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."

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Weekly Overseas Health IT Links - 12th November, 2011.

Note: Each link is followed by a title and few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
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Study: EMRs with decision support improve patient monitoring, not outcomes

November 2, 2011 — 1:58pm ET | By Marla Durben Hirsch - Contributing Editor
Electronic medical records linked with clinical decision support technology don't necessarily improve patient outcomes, a study recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine finds.
Published Oct. 24, the study analyzes the use of a vascular tracking and decision support system linked to EMRs used by primary care practices in Ontario, Canada. The decision support system tracked patients' body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as other risk factors. It also included personally tailored electronic risk monitoring and treatment advice between physicians and patients. The linkage led to increased monitoring of the patients' risk factors, but didn't improve their risk factor profiles, according to the study.
"Computerized decision support systems [CDSSs] linked with electronic medical records are promoted as an effective means of improving patient care. However...no consistent evidence of an effect on patient outcomes has been found," the authors said.
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Oracle Apps to Manage Cerner's Cloud Services

HDM Breaking News, November 3, 2011
Cerner Corp. is using enterprise cloud management software from Oracle Corp. with its new Skybox initiative to provide cloud-based hosting of information systems.
The service, announced in October, will use cloud storage technology from San Diego-based Nirvanix and support usage-based pricing, data analytics and access to aggregate data from other providers using the service. The Oracle Enterprise Manager suite of applications will support an on-demand infrastructure with such functions as messaging and virtual desktops.
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By Joseph Conn

A guide for the health IT-perplexed

Encountering the world of healthcare information technology is a lot like being a first-time foreign tourist in Las Vegas. We've all been puzzled by the flash and the alien language of this industry at one time or another.
Some of my own memories of that befuddlement came flooding back this week when I started reading a new guidebook to the healthcare IT, "Meaningful Use and Beyond," published by O'Reilly and co-authored by open-source health IT mavens Fred Trotter and David Uhlman.
The target audiences of the book are veteran IT professionals from other industries and recently minted college computer science majors who might be looking to start careers in health IT.
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Software issue blamed for bad Rx instructions

Posted: November 3, 2011 - 4:00 pm ET
Lifespan Corp. said it notified the Rhode Island Health Department after discovering that 2,000 patients from its hospitals in the state had been discharged with incorrect prescription instructions because of a software issue.
Lifespan has contacted 90% of the patients who may have received a prescription for a time-release form of medication rather than a regular formulation prescription. The software error started in July 2010 at Bradley Hospital, according to the news release.

4 best health IT innovations within the past year

October 24, 2011 | Michelle McNickle, Web Content Producer
New health IT was anywhere and everywhere in 2011, promising ways to streamline data and increase patient care. Now, with even more technology on the cusp of the mainstream market, it’s only natural to wonder what’s the best.
That’s why we asked Ahmed Ghouri, MD, co-founder and CMO of Anvita Health, what he believes were the most influential new technologies within the past year and what will be game changers in the years to come. “If you look at the stages of healthcare we’re going through, the first is structural, which includes CPOE, EMRs, and health information exchanges," said Ghouri. “So data management in storage, and data exchange. I think once we solve the structural problems, it will be like creating a Web browser; dramatic value is created once everyone is on the Internet. It’s not just getting online, but also doing things with the data online.”
Ghouri believes we’re making progress in the structural aspects of healthcare, and the most innovative health IT isn’t in the area of data gathering but rather data interpretation. “I would say they’re the most important things in terms of their long-term significance,” he said. “But we’re still early in their widespread adoption.” 
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Hospitals Fall Short On Meaningful Use

While more hospitals say they meet stage 1 of the electronic health record incentive program, 53% say they still aren't ready, finds study.
By Nicole Lewis,  InformationWeek
November 03, 2011
There's good news and bad news in the latest research from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). The good news is that from February to September 2011 there has been a 16% increase (from 25% to 41%) in the number of eligible hospitals saying that they are likely to meet criteria for stage 1 of Meaningful Use. The bad news is that 53% of hospitals say they cannot meet 10 or more of the 14 core requirements set out in stage 1.
The survey, Summary of Meaningful Use Readiness, reflects that hospitals increasingly recognize the need to adopt health IT, but also face many challenges as they attempt to transition from paper-based medical charts to digitized medical records.
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Stimulus funds will build state health exchanges but might not sustain them

Federal stimulus funds are paying to build or expand systems enabling health care providers within each state to share patient information, but state officials are concerned about how to keep paying for the programs once the federal money runs out, an iWatch News survey reveals.
And with states adopting a wide variety of different software for electronic health record exchange, officials are also worrying about how to get those different systems to talk to each other across state lines ( see sidebar [3]).
The creation of these exchanges within all U.S. states and territories is part of a much larger push for use of electronic records in health care. Most of the attention has been focused on $27 billion worth of Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments that are going out to doctors, hospitals and clinics for switching their patients’ information from print to digital; providers must also demonstrate they have followed government guidelines in using the technology in a “meaningful” way. But a less-noticed provision of the same 2009 stimulus legislation made $548 million [4] worth of grants available to the states to set up information exchanges that would allow health care providers to send, receive and share patient information within a state.
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Physicians, patients disagree about EHR safety

November 2, 2011 — 10:14pm ET | By Marla Durben Hirsch - Contributing Editor
Physicians are more likely than their patients to view electronic health record systems as safer than paper records, according to a survey released this week by web-based EHR vendor Practice Fusion. 
Conducted by research company GfK Roper, the survey found that a little more than half of responding physicians (54 percent) believe that EHRs are safer, while only 39 percent of patients feel the same. Inversely, only 18 percent of physicians see paper records as the safer alternative, compared with 47 percent of patients who say that paper is safer.
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Privacy and Security in the Implementation of Health Information Technology (Electronic Health Records): U.S. and EU Compared

By Janine Hiller, Virginia Tech; Matthew S. McMullen, Martinelli &McMullen Professional Services; Wade M. Chumney, Georgia Institute of Technology; and David L. Baumer, North Carolina State University
Introduction
The United States spends the equivalent of 16% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare, a larger percentage than any other comparably sized developed country. As the pressure to reduce ballooning healthcare expenditures continues to rise, information technology, and in particular the implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), is identified as one potential method to create efficiencies and reduce costs. However, “studies suggest that fewer than one fifth of the doctors’ offices in the United States offer EHRs.”
Other countries have made more significant progress; Denmark, for example, has an e-health records system that almost universally links patients/citizens and medical professionals.
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October 31, 2011, 11:24 am

Big Data, Speed and the Future of Computing

By STEVE LOHR
Big data is, yes, about more data — the rising flood from corporate databases, Web browsing trails, sensors and social network communications. But it is just as much about speed.
If “big data” is more than a marketing term, it has to be the raw material for making smarter decisions, faster. And that means, as the big-data industry evolves, the need for groundbreaking new approaches to computing, both in hardware and software.
A simple example: the Watson question-answering computer that beat two human “Jeopardy!” champions earlier this year had to pore through vast quantities of data and come back with an answer in less than three seconds.
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ONC delays permanent EHR certification program

November 3, 2011 — 3:25pm ET | By Dan Bowman
The permanent health IT certification program for Meaningful Use of electronic health records, which was to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012, has been pushed back until at least next summer by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, in a Federal Register notice today, said that after consulting with current ONC-Approved Accreditor, the American National Standards Institute, the organizations said there will not be enough ONC accredited testing laboratories or authorized certification bodies until the summer of 2012, reports Health Data Management.
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  • November 1, 2011, 12:10 PM ET

Doctors, Like Their Patients, Use Google for Health Information

Doctors: they’re just like us!
General web browsers like Google and Yahoo are behind only professional journals and colleagues as a source of information physicians frequently use to diagnose and treat patients, according to a survey of more than 300 doctors.
The survey, from Wolters Kluwer Health, covered a sample of American Medical Association members, both primary-care physicians and specialists.  We weren’t too surprised to hear that “spending more time with patients” ranked highest on a list of areas in which doctors would like to see improvement. Nor was it particularly shocking to read that expense is a big barrier to adopting new health technologies.
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Docs believe EHRs safer than paper, but patients still ambivalent

November 02, 2011 | Mike Miliard, Managing Editor
SAN FRANCISCO – A new survey finds a majority of physicians believing that electronic health records are safer than their paper counterparts, citing accessibility of data as the top safety benefit.  But patient perception remains mixed with nearly half of respondents believing paper records are safer.
Conducted by GfK Roper on behalf of Practice Fusion, the survey polled patients about their views on the safety of EHR versus paper charts; a separate survey posed the same questions to medical professionals.
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Written by Beth Walsh
October 31, 2011

CHIME: HIE growth continues

SAN ANTONIO—The health information exchange (HIE) market is wide and growing, said Jason Hess, research executive vice president for KLAS. He spoke on the topic during CHIME11, the Fall CIO Forum last week.

Other key factors of the current HIE market include:
  • The bulk of the growth is on the private side.
  • Most physicians have to leave their own workflow to view HIE data.
  • Future funding is a big concern for public HIEs.
  • The cream of the HIE vendors is slowly rising to the top.
  • HL7 is still more popular than clinical care documentation.
The number of public HIEs has increased from 37 to 67 since 2009, Hess said, and private HIEs have increased from 62 to 161. HIEs are not considered live until they are actually exchanging data, not just when they are populated or contracted.
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HHS issues call to action with health app challenge

November 01, 2011 | Molly Merrill, Contributing Editor
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a new challenge Monday, calling on developers to create applications that can help solve the "Leading Health Indicators" (LHIs) that were identified as critical health priorities during the American Public Health Association's annual meeting.
The winning app will help public health professionals track, measure and report on progress in these critical public health areas, officials said.
 “The LHIs are a call to action in critical public health areas that demand our immediate attention,” said Howard K. Koh, MD, HHS assistant secretary for health. “We can solve the most pressing health problems in this country, and the LHIs prioritize our actions for a healthier future.”
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NIST: Make EHRs More User-Friendly

National Institute of Standards and Technology solicits input on how to make electronic health records better, safer.
By Nicole Lewis,  InformationWeek
November 01, 2011
The National Institute of Standards (NIST), in conjunction with public and private sector stakeholders, has called on the healthcare community to help evaluate electronic health records (EHRs), examine the human factors that are crucial to their design, and assist with guidance on the development of usability engineering practices.
An October 27 webcast focused on NIST's recently released Technical Evaluation, Testing, and Validation of the Usability of Electronic Health Records, draft guidelines that review the rationale for an EHR usability protocol (EUP).
The guidelines outline procedures for expert evaluation of an EHR user interface from clinical and human factors best-practices perspectives. They also offer guidance on how to conduct validation studies of EHR user interfaces with representative user groups on realistic EHR tasks.
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ONC will coach consumers about privacy, security in HIE

November 01, 2011 | Mary Mosquera
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will conduct a nationwide campaign to educate the public about the importance of privacy and security in the electronic exchange of their personal health information. ONC said it will include consumer attitudes and preferences when mobile devices are used to communicate health data.
ONC will gauge responses from 40,500 consumers and health professionals over the next two years to help guide its strategies, messages and websites, according to an announcement in the Nov. 1 Federal Register.
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M-healthchester

A mobile health ‘ecosystem’ in Manchester is trying to find a cure for ‘pilotitis’. Shanna Crispin reports on an attempt to overcome a major stumbling block in the industry that is being watched across Europe.
If the European mobile healthcare market is suffering from a severe case of ‘pilotitis’, then Manchester is looking for a cure.
The European mHealth Alliance (EuMHA) has established an ‘ecosystem’ in the city; the first of what it hopes will be many ecosystems focussed on facilitating implementations of mobile health technology.
The intention is relatively straightforward. The Alliance wants to stop people simply talking about the potential of mobile technology and trying it out in small scale projects, and get it embedded into the healthcare environment.
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Steve Jobs and e-health - The future of medicine

Pressemitteilung von: iHealth France
(openPR) - The untimely death of Steve Jobs has led to a number of testimonials from the medical community. The innovator, whose products have transformed the way doctors, nurses and other actors in healthcare provide patient care, died on October 5, 2011.
Mobile devices created by Steve Jobs, including the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch - and health applications developed specifically for these devices - have allowed doctors, nurses and patients to understand, access and share clinical data in a much easier manner than before. Similarly, medical information and data found on these devices have improved the way in which doctors perform their clinical duties on a daily basis and have improved the general level of healthcare. An example is iHealth, the first intelligent blood pressure monitor compatible with iPhone, iPod or iPad. iHealth is a major step forward for telemedicine because it allows patients to measure and transfer their blood pressure (BP) data and because it allows for better management of home health care. With iHealth, the user can send results directly to his doctor and can avoid many of the complications associated with medical examinations.
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EHR Training: Are Your Doctors Fully Prepped?

Clinicians need more EHR instruction than they now receive, report says.
By Nicole Lewis,  InformationWeek
October 31, 2011
If clinicians hope to use electronic health records (EHR) to improve patient care, they will have to be fully versed in how to use them--but a new survey suggests they are not getting the training they need. An AmericanEHR Partners report reveals doctors need at least three to five days of EHR training, but nearly half (49.3%) receive three or fewer days.
The survey, summed up in The Correlation of Training Duration With EHR Usability and Satisfaction: Implications For Meaningful, interviewed more than 2,300 physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who use nationally certified ambulatory EHR products. The poll was conducted between April 2010 and July 2011 to gauge views and attitudes regarding the respondents' satisfaction with EHR systems.
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CHIME: The difficult life after CPOE, EHR go-live

Written by Beth Walsh   
October 31, 2011
SAN ANTONIO—When Hospital Sisters Health System, a 13-hospital system in Wisconsin and Illinois, implemented computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and EHR, everything seemed fine—for a little while. Just a couple of months after the installation, William Montgomery, CIO, received a letter from the physicians listing 38 issues that they wanted fixed within two weeks.
Montgomery and Robert Schwartz, MD, MPH, physician executive with Dearborn Advisors, discussed Sisters’ situation during CHIME11, the Fall CIO Forum last week. The organization, with a $1.8 billion budget, 15,000 employees and 2,800 beds moved to “care integration” in 2008.
Half were known issues at other hospitals in the organization and another quarter were related to training, he said. The installation team was taken aback by the letter, including the physician champion.
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10 technologies to embrace before EMRs

October 31, 2011 | Michelle McNickle, Web Content Producer
It's no secret EMRs can be complex and confusing, and despite the buzz surrounding their implementation, health IT expert Shahid Shah believes some organizations are better off taking things slow. 
"Although most people who are new to healthcare IT always point to EMRs as the most important application, there are many different healthcare IT applications that make up the 'industry' as a whole," said Shah. "When you’re dealing with healthcare IT, EMRs might be a good entry point for some folks, but it’s actually more likely that EMRs aren’t your first place to start your automation journey."
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By Joseph Conn

Seeking EHR construction, not deconstruction

Health information technology pioneer Tom Munnecke has been thinking a lot these days about a plan by the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to update the department's VistA electronic health-record system.
Munnecke would like to avoid replicating the multibillion-dollar problems that have befallen the Military Health System in first modifying the VA's health IT system—killing off its core interoperability functions in the process—and then degrading even further that result by squandering a bunch more money creating a wobbly successor system called AHLTA.
His concern, shared by others in the VistA community, is that VistA will be "refactored" from its current database and programming language, MUMPS, to something new, sleek and sexy, but that the redevelopers miss what made VistA great in the first place.
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6 Steps to Creating a Connected Health Program

Gienna Shaw, for HealthLeaders Media , October 26, 2011

A successful connected health program, in which patients use information, technology, and other tools to engage in their own care and self-manage conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, involves a lot of preparation. In fact, the planning for a connected health program begins well before you even launch a pilot program.
Any kind of change will be resisted by an equal, opposing force, observes Susan Lane, RN, corporate manager of technology and operations for the Partners Center for Connected Health (PCCH), which hosted its annual symposium in Boston last week. To create a program that can grow, you must have a clear focus and put measurements in place that will translate to a final scaled program if the pilot is successful, she said. 
Connected health programs use technology to deliver care outside of the provider setting. For example, a program might connect patients and physicians via remote monitoring and e-visits and allow patients to upload their own data and track it online. The technologies and tools track medication adherence, weight, blood pressure, and other vital signs.
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James Read remembered in lecture

1 November 2011   Lyn Whitfield
Tim Benson gave the first James Read Memorial Lecture last month in memory of James Read, the clinical coding pioneer, who died this summer.
The founder of Abies, who worked with Dr Read and others on some of the first GP systems in the 1980s, talked about how he came to start a coding system for diagnoses in computerised records.
He also talked about how the task grew as Dr Read realised that it would need to cover all aspects of a patient’s medical history.
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GP2GP has busiest ever week

31 October 2011   Rebecca Todd
GP2GP had its busiest week this month, with nearly 18,000 patient records transferred electronically as students started university.
NHS Connecting for Health said 17,824 electronic healthcare records were transferred using GP2GP in the week commencing 17 October.
One quarter of patients registering with a practice using GP2GP now have their record sent electronically to their new doctor.
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http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/110111-how-e-health-records-improve-healthcare-252617.html

How e-health records improve healthcare: a cancer patient's story

By Lucas Mearian, Computerworld
November 01, 2011 11:20 AM ET
Pam Crum was 22 weeks pregnant in October 2004 when she noticed a red rash on one breast. Her doctor thought it was simply an inflammation that sometimes occurs in lactating mothers. Over a couple of weeks, the rash worsened. Then a lump formed.
Crum was sent to a breast surgeon for a more thorough examination, and a month later she got the diagnosis: stage 3 inflammatory breast cancer.
"I was just really shocked, because all along I had been thinking it was probably some odd issue related to the pregnancy," she recalled recently. "I remember thinking, 'I have to really focus on beating this illness because I have two daughters.' I knew my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter would be devastated. And, we were already so attached to the [unborn] baby, we just couldn't imagine something happening to her. I thought, 'I just take this day by day.' "
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Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Virtual Nurse Will See You Now

In the hectic world of a hospital, a computer-simulated nurse can be surprisingly comforting.
Researchers at Northeastern University have developed a virtual nurse and exercise coach that are surprisingly likable and effective—even if they're not quite as affable as the medical hologram on Star Trek. In fact, patients who interacted with a virtual nurse named Elizabeth said they preferred the computer simulation to an actual doctor or nurse because they didn't feel rushed or talked down to.
A recent clinical trial of the technology found that Elizabeth also appears to have a beneficial effect on care. A month after discharge, people who interacted with the virtual nurse were more likely to know their diagnosis and to make a follow-up appointment with their primary-care doctor. The results of the study are currently under review for publication.
"We try to present something that is not just an information exchange but is a social exchange," says Timothy Bickmore, associate professor in Northeastern's College of Computer and Information Science. Bickmore led the research. "It expresses empathy if the patient is having problems, and patients seem to resonate with that."
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Healthcare Innovation Advice for Technology Leaders

Gienna Shaw, for HealthLeaders Media , October 31, 2011

Innovation and change were common themes at this year's College of Healthcare Information Management Executives annual forum—from the challenge of working in a disruption-averse industry to the changes that healthcare will face in coming years, whether healthcare leaders want to face it or not.
The U.S. must move toward lower-cost caregivers and venues of care, said keynote speaker Clayton Christensen. To do so, disparate groups must overcome their reluctance to collaborate and share power to adopt changes that make common sense, would make care more convenient, and save money.
For example, he said, nurse practitioners could play a bigger role in administering colonoscopies, but physicians object. Meanwhile, physicians say they could do colonoscopies in their own offices, but hospitals object.
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Leavitt: HIT standards development slow, but U.S. on the right track

October 26, 2011 — 7:29pm ET | By Ken Terry
Michael Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services during the second term of President George W. Bush, expressed strong support for the Obama Administration's health IT incentive program during a keynote speech at CHIME's Fall CIO Forum this week in San Antonio.
Responding to a question about how he would rate the program, Leavitt said, "I would have loved to have had $18 billion" for health IT when he ran the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
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To keep valued health IT staff, show a little love

October 28, 2011 | Bernie Monegain, Editor
SAN ANTONIO, TX – Steven Bennett, vice president of recruitment firm, Kirby Partners, got right to the point.
“I do love your unhappy employees,” he told an audience of about 100 CIOs Thursday at the annual fall forum of the College of Health Information Management Executives. “If it’s not me who calls, it’ll be some other recruiter."
Bennett noted that health IT employment, which has long been a buyers’ market, is now a sellers market. The applicant pool is quickly dwindling, he said, and with demand forecast to grow at 20 percent a year until 2018, it’s not likely to change soon.
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IBM, Georgia Tech Point Data Modeling At Kids Health

Project seeks to identify factors contributing to health outcomes of pediatric patients with asthma, autism, and diabetes.
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee,  InformationWeek
October 27, 2011
IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technology are launching a new data analysis and scientific modeling project to study the impact of socioeconomic status, education, transportation, and other factors on the health of kids in Georgia with diabetes, autism, and asthma.
The study, which also involves partnerships with Emory University, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia Cancer Coalition, and the Georgia Department of Community Health, also plans to examine how current fee-for-service models of payment to healthcare providers in the United States might be transformed so that clinicians can better align time and care with treatments that show the best outcomes and cost effectiveness.
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How To Get People To Fill Their Prescriptions

By Ed Silverman // October 27th, 2011 // 8:49 am
Everyone knows that getting some people to fill their prescriptions can take more effort than should be expected. Some forget. Some worry about side effects. And as the stagnating economy stagnates still more, it is not surprising that many people simply decide they cannot afford to pay for a medicine. A new study, however, suggests that greater use of e-prescribing may cure this ill.
To examine adherence trends, the researchers reviewed 423,616 e-prescriptions and learned that 24 percent went unfilled, a rather large chunk. Besides cost and formulary placement - the usual suspects when sorting out why prescriptions are not filled - the study authors say that more people would go the distance if prescriptions were transmitted electronically from doctor to pharmacy.
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Bill would give EHR users legal protection

Posted: October 28, 2011 - 11:15 am ET
Rep. Thomas Marino (R-Pa.) introduced legislation that would offer limited legal protection to the Medicare and Medicaid providers that use electronic health records.
The Safeguarding Access for Every Medicare Patient Act would reduce costs, guarantee incentives for providers to continue to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and promote the use of health IT systems, according to a news release from Marino's office.
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The 6 hidden costs of EHRs

October 27, 2011 | Drew Nietert, CPHIMS
If you haven’t spent much time analyzing the costs of EHRs, this part of the process may be an eye opener. Why should one consider the hidden costs of EHRs?
EHR costs are much more than just the initial purchase, implementation and maintenance fees.  If a budget misses the hidden costs, an implementation could fail, degrade over time and worst-case scenario – bankrupt an organization.
To help sort out these expenses, several broad cost categories should be considered: Initial, Repeat, Future and Special Project costs.  
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VA wants 100,000 staff to take tablets

27 October 2011   Shanna Crispin
The US Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to implement a nationwide plan that will include giving up to 100,000 healthcare workers tablet computers.
The VA is the largest integrated healthcare system in the US, serving 5.4m veterans out of 7m eligible current and former service members.
In procurement documents, it says that providing efficient information technology for healthcare workers is key to delivering benefits and services to its members, and that this information should be made available efficiently at the point-of-care.
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Blumenthal's 4 keys to successful health information exchange

October 22, 2011 — 3:18pm ET | By Dina Overland
The successful exchange of health information among providers and insurers, as well as other healthcare players, will "unleash capabilities we can't even imagine," making the entire healthcare industry "even more productive," David Blumenthal, former national health IT coordinator, told attendees at the Pega Collaborative Healthcare Summit in Boston on Wednesday.
That's why Blumenthal said that getting patient information flowing throughout the continuum of care is one of the most important steps the industry can take, calling it the "next frontier."
Successful health information exchange (HIE) requires an "ultra large system" that's dynamic, innovative, and emergent enough that it adapts as healthcare changes in the future. But before such an HIE system is implemented, there are multiple challenges to overcome. Blumenthal noted that creating a robust exchange system isn't only an IT problem; rather, it's a problem of social, cultural, legal, institutional, economic, and political proportions. "The technical part is actually the least challenging aspect" of getting an HIE system up and running, he said.
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Enjoy!
David.

Friday, November 11, 2011

It Seems The PCEHR is Down The List For Managing Chronic Illness. There Are Better Things To Do!

I spotted this article a few days ago.

5 ways IT can manage chronic diseases

November 01, 2011 | Michelle McNickle, Web Content Producer
When it comes to costly care, those with chronic diseases tend to take the cake. But, in recent years, studies have shown IT can help manage these diseases, all while cutting down costs and improving quality. 
We asked Fred Pennic, senior advisor with Aspen Advisors and author of the blog Healthcare IT Consultant, to show us some of the ways IT is currently helping manage chronic diseases: 
1. Patient monitoring tools/medical devices. According to Pennic, medical devices that offer patient monitoring tools help patients manage their own chronic diseases, such as diabetes, weight management and more. “As time progresses, more medical devices will be created to combat the demand of self-monitoring tools, which will allow patients the freedom to manage their chronic diseases,” he added. Not to mention, studies have proven patient-friendly devices positively impact patient acceptance, dosage compliance and health outcomes. In fact, patients are willing to pay more for ease of use, and they’re making informed decisions when it comes to tools and devices already on the market. 
2. Mobile applications. Mobile apps have become a mainstay not just for professionals, but also for patients. They're "important tools that allow patients to simplify their disease management,” said Pennic. “With mobile apps and widgets, patients can access a variety of information within an arm’s reach.” Pennic added that mobile apps such as My Asthma Tracker, GI Monitor, various blood pressure trackers and OnTrack Diabetes provide a myriad of tools to help patients monitor their disease on their smartphone. 
3. Clinical decision support systems.
.....
4. Health information exchanges/patient portals.
.....
5. Telehealth.
.....
More here:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/5-ways-it-can-manage-chronic-diseases

The comments around item 4 are very interesting.
“Pennic said health information exchanges provide professionals with the interoperability of sharing health information across multiple organizations. “And this provides patients with more efficient care, which improves the management of chronic diseases,” he said. “This doesn’t only reduce the redundancy of patient care, but also gives healthcare providers better capabilities to manage chronic diseases.” In addition, health information exchanges can help avoid any gaps in history when a patient visits another organization.”
Again we hear the message that what matters is optimising information flows between providers - which is clearly just not the focus of the PCEHR. Most especially in the chronic disease situation it is vital to make sure there is reliable and trustworthy communication between all the different care providers to ensure we minimise the issues of having people ‘fall between the cracks’!
Additionally, it is the chronic care situation where consent for information exchange is the easiest to come by as the sicker patients are the ones who what to make sure no-one does the wrong thing with their care in an information vacuum. Once we have it working then is the time to develop patient access tools to the information held by their primary care provider - not the other way around.
On that topic I note there is some work underway to refine the already over-engineered shared care summary that is meant to be a core element of the PCEHR.
As I looked at these draft plans which are being consulted upon (to a restricted audience as usual because of the haste all this is being done) - and the lack of any authenticated individual log on to access the PCEHR - I realised that the risk of taking information held in the PCEHR system seriously is rather high. This is because if you act on what you read - and it later changes - there won’t be any easy way to know medico-legally just how the system looked at the time of your particular access. The implication of this is that the state of the system as the time of each access needs to be part of any audit trail - which can’t be live and robust without full implementation of NASH.
If the clinician has to check each fact found in the PCEHR with the patient the utility of using the system drops rather dramatically.
Those designing the shared care record would be well advised to keep the shared summary very, very basic to start with!
I do wish this program was being much better managed and planned than seems to be the case.
David.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

An Update On The Progress of E-Health in The Shaky Isles. There Seems To Be Some Action!

A day or so ago the following press release piqued my interest in what was going on in NZ.

Important changes to accessing to personal medical records

West Coast DHB Friday 04 November 2011, 9:48AM
Media release from West Coast DHB
A new way of managing personal medical records is being introduced on the West Coast, and residents are encouraged to actively 'opt-in' to the system.
The Share for Care system is being introduced this month by Healthy West Coast. It is a way to safely share a summary of a person's General Practice based electronic health information with other health care providers on the West Coast.
Share for Care allows health workers approved access to necessary information. This will improve the care people receive across the health care system, for example at the pharmacy or at the hospital's Emergency Department.
David Meates, West Coast DHB Chief Executive, says while it is important medical records are protected for privacy reasons, medical staff also need to be able to quickly access information to ensure effective provision of the best patient care.
"Share for Care does this. Although, to ensure the system works, people have to sign a form to opt-in to the process. There is a choice to opt-out but that also requires a form to be signed," Mr Meates says.
'Opt-in' forms can be completed and returned to a person's general practice.
People who want to be excluded from the system also need to complete the appropriate form and return it to their general practice before November 30 to ensure their records will not be available to anyone other than the health provider who holds them (such as their GP).
If neither an opt-in nor an opt-out form is completed, health records will be available only in an emergency outside the general practice.
Mr Meates says a secure system is in place to ensure records are protected from being casually or inappropriately accessed and more personal information, such as notes made by a doctor or practice nurse, are not included in the information shared.
"This is a logical move to getting patient records more effectively stored for quick efficient access by those people providing health care," Mr Meates says
"We are urging people to take a quick moment to fill in the opt-in form so there is smooth access to their records when needed."
Mr Meates says the Healthy West Coast hopes to eventually expand the system to allow patients to be able to access their own medical records online.
• Opt-in and opt-out forms are available at all pharmacies, general practices, medical centres, DHB facilities and the West Coast Messenger or can be downloaded online at www.shareforcare.health.nz , www.westcoastpho.org.nz or www.westcoastdhb.org.nz
• More information is also available from general practices and pharmacies
The release is found here:
This prompted me to ask my mate Tom Bowden for a quick update on the state of play over there.
Here is what I received (published with permission):
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New Zealand’s health sector has decided it is time to take further steps to use IT to improve healthcare delivery. After several years with 100% of GPs using electronic medical records (since 2000) and being rated as one of the world’s most joined up health sectors (the average GP communicates electronically with 58 other parties, we are top of the Commonwealth Fund comparisons), the race is now on to make a patient’s records available to all providers involved in a patient’s care. 
Rather than develop a national strategy, build an architecture over several years and work through a Gordian knot of standards, funding arrangements and competing interests, the dwellers of the shaky isles have quietly pushed out their canoes and started paddling fiercely toward the far horizon (hoping they have their charts the right way up).  As of today, at least three politely competitive initiatives are trying to establish their bona fides in this space.  While some may take the view that contesting the exact approach to take is inappropriate, I believe that experimentation goes hand in hand with innovation and that by trying different health records paradigms we will learn from each others’ efforts and eventually settle upon a good approach, ideally it will be open, standards based and be replicable in a range of settings.
Following Hillary Clinton’s advice to “never waste a good crisis”, the good citizens of Christchurch decided to use the Canterbury earthquakes as an opportunity to try and create a universal patient health record in their region, ably assisted by local PCEHR expert Orion Health.  Armed with a toll free opt out number the eSCRV (electronic Summary Care Record View) burst into life a week ago, as a limited trial, ready to discover the myths and realities of an ‘opt out’ shared health record system.
See news item
Meanwhile, across the Southern Alps another breed of New Zealander, the rugged individualists of the West Coast region decided that a slightly more conservative approach was needed and with an opt in system (except in emergencies) this system is now in place also.  Both the Canterbury and West Coast systems involve aggregation of data into a shared record which is made available as needed.
See details here
Further north, in the Nelson and Napier regions, healthcare providers are experimenting with a third approach, in this one, no records are aggregated, they are dynamically accessed from general practices and pharmacies, at the point of emergency care, with the patient’s consent, on an as needed basis.  This system has been in place since March and its use is growing steadily.
See details
Further north again, the Auckland region is going live with an online referral system that will see all hospital referrals electronic, using online forms and a web services interface by March 2012.  This is one of the most advanced online referrals initiatives anywhere.  A large scale collaboration taking over two years to come to fruition, it is a very comprehensive approach to the transfer of care between primary and secondary care providers.
See details
A key point is that none  of this locally driven innovation requires any central government involvement except to keep an eye on use of standards (which we all view as most important).  Each of these projects involves extensive collaboration between local health authorities and vendors.
We are pretty busy right now with all of this but will be happy to let you know which of these new HIT paradigms are working best over the next 12- 24 months.  It is an exciting time to be involved in New Zealand healthcare IT.
Kind regards,
Tom
Disclosure of Interest:  Tom Bowden is CEO of HealthLink, the company that provides the CareInsight service used in the Nelson and Hawkes Bay regions and the CareConnect eReferrals system.
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Many thanks Tom for the summary!
The number of lessons that flow from this are really legion. Among the most obvious are the totally ‘bottom-up’ driven approach, the use of a single common standardised communications infrastructure, an approach based on a small start and grow from there and so it goes on.
There is no doubt NEHTA and DoHA need to keep these basic initially provider centric approaches in mind as the over complex PCEHR totters off its pedestal. The Opposition could also look closely to this as a rather more vendor friendly approach to making some real progress in e-Health.
David.

The Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA) Has Lost Patience With NEHTA. This Is Getting Serious.

The following appeared today.

Medical software group raises e-health safety issues

  • by: Karen Dearne
  • From: Australian IT
  • November 10, 2011 12:00AM
The peak medical software group is concerned about the Healthcare Identifiers service.
THE Medical Industry Software Association has warned unresolved patient safety and liability concerns relating to the year-old Healthcare Identifiers service leave members at risk of liability "for any and all adverse outcomes" arising from use of the service.
"Implementers should take legal advice with respect to potential liability, inform their software indemnity insurers and ensure end-users sign comprehensive waivers," the MSIA says in a white paper adopted by members at its annual CEO Forum last month.
The eight-page white paper -- obtained by The Australian -- was provided to all members of the Healthcare Identifiers (HI) stakeholders working group, including the National e-Health Transition Authority, federal Health department and Medicare, for their consideration.
Members should consider implementing existing Medicare Online patient checks for Medicare and Veterans’ Affairs numbers "as a proven alternative without the risks of fines and criminal liability", the paper said.
"Members have been concerned about the safety and clinical liability aspects of the current service since the specifications were first made publicly available.
"More than six months was spent negotiating with Medicare in an attempt to have it accept liability for system failures or data errors. Medicare refused to do so."
The current HI developer agreement is "restricted solely to accessing Medicare’s development environment, while the use of the live HI service is governed by the HI legislation and associated regulations".
"This leaves software implementers potentially liable for any and all adverse outcomes arising from incorrect functioning of the system or bad data supplied by the service," the paper said.
"Given the failure of the Medicare Online patient verification facility for Medicare numbers two years ago, this is not a theoretical risk."
In February 2010, a serious glitch in Medicare’s systems involved the potential incorrect updating of up to 30,000 patient records held in doctors’ own systems after a coding error during routine maintenance.
Medicare was alerted by software vendors who noticed the problem, but the agency was slow to act. Eventually, it was forced to write to 2700 medical practices, warning them to check for flawed data return messages generated over a three-day period.
"It is known that the Medicare data is not perfect, despite investing a large effort in cleaning its patient data over the past two years," the MSIA said.
"However, it is possible that duplicate and/or replicate IHIs will occur either in its database, or be introduced by operator or system errors in patient management and downstream systems.
"At present, even if Medicare is aware of a problem with an IHI, it has no mechanism for informing anyone."
The MSIA said it had repeatedly requested a copy of a patient safety risk assessment of the HI service apparently conducted a year ago from Medicare, the Health Department and the National e-Health Transition Authority. The information is needed by its members who are tasked with upgrading their products to interface with the system.
Much more here:
I don’t need to comment - the white paper says it all.
Download that from here:
David.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Fascinating Approach To The Use Of Health IT in Difficult Cases. Worth A Read.

The following interesting article appeared in the NEJM a few days ago.

Evidence-Based Medicine in the EMR Era

Jennifer Frankovich, M.D., Christopher A. Longhurst, M.D., and Scott M. Sutherland, M.D.
November 2, 2011 (10.1056/NEJMp1108726)
Many physicians take great pride in the practice of evidence-based medicine. Modern medical education emphasizes the value of the randomized, controlled trial, and we learn early on not to rely on anecdotal evidence. But the application of such superior evidence, however admirable the ambition, can be constrained by trials' strict inclusion and exclusion criteria — or the complete absence of a relevant trial. For those of us practicing pediatric medicine, this reality is all too familiar. In such situations, we are used to relying on evidence at Levels III through V — expert opinion — or resorting to anecdotal evidence. What should we do, though, when there aren't even meager data available and we don't have a single anecdote on which to draw?
We recently found ourselves in such a situation as we admitted to our service a 13-year-old girl with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Our patient's presentation was complicated by nephrotic-range proteinuria, antiphospholipid antibodies, and pancreatitis. Although anticoagulation is not standard practice for children with SLE even when they're critically ill, these additional factors put our patient at potential risk for thrombosis, and we considered anticoagulation. However, we were unable to find studies pertaining to anticoagulation in our patient's situation and were therefore reluctant to pursue that course, given the risk of bleeding. A survey of our pediatric rheumatology colleagues — a review of our collective Level V evidence, so to speak — was equally fruitless and failed to produce a consensus.
Without clear evidence to guide us and needing to make a decision swiftly, we turned to a new approach, using the data captured in our institution's electronic medical record (EMR) and an innovative research data warehouse. The platform, called the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment (STRIDE), acquires and stores all patient data contained in the EMR at our hospital and provides immediate advanced text searching capability.1 Through STRIDE, we could rapidly review data on an SLE cohort that included pediatric patients with SLE cared for by clinicians in our division between October 2004 and July 2009. This “electronic cohort” was originally created for use in studying complications associated with pediatric SLE and exists under a protocol approved by our institutional review board.
Much more here (free access):
This just shows how valuable physician EMRs can be in the hands of specialists to address the thorniest of questions. The clinical problem here was very tricky and there was no rule book. What there was, was a system that could provide a chance of getting the best outcome for a young girl with a problem where the text-books - even the big ones - were of no use.
The authors are to be commended for what they did!
David.

The Issue Of The Safety of Deployment and Use Health IT Is Becoming Hotter. We Need To Pay More Attention!

The following appeared a few days ago.
Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Health IT: A Boon or Bane for Patient Safety?

WASHINGTON -- Last week, health care experts warned that although health IT adoption holds much promise, there is a risk for unintended patient safety consequences.  
The experts were part of a panel discussion, titled "International Perspectives on Patient Safety and Health Information Technology," at the American Medical Informatics Association's 35th Annual Symposium on Biomedical and Health Informatics.
Rainu Kaushal -- director of the Center for Healthcare Informatics and Policy at Weill Cornell Medical College, and director of pediatric quality and safety at the Komansky Center for Children's Health at New York Presbyterian Hospital -- said there are documented patient safety benefits for certain technologies in certain settings.
For example, one study found a 20% decrease in inpatient mortality after the implementation of a computerized provider order entry system, while another study found that a stand-alone electronic prescribing system led to an 85% decrease in medication errors, Kaushal noted.
However, Kaushal said that there has been limited research on the unintended risks of health IT use and how those risks can be addressed.
Dean Sittig -- a professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston -- said he believes health IT can improve patient safety, but "we're not doing it optimally."
Sittig said that EHR-related errors can occur when:
  • EHR systems are unavailable because of a power outage or other incident;
  • An EHR malfunctions;
  • An individual incorrectly uses an EHR system; or
  • An EHR system interacts with another health IT system component incorrectly.
He said he is "a little worried" that the meaningful use incentive program could complicate patient safety issues as the country experiences rapid advances in EHR development, implementation and regulation.
Former National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal said, "Safety is absolutely important," but he noted that safety is always a concern whenever a new technology or new drug is introduced.
Blumenthal, a Samuel O. Thier professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, noted that improving patient safety and care quality is one of the five main goals of the meaningful use incentive program.
Blumenthal said, "There has been and there will continue to be controversy" over whether the meaningful use program "was the right solution." However, he said it is "way, way too soon to reach judgment" and it will "be years before we'll know with clarity if it was successful."
How To Bolster Safety of Health IT Systems
Sittig said improvements are needed in EHR design, development, implementation and evaluation, including oversight.
He compared the strategy of improving the safety of health IT systems to previous efforts by the National Transportation Safety Board to boost the safety of cars through policies related to speed limits, seat belts, airbags and anti-lock brakes.
Sittig said that new safety features and practices likely will place an additional burden on clinical users and vendors, just as putting on a seat belt takes a few extra seconds for passengers in a car. However, Sittig said he is confident that such safety practices will be well worth it in the long run.
Sittig offered three recommendations for limiting EHR-related errors that could jeopardize patient safety:
  • Identification of best practices for design and development of EHR systems;
  • Better monitoring and analysis of problems from the field; and
  • Development of a culture of high reliability.
.....

MORE ON THE WEB

Lots more here:
This issue was emphasised by this announcement a day or so ago.

IOM to release new report on health IT and patient safety

November 04, 2011 | Bernie Monegain, Editor
WASHINGTON – Citing concerns raised over the potential harm that could stem from a digital healthcare system, the Institute of Medicine, best known for its 1999 report on medical errors “To Err is Human,” is poised to release another report – this time on the risks associated with electronic health records.
IOM will make its report, “Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care,” public on Nov. 10 at a briefing in the nation’s capital.
The federal government is investing billions of dollars to encourage hospitals and healthcare providers to adopt health information technology so that all Americans can benefit from the use of electronic health records by 2014,” said IOM officials in a statement. “However, concerns about potential harm are emerging as providers increasingly rely on electronic medical records, secure patient portals and other information technologies to deliver care.”
“Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care” examines a broad range of health information technologies and recommends actions the government, healthcare providers and technology vendors should take to improve patient safety.
More here:
A quick search on the web does not show a great deal:
I did however come across this press release:

Clinical Safety Assessment Program (CSAP) developed for NEHTA

The Clinical Safety Assessment Program (CSAP) is an initiative of the National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) to help ensure the discovery and effective control of safety related risks, hazards and issues surrounding the creation and use of clinical terminologies.  Initially CSAP is to be applied to those clinical terminologies and related software created by NEHTA itself.
The CSAP developed by Software Improvements, supported by Hyder Consulting, essentially comprises two key, generic processes drawn from standards used in the safety critical systems industry and standard practices employed as part of the independent verification and validation of safety critical software/systems.
Overall, the CSAP aligns with two newly released (draft) health informatics standards – ISO/TS 29321 and ISO/TR 29322, which are largely based on the key safety critical systems standard (AS/ISO/IEC 61508) and to a lesser extent DEFSTAN 0056.
The generic CSAP processes are configurable for enabling the assessment of differing clinical system products or practices according to ascertained safety levels.   The configured processes consist of a set of steps to assess whether a clinical terminology product and/or the associated processes used to construct the product are appropriate for the ascertained safety level.  That is, to determine whether a product possesses the requisite quality and behaviour deemed necessary to consider it safe, and whether management and implementation processes support practices that help ensure delivery of a safe product.
The two key CSAP processes are based on: a), a hazard identification and analysis technique referred to as Hazard and Operations Studies (HAZOPS), and b), independent verification and validation processes.  Other essential CSAP processes include assessment planning and management, estimation, recommendations and reporting.
Software Improvements has extensive experience in the application of, and training in, these processes and standards.
The release is here:
It also seems there is a Clinical Safety Unit within NEHTA. Here is a link to a conference where this unit was discussed in late 2011.
What there is not - as usual - is any documentation on just what is being done, and how it is being done in the public domain.
It can hardly be that NEHTA clinical safety processes are a State Secret. Really all this lack of openness just goes way to far!
It will be interesting to see what the Institute of Medicine has to say!
David.
Note: After I had finished this blog - this appeared this morning. The issue is real and not properly addressed in what NEHTA is doing!

e-Health authority defends work record

THE National e-Health Transition Authority insists that after two years in operation, the work of its clinical safety unit is "fully embedded" into all areas of software product development, despite not having produced any formal reports on IT systems and patient safety.
Patient safety is emerging as a key risk as the adoption of clinical information systems accelerates.
While technology is generally seen as the best way to reduce adverse outcomes, it is increasingly clear that IT also introduces new risks.
NSW Health is currently reviewing the use of Cerner’s FirstNet software in hospital emergency departments after concerns were escalated by Sydney University e-health expert Jon Patrick this year.
Professor Patrick found the software “increased risks to patient safety” due to data being lost during transfers between administration and clinical systems, “antiquated” messaging standards that did not alert users to non-received mail and a "practically unusable" electronic discharge system.
Other problems involved mislabelling of patient samples on the pathology orders system, and the deletion of forward orders for services like x-rays after three weeks when appointments were booked up to three months in advance.
Clinical safety work is intended to identify and mitigate situations that put patients at risk of e-health harm, and is generally conducted in parallel with the technical design and testing of new systems.
Key concerns also include the risk of patient misidentification, incorrect medical records or clinical reference data, and unavailability of health IT services.
Sources in the health systems development community say they have been seeking information on the CSU's work for over a year, but have been unsuccessful so far.
In particular, they want access to a patient safety risk assessment apparently conducted by Nehta a year ago, as well as other findings and recommendations that may involve remediation by software vendors as they prepare to support the $500 million national personally controlled e-health record system.
A Nehta spokesman said its clinical safety unit (CSU) has undertaken work as part of the organisation’s overarching responsibility for the nation’s e-health rollout.
"It is a legitimate expectation of software vendors that products developed by Nehta are safe and have clinical utility," he told The Australian.
Vastly more here:
D.
In extremely late breaking news. The IOM Report mentioned above is now online here:
and the MSIA has just released a white paper expressing a range of concerns with the safety of the Health Identifier Service. It is all happening!
D.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

The Spin Just Oozes Out Of This Clap Trap. The Claims Are Really Not Mostly Supported By Fact!

The NEHTA Annual Report has been released for 2010-11.
On Page 5 (CEO’s Report) we read the following summary of all the goodness that has flowed from the work of over 250 staff.
“This year we have seen significant progress.
We can now correctly identify individuals and organisations in the health system and make sure the right information is attached to their health records:
Since July 2010, more than 23 million Australians have been allocated healthcare identifiers and by 30 June 2011 more than 1 million identifiers had been downloaded to support more accurate patient administration.
We can now conformance test new types of medical software systems that use Healthcare Identifiers:
In June, the National Association of Testing Authorities accredited the first two laboratories to test conformance of secure messaging services and software systems that will access the Healthcare Identifiers Service.
We now have a standard clinical language for Australian health professionals and it’s being put into action:
SNOMED-CT clinical terminology has been adapted for local conditions and is being progressively implemented. Australian Medicines Terminology is now in use in several clinical environments.
We can enable secure communications between health professionals:
NEHTA’s conformance test specification and automated open source test tools help software developers implement secure message delivery.
We are working towards national standards for electronic prescriptions:
Standards Australia have commenced consideration of Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions version 1.1 national specifications.
We can ensure the right communication gets to the right person:
The National Authentication Service for Health will support strong access control and audit trail mechanisms for the personally controlled electronic health record. This year we began working with IBM on design and build.
We are supporting greater continuity of care:
Our specifications for the eDischarge Summary developed in consultation with industry will enable GPs to receive timely information about their patients leaving hospital.
We are moving towards standardised eReferrals:
We released specifications that help standardise this very common healthcare communication by defining clinical content, business requirements and technical solution.
We are implementing eHealth on the ground:
Through our work with lead eHealth sites and jurisdictions around Australia, we are seeing eHealth foundations in action.”
It is really astonishing just how much distortion is here This is really just a huge wish list by an large.
NASH is nowhere near being used, NEHTA confuses working on or having a specification with delivering a working solution (there is a BIG difference), imagines SNOMED and the AMT are actually being used much and has no secure messaging as it lacks both NASH and any live end-point location service as far as I am aware.
Most of the ‘success’ listed here they have been saying has been a success for years but nothing has really changed on the ground.
A good example of exaggeration is found on page 16. The National Product Catalogue now apparently covers 359 companies. I leave it as a task for the reader to consider just how many companies actually supply the public health sector (Hint: 1000’s).
On page 20 we read:

Measuring the benefits of eHealth

“NEHTA’s Benefits Realisation framework was further enhanced this year to assess the impact of all NEHTA products, to ensure the benefits are fully understood and measurable and we can formally assess their capability.
During the year, NEHTA developed a Benefits Realisation Framework in partnership with IBM and the first wave of lead eHealth sites. The information on benefits achieved was fed into the second wave of lead eHealth sites and helped identify expected high level benefits.
In addition, NEHTA commissioned a best practice analysis comparing 12 shared electronic health record sites in Australia and contrasting these findings with other current large scale international programmes.
These findings informed the lead eHealth sites implementation plans and the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records programme.”
One question - so where are the reports we can all read and see what has actually been achieved. State Secrets I guess!
The last thing that caught my eye was this (Page 20):

“Bringing NEHTA values to life

The NEHTA values were developed in consultation with staff across the organisation and during 2010-11 were further embedded in daily work through our performance and development review process. They are:
NEHTA people are ACCOUNTABLE
Clarify to confirm, confirm to commit, commit to deliver
NEHTA people are NURTURING
Learn to communicate, communicate to educate, educate to deliver
NEHTA people have INTEGRITY
In everything we do and deliver we demonstrate credibility and substance
NEHTA people COLLABORATE
Consult, listen, agree to take action and deliver”
I guess these values are so fully implemented that we have a staff turnover rate of 30% and reports of investigations into bullying.
Go here to read all about it in full.
One tiny last point. It is interesting that for most of the reporting period the (former) NSW Health Director General only turned up for 2 out of 6 possible Board Meetings!
Bottom line for close to one Billion Dollars we are still actually to see a life saved because of all this as far as I know. Let me know when you spot the investment in NEHTA actually making a difference to patient outcomes in Australia - which is the purpose after all - isn’t it?
David.
p.s. I will leave it to clever financial heads to assess the financial statements but I would wonder why NEHTA’s cash holdings have doubled to $44+million (and operating surplus was almost $33 million) when mostly the public sector is expected, within prudent limits, to spend what it receives (and yes I know there are some contracts where all the bills are not in!). I also note (Page 54) that despite all the cash there is a claimed Operating Deficit. Presumably that will be made up by next year’s income when the bills actually need to be paid!
D.