Feb 26, 2010

Doctors use EHR for older, richer patients - Study shows.



Your doctor tends to use electronic health records if you're older or richer: a new riff on meaningful use:


"There's a new survey on EHRs out that most industry news outlets have headlined, 'More doctors have gone digital.' This, directly from the survey's title, Doctors Gone Digital, conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media for Practice Fusion, the EHR developer.The Practice Fusion survey was conducted from February 5-7, 2010, by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, via random digit dialing phone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adult interview subjects aged 18 or older nationwide.  The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus three percentage points.
Forty-eight percent, or nearly 1 in 2 patients in the U.S., has noticed that their doctors have their records stored digitally on a computer. This is, of course, good news indeed. But under the proverbial hood of the survey data, you find a subtext: that if you're older or more affluent, your physician is more likely to have access to electronic health records. A slightly higher percentage of patients over 65 (52.6%) have digital records, compared with only 40% of people 25-34. Furthermore, 52.9% of people with incomes over both $50K and $75K have access to electronic health records, compared to 46.5% of patients with incomes between $20-29.9K.
Other important points elicited in the report include -

  • Of patients who reported that their doctor used a computer during their last visit, 45.2 percent said their doctor made the switch to an electronic system during the previous two years;  14.3 percent said the switch occurred in just the last six months.
  • Patients who reported their doctors did not use a computer were split on their doctor adopting the technology.  Of these respondents, 38.4 percent wanted their doctor to "go digital," while 32.7 percent did not and 28.9 percent were not sure.
  • More women (52.8 percent) than men (43.7 percent) reported EHR use by their doctors.
  • Higher income patients saw greater EHR use by their doctors; 52.9 percent for respondents with incomes over $50,000 a year compared to 45.2 percent for those with incomes under $20,000 a year.
  • Of note, 14% of physicians who had used an EHR previously either discarded it or replaced it. Most of these (85%) replaced it with another EHR.
  • Cost and usability were among the main drivers for EHR adoption. In the Texas survey, EHR purchase, training and implementation costs averaged $18,000 per physician (down from $25,000 in 2007), with monthly maintenance costs averaging $350 per physician (down from $425 in 2007).
Read more on http://www.ehrbloggers.com

Technology in Medicine- TEDMED 2009 Video channel

TEDMED Opening

  

TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. Together, this encompasses more than twenty percent of our GNP in America while touching everyone's life around the globe.

The speakers featured in this video playlist are-   

1. Aimee Mullins -
Athlete, Actress, Activist
Outfitted with woven carbon-fiber prostheses that were modeled after the hind legs of a cheetah, she went on to set World Records in the 100 meter, the 200 meter, and the long jump, sparking frenzy over the radical design of her prototype sprinting legs.Aimee has received accolades for her work as an actor, including in the critically-acclaimed film by contemporary artist Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3, which was released in 2003.   

2. Eric Topol –
Director, Scripps Translational Science Institute
Dr. Topol has been active in wireless medicine, having served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Cardionet, the first commercially successful wireless health company, and presently on the Board of Directors of Triage Wireless.

3. Jamie Heywood –
Co-­‐Founder& Chairman, PatientsLikeMe



4. David Agus –
Professor of Medicine, University of Southern California
Dr. Agus’ research is focused on the application of proteomics and genomics for the study of cancer and the development of new therapeutics for cancer.
 
5. Bill Davenhall –
Global Marketing Manager, Health & Human Services Solutions, ESRI
Bill’s newest mission is creating intelligent geographic solutions and technologies that would help physicians improve their diagnostic capabilities by receiving geographically and environmentally relevant information at the time of a patient consultation.

6. Anthony Atala –
Dir., Wake Forest Inst. for Regenerative Medicine. Chair of Urology, Wake Forest Univ.
His current work focuses on growing and regenerating tissues and organs. Dr. Atala has received numerous awards, including the US Congress funded Christopher Columbus Foundation Award, and was named by Scientific American as a Medical Treatments Leader of the Year. His work was listed as Discover Magazine's Number 1 Top Science Story of the Year in the field of medicine, and as Time Magazine’s top 10 medical breakthroughs of the


Feb 25, 2010

Free iPhone medical app for Residents and Neurologists


NeuroMind

NeuroMind is an application for medical students and neurological / neurosurgical residents.


Version 1.1 offers five categories:

1. Anatomical pictures (with legend)
2. Differential diagnosis (as text and mindmap !!)
3. The WHO Safe Surgery checklist items
4. Many relevant score and grading systems (by topic)
5. An overview of updates in each new version

User instructions are provided inside the categories, if considered to be helpful.

Screenshots
 
NeuroMind v1.1 screenshots

Status
The application can be downloaded for free from the App Store.

  • Category: Medical
  • Updated Feb 23, 2010
  • Current Version: 1.1
  • 8.6 MB
  • Languages: English

Feb 24, 2010

Top 10 innovative companies in Health care: 2010



  • GE-
The pocket-size Vscan ultrasound device lets primary-care doctors make diagnoses that once required a specialist. "Often, people get referred to a specialist because a doctor doesn't have the visuals to make the decision. This tool can lower the cost to the overall system," says Barber.

Developed for use in emerging countries and remote rural areas, the Mac 400 and 800 ultra-mobile ECG machines make sophisticated heart assessments available anywhere. "An ECG used to mean going to a hospital," Barber says, "and for large parts of India, China, and Africa, that doesn't work."

The Centricity Electronic Medical Record system puts a patient's complete medical history into a clear, secure, and easily accessible digital format proven to reduce errors. To tap stimulus money coming to doctors in 2011, GE Capital created a no-interest loan program called Stimulus Simplicity so that doctors can acquire the technology now.

Together with Intermountain Healthcare, the Mayo Clinic, and other institutions, GE created a digital database giving doctors anywhere access to the most up-to-date treatment options. Tied to electronic medical records, the system can compare histories of a vast number of patients for more consistent diagnoses and treatment.

GE and Intel announced a $250 million alliance in which GE will market and sell home-monitoring technologies, including the Intel Health Guide.

  • PatientsLikeMe 
Cofounders Ben and Jamie Heywood started the site after their brother Stephen was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). Since 2008, they have set up data-rich communities for several other chronic ailments, including fibromyalgia and Parkinson's disease, and they plan to add more in the coming year. That should benefit many more people like Knowles, who lauds PatientsLikeMe for its "wealth of information about treatments from people who are actually using them. And you can follow patient responses over time -- after three months, six months, a year." Sounds like the future of medical care for chronic diseases.

  • Sermo - 
Physicans use this free Web service to discuss treatments and other medical issues anonymously. In September, the "Facebook for doctors" became a political force when members amassed 10,000 signatures for a petition opposing the American Medical Association's acceptance of the House health-care reform bill.

Athenahealth, Kaiser Permanente, Walgreens, Intuitive Surgical, Cisco Systems, Second Sight and American Well are the other Companies mentioned in this list.

http://www.fastcompany.com/mic/2010/industry/most-innovative-healthcare-companies

Feb 8, 2010

Medical Apologies in healthcare reforms.

 
Recently, i read an article on Medical apologies, and its position in the healthcare reform. The idea does sound like a possibly effective self-regulation method. It can definitely bring down litigation costs and encourage openness and efforts to improve quality by healthcare institutions.

 
Medical Apologies: Do right and do well

An often overlooked tool in health care providers' struggle with the malpractice crisis is the medical apology.  Two thirds of the states provide some form of protection for the medical apology (i.e., a simple apology is not admissible in court as an admission of culpability), and settlements reached post-apology are almost invariably lower that they would be otherwise.  (In the current environment, articles on medical apologies are popping up everywhere ... even in the NY Times business section.)

It is important to note that an effective apology policy does not stop with the simple apology -- I'm sorry that this happened to you -- but must include a commitment to conduct a root cause analysis, to communicate the results to the patient and/or patient's family, to implement systems improvements based on the results of the root cause analysis, and to offer a specific apology once the analysis is complete, and an offer of monetary compensation if the provider or its systems were at fault. 

Often, following a bad outcome, a patient's family member may wonder if he or she could have done something different to prevent the bad outcome, and the analysis can serve to put his or her mind at ease.  In addition, patients and family members often sue because they want to be sure that 'nothing like this ever happens to anyone else.'  If a provider can demonstrate that a root cause analysis has been done and systems improvements made so that the same mistakes cannot be repeated, then that impetus for filing suit is removed.

For example, the University of Michigan health system reduced malpractice payouts by about 50% following implementation of its program.  Other examples of successful programs abound.  (And here's another resource on medical apologies.)

       
Originally by-
David Harlow


Feb 4, 2010

Need for skilled personnel in Healthcare services


I have been a strict proponent of increasing use of eHealth tools to ensure democratization of better quality health services, best quality healthcare and paperless clean environment for ALL.

Availability of a skilled workforce is definitely one very obvious obstacle in countries like India and Brazil.One of the challenges to implementing health information and communication technology is the need for a skilled workforce that understands health care, information and communication technology, and the people and organizational challenges involved. The intersection of these areas is commonly known as the discipline of biomedical and health informatics (or health informatics for short)

This paper explains the need for skilled and trained professionals for better utilization of information technology and the various peculiarities faced in Developing countries.

E-health and m-health applications hold vast promise to improve global health. As these projects develop, leaders need to be cognizant of the need for a well-trained workforce to lead their implementation. An ideal approach will include needs assessment as well as education and training opportunities for that workforce. Successful local examples can be expanded into larger networks whose scale can be leveraged to more rapidly and effectively disseminate them. Such an approach should also foster the establishment of academic partnerships and centers of excellence in education and research in developing countries for sustainable capacity building while still being responsive to local needs


Read the original article on Health Affairs.