Posts Tagged ‘eHealth’
Google Health – Adam Bosworth at World Health Care Congress
April 28, 2007
In a report from the Congress held this week, Adam Bosworth of Google, talked about the rights patients should have and gave more hints about what Google Health might look like. Particularly, he noted having the power of privacy, to decide who would see what in one’s health records. He also noted “Google wants to include in their PHR transaction data between physicians and health plans, physicians and PBMs, labs and physicians and so on. They are not planning to rely on feeds from physician EHRs to do this.”
More hints, no announcements yet.
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One Frustrated Governor
April 27, 2007
According to Digital Healthcare and Productivity, Tennessee Gov. Bredesen is frustrated with the lack of progress in healthcare IT. He is concerned that without establishing some basic standards, that the field will “flop around.” He sees real value in electronic prescribing because the technology is there, it just needs to be implemented to reap the potential value in terms of safety and efficiency. He spoke at the World Health Care Congress where another speaker echoed his sentiments expressed at HIMSS’07 – keep it simple and implement what you can first. Don’t get entangled in the multiple standards which are out there.
Quite a line-up at the congress including Dr. Cosgrove of the Cleveland Clinic.
Share this:Blue Tooth Medical Wrist Watch
April 18, 2007
Microsoft’s Channel 10 has a short video on Exmocare which has produced this device which can monitor pulse and temperature and send it to a smart phone and then a server. It is also supposed to monitor emotions. Interesting concept for remote monitoring of chronic conditions.
A longer post explaining the device on The Health Care Blog.
Share this:Cigna: Free eVisits for Seniors
April 13, 2007
In an article from the Phoenix Business Journal, Cigna Medical Group is offering “online health care services, including e-visits at a nominal charge, to its non-Medicare patients. Now all CMG patients can use RelayHealth to schedule or cancel appointments, refill prescriptions, request lab results, send a note to their doctor’s office, request a referral, and manage their personal health records online.”
This is a significant expansion of a service that is rarely offered but needs to be expanded by insurors as an incentive to physicians and patients. In the long run, it will reduce physician work time and costs.
Share this:Investor’s Daily on eHealth
April 13, 2007
It’s not often an investor’s publication covers EMRs and PHRs. In today’s issue, the authors say that futurists “see the day when emergency room staff can get online to quickly learn that an accident victim is a diabetic or has a pacemaker, or to find what drug allergies his family doctor has listed.” The Stark Law as a barrier is cited as it was discussed at the National Governors’ Association in March.
Share this:The Bank as Health ‘Infomediary’
April 11, 2007
An interesting article on iHealthbeat discusses how banks are getting into health IT. This is potentially good news because banks know security and how to process payments efficiently. But can banks handle personal health information? Do you want your bank handling your health information? “From the eHealth Lockbox, a bank can progress to offer a specialized portal for provider health plan businesses that are clients of a bank. On the other side of the connection, there’s an opportunity to create an increasingly specialized online banking portal for the consumer.” It could also support provider-patient secure messaging.
Read more at the Medical Banking Project.
Share this:Doctor–patient relationship as motivation and outcome
April 5, 2007
This article from the University of Wisconsin Madison was recently published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics and featured in the Washington Post. This paper by Brent Shaw and others from the Center of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research, concludes that, “use of the Information services was associated with having a more positive appraisal of the doctor–patient relationship at post-test”. He further states that, “high-quality information on the Internet can serve to improve patients’ satisfaction with their doctor.”
Some additional findings:
- patients with a more negative appraisal about the doctor–patient relationship used the Ask an Expert service more frequently
- a more positive appraisal of the doctor–patient relationship predicting higher use of the Discussion Group service
Two PHR Stories today
April 4, 2007
At the Fourth Information Technology Summit, the Interim National Coordinator of Health Information Technology Robert Kolodner stated that we are close to a tipping point in Health IT which will be helped along by consumer demand for PHRs. His main caution was that the public must be able to trust online medical records.
The second story has to do with the National Governor’s Association State Alliance for eHealth met on March 30 to discuss progress on ehealth including PHRs and RHIOs. An archive of the webcast is available including testimony by Holly Miller, MD. Liability issues in ehealth are addressed and recommendations for limiting liability were presented.
Share this:Patient-centered medical home
March 16, 2007
Four physician groups are endorsing this new model of care (American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Osteopathic Association) according to Healthcare IT News. This model supports the use of information technology to coordinate and integrate care throughout the health system to improve outcomes. Key principles include:
- Personal physician
- Physician directed medical practice
- Whole person orientation
- Care is coordinated and/or integrated
This is a major endorsement for Heath IT. Another trend to watch as healthcare becomes more outcomes-driven and linked to IT.
Share this:Posting on the Cavalacade of Risk #21
March 15, 2007
My posting on How private are Proprietary PHRs is now linked from the MSSPNexus blog. Lots of other interesting posts especially on the risks of corporate blogging.
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