Future Med This Week
February 7, 2012
Although I am not there, I feel the spirit of FutureMed. Sold out again, this program of Singularity University covers topics including:
- Exponential and Emerging Technologies
- Regenerative Medicine
- Information and Data Driven
- Future of Medical Practice
- Personalized Medicine
- Future of Intervention and Robotics
- Neuromedicine
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Global Health
- Government and regulatory
- Longevity
Daniel Kraft from The Doctor’s Channel on Vimeo.
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Book Reviews: EHRs
February 6, 2012
I recently read two books on EHR/EMRs: one was published in 2007 but still has relevance, the other published in 2010 and focused on implementation.
Electronic Health Records: A Guide for Clinicians and Administrators by Jerome Carter is published by the American College of Physicians is a 500+ page volume written primarily for physicians. The first part of the book is a comprehensive review of EHRs including infrastructure, perspectives on the the use of EHRs for things like outcomes, clinical decision support and quality improvement and legal and privacy issues. The second half of the book is devoted selection and implementation of EHRs with a comprehensive workbook on product features and vendor selection. The majority of the book is still highly relevant with the only exception being some of the information on infrastructure which seems outdated and the lack of discussion of mobile uses of EHRs which is definitely a future goal.
The second book, Keys to EMR/EHR Success: Selecting and Implementing an Electronic Medical Record is also in its second edition. This work by Ronald Sterling begins by walking the reader through the initial questions of why invest in an EMR and how to transition from a practice management system to a full-functioning EMR and how to evaluated the potential legal risks, all common issues for medical practices considering this transition. The author then moves on to product selection and making a decision and negotiating a contract. These implementation details can easily be lost in the selection process and this kind of systematic approach is essential. Finally, the book addresses implementation, activation and support. Again, ongoing support is a common issue for those from the health IT world but not always considered by physicians or practice managers.
Both books provide helpful advice and background for EMR implementation. For those considering an EMR or who want to become familiar with one, these are helpful resources. The book from ACP could also be considered as a textbook in a health informatics curriculum.
New Book on Health Informatics Released
February 2, 2012
The book overall includes a broad variety of chapters reflecting the maturity of health informatics from bioinformatics to clinical informatics. Written as a textbook, it will no doubt serve the growing needs of health informatics programs popping up in every state.
Share this:Discussion of PHRs and Patient Data Access on iHealthbeat
January 29, 2012
In an new story on iHealthbeat, Barriers Continue To Limit Patient Access to Electronic Health Data, I am quoted on the topic Basically, I continue to be disappointed on the slow adoption of PHRs and the fact that Google Health is now gone. My statement at the end of the article is the most significant – how can providers strategically use PHRs as chronic disease management tools? There have been some pilot programs on this. Perhaps with the incentives to prevent readmissions and management of patients to reduce costs, such as, the Medical Home and ACOs, some provider groups will take a second look at PHRs.
At the same time, I wonder if mobile apps, which have seen huge adoption, need integration with PHRs or visa versa. Disease management and wellness activities could be tracked through apps and added to one’s PHR. This what Google Health tried to do and HealthVault still does. Yet only a small percentage of those with chronic or life threatening illnesses have benefited.
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Presentation on Meaningful Use and EMR in Research
January 25, 2012
Last week I was invited to present to a medical school class on bioinformatics. My topic included EMR data standards, meaningful use and the use of EMR data in research. The session was very interactive and not totally captured in the slides. The challenge was presenting to medical students who are used to group activities, case studies and a research-based curriculum.
Who Owns Your Data?
January 23, 2012
In a radio interview from Inside the Media, Hugo Campos, an e-Patient with an implanted defibrillator (ICD), talked about his desire to have the data from his device. His logical argument is that the device is now part of his body and so he should have the right to the data from the device. So far he has been unsuccessful in getting his provider or the manufacturer to assist him with this. While rights to one’s own health data is becoming a reality through the Affordable Care Act and Meaningful Use and through initiatives like the Blue Button, device data is new territory. One could argue that the data is too complex for the lay person to analyze but that is the same argument which was made not so long ago about medical records in general. With the growth of apps and health information on the web, complex medical data is becoming more accessible.
This new territory needs more discussion. See the comments on the podcast page. Also, you can follow Hugo on the ICD Users blog.
Share this:Mobile Devices, Patient Self-monitoring and Clinical Workflow
January 11, 2012
This is the topic of my new blog post on HealthWorks Collective. Already received lots of traffic on Twitter and lots of views. Would like to see more about mobile standards in health care from Motorcycle Guy and others.
What am I working on? Check my Bookmarks
January 7, 2012
I am glad that Delicious is still around and being enhanced. I have used it for years to organize and tag my bookmarks. Now with almost 1200 bookmarks and several hundred tags, I often search my links to find a resource for a presentation or article. Recent links include:
- West Wireless Health Institute which has a good handle on new care delivery models
- Secondary Uses Service, description and and access. | The NHS Information Centre - glad to see the National Health Services is utilizing EMR data for quality and research
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences or NCATS - the new NIH center replacing the NCRR which inlcudes the Clinical and Translational Science Awards which I am now a part of
- A post on O’Reilly Radar - Epatients: The hackers of the healthcare world
- Eye on FDA - the new FDA blog
- CIRD – Partners HealthCare Clinical Informatics R & D
2012 Predictions for Health IT
January 2, 2012
Like others (see Daniel Kraft) , I have my own opinions about what trends will be most influential for health IT in 2012.
- Big Data and real-time analytics and decision support – IBM Watson and Explorys are in this space, others will follow and adoption will grow enabled by cloud computing, NOSQL/Hadoop and natural language processing
- Continued focus on EMR adoption as more health systems pursue meaningful use. This will again be the main focus at HIMSS as well as other conferences
- Social media in health care will continue to grow among patients as the e-Patient movement continues to gain in strength and public awareness and as advocates like the Reshape Innovation Center find creative uses to influence the future of health
- Mobile health and apps usage will expand but what is needed is a way to integrate personal health information, such as, PHRs and apps that promote wellness and disease management. For health care professionals, apps and mobile devices need to be integrated into clinical workflow rather than being an adjunct or distraction
- Research will be further enabled by EMR data as more academic medical centers develop data warehouses for research and quality studies and as initiatives like QueryHealth make it possible to combine data across systems and states using health information exchange and other tools
There are many more but these are the primary one’s I will be following.
Share this:2012 Predictions – Analytics
December 29, 2011
There are many top 10 predictions for 2012 out there. I could probably add my own for eHealth and mHealth.
These 10 Business Intelligence Trends for 2012 from Tableau Software apply to healthcare as much as any business.
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