, in the context of the Emerging and Future Risk Framework project, an risks assessment on cloud computing business model and technologies. The result is an in-depth and independent analysis that outlines some of the information security benefits and key security risks of cloud computing. The report provide also a set of practical recommendations.

Publication date: Nov 20, 2009

Downloads

Full report: Cloud Computing Security Risk Assessment.pdf — PDF document, 1963Kb

The report spends a few pages specifically on e-Health. Well worth a browse.

David.

Can NEHTA Really Be Serious With Consultation With This Sort of Notice?

The following hit the RSS feed late yesterday.

Invitation to participate in Electronic Transfer of Prescription workshop - 27 November

NEHTA would like to offer Software Vendors the opportunity to participate in a 1 day workshop to review the Draft Electronic Transfer of Prescription (ETP) Release 1.0 package.

The Draft ETP Release 1.0 document set which was released on the 30 October defines the minimum requirements for the interoperable exchange of prescriptions between general practices and community pharmacies within Australia and is available at http://www.nehta.gov.au/e-communications-in-practice/emedication-management.

The workshop is part of a consultative process to gain national feedback on the proposed ETP Release 1.0 specifications and to ensure that vendors can gain an understanding of the program and clarify an issues or ambiguities with the Draft ETP specifications.

When: Friday 27 November 2009

Where: Christie Corporate, 320 Adelaide St, Brisbane

Time: 9:00am for a 9:30am start

Please Note that NEHTA will not be providing compensation for travel or accommodation and there are no sitting fees for this event.

If you would like to participate in this workshop, we request that you take time to review the ETP Document set and complete and email the registration form to Melissa Roach, Engagement Analyst at melissa.roach@nehta.gov.au

Registrations need to be received by the 20 November. The agenda will be provided to those that are interested in attending.

NEHTA looks forward to your attendance.

Stakeholder Draft ETP Package Review Registration Form (23.34 kB)

Link here:

http://nehta.gov.au/media-centre/nehta-news/562-invitation-to-participate-in-electronic-transfer-of-prescription-workshop-27-november

We have all seen the scale of the documentation – so 1 week would be really pushing it even if you could work on it pretty full time. The people they want to attend however also have day jobs I am sure!

Of course accommodation and travel to get there also seems to be off the table – and Brisbane is hardly the most central spot – or even NETHA headquarters.

Seems there is a bit of panic about the lack of progress in this ETP domain with commercial players live with systems, and Standards Australia really not resourced on the basis of current output to deliver quickly.

We have not only a bolted horse! It is leaving the district at a gentle canter knowing it will never be caught!

David.

Weekly Overseas Health IT Links 16-11-2009

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

Computing, 13 Nov 2009

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.

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http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ehealth/article/725484--ehealth-scandal-claims-deputy-health-minister

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.

-----

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/242081/topic/WS_HLM2_TEC/Nurses-Use-iTouch-and-iPhones-to-Communicate-and-Stay-Connected.html

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.

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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

InformationWeek

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.

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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.

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/issues/2009_72/-39273-1.html

The Medical Home

Howard J. Anderson

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.

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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).

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/NHIN-39343-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e1076:100325a:&st=email

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.

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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.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091111/ts_alt_afp/usitinternetflugoogle_20091111001316;_ylt=A2KIKwI4HfpKNpUAkhiJOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTJzMmRhNGY5BGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDA5MTExMS91c2l0aW50ZXJuZXRmbHVnb29nbGUEcG9zAzEEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDZ29vZ2xlbGF1bmNo

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.

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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.

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http://www.who.int/goe/ehir/2009/10_november_2009/en/index.html

10 November 2009

eHealth Worldwide

:: China - Improving reproductive health knowledge in rural china-a web-based strategy. (Journal of Health Communication, Volume 14, Issue 7 October 2009)

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.

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http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/241871/topic/WS_HLM2_PHY/PayforPerformance-Participation-Can-Be-Pricey-for-Docs.html

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.

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/e-prescribing-39340-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e1075:100325a:&st=email

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.

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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.

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http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/whit20009-challenge-helping-small-practices-go-electronic/2009-11-10?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

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.
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http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/241920/topic/WS_HLM2_TEC/Three-Fundamentals-When-Designing-for-Digital-Care.html

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10392637-56.html

November 6, 2009 1:59 PM PST

Microsoft launching health tech video show

by Ina Fried

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.

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/mayo-clinic-stmicroelectronics-develop-heart-monitoring-platform

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Enjoy!

David.

We Bloggers Need To Stick Together!

Just a short post to highlight this rather nervous blog!

Who Will Speak For Us?

A Blog From Inside Katoomba Hospital Desperately Pressing the Call Bell For Help.

Description:

This blog is from the inside of Katoomba Hospital. It has to be anonymous because all staff of Sydney West Area Health Service are required to not speak to the media as part of their employment contract. The trouble is, where is the transparency if serious issues cannot scrutinized? Where is the accountability of the system if staff are gagged? This blog will have a limited life, either because the problems it seeks to address are addressed or because the system which has gagged staff of Sydney West Area Health will succeed in gagging them. The outcome, ultimately, is up to all of us.

URL is as follows:

http://whowillspeakforus.blogspot.com/

Oh dear, oh dear such passion.

Worth a browse!

David.

Game Connect Asia Pacific Conference – The Games for Health Forum

This is just a reminder that a workshop on the use of video games for health has been organised for the upcoming Game Connect Asia Pacific conference in Melbourne, Dec 6th.

The Game Developers of Australia E-Health Forum.

This Games for Health forum brings together the Australian game development industry with healthcare providers, clinicians and heath technology developers. It is intended for games and health practitioners, and for academics from both fields. This sector constitutes a rapidly growing $6.6 billion international market, that Australian companies are well placed to access. Experts from the medical and video game industries will speak across a range of topics including:

• Use of game technologies to engage and excite consumers in managing their health and wellness
• Building an ongoing dialogue between the games and health industries
• Current success stories: health/games crossovers that are already getting results
• Update on technology developments and user/market patterns within the games industry
• Accessing Government grants to fund development
• Setting a framework for future collaboration
• And more..

Registrations have been a little low to date so it seemed useful to use the blog to encourage those who may be interested to think about attending this event.

Registrations are through http://www.gameconnectap.com/register.html - (Forum pass, Sunday only)

Please note that this is a HISA supported event. Media will be covering the event and it is hoped the forum will kick start the Games for Health community in Australia.

The full conference web site is here:

http://www.gameconnectap.com/index.html

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Sounds like it might be worth spending a Sunday afternoon to learn about the topic!

David.