Useful and Interesting Health IT Links from the Last Week – 26/08/2007

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.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22287756-16123,00.html

IBA charges back into iSoft fight

Ben Woodhead | August 22, 2007

IBA Health has upped the ante in the fight for control of iSoft, increasing its offer to £166.3 million ($410.7 million) and moving to grab a 24.3 per cent stake in the British medical software maker.

IBA's Gary Cohen went back to former employer Allco Finance for new iSoft bid funds

The revised bid, which gives iSoft shareholders a choice of accepting cash or IBA shares in return for their stock, is aimed at pulling the rug out from under rival suitor CompuGROUP.

Germany-based CompuGROUP previously gazumped IBA with a recommended £160 million cash offer for iSoft.

IBA's new offer was enabled after Allco Equity Partners (AEP) agreed to stump up as much as $300 million to take a cornerstone investment in IBA and provide funding for the tilt at iSoft.

"The strategic logic for this merger remains compelling and the merits of the transaction are further endorsed through AEP's cornerstone investment," IBA executive chairman Gary Cohen said.

…..( see the URL above for full article)

Interesting to see IBA has struck back – we now have a distinct second phase of all this. How it plays out and where it finally ends will be fascinating. It would be good to have a financially robust e-Health provider in Australia I believe so I hope they don’t overpay for iSoft. (Disclaimer : I have a few IBA Shares)

More details can be also found here:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22291659-5013046,00.html

IBA gets Britain's green light

Bryan Firth | August 23, 2007

IBA Health's revised offer for iSoft Group Plc breaks new ground in Britain as it's the first time Britain's Takeover Panel has let a company announce a scheme offer that has not already been agreed to and received the recommendation of the target board.

…..( see the URL above for full article)

Second we have:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22296864-23289,00.html

$2m crusade targets treatment mistakes

Clara Pirani, Medical reporter | August 25, 2007

MEDIBANK Private is spending $2 million on measures to reduce medication errors and prevent adverse events in almost 60 private hospitals.

The projects were developed to prevent falls, reduce hospital-acquired infections and address adverse events in an attempt to improve patient care -- and cut the cost of treating patients requiring ongoing care because something went wrong while they were in hospital.

"The amount of money we spend on these incentives is hopefully only a small portion of costs that we save," Medibank Private managing director George Savvides. "One figure that has been around suggests that about $2 billion is wasted on adverse events from errors, infection and readmissions. These projects will ensure better health outcomes for all patients."

Private hospitals are invited to develop programs they believe will improve patient safety and apply to Medibank Private for funding to trial them.

Medibank Private is currently reviewing results of the first initiatives trialled in 35 hospitals last year.

"We see this as a long-term initiative that will benefit the hospital operator and patients," Savvides said.

The incentive scheme, now in its second year, attracted a 50 per cent increase in applications from last year, with 120 hospitals applying.

…..( see the URL above for full article)

This is a very interesting article from two perspectives. First we see a private health insurer recognising that there are benefits for the insurer if hospital performance in the quality and safety arena can be improved – and second we see the trialling of e-Health approaches to address the need to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety.

Third we have:

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/08/27/bil20827.htm

E-mail means fewer patient calls and visits

Despite concerns that online consults are not usually reimbursed, e-mail advocates say the technology offers greater practice flexibility, time efficiencies and marketing power.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. Aug. 27, 2007.


A Kaiser Permanente study showing that physicians who e-mailed with patients saw a drop in visits raises the specter that online communication might reduce revenue.

But doctors who were early adopters in e-mailing patients -- and who didn't participate in the study -- say that even though such communication might keep some patients out of the office, it opens up more space for patients who might have a more pressing need to come in. And they say patient e-mail reduces the amount of time they spend on the telephone with patients -- which Kaiser's study also found to be true.

Jasmine Moghissi, MD, a family physician in solo practice in Fairfax, Va., has been e-mailing patients for several years. She said that although it hasn't reduced the amount of work in the office, it's made the same amount of work easier to handle.

…..( see the URL above for full article)

This is an interesting report of a study which examined the impact of the use of e-mail to and from patients on clinical practice. Well worth a browse

Fourth we have:

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070822/FREE/308220001/1029/FREE

'Next generation of information technology': report

By: Jean DerGurahian/ HITS staff writer

Story posted: August 22, 2007 - 5:59 am EDT

Patient data can be used in more robust ways in hospital clinical systems to improve quality and patient safety, according to findings released by First Consulting Group, Long Beach, Calif., a healthcare research organization.

Dubbing it the "next generation of information technology," the report states there are even more ways to make patient electronic data work for hospitals. The systems that hospitals have spent so much money to implement are not being used to their full potential, said Jane Metzger, research director in First Consulting's applied research department.

The findings suggest hospitals should implement what First Consulting calls "clinical surveillance," through which patient data can be manipulated in real time across all hospital functions. Clinical surveillance can be most effective in preventing adverse drug effects, managing healthcare-associated infections, and monitoring quality and public reporting, according to the report. First Consulting's clients include health insurance plans, providers, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and health IT vendors.

…..( see the URL above for full article)

This report makes the rather concerning point that at least some hospitals are making significant investments in Health IT but not then taking full advantage of the information they are now able to gather and analyse.

The report is available here after registration with the First Consulting Group.

http://www.digitalhcp.com/hitw/newsletters/2007/08/21/winona-rhio/

A Tale of RHIO Success

By Neil Versel

August 21, 2007 | BRISBANE, Australia — Nearly as fast as regional health information organizations (RHIOs) cropped up a couple of years ago, they have started to disappear or at least scale back their plans due to financial difficulty. But there are some success stories to be found for those who look hard enough.

Try, for example, Winona, Minnesota, where a small network is thriving. At MedInfo 2007, the triennial congress of the International Medical Informatics Association, at a first-ever international symposium on nursing informatics leadership on Monday, the world got a tale of success from Winona Health.

When the United State’s first health-IT czar, David Brailer, called for interconnecting clinicians with what he called RHIOs in 2004, Janice Turek, clinical director of information systems at Winona Health, knew exactly what he was talking about. “We had already connected a region,” said Turek, a registered nurse. “We have been able to sustain and develop informatics in a small community.”

Indeed, the nonprofit health system in southeastern Minnesota has brought together six competitive, independent organizations onto a single health-IT system. It wasn’t easy, but leadership, from clinicians all the way up to the executive suite, saw it as a means of survival.

“It was a competitive issue,” Turek explained, because a lot of small, community-based healthcare organizations had been going bankrupt or simply shutting their doors. “We didn’t want to be one of them.” And Winona had the added disadvantage of being just 40 miles from the Mayo Clinic’s main Rochester campus.

The strategy for Winona Health was quite different from most other provider organizations. Winona started in 2000 with a Cerner patient Web portal and personal health record (PHR) to build the foundation for an electronic health record (EHR).

“This is when we actually married the Cerner Corp., and it’s been a wonderful marriage,” said Turek. Winona Health also helped other organizations in and around the town of 30,000 become Cerner customers because a common system would facilitate data sharing.

....( see the URL above for full article)

http://www.digitalhcp.com/hitw/newsletters/2007/08/21/medinfo2007/

Optimism Marks Opening of the MedInfo 2007

By Neil Versel

August 21, 2007 | BRISBANE, Australia — In case anyone hasn’t noticed, health care is undergoing a shakeup. Again.

“We’re in the middle of the third health care revolution,” said Sir Muir Gray, director of clinical knowledge in England’s National Health Service (NHS), during a keynote address Tuesday to MedInfo 2007, the 12th world congress on health informatics.

....( see the URL above for full article)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=255&objectid=10458955&ref=emailfriend

$100m bid to end drug deaths in hospitals

5:00AM Tuesday August 21, 2007
By Martin Johnston

The Health Ministry wants hospitals to spend more than $100 million on computer systems and bedside barcoding of patients to reduce fatal and disabling drug errors.

A discussion document obtained by the Herald under the Official Information Act shows the scheme would cost up to $114 million over 12 years.

The proposal is for all public hospitals to introduce fully electronic drug-prescribing systems or computerised patient medication records and connect these to the hospital pharmacy. Drugs would be re-packaged into single-dose packs carrying barcodes, and patients would wear bracelets containing their own unique barcode.

…..( see the URL above for full article )

An interesting article to re-confirm the view there are some good things in the e-Health domain going on in our little Southern friend – despite all the sheep.

More next week.

David.

And an extra I could not leave out – showing the potential of data to improve post marketing drug safety surveillance.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-flrxmeds0823nbaug23,0,963815.story

UM researchers to review files of 11 million Humana patients for drug problems

By Bob LaMendola

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

August 23, 2007

University of Miami researchers will scour the medical files of 11 million Humana Inc. patients looking for dangerous effects from prescription drugs, under a new project unveiled Wednesday.

Using the huge database of real-world medication experience, the research collaborative aims to detect risky drugs and prescribing practices sooner, which could prevent side effects, medication errors and deaths, university officials said.

…..( see the URL above for full article )

Enjoy

D.

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