Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

International News Extras For the Week (06/04/2009).

Again there has been just a heap of stuff arrive this week.

First we have:

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

Howard J. Anderson, Executive Editor

Health Data Management, April 1, 2009

American consumers are accustomed to using technology to get better service in almost every sector of the economy except health care. Now they're demanding that hospitals, clinics and insurance companies provide easier access to information as well as convenient online services, such as the ability to communicate with a doctor via e-mail or pay a bill on a Web portal.

This rise of consumerism is leading many health care organizations to rethink their information technology strategies. "In the past, decisions about the kinds of technologies to purchase and implement were driven by how they would make our lives easier here," says Jim Beinlich, associate CIO at University of Pennsylvania Health System. "Now the perspective is 'how does this technology support creating the ideal patient experience?'"

To make sure consumers' demands are met, health care organizations must take steps to involve physicians, nurses and marketers, as well as technology experts, in their strategic decisions about I.T., Beinlich says. "If the I.T. department was the only group trying to make these decisions, we wouldn't be as sensitized to the consumer aspect of this as we are," he adds.

"Consumerism is really impacting what patients expect with regard to how they interact with health care providers and payers," says Dan Garrett, health care I.T. practice leader at Price Waterhouse Coopers, a New York-based consulting firm. Consumers want easier access to information as well as better access to clinicians via e-mail, telemedicine and other options, he says.

Lots more here:

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/issues/2009_64/-27952-1.html

This long feature article makes the point well that there are rising patient expectations and steps need to be taken to address these. Technology can help.

Second we have:

NQF forum focuses on battling waste with quality

By Jean DerGurahian / HITS staff writer

Posted: March 30, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is still some days away from inducting its latest members, but Cleveland last week was the site to spotlight celebrities in healthcare.

The National Quality Forum, in hosting its annual spring conference March 25-27 in the Hall of Fame’s home town, brought together leaders and organizations that have made significant strides toward creating meaningful, measurable and sustainable improvements in quality of care and safety. The quality-endorsing body hopes to highlight these successes as it tackles waste in the healthcare system.

Waste—defined as the overuse, misuse and underuse of health services—accounts for a portion of healthcare costs, quality advocates say. Some have estimated it to be as high as 60% of costs, according to panelists at the conference. What is challenging is measuring that waste, said Janet Corrigan, president of the quality organization. Much of the NQF conference, dubbed Waste Not Want Not—The Right Care for Every Patient, went to studying overuse of treatment, because that’s where healthcare gets expensive, she said. If the industry can identify appropriate vs. inappropriate care, they can free up resources going toward overuse to help combat issues of misuse and underuse, she said.

So the nearly 300 audience members listened to representatives from medical institutions such as 289-bed Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, where initiatives have re-engineered workflows and implemented information technology to virtually eliminate unnecessary tests, such as MRIs; and Arizona State University, which has helped develop nurse care-coordination tools that have helped reduce hospital admissions among patients coming from nursing homes. In the meantime, professional societies representing doctors, surgeons, pathology and medical education are discussing the guidelines and measurements they have developed to improve clinical and diagnostic practices.

More here (registration required):

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090330/REG/303309950/1029

The figure for waste was what caught my eye with this article. Given all the ways technology can help one can understand the US enthusiasm for moving forward with more Health IT.

Third we have:

Electronic Health Records: Lessons from the iPhone

Open programs to third-party developers, say two tech-savvy physicians.

By Emily Singer

Thanks to the $19 billion designated for health-care information technology in the recent stimulus bill, electronic health records (EHRs) have garnered a great deal of attention in the past few weeks. The bill sets aside $17 billion in incentives for physicians and hospitals that use qualifying EHRs beginning in 2011, and $2 billion for the development of standards and best-practice guidelines over the next two years.

The bill does little to specify the types of technology that health-care providers must use, leaving the details to a newly appointed national coordinator for health information technology. Given the amount of money at stake, both EHR vendors and the medical community are anxious to see exactly how these details will unfold over the next two years. In an article in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, physicians Kenneth Mandl and Isaac Kohane outline their prescription for creating an effective EHR system. Their approach is modeled on successful IT products outside of health care, including the iPhone and Facebook, which rely on innovative applications from third-party programmers. Mandl and Kohane propose what they call a platform approach, in which EHR vendors sell a flexible, basic platform that is designed to work with components from other vendors, much as the iPhone works with applications made by a myriad of third-party developers.

Mandl and Kohane, both members of the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program at Children's Hospital Boston, spoke with Technology Review about why their approach is crucial in digitizing health care.

Interview continues here:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22360/?nlid=1896

An interesting interview with some useful links. Certainly the industry needs to do better to make the technology fit the roles it is expected to play.

Fourth we have:

Santa Cruz doctors offer patients e-mail privileges for a fee

By JONDI GUMZ

Posted: 03/29/2009 01:30:29 AM PDT

SANTA CRUZ -- Would you be willing to pay $60 a year for the privilege of having an online conversation with your doctor?

That's what the Santa Cruz Medical Foundation is about to find out.

You know how it is when you try to reach a doctor. You call the office, wait in line for the receptionist, explain what you want. Then you wait.

Here's how the doctor sees it: An e-mail arrives from the receptionist. The doctor reads the message in between seeing other patients, sends a message to the medical assistant, who calls the patient. It could be 15 minutes or more.

An online system, which made it possible for 120,000 patients at Santa Cruz Medical Foundation to check their medical records online, receive lab results and make an appointment for free, now allows them to e-mail their doctor for a fee of $5 a month.

Patients will have to decide whether they would rather phone for free or pay to use e-mail.

Dr. Michael Conroy, 46, an internal medicine specialist, is among the early adopters of the new system.

On Friday, he responded via e-mail to a patient who had a blood test drawn by another physician, looking for his advice based on the results.

"I got a clear, unfiltered message from the patient and replied immediately," he said. "It saves patients' time so they don't have to wait on the phone."

The new system was championed by Dr. Paul Tang, chief medical officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, parent of the Santa

Cruz Medical Foundation. Tang is an advocate of electronic health records and a member of a new organization formed to promote the creation and use of a nationwide health information system.

More here:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_12022205

It is inevitable that e-mail will be used more for doctor / patient communication and it is also inevitable that some way to pay for the doctor’s time needs to be found if it is to happen. This seems sensible to me. Will be interesting to see how it works out.

Fifth we have:

Wales publishes pathology shortlist

31 Mar 2009

Six companies have been shortlisted as potential providers to develop a national pathology laboratory system for Wales.

The procurement is expected to award a £7.9m national contract for pathology services to become available in 2010.

The Welsh IT agency Informing Healthcare has announced that Cerner, Clinisys, EMIS, iSoft, InterSystems and Technidata have been selected to respond to a more detailed requirement following publication of an Official Journal of the European Union procurement notice.

Informing Healthcare said 17 companies submitted proposals to deliver the new all-Wales Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), a national networked pathology system that will replace the 13 systems currently in use across 18 pathology laboratories.

More here:

http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/4706/wales_publishes_pathology_shortlist

This looks like it will be a pretty large Lab System implementation given it will serve about three million people!

DOD, VA set new target for lifetime health record

The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have formed a working group to pursue a joint lifetime electronic heath and benefits record for service members, veterans, and their families.

Rear Adm. Gregory Timberlake, director of the DOD/VA Interagency Program Office said yesterday the decision to form the group was made March 24 at a meeting of the Joint Executive Council, chaired by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki.

The idea to start the group followed discussions between Gates and Shinseki with White House staff, which has expressed interest in the project.

Timberlake told a gathering of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association in Washington March 26 that the objective of the group is to explore making a “lifetime longitudinal virtual electronic record” for service members, veterans, and their beneficiaries.

Lots more here:

http://govhealthit.com/articles/2009/03/27/joint-lifetime-health-record.aspx

This seems sensible for the US – given the US Veteran’s Affairs Department provides a lot of care both in service and afterwards.

Seventh we have:

Foundations for modern NHS have been laid

Monday 30th March 2009

The foundations for the creation of a modern, joined-up IT service in the NHS have now been laid, says the head of NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CfH) in an interview with BCS magazine HI Now.

Mr Bellamy will make a keynote speech on the second day at April’s HC 2009 conference Shaping the Future, in Harrogate.

Mr Bellamy, who is Director of Programmes and Systems Delivery at the Department of Health, is expected to tell delegates how systems already delivered in the NHS are helping real people. He will also point to the priorities for the next 12 months, including the deployment of care record systems like Cerner and Lorenzo, in large hospital trusts.

So far, he points out, complex central projects such as N3, the Spine, NHS email systems, PACS, C&B, and Electronic Prescriptions have been successfully delivered.

More here:

http://www.hospitalhealthcare.com/default.asp?title=FoundationsformodernNHShavebeenlaid&page=article.display&article.id=16203

NHS bashing is always a fun sport but the truth is that progress has been made, which is not to be sneezed at, given the size of the health system involved. Certainly there is more to come and it would be good if the rate of progress could accelerate!

The full detailed interview is found here:

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/analysis/2239460/interview-martin-bellamy-head

Interview: Martin Bellamy, head of NHS Connecting for Health

The man in charge of the NHS National Programme for IT reveals his goals for the future of the £12.7bn project

Written by Helen Wilcox

Eighth we have:

Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Americans yearn to be young. So it is little wonder that RealAge, which promises to help shave years off your age, has become one of the most popular tests on the Internet.

According to RealAge, more than 27 million people have taken the test, which asks 150 or so questions about lifestyle and family history to assign a “biological age,” how young or old your habits make you. Then, RealAge makes recommendations on how to get “younger,” like taking multivitamins, eating breakfast and flossing your teeth. Nine million of those people have signed up to become RealAge members.

But while RealAge promotes better living through nonmedical solutions, the site makes its money by selling better living through drugs.

Pharmaceutical companies pay RealAge to compile test results of RealAge members and send them marketing messages by e-mail. The drug companies can even use RealAge answers to find people who show symptoms of a disease — and begin sending them messages about it even before the people have received a diagnosis from their doctors.

While few people would fill out a detailed questionnaire about their health and hand it over to a drug company looking for suggestions for new medications, that is essentially what RealAge is doing.

Full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/technology/internet/26privacy.html?_r=2&ref=business

Nice expose! I must say. I sure would not touch it now I know its covert purpose!

Ninth we have:

Institute to Support Wireless Innovation

A foundation, integrated delivery system and wireless services vendor have teamed to create the West Wireless Health Institute to support the use of wireless technologies in health care.

The Gary and Mary West Foundation in Carlsbad, Calif., has committed $45 million to establish the San Diego-based institute. Scripps Health in San Diego is the founding health care affiliate. Qualcomm Inc. is the founding sponsor.

More here:

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/research-27974-1.html

The institute web site can be found here:

http://www.westwirelesshealth.com/

This seems like good news to get some serious research done with some serious funding!

Tenth we have:

Stimulus Funds Can Lead to Health Information Exchange Networks

Kathryn Mackenzie, for HealthLeaders Media, March 31, 2009

With the announcement that the federal government's plans to spend $19 billion to spur the use of computerized patient records, the industry has a renewed interest in how and when hospitals should begin to adopt electronic health records.

But what about hospitals already entrenched in EHR? What's next for them?

Physicians at the Medical Clinic of North Texas have been using an EHR for nearly 10 years, says CIO Mike Yerrid. He will be focusing on expanding into the health information exchange arena, to connect other physicians within the Dallas-Fort Worth region, with the eventual goal of establishing a medical home model.

"We are a large primary care medical group, and there's value to exchanging our electronic information with other groups in the area," says Yerrid. "We're hoping people will join the game. We're trying to sell the benefits and create an attractive package for specialists and primary care groups."

More here:

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/print/content/230720/topic/WS_HLM2_TEC/Stimulus-Funds-Can-Lead-to-Health-Information-Exchange-Networks.html

An important question – how to make sure those that are already rolling keep pushing the barriers and improving.

Eleventh for the week we have:

15 workers fired for accessing octuplet mom's file

By the Associated Press

Posted: March 31, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT

Fifteen hospital workers have been fired and another eight disciplined for looking at medical records of octuplet mother Nadya Suleman without permission, hospital officials said.

Kaiser Permanente Bellflower (Calif.) Medical Center reported the violations of healthcare privacy laws to the state and has warned employees to keep away from Suleman's records unless they have a medical purpose, the 218-bed hospital’s spokesman Jim Anderson said.

More here (registration required):

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090331/REG/303319992

Somehow people don’t learn..a tough time to get fired!

Twelfth we have:

‘Usability’ missing ingredient in CCHIT formula

Posted: March 31, 2009 - 5:59 am EDT

In response to the Health IT Strategist reader poll: "HITS readers have proposed that the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology consider ease of use before certifying an EHR system. Do you believe CCHIT's EHR certification criteria should include a usability rating?":

The stimulus act, at least as far as funding EHR systems goes, is betting the farm that existing, traditional EHR systems will succeed, and solve much of the healthcare industry’s woes. The incentives assume that all that needs to be done is fund it for practices that are reluctant or financially unwilling to risk the investment. Based on the "success" of EHR systems over the past 10 years, this bet could be akin to AIG's bets on credit default swaps.

The high EHR failure rate is largely attributable to the fact that either they are just too hard to use for many physicians, or slow them down too much. Stimulus funding for EHR deployment depends on too many nonfinancial barriers being solved by (inadequate) financial incentives. While the hard-dollar cost of an EHR is certainly a concern to many physicians and practices, that problem would not even be solved by providing these traditional EHR products free of initial costs to each of them. "Usability" is an essential missing ingredient in the CCHIT formula.

.....

Jack Callahan

Executive vice president -Corporate development

SRSsoft

Montvale, N.J.

More here (registration required):

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090331/REG/303319988/1031

Can I say I have to agree.

Others are also noticing this issue:

See here for example.

http://www.usercentric.com/about/newsletter2009Q1-wyee.php

Understanding the Impact of EHR Interfaces

Walking a Mile in Physicians' Shoes

and here:

http://www.usercentric.com/about/newsletter2009Q1-usability-stimulus.php

Usability's Role in the Stimulus Package

Thirteenth we have:

New law helps open source

The economic stimulus law mentions health information technology dozens of times, establishing an agenda to promote electronic health records, form standards committees and work out health information privacy and security impasses.

However, the $20 billion package also contains a more obscure provision that has buoyed hopes among advocates of open-source technologies projects that have struggled to gain acceptance in the health IT marketplace.

Tucked away in the law is a call to explore open-source technologies in the healthcare setting. The provision directs the Health and Human Services Department to conduct a report on the “availability of open-source health information technology systems.”

More here:

http://govhealthit.com/articles/2009/03/30/arra-open-source.aspx?s=GHIT_310309

This is good news..I will look forward to the report.

Third last we have:

Hospitals breaking DPA every day

31 Mar 2009

The BMA says hospitals are breaking the Data Protection Act on a daily basis by sending referral correspondence to the senior partner in a practice rather than the referring GP because of changes to hospital software.

The Personal Demographics Service was changed in 2008 to record patients as registered with a practice rather than with an individual doctor, reflecting changes agreed in the 2004 GMS contract. Some hospital patient administration systems are also set up in the same way, although newer versions include a field for ‘usual GP.’

The BMA’s General Practitioners Committee says hospitals are either not using the facility to select ‘usual GP’, or do not have it and are not taking the time to find out who the referring GP is when sending letters to practices.

However NHS Connecting for Health told EHI Primary Care that correspondence is only sent to the senior partner when the referring GP is not known and it would not change its systems further unless GMS regulations changed.

Much more here:

http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/4709/hospitals_breaking_dpa_every_day

This is interesting as it has potential impact here and certainly could impact on the design of systems for discharge summary transmission. (DPA is the Data Protection Act – which has a similar role to parts of our Privacy Act – old and proposed)

Second last for the week we have:

Hospital-to-hospital health information exchange begins

Published: Wednesday, 1-Apr-2009

LifeBridge Health has begun an electronic exchange of health information between its two hospitals, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and Northwest Hospital, and Saint Agnes Hospital, a community hospital with an overlapping service area.

When patients arrive at Sinai, Northwest or Saint Agnes hospitals, an electronic query is sent to the other organization requesting clinical information. Any clinical information that is electronically available is returned to the requesting hospital in less than three minutes.

This health information exchange (HIE) is the first example of a hospital-to-hospital exchange in Maryland. The exchange allows for the standards-based exchange of clinical summaries that were based upon the Continuity of Care Document (CCD). The solution is entirely built on HealthUnity's HIE software and Microsoft's NET platform and servers.

LifeBridge Health utilizes Cerner's PowerChart as its electronic medical record (EMR) platform, and Saint Agnes Hospital uses Meditech for its EMR. LifeBridge Health received a grant from CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield to fund this project.

"Our HIE project is a unique partnership between two leading providers and funded by a major payer. We demonstrated in a short period of time the interoperability between different information technologies used by two independent provider organizations," said Karen Barker, vice president and CIO for LifeBridge Health.

The system is completely automated allowing for standards-based clinical summary exchange to support continuity of care between providers without negatively impacting their workflow.

More here:

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=47726

It is good to see standards based information flows supporting actual interoperation between systems.

Last for this week we have:

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Blumenthal Has Tiger by the Tail as New National Coordinator for Health IT

by Bruce Merlin Fried, Esq.

We should all be pleased by the announcement that David Blumenthal will be the next national coordinator for health IT. I won't recount Blumenthal's many accomplishments and honors since they are readily available through a Google search.

I will share with you my impressions of him and why I think he is the right person for the job. Beyond his significant abilities as a physician, Blumenthal for many years has been a serious student of health care policymaking and public policymaking in general. It is precisely this breadth of view that I think makes his selection particularly insightful.

Some in the health IT community may be unfamiliar with Blumenthal's background. Indeed, I would not classify him as a health IT wonk. But that is not what is needed at this juncture in the development and execution of a workable national health IT policy.

Instead, as we confront the real opportunities and challenges offered by the health IT incentives found in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we will quickly learn that offering cash to physicians and hospitals for "meaningful use of certified electronic health records" is not enough to create the data-driven health care system that lies at the heart of health care reform. It is his wide range of experience and involvement in so many aspects of the health care policy debate that leads me to believe Blumenthal is the right guy for this job at this time.

Very much more here:

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/Perspectives/2009/Blumenthal-Has-Tiger-by-the-Tail-as-New-National-Coordinator-for-Health-IT.aspx

I think Bruce is right here. This is a huge task. The good thing is that someone who might pull it off has been chosen. His resume is indeed awesome.

The New York Times has already also noticed in an editorial.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/opinion/02thu2.html?_r=1&hpw

April 2, 2009

Editorial

Miles to Go on E-Health Records

There is an amazing amount happening (lots of stuff left out). Enjoy!

David.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and Corruption – What is Going on in Victoria Health?

Over the last week or two there has been a very nasty story emerging from the Victorian Public Health System. It seems it has more than its fair share of fibbers!

This report provides the initial flavour of what has been going on.

Buck stops with me, says Health Minister Daniel Andrews

Article from Herald Sun:

Staff writers with AAP

March 31, 2009 10:15am

STATE Health Minister Daniel Andrews says he will take full responsibility as details of falsified public hospital waiting lists emerge.

At a meeting with the state's public hospital chairs yesterday Mr Andrews put all hospitals on notice that inaccurate reporting would not be tolerated.

Mr Andrews announced Victoria's public hospitals would be subject to random audits which may include data on elective surgery and emergency treatments after an independent audit revealed the Royal Women's Hospital (RWH) had fudged its figures on elective surgery wait times.

"I take responsibility for these matters,'' he told ABC radio.

"It's been occurring, it should not have been occurring and I will not hesitate to act against any further evidence that's put forward.''

He said auditors had found no evidence to indicate senior management or the board knew about the practice which dates back to 1998.

A minister-appointed delegate will now join the RWH board to oversee the implementation of improved hospital reporting procedures.

Mr Andrews warned manipulating data would not be tolerated.

"Every single hospital is on notice this is inappropriate behaviour and I will not tolerate it,'' he said.

"All the chairs of the major hospitals came to my office yesterday... and I made it very clear to them that it is my expectation and the community's expectation that they record their data accurately and in turn they report their data accurately to the Department of Human Services.''

The $40 million bonus funding pool available to high performing hospitals has also been scrapped.

Much more here:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,27574,25266415-2862,00.html

As if this was not enough it seems there were more than just one hospital involved and that the issues were genuinely systemic.

Hospital waiting lists scandal grows

  • Nick Miller and David Rood
  • April 1, 2009

MORE Victorian hospitals have been dragged into the waiting list rorts scandal, after government records revealed suspicious anomalies across many health services and a whistleblower described how the Austin Hospital was allegedly falsifying data.

The records, obtained by the state Opposition under freedom of information, implicate the Austin Hospital as the most likely to have improperly manipulated surgery waiting lists.

But they also point the finger at the Royal Melbourne, the Angliss, Royal Children's, Sunshine and Western hospitals.

Most of these hospitals were part of a government scheme that gave hospitals extra money for reaching waiting list targets.

At the Austin and Royal Melbourne, more than a third of patients were transferred from a secret "not-ready-for-care" waiting list to the official waiting list only a couple of days before their operations.

The Opposition said this was strong evidence the hospitals were "warehousing" patients on the secret list to make waiting times for surgery appear smaller.

An audit last week found the Royal Women's Hospital was using this method to misrepresent waiting times.

In other data, some hospitals reported unusually high levels of "patient-initiated deferrals" — patients who supposedly decided they were not ready for their operation.

The Royal Women's, which has admitted rorting the system, reported an incredible 99 per cent of deferrals initiated by the patient rather than a doctor.

Even more revelations here:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/hospital-waiting-lists-scandal-grows-20090331-9iaz.html

While I often have a different perspective from the AMA this commentary I think is on the money as far as it goes.

Nothing but the truth

  • Doug Travis
  • April 1, 2009

Patient treatment is being compromised as hospitals try to work the system.

THE Victorian community has been dismayed to learn that a trusted institution, the Royal Women's Hospital, has been falsifying and manipulating reporting data. Yet, as the Victorian Government acts to stamp out the perverse incentives that have led to data manipulation, the Commonwealth is ready to impose reporting requirements across the health system that may reinvent those incentives.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon should therefore be watching this story unfold and considering the lessons learned.

Good information is the lifeblood of good health care. For an individual patient, the more a doctor knows of his or her history and diagnostic profile, the more likely a good outcome. To protect the health of the community as a whole, we need accurate and complete reporting. Manipulated and falsified data means that Government cannot adequately plan for the future health needs of Victorians.

Presenting a rosy picture hides the problems in our health system. For example, because of overstated successes, governments have held back on tackling bed shortages in Victorian hospitals. These shortages have become critical in recent years, meaning that bad data is compromising safe and effective patient care.

Other hospitals may be found to have manipulated data. AMA members suggest that several hospitals have set up systems that appear designed to meet key performance indicators (KPIs) rather than good patient care, such as creating short-stay units attached to emergency departments. The definitions of "time to care" are tweaked in some hospitals to produce a more favourable KPI outcome.

.....

I hope Roxon is watching the Victorian health system closely to see what perverse incentives can do to resources, planning and quality care. We must report accurately and truthfully to be accountable to the community.

The bottom line problem is that the truth can be embarrassing. Let's address the problem, not by spinning the statistics to avoid embarrassment, but by treating enough patients, so that the truth does not embarrass us.

Doug Travis is president of AMA Victoria.

Read the full commentary here:

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/nothing-but-the-truth-20090331-9i8j.html

There are a range of lessons here:

The first is not to stand between hospital administrators and an extra bucket of money where the money can be had by providing a statistical report. This sort of perverse incentive will always ensure dodgy data.

The second is that if you are to reward Key Performance Indicators (KPI) you design them to be derived from operational systems that there is a very strong incentive to have being accurate – i.e. systems where the information gathered matters not only to the person collecting and recording it but to those further on in the patient’s care chain. They will soon complain if they are seeing rubbish being entered as they are relying on accuracy to get their treatments and care right.

The third is that, ideally, all KPIs are captured totally automatically, and invisibly, as a by product of the delivery of patient care. That way there is way less capacity for any fraud and information deception.

Of course this third assumes we have high quality, joined up, integrated systems in whatever facility we are funding. Sadly I suspect this is not the case and until it is the capacity for the odd manual fudge will exist. Until an e-Health nirvana arrives the best that can be done is to ensure that the intrinsic design of KPIs makes them fraud resistant.

As I have said previously, it is not the hospital staff who are really to blame here. It is the designers of the incentives and those who choose to fund the system in ways that put the staff under stress.

David.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Health IT Components of Garling Report Response from NSW Health – Looks Pretty Pathetic.

To start a little background.

New body to assess if hospitals measure up

  • Louise Hall and Alexandra Smith
  • March 30, 2009

HOSPITALS and their departments will be assessed on performance measures such as infection rates and distance a patient has to travel for treatment in an overhaul of the NSW health system's public reporting.

Today the Health Minister, John Della Bosca, will announce an independent bureau to collect, analyse and report on the safety and quality of patient care in public hospitals.

Peter Garling recommended setting up an independent bureau after his special commission of inquiry into the health system. The Government will release its response to his report today.

"The information collected is to be directed to how well the patient has been treated, not to process-driven, often politically driven, data which may make administrators more comfortable, but not the patients," Mr Garling's report says. The $5.8 million Bureau of Health Information is one of the "four pillars of reform" he recommended.

In his wide-ranging critique of a public health system "on the brink of collapse", Mr Garling said an independent bureau would identify, develop and publish patient care measurements at arm's length to the Government.

This would include a patient's ability to gain access to hospital services and other community and home-based health services, as well as how quickly a patient could access services and how far they needed to travel from home to receive care. Clinical performance including the outcome and quality of treatment would also be published as well as the costs of care.

Mr Della Bosca said the bureau would make hospital data more transparent and enable information analysis at a local level, which had been urged by many doctors and nurses consulted during the process.

More here:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/new-body-to-assess-if-hospitals-measure-up-20090329-9fm1.html

Health IT improvement was a major focus of the Garling Report Review of NSW Health. Somehow it seems however to have slipped through the cracks to quite a dramatic degree.

The response document mentions technology only 9 times

Let’s consider each of the recommendations and response comments in order.

The first (general) mention is on page 15.

“Prioritising of the information communications technology program rollout will support clinicians in providing safer care for patients, assist in removing red tape on recruitment and enable better management of equipment and other assets.”

Just what priority is not made clear and one really wonders how it is that safer patient care is dealt with in the same sentence as removing recruitment red tape and improving asset management?

Now to the relevant specific recommendations.

Page 16

Recommendation 2.

In order to improve the availability of interpreting services in public hospitals for non-English speaking patients, each Area Health Service must investigate the sufficiency of, and ensure the adequacy of, the hands free communication equipment available in each hospital to maximise the opportunities for the use of the telephone interpreter service.

Response. – Supported as Stage 1 – Immediate Action.

NSW Health will investigate current equipment and technology options and consider requirements in specific locations (e.g. a dedicated interpreting services line in emergency departments) to ensure access.

Blog Comment:

Not actually supported – just will investigate what might be done. Not very convincing. Easy to commence an investigation that goes nowhere.

Page 32

Recommendation 50

NSW Health should cooperate with and support the National E-Health Transition Authority including in particular developing appropriate policies to and platforms which govern the manner of and the circumstances sufficient to permit general practitioners, specialists, allied health professionals and community health clinicians, who are located outside the hospital, to gain access to relevant parts of, and information from, the electronic medical record generated within NSWpublic hospitals.

Response – Supported – Immediate Action.

The NSW Government has supported the introduction of centralised electronic health records and is pursuing the development of these in conjunction with the e-health strategy being considered by the Council of Australian Governments.

Blog Comment:

Of course it is supported because it the response totally avoids NSW Health actually having to do anything! No actual mention of improving access to information for GPs etc.

Page 33

Recommendation 51

Within 4 years NSW Health should complete the current information technology program including the following stages:

Timing

Stage 1: 12 months

Infrastructure

Stage 2: 18 months

Electronic medical record

Patient Administration System

Stage 3: 24 months

Human Resources Information System

Business information strategy

Medical imaging

Intensive care

Hospital pharmacy system

Stage 4: 36 months

Community health system redevelopment

Automated rostering

Clinical Documentation

Medication management

Stage 5: 48 months

State-wide roll out of the electronic health

Record

Response - Supported with modification and a different slower timeframe.

Commissioner Garling acknowledged that ...NSW Health has embarked upon one of the largest IT projects in the country (p7, 1.48). NSW Health will prioritise implementation of the Information Communications Technology (ICT) program within the Health capital program with a new rostering system, planning for a community health system and improved infrastructure progressing during 2009/10 to better support patient care. The program has already started and NSW Health will continue to prioritise work with commencement of the entire program staged over the next five years.

NSW has piloted the use of an electronic health record but the timing of implementation depends on national action and funding. NSW Health will be funding its contribution to the National E-Health Transition Authority to enable it to continue its existing work program towards the establishment of a national e-health records service.

Blog Comment:

What this actually says is “we plan to ignore Commissioner Garling on this as we like our own much slower and less expensive plan. We also plan to do nothing on shared EHRs that we have conducted an inconclusive pilot on until someone stumps up some extra funds”

Page 34

Recommendation 58

In order to ensure compliance with the NSW Health policy on the mandatory provision of discharge summaries to a general practitioner the GP Liaison Officer in each hospital is to institute a regular process of checking and auditing:

(a) the provision of a discharge summary;

(b) the accuracy of and the sufficiency of the discharge summary; and

(c) where appropriate, the legibility and readability of the

discharge summary.

Response – Supported Immediate Action

Statewide introduction of the electronic medical record commenced in January 2009 and will improve information sharing between NSW hospitals and general practitioners. In the interim, auditing on discharge summaries will be included on the internal audit program in each Area Health Service.

Blog Comment:

This might come as news to many! I wonder how many people presently have these records? Interesting that the response does not seem to answer the question at all as best I can read it. Just what does an internal auditor know about the quality of discharge summaries. Obfuscation alert with this one!

Page 48

Recommendation 113

Within 18 months, every public hospital in NSW ought be fitted with a digital radiological imaging system, such as PACS, or a compatible system thereto, which will enable the electronic transmission of medical images to remote locations for use in clinical treatment, reading and interpretation.

Response – Supported sort of and to go more slowly.

Consistent with the Information Communications Technology Program, NSW Health will action within 26 months rather than 18 months.

Blog Comment:

Again it seems NSW likes their slower implementation time-frames. Forgetting that there is public outrage about the degradation of their public health system the bureaucrats sail on unperturbed.

Page 52

Recommendation 129

Within 24 months, NSW Health should establish a central State-wide equipment asset register recording details of fixed assets with an acquisition value greater than $10,000 and attractive assets greater than $1,000. Details recorded in the register should, as a minimum, include:

(a) the purchase price;

(b) the date of acquisition;

(c) the estimated life expectancy (usability) or contract expiry date;

(d) the half-life usability assessment date; and

(e) the location of the asset.

Response – Supported – Stage 3 – Within 18 months.

NSW Health will establish a more comprehensive registration and reporting system for assets and include leased equipment. NSW Health has already introduced the Health Asset Management and Maintenance System (HealthAMMS) in three Area Health Services, which is an enabling technology tool specifically to assist health services in the effective management and maintenance of their facilities and biomedical equipment. A strategy has also been completed for the rollout the HealthAMMS application to other Area Health Services

Blog Comment:

Typical we want to count the widgets but not assist patient care and safety.

In summary, given the strong emphasis Commissioner Garling and many submissions made about the need to get the Health IT in the system up to scratch this is really a non-response. Sadly this is exactly as expected! The only good thing I can see in the information management area is the Bureau of Health Information proposal – but, unsupported by rich operational clinical systems this is not likely to make the different that the Commissioner desired.

David.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Useful and Interesting Health IT News from the Last Week – 05/04/2009.

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

First we have:

Sullivan Nicolaides leak exposes hypocrisy

Article from the Courier Mail.

March 30, 2009 11:00pm

THE initial reaction of pathology giant Sullivan Nicolaides to news that the medical details of hundreds of its clients had found their way on to the internet for all to see was to label The Courier-Mail reporter who told the company of the breach a "terrorist".

Its behaviour has not improved much since, despite what appears to be a major failure involving the security of its patient records.

The company seems to be having trouble grasping the idea that this episode is more than a public relations problem that needs to be managed. Its internal inquiry into the incident should include a thorough examination of its security systems so that patients are reassured their private records are locked away from prying eyes. As well, the company's executives should have a good look at themselves and ask whether their behaviour in relation to this breach was in the best interests of their employer or the public.

Sullivan Nicolaides and its major competitors constitute Australia's largest pathology services providers. Given that Australians are living longer and benefiting from increasing sophistication of medical diagnosis, more and more people are accessing the services these companies provide, and trusting their privacy will be protected in the process.

.....

That there have been 50 reports of privacy breaches by companies or governments since August suggests some organisations have a problem reconciling what they say about respecting individual privacy and how they treat the confidential information given to them by those individuals. The media should not be criticised for bringing that problem to light.

More here:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,25265407-13360,00.html

Can I suggest that, as I began with last week, the it is the Courier Mail that has been really rather sad in all this and this editorial makes the point quite nicely. If they identified the problem they should have let S&N know, allow them time to fix it and then maybe publish about it. That way the harm would not have been perpetuated and those patients who were affected would know that the issues have been addressed. Sure there was a breech, but the victims were sadly the patients and the Courier Mail totally ignored their interests as far as I see it.

No wonder a key part of many corporate risk management plans in Queensland is to have a well developed strategy as to how to handle abuse from this essentially monopoly organ of the press.

A bit more of their hysterical reporting is found here:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,25266776-3102,00.html

Online leaks splash confidential medical details on net

Article from Courier Mail

Anna Caldwell

March 30, 2009 11:00pm

I note no other media have picked up the story as far as a Google News search is concerned. Sensible I suggest.

Second we have:

The View from the Cross
Dr Raymond Seidler

Time to press the panic button

Friday, 3 April 2009

IN a week when the RACGP sends out a survival kit for GPs containing information on how to deal with difficult or violent patients and a rural New South Wales GP, Dr Hamish Steiner, appears on The New Inventors with a panic button that sends out a silent duress alarm to all other computers on a practice network, we have the awful reality of one of our colleagues, GP Theo Rothonis, being stabbed in his Waterloo practice by a 65-year-old patient.

We don't know the mental state of Dr Rothonis' attacker, but Waterloo, like Kings Cross, has a higher level of mental illness than the wider population.

Most psychotics are victims of assault rather than perpetrators. However, many chronic schizophrenics are now managed by GPs with little assistance from an overstretched public mental health system and psychiatrists who would rather treat depression and anxiety than the sharp end of psychosis. Emptying out psychiatric hospitals has not been a successful move.

For those of you who believe in synchronicity, perhaps these events are linked in some perverse way. They should provide us with an opportunity to become serious about our own protection.

More here:

http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/Blog/12/34/Default.aspx

Violence against GP’s is a worrying problem. This sounds like a useful technical idea.

Third we have:

THE RUST BUCKET

April 3, 2009

Healthcare calls

By Len Rust

Healthcare is an issue that touches us all. Unfortunately an outmoded delivery system and budgetary pressures have compromised our ability to provide adequate public healthcare in many locations.

Every time we encounter the healthcare system, information about our background, medical history, health status, and insurance coverage is immediately required. And every medical encounter produces another trail of documentation.

Despite some dazzling use of technology the medical industry lags behind other industries in the application of ICT in many areas. Physicians and their staff still carry thick manila folders filled with pages of handwritten notes. Doctors often query patients about their medical history because the needed information is buried deep inside their files.

Due to pressure from governments, budgetary issues, and consumer reactions to spiralling costs, the time may well have come for enforced health IT activity. Health care providers have always lagged behind other industry sectors in their adoption of ICT. Now, authorities need to act.

Interoperability standards and policies need immediate attention. Studies of the benefits of health IT have found enough evidence to conclude that technology can improve compliance with medical treatment guidelines to reduce medication errors and decrease the use of unnecessary medical care. There is also a need for a roadmap for community hospitals and a wider array of community health operators Australia-wide.

More here:

http://www.rustreport.com.au/

Good to see the mainstream ICT press discussing Health IT.

Fourth we have:

Commentary

7:35 AM, 2 Apr 2009

Alan Kohler

Investors lose heart

There are many small tragedies within a global disaster like this, and one of them is Ventracor – for years one of Australia’s leading biotech prospects.

Two weeks ago, Ventracor went into voluntary administration and is now, amazingly, facing complete closure. It has no debt and a technology that works: 400 people are walking around in the United States with its artificial heart whirring in their chests.

Over more than a decade a group of Australian shareholders has put $200 million, and a dedicated staff of medical scientists have put their lives, into developing an Australian artificial heart. It is now licensed for use in Australia and Europe and is on the brink of FDA approval in the US.

Yet administrator Steve Sherman of Ferrier Hodgson has enough cash to last no more than a couple of months. Unless he can find a corporate buyer, the company will simply close and the IP on its device will be picked up at a garage sale. The shareholders will get nothing.

And the signs don’t look good at this stage: the board has been trying to sell the IP or the company for six months, with no takers, which is why they gave up and called in Steve Sherman earlier this month.

More here:

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Investors-lose-heart-pd20090402-QPRRX?OpenDocument&src=sph

This is a good analysis of how a high tech company can go very bad, very quickly. Some worthwhile lessons here for the technical entrepreneur.

Fifth we have:

New treatment 'zaps' high blood pressure

  • Nick Miller
  • March 31, 2009

MELBOURNE researchers have developed a new surgical technique that "zaps" nerves around the kidneys to dramatically reduce high blood pressure.

They say the technique could benefit more than a million Australians — and millions more around the world — at high risk of heart attack or stroke from high blood pressure that resists conventional drug treatments.

"(The problem is) pretty much a time bomb," said lead researcher Associate Professor Markus Schlaich, of the Baker IDI Institute.

"This resistant hypertension causes a dramatic increase in cardiovascular risks, and there's no other way we can help."

Around a third of adult Australians have elevated blood pressure, of whom one in six have a form that drug treatments either cannot fix or cause bad side effects.

The technique uses a catheter with a radio energy emitter on the end. It is inserted into an artery in the groin and travels up to the blood vessels around the kidney. There it "switches off" the nerves in the sympathetic nerve system involved in regulating blood pressure.

More here:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-treatment-zaps-high-blood-pressure-20090331-9h7n.html

Some very interesting Australian research that has received international coverage.

If you have access the Wall St Journal coverage is here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123846254881572087.html#mod=djemHL

Old Blood-Pressure Treatments Make High-Tech Comebacks

By RON WINSLOW

ORLANDO, Fla. -- More than a half-century ago, doctors treating patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure might resort to crude and invasive methods such as severing nerves or zapping neck arteries with an electrical charge.

Both strategies reduced blood pressure, but the procedures came with such major complications that they were reserved essentially for life-and-death situations. With the development of modern drugs, the treatments fell by the wayside.

Sixth we have:

Action video games improve eyesight

March 30, 2009

Article from: Reuters

ADULTS who play a lot of action video games may be improving their eyesight, US researchers say.

They said people who used a video-game training program saw significant improvements in their ability to notice subtle differences in shades of grey, a finding that may help people who have trouble with night driving.

"Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery - somehow changing the optics of the eye," said Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York, whose study appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"But we've found that action video games train the brain to process the existing visual information more efficiently, and the improvements last for months after game play stopped."

For the study, the team divided 22 students into two groups. One group played the action games "Call of Duty 2" by Activision Blizzard Inc and Epic Games' "Unreal Tournament 2004." A second played Electronic Arts Inc's "The Sims 2," a game they said does not require as much hand-eye co-ordination.

More here:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25263043-23289,00.html

Very interesting little study and an interesting outcome of game playing!

Lastly some slightly more technical news:

Conficker's makers lose big, expert says

Hackers' work was for nothing as attention mushroomed, argues Symantec exec

Gregg Keizer 02 April, 2009 07:43

The malware makers who crafted Conficker must be extremely disappointed, a security expert said Wednesday, and not because the Internet didn't come crashing down as some of the wildest speculation had predicted.

"All of their work has gone for naught," said Alfred Huger, vice president of development for Symantec Corp.'s security response team, referring to the hackers who created the Conficker worm.

Ironically, it was the extraordinary success of Conficker that made the hackers' work essentially a wasted effort, Huger said. "Most of the work done on Conficker was because of all the attention it got, absolutely," he said, pointing to the drumbeat of coverage since the worm first surfaced in November 2008, and the frenzy that led up to today, when its newest variant started switching to a new communications scheme.

"This is the biggest worm, in terms of press coverage received, since we experienced Code Red," Huger noted. Code Red, which struck Microsoft Corp.'s server software in 2001, slowed networks to a crawl. "And that's great. I think the threat was genuine, and without all the attention, it could have been a big problem."

Much more here:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/297817/conficker_makers_lose_big_expert_says?fp=16&fpid=1&pf=1

Seems this was all a bit of a beat up – so far. I wonder whether there will be a sting in the tail.

If concerned about it – the fix is available here:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/security/how-to-avoid-a-conficker-infection/2009/04/01/1238261613224.html

How to avoid a Conficker infection

April 1, 2009 - 7:58AM

On a different note:

10 operating systems the world left behind

AmigaOS, CP/M, OS/2, DOS -- which OS do you miss the most?

Matt Lake 03/04/2009 08:02:00

You're not really supposed to love an operating system. It's like your car's hydraulic system, your digestive system or the global financial system. It's supposed to do its job -- and not get in your way while you're doing yours.

But like your car, your guts and the economy, computers are more complicated than they seem. And so are our feelings about them.

As the tech community gears up to celebrate Unix's 40th birthday this summer, one thing is clear: People do love operating systems. They rely on them, get exasperated by them and live with their little foibles. If that's not the basis of a lasting love, I don't know what is.

So now that we're more than 30 years into era of the personal computer, Computerworld writers and editors, like all technology aficionados, find ourselves with lots of memories and reactions to the operating systems of yesteryear. We have said goodbye to some of them with regret. (So long, AmigaOS!) Some of them we tossed carelessly aside. (Adios, Windows Me!) Some, we threw out with great force. (Don't let the door hit you on the way out, MS-DOS 4.0!)

Today we want to honor a handful of the most memorable operating systems and interfaces that have graced our desktops over the years. Some of them lasted for years. Some of them had remarkably short lives but inspired trends that we are benefiting from to this day. And a few of them ... well, they were just cool for school.

The world may have left these operating systems behind, but some of us didn't. A few die-hards are hanging onto ancient hardware just to keep those beloved operating systems running. Others have reverse-engineered the OS code in open-source projects. And some of us still have those old Install disks, waiting for the right computer to come along so we can relive those days of yore.

So, what's on the far side of your software shelf?

More here:

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/296895/10_operating_systems_world_left_behind?eid=-6787

Just a little bit of nostalgia for the oldies – sadly I can remember and have used at least ½ of these!

More next week.

David.