The U.S. military is testing commercial mobile devices for usability with its electronic health record applications, Government Health IT reports.
Lt. Col. William Geesey — product manager at the Army’s Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care organization — said officials are testing tactical EHR applications on the:
According to Geesey, early results indicate that versions of the Army’s EHR technology work on the Apple and Droid operating systems.
However, he said testing still has a long way to go. Geesey noted that the devices “must clear a myriad of hurdles, including data-at-rest encryption requirements, clearance for wireless use in theater, and a bevy of [Department of Defense] and local signal certifications.”
The testing is part of telehealth and EHR projects under way at bases in Afghanistan and Iraq (Buxbaum, Government Health IT, 12/10).
Source: iHealthBeat
Slightly more than half of office-based physicians in the U.S. report using electronic health records in their practices, a slight increase over last year, according to preliminary results of a survey by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, United Press International reports.
Under the 2009 economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHRs can qualify for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments.
For the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, researchers surveyed more than 10,300 physicians by mail and telephone from April through July of this year (United Press International, 12/9).
Key Results
For the survey, an EHR system was defined as being all or partially electronic (CDC report, December 2010).
The survey found that 50.7% of physicians reported using all or partial EHR systems for patient files in their practices. That figure is up from 48.3% in 2009.
This year, nearly 25% of survey respondents said their systems met criteria for a “basic” system, while 10.1% said their systems met criteria of a “fully functional” system. Both of these rates are higher than last year’s 21.8% and 6.9%, respectively, according to the survey (United Press International, 12/9).
System Features
A basic EHR system was defined as having the ability to:
A fully functional EHR system was defined as having the ability to:
Variations Across U.S.
The survey found widespread variation for EHR adoption among states. The percentage of physicians by state reporting use of a basic EHR system ranged from 12.5% to 51.5%, according to the survey (United Press International, 12/9).
Source: iHealthBeat
Social media tools can be effective in maintaining participation in online health programs, according to a University of Michigan Medical School study, Healthcare IT News reports.
Research Details
Researchers found that an interactive social media site added to an Internet-based walking program significantly lowered the number of participants who dropped out.
The study showed that:
Implications
According to researchers, the findings indicate that adding social media features to online programs can reduce attrition, as well as costs associated with traditional interventions, such as face-to-face meetings.
The study authors added that cutting down on attrition rates could result in more positive health outcomes and greater cost savings.
Source: iHealthBeat
For any questions regarding social media and how to incorporate it within your practice, don’t hesitate to contact us.
In the latest, but certainly not last, health IT Meaningful Use dustup, the industry is struggling to find clarity in (of all things) an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) clarification. When that happens, you know you’re in government-land.
This specific instance deals with whether hospitals are required to implement modules to address all 24 Meaningful Use Stage 1 measures, including the five that address things they’re deferring to later stages under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Menu Set flexibility. Why — organizations like the American Hospital Association (AHA) ask — do hospitals have to buy and implement technologies they will not be using (at least not for now)?
In a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Kathleen Sebelius (copying ONC’s David Blumenthal and CMS’s Tony Trenkle), AHA president and CEO Rich Umbdenstock wrote, “this will delay many hospitals in their efforts to qualify as meaningful users of health IT.”
The letter continued, “the lack of consistency between CMS and ONC, and the changing interpretation of rules when hospitals are in the middle of planning their meaningful use implementations, creates confusion and will likely delay the progress of hospitals working diligently to comply with the already challenging meaningful use requirements in a very short timeframe.” It closed, “we do not understand why CMS would provide an exception in these circumstances, but still require hospitals to pay for the acquisition and installation of the technical capacity to meet the objectives.”
While the AHA, and much of the industry, doesn’t understand CMS’ actions in this case, you had better make sure your CEO, CFO, COO and board understand yours. I’m talking about taking care of the justifications (i.e., covering your backside or “CYA”) that will become such a part of hospital CIOs keeping their jobs over the next five years.
As healthcare IT executives, you need to keep key people informed of all the roadblocks that come up as you move down the Meaningful Use path, whether they be thrown up by clinicians, the government or those key people themselves. If it looks like you’re going to need more modules right now than you thought, they will have to be purchased and paid for. You must explain that situation to whomever holds the purse strings, including sharing both the ONC’s requirements and the AHA’s letter. They should know what you’re dealing with, and that you’re not alone.
If your vendor is unable to provide the certified modules for all 24 Meaningful Use measures, find out when they’ll be able to, or starting looking for one-off sources to fit the bill. You can also check out CCHIT’s new EACH program for self-certifying both vendor and home-grown modules. Through it all, keep everyone in the loop, whether they want to be or not. Put this information sharing in emails so you have a record. There is enough money on the line that, “you never told me we were in trouble on this Meaningful Use thing,” may be heard around the industry over the next few years.
As the government works to clarify its clarifications, inhibiting your ability to move forward with confidence, spare no one your pain. Don’t suffer in silence, and you may just get a pass if you fail to make the Meaningful Use grade.
Source: InformationWeek Healthcare
An electronic monitoring system and personalized counseling helps patients improve medication adherence rates, according to research published in the journal Clinical Transplantation, American Medical News reports.
The study showed that drug compliance among kidney transplant recipients improved by about 40% when they used prescription bottles with integrated microcircuits that tracked each time they took medication and wirelessly transmitted the data to health care professionals.
The patients also received:
Previous research has concluded that 33% of kidney transplant recipients did not take medications daily and that 75% had difficulty taking them on time.
Cynthia Russell — the study’s lead author and associate professor of nursing at the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing — said that more work needs to be done on ways to help patients improve medication adherence (O’Reilly, American Medical News, 12/6).
Source: iHealthBeat
On Thursday, HHS officials announced the Healthy People 2020 goals, which encourage the use of health IT to improve the health of communities, Government Health IT reports.
Part of the goals’ aim is to facilitate the exchange of patient data among health care and public health professionals (Mosquera, Government Health IT, 12/2).
Other Healthy People 2020 Goals
Other health goals announced by health officials as part of Healthy People 2020 include:
The program features nearly 600 goals, which health officials say need to be prioritized according to specific individuals and communities (Neergaard, AP/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 12/1).
myHealthyPeople Challenge
Officials also launched the myHealthyPeople challenge to encourage innovation in the development of online applications for professionals who work with state- and community-level health data (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 12/2). Developers should submit apps directed at the stakeholders who will work to promote health and prevent disease, according to a description of the challenge.
Applications are being accepted through March 7, 2011, and officials are expected to announce winners later that month (LaFave Grace, Modern Healthcare, 12/2).
Source: iHealthBeat
Real-world barriers must be considered as officials develop “operating rules” for making HIPAA administrative and financial transactions more uniform, according to testimony presented last week to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, Health Data Management reports (Goedert [1], Health Data Management, 12/3).
The committee is a federal advisory group.
Background
Health plans are required to adopt operating rules under the federal health reform law. Payers long have used multiple standards for HIPAA transactions but also have developed separate guidelines that kept transactions from being uniform (iHealthBeat, 10/8).
Testimony
According to Gwendolyn Lohse, deputy director of industry group Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, a combined transaction where a health care provider’s funds and data flow together through the U.S.’ Automated Clearing House network — as has been suggested — is not currently feasible.
She said, “Transitioning from the current model would require significant work flow changes for providers — at a time when they are struggling to adopt a number of mandates,” such as electronic health records.
She added that health care providers also are concerned about the security of medical and financial data (Goedert [1], Health Data Management, 12/3).
Other topics discussed at the hearing included:
Lynne Gilbertson, vice president of standards development at the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, said industry members are concerned about regulations that would require Internet connectivity to replace private network connections.
She said any regulations that include connectivity must allow existing connections and must not call for “a ‘rip and replace’ of infrastructure already in place” (Goedert [2], Health Data Management, 12/3).
Source: iHealthBeat
A HIMSS Analytics white paper released on Wednesday shows that one-third of 825 surveyed hospitals report interfacing medical devices with electronic health records, Healthcare IT News reports.
Survey Details
For the report — titled “Medical Devices Landscape: Current and Future Adoption, Integration with EMRs, and Connectivity” — researchers collected data from the hospitals between June 2009 and June 2010.
Hospitals provided information about their use of medical devices and whether the devices were interfaced with EHRs (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 12/2).
Key Findings
Organizations that do integrate medical devices with EHRs said that the interface can reduce errors and improve clinical workflow.
According to the report:
Source: iHealthBeat
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at NIH is funding seven clinical trials that combine behavioral weight management programs with technologies such as text messaging, social networking and Bluetooth-enabled devices, Consumer Affairs reports.
The trials, known as Early Adult Reduction of Weight Through Lifestyle Intervention, seek to promote weight loss and prevent weight gain among young adults ages 18 to 35. Some trials will use:
The trials, which are receiving $36 million over five years, will start enrolling participants by spring 2011 (Limbach, Consumer Affairs, 12/1).
Autism Research Database
Meanwhile, NIH also announced the creation of a new online portal to provide researchers with access to databases with information on more than 10,000 participants in autism spectrum disorder studies, Modern Healthcare reports.
The National Database for Autism Research was designed to standardize data assembled from a variety of sources.
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Commission, a panel set up by Congress, has required that the database collect 90% of data from new research (Robeznieks, Modern Healthcare, 12/1).
Source: iHealthBeat
Social media has invaded health care from at least three fronts: innovative startups, patient communities and medical centers. The Health 2.0 movement has nurtured dozens of startups with creative concepts to revolutionize health care: tools from vertical search and social networks to health content aggregators and wellness tools.
Patient communities are flourishing in an environment rich with social networks, both through mainline social communities and condition-specific communities. Meanwhile, hospitals and academic medical centers are diving into the social media mix with more than 300 YouTube channels and 500 Twitter accounts. Hospitals are moving from experimentation (Twittering from the OR to Flipcam videos) to strategic use of social media to enhance brand loyalty and recruit new patients. They are taking on monitoring and monetization of social media.
At the same time, health care organizations find challenges in adopting social media. Hospitals and medical practices are risk adverse and generally cautious about new technology trends without clear value. There are questions about whether social media use by hospital employees is a waste of time, or even worse, presents risks of violating HIPAA or leaking proprietary information. Hospital IT departments are concerned about security risks, such as the use of tinyurl.com, which can mask malicious Web sites. Privacy concerns, particularly the vulnerability of social media accounts, are also cited as a reason to avoid social media.
Current Trends in Social Media
Current trends to watch in social media in health care include:
An important distinction in this two-way conversation is between medical advice and medical information. Hospitals and providers need to walk a fine line between giving specific medical advice in the relatively public forums of social media and providing more generalized medical information.
At the same time, there are ways to create a conversation with health care consumers. Sites like Medhelp.org have provided this kind of information using medical experts to answer patient-submitted questions in general terms. For instance, promoting wellness is a win-win; medical information relevant to many is provided without specific medical advice for a patient’s medical condition.
The rise of e-Patients creates many opportunities for engagement. E-Patients are defined as those “who are equipped, enabled, empowered and engaged in their health and health care decisions.” E-patients can provide feedback not only on improving hospital Web sites but also as participants in quality improvement within the health system.
PHRs and Online Communities
As the similarities between online patient communities (e.g., http://www.patientslikeme.com and http://curetogether.com) and PHRs begins to blur, will PHR information from providers be shared with online communities with the appropriate privacy settings so that the user can decide what to share?
Recording one’s medical condition online and abandoning privacy are part of the “Quantified Self” movement. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Project Health Design uses the concept of “Observations of Daily Living,” which extends the quantified self to behavioral self-observations. The next step in quantified self is self-monitoring, also known as home monitoring and telemedicine. Being quantified in terms of one’s weight, blood pressure or blood glucose provides another way of self-monitoring and participatory medicine.
Some are predicting that in the near future, multiple monitoring devices will be phased out to give way to connections with smart phones that will record and transmit medical monitoring data directly to a PHR. Innovators, such as Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault, as well as edgy startups, will provide the conduit from smart phones to the cloud.
Social Media for Providers
Finally, a relatively untapped resource is the use of social media among medical professionals. If anything, there have been negative stories about abuses and misuses of social media by health professionals and questions about the ethics of connecting with patients online.
Currently, few health care professionals see the value in social networking with other physicians, or they are not convinced that the benefits are worth the time. Although well over 90% of physicians use the Internet for continuing education, medical reference and e-mail with colleagues and a majority of doctors have a smart phone, taking the leap into online communities is less common.
Perhaps current business models dependent on financial incentives and industry sponsorship in exchange for private data have not engaged physicians. Could a different model that provides privacy and collaboration in the context of a community of similar interests demonstrate value and promote adoption?
Future Evolution of Social Media
Social media is here to stay in health care, but it will evolve quickly. Patient engagement will continue to characterize this change. Organizations will use social media tactically within their overall marketing and communications efforts — videos and mobile technology will likely dominate these approaches.
Online patient communities will expand and will become a rich source of information for others. Physicians and other health care providers will discover social media, which will have the potential of progressing medical research.
There may be regular news reports of privacy violations, dangerous misinformation and fraud promoted via social media, but these reports are not likely to stop a wave of innovation and conversation.
Source: iHealthBeat
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