In Case You Thought The US Was Slackening The Pace in E-Health Here Is What Is Going On!

The following appeared recently.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Federal Gov't Continues With Health IT Activity in Q2 2012

by Helen R. Pfister, Susan R. Ingargiola and Christine D. Chang

The federal government continued to implement the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, during the second quarter of 2012. Below is a summary of key developments and milestones achieved between April 1and June 30. 

Highlights

The second quarter of 2012 saw a number of important developments:

• ONC Seeks Public Comment on NwHIN Governance RFI. On May 15, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released a request for information soliciting feedback from the public on options for governance of the Nationwide Health Information Network. ONC defines NwHIN as a set of standards, services and policies that enable secure health information exchange over the Internet. ONC included in the RFI a number of proposed "rules of the road" to govern NwHIN; the centerpiece of the proposal is a voluntary program under which entities that enable electronic health information exchange could be validated (i.e., formally recognized) for meeting ONC-established "conditions for trusted exchange." Comments on the RFI were originally due June 14, but the deadline was extended to June 29. 
• ONC Creates Two New Offices. On May 16, ONC announced the creation of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer and the Office of Consumer eHealth. The Office of the Chief Medical Officer will address health IT issues relating to safety, usability, clinical decision support, meaningful use policy development and quality. The Office of Consumer eHealth will continue ONC's work to engage patients and families in their health, including overseeing ONC's pledge program, a nationwide campaign to encourage health care providers to make it easier for individuals and their caregivers to have electronic access to their health information.
• ONC Releases Health IT Dashboard. On May 9, ONC launched a website highlighting national progress toward the nation's health IT adoption goals. ONC strategy, information on health IT grant programs and data from regional extension centers are examples of the information available to the public through the new website.

Health IT Policy & Standards Committees

Health IT Policy and Standards Committees Submit Comments on Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Proposed Rules and NwHIN Governance RFI

During the second quarter of 2012, the Health IT Policy Committee and Health IT Standards Committee were largely focused on developing comments on the Stage 2 meaningful use and electronic health record standards and certification criteria proposed rules and on the NwHIN Governance RFI. The Policy Committee's various work groups also began work on Stage 3 meaningful use criteria during the month of June.

EHR Certification

ONC Releases Updated Certified Health IT Product List

On June 26, ONC released version 2.1 of the Certified Health IT Product List, which lists all the EHRs and EHR modules that have been certified by ONC's Temporary Certification Program. Version 2.1 lists 1,700 EHRs and EHR modules approved for meaningful use.

If you are not already tired there is lots more here:

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/features/2012/federal-govt-continues-with-health-it-activity-in-q2-2012.aspx

And here is an earlier quarterly report.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Federal Health IT Activity Continues in First Quarter of 2012

by Helen Pfister, Susan Ingargiola and Rachel Sam

During the first quarter of 2012, the federal government continued to implement the HITECH Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Highlights

The first quarter of 2012 saw the following high-level developments:

• HHS Released Proposed Rules on Stage 2 Meaningful Use and EHR Certification Criteria -- On Feb. 23, CMS released a proposed rule setting forth the requirements that health care providers must meet to achieve meaningful use of certified electronic health records under Stage 2 of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. On Feb. 24, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released a companion proposed rule related to the associated standards and certification criteria for EHRs.
• White House Selected Todd Park as New Chief Technology Officer -- On March 9, the White House announced that President Obama had selected Todd Park as the new U.S. Chief Technology Officer. Park previously served as CTO of HHS.

Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs

CMS Released Incentive Program Provider Participation Data

In March, CMS released February data highlighting health care provider participation and incentive payment totals since the EHR Incentive Program launched in January 2011. According to CMS, over 211,500 total eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals (EHs) and critical access hospitals (CAHs) had registered for the Medicare and/or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Over 62,000 EPs, EHs and CAHs had been paid a total of more than $3.8 billion for successfully participating in the programs.

EHR Usability

NIST Released EHR Usability Evaluation Protocol

On March 20, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released guidance for evaluating, testing and validating the usability of EHRs. According to NIST, the proposed usability protocol "encourages a user-centered approach to the development of EHR systems" and "provides methods to measure and address critical errors in user performance before those systems are deployed in a medical setting." On Feb. 14, NIST also published a notice in the Federal Register seeking vendors to supply EHR systems for NIST to use to develop a framework for assessing the usability of health IT systems and performance-oriented user interface design guidelines for EHRs. Interested vendors were required to submit a request and Letter of Understanding by March 15.

Health Information Exchange

ONC Published Article on HIE Strategy

On March 28, ONC leaders published a Health Affairs article outlining the federal government's strategy for advancing health information exchange. The article discusses the federal government's progress to date in establishing the "essential building blocks" for health data exchange. It also describes ONC's plans to "develop additional policies and standards that will make information exchange easier and cheaper and facilitate its use on a broader scale."

ONC Released CONNECT 3.3

On March 16, ONC released version 3.3 of CONNECT, which is open-source software that supports health information exchange and relies on Nationwide Health Information Network standards. The new CONNECT version includes additional features, performance improvements, maintenance fixes and software updates. Of note, CONNECT 3.3 complies with NwHIN specifications approved in July 2011 and creates backwards compatibility between the January 2010 and July 2011 specifications and among CONNECT versions. 

Vastly more details and links are here:

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/features/2012/federal-health-it-activity-continues-in-first-quarter-of-2012.aspx

Reading this I have to say I just feel tired. The pressure is really on to make this all work and it can only benefit us all in the long run.

David.

There Is A Real Point Here That Needs To Be Thought About. Not Sure I Have The Answer!

The following appeared a little while ago.

A Call for Intuitive EMRs

Scott Mace, for HealthLeaders Media , July 24, 2012

I've previously remarked that software can't do it all—resolve all antiquated workflows or figure out stumbling blocks in people and politics. Unfortunately, that's just what EMR software is about to be asked to do.

Software is a funny thing. Done well, it anticipates the needs of human beings, or other software, and responds in flexible, flowing harmony.

Done poorly, software epitomizes everything wrong with modern society: impersonal, inflexible, regimented, mundane, boring, even maddening.

Where does your electronic medical record software wind up on that spectrum? Chances are, it doesn't look so good in comparison to your searching experience on Google or your shopping experience on Amazon.

"We need the EMR that's going to intuitively know the way our physicians practice and know the difference—and not every time a physician wants a change, we get a call, and we say we'll take that to the team, and the team will analyze it, and then the team will take it to the programming team, and in about a month, we should have your change put in our system," says Pamela G. McNutt, senior vice president and CIO of Methodist Health System in Dallas, Tex.

"'EMR 2.0,' as I call it has to be intuitive. It has to adapt to the physician workflow without an army of 200 people in IT behind it trying to change the code," McNutt says. "That is not a sustainable model for us to have that many people behind the scenes creating all these boxes and screens. It has to be intuitive but we're all busy dotting I's and crossing T's.

"Even the 'Cadillac' systems for physicians and hospitals are nowhere near EMR 2.0 that I envision for the future," she adds.

McNutt hopes for some "dark-horse" software from an as-yet unseen vendor, maybe from Europe or sitting in some incubator deep inside MIT, to leapfrog the capabilities of current systems. "I could make a fortune if I could figure out who this is that's going to do that," McNutt says with a laugh.

Unfortunately, software innovators—the Amazons and Googles—only come along once in a great while. Healthcare CIOs appear to be stuck living with our current generation of imperfect software.

Another option kicked around, even more unrealistically, is to hope that clinicians adopt some kind of standardized workflow. That would help software immensely, because today's software has been constructed with layer upon layer of options to accommodate different workflows. This complexity in turn adds to the complexity of the software, of training for the software, and of trying to keep the training for the software inside one human head once training is completed.

Lots more here:

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/print/TEC-282650/A-Call-for-Intuitive-EMRs

I am quite sure I don’t know how to fix this problem - but I certainly know it needs to be fixed. Just consider the NEHRS if you want an example of the worst sort of “impersonal, inflexible, regimented, mundane, boring, even maddening” software.

One thing is certain - the Health IT Industry needs help from all sorts of experts from other domains to do better than what is typically delivered!

David.

NEHRS Clinical Safety Is Apparently Assured. But How Are We To Know?

NEHTA has deigned to provide an update on the clinical safety of the NEHRS. For context here is the page on which the report is found - with links.

Clinical Safety

The national eHealth system will improve clinical outcomes, and to do that it needs clinically safe and efficient foundations. That’s why the clinical safety and integrity of NEHTA’s products guides everything NEHTA does as an organisation.

There are three key clinical quality and safety processes in NEHTA, the Clinical Safety Unit; the Clinical Safety Working Group and the Clinical Governance Review Board, each ensuring safety.

• The Clinical Safety Unit comprises clinicians with specialist training and experience in eHealth and risk management as well as system safety.
• The Clinical Safety Working Group works with the clinical and programme leadership for the PCEHR and for products and solutions constituting the component infrastructure of the PCEHR. Their work is to validate the evidence that forms the ‘Clinical Safety Case’ for the PCEHR. This includes identifying risks, recommending the controls to address the potential risks and evidencing these in operation.
• The Clinical Governance Review Board has an advisory role to support existing NEHTA product development and implementation and provides expert and systemic clinical and safety advice.

NEHTA works with organisations such as the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) and the University of New South Wales Centre for Health Informatics to ensure the clinical safety and governance of the PCEHR and eHealth products.

 NEHTA Submission Australian Safety and Quality Goals for Health Care (148.12 KB)

Clinical Safety Case Report PCEHR Release 1A (240.71 kB)

 Clinical Safety Report July 2012 Release (365.73 kB) 

The page is found here:

http://www.nehta.gov.au/ehealth-implementation/clinical-safety

Cutting right to the chase - here is the conclusion from page 4 of the comprehensive 8 page document.

1.3 Overall Risk Assessment

NEHTA has made an assessment that there are no clinical hazards identified in relation to the Consumer Release – 1 July 2012 that are classified as a High or Medium Clinical Risk, which leaves a Justifiable Residual Risk Classification as per Appendix A, Table 4.

NEHTA therefore considers that there are no Unacceptable Residual Risks present in Consumer Release – 1 July 2012.

NEHTA Clinical Safety Unit has determined one generic hazard, defined according to the NEHTA Clinical Safety Management System, as important to the analysis of clinical safety residual risk, specifically the Consumer Release - 1 July 2012. This generic hazard is listed below and summary analysis, including an outline of pertinent mitigating controls, is provided in Section 1.8:

• Clinical information is presented inappropriately or in a manner that its context is misleading or cannot be ascertained

What this means is found here:

1.8 Summary analysis of priority Clinical Hazards & Mitigating Controls

Clinical Information is Presented Inappropriately or in a Manner that its Context is Misleading or Cannot be Ascertained

There is the ability for consumers to enter their own health information in the PCEHR through Personal Health Notes, which will never be visible to providers, and the Personal Health Summary, which will be visible to providers. There may be an assumption on behalf of consumers that providers will regularly refer to, read and act upon information in the Personal Health Notes and or Personal Health Summary. This assumption may lead to incorrect, delayed or no care being provided. This potential risk will be reviewed when provider access is enabled in a subsequent release of PCEHR.

While consumer generated health information is currently exchanged between consumers and providers and is variable in quality, the PCEHR Personal Health Summary (designed for sharing with providers) presents a potential amplification of any disconnect between consumers¡¦ expectations of providers using this health information.

In the context of the Consumer Release - July 1 2012, no consumer generated data will be available to providers.

The control for this risk is:

•           A note is displayed to consumers, indicating that Providers will not have access to Personal Health Notes, on the page that consumers enter the note.

Additional recommended controls include:

• Consumers are to be educated that a provider cannot access health information in the Personal Health Notes and that any information that is related to their care in the notes should be discussed as per usual methods e.g. General Practitioner or Specialist appointment
• Guidelines are to contain information on the functional limits and constraints of the PCEHR, including roles and responsibilities

1.9 The Way Forward

The CSU will continue to work closely with the NEHTA PCEHR team as the staged delivery of provider and consumer functionality is made available. A fundamental aspect of this work is to seek specific evidence as to the effectiveness of mitigating controls, both system specific and those relating to non-functional end user, process and policy elements of the PCEHR in operation that impact safety. Verification of these mitigations in operation will allow elaboration of the PCEHR Clinical Safety Case Report and act as evidence of the continuous clinical safety management and assurance.

---- End Extract from Page 6.

What this seems to be saying is that, confusingly there are both Personal Health Notes and a Personal Health Summary for former of which a healthcare provider won’t be able to see the latter the provider will always be able to see.

With all this said what is unsaid is way more than what is said. There is no discussion of the methodology beyond giving it a name and the approach to risk identification, prior to the assessment of each of the risks. Again we seem to have another one of these ‘trust us’ documents and are provided with essentially no reason to do so.

Not being provided with the range of risks that have been assessed leaves us all in the dark as to how seriously NEHTA’s claims as to safety. I note we are not told what actions have been taken to remedy the issues identified in the earlier case report (linked above).

NEHTA need to do a good deal better than this.

David.

The Saga Of Under-Testing and Glitches With the NEHRS Seems To Just Be Endless. When Are We Going To See Some Accountability and Transparency?

The following article appeared yesterday.

Secret report finds bugs in new ehealth system

Date July 30, 2012

Mark Metherell

Mark Metherell is health correspondent

Glitches in patient identity details for Australia's new ehealth system have been found in about one third of cases nationally, according to a report the federal health department refuses to publish.

The secret report shows that patient identity information held by state public hospitals frequently fails to match the data which Medicare Australia holds on the same individuals. Differences in the spelling of names or other variations can pose a significant obstacle as the system requires an exact match before individuals can gain ehealth access.

The department has refused a request by Fairfax to release the report under the Freedom of Information Act, stating that the report was subject to confidentiality undertakings, given by the IBM company which prepared the document. The confidentiality undertakings are understood to have been made to state and federal agencies; no individual patient records were involved.

Insiders with some knowledge of the project say the refusal to reveal the information has more to do with avoiding government embarrassment about more setbacks in the problem-plagued ehealth development. A department spokeswoman said the report ''does not show up problems in relation to security and safety'' of the new personally-controlled electronic health record system, the PCEHR.

More here:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/secret-report-finds-bugs-in-new-ehealth-system-20120729-236si.html

This outcome is utterly predictable and clearly, to me at least, the root problem lies in the fact that, at present, the Health Identifier Service is not being used as intended by the State Jurisdictions (i.e. States and Territories) who are reported as saying they will need up to three years to have their key systems using the Health Identifier Service. See here:

States not ready for e-Health system

• by: Karen Dearne
• From: The Australian
• July 19, 2012 6:56AM

GENERAL practitioners will have to wait up to three years to receive secure discharge summaries digitally signed by hospital doctors following more delays to the Gillard government's e-health system.

State and territory health departments say they are not ready to use healthcare providers' 16-digit unique identity numbers created for the national system to verify the identity of doctors or other medical staff creating a patient's discharge summary.

Healthcare providers individual identifiers - dubbed HPI-Is - were created and assigned to all registered doctors two years ago as part of the Healthcare Identifiers service launch, which also saw unique 16-digit identifiers allocated to every Australian enrolled on the Medicare database.

Use of local hospital or state health agency identity numbers instead of a uniform national identifier will impact their use for authentication and audit purposes within the personally controlled e-health record system.

Much more here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/states-not-ready-for-e-health-system/story-fn4htb9o-1226429582355

Of course we must not lose sight of a Victorian Health Department assessment that the use of the IHI as a single identifier was just unsafe:

Sunday, February 13, 2011

NEHTA Releases A Set of Documents Describing Integration of the Health Identifier Service With the HealthSMART Program in Victoria. Not There Yet!

The most interesting to me is this document of the release is this one:

Vic IHI Integration Clinical Risk Assessment Report v1.1

The document is one of a series of specifications and so on produced as part of a IHI Pre-Implementation Project between NEHTA and HealthSMART.

The full blog is here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/nehta-releases-set-of-documents.html

All in all this is shaping up as a bit of a mess. Just how all this is going to be resolved in a way that makes clinical documents developed in Hospitals (and GP surgeries) seamlessly and safely find their correct home in the NEHRS is feeling like a work in only very early progress.

It would be great to get hold of the IBM Report to be able to see just what it says and what other issues have been identified.

It really seems to be a bit of a shambles. It is interesting how there is a steady flow of these issues emerging. I wonder is this co-ordinated or whatever?

David.

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 30th July, 2012.

Here are a few I have come across the last week or so.

Note: Each link is followed by a title and a 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.

General Comment

Overall, quite a lively week on the NEHRS front with the Health Department disagreeing with The Australian on just how badly they managed the system start-up. Right now I would suggest there is delayed delivery and the major bug that remains unfixed suggests (as of Sunday) the The Australian may be closer to the truth. As far as the specifics I am sure it will be ages before the details of exactly went on will come out.

It is interesting to note the total sign ups to the NEHRS are still really tiny in the context of the population.

Also of note it seems the COAG Meeting provided no clarity on NEHTA funding with the matter apparently having been referred to a committee.

Elsewhere we cover some small initiatives in Telehealth and Mental Health as well as some rather more left field things such as the Minority Report user interface and a seemingly pretty badly managed health provider privacy breech.

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http://www.zdnet.com/govt-trumpets-online-e-health-sign-ups-7000001535/

Govt trumpets online e-health sign-ups

Summary: Amid reports of ongoing troubles with the implementation of the national e-health record system, the Department of Health has highlighted the success of the system, with 3563 signing up so far.

By Josh Taylor | July 25, 2012 -- 06:32 GMT (16:32 AEST)

The Australian Department of Health and Ageing has spruiked its success in signing up over 3500 users to its personally-controlled e-health record system in over three weeks, amid claims of issues plaguing the system since its launch.

In 2010, the government promised that it would create an electronic health record system by 1 July 2012, so that every Australian who wanted a record of their medical history online could sign up for one.

Despite there not being an online registration form made available when the system first launched, more Australians have signed up online for an e-health record than through any other method. According to stats provided to ZDNet, as of 24 July 2012, a total of 3563 people have signed up for e-health records, with 87 per cent (or 3099) of these registering online. The remaining 13 per cent (or 464) registered via phone, in writing or in person.

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http://ehealthspace.org/news/consumers-favour-online-pcehr-registration

Consumers favour online PCEHR registration

Posted Tue, 24/07/2012 - 15:13 by Will Turner

The latest figures released by the Department of Health and Ageing show consumers have a strong online preference when registering for an eHealth record.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/e-health-records-system-went-live-despite-known-bugs/story-fn4htb9o-1226433298913

E-health records system went live despite known bugs

• by: Fran Foo
• From: The Australian
• July 24, 2012 12:00AM

THE Gillard government knowingly launched the national e-health records system despite warnings from its own e-health agency that it had more than 60 high-severity and critical bugs.

The personally controlled e-health system was pushed live and accessible to the public without a back-up system that would have ensured patient data was available at all times.

The consumer portal, where people enter personal information, medical history and medication details, contained hundreds more bugs of different severity levels as the system went live, The Australian can reveal.

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http://ehealthspace.org/news/government-fires-back-over-safety-pcehr

Government fires back over safety of PCEHR

Posted Thu, 26/07/2012 - 10:59 by Will Turner

The federal government has responded to allegations the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) system compromised patient safety in going live on July 1.

This week The Australian newspaper reported the federal government “knowingly launched the national e-health records system despite warnings from its own e-health agency that it had more than 60 high-severity and critical bugs.”

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/future-of-nehta-funding-a-key-issue-at-coag-meeting-in-canberra/story-fn4htb9o-1226433228434

Future of NEHTA funding a key issue at COAG meeting in Canberra

• by: Karen Dearne
• From: The Australian
• July 24, 2012 12:00AM

THE future of the National E-Health Transition Authority is likely to be settled at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra tomorrow.

The National Partnership Agreement on E-Health, which underwrote $218 million for NEHTA's operations in the past three years, expired on June 30.

Intended to support delivery of the healthcare identifier service and other national e-health objectives, the agreement provided commonwealth, state and territory funding on a 50:50 basis.

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http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/experts-in-the-dark-over-patient-ehealth-control

Experts in the dark over patient e-health control

24th Jul 2012

Mark O’Brien

THE chief clinical expert advising the government on its e-health record system has claimed doctors involved were not properly informed about the final design as efforts continue to overturn patients’ ability to delete documents from the record.

The National E-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA)national clinical lead Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said his “original understanding” was that patients who wished to remove specific documents from their record would do so in consultation with the doctor who created the document.

Instead, the system allows patients to “effectively remove” documents without providing any clue to a practitioner who later accesses the record that the document was ever there.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/health-department-to-outsource-pcehr-operations-and-management/story-fn4htb9o-1226434907586

Health Department to outsource PCEHR operations and management

• by: Karen Dearne
• From: Australian IT
• July 25, 2012 3:31PM

THE Health Department wants to outsource its operational and management responsibilities for the personally controlled e-health record system to a single provider.

It has released a tender calling for "provision of project support services" for the PCEHR program, which went live earlier this month despite warnings that the system was unstable and plagued with known bugs.

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http://www.zdnet.com/aus-govt-looks-to-outsource-e-health-record-management-7000001602/

Aus Govt looks to outsource e-health record management

Summary: The Australian Government is looking to outsource the management of its Personally-Controlled E-health Record system.

By Josh Taylor | July 26, 2012 -- 00:15 GMT (10:15 AEST)

The Department of Health and Ageing has gone to tender for an organisation to support the operation of the Personally-Controlled E-Health Record (PCEHR) system.

The Federal Government's e-health record system was launched on 1 July after two years of planning and hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment. Although it hasn't been a smooth start for the program, over 3500 people have so far registered for their own e-health record.

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http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/latest-news/online-gp-guide-to-backpain-launched

Online GP guide for back pain launched

25 July, 2012 David Brill

A new online tool has been launched to guide GPs through the diagnosis and management of low back pain.

Back Pain Choices comprises a step-by-step guide to patient management, drawing on evidence-based guidelines from Australia, the US and UK.

It was launched Wednesday as a joint project by the NPS and the George Institute for Global Health.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-27/pathways-help-hunter-doctors-with-patient-referrals/4158186/?site=newcastle

Pathways help Hunter doctors with patient referrals

Updated July 27, 2012 07:24:26

Hunter doctors taking up a new Pathways program, which gives local advice about referring patients to specialists.

An innovative web-based support program for Hunter region doctors is being rolled out across the Hunter, helping GPs ensure their patients get the right care from specialists.

Health Pathways is a collaboration between the Hunter Urban Medicare Local and Hunter New England Health, and was developed in response to feedback from doctors.

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-27/mouldy-medical-records-no-more/4158120/?site=newcastle

Mouldy medical records no more

Updated July 27, 2012 07:08:25

Mouldy medical records have now been destroyed after months of scanning and transferring the data onto a computer system.

Around two years after mouldy records forced a staff walkout at a Newcastle medical storage facility almost all of the offending material has now been transferred to computer.

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http://ehealthspace.org/news/new-e-mental-health-tool-all-about-real-time-monitoring

New e-mental health tool all about real-time monitoring

Posted Mon, 23/07/2012 - 15:15 by Will Turner

A new free online tool based around the concept of self monitoring has been launched to assist people with mild-to-moderate anxiety and depression.

myCompass is an “interactive self-help service” that assesses user symptoms, then provides a personalised and interactive program designed to help a person work through their mental health issues. The initiative has been developed by a team of health professionals at the Black Dog Institute, and funded by the Australian Government.

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http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr12-mb-mb071.htm

New e-Mental Health Tool Launched

A new online mental health tool, myCompass, that assesses user symptoms, then provides a personalised support program, has been launched.

23 July 2012

Minister for Mental Health Mark Butler today launched a new online mental health tool designed to support people living with a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression.

Developed by a team of health professionals at the Black Dog Institute, and funded by the Australian Government, myCompass is an online tool that assesses user symptoms, then provides a personalised support program.

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http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/government-it/telehealth-trial-declared-a-success-20120724-22lu6.html#ixzz21aH7hayt

Telehealth trial declared a success

Date July 24, 2012

Brad Howarth

Ease-of-use is emerging as the critical factor for the uptake of telehealth consulting in Australia.

A six-month trial implementation of telehealth at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne has been declared a success, with more than 150 patients seen and countless hours saved for families and clinicians.

The director of neurology at the Royal Children's Hospital Professor Andrew Kornberg said previous telehealth attempts, including trial consultations via Skype, had not worked, as connection dropouts and scheduling difficulties led doctors to stop using it after just one or two bad experiences. The new system uses GoToMeeting, a web-based videoconferencing service from Citrix Online.

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http://ehealthspace.org/news/pcehr-soft-approach-yields-dividends

PCEHR “soft” approach yields dividends

Posted Wed, 25/07/2012 - 14:44 by Josh Gliddon

Department of Health and Ageing officials have dubbed the federal government’s “softly-softly” approach to PCEHR registrations a success.

According to eHealthspace.org calculations, an average of 135 individuals per day are signing up for an electronic record. The PCEHR was launched on July 1.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/paternity-firm-slapped-over-privacy-breach/story-fn6tcs23-1226435191069

Paternity firm slapped over privacy breach

• by: Hedley Thomas
• From: The Australian
• July 26, 2012 12:00AM

THE largest Australian company in the field of drug, alcohol and paternity testing has been found to have breached the Privacy Act for displaying on the internet confidential, sensitive information about hundreds of customers and their orders for testing kits.

But Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim found Medvet had acted quickly last July to resolve the privacy breach, despite The Australian establishing the company had not fixed the problem after being told three months earlier that customers' information had become readily available on Google.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/researchers-work-on-biometric-shoes-for-secure-id/story-e6frgakx-1226432397859

Researchers work on biometric shoes for secure ID

• From: AP
• July 23, 2012 7:03AM

A LAB is working to perfect special shoe insoles that can help monitor access to high-security areas, like nuclear power plants or special military bases.

The concept is based on research that shows each person has unique feet, and ways of walking. Sensors in the bio-soles check the pressure of feet, monitor gait, and use a microcomputer to compare the patterns to a master file for that person. If the patterns match the bio-soles go to sleep. If they don't, a wireless alarm message can go out.

"It's part of a shoe that you don't have to think about," said Marios Savvides, head of Carnegie Mellon University's new Pedo-Biometrics Lab, in Pittsburgh.

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http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/431665/physician_robot_begin_making_rounds/

Physician robot to begin making rounds

The robot can be controlled by an iPad and can make hospital rounds while the doctor observes remotely

• Lucas Mearian (Computerworld (US))
• 25 July, 2012 10:10

The maker of Roomba, the robotic vacuum, has stepped up its game and Tuesday unveiled a 5-ft., 4-in.-tall, 140-pound "telemedicine" robot aimed at aiding hospital patients in emergency situations, especially during nighttime hours when staffing is lower.

The robot, dubbed RP-VITA (Remote Presence Virtual + Independent Telemedicine Assistant), is the result of a collaboration between iRobot and InTouch Health, a telemedicine robotics vendor.

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http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/minority-report-software-hits-the-real-world-20120724-22ln3.html

'Minority Report' software hits the real world

Date July 24, 2012 - 9:18AM

Rob Lever

The software behind the film Minority Report, where Tom Cruise speeds through video on a large screen using only hand gestures, is making its way into the real world.

The interface developed by scientist John Underkoffler has been commercialised by the Los Angeles firm Oblong Industries as a way to sift through massive amounts of video and other data.

We think the future of computing is multiuser, multiscreen, multidevice. 

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http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/new-protein-could-rival-antibiotics-20120728-232uo.html

New protein could rival antibiotics

Date July 29, 2012

John Elder

AUSTRALIAN scientists have made a breakthrough in finding a powerful alternative to antibiotics - at a time when the World Health Organisation is predicting a bleak future in which bug-killing drugs are so ineffective that ''a child's scratched knee or a strep throat could kill again''.

The threat of the world returning to a pre-antibiotic era has been fretted about for at least a decade because of microbes becoming increasingly resistant to drugs.

But Monash University researchers, in collaboration with Rockefeller University and the University of Maryland, have published a paper revealing the structure and workings of PlyC - a flying saucer-shaped protein that kills bacteria that cause infections from sore throats to pneumonia and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome.

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Enjoy!

David.

AusHealthIT Poll Number 132 – Results – 30th July, 2012.

The question was:

Should DoHA Provide The E-Health Community and Public With An Updated Plan For E-Health in Australia?

For Sure

-  23 (56%)

Probably

- 1 (2%)

Why - It Would Be A Fiction!

-  16 (39%)

No - It Is None Of The Public's Concern

-  1 (2%)

Votes : 41

Very interesting response. About half say a plan is needed and the other half reckon if would be a fiction - even if it were provided.

Again, many thanks to those that voted!

David.

Well It Is A Month Since The NEHRS Launch. How Has It Turned Out?

It is now almost a month since the magical launch day (on July 1, 2012) of the NEHRS / PCEHR.

The scope of the launch had been progressively wound back from what Ms Roxon (the former Health Minister) announced a little under two years ago.

Here is the blog that addressed that issue and the original plan that was published two months ago:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/its-time-to-check-what-we-were-promised.html

In the broadest terms I would suggest where we are now is as follows:

First the ‘soft launch’ has succeeded in preventing much in the way of public sign up - with only 4,000 or so people having managed to register so far. It is hard to know if this is due to lack of interest or lack of publicity effort. At this rate we will have only 50,000 or so users in the first 12 months rather than the half a million or so projected for the current financial year.

Second the consumer portal is just about a clumsy to access and use as it might be possible to design. Compared with commercial sites with similar levels of security (e.g. banks, maybe even pay-walled news sites and so on) the whole thing is really plain awful - especially for the funds involved. They really could not have tried harder to provide such utterly non-intuitive access.

Third, once logged in, from the consumer perspective the responsiveness of the system is really very poor. Compare the responsiveness and speed, as well as screen design with international sites (Amazon, Facebook, Twitter even Blogger) with vastly more users and further away show just how badly designed / provisioned the NEHRS is.

Fourth, a key challenge for clinical usability is going to be to deliver professional access to Shared Health Summary and other records with a reasonably easy access path followed by PC like responsiveness and speed. On the evidence we have so far that is going to be a major challenge.

Fifth, right now the value in the NEHRS is similar to using a MS Word document to store your medical history and a fair deal cheaper. This can change but right now the precise plans on what is going to happen when is pretty opaque.

Sixth, it is clear the Medical Profession and especially the AMA have not their concerns about the whole system allayed. Unless this is convincingly achieved ‘real soon now’ the whole Program . You can read the AMA President’s concerns here:

http://ama.com.au/node/8067

and here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/minister-we-have-a-problem-ama-boss/story-fn4htb9o-1226415035470

Lastly we have the on-going problem of the system having an obvious error and it having taken over two weeks for no action to be taken. If this is the Quality of Service we are to expect then the sensible thing to do would be not to get involved.

In summary, nothing of any value has been so far delivered, and any real delivery of Program remains an elusive fantasy.

With what is on offer right now it is a total waste of time to enrol in the system. I really wonder at what point this will somehow turn into a ‘change management strategy’ in the same what the HealthConnect Program did some five or six years ago.

It seems likely to me that the outsourcing approach being adopted by DoHA can only accelerate the process.

The goals set are utterly unrealistic and fanciful and lack any clarity as to the resourcing planned.

See here:

http://aushealthit.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/just-where-does-this-move-leave-those.html

My view is that this whole Program is hanging on by its finger nails and may fall off the cliff anytime now.

David.