Fifty-five percent of consumers report using the Internet to find treatment information, according to a new Deloitte Center for Health Solutions survey.
According to the survey, 53% of seniors, 55% of baby boomers, 57% of Generation X and 56% of Generation Y look up treatment information online.
The survey also found that one in four respondents reported searching online for physician care quality information and that 12% looked up provider cost information online. About 10% of respondents reported using the Internet to compare hospital treatment options.
Results are based on a nationally representative survey of 4,008 U.S. adults conducted from Dec. 28, 2009, to Jan. 5, 2010.
Source: Deloitte, “2010 Survey of Health Care Consumers”
Alair System Treats Asthma by Delivering a Type of Thermal Energy to Airways
April 29, 2010 — The FDA has approved the first non-drug, device-based treatment for adults with severe asthma whose medications aren’t providing enough relief.
The device, called an Alair Bronchial Thermoplasty System, uses a catheter with a tip that delivers a form of thermal energy to the airways, the FDA says in a news release.
The FDA says the procedure is aimed at helping people ages 18 and older whose severe, persistent asthma is not controlled well enough with inhaled corticosteroids and long-acting beta-agonist medications.
The catheter delivers radiofrequency energy directly to the airways, heating lung tissue and reducing the thickness of smooth muscle, thus improving the ability of asthmatics to breathe.
“The approval of the Alair system provides adult patients suffering from severe and persistent asthma with an additional treatment option for a disease that is often difficult to manage,” says Jeffrey Shuren, MD, JD, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
Approval of the procedure was based on data from a clinical trial of 297 patients who suffer from severe and persistent asthma. The trial showed a reduction of severe asthma attacks with use of the Alair system, the FDA says.
The agency says it is requiring a five-year study of the device to determine its long-term safety and effectiveness.
Asthmatx Inc., the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based manufacturer, will follow many of the patients who took part in the clinical trial and enroll 300 new patients at several medical centers across the country, the FDA says.
According to the FDA, side effects during treatment may include asthma attacks, wheezing, chest tightness or pain, partially collapsed lungs, coughing up blood, anxiety, headaches, and nausea.
The Alair system, the FDA says, is designed to reduce the number of severe asthma attacks over the long term and is not for use in patients with implantable devices such as pacemakers or internal defibrillators.
Patients known to be sensitive to lidocaine, atropine, or benzodiazepines also shouldn’t use the device, the FDA says.
The agency says asthma patients considering use of the Alair system should not be treated while experiencing an active respiratory infection, a bleeding disorder, asthma exacerbations, or if they’ve had changes to their corticosteroid regimen in the past two weeks.
The company says in a news release that bronchial thermoplasty is an outpatient procedure that reduces airway constriction, allowing patients to breathe easier.
It says the FDA granted the company expedited review because of its potential to address unmet needs of asthma patients.
A study on the effectiveness of the device was published Jan. 15 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The study showed:
SOURCES: News release, FDA.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society will permanently lease at least 25,000 square feet in a proposed Nashville Medical Trade Center to feature an “interoperability showcase,” the Nashville Business Journal reports.
Project officials hope HIMSS will serve as an “anchor tenant” for the trade center and will attract other tenants to the space (Gee/Wortham, Nashville Business Journal, 4/28).
The showcase will serve as an interactive demonstration of health IT products.
HIMSS President and CEO Stephen Lieber described the venture as a “permanent, year-round destination for [health IT] activity and innovation.” He added, “By joining the trade center we are able to reach more participants, demonstrate ‘meaningful use’ more completely and offer more flexibility than ever before” (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 4/28).
The center, slated to open in 2013, would devote its top two floors to providing showroom space for health IT firms (Ward, Tennessean, 4/29).
Source: iHealthBeat
A new survey finds that people who use a personal health record (PHR) are likely to learn more about their health, have a better understanding of the care doctors give them and those with two or more chronic illnesses ask more questions to improve their health compared to when they didn’t use a PHR.
Published by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), the study interviewed 1,849 people and found that 7% of adults used a PHR, which entails using a Web site to record health information online. That’s more than double the proportion identified as users of a PHR two years ago.
The report showed that 56 percent of respondents said using a PHR made them feel they knew more about their health and 52 percent said they better understood their doctor’s decisions.
The survey also indicates that older, less educated people who have more than one chronic illness are more likely than others to say they are more knowledgeable about their health as a result of using a PHR.
Sixty-one percent of respondents who are 45 years-of-age or older and 61 percent of those who don’t have a college degree were more likely than others to say they know more about their health care as a result of using a PHR.
Additionally, 58 percent of respondents with two or more chronic conditions said they know more about their health compared to 44 percent of those with one or no chronic conditions.
“People with lower incomes, less education and those who are living with multiple chronic illnesses have the most to gain from PHRs,” said Veenu Aulakh, senior program officer in the Better Chronic Disease Program at CHCF. “This reinforces our assertion that getting a PHR in the hands of more consumers could positively impact the health of the country,” Aulakh added.
With regard to non-users who may be interested in adopting a PHR, the survey showed that 58 percent said they would be interested in using a PHR if it were from a hospital or medical practice they use. Fifty percent identified insurance companies as desirable sources of PHRs; and 25 percent expressed interest in using a PHR developed by companies like Google or Microsoft.
According to Aulakh, it’s a difficult task to get people with lower incomes, less education, and those with multiple chronic illnesses to go online and get access to a PHR. One of the barriers, Aulakh said, is that providers who care for patients with lower incomes are less likely than their peers to have an electronic health record system in place with the option of a personal health record.
“Since Internet use is significantly lower among lower income populations, effort must be taken to increase access and develop applications that work on cell phones, since cell phone penetration is high among all populations,” Aulakh said. “It is important for the general public to better understand the value of personal health records to improve communication, increase convenience, and improve care,” Aulakh added.
Source: InformationWeek Healthcare
The creation of applications related to health and health care is also moving quickly. As of February 2010, there were nearly 6,000 such apps within the Apple AppStore. Of these, 73% were intended for use by consumer or patient end-users, while 27% were targeted to health care professionals.
Apps geared to physicians include alerts, medical reference tools, diagnostic tools, continuing medical education, and patient records programs. Consumer-oriented apps include those for medication compliance, mobile and home monitoring, home care, managing conditions, and wellness/fitness.
There are challenges to continued rapid smartphone growth, including business model and privacy issues.
A new study by the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL), a nonprofit research center at Partners HealthCare System, found that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) investments in health information technology (IT) were related to improvements in quality of care and potentially produced $3.09 billion in net value over the 10-year period studied. The findings, published in the April 2010 issue of Health Affairs, are the result of a two-year study of the value of the VA investments in health IT.
The Medicare and Medicaid Health IT provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 promote the adoption and meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHRs). The Recovery Act authorized incentive payments for eligible professionals (EPS) and hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid for becoming meaningful users of certified EHRs. The law established maximum annual incentive amounts and includes Medicare penalties for failing to meaningfully use EHRs beginning in 2015 for professionals and hospitals that fail to adopt certified EHRs.
EMR bullies are stretching the truth on Stimulus Payments…
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