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Monday, July 13
Leveraging Internet Technologies
by
Toby Ward
on Mon 13 Jul 2009 02:11 PM EDT
(Advance
- Merion) Internet availability is as commonplace as the television
in our homes. Almost everyone with a computer lives in an area that
provides Internet access. You can't miss the advertisements from
national and local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) boasting fast
connections and economical pricing plans. Today, cable companies,
phone companies and other providers such as America Online (AOL) are
competing us to connect.
Ease
of access to Internet means more and more consumers are getting
online. In 1998, nearly 18 million people surfed the Internet for
health-related products and services. Explosive growth in health care
Internet connectivity is predicted for 2000. (Yes it's happening
now!) It is estimated that by 2001, 30 million people will be using
the Internet for a variety of health care needs.1 What does the
explosive growth mean to this industry and to the health information
management (HIM) professional?
Read
Leveraging
Internet Technologies
Tuesday, April 28
eHealth Reports of Note (2009)
by
Toby Ward
on Tue 28 Apr 2009 04:00 PM EDT
Canada's
e-health journey and HIMSS Analytics' Canada Information and
Communications Technology Study (2009 - Healthc Q.) NoFull Text
In
spring 2007, HIMSS Analytics began developing its first Canada
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Study. Less than one
year later, 38 RHAs, DHAs and HAs are already on board, with some 20
more scheduled to participate by year's end. Why are so many Canadian
provincial healthcare delivery organizations now participating in
HIMSS Analytics' Canada ICT Study? The answer is tied to the
character of the HIMSS study, the value offered to all participants
and specific Canadian healthcare issues that are addressed by the
study.
US:
Interoperable electronic prescribing in the United States: a progress
report. (April 2009 - Health Affaires)
Although the vast
majority of U.S. physicians still handwrite prescriptions, adoption
of electronic prescribing is slowly growing. Major barriers to
adoption remain, including the inability to electronically submit
prescriptions for controlled substances and confusion about standards
for data exchange. Federal and state governments and private insurers
are using payment and policy incentives to boost e-prescribing
because they still believe in its promise for improving the quality
and efficiency of health care. However, additional efforts and
further investments are needed to reap the benefits of e-prescribing
on a national scale.
Health
information technology: dispatches from the revolution. (April 2009 -
Health Affairs)
Countries around the world are increasingly
employing health information technology (IT). These tools hold the
promise of powerful health system breakthroughs from Johannesburg to
Jakarta. While implementers multiply, a global e-health consensus
framework is beginning to take shape among donors, governments,
industries, researchers, and policymakers. As plans are formulated in
the United States for substantial new federal investments in health
IT, this paper details common threads in national and global health
IT discourse. Among them are the need for strong stakeholder
engagement, workable policy solutions, funding and donor
coordination, and the imperative for adequately addressing standards
and interoperability.
Exploring
antecedents of consumer satisfaction and repeated search behavior on
e-health information (2009 - J Health Commun.)::
E-health
information has become an important resource for people seeking
health information. Even though many studies have been conducted to
examine the quality of e-health information, only a few studies have
explored the effects of the information seekers' motivations on the
perceived quality of e-health information
User
information seeking behaviour: Perceptions and reality. An evaluation
of the WHO Labresources Internet portal (2009 - Inform Health Soc
Care.)
This article discusses the evaluation of a WHO Internet
portal: the Labresources website. The evaluation investigates user
satisfaction with the resource, usability, demographic information
about users and how well they could complete specific tasks using the
website and compared this with the actual online behaviour revealing
a number of discrepancies
Technorati
Profile
Thursday, February 21
Ireland uses patent wristbands with barcodes
by
Toby Ward
on Thu 21 Feb 2008 01:39 PM EST
IT is a significant driver for a safer and more efficient healthcare system in Ireland, funded to the tune of €17bn per year. In a move to make the system more efficient and to better track patients through the system, the system is beginning to use patient wristbands with barcodes that provide full access to the patients key information (see Taking the pulse, reported on the SiliconRepublic.com).
"In times of financial prudence, the budget for infrastructure such as IT is often cut to the quick in an attempt to rein in costs. Conversely, industry observers say now is the time to spend because IT has been proven to save money and drive efficiencies. Despite past technology projects going very publicly awry, the HSE is proceeding with smaller projects that it hopes will improve patient care and increase efficiencies.
ID technology integrator Zetes is involved in a project for patient wristbands with two-dimensional (data matrix) barcodes. The wristband contains key demographic information that includes the patient’s name, surname, date of birth, sex and hospital number. The information is now electronically transferable for use by a PDA-type device, mobile computer or any electronic interface.
“We did this for a hospital in Roscommon that wanted to improve its phlebotomy practices. It previously had to print labels and it now uses electronic wristbands,” explains Barry Long, sales manager with Zetes. “This has two advantages: electronic transfer of information and the details on the wristband is consistent and the same as on the hospital’s system.” Barcoding is a fundamental building block in the installation of wireless networks in hospitals and many hospitals throughout the country are either putting in or piloting the technology, according to Long."
Read the full article Taking the pulse.
Wednesday, August 1
U.S. Health IT Lags
by
Toby Ward
on Wed 01 Aug 2007 01:54 PM PDT
According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 1 in 10 U.S. physicians in 2005 were using systems that included prescription and diagnostic test orders, test results and physician notes, which are vital to a complete health information network. That number may be in the rise, but it still lags behind demand and the pace of technology.
“As a result, the United States—which had a key role in the creation of personal computers, the rise of the consumer Internet, the mapping of the human genome and using technology to cut costs—lags Denmark, the Netherlands and some other industrialized nations when it comes to moving medical records into the digital age, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a healthcare-focused private foundation in New York,” writes Lisa Baertlein with Reuters in U.S. Health IT Lags on eWeek.com
Insurance companies, which have come under fire for cherry picking the healthiest patients or limiting payments to members, make up another sector that stands to benefit from digital information to find the most effective treatments.
The United States plans to develop a national network of health information by 2014, and the European Union has called for every member state to create a system of electronic medical records, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' recent Pharma 2020 report.
AND THE WINNER IS ... DENMARK
Denmark leads the pack among European and English-speaking countries when it comes to using digital information to deliver health care, according to the Commonwealth Fund.
The Danish government provides health care for its citizens and most of their health information is kept in a single system that can be accessed and updated by an individual's primary care doctor and other medical professionals.
Anyone who has personally—or through an acquaintance or family member—grappled with a complex or terminal medical condition knows just how difficult it can be to keep track of specialist visits, hospital stays and prescription drugs—and how valuable it is for doctors, patients and family members to have immediate access to complete records during a health crisis.
None of this of course is a surprise. In a June 2006 article, Health IT struggles echo 19th century challenges (Government Health IT), John Pulley writes, “Up to 100,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors, according to estimates released by the Institute of Medicine in 2000. Subsequent studies have estimated twice as many such deaths, with medical errors killing more people every year than breast cancer, AIDS or wrecks involving motor vehicles.”
“One in every five of those fatal errors results from a lack of immediate access to patient health care information, said Jodi Daniel, the director of policy and research for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”
While the “war on terror” continues to dominate the U.S. administration’s policy, priorities such as Health IT will continue lag and fall further behind European counterparts.
Thursday, October 12
Danish GPs lead use of HiT
by
Toby Ward
on Thu 12 Oct 2006 11:46 PM EDT
A new study reveals that Danes beat out other leading nations in using information technology (IT) in delivering patient care.
Among the findings, Danish GPs regularly exchange clinical information over asecure network. In fact, over 90% of clinical communications are exchange online and only 41 GPs are not connected to the network.
Danish patients also use e-mail to contact their GPs for medical advice. GPs are paid twice the amount for e-mail consultations as they are for phone and a national online health portal provides information to patients alllows them to schedule appointments, renew prescriptions, access their own health records (with detailed information on who has read their records) and even query which facilities have the shortest or longest waiting times. The study (see Adoption of IT by GPs/FMs -- Canadian Medical Association) is a review of IT use by GPs in 10 countries, prepared for Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) by Professor Denis Protti, from the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria, found that general practitioners in other countries are using IT in greater numbers.
"We need to stop running a 21st century health system using 19th century paperwork," said Richard Alvarez, Infoway's President and CEO. "Recent CMA/Infoway research shows that if Canadian physicians could improve the quality and efficiency of their practices and save time, they would adopt electronic health records. Clearly the challenge is to demonstrate that these benefits can only be achieved through the widespread use of electronic records in physicians' day-to-day operations," he added.
The review showed that in these 10 British, European, and Australasian nations, more than 90% of GPs are using computers for at least some element of caring for patients. The most common usage involves management of patient drug prescriptions, followed by receiving laboratory results online. In Canada, that number is around 20%.
The study was commissioned by Infoway to identify factors that have contributed to the success of the countries studied in achieving high levels of automation in GP offices over the last decade.
Additional reading from the Canadian Medical Association:
News release
Summary of Protti study and comparison with Canada
Commentary by CMA President Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai
Commentary by Infoway CEO Richard Alvarez
Survey of Canadian Physicians
Individual country reports
Friday, July 28
One step closer to Canadian EHRs
by
Cathy McKnight
on Fri 28 Jul 2006 01:20 PM EDT
A recent agreement between Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has given the green light to establishing a new Canada-wide coordination body. Housed by Infoway, the Infoway Standards Collaborative will manage, deliver and maintain health information standards, including those standards related to pan-Canadian electronic health records (EHR).
Currently, Canada’s health information standards are managed by several different organizations and initiatives, including CIHI. Having one body responsible for these standards being upheld ensures that the data collected about Canada’s health system meet quality criteria and can be easily compared.
The Infoway Standards Collaborative will take on several of CIHI’s initiatives already underway that support health information standards, including the Partnership for Health Information Standards, HL7 Canada and liaison activities with Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM). While CIHI will no longer be managing the same slate of standardization activities, it will continue to provide leadership in the development and maintenance of the key content standards (such as ICD-10-CA, CCI, MIS Standards) underpinning its information products and services.
Based on extensive consultations and collaboration, the Blueprint is focused on interoperability – the capability of computer systems to seamlessly communicate with one another. It provides guidance for integrating the approximately 40,000 existing health information systems in use across the country, while remaining flexible to allow for incorporating new and better information systems and capabilities.
This announcement follows on the heels of the release of a revised version of the Electronic Health Record Solution Blueprint developed by Infoway. The revised blueprint provides stakeholders developing Electronic Health Record Solutions with a technology framework for sharing health information securely and appropriately across Canada. It also takes a closer look at privacy and security issues.
For more information on Canada Health Infoway, please go to www.infoway-inforoute.ca .
Portion of this article originally published in CIHI’s Directions newsletter, June 2006 issue.
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