Again, in the last week I have come across a few reports and news items which are worth passing on. These include first:
http://www.govhealthit.com/article98187-04-16-07-Print
Finding Foreman
George Foreman named his five sons George. Will the National Health Information Network be able to pinpoint his health records? Maybe. Maybe not.
BY Nancy Ferris
Published on April 16, 2007
George Foreman — boxer, clergyman and entrepreneur — named his five sons after himself. So when the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is up and running, how will a doctor find the records for the right George Foreman?
Accurately matching patients with their electronic records is at the heart of the proposed network. But what if doctors search NHIN and find no records for anyone named George Foreman? If few matches are found, users will soon pronounce the network a waste of time and money, and they’ll abandon it.
However, if too many George Foreman records are found, the network could seem equally useless. Just imagine the number of records created over the years for the boxer’s sons and others with the same name who are not related to the more famous Foremans.
In that case, a doctor might be unable to determine which of the many records relate to his or her patient. If the doctor guesses wrong, the patient could end up with treatment that’s ineffective or even harmful. What’s worse in the eyes of many people is that the doctor’s employees could see the records of someone else’s patients.
Alternatively, someone from the doctor’s office could call the patient and ask questions such as, Did you ever live on Maple Street? Did you seek treatment for a broken leg in Grand Rapids? What was your maiden name? But that approach is labor-intensive and hardly seems to fit with the notion of a 21st-century information network. It also isn’t likely to provide enough value in return for the billions of dollars it will cost to create the network.
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As always see the sites for the full article. This is a useful listing of the problems you can face without really robust unique identifier approaches and is an especially large problem for Shared EHRs which do not have such technology at their core.
http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/item.cfm?ID=2618
IT and e-health is 'every nurse's business'
17 Apr 2007
IT and e-health is every nurse’s business because it has to be integrated into practice, nursing leader, June Clark, said on the eve of a major discussion at the Royal College of Nursing’s annual congress this week.
The discussion on the theme “Computerised records – what can they offer?” will be available online at the College website. Professor Clark, a former president of the college and chair of the RCN Information in Nursing Forum, told E-Health Insider she hoped as many people as possible in the e-health community would get involved.
She hopes the session will raise awareness on several fronts: “The first is awareness among nurses that e-health and IT and the introduction of IT into the NHS is every nurses’ business because it has to be integrated into nursing practice,” she said.
“The other awareness that I want to get across to this audience and more generally that electronic patient records must have appropriate nursing content, not just medical content.”
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Another useful point is being made here – the reason we prefer the term “Health Informatics” rather than “Medical Informatics” - it the Health IT needs to be used by all health professionals if the full benefit is to be achieved.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,39286714,00.htm
Parliamentary report urges action on NPfIT
17 Apr 2007 09:26
Public Accounts Committee has published a report that calls for urgent action to reduce the risks of the NHS National Programme for IT.
The success of the NHS National Programme for IT is precarious, with key projects running late and suppliers struggling to deliver, according to a long-awaited report from Parliament's influential Public Accounts Committee.
"There is a question mark hanging over the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), the most far-reaching and expensive health information technology project in history," said committee chair Edward Leigh on 17 April.
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The full report can be found here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmpubacc/390/390.pdf
There seems little doubt that the huge UK programme has a large number of both good and bad bits. Despite the differences in Health Systems there is always a lot to learn from such reports. Careful reading recommended for those involved in major Health IT projects.
Further perspective can be found in a recent editorial in the MJA entitles "Lessons from the NHS National Programme for IT" written by Professor Enrico Coiera of UNSW. See the following URL:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/186_01_010107/coi11007_fm.html
Report backs electronic health records
April 19, 2007 - 5:39PM
Up to $7 billion could be saved each year if Australia's health providers shared patient data electronically, says a new report.
Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Health Research, the report argues a broadband network of health services should be created to allow patients to be tracked no matter where they go for medical services.
Monash University e-health research unit director Michael Georgeff said about one-quarter of all Australians suffered from a chronic illness and many had complex health needs.
"Chronic illness requires close monitoring and, often, intensive management by a team of health professionals," Professor Georgeff said.
"But because of the way our health system currently operates, one doctor will often not know what tests or medications have been prescribed by another doctor even when they are members of the same team."
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The full report can be found at the following URL:
http://www.achr.com.au
I have deep concerns about this report and it claims which will be the subject of a future article. Download it and consider the claims it makes for yourself. (It’s only 19 pages)
David.
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