ICMCC » Articles

Failure to use linked health records may lead to biased disease estimates

Lodewijk — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:30:04 +0000

“Failure to use linked electronic health records may lead to biased estimates of heart attack incidence and outcome, warn researchers in a paper published in BMJ today. They show that up to 50% of all heart attack cases are missed using just one data source. These findings may be relevant to other common conditions, such as [...]

Completeness and diagnostic validity of recording acute myocardial infarction events in primary care, hospital care, disease registry, and national mortality records: cohort study

Lodewijk — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:26:07 +0000

Objective To determine the completeness and diagnostic validity of myocardial infarction recording across four national health record sources in primary care, hospital care, a disease registry, and mortality register. Design Cohort study. Participants 21 482 patients with acute myocardial infarction in England between January 2003 and March 2009, identified in four prospectively collected, linked electronic health record [...]

The Explosion of Computing Power

Lodewijk — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:28:19 +0000

“Accelerating advances in computing will affect health care. More computing power equals more automation; greater efficiency; lower costs; better clinical, administrative and logistical decisions; better clinical research and understanding; and, ultimately, better care for the patient and better support for those delivering that care — those left standing, that is, after the tsunami hits. In fact, [...]

Why EHRs are Data Systems, Not Information Systems

Lodewijk — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:22:25 +0000

“If your house is burning, you want the fire department ASAP. If you called the number for the fire department and got street sweeping or business licenses instead, you would be in big trouble. Words matter. Names matter. They precondition and orient thought. When words like “information” and “data” are confused, thinking is confused. Most “definitions” [...]

Making Sense of Big Data in Pharma

Lodewijk — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:13:27 +0000

Study: Smartphone-enabled dermatology is comparable, less comprehensive

Lodewijk — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:53:58 +0000

“A small validation study in Sweden suggests that teledermatology, conducted using an iPhone, a dedicated app, and a connected dermascope, can be roughly as effective as a face-to-face dermatology consultation. The study of 69 lesions (the number of patients is not specified) was conducted at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden and published in the journal Dermatology [...]

How can EHRs engage patients by integrating medical devices?

Lodewijk — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:25:12 +0000

“Patients with diseases such as diabetes produce valuable data regularly, some of which can prevent serious medical events from escalating if providers are able to intervene more quickly and directly. For these patients, medical device integration and patient engagement are seemingly one and the same. However, prior to the adoption of EHR systems and medical [...]

15% Of Physicians Declining EHRs: Deloitte Survey

Lodewijk — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:49:45 +0000

“Nearly all U.S. doctors responding to a recent Accenture survey said they use electronic health records (EHRs). But a new report from Deloitte shows a somewhat different picture: Just two-thirds of physicians said they have an EHR capable of showing Meaningful Use (MU), and 45% of the remaining third, or about 15% of all respondents, [...]

Mobile technology could save billions of dollars on health care costs

Lodewijk — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:41:55 +0000

“Mobile devices could save the medical industry and consumers billions of dollars a year. Mobile health technology provides patients with greater opportunities to manage their diseases and communicate with providers. On stage today at HealthBeat 2013, Ivor Horn of the National Children’s Medical Center (above, center) and Asthmapolis president Mark Gehring (above, right) spoke about the [...]

Personal Health Record Use by Adolescents

Lodewijk — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:09:33 +0000

“In response to many questions about PHR use by adolescents, I asked Fabienne Bourgeois, the expert at Children’s Hospital Boston, to write this guest blog post - As more and more practices and hospitals are making patient portals available to their patients, providers of adolescent patients are encountering a major hurdle: how to handle confidential adolescent [...]

Don’t Forget: Electronic Health Records Are Benefiting Patients

Lodewijk — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:01:15 +0000

“Since its passage three years ago, some in Congress have sought every opportunity to reduce funding related to the Affordable Care Act. It’s no surprise that the recent round of sequester cuts have targeted elements of health care technology infrastructure, including the health insurance marketplaces that are meant to be online later this year. Congress needs [...]

Consumer Preferences Could Pressure Docs Toward EHR Adoption: Deloitte

Lodewijk — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:55:54 +0000

“Along with federal mandates and pressure from insurers, consumers’ views that doctors are not modern could be the push they need to implement health IT. Government and consumer demand for more modern physician practices could help spur the adoption of health IT such as electronic health records, according to a new paper from the Deloitte Center [...]

On EHR data integrity: A patient’s perspective

Lodewijk — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:18:34 +0000

“Now that portions of patient EHRs and visit summaries are available via portals and meaningful use requirements, not only will the organizations’ internal users be complaining about system flaws, poor configurations or outstanding training issues — but so will the external users, the patients and recipients of the health information. It’s time our industry professionals address [...]

Computer scientist publishes new algorithm cluster to data mine health records

Lodewijk — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:11:22 +0000

“The time may be fast approaching for researchers to take better advantage of the vast amount of valuable patient information available from U.S. electronic health records. Lian Duan, an NJIT computer scientist with an expertise in data mining, has done just that with the recent publication of “Adverse Drug Effect Detection,” IEEE Journal of Biomedical [...]

Big data could mean big health cost savings and better outcomes

Lodewijk — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:57:51 +0000

“Picture a scenario where, by collecting the right data and using today’s sophisticated analytics, our health system could predict when a patient with chronic conditions might get very ill and require hospitalisation, and intervene before that happens, thus saving the health system millions, and improving the outcomes for patients. A pipe dream? No, it is [...]

AMA: Skipping ICD-10 for ICD-11 is “not recommended”

Lodewijk — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:33:57 +0000

“The American Medical Association (AMA) has released a report clarifying its position on the idea of skipping ICD-10 altogether and moving straight to ICD-11 when it becomes available in an unknown number of years. While the AMA has been protesting the implementation of ICD-10 for some time, and continues to do so, the report [...]

Telemedicine on track for a mainstream breakthrough

Lodewijk — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:33:01 +0000

“All signs point to telemedicine entering the mainstream healthcare industry. Maybe it’s fresh on my mind because the American Telemedicine Association’s annual conference–which took place in Austin, Texas this year–just ended, but there’s more to it than that. Since the beginning of the year, telemedicine has been a hot topic. More and more states are pushing [...]

Father of telemedicine: Take the exam room to patients

Lodewijk — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:24:20 +0000

“Telehealth holds enormous potential for transforming healthcare, but, to telemedicine pioneer Dr. Jay Sanders, the primary barrier is not financial. Instead, physician and patient attitudes about healthcare and health itself must change, said Sanders, who often has been called the father of telemedicine. “The critical issue is really not telemedicine,” Sanders said in an interview with [...]

MU for mHealth? Why telemedicine should get better faster

Lodewijk — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:15:32 +0000

“You’re not done once you’ve implemented your EHR. Whether you’re interested in joining a health information exchange or you’re shifting into accountable care, the EHR is simply the first piece in a complex web of information technology systems that will help your patients take charge of their own wellness, keeping your quality measures high [...]

Will ‘Direct’ Exchange Doom HIEs?

Lodewijk — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:42:45 +0000

“Will the use of the Direct Project secure messaging protocol for the exchange of health data end up killing off some struggling health information exchange organizations once HITECH Act funding for HIEs ends during 2014? That’s a question some observers are asking. The Direct protocol offers a way to meet the secure data exchange requirements for [...]

EHR Adoption in a Critical Access Hospital: Lessons Learned

Lodewijk — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:36:52 +0000

“At the Becker’s Hospital Review 4th Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 11, Devin Carpenter, RN, assistant director of nursing at Parmer Medical Center in Friona, Texas, shared tips to follow for a successful electronic health record implementation. Parmer Medical Center is a critical access hospital about 70 miles outside of Amarillo, Texas; and, prior to [...]

The Rise Of mHealth And EHR Use, And The World Of Telehealth – Around Healthcare Scene

Lodewijk — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:30:38 +0000

“mHealth is on the rise, and it looks like usage of smart phones among physicians is following that same trend. A recent study shows that usage rose about nine percent in 2012, which shows that it is becoming more accepted in the medical world. It will be interesting to see if it increases even more [...]

10 Most read 2013 articles week 5 May 2013

Lodewijk — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:27:43 +0000

Wanted in Healthcare: More Wireless Devices for In-Home Patients Electronic health records improve care, but don’t save money The Disparity Information and Communication Technology for Developing Countries has in the Delivery of Healthcare Information Government Should Slow Down Race To Implement Electronic Health Records DoD yanked from health records project Electronic Health Records Lead to Challenges AHIMA: EHRs can lead to [...]

Mhealth study in Brazil shows tech can help the poor

Lodewijk — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:50:35 +0000

“Researchers have found that this technology can be very helpful to people living in the slums of Rio. A study conducted in Rio de Janeiro has now shown that using mhealth technology for monitoring patients who are living in poor urban neighborhoods can help to increase the access that those individuals have to healthcare services while [...]

Private clinic’s web portal unlocks patient information, resulting in better care and cost savings

Lodewijk — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:43:59 +0000

“The clinic, Continuum Care Centre, provides family physicians, specialists, health care professionals and home care services to 15,000 patients. It was a pioneer in adopting electronic medical records a few years ago and its most recent innovation, in late January, is an Internet platform called Health eGateway. The new technology, an innovation of Telus Health, [...]

U.S. Doctors Ramp Up ‘Routine’ Use of EHRs, E-Prescribing: Report

Lodewijk — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:36:02 +0000

“U.S. doctors have increased their adoption of digital health records and electronic prescribing at twice the rate of other countries, an Accenture survey revealed. U.S. physicians have shown a significant increase in accessing digital health data at double the rate of their global counterparts, according to a new report by IT consulting company Accenture.” Article Brian T. Horowitz, [...]

EMR and HIE Use Increases Among U.S. Doctors, Survey Finds

Lodewijk — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:15:31 +0000

“Ninety-three percent of U.S. doctors report actively using electronic medical records (EMR), and nearly half (45 percent) of doctors surveyed said they regularly access clinical data outside their own organization, representing a 32 percent annual increase, according to consulting firm Accenture. On behalf of Accenture, Harris Interactive conducted an online survey of 3,700 physicians across [...]

Why Telemedicine Should Be Integrated With EHRs, ACOs

Lodewijk — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:31:51 +0000

“A veteran observer of telemedicine says that it’s time for the various technologies grouped under that rubric to be integrated with mainstream medicine so that patients can receive the appropriate care from the right provider at the right site of care, while reducing waste and duplication of effort. In a lengthy editorial in the publication Telemedicine [...]

Finding the value in HIE, IT integration will push adoption: Q&A

Lodewijk — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:22:56 +0000

“What’s in it for me?” isn’t an unreasonable question when it comes to healthcare information technology. Providers are being asked to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new IT systems, and finding the business case for these massive investments is crucial to spurring adoption and improving healthcare at its core. EHRintelligence.com spoke to Shahid [...]

The Road to Big Data Passes Through Informatics

Lodewijk — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:54:25 +0000

“I have written a number of postings over the last year about various aspects of electronic health record (EHR) data, from the transition of the work of informatics from implementation to analytics to the problems that still prevent us from making optimal use of data, such as the difficulties of data entry. One of my [...]

E-prescribing continues to grow

Lodewijk — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:48:37 +0000

“Almost 800 million prescriptions were routed electronically in 2012, 44 percent of prescriptions and up from 570 million in 2011, according to Surescripts’ annual National Progress Report and Safe-Rx Rankings. More than 38,000 physicians (69 percent) used e-prescribing in 2012 and nearly half of all office visits (48 percent) resulted in electronically generated medication history requests, [...]

Five reasons virtual doctor visits might be better than in-person ones

Lodewijk — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:44:19 +0000

“In relatively few years, videoconferencing has advanced tremendously, from something that required expensive and complicated hardware setups to something most smartphone, tablet, and PC owners have easy access to. Using video for virtual visits in healthcare is a little more complicated — the connection has to be reliable and the service HIPAA compliant to protect [...]

Can a smartphone do what your doctor does?

Lodewijk — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:53:21 +0000

“During our medical training, we’re taught to gather and use information from three sources: a patient history, a physical exam and lab tests. By far the most difficult to master is the physical exam. A good exam requires knowledge of anatomy and physiology, and awareness of normal variations that allow a doctor to recognize abnormalities. Technology [...]

Effective Electronic Health Records Require Medicare Incentives, Says AMA

Lodewijk — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:02:30 +0000

“Federal agencies should align to Medicare pay so it supports interoperability seamlessly within paperless systems, the American Medical Association (AMA) plus other medicine groups have urged. If the USA is serious about achieving goals of an efficient and high quality health care system, it will need to improve health information exchanges and interoperability, AMA along with [...]

Are Electronic Health Records Hindering Patient Care?

Lodewijk — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:33:39 +0000

“SHM board member Eric Siegal, MD, SFHM, wasn’t surprised by the findings in a new report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that found medical interns spent just 12% of their time in direct patient care and a whopping 40% of their time using computers. “There certainly are advantages to electronic health records (EHRs), but [...]

Why telemedicine must become ‘integral’ to mainstream care efforts

Lodewijk — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:24:16 +0000

“Telemedicine must move to the forefront of medical efforts in the U.S. for domestic care efficiency and quality improvements to be considered anything better than “marginal,” according to an editorial published this month in the journal Telemedicine and e-Health. Rashid L. Bashshur (pictured), director of telemedicine at the University of Michigan Health System and the commentary’s [...]

mHealth needs to focus on consumers

Lodewijk — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:15:32 +0000

“A panel of telemedicine industry executives took on the topic of user-friendly design Monday afternoon at the American Telemedicine Association’s18th Annual International Meeting & Trade Show. Their conclusion: Healthcare needs to design new methods of care delivery that appeal to the consumer. “I think there’s such an opportunity with consumers and what their demands are,” said [...]

Health IT Interoperability: How Far Along Are We?

Lodewijk — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:10:21 +0000

“Electronic health record adoption is on the rise. The number of hospitals using basic EHR systems tripled from 12.2 percent in 2009 to 44.4 percent in 2012, according to a report released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and CMS. However, the move towards efficient care coordination and care [...]

Nigerian Doctors Seek National Policy On E-Health

Lodewijk — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:06:09 +0000

“Federal government has been urged to urgently develop and establish an effective strategy for the implementation of e- Health in Nigeria. President of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele who made the plea in Lagos, regretted that Nigeria is yet to explore the many benefits of e-Health, which he described as a safe, secure, [...]

Growing ‘App’etite for Mobile Health

Lodewijk — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:57:18 +0000

“Feel like you have a cold, or the blues and want to learn more? Or maybe you just want to keep better track of your calories or find out whether you’re really working out hard enough to get back in shape. It turns out there’s an app for that. All of that, actually, and much [...]

CMS and OIG Proposed Rules on EHR Software Exception and Safe Harbor Promote Interoperability

Lodewijk — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:52:28 +0000

“On April 10, 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) published parallel proposed rules revising, respectively, the Stark exception and Anti-Kickback safe harbor concerning electronic health record (EHR) items and services. Highlights of the proposed rules include: Sunset Provision. The EHR [...]

Fewer doctors, more cameras to spur teledermatology

Lodewijk — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:30:53 +0000

“Medical peripherals can combine with a smartphone to create the function of an ultrasound machine, an EKG reader, or an otoscope, to name just a few diagnostic devices. But without buying anything extra, nearly every consumer mobile device has a camera of some sort built-in. That means that when it comes to dermatology, most patients [...]

Guest editorial: compelling issues in telemedicine

Lodewijk — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:25:56 +0000

Recent and impendent changes resulting from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) (part of Title XIII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) of 2009 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2011 offer unprecedented potential for telemedicine to play a significant role not only in reforming [...]

Perspective: It’s not either-or for patients and EHRs

Lodewijk — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:56:10 +0000

“Studies continue to be released that decry the time physicians spend on computers rather than patients. These studies do our field a disservice because they don’t focus on the many ways EHRs have helped physicians do better for their patients. A few weeks ago I saw a patient Friday afternoon after 5 pm. It was unscheduled [...]

Why EHRs Fail

Lodewijk — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:44:22 +0000

“Today’s EHRs mostly don’t live up to expectations and sometimes they simply don’t work at a particular site. Others seem to work but produce insidious, harmful effects that are rarely traced back to their true source. There are other projects that are superficially similar in scope and objectives but are extremely successful. It is baffling to [...]

EHR dissatisfaction: A tech or people problem?

Lodewijk — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:32:49 +0000

“A percolating problem is beginning to boil over: doctors and nurses really don’t like their new electronic health records systems. And, as EHR implementations increase ahead of government deadlines for incentive dollars, dissatisfaction among clinicians is growing. The problem might be that EHR implementation is treated as a purely technological issue when in reality it is [...]

Electronic Health Records Will Enable Big Data Analysis of Healthcare Information

Lodewijk — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:22:11 +0000

“Where is most of your personal data stored? Think about it – who has the most critical, personal information about you? It’s not your bank, or your mortgage company or your Internet service provider. In fact, it’s a loosely connected network of healthcare entities: your doctor, the lab who does your tests, your local hospital [...]

Are Patients From Mars and Health Care Professionals from Venus? – Part 1

Lodewijk — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:14:03 +0000

“It has been a little while I know. Sometimes though the patient in me rears its ugly head again and I have to get out of blogger mode and in to being a bowel transplant patient. That is kind of a long winded apology but The Churchill Hospital, Oxford has seem a little too much [...]

AHIMA: EHRs can lead to better coding, more accurate reimbursement

Lodewijk — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:19:57 +0000

“When used correctly, EHRs produce more accurate documentation leading to more complete coding, and ultimately, more accurate reimbursement claims, according to Sue Bowman, senior director of coding policy and compliance of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Bowman presented during a listening session hosted by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the [...]

Some doctors refusing to adopt electronic records

Lodewijk — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:01:00 +0000

“Under a plan first endorsed by President George W. Bush and signed into law by President Obama, the health care industry in the United States has started to change one of the signature elements in doctor’s offices — switching chicken-scratched hand-written notes and records to electronic forms. Supporters sold it as a time- and money-saving reform [...]