Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 04 July, 2010

Here are a few I have come across this week.

Note: Each link is followed by a title and a paragraph or two. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or payment.

General Comment:

Well it has been a busy week. Medicare Australia has given everyone a new number that will be of some use a few years down the track. It seems we are now going to start to get to work on the software that can use the HI Service. We can now await further developments.
Additionally we have interesting developments at Macquarie University and seemingly endless problems at Queensland Health.
The major issue I still see is that we still do not have any clarity about what Government are planning to do with the $400+ million for e-Health over the next two years. It really is about time we heard something about this.
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Two-year wait for health e-records

  • Fran Foo, Mitchell Bingemann
  • From: The Australian
  • June 29, 2010 12:00AM
PATIENTS will have to wait at least two years before they can access medical records online, federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says.
Initially, only Medicare would operate a secure website or portal that would allow patients to retrieve their personally controlled electronic health records, she said.
But she left the door open for other service providers, such as health insurance providers, to manage patients' e-health records in future.
A 16-digit healthcare identifier, issued by Medicare, forms the backbone of an e-health records system.
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Australians get health ID number tomorrow

By Josh Taylor, ZDNet.com.au on June 30th, 2010
All Australians will have a Healthcare Identifier number from tomorrow, despite the legislation surrounding the identifiers only passing late last week.
The Department of Health and Ageing today confirmed to ZDNet Australia that everyone would be assigned an identifier by tomorrow, matching the government's original 1 July roll-out date.
"It is planned that identifiers for individuals will be allocated within the Healthcare Identifier system (run by Medicare Australia) on 1 July 2010," the department said. "Consumers do not need to do anything for this process to occur."
As part of the national professional registration process, health providers that are registered under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law will also be given a number in the Medicare-run system from tomorrow.
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How I got my healthcare identifier

By Josh Taylor, ZDNet.com.au on July 2nd, 2010
Commentary : Despite individual healthcare identifiers being allocated to every Australian by Medicare yesterday, it has not been easy for the average citizen, me, to get a hold of my own number.
Considering the legislation just passed the Senate last week, I was curious to discover how easy it would be to find out my own personal 16-digit identifier number.
As part of the roll-out, Medicare Australia established a hotline (1300 361 457) to inform patients and healthcare providers about the new healthcare identifiers allocated to them following the passing of the legislation. The Medicare online service also contains record information including the identifier number.
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E-health summaries unreliable as sole source of patient records

2nd Jul 2010
ELECTRONIC summary care records (SCRs) provide little benefit to primary health care, a large British study suggests.
The study, which analysed quantitative data of more than 400,000 primary care consultations, found that where SCRs were available, health professionals only accessed them in 21% of patient encounters. Overall, SCRs were accessed in just 4% of patient encounters.
A qualitative analysis of the data found that clinicians did not view the SCR as the sole source of reliable data. 
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Media Monitors sold among swarm of private equity deals

Friday, 02 July 2010 11:31
Patrick Stafford
Media Monitors has been sold to Quadrant Private Equity in a deal reportedly worth up to $200 million, as the Australian private equity scene caught fire with a number of deals taking place yesterday.
The deals included US private equity group Providence Equity Partners buying Study Group for $660 million from fellow private equity firm CHAMP.
CHAMP in turn bought fence hiring group ATF Services from Quadrant for a reported price of about $250 million.
Meanwhile, private equity groups are reportedly circling health software provider iSOFT after a number of profit downgrades and a subsequent drop in its share price. The company itself blames volatility in Britain's political system for a number of product delays.
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Waikato District Health Board Selects iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) To Deliver Modern Laboratory Solution

Sydney, June 30, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - Waikato District Health Board in New Zealand has today signed a NZ$2.95 million, five-year deal with iSOFT for a laboratory information system to improve the speed, accuracy and reporting of 6.5 million test results a year.
The move provides a single solution for all of Waikato Hospital's pathology services and 190 laboratory staff, but will also be watched closely by other health authorities in New Zealand and Australia that are set to upgrade to modern laboratory systems.
Proven at over 300 laboratories across Europe and Asia, iSOFT Laboratory covers all laboratory functions including anatomical pathology. Full traceability meets all statutory regulations and provides sophisticated statistical information on the laboratory's business to enable effective decision making. Increased productivity and quicker turnaround of test results also enables faster intervention to improve patient care.
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iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) Completes E-Health Roll-Out At New Macquarie University Hospital

Sydney, June 28, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - iSOFT Group Limited (ASX:ISF) has installed a host of e-health systems at Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney in time for the new 199-bed, state-of-the-art hospital to operate paper-free from day one, under a A$7.8 million deal agreed in March 2010.
The A$250 million hospital opened on 26 June with iSOFT applications for patient, clinical and medication management as well as finance, purchasing and management reporting. The solutions are fully integrated with third-party systems for radiology, laboratory and pharmacy. Integration is provided by iSOFT's Viaduct integration engine to guarantee that changes are reflected across all applications in real-time.
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iSOFT CEO forced to dispose of more shares

15:39, 2nd July 2010
By Dylan Bushell-Embling (CFO World)
Gary Cohen, CEO of health IT company iSOFT (ASX:ISF), has been forced to sell even more shares because of an ongoing decline in the company's share price.
Cohen said he had disposed of around 7.6 million more shares, because he had borrowed against the holding to participate in a share purchase plan.
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Govt seeks CIO to tackle e-health

By Josh Taylor, ZDNet.com.au on July 2nd, 2010
The Department of Health and Ageing is looking to appoint a chief information and knowledge officer to begin the implementation of the government's e-health agenda.
According to the advertisement, the role will report to the secretary of the department and will "have leadership responsibility for information and knowledge management across the portfolio".
"This includes an organisation-wide focus on data, performance and information to improve health outcomes and to support advances in the development of e-health, including recent Australian government investment in a personally controlled electronic health record system," the advertisement states.
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Western Health to move to e-records

Victorian healthcare provider to deploy an electronic health record and scanning system
Western Health is to deploy an electronic health record and scanning system to enable the Victorian healthcare provider to digitally store and deliver patient medical records across its multiple sites.
The system, which will see some four million pages scanned in its first year of operation, will be used across all of Western Health’s sites including Western Health Footscray, Sunshine Hospital, Williamstown Hospital, Sunbury Day Hospital and a number of satellite sites.
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Connecting Healthcare In Australia

28 Jun 2010
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has warmly welcomed the recent passing of the Healthcare Identifiers Bill through the Federal Parliament and is calling on all GPs to continue driving this process.
Dr Chris Mitchell, RACGP President, said that the passing of this legislation is the foundation needed to make e-health work in Australia and the passing of this legislation would not have been possible without the ongoing hard work and determination of general practice.
"The success of the Healthcare Identifiers Service in Australia will now be dependent on patients and health providers using the system to achieve the best possible health outcomes.
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Macquarie Uni Hospital IT infrastructure a "spaghetti" of systems

CIO readies ageing integrated environment path designed to see a more streamlined IT infrastructure
The newly opened Macquarie University Hospital (MUH) may boast a number of Australian firsts in technology, but its IT infrastructure is a "spaghetti" of systems, according to chief information officer (CIO), Geoff Harders.
The $250 million hospital, which opened on 15 June with a single patient, was part of two year project which saw owner, Macquarie University, set up an advanced medical school as well as negotiate the move of Cochlear Limited's global headquarters to the university campus. The 183-bed private hospital expects to be fully operational by the end of July, with 12 operating theatres and specialised clinics in radiology, pathology, radiotherapy and oncology.
However, many of the firsts it boasts - the first Australian Gamma Knife, a completely paperless hospital and a combined PET/CT molecular scanning clinic - are marred by a complicated mess of IT systems, applications and infrastructure as the result of decisions made by former partner, Dalcross Holdings.
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Macquarie Hospital shuns mobility

Ipad loss is thin-client win
Like many chief information officers (CIOs), Geoff Harders of Macquarie University Hospital (MUH) has tried the Apple iPad and sees its place in specialised sectors like healthcare. But unlike other CIOs, he has shunned the device.
"They're good for reference guides and patient lists," Harders told Computerworld Australia.
Harders does not find the iPad useful for either personal or professional use. He went as far to voice his qualms about the device on a colleague's blog at university proper.
The inability to print was one of Harders' main concerns that he said makes the device unfit for use in Macquarie University Hospital. Without that basic function, many MUH-accredited doctors who own practices would be incapable of taking valuable patient information with them, Harders said.
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Electronic barriers

29-Jun-2010
COMPUTERS: Obstacles to a paperless practice are proving difficult to shift. By Noel Stewart
GPs have been using computers for years, but the move to the paperless office is thwarted by three main limiting factors.
First, the word processing tools in most clinical software packages are quite inadequate.
You cannot have subfolders in the template list (such as one folder for outpatient referrals), so you are forced to scroll through a long list of templates. Nor can you have "if … then ..." choices, so that when you select a specific outpatient clinic, the relevant clinic details are transferred to the template you are using.
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PSA rejects opposition e-health spending cuts

2 July 2010 | by Nick O'Donoghue
Federal opposition leader Tony Abbott has been told to rethink his plans to cut funding for e-health to support his $1.5 billion mental health policy.  
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia president Warwick Plunkett accused the opposition of being “short-sighted” after Mr Abbott revealed he would cut spending on e-health and other health care initiatives to support his policy should the Coalition return to power after the next election.
Mr Plunkett described e-health as the “missing link” in terms of providing effective collaborative primary-care teams.  
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Updated: Qld Govt blames IBM for health payroll bungle

Whole-of-government ICT arrangements under fire as State Government reconsiders risk management and contingency requirements
The Queensland Government has threatened to terminate the troubled SAP payroll contract between IBM and Queensland Health, citing a "breach of duty of care and breach of contract".
The threat follows the release of report from the Auditor-General, which found the payroll system implemented for Queensland Health employees was not properly tested and did not provide contingency plans in case of failure when it was rolled out on 24 March, despite warnings from the testing company contracted. The fault left thousands of workers incorrectly paid.
The Queensland Government said in a statement that IBM should be held responsible for the bungle, as it was tasked with choosing appropriate software, as well as project management, design, development and implementation duties. The government issued a notice to the company to remedy breaches on 12 May, but a lack of action has caused the government to threaten to terminate the contract.
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Minister keeps job despite Queensland Health payroll debacle

  • From: AAP
  • June 30, 2010 9:49AM
QUEENSLAND'S health minister will keep his job and oversee a new payroll model as the government struggles to fix its sick pay system.
Project integrator IBM says problems with the payroll system, based on SAP software, was not its fault.
Premier Anna Bligh on Tuesday insisted her deputy Paul Lucas was safe despite calls for his job following a damning report by Auditor-General Glenn Poole on the bungled rollout of the system, which left thousands of health staffers incorrectly paid.
Mr Poole revealed Queensland taxpayers have so far paid $64.5 million for a system that had no contingency plans once failures emerged.
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Queensland Health's bungled payroll system was released without the proper testing, Auditor-General finds

  • From: AAP
  • June 29, 2010 10:16AM
QUEENSLAND Health's bungled new payroll system was not properly tested and was rolled out without a back-up plan to deal with failures, an Auditor-General's report says.
Responsibility for implementing the system, which has left thousands of workers incorrectly paid, was also unclear, Auditor-General Glenn Poole found.
Mr Poole's report on the fiasco, tabled in state parliament on Tuesday, identified a raft of problems with the system rolled out on March 24.

Pay system not properly tested: report

Queenland Health payroll failure lacks responsibility says Auditor-General
AAP (AAP) 29/06/2010 10:57:00
Queensland Health's bungled new payroll system was not properly tested and was rolled out without a back-up plan to deal with failures, an Auditor-General's report says.
Responsibility for implementing the system, which has left thousands of workers incorrectly paid, was also unclear, Auditor-General Glenn Poole found.
Mr Poole's report on the fiasco, tabled in state parliament on Tuesday, identified a raft of problems with the system rolled out on March 24.
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Bligh offers no payroll guarantees

Premier Anna Bligh continues to give no guarantees as to when the bungled payroll system will be fixed, saying it depended on a number of factors.
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IBM defends role in Qld Health payroll shambles

Technology giants IBM has hit back at Queensland government criticism of its role in the bungled implementation of a new payroll system that has cost at least $65 million and left thousands of workers underpaid since March.
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Queensland Health to change payroll system again after bungle

  • UPDATED:
  • From: AAP
  • June 29, 2010 2:48PM
QUEENSLAND Health workers will be paid under a local pay model from September as the government struggles to fix its sick payroll system.
Premier Anna Bligh announced the move after a damning report by Auditor-General Glenn Poole on the bungled rollout of the system, which has left thousands incorrectly paid.
Mr Poole revealed Queensland taxpayers have so far paid $64.5 million for a system that does not work.
He found the project team gave the green light for the system's rollout, despite knowing about its defects and being warned it had not been properly tested.
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NBN Co's Wii based e-health trial is a promotional masterstroke

As a promotional exercise for the National Broadband Network, NBN Co, and the benefits of broadband in general, NBN's Co's trial of 'tele-therapy' for stroke victims is a masterstroke that puts the Government's $16m NBN promotional campaign in the shade.
The trial has all the right ingredients to gain wide exposure:
- It is highly telegenic: stroke victims can be shown undergoing their Nintendo Wii-based treatment and being remotely monitored via an '"NBN-like' broadband network;
- Almost every member of the community will be able to relate to some aspect of the trial: the young to the gaming aspect; older-people who almost certain know a friend or family member who has suffered a stroke; people in rural areas who struggle with their remoteness;
- It's funded by an act of philanthropy that in and of itself is newsworthy: a board member of Neuroscience Australia donates $2m to the project and related research. But when that board member is the CEO of NBN Co and the $2m is his annual salary this throws the spotlight of publicity firmly on NBN Co and its key role in the National Broadband Network.
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Stroke patients make a play for remote recovery

AMY CORDEROY
June 29, 2010 - 8:12AM
Less than a year ago Marianne McDonald awoke to find herself living a nightmare. The 43-year-old mother had suffered a stroke and lost her ability to write, speak and walk properly.
But an innovative program using computer games to provide rehabilitation has given Ms McDonald back most of her speech and movement.
The program, developed by Neuroscience Research Australia, involved two weeks of an intensive rehabilitation program using Nintendo Wii sports games such as tennis.
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Stroke patients to get Wii therapy over the NBN

NBN Co CEO donates $2 million to fund the project
The NBN Co has begun selling the National Broadband Network’s (NBN) benefit to the health sector, announcing that stroke patients will shortly receive Wii-based therapy over the network.
The initiative, run by the NBN Co and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), will see the NBN used to deliver remote rehabilitation therapy using Nintendo’s Wii gaming device.
The therapy will see participants take part in ten one-hour sessions at home over a two-week period. During this time a therapist based in Sydney will supervise patients using video images and sensor data relayed over the NBN to analyse the patient’s movements and provide feedback.
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Stroke patients get hi-tech help

  • Adam Cresswell, Health editor
  • From: The Australian
  • June 29, 2010 12:00AM
STROKE patients will be the first to receive health services through the federal government's national broadband network.
The breakthrough will come next year,  when researchers start delivering rehabilitation classes straight into people's living rooms.
The superfast communications network, which is about to start rolling out in five "test bed" sites, will allow stroke patients to do exercises required for their recovery while being supervised by clinicians hundreds of kilometres away.
The technique, which relies on patients playing on the Nintendo Wii gaming system while their movements are watched on a live video link, has already shown good results in the laboratory.
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National broadband network chief Mike Quigley's $2m payday for science

MIKE Quigley did not need a job when he was approached by the federal government last year to run its nascent national broadband network.
He was independently wealthy after a long and successful career in the global telecommunications industry, but he took the job anyway, partly to move back to his native Australia. But he made it clear yesterday he still doesn't need the taxpayer-funded salary that comes with it, donating his entire first-year pay cheque of $2 million to aid research into brain diseases and stroke rehabilitation.
"I'm in the fortunate position where I can afford to give away my first year's salary," he told The Australian yesterday. "I don't spend a lot of money and I was in fact retired before I came into this role."
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National broadband network to cost government $30bn, says Mike Quigley

NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley has said taxpayers will pay up to $30 billion to build the national broadband network.
The network, due for construction over the next seven years, has been widely estimated to cost $43bn.
Mr Quigley said NBN Co's three-year business case -- which was to be delivered to the government by May 31 but NBN Co has been granted an extension to factor in the $11bn deal with Telstra -- would show that the fibre-optic network would come at a cost to the government of below $30bn. The rest of the money required to build the network will come from debt markets.
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Abbott commits $1.5bn to improving mental health services

TONY Abbott will spend $1.5 billion to improve front line mental health services if the Coalition is elected.
Under the Real Action Plan for Better Mental Health, the Coalition would target young sufferers of mental disorders and build a range of new mental health centres to address the problem.
The opposition pledged today to deliver 20 new Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centres, 60 additional youth headspace sites and 800 acute and sub acute early intervention beds.
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Microsoft game plan: copy Apple

June 29, 2010 - 12:45PM
New hardware to go with new software.
This post was originally published on mashable.com.
The Italian Windows website "Windowsette" somehow managed to get a hold of a super-secret, highly confidential PowerPoint presentation outlining many of Microsoft's goals and plans for Windows 8.
Apparently this sensitive data (complete with UNDER NDA watermarks) was just found sitting around the internet. MSFTKitchen has an extensive breakdown and detailed posting of all the slides from within the slide deck. The presentation details many of Microsoft's thoughts going forward for Windows 8, including the fact that it is taking direct cues from Apple on how to build something customers want to pay for.
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Enjoy!
David.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

There are Certainly Some Important Truths Here!

The following appeared a day or so ago.

Docs struggle with slow clinical information systems

June 30, 2010 | Mike Miliard, Managing Editor
DETROIT – A new survey has found that nearly half of healthcare professionals are dissatisfied with their clinical information systems, frustrated by response times that can last a full minute, or even longer.
Compuware Corporation this week announced the findings of the study, which polled 99 healthcare professionals at large and small hospitals in the United States – including nurses, doctors, CMOs and CMIOs – to better understand the availability of their clinical information systems.
The survey examined the length of time it takes for clinicians to log in, and how often they're required to log in during an average work day.

It found that end-users of clinical information systems are not satisfied with the performance of those systems, and those who were satisfied are settling for less than acceptable response times.
Key findings include:
  • Nearly 50 percent of respondents did not find response times acceptable.
  • Sixty percent of respondents reported response times for a single log-in greater than 10 seconds, some as long as one minute or more.
  • Nearly half of those who were satisfied with response times experienced lags greater than 11 seconds – and in some cases as high as 30 seconds – for a single log-in.
  • A majority of respondents log onto their clinical information system more than 20 times each day.
More here:
I have to say all my anecdotal evidence and experience strongly supports these findings!
Under provisioning and  poor design that results in slow screen loads and screen flips is just anathema to busy professionals generally and to clinicians in particular.
The point about slow log-ins is a good one as it is this that causes people to remain logged in and to let others use the same session with obvious consequences for security, audit trails and the like.
The original press release can be found here:
Now, while this company has a vested commercial interest in the findings I don’t believe anyone can deny how important responsiveness and system availability are in the clinical environment.
David.

Friday, July 02, 2010

An Amusing Little NEHTA Side Line.

I was alerted to this yesterday in Linkedin - for those who have access here is a link.

A post NEHTA employees discussion group and collaboration called NEXIAN!

See here:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2450213&trk=anetsrch_name&goback=.gdr_1278054722245_1

Amazing there are now apparently 31 former employees that want to stay in touch with each other. Pity so many decided to leave and not to stick around and get planned stuff delivered - as we all know we need.

We will see if they are for good or not so good over time I am sure. Judgment suspended on all this until we see what happens next. It would be good if they could influence current staff to do better!

David.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Weekly Overseas Health IT Links - 30 June, 2010.

Here are a few I have come across this week.
Note: Each link is followed by a title and a paragraph or two. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or payment.
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Medical homes help stabilize ongoing care

Chris Swingle • Staff writer • June 21, 2010
Bill Dellfava's blood sugar levels were too high, he wasn't eating a healthy diet and he wasn't cooperating with his doctor's instructions or his wife's attempts to help. The 81-year-old Greece man's dementia complicated the situation and his wife, Mary Jane, was at wit's end.
A multimillion-dollar "medical home" approach at seven local primary care offices, including the Dellfavas' Unity Family Medicine at Chili Center, is making a big difference.
Medical homes use software to analyze patient records and a team approach to better coordinate and monitor patient care and to provide extra time and attention to patients who need it. Bill Dellfava's name popped up on a list of about 50 patients whose blood sugar levels weren't under control, triggering a phone call by a newly hired nurse care manager and multiple visits and conversations to help Dellfava and his wife learn exactly what to do and why and how to overcome obstacles.
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Mich. Blues Builds on Medical Home

HDM Breaking News, June 23, 2010
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan now has 1,800 physicians in about 500 practices across the state designated as patient-centered medical home providers, compared with 1,200 designated physicians a year ago.
Another 5,000 physicians are working toward designation as medical home practices, according to the Detroit-based Blues plan.
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SCR uploads to continue during review

21 Jun 2010
Summary Care Records will continue to be created and uploaded to the Spine while the programme is under review but no new patient information campaigns will be launched, EHI Primary Care can reveal.
Health minister Simon Burns told the BMA last week that a review would be carried out of the information patients receive on the SCR and the opt-out process as well as a review of the content of the record.
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EU launches 27 health IT projects

17 Jun 2010
The European Union has launched 27 e-health projects this year following a call under the EU Framework Programme 7 (FP7).
The Seventh Research Framework Programme, which runs until 2013 with a budget of €50 billion, has launched projects in three key areas; ICT for personal health systems, ICT for patient safety, and international cooperation on virtual physiological human.
The EU’s Research and Development Framework Programmes aim to bring together teams from different organisations and EU countries, to combine knowledge and experience to improve the standard of living for people in Europe.
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EMR glitches could increase providers' liability risk

June 22, 2010 — 10:19pm ET | By Debra Beaulieu
While medical practices slowly but surely begin adopting electronic medical records, in part to close potential gaps in patient safety, two Case Western Reserve University professors are warning providers that EMRs are not mistake proof--and could even increase their risk of malpractice liability.
Physicians are largely unaware of the new risks they and their patients face if, for example, an EHR system contains software bugs, is too complicated or is implemented with insufficient user training, according to Sharona Hoffman, professor of law and bioethics and co-director of Case Western Reserve's Law-Medicine Center in Cleveland, and her husband, Andy Podgurski, professor of computer science at the university's School of Engineering, whose scholarly article is published in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.
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HHS: Grappling with privacy vs. accessibility

Posted: June 24, 2010 - 12:15 pm ET
The "consumer choice technology" demonstration that the federal Health IT Policy Committee's new privacy and security Tiger Team will host June 29 in Washington aims to showcase projects and systems that address one of healthcare reform's biggest IT challenges: balancing the opportunities of health-information sharing with the need to keep individual patients' data secure.
One such initiative scheduled to be presented is a Web-based record-keeping system called Clinical Management for Behavioral Health Services, developed by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
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Going paperless 'kind of a no-brainer'

By Timothy Wilson
Thursday, June 24, 2010; LZ18
Meera Sutaria of Ashburn grew tired of trying to read the scribbled handwriting from the mounds of patient documents. So when she opened her optometry practice, she left behind the clutter and waste of paper from her former employer.
In the office that she opened in December, even the standard paper eye chart has been replaced with a wall-mounted digital projector that sits behind the patient and reflects letters from an eye test against a facing mirror.
"Our whole office is paperless. That was kind of a no-brainer decision for me," said Sutaria, who graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University in 2007.
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U.S. Found Lagging Behind Other Nations in Health Quality, Access

Janice Simmons, for HealthLeaders Media, June 24, 2010
While the U.S. healthcare system was shown to be the most expensive when compared with six other industrialized nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—it failed to achieve better health outcomes when compared to those countries, according to a new Commonwealth Fund updated report, Mirror Mirror On The Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally.
Overall, the U.S. stood out for not getting good value for its healthcare dollars—ranking last despite spending $7,290 per capita on healthcare in 2007 compared to the $3,837 spent per capita in the Netherlands, which ranked first. The U.S. had ranked last in value as well in the previous three Commonwealth Fund studies that compared it with the other countries.
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Electronic health record systems may pose risk for care providers

The promise of electronic health records (EHR) seems clear: The digital records of everything from prescriptions to CT scans could raise the quality and lower the cost of healthcare.
Fulfilling this promise is likely to become more urgent as healthcare reform brings 35 million more Americans into the health insurance fold, all needing care.
Some of us worry about the security and privacy of our electronic medical information. But what about the liability risks EHR systems pose to care providers?
Two Case Western Reserve University professors say potential software or hardware problems, as well as user errors, could make the systems liabilities.
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Big Breach at Anthem Blue Cross

HDM Breaking News, June 25, 2010
Anthem Blue Cross, the trade name for Blue Cross of California, is notifying about 230,000 members and applicants for insurance that a Web site used to apply for individual health insurance policies was breached.
The insurer says attorneys working on a class action lawsuit were able to access medical information and credit card and Social Security numbers, among other information, because all security mechanisms were not reinstated following an October 2009 upgrade.
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What’s in your ROI?

By Jeff Rowe, Editor
It seems safe to say that when most people make a financial investment, they want a pretty good idea of what they’re going to get in return.
But when it comes to investing in new HIT, that return is often difficult to determine.
As this writer succinctly puts it, “the problem is, hospitals typically measure ROI from a business perspective—cost, revenues or operating efficiencies—but many benefits of clinical applications fall into quality and safety realms that do not easily translate into dollars.”
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Compass Intelligence Indicates the Direction of Growth in the Healthcare Industry

Compass (News - Alert) Intelligence, a global consulting and market analytics firm, specializes in segment and vertical market intelligence for the high-tech and telecom industries. It has published findings on the future of the Healthcare IT market.
The Healthcare IT market, according to Compass Intelligence, is slated to experience continuous growth over the next five years. Healthcare organizations including hospitals, private practices, clinics and other healthcare sectors are estimated to spend $73.1 billion in the year 2010 on IT products, services and solutions.
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Physicians Turn to Online Communications

John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, June 23, 2010

Physicians who want to communicate more easily with their patients—but aren't ready to open up an IT business in their back office—are turning to online solutions. Physicians at hospitals and private practices are using Web-based programs for a variety of tasks, such as conducting e-visits, e-prescribing medications, delivering lab results to patients, and sharing medical records with patients and their other providers—with no wiring, servers, or IT staff required. And, in some regions, healthcare organizations are partnering with their biggest rivals to make it happen.
That's the case in New Jersey, where several disparate hospitals that all use their own EMR systems are collaborating to help physicians and patients communicate more effectively.
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Healthcare ICT 'cuts costs and waiting times'

Published: 23 June 2010 | Updated: 24 June 2010
Patients in emergency departments enjoy shorter waiting times when innovative communications technologies are deployed, according to a study by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
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WiFi Use Grows Strongly in Health Care Industry: Report

ABI Research has released a report showing 60 percent growth in the implementation of WiFi in the health care industry during the past year. With WiFi technology available to patients and health care practitioners, remote telehealth applications show promise.
The health care industry is cutting the wires in droves. ABI Research reported on June 22 that WiFi use in the health care industry has grown at more than 60 percent during the past 12 months in wireless local area network and WiFi RTLS (Real-Time Locations Systems) deployments.
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Hackers Aren't Only Threat to Privacy

By BEN WORTHEN

Sophisticated hackers aren't the only ones gaining access to sensitive data on the Internet. A large amount of personal information is being left exposed or poorly protected by companies and governments.
The number of identity-theft victims in the U.S. jumped 12% to 11.1 million in 2009, according to research company Javelin Strategy & Research. Fraud cases reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which is partly run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, climbed 23% to 336,655 last year.
Information that people inadvertently make public on sites like Facebook plays a role. So too do the sort of technical exploits demonstrated by the group that recently exposed a flaw in AT&T Inc.'s website.
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Healthcare Taking Computing To The Cloud

Cost, scalablity, and flexibility are reasons healthcare organizations are looking to move applications onto cloud computing models, says report.
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee,  InformationWeek
June 21, 2010
While the healthcare sector has long been an IT laggard, the industry appears to be embracing cloud computing comparably to many other sectors.
Nearly one-third of healthcare sector decision makers said they are using cloud applications, and 73% said they are planning to move more applications to the cloud, according to a recent report by Accenture. Those figures fall in line with findings about cloud adoption plans in other industries, according to the report.
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Health IT 'Tiger Team' to host privacy-tech demo

Posted: June 23, 2010 - 12:00 pm ET
A new federal advisory work group has scheduled a public demonstration of new information technologies designed to protect the privacy and security of identifiable patient information.
Billed as a "consumer choice technology" hearing, the session is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. ET June 29 at the Grand Hyatt Washington.
The event is being run under the auspices of the federally chartered Health IT Policy Committee's new Privacy & Security Tiger Team, which has, without fanfare, at least temporarily replaced two earlier advisory panels working to set the national agenda on health information technology privacy and security.
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Vendors Target Europe

HDM Breaking News, June 22, 2010
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft HealthVault and Chicago-based HIMSS Analytics have set up shop in Europe.
Microsoft has established UK HealthVault with corporate sibling MSN and sponsorship from Nuffield Health, a network of 30 private hospitals and 50 fitness centers. Initial HealthVault services in the United Kingdom include the My Health Info personal health record software and tools from Nuffield Health to measure and track blood pressure, allergies and immunizations, body mass index and the number of steps taken during exercise. MSN will host UK HealthVault.
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Microsoft launches HealthVault in UK

23 Jun 2010
Microsoft has launched its personal health record platform in the UK on the Health and Lifestyle channel of the MSN network.
The HealthVault platform has been launched with gym and private healthcare operator Nuffield Health as its first partner, initially pitching the PHR concept at the health and well being market.
Members of the public can now sign up for a free secure HealthVault account. Setting up an account enables them to store personal health information, and connect readings from monitoring devices including blood pressure metres and scales.
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The perils of privatised health records

As Microsoft launches its new health records website, ministers must resist the temptation to cut the NHS's online data service
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 June 2010 13.00 BST
For a government desperate to squeeze big savings out of the NHS, the timing couldn't be better. On emergency budget day, software supplier Microsoft announced the UK launch of its online health record service, HealthVault. Competitor Google is likely to follow. Can we now stop chucking taxpayers' money at electronic health records, and let those nice chaps in polo shirts do it all for free?
Absolutely not. While there is some cross-over between what the private sector and the NHS are doing with electronic health data, there is little opportunity for short-term savings. And the privatisation of health records poses potential dangers.
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PACeR to study clinical-trial privacy issues

Posted: June 22, 2010 - 11:45 am ET
Before electronic health-record systems can realize their potential to transform clinical-trial recruitment, important patient privacy concerns need to be addressed, industry analysts say.
Last week, a New York state-based collaborative called Partnership to Advance Clinical electronic Research, or PACeR, said it will begin grappling with the possibilities and challenges of launching a large-scale effort to link clinical-trial recruitment activities to EHRs.
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Orszag played key role in healthcare debate

Posted: June 22, 2010 - 11:45 am ET
In the event that he resigns, Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will have made his mark in reshaping the U.S. healthcare delivery system.
News reports have indicated that the 41-year-old Orszag may step down from his post in the coming months. At deadline, OMB officials had not confirmed whether he is leaving. "Peter's focused on his work, not on Washington speculation," Orszag spokesman Kenneth Baer told the Associated Press.
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22 June 2010

eHealth Worldwide

The World Bank approved $63.66 million to create a regional network of 25 public health laboratories across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda. The network operating across country borders, will improve access to diagnostic services so that vulnerable populations in cross border areas will be able to make optimal use of internet and mobile communications.
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Healthcare Workers Wonder: How Did We Ever Live Without Our i-Devices? 

Gienna Shaw, for HealthLeaders Media, June 22, 2010

I recently asked a group of healthcare workers "What's the one technology you can't live without?" It probably won't come as a big surprise that many of the answers began with the lowercase letter "i." In fact, some of the folks I queried sent their answers via devices beginning with that very same letter.
D. Elan Simckes, MD, medical director of Fertility Partnership in St. Louis, MO, nicknamed the iPad he got for his birthday his "MyPad."
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Q &A: Dr. Steven Waldren On What's At Risk With E-Health Records

It's time for doctors to move on EHRs or get left behind, says head of American Academy of Family Physicians health information group.
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee,  InformationWeek
June 22, 2010
Dr. Steven Waldren is director of the Center of Health Information Technology at the American Academy of Family Physicians, a group that represents about 94,000 family physicians and medical students. He's closely following the government's effort to craft a definition of what constitutes the meaningful use of electronic health records and prepare to kick off the federal incentive program to get doctors using EHRs. He recently spoke to InformationWeek senior writer Marianne Kolbasuk McGee about the upcoming requirements, what's at stake if doctors don't adopt EHRs, and the challenges physicians face.
InformationWeek: What's the biggest risk for doctors' practices if they don't adopt health IT?
Waldren: The biggest risk is not being able to move forward with other reforms in the way we pay. Currently, the vast majority of payments are fee for service, based on volume, not about quality in the care doctors provide to patients. There's a lot of talk about changing that. If physicians don't adopt technology to support them in this paradigm shift, they're at a much higher risk at not being able to keep up with the demands of quality reporting in order to thrive in this new model.
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CCHIT takes on women's health, oncology

June 18, 2010 | Bernie Monegain, Editor
CHICAGO – The Certification Commission has selected two new, all-volunteer panels to develop criteria for electronic health records (EHRs) in women's health and in oncology, the latest domains to be added to CCHIT's independently-developed certification programs.
The commission also announced the slated launch of new certification programs for Behavioral Health, Dermatology and Long-Term and Post-Acute Care on July 26, 2010.
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ONC clarifies policy on substance abuse e-records

By Mary Mosquera
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Health and Human Services Department has published guidelines on the conditions under which records pertaining to a patient’s alcohol and drug abuse can be shared via electronic health information exchange systems.
A 30-year old federal law has protected the confidentiality of substance abuse patient records and prohibited their disclosure without the patient’s consent.
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Tech-driven roadside clinics cater to truckers

June 16, 2010 | Bernie Monegain, Editor
SARASOTA, FL – Pilot Travel Centers and Roadside Medical Clinic + Lab have opened three new medical clinics - in Oklahoma City, East St. Louis, Ill.; and Waco, Texas. The clinics use advanced healthcare information systems, including iPads, telemedicine and what Roadside Medical calls the industry's first full-function electronic medical record system for professional drivers.
The technology helps to streamline reporting, improve adherence to wellness and weight loss programs and lower administrative and direct healthcare costs for drivers and companies alike on a nationwide scale, according to Roadside Medical.
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'Fallacy of Excellence' Hampers Industry

HDM Breaking News, June 21, 2010
Consultant and self-proclaimed health care futurist Ian Morrison did not mince words for the opening bell of the annual HFMA conference, held this year in Las Vegas after flooding curtailed the originally planned Nashville venue.
The industry, he said, is hampered by the "fallacy of excellence," namely the idea that by spending large sums on modern hospitals and high-tech equipment, it is somehow fulfilling consumer need and delivering quality care.
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HHS Releases Final Rule for Temporary EHR Certification Program

Andrea Kraynak, for HealthLeaders Media, June 18, 2010
The HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a final rule June 18 establishing a certification program for health information technology. The rule describes the temporary certification program for EHRs, and what organizations need to do to be authorized to test and certify EHR technology.
"[EHR technology certification] assures healthcare providers that the EHR technology they adopt has been tested and includes the required capabilities they need in order to use the technology in a meaningful way to improve the quality of care provided to their patients," according to the June 18 HHS press release.
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Provisions of the EHR Certification Rule

HDM Breaking News, June 21, 2010
The new final rule establishing a temporary government-run program for certifying electronic health records becomes effective on June 24, the date of publication in the Federal Register. That's also the first day that organizations can apply to become an Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ATCB), with the goal to have such entities operational this summer and certifying their first EHRs in the fall, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
The final rule is the first of three coordinated final rules, authorized under the HITECH Act, that seek to accelerate the adoption and "meaningful use" of EHRs across the nation. Expected soon are final rules to establish the Medicare and Medicaid incentive programs, including criteria for achieving and demonstrating meaningful use; and adoption of pertinent health information technology standards and EHR certification criteria.
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New CMS site offers info on EHR incentives

Posted: June 21, 2010 - 1:00 pm ET
In an effort to help providers navigate new health information technology requirements and qualify for meaningful-use payments, the CMS has launched a website detailing information about its electronic health-record system incentive programs, which are scheduled to launch in 2011.
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Questions galore at government IT confab

Posted: June 21, 2010 - 1:00 pm ET
Federal information technology leaders knew the questions their audiences wanted answered last week at the Government Health IT Conference & Exhibition in Washington.
When will the CMS release its new rule on the meaningful use of federally subsidized electronic health-record systems?
When will the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology finally tweak its rule on certification criteria for EHR systems?
And when will the ONC release its final rule on the process by which not-for-profit organizations will be federally recognized to test and certify EHR systems?
Instead of offering firm deadlines, federal officials at the conference—sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society—only expressed repeatedly that they hoped the new rules would be coming soon.
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ONC will have NHIN Direct HIE standards for small providers ready for testing this fall

June 21, 2010 — 11:41am ET | By Neil Versel
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology this summer is wrapping up data transmission protocols and other technical details for NHIN Direct, the health information exchange protocol being developed for small physician practices. The office will release NHIN Direct specifications late in the summer in anticipation of live testing this fall, an ONC official said.
"Real-world demonstrations help us tackle problems related to the specific interchange we're looking for," Dr. Doug Fridsma, acting director of interoperability and standards at ONC, said at a Government Health IT conference in Washington last week, the namesake publication reports.
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Quality benefits of health IT often hard to quantify in ROI calculations

June 21, 2010 — 12:13pm ET | By Neil Versel
This story should surprise nobody who's ever struggled with higher-ups to get approval for health IT investment: It's often difficult to calculate return on investment from a purely financial perspective.
"If the project is strategic in nature or a government mandate, ROI calculations are limited," says Denver Health CIO Gregg Veltri tells Hospitals & Health Networks. The magazine features the tricky issue of ROI for health IT in its June issue.
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ONC temporary certification rule rejects CCHIT request for grandfather clause

June 21, 2010 — 1:09pm ET | By Neil Versel
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology is about to lose its monopoly on EMR certification, as a final HHS rule establishing a temporary certification program requires testing organizations to earn government approval as authorized testing bodies.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on Friday released a rule establishing a temporary certification program so the "meaningful use" stimulus effort can go forward as planned in 2011. ONC previously said it would create the temporary program while it works on a longer-term strategy for certifying EMRs. CMS will be issuing the final rules for meaningful use by the end of the month.
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Monday, June 21, 2010

Enrollment Work Group Gets Down to Business

Last week, the Health IT Policy Committee's Enrollment Work Group held its inaugural meeting in Washington, D.C.
The work group was created last month in response to Section 1561 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which tasks HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Health IT Policy and Standards committees to "develop interoperable and secure standards and protocols that facilitate enrollment in federal and state health and human services programs."
Such work could include:
  • Electronic matching across state and federal data;
  • Retrieval and submission of electronic documentation for verification;
  • Reuse of eligibility information;
  • Capability for individuals to maintain eligibility information online; and
  • Notification of eligibility.
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Enjoy!
David.