Rand study touts benefits of unique patient identification system

“A Rand Corporation study finds that the use of unique patient identification numbers would help improve healthcare quality and efficiency.
The creation of such an identification system has a price tag of about $11 billion, but researchers believe it would return even more in benefits to the nation’s healthcare system.”
Article
Molly Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 21 October 2008

Health Records Going High-Tech Hospitals Find Electronic System More Efficient but Also Expensive

“With a few keystrokes, Andrew Catanzaro, an internist with Aurora Advanced Healthcare, can call up a patient’s medical problems, test results, prescriptions and medical history.
He will know if a woman has a family history of ovarian cancer or if a man’s father died of abdominal aortic aneurysm — information that once may have been buried or even missing from a paper chart.
He will get reminders if the patient is due for a test and warnings if a new prescription may interact with another drug.”
Article
Guy Boulton, RedOrbit, 5 October 2008

Patients’ attitudes to the summary care record and HealthSpace: qualitative study

“Objective To document the views of patients and the public towards the summary care record (SCR, a centrally stored medical record drawn from the general practice record) and HealthSpace (a personal health organiser accessible through the internet from which people can view their SCR), with a particular focus on those with low health literacy, potentially stigmatising conditions, or difficulties accessing health care.
Design 103 semistructured individual interviews and seven focus groups.
Setting Three early adopter primary care trusts in England where the SCR and HealthSpace are being piloted. All were in areas of relative socioeconomic deprivation.
Participants Individual participants were recruited from general practice surgeries, walk-in centres, out of hours centres, and accident and emergency departments. Participants in focus groups were recruited through voluntary sector organisations; they comprised advocates of vulnerable groups and advocates of people who speak limited English; people with HIV; users of mental health services; young adults; elderly people; and participants of a drug rehabilitation programme.
Methods Participants were asked if they had received information about the SCR and HealthSpace and about their views on shared electronic records in different circumstances.
Results Most people were not aware of the SCR or HealthSpace and did not recall receiving information about it. They saw both benefits and drawbacks to having an SCR and described a process of weighing the former against the latter when making their personal choice. Key factors influencing this choice included the nature of any illness (especially whether it was likely to lead to emergency care needs); past and present experience of healthcare and government surveillance; the person’s level of engagement and health literacy; and their trust and confidence in the primary healthcare team and the wider NHS. Overall, people with stigmatising illness were more positive about the SCR than people who claimed to speak for “vulnerable groups.” Misconceptions about the SCR were common, especially confusion about what data it contained and who would have access to it. Most people were not interested in recording their medical data or accessing their SCR via HealthSpace, but some saw the potential for this new technology to support self management and lay care for those with chronic illness.
Conclusion Despite an extensive information programme in early adopter sites, the public remains unclear about current policy on shared electronic records, though most people view these as a positive development. The “implied consent” model for creating and accessing a person’s SCR should be revisited, perhaps in favour of “consent to view” at the point of access.”
Article
Trisha Greenhalgh, Gary W Wood, Tanja Bratan, Katja Stramer, Susan Hinder, BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.a114 (published 29 May 2008)

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Health Record Systems

“Hospitals across the US are relying less on papers-based documenation of patient records and operation data, thanks to electronic health record systems. Such systems are primarily designed to allow doctors or other health care provider to have direct access to patient data during appointments. Physicians and other health workers will revert to using “sticky notes” if electronic tools are not available.”
Article
Angel , Medicaltalknow, 4 May 2008

Letter Pushes Medicare E-Scripts

“Forty-four businesses and organizations have signed a letter to Congress asking that legislation to mandate electronic prescribing for the Medicare program be approved.
The letter was sent May 1 to leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways & Means and Energy & Commerce committees. “We urge you to actively support passage of the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection Act of 2007 (S. 2408 & H.R. 4296) this year to reduce deadly and costly prescription medication errors,” the letter states. “We, the undersigned, represent more than 210 million Americans through consumer and labor groups, employers, public purchasers, physician groups, pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, and other prescription drug stakeholders.”
Article
Health Data Management, 1 May 2008

UK hospitals adopt US records system

“The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals, a NHS Foundation Trust in the UK, today announced an innovative partnership to deploy electronic health record (EHR) technology.”
Article
HospitalHealthcare.com, 28 April 2008

How Personal Health Records Could Make Care Less Efficient

“High hopes are afoot for personal health records, online homes where patients can store their medical information to take from doctor to doctor and keep track of things like prescriptions and test results. Microsoft and Google, among others, are jumping in the patient-controlled record pool.”
Article
Jacob Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal, 25 April 2008

New Hampshire to Improve Health IT Infrastructure

“Governor John Lynch today directed the Citizens Health Initiative to develop a plan for improving the state’s health information infrastructure to improve health care quality and affordability for New Hampshire citizens.”
Article
Government Technology, 23 April 2008

Saving lives and money

“Investments in health care technology can save money and save lives.
Imagine if you were unconscious because of a car accident and the doctors in the emergency room could know, with a few clicks of a computer mouse, that you have a heart condition and what medications you are taking, or if the new specialist you are seeing could easily look up your recent X-ray or blood test results and within seconds have them available to discuss with you, or just simply that you no longer had to fill out the same forms with the same information that you have done 100 times before.”
Article
Steve Maier, Patty O’Donnell, Rutland Herald, 17 April 2008

Docs dip toes into computerized records

“Electronic systems are the future, but high costs slow adoption rate.
Ask Cathy Molchan the cost of installing the electronic medical record system in a doctor’s office she administers, and she gives a clear, quantified answer: $80,000.
Ask her whether the system saves the practice any money, and her answer is less concrete.”
Article
Indianapolis Business Jounal. 12 April 2008

Creating EHR Networks in the Safety Net

“Most community clinics and health centers have yet to make the transition to electronic health records (EHRs), despite mounting evidence that they can help raise the quality of medical care, increase patient safety, improve efficiency, and produce significant cost savings.
While studies have found that the primary barrier to EHR adoption is cost, research also shows that successful implementation requires investments beyond the price of the software, including significant amounts of planning and preparation, optimizing the system after installation, and training for key personnel. Small, independent health care providers often lack either the financial or staffing resources to fund and sustain such efforts.
One solution is the EHR network — an information technology partnership focused on community clinics and health centers that provides services to support the adoption of EHRs and other applications. This issue brief explores the network approach to EHRs and its potential to increase adoption rates among these crucial providers of safety-net medical services.
In developing the brief, Manatt Health Solutions employed a variety of primary and secondary research techniques, including interviews with clinic members of EHR networks and conversations with industry and academic experts. The authors conclude that a network approach can provide California’s community clinics and health centers with the infrastructure and support necessary to efficiently implement EHR systems.”
Report
Manatt Health Solutions, for Californian Health Foundation, April 2008

EMRs Might Work for Physicians in PHM

“Despite the continuing pressure on physicians to invest in electronic medical records, only about one-quarter have done so, and usually in large medical groups. There are numerous quality and efficiency of care reasons for making the investment, but these often fail to persuade physicians, who tend to feel that others gain most of the benefits while they suffer all of the costs.”
Article
Scott MacStravic, World HeathCare Blog, 26 March 2008

NYC program promotes EHRs for primary care practices

“New York City will spend about $30 million to equip more than 1,000 primary care physician offices with electronic health records, enough to cover 1 million patients.”
Article
Chelsey Ledue, Healthcare IT News, 7 March 2008

Web surfing isn’t just for cyberchondriacs

‘A physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient,” said the legendary Canadian physician Sir William Osler.
Today, thanks to the Internet, we are all physicians. And potential fools.
All you need to do is Google your symptoms and, presto, you have a diagnosis. A few more key strokes and you have a course of treatment - thanks to products hawked aggressively online.”
Article
Andre Picard, The Globe and Mail, 28 February 2008

Information technology improves health care

“We Americans have the most advanced medical science and the best-trained medical professionals in the world, but we are not getting the best possible medical care. Our medical professionals are practicing 21st-century medicine with 19th-century tools. They’re using paper charts that aren’t always where they need to be, with handwritten notes that read like a cipher. They can’t easily compare notes from clinical practice to see what works. As a result, Americans can’t tell how good their care is or how much it costs. They also suffer needlessly from medical errors that could be avoided.”
Article
Mike Leavitt, The Commercial Appeal, 31 January 2008

Computer Programs and Systems, Inc. Enhances Interoperability Strategy with NeoTool Interface Engine

“Computer Programs and Systems, Inc., a leading provider of healthcare information solutions, today announced that it has forged a partnership with NeoTool to provide its clients with a more efficient solution for interfaces. The introduction of an interface engine will promote interoperability with third-party stand-alone systems while streamlining the development, testing and deployment of interfaces.”
Article
Business Wire, 27 December 2007

New e-health strategy planned for Scotland

“A new e-health strategy for Scotland in spring 2008 is promised in a national healthcare action plan, Better Health, Better Care, published this week.”
Article
e-Health Insider, 13 December 2007

New Data From Shared Health, Inc., Proves Effectiveness of Health Information Exchange for Improving Patient Outcomes at the Point of Care

“Tennessee-based Shared Health, Inc., the largest public/private health information exchange (HIE) in the nation, announced today the results of a new study that shows a 17% improvement in efficiencies following implementation of its HIE. The efficiency improvements are the result of the benefits clinicians experience when incorporating the Shared Health solution into their practice workflow.”
Article
PR Newswire, 12 December 2007

Toward Higher-Performance Health Systems: Adults’ Health Care Experiences In Seven Countries, 2007

“This 2007 survey compares adults’ health care experiences in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In all countries, the study finds that having a “medical home” that is accessible and helps coordinate care is associated with significantly more positive experiences. There were wide country differences in access, after-hours care, and coordination but also areas of shared concern. Patient-reported errors were high for those seeing multiple doctors or having multiple chronic illnesses. The United States stands out for cost-related access barriers and less-efficient care.”
Report
Health Affairs, 26, no. 6 (2007): w717-w734, November 2007

MRI’s 2007 Survey of Electronic Medical Record Trends and Usage

“MRI’s Survey of Electronic Medical Record Trends and Usage is an annual poll of IT usage among healthcare providers of various sizes and types. A total of 1011 individuals responded to the survey. To increase relevancy and diminish bias, responses from vendors and consultants are not included in the results, reducing the total database to 819.”
Report summary
Medical Records Institute, October 2007

The Role of Technology in International Healthcare - Part II

“As a follow-up to my previous post on the ISQua annual meeting, I wanted to share some thoughts on one keynote speech by Dr. Karen Davis of the Commonwealth Fund. She delivered an impressive and humbling assessment of healthcare in the US and internationally. There is a great deal of work ahead of us all. The premise of her discussion is that if we, as a global community, are to achieve long and healthy lives, we need to have: 1) high quality of care; 2) access & equity; 3) efficient care; and 4) system & workforce innovation and improvement.”
Article
Christopher Cornue, Hospital Impact, 12 October 2007

Taurel: Go paperless, share records

At health-care summit, Lilly chief calling for ‘true information revolution’
“Millions of patients. Thousands of drugs. Countless doctors, hospitals, clinics and procedures. Billions of pieces of medical data.
It all adds up to a fragmented U.S. health-care system that needs to move more quickly into the computer age, says the top executive at Indianapolis drug maker Eli Lilly and Co.”
Article
John Russell, Indianapolis Star, 2 October 2007

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan expands online information exchange

“Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has announced plans to expand its healthcare electronic data interchange clearinghouse and portal with information on Traditional Medicare enrollees.”
Article
Healthcare IT News, 21 September 2007

Eyes shift from patient to keyboard

“When I began my residency last year at the Cambridge Health Alliance, I was thrilled to discover that I would be using a computerized medical record system. Computerized medical records - which are now used by about half of Massachusetts physicians and a growing number of doctors nationwide - are truly revolutionizing medicine, allowing doctors to chart patient information more safely, effectively, and legibly than ever.”
Article
Michael Hochman, Boston Glove Today, 10 September 2007

Patient entertainment and clinical applications at the bedside

“Digital media terminals at the point of care are changing the hospital experience, for patients, medical teams and hospitals alike.”
Article
Canice McKee, Healthcare IT News EU, 6 September 2007

Electronic Health Records in Specialty Care: A Time-Motion Study

“Electronic health records (EHRs) have great potential to improve safety, quality, and efficiency in medicine. However, adoption as been slow, and a key concern has been that clinicians will require more time to complete their work using EHRs. Most previous studies addressing this issue have been done in primary care.”
“These data suggest that implementation of an EHR had little ffect on overall visit time in specialty clinics.”
Abstract
Helen G. Lo, Lisa P. Newmark, Catherine Yoon, Lynn A. Volk, Virginia L. Carlson, Anne F. Kittler, Margaret Lippincott, Tiffany Wang, and David W. Bates, J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2007;14:609-615

CCR Exchange: Building a Patient-Driven Web-Based Healthcare Community Around an Emerging Personal Health Record Standard

Steve Chi-Hung Lu
CCR Exchange, Inc., USA

Abstract.

This document demonstrates how we use open source software in building an Internet healthcare community around an emerging Personal Health Record standard called Continuity of Care Record (CCR) format, and how members of the community can share healthcare information securely and efficiently while retaining total privacy.

EHR Standards – A Comparative Study

Bernd Blobel and Peter Pharow
eHealth Competence Center, University of Regensburg Medical Center, Germany

Abstract

For ensuring quality and efficiency of patient’s care, the care paradigm moves from organization-centered over process-controlled towards personal care. Such health system paradigm change leads to new paradigms for analyzing, designing, implementing and deploying supporting health information systems including EHR systems as core application in a distributed eHealth environment. The paper defines the architectural paradigm for future-proof EHR systems. It compares advanced EHR architectures referencing them at the Generic Component Model. The paper introduces the evolving paradigm of autonomous computing for self-organizing health information systems.

Software Support in Automation of Medicinal Product Evaluations

Radmila Juric, Reza Shojanoori, Lindi Slevin, Stephen Williams
Centre for Health Informatics, Cavendish School of Computer Science, University of Westminster, London, UK

Abstract:

Medicinal product evaluation is one of the most important tasks undertaken by government health departments and their regulatory authorities in every country in the world. The independent evaluation of medicinal products is centered on regulations and guidelines for reporting and evaluating data on medicinal products’ safety, quality and efficacy. However, each country has its own systems and its own procedures for evaluating medicinal products, which represents a serious drawback for their efficient local and worldwide registration. The automation and adequate software support are critical tasks that can improve the efficiency of regulatory authorities and interoperation of regulatory systems across the world. In this paper we propose a software solution that supports the automation of (i) submission of applications and (ii) evaluations of submitted applications according to regulatory authorities’ procedures. The novelty of our solution is in allowing applications to be submitted in any country in the world and evaluated according to any evaluation procedure, which can be chosen by either regulatory authorities or pharmaceutical companies. Consequently, submission and evaluation procedures become interoperable and associated data repositories/DB shared across various countries/regulatory authorities.