“Background: The exchange of information is an integral component of continuity of health care and may limit or prevent costly duplication of tests and treatments. This study determined the probability that patient information from previous visits with other physicians was available for a current physician visit.
Methods: We conducted a multicentre prospective cohort study including patients discharged from the medical or surgical services of 11 community and academic hospitals in Ontario. Patients included in the study saw at least 2 different physicians during the 6 months after discharge. The primary outcome was whether information from a previous visit with another physician was available at the current visit. We determined the availability of previous information using surveys of or interviews with the physicians seen during current visits.
Results: A total of 3250 patients, with a total of 39 469 previous–current visit combinations, met the inclusion criteria. Overall, information about the previous visit was available 22.0% of the time. Information was more likely to be available if the current doctor was a family physician (odds ratio [OR] 1.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.54–1.98) or a physician who had treated the patient before the hospital admission (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.21–1.46). Conversely, information was less likely to be available if the previous doctor was a family physician (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.32–0.44) or a physician who had treated the patient before the admission (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.60–0.86). The strongest predictor of information exchange was the current physician having previously received information about the patient from the previous physician (OR 7.72, 95% CI 6.92–8.63).
Interpretation: Health care information is often not shared among multiple physicians treating the same patient. This situation would be improved if information from family physicians and patients’ regular physicians was more systematically available to other physicians.”
Article
Carl van Walraven, Monica Taljaard, Chaim M. Bell, Edward Etchells, Kelly B. Zarnke, Ian G. Stiell, Alan J. Forster, CMAJ, November 4, 2008; 179 (10). doi:10.1503/cmaj.080430
Tagged: data sharing and Health Information Exchange
; posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 8:33 am
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“If ever a case was made for electronic health records, perhaps this is it. Researchers in Canada reviewing the records of 3,250 patients found that information from a previous medical visit was available only 22% of the time when the patients saw another doctor. So much for continuity of care.”
Article
Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times, 3 November 2008
Tagged: data sharing and Health Information Exchange
; posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 8:12 am
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“The fear of losing competitive advantage among stakeholders is slowing the development of health information exchanges beyond simple recordkeeping systems, an economist said this week.”
Article
Kathryn Foxhall, Government Health IT, 10 September 2008
Tagged: data sharing and Health Information Exchange
; posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 7:51 am
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“In 2005, the Ontario government decided to transfer the operation of Georgetown Hospital from William Osler Health Centre to Halton Healthcare Services. During the transition, historical clinical data was left on the Osler system, and after the transfer, many of the physicians remained at Georgetown and still provided service to Osler. In order to provide clinicians with access to patient data from both organizations, a “provider portal” was deemed the best approach to meet the clinical data sharing needs of physicians and clinicians.”
Article
Panteleon, Acumeme, 13 August 2008
Tagged: data sharing and hospitals
; posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 8:53 am
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“The theme at this year’s Leadership Summit is “The Road to Interoperability”. My keynote on global healthcare industry trends was followed by a “reactor panel” moderated by Janet Marchibroda, CEO of the eHealth Initiative. Panelists included Bill Beighe, CIO of Physicians Medical Group of Santa Cruz; Barbara Blakeney, RN, Innovation Specialist at Mass General Hospital and Past President of the American Nurses Association; and G. Daniel Martich, MD, CMIO and Associate CMO, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.”
Article
Bill Crounse, Health Blog, 22 July 2008
Tagged: data sharing
; posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 8:49 am
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“Patients who consent to a course of treatment should be presumed to have given “implied consent” to having their data used for medical research, a review of data sharing across government has concluded.
The NHS should also develop a system to allow approved researchers to identify patients who would be happy to take part in research for which explicit consent is needed, the review by Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and director of the Welcome Trust Mark Walport adds.”
Article
e-health Insider, 15 July 2008
Tagged: consent and data sharing
; posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 8:20 am
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“We are pleased to present our report on Data Sharing. As recent events have shown, this is a topic that is timely, important and a matter of great public interest and concern. We have consulted widely in order to inform our thinking. Decisions about the extent of data sharing go to the heart of the fundamental democratic debate about the relationship between individuals and society. There is a long-standing and healthy debate about the balance between the right of individuals to privacy and the necessity for the state to hold personal information about citizens. Government uses personal information for purposes such as providing the fundamental democratic right to vote, the collection of taxes, protection of citizens and provision of services. But there are limits to the extent and purposes for which Government should use personal information about citizens. This report examines how these limits should be set.”
Report
Richard Thomas and Dr Mark Walport, UK Ministry of Justice, 11 July 2008
Tagged: data sharing
; posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 11:28 am
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