Just an occasional post when I come upon a few interesting reports that are worth a download or browse. This week we have a few.
First we have:
The Doctor Will Text You Now
Patients Visit With Their Physicians Online as More Insurers Begin Paying for Digital Diagnoses
By ANNA WILDE MATHEWS
Jane Rust woke up early one day last year and discovered that her left eye was red, swollen and itchy. So she logged on to her family doctor’s Web site and typed a message describing her symptoms and asking what to do.
By mid-morning, the 61-year-old homemaker received an online response from her doctor with a diagnosis—conjunctivitis, or pink eye, probably contracted from a child in her Sunday-school class—and a prescription to pick up at the pharmacy. “I didn’t have to disrupt my day,” says Ms. Rust, who lives in Readyville, Tenn. “It’s much more efficient.”
This year, 39% of doctors said they’d communicated with patients online, up from just 16% five years earlier, according to health-information firm Manhattan Research, a unit of Decision Resources Inc. So far, the most common digital doctor services are the simplest ones, like paying bills, sending lab results and scheduling appointments. But patients like Ms. Rust are also using computers to deal with issues that usually require a trip to the doctor’s office.
More here (Subscription required):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203872404574257900513900382.html#mod=djemHL
The demo is very interesting indeed.
The future is here for some.
Second we have:
NHIN Gateway Demonstration
Successful Demonstration of HIE Opens ARRA Stimulus Options for California
JUNE 26, 2009 - Press Release describing the successful CAeHC demonstration of clinical data sharing by five California HIEs using NHIN gateway software:
Kaiser Permanente — using the Kaiser Permanente NHIN Gateway
Long Beach Network for Health — using the MedPlus NHIN Gateway
Orange County ER Connect — using the Mirth Connect NHIN Gateway
Redwood MedNet — using the Mirth Connect NHIN Gateway
Santa Cruz HIE — using the Axolotl NHIN Gateway
JULY 10, 2009 - Public demonstration of NHIN Gateway at the Redwood MedNet HIE Conference; webinar connection details to be posted.
California eHealth Town Halls
Town Hall Meetings and Surveys Show Variations in Community Readiness for HIE
CAeHC coordinated 20 Town Hall Meetings throughout the state during April and May 2009. CAeHC also collaborated with the California Office of Health Information Integrity (CalOHII) in hosting an online survey tool to gather information during the Town Hall Meetings.
- JUNE 18, 2009 - Report From Town Hall Meetings and Online Surveys - Final report and analysis based on input from hundreds of eHealth stakeholders in 20 communities in California
- JUNE 16, 2009 - Map of Health Information Exchange Projects in California
- APRIL 4, 2009 - Call to Action - Original CAeHC proposal to initiate an inventory of local and statewide eHealth resources by holding Town Hall meetings.
More here:
Well worth reading the reports linked above. This is real progress I believe
Third we have:
Your Health in the Information Age: How You and Your Doctor Can Use the Internet to Work Together
By Peter Yellowlees
208 pp, $27.95
New York, NY, iUniverse Publishing, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0-5955-2775-5
JAMA. 2009;302(1):95-96.
More here:
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/302/1/95
This is a book review – and deserves mention as the author hails from OZ and the book is generally well liked.
Fourth we have:
Tech That Could Save Your Life
06.26.09, 6:00 PM ET
BURLINGAME, CALIF. -
Jim Sweeney is on a mission to make hospitals safer--through technology.
The longtime entrepreneur, who started companies including prescription-benefit management firm Caremark and CardioNet, a maker of devices to diagnose hearth arrhythmias, is now at the helm of IntelliDOT Corp. The San Diego start-up makes handheld devices that mainly scan bar codes on drug labels and match them to patient wristbands. That helps nurses give the right patients the right dose of their medicine and avoid harmful interactions. The devices have some other uses, like guarding against patients getting the wrong type of blood in a procedure.
But Sweeney has big plans to widen the company's scope: He wants to create a new technology platform, leveraging wireless technologies such as RFID, to improve patient safety throughout hospitals.
In Pictures: 10 Life-Saving Technologies
In Sweeney's vision, nurses and patients armed with wireless devices or tags could synch up with each other to make sure patients are prepped for the correct surgical procedure and that babies go home with the right parents. The new system would continue to monitor patient drug doses and interactions--drug errors are a major cause of death in hospitals--and even prompt nurses to wash their hands. Sweeney envisions radio-frequency identification devices embedded in hospital-room soap dispensers. They could catch nurses who didn't scrub up before touching patients. (Nurses would have RFID tags on their name badges.)
Article found here:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/26/life-saving-devices-technology-personal-monitors.html
There are certainly a lot of high-tech devices coming down the pike. The slideshow is worth a watch.
Fifth we have:
CIO Group Comments on Meaningful Use
HDM Breaking News, June 29, 2009
The initial proposal of a workgroup of the HIT Policy Committee to define meaningful use of electronic health records includes a matrix of about 55 functions, or elements, that should be phased in over several years. But under the proposal, 22 of the functions have to be achieved to some degree during the first year in 2011.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives suggests setting a specific number of functions that must be adopted each year from 2011 through 2014, rather than specific functions to be adopted by specific years.
The full article is found here:
CHIME's full comment letter is available at http://cio-chime.org/advocacy/CHIMELetterreMeaningfulUseJune26.pdf.
Sixth we have:
June 29, 2009, 4:10 pm
How Health Records Could Promote Job Growth
By Patrick McGeehanThe push for doctors to convert their patient files to electronic records could spur the creation of dozens of health information technology companies and create thousands of jobs in New York City, according to a study released Monday by a research organization based in Manhattan.
The research organization, the Center for an Urban Future, argues that the city could become a hub for the industry, which is still young and scattered around the country. Its growth is expected to accelerate now that the Obama administration is offering nearly $20 billion in incentives to doctors and hospitals to digitize their records, said Jonathan Bowles, the center’s director, who is a co-author of the study.
“I don’t think any other city is better positioned to capitalize on this than New York,” Mr. Bowles said. “With 65 hospitals, 1,300 outpatient clinics and 30,000 doctors, this is a huge boon waiting to happen. The potential is huge for economic development.”
Mr. Bowles said the city’s Economic Development Corporation should add the health information sector to its short list of industries that could grow significantly and help to achieve the Bloomberg administration’s goal of diversifying the city’s economy. Unlike biotechnology, one of the industries city officials are trying to develop, health information technology does not require expensive laboratories or a lot of space, Mr. Bowles said.
He cited a national study that estimated that the stimulus plan could create as many as 212,000 jobs in health information nationwide. His center’s study found that New York was second only to Chicago as a home base for companies providing these services to hospitals. Chicago has 47 of these companies and New York has 43, while there were only 14 in the San Francisco area, according to the study.
More here:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/how-health-records-could-promote-job-growth/
The full report is here:
http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/RecordRecovery.pdf
Seventh we have:
Comparative-effectiveness suggestions outlined
By Shawn Rhea / HITS staff writer
Posted: June 30, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT
An independent advisory committee released a 73-page report outlining its first set of recommendations for spending $1.1 billion in comparative-effectiveness research funding allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Written by the 15-member Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, the report focuses on how HHS’ secretary's office should best use the $400 million in comparative-effectiveness funding it received earlier this year.
The council recommended that the secretary's office use its funds to fill high-priority gaps that are less likely to be funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health, which received $300 million and $400 million in funding, respectively.
More here:
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090630/REG/306309991
The link to the report is in the text. The Institute of Medicine has also produced a report on the area.
This is found here:
http://www.nas.edu/morenews/20090630.html
Enough for one week!
Enjoy!
David.
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