Secretary Sebelius speaks at the Consumer Health IT Summit. She discusses how to empower patients to be partners in their health and care using health IT to access their health information. Health IT Week celebrates the improvements being made in the quality of health care through new technologies.

YourNurseIsOn.com has been selected to kick off the Health 2.0 Week in San Francisco late this September. 

YourNurseIsOn.coms’s “secret sauce” is the patent-pending 2-way communications process that provides staff with the ability to accept/reject the shift with the click of a button and then confirm that the shift has been assigned. The YNIO™ communications platform makes it possible for hospitals and health care facilities/agencies to instantly contact and confirm their health care providers and other staff by multiple communications methods; including 2-way text, phone and email.

Full News Release

A Tool for Strategic Planning and Research
The EHR database is used as a foundation for national research and government studies (e.g., Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) and as a planning tool for providers whose products and services integrate with EHR systems.

A Hospital-Level Look at IT Penetration & Implementation
The database provides hospital-specific details critical for IT product and service providers. The data identifies where hospitals fit within an IT system adoption continuum-from “technology fully implemented across all units” to “technology not in place and not considering implementation” and identifies the primary EHR vendor used for inpatient and outpatient departments. It zeros in on adoption levels of computerized systems at the department level in areas like:

ORDER NOW
2011 Release Hospital EHR Adoption Database

Dr. Robert Wah, chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees and chief medical officer at CSC discusses healthcare as-a-service. For more information, visit www.envisiongovit.com.

I really like the concept of medical records as a service.  I do.  However, I don’t think the majority of health institutions are ready for the mind shift that needs to take place to support this type of model.  Most health orgs are having enough problems putting their data on PRIVATE clouds.  They see risk all over the place, not to mention HIPAA and HITECH regulations. 

That being said, healthcare facilities should be in the business of providing care, not in the business of expansive IT costs and huge data centers.  Organizations across the country will need to start coming to terms with a balance of risk and costs in these new delivery models. 

HP threw the PC world into a loop two weeks ago when they said they intended to shutdown their mobile device lines and sell their PC division to the highest bidder.  This announcement made mouths fall open all over the health IT world.  HP has immense service offerings that go way beyond PCs and mobile devices.  Luckily for healthcare, HP seems to be continuing their focus on us and (at this time) it looks like HP will continue to be a vendor for all things in our space. 

Take a look at this HP “doctor’s office” tool that focuses on all of their offerings in our field:

HP Interactive Doctor’s Office

Physio-Control has recently announced availability of the ReadyLink 12-Lead ECG device, a new solution designed to improve care for heart attack patients and speed time to treatment. ReadyLink gives prehospital basic life support (BLS) providers a new, easy to use tool to help identify STEMI patients and get them to the appropriate facility as quickly as possible, helping reduce door-to-balloon (D2B) times.

ReadyLink enables BLS teams to acquire and transmit a patient’s 12-lead ECG to hospitals using the LIFENET System, Physio-Control’s cloud-based data network for remote physician interpretation and decision support. ReadyLink is designed to quickly capture data in the field and then send that information through the LIFENET System so that it can be interpreted by qualified personnel, either at a hospital or EMS medical control, allowing the most appropriate and efficient course of care to be determined.

Just this week, Circulation, the Journal of the American Heart Association, published a study that reported from 2005 to 2010, door-to-balloon time declined from a median of 96 minutes to 64 minutes. Despite the recent gains, the study identified additional opportunities for improvement in D2B times, noting that the most outstanding institutions are now regularly achieving times under 60 minutes through strategies including coordination with Emergency Medical Services and the collection and dissemination of a prehospital ECG. The study can be found at: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2011/08/21/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.044107.abstract

 Full Press Release

…click here to read more

Health care delivery has evolved in the past few years along with the demand of new medical technologies and more sophisticated treatment options. However, lapses in quality as well as skyrocketing costs have resulted to a number of negative responses from the general public. This in turn paved the way for an increase in new health care organizational models whose aim is towards the improvement of coordination as well as efficiency of health care delivery. It led the way towards the inception of accountable care organizations.

The Accountable Care Organization (ACO): Its Goals And Significance

The ACO has the ultimate goal of improving coordination among physicians, nurse practitioners, hospitals and other health care providers. An integrated medical group is identified as an organization within an ACO which is held accountable for care coordination, quality and efficiency.

There are at least 3 characteristics of an ACO and these are:

• Ability towards patient management and provision as well as care continuity across various institutional settings. This includes ambulatory and in patient hospital care and post acute care.

• Capability of planning budgets and resource needs.

• Sufficient size to support comprehensive, valid and reliable performance measurement (Berenson).

Owing to this the ACO can act as a reform tool for incentivizing more efficient and effective health care. The ACO can also help combat overutilization and overbuilding of health care facilities and technology.

Accountable Care Organization Models …click here to read more

Qualcomm has started a wireless health challenge that makes you wonder how other non-medical organizations are engaging their staff in health.  I like the scale they are using.  I use it myself. 

This video marks the half-way point of the Qualcomm Wireless Fitness Challenge. We have 32 Qualcomm Wireless Health employees spanning four countries and three continents, competing over eight weeks to lose weight and increase activity and caloric burn. Using wireless health and fitness devices we are monitoring our weight and caloric burn with real-time feedback loops, and learning to live life according to our numbers. We are excited to share participant feedback, information on the wireless technology behind the challenge, and what we have learned thus far from the competition. Hear updates on the challenge from the Qualcomm Wireless Health team and individual participants on Twitter by following #QWFC.

Curaspan Health Group (www.curaspan.com), the company that transformed discharge planning more than 10 years ago with the industry-leading eDischarge application, today introduced another innovation: DischargeCentral. The new DischargeCentral software-as-a-service (SaaS) application combines the ease of use that approximately 400 leading hospitals nationwide rely on to streamline patient transitions from one level of care to another with the power of state-of-the-art technology and a new intuitive user interface.

The recognized expert in building secure electronic patient-transition networks that connect hospitals, post-acute providers and suppliers, Curaspan has begun moving its eDischarge customers to DischargeCentral in a staged roll-out that will be completed by the end of the year.

“Built on a flexible new platform, DischargeCentral extends the capabilities of our discharge-planning application for use in every level of care,” said Thomas R. Ferry, founder, president and CEO of Curaspan Health Group. “A post-acute care provider that needs to discharge a patient to another level of care, including back to the hospital, can easily use DischargeCentral to be more efficient than ever and contribute to better care outcomes and financial results.” (Watch Ferry on Curaspan TV)

DischargeCentral is part of the Curaspan Synchronized Patient Management portfolio of complementary applications: DischargeCentral for discharge planning; ReferralCentral® for referral management; and RideCentral® for ordering and dispatching non-emergent transport. Synchronized Patient Management fosters collaboration among the various participants along the continuum of care by enabling them to share the same patient records, results and reviews, from a user-specific point of view.

“We think that Synchronized Patient Management is central to provider success in managing patient transitions. It’s a proven and unique combination of a shared technology platform that supports workflow automation which, in turn, drives the automatic capture and display of business intelligence,” added Ferry. “With that data comes more-informed decision-making and better results. As Synchronized Patient Management continues to evolve with new products like DischargeCentral, it will become an increasingly powerful, fully integrated solution.”

Ferry founded Curaspan in 1999 and helped set the standard for the secure transmission of clinical information about patients moving from one level of care to another in order to efficiently match patient needs with available resources. Today, its customers include Johns Hopkins Health System, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Saint Thomas Health Services (part of Ascension Health), Riverside Health System, Sentara Healthcare, Indiana University Health Bloomington, Vanguard Health Systems, Apria Healthcare, American Medical Response, Gentiva Health Services, Golden LivingCenters, Life Care Centers of America and SunBridge Healthcare.  

Cleveland Clinic is taking robotic and mannequin training to a whole new level.

Call it The Wizard of Oz meets Star Trek. Technologically sophisticated mannequins, robots with 3-D vision, and computers that can “feel” are part of the cutting-edge technology that Cleveland Clinic uses to train its medical personnel. The expectation is that medical staff will be better prepared when they encounter actual patients.

Full Story

 

Mayo Clinic’s newest facility is gathering some attention.  They have opened a “lab” for primary care experimentation in one of the largest malls in the world, the Mall of America, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

The internationally known medical center based in Rochester gave reporters a peek at its “Create Your Mayo Clinic Health Experience” the day before its opening. The facility sports three-dimensional computer monitors, kiosks for the casual shopper and “navigator” specialists to help people assess their health and map out a wellness program.

“We consider this a lab as we try to decide what we want to offer in a permanent facility, if we do that,” said Dr. David Hayes, medical director for the mall project.

The idea is to gather customer and patient opinion to guide development of a facility Mayo would like to build in the Phase II expansion of Mall of America, officials said.

Full Story

 

Health care providers might appreciate the benefits of Electronic health records (EHRs) but are unsure where to start. ONC’s Regional Extension Centers (RECs) help providers make the transition to EHRs through a streamlined and practical process. As the widespread adoption of EHRs quickly approaches, the RECs act as your partner on the road to providing better health care and improved treatment outcomes. ONC’s Dr. Farzad Mostashari and representatives from the RECs discuss strategies to bridge the technology gap and assist health care practitioners in providing optimum patient care.

To learn more about Regional Extension Centers: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt/community/hit_extension_program/1495…

The wide use and proliferation of cell phones is very evident in recent years.  In fact, it has evolved from being a luxury item into a basic necessity because of   the convenience that it offers. Most important of all it is a very effective means of communication   and information is easily received and disseminated in just a short period of time.

Cell phones And Health Care

It is because of this that cell phones and mobile technology have been utilized to deliver basic human needs such as health care. For one,  health care and the  prompt delivery  of  its services  is indicative of  how and  to what  extent  countries and nations are  abreast with the  latest  developments toward  the sustenance of human life. The  use of  simple cell phones  is  one way  to  make  health care  available and  more reachable  even  in the most remote of  villages.

Cell Phones and Various Ways to Improve Health Care

The importance of cell phones in the pursuit and improvement of total health care has been widely acknowledged in   recent years.  Just some of the   ways that cell phones have become essential   in improving health care are the following:

• Saves the lives of  mothers during  childbirth by helping to summon medical care

• Patients are easily checked and their conditions easily monitored via cell phones with remote diagnostic devices.

• Record  keeping  becomes easier and hassle-free

• Improved diagnosis and consequent better treatment

• Referral of patients to  hospitals especially in emergency cases

These and a lot more  are just some of the  ways that  best  explain the  necessity and growing demand  of  cell phone usage  in the field of health care. In fact, more efforts  have  recently been undertaken to further enhance and  seek worldwide support towards the  indispensable advantage of  mobile technology  in health care. According to statistics  almost 90% of the  world’s  population  has access to  wireless phone signals   therefore it is not surprising at all  why  cell phones and  mobile technology has been  tapped to  its  full advantage.

Recent Developments in Health Care Improvement via Mobile Technology

Various undertakings are currently in full swing towards the delivery of improved health care services through the use of cell phones and mobile technology.  Here are just some of the recent developments:

• Effective data collection  on mother and child health  in  the countries of Bangladesh and Vietnam

• Consultation of patients  done regularly and   patients’ conditions monitored  better by midwives in Indonesia because of  simultaneous and easy communication

• Cell phones were  effectively used for remote fetal monitoring and  remote wireless ultrasound when attached to wireless diagnostics …click here to read more

I was extraordinarilly surprised when I saw this.  I knew that many Americans are providing home care for their elderly parents or disabled spouses, but I never dreamed it would be this wide spread. 

A new study by the AARP estimates that for the more than 40 million Americans caring for an elderly or disabled loved one, the value of their work is $450 billion a year.

That’s a good deal for society. But for the family members doing the work, the study finds they need a lot more help.

FULL STORY

 

 

The following article was written by a guest Physician writer. Even though the source is known, the physician has asked to submit anonymously.

Physicians like any other professionals, have to deal with record-keeping and other related responsibilities.  This is highly important to ensure that patients’ records are kept intact and in a secured manner. The conventional way of   keeping these records are in the form of paper records  which  are  filed  usually in  alphabetical order for easier  retrieval  and  neatly arranged in filing cabinets  and  other forms of  storage equipment.

Paper Records to Electronic Medical Record

With the  advent of  technology and  the pressing need for more advanced  ways  in  the medical field,  the  use of paper records  has  been  eventually  eradicated to give way to  electronic medical record or EMR.  Compared to paper records, EMR displays greater convenience, by way of systematic arrangement and recovery of patient records in a short span of time.

EMR and the Preliminary Response among Physicians

The introduction of EMR was initially received with mixed responses from physicians all over the world.  The ones  highly  affected with the  standardization of  patient records are the  veteran physicians and doctors who  have  been in the service for quite a while  and  have been serving the  people  for a span of  few decades.  This is because  these physicians  were accustomed to the  traditional  way  of  record-keeping  which  is done mainly  on paper.

Initial Views and Apprehensions on the Paper to EMR Transition

With the continuing need to upgrade the record system in the medical field there are also apprehensions that accompany this development especially on the part of the physicians. Here are just some of the views of physicians, with regard to the change   from paper to EMR:

• The initial difficulty at getting a full understanding of the operation of the electronic medical record   since it entailed intrinsic computer operations know-how and technical knowledge.  

• Some   physicians were initially hesitant to   change into  EMR  because  they have become highly accustomed  to the paper  record-keeping manner  which did not entail  any  complexities  as opposed to EMR.

• The   limited training and lack of prior orientation on the EMR among some physicians and their staff paved an opportunity to criticize the  new system.

Significant Physician Responses on EMR In Consideration of Patient Feedback

Along with the implementation and continued endorsement of the EMR a couple of responses from physicians were compiled, in addition to considerations of patient feedback. Here are some of these compiled physician views and responses:

1. Benefits  of  EMR implementation

• immediate and universal access to patient records as well as easier and quicker navigation through patient records

• standardization of care among  physicians

• accessing more readily available information about  the patients’ medications

• Ability to retrieve  patients’ information

• Ability to electronically transmit information by way of prescriptions to pharmacies

2. Concerns of Patients regarding EMR usage

• Patients  expressed positive feeling toward EMR

• Patients were excited  of the new development and highly interested about EMR

• Patients  were impressed   about the  new technology and  highly regarded their physicians as being able to keep up with the modern times

3. Issues  and concerns  

• Some physicians  had a difficulty with the start-up process

• Considerable  increase in patient volume due to the  increased efficiency

• Some physicians viewed the EMR process as a hard and complex task but were equally excited with the considerable and positive changes.  
  …click here to read more

Health care insurance is a core component of care in the US. We have heard a lot about health information exchanges, but we have heard very little about the health insurance exchanges.

Dan Schuyler, Director with Leavitt Partners explains the core components of a health insurance exchange.

1. The core components of an exchange
2. A point of sale portal
3. A true health insurance exchange
4. PPACA compliant exchange

If you are reading my blog, you probably don’t need to be convinced in the benefits of EHRs and EMRs.  That being said, it is always nice to have another tool in the bin to discuss benefits of electronic systems.

Healthcare has some awesome technology, but pagers aren’t one of them.  It still boggles my mind how many facilities I have seen that still have a text pager on the hip of their physicians and leadership.  This text pager is almost always right next to a smart phone too.  Uhg.

 The OnPage organization would like to help fix this issue for you.  With an application for Blackberry and iPhone that can sort your messages and give you higher flexibility than any pager, OnPage may have an app you want to look at. 

Enter OnPage— Advantages:

•              Maintains Advantages Gained with Pager Devices – As you know, pagers are still used by healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses and first responders, etc.) because they provide a direct funnel for critical, emergency messages that are prioritized over all the other email/text noise out there. OnPage ensures the same, making a unique sound no matter what audio settings your phone is on.

•              Eliminates the Need for a Separate Device – Rather than carrying a separate paging device, users can consolidate using OnPage.

•              Protects User Privacy/Identity – OnPage enables people to contact you on your phone without actually having to give out your personal phone number; something many doctors don’t want to do.

•              Enables Two-Way Communications – On classic paging devices, it is impossible to guarantee that your message went through without confirmation via follow-up phone call. OnPage creates an audit trail that shows when the page was sent, delivered and read.

•              Speeds Response Time in Emergencies – Pager networks are often slow, so using OnPage can actually shave seconds off of message delivery time which can be critical in emergency situations.

The application is now available in the Apple/RIM app stores on Tuesday, July 19th—here’s the press release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110719005623/en

The University of Illinois Chicago has a Health Information Technology program (no, I didn’t get my degree from them) that has been drawing some attention.  In the video linked below Sanford Rose Associate Bonnie Siegel discusses what she sees the health care industry asking for when they go to hire HIT leaders.   

The University of Illinois at Chicago is proud to introduce the Expert Interview Series conducted by one of our UIC faculty members.  Get insight into thoughts on health care IT recruitment by viewing the interview titled Seeking the Health IT Professional.

IsansysLifecare Limited, the provider of complete real-time
physiological patient data services and systems, today announces the
launch of the LifeTouch HRV011 a radical new addition to its Lifecare
Platform. The LifeTouch is an intelligent cardiac monitor that adheres
to the patient’s body and analyses the ECG signal of every
heartbeat. Key physiological parameters, including heart rate,
respiration rate and high resolution QRS intervals are calculated and
uploaded from the LifeTouch to the secure HL7 compliant database in
the IsansysLifecare Platform – a multi layer, configurable, fully
scalable, wireless patient monitoring platform. IsansysLifecare’s
services, tailored to meet the individual requirements of the care
provider, are built on the Lifecare Platform, which is available now.

For more information read the full news release here:
http://www.neondrum.com/public/public_release.php?id=762

In an increasingly competitive world, using new technology smartly, customers can make or break the success of your company. Medical sectors are facing a lot of global challenges today. The use of newest technology greatly helps the physicians in a number of ways as clinical performance and patient safety goes hand in hand.

Business intelligence (BI) refers not only to analyzing of data, but also knowing how you relate the results from the data analysis to every day business decisions.

Clinical data and performance can be enhanced through the advent of new technologies such as Information Technology (I.T.). Business Intelligence is so important in healthcare industry which is full of modern challenges in data quality and its distribution. There is also a constant demand for accurate patient records that becomes more complex.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) helps the healthcare groups to think that extra security and administration of the data security carefully shape their security models. Only qualified individuals can look at patient private information.
The ability to evaluate operational and financial compliance provides a more complete analysis of performance at a time when patients are demanding more responsibility for clinical outcomes.

BI and Lowered Healthcare Cost

• One of the best ways to meet the rising demand for achieving competitive advantage to implement technology solutions using BI is to take an approach with full enthusiasm.
• Healthcare organizations improve patient care by driving better decision making throughout the organization.
• When insight into clinical data is sound, informed, and complete, clinical decisions will be evidence based.
• Because healthcare providers are experiencing a vital call for to obtain and supervise and endeavor over inflating costs and operational processes, hospitals and other providers are face to face with relentless pressures to perk up patient contentment, quality of care, and the financial health of the organization.
• The implementation of a business intelligence solution in any organization will directly improve patient safety and clinical quality by providing reports and analytics to give insights into business operations.

…click here to read more

After Lilli was born, it took 21 months of medical confusion and speculation for doctors to conclude Lilli had Smith-Magenis Syndrome (SMS), a developmental disorder that affects the 17th chromosome. SMS causes intellectual disability, delayed development, sleep disturbance, and extreme behavioral problems. At the time, Brandi was told that SMS was so rare, only 600 people worldwide had the disorder. There are very few support groups for SMS, none at all in Canada. The details of SMS are rather hellish.

Lilli was born with a heart defect that affects roughly 25% of kids with SMS. She wouldn’t learn to walk or talk like the other kids. In fact, at 6 months old Lilli still resembled a newborn.

FULL STORY

The area of health care is no longer contained between the four corners of   health and medical institutions and hospitals. Health and clinical issues as well as patient management are now more accessible even as persons are not physically present   for treatment, monitoring and check-up. This has become possible with telehealth as well as telemedicine and home patient monitoring technologies that promise to deliver great results and more efficiency in terms of health care.