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."

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Weekly Overseas Health IT Links 26-10-2009

What I have spotted this week.

http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2009/10/fuzzy-math-rising-costs-governments-digital-health-stimulus

Fuzzy Math? Rising Costs in Government's Digital Health Stimulus

Spending Could Be Double The Obama Administration's Public Estimate of $19 Billion

By Fred Schulte
Huffington Post Investigative Fund

1:01 pm | 15 Oct 2009

Creating digital medical records for every American within the next five years – a key provision of President Obama’s stimulus package -- could cost more than twice the $19.5 billion figure that has been cited by federal officials.

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http://ehealtheurope.net/news/5311/private_medical_records_offered_for_sale

Private medical records offered for sale

20 Oct 2009

Medical records of patients treated at a private British hospital, The London Clinic, have been illegally sold to undercover investigators.

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http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/23777/?nlid=2446

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Massive Gene Database Planned in California

The data will be compared against electronic health records and patients' personal information.

By David Talbot

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http://www.kfsm.com/sns-ap-ks--e-healthrecords-planning,0,200292.story

Kansas to begin work on statewide system for electronic sharing of patient records

By Associated Press

4:01 AM CDT, October 22, 2009

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has applied for $9 million in federal grants to encourage physicians to switch patient records to computers.

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091023/REG/310239993

HIT sector outperforms others in third quarter: report

By Jean DerGurahian / HITS staff writer

Posted: October 23, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT

The health information technology sector continued to improve in the third quarter, but the market is still waiting to see when federal funding will have an impact on profitability, analysts say.

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091023/REG/310239992

IT programs can help improve outcomes: AHRQ

By Jean DerGurahian / HITS staff writer

Posted: October 23, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT

Health information applications can help engage patients in their care and improve outcomes, according to research released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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http://health-care-it.advanceweb.com/Editorial/Content/Editorial.aspx?CC=208737

CIOs: CPOE Provision Won't be Easy to Achieve

Implementing order systems involves significant work if benefits are to be achieved, CIOs say.

By Fred Bazzoli

The use of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) is growing among U.S. health care organizations, according to results from a recent survey of members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

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http://health-care-it.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?cc=208739

Getting Connected

Health information exchange links physician EMR systems with hospital labs.

By Charles Halfpenny

Integration of clinical systems has always been challenging. As the number of physician practices deploying electronic medical record (EMR) systems increases, so does the demand for electronically exchanging orders and results between the hospital system and the practice EMR. Without an interface, practices must manually enter results into the EMR, which is both labor-intensive and error-prone.

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http://govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=72238

Standards panel explores patient access to EHRs

By Mary Mosquera

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A federal advisory panel has begun to explore how patients might access health information from their physicians and what data should be included in their personal health record. To probe the issue, participants in an Oct. 14 Health IT Standards Committee meeting examined the experience of providers who already share clinical information with their patients.

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http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/physicians-have-doubled-their-time-online-2004

Physicians have doubled their time online since 2004

October 22, 2009 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

BOSTON – The head of a New York-based healthcare market research firm says physicians who might have spent four hours a week online in 2004 are now spending at least eight hours in front of a computer.

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Web 2.0 Summit: Fed CTO Talks Healthcare IT

Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra says government spending on IT can help cut healthcare costs and improve care quality.

By J. Nicholas Hoover, InformationWeek

Oct. 22, 2009

URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220900162

The federal government can use IT to help lower the cost and improve the quality of healthcare in the United States, federal CTO Aneesh Chopra said Wednesday.

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http://www.ihealthbeat.org/perspectives/2009/health-2-0-real-hope-beneath-the-hype.aspx

Friday, October 23, 2009

Health 2.0: Beneath the Hype, There's Cause for Real Hope

Health 2.0 is a trend accompanied by both buzz and buzzwords. That worries some advocates for the poor, underserved and just plain old and sick. Will those groups be left behind in the latest information revolution?

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http://www.e-health-insider.com/Features/item.cfm?&docId=314

E-prescribing

It’s almost a decade since the Audit Commission called for e-prescribing in secondary care. Progress has been slow, but that may be about to change. Daloni Carlisle reports.

There are some people who don’t follow fashion, at least not in the conventional sense. Steve Reggione, senior project manager for e-prescribing software specialist JAC is one of them.

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http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Clinic+medical+files+vanish/2127101/story.html

Clinic's medical files vanish

Privacy commission launches probe

By Ryan Cormier, Edmonton Journal

October 21, 2009

The Information and Privacy Commissioner is raising a red flag for doctors after a Fairview clinic lost two years worth of electronic patient records.

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http://www.fierceemr.com/story/it-pros-say-emr-breaches-are-all-too-common-doubt-organizational-commitment-security/2009-10-2?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Four out of five healthcare IT pros had at least one data breach last year

October 22, 2009 — 12:28pm ET | By Neil Versel

Even IT professionals in hospitals are concerned that their organizations aren't doing enough to safeguard electronic patient information, according to a newly released survey. The Traverse City, Mich.-based Ponemon Institute, with the support of security management firm LogLogic, reports that 61 percent of health IT practitioners doubt that their organizations have the resources to meet privacy and security requirements, while 70 percent say senior management isn't making data protection a priority.

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http://www.fierceemr.com/story/wealth-information-online-could-threaten-privacy-de-identified-emrs/2009-10-22?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Wealth of information online could threaten privacy of de-identified EMRs

October 22, 2009 — 10:01am ET | By Neil Versel

Back in 1997, it took an MIT statistician to find ways to re-identify electronic patient data that had been stripped of identifiers--using then-Massachusetts Gov. William Weld as the unsuspecting guinea pig to make a point about privacy. Nowadays, there's so much personal information widely available on the Internet that the task has become much easier, the New York Times reports.

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http://www.thescugogstandard.ca/news/2009/october-09/oct22-09/eHealth_inquiry-156.html

STAYING IN TOUCH

eHealth inquiry is required

By John O'Toole/The Scugog Standard

Ontario’s eHealth scandal has grown to the point where only a public inquiry can do justice to the concerns raised by opposition MPPs and indeed by virtually all taxpayers.

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http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/insights/2009/10/22/the-other-side-of-the-ehealth-story/52193/

The other side of the eHealth story

Posted Oct 22 2009, 11:07 AM by Dave Webb

Amid the flood of coverage of Auditor General Jim McCarter'sreport on out-of-control spending at eHealth Ontario -- much of it of increasingly hysterical tenor -- I received an e-mail from Aaron Blair. Blair's a former employee of Smart Systems for Health Agency, eHealth Ontario's predecessor in the initiative to bring Ontario's health-care community online, and he's troubled by the suggestion that Ontario taxpayers have nothing to show for the seven years and $1 billion invested in the effort.

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20091021/REG/310219987

Growth in teleradiology market appears to lag

By Shawn Rhea / HITS staff writer

Posted: October 21, 2009 - 11:00 am EDT

Expansion of the teleradiology market appears to be slowing, according to a study to be published in the November issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

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http://fcw.com/articles/2009/10/26/cdc-side-murky-crystal-ball.aspx

A murky crystal ball?

Critics say too many systems are collecting data on disease outbreaks with little coordination among them

  • Oct 21, 2009

About 300 systems at federal, state and local agencies monitor disease outbreaks and chemical exposure. Some critics say that multiplicity is a problem.

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/acquisitions-39225-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e1054:100325a:&st=email

Report: Acquisition Activity Down

HDM Breaking News, October 20, 2009

Health care information technology company stock prices have risen significantly during 2009 but acquisition activity has yet to catch up, according to a quarterly summary of vendor activity by Healthcare Growth Partners LLC, a Chicago-based strategic and financial advisory firm.

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Why Your Next IT Job Will Be In Healthcare

Federal stimulus billions are fueling demand for up to 50,000 new information technology positions. Most sought after are tech pros with real-world implementation experience, Windows experts, and network admins.

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek

Oct. 20, 2009

URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220700404

Hospitals and medical practices are scrambling to deploy e-medical record and other clinical information systems to meet federal requirements for the more than $20 billion in stimulus incentives included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. And that means many of them are expanding their IT teams to bring in the skills and expertise they need to implement these systems.

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http://www.ihealthbeat.org/Features/2009/Comparative-Effectiveness-Research-About-To-Hit-Prime-Time.aspx

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Comparative Effectiveness Research About To Hit Prime Time

An obscure acronym edged a little closer to the mainstream earlier this year as part of the federal stimulus debate. Now, with Congress about to dive into health reform legislation in a big way, CER may move firmly into the cultural crosshairs.

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http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/e-prescribing-39218-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e1051:100325a:&st=email

Vermont Docs to Get Free E-Prescribing

HDM Breaking News, October 19, 2009

A $1 million federal grant to Vermont Information Technology Leaders Inc. will enable physicians in the state to access free electronic prescribing software.

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http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/240774/topic/WS_HLM2_TEC/Five-Lessons-on-How-to-Get-Physicians-to-Adopt-CPOE.html

Five Lessons on How to Get Physicians to Adopt CPOE

Carrie Vaughan, for HealthLeaders Media, October 20, 2009

I often read or hear about "physician buy-in"—as I'm sure most of you do too—as the key component to successfully implementing many IT projects, including computerized physician order entry. While I agree that physicians need to join the effort for CPOE to be successful, I also think there is a lot more behind the successful implementations—like dogged persistence.

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http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23545/?nlid=2443

Prescription: Networking

A new urban network suggests how technology could remake health care.

By David Talbot

A crow flying from Vera Sinue's apartment in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood to her job as an insurance representative near the Charles River in Brighton would skirt the edge of the Longwood Medical Area, a district of medical institutions including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Children's Hospital, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Medical School. These institutions are among the nation's most respected. They supplied some of the experts now leading the Obama administration's effort to reform the nation's health-care system.

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http://wolandscat.net/2009/10/18/the-crisis-in-e-health-standards-iii-solutions/#more-65

The crisis in e-health standards III – solutions

Stakeholder Aspirations and Needs

Before going so far as to offer a solution to the e-health standards problem, I want to have a look at what we consider to be the requirements that such standards, and indeed health informatics in general is meant to address.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/business/18stream.html?_r=1

October 18, 2009

Slipstream

When 2+2 Equals a Privacy Question

By NATASHA SINGER

TIME to revisit the always compelling — and often disconcerting — debate over digital privacy. So, what might your movie picks and your medical records have in common?

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Enjoy!

David.

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