MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'hit'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:49:55 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5159280&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FTRWtDdOJM_4%2F Lynn Scheps is Vice President, Government Affairs at EHR vendor SRSsoft. In this role, Lynn has been a Voice of Physicians and SRSsoft users in Washington during the formulation of the meaningful use criteria. Lynn is currently working to assist SRSsoft users interested in showing meaningful use and receiving the EHR incentive money. Check out Lynn’s previous Meaningful Use Monday posts. In addition to the Meaningful Use Stage 2 recommendations discussed in last week’s Meaningful Use Monday, the HIT Policy Committee proposed a new framework for the reporting of clinical quality measures that was designed by its specifically-tasked Quality Measure Workgroup. The recommended concept is depicted in the graphic below—the intention is to broaden the scope of reporting to address a wid... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5159280 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:19:08 +0100 5159280 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5139937&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FIJjkpBY92iI%2F Every couple months I like to take a bit of an inventory on EMR and HIPAA along with recognizing new advertisers to the EMR and HIPAA family along. Not to mention send out a big thanks to all those advertisers who have renewed during that time period as well. EMR and HIPAA is still doing more amazing than I ever thought it could. During the slow summer months we’re still averaging about 4500 pageviews per day. In fact, we’re inching ever closer to 5 million pageviews since we first started tracking the stats. I think I might have to celebrate the day we reach that landmark. This will be the 1,139th post on EMR and HIPAA and we’ve had 5,590 comments made. That’s roughly 5 comments per post. So thank you to all those who contribute to the amazing community that exists... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5139937 Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:49:39 +0100 5139937 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130856&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F7izZd7JZcgo%2F Lynn Scheps is Vice President, Government Affairs at EHR vendor SRSsoft. In this role, Lynn has been a Voice of Physicians and SRSsoft users in Washington during the formulation of the meaningful use criteria. Lynn is currently working to assist SRSsoft users interested in showing meaningful use and receiving the EHR incentive money. Check out Lynn’s previous Meaningful Use Monday posts. A few weeks ago, the HIT Policy Committee forwarded its Stage 2 meaningful use recommendations to CMS. CMS is expected to issue a Proposed Rule in early 2012 and the Final Rule in mid-2012.  The first recommendation—intensely debated, but overwhelmingly supported in the end—is to delay the start of Stage 2 until 2014, recognizing the unrealistic time pressure that vendors and providers would fac... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130856 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:43:35 +0100 5130856 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5130857&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FOwSQ9eBjmd0%2F This was a great piece of advice that was given at my Health Tech Next Generation EMR 101 panel. @2healthguru – Gregg Masters We run from EMR vendors w/products that offer lots of free hours of training. Means EMR UI not Intuitive @brandrew0 #HTng11 I’d only clarify that unlimited free support is good, but it’s when they suggest you use a week of that free support that you run. Related posts:Advice for EMR Selection Consultants A recent comment asked me what I thought about this... Advice to Karen Bell, CCHIT Head I previously posted about the new head of CCHIT, Karen... Best Advice for Those Implementing an EMR Since it’s the weekend, I like to open it up... (Source: EMR and HIPAA) EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5130857 Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:41:41 +0100 5130857 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5118749&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FJZhjPfrltFs%2F Great counsel and advice for those still looking at various EHR software (especially specialists) @EMRAnswers Linda Lia Customizable content “offered”, doesn’t mean your specialty is available. Big difference. Ask for a “live” demo. #EMR #HITsm #healthIT EMR implementation in 6 weeks. Hospital EMR people will balk at this. However, it’s possible in the ambulatory setting. I wouldn’t recommend it, but one time I had to do it. @PediatricInc Brandon Betancourt New Post – Going from paper charts to EMR in 6 weeks; a summary http://bit.ly/npmSEH #EMR Everyone hates redundant work. So, this tweet caught my eye: @TheNerdyNurse The Nerdy Nurse In Case You Missed it: : Teetering Between EMR and Paper Charting: Frustration and Duplication – What ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5118749 Mon, 08 Aug 2011 05:21:27 +0100 5118749 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5107647&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2011%2F08%2F05%2Fpreliminary-meaningful-use-details-out%2F Brian Ahier has a great post up that had the presentation and report (embedded below) that CMS provided to the HIT Policy Committee. It has a lot of great information worth talking about. I’m going to embed the presentation and report below and pull out some of the key points in a post later. Let me know what catches your eye. The CMS Meaningful Use Presentation The CMS Meaningful Use Report Related posts:Meaningful Use Mondays – More 90 Day Reporting Period Details As a follow-up to last week’s Meaningful Use Monday, the... Meaningful Use Measures: Electronic Copy of Health Information – Meaningful Use Monday Meaningful Use Core Measure: More than 50% of all patients... Helpful Meaningful Use Resources – Meaningful Use Monday I spend a lot of my day answering questio... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5107647 Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:38:20 +0100 5107647 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5062347&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FVbefN6-mntM%2Fhealth-information-technology-tweeps-to-watch-the-hit100-list.html Michael Planchart, aka @theEHRguy, put out the call last month for nominations to the #HIT100, intended to be a list of key health IT folk engaged in social media.  The crowdsourced #HIT100 list -- Michael tabulated the nominations -- is posted on several blogs, including @nateosit's (linked to above).  Keith Boone (aka @motorcycle_guy put together a twitter list of all #HIT100 nominees.  (Nate and Keith both ended up near the top of this list.) Update 7/25/2011:  Nate reports that Keith's final list is more accurate.  Many folks I interact with on a regular basis on line and in real life are on this list, and I am honored to be included in it as well.  (Check out this photo of Keith wearing a @reginaholliday jacket from The Walking Gallery at the tweetup I organized w @bobcoffield... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5062347 Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:26:38 +0100 5062347 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5062326&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2011%2F07%2F20%2Fwhat-if-they-get-hit-by-a-bus%2F A little while back I asked my wife what she would do with all my blogs if I was hit by the proverbial “bus.” Her answer made me laugh. She said, she’d log into my blogs and post that I had passed away and that if readers of the site would like to support my wife and kids they could do so using the PayPal button below. I guess it’s a good thing I taught my wife how to blog. I hope she never has to post that PayPal button. However, I’ve always loved the question of “what are you going to do if they get hit by a bus?” The “they” can be replaced by all sorts of things. Each organization will have a different set of “they’s”. Remember that the buses can come in all sorts of ways: re-location, new job, injury, illness, chan... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5062326 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:32:37 +0100 5062326 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5028543&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FHhgUwFu7e1U%2F Meaningful Use Core Measure: More than 50% of all patients who request an electronic copy of their health information are provided it within 3 business days. Exclusion: Any EP who receives no requests for this information in electronic format.  This measure is distinguished from  the clinical summary measure, (discussed in the previous Meaningful Use Monday post), in two major ways: 1)      “Electronic copy of health information” covers all health information that the provider has regarding the patient, whereas the “clinical summary” is a snapshot of a particular visit. 2)      This measure is driven by requests made by patients or their agents—electronic access must be provided in response to at least 50% of the specific requests received by a provider. By contrast, ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5028543 Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:18:26 +0100 5028543 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008183&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FbRJcm-h-R3I%2F   mHealth Summit to Highlight Groundbreaking Research Abstracts and Innovative Presentations TOPIC AREAS: RESEARCH: Ground-breaking health research using mobile technologies in clinical medicine and public health outcomes. TECHNOLOGY: Categories that examine the technologies being deployed today while also exploring new technologies currently under development.  BUSINESS: Focus on moving the debate forward by addressing the business models that impact mHealth with a focus on lessons learned, best practices, and the emergence of commercially viable models to scale mHealth globally. POLICY: Showcase of healthcare, technology and investment communities seeking regulatory clarity on wireless medical technologies to accelerate this promising engine of health care innovation The subm... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008183 Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:19:47 +0100 5008183 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934149&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FsAVKosrZ1Iw%2F By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. Over 85% of the world’s population is covered by wireless phone signals. The global proliferation of wireless phones provides a technology platform to move health services to people — broadly referred to as ”mobile health” or “mhealth.” mHealth: New Horizons for health through mobile technologies, the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) second report on mobile health, summarizes a survey of mobile health developments around the world, published in June 2011 based on survey data from 2009 collected in 114 nations. WHO learned that mHealth is most easily deployed into health applications where voice communication via traditional phone networks has been used. Thus, in important applications like surveillance and decision support, mHealth is less like... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934149 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:28:24 +0100 4934149 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4934486&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthCareBlogLaw%2F%7E3%2F3lERUzK0Rz8%2Fjp-morgan-healthcare-conference-hit.html If you follow health information technology and are interested in the future of health care take time and listen to this panel discussion on Innovation Opportunities for the Health Information Technology Market with Eric Schmidt, Chairman of Google, Aneesh Chopra, Federal CTO for the United States, Todd Park, CTO of HHS, and moderated by John Doerr, venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins.The panel discussion was part of the Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference held in January 2011.To start off moderator, John Doerr has the audience rattle off a bunch of great questions for the panel to address. Just listening to the questions will make you want to listen to the panel discussion.Thanks to Susannah Fox and Claudia Williams for tweeting the link. Thanks to Brian Ahier (@Ahier) for posting ... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4934486 Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:01:24 +0100 4934486 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4911482&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fwhy-dont-more-people-use-health-apps-for-iphones-and-droids%2F2011.06.08 I have been musing about why, despite our fascination with gadgets and timesaving devices, so few of us use the apps and tools that have been developed to help us take care of ourselves. The range of options is staggering – my iPhone coughed up 52 applications for medication reminders just now – but most of us don’t make use of the (often free) high-tech help available to us.  There are hundreds of websites and portals to help us monitor our diets, physical activity and blood sugar, talk to our doctors by e-mail and understand our test results.  Apps can help us watch for drug interactions, unravel our test results, adjust our hearing aids and track our symptoms.  Devices can monitor whether our mom is moving around her house this morning or continuously monitor our vital signs. I... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4911482 Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:00:13 +0100 4911482 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4893644&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FSki4I6PoVRM%2Fhipaa-disclosure-accounting-rules-nprm-revisited-per-the-hitech-act.html HIPAA regulations long on the books require that covered entities (i.e. health care providers, payors and clearinghouses) provide patients with accounting of disclosures of their protected health information (PHI) for any purpose other than treatment, payment or health care operations (TPO). The HITECH Act upped the ante, requiring accounting of disclosures of PHI for TPO as well.  Regs implementing this requirement were to be keyed off of the meaningful use regs, and they have now arrived. Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements do not include EHR capability to track PHI disclosures made for TPO purposes (though that capability was in the draft requirement for Stage 1), potentially making the process more manual than it ought to be.  In addition, despite the fact that patients and patient a... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4893644 Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:40:13 +0100 4893644 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883724&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2Fm16_TJ37BMQ%2Fonc-federal-health-it-strategic-plan-comments-filed-on-behalf-of-the-society-for-participatory-medic.html We e-patients are an impatient lot, and therefore we may not be big fans of the Five-Year Plan approach to creating change.  The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT released a draft federal health IT strategic plan in late March, via blog post (the plan itself is linked to from the post; a copy is posted here). The ONC post says: The Plan demonstrates how we will build off the foundation of meaningful use to unlock the power of information to: Enhance our ability to study care delivery and payment systems Empower individuals to improve and participate more in their care Improve care, efficiency, and population health outcomes, through tools such as clinical decision support, real- time feedback of performance to clinicians, and targeted public health campaigns The... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883724 Tue, 31 May 2011 14:01:00 +0100 4883724 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4872200&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FXHjyeLOuL98%2F Every Thursday, the Chicago Tribune’s “Play” section runs a little feature called “Love/Hate.” The paper picks three or four things that readers love and three or four things that readers hate. This week, EMRs entered the picture. This appeared in the “I hate …” category: … being a slave to computer programs to document my care as a nurse. It’s so ridiculously time-consuming. — Sheila Young, Orland Park That must be one terrible EMR—or perhaps a hodgepodge of disconnected legacy systems—if Young not only considers herself a slave to the computer programs, but feels compelled to share her disdain for the technology with a light-hearted feature section of the local newspaper. That’s quite a statement against the quality of t... Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4872200 Fri, 27 May 2011 13:00:23 +0100 4872200 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4794930&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F-ppSubHmvlI%2F Things are rocking and rolling here at EMR and HIPAA and Healthcare Scene. As you have probably seen, I’ve been working really hard to provide a platform for the independent voices in healthcare IT. We currently have 8 blogs in the Healthcare Scene blog network and 3 more in beta that will be announced officially in the next week. If you’ve read this blog, you know that I’m narrowly focused on bringing good information to doctors and practice managers. I sincerely don’t have any particular agendas or hidden motives. My goal is to provide some amount of transparency and quality information to the masses mixed in with some thoughtful commentary on the world of EMR, EHR and Healthcare IT. Hopefully that’s what you see when you read. A couple of the new blogs I&#8... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4794930 Tue, 03 May 2011 17:51:22 +0100 4794930 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4762764&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2F7oPbEF1CU1s%2F By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. “Ward and June Cleaver have left the building,” observe analysts at Nielsen. “The white, two-parent, ‘Leave it to Beaver’ family unit of the 1950s has evolved into a multi-layered, multi-cultural construct dominated by older, childless households,” starts a report from The Nielsen Company, The New Digital American Family. Whatever ethnic flavor this Digital Family may represent, there’s one equalizer across all of them: the smartphone, which is owned by households across cultures and income levels. First, the socio-demographics paint a picture of increasingly multi-cultural households. Recent immigrants to the U.S. accounted for 90% of population growth from 2000-2010, over-indexing for Hispanic and Asian communities. Hispanics are the fastest-growi... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4762764 Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:58:27 +0100 4762764 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4709203&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fphysicians-wary-of-healthcare-reform-models-intended-to-save-primary-care%2F2011.04.13 When I talk to internal medicine audiences around the country about the latest health policy flavor of the day – accountable care organizations (ACOs) – a typical reaction is skepticism trending toward cynicism. Many don’t quite get what ACOs are all about and certainly don’t want to be lectured about how they need to re-invent their practices. And they don’t buy the idea that ACOs will somehow save internal medicine primary care. The same can be said, perhaps to a lesser extent, about their reactions to PCMHs (Patient-Centered Medical Homes), P4P ( pay-for-performance), HIT (health information technology), MU (meaningful use), and the whole alphabet soup of other reforms being proposed to reform health care delivery and payment systems. And who can blame them? Older inte... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4709203 Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4709203 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4676789&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fare-emrs-the-key-to-improving-hand-offs-from-the-er-to-the-pcp%2F2011.04.04 Improving handoffs from the emergency room back to the primary care physician will require changing how electronic health records are used, better reimbursement to both the hospital and ambulatory doctors, and malpractice reform, according to a study. The rising use of hospitalists and larger primary care practice sizes has contributed to the difficulties faced when an ER doctors tries to reach a physician who best knows the patient. Haphazard communication and poor coordination can undermine effective care, according to a new research conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change. Researchers conducted 42 telephone interviews between April and October 2010 with 21 pairs of emergency department and primary care physicians, who were case-matched to hospitals so the perspective o... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4676789 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:00:00 +0100 4676789 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615243&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FJNZ-0UqD4To%2Fdirect-project-reaches-critical-mass-interoperability-on-the-horizon.html The ONC announced today that the Direct Project now has commitments from about sixty health care and health IT organizations to support its vision of secure direct messaging of health information.  Given the level of support across twenty states, a number of integrated delivery systems and many EHR vendors, the Direct Project will allow for secure health information messaging for up to 160 million Americans.  Specifications for the Direct Project are now final, and draft documentaiton is available, too.  (For more information, see the anouncement about the widespread adoption of the Direct Project, complete with links to more detail on its website.  For further background, see the Direct Project's earlier announcement of its first live secure transmission of medical records.  For a ... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615243 Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:45:15 +0100 4615243 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4605830&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fmedical-record-hacking-can-hipaa-solve-the-problem%2F2011.03.17 HealthNet either lost, or had stolen from it, computer hard drives with PHI of 1.9 million subscribers that had been in a California facility.  This latest HealthNet data security breach, which may have included names, Social Security numbers, addresses, health information and financial information comes a little over a year after a widely-reported data security breach by HealthNet in Connecticut which resulted in the first state Attorney General action under the HIPAA amendments contained in the HITECH Act. HealthNet is notifying affected individuals and is offering two years of no-cost credit monitoring and fraud resolution services, and credit restoration and identify theft insurance as needed. It’s both surprising and unsurprising that this has happened again to HealthNet.  In ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4605830 Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:00:03 +0100 4605830 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4592508&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FQiaI8SEw5AU%2Fhealthnet-and-hipaa-again-so-does-hipaa-work.html HealthNet either lost, or had stolen from it, computer hard drives with PHI of 1.9 million subscribers that had been in a California facility.  This latest HealthNet data security breach, which may have included names, Social Security numbers, addresses, health information and financial information comes a little over a year after a widely-reported data security breach by HealthNet in Connecticut which resulted in the first state Attorney General action under the HIPAA amendments contained in the HITECH Act.  HealthNet is notifying affected individuals and is offering two years of no-cost credit monitoring and fraud resolution services, and credit restoration and identify theft insurance as needed. It's both surprising and unsurprising that this has happened again to HealthNet.  In the... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4592508 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:19:03 +0100 4592508 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560274&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fadvice-from-the-emr-trenches%2F2011.03.07 The latest from moi: “Implementing Electronic Medical Records: Advice from the Trenches” in the March/April 2011 issue of HIT Exchange magazine. An excerpt: The news released in late December from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that more than half of the nation’s physicians are now using electronic medical records (EMR)—double the adoption rate of just five years ago—is surely worth celebrating. Until, that is, you take a look and realize that just a fourth of office-based physicians have access to a “basic” EMR system including patient history, demographics, problem lists, clinical notes, and computerized physician order entry (CPOE), while just one in 10 has a “fully functional” system, which also includes the communication system required for me... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560274 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4560274 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4512469&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2F9IgldPbFntI%2Fhipaa-cmps-whats-the-point.html Yesterday, the federales announced: HHS Imposes a $4.3 Million Civil Money Penalty for Violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.  The OCR Notice of Final Determination was issued to Cignet Health of Maryland, a health plan that had not responded to members' requests for records, had not responded to OCR's requests for records once compaints had been filed with OCR, had not responded to a subpoena, and did not even bother to defend itself in federal court when OCR filed for a court order to enforce the subpoena.  I've written about the rule that allows HHS to go for fines of up to $1.5 million per offense where the covered entity's noncompliance is willful.  This is the first example of that rule being tested to the max. OK.  We get it.  The government is Very Serious about HIPAA and HITE... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4512469 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:18:07 +0100 4512469 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4512389&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FPrX1WfSHfm8%2F By Casey Quinlan. In my daily business life, I have lots of conversations about healthcare IT (HIT), electronic medical records (EMR), personal health records (PHR), and the rest of the alphabet soup of acronyms used in health care’s march into the 21st century. Each of those conversations always winds up leading to the same question, “what’s the ROI?” Meaning what’s the expected financial benefit to the provider deploying the technology. This is most definitely a valid question – any enterprise looking at a technology product or service needs to have a solid understanding of what the business results of that technology can be, and what the cost of those results will be. Also, the likelihood of those results actually showing up is important: what’s the track record of the sys... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4512389 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:20:55 +0100 4512389 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4495269&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34625&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FNeilVerselsHealthcareItBlog%2F%7E3%2FdRrk2nPfVKA%2Fwelcome-to-meaningful-healthcare-it-news.html Welcome to the latest addition to the Healthcare Scene blog network: Meaningful HIT News with Neil Versel!! We’re just getting everything set up and ready to go, but shortly you’ll find some of the best healthcare IT content on the web by longtime healthcare IT journalist, Neil Versel. Check out the other members of the Healthcare Scene network of blogs: EMR and HIPAA EMR and EHR Happy EMR Doctor Smart Phone Health Care Wired EMR Practice next Hospital EMR and EHR Job Board EMR and Healthcare IT News EMR, EHR and HIPAA Wiki More information coming soon and a proper introduction to the change from Neil! (Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog) Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4495269 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:43:26 +0100 4495269 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4455330&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=35744&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fe-CareManagement%2F%7E3%2Fu0KNW3vFHmc%2F Many Physicians and Clinical Service Providers Will Not Be In Your ACO Contracting Network. Expect Significant Patient Leakage (Migration) Out of Your ACO Network Expect Patient Demands for Sharing Records. Minimize Anti-Trust Concerns. Expect Continuing Government Pressure for Broad Data Exchange. (more…) Article Series - Accountable Care Organizations: Cure-du-Jour or Real Collaborative Care?The Big Idea in Understanding “Accountable Care Organizations”The Achilles Heel of ACOs? Shared Savings Payment Model Unlikely to Motivate HospitalsA Dark Horse in ACO Formation: Large Physician Groups“Does This ACO Thing Really Mean We Need to be ‘Accountable’”Will ACO IT Models Be Walled Gardens or Open Platforms?10 Reasons Why an Open IT Platform Strate... e-CareManagement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4455330 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:46:29 +0100 4455330 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4436820&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FiqMLHlPF7dM%2F It’s been about 3 months since I posted about healthcare IT advertising and the advertisers that keep EMR and HIPAA running. However, I’ve been talking to a lot of people lately about healthcare IT advertising since before HIMSS I’m planning: 1. A New Premium Advertising Package Announcement 2. Launch of a New Healthcare Blog Network In those discussions (and certainly influenced by the crazy money spent by vendors for HIMSS), I like to give this comparison: “Compare what you spend at a conference like HIMSS with the 1 million ad impressions a 6 month ad run (Currently $2100) on EMRandHIPAA.com will provide.” Yep, it costs vendors more to fly people out to a conference than it does to advertise on a very targeted EMR site. I’m currently working on a medi... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4436820 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:09:51 +0100 4436820 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4433151&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2Fixc6zW-_Npo%2F As many of you know, I get a lot of interesting emails. I generally try to respond to all the emails I get. In many cases, the topics work great for a post on this blog and will extend the discussion beyond the email. This is one such case. The following is an email from a student in one of the HITECH funded healthcare IT education programs and my response to them (published with permission). I’ll be interested to hear what others think about the topics we discussed and if you have any other suggestions for Jojo. I would like to ask your opinion about what will the graduates of the HIT education grant do after fiishing the 6 month course ? I am one of these students and I want to freelance after. I have 13 years of IT experience and none of heallthcare (except for my medical appointm... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4433151 Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:20:43 +0100 4433151 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294641&cid=t_99999_88_f&fid=38129&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Flifeinthefastlane%2FWZHV%2F%7E3%2FiBl6-3Z31ZE%2F Wouldn't it be great if there was a list of the 100 most important papers published in the emergency medicine literature... with article summaries provided. Now, that's an idea... (Source: Life in the Fast Lane) Life in the Fast Lane blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294641 Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:00:25 +0100 4294641 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4294782&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2010%2F12%2F20%2Fdifferent-methods-to-become-a-top-emr-company%2F A few months ago, the blogger over at Health Finch wrote blog post which analyzes 3 of the top health care IT companies and how they were started. It is very interesting to see the evolution of the large health care IT companies. Here’s the summary of the 3 companies Health Finch looked at: Epic Systems – Started with Scheduling and Billing Cerner – Started as a Laboratory Information System McKesson – Started dong Rx Management As a PS to the post, they point out Epocrates working on the same model with their Epocrates EMR. That is one of the most interesting things I’ve noted when attending the various EMR related conferences that I attend. There’s a whole variety of ways that EMR companies are approaching the market. Another example of this trend is t... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4294782 Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:31:09 +0100 4294782 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4265613&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F12%2Fthoughts-on-the-pcast-report.html By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report this month ambitiously titled “REALIZING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE FOR AMERICANS: THE PATH FORWARD”, complete with current state... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4265613 Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4265613 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4265923&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=35744&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fe-CareManagement%2F%7E3%2FMJs5VvLnXPs%2F Will ACO (accountable care organization) IT models be walled gardens or open platforms?  i.e., will ACO IT platforms focus on exchanging information within the provider network of the ACO, or will they also be able to exchange information with providers outside the ACO network? (If the question still isn’t clear, click here for a further explanation.). (more…) Article Series - Accountable Care Organizations: Cure-du-Jour or Real Collaborative Care?The Big Idea in Understanding “Accountable Care Organizations”The Achilles Heel of ACOs? Shared Savings Payment Model Unlikely to Motivate HospitalsA Dark Horse in ACO Formation: Large Physician Groups“Does This ACO Thing Really Mean We Need to be ‘Accountable’”Will ACO IT Models Be Walled Ga... e-CareManagement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4265923 Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:45:16 +0100 4265923 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4258996&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=35744&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fe-CareManagement%2F%7E3%2FSKqD3rR617E%2F At the December 13 meeting of the HITPC (Health IT Policy Committee), the MU (Meaningful Use) Workgroup proposed a first draft of HITECH Stage 2 and 3 objectives. A full list of objectives for Stages 1, 2 & 3 is available in the PowerPoint presented to HITPC. The proposed objectives contain a mix of items that are: Unchanged from Stage 1 Similar MU criteria with higher implementation goals, e.g., Stage 1: CPOE for Rx orders 30% Stage 2: CPOE for 60% of Rx, lab and radiology orders entered by licensed professionals Clarifications or more detailed specifications Discretionary objectives moved to core set New items Here’s a list of proposed new objectives for Stage 2 MU: (more…) Article Series - Stages 2 and 3 of HITECH: The Golden Era of Care Coordination or Bureaucr... e-CareManagement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4258996 Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:19:12 +0100 4258996 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4258997&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=35744&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Fe-CareManagement%2F%7E3%2FPGncVfd3efQ%2F Last week PCAST (The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) issued a major report — “Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward”.  The reviews are filtering in and I’m seeing two major themes:  The vision is on target:  “extraordinary”, “breathtakingly innovative”. These guys didn’t do all their technical homework. The range varies, but the message is consistent.  Here are some early critiques of the PCAST report. Let the debate continue! (more…) Tags: EHR, health IT, HIT, HITECH, meaningful use, PCAST (Source: e-CareManagement) e-CareManagement blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4258997 Mon, 13 Dec 2010 21:48:26 +0100 4258997 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4258806&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F12%2Fwelcome-to-the-cloud-clan.html By JONATHAN BUSH I’m watching ads during the ballgame (I watched the kick-off and the ads—the rest, not so much) and who should be declaring itself a “cloud solution” but Microsoft?! See the ads here and here, in case you... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4258806 Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4258806 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4253095&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F12%2Ffacebook-saves-womans-life-newt-gingrich-and-reality-based-healthcare-systems-planning.html By DAVID HARLOW I've seen at least half a dozen links to the op-ed coauthored by Newt Gingrich and neurosurgeon Kamal Thapar about how the doctor used information on Facebook to save a woman's life. (It was published by AOL... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4253095 Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4253095 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4237845&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F12%2Fhit-trends-summary-for-november-2010.html By MICHAEL LAKE This is a summary of the HIT Trends Report for November 2010. You can get the current issue or subscribe here. Hospitals continue to drive HIT dynamics. According to a report by SK&K, more than half the... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4237845 Tue, 07 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4237845 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4175630&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F11%2Fthe-cousin-jimmy-syndrome.html By JOHN HALAMKA I have great respect for my colleagues in the IT industry. It's a challenging profession that requires a mixture of technical knowledge, people skills, and the emotional stability to deal with customer dissatisfaction when technology fails. However,... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4175630 Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4175630 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4164488&cid=t_99999_83_f&fid=34856&url=http%3A%2F%2Finsidesurgery.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fhawaii-physician-held-million-dollars-bail-murder-charge%2F Hawaii physician Dr. Dennis Ayon is being held on a $1 million bail on murder-for-hire charges for allegedly trying to solicit a hit man to kill the mother of his four-year old son. (Source: Inside Surgery) Inside Surgery blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4164488 Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:33:16 +0100 4164488 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151691&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F11%2Fhit-trends-summary-for-october-2010.html By MICHAEL LAKE This is a summary of the HIT Trends Report for October 2010. You can get the current issue or subscribe here. The evolving health information exchange market. The HIE segment was center-stage this month with a game-changing... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151691 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100 4151691 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4105816&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FoWmt5JQ5BeI%2Fconnected-health-symposium-2010.html I attended the Connected Health Symposium last week in Boston. I enjoyed many of the sessions (sometimes wished I could have attended two simultaneously, though the livetweeting helped on that front), and as usual enjoyed the hallway and exhibit floor conversations too.  As is often the case at conferences these days, I had the opportunity to meet several on-line connections in real life for the first time.  (I will not attempt to give a comprehensive report of the symposium here; please see the livetweeting archive linked to above and other reports to get a sense of the rest of the event.) This year's exhibit floor included a diverse mix of distance health tools.  Most striking from my perspective was the fact that most of these tools do one of two things: Enable patient-clinician vi... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4105816 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:41:01 +0100 4105816 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4074055&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FBM128jYCLt4%2F By Halle Tecco. It was beautiful in San Francisco last week, the perfect weather to welcome 1,000 health geeks to the fourth Health 2.0 conference. Two themes seemed to anchor the demos and conversations at the conference: data and consumer empowerment.   On day 1, Aneesh Chopra, CTO of the United States and Todd Park, CTO of US Health & Human Services set the tone with their enthusiasm for data.gov and what this means for healthcare.  They also announced the ‘Blue Button’, a program being piloted by the Department of Veterans Affairs to give veterans the ability to download their claims or medical information. Private sector innovation was demonstrated by companies like FirstLife Research.  FirstLife is mapping and analyzing user-generated medical data that’s already on the w... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4074055 Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:00:55 +0100 4074055 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4027241&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FK2wx9VttOGM%2Fmhealth-markets-and-cold-hard-cash.html Last month, PricewaterhouseCoopers issued a report, Healthcare Unwired, examining the market for mobile health monitoring devices, reminder services, etc. among both health care providers and the general public.  One of the big take-away points seems to be that 40% of the general public would be willing to pay for mobile health, or mHealth, devices or services ranging from reminders to data uploads; and the reaction by insiders is either joy (40% is good) or dismay (40% is not enough).  PwC estimated the mHealth market to be worth somewhere between $7.7 billion and $43 billion per year, based on consumers' expressed willingness to pay. Deloitte recently issued a report on mPHRs, as well -- and there is tremendous interest in this space, as discussed in John Moore's recent post over at Ch... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4027241 Sun, 03 Oct 2010 15:46:27 +0100 4027241 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3914996&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Felectronic-medical-records-er-wait-times-and-the-medical-blogosphere%2F2010.08.30 Here’s a confession: Despite my steadfast advocacy of medical blogging as a means to promote understanding and education, I continue worry a lot about professional liability. Not just whether the things I write could hurt my career, but, in terms of academic output, is blogging a waste of time? What view does my department’s leadership take on blogging? Still, I’ve continued to support medical blogging as a useful academic endeavor, hoping that someday this support would be borne out. When sites like Sermo and Facebook came along, I despaired that more physician opinions were going to be hidden behind walled gardens, available only to select colleagues or friends. Then, last week, some revelations — I discovered a member of my department’s leadership was blog... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3914996 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:00:00 +0100 3914996 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3885339&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FMKpPFLYrkZw%2F By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. Electronic health records (EHRs) broaden access to patient data and provide the platform for pushing evidence-based decision support to clinicians at the point-of-care. This promotes optimal care for patients, reduces medical errors, optimizes the use of labor, reduces duplication of tests, and by the way, improves patient outcomes. When done in aggregate across all health providers, a team from McKinsey estimates that $40 billion of costs could be saved in the U.S. health system. Reforming hospitals with IT investment in the McKinsey Quarterly talks about the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act’s (ARRA) $20+ billion worth of stimulus funding under the HITECH Act and estimates that 80% of existing hospital IT applications will be affected by the regulation. H... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3885339 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:31:32 +0100 3885339 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3885299&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F08%2Fthree-wishes.html By ROB LAMBERTS, MD So I was walking down the hallway in my office, mildly distracted, when I kicked something. It was a USB “thumb drive.” I picked it up and inspected it, trying to figure out who had dropped... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3885299 Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3885299 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3865339&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2F0WzQCo-80LM%2Fprivacy-and-security-of-patient-records-the-lesson-of-the-weakest-link.html The Queen of Soul famously wailed about being a link in a chain of fools.  Today's lead story in the Boston Globe tells us about another sort of link in the chain -- the weakest link in the chain of custody of patient records.  In brief, a pathology billing service bought out by another service apparently dumped all records more that a year old in a town dump; a Globe photographer taking out his own trash noticed that the paper records (which he was looking at because he thought they ought to be recycled rather than dumped) had identifiable patient data and represented at least four hospitals from across Eastern Massachusetts.  Clearly, these records ought to have been shredded or otherwise destroyed before disposal.  Assuming they had some airtight contracts in place, the hospitals in... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3865339 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:49:13 +0100 3865339 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3831350&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2F-Z5_nGyLY_c%2F Did you miss Disruptive Women bloggers Indu Subaiya, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, Trisha Torrey, and Regina Holliday this week on the Real Women on Health! Radio series? Or did you hear them, but want to listen again? If so, you can listen to the podcasts now available. Related posts:One more chance to catch Disruptive Women on Real Women on Health! Roll Out the Red Carpet: Disruptive Women in Health Care Announces New Bloggers Online Radio Series Showcases Innovative Influencers Transforming Healthcare (Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care) Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3831350 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:30:03 +0100 3831350 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3784254&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ofr.gov%2FOFRUpload%2FOFRData%2F2010-17207_PI.pdf By Pamela Cipriano. On July 13, 2010, the clock started running for eligible providers, hospitals, and critical access hospitals, to become meaningful users of certified electronic health records (EHR). Under the direction of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, together with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released the final rules that lay out the first two years of requirements for eligible professionals to qualify for incentive payments included in provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 through the HITECH act (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health).  View the press conference led by Secretary Sebelius.   (Disruptive Woman Regina Holliday, sp... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3784254 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:33:50 +0100 3784254 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3780352&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FAP2Nf2gpfH4%2F By Robin Strongin. It didn’t receive much attention in the context of oil wells being capped and financial services legislation being passed, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a step last week that could make a profound difference for Americans who live in rural parts of the country. The FCC voted unanimously to have the federal government pay a greater share of broadband Internet costs for rural health care providers, and the commission also expressed its intent to subsidize the construction of broadband networks. Why is this important?  Over the past 25 years, according to the Center for Health Transformation, over 500 rural hospitals have shuttered their facilities.  And, while 25 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, only about one in ten doctors ... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3780352 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:31:39 +0100 3780352 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3767073&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2F_9QQDe8b2kw%2F By Mary Grealy.  An organization of health industry chief executives today applauded federal regulators for being responsive to the concerns of hospitals and physicians in constructing the final “meaningful use” regulations that will determine the allocation of health information technology (HIT) incentive funds.  But, said the president of the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), the newly-released rules leave some critical issues still unaddressed. HLC president Mary R. Grealy said that, even though her organization was still analyzing the regulations, “it’s clear that federal regulators paid close attention to the more than 2,000 comments they received on the proposed rule, and that they have been responsive to concerns that the initial regulations placed the “meaningful us... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3767073 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:00:37 +0100 3767073 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3753923&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FVcpI21OUncI%2Fmeaningful-use-the-final-rule.html Meaningful use was given its final definition yesterday, in the meaningful use final rule released by HHS.  Secretary Sebelius, CMS Adminsitrator Berwick, ONC chief Blumenthal and the two Reginas spoke -- U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, and Regina Holliday, whose late husband's last days were complicated by the failure of health care facilities to release and share health records.  Berwick, in his first full day on the job as CMS Adminstrator, waxed rhapsodic about the pleasures of practicing as a pediatrician at Harvard Community Health Plan using its pioneering electronic health record system.  (Years later, I am still a patient at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, which used to be part of HCHP, and I am still spoiled by the EHR system there.)  Blumenthal and Benjamin also s... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3753923 Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:27:14 +0100 3753923 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3750009&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2010%2F07%2Finterview-blumenthal-talks-meaningful-use.html By Matthew Holt Absolutely hot off the recorder, here's my interview with David Blumenthal, the Obama administration's National Coordinator for Health IT. David and I discuss patient communication, why the percentages of certain criteria were reduced, and how to get... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3750009 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0100 3750009 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3737119&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2F8KU7LFg7rGg%2Fonc-announces-hitech-amendments-to-hipaa-privacy-security-and-enforcement-rules.html The federales announced a new set of HIPAA regulations today (to be published in the Federal Register on July 14) in a press conference featuring Kathleen Sebelius (HHS Secretary), Georgina Verdugo (HHS OCR Director) and David Blumenthal (ONC Director).  The HIPAA changes are essentially mandated by the HITECH Act.  From the HHS presser:The proposed rule announced today would strengthen and expand enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security, and Enforcement Rules by:expanding individuals’ rights to access their information and to restrict certain types of disclosures of protected health information to health plans; requiring business associates of HIPAA-covered entities to be under most of the same rules as the covered ... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3737119 Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:31:57 +0100 3737119 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3679828&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthblawg.typepad.com%2Ffiles%2Fmike-barber-interview-w-david-harlow-on-healthblawg-062010.mp3 What if you could improve health care across the three intransigent parameters of cost, access and quality by 15%?  That's the challenge GE has set out for itself in the form of its current five-year Healthymagination campaign, and it's investing $6 billion in the effort.  I caught up with GE's VP for Healthymagination, Mike Barber, recently, and I invite you to listen in on our conversation about GE's efforts in the US and globally, within GE's health care business unit and beyond, to roll out this major investment -- which, obviously, GE expects to yield a return in the future.The audio file of my interview with Mike Barber (about 20 minutes long) is available for listening or download:  A full transcript is at the end of this post (and in the linked Mike Barber, VP, Healt... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3679828 Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:07:01 +0100 3679828 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3676757&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FyRMSYqtyZV8%2Ffinal-ehr-certification-rule-announced-by-onc.html A surgeon can’t operate without the proper equipment. A clinician can’t achieve meaningful use of electronic health records without an EHR that is designed to improve patient care and practice efficiency. -- David BlumenthalToday, David Blumenthal, Steve Posnack and Carol Bean of the ONC announced the publication of the final (albeit temporary) EHR certification rule.  The actual publication date in the Federal Register will be June 24. (Here is the display copy of the EHR Certification Rule; a permanent rule will be forthcoming later this year.)The technical standards were glossed over on a conference call with ONC this afternoon; the focus, instead, was on getting testing and certification rolling.  Organizations or consortia may apply for recognition as testing and/or certific... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3676757 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:59:14 +0100 3676757 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3671689&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fv%2FbtHOhNbwTvI%26amp%3Brel%3D1%26amp%3Bcolor1%3Dd6d6d6%26amp%3Bcolor2%3Df0f0f0%26amp%3Bborder%3D0%26amp%3Bfs%3D1%26amp%3Bhl%3Den%26amp%3Bautoplay%3D0%26amp%3Bshowinfo%3D0%26amp%3Biv_load_policy%3D3%26amp%3Bshowsearch%3D0 On June 8th, in conjunction with Health 2.0 Goes to Washington, we held a Disruptive Women breakfast on the topic of Health 2.0. For highlights, read our summary and watch the video below. www.youtube.com/watch?v=btHOhNbwTvI Related posts:With the Partnership of Nintendo and American Heart Association- Video Game Couch Surfers are Encouraged to Surf Using Video Games! Video blog roundup: Health care reform debate goes public “News (Hot) Flash: Sex, Drugs and Menopause” Recap – 2010 Breakfast Series (Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care) Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3671689 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:52:07 +0100 3671689 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3607485&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNsFlrbiXSNI%2F By Jim HarperAmid charge and countercharge about who is shilling for whom in the debate over Internet regulation, Peter Suderman has the right focus in a short piece on Reason’s Hit & Run blog. The Federal Communications Commission’s Chairman is claiming that he only wants to regulate the Internet’s infrastructure, but one of his colleagues, Commissioner Michael Copps, is non-denying that he wants to censor the Internet. There may be exceptions, but it’s usually pretty safe to assume that anytime a politician or bureaucrat dodges a question while calling for “a national discussion about” the proposal at hand, what he or she really means is, “I want to indicate that I support this idea without actually going on record as supporting it.” Th... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3607485 Thu, 27 May 2010 15:43:17 +0100 3607485 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3581604&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2Fl_1Bp7eAERk%2F By Sheryl Flynn.  Earlier this week, the American Heart Association (AHA) announced a new partnership with Nintendo of America.  According to their website (www.activeplaynow.com), the AHA and Nintendo are working together to promote physically active play as a part of a healthy lifestyle. This is the first time that the AHA has partnered with the video game industry to help consumers discover how video games that incorporate movement can be beneficial to health.  According to their “Healthy Lifestyle Tips” they encourage everyone in the house to enjoy active-play video games together and when the weather prevents outdoor activities- they encourage hosting an active-play video game tournament in your living room.   Today, according to AHA’s press release- They are not supporting... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3581604 Thu, 20 May 2010 11:00:49 +0100 3581604 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3538253&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FJsTiCYleTIA%2Fhit-incentives-in-massachusetts-less-carrot-more-stick.html Health care providers all over the country are all worked up because they say that the federales' regulations on meaningful use of certified EHRs go too far, too fast.  They should be glad they're not in Massachusetts, where EHR use will soon be required as a condition of licensure of physicians, hospitals and community health centers.  The word got out, thanks to Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, who spoke at last week's HIT conference hosted by Governor Deval Patrick and the MA Health Data Consortium.  This seemed to be news to some folks out there, but these requirements are deep in the heart of Part II of the Massachusetts health reform law (Chapter 305 of the Acts of 2008).  Much of the coverage in August 2008 didn't mention the EHR-for-licensure provisions, bu... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3538253 Thu, 06 May 2010 00:54:04 +0100 3538253 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3526840&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthblawg.typepad.com%2Ffiles%2Fgeorge-pantos-hpm-institute-healthblawg-interview-with-david-harlow-042110.mp3 Health care costs are a perennial issue for employers and employees.  There are a variety of approaches out there designed to improve health status and health outcomes and reduce costs at the same time.  Proponents of a variety of approaches have been featured here on HealthBlawg in the past.  I recently had the opportunity to speak with George Pantos, of the Healthcare Performance Management Institute, a brand-new organization on the scene, founded by a group of folks who have developed tools for managing these costs. The audio file of my interview with George Pantos (about 20 minutes long) is available for download/podcast.  A full transcript is at the end of this post (and in the linked George Pantos, Executive Director, Healthcare Performance Management Institute, HealthBlaw... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3526840 Mon, 03 May 2010 03:16:33 +0100 3526840 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3490728&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FN0rw9xKpgWg%2Ffda-radiation-therapy-emitting-equipment-regulation-ehr-device.html Earlier this month, the FDA released a letter announcing a new focus on radiation-emitting products.  Here's the core of the letter:In order to reduce the number of under-doses, over-doses, and misaligned exposures from therapeutic radiation the FDA is taking several steps to improve the safety and safe use of certain radiation therapy devices. Analyses of Medical Device Reports (MDRs) revealed device problems that appear to be the result of faulty design or use error that could be mitigated by the incorporation of additional safeguards. Between December 31, 1999, and February 18, 2010, FDA received 1,182 MDRs associated with the use of radiation therapy devices. Of these MDRs, linear accelerators accounted for 74%, radiation therapy treatment planning systems (RTP) accounted for 19%, and... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3490728 Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:59:06 +0100 3490728 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3443808&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthblawg.typepad.com%2Ffiles%2Fhealthblawg-interview-earl-jones-svp-ge-healthcare-it-ehealth-040110-1.mp3 GE Healthcare IT has been working in the years leading up to the HITECH Act on a number of initiatives to enable meaningful use of health care IT -- or as Senior VP and General Manager of eHealth Earl Jones puts it, building the "connected health care ecosystem."In what may be seen as either a pragmatic move or a revolutionary one, GE is developing tools that allow for communication across health care IT systems -- not just connecting one GE Centricity installation with another -- but acting as a technology-agnostic bridge for information across health care IT systems and across health systems.  While Jones notes that we're in the early stages of linking isolated lily pads across the surface of a pond, GE is developing tools that not only facilitate interoperability, but also facilitate t... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3443808 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 02:53:32 +0100 3443808 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3374223&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FGoZmGo7u-GA%2Fdavid-harlow-quoted-on-electronic-health-records-implementation-and-incentives-in-mass-medical-law-r.html Just a few days before the comment period closed on the draft regulations defining meaningful use (see all meaningful use comments), the Massachusetts Medical Law Report ran a piece on the HITECH Act incentives for implementation of electronic health records systems, quoting me and a couple other usual suspects.  I highlighted some shortcomings in the proposed rule, and also noted that health care providers need to be implementing EHRs not just for the stimulus kicker ... that alone is not worth it:[T]he regulation calls for all physicians to use e-prescribing 75 percent of the time by 2012.David Harlow, a Newton-based lawyer and health care consultant, said that this won’t be an easy task, noting that Massachusetts is considered a leader in e-prescribing even though only 10 percent of ... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3374223 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:46:42 +0100 3374223 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3346554&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthblawg.typepad.com%2Ffiles%2Fjohn-glaser-partners-cio-podcast-interview-healthblawg-david-harlow-030310.mp3 What does a large health system CIO worry about if his system is already fully up to speed in the day-to-day use of EHRs?  Using them in ways that improve communication of information across a diverse group of clinicians, and that enable the integration of additional interesting and useful data as time goes on -- such as the integration of genetic testing data into the diagnostic and treatment logic built into the EHR.John Glaser explains how Partners uses its EHR system to leverage knowledge for the benefit of patients, and describes some of the ways in which decision support systems are being used today and may be used in the future.  Tools in place at Partners now:[T]here is for example a monthly report put out on dozens and dozens of quality measures and they are coded red, yellow... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3346554 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:46:44 +0100 3346554 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3327080&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34648&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthBlawg%2F%7E3%2FswUaX-REUa0%2Fhimss-in-atlanta-and-online-better-health.html The HIMSS annual convention going on this week in Atlanta is a 30,000-person blowout of epic proportions (and, yes, there was snow there but not in Boston), with many industry announcements, product launches, and meetings and sessions large and small.  There were a ton of blog posts (even a couple of blogger panels - sorry I couldn't participate remotely), and a blizzard of tweets at #HIMSS10.  For some up-close-and-personal looks at products and services brought to the conference, look no further than the Better Health livestreamed video interviews from HIMSS.  @DrVal (Val Jones),  @DoctorAnonymous (Mike Sevilla) and @Blogborygmi (Nick Genes) have been doing a bang-up job broadcasting to those interested well beyond the exhibit halls, and have been taking questions online for the ... HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3327080 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:19:44 +0100 3327080 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3239675&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fibm-strengthens-healthcare-play-picks-initiate On Feb. 3, IBM announced that it will acquire leading healthcare Master Data Management (MDM) vendor Initiate for an undisclosed sum. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3239675 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:18:00 +0100 3239675 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3208442&cid=t_99999_109_f&fid=34730&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychiatrist-blog.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F01%2Fflower-for-patients-interview-at-noon.html Today (Tue Jan 26) at 12:00 noon Eastern Time, Gregg Masters (@2healthguru) will be interviewing Dirk Stanley, Tim Sturgill, and me about Flower on BlogTalkRadio.  Flower promulgates the message that we should control our health data and have universal standards for sharing it.Here's the blurb about it that Gregg wrote for the hour-long live show on BlogTalkRadio:What is flower? At this time it’s an abstraction — a placeholder for several concepts centering on what would healthcare look like if....? And, more specifically what would personal health information (PHI) look like if....? A flower was chosen as the abstraction because it is easily and universally understood, regardless of language, anywhere in the world — a flower is a flower. Where a flower is flower carries th... Shrink Rap blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3208442 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:25:00 +0100 3208442 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3201794&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F2j0O9ghpvfQ%2F I’m getting very excited about the HIMSS Annual Conference. As someone who writes as much as I do about healthcare IT, I think that going to the HIMSS conference is going to be like a little kid in a candy store. I could be wrong, but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for me. Extremely busy, but I’ll enjoy every minute of it. As I’ve started to put together my plans for the conference, I was thinking that it might be interesting to have a blogger meetup at the conference. Maybe it should just be called a New Media conference so people on Twitter could come as well as bloggers. Plus, I’m cool with readers of various blogs coming to participate as well. I know there have been blogger meetups at HIMSS in the past. I think that Shahid has helped out with those... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3201794 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:05:58 +0100 3201794 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3193689&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=36224&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.wsjonline.com%2F%7Er%2Fwsj%2Fhealth%2Ffeed%2F%7E3%2F2QC-9PsQkFw%2F Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator and a prolific author of letters, has written to more than 30 hospitals to ask about their experiences — including “complications,” “errors” and “problems” — with health IT systems. The letters follow a barrage Grassley sent out last fall to some of the companies that sell electronic systems to hospitals and doctors, asking some similar questions. Health IT is a big deal at the moment, of course, because of the tens of billions of dollars included in last year’s stimulus bill to encourage doctors and hospitals to buy and use electronic systems. Many of the questions in the hospital letters echo those in the letters to companies. In both sets of letters, Grassley asks whether “‘gag orders&... WSJ.com: Health Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3193689 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:46:41 +0100 3193689 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3084772&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Fglobalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu%2FPublications_and_Presentations%2FSymposia%2FCampos_Francisco.ppt The World Health Report 2008, from WHO, entitled “Primary Health Care Now More Than Ever” acknowledges the need to improve health systems for all through a Primary Health Care (PHC) reform. The report cites Brazil among other countries as good example of successful implementation of PHC policies and emphasizes the role of integrated health information systems as instrumental to achieving this reform. It is impossible to deliver high quality health services to hundreds of thousands or millions of people without robust processes. That doesn’t mean taking away the human nature of health care. It means that it is possible to put methods in place that can, with the strong support of technology, organize health care delivery, support promotion and prevention, improve services quality and e... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3084772 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:04:25 +0100 3084772 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075623&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvahc.org%2Fdownloads%2FDaveBondFinalReport.pdf iHealthBeat reports on the release of a new report prepared by CCRC Actuaries for the West Virginia Health Care Authority.The full report is available via the West Virginians for Affordable Health Care website and is titled, Health Care Financing in the State of West Virginia: An analysis and Projection of the Current System and Potential Transformations, August 2009. According to the articles, the report indicates that the adoption of health information technology (HIT) and implementation of centralized medical care through medical home concepts could save West Virginia's health care system more than $1.1B in 2014. The estimates in the report used insurance claims data from more that 800,000 West Virginia residents, including data from Medicaid and Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield.Mo... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075623 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:39:29 +0100 3075623 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3048067&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fwe-are-unable-to-share-documents.html In my post "Academic Freedom and ED EHR's Down Under: Another Update and a Welcome Development" I reported on the Univ. of Sydney's somewhat belated support for academic freedom, and the reappearance of an essay on ED electronic health records problems in NSW by one of its informatics faculty, Prof. Jon Patrick, after an apparently government-initiated attempt at censorship.A new update of the paper "A Critical Essay on the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System - Systemic Failure or Bad Luck" version 6, has now been posted by Dr. Patrick at this link on his department's web pages (a direct link at this time to the PDF is here).The press has started to take notice. A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald entitled "Health department accused of censorship" appeared on Nov. 28 here.That... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3048067 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:50:00 +0100 3048067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044706&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fwe-are-unable-to-share-documents.html In my post "Academic Freedom and ED EHR's Down Under: Another Update and a Welcome Development" I reported on the Univ. of Sydney's somwehat belated support for academic freedom, and the reappearance of an essay on ED electronic health records problems in NSW by one of its informatics faculty, Prof. Jon Patrick, after an apparently government-initiated attempt at censorship.A new update of the paper "A Critical Essay on the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System - Systemic Failure or Bad Luck" version 6, has now been posted by Dr. Patrick at this link on his department's web pages (a direct link at this time to the PDF is here).The press has started to take notice. A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald entitled "Health department accused of censorship" appeared on Nov. 28 here.That... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044706 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:50:00 +0100 3044706 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3029809&cid=t_99999_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsymtym.net%2F2009%2F11%2Fa-vast-anticommons-health-information%2F The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives—Michael Heller Private ownership usually creates wealth. But too much ownership has the opposite effect—it creates gridlock. Gridlock is a free market paradox. When too many people own pieces of one thing, cooperation breaks down, wealth disappears, and everybody loses. {@xiv} Fixing gridlock is a key challenge for our time.… [T]he first and most important step to solving gridlock is to name it and make it visible. With the right language, anyone can spot links among gridlock puzzles, and all can come togeter to fix them. {@xiv} We create gridlock all the time, but tragedy is not our fate. Just as the European powers removed robber barons from the Rhine after 1815, we too can ... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3029809 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:24:10 +0100 3029809 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981038&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2Facademic-freedom-and-ed-ehrs-down-under_10.html In "Academic Freedom and ED EHR's Down Under: An Update" I wrote about the disputed essay on electronic health record (EHR) problems in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) by medical informatics professor Dr. Jon Patrick, Health Information Technologies Research Laboratory (HITRL), University of Sydney.The essay was entitled "A Critical Essay on the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System ‐ Systemic Failure or Bad Luck?"I am happy to report that an updated version of the essay, version 5, is now available from Dr. Patrick's university web site at http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~hitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146 . It can be downloaded from the icon at Item 6.This is a welcome development.The essay is now labeled as an Op-Ed (Opinion Edi... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981038 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:28:00 +0100 2981038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2973921&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FLHhIh9dps8s%2F The following guest post on the subject of drug adherence is written by Julie Murchinson, Founder, Health 2.0 Accelerator and Managing Director with Manatt Health Solutions. The tools are coming! The tools are coming! For a while now, tools to manage drug adherence have been developed, many designed to enable the patient to self-manage in the context of and in collaboration with the health care system from a specifically designed device or heavy application. Patient adoption, however, has been slow and the vision for self-management of drug adherence not yet reality. But recently from the budding Health 2.0 space, we are seeing tools built on more accessible web and mobile platforms that allow patients to manage when and where they want to with their mobile device (e.g. iPhone, Blackberry,... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2973921 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:57:11 +0100 2973921 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2958846&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FZVFR1bYWuwo%2F This study, which included 375 male and female cancer patients aged 13 – 29, showed that those patients playing “Re-Mission” had higher drug adherence to both antibiotics and standard chemotherapy drugs. The assumption made in the study is that by playing “Re-mission”, the patients learned more about their disease and how they could control it through medication and chemotherapy. Similarly, two asthma-related multi-media games have demonstrated increased knowledge of asthma and decreased asthma symptom days (perhaps from better adherence to daily doses of inhaled corticosteroids). Games designed around diabetes (Packy and Marlon, Escape from Diab and Nanoswarm) have shown, or are in clinical trials to show, improved self-efficacy and self-management. In the Pa... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2958846 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:28:45 +0100 2958846 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2954609&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhealthit.hhs.gov%2Fportal%2Fserver.pt%2Fgateway%2FPTARGS_0_11113_890784_0_0_18%2FHIT%2520Standards%2520Cmte_Transmittal_8-20-09.pdf The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) has launched a new blog called the Federal Advisory Committee Blog (FACA Blog).The initial post by Judy Sparrow discusses that the FACA Blog will be uses in a spirit of transparency and collaboration to help open a broader dialogue on the issues before the Health IT Standards Committee and the Health IT Policy Committee. The post also provides some background on the role that Federal Advisory Groups play under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.The second post by Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer, spells out the planned process for an open conversation that will take place over the next couple of weeks with various committee members blogging about a variety of topics (Proposed Standards, Interop... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2954609 Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:08:31 +0100 2954609 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2950810&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FtE2kF5Y_eLo%2F All I can say is that it’s very cool that ONC now has a blog. This is probably right up there with when I found past HHS secretary Mike Leavitt’s blog. Ok, yes I am a complete blog nerd. At least I’m able to admit it up front. Basically, Judy Sparrow has just done an introduction post where she talks about the Federal Advisory Committees and their role at ONC. She’s the ONC liason for these committees and so hopefully she’ll keep us updated on progress with these two very important committees. She also provides this explanation about the committees in her first ONC blog post: “FACAs” get their name from the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which lays out the guidelines for such committees. FACAs are advisory and intended to provide external guidance to the ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2950810 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:13 +0100 2950810 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908596&cid=t_99999_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F10%2Fpatients-data-markets%2F When 2+2 Equals a Privacy Question—NYTimes The idea of an entirely paperless medical system holds the promise of more efficient and cost-effective care. And, with the incentive of stimulus package money, many companies are rushing to sell clinical information systems to streamline services like patient scheduling, sample tracking, and billing at hospitals and clinics. In some cases, the same companies that sell data management systems to hospitals and physicians also store that information and then repackage it to make money on other services. Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data—PricewaterhouseCoopers US The data that could be mined from the US health system can be re-used to improve patient care, predict public health trends, reduce healthcare costs... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908596 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:34:05 +0100 2908596 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2901606&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Ffuzzy-math-rising-costs-in-governments.html Seen in the blog of the Huffington Post Investigative Fund: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 SchulteHuffington Post Investigative Fund 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. Federal budget documents show that actual spending for the plan, which will use stimulus money to help doctors and hospitals defray the cost of installing high-tech records systems, could hit nearly $47 billion. The discrepancy between the Obama administration’s $19.5 billion public... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2901606 Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:59:00 +0100 2901606 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2890595&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Fanother-major-hit-project-setback.html In yet another example of a major health IT project setback, in August I wrote about UCSF's apparent problems with health IT implementation that I learned about through anonymous comments at the HisTALK blog. At "Lessons Unlearned: Health IT Failure, Act 2" I wrote:I find it remarkable that this resource-wasting scenario (with possible adverse patient care repercussions) can occur:In a state that's in a severe economic crisis, At an organization that failed severely in a HIT and administrative IT merger ten years ago (in the failed, late 1990's attempted merger between UCSF and Stanford's medical centers, see the 2000 stories "UCSF/Stanford: Marriage was rough; divorce is expensive" here and "A thousand MIS personnel cannot merge two healthcare systems" here),With an EHR product, Centrici... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2890595 Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:50:00 +0100 2890595 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2875982&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2009%2F10%2Fwhy-standards-matter-2-health-it-enters-a-new-era-of-regulatory-control.html By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER The recent history of electronic medical records in ambulatory care, or what we now call EHR (electronic health record) technology, can be divided roughly into three phases. Phase I, which lasted approximately 20... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2875982 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2875982 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2855577&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FR7NgdQnAod4%2F As the President and CEO of the American Academy of Nursing, I am very interested in the direction and potential of HIT. Of course, the issue of meaningful use is at the center and of tremendous importance. But the definition as it currently stands does not go far enough. What follows are recommendations put together by a working group of the Academy’s technology and informatics experts for The Department of Health and Human Services. To Meet the Needs of Patients, the American Academy of Nursing Says we need to go Beyond Meaningful Use The American Academy of Nursing (AAN) is an advocate for improved patient safety, cost-effective care management of acute and chronic conditions, and the effectiveness of nursing and interdisciplinary care. The Academy strongly supports health care reform... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2855577 Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:36:52 +0100 2855577 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2838885&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2009%2F09%2Fcatalyzing-the-app-store-for-ehrs.html By STEVE DOWNS and JOHN LUMPKIN, SVP, Health Care Group, RWJ Foundation Dr. Lumpkin serves as director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Group, where he is responsible for planning and program management. Prior to joining RWJ, Dr. Lumpkin... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2838885 Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2838885 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2820230&cid=t_99999_88_f&fid=38961&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquantavie.net%2F2009%2F09%2Fhealth-information-discontuity%2F As with many hospitals and healthcare systems, the IT infrastructures and UIs are a cobbling together of different vendor products over many years. Sometimes a prior system or component is subsumed by the newer so there is no or minimal loss of data functionality. More often, the old/new system/component are too disparate and a discontinuity or a fracturing of data occurs. A variation on this would be the discontinuity between paper and digital storage. It exists, and it’s a very costly reality to correct and there is a substantial cost when left uncorrected. Costs are not just financial costs, but also data-integrity/fidelity costs—borne not only by the institutions, but by those that are the subject of the data, and by those third-parties that are in a dependent relationship to t... quanta vie blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2820230 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:57:18 +0100 2820230 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2800314&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2009%2F09%2Fwhat-if-i-had-to-do-hit-all-over-again-.html By MARGALIT GUR-ARIE This post is aimed at serving as an interlude to the "public option/death panels" discussions. No matter what healthcare reform bill, if any, is passed this fall, HIT will be part of the program. Four short years... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2800314 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2800314 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2793253&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F09%2F11%2Fhit-policy-committee-meeting-on-certified-ehr%2F I’ve been meaning to post about the HIT Policy Committee meeting for a month or so now. The reason I didn’t is that when I post about things like this, I like to make sure that I’ve had a chance to digest the information and provide some thoughtful analysis and commentary on what’s happening. Of course, thoughtful analysis and commentary takes a lot more work and time and so thus the delay. Enough about me… Yes, on August 14th the HIT Policy Committee met to mostly talk about what certified EHR will mean under ARRA. You can see the full powerpoint from the presentation here. Luckily, CCHIT (I guess they have an interest in the topic) wrote a pretty good summary of what was said about EHR certification at the meeting (with a few of my own modifications): There... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2793253 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:15:14 +0100 2793253 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2778530&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=38236&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthcareitnews.com%2Fblog%2Fhitsps-next-priorities Today I led a HITSP Board meeting and we discussed the work being done in collaboration with the HIT Standards Committee. On September 15, the HIT Standards Committee and its workgroups will release the finished 3 matrices documenting the chosen standards for Clinical Operations, Clinical Quality and Security/Privacy including certification criteria and implementation guidance.   (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog) Healthcare IT News Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2778530 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:43:13 +0100 2778530 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2751917&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2009%2F08%2Fimpact-of-ehrs-on-medical-education.html By GLENN LAFFEL Author's Note: This the second of a 5-part series whose purpose it is to make the case for implementing a widespread, systematic approach to HIT education in medical schools and continuing medical education programs for physicians. A... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2751917 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2751917 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2751916&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34470&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehealthcareblog.com%2Fthe_health_care_blog%2F2009%2F08%2Fadvice-for-state-rec-planners.html By DAVID C. KIBBE & BRIAN KLEPPER On August 20th, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and ONC head David Blumenthal announced $598 million in grants to set up about 70 "regional extension centers" (RECs) that will help physicians select and implement... (Source: The Health Care Blog) The Health Care Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2751916 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:00:00 +0100 2751916 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2745537&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FNYubmWoGA_Y%2F I’ve had this link to an EMR Stimulus Newsletter/website for a while, but I’d debated whether to post it or not. Why you might ask? I think a lot of the information is quite biased and much of it leaves out important perspectives on the EHR stimulus money. So, I hate when people get bad, biased or spin (I at least try). However, I think the message that is significant about this is that this EHR stimulus money is big enough and important enough that a number of websites and newsletters have been created to try and provide information related to the stimulus money. Another example is MeaningfulUse.org. Yes, we’re talking about a lot of money at stake for a number of large EHR vendors. Not to mention Healthcare IT news and it’s associates. We’re swimming with th... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2745537 Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:20:46 +0100 2745537 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2719785&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F08%2F18%2Fupcoming-healthcare-it-conferences%2F Neil Versel posted a list of upcoming Healthcare IT conferences (a few aren’t just IT, but IT will be a large part of it) in the sidebar of his blog. Check out his list: Medical Device Connectivity (Sept., Boston) Medicine 2.0 (Sept. 17-18, Toronto) AHIMA (Oct. 3-8, D-FW) Health 2.0 (Oct. 6-7, SF) MGMA (Oct. 11-14, Denver) Connected Health Symposium (Oct., Boston) CHIME09 (Oct., Indian Wells, Calif.) E-Patient Connections (Oct., Phila.) NIH mHealth Summit (Oct. 29-30, DC) Inst. for Health Tech Transformation (Nov., LA) AMIA (Nov. 14-18, SF) That’s a lot of conferences. Were there any that we missed? That just goes through the end of the year. How do people stay up with all these conferences? I still haven’t made it to HIMSS, but am planning to go to Atlanta in March. I&#8... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2719785 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:56:01 +0100 2719785 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2705115&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2Fp5NNDon-iTs%2F EAST COAST.  In and around the DC Beltway, there is a tremendous amount of excitement when it comes to Health Information Technology (HIT).  Lots of mainstream IT vendors, trade associations and HIT gurus are licking their chops.  Policy wonks, legislative aides and administration appointees have been diligently debating the thorny issues of the day: privacy, security, standards, and meaningful use. WEST COAST.  In and around Silicon Valley, there is a tremendous amount of excitement when it comes to Health Information Technology (HIT). Lots of software engineers, health 2.o entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists are licking their chops.  IT experts,  computer intelligensia, and bleeding edge developers have been diligently innovating the thorny issues of the day: privacy, security,... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2705115 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:08:11 +0100 2705115 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2719789&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F08%2F13%2Fpros-and-cons-of-thin-clients-with-an-emr%2F This is the second guest post by Bill Horvath II describing the pros and cons of thin clients with an EMR.  Also, take a look at his first entry discussing the pros and cons of laptops with an EMR. Thin Clients Overview An office which chooses this approach will typically have one thin client terminal in each exam room, as well as in each physician’s office, and at stations occupied by non-mobile staff who need access to computerized records.  The terminals are typically managed or ‘driven’ by a server, which provides applications, data storage, and administrative control over the whole system.  Remote access to charts is usually provided via application server software. Pros Easy To Use – Thin clients don’t have to be carried or pushed from room to room, and don’t requ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2719789 Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:38:19 +0100 2719789 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2695364&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F08%2Ffda-medical-device-regulator-resigns.html I believe HIT vendors should be getting nervous.HIT vendors have long enjoyed a protected status and saintlike accommodation relative to other medical device industries and pharma, with contracts that gag medical professionals from disclosing defects that can mislead and cause patient harm, and that absolve the HIT vendors themselves from liability. HIT is, in fact, a virtual medical device that other important countries (e.g., in the EU) are already moving towards regulating in a manner similar to physical medical devices.The HIT vendor "special status" may be coming to a close, and here is a sign in that direction:Wall Street JournalAugust 12, 2009FDA Medical-Device Regulator ResignsBy ALICIA MUNDYWASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration's top medical-device regulator said Tuesday ... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2695364 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:47:00 +0100 2695364 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2719790&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F08%2F12%2Fpros-and-cons-of-laptops-with-an-emr%2F In the comments of my previous post about Tablets vs. Convertibles vs. Laptop and EMR, we started an interesting discussion about “thin clients” in addition to laptops and desktops in the healthcare environment.  From that discussion I invited Bill to do a guest post about the various advantages and challenges of laptops and thin clients with an EMR.  Bill did such a detailed job I decided it was worthy of 2 posts.  The following is Bill Horvath II’s description of the pros and cons of laptops with an EMR. Because doctors who have an EMR system need access to patient histories at the point of care, they need a computer in the exam room.  Traditional desktop computers have been used for this purpose in the past, however, more cost-effective laptops and thin clients are... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2719790 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:30:12 +0100 2719790 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2683824&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FTveZcs_fC70%2F The day before my daughter Elise’s 15th birthday, the new iPhone went on sale.  My birthday was 4 days later.  So Elise figured out we should buy each other an iPhone to mark our big days.  She planned (and saved) for months.  She spent weeks talking to friends, researching apps on line, planning for such accessories as protective covers, and educating herself on how to maximize her minutes.   When the big day came, we made our way to the Apple store and stood shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of others waiting on a very long line.  Two and a half hours later we were invited, actually escorted, in to the store by an extremely friendly, knowledgeable young man who stayed with us during the entire purchase transaction. He answered tons of questions (mine, not Elise’... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2683824 Sun, 09 Aug 2009 02:03:18 +0100 2683824 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2712054&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2FbIV4Kz9wWjw%2F EAST COAST.  In and around the DC Beltway, there is a tremendous amount of excitement when it comes to Health Information Technology (HIT).  Lots of mainstream IT vendors, trade associations and HIT gurus are licking their chops.  Policy wonks, legislative aides and administration appointees have been diligently debating the thorny issues of the day: privacy, security, standards, and meaningful use. WEST COAST.  In and around Silicon Valley, there is a tremendous amount of excitement when it comes to Health Information Technology (HIT). Lots of software engineers, health 2.o entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists are licking their chops.  IT experts,  computer intelligensia, and bleeding edge developers have been diligently innovating the thorny issues of the day: privacy, security,... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2712054 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 04:08:11 +0100 2712054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2662558&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FgemlcZp0t6s%2F A relatively new reader of EMR and HIPAA, Michael Archuleta, sent me his notes from the Utah Medical Group Managers Association 6/25/09 where the keynote speaker was Marc Probst. For those that don’t know, Marc Probst is the CIO of Intermountain Healthcare (IHC). IHC is huge in Utah and I think it does pretty well in a number of surrounding states as well. Plus, Marc Probst is also a member of the HIT Policy Committee. You may remember that I’ve talked about Marc Probst on EMR and HIPAA a few times before. Anyway, I found some of the points that Michael captured interesting. I guess in the end I was interested to hear what Marc Probst was telling people. Michael Archuleta’s notes are as follows (published with permission and the emphasis added was mine to highlight some i... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2662558 Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:45:55 +0100 2662558 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2645370&cid=t_99999_111_f&fid=36048&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAHeartyLife%2F%7E3%2F6fi3LDQA4xQ%2F As a Milwaukee-area resident, I was surprised to learn that we had one of the highest numbers of Swine Flu than any other area in the country. So much so, that health officials are examining some of the cases to help understand and predict possible outbreaks of the disease come fall. One reason Milwaukee is key to understanding the H1N1 virus is because health professionals tallied severe and mild cases of the disease. Other areas were not doing that, so it gave a skewed projection on how deadly the disease is. Image: sxc.hu. Share and Enjoy: Post from: Blisstree Officials Look to Milwaukee for H1N1 Info (Source: A Hearty Life) A Hearty Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2645370 Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:15:52 +0100 2645370 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2637881&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FMOdN01pvbl8%2F Yes, I’m still on my kick of asking the question of why we’re making the definition of meaningful use so complicated. Certainly I could make an ambitious goal of every doctor having to document everything granularly and electronically and share everything with everyone so we give the best care possible to patients. The reality is that if you do that, then no one will care about meaningful use and the EHR stimulus money will go unspent. Certainly the above is a bit of an exaggeration, but I can’t help but ask myself if the definition of “meaningful use” isn’t so ambitious that the above will be the net result (at least for small practices) of the current definition of meaningful use. It’s a little bit wrong for me to say it’s too complex, but ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2637881 Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:12:26 +0100 2637881 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2630206&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FWqNz6OcJbAw%2F Now that the HIT Policy committee has marginalized CCHIT EHR certification and proposed that HHS define the EHR certification criteria, it only seems reasonable to ask whether HHS will do a much better job than CCHIT did at defining “certified EHR.” What has me a little concerned is the process the work they’ve done in creating the meaningful use guidelines. They are too complicated and I believe will leave us with a lot of unhappy doctors. It makes me wonder if the same will happen with defining the EHR certification criteria. A few things do give me hope. First, the HIT policy committee’s suggestion is for the EHR certification to remain focused on just those things which are applicable to the EHR stimulus money. This should provide HHS with an advantage over CCHI... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2630206 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:48:10 +0100 2630206 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2621741&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.slidesharecdn.com%2Fswf%2Fssplayer2.swf%3Fdoc%3Dtheadvanceofmhealthslideshare-090416113113-phpapp01%26amp%3Bstripped_title%3Dthe-advance-of-mhealth-1300600 This article will aim to look at a specific area of the ‘citizen empowerment’ – the application of SMS (Short Messaging Service – or texting) and mobile phones in public health. With the onset of social tools such as social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, etc.) and real time information hubs such as Twitter, we are exposed to numerous ways to stay connected to each other. Our mobile devices are equipped with applications that allow us to do a myriad of things – many of which focus on entertainment and productivity. Another very important part of our lives is maintaining good health and the mobile phone is making strides in that area. mHealth is the term that has been coined to describe the interaction of mobile technology with the improvement of health. mHealth is exploding ... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2621741 Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:02:37 +0100 2621741 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2621884&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FGsC5Ed1Fxbg%2F I posted previously a short summary of the changes to meaningful use in the final meaningful use matrix presented at the HIT policy committee meeting. As I’ve thought about these changes this weekend, I couldn’t help but remember the major problem I (and many others) had with the original meaningful use criteria being too complex. My argument then was that the 22 meaningful use criteria as a collective whole were too much for a doctor’s office to complete in the current time frame. Unfortunately, it seems that the HIT policy committee has chosen to only make slight simplifications of the meaningful use matrix for hospitals (For inpatient CPOE, only 10% of orders must be entered electronically) and has actually added to the EMR requirements for ambulatory clinics. I do thi... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2621884 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:10:14 +0100 2621884 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2615394&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FnQZKzRDsdnY%2F I read that the HIT Policy Committee meeting that happened on July 16, 2009 was a “big one” according to Chilmark Research. He said that “the committee went from hearing revised recommendations for Meaningful Use, to recommendations from the HIE workgroup and lastly recommendations regarding certification processes for EHRs.” I was unfortunately tied up doing a presentation on ARRA EHR Stimulus money and so I wasn’t able to follow the event live (or on one of my twitter accounts). I know that Chilmark is planning to do some posts and I’m looking forward to those. I also found this short summary from John Halamka about the changes to meaningful use in the final definition: 1. For inpatient CPOE, only 10% of orders must be entered electronically 2. For pro... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2615394 Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:37:16 +0100 2615394 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2741096&cid=t_99999_139_f&fid=38879&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FVirologyBlog%2F%7E3%2FCe3400KRagc%2F The plaque assay is an essential tool for determining virus titers. The concept is simple: virus infection is restricted to neighboring cells by a semisolid overlay. By counting the number of plaques, the virus titer can be calculated in PFU per ml. A key question is: how many viruses are needed to form a single plaque? For most animal viruses, one infectious particle is sufficient to initiate infection. This conclusion can be reached by studying the relationship between the number of infectious virus particles and the plaque count. A linear relationship means that one infectious particle can form a plaque. In this case the virus is said to infect cells with one-hit kinetics. This concept is illustrated below. In this figure, the number of plaques produced by a virus with one-hit kinetics ... virology blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2741096 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:00:57 +0100 2741096 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2561370&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FWh9le0AJha8%2F Blumenthal gave a recent speech at the HIT Symposium at MIT. I must admit that as I’ve heard Blumenthal speak I’ve grown pretty fond of what he’s trying to do within the bounds of what’s available to him. Here’s a quick look at some things he said with my thoughts. “I found that (information technology) changed me as a physician. I thought it was going to change practice. That was 10 years ago,” Blumenthal said. “I think that reality will be realized within a few years.” I’ve heard Blumenthal say this before. I guess given the number of speeches he gives it’s ok for him to repeat on occasion. That said, this is something that physicians hate to hear, but need to hear it. An EMR will change the way you practice. It won’... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2561370 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:43:03 +0100 2561370 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553113&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F06%2F27%2Favailabilty-of-hit-help-for-emr-implementations%2F One of my regular readers, sent me the following email about the availability of IT help for those implementing an electronic medical record (EMR). If my conjecture about the mad rush for good quality IT help is correct, then I wonder if physicians will have to choose between experienced HIT contractors that have long waiting lists and may be overwhelmed with demand (particularly if they get greedy about taking on too many clients or have trouble scaling) or try to find a good but inexperienced firm that will be responsive. Could be an interesting dilemma? There’s no doubt that a physician’s IT support can sink an EMR implementation just as easily as a poor EMR vendor. I wonder how many failed EMR implementations should be credited to the IT people over the EMR vendors. I still... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553113 Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:39:50 +0100 2553113 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553115&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F06%2F25%2Fproviding-feedback-on-meaningful-use-matrix%2F I’d been meaning to post this when the meaningful use document came out, but didn’t get around to it until now. ONC has asked for public comment on the preliminary definition of “meaningful use” as presented by the HIT policy Committee (see the Meaningful Use Matrix). Submissions are due by 5 pm est June 26, 2009, and should be no more than 2,000 words in length (per the HHS HIT website). I encourage everyone involved in Helathcare IT to submit their thoughts on meaningful use. I’m a big believer in leveraging the knowledge of crowds to make something better. I believe that if you amass enough smart people on something, you usually get a pretty good result. Assuming that they listen. I’d also certainly welcome people to post their submissions in the comm... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553115 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:52:45 +0100 2553115 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2553116&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F06%2F24%2Fmeaningful-use-matrix-from-hit-policy-committee%2F As I first looked over the meaningful use matrix (PDF) that was created by the HIT policy committee I thought that the requirements listed were reasonable and doable. Then, I realized that I was only looking at the first page of a seven page document. For now, I’ve focused on looking at the 2011 objectives. I wanted to really focus on it since that’s the bar with the most stringent timeline for those wanting to get the EHR stimulus money from ARRA. I’ll talk in more detail about the various items in a future post. However, as I look through the list of objectives to show meaningful use for 2011, I don’t think any of them sound unreasonable. On their own, each objective listed seems to be something that is completely doable. I might question why some are on the list,... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2553116 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:07:10 +0100 2553116 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510432&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F06%2Fimproving-patient-safety-in-eu-hit.html Here is some sense on healthcare IT from the European Union, echoing a number of themes I've written about at Healthcare Renewal and my academic site on HIT difficulties and failures.These themes revolve around the consideration of healthcare information systems (increasingly used to mediate many aspects of medical care delivery) as medical devices requiring regulation by transparent and impartial authorities - i.e., without conflicts of interest; the importance of regulation due to the adverse consequences caused by ill designed and/or poorly implemented HIT; the need for validation and postmarketing surveillance of the performance of these systems; and vendor accountability.From the Swedish Medical Products Agency:Improving patient safety in the EU: Many Medical Information Systems shoul... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510432 Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:39:00 +0100 2510432 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2523212&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FSaiG6cX0Wv8%2F I participated in both of the CCHIT “town calls” that happened this morning and yesterday. I did miss the beginning of today’s call, but looking through the slides it looks like the presentation was more or less the same for both town calls. You can see the slides from both CCHIT presentations here. Between this and the HIT Policy Committee meeting yesterday there’s almost too much to digest. So, in my regular fashion I’m going to break down my analysis into lots of bite sized chunks. The biggest change that was proposed/announced during the CCHIT meeting was three EHR certification pathways: EHR-C: Certified EHR Comprehensive EHR-M: Certified EHR Module EHR-S: Certified EHR Site Basically, the EHR-C is the same certification that CCHIT has been doing since th... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2523212 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:26:45 +0100 2523212 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2473623&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2Ffedg2KK4tNM%2F The healthcare IT airwaves are abuzz with the date of June 16th.  That’s the date that they say we should get more indications on how the government is going to define the all important term “meaningful use.”  Here’s a short quote from John Halamka about the meaningful use dates: On June 16th, the Quality workgroup will receive meaningful use guidance from the HIT Policy Committee. We’ll work hard over the following week and will present our strawman standards, implementation guidance, and certification criteria at the June 23rd public meeting of the HIT Standards Workgroup. We’ll continue to refine the matrix in July and complete our work in August. John Halamka also described the format for the HIT Standards Committee’s meaningful use document:... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2473623 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:07:15 +0100 2473623 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2458197&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FzVuz5AIvYbk%2F I came across this article that identified the top 5 wirless challenges in healthcare. They go into more detail of the challenges, but here’s their list: Physical connectivity (especially in old hospitals) Technology connectivity issues Meeting user demand Security considerations (high risk of stolen laptops) Network management issues So these challenges are really mostly focused on hospital situations or at least larger group practices. The exception is the security considerations. However, I think most people are far past the idea of wireless being any less secure than a wired connection. In fact, one could argue that wireless is actually more secure than the wired connection if it’s set up properly. The biggest issue on this list that I see with wireless is the first one. ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2458197 Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:08:33 +0100 2458197 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2441979&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Fncvhs.hhs.gov%2F090518rpt.pdf The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) has issued its initial Report of Hearing on "Meaningful Use" of Health Information Technology.The May 18,2009 report is directed to David Blumenthal, MD, National Coordinator of Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The cover letter indicates that NCVHS will be sending additional observations related to the hearing.The Hearing on "Meaningful Use" of Health Information Technology was held on April 28-29, 2009. More information about the hearing can be found at the NCVHS website, including a copy of the hearing transcript and copies of the individual written testimony submitted by those individuals who testified at the hearing. You can also listen to a recorded version of the hearing in the NCVHS he... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2441979 Thu, 28 May 2009 18:15:30 +0100 2441979 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424004&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2F6dv_K2sasuk%2F Heart disease is the number one killer of women. The problem is, women have different symptoms then men — so they often don’t realize they’re having a heart attack. The Queen of Hearts Foundation is co-hosting a women’s wellness seminar in Atlanta June 2 and 3 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Atlanta Perimeter At Ravinia - (Address is: 4355 Ashford Dunwoody Rd NE, Atlanta - (888) 444-0401) If you’re in Atlanta, the cost is only $10 — and it could save your life. Queen of Hearts co-founders, Katy Atterbery and Carmen Perez, talked to Disruptive Women’s Wendy Grossman. DW: Did you know each other before you started the foundation? KA: We met while volunteering on a project regarding women and heart here in Atlanta in 2004. We formed the foundation in May 20... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424004 Wed, 20 May 2009 14:33:03 +0100 2424004 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424271&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthCareBlogLaw%2F%7E3%2FqbQxG6-zMTU%2Fmodern-day-hatfield-mccoy-google-health.html The Hatfields and McCoys, a metaphor for a modern day high-tech industry rivalry centered on personal health records (PHRs) involving Google Health, Microsoft HealthVault and other PHR vendors. An image that a West Virginia health care lawyer can really appreciate. Thanks to a tweet by @2healthguru for pointing out the CNET article, Microsoft, Google in healthy competition. The article provides a good overview of the developing PHR movement and some insight into the future. However, I'm a bit concerned by the accuracy of the article when I see two of the individuals mentioned in the article (Matthew Holt and Dave deBronkart) tweeting (here and here) that they weren't really interviewed for the article.Later this week I will be in D.C.along with others testifying at the Hearing on Personal ... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424271 Tue, 19 May 2009 16:59:00 +0100 2424271 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424239&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F05%2F19%2Fa-failed-hard-drive-on-your-emr-server%2F Note: This post starts a bit technical, but even those less technical should benefit from the second half of the post. Today I had the very exciting event of a hard drive dieing on one of my servers. Luckily, I had the drives mirrored and nobody noticed. The server just kept running off of the good drive. I’ve had this happen a couple times and it always makes me happy to say that we lost a hard drive and nobody noticed the difference. Nice to know that things work the way they should be working. However, the thought of losing the other hard drive before I could restore the second drive is always a little bit tense. Luckily for me, I was able to just connect to the raid controller (yes I just lost half my readers) and rebuild the failed hard drive and we’re back in business (at... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424239 Tue, 19 May 2009 13:38:54 +0100 2424239 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2408548&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FWk2JkDjgXuA%2F As I’ve been writing and reading about ARRA and the HITECH Act, I’ve had a few moments to consider the impact that things like the HIT Policy Committee will have on the future of EMR adoption in the US. Between that committee, ONCHIT and HHS the decisions they make will have far reaching impact on EHR adoption. I’ll leave the question of whether they’ll have a good or bad impact to another post. Instead, I couldn’t help but wonder what impact bloggers and various EMR related websites and forums can have on EMR adoption. More specifically, I’ve been asking myself what kind of impact does this blog have on overall EMR adoption including both selection and implementation. Maybe I should be asking myself the question of how much impact could EMR bloggers hav... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2408548 Thu, 14 May 2009 23:20:34 +0100 2408548 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2398593&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FHrPD42YbykE%2F Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling for a large-scale study on the question of  whether to legalize marijuana.  Arnold wants the study to include international comparisons to show the possible impact of such a change.  Cato just released such a study concerning Portugal. Our friends at NORML are running ads like this in some markets. Over at Reason, Jacob Sullum takes a look at national Zogby poll numbers, which shows that a majority of voters support marijuana legalization. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2398593 Thu, 07 May 2009 18:57:58 +0100 2398593 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2382593&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FX2ItRyp8LkA%2F Marc Probst, CIO at Intermountain Healthcare and member of the new Health Information Technology Policy Committee, gave a really interesting interview to Healthcare Informatics. I really don’t know Marc Probst other than what I read in this interview, but I do know something about Intermountain Healthcare (or IHC as it’s known in Utah). When I was in high school I actually worked for IHC spending one hour a day cleaning a local doctors office. I’m glad those days are over and I don’t think I did a very good job at it either. However, from that experience and also my high school friend’s dad being the CEO of IHC I got to know the company pretty well. I was really impressed with how the company was run. From the above interview I think that Marc Probst probably ... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2382593 Sat, 02 May 2009 23:11:05 +0100 2382593 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2382232&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2Fz8ek3ZJ9G4E%2F This week, after the Senate confirmed Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) as HHS Secretary, HHS announced the establishment of two new health IT committees in the department. Jason Miller of FederalNewsRadio reported: HHS announced [Wednesday] in the Federal Register that the Health IT policy committee would recommend a policy framework to develop and adopt nationwide infrastructure to permit the electronic exchange of health information.…The Health IT standards committee would make recommendations around data and technology standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for the electronic exchange and use of health records.…Previously, HHS had similar committees addressing policy and standards. But the Recovery Act, which included more than $19 billion for h... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2382232 Fri, 01 May 2009 20:53:55 +0100 2382232 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2380907&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=38130&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tempdev.net%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D814 One of the doctor’s we work with forwarded us this neat article from the Economist that has a good overview of HIT across the globe. Its pretty similar to a bunch of stories that have been in the paper lately, except for this great little graph of EHR dollars over the years. Its the strongest graphical representation of the exponential increase in HIT dollars over the next decade. I liken the HIT industry to a snail with a jet pack strapped to its back… whether or not its headed for a brick wall is up to you. On a related note, I continue to be amazed at the difference that President Obama and the ARRA / HITECH stimulus have made on physicians’ interest in EHRs. On projects that we’re working on, I no longer hear providers questioning the need for an EHR or whether ... Implementing EMRs blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2380907 Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:11:48 +0100 2380907 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2376391&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffrwebgate.access.gpo.gov%2Fcgi-bin%2Fgetdoc.cgi%3Fdbname%3D111_cong_bills%26amp%3Bdocid%3Df%3As890is.txt.pdf Yesterday West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller introduced "The Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009"(Senate Bill 890) to facilitate the nationwide adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) though an "open source" public utility model. A copy of Senate Bill 890 is available on Thomas (GPO PDF version).  According to the press release the Act would: Create a new federal Public Utility Board within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to direct and oversee formation of this HIT Public Utility Model, its implementation, and its ongoing operation. Implement and administer a new 21st Century Health IT Grant program for safety-net providers to cover the full cost of open source software implementation and maintenance for up to five years, with the po... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2376391 Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:12:50 +0100 2376391 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2376318&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2F4nUXUUVgnGA%2F Today I came across what someone called a new Health and Human Services (HHS) health information technology (HIT) website. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the same graphic designer and web developer that have been doing such a fine job with the various websites that Obama has been putting up. I find the first page interesting since it has HHS asserting the following: Health information technology (Health IT) allows comprehensive management of medical information and its secure exchange between health care consumers and providers. Broad use of health IT will: Improve health care quality Prevent medical errors Reduce health care costs Increase administrative efficiencies Decrease paperwork Expand access to affordable care Interoperable health IT will improve individual patient ca... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2376318 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:50:39 +0100 2376318 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2365233&cid=t_99999_114_f&fid=34646&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FHealthCareBlogLaw%2F%7E3%2Fq1VoS4LJqDM%2Fwv-senator-rockefeller-health.html Yesterday West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller introduced "The Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009"(Senate Bill 890) to facilitate the nationwide adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) though an "open source" public utility model. A copy of Senate Bill 890 is not yet available on Thomas. I will check back later and update a link to the text of the new bill. In the meantime, according to the press release the Act would: Create a new federal Public Utility Board within the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to direct and oversee formation of this HIT Public Utility Model, its implementation, and its ongoing operation. Implement and administer a new 21st Century Health IT Grant program for safety-net providers to cover the full cost of open source s... Health Care Law Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2365233 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:54:59 +0100 2365233 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2365200&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emrandhipaa.com%2Femr-and-hipaa%2F2009%2F04%2F23%2Ffake-hit-and-emr-twitter-accounts%2F Many people know that I’m quite fascinated by Twitter. I love it and I love connecting with people on Twitter. However, today I came across a clearly fake twitter account. At least to me it was easy to see it was fake. It was a twitter account supposedly for Dr. David Blumenthal. Yes, the name might be familiar to many people here. How did I know it was fake? It linked to some awful news site. Plus, the tweets were just odd and so you could tell it wasn’t really Blumenthal at all. What scares me is that many people in IT and healthcare won’t know that it’s not him. In fact, that’s why I’m not going to add a link to the fake account. I guess there’s no harm in someone following a fake account. Some of the fake accounts on twitter are really funny. I... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2365200 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:51:45 +0100 2365200 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348797&cid=t_99999_113_f&fid=34634&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FEmrAndHipaa%2F%7E3%2FoYhaPuLtR9k%2F I recently got an email from an EHR vendor talking about how they just had a practice uninstall a CCHIT certified EHR and replace it with this EHR vendor’s EHR which was not CCHIT certified. This fact really wasn’t news to me and shouldn’t be news to anyone ready this forum. Although, if it is news to you, then know that this is a very common occurrence in the EHR world in general. What was really interesting to me was to actually see an EHR vendor put a marketing and PR plan in action which basically says, “We’re not CCHIT certified and doctors like our EHR software better.” I mentioned to an EHR vendor I talked to recently that I think there’s a great opportunity available for some EHR vendor to say that we don’t waste our money on CCHIT ce... EMR and HIPAA blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348797 Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:16:16 +0100 2348797 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2347700&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FDisruptiveWomenInHealthCare%2F%7E3%2F6E_EKoWJ2SQ%2F The following is a guest post from Julia Loughran, a Digital Media and Gaming Solutions Expert with iConecto—Gaming4Health. (Full Disclosure: Amplify Public Affairs is now the PR Strategic Partner for iConecto—Gaming4Health) Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak on Capitol Hill as part of a special event hosted by the same group that hosts this wonderful blog - Disruptive Women in Health Care, and its media partner The Hill. The topic was Health eGaming, Healthy Patients: Supporting Stimulus Goals Through Health eGaming. I was there to speak about the opportunities health eGames can bring to healthcare, both as forms of preventative care (e.g., exer-games that get people up and moving and games that promote healthy behaviors, like healthy eating and smoking cessation), as well as g... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2347700 Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:41:01 +0100 2347700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2347702&cid=t_99999_87_f&fid=38368&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ama-assn.org%2Fama1%2Fpub%2Fupload%2Fmm%2F368%2Fcompstudy_52006.pdf Debate surrounding health information technology, particularly electronic health records (EHR), has become increasingly dominant among health care-related discussions around the Web. Forbes.com chatted with Geoff Brown, CIO at Inova Health System (a Virginia-based not-for-profit health care service provider system consisting of hospitals and other health care centers), about the significant role health IT could play “in improving medical care, cutting costs and speeding up treatment.” The health-care industry is a study in contrasts. On one hand, it employs the best that medical science has to offer. On the other, it is one of the least automated sectors from an IT standpoint. All of that is about to change, however, spurred as much by the federal government’s push for co... Disruptive Women in Health Care blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2347702 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:34:09 +0100 2347702