With the help of tele-radiology, patients can now avail services of a radiologist without being physically present in the same room with them. There is a great need for professionals who can analyze patient repots, such as MRIs, X-rays, or CT scans, in a short duration so that patients do not have to wait for days to get the results. Tele-radiology offers a cheaper and faster solution so that these reports can be scanned and sent to be analyzed using the Internet or video conferencing.

Use Of Tele-Radiology Services

With the advances in imaging techniques, there is a need for specialists in the areas of Pediatric radiology, Musculoskeletal radiology, Neuroradiology, and other areas to provide accurate diagnosis. These specialists may not be available on site in case of emergency. Due to the scarcity of specialists, those working in emergency departments are often overworked and on call seven days of the week. Thus tele-radiology is a welcome change, with the option of online consulting becoming a permanent option in hospitals.

How It Works? …click here to read more

This video deals with the enormous annual cost of musculoskeletal injuries, and illustrates a specific condition that affects over 80% of the population that is a major root cause. Test your self to see if you are predisposed to developing dysfunction and pain, and learn what you can do about it. The video is intended for specialists concerned with employee health, but also provide the general public with a better understanding of their aches and pains. This video is followed by Part 2.

BTB is the undergraduate component Rice 360: Institute for Global Health Technologies. This video describes how BTB is training the next generation of leaders in global health.

Global poverty and global health needs are real and powerful issues that need to be solved. BTB is attempting to help find solutions.

Dr. Mike is trying to use his EMR and finds that it is running very slowly.  A quick discussion with IT gives him the cause.

Enterprise Content management (ECM) in hospitals refers to the tools and strategies used to obtain, organize, store and make the necessary data and information pertaining to patients available as a single unit to all qualified internal staff, as well as external consulting physicians. ECM combines paper records, charts, insurance papers, photos, audio and video files for one patient to be viewed as a single unit online.

Need for ECM in Hospitals

Hospitals need to store thousands of patient records each day and are constantly challenged by the need for more storage space. Moreover, thousands of dollars are spent each year on the staff required to maintain this data and retrieve it from paper files stacked in storage rooms when needed. This slows down the efficiency and workings in hospitals, not to mention the time taken away for treatment of patients. Needless to say, a patients’ health is also at stake, as paper records strewn in different departments of the hospital can make it difficult for doctors to access the latest reports in an emergency.

There is a need for an efficient system to integrate all records pertaining to a single patient that can be easily accessed in one location. This is available to hospitals today in the shape of Enterprise Content Management.

Advantages of ECM

• ECM integrates as part of the EMR.  Since the EMR will hold most of the patient information, you want your ECM system to seamlessly integrate to show old paper (and sometimes new paper) from your patients.
• ECM organizes all external records of patients obtained during different visits sand compiles it with the rest of their results and stores it in one unit. So you do not need to carry the test results obtained from another hospital or laboratory each time you visit the hospital.
• All the paperwork form different departments are integrated and accessible in the system at the same time, and save the patient and staff the hassle of collecting the paperwork from different departments when getting any treatment done. …click here to read more

New technologies for respiratory care are centered on providing more complex and advanced technologies. The direction that new technologies are moving in are aimed to:

· Directly measure the patient’s health with the use of more complex and subtle instruments.

· Use of more user-friendly equipment designed to reduce the amount of time and effort taken and reduce the measurement errors. The ultimate aim is to allow patients and families or care givers to be able to use the instruments themselves.

· Automation of networks allowing different instruments and therapies to align and work together, thus minimizing the role of the therapist.

Some of the new technologies introduced by Vital signs Inc are described below:

Ventilation System

The Engestrom carestation from GE is a complete ventilation system that offers integrated care from integration to monitoring respiratory care.

Vaporizer …click here to read more

It can be frustrating to remember multiple passwords for different computer applications. Not to mention the fact that as a clinician it is very time consuming logging in and out of applications over and over, especially if you have to look up the patient every time.  Instead of struggling to remember the different user names and passwords, there is now an easy way to manage multiple logins with a single-sign on product (SSO). A SSO server stores these different passwords in a safe database and makes it available to the user (typically physician or nurse) transparently during the login process. The end result is that the user has to sign in just once.

Advantages of a Single Sign On product

SSO products offer benefits to both users as well as organizations. End users have to remember only one password instead of multiple details for different applications. This eliminates the need for users to resort to unsecure practices such as writing their passwords in visible areas where it is accessible to other users. Also, they are required to log in only once a day, and this offers easier and quicker access to all clinical applications and data.

For organizations, opting for a SSO product reduces operational costs, as they do not have to spend time and money on retrieving forgotten passwords for employees. Furthermore, from a security point of view, SSO systems are easier for the management and IT team to protect, update and secure data. For example, restrictions on a minimum password length and special character can be imposed, users can be ‘locked out’ of their account after several unsuccessful attempts; and reset their passwords at regular intervals, inactivity session timeouts can be enforced, and so on.

Maneuvering the EMR is often much easier with a SSO, especially when you have different applications holding different patient information.  Systems like Meditech and AllScripts have single sign on interfaces, but even with these systems, you need to have a different login for things like PACS, ECM, ERP, etc.  SSO simplifies the process for the provider considerably.  An SSO typically handles “user-context” (the interface to the user of the computer), but may also handle “patient-context” (the ability to look up the patient in each of your applications instead of the physician or nurse looking them up).  We will cover patient context in another article, but it is a feature to watch for.

Desirable features of SSO …click here to read more

BrainLAB speaks at the Inventing the Future summit on healthcare technology at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, WI.

Geoffrey Martin from GE Healthcare speaks at the Inventing the Future summit on healthcare technology at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, WI

Dr. Donald Rucker, MD from Siemens, speaks at the Inventing the Future summit on healthcare technology at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, WI.

A small band of healthcare leaders will show you a typical Patient Experience how it should be — online and off — and what is possible Not tomorrow Not someday… Now!

Support this panel proposal here

Imprivata^®, Inc., the company that simplifies and secures user access, today announced the formation of its Healthcare Advisory Board. This board draws upon real-world perspectives of industry leaders to address healthcare IT challenges and trends as the company develops innovative and practical solutions that solve the unique challenges facing the healthcare industry.  Chaired by Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH, FHIMSS, chief medical officer of Imprivata, the Healthcare Advisory Board is comprised of Imprivata customers and industry experts, including:

• Michael Westcott, MD, CMIO, Alegent Health
• Denis Le Beuf, Chief Information Security Officer, Centre Hospitalier de l’Universite de Montreal
• Tarun Ghosh, CIO, Fremont-Rideout Health Group
• John Fernandez, CEO, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
• Michael Krouse, Senior Vice President and CIO, OhioHealth
• Ted Lewis, President, Parkview Adventist Medical Center
• Deborah Peel, MD, Founder and Chair, Patient Privacy Rights

Through open sharing of experiences, dialogue about trends and regulatory influences and thoughtful debate, this new Healthcare Advisory Board is the latest example of Imprivata’s commitment to helping hospitals improve clinician workflow, enforce patient privacy and deploy transparent security.

“Today’s healthcare organizations face constant change, new regulatory mandates and a unique working environment that demands quick access to information but tight security on patient data,” said Dr. Michael Westcott, CMIO of Alegent Health, the largest healthcare system in Nebraska. The not-for-profit, faith based health care provider, which is 9,000 employees strong, has been an Imprivata customer since 2006. “One of the primary goals of the Healthcare Advisory Board is to share our experiences, study our similarities and differences, develop creative solutions to the challenges we face as an industry, and help Imprivata develop practical solutions that make a difference in hospitals around the world,” Dr. Westcott explained.

…click here to read more

Robotic surgery is a promising technology that uses high-tech robots to perform minimally invasive surgery. This surgery is conducted by inserting a small camera and very small robotic instruments inside the body by making two or three small incisions in the desired area. The camera provides a precise and clear 3D image to the surgeon who can then manipulate the robotic arms and move the instruments in the body of the patient and perform the surgery.

History and Current Applications

Puma 560 was the first robot used by Kwoh and co workers in 1985 for a neurosurgical biopsy.  The same was used three years later to perform a transurethral resection of the prostate by Davies and co-workers. Since then there have been many advances in the robotic surgery systems with robots being designed specifically depending on the type of surgery. The first robotic system to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was ROBODOC, a surgical robot developed by Integrated Surgical Supplies Ltd.

Since the 1980s, systems scientists have worked hard to develop telesurgical robots and devices that can be used to bring surgeons and patients, located in different parts of world, together. Other successful robotic surgery systems that were consequently developed include the da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical), and the ZEUS robotic surgical system (Computer Motion).

…click here to read more

Artificial pancreas is being tested to provide an alternative to people suffering from diabetes and is designed to provide the same functions as healthy pancreas. Healthy pancreas produce the hormone insulin which is the key regulator of blood glucose levels in our bodies. The absence of this hormone causes the sugar level to rise drastically and leads to diabetes. Till now, insulin therapy was the only treatment available to diabetics; with this new technology, there is hope for a painless and permanent therapy for people suffering from diabetes.

The main objective of artificial pancreas will be to:

· Provide continuous monitoring of blood glucose level in the blood

· Reduce the external dependence of insulin

· Reduce the pain caused by manual testing

Glucose levels in the blood can vary according to external conditions, such as rate of absorption of insulin, carbohydrate intake during meals, and the amount of exercise. It is essential to deliver the right amount of insulin taking these factors into consideration. An overdose of insulin can result in hypoglycemia, which is one of the reasons for diabetes-related deaths. With this system, it will be much easier to continuously monitor the glucose levels during the night and automatically adjust the dose of insulin.

How it works …click here to read more

Zombies, Communists, and Elvis’ donuts….. for some reason reminds me of my life in general.  BTW, I am older today.  That does typically happen everyday, but today it counts.

Zombies love to eat - nom nom nom...

About one in every three American physicians has an iPhone. Now, for the first time, they can download
an iPhone application that allows them to contact colleagues, change
their call schedules and protect caller ID on patient calls.

The new application, PerfectServe Clinician, is available at no charge
to doctors whose hospitals or private practices use the latest version
of PerfectServe, the leading physician-based, workflow-driven solution
for clinical communications. The iPhone application gives doctors
another way—in addition to voice and Web interfaces—to access
PerfectServe’s network platform. (To view a demo, see “How to Use
the PerfectServe Clinician iPhone App” at
http://www.perfectserve.com/hospital/features/iphone.html)

Nearly 14,000 physicians already use PerfectServe to customize their
entire call management process according to their practice workflow
and individual contact preferences.  With PerfectServe Clinician,
doctors can use their iPhones to:
…click here to read more

The Post Bulletin covers the newly minted “Health Care Homes” that have been certified in Minnesota:

Patients with chronic conditions might get more one-on-one health care at Austin Medical Center under a new model of care being tested there.

The Minnesota Department of Health announced Wednesday that 11 clinics across the state, including AMC, are certified as “health care homes.”

Traditionally, people visit a doctor whenever they have problems, but the new model will work in between those visits to improve patients’ health and wellness. The certification also qualifies AMC to get state reimbursement for patients with more than one chronic condition.

Full Story Here

September 23rd is a critical day for health care reform. This short video from Mary Pat Whaley gives you a 60 second run down off why you should care.

Old Spice Man is so awesome, even Chuck Norris says he is awesome.  It this episode of Dr. Mike, the Old Spice Man dawns a shirt for the first time in his life (no shirt, no shoes, no service) and stops in at Dr. Mike’s clinic.