Again, in the last week, I have come across a few reports and news items which are worth passing on.
These include first:
Keeping updated at the hospital
New technology at Washington facility puts staff in touch instantly
Sunday, May 04, 2008
By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Post-Gazette
Donna Koss-Bradish, R.N., wears a Vocera badge while filling out paperwork at a nurses station.
It happens in even in the best of hospitals. A loved one is in surgery, but you don't dare leave the waiting room for even a quick cup of coffee for fear of missing an update on how the operation is going. Or maybe you're on the other end of the health-care visit; a patient who's been waiting for what seems like forever for a doctor to answer a page so the nurse can adjust your medication or help you out of bed for a shower.
Frustrating on both accounts, to be sure. But that's the lay of the land when you're in a hospital, right?
Well, not at The Washington Hospital.
Last month, the 265-bed community hospital started using an innovative science fiction-like wireless voice communications system that allows doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to instantly connect to one other with a simple tap of a button. And unlike other new technologies that typically take time to be accepted, it was an immediate hit.
More here:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08125/878328-58.stm
As a fan of ‘Star Trek’ since forever I just love how this idea has worked and seems to be so easily adopted.
Second we have:
Kaiser Outpatient EHR Rollout Complete
HDM Breaking News, May 5, 2008
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente has completed the implementation of an outpatient electronic health records system for its 8.7 million members.
The payer and provider organization began the HealthConnect initiative in 2004 to integrate electronic records across all of its regions. Now its 13,000 physicians have access to patient records across 421 medical offices. Kaiser used a number of applications, including clinical software from Epic Systems, Verona, Wis., to build the records.
So far, the records system has enabled the organization to increase its efficiency of outpatient care, company executives say. For example, an internal survey revealed medication administration times and doses are now 85% more legible and correct. Additionally, after the 2007 wildfires in San Diego prompted the organization to temporarily close some of its facilities, it used the system to contact patients to direct them to other facilities, which also could access their records through the application.
More here:
This is an amazing achievement. It shows that it is possible to provide really advanced computing, that we know can make a difference, at very considerable scale. Sure it is maybe slightly more expensive than a traditional view may recommend – but if this is what it takes we need to work out how to fund such initiatives.
Already 1/3 of their 30 hospitals are also operational with all to be implemented by the end of 2009. The benefits that are achieved will be fascinating to follow over the next couple of years. Fortunately Kaiser Permanente have a strong record in the analysis of such issues.
Extra details are found here: Healthcare IT News
Third we have:
Hospital ICT deathly ill
Doug Travis
May 6, 2008
Next
There are myriad problems in the delivery of much-needed infrastructure.
Picture an average Australian office in the 1970s. There were typewriters and card indexes but most of our work was done with a pen and paper or on the phone.
In the 21st century we can't survive without technology. Email allows us to communicate instantly with people around the world and the internet offers endless information. For most of us, this networked, computer-assisted workplace is the norm. Except in our public hospitals.
We spend billions of dollars a year on public hospitals, yet the infrastructure is so poor, some computers at a Victorian hospital still operate on MS-DOS and can't even support the use of a mouse.
Two recently-released reports have revealed serious problems with information systems and support in our public hospitals.
In releasing a report on HealthSMART, Victoria's whole-of-health ICT strategy, the state auditor-general found that the six-year, $323 million plan was running two years late and that the most beneficial clinical applications had yet to be delivered.
The delay in implementing HealthSMART is in part due to the lack of basic IT infrastructure in our public hospitals. In order to build high-quality ICT systems, we need a solid IT base. Other IT problems are outlined in the ministerial review of Victorian public health medical staff, which found: "Clerical workload, poor information systems, absence of clinical support and decision-making systems, poor access to computers and computers being slow and obsolete were a common complaint and a major source of frustration of medical staff at all levels."
More here:
Dr Doug Travis is president of the Australian Medical Association (Victorian Branch).
It seems pretty clear that not only is HealthSMART moving a little too slowly but the provision of even the most basic IT infrastructure is not up to scratch. As I said a week or two ago – a mid project review could be a very good idea to get the balance right.
It is good to see that in last week’s budget some extra funding was made available
Victoria injects $104m into troubled health project
Source - The Australian Financial Review
Fourthly we have:
Private files put on street for all to read
Matthew Moore Freedom of Information Editor
May 6, 2008
PLASTIC wheelie bins full of confidential documents were left outside Rozelle Hospital in a last-minute rush to move the hospital to its new site at Concord.
Staff records, including details of criminal convictions and personal medical histories, were jammed into the bins along with minutes of meetings and disciplinary proceedings.
A letter lying at the top of one of the bins details an altercation in January 1991 between a cleaner and his supervisor, who had asked him to clean some windows.
"Mr A [name deleted] … threw a garbage tin of rubbish on the ground and also said he would kill Mr S … [name deleted]," an exasperated manager notes.
Other documents detail the property staff members have failed to return over decades.
Records from the Child Support Agency detailing maintenance deductions the hospital was required to make for individual employees are also included in the thousand of pages of personal documents.
More here:
Oh dear! Yet again paper records get a bit lost. Electronic records sceptics really need to be reminded from time to time just how insecure paper records can be.
Fifth we have:
FAQ: What you should know before installing Windows XP SP3
Microsoft finally gives everyone a shot at XP's final service pack
Gregg Keizer 08/05/2008 08:28:21
After a week-long delay to take care of a last-minute compatibility bug, Microsoft Tuesday gave the green light to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3).
The service pack, undoubtedly the last for the aged operating system, was released Tuesday to Windows Update as an optional upgrade, and standalone executables were added to Microsoft's download servers.
To paraphrase -- and, at the same time, contradict -- Winston Churchill, although this isn't the end of Windows XP, it's certainly the beginning of the end. But we come not to bury XP, but to praise it -- and to answer a few last-minute questions now that it's really, truly, yes-indeed available to anyone who wants it.
More here:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;225579528;fp;;fpid;;pf;1
Given that the vast majority of Windows users are currently using Win XP it seemed worthwhile to alert readers to the new service pack and provide a reference to what is planned.
Sixth we have:
http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/denz-eu-ehealth-strategies-connected-reality/article-172170
Denz: EU eHealth strategies 'not connected to reality'
Published: Tuesday 6 May 2008
The EU's top-down agenda setting on eHealth strategy is not connected to reality, argues the European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL) in an interview with EurActiv.
Dr. Martin Denz is the president of the European Health Telematics Association.
What is telemedicine and what is its relation to eHealth, as we generally just hear about eHealth? Is telemedicine about the delivery of health care whereas eHealth is more the overall infrastructure?
eHealth is as much about policy framework as it is about a large scale infrastructure and a precondition to apply health care with modern tools. Telemedicine or telehealth is about implementing health care on the ground by using modern tools.
The vast majority of EU countries have eHealth strategies but they are absolutely not connected to the healthcare delivery reality.
The UK National Health Service's (NHS) multi-billion - officially £9 billion but more than £20 billion in real terms - project on the informatisation of health care, for example, is great but completely driven by politicians and business engineers and now, as they want to spread it out to health professionals, they have a very turbulent landing phase.
Telemedicine is just about reconnecting the top-down process with the bottom-up. The whole eHealth activity is on track. We have done the right activities, we have accomplished a marvellous agenda setting but results show that we now urgently need to reconnect health care. Because health care is healthcare delivery and activities between healthcare professionals and patients.
Continue reading here:
http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/denz-eu-ehealth-strategies-connected-reality/article-172170
Dr Denz makes some interesting points and the full article is well worth a read.
Second last we have a MicroSoft announcement about their Microsoft Health Common User Interface (MSCUI)
Version 1.3 of Microsoft Health Common User Interface (MSCUI) announced.
I am very pleased to announce that release V1.3 of the Microsoft Health Common User Interface (MSCUI) has been released to the web on www.mscui.net and http://www.codeplex.com/mscui.
MSCUI provides User Interface Design Guidance and Toolkit controls that address a wide range of patient safety concerns for healthcare organizations worldwide, allowing a new generation of safer, more usable and compelling health applications to be quickly and easily created.
This offering is aimed at user interface designers, application developers and patient safety experts who want to find out more about the benefits of a standardized approach to user interface design.
This is the third release of MSCUI since we launched in July 2007. In that time we have seen over 115,000 unique visitors to the site, 11,000 downloads of the Design Guidance and 7,000 downloads of the Toolkit. In March 2008, following HIMSS08, we averaged 61 toolkit downloads a day and in April we averaged 17 downloads a day. With the new features launched in V1.3 we expect to see further growth.
There are 5 key elements to this new release:
We are announcing a new Technology Strategy moving to Silverlight 2 and Windows Presentation Foundation for all future controls, samples and demonstrators.
Publication of an interactive Delivery Roadmap outlining what guidance and controls we will be developing, when and how the community can engage.
Publication of new and updated Design Guidelines.
Publication of a new Medications Listview control for Silverlight 2 and WPF.
Launch of a new Patient Journey Demonstrator which showcases CUI design guidelines, controls and future UI concepts in a Silverlight 2 application
The Microsoft Health Common User Interface: Patient Journey Demonstrator is a rich internet application demonstrating a health care scenario across primary and secondary care settings. We have used Silverlight to create an application that shows our vision of how we see clinical systems working in the near future, providing scalable, transformable, rich views on patient data. The demonstrator also implements design guidance and controls from www.mscui.net, ensuring that patient safety and clinical effectiveness is at the heart of the design.
Some of the things we have used from Silverlight include...
· Deep zoom to view complex ECG (electrocardiogram) data
· Intelligent, scaling layout
· Data-binding everywhere
· Animation and media
· Vector graphics enabling real time manipulation of chart data
----- End Release.
This is important work to try and provide user interfaces that really assist in patient safety and ease of use. The UK NHS is a key partner in the work.
Last we have:
Pan-European SOS project about local interoperability
07 May 2008
Ambitious plans to develop the e-health services to create an interoperable cross-European patient record summary and e-prescribing record were revealed yesterday as a Trojan horse to drive local interoperability, by one of the leaders of the project.
The Smart Open Source (SOS) project, which so far involves 12 European member states and 31 suppliers, is a complex European Commission project designed to create the services to support cross-border interoperable records across Europe.
SOS, details of which are still under wraps while negotiations continue, is the largest multi-national e-health project ever attempted in Europe.
The three year project is designed to create open source-based e-health services that can be used to create a pan-European patient record summary including e-prescribing and medication details. Once created benefits would include a patient from Sweden on holiday in Spain if prescribed a new drug would automatically have their family doctor notified.
More here:
http://ehealtheurope.net/news/3727/pan-european_sos_project_about_local_interoperability
This seems like an interesting initiative. Maybe NEHTA could review the project and its plans to see what value it could add to the Australian e-Health scene.
More next week.
David.
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