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Children's Clinics integrates fingerprint technology with EHR
August 23, 2011 | Molly
Merrill, Associate Editor
TUCSON, AZ –
Children's Clinics for Rehabilitative Services in Southern Arizona is using
fingerprint biometrics to increase access to – and the security of – its new
electronic health record system.
Officials said the
new technology was the result of Children's Clinics recent transition to a
NextGen ambulatory EHR after years of using paper charts.
Officials said they
became challenged with managing login credentials, especially given that 40
percent of the clinic's staff are part-time contract providers who only work in
the clinic a couple of times a month. In order to improve workflow, officials
decided to deploy technology from Redwood City, Calif-based DigitalPersona,
Inc.
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ONC Wants Comment on Health I.T. Disparities
HDM
Breaking News, August 25, 2011
The Office of the
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is seeking public
comment on a draft plan to provide equal access for all Americans to the
benefits of health I.T.
Worried of a new
type of "digital divide," then-national coordinator David Blumenthal,
M.D., in October 2010 called on electronic health records vendors to ensure
their sales and marketing activities include providers serving minority
communities. Under the draft plan now soliciting comment, "the government
will endeavor to assure that underserved and at-risk individuals enjoy these
benefits to the same extent as all other citizens," according to a new
posting on ONC's HealthITBuzz blog.
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Study: Primary Care Practices Can Track Preventive Care Delivery Via Electronic Health Records
August 24, 2011
Small primary care
practices can track the delivery of recommended preventive care through
electronic health records, which can help providers assess population health,
according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Researchers studied
the Primary Care Information Project, a New York City initiative designed to
improve population health that helped implement EHRs in more than 300 primary
care practices.
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http://www.ihealthbeat.org/perspectives/2011/state-federal-health-data-exchange-efforts-heat-up.aspx
Thursday, August 25, 2011
State, Federal Health Data Exchange Efforts Heat Up
The need for robust
health information exchange (HIE) continues to grow, and not just because it is
a part of the meaningful use incentive program. Having infrastructure to
support HIE will be a critical component to enable new payment and care
delivery models like accountable care organizations and medical homes.
Background
on HIE Efforts
There has been a
strong national effort in developing the Nationwide Health Information Network
(NwHIN), as well as a dramatic increase in local and regional efforts to create
viable health information exchange organizations (HIOs). These efforts include
the Direct Project, which created a
simple, secure, scalable, standards-based way for participants to send
authenticated, encrypted health information directly to known, trusted
recipients over the Internet. The Direct Project -- which was sponsored by the
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT -- has become an important
on-ramp to the health information superhighway.
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EHR adoption costs continue to hold physicians back
August 24, 2011 — 11:11pm
ET | By Marla Durben Hirsch - Contributing Editor
Current users and
potential purchasers of electronic health record (EHR) software recognize the
value of using EHRs, but the high cost is causing nearly one-third of
physicians to hesitate from taking the plunge, according to a recently released
survey by Sage Healthcare Division.
The survey,
published August 10, found that while 77 percent of all respondents saw the
ease of use and speediness of an EHR, 32 percent of medical practices who are
in the market for the technology remain stymied by the capital
investment.
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HHS awards $137M to states for health IT, prevention
August 25, 2011 | Bernie
Monegain, Editor
WASHINGTON – The
Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday awarded $137 million to
nearly every state to strengthen prevention efforts and to improve public
health. Many of the awards include a health IT component, such as immunization
information technologies and registries.
"More than
ever, it is important to help states fight disease and protect public
health," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "These awards are an
important investment and will enable states and communities to help Americans
quit smoking, get immunized and prevent disease and illness before they
start."
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EHR vendor sues rival and client for stealing proprietary info
August 24, 2011 — 11:08pm
ET | By Marla Durben Hirsch - Contributing Editor
As more providers
adopt electronic medical record systems, expect to see more disputes between
competing vendors protecting their turf, as well as access issues between
vendors and their provider clients. In the latest salvo, urology EMR vendor
MeridianEMR has sued rival Intuitive Medical Software and one of Meridian's
customers, for "malicious interference with and conversion of Meridian's
confidential and proprietary information."
According to a lawsuit,
filed June 16 in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey,
Intuitive, which offers an EMR system called UroChart, sought to unlawfully
decipher Meridian's encrypted software to gain an unfair competitive advantage.
Meridian claims that Shappley Clinic, a urology practice based in Germantown, Tenn.,
unlawfully provided Intuitive with access to a computer server that Meridian
had installed at Shappley, and that a "clone" server was created
containing Meridian's confidential information.
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Telemedicine and EHR use for inmates helps save state $1B
August 25, 2011 — 1:04pm
ET | By Dan Bowman
While electronic
health records generally are touted as being able to save money for the
providers implementing such systems, one has been quite successful in saving
money for taxpayers in Texas, as well.
A statewide EMR
developed by Atlanta-based Business Computer Applications, Inc. (BCA), combined
with a telemedicine system from the University of Texas Medical Branch and
Texas Tech University, successfully improved health outcomes for prisoners
while reducing overall costs, leading to $1 billion in savings over the last 10
years for the state's taxpayers, according to IT research firm Gartner
Group.
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Hacked Medical Device Sparks Congressional Inquiry
Legislators demand
answers after a security researcher remotely controlled his own insulin pump
using a $20 radio frequency transmitter at Black Hat.
By Mathew J.
Schwartz, InformationWeek
August 23, 2011
Two members of Congress
have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the Federal
Communications Commission's approach to medical devices with wireless
capabilities to ensure that the devices are "safe, reliable, and
secure."
The letter to the GAO, from
Reps. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.)--both members of
the House communications and technology subcommittee--was sparked by a medical device hacking
demonstration earlier this month at the Black Hat
conference in Las Vegas.
While most Black
Hat presentations typically detail exploits launched
against others or more benign forms of hardware hacking, security
researcher Jerome Radcliffe actually hacked--live and onstage--his own insulin
pump, which he relies on to subcutaneously administer multiple doses of insulin
per day. Radcliffe, 33, said he was diagnosed with diabetes at age 22.
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August 22, 2011
mobileStorm Offers Free Guide to Making Healthcare Mobile
TMCnet Contributor
mobileStorm, a Los
Angeles, California-based provider of e-mail and mobile
messaging solutions, announced the release of a new guide that presents a
detailed guidance for making healthcare mobile.
The new guide
titled, "Making Healthcare Mobile" explains how healthcare can be
extended into the mobile realm through a detailed, step-by-step lessons.
mobileStorm,
according to company officials, is the first technology company to launch a
fully HIPAA compliant mobile messaging platform that can be incorporated into
any smart phone app.
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Patient check-in moves to the iPad
August 18, 2011 | Mike
Miliard, Managing Editor
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA –
Just three weeks after its iPad-native EHR made news for gaining
ONC-ATCB-certification, drchrono has launched an iOS app to replace paper-based
patient check-in.
Company execs say
the OnPatient app can be downloaded to the iPad for free and integrated into a
medical practice as a standalone application – the patient check-in software
also integrates with with the drchrono's iPad EHR.
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EHNAC to Accredit HIE Vendors
HDM
Breaking News, August 22, 2011
The Electronic
Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission has introduced a new program for
accrediting vendors of health information exchange services. The initiative
complement's industry sponsored EHNAC's launch in 2010 of an accreditation
program for health information exchanges.
The new HIE services
program will accredit vendors that provide clinical health information exchange
technology to HIEs and meet certain performance benchmarks in such areas as
privacy and security, technical performance, business practices and
organizational resources.
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EMIS apologies for data centre failure
22 August
2011 Shanna Crispin
Primary care
software provider EMIS has apologised “profusely” and launched a formal
investigation after its data centre failed last week.
The initial outage
on Thursday morning was caused by hardware problems. From about 8:30am, 333 GP
practices across England experienced "performance and stability
issues".
The problems then
had knock-on effects. As a result, just before midday a further 446
GP practices started experiencing issues with their systems.
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Wales pioneers monitor to save diabetes patients
A monitor that will
warn doctors and families if a diabetes patient is in danger of an attack is
being developed in Wales.
The system will
have the capability to be adapted for other chronic conditions, such as
coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer and asthma.
Diabetic patients
with low blood glucose can become unconscious due to hypoglycaemia and there
are many reported incidents where patients, who either live or work alone,
fainted without the notice of others and such occurrence can often be fatal.
A multi-functional
monitoring system is important to manage the glucose level of diabetic patients
and to provide warning when the patient is unconscious.
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Electronic ID becoming a reality in the EU
European Commission | Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The BIOP@ASS team
says the technologies developed as part of the project will also cut
administrative expenses, boost the level of security of future electronic ID cards and
passports, speed up data transfer between ID document and reader device, and
make it easier for users to use electronic services. The electronic ID cards
are based on the European Citizenship Card (ECC) family of standards, and the
next generation of electronic passports and residence permits. The ECC, in
particular, combines the benefits of standardisation with the added flexibility
of being able to adopt national requirements.
The objectives of
the BIOP@ASS project were the development of advanced (microelectronics and
embedded software) secure and interoperable smart card platforms for required
e-administrative applications requested at the European level: e-identity,
e-health, and residence permits. The project was grounded on the results of the
former MEDEA+ project called ONOM@TOPIC+; it provided a full technical platform
and framework enabling European governments to issue interoperable documents or
electronic identification or authentication and access to e-services.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Reaping the Benefits of Electronic Medical Records
Researchers
use natural language processing to flag postsurgical complications in
physicians' notes.
Despite billions of dollars in incentives to support the
adoption of electronic medical records, evidence that these systems improve the
efficiency or quality of care has been scarce. But a new study shows that
natural-language processing—a branch of computer science that employs
linguistics to analyze regular speech—may greatly increase the utility of these
records in improving care.
Researchers used
this approach to sift through physicians' notes, the richest and most
complicated aspect of electronic medical records, for postsurgical
complications such as pneumonia and sepsis. The method proved considerably more
accurate than other automated systems. They say similar approaches could be
used for a variety of applications, including predicting which patients are at
risk, and developing automated tools that help doctors choose treatments.
"You can
finally see how clinical data can be used to measure patient safety more
systematically, and that we will really be able to use these things to manage
care," says Ashish Jha, a physician at
Harvard Medical School who wrote an editorial accompanying the paper. The paper
and editorial were published this week in Journal of the American
Medical Association.
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From Medscape Medical News
Natural Language Processing Improves Complication Tracking
August 23, 2011 —
Analysis of electronic medical records (EMRs) with natural language processing
shows an improved ability to identify postoperative surgical complications
compared with the standard method of relying on administrative data codes,
according to a new study published in the
August 24/31 issue of JAMA.
In efforts to
improve patient safety, hospital administrative data are typically screened for
codes that may reflect potential adverse events during hospitalization, and a
quality surveillance tool developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality has refined that process to focus on a set of 20 patient safety
indicators used in screening the data.
However, the system
has some drawbacks, including some uncertainty about the validity of
administrative codes and the inability of discharge codes to distinguish
whether a disease existed before a patient's admission or was acquired during
hospitalization, according to Harvey J. Murff, MD, MPH, lead author of the
study from Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, and colleagues.
The emergence of
EMRs, combined with the development of automated systems such as natural
language processing, however, allows for screening of more extensive medical
data and documents and extraction of specific medical concepts, as opposed to
simply searching for potentially unreliable discharge codes.
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How Radio Waves Remedy Patient Bottlenecks
Gienna Shaw, for HealthLeaders Media , August 23, 2011
RFID tags have for
a while been used mainly for things—to keep track of the number of bandages
left in the supply closet or to keep an expensive piece of equipment from
walking out the door, for example. Increasingly, though, those badges are
showing up on the lapels of patients. And hospitals are using the data those
RFID badges gather to improve patient flow, shorten length of stay, and more.
Wilmington,
DE–based Christiana Care Health System pins patients with RFID tags to track
their movements throughout the continuum of care. The collected data is an
"extremely powerful" tool for process improvement, says Linda Laskowski-Jones,
vice president of emergency and trauma services for the two-hospital system.
The system tracks
interval-level data—measuring the time a patient spends in between each
activity—from the time they see a doctor to the time the doctor orders labs or
an x-ray, for example.
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By Joseph Conn
Not yet an Epic monopoly or conflict
Bruce Friedman, in a post on Lab
Soft News says, "Epic has achieved a near
monopoly of the (electronic health-record systems) installed in the largest
U.S. hospitals."
And writing in the Washington
Examiner, Lachlan Markay, an investigative writer with the conservative
Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy, reveals that Epic
Systems Corp. CEO Judith Faulkner not only has made
campaign contributions to Democrats but also has served as a member of the
federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee, which "holds in
its hands the future of health information technology policy."
Well, Epic is on a
roll. But market share is measurable, so I spoke with Jason Hess, general
manager of clinical research with health IT market watcher Klas Enterprises of
Orem, Utah. Hess shared with me data from his company's latest survey of 1,467
U.S. hospitals and 151 Canadian hospitals with 200 or more beds.
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HealthSpace up for review again
17 August
2011 Shanna Crispin
Yet another review
is being carried out into the viability of the HealthSpace organiser, which
gives patients access to their Summary Care Record if it exists and they have
an ‘advanced’ account.
Figures obtained by
eHealth Insider show that the number of people using the NHS service to access
their SCR has fallen by more than 50% since the beginning of the year.
In February, 60
patients a month were using an advanced HealthSpace account to see their
record, but this has now fallen to just 25 a month.
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“The Cities” awards: MIM Software named The Disruptor
Posted By Brandon
Glenn On August 19, 2011 @ 12:02 am
What started out as
a whim by a couple of software engineers led to a big breakthrough for MIM
Software.
In early 2008,
MIM’s developers began hammering out the initial lines of code to what three
years later became the first-ever medical imaging
mobile app [1] to be cleared for sale by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“It wasn’t part of
our business plan. It just happened,” said Chief Technology Officer Mark Cain.
“Two of our employees began writing the code just to see if they could do”
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Facebook App Reminds Transplant Patients To Take Meds
Integration of
electronic health record with social network app helps kidney transplant
patients stay on their medication schedules.
By Nicole
Lewis, InformationWeek
August 17, 2011
The University of Iowa
Children's Hospital is getting ready to launch a Facebook page that will
monitor teenage and young adult kidney transplant patients in an effort to get
them to take their medications on time. The hospital will use prescription
information from its electronic health record (EHR) system to populate the site
with the list of medicines each patient is taking, and how many times daily
they should be taken.
The initiative,
which is been developed by Dr. Patrick Brophy, director of the division of
pediatric nephrology, dialysis, and transplantation, along with the hospital's
technology department, was borne out of Brophy's frustration that many of his
teenage kidney transplant patients were not taking their medications after
surgery.
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Monday, August 22, 2011
Building Public Trust in Electronic Health Information Exchange
Given the value
that individuals place on the privacy of their health information, it is not
surprising that there is a federal advisory committee charged with helping the
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT protect the privacy and
security of health information exchanged through electronic health records
under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. This group -- a
subcommittee of the Health IT Policy Committee -- is the aptly named privacy
and security "Tiger Team."
Background
on the Privacy and Security Tiger Team
ONC first assembled
the Tiger Team in June 2010. The group includes
15 members from the Health IT Policy Committee, the
Health IT Standards Committee and the National Committee on Vital and Health
Statistics.
As a matter of
scope, the Tiger Team develops privacy and security recommendations for
electronic HIE, in which health care providers must engage to demonstrate
meaningful use of EHRs under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
Generally speaking, this includes electronic exchange for the purposes of treatment,
care coordination, and quality and public health reporting.
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VA cloud pilot could impact 134K medical workers
August 22, 2011 — 1:43pm
ET | By Dan Bowman
Privacy and
communications issues surround planned pilot testing of cloud-based tools by
the Department of Veterans Affairs that could impact as many as 134,000 VA
medical workers. Specifically, the VA wants to move its Microsoft
Exchange-based collaboration system to a cloud-based system, according to InformationWeek.
The issues date
back to last December, FierceGovernmentIT
reported
last month, when doctors and residents at several VA
hospitals used GoogleDocs and Yahoo Calendar to manage their workflow. By
storing patient information in each application, however, patient information
was put at risk, according to Roger Baker, the VA's chief information
officer.
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Social media, HIEs, the recession will impact health IT in 2012
August 22, 2011 — 11:45am
ET | By Dan Bowman
While HIMSS12 isn't
exactly around the corner, it's not too early to start anticipating some of the
key trends that will emerge at the 2012 Vegas-bound conference, which takes
place Feb. 20-24.
Social media, and
its impact on hospitals and providers, certainly will play a prominent
role, given HIMSS' recent announcement that Twitter co-founder
Biz Stone will be a keynote speaker. Already,
we're seeing that hospital marketing, patient satisfaction and patient
engagement are intricately linked to social media.
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Enjoy!
David.
