Now This Is A Very Big Number For Health IT Benefits I Wonder How Real It Actually Is?

Reports of an interesting study appeared a little while ago.

The first report is here:

IT could save $100B for US healthcare

Posted on Jun 05, 2015

By Mike Miliard, Editor

New research from Accenture projects that digital health tools will save the U.S. healthcare industry more than $100 billion over the next four years.

In 2014 alone, it calculates, technology such as Web-enabled devices, digital diagnostic tools and other FDA-approved IT help achieve some $6 billion in reduced costs – mostly thanks to things such as improved medication adherence, behavior modifications and fewer emergency room visits.

Accenture expects that number to approach $10 billion this year and $18 billion next year – increasing to $30 billion in 2017 and $50 billion in 2018 as these technologies take hold, proliferate and evolve.

It also predicts that FDA approval of digital health tools will triple by the end of 2018, to 100 (up from from just 33 this past year).

"A digital disruption is playing out in healthcare, as witnessed by the emergence of new business models and technology that will change the nature of patient interactions, alter consumer expectations and ultimately improve health outcomes," said Rick Ratliff, Accenture's managing director of digital health solutions in a press statement.

Factors, such as government health IT mandates, payment reform and other regulatory changes are accelerate the growth of FDA-approved digital solutions, the report shows.

Increasing ubiquity of health IT among physicians and patients will enable more and more devices to integrate with patient portals and digital health records, according to Accenture, which finds that one in four U.S. physicians routinely use telemonitoring devices for some aspect of chronic disease management.

More here:

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/it-could-save-100b-us-healthcare

There is another report here:

FDA-cleared digital health devices to save healthcare $100B by 2018

By: Jonah Comstock | Jun 4, 2015        

FDA clearances for digital health devices are on track to triple by 2018, according to new research from Accenture, as digital health offerings drive more than $100 billion in savings over that same time period.

Thirty-three digital health devices were cleared by the FDA in 2014, according to Accenture, and they predict 100 will be cleared in 2018.

The research group estimates that FDA-cleared digital health devices — defined as “an internet-connected device or software created for detection or treatment of a medical indication” — saved the US healthcare system $6 billion last year in the form of improved medication adherence, behavior modifications and fewer emergency room visits. They predict that savings will grow to $10 billion in 2015, $18 billion in 2016, $30 billion in 2017 and $50 billion in 2018.

“A digital disruption is playing out in healthcare, as witnessed by the emergence of new business models and technology that will change the nature of patient interactions, alter consumer expectations and ultimately improve health outcomes,” Rick Ratliff, managing director of digital health solutions at Accenture, said in a statement.

More here:

http://mobihealthnews.com/44107/fda-cleared-digital-health-devices-to-save-healthcare-100b-by-2018/

The sad things with such studies is that the authors never seem to come back five years later to let us know how it worked out!

We can all be hopeful - as if applied to Australia might mean about 1/20 (the relative size of the two economies) of that amount in Australia with e-Health done right which is still a fair bit!

David.

2016 Budget - Labor Backs Down On Some More Saving Measures - We Are Presently In The Last Two Weeks of Parliament Until Spring.

June 18 Edition

Budget Night was May 12, 2015.

The selling phase is over and now we are to see the passage through Parliament this week and next.

I suspect the remarks from Mr Hockey re housing costs may still be reverberating!

As ever it is hard to know just what will be the big news in these last two weeks.

Here is some of the recent news and analysis.

General Budget Issues.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-budget-office-revealed-australia-would-be-42-5-billion-better-off-by-scrapping-negative-gearing-2015-6

The Budget Office revealed Australia would be $42.5 billion better off by scrapping negative gearing

Olivia Chang Jun 7, 2015, 10:32 AM

A push to abolish negative gearing could put a temporary lid on Sydney and Melbourne’s surging property market — and bolster the pockets of the federal government.

Figures released by the Parliamentary Budget Office revealed government revenue would increase by $3 billion over the next four years — that’s $42.5 billion over the next 10 years — by curtailing negative gearing.

The tax break — allowing investors to claim expenses for rental properties to reduce their overall taxable income — is utilised by 1.3 million Australian landlords who claimed $13.8 billion in tax losses in 2012 to offset other income, according to ATO data.

Despite this, only a small sector of wealthy Australians in the top income brackets have been able to reap the benefits of negative gearing flow. Research by the Australia Institute think tank revealed one third of the rebates from negative gearing went to the richest 10% of households with more than half going to the wealthiest 20%.

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http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/2015/06/07/hockeys-debt-government-borrowing-works/

Hockey’s bogeyman: govt debt explained

11:00pm, Jun 7, 2015

James Fernyhough Money Editor

The Coalition has dropped the debt and deficit scaremongering, but it’s still borrowing like crazy. Here’s how it works.

 ‘Debt and deficit’ is the bogeyman that helped the Coalition crush Labor in the 2013 election, but since the May budget it has rarely been invoked.

That’s not because there has been any change to the status quo. The government is still borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars every week.

Rather, it’s because, first, the government has failed to devise a compelling strategy to fix the deficit; and second, Treasurer Joe Hockey has realised that by talking down the economy, he is spooking businesses and consumers.

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http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2015/06/09/joe-hockey-advises-young-people-just-have-more-money

9 Jun 2015 - 4:43pm

Joe Hockey Advises Young People To “Just Have More Money”

By The Backburner

9 Jun 2015 - 4:43 PM

After a controversial Federal Budget and continued inflated housing prices, exasperated Treasurer Joe Hockey has advised Australian taxpayers to just “have more money” and consider simply “being rich” in the face of new government rebates for business and continued cuts.

“Honestly, it’s not that huge of a deal,” said Hockey after prolonged criticism of Australian housing prices, the Budget and the Government’s general direction. “There wouldn’t be that much of an issue if everyone just had a little bit more cash floating around. We’d be totally fine if that were the case.”

Despite renewed opposition to negative gearing and increased cost of living, there has been little attempt to resolve this from the Government. Speaking from Canberra, Hockey spoke plainly on the issues facing young Australian. “I understand the struggles facing young people today, but most of them could be alleviated if they simply had more money, or considered making more money in the very near future.”

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http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/joe-hockey-is-wrong-houses-are-becoming-unaffordable-20150609-ghjys6.html

Joe Hockey is wrong, houses are becoming unaffordable

Date June 10, 2015 - 2:34AM

Peter Martin

Economics Editor, The Age

Would-be owner-occupiers have become a minority in a housing market they once dominated.

The latest figures released on Tuesday show would-be owner-occupiers accounted for just 48.4 per cent of the money borrowed for home loans in April - the lowest proportion on record.

Investors accounted for the other 51.6 per cent.

The figures were released as the Treasurer Joe Hockey told a Sydney media conference that housing was still affordable, saying if it wasn't, "no one would be buying it".

The figures suggest that housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable for would-be residents who find themselves outbid by investors armed with the tax advantages associated with negative gearing.

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http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/how-the-abbott-government-stopped-us-talking-about-natsems-modelling-of-their-budget-20150611-ghjm1u.html

How the Abbott government stopped us talking about NATSEM's modelling of their budget

Date June 12, 2015 - 12:15AM

Gareth Hutchens

The Abbott government doesn't want you to think critically about the budget.

If it did, it would have welcomed the modelling from the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) a couple of weeks ago.

The budget may seem like old news now, but it shouldn't.

It's going to lead to serious losses of disposable income for low and middle income families, with a single-parent family with two children (with an annual income of $55,000) set to lose a huge $20,648 by the end of 2018/19.

That's what NATSEM found.

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http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/treasurer-joe-hockeys-gaffes-on-housing-have-put-more-lead-in-the-federal-governments-saddlebags-20150612-ghmfjb.html

Treasurer Joe Hockey's gaffes on housing have put more lead in the federal government's saddle-bags

Date June 13, 2015 - 12:15AM

James Massola

Political correspondent

In January 2014, as he got down to the hard work of preparing his first budget, Joe Hockey told a colleague the year ahead would see the sun set on his "Sunrise Joe" persona.

The new Treasurer grasped, acutely, the size of the task ahead.

When Joe is on he is fantastic but when he is not, he is dreadful 

Federal coalition MP

Eighteen months later, Hockey's colleagues are talking about another gaffe this week from an accident prone Treasurer.

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http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/abbotts-tax-review-process-is-infected-federal-court-judge-says-20150612-ghmu0g.html

Abbott's tax review process is 'infected' Federal Court judge says

Date June 13, 2015 - 9:20AM

Nassim Khadem

A Federal Court judge has slammed the Abbott government for ruling out changes to negative gearing, superannuation concessions and GST as part of its tax review, saying the entire debate is politically infected and "handcuffed" from being able to achieve any useful reform.

Justice Richard Edmonds, who was appointed to the Federal Court under the Howard government in May 2005 and has previously been critical of the lack of political will by leaders to carry out tax reform, said the Abbott government's review will turn out to be just as useless as the former Labor government's attempts back in 2009.

Former treasury secretary Ken Henry carried out a review back then, which was released in 2010 by the then treasurer Wayne Swan, but Mr Henry and his panel were restricted from including GST in the debate.

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Health Budget Issues.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/doctors-must-be-allowed-to-speak-freely-on-poor-detention-centre-conditions-20150608-ghih50

Doctors must be allowed to speak freely on poor detention centre conditions

Date June 8, 2015 - 4:43PM

Nicholas Talley

As a doctor, my work is defined by examining the evidence and recommending the solution. This applies whether I'm treating patients as a gastroenterologist or advocating for change as the president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

The evidence from Australia's immigration detention centres is in. They seriously and irrefutably harm the health of children and adults who have sought our protection. 

As a doctor, I cannot think of any other scenario in which my ability to speak freely about serious harms being inflicted on my patients would be restricted.  

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http://www.smh.com.au/national/medicines-to-cost-more-and-healthcare-will-suffer-according-to-wikileaks-documents-20150610-ghkxp0.html

Medicines to cost more and healthcare will suffer, according to Wikileaks documents

Date June 10, 2015 - 11:41PM

Philip Dorling

Exclusive

Secret trade negotiations, new details of which have been released by WikiLeaks, will undermine Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and push up the cost of medicines for the Australian public.  

In the latest of a series of high profile leaks, WikiLeaks has published more draft treaty text from the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations which the Abbott government claims will boost trade and investment across 40 per cent of the world economy. 

Trade and healthcare experts are deeply concerned that the TPP agreement has the potential to undermine Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and other similar health programs such as that administered by New Zealand's Pharmaceutical Management Agency.  

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Medical Research Fund

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/national/a/28370796/20b-fund-for-future-trapped-in-party-row-over-use/

$20b fund for future trapped in party row over use

Andrew Tillett, Canberra

June 8, 2015, 12:35 am

The fate of the Abbott Government’s $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund hangs in the balance, with growing concerns the process to divvy up funding could become politicised.

Palmer United Party’s WA senator Dio Wang has joined Labor and the Greens in raising questions over the governance arrangements for the fund.

The Government plans to pour savings from the health system into the fund, with it expected to swell to $20 billion by mid-2020.

The fund is meant to start operations on August 1, with an initial $10 million to be distributed to researchers in 2015-16.

Pharmacy Issues.

http://ajp.com.au/news/guild-member-fees-slashed-by-25-for-a-year/

Guild member fees slashed by 25% for a year

Megan Haggan — 10/06/2015

Pharmacy Guild members will have their 2015-16 Membership renewal rates reduced by 25% as a thank you to all Members for their support during the negotiation of the 6CPA, the Guild has announced in Forefront.

Both the proprietor and the premises components of the Guild annual subscription will be reduced by 25% in the Unity Rebate and this will be reflected in the Guild’s annual membership subscriptions, which are currently being mailed out to members.

Pharmacy Guild National President George Tambassis says the Guild wanted to provide the Unity Rebate due to the massive support from its members on the ground.

“After the huge grass-roots effort visiting, calling and writing to local politicians, the Guild has decided to acknowledge the critical role played by our members which has been absolutely instrumental in the 6CPA outcome,” he says.

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It is going to be very interesting to see what happens to the polls and consumer confidence over the next 2-3 months - especially if we see the Senate knocking more savings back as is seeming likely! Already there was a small drop in confidence last week and no improvement this week. The monthly measurement - post budget - was not good at all!

Enjoy.

David.

Does This Fascinating Article Remind You Of Somewhere Closer To Home?

This appeared a few days ago.

Why Health Care IT Is Still on Life Support

Electronic health records were supposed to save money—and lives. So far, they’ve mostly made doctors angry.

By ARTHUR ALLEN

June 11, 2015

Lead image by AP Photo.

When technology “disrupts” it creates winners and losers. Hello smartphone! So long camera, encyclopedia, newspaper, book, CD, courtship, attention span. Disruption isn’t just inevitable, it’s righteous. Question tech and you’re not only a relic, you’re a job-killer and a Luddite, and possibly a Unabomber.

The information technology tsunami has hit so fast that most of us haven’t had time to think about what we might be sacrificing by trying to ride it. And that’s particularly true when it comes to the delivery of health services. 

With the best of intentions, the Obama administration six years ago launched the HITECH Act, a $30 billion program to put electronic health records (EHR) in every hospital and doctors’ office. It offered incentives for docs who bought and “meaningfully used” the technology, and penalties—which start to kick in this year—for those who failed to adopt the new technology quickly enough. The goal was to get doctors to store patient data and share it electronically with the patients, other physicians, public health agencies, laboratories and other players in the vast health care enterprise that accounts for one-fifth of our economy.

There was just one problem: Medicine may have been in dire need of a high-tech revolution, but the Obama administration did not think hard enough about whether the technology was ready for medicine.

Doctors certainly seemed like a tech-friendly bunch for whom computerization would come naturally: They prescribed new drugs and prodded and inspected and sliced at us with increasingly sophisticated gadgets. But they still listened to our organs with a quaint 19^th century device called the stethoscope, and wrote our prescriptions in illegible long hand. And when Obama took office, most of them still kept their patients’ records on paper, in manila folders with multi-colored tabs. Only 17 percent—the early adapters, the tech-savviest—relied on electronic health records.

Now, doctors spend many of their working hours in front of a computer screen. And they aren’t happy about it.

In principal, computerization could be a good thing. For years, the consensus of the experts was that health care lagged unconscionably behind other parts of the economy when it came to computerization and electronic records were seen as a crucial element in any plan to tame the health care monster swallowing our economy. To make health care better, cheaper and more accessible we needed to stop paying doctors for the number of things they do, and instead reimburse them for maintaining or restoring health. This could only be done when doctors, hospitals, insurers, nursing homes, psychiatric institutions—and patients themselves—got better at sharing information. And that would happen only when the data flowed electronically.

This cheery flow-chart hasn’t really materialized—not yet at least. And for that, several players—including the Obama administration—are to blame.

“The simple narrative of our age—that computers improve the performance of every industry they touch—turns out to have been magical thinking when it comes to healthcare,” writes Robert Wachter,  a physician who teaches at the University of California.

According to David Brailer, the first chief of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), Prime Minister Tony Blair had bragged to President George W. Bush about a since-failed British health IT initiative and Bush wanted one of his own. His vision, Bush said recently, was, “there’s a car wreck and the EMT takes a tag off the victim, plugs it into the computer and uses his records to make medical decisions.” Brother Jeb has a similarly magical view of health IT. On the campaign trail recently he pointed to his Apple watch as a potential tool in a “consumer-directed model” of health care that he would like to see replace Obamacare. “Five years from now … we’ll be able to guide our own health decisions in a way that will make us healthy … we have to get to a health system and away from a disease system.”

President Bush’s dream only started to flower when Obama started cutting big checks. His first ONC director, the patrician David Blumenthal (brother of Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal) had the idea of giving doctors and hospitals cash to buy electronic health records. Two other health staffers, Ezekiel Emanuel and Bob Kocher, wanted a set of “meaningful use” yardsticks to assure the incentives were properly absorbed. Obama’s transition team saw it as a unique chance to transform health care, according to Wachter in his new book, The Digital Doctor. 

Lots more here:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/electronic-medical-records-doctors-118881.html

This is a fascinating long discussion of the issues around the US use of EHRs. In Australia much is different - Australian doctors have adopted the aspects of EHRs that they have found useful and helpful - but much is the same - around external intrusion and compulsion from Government.

Do read this to see just how national systems etc. seem not to have quite done what was hoped for.

It will be time well spent.

David.

The Opt-Out Trials May Be Much Trickier That Is Presently Believed. There Are Many Challenges I Suspect.

The latest news on the plans for the trials comes from Senate Estimates a week or so ago..

Here are the relevant bits (Skip down a page or so if you have already read it all)

Senator MOORE: What consultation has been had with the medical profession regarding the decision to shift to the opt-out system?

Mr Madden: The recommendations from the review were to increase participation in the system. The health community had said, 'If we had the majority of our patients in the system, we would be more compelled and likely to take this on and use it.' That came through in the form of submissions from the AMA, RACGP, Consumers Health Forum and others—

Senator MOORE: That was prior to 2014.

Mr Madden: That was in 2014, in the report. We did do some consultation directly with health care providers and the community between July and September 2014 just to confirm views about how that would work. The point I need to make is that opt-out, in the current budgetary decision, is to trial opt-out in at least two geographical locations to understand the issues and make sure that we have continued to maintain the consumer's or individual's confidence in the system and to understand the issues that might come with that. So we have not taken a decision to move completely to a national—

Senator MOORE: But you have made a decision to go to the trial of two opt-outs, which is a distinct change from the other process. This committee did an inquiry into the original legislation and the opt-in/opt-out model was a great point of contention at that time. So now, as a result of the review, we have gone with a trialling of opt-out.

Mr Madden: Yes.

Senator MOORE: What form are the trials going to take; has that been determined?

Mr Madden: We are looking at least at two trial sites. We are working with states and territories through the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Committee on the possible selection of sites. We need to find sites which are discernible so that people who are in the sites in the trials know that they are in the trials and people who are outside know that they are clearly not. So we will be doing consultation on the location of the trials. We will be trialling our communication processes and also working through education, communication and training for GPs and other health care providers in the trial sites. While the population and the individuals in those areas might have a registration, we want to make sure that the health care providers are engaged with that system as well. That is why it is important to work with the states, so that we have a connection through the public hospital system.

Senator McLUCAS: Are you proposing to use a PHN boundary for those trial sites?

Mr Madden: Not necessarily. The trial population that we are looking for across, again, a minimum of two and a maximum of five, would be about a million people. So it would probably be an amalgam of some PHNs and it could be based on postcodes that join a couple of PHNs together. We want to get a spread that includes lots of people or individuals and lots of GPs and specialists, allied and private, and public hospitals to get the whole connected community of health care providers for that community involved.

Senator MOORE: Have the terms of the trial been determined yet?

Mr Madden: No. Where we have got to at the moment is to describe the criteria that would pick out what those trial areas might be. We will be looking to appoint an independent person to create the evaluation criteria for that, certainly well before the trials begin.

And here:

Senator MOORE: I was just talking with you, Mr Madden, and also with NEHTA about the opt-out trials and in terms of the process you said you were going to look at two sites. Is that right?

Mr Madden: Yes. We are looking for a minimum of two sites. We do not want to go any larger than five. Again, we have criteria that would describe what would make for the best sites or not for the best sites. Did you want to know about the logistics of the opt-out?

Senator MOORE: Yes, I do, because of the process.

Mr Madden: By September we are looking to have the sites selected. In the funding for the opt-out trials or what we have called the participation trials, we have funding for education, communication and training for healthcare providers and certainly a heavy dose of communication for individuals in the areas so they are aware of what this means to them, what they get as a benefit, what their rights are and what they do if they choose to opt out. We would be looking to do that from early 2016 with the training starting around about the same time for the healthcare providers.

We then have a period for two months where we have a system available for the communities to inquire and get information about staying in the system or opting out of the system. They will have a system where they can indicate their expectation or their option to opt out of the system and after that two months we will create skeleton eHealth records for all of those people who did not choose to opt out. We will then give them six weeks or so for them to log into and take control of their records, if that is what they choose to do, because the eHealth system will still have the patient or the personally control aspects. They can still determine who can operate their eHealth record on their behalf, healthcare providers that might be allowed to or not allowed to upload records to their record and who can or cannot see particular records. They will have five weeks to take control of those and to put all of those controls in place if that is what they choose to do. Then about two weeks after that we will create the records. We are looking to target that for having records in the hands of healthcare providers and individuals after the controls have been set some time during July 2016.

Senator MOORE: So it is just over the year?

----- End extract.

So, in summary, after site selection we will have:

1. Education of providers and consumers on what is happening, what their rights will be to opt-out starting in early 2016 - with some training for providers in early 2016.

2. Two months will then be spent with consumers being able to try the system and inquire about and choose to opt-out etc.

3. Then everyone who did not opt out will have a skeleton record created within the system - presumably using data from the IHI service.

4. The opted in consumers will then have five weeks to take control of their record and set their desired access controls.

5. Two weeks after that the record will be populated with all the other information like, presumably PBS and Medicare claims data.

6. Providers and users will then have access and the system will be available for use a little over a year from now. Of course there will still be limited numbers of Shared Health Summaries and other useful clinical documents.

At present we do not seem to have information on:

1. How long the trials will actually run? - it would need to be a reasonable while - at least a year in my view.

2. Just how the trials will ensure the consumers (and providers) are actually engaged with all this - we are, remember, talking about a million people - many of whom will be children, homeless, lacking literacy or internet access, be mentally impaired or incompetent, be just who just ignore Government messages etc. (is no response treated as agreement to have a record or not?).

3. What the evaluation criteria for the Trials will be and how the trial outcomes will inform what happens next?

4. How will those who move in or out of a geographic trial area be detected and informed what is to happen to them and what they need to do?

5. How will those who reach an age of competence for independent decision making be alerted that they need to take some decisions and how will children who desire independence from parental access to their record be managed?

6. How will children who do not have control of their record and who want to suppress information (medications, referrals etc. that has been automatically loaded) from parents and others and who are old enough to know what they are doing, obtain the control they want of their record?

7. How will it be determined who controls an opt-out record if the patient is for some reason not able to take control for themselves?

8. What will happen if a disengaged consumer has information automatically loaded into the PCEHR they are concerned about being known to others and this information is then disclosed via clinician access to the record (or more likely their staff)?

9. How will control of created PCEHRs be adjusted in the event of divorce, family violence etc?

Feel free to add further concerns of your own regarding the trials. I am sure there are many others.

I have to say to have an unconsented record created and populated for you when you are a demented 90 year old in a nursing home or a fifteen year old who wants nothing to do with her abusive parents having access to her auto-created record seems pretty bizarre. Surely we need to have a positive response agreeing to opt in before record are created? If not the Government is setting itself for a ‘world of pain’ I reckon. I wonder has this been properly thought through?

David.

Weekly Australian Health IT Links –15th June, 2015.

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

An interesting week with lots of private sector activity and what has to be described as the same-old same-old  from the public sector.

The continuing dialog between interest groups and the e-Health Division, sadly, just seems to confirm that there is still a very big gap between what is hoped for and what might be achievable in the hands of those present running the e-Health  Division The depth of apparent understanding of what might work seems very limited.

Time will tell as time passes.

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http://www.australianageingagenda.com.au/2015/06/12/hard-decisions-on-cdc-software/

Hard decisions on CDC software

By Natasha Egan on June 12, 2015 in Technology Review

CIOs and executives know it is all systems go for consumer directed care from next month, yet the information and communications technology to support its delivery are still evolving.

As the sector has been getting itself ready for the 1 July transition to consumer directed care (CDC), heads of aged care organisation’s IT departments have been tasked with getting home care information and communication technology (ICT) systems ready.

Gavin Tomlins, the chief information officer (CIO) of Queensland not-for-profit provider Sundale, says: “We know what our project timeline is and we know what we need to do. We will be ready,” he tells Technology Review. “We will have the new software package in place.”

Sundale had been using the People Point Software solution, which was acquired by Procura in 2013. Rather than automatically updating to Procura’s single source solution “we thought it was an opportune time to reinvestigate what is out there in the marketplace,” Tomlins says. This has involved “a lot of due diligence” comparing the major industry vendors and products, he says.

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http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/latest-news/medicare-toolkit-dubbed-more-crap

Medicare toolkit dubbed ‘more crap’

12 June, 2015 Tessa Hoffman

An exhaustive “online toolkit” to teach GPs how to avoid getting busted by Medicare investigators has been launched by the Department of Human Services.

The Medicare Billing Assurance Toolkit was launched this week, with officials suggesting practices complete the self-audit process at least once a year.

The initiative has already been lambasted by one GP as “more crap”.

It includes a self-assessment guide as well as before and after questionnaires for doctors and practices to complete. And there is a "charter" that practices can adopt, pledging their allegiance to the non-abuse of the Medicare system.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/university-of-sydney-dell-launch-artemis-supercomputer-as-research-tool/story-e6frgakx-1227392245587

University of Sydney, Dell launch ‘Artemis’ supercomputer as research tool

• The Australian
• June 11, 2015 12:00AM

Chris Griffith

A supercomputer commissioned by University of Sydney is helping unlock the secrets of the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

Known as Artemis, the Dell computer is assisting researchers in molecular biology, economics, mechanical engineering and physical oceanography and offers powerful crunching of research data. The university and Dell Australia announced its launch yesterday.

The supercomputer is not your average desktop. It has 1512 cores of compute capacity, almost 10 Terabytes of fast DDR4 memory, 10 Nvidia Tesla K40 graphics units and 480 Terabytes of Lustre file storage.

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http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2015/06/13/the-power-of-data-on-the-nitty-gritty-of-public-health-practice/

The power of data on the nitty-gritty of public health practice

Michelle Hughes | Jun 13, 2015 7:22PM | EMAIL | PRINT

Rebecca Zosel writes:

The second of the CEIPS (Centre of Excellence in Intervention and Prevention Science) Seminar Series was delivered by Dr Stephen McKenzie, CEIPS Research Officer on Monday 27 April: ‘Using health promotion practice records to inform practice’. The seminar profiled CEIPS’ long standing efforts to document public health practice so it is visible and can be shared, in order to build our understanding of effective practice and drive quality improvement.

Dr McKenzie illustrated the power of data on the nitty-gritty of public health practice by presenting an example of a recording method recently used in Healthy Together Geelong.

Healthy Together Geelong staff used three databases (healthy children, healthy workplaces, and other events) to document their practice. The databases – ‘Event Trackers’ – were an adaptation of the event logs recording method developed by CEIPS for use by Healthy Together Victoria health promotion teams, but their pedigree goes back much further. The original event logs were developed first by The University of Kansas Community Toolbox group. The team at CEIPS first adapted them to document community development practice in Australia in the mid-nineties.

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http://ehealthspace.org/news/integrating-prevention-primary-and-acute-care

Integrating prevention, primary and acute care

Posted Mon, 08/06/2015 - 16:23 by Josh Gliddon

What happens when four of the nation's leaders get together on a very interactive panel, facilitated by the feisty MC Julie McCrossin? Hard questions were asked, and mostly answered in a good natured and wide ranging debate during the Integrating Prevention, Primary and Acute Care forum.

Featured panelists included Prof. Mary Foley, secretary, NSW Health; Dr Steve Hambleton, chair, NEHTA and chair of the recently convened Primary Health Care Advisory Group; Richard Royle, Executive Director, UnitingCare Health and chair of the 2013 review panel of the PCEHR; and Prof. Diana O’Halloran, who among her many roles is chair of WentWest the GP training authority and also in transition from Medicare Local to Western Sydney Primary Health Network.

With the focus on integrating prevention with acute and primary care Prof Mary Foley kicked off proceedings by noting that integrated care is something that is much talked about and that IT is a major enabler because people now want to share information between providers, patients and other sources. 

Citing the HealtheNet program as an example of NSW progress in the area, she was congratulated by other panel members when confirming that 85% of Local Health Districts across the state (soon to be 100%) are now able to access a consolidated view of the patient’s clinical information, the patient’s PCEHR where it exists and with the majority sending electronic discharge summaries. The next steps are to integrate items such as pathology and radiology.

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https://www.mja.com.au/insight/2015/21/medical-home-potential

Medical home potential

Nicole MacKee

Monday, 8 June, 2015

A SHARED-savings initiative used in a US-based medical home model that reduced patient hospitalisation and increased primary care visits has potential in Australia, according to experts.

A US study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found pilot medical home practices that received bonuses of up to 50% of any savings generated, contingent on meeting quality targets, had lower rates of all-cause hospitalisation and all-cause emergency department visits, and higher rates of ambulatory primary care visits across the 3-year study period. (1)

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) president Dr Frank Jones welcomed the findings, saying the research, together with existing evidence of reduced emergency department presentations and improved patient satisfaction, vindicated the College’s continued support for the medical home model.

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http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/ten-apps-to-help-beat-the-blues-20150608-ghhjor

Ten apps to help beat the blues

Date June 9, 2015

Hannah Francis

Technology Reporter

Nineteen-year-old Isabella Merrilees-White is no stranger to anxiety and depression.

It started back in high school, when supporting her friends through relationship and family issues, on top of her school work, eventually took its toll.

"It was kind of stressing me out but I didn't really know how to help them," she said. "When you're that young, it's hard to know how to be there for people."

Like so many things today, there's now an app for that.

Clinical researchers are increasingly turning to technology to assist young people,  one in six of whom are affected by anxiety and depression, according to research from youth support service ReachOut Australia.

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http://www.6minutes.com.au/news/latest-news/cash-incentives-on-way-for-some-pcehr-work

Cash incentives on way for some PCEHR work

5 June, 2015 0 comments

GPs will be paid cash incentives to upload e-health summaries to the rebooted PCEHR — but only for patients with MBS care plans.

Federal Department of Health officials have told a Senate Estimates hearing that the move is aimed at encouraging greater clinical engagement with the moribund system.

"The incentives will be paid as an entitlement to those who use the system to upload records on behalf of their most in-need patients, and they'd be the ones who have care plans," the department's special advisor for e-health, Paul Madden, told the hearing.  

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http://www.healthintersections.com.au/?p=2348

Profiles and Exceptions to the Rules

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Grahame Grieve

One of the key constructs in FHIR is a “profile”. A profile is a statement of how FHIR resources are used for a particular solution – or, how they should be used. The FHIR resources are a general purpose construct, and you can do kind of general purpose things with them, such as store the data in a PHR, and do generally useful display of a clinical record etc.

But if you’re going to do something more specific, then you need to be specific about the contents. Perhaps, for instance, you’re going to write a decision support module that takes in ongoing glucose and HBA1c measurements, and keeps the patient informed about how well they are controlling their diabetes. In order for a patient or an institution to use that decision support module well, the author of the module is going to have to be clear about what are acceptable input measurements – and it’s very likely, unfortunately, that the answer is ‘not all of them’. Conversely, if the clinical record system is going to allow it’s users to hook up decision support modules like this, it’s going to have to be clear about what kind of glucose measurements it might feed to the decision support system.

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http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/62869/exalt-resources-acquiring-ehealth-software-company-medadvisor-62869.html

Exalt Resources www.exaltresources.com.au

Exalt Resources (ASX:ERD) is a resource and energy exploration company, with one NSW based gold and base metal exploration projects.

Exalt Resources acquiring ehealth software company MedAdvisor

Thursday, June 11, 2015 by Proactive Investors

Exalt Resources (ASX:ERD) is acquiring cloud based ehealth software company MedAdvisor International Pty Ltd that has contracts with four major pharmaceutical clients.

MedAdvisor has developed a world-class software platform that assists individuals in correctly using medication via a ‘virtual pharmacist’, dramatically improving health outcomes through improved medication adherence.

The software uses a cloud computing approach, in conjunction with optimised user experience on mobile and web devices.

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http://www.afr.com/technology/diagnose-your-ailments-with-apps--sorting-the-quacks-from-the-genuine-help-20150612-ghlwar

• Jun 11 2015 at 5:36 PM
• Updated Jun 12 2015 at 2:30 PM

Diagnose your ailments with apps ... sorting the quacks from the genuine help

Of the thousands of medical apps claiming to fix you, these are some that actually might. Finding the gems among the charlatans and quacks is a bit of a task, but Jessica Sier is here to help.

Everyone knows the joke about the girl trying to take a pregnancy test online and the plethora of websites claiming to do just that, you know, from getting a general pregnant-vibe from her eyeballs looking at the screen.

Many doctors are concerned about dangerous, inappropriate and plain wrong medical apps aimed at helping people diagnose or treat themselves at home. Since apps are so easy to make, there have been a swarm of farcical software on both iOS and Android.

Instant Blood Pressure was a $4.99 app promising to measure your blood pressure by using a smartphone's microphone and LED light. By placing your iPhone on your chest it just "reads" your blood pressure. Just like that. A nurse I showed this to started laughing at the idiocy of the premise but abruptly stopped when I mentioned Instant Blood Pressure was one of the top five downloaded apps in the health section of the app store.

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www.medicaldirector.com

For Immediate Release on the 10 June 2015

Map of Medicine now integrated with MedicalDirector Clinical giving Primary Health Networks a new level of support at the Point of Care

Map of Medicine has provided clinically-led care pathways to support evidence-based decision making for more than twelve years. As part of its development for Australian customers, Map of Medicine is integrated with MedicalDirector Clinical and linked to the National Health Service Directory (NHSD). Now the latest clinical information is delivered directly to GPs’ desktops for use at the point of care. This means clinicians have access to the latest evidence-based, practice informed pathways, guidance and forms to review or share with patients during a consultation.

The leading provider of care pathways, Map of Medicine, now sits alongside MedicalDirector Clinical and can be accessed instantly via a neat sidebar which sits on the side of the screen while MedicalDirector Clinical is open. A clinician can use MedicalDirector Sidebar during a consultation to instantly access pathways and information relevant to the patient’s presenting condition. When the clinician enters a patient diagnosis, MedicalDirector Sidebar uses this to search the database in Map of Medicine. These search results are filtered and locally relevant information is given priority.

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http://www.accenture.com/au-en/Pages/insight-accenture-doctors-survey-2015-healthcare-it-pain-progress.aspx?c=psv_audocsurv_10000002&n=smc_0515

Accenture Doctors Survey 2015: Healthcare IT Pain and Progress

Accenture research reveals that healthcare IT functions are on the rise across the board. 

Accenture commissioned a six-country survey of 2,619 doctors to assess their adoption and attitudes toward electronic health records and healthcare IT. The online survey included doctors across six countries: Australia (510), Brazil (504), England (502), Norway (302), Singapore (200) and the United States (601). The survey was conducted online by Nielsen between December 2014 and January 2015.

The survey shows improvement in Australian doctors’ adoption of electronic health records and in use of many healthcare IT functions, but some capabilities are still not part of the regimen.

Specific Country Findings

Among the survey findings, Australian doctors (85 per cent) overwhelmingly agree that they are more proficient using electronic health records (EHR) in their clinical practices today than two years ago. The top IT functions used routinely by Australian doctors include: receive clinical results electronically that populate patients’ EMR (72 per cent) and enter patient notes electronically (70 per cent).

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http://www.nehta.gov.au/media-centre/news/798-queensland-gp-says-ehealth-can-improve-clinical-care

Queensland GP says eHealth can improve clinical care

Created on Friday, 12 June 2015

Queensland GP and obstetrician Ewen McPhee is a member of NEHTA's Clinical Usability Programme (CUP) and is outspoken about the value of the eHealth record system to his patients.

Read more about what Dr McPhee had to say by downloading the PDF below.

Download: 'NEHTA Dr Ewen McPhee Clinical Care eHealth Benefits' PDF (217.59 kB)

Alternatively, the full text is available as follows.

eHealth can improve clinical care

eHealth records may be unfairly getting a bad rap because of confusion among many clinicians, says a rural GP.

Emerald Queensland GP and obstetrician Ewen McPhee is outspoken about the value of the eHealth record system to his patients and says it surprises him more practitioners are not actively participating.

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http://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/35798/online-health-bookings-boom-with-healthengines-1000000-appointment#.VXowcUb3RtE

Online Health Bookings Boom With HealthEngine's 1,000,000 Appointment

Friday, June 12th, 2015 - Edelman

HealthEngine has reaffirmed its place as Australia’s largest online GP booking system, announcing a major milestone of its one millionth online booking. The booking was made at Gap Road Medical Centre in Sunbury, Victoria. 

As digital technology advances exponentially, the need to adopt technology to help meet the challenges in healthcare has never been clearer. E-health continues to rise globally and HealthEngine is leading the way in Australia, bringing the benefits of digital health and helping to empower people of all ages as they take more control over their health. 

In June 2012, 4,000 bookings had been made on HealthEngine. Today, just three years later, this has increased to 1,000,000 bookings and a health appointment is booked every 20 seconds compared to every 2.5 hours in 2012. HealthEngine plans to continue this momentum, with 120,000 bookings a month its projected bookings will increase by a further 300 per cent within the next 18 months. 

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http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/worlds-first-feeling-leg-prosthesis-unveiled-20150609-ghjfhy

World's first 'feeling' leg prosthesis unveiled

Date June 9, 2015 - 11:45PM

Nina Lamparski

Wolfgang Rangger, a patient of Professor Hubert Egger, of Linz University, poses with his "feeling leg prosthesis" in Linz on Monday. Photo: SAMUEL KUBANI

The world's first artificial leg capable of simulating the feelings of a real limb and fighting phantom pain has been unveiled by researchers in Vienna.

The innovation is the result of a twofold process, developed by Professor Hubert Egger at the University of Linz in northern Austria.

Surgeons first rewired remaining foot nerve endings from a patient's stump to healthy tissue in the thigh, placing them close to the skin surface.

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/69258944/allergic-reaction-to-antibiotic-medication-kills-woman

Allergic reaction to antibiotic medication kills woman

CATE BROUGHTON

Last updated 23:52, June 10 2015

Laurie Richardson feels robbed of a milestone 60th year with his wife after a hospital mishap led to her death.

The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) has apologised to Eunice Richardson's family after she was given an antibiotic she was allergic to, despite the presence of a MedicAlert bracelet and warnings on her file.

The 80-year-old died in Christchurch Hospital after she was given bacteriostatic antibiotic, Trimethoprim, for a urinary tract infection, in November 2013.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/

What is Code?

For those who ever wanted to know anything about coding - all 38,000 words of it.

Really worth a  browse.

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Enjoy!

David.