The USA Plans to Prove Ambulatory EHRs Really Make a Difference!

The following release appeared a few days ago:

http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/06/20080610a.html

HHS Secretary Announces 12 Communities Selected to Advance Use of Electronic Health Records in First Ever National Demonstration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt today named 12 communities that will participate in a national Medicare demonstration project that provides incentive payments to physicians for using certified electronic health records (EHR) to improve the quality of patient care. The five-year, first-of-its-kind project is expected to improve the quality of care provided to an estimated 3.6 million Americans.

“The use of electronic health records, and of health information technology as a whole, has the ability to transform the way health care is delivered in our nation,” Secretary Leavitt said. “We believe that EHRs can help physicians deliver better, more efficient care for their patients, in part by reducing medical errors. This project is designed to demonstrate these benefits and help increase the use of this technology in practices where adoption has been the slowest – at the individual physician and small practice level.”

The communities selected to work with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on the EHR demonstration project range from county- and state- level to multi-state collaborations. They include:

• Alabama
• Delaware
• Jacksonville, FL (multi-county)
• Georgia
• Maine
• Louisiana
• Maryland/Washington, DC
• Oklahoma
• Pittsburgh, PA (multi-county)
• South Dakota (multi-state)
• Virginia
• Madison, WI (multi-county)

These 12 communities were selected through a competitive process from a field of more than 30 applicants. They demonstrated active collaboration among stakeholders, including physicians and other providers, health plans, employers, government and consumers; existing or planned private sector initiatives related to health information technology and quality reporting; and adequate size to recruit a sufficient number of primary care physician practices. They also demonstrated close ties to the medical community and ability to work closely with CMS to recruit physician practices to participate in the demonstration.

In letters sent to communities not selected for the demonstration, Secretary Leavitt urged them to consider pursuing EHR incentive projects of their own, based on the work they have already done.

“A tremendous opportunity exists for communities to impact and improve health care delivery starting at the local level,” Secretary Leavitt said. “While the number of sites selected was limited to 12, we are greatly encouraged by the substantial multi-stakeholder initiatives ongoing across the nation. It is my hope that those communities not selected and others that were not yet prepared to apply will continue working together to improve health care – and consider creating their own incentive-based projects to advance the use of EHRs.”

“Broad adoption of EHRs has the potential to transform health care and the way medicine is practiced in our nation,” said Acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems. “Medicare has chosen the communities whose proposals will work best for this demonstration project. But other communities can still build on the outstanding work they have done and consider designing and carrying out their own incentive-based projects. In a community where health care providers and payers have already achieved significant coordination in applying for the Medicare demonstration, it may be possible to design independent incentive programs even without Medicare’s participation.”

Over the five-year demonstration project, financial incentives will be provided to as many as 1,200 primary care physician practices in the selected communities that use certified EHRs to improve quality as measured by their performance on specific clinical quality measures. In addition to the incentive payments, bonus payments may be awarded based on a standardized survey measuring the number of EHR functionalities a physician group has incorporated into its practice. Total payments under the demonstration for all five years may be up to $58,000 per physician or $290,000 per practice.

Findings from the demonstration will help determine the role of EHRs in delivering high-quality care and reducing errors. The demonstration will also assess the role of incentive payments in encouraging adoption and use of EHRs.

The project will be implemented in two phases. CMS will begin working with partners in four Phase I communities over the coming months to develop site-specific recruitment strategies, and recruitment of physician practices will start in the fall. For Phase II sites, these activities will begin in 2009.

The EHR demonstration project is an important step toward President Bush’s goal of most Americans having a secure, interoperable electronic health record by 2014. For more information on the project, visit http://www.cms.hhs.gov/DemoProjectsEvalRpts/downloads/2008_Electronic_Health_Records_Demonstration.pdf.

This initiative is also part of HHS’ bold vision for health care reform built on the four cornerstones of value-driven health care. These include: adopting interoperable health information technology; measuring and publishing quality information to enable consumers to make better decisions about their providers and treatment options; measuring and publishing price information to give consumers information they need to make decisions on purchasing health care; and promoting incentives for high-quality, efficient delivery of care.

To learn more about Connecting to Better Health Care, please visit www.hhs.gov/secretary/connecthealthcare.

• Fact Sheet: Electronic Health Records Advancing 21st Century Medicine

Many more details are available here:

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/DemoProjectsEvalRpts/MD/itemdetail.asp?filterType=none&filterByDID=-99&sortByDID=3&sortOrder=descending&itemID=CMS1204776&intNumPerPage=10

The bottom line is that ambulatory EHRs of known and certified capability are going to be compared with that status quo (paper records) to see how much improvement is quality, safety etc can be achieved.

The aim is to have 1,200 physicians use certified systems (that could involve up to 3 million patients) and to demonstrate they provide improved care.

I sure would not want to be a patient whose doctor was part of the control group! Indeed this very problem has raised concerns with some

EHR study raises docs' concerns

By: Matthew DoBias / HITS staff writer

Story posted: June 13, 2008 - 5:59 am EDT

Some physicians have expressed concern over a new federal electronic health-record demonstration project that could divide volunteers into the haves and the have nots.

The project, announced by HHS in February, aims to scientifically determine whether the use of EHRs in physician practices will live up to its promise of improved, higher-quality care at lower costs. Medicare, private payers and many providers say they already know the answer to that question, and the CMS is betting $150 million that its new study will spotlight the benefits of health IT.

But to do so, the CMS must first divide participating doctors into separate study and control groups. Those in the study group will be given incentive payments to help defray the cost of buying and implementing an EHR system, while those in the control group will continue to eschew computers for paper.

Not surprisingly, it's the latter group that has raised preliminary concerns by some physician groups.

More here (free registration required)

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/REG/411266165/1029/FREE

All in all this is a great study and I hope I am still about to hear the outcomes. It really is wonderful the US is attempting a proper trail.

David.

A Correspondent Wonders About the Ethics of Some Advertising.

This e-mail arrived today! I quote:

“Crash of a shocking bunch of cowboys - long awaited by many of my mates in learning difficulties/child psychologists.

Just six months ago they were hiring marketing people to go out and sell their program - which costs $$$thousands per child - throughout Australia. Just snake oil

Unfortunately they were very greatly helped by many news media that wanted to say doctors are drugging kids, let's try this nice non-drug treatment. Several appearances on TV of "happy customers" delighted with the program's results were made by staff members and people associated with the company…

http://www.dore.com.au/Home.aspx”

I hope we can all learn from this sort of behaviour and presentation of false hope!

David.

Microsoft and Kaiser Join Forces to Refine Personal Health Records.

The following article appeared a few days ago:

Kaiser, Microsoft to test PHR data exchange

Story posted: June 9, 2008 - 5:59 am EDT

Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft Corp. will test the capabilities of their personal health records to exchange data in a pilot program, the companies announced.

The organizations, which have partnered in the past, said that they hope the exchange will expand consumer access to online health management tools. Kaiser’s 156,000 employees are eligible to opt into the voluntary project, which will test the reliability of secure data exchange, according to Kaiser. “In the early stages, we’re very interested in testing industry standards,” said Anna-Lisa Silvestre, vice president of online services for the insurer, during a news conference announcing the pilot.

During the pilot the PHRs will exchange immunization records, information on allergies and medications, and demographic data under standards outlined in the standard organization Health Level 7’s Continuity of Care Document, Silvestre said. If the pilot is successful, Kaiser will open the program to its 8 million members.

More here (free registration required)

http://modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080609/REG/848430230

More information (with links) is available:

Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft Launch Personal Electronic Health Records Pilot Program

[Jun 09, 2008]

Officials from Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft on Monday announced that the companies are developing a patient information exchange pilot program, Reuters/Washington Post reports (Kaufman, Reuters/Washington Post, 6/9).

Under the program, patients who use Kaiser's personal electronic health record system, My Health Manager, will be able to transfer medical data -- including prescriptions, allergies, immunization information and medical conditions -- from My Health Manager to Microsoft HealthVault accounts. Users will be able to dictate what information is transferred and will have access to their profile via the Internet (Lawton, Wall Street Journal, 6/9). Initially, the program will only be available to Kaiser's 156,000 employees (Reuters/Washington Post, 6/9).

The pilot stage will last until November. If successful, the program would then be offered to Kaiser's 8.7 million members in nine states and Washington, D.C. (Lohr, New York Times, 6/10). During the pilot stage, Kaiser will be testing the program's security to ensure it meets safety standards, according to Anna-Lisa Silvestre, Kaiser's vice president of online services (Wall Street Journal, 6/9).

More here:

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=52619

Importantly this test program is evaluating a range in information sources that may be integrated with the Microsoft system and additionally we are told that both Google and MS are adopting standards based approaches.

“Silvestre said Kaiser also considered partnering with Google on its project but chose Microsoft in part because of its privacy protection and personal security technology. In addition, Microsoft and Kaiser are using the same Web-based format, called a Continuity of Care Document, while Google has focused its initial efforts on a Continuity of Care Record Web format. Google and Microsoft each are committed to supporting both formats, the Times reports.”

This is good news as it may lead to interoperability between PHR providers (as both are HL7 Standards I believe) in the future.

A visit to HealthVault is well worthwhile to see the various partners and approaches that MS is adopting.

Go to:

http://www.healthvault.com/

This whole space certainly has a way to go yet!

David.

A Big Week for E-Prescribing in the USA.

The following press-release arrived a few days ago.

http://www.healthtransformation.net/cs/news/news_detail?pressrelease.id=1818

Center Releases New White Paper on Electronic Prescribing: Written and Endorsed by Industry-wide Coalition

CHT Founder and Democratic Senator John Kerry Collaborate to Coauthor Foreword

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, June 11, 2008 Michelle S. Stein

(202) 375-2063

Washington, DC (June 11, 2008)—The Center for Health Transformation released today anew white paper on electronic prescribing that presents a comprehensive look at the technology, its benefits in saving lives and saving money, and how to overcome the barriers to its widespread adoption. The Center brought together a broad coalition of member organizations to author this work, from physicians and hospitals, to health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and technology leaders.

The paper provides policymakers and industry leaders a comprehensive look at the benefits of e-prescribing, supporting the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation for all prescriptions to be written electronically by 2010. The paper includes experiences, perspectives and analyses that conclude that e-prescribing is an intelligent, efficient technology that improves patient safety and saves money by eliminating the inefficiencies of a paper-based system.

“Health information technology and the use of electronic prescribing is the one issue that everyone in healthcare can agree upon,” said Speaker Newt Gingrich. “The breadth of the organizations that contributed to and actively support this report clearly demonstrates the unanimity.”

The paper is timely as Congressional lawmakers debate The Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection (E-MEDS) Act, a key part of the current discussions regarding physician payment in Medicare. Introduced by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and supported by a bipartisan group of policymakers, the E-MEDS bill creates an incentive program to encourage Medicare physicians to adopt e-prescribing.

“Healthcare in America needs to move out of the dark ages and into the 21st century,” said Senator Kerry. “With technology like e-prescribing we will undoubtedly save lives, improve quality and lower costs. This paper makes an important contribution to the debate.”

The paper was written collaboratively by Center members, including: Allscripts; American Hospital Association; American Medical Group Association; Availity; Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; Covisint; Chrysler LLC; HCA – Hospital Corporation of America; Healthvision; InterComponentWare (ICW); MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc.; Microsoft; MinuteClinic; Misys; Pharmaceutical Care Management Association; RxHub, LLC; Sanford Health; SureScripts; UnitedHealthcare; WellPoint, Inc.; and Zix Corporation.

The paper can be downloaded at The Center’s homepage at www.healthtransformation.net.

The eHealth Initiative, in partnership with the Center for Improving Medication Management, also released a report today on electronic prescribing. That report can be found at www.ehealthinitiative.org and www.thecimm.org.

About the Center for the Health Transformation: The Center for Health Transformation is a high-impact collaboration of private and public sector leaders committed to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money for all Americans.

For more information, please contact:

Michelle Stein
Center for Health Transformation

Tel: (202) 375-2063

Fax: 202-375-2036

mstein@gingrichgroup.com

www.healthtransformation.net

The first report can be found here:

http://www.healthtransformation.net/galleries/wp-HIT/CHT%20e-prescribing%20paper%20-%20Final%20-%206.11.08.pdf

The eHealth Initiaitve Release can be found here:

http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/medicationManagement/default.mspx

eHealth Initiative and The Center for Improving Medication Management Release National Roadmap and Practical Guides for Rapid Expansion of Electronic Prescribing

Multi-stakeholder Group Touts Benefits from E-Prescribing and Makes Recommendations on How to Accelerate its Adoption and Effective Use

WASHINGTON – JUNE 11, 2008 – A new report indicates more than 35 million prescription transactions were sent electronically in 2007, a 170 percent increase over the previous year. The report, “Electronic Prescribing: Becoming Mainstream Practice,” offers a detailed examination of the progress made, obstacles that remain, and recommendations for helping the nation’s prescribers migrate from paper-based prescriptions to an electronic system.

The report, developed collaboratively by the eHealth Initiative (eHI) and The Center for Improving Medication Management (The Center) with guidance and leadership from a diverse Steering Group of health care stakeholders, summarizes the national experience with e-prescribing over the past four years – from its pilot phase in several states such as California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Rhode Island, to its present day use in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. It outlines additional steps that should be taken to realize optimal results in health care improvement. The report includes corresponding guides that offer practical information for health care payers to support effective adoption, and for consumers to better understand e-prescribing’s benefits and use. A third guide for prescribers is under development now, in collaboration with leading medical societies.

“Our report and the guides released today reflect a broad consensus among consumers, physicians, pharmacies, employers, insurers and others that e-prescribing can offer significant benefits in terms of patient safety, improved outcomes, and cost savings, especially if remaining challenges are addressed. The report contains several consensus recommendations to address those challenges effectively, and we look forward to working with all health care stakeholders to move those recommendations forward immediately,” said Janet Marchibroda, Chief Executive Officer, eHealth Initiative.

“E-prescribing works and its benefits for many stakeholders are proven,” said Kate Berry, executive director of The Center. “However, education, incentives, and implementation assistance are needed. We are hopeful that this report and the accompanying guides as well as the efforts of many industry leaders will serve to further accelerate the growth in e-prescribing and move it into mainstream practice.”

At the end of 2007, at least 35,000 prescribers were actively e-prescribing. By the end of 2008, estimates indicate there will be at least 85,000 active users of e-prescribing. While e-prescribing is growing rapidly, the adoption level at the end of 2007 represents only about six percent of physicians. As a result: only two percent (2%) of the prescriptions eligible for electronic routing in 2007 were transmitted electronically

Among the challenges listed in the report that limit widespread adoption of e-prescribing technology are the following:

• Financial burdens – Physician practices face varying financial burdens related to e-prescribing, including covering the implementation, training and maintenance costs.
• Workflow changes and change management – Although e-prescribing efficiencies and time savings are gained in the long run, introducing e-prescribing, and electronic health records (EHRs), can be difficult, time consuming, and requires adequate planning, training, and support, particularly in the beginning.
• Continued needs for greater connectivity. The infrastructure exists for connectivity among pharmacies, physician practices, payers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), but some pharmacies, payers/PBMs and mail order pharmacies are not yet connected.
• Medication history – Although e-prescribing is an improvement over relying on paper medical records and patients’ memories, the information that is available may not always be comprehensive or accurate and therefore tools to adequately reconcile medication histories from multiple sources are needed.

The report also provides concrete recommendations to address these barriers and move e-prescribing into mainstream practice. Recommendations in the report include:

1. Adoption and effective use of e-prescribing. All prescribers should adopt e-prescribing as it becomes a mainstream model of care, including small practices, small hospitals, and long term care facilities.
2. Replicate and expand successful incentive programs. Align incentives developed by federal and state governments, payers, employers, health plans, and health systems.
3. Address the DEA ban on e-prescribing controlled substances. The federal government should act soon to end the DEA ban on e-prescribing of controlled substances to eliminate the need for physicians to manage duplicative work processes.
4. Create a public-private multi-stakeholder e-prescribing advisory body. The e-prescribing advisory body must be created to monitor, assess and make recommendations to accelerate the effective use of e-prescribing, and should be made up of diverse stakeholders across every sector of health care.
5. All stakeholders should advance the e-prescribing infrastructure. The industry should encourage all pharmacies to accept electronic prescriptions and provide medication history information, all payers/PBMs to deliver formulary, eligibility, and medication history information through e-prescribing, and all vendors to deploy and support high-quality e-prescribing applications.
6. Continue development of additional standards for e-prescribing. While fully connected e-prescribing is delivering real benefits based on the national standards in place today,additional standards development and adoption processes should be supported and accelerated and all stakeholders, including the federal government and the private sector, must be involved.

eHI and The Center also announced a collaboration with some of America’s leading medical societies, including the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association (AMA), and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) to create a detailed practical guide for prescribers.

eHI and The Center encourage policy makers, providers, health systems, health plans, employers, and consumer organizations to use this report and the corresponding guides as resources as they help drive growth in e-prescribing to ensure that all potential benefits are achieved.

For more information about e-prescribing today, the policy landscape, and additional challenges and recommendations, view the full report at www.ehealthinitiative.org and www.theCIMM.org.

The Center for Health Transformation (CHT) also released a report today on e-prescribing, in collaboration with many of CHT’s members. The CHT report is available at www.healthtransformation.net.

The second report can be found here:

http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/assets/Documents/eHI_CIMM_ePrescribing_Report_6-10-08_FINAL.pdf

It seems the push to deploy e-prescribing is really on in the US with some bills already in Congress to make it mandatory over the next few years.

Both reports are useful grist to the mill!

Enjoy.

David.

What is Big Blue Up to in E-Health in OZ?

In the last week IBM Australia have been running very expensive full one page advertisements in the Australian Financial Review.

The theme has been “STOP Talking. START Curing.” This seems to be a small change to a more basic “Stop Talking. Start Doing”.

The advertisement then goes on to say “IBM^© helps implement on line portals with consolidated, real time views of critical patient information, allowing healthcare organisations to provide better care.”

We are then referred to:

http://www.ibm.com/doing/au/healthyoutcomes

Which in Australia resolves to:

http://www-07.ibm.com/solutions/au/healthcare/healthyoutcomes/

On this page the following introduction is provided:

“The healthcare system needs a transfusion of innovation if it is to move from a fragmented, paper-based, one-size-fits-all condition to a personalised, more predictive and preventative system. The aim is to develop a system with all parts working together to incorporate patient and related medical information into clinical workflows and processes, to allow better managed healthcare costs, and to enable individuals to take an active role in managing their own well-being.”

And then some examples of some interesting projects are provided.

Virtually simultaneously we have the following from the USA.

IBM releases another piece of its Healthcare 2015 initiative

How health care providers deliver care is going to change in the future - by a lot. That's the message from Armonk-based IBM Corp. in the latest study from its "Healthcare 2015" initiative.

Community hospitals will lose patients to networks of clinics, and more consumers will become medical tourists as they turn to overseas physicians as an alternative to high U.S. hospital bills.

Edgar L. Mounib, health care lead for the IBM Institute for Business Value and a co-author of the new study, said U.S. hospitals will be competing on price not only with others in the same city and state but with facilities half a globe away.

"Health care is no longer local, it's global," he said.

At the same time, patients will seek care at nontraditional venues closer to home, like clinics at their workplace as the focus shifts to preventative care.

"We treat the sick," he said. "We should focus on improving health by engaging the citizen much earlier."

More here:

http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/BUSINESS01/806130361/-1/newsfront

You can follow up more of this work here:

http://www-03.ibm.com/industries/healthcare/doc/content/landing/2955767105.html

There are two questions in my mind. First – on the assumption that IBM never does anything that costs a fair few dollars by accident – what contract are they working to shore up or win?

This would have to be a very good candidate!

Medicare IT outsourcing deal delayed

Karen Dearne | May 29, 2008

THE planned retendering of Medicare's key ICT outsourcing services contract has once again been postponed while the Human Services Department awaits direction from the Gershon Review of federal government agencies' use and management of IT systems.

Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig says the plan to take a "more universal" approach to ICT requirements will affect the timing of approaches to the market by agencies.

"We have a number of major contracts - including the Medicare Australia ICT services contract - which are due to expire over the next 12 to 24 months," Senator Ludwig said in a statement.

"A key element of the department's service delivery reform strategy involves strategic portfolio approach. Our agencies, including Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support, are collectively among the biggest users of ICT within Australia."

IBM won a $350 million, five-year outsourcing contract with Medicare in 2000, delivering the ICT infrastructure and storage, desktop, security and support services. The contract has since been extended to March 2009.

More here:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23777892-15319,00.html

Another possibility is that IBM see themselves as providing a national e-health portal and that this will be the approach adopted to delivering patient held clinical records that can be integrated with Medicare Australia information. Interestingly, as regular readers will know, IBM is was central in the delivery of just such a system in Denmark. From all I can find out this system is a pretty considerable success – so I wonder why IBM does not mention it in their reference sites and project.

The scale and depth of this project can be reviewed here:

http://www-05.ibm.com/services/dk/gbs/healthcare/eng/

One way or another you can be sure they have a major project, or contract, or both in mind!

David.

NEHTA Just Steams On Regardless!

Checked the NEHTA Web Site today. Silly me..just made me grumpy!

Seems the money wasting will continue!

Peak Body Summit: 18 June

Hits : 474

NEHTA is hosting a summit with Peak Bodies that represent consumer and clinician interests in the healthcare sector. NEHTA is inviting non technical audiences to participate in discussions on the introduction of the Individual Electronic Health Record (IEHR) for all Australians and non technical issues relating to e-health and the IEHR.

The topics that will be discussed include:

• Preparedness to introduce e-health and an overview of IEHR;
• Issues around the introduction of unique health identification for clinicians and patients;
• Governance, privacy and other policy matters;
• Implementation and business adoption issues; and
• Management of public consultation.

The event will be held at Rydges Lakeside in Canberra.

Location: Rydges Lakeside in Canberra

Contact: kate.ebrill at nehta.gov.au

Just what is going on here? We have a National e-Health Strategy and Implementation Plan being developed at a cost of $1.3 million and NEHTA is trying to pre-empt it with all the ill considered and non-consultative nonsense they keep putting out. Raising expectations that have already been dashed by the Health Minister (no Shared EHR until 2012 at earliest) is just stupid.

All these topics needs expert input – and we know NEHTA certainly does not have any monopoly on expertise. The arrogance is just breathtaking and frankly offensive.

This meeting should be cancelled and the money saved until something concrete has been worked out, agreed and funded!

David.

Useful and Interesting Health IT Links from the Last Week – 15/06/2008

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

These include first:

AHRQ to Study Barriers to Indiana HIE

June 10, 2008

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality plans to study the barriers to participating in a health care information exchange in the state of Indiana. The Washington-based organization published a notice June 10 in the Federal Register requesting comments on the initiative.

Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Institute is the prime contractor for the AHRQ study. The organization will develop and implement a questionnaire and survey process to identify barriers throughout the state of Indiana to participation in the Indiana Network of Patient Care. Seven-year-old INPC is a local HIE comprising five major health systems, Indiana Medicaid and the electronic prescribing network RxHub. The Regenstrief Institute created and operates the INPC and serves as custodian of its data.

More here:

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/HIE_survey26445-1.html

This is an important study because the Regenstrief Institute is one of the organisations that is well along in developing really effective Health Information Exchange. The final report will be a useful document.

Second we have:

Push for e-consult rebate for GPs

Andrew Bracey - Friday, 13 June 2008

THE government is being urged to consider funding Medicare rebates for online consultations, as part of the solution to the growing workforce crisis.

Calling for Medicare reforms at a recent Gold Coast conference, health economist Dr Paul Gross (PhD) said rebates for such consultations would enable patients with non-urgent conditions to email GPs, which could prove a boon for time-poor doctors.

“Payments for online consultations have to be looked at [as] GPs are not working after 5pm and they are not taking on new patients,” Dr Gross told MO.

Representatives from Sydney-based online consultation service Ozdocsonline recently met with the RACGP to discuss endorsement of the introduction of an MBS rebate covering email consultations between GPs and patients.

Service founders drafted an MBS item descriptor last year, which Ozdocsonline confirmed the college was considering.

More here (for registered readers):

http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/medical-observer/News/Article.aspx/Push-for-e-consult-rebate-for-GPs-

I must say I think that this is an idea whose time has come. The main issue is to get the appropriate policy settings in place that make it easy for patients and doctors to communicate electronically while at the same time addressing issues of privacy, security and record preservation and medico legal liabilities.

Third we have:

NSW Health nurses data warehouse, wins award

Innovative restructuring of data architecture earns global gong for NSW Health.

Andrew Hendry 13/06/2008 08:00:48

The data collection and reporting branch of New South Wales' Department of Health was recently named a laureate of the 21st Century Achievement awards for improving the performance of its critical healthcare information system and data warehouse.

The awards, presented by the Computerworld Honours Program in the US, feature organisations that have used information technology to benefit society.

The Demand and Performance Evaluation Branch (DPEB) of NSW Health is responsible for collecting and maintaining large critical data collections, such as daily hospital events, births and medical waiting lists, for the nearly 7 million people that NSW Health services.

The DPEB also produces a wide range of reports on issues like patient demographics, emergency department performance, and also for external, government or planning purposes. The ultimate goal of the branch is to improve patient health and quality of service by providing accurate information and reporting quickly.

The DPEB was named a laureate of the awards for implementing a solution that revitalized and extended the life of its existing data warehouse with minimal hardware expenditure, improving its performance and providing much needed breathing space for a new data warehouse to be designed over the next few years.

More here:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=1891043707&eid=-255

The full details of the award can be found here:

http://www.cwhonors.org/viewCaseStudy2008.asp?NominationID=309

This is good to see but, when reading the details, what has been achieved seems to be what most would have expected to be in place for decades. Surely the collection of basic operational information in the NSW Hospital system should have been sorted out decades ago.

Fourthly we have:

Govt throws Access Card to industry

Identity laws good enough.

Darren Pauli 11/06/2008 16:24:07

Deployment of a national access card will be a job for private industry, not government, according to the federal Human Services Minister, Joe Ludwig.

The government launched scathing criticism at the Howard government's plans for a national identity card, but has remained open at the philosophy behind the initiative.

Speaking at the 2008 Australian Smart Cards Summit in Sydney today, Ludwig said the government does not reject the idea of a national identity card, but will not deploy it without private investment.

"The Access Card structure tangled everything into one big complex project, which risked delays, cost blow-outs, and restricted the former government's ability to steer the project over the long term," Ludwig said.

"Labor was opposed to the previous government's Access Card, but we have no in-principle objection to smart cards. The Access Card was an Identity Card by stealth.

More here:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=1845873234&eid=-255

and:

Smart cards off Labor agenda

Karen Dearne | June 11, 2008

THE Rudd Government would not embark on any large-scale smart card projects, Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig has told the industry Smart Cards Summit in Sydney.

Instead, the Government "may well continue to use the cheaper traditional magnetic swipe card" and the existing EFTPOS network for the welfare payments scheme announced in the recent budget.

"Put simply, we could not afford to wait to solve the difficulties for small business in the Northern Territory involving manual processing and stored value cards," he said. "We needed a solution this year, and a smartcard was not going to be an option.

"The Income Management Card will use EFTPOS to deliver income-managed payments to about 20,000 Centrelink customers in NT communities, and the trial for people referred by child welfare agencies in areas of Western Australia,"Senator Ludwig said.

More here:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23847150-5013044,00.html

On the basis of these two reports it seems there is significant policy confusion in the Human Services department about how best to manage access to services electronically. I wonder how long the lack of a Smartcard deployment strategy is going to be allowed to persist and for how long these efforts are not going to be integrated with NEHTA’s identification plans.

Fifth we have:

Waiting lists a bad measure: health report

Natasha Wallace Health Reporter
June 11, 2008

A NATIONAL report says the method of measuring access to elective surgery by waiting times and waiting lists is not meaningful and makes state-by-state comparisons meaningless.

The report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the national agency for health and welfare statistics and information, also provides a more accurate measure.

It says the current measures include only public surgery despite private surgery comprising 61 per cent of all elective surgery, do not account for patients yet to go on a waiting list and do not include the total waiting time. There was also differences between the states on what was considered urgent surgery.

The report, Elective Surgery In Australia: New Measures Of Access, says measurements focusing on the length of waiting lists or how long patients waited, including the proportion who were seen "on time", "are not meaningful".

The report disputes what the NSW Health Minister, Reba Meagher, has repeatedly claimed - that a significant increase in recent years in the number of patients being treated "on time" demonstrated effective access to elective surgery.

Using a new formula, the report showed the median waiting time across Australia was 29 days for 2004-05. The new method uses supply-related measures, such as rates of surgery in both public and private hospitals, as well as demand-related measures such as diagnosis, rather than just relying on urgency categories.

More here:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/waiting-lists-a-bad-measure-health-report/2008/06/10/1212863646329.html

The report cited can be found here:

http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10596

This is important stuff. With all the political heat being applied to the public hospital systems around the country it is vital we can measure just how well the system is performing in comparable and credible ways.

Sixth we have:

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/patient-web-sites-used-for-news-support-in-crisis-20080609-2noz.html

Patient Web sites used for news, support in crisis

June 9, 2008 - 4:28AM

When he was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year, Dave deBronkart needed an easy way to keep his far-flung friends and family updated. So did the president of the American Medical Association when he fell ill months ago. And so did the mother of a soldier wounded in Iraq who later suffered brain damage.

They all turned to the Internet, setting up individual Web sites to give progress reports. In return, they get posted notes of encouragement and support _ all without having to repeat the details in emotional and exhausting phone calls.

"I had already been burning myself out with phone calls" telling people, said deBronkart, of Nashua, N.H.

DeBronkart, like others, used free online services like CaringBridge and CarePages and their user-friendly formats to quickly set up a Web site to share the news _ good and bad. Patients themselves or family members write about treatment and recovery from illnesses, accidents or other medical crises, such as a premature births.

Sarah Doyle first used CarePages to prepare her for the arrival of her now year-old son Aidan. She learned during her pregnancy that Aidan would be born with his liver and intestines exposed. She read about the experiences of other families who had dealt with similar birth defects.

"I got a good idea what to expect. It wasn't such a shock," said Doyle, of Bellingham, Mass.

She has used her own page to chronicle Aidan's 11 months in a Boston hospital, his multiple surgeries and his arrival home in March. She recently reported that Aidan said his first word: mama.

"We really use it as a tool to say: We've been through some of the worst and now we're doing fine," said Doyle, who's expecting a second child in September.

Both online services were born out of medical emergencies, and have been used by tens of thousands since.

More here

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/patient-web-sites-used-for-news-support-in-crisis-20080609-2noz.html

The two sites referred to are as follows:

http://www.CaringBridge.org

http://www.CarePages.com

This is another side of e-Health that has a value that should not be ignored. A lot of such sites now exist and seem to help many people in their moments of difficulty. The risk, of course, is that wrong and dangerous advice can be posted. One hopes the effect of the common sense of the group will rapidly filter such material out.

Last we have:

15 turning points in tech history

Difficult decisions and paths not taken -- here are the 15 pivotal moments that have shaped today's high-tech landscape

Neil McAllister (InfoWorld) 10/06/2008 10:52:22

Imagine how different the computing world would be if IBM had used proprietary chips in the original PC, rather than off-the-shelf components. The PC clone market would never have happened, and IBM, rather than Microsoft, might have emerged as the leading company of the computer revolution.

Or if Steve Jobs had never taken his fateful tour of Xerox PARC? Had he not seen PARC's GUI in action he might never have created the Macintosh. And then where would Windows be today?

In every industry there are key milestones that mark a change in the course of history, and the fast-moving technology field has more than its share. Presented here are 15 turning points that shaped the computing world as we know it today, including some that still continue to influence its direction for years to come.

Continue reading here:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=2006850715&eid=-6787

This is a fun list to wrap up the week. Well worth a browse to see if you agree.

More next week.

David.

Pulse+IT Weekly – 1st Issue On Line

Just a short post to say the First Issue of the Pulse+IT Weekly is now online - at the addresses below.

Enjoy.

David