MedWorm: Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Preventable Adverse Drug Events Reduced By Computer Order Entry Systems

Health News from Medical News Today — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0100

Despite a national mandate to implement electronic health records and computer order entry systems (CPOE) by 2014, only approximately 30 percent of hospitals nationwide have done so and around 40 percent of hospitals in the state of Massachusetts have made this transition. New research from Brigham and Women's Hospital examined the impact of a vendor-developed CPOE in five community hospitals in Massachusetts and found that these CPOE systems are effective at reducing drug-related injury and harm. This research is published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

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Report: EMR security breaches soared in 2011

AuntMinnie.com Headlines — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0100

More than 19 million electronic health records (EHRs) in the U.S. have been (more) (Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines)

Vocal against health reform, Missourians quiet on health IT

Healthcare IT News — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:42:25 +0100

What with the presidential non-binding primary over, Missouri is more than just one of three states where Rick Santorum surprised the nation. The Show-Me State is staunch in its opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – the individual mandate specifically. Most of the opposition against health reform, including this one, has steered clear of the government's healthcare information technology initiatives, advances that are perceived as bipartisan. Election Feature Content: No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

5 simple ways to realize ROI from your EHR

Healthcare IT News — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:00:01 +0100

The steep cost of electronic health record systems in today's market makes seeing a return on investment that much more important. Luckily, there are a few basic ways to see financial gains after implementing an EHR. Heidi Jannenga, co-founder and COO, and Paul Winandy, CEO of physical therapy software WebPT, outline five basic ways to get ROI from your EHR. Election Feature Content: No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Healthcare IT Expert Exposes Hidden Risks of Lawsuits Due to Electronic Health Record

Medical News (via PRIMEZONE) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:08:00 +0100

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Feb. 8, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed in February 2009 and caused a digital tsunami in the healthcare industry, physicians have been scrambling to comply with the requirement to switch to electronic health record systems. (EHRs) While many in the healthcare industry laud the use of EHRs to improve quality of care and analyzing patient outcomes, Dr. Sam Bierstock, founder of Champions In Healthcare, (www.sambierstock.com) points out significant concerns regarding increased vulnerability to medical legal claims that may result from the use of EHRs without major tort reform that would relieve physicians of an onslaught of malpractice suits. "EHRs unquestionably have the potential to improve patient safety and the...

Maine receives grant to connect behavioral healthcare to HIE

Healthcare IT News — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:53:32 +0100

The State of Maine and HealthInfoNet have received a $600,000 grant to help support electronic sharing of health records among behavioral health providers and general medical providers in Maine. Election Feature Content: No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

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Colorado shows bipartisan HIX support even amid dispute

Healthcare IT News — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:20:22 +0100

Colorado, which is a state leader on all things health IT, especially EHRs and HIEs, is digging in its heels when it comes to health insurance exchange. It is one of the 26 states whose attorney general joined a lawsuit to overturn the health reform law. The arguments are slated to be heard by the Supreme Court in March. Election Feature Content: No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

5 stages of EHR maturity and patient collaboration

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:36:19 +0100

Source: Michelle McNickle, Healthcare IT News Content: “By now, it’s apparent EHRs need to grow up. But, as patient-centered business models become increasingly popular, the EHR is also shifting into a vital part of the success of these organizations. “The new ‘patient team’ business models, like ACOs, will require that EHRs mature into real-time care coordination [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Proposed Australian e-health records system criticised

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:54:36 +0100

Source: Ananya Mandal, News-Medical Content: “Both the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA) and the Australian Privacy Foundation have criticised the private corporation established by the federal and state governments to roll out the federal government’s proposed electronic health records. They have told a Senate inquiry hearing in Canberra that personally-controlled e-health records should not go [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Computer Order Entry Systems Reduce Preventable Adverse Drug Events

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:44:10 +0100

Source: HealthCanal Content: “Despite a national mandate to implement electronic health records and computer order entry systems (CPOE) by 2014, only approximately 30 percent of hospitals nationwide have done so and around 40 percent of hospitals in the state of Massachusetts have made this transition. New research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital examined the impact of [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Cerner tops Wall Street estimates for fourth quarter

bizjournals.com Health Care:Physician Practices headlines — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:30:59 +0100

Continued strong demand for electronic health record systems helped Cerner Corp. beat Wall Street financial estimates in the fourth quarter. The North Kansas City-based company (Nasdaq: CERN) on Tuesday reported earning $91.2 million, or 52 cents a share, during the three months that ended Dec. 31. By comparison, the company earned $70.6 million, or 41 cents a share, during the same period a year earlier. Not counting share-based compensation expenses, Cerner said it would have earned 55 cents a share versus 44 cents during the year-ago period... (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Physician Practices headlines)

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5 stages of EHR maturity and patient collaboration

Healthcare IT News — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:27:40 +0100

By now, it’s apparent EHRs need to grow up. But, as patient-centered business models become increasingly popular, the EHR is also shifting into a vital part of the success of these organizations. Election Feature Content: No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Electronic health records on the way

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:47 +0100

Source: Charlie Fidelman, The Gazette Content: “It will take several more months before your doctor can send your prescription directly, electronically, to your pharmacist, but Montrealers will finally be plugged into the provincial system of computerized health records. After big delays and expenses, Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc announced Monday that the system, called the Dossier [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

EHR Adoption Grows Over 5 Percent

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:47:00 +0100

Source: Brian Ahier, Healthcare, Technology & Government 2.0 Content: “SK&A’s updated “Physician Office Usage of Electronic Health Records Software” report revealed a significant growth in EHR software adoption during 2011. Findings of the report, which were finalized in January 2012, show overall growth in the EHR implementation, as government initiative deadlines get closer. SK&A was awarded [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

U-M Researchers Call for More Robust Electronic Health Record Data Sharing Capabilities

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:44:08 +0100

Source: The Sacramento Bee Content: “U-M researchers are calling for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to encourage a more seamless exchange of information between electronic health records and immunization registries. This means the criteria by which doctors’ offices qualify for Meaningful Use incentive payments would include an emphasis on synchronizing electronic health records and [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Premier's QUEST collaborative expands reach

Healthcare IT News — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:14:15 +0100

The Premier healthcare alliance announced this week that its QUEST: High Performing Hospitals collaborative has expanded from 157 charter members to include 293 hospitals across 40 states -- an 87 percent increase in participation. Election Feature Content: No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

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Elsevier's SimChart integrates EHR training and practice into nursing education curriculum

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:01:16 +0100

Elsevier, the leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today the availability of SimChart, an educational simulated electronic health record (EHR) system designed for nursing students. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

Electronic Health Records Face Rapidly Changing Technology

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:21:24 +0100

Source: Raymond Rendleman, The Lund Report Content: “Technology is changing so quickly that state officials and advocates overseeing more streamlined transfers of health information in Oregon are scrambling to keep up. 2010 may not seem like that long ago, but from the perspective of a computer, it’s already the Stone Age. That was the year that [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

SIM-EHR (Simulated EHR): A Virtual Case-based Educational Tool (Fran E Biagioli MD)

Family Medicine Digital Resources Library (FMDRL) Recently Uploaded — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Slide set for the Simulated Electronic Health Record Seminar for the Medical Student Education STFM conference in Long Beach California, 2012. (Source: Family Medicine Digital Resources Library (FMDRL) Recently Uploaded)

New primary care model in the making in New Orleans

Healthcare IT News — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:40:28 +0100

The Crescent City Beacon Community will get assistance to strengthen the New Orleans healthcare infrastructure and health IT to improve care coordination and population health in 18 participating practices, including community health centers. Election Feature Content: No sticky read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Improving Electronic Health Records Retrieval Using Contexts

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:06:48 +0100

Source: Prados-Suárez B et al, Expert Systems with Applications, 2012 Content: This paper aims to solve a recently arose problem, related to the access to the Electronic Health Records (EHR) in the Hospitals. Due to the digitalization of the information contained in the medical records, and the growing availability of devices that directly generate digital [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Translating standards into practice: Experience and lessons learned at the Department of Veterans Affairs

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:54:26 +0100

Source: Bouhaddou O et al, Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 2012 Content: The increased need for interoperable electronic health records in health care organizations underscores the importance of standards. The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a long history of developing and adopting various types of health care data standards. The authors present in detail [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Caduceus Software Systems Corp. plans to integrate a cloud platform with its software systems

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:24:45 +0100

Caduceus Software Systems Corp. (OTCBB:CSOC) - (The Company), is pleased to inform the public of some of its current project and software undertakings. The Company's flagship product, Caduceus MMS version 1.0, is an all-in-one software solution for medical offices which practitioners and medical clerks can use to manage patient bookings, patient private diagnoses and data (also known as Electronic Health Records, or EHR), and process billing (also known as Electronic Medical Billing, or EMB). read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

10 Most read articles week 29 January 2012

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:08:34 +0100

Source: Lodewijk Bos, ICMCC Content: Electronic health record goes personal world-wide Natural language processing in EMRs can improve disease tracking 2012: Go Big (Data) or Go Home Study: Diagnostic imaging on iPads twice as slow Blog post: Dr. Watson, what made me sick? Healthcare technology: A competitive advantage in improving the patient experience How changing patient workflow can make [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Why patients with implantable defibrillators deserve their data

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:43:49 +0100

The objective of Measure 12/15 of Meaningful Use regulations of the HITECH act which refer to electronic health records, [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Cloud-based EHRs raise data rights questions

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:20:44 +0100

Source: Marla Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR Content: “With cloud-based electronic health record systems becoming more popular, providers should carefully read their vendor contracts regarding their rights and use of their patients’ data, according to American Medical News. Gerard Nussbaum, director of technology services for the global management consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates, tells amednews that since the [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Mostashari expects big year ahead for data exchange

Healthcare IT News — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:57:38 +0100

Health information exchange will ramp up significantly in 2012 because the necessary elements of interoperability will be in place, ONC chief Farzad Mostashari, told the Health IT Policy Committee at a meeting Feb. 1. The health information exchange strategy means finally bringing together the standards, identity authentication certificates, governance for rules of the road, and the availability of directories or digital provider phone books. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

What Do I Do With My Paper Chart? — The Middle of the Road Makes the Most Sense

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:00:43 +0100

Source: Seth Flam, Becker's Orthopedic, Spine & Pain Management Content: “Many healthcare providers who are transitioning from paper charts to electronic health records need help understanding how to work with the paper charts they built over their many years in practice. There are three general approaches.” Article Seth Flam, Becker’s Orthopedic, Spine & Pain Management, 2 February [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Can Greenway Medical Keep Up The Momentum After Its IPO?

Forbes.com Health News — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:54:45 +0100

Greenway Medical Technologies, a seller of electronic health records, got off to a bumpy start when its bankers re-priced last minute its IPO price downward to $10 from an original range of $11 to $13 a share. It closed today at $13, up 30%?valuing it at three times revenue, in line with competitors such as ... (Source: Forbes.com Health News)

US hospital deploys acute care electronic health record solution

Hospital Management — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

NorthCrest Medical Center in Springfield, Tennessee, US, has chosen Allscripts's Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM), an acute care electronic health record (EHR) solution, to help boost the facility. (Source: Hospital Management)

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AMA, AHIMA at odds on ICD-10

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:01:04 +0100

While the American Medical Association (AMA) is calling for a halt to ICD-10, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is countering by urging all to stay the course toward the Oct. 1, 2013 deadline. In the letter sent Thursday to Department of Health and Humans Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius., AMA CEO James Madara, MD urged HHS “to make good on its commitment to improve the regulatory climate for physicians.” read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

FairWarning announces 2011 milestones

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:43:27 +0100

FairWarning, supplier of cross-platform healthcare privacy auditing solutions for EHRs, has announced its 2011 milestones. FairWarning solutions are now in use in over 800 hospitals and 2,500 clinics across the U.K., United States, Canada and France. NHS Scotland selected FairWarning for every board throughout Scotland as well as privacy protection for the country’s HIE and Emergency Care Summary. HCA International, London’s top private hospital group, has chosen FairWarning Privacy Breach Detection to enhance patient privacy. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Anthelio, Healthland to help bring EHRs to rural hospitals

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:09:12 +0100

Anthelio has partnered with Healthland, which implements technology in rural community and critical access hospitals, to help migrate Healthland clients to its new Centriq EHR. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Greater Houston HIE changes name, hires new leader

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:53:19 +0100

Greater Houston Healthconnect, formerly known as Greater Houston Health Information Exchange, has named James Langabeer president and CEO, Langabeer will lead the organization's overall strategy and direction and examine new growth opportunities. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Premier, Verisk Health offer hospitals data for care improvement

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:49:38 +0100

The Premier healthcare alliance has joined with Verisk Health, which develops risk assessment and decision analytics technology, to offer data to hospitals and health systems meant to help better measure the health of their communities and develop new care models. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

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Healthcare technology stocks poised for modest growth

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:37:48 +0100

Healthcare technology stocks don’t have the obvious roadblocks facing many other healthcare sectors in 2012, according to industry analysts who spoke to an audience of 600 at the Nashville Health Care Council on Feb. 1. Unlike many healthcare niches, health IT companies have favorable tailwinds, such as the continuing push for ICD-10 conversion. But the analysts emphasized that the industry overall is poised for modest growth at best. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Balancing Patient Interaction, EHR Use at Your Medical Practice

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:28:43 +0100

Source: Ericka L. Adler, Physicians Practice Content: “When I interact with my clients concerning EHRs, it’s typically on issues concerning integration or cost. As a health lawyer, I understand the privacy and technological benefits that EHRs promise to bring to a medical practice. In addition to being a lawyer, however, I am also occasionally a [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Greenway set for IPO

Healthcare IT News — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:57:17 +0100

Facebook's expected IPO filing may be the talk of Wall Street this week, but electronic health records and practice management firm Greenway Medical Technologies is set to make some waves of its own with an $80 million initial public offering set for Thursday. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

How adopting an EHR is like treating cancer

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:44:55 +0100

Source: Margalit Gur-Arie, KevinMD Content: “EHRs are not ready for prime time. EHR benefits are questionable and there are documented instances where patients’ deaths were directly attributed to an EHR. EHRs are cumbersome and slow. They are unnecessarily complex and built on very old technology. The people who build EHRs have no concern for the [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

A National Universal Health Record (UHR) Database – Doable Any Time Soon?

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:23:29 +0100

Source: Priya Ramachandran, EMR and EHR Content: “And while it’s easy for me to write a smart alecky blog post about the infeasibility of the mammoth database idea, I shudder when I think of what we have now: disjoint EHRs that don’t “speak” to one another, walled gardens and proprietary ownership of data that pretty [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Toward a "Learning Health System:" Following the Data into New Future for Healthcare: 02.20, 8:45-9:45am

CMIO.net: The News Weekly for Health IT Executives — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:23:36 +0100

Opening Keynote: As "meaningful use" continues to drive the increased utilization of EHRs, many observers believe the biggest impact will be felt from the use of EHR data for purposes other than direct patient care: what is often called "secondary use" of data. The promise is enormous to achieve what has been called a "learning health system" for the U.S. Where is this headed in the future and what are the emerging fields and uses? (Source: CMIO.net: The News Weekly for Health IT Executives)

College of GPs raises number of issues yet to be addressed in PCEHR legislation

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Media Releases — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0100

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has provided formal comment on the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records Bill 2011 and the associated Consequential Amendments. (Source: Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Media Releases)

Information technologies and patient safety.

The Surgical Clinics of North America — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Authors: Ellner SJ, Joyner PW Abstract Advances in health information technology provide significant opportunities for improvements in surgical patient safety. The adoption and use of electronic health records can enhance communication along the surgical spectrum of care. Bar coding and radiofrequency identification technology are strategies to prevent retained surgical sponges and for tracking the operating room supply chain. Computerized intraoperative monitoring systems can improve the performance of the operating room team. Automated data registries collect patient information to be analyzed and used for surgical quality improvement. PMID: 22269262 [PubMed - in process] (Source: The Surgical Clinics of North America)

Oregon MDs nab $2.5 million in IT grants

bizjournals.com Health Care:Hospitals headlines — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:28:10 +0100

Oregon’s medical providers collected more than $2.5 million in federal health care grants that helped them install new health record technology systems. So says the Portland Interhospital Physicians Association, which helps local doctors manage their practices. Some 125 state providers have received health care reform funds intended to defray costs of installing and using new electronic health records. The money helped “early adopter” physicians add the new systems that will allow them to meet reform-driven requirements... (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Hospitals headlines)

Do Your Doctors Use EHRs?

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:35:24 +0100

Source: Elinore Boeke, HIMSS News Content: “I recently took my youngest in for a first visit with the new practice, for his 5-year check up. I brought copies of Alex’s immunization and other records from his previous pediatrician, and I traded my insurance card for the familiar clipboard and pages of additional forms to fill [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Natural language processing in EMRs can improve disease tracking

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:09:31 +0100

Source: Jaan Sidorov, KevinMD Content: “Years ago, if you were elderly, had diabetes, high blood pressure, low back pain, needed a yearly flu shot and came to see this electronic health record-enabled physician (now with the nom de plume “Disease Management Care Blog”), you would have had your diabetes, high blood pressure and low back [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

With EHRs, When Seeking Clarity, Begin at the Beginning

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:43:29 +0100

Source: Daniel Essin, Physicians Practice Content: “People have been so anxious to apply computers to healthcare that they have overlooked Lewis Carroll’s sage advice: Begin at the beginning. The problem of losing one’s way as a result of beginning in the middle of a problem is not unique to EHRs as we are reminded by [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Natural Language Processing Improves Identification of Colorectal Cancer Testing in the Electronic Medical Record

Medical Decision Making — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Conclusions. Applying NLP to EHR records detected more CRC tests than either manual chart review or billing records review alone. NLP had better precision but marginally lower recall to identify patients who were due for CRC screening than billing record review. (Source: Medical Decision Making)

Electronic Health Records Could Improve Care for Type 2 Diabetics

Diabetes News from dLife.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:41:45 +0100

January 24, 2012 (Health Behavior News Service) — Use of electronic health records shows promise for improving care and outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes, but still has considerable room for improvement, according to a new study in the journal Health Services Research. read more (Source: Diabetes News from dLife.com)

Aprima Medical Software selects DiagnosisOne to deliver clinical decision support for EHRs

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:11:25 +0100

DiagnosisOne, the clinical decision support and analytics company, today announced that Aprima Medical Software has selected DiagnosisOne to provide clinical decision support (CDS) for its electronic healthcare record (EHR) solution. Through this partnership, the Aprima EHR will seamlessly integrate DiagnosisOne’s smartConsult solution into its CCHIT-certified offerings to deliver real-time, patient-specific alerts at the point of care. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

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With EHRs, When Seeking Clarity, Begin at the Beginning

Physicians Practice — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

When it comes to EHRs, you have to define and classify the problem before starting to build. (Source: Physicians Practice)

Electronic health record goes personal world-wide

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:41:48 +0100

Source: Li YC et al, Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 2009(1) Content: OBJECTIVE Increasing patient demand for convenient access to their own healthcare data has led to more personal use of the Electronic Health Record (EHR). With “consumer empowerment” being an important issue of EHR, we are seeing a more “patient-centric” approach of EHR from countries around [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Bipartisan Policy Center calls for more, better health IT

Healthcare IT News — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:58:17 +0100

A think tank with a healthcare task force chaired by former Senators Tom Daschle, a Democrat, and Bill Frist, MD, a Republican, is advocating for improved and better-used health information technology. Among the group's recommendations is "robust" data exchange. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

5 dos and don'ts of EHR interface design

Healthcare IT News — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:52:27 +0100

Sometimes, small tweaks can make a big difference, and according to Bob Hunchberger, a clinical informaticist for a 500-bed hospital, that couldn’t be truer when it comes to your EHR. Hunchberger suggests five dos and don’ts of EHR interface design. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Announcement of Requirements and Registration for EHR Accessibility Challenge

Federal Register updates via the Rural Assistance Center — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:27:36 +0100

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is challenging multidisciplinary teams to create and test a module or application that makes it easy for disabled consumers to access and interact with the health data stored in their Electronic Health Records (EHRs). (Source: Federal Register updates via the Rural Assistance Center)

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iPad EHR startup DrChrono raises $2.8 million

mobihealthnews — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:24:14 +0100

DrChrono, which offers one of the first electronic health records (EHR) apps built specifically for the iPad, raised $2.8 million this week led by return-backer Yuri Milner, founder of DST Global, with participation from one of Google’s search quality leaders, Matt Cutts. The investment builds on the $650,000 Milner contributed to last summer. A month before that, [...] (Source: mobihealthnews)

‘Opt-in’ will undermine e-health records: AMA

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:12:23 +0100

Source: Chloe Herrick, Computerworld Content: “The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has continued to lobby the government to change its $466.7 million e-health record system to an “opt-out” model, arguing that the current “opt-in” model will undermine the system’s health improvement objectives. In its submission (PDF) to the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) Bill 2011, the [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Report: Electronic health records still need work

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:57:19 +0100

Source: CBS News Content: “America may be a technology-driven nation, but the health care system’s conversion from paper to computerized records needs lots of work to get the bugs out, according to experts who spent months studying the issue. Hospitals and doctors’ offices increasingly are going digital, the Bipartisan Policy Center says in a report being [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Allscripts aligns with M*Modal

CMIO.net: The News Weekly for Health IT Executives — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:27:52 +0100

Health IT vendor Allscripts has entered into a reseller and development partnership with speech recognition developer M*Modal, allowing Allscripts to incorporate M*Modal’s Speech Understanding technology into its EHRs. (Source: CMIO.net: The News Weekly for Health IT Executives)

CMS' Tavenner spotlights innovation

Healthcare IT News — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:17:06 +0100

Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, expressed urgency in pressing forward with the “triple aim” goals of better individual healthcare, better population health and lower costs called for in the health reform law. Speaking Jan. 26 at the Care Innovations Summit in Washington, DC, Tavenner highlighted the work of the CMS Innovation Center. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Allscripts launches contest to battle heart disease with better CDS

Healthcare IT News — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:50:33 +0100

Aiming to develop best practices for treating cardiovascular disease, Allscripts has launched Million Hearts Initiative Clinical Decision Support Challenge that offers a $50,000 prize. The intent is to develop a publicly available resource that accelerates delivery of optimal care through clinical decision support functionality. [See also: Cardiology IT field marked by frustration.] read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Diabetes mellitus risk in rheumatoid arthritis: Reduced incidence with anti–tumor necrosis factor α therapy

Arthritis Care and Research — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:29:21 +0100

ConclusionIn this inception RA cohort, anti‐TNFα use was associated with a 51% reduction in risk of developing diabetes mellitus. (Source: Arthritis Care and Research)

Use EHRs to avoid unnecessary care

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:17:30 +0100

Source: Marla Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR Content: “Electronic health records can do more than identify which patients should be receiving preventive and other additional services. They can also help providers pinpoint who shouldn’t receive care. That’s the upshot of a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. The researchers studied EHR data [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Use of electronic health record data to evaluate overuse of cervical cancer screening

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:12:36 +0100

Source: Mathias JS et al, J Am Med Inform Assoc, 2012 Content: Background National organizations historically focused on increasing use of effective services are now attempting to identify and discourage use of low-value services. Electronic health records (EHRs) could be used to measure use of low-value services, but few studies have examined this. The aim of [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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How HIEs are Evolving in 2012

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:59:16 +0100

Source: Robert Rowley, EHR Bloggers Content: “The idea has been that these HIEs would knit different ambulatory practices together, giving physicians using disparate Electronic Health Records systems a common place to exchange clinical data with each other – at first, it would simply be the summary data (problem lists, medication lists, allergies, immunizations, and lab [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

2-Year Study Finds Gardasil Does Not Trigger Autoimmune Conditions After Vaccination

Health News from Medical News Today — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0100

Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that is now recommended for male and female adolescents and young adults, does not trigger autoimmune conditions such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes or multiple sclerosis after vaccination in young women, according to a new study in the Journal of Internal Medicine. Kaiser Permanente researchers used electronic health records to conduct an observational safety study of 189,629 females aged 9 to 26 years old in California who were followed for six months after receiving each dose of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine in 2006-2008... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Automating classification of free-text electronic health records for epidemiological studies

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:53:23 +0100

Source: Schuemie MJ et al, Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, 2012 Content: PURPOSE: Increasingly, patient information is stored in electronic medical records, which could be reused for research. Often these records comprise unstructured narrative data, which are cumbersome to analyze. The authors investigated whether text mining can make these data suitable for epidemiological studies and compared a [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

M*Modal to integrate speech understanding in Merge technology

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:49:10 +0100

M*Modal has partnered with Chicago-based Merge Healthcare to integrate its speech recognition and natural language understanding (NLU) technology across Merge’s portfolio of imaging and IT offerings. Through this partnership, M*Modal, which also develops clinical documentation workflow technology, seeks to help Merge clients achieve meaningful use and contextual narrative capture. [See also: Speech recognition market poised for growth.] read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

ONC puts spotlight on mobile security

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:51:18 +0100

ONC's Office of the Chief Privacy Officer (OCPO) recently launched a Privacy & Security Mobile Device project, and is at work achieving its stated goals. The project aims to develop an effective and practical way to bring awareness and understanding to those in the clinical sector, helping them better secure and protect health information while using mobile devices, such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

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Legal Regulations on Electronic Health Records: A Prerequisite or an Unavoidable By-Product? – The Legal Aspects of Electronic Health Records in Europe and the US Analysed

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:44:42 +0100

Source: Dumortier J, Verhenneman G. SSRN, 2011 Content: This chapter critically analyzes the legal and regulatory framework for Electronic Health Records in Europe and the US. At both parts of the world, the development of EHRs is evolving quickly, but many different approaches have proven possible. Different approaches resulted in different EHR solutions and different [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Texans Tops in Meaningful Use

Blogged_Arteries — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0100

More Texas physicians are meeting federal meaningful use criteria in adopting electronic health records (EHRs) than in any other state, according to an analysis of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data by the Institute for Health Technology Transformation. (Source: Blogged_Arteries)

Electronic Health Records Could Improve Care for Type 2 Diabetics

Health Behavior News Service — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:25:01 +0100

01/24/2012, Health Services Research, Use of electronic health records shows promise for improving care and outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes, but still has considerable room for improvement, according to a new study in the journal Health Services Research. (Source: Health Behavior News Service)

CYP2C19 and Clopidogrel Response: More Than Validation in the Real World.

Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:24:11 +0100

Authors: Shuldiner AR Abstract Electronic health records (EHRs) coupled to DNA biobanks are potentially powerful but untested resources for pharmacogenomic discoveries. As described in this issue, Delaney and co-workers validated the use of EHRs by demonstrating that loss-of-function CYP2C19*2 was associated with poorer cardiovascular outcomes in clopidogrel-treated patients with an effect size similar to that reported in more controlled clinical trials. Whether studies from real-world EHR-biobanks will supplant randomized clinical trials to provide a sufficient evidence base to change practice is less certain. PMID: 22261685 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics)

Call for new records standards body

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:36:32 +0100

Source: Rebecca Todd, e-Health Insider Acute Content: “Health and social care organisations have called for a new body to be set up to develop clinical record standards to support the development of electronic health records. A joint working group, set up at request of the Department of Health, published a report yesterday, arguing that a Professional [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Contest aims to inspire students to create healthcare apps

Healthcare IT News — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:59:40 +0100

The Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering has launched a contest to spur undergraduate and graduate students to create health-related apps. The prize for the winning team: $10,000. Students pursuing degrees toward careers in health, engineering and computer science could earn a distinctive addition to their resumes by participating in the "Go Viral to Improve Health" contest, officials say. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Electronic Health Records Could Improve Care for Type 2 Diabetics

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:58:12 +0100

Source: Christen Brownlee, Health Behavior News Service Content: “Use of electronic health records shows promise for improving care and outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes, but still has considerable room for improvement, according to a new study in the journal Health Services Research. With the U.S Department of Health and Human Services currently offering incentives [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

The Effectiveness of Implementing an Electronic Health Record on Diabetes Care and Outcomes

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:30:40 +0100

Source: Herrin J et al, Health Services Research, 2012 Content: Objective To assess the impact of electronic health record (EHR) implementation on primary care diabetes care. Data Sources Charts were abstracted semi-annually for 14,051 diabetes patients seen in 34 primary care practices in a large, fee-for-service network from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2010. The study sample [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Risk Assessments: An Encryption Driver

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:07:44 +0100

Source: Howard Anderson, Healthcare Info Security Content: “One reason why encryption is not more broadly used in healthcare is that so many organizations lack an updated risk assessment that identifies the role the technology can play in improving security, says attorney Amy Leopard. As a result, the HITECH Act’s electronic health record incentive program could prove [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Kern Medical Center awarded federal funds for meaningful use of OpenVista EHR

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:03:53 +0100

Medsphere Systems Corporation and Kern Medical Center today announced that Kern has met the requirements for Stage One Meaningful Use with Medsphere’s OpenVista system, the enabling electronic health record (EHR), and has received more than $5 million in initial reimbursement from the federal government. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

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Poll of the Week – How Patients React to EHRs

Physicians Practice — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Practice Notes blogger and family physician J. Scott Litton, Jr., recently wrote about how his practice improves patient care through technology. (Source: Physicians Practice)

Automating classification of free‐text electronic health records for epidemiological studies

Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

ConclusionsAlthough a training set still needs to be created manually, text mining can help reduce the amount of manual work needed to incorporate narrative data in an epidemiological study and will make the data extraction more reproducible. An advantage of machine learning is that it is able to pick up specific language use, such as abbreviations and synonyms used by physicians. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (Source: Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety)

Notifications Received by Primary Care Practitioners in Electronic Health Records: A Taxonomy and Time Analysis

The American Journal of Medicine — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:45:00 +0100

Conclusions: PCPs receive a large number of EHR-based asynchronous alerts daily and spend significant time processing them. The utility of transmitting large quantities and varieties of alerts to PCPs warrants further investigation. (Source: The American Journal of Medicine)

10 health IT wishes for 2012

Healthcare IT News — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:45:29 +0100

It’s easy to make predictions about health IT for the year to come, but what if someone asked what your IT wishes were for 2012? What would you like to see happen most in the health IT space? We asked Wendy Whittington, MD, a practicing pediatrician and chief medical officer of Anthelio Healthcare Solutions, to list her top 10 IT wishes for 2012. From interoperability to telehealth, Whittington outlined what she, and most of her peers, would hope to see come true during the upcoming year. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Ruby Implementation of the OpenEHR Specifications

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:19:48 +0100

Source: Kobayashi S, Tatsukawa A. Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics, 16(1) Content: The openEHR project has developed specifications for future-proof interoperable Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. This project provides the specifications and implementation on which the ISO/CEN 13606 standards are based. The implementation has been formally described in Eiffel, C# and Java, but not [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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ehealth: just what the doctor ordered

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:56:46 +0100

Source: Eleri Harris, ABC Content: “All around the country GPs are connecting with their local hospitals and beyond through a brand new an electronic health records system. The Australian Government is spending $465 million to create a national personally controlled electronic health records system starting with twelve projects.” Article Eleri Harris, ABC, 23 January 2012 (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

PCORI seeks comments on agenda

Healthcare IT News — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:31:54 +0100

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has released for public comment a first draft of its national priorities for research and research agenda. The research requires the use of electronic health records, much in the way accountable care organizations use health data to improve care. The outcomes are conveyed to physicians electronically. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Increasing efficacy of primary care-based counseling for diabetes prevention: Rationale and design of the ADAPT (Avoiding Diabetes Thru Action Plan Targeting) trial

Implementation Science — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Conclusions: The ADAPT system combines the influential powers of shared goal setting and feedback, tailoring, modeling, contracting, reminders, and social comparisons to integrate evidence-based behavior-change principles into the electronic health record to maximize provider counseling efficacy during routine primary care clinical encounters. If successful, the ADAPT system may represent an adaptable and scalable technology-enabled behavior-change tool for all primary care providers.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01473654 (Source: Implementation Science)

E-health record project proves its worth

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:44:14 +0100

Source: Nick Gardiner, The Recorder and Times Content: “Instead of days or even weeks, it took mere minutes to send medical records from Brockville General Hospital to local healthcare providers under a pilot project testing the benefits of electronic health records. More than 12,000 records were shipped electronically during a six-month pilot project involving the Ottawa [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Veterans Affairs will host electronic health records in DISA data centers

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:23:36 +0100

Source: Bob Brewin, NextGov Content: “The Veterans Affairs Department will start to move data center operations that support its Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) electronic health records to data centers operated by the Defense Information Systems Agency in March. Officials expect to complete the transition in slightly more than a year, VA [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Shifts in the architecture of the Nationwide Health Information Network.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Authors: Lenert L, Sundwall D, Lenert ME Abstract In the midst of a US $30 billion USD investment in the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) and electronic health records systems, a significant change in the architecture of the NwHIN is taking place. Prior to 2010, the focus of information exchange in the NwHIN was the Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO). Since 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has been sponsoring policies that promote an internet-like architecture that encourages point to-point information exchange and private health information exchange networks. The net effect of these activities is to undercut the limited business model for RHIOs, decreasing the likelihood of their success, while making the NwHIN dependent on nascent techn...

Informatics Competence in the EHR Era

Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:23:54 +0100

WHAT ARE YOU looking forward to in 2014? For the informatics and information technology (IT) world, 2014 is the year in which all Americans are required to have an electronic health record (EHR). It will ideally mark the end of the paper health record and the beginning of the full digitization of the health care system. As many clinical agencies transition to EHRs or upgrade their current systems, perhaps the better question is, “will you be ready?” (Source: Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing)

Add electronic dental records to list of health IT failures

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:32:59 +0100

Source: D. Kellus Pruitt, SearchHealthIT Content: “Years before Newt Gingrich distanced himself from his lobbying for electronic health records (EHRs) on behalf of paying members of his Center for Health Transformation think tank, he penned what would become a popular mantra for other health IT stakeholders as well: “Paper kills.” I wonder how long ago [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Myca Health focuses on improving efficiency of primary care with latest release of Hello Health®

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:33:12 +0100

Myca Health Inc. announced today the release of version 5.0 of its cloud-based Hello Health® Patient Management solution for primary care practices. The platform connects patients and their primary care physician through an integrated electronic health record, online patient portal and a suite of secure, web-based communication tools. Hello Health version 5.0 is Surescripts® certified for prescription routing among many new features designed to streamline workflow for primary care physicians and their staff. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

5 ways to make your EMR more user-friendly

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:39:12 +0100

One of the biggest objections to the adoption of an EMR is its usability (or lack thereof), which is no surprise considering the ease of its predecessor: paper. Thankfully, there are a few ways to make your system not only more bearable, but significantly easier to use. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

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The RN And The EHR – Better Together

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:06:16 +0100

Source: Medical News Today Content: “With the prodding of new federal legislation, electronic health records (EHRs) are rapidly becoming part of the daily practice of hospital nurses – the frontline providers of care. In the first large study of its kind, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing determined that nurses working with [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

AHIMA member named deputy secretary of California's HIE

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:39:32 +0100

The California Health and Human Services Agency has named Pamela Lane to be deputy secretary of the state’s health information exchange. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) praised the appointment, saying that, as an active member of AHIMA for 25 years, Lane is passionate about advancing the health information profession. [See also: Public-private partners launch EHR demo.] read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

States put tech to work on Medicaid enrollment

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:23:44 +0100

More than half of states expanded and simplified their Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs’ eligibility, enrollment and renewal procedures in 2011, often using technology to streamline and automate processes. That efficiency helped states to continue their coverage for low-income adults and children at the same level as the previous year. Enhanced federal funding drove many states to begin major development work to modernize decades-old eligibility and enrollment systems. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

The RN And The EHR - Better Together

Health News from Medical News Today — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0100

With the prodding of new federal legislation, electronic health records (EHRs) are rapidly becoming part of the daily practice of hospital nurses - the frontline providers of care. In the first large study of its kind, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing determined that nurses working with EHRs consistently reported more improvements to nursing care and better health outcomes for patients than nurses working in hospitals without this technology... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Inside a Critical Access Hospital's IT Decision - Making Process

News stories via the Rural Assistance Center — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0100

HealthLeaders Media article tells how the president and CEO of Ellenville Regional Hospital in Ellenville, NY, went about choosing an electronic health record (EHR) vendor for his small critical access hospital. (Source: News stories via the Rural Assistance Center)

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Electronic health record-based surveillance of diagnostic errors in primary care

Quality and Safety in Health Care — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Conclusions While physician agreement on diagnostic error remains low, an EHR-facilitated surveillance methodology could be useful for gaining insight into the origin of these errors. (Source: Quality and Safety in Health Care)

Use of electronic health record data to evaluate overuse of cervical cancer screening.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

ConclusionSecondary analysis of EHR data can accurately measure the use of low-value services such as Pap testing performed sooner than recommended in women at low risk of cervical cancer. Similar application of our methodology could facilitate efforts to simultaneously improve quality and decrease costs, maximizing value in the US healthcare system. PMID: 22268215 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association)

US hospital installs QuadraMed identity management solutions

Hospital Management — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Westchester Medical Center in New York has installed QuadraMed's identity management solutions as part of an enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR) implementation. (Source: Hospital Management)

Teaming up to make meaningful use of electronic health records

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:15:07 +0100

Source: Redstone K. CMAJ, 2012 Content: As many a Canadian doctor has discovered, negotiating the circuitry of electronic health records can be a mind-numbing challenge. Some, like Ottawa physician Dr. Heath Alsaffar, call it “a colossal headache” that often leaves doctors who take the electronic plunge mired in myriad issues of cost and connectivity (www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.109-3929 and [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

The Effectiveness of Implementing an Electronic Health Record on Diabetes Care and Outcomes

Health Services Research — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:46:45 +0100

ConclusionImplementation of a commercially available EHR in primary care practice may improve diabetes care and clinical outcomes. (Source: Health Services Research)

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Factors associated with difficult electronic health record implementation in office practice

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:44:00 +0100

Amazing Charts EHR sweeps user satisfaction surveys in 2011

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:58:02 +0100

For an unprecedented third time in a single year, Amazing Charts has been honored as the best Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for small practices. Most recently, Amazing Charts was ranked number one in the category of Ambulatory EMR (1-10 Physicians) in the 2011 Best in KLAS Awards: Software and Services. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

Oregon is national leader in EHR adoption

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:44:02 +0100

In a state where technology is dominant – Oregon health care providers are rapidly adopting EHRs and advancing both state and national health reform initiatives. In December of 2011, OCHIN O-HITEC reported that they'd surpassed the goal of their 2009 federal grant award by signing on more than 2700 Oregon primary care providers to receive help selecting, implementing and effectively using EHR technology to improve patient care and reduce costs. This ranks O-HITEC in the top 10 out of 62 regional extension centers in the nation. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

3 ways social media is transforming the doctor-patient relationship

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:11:06 +0100

Source: Chris Foster, Government Health IT Content: “Much like other advances in health information technology (HIT) such as electronic health records and telemedicine, social media is changing how doctors and patients interact. Social media empowers patients to seek out information, make more informed decisions, and partner with their health care providers on managing their care. Historically, [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Electronic health records a privacy threat?

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:54:14 +0100

Source: Nina Moini, NBC2 Content: “Medical charts at local hospitals are going paperless. The new system will streamline patient information and will save money, but will the records be secure? Lee Memorial Health System Chief Information Officer Mike Smith said the system is implementing a program called Epic to streamline patient information into an online database.” Article Nina [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Oregon is National Leader in Electronic Health Record Adoption

News stories via the Rural Assistance Center — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:00:00 +0100

MarketWatch article reports that over 2700 individual Oregon primary care providers are participating in a federal grant to help them purchase and more effectively use their Electronic Health Record to improve patient care and advance health reform. (Source: News stories via the Rural Assistance Center)

Failure to Correct International Normalized Ratio and Mortality Among Patients with Warfarin‐Related Major Bleeding: an Analysis of Electronic Health Records

Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Conclusions: Among the subgroup of major bleeding patients with warfarin‐associated ICH, those not correcting to either INR of ≤1.3 or INR of ≤1.5 with the use of FFP have an increased rate of mortality at 30 days. (Source: Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis)

Compulink sends out EHR incentive checks

Modern Medicine — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:35:51 +0100

Compulink Business Systems Inc. has announced that some of its clients are among the eligible professionals who have received incentive payments for the first year of the federal electronic health record program. Clients include providers in Compulink’s optometry and ophthalmology businesses. (Source: Modern Medicine)

Electronic health records, clinical decision support mitigate BP control disparities

MedWire News - Cardiology — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0100

US researchers say that primary care implementation of electronic health records with clinical decision support could mitigate blood pressure control disparities between White and Black patients. (Source: MedWire News - Cardiology)

Electronic Health Records and the challenge of Unstructured Data

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:58:50 +0100

Source: Sheldon Needle, Medical Software Guides Content: “The real problem of an established medical practice moving into the realm of EHR is not the cost of the medical software package; it is not the training necessary for staff; and it is not security and backups. The real problem of moving into EMR/EHR is the problem of [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

ICA joins NYeC workgroup to help develop connectivity standards

Healthcare IT News — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:44:01 +0100

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), which develops health information exchange technology, has joined the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), a public-private multi-state working group of vendors and state officials, to help develop specs for “plug and play” connectivity between EHRs and HIEs. Originally led by New York, the expanded workgroup now includes federally designated counterparts in California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Oregon – representing approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Thomson Reuters names top hospitals

Healthcare IT News — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:40:27 +0100

The top healthcare systems in the United States have lower 30-day mortality rates finds Thomson Reuters’ fourth annual study naming the top 15 health systems in the country. The measures used to score the top systems are underpinned by health information technology. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Gingrich: Early backer of healthcare IT

Healthcare IT News — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:52:44 +0100

Newt Gingrich, the self-proclaimed "big ideas candidate," still in the running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, has a history with Healthcare IT News. It goes back to November 2003, and the inaugural issue of MedTech Media’s flagship publication. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

Better together - The RN and the EHR

EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

(University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing) With the prodding of new federal legislation, electronic health records (EHRs) are rapidly becoming part of the daily practice of hospital nurses - the frontline providers of care. In the first large study of its kind, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing determined that nurses working with EHRs consistently reported more improvements to nursing care and better health outcomes for patients than nurses working in hospitals without this technology. (Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science)

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Technical desiderata for the integration of genomic data into Electronic Health Records

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:43:49 +0100

Source: Masys DR et al, Journal of Biomedical Informatics, 2011 Content: The era of “Personalized Medicine,” guided by individual molecular variation in DNA, RNA, expressed proteins and other forms of high volume molecular data brings new requirements and challenges to the design and implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). In this article we describe the [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Centralized electronic health records benefit emergency medicine

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:37:30 +0100

Source: Hoechsmann A. CMAJ, 184(1) Content: Citing British government reports that recommend abandoning their centralized electronic health records (EHRs) project, Paul Christopher Webster continues his assertion that Canada Health Infoway’s vision of a centralized national health database is “not feasible.” However, focusing on the failures of EHRs may lead people to believe that all enterprise [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Pondering the Justification for the Federal HIT Push of EHRs

Physicians Practice — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

The real question is whether today’s EHRs represent improving healthcare through technology. (Source: Physicians Practice)

Initial and subsequent therapy for newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients treated in primary care using data from a vendor‐based electronic health record

Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

ConclusionsClinical and demographic characteristics influence choice and duration of initial oral hypoglycemic treatment as well as regimen changes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (Source: Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety)

The risk of overall mortality in patients with Type 2 diabetes receiving different combinations of sulfonylureas and metformin: a retrospective analysis

Diabetic Medicine — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Conclusions: Our results did not identify an increased mortality risk among the different combinations of sulfonylureas and metformin, suggesting that overall mortality is not substantially influenced by the choice of sulfonylurea.© 2012 The Authors. Diabetic Medicine © 2012 Diabetes UK (Source: Diabetic Medicine)

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Validity of electronic health record-derived quality measurement for performance monitoring.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

ConclusionThis study provides a cautionary note in using EHR-derived measurement for public reporting of provider performance or use for payment. PMID: 22249967 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association)

Factors associated with difficult electronic health record implementation in office practice.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

This study identified factors related to the perceived difficulty of implementing EHR. 163 physicians completed surveys before and after the implementation of EHR in an externally funded pilot program in three Massachusetts communities. Ordinal hierarchical logistic regression was used to identify baseline factors that correlated with physicians' report of difficulty with EHR implementation. Compared with physicians with ownership stake in their practices, physician employees were less likely to describe EHR implementation as difficult (adjusted OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.3 to 1.0). Physicians who perceived their staff to be innovative were also less likely to view EHR implementation as difficult (adjusted OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.8). Physicians who own their practice may need more external support f...

Teaming up to make meaningful use of electronic health records.

cmaj — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Authors: Redstone K PMID: 22249989 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: cmaj)

Parents want to see health files

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:57:21 +0100

Source: Andrew Tillett, The West Australian Content: “A family group has attacked plans to allow children as young as 14 to stop their parents from accessing their personal electronic health records. Patients will be given the option of signing up for the electronic records from July in one of the Gillard Government’s key health reforms.” Article Andrew Tillett, [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Teens to control own e-health records

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:56:11 +0100

Source: Peter Jean, The Canberra Times Content: “Teenagers will be able to stop their parents accessing their personally controlled electronic health records which are due this year. Under a Bill before Parliament, Australians could voluntarily sign up for personally controlled electronic health records that would contain clinical information entered by health-care providers such as medical history, [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

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Digitizing Health Records, Before It Was Cool

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:48:35 +0100

Source: Milt Freudenheim, New York Times Content: “The push to move the nation from paper to electronic health records is serious business. That’s why a first look at the campus of Epic Systems comes as something of a jolt. A treehouse for meetings? A two-story spiral slide just for fun? What’s that big statue of the [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

EHRs Linked to Errors, Harm, AMA Says

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:58:27 +0100

Source: Ken Terry, InformationWeek Content: “A new AMA report on patient safety in ambulatory care finds that safety problems are widespread but that little is known about which problems cause the most harm. Among the uncertainties cited by the AMA researchers is the contribution of electronic health records (EHRs) to patient safety. “The use of electronic [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Epic Systems, Digitizing Health Records Before It Was Cool

NYT Health — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:58:45 +0100

In the growing business of electronic medical records, Epic Systems is far from a newcomer: it started more than 30 years ago, and now helps keep track of 40 million patients. (Source: NYT Health)

Digitizing Health Records, Before It Was Cool

RWJF News Digest - Quality/Equality — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

The push to move the nation from paper to electronic health records is serious business. (Source: RWJF News Digest - Quality/Equality)

Enhancing Image Analytic Tools by Fusing Quantitative Physiological Values with Image Features

Journal of Digital Imaging — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:56:39 +0100

Abstract Computer-aided diagnosis systems (CADs) can quantify the severity of diseases by analyzing a set of images and employing prior statistical models. In general, CADs have proven to be effective at providing quantitative measurements of the extent of a particular disease, thus helping physicians to better monitor the progression of cancer, infectious diseases, and other health conditions. Electronic Health Records frequently include a large amount of clinical data and medical history that can provide critical information about the underlying condition of a patient. We hypothesize that the fusion of image and clinical–physiological features can be used to enhance the accuracy of automatic image classification models. In particular, this paper shows how image analyti...

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North Hawaii at work on HIE

Healthcare IT News — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:39:59 +0100

Hawaii Island Beacon Community has awarded a $680,000 contract to North Hawaii Community Hospital (NHCH) to implement a health information exchange throughout the North Hawaii region. Implementation has begun and will continue through 2012. The HIE, which is expected to serve more than 32,000 patients, is the first step toward island-wide data exchange, officials say. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

New analytics technology zeros in on potential heart failure

Healthcare IT News — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:15:58 +0100

Humedica, a clinical analytics company, has introduced a new predictive analytic model to identify patients at high-risk for a congestive heart failure (CHF) hospitalization. Humedica executives say it can help reduce hospital admissions among the sickest, most costly patients in the country. Developed with clinical data pulled directly from the electronic medical record, the Humedica system is more accurate and more quickly than other predictive analytic tools that are based upon claims-based risk predictors, the company claims. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

CareCloud enters EHR market, unveils complete ONC-ATCB meaningful use certification

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:59:21 +0100

Today, cloud-based healthcare solution provider CareCloud announced its official entrance into the electronic health record (EHR) market. CareCloud Charts' breakthrough user interface is a revolutionary approach to maintaining and sharing patient medical information across the continuum of care while accelerating, rather than hindering, clinical workflow. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

Designing a more user-friendly patient portal

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:00:27 +0100

Source: Marla Durben Hirsch, FierceEMR Content: “With an increased emphasis on patient access to their own health data, electronic health system vendors are offering patient portals to their offerings, according to an article published by the Healthcare Billing Management Association (HBMA). Patient portals play an important role for electronic health records, according to the article. They [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Voice recognition supports French-speaking providers in Canada

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:59:31 +0100

Nuance Communications has expanded the availability of its real-time medical voice recognition soltuion, Dragon Medical, to French-speaking providers in Canada. Thousands of providers will now be able to conveniently and efficiently create medical notes by speaking. Released in Europe in 2010, Dragon Medical 11 French is a voice-driven clinical documentation tool that allows providers to update patient information without sacrificing time. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

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Employer demand spurs new health IT program

Healthcare IT News — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:30:03 +0100

Career Quest Learning Centers, in Lansing, Mich., has introduced a new Health Information Technology program to meet employer demands for new workers to handle federally mandated electronic health records. Classes begin Feb. 1 at Michigan campuses in Lansing, Jackson and Kalamazoo. The digitizing of patient records across the country is creating new jobs, officials said, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that 35,000 jobs nationwide will be created for employees who will work with and manage patient health records. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News)

e-MDs Physician recognized as leader in implementation of EHRs

Healthcare IT News Press Releases — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:23:49 +0100

e-MDs, the provider of the nation's most highly rated EHR, congratulates Christopher Wenner, MD, for being recognized on Monday, December 5, 2011, by Minnesota's Regional Extension Center for Health Information Technology (REC) for his leadership in the nationwide transition toward electronic health records. Dr. Wenner is one of the first providers in Minnesota to attest to Meaningful Use for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. read more (Source: Healthcare IT News Press Releases)

Report: Health IT can help improve blood pressure care for all racial groups

Cardiovascular Business News — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:22:21 +0100

Researchers investigating racial/ethnic disparities among patients receiving care that utilizes varying degrees of health IT determined healthier overall blood pressure regardless of race for those receiving care from providers using both EHRs and clinical decision support, according to a report published Jan. 9 by the Archives of Internal Medicine. (Source: Cardiovascular Business News)

The effectiveness of a new generation of computerized drug alerts in reducing the risk of injury from drug side effects: a cluster randomized trial.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

ConclusionPatient-specific risk estimates provide an effective method of reducing the risk of injury for high-risk older people.Trial registration numberclinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00818285. PMID: 22246963 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association)

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EHR Implementation: What You Need to Know from A-Z

American Academy of Neurology — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:29:00 +0100

Practice management webinar on February 7 will help you navigate the electronic health record (EHR) selection and implementation process and earn 1.5 CME credits. (Source: American Academy of Neurology)

Ethics of implementing electronic health records in developing countries: points to consider

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:03:55 +0100

Source: Were MC, Meslin EM. AMIA, Annual Symposium Proceedings, 2011 Content: Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs) are increasingly being used in many developing countries, several of which have moved beyond isolated pilot projects to active large-scale implementation as part of their national health strategies. Despite growing enthusiasm for adopting EHRs in resource poor settings, almost [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

EHRs, Genomics Power Personalized Cancer Treatments

ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:34:50 +0100

Source: Neil Versel, InformationWeek Content: “Computer maker Dell is counting on the cloud, analytics, and “big data” to power the future of medicine and make healthcare more personal. The Texas-based hardware giant is putting the infrastructure in place to support electronic health records (EHR) and genomics on the journey from episodic care to coordinated care [...] (Source: ICMCC: The International Council on Medical and Care Compunetics)

Detection of Adverse Drug Reaction Signals Using an Electronic Health Records Database: Comparison of the Laboratory Extreme Abnormality Ratio (CLEAR) Algorithm.

Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:00:00 +0100

Authors: Yoon D, Park MY, Choi NK, Park BJ, Kim JH, Park RW Abstract Electronic health records (EHRs) are expected to be a good source of data for pharmacovigilance. However, current quantitative methods are not applicable to EHR data. We propose a novel quantitative postmarketing surveillance algorithm, the Comparison of Laboratory Extreme Abnormality Ratio (CLEAR), for detecting adverse drug reaction (ADR) signals from EHR data. The methodology involves calculating the odds ratio of laboratory abnormalities between a specific drug-exposed group and a matched unexposed group. Using a 10-year EHR data set, we applied the algorithm to test 470 randomly selected drug-event pairs. It was found possible to analyze a single drug-event pair in just 109 ± 159 seconds. In total, 120 of th...