Weekly Overseas Health IT Links 02-11-2009

Here are a few I have come across this week.

http://fcw.com/articles/2009/10/23/government-agencies-to-spend-15-billion-on-health-it-by-2014.aspx

Government agencies to spend $15 billion on health IT by 2014

Federal agency spending on health IT systems could rise to $5.6 billion

Federal, state and local governments will spend $15 billion on information technology systems to support their public health and health insurance programs in 2014, a $3 billion increase from 2009 levels, according to a new report from the Input research firm of Reston, Va.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/24/AR2009102400967.html

Electronic medical records not seen as a cure-all

As White House pushes expansion, critics cite errors, drop-off in care

By Alexi Mostrous
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 25, 2009

In a health-care debate characterized by partisan bickering, most lawmakers agree on one thing: American medicine needs to go digital.

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http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/critics-question-ethics-stepped-pharma-data-mining/2009-10-26?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Critics question ethics of stepped-up pharma data mining

October 26, 2009 — 2:28pm ET | By Neil Versel

With the crackdown on gifts to physicians, and a slowing in direct-to-consumer advertising, the pharmaceutical industry is turning to data mining of physician prescribing habits to fuel the marketing machine. And, as with so many other pharma marketing techniques, controversy is brewing.

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/states-play-important-role-healthcare-reform

States to play important role in healthcare reform

October 23, 2009 | Kyle Hardy, Community Editor

WASHINGTON – The federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has released “requests for proposals” to all 50 states to apply for federal grants worth $1.2 billion.

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http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=21690

Health records transfer system lands interoperability award

The GP2GP software has won a national award for 'Innovation in Health Interoperability'. The honour came at the E-Health Insider Awards 2009, held at London's Hilton on Park Lane.

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2009/10/stimulus_funds_could_widen_dig.html

Stimulus Funds Could Widen Digital Health Divide

12:25 pm

October 26, 2009

By Christopher Weaver

Federal stimulus spending meant to bolster the uptake of electronic medical records could wind up shortchanging hospitals that treat more poor patients, deepening a "digital divide" between the rich and the impoverished.

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091026/REG/310269943

Hospitals serving indigent have less robust IT: study

By Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer

Posted: October 26, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT

As might have been suspected, there is a digital divide between hospitals disproportionately serving the poor and those hospitals serving the rest of the population, according to the findings of a team of federally supported researchers looking into adoption rates of health information technology.

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http://govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=72242

Consumer technology may improve health outcomes

By Mary Mosquera
Friday, October 23, 2009

Consumer health information technology tools hold “significant” promise for improving outcomes across a variety of diseases and health conditions, according to research conducted for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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http://govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=72240

ONC taps information exchange software for NHIN Connect

By John Moore
Friday, October 23, 2009

The Office of the National Coordinator has tapped an Arlington, Va.company’s health information exchange software as part of the federally developed Connect Gateway.

ONC selected Vangent’s Health Information Exchange Open Source (HIEOS) software as a document sharing component of Connect Gateway v. 2.2, which was released late last month. Connect lets agencies and healthcare organizations share health data, employing nationwide health information network (NHIN) protocols, agreements and services.

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/war-talent-about-begin-healthcare-it

War on talent about to begin in healthcare IT

October 23, 2009 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

John Glaser

BOSTON – The government's piece of the stimulus package aimed at boosting the adoption and use of healthcare information technology is expected to create 50,000 new jobs – maybe more.

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http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27486:end-of-health-smart-card&catid=69:business&Itemid=58

End of health smart card?

The R609 million smart card project will remain on hold indefinitely, pending a review of all department projects and major contracts.

By Audra Mahlong, Journalist
Johannesburg, 27 Oct 2009

Major IT projects may take a back seat as the Department of Health reprioritises its spending, following a damning report by the auditor-general.

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E-Health Records Option Extended To Families

Dossia, whose consortium members include Wal-Mart and Intel, is making it easier for employees' dependents to sign up for electronic health records.

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek

Oct. 27, 2009

URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220900733

During open-enrollment season for employee health insurance plans, employer consortium Dossia has added new functionality to the electronic personal health record that's offered to millions of workers.

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http://www.ihealthbeat.org/features/2009/health-care-might-be-ripe-for-cloud-computing.aspx

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Health Care Might Be Ripe for Cloud Computing

Widely acknowledged as a laggard in adopting IT, the health care industry seems an unlikely breeding ground for one of the hottest trends in IT -- cloud computing.

But some cloud proponents contend health care's relatively late embrace of the benefits of IT might in fact produce excellent conditions for cloud formations.

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/H1N1-39248-1.html

State Uses Script Data to Track Flu

HDM Breaking News, October 26, 2009

The State of Rhode Island is receiving weekly, de-identified prescribing data from pharmacies across the state enabling epidemiologists to track cases of HINI influenza.

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http://www.ehiprimarycare.com/news/5326/cqc_criticises_discharge_summaries

CQC criticises discharge summaries

27 Oct 2009

The Care Quality Commission has warned that the NHS may be failing to prevent harm to patients by failing to share information when they move between services.

The findings come in a report by the watchdog called ‘Managing patients’ medicines after discharge from hospital’, based on a national study that visited 12 primary care trusts and surveyed 280 of their GP practices.

Eight out of ten (81%) of the practices surveyed said that when hospitals sent them discharge summaries details of medicines were incomplete or inaccurate “all of the time” or “most of the time.”

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http://www.isria.com/pages/28_October_2009_153.php

Jordan - King launches e-health plan

His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday launched the National e-Health Programme, Hakeem, which will create a database of medical histories of patients across the Kingdom over the long-term.

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http://govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=72259

ONC panel wrestles with meaningful use by specialists

By Mary Mosquera
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The Health IT Policy Committee today confronted the problem of how to craft a manageable set of requirements for the “meaningful use” of health IT across an industry where specialties and new practice variations are common – and where one policy may not fit all.

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/diabetic-patients-report-better-care-use-web-based-phrs

Diabetic patients report better care with use of Web-based PHRs

October 27, 2009 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of diabetic patients in the Washington, D.C. area have adopted an online personal health record to communicate with their doctors and manage their disease, according to Howard University Hospital.

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http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_13656809

Kaiser Permanente has a long history in computerized patient records

Jim Steinberg, Staff Writer

Posted: 10/27/2009 09:23:24 PM PDT

Dr. S. James Ku writes a prescription for a patient on a computer.

When he hits "enter," red letters at the top of the screen note the patient has an allergy to that medicine.

Quick, accurate, thorough are hallmarks of the HealthConnect electronic record system, said Ku, a family medical practice doctor who also teaches other Kaiser Permanente doctors from Chino to Redlands and Victorville the finer points of the world's largest civilian electronic health record system.

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091028/REG/310289940

NHIN, privacy front and center at HIT policy meeting

By Joseph Conn

Posted: October 28, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT

The head of federal efforts to boost the use of health information technology told members of an IT advisory panel Tuesday that they need to step back and take a second look at the proposed national health information network, and also come up with some advice on a national policy framework for IT privacy and security that makes sense.

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http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/5316/europe_launch_for_cisco_data_exchange

Europe launch for Cisco data exchange

23 Oct 2009

Cisco and Austrian software company Tiani Spirit have announced the availability of their new Medical Data Exchange Solution (MDES) in Europe.

The MDES enables healthcare providers to securely access patient information regardless of the provider’s location or IT system.

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091029/REG/310299985

Cost containment not achieved with EHRs: survey

By Joseph Conn / HITS staff writer

Posted: October 29, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT

If anyone in Congress, the Obama administration or the public thinks that adoption of health information technology will quickly yield improved care or reduce costs, they'd be wrong, according to the results of a recent survey of medical group practices, including many with considerable experience using electronic health-record systems.

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/standards-39285-1.html

Doc to Feds: Tighten Standards

HDM Breaking News, October 29, 2009

National standards for health data exchange permit too much variability and must be tightened, a family practitioner told a federal advisory board on Oct. 29. The implementation workgroup of the HIT Standards Committee is taking testimony from providers, vendors, quality measures experts and others on the challenges of implementing health information systems and exchanging data.

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http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5335/toolkit_to_nail_interoperability_-_jones

Toolkit to nail interoperability - Jones

29 Oct 2009

The new NHS interoperability toolkit has the potential to drive down the cost of interoperability and innovation, according to the Department of Health’s chief technology officer.

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http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/product.jsp?id=50308

Health Information Technology in the United States, 2009

On the Cusp of Change

October 26, 2009

Health information technology (HIT) has the potential to revolutionize the delivery of health care. In our two previous reports about HIT in the United States we detailed the challenges faced by policy-makers working toward the goal of increased adoption of electronic health records. Since that time the role of health information technology in promoting higher quality, more efficient health care has taken a central position in the current health care reform debate. There is broad bipartisan support to speed health information technology adoption, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has made promoting a national interoperable health information system a priority, authorizing significant resources to achieve this goal.

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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/ges-bid-to-connect-computerized-health-records/?partner=rss&emc=rss

October 29, 2009, 9:57 am

G.E.’s Bid to Connect Computerized Health Records

By Steve Lohr

There are all sorts of obstacles to moving the nation’s health care system, choking on paper records, into the computer age. The cost and complexity of making the transition are daunting, though the government’s $19 billion in incentives for doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records should help.

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http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62058989,00.htm

S'pore e-health records roadmap 'pragmatic'

By Vivian Yeo, ZDNet Asia

Friday, October 30, 2009 05:14 PM

Singapore and some of its Asian peers stand in good stead for the successful implementation of e-healthcare initiatives such as electronic health records (EHR), according to executives from GE Healthcare.

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/vendor_news-39242-1.html

EHR Vendor: Don't Pay Until Happy

HDM Breaking News, October 23, 2009

When it introduces the next generation of its software next year, AXEO Systems LLC will offer physician group practices an unusual pricing policy tied to reaping value from an EHR and practice management system.

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http://www.who.int/goe/ehir/2009/27_october_2009/en/index.html

eHealth Worldwide

27 October 2009

:: Australia: Following the Aussie lead on telemedicine (2 October 2009 - Tandberg)

Australia and the United States are similar in many ways when it comes to expanding broadband and improving the delivery of healthcare. The population is ageing, the countries are large with geographically dispersed populations, and there are particular challenges getting the best care to rural areas. TANDBERG is a major sponsor of the National Rural Healthcare Association (NRHA) and has supported the improved delivery of rural healthcare for many years

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http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/tony_collins/2009/10/npfit-lorenzo-trusts-have-174.html

NPfIT Lorenzo - £57,500 per user so far

The NPfIT minister Mike O'Brien revealed in a Parliamentary reply yesterday that there are 174 regular users of the Lorenzo 1 system at five NHS trusts.

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Enjoy!

David.

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