Word is reaching your humble correspondent that NEHTA is suffering some court/tribunal losses regarding the way it has been allegedly making the lives of some of their staff and contractors a misery.
That cases are being run and either lost or settled with prejudice to NEHTA - despite them having a dedicated team working to manage all this - should encourage others to come forward if they believe they have been significantly disadvantaged or mistreated.
Time to make sure if you have been treated badly that some fair remedy is obtained.
David.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 18th February, 2013.
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
Two things set the tone for me this week.
1. Senate Estimates updated us on just how little usage the NEHRS was getting 8 months after launch.
2. We have this quote (from first article) “The scheme has been compared to the government's bungled roof insulation system by the Coalition's eHealth spokesman, Andrew Southcott, who called it ''Pink Batts on steroids''.”
So the NEHRS is going very slowly and the Opposition (with and election in 7 months) is saying they are far from convinced.
No wonder those in DoHA who are in charge of all this are pretty panicked and paralysed in their decision making. Heads will roll around all this no matter who wins the Election and the time needed to fix things is now too short. The Liberals being seemingly being odds on to win can’t be making the e-Health Gurus at DoHA sleep well at night.
We weekly check of my NEHRS was uneventful - other than the fact that Australia.gov.au has apparently had a 12 hour outage over the weekend.
Senate Estimates Transcript will be posted when available.
Senate Estimates Transcript will be posted when available.
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Numbers for eHealth lagging
By Tim Barlass
Feb. 17, 2013, midnight
THE federal government's controversial eHealth system to get the nation's medical records available online has had a dismal uptake from the public and the medical profession.
The scheme has been compared to the government's bungled roof insulation system by the Coalition's eHealth spokesman, Andrew Southcott, who called it ''Pink Batts on steroids''.
The eHealth scheme was launched with fanfare in July, with an advertising truck touring Australia to encourage 500,000 people to register in the first year. The Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, declared: ''We estimate eHealth will save the federal government around $11 billion over 15 years. That's pretty good bang for your buck.''
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Doctors shun e-health records scheme
- SUE DUNLEVY
- News Limited Network
- February 14, 2013
LESS than 1 per cent of the nation's health practitioners have signed up to the $1 billion e-health scheme aimed at providing patients with electronic records of their medicines, test results and medicines.
And the 56,000 patients who have registered for a record are getting nothing, because doctors can't yet upload their health details.
The Personally Controlled e-Health record went live eight months ago in July, but most doctors still can't use it even though their software has been updated.
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MyMedicalRrecords.com to reveal result of patent breach probe
- by: Fran Foo
- From: The Australian
- February 12, 2013
A US software firm hopes to conclude investigations into a possible infringement of its patents by the National E-Health Transition Authority in less than three weeks.
MyMedicalRecords.com, a subsidiary of MMRGlobal, flagged the investigation last week, claiming that "both state and federal governments in Australia, through Nehta, appear to be infringing on patents and other intellectual property issued to MyMedicalRecords.com".
The Gillard government has developed a personally controlled e-health records system, an online, opt-in platform that stores an individual's health information. Nehta manages the PCEHR implementation process.
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NEHTA shrugs off health records patent threat
Low take-up of health records more concerning.
The body responsible for the Australian Government's electronic health records system has paid little attention to threats made by a US firm claiming that the PCEHR violates its patents.
The chief executive of the National E-Health Transmission Authority (NEHTA), Peter Fleming said he had not contacted the Health Department over the patent claim, hearing about it first via a newspaper article.
US-based MMRGlobal issued a news release last week claiming that NEHTA was infringing on its patents (including Australian patent numbers 2006202057 and 2008202401) and other Intellectual Property (collectively, the "MMRIP") issued to MyMedicalRecords.com, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MMRGlobal.
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Pharmacies lag in using electronic prescriptions
Posted Wed, 13/02/2013 - 10:23 by Fran Molloy
Most pharmacists still manually type original prescriptions into their dispensing software, even though electronic prescriptions are now compatible across nearly all GP and dispensing programs.
From mid- January, Australian GPs and pharmacists have been able to generate and dispense scripts across both electronic prescription exchange services (MediSecure Script Vault and eRx Script Exchange) following an ACCC-approved collaboration between the rival software companies to allow interoperability.
The two companies were allocated over $1.2 million for technical work to ensure the interoperability and will collect an estimated $8 million in transaction fees under the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement, signed off in 2010.
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ACCC agreement to boost e-prescribing
14 February, 2013 Nick O'Donoghue
The ACCC is set to authorise an agreement between two competing e-prescription systems that will allow them to talk to each other.
The body issued its draft determination yesterday, following the granting of interim approval for the deal, which will enable the Pharmacy Guild of Australia backed eRx system to “talk” to the MediSecure system.
The Department of Health and Ageing has also supported the move, which is expected to boost electronic prescription use.
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E-scripts boost after software agreement
15 February, 2013 Paul Smith
Peace has broken out in the long-running war between Australia’s two rival e-prescribing software systems raising the prospect of a major boost in e-prescribing.
Over the past five years, MediSecure system, backed by the RACGP, has been fighting it out with its bitter rival — prescribing system eRx Script Exchange, supported by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
Until this year, the systems did not speak with each other, undermining the hope that e-prescribing would reduce transcription errors.
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Telstra aims to lead in e-health
- by: MITCHELL BINGEMANN
- From: The Australian
- February 16, 2013
TELSTRA is making a play at the $120 billion-a-year health industry with the creation of a business that will help connect healthcare professionals with patients over broadband and mobile networks.
The unit, which comes under the remit of customer service boss Gordon Ballantyne, will see Telstra partner with healthcare authorities and providers to deliver services direct into patients' homes.
"We want to play a part in better connecting those who are in poor health. We want to help deliver health to the community using all of our innovation and the scale of our business," Mr Ballantyne said.
"We think there's a role for Telstra to play whether it is providing integrated platforms, in-home consultations or other services."
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Bringing eHealth to Penrith and Blacktown medical practices
12 February 2013. Penrith and Blacktown based healthcare providers and staff will have an opportunity to get a first-hand look at eHealth when the Model Healthcare Community tour comes to town.
EHealth is changing the way healthcare is delivered in Australia. The benefits of easier sharing of health information between hospitals, community health, general practitioners and patients are being seen now. During the interactive tour, led by a clinician, attendees will see how this works in practice.
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App helps spinal patients get their lives back
iPhone and iPad app based on guide created by Spinal Cord Injuries Australia
- Byron Connolly (Computerworld)
- 13 February, 2013 11:46
A new iPhone and iPad app enables people with spinal cord damage to access information that will help them get their lives back on track after a life-changing injury.
The app was created by Apps-House and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA). It is based on ‘Back on Track’, a guide to life after a spinal cord injury, developed by SCIA.
SCIA said the app provides information about transport, financials, legal matters, employment, bladder care, assistance dogs and clothing. It also helps patients find disability service providers and accessible places to visit, and provides news and information about spinal cord injuries.
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Tablet to treat what ails you
Date February 7, 2013
Macman
Garry Barker is a tech columnist
Health practitioners are using iPads to monitor patient care.
AMONG the dusty grey cells within my skull, I harbour the thought that humanity's enthusiasm for the iPad should surprise no one. Homo sapiens have used tablets for millenniums. Moses had several and, despite the continuing frailty of our species, they're still operational.
Initially iPads were seen as consumer devices, but were quickly adopted for more serious purposes, such as education and healthcare. Educational apps grew from the demand of schools, but healthcare has always been in the iPad's DNA, perhaps because Steve Jobs, the first to clearly see what a tablet should be, was passionately interested in medical science.
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Vic government’s ICT strategy claims up to $400 million in savings
Reusing and sharing of systems and avoiding vendor lock-in are main ways the Victorian Coalition plans to save money.
- Rebecca Merrett (Computerworld)
- 13 February, 2013 10:53
The Victorian Coalition government has unveiled its whole of government ICT strategy, which it claims will result in savings of up to $400 million by the end of 2014.
Technology minister Gordon Rich-Phillips said at the release of the strategy yesterday that the Coalition aims to salvage the previous Labor government’s ICT blowouts.
“The previous Labor government adopted a piecemeal approach to ICT that saw at least $1.44 billion of taxpayers’ money wasted in cost blowouts on projects like HealthSMART, myki and the LEAP database,” Rich-Phillips said.
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Media Release
Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Leader of the Government in the Senate
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Leader of the Government in the Senate
Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity
Gillard Government secures SMS-access to 000 for hearing and speech impaired
Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, today announced that people with hearing or speech impairments will be able to contact triple-0 via SMS for the first time, under a new and improved National Relay Service (NRS).
Following a competitive tender process, the Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency (TUSMA) has signed new contracts with Australian Communication Exchange and WestWood Spice to deliver the National Relay Service (NRS).
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Triple-0 app offers faster help
Date February 12, 2013
Georgina Mitchell
AUSTRALIA'S emergency services are set to launch a long-awaited triple-0 smartphone application to respond more quickly to people in a crisis.
The app, developed by the national Triple Zero Awareness Work Group, which includes police, State Emergency Service, fire and ambulance services, gives clear options for which organisation to call in a crisis, connects the call and provides GPS co-ordinates of the phone's location.
The director of community safety at Fire and Rescue NSW and chairman of the group, Assistant Commissioner Mark Whybro, said the app was designed to cut the number of people calling triple-0 when they needed the SES or Police Assistance Line.
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John Kinghorn bankrolls back-pain venture
- by: Fran Foo
- From: The Australian
- February 13, 2013
MILLIONAIRE businessman and RAMS home loans founder John Kinghorn has emerged as the prime investor for National ICT Australia spin-off Saluda Medical.
Mr Kinghorn, through his family charity Kinghorn Foundation, has invested $5 million in the company, which hopes to relieve chronic pain using spinal cord simulation.
"Saluda is pioneering the development of an implantable medical device utilising what we believe is leading edge technology and a scientific breakthrough in chronic pain management," Mr Kinghorn said.
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Australian researchers target hospital superbugs
- by: Chris Griffith in Canberra
- From: The Australian
- February 14, 2013
AUSTRALIAN researchers want to reduce the threat posed by hospital superbugs using DNA sequencing and data analysis.
National ICT Australia yesterday said it was researching techniques to help hospitals locate the original carrier of a superbug, to find its origin globally, and to identify in advance which antibiotics would effectively treat an outbreak.
NICTA researcher Thomas Conway said DNA sequencing was now cheap enough to make it affordable to perform DNA sequencing on all patients affected by an outbreak.
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NICTA researcher Thomas Conway said DNA sequencing was now cheap enough to make it affordable to perform DNA sequencing on all patients affected by an outbreak.
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La Trobe Uni adds two new robots to its collection
The robots – one female and one male – join La Trobe’s existing robots, Matilda and Jack.
- Stephanie McDonald (Computerworld)
- 08 February, 2013 13:42
La Trobe University is trialling two new robots that will provide support to the elderly in their homes and nursing facilities.
The robots – one female and one male – join La Trobe’s existing robots, Matilda and Jack. The have spent the past 80 days travelling around the world receiving modifications.
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http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/gadgetry-helps-doc-diagnose-20130213-2ebnn.html
Gadgetry helps doc diagnose
Date February 14, 2013
Bleeding Edge
Charles Wright is a tech columnist
From blood pressure to sharing essential information, high-tech equals health answers.
PERHAPS the only fun thing Bleeding Edge can recall about the experience of being admitted to Melbourne's The Alfred Hospital a couple of weekends ago was the truly impressive array of gadgets we were hooked up to.
Within minutes of clambering on to the gurney in the emergency department, we had had adhesive sensors attached to the Bleeding Edge abdomen; the nurses had popped a Bleeding Edge finger into a heart-rate monitor; and wrapped a sphygmomanometer cuff around an arm. At that point, our vital signs were suddenly the late-breaking news on the TV monitor.
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Mars rover drills deep for dust
Date February 11, 2013
The Curiosity rover has drilled into a rock on Mars and is ready to dump a pinch of powder into its onboard laboratories for closer inspection.
The feat marked a new milestone for Curiosity, which landed last year on a mission to determine whether environmental conditions on Mars were favourable for microbes.
Using the drill at the end of its robotic arm, Curiosity on Friday chipped away at a flat, veined rock bearing numerous signs of past water flow.
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Time to banish Facebook from your browser?
Date February 11, 2013
Are you ready to claw back the web from social media widgets?
Facebook didn't quite break the internet last week, but it had a pretty good crack at it. Many pages sporting Facebook widgets were diverting to a Facebook error page, throwing a major spanner in the works for many online publishers including this one. The problem was rectified soon enough, but it highlighted exactly how deeply ingrained Facebook and other social media widgets have become in the wider web.
These days it's pretty hard to find a high-traffic, content-heavy site which isn't plastered with social media buttons and widgets -- trying to use the likes of Facebook, Twitter and others to drum up traffic. They're even on this very page, lurking at the top just below my byline and begging you to share this page with your social networks.
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Enjoy!
David.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
The Level Of Negative Publicity And Opinion On The NEHRS Seems To Be Rising And The Media Seems To Be Noticing.
These two articles appeared in the last few days.
Numbers for eHealth lagging
By Tim Barlass
Feb. 17, 2013, midnight
THE federal government's controversial eHealth system to get the nation's medical records available online has had a dismal uptake from the public and the medical profession.
The scheme has been compared to the government's bungled roof insulation system by the Coalition's eHealth spokesman, Andrew Southcott, who called it ''Pink Batts on steroids''.
The eHealth scheme was launched with fanfare in July, with an advertising truck touring Australia to encourage 500,000 people to register in the first year. The Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, declared: ''We estimate eHealth will save the federal government around $11 billion over 15 years. That's pretty good bang for your buck.''
But the bang appears to have turned to a fizzle after a parliamentary estimates committee was told that only 56,761 people had registered.
Mr Southcott said that of 560,000 health practitioners nationwide, 1325 had registered.
More here:
(Note: there are copies of this all over the web as it is syndicated by Rural Press - part of Fairfax)
This comment is pretty telling:
“Mr Southcott said: ''We are three years down the track with almost $1 billion spent and nothing to show for it. It's Pink Batts on steroids.''
Second we have this:
Doctors shun e-health records scheme
- SUE DUNLEVY
- News Limited Network
- February 14, 2013
LESS than 1 per cent of the nation's health practitioners have signed up to the $1 billion e-health scheme aimed at providing patients with electronic records of their medicines, test results and medicines.
And the 56,000 patients who have registered for a record are getting nothing, because doctors can't yet upload their health details.
The Personally Controlled e-Health record went live eight months ago in July, but most doctors still can't use it even though their software has been updated.
One GP told News Limited he crashed the entire computer system for practice when he tried to upload just one e-health record.
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"After almost a billion dollars spent on the PCEHR, it defies belief how little progress has been made," he said.
Bureaucrats confirmed they were racing to get legal advice after a US e-health company MyMedicalRecords.com said it was investigating whether the Australian government had infringed its patents.
More here:
The comments seem rather well informed.
Comments (3)
- Brent of Adelaide Posted at 12:38 PM February 15, 2013
Yet another failure by the Labor Government. It's a dumb idea and will continue to fail spectacularly. With no load on the system it crashes, what will happen when/if they double up the usage? That would still be less than 2% of medical professionals and 0.5% of patients.
- JG of adelaide Posted at 8:05 AM February 15, 2013
1 billion plus, & the system still isn't totally online & performing. Then it turns out there may be copyright issues. This is just one more in a long list of "stuff ups" & incompetence from this government. Its beyond belief that anyone would consider voting them back! Its going to take more than a generation, & some major finacial pain for this country to return to any level of finacial success! Role on September.
- Tired & Grumpy Rural Doc of Yorke Peninsula Posted at 7:06 AM February 15, 2013
Given the bungles with the UKs NHS 'spine' eRecords system, can you blame docs for being suspicious. The last thing anyone wants is confidential medical info plastered over the net, or unauthorised access. There will be advantages to a PCEHR...but the system is not ready. So that is a billion wasted by Govt...who refuse to listen to the doctors. Madness.
The bottom line of all this seems to be building concern and increasing awareness of the fact that the NEHRS is not delivering as promised and an increasing level of publicity - after a considerable period of distinct media ‘stillness’ - which is quite telling.
The outcome of the MMRGlobal patent review may also be relevant in terms of raising awareness of the NEHRS and its current situation and prospects.
With an election only seven months away I suspect the time to get weaving fixing all these issues has already passed.
We are likely to have a pretty interesting six months I reckon.
David.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Weekly Overseas Health IT Links - 16th February, 2013.
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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New Watson-based tool sends docs to the cloud for cancer treatment
February 8, 2013 | By Dan Bowman
IBM and New York-based Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have taken the next step in their partnership to improve cancer care using Watson technology.
The entities, along with Indianapolis-based insurer WellPoint, today introduced a new product--Interactive Care Insights for Oncology--that will enable clinicians to provide personalized treatments to patients based on individual medical information and updated treatment guidelines and research.
Providers using the product will have remote access to a Watson-based advisor via the cloud, according to an announcement. The product is the result of an agreement reached last year between IBM and Memorial Sloan-Kettering in which the two partnered to develop a clinical decision support tool for individualized cancer treatments.
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Friday, February 08, 2013
Final HIPAA Rules a Major Step Forward, but There's More Work To Be Done
On Jan. 25, HHS published the long-awaited, final HIPAA privacy and security regulations implementing most of the changes mandated by Congress in the HITECH Act. Congress intended for the HIPAA changes to help build public trust in the increased digitization of health data triggered by the HITECH electronic health record incentives. Do the new rules get the job done? In what key ways is patient privacy enhanced by the new rules?
More Objective Standard for Breach Notification
In HITECH, Congress established a right for individuals to be notified of breaches of their identifiable health information. Earlier rules to implement this provision required notification to patients only if the breach would cause a "significant risk of harm" to the data subjects. Although harm was defined to include financial and "other" harm (such as harm to dignity or reputation), we were concerned that this standard gave breaching entities the power to make subjective judgments about whether the type of data involved in the breach would cause "harm" to data subjects. Under the new standard, entities experiencing a breach must notify the data subjects unless they determine, through an objective analysis, that there is a low probability that identifiable data were compromised in the breach. Factors to be considered include whether identifiable information was actually viewed or acquired by someone not authorized to see it and the extent to which the risk of misuse of the data was mitigated.
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5 ways supply management matters
By Benjamin Harris, New Media Producer, Healthcare IT News
Created 02/06/2013
Keeping shelves stocked and enough supplies in their place is one of the most important aspects of managing any hospital department efficiently and safely. Supply management is the pipeline from whence all instruments of care flow, and if it causes more problems than it solves, a department runs a risk of wasting money or, worse, negatively affecting patient care.
Keeping shelves stocked and enough supplies in their place is one of the most important aspects of managing any hospital department efficiently and safely. Supply management is the pipeline from whence all instruments of care flow, and if it causes more problems than it solves, a department runs a risk of wasting money or, worse, worsening patient care.
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It’s big, but is it clever?
Robert Francis’ final report into the Mid Staffordshire scandal is huge, but will its impact be in proportion to its size, asks Lyn Whitfield.
6 February 2013
Journalists wanting to attend the press conference at which Robert Francis QC was due to deliver his final report on the scandal at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust had to register in advance.
That’s not particularly unusual. However, the reason given, that the inquiry would only have enough reports for the reporters that it was expecting, was.
All became clear when the report was distributed; in a box containing three volumes and an executive summary that runs, in itself, to 100 pages.
In total, the final report on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry contains more than 1,700 pages and 290 discussion points and recommendations. It’s not a thing to print lightly.
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Data transfer issues for HIT systems a major safety concern
February 7, 2013 | By Dan Bowman
Data transfer between health IT systems often is inadequate from a patient-safety perspective, according to a new analysis of HIT-related safety events by the ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization.
In its report, for which 171 health IT events were examined at 36 facilities between April and June of last year, the Plymouth Meeting, Pa., nonprofit organization identified five potential problem areas for such events. In addition to inadequate data transfer, researchers said that other notable health IT related problems included systems not functioning as intended; poor system configurations; inaccurate data entry in patient records; and data entry in the wrong patient records.
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Why HIE hinges on terminology standards
By Viet Nguyen, MD, Chief medical information officer for Systems Made Simple
Data “integration” has been a buzzword for years, but only now are healthcare organizations realizing what it truly means to integrate — both within and outside their own four walls. To achieve collaboration across the entire continuum of care, a significant shift in data standardization and integration must occur. Joint efforts between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) are a start, and promise to spur momentum toward communication with private health systems as well. The ultimate goal is nothing less than the creation of a longitudinal patient record that helps lower costs, enhance care and improve day-to-day efficiencies.
The eHealth Exchange is one example of a national collaboration aimed at expanding the interoperable exchange of information. Formerly known as the Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange (or NwHIN), eHealth Exchange illustrates the fact that adoption of data and terminology standards is the linchpin for health information sharing.
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DoD, VA to accelerate EHR integration
By Tom Sullivan, Editor, Government Health IT
Created 02/06/2013
Whereas the Defense and Veterans Affairs (VA) departments are working toward a joint iEHR that would, come 2017, wrap all patient data into a single record accessible to clinicians in both departments, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and VA’s Secretary Eric Shinseki pushed their staffs to accelerate data exchange and interoperability where they can now, rather than waiting.
“What the Secretaries challenged us to do was find some high-value quick wins that would provide real value across the organizations ... and utilize those most critical data areas in a standard format,” said Roger Baker, VA chief information officer. “By early 2014 we will be able to we will be able to exchange the most important medical information on every one of our patients between our organizations.”
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VA, Defense ditch plans for common EHR
Posted: February 6, 2013 - 2:30 pm ET
(Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly attributed a quote from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. The current version is correct.)
The long march to interoperability between the electronic health-records systems of the Veterans Affairs Department and the Department of Defense passed yet another milestone Tuesday as the secretaries of both announced they were scrapping a 5-year-old plan to achieve exchange capabilities by creating a single, common EHR for both healthcare systems.
“Rather than building a single integrated system from scratch, we will focus our immediate efforts on integrating VA and DOD health data as quickly as possible, by focusing on interoperability and using existing solutions,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement at a news conference (PDF) with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. “This approach is affordable, it's achievable, and if we refocus our efforts, we believe we can achieve the key goal of a seamless system for health records between VA and DOD on a greatly accelerated schedule. We're now directing our departments to do just that.”
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Cerner 2012 bookings at $3.14B
By Bernie Monegain, Editor
Created 02/06/2013
Cerner, which along with Epic seems to have a lock on EHR sales across the country, reported bookings in the fourth quarter of 2012 at $1.02 billion, an all-time high and an increase of 13 percent compared to fourth quarter 2011 bookings of $899 million. Full year 2012 bookings were a record $3.14 billion, up 15 percent compared to 2011 bookings of $2.72 billion.
Cerner reported numbers that beat consensus estimates handily, Piper Jaffray analysts Sean Wieland and Mohan A. Naidu, wrote in a Feb. 6 brief.
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AHA on HIT Safety Plan: We Need the Patient ID System Fixed
FEB 5, 2013 5:35pm ET
The American Hospital Association likes much of the health information technology safety plan that the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT released for public comment in December. But the patient identifier issue was glossed over in the plan and must be given more focus, the AHA says in a comment letter to ONC.
“The issue of how to match patients with their medical records needs to be solved as we accelerate information exchange on regional and national levels,” according to the AHA. “The inability to match patients across silos raises safety concerns about mismatches--incorrectly matching patients, or missing a match that should have been made.
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CHIME presses ONC on patient safety
By Bernie Monegain, Editor
Created 02/06/2013
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is urging the federal government to ensure that patients are matched correctly to their health information.
CHIME said it agreed with ONC that, “the accurate and efficient matching of patients to their health information is critical to ensuring patient safety,” and it urged a more focused effort to address patient data matching, saying that, “despite years of development, no clear strategy has emerged to accurately and consistently match patient data.”
CHIME, which represents 1,400 healthcare IT executives, submitted the comments Feb. 4 to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in response to ONC’s Patient Safety Action & Surveillance Plan.
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Riddell steps down
4 February 2013
Sean Riddell is stepping down as chief executive of EMIS Group.
The company’s chief administrative officer, Chris Spencer, will become interim chief executive on 21 March when Riddell retires.
Riddell has been with EMIS for 23 years and is retiring to focus on family commitments.
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Health IT, feedback can raise quality of care
February 6, 2013 | By Susan D. Hall
Providing feedback loops, as recommended by the Institute of Medicine, was a core recommendation in the pre-rulemaking report of the Measure Applications Partnership (MAP).
The public-private partnership, convened by the National Quality Forum to make recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, called feedback the best way to determine whether measurement is being used in the way it was intended.
"Ideally, the exchange of information through feedback loops is systematic, standardized, real-time, two-way, occurs among all levels of the system, and takes best advantage of information technology," the report states.
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VA, DoD nix plan for new joint EHR
February 6, 2013 | By Dan Bowman
Budget and time constraints are forcing the federal government to deep-six plans for a brand new joint electronic health record system for troops and military veterans.
At a press conference Tuesday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said that rather than build a new system to replace the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will focus on integrating their current systems via "existing solutions."
The new system had been scheduled to go live in 2017, with a preliminary rollout scheduled for 2014, though in December, Panetta and Shinseki said they intended to "meet or beat" that deadline
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Telehealth reduced readmissions, hospital days: report
Posted: February 5, 2013 - 3:00 pm ET
When done right, telehealth programs work.
That's the bottom line from a 10-page report, “Scaling Telehealth Programs: Lessons from Early Adopters,” by the Commonwealth Fund. It focuses on three pioneers of home health monitoring technologies and programs: the Veterans Affairs Department, Boston-based Partners HealthCare and Centura Health, Englewood, Colo.
The authors concluded, based on the experiences of these early adopters, that home monitoring programs can improve care and patient experiences, reduce hospitalizations and cut costs. Followers wanting to emulate the success of these early adopters should focus more on the people than the technology.
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Primary care faces hurdles on shared decisionmaking: study
Posted: February 4, 2013 - 4:15 pm ET
An eight-site demonstration project has revealed some of the biggest challenges facing primary-care practices seeking to implement shared decisionmaking, according to a study in the February issue of Health Affairs.
Launched in July 2009 and led by the Boston-based Informed Medical Decisions Foundation, the demonstration project supported and followed early adopters as they planned and put in place a number of decision aids to better engage patients in their care.
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Busy docs, inadequate IT systems hinder shared decision-making
February 7, 2013 | By Susan D. Hall
Implementing shared decision-making isn't as easy as it sounds, according to a study by the RAND Corp. and Informed Medical Decisions Foundation.
In an article published in Health Affairs, the authors follow a demonstration of shared decision-making at eight primary care sites that was funded and coordinated by the foundation.
From the project's first 18 months, the authors said the biggest barriers were time-pressed physicians, lack of training about shared decision-making and inadequate IT systems.
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Guest Blog: Six Healthcare IT Predictions for 2013
February 4, 2013 by Ted Reynolds and Chris Miller, CTG Health Solutions
Meaningful use, healthcare reform, and pressures to improve performance will drive major trends in 2013
Meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs), health reform and ongoing pressure to improve clinical and financial performance will drive six trends that we expect will impact providers in 2013
1. Value-based purchasing (VBP) and the formation of accountable care organizations (ACOs) will accelerate. A recent report stated that the U.S. spent $2.7 trillion on healthcare in 2011, up 3.9 percent from 2010. With federal and private health insurers seeking to reduce costs by shifting from fee-for-service to shared savings, bundled payments, and other risk-sharing reimbursement models, providers will increasingly look to the formation of ACOs. These models will address VBP challenges, coordinate care, and better manage the impact of health costs incurred from the estimated 78 million baby boomers that began turning 65 on January 1, 2011, at a rate of one every 10 seconds (3 to 4 million per year).
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5 ways to succeed at BYOD
By Benjamin Harris, New Media Producer, Healthcare IT News
Created 02/04/2013
To say that mobile devices are firmly ensconced in the medical landscape is an understatement at best. Still, the conversation rages on about the proper place for smartphones, tablets and laptops. One element to this discussion is the role of BYOD. This sounds like something that should be on a party invitation, but it stands for "Bring Your Own Device," and it is a practice common in many industries where employees use their personal mobile devices in the workplace. BYOD can be cost-effective and time-saving in many settings, but the security and stability required by medical applications pose many tough questions for any healthcare organization pondering this option. Brent Lang, president and COO of Vocera, suggests some touchstones of a smart BYOD policy.
1. Have a strategy. The best way to meet the many trials of BYOD head on, Lang says, is to define what the boundaries of policy will be, and what issues they may encounter. Because mobile devices are a reality, and because they will be used, Lang says that hospitals need to "create a strategy around multiple devices, don't just take a passive role around that." Lang notes that in addition to the way that communications technology has changed over time, so have the layout and ways that hospitals operate. "Clearly, mobility is a huge movement within the healthcare environment," Lang says, pointing out that hospitals are moving away from the "classic hub and spoke" design, and that hospitals stand to lose money and efficiency by not adapting to the newer ways that personnel move and operate.
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ONC details plan to engage patients
By Anthony Brino, Associate Editor, Healthcare Payer News and Government Health IT
Created 02/05/2013
As a new generation of seniors enters Medicare and millions of lower-income Americans gain Medicaid or private insurance for the first time in 2014, federal officials at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT are trying to help align the patient engagement movement with consumer e-health.
“The full potential of consumer e-health is far from realized and may not even yet be fully understood,” Office of Consumer eHealth director Lygeia Ricciardi and other ONC officials write in February’s Health Affairs. As patient e-health is in its nascent stage, Ricciardi and colleagues say that the current trajectories of both health IT and mobile technologies “have created ideal conditions” for the growth of patient health information technologies.
Mobile health apps have proliferated, online patient portals are growing more common and the ONC is incentivizing personal health information tools in meaningful use Stage 2 requirements. At the same time, they write, one “major obstacle to greater use of health information in electronic form appears to be lack of access, not lack of interest.”
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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/blogs/david-linthicum-healthcare-big-data-analytics-45624-1.html
A Business Case for Clinical Use of Big Data Analytics
FEB 4, 2013 2:48pm ET
The hype around the use of Big Data analytics would lead many to believe that we should be able to understand all things about anything, within any business, as deep or as shallow as we want to go. The reality is that most health care organizations are far away from the use of any high-end analytics systems to provide the insights that clinicians, physicians, and administrators should have available to them.
The core issue is cost. Despite the fact that much of the technology that organizations can leverage for Big Data and Big Data analytics is open source, the amount of time and money it will take implement these systems is far beyond the budgets of most providers.
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Automated follow-up helps spot adverse drug reactions
February 5, 2013 | By Susan D. Hall
A new study from Ottawa Hospital in Canada using an automated phone system reiterates that follow-up with patients can improve medication adherence--and flag adverse reactions.
Researchers used a system called ISTOP-ADE that called patients three days after they received a prescription, and again after 17 days, according to the research, published at JAMA Internal Medicine. The authors said patients must be given more opportunities to ask questions about their medications.
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HealthPartners of Minnesota: Online clinics can reduce costs, improve outcomes and experience
February 5, 2013 | By Ashley Gold
Online healthcare delivery is yielding financial and clinical benefits--signaling a need for regulatory reform that allows for expansion and innovation in the field, according to a study in Health Affairs.
HealthPartners of Minnesota's online clinic, Virtuwell, has reduced costs by an average of $88 per episode compared with traditional care, has improved clinical effectiveness and has a 98 percent "would recommend" rating from customers, according to the authors.
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AMIA's 14 Usability Principles for EMR Design
February 01, 2013
The American Medical Informatics Association Task Force on Usability has laid out 14 usability principles for the design of electronic medical records as part of its report on enhancing patient safety by improving usability of EHR systems in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
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HIT Innovations Spring from Strategy, Design, and Need
Scott Mace, for HealthLeaders Media , February 5, 2013
Innovation doesn't always come from a brand new invention or idea. Usually, it comes from making improvements to something that already exists.
Now Lyle Berkowitz MD, associate chief medical officer of innovation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, has co-edited an entire book, Innovation with Information Technologies in Healthcare, that riffs on the topic.
Subtitled "The Healing Edge," the book contains a surfeit of stories supporting the idea that innovation isn't the sole province of the wizards at Apple or Google. Rather it can emerge from the good ideas and brainstorms of designers working in close concert with healthcare providers.
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EHRs boost federal health center work
By Anthony Brino, Associate Editor, Healthcare Payer News and Government Health IT
Created 02/04/2013
Health IT adoption at Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) has yielded significant quality of care improvements, a new study has found, even as the health centers are still coming up to speed with meaningful use.
A study in the journal BMC Health Services Research examined 776 FQHCs using data from the Commonwealth Fund’s 2009 National Survey of Federally Qualified Health Centers, measuring the extent of electronic health record and health information exchange use and associated quality of care across several functions.
Columbia University public health policy professor Jemima Frimpong, along with researchers from the University of Alabama and Southern Illinois University, examined the centers by their level of health IT adoption and measured receipt of discharge summaries, frequency of patient reminders for preventive care and timely appointment for specialty care, finding an overall positive association between health IT use and quality of care.
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Adverse Drug Reactions ID'd by Phone
Cheryl Clark, for HealthLeaders Media , February 5, 2013
An automated phone calling system that asks patients about the prescriptions their doctors ordered, with follow-up calls from pharmacists, can mitigate adverse drug events (ADEs) and prescription non-compliance that might otherwise go unnoticed.
"Most patients do ask [about their medications if they have questions] when given the opportunity," says Alan Foster, MD, general internist and Scientific Director of Performance Measurement at the Ottawa Hospital in Canada. But that's an opportunity they don't easily get, he says.
"We need to increase opportunities to ask questions—hence our intervention."
The results of his experiment with the phone system is published in the current issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.
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Docs avoid drug errors with mobile apps
By Eric Wicklund, Editor, mHIMSS
Created 02/04/2013
Consumers aren't the only ones using mobile apps to improve their health. Their doctors are using them, too.
A recent study conducted by Epocrates indicates physicians are accessing drug information at the point of care, often through a mobile medical app, to make sure the drugs they're prescribing aren't harming their patients. That, says the San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of online reference tools, amounts to more than 27 million potentially dangerous drug interactions avoided each year.
Consumers aren't the only ones using mobile apps to improve their health. Their doctors are using them, too.
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Statewide telehealth efforts gaining momentum
February 4, 2013 | By Dan Bowman
If recent headlines are any indication, telehealth is becoming more of a priority for several states throughout the nation of late. In Mississippi, for instance, state legislators approved a bill last week that would allow insurance companies to reimburse physicians who consult with rural doctors using telemedicine, The Commercial Appeal reported.
State Rep. Charles Busby, a Republican, told the newspaper that the cost for installing telemedicine equipment for facilities in the state is down to roughly $12,000 per facility, from a high of $40,000. According to the newspaper, rural providers who have used telehealth to work with specialists to date often have not been paid for such efforts.
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Mass General EHR study probes antidepressant arrhythmia risks
By Anthony Brino, Associate Editor
In a novel use of electronic health record data, researchers affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital have found evidence supporting recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings of the arrhythmia risks associated with the common antidepressant medication citalopram, which is sold under the brand name Celexa.
The study, published in the journal BMJ, analyzed the use of citalopram and other antidepressant medications in 38,000 patients, compared to biomarker signs of increased risk for ventricular arrhythmia, an abnormal heart rhythm that can be life threatening.
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Monday, February 04, 2013
Voluntary Adverse Event Reporting Part of ONC's Draft Patient Safety Plan
In response to the Institute of Medicine's 2011 report -- titled, "Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care" -- on how the government and the private sector can maximize the safety of health IT-assisted care, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released a draft Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan on Dec. 21, 2012.
Two of the plan's key goals are to:
- Make it easier for clinicians to report adverse events and risks related to use of health IT tools (e.g., treatment errors due to incomplete or inaccurate data in an electronic health record, or due to unclear information display); and
- Enable the aggregation and analysis of the adverse event and risk information that clinicians report in an effort to prevent future health IT-related errors.
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Enjoy!
David.
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