Posts Tagged ‘eHealth’
Guide to Patients with Limited Literacy
November 15, 2007
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has published a guide on the Health IT needs for those with limited literacy. Reported by the American Academy of Family Physicians, this is a significant step in drawing attention to those who are beyond the digital divide in that they lack the language skills to interact with a computer. Some basic recommendations include: text should be written plainly in no higher than a 6th grade level, utilizing white space and short lines, appeal to ethnically diverse populations, and consider tools like kiosks. CHESS (Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System) breast cancer module from the University of Wisconsin is given as a model, among others.
This report should be read by vendors, web developers, PHR creators and others who create patient facing IT systems.
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eHealthcare Leadership Awards
November 14, 2007
These awards were just announced. I had the privilege of assisting in the judging. The Cleveland Clinic made out well with a silver award for best health content, gold for best quality communication, platinum for center of excellence health content for the Heart and Vascular Institute and platinum for the best overall internet site all in the over 400 bed category. Revolution Health won several awards. Two pediatric hospitals won multiple awards: CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) and Akron Children’s Hospital.
Share this:Progressive healthcare organizations have already caught the Internet wave
November 3, 2007
This is a quote from Bill Crounse, MD, of Microsoft reflecting on his recent experiences at internet conferences and tracking HIT trends. He notes the high expectations of consumers which have transformed other businesses beyond bricks and mortar. He cites leading institutions that are both payor and provider, like Group Health Cooperative which have also exploited the Internet.
On a related note, speaking of leadership, don’t miss the presentation by C. Martin Harris, MD, MBA, from the Cleveland Clinic at the HIMSS Virtual Conference next week on “eEnabled Medical Practice”. One of the leading forward-looking thinkers in Health IT, Dr. Harris will cover “office based work flow, clinical decision support, health maintenance management and protocol management.”
Share this:CureHunter
November 1, 2007
More health 2.0 search tools come on the market each month. Curehunter has an interesting spin for those interested in digging deep into evidence-based medicine on specific diseases. It presents search results which show the evidence for various treatments in a systematic hierarchy. Then a specific number of studies are citied. The research interface provides these in a folder format. It also provides the Network Graph which displays the topic graphically in a star diagram which relates your search topic with other topics.
Worth checking out for those who want a more detailed and scientific research of diseases, conditions and treatments.
Share this:Visible Body to Launch Mid-November
October 31, 2007
A very creative application called Visible Body is about to launch. It explores anatomy in a way similar to Google Earth explores the world. You can explore by body system or specific body part down to a bone or organ. Zoom and can be moved in 3-D. It requires a download and Flash Player 8. Customized deployments are available but the basic product (maybe basic is not the right term) will be available for free.
Check out the demo and sign up for the official announcement.
Share this:eHealth Initiative Unveils a Blueprint
October 24, 2007
The full title of this white paper is “eHealth Initiative Blueprint: Building Consensus for Common Action” and represents a consensus vision for improving health care IT. While I haven’t digested it completely, it does have an excellent section on consumer health. It also addresses issues for all of the other major players in health care IT including pharmacists, payors, hospitals, public health (often ignored in the US), etc.
eHealth Initiative’s Fourth Annual Conference
September 10, 2007
This conference combines looking a current ehealth trends with a congressional panel. Some of the sessions include:
- Aligning Financial and Other Incentives
- Transforming Care Delivery
- Improving Population Health
- eHI’s Value and Sustainability Model for Health Information Exchange- Insights From America’s Most Advanced Stage Communities
- Interoperability
and include speaker from the AARP to Microsoft.
Looks like a broad-ranging conference which would be well worth the time.
Hope to see some podcasts come out of the live sessions.
Share this:Consumer Health Informatics Conference
August 29, 2007
This Canadian conference in October has some interesting topics. Choice quotes and titles:
- “opportunities for ICTs [information and communication technologies] not only to empower consumers, but also to re-vitalize their relationship with health professionals and to meet needs that go beyond those that could be addressed through face-to-face interactions.”
- Using Web Based Tools to Help Patients Achieve Optimal Clinical Outcomes
- “The greatest opportunities for improving health and health care lie in enabling information exchange between the three dimensions (patient care, population health, and personal health)
of the national health information infrastructure. The full potential of PHR systems will not be realized until they are capable of widespread exchange of information with EHRs and other sources of personal and other health data.” - The Chronic Need for Connectivity: Helping today’s aging healthcare consumers help themselves
I don’t think I’ll be able to attend, but I hope some podcasts or papers will come out of this meeting which will further the discussion on consumer health from a perspective other than consumer-directed healthcare.
Share this:New Cancer Resource – MyBiopsy.org
August 28, 2007
Came across this new website which explains in lay language the meaning of cancer biopsy reports by cancer type. Presented by the College of American Pathologists, the site covers 22 cell types with microscope photos, how the diagnosis is made and treatments for each. This fills a gap in the cancer information available on the internet which is extensive. I hope many sites will now link to this resource.
Perhaps in the future the information could be RSS or web service enabled so that it could be incorporated into provider websites more easily.
Share this:Benefits of Patient-Provider email
August 2, 2007
On Healthline TechMedicine, Joshua Schwimmer creates a helpful list of the benefits of email exchanges between physicians and patients. These include:
- Asking about lab results
- Reporting potential side effects of medications
- Clarifying whether it’s safe to take a certain medication
- Reporting home blood pressure readings
- Asking for prescription renewals
- Reporting new minor (but important) symptoms
- Communication new medical issues when out of the country
Now of course a structured application which enables this communication may be preferred to a open, unsecured email. Well designed PHRs include functions to request script refills, see lab results, and record home self-monitoring (although fewer PHRs have this feature). Another argument for tethered PHRs with an interface into an EMR?
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