Modern information technology offers unprecedented opportunities to improve health care for Americans, promising better quality at a lower cost. HHS is working aggressively to promote the use of technology to improve patient safety and to allow quick, reliable and secure access to information that promotes the best possible care across the health care system.
A key part of this broad effort is developing a National Health Information Infrastructure — a system that would allow a doctor or other health-care provider to access an always-up-to-date electronic health record for a patient who has authorized it, regardless of when and where the patient receives care.
This would not be a national database, but rather a set of standards and secure networks that would allow a doctor or hospital to immediately gather relevant information by computer network — such as test results, x-rays and medical history as well as clinical guidelines, drug labeling and current research findings — to best treat an individual patient.
Such a system would also help consumers and patients to manage their own health by giving them greater control of their health records. Local health information systems are already working successfully in a number of communities and under development in some others.
HHS is encouraging the development of these systems and taking the steps needed to ensure they will be able to communicate with one another. President Bush has establish a national goal of assuring that most Americans have electronic health records within 10 years. He also has ordered the creation of a central office at HHS to oversee this complex effort.
Once widely implemented, such a system would dramatically improve the quality of patient care and reduce the nation’s health care costs by:
� Making the patient’s up-to-date medical record instantly available whenever and wherever it is needed and authorized;
� Avoiding costly duplicate tests and unnecessary hospitalizations;
� Providing health professionals with the best and latest treatment options for the patient’s needs;
� Helping eliminate medical errors;
� Streamlining the reporting of public health information for early detection and response to disease outbreaks and potential bioterrorism;
� Creating opportunities to gather non-identifiable information about health outcomes for research to identify the most effective treatment options;
� Providing better, more current medical records at lower costs; and � Protecting privacy.
BUILDING A NATIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Office of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator.
At President Bush’s direction, HHS is creating the new position of National Health Information Technology Coordinator. The coordinator’s office will provide national leadership to support efforts across government and in the private sector to develop the standards and infrastructure to support more effective use of information technology to promote higher quality care and reduce health care costs. The coordinator will be appointed by the Secretary, in consultation with the White House, and will report directly to the Secretary.
Source: Medical News Today
We Americans have the most advanced medical science and the best-trained medical professionals in the world, but we are not getting the best possible medical care. Our medical professionals are practicing 21st-century medicine with 19th-century tools. They’re using paper charts that aren’t always where they need to be, with handwritten notes that read like a cipher. They can’t easily compare notes from clinical practice to see what works. As a result, Americans can’t tell how good their care is or how much it costs. They also suffer needlessly from medical errors that could be avoided.
Here in Memphis, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is working with medical professionals to bring the practice of medicine all the way into the information age. This collaboration promises to transform American health care through the fuller use of health information technology. The rewards will be much safer and more efficient care, connecting more Americans to information on quality and cost and giving them more control over their health care options.
This transformation has been in the works for some time, but we are now beginning to see how it will change our lives for the better. We recently found a family in Cincinnati caring for their 6-year-old son Kyle. Kyle needed two liver transplants, and after the first transplant the family endured a daily agony to monitor his progress. A nurse would come every morning to test his blood, but the family wouldn’t get the results until suppertime. Only then would they know whether they needed to spend the next day at the hospital. At the last minute, they had to arrange transportation to the hospital, babysitters for their other children, and time off work. But the hardest part was the long day’s wait to find out how Kyle was doing.
Things changed after Kyle’s second transplant, when the family was granted access to the hospital’s new online liver portal. Kyle’s mother could then read the results of his blood test online in just a couple of hours. It was a big relief just having time to plan the next day, but she could also e-mail questions to Kyle’s nurse and become a more active partner in her son’s care. More than once she was able to spot concerns on Kyle’s online chart that made a difference in his treatment. And now, when they travel, they don’t have to lug along Kyle’s hefty medical file. His records are available to any hospital through the online portal.
Physicians also benefit from the use of electronic health records (EHRs), which they can access anywhere from handheld computers. EHRs save physicians from having to read through pages and pages of handwritten notes to find the little details that can make a big difference in treatment. They alert physicians immediately to dangerous drug interactions and allergies. They enable prescriptions to be sent electronically directly from the handheld device to the pharmacy. They also allow researchers to track treatment outcomes so that they can gauge the quality of care and learn more quickly from clinical practice what works best.
HHS has been supporting the adoption of EHRs through the development of software standards to ensure that our electronic health information systems are interoperable. This year, we will be working to expand adoption of EHRs by as many as 1,200 small and medium-sized physician practices, who will receive higher Medicare payments for using certified, interoperable EHRs to improve quality of care for their patients. This will reduce errors and improve health outcomes for an estimated 3.6 million Americans. We will select 12 communities to participate in the demo and will soon begin accepting applications.
We are also working to help communities measure and publish information on the quality and cost of care, so that consumers can make better decisions about providers and treatment options. In the next few days, we will charter the first local and regional collaboratives that will reward those who provide, pay for and consume high-quality, competitively priced health care. These new Chartered Value Exchanges will bring together providers, insurers, employers and consumers to produce and publish reports on provider performance based on Medicare information and similar private-sector results.
We are pleased to announce today that the Healthy Memphis Common Table is among the first collaboratives to become a Chartered Value Exchange. Healthy Memphis brings together local coalitions, care providers, agencies, businesses, government, churches, schools and individuals. All are committed to using value-driven principles to improve the health of everyone in the Mid-South region.
Also in 2008, we will be providing greater support for health information technology and telemedicine in rural areas. In conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission, HHS is announcing grants to foster greater use of technology to provide care to rural communities through telemedicine, which will extend the reach of 21st-century health care to many underserved people.
All this is not just about getting computers into doctors’ offices. It’s about creating interoperable systems connecting the doctor’s office with the hospital, the lab, the pharmacy, the researcher and the consumer. When we have done that, we will have transformed our growing health care sector into a safer, more efficient, value-driven health care system, providing better care at lower cost for all Americans.
Source: The Commercial Appeal
Electronic health records could help improve the reporting of serious medication-related side effects, according to a new study published in the journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Study Details
Drugmaker Pfizer sponsored the study, which was conducted at Boston’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
For the study, physicians at the two hospitals had access to an electronic reporting system for adverse drug events over a five-month period in 2008 and 2009.
During the study period, 26 physicians used the electronic system to report 217 side effects to FDA regulators. About one in five of the reports involved serious side effects, such as hospitalization (Rockoff, Wall Street Journal, 10/15).
Researchers also surveyed the physicians and found that 21 of the 23 respondents said they had not submitted any adverse event reports to FDA during the previous year (Linder et al., Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, 10/11).
Possible Implications
The research suggests that widespread EHR use could help alert FDA to possible problems with specific drugs, according to the Journal.
Arthur Holden — CEO of the International Serious Adverse Events Consortium — said EHRs also could identify candidates for clinical studies to help physicians predict which patients would face side effects from certain prescriptions (Wall Street Journal, 10/15).
Source: iHealthBeat
CMS has launched a “Blue Button” service that allows 47 million Medicare beneficiaries to electronically view, download and print their complete medical records, Federal Computer Week reports.
The feature is available on the MyMedicare website.
The option is similar to the Blue Button program on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ MyHealtheVet website.
Since VA’s Blue Button feature was introduced in August, more than 60,000 veterans have downloaded their medical records.
According to federal officials, the Blue Button eventually will be capable of downloading electronic health record data from:
CMS and VA recommend that users protect their personal medical information once it is downloaded by either securing it with a password or through encryption (Lipowicz, Federal Computer Week, 10/13).
Source: iHealthBeat
Over the past several years, medical schools across the U.S. have started to provide students with portable electronic devices like the Apple iPod Touch or iPad, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Medical schools are providing the devices to help students:
Examples
Beginning this semester, the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine is providing medical students with the iPod Touch. The device comes preloaded with medical applications that enable the students to find information on:
In 2007, Ohio State University’s College of Medicine became the first school to distribute iPod Touches to its students.
Since then, Florida State University also has provided the devices to its students, while Stanford University has opted for the larger iPad for its students.
Concerns
Some physicians have expressed concern that medical students will become too reliant on their portable devices for information.
However, Bethany Ballinger — director of clinical informatics at UCF and an emergency department physician — said that a mobile device does not “let students off the hook,” noting that students “can’t take it into an exam” (Lundy, Orlando Sentinel, 10/11).
Source: iHealthBeat
Web-based cloud computing might be one way to achieve greater communication and cooperation among health care providers, HealthLeaders Media reports.
How it Works
Cloud computing — which uses an online platform that lets users share resources and information in near-real time — could more easily facilitate data sharing, including patients’ test results and medical histories, according to HealthLeaders Media.
Health care providers are using cloud computing programs to assemble, store and view medical data. The data are accessible by medical personnel, as well as patients.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
The system requires only a computer and an Internet connection to access.
Cloud computing systems allow for improved access to large files stored in picture archiving and communications systems and greater cost effectiveness because health care providers only pay for what they use, HealthLeaders Media reports.
In addition, smaller practices could benefit from off-site servers for data management and storage.
Using the System
A recent Ipsos Research report showed that 49% of health care decision makers said their organization has used cloud computing technology.
Health care providers are using cloud computing to:
Source: iHealthBeat
If you practice is interested in exploring cloud computing, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We would love to help!
A computer-based predictive modeling initiative developed by the Visiting Nurse Service of New York effectively reduced hospitalizations and hospital readmissions between 2001 and 2009, according to a study published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, HealthLeaders Media reports.
Details of Initiative
VNSNY’s Center for Home Care Policy & Research launched the Outcomes Initiative to:
The program uses computer-based predictive modeling to place patients in one of seven risk categories, ranging from very low risk to very high risk.
In addition, VNSNY’s Quality Scorecard project aims to monitor the health service’s performance on:
Outcomes of Initiative
According to the study, the predictive modeling program and other health IT initiatives have helped VNSNY achieve a 12% reduction in overall patient hospitalization rates between 2001 and 2009.
In addition, the percentage of patient episodes that resulted in hospitalizations declined from 37% to 27% during the same period.
Further Research
According to the study authors, more research will be needed to gauge the success of the risk-assessment and performance-tracking projects.
The authors stated, “While it is assumed that [health IT] initiatives such as the Quality Scorecard and Hospitalization Risk Score have contributed to better outcomes among VNSNY home health care patients, this needs to be explicitly tested in a controlled research study” (HealthLeaders Media, 10/12).
Source: iHealthBeat
Various stakeholders in the health care industry are increasingly turning to social media, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Health care providers are using social media to:
To spread information, physicians and health care companies are using:
Concerns
Some members of the health care industry have found success in promoting their services through social media. Other groups have faced difficulties controlling their message because customers and patients can post to sites like Twitter and Facebook about having a negative experience.
Groups that promote services online also are trying to navigate potential drawbacks to offering discounts on a product or service, such as losing money if an offer becomes popular.
Chad Capellman — director of social media for Genuine Interactive, an online marketing agency — said that some health care companies must make sure they do not violate privacy regulations by revealing too much information about patients online.
He added that other stakeholders — such as pharmaceutical companies — must ensure that Twitter messages and Facebook posts contain enough information about products to meet standards set by federal regulators (Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 10/11).
Source: iHealthbeat
For any questions or if you are interested in social media, feel free to contact us…we would love to help!
Online tools and services that promote personalized health care need to have tighter government regulation to ensure that they do not mislead or misinform consumers, British medical ethics researchers say in a report issued on Tuesday by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Reuters reports (Kelland, Reuters, 10/12).
Such tools and services include:
For the report, researchers examined:
Report’s Findings
The researchers note that some websites should raise a red flag particularly when they do not indicate who provided the information and what the purpose of sharing the information might be.
They also write that some private DNA tests, which are marketed with the promise of predicting the user’s risks of developing certain diseases, can be “medically or therapeutically meaningless” and could provide results that are “unclear, unreliable or inaccurate” (Moss, Scotsman, 10/12).
In addition, the researchers note that some private, direct-to-consumer CT or MRI scans are falsely marketed as a form of a “health checkup” to individuals who do not have symptoms for any conditions.
As a result, the readings might be difficult to interpret and suggest “abnormalities” that actually are harmless, which might prompt some people to seek unnecessary treatments or other procedures, Reuters reports (Reuters, 10/12).
Recommendations
The report urges government regulators to assume a larger role in monitoring the sale of scans, tests and drugs that are marketed directly to consumers.
It also recommends that firms provide additional information to consumers on:
Source: iHealthBeat
The practice of “crowdsourcing” offers a new way for physicians to collaborate and seek advice on challenging medical issues, Slate reports.
Crowdsourcing refers to the process of developing a group consensus by pooling ideas from a broad community, often over the Internet.
Physicians can crowdsource by posting a medical question online and seeking input from thousands of medical professionals.
Physician Crowdsourcing
The New England Journal of Medicine hosts a weekly challenge inviting readers to select a diagnosis based on an image posted online. The journal also polls readers for input on challenging treatment questions and compiles responses from nearly 20,000 doctors around the world.
In addition, some medical centers have a group of experts, called a “tumor board,” who review cancer cases as a group and send e-mails seeking advice on the most challenging cases.
The federal government and groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics often convene expert panels to consolidate medical knowledge by posting an electronic call for research on a particular topic. So far, such groups have crowdsourced 2,527 issues and produced numerous public reports on diagnostic and treatment guidelines.
Patient Crowdsourcing
Although some individuals seek medical advice and support from online communities such as PatientsLikeMe, nonmedical professionals rarely have access to websites where physicians crowdsource.
However, patients can tap into the collective knowledge developed via crowdsourcing by seeking information from:
Source: iHealthBeat
MGMA Supports ICD-10 Testing With Outside Organizations
July 30, 2013
Report: Many EHR Users Set To Replace Systems Within the Next Year
July 30, 2013
Providers, Vendors Urge Congress To Delay Meaningful Use Stage 2
July 30, 2013
Many Doctors May Find Meeting ‘Meaningful Use’ Requirements a Challenge
June 28, 2013
When it Comes to ICD-10 Physician Documentation: Collaborate and Educate
June 28, 2013
The Slow Crawl Toward Improved EHR Usability and Interoperability
June 28, 2013
Efficient Patient Communication and Engagement
June 13, 2013
ONC Issues Guidance on Stage 2 Transition of Care Requirements
May 31, 2013
Drugmakers Leverage Doctor, Patient Data To Market Their Products
May 31, 2013
Consumer Organizations Defend Meaningful Use Program
May 31, 2013
