I've spent some time at the front of the classroom, but I've spent much more time in the lab studying…
News 11/18/09
From Xper: “Re: Cedars Sinai. The ED is live, including the docs — yes, CPOE at Cedars! — seems like anything really is possible. Nurses are live on the system now and so is registration and billing. They appear to have more food and PR junk than support calls, probably a good thing. Many Epic folks are on site to make sure this goes well, but it’s kind of cool to see all the leaders here during the 40 hour go-live and sitting in the actual command center. One of the better projects I’ve seen as a consultant.”
From Kate Spayed: “Re: Windows 7. Anyone know which EHRs are compatible?”
From Dick Scrushy: “Re: Mark Leavitt of CCHIT. You should interview him.” I asked this week. He said no.
From Industry Watcher: “Re: Cerner. More bad news for Cerner in the US. Saint Peter’s University Hospital in NJ has decided to replace all Cerner Millenium clinicals for two primary reasons: (a) Cerner continually presented work orders for work outside scope and, (b) physicians were starting to admit elsewhere because of issues with Cerner CPOE. McKesson’s Horizon was selected as the vendor to replace Cerner. By my count, that means Cerner has been replace seven times in the last 18 months.” Unverified.
From The PACS Designer: “Re: FDA and iPhone apps. Back in February of this year, there was some discussion about the FDA’s role when it comes to using an iPhone for a clinical procedure. Now that the interest in iPhone apps for healthcare is gaining momentum, it would be a good time for comments to be sent to the FDA on if or how the iPhone apps issue should be handled. It’s hoped that the FDA won’t slow iPhone innovation and only regulate iPhone apps that are part of a system design submission seeking FDA approval.”
From Former Colleague: “Re: death of Frank Canestrari. He passed away suddenly on Sunday, November 15th at his home. He was the president of Newbold/Addressograph Corporation. Frank led the organization for the past two decades.” The online guest book is here and services will be at noon Thursday in Roanoke.
David Brailer’s Health Evolution Partners takes an equity position in CambridgeSoft, which offers a long list of life sciences desktop software and scientific databases.
Keane announces that 13-facility Ernest Health has extended its agreement and will be installing Optimum Patcom at all sites current and planned. University Physician Healthcare (AZ) will also install several Optimum modules, including Patcom, HIM, scheduling, and document management.
The National Library of Medicine releases a draft of a crosswalk between SNOMED CT and ICD-9-CM, inviting users to give it a try and let them know how it goes. The intention is to automate much of the work required to turn clinical terminology into billing information. It was developed by SNOMED Terminology Solutions.
Intellect Resources is running a series of interviews it’s doing called IR Beat, kind of a radio show for HIT. The latest one’s on cloud computing and the one before is about Epic certification.
Dee Cantrell, CIO of Emory Healthcare (GA), is named CIO of the Year by the Georgia CIO Leadership Association.
A hematologist and his programmer son, both from New Zealand, are named finalists in a healthcare software contest for their warfarin monitoring system for patients at home. Their blood thinner system works like a glucometer, with patients testing a drop of blood in an INR electronic reader and then receiving electronic advice (along with their doctor) of dosing changes needed. I think there are already warfarin point-of-care test kits for home use, but the software is darned cool.
The London newspaper says Summary Care Records will be uploaded to the NHS spine by the end of next year, also warning that everybody’s records will be available except those who specifically opt out. The timing of that announcement wasn’t so great since NHS Hull announced a data breach by a former employee the same day.
UPMC will manage 30,000 PCs with Verdiem Surveyor, a centralized system that enforces and monitors PC power policies without disrupting users. UPMC says it will reduce PC power consumption by half and save $1 million per year.
Medversant may be crass in using the Fort Hood shootings in its PR pitch, but it still has an interesting idea — continuous credentialing, where provider licenses are constantly checked against OIG and DEA records, but also against general Web information such as social networking sites, articles, and blogs. Also interesting: its recent study found that 1.9% of practicing medical professionals did not have a license and 18.7% had expired or falsified credentials or malpractice judgments.
HERtalk by Inga
A new study by the Harvard School of Public Health finds that the use of EMRs has not had any effect on healthcare cost or quality. I’m sure some HIT critics will point to the study as proof that we should stop spending billions on EMRs. I personally side with Masspro’s Dr. Karen Bell, who believes the findings highlight the need to focus on helping physicians, hospitals, and the public health system use technology more effectively.
NYU Langone Medical Center launches the first phase of its EHR implementation, taking live its Trinity Center faculty group in Manhattan. Patients can also now access the practice’s SmartChart portal.
The National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center grants Indiana University and the Regenstrief Institute a $1.3 million award to establish the East African Center of Excellence in Health Informatics. The center will focus on increasing the capacity of EHRs in the region and teaching East Africans to use electronic tools to solve healthcare problems. The center’s director claims that Kenyan clinics using EMRs are able to serve two to four times more patients than those using paper records.
GetWellNetwork appoints Michele Perry COO, tasked with helping to “lead the company to a new level of growth.” She was previously involved in three IPOs, so perhaps that’s the “next level” the company has in mind.
A new KLAS report takes a look at Allscripts a year after its merger with Misys. KLAS surveyed 200 Allscripts clients and found declining customer satisfaction in several key areas. However, Allscripts remains the “most-considered” vendor in outpatient EMR purchases (which sounds about one step better than always being the bridesmaid, never the bride). The release of v.11 created challenges, though clients on versions 11.1.5 or higher are seeing positive results. About 85% of Misys EMR users who plan to replace their EMR say they’’ll go with Allscripts Professional EHR, which is being offered at a relatively low migration price.
Meanwhile, Forbes has a nice write-up on Allscripts iPhone app, Allscripts Remote, which gives physicians real-time access to patient data, fast communication with ERs and the ability to e-prescribe (the article says “e-mail prescriptions,” but I am assuming the author meant e-rx.) Allscripts Remote also made New York Times columnist David Pogue’s listof the top health-related iPhone apps. Right up there with PeriodTracker. Really.
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Singapore General Hospital actives Eclipsys’ Sunrise Patient Flow solution at its 1,500 bed facility.
Using reporting tools from EDIMS, 22 New York and New Jersey area hospitals are providing their state health departments daily H1N1 influenza data. Details include the number of patients by county with flu-like symptoms and a breakdown of those with respiratory and/or GI symptoms.
Over half a million users are now live on Sentillion’s single sign-on and context management solutions.
Community health organization Neighborhood Healthcare (CA) selects eClinicalWorks’ PM/EMR and Enterprise Business for its 115 providers across 11 locations.
Computerworld releases its annual salary survey of IT professionals. Not surprisingly, the economy has had an impact. Salaries were flat and bonuses and benefits were reduced or eliminated. Nonetheless, IT folks remain satisfied with their career choice, though they may be feeling stress over job security. If you are a CIO, you’ll likely find the best-paying jobs in the mid-Atlantic, with compensation averaging $172,000 a year.
CliniComp contracts with Multi-Services Group to provide training services at military treatment facilities using CliniComp’s inpatient documentation solution.
Cost management company Broadlane acquires Healthcare Performance Partners, which provides Lean Healthcare and Six Sigma consulting services.
Harris Corporation also makes an acquisition, buying Patriot Technologies, a provider of integrated and interoperable HIT solutions for the federal government.
Business associates are largely unprepared to meet HITECH’s data breach-related obligations. One-third of surveyed business associates (billing, accounting and legal services, claim processors, pharmacy chains, and offshore transcription companies) were not aware that HIPAA’s privacy and security regulations applied to them. Comforting.
DigitalPersona says its biometric fingerprint reader, which is incorporated into the Picis ED PulseCheck product, is being used by 150 hospitals.
>>> A new study by the Harvard School of Public Health finds that the use of EMRs has not had any effect on healthcare cost or quality. I’m sure some HIT critics will point to the study as proof that we should stop spending billions on EMRs.
What this study means is that the government should quit trying to force physicians into buying unproven technology. They should use the $19 billion dollars to shore up Medicare, Medicaid, and to fund clinics for the poor. Blowing it on HIT is a complete waste of taxpayer money.
I consider the EMR a great tool to help in following my patients, and I use an EMR that I programmed myself during the past 20 years to help achieve this endpoint. Every physician has different needs and they do not need to be told by some pinhead in Congress (and in the executive branch) which “certified EMR” they should “significantly use.
Just my humble thoughts…
Al
http://www.msofficeemrproject.com
To Kate: Aprima is the only EHR vendor I’m aware of that has announced Windows 7 compatibility, which is surprising since that’s now the only platform with which new PC’s are shipping.
http://www.medicexchange.com/Aprima-Medical-Software-Inc/aprima-medical-software-announce-support-for-microsoft-windows-7.html
Inga writes:
“I personally side with Masspro’s Dr. Karen Bell, who believes the findings highlight the need to focus on helping physicians, hospitals, and the public health system use technology more effectively.”
Bell had written: (presume this is the same Karen Bell, MD, Director, Office of HIT Adoption, Office of the National Coordinator for HIT, who is a CCHIT commissioner as at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certification_Commission_for_Healthcare_Information_Technology ):
“Very few hospitals today are effectively using the capabilities of electronic health records”
This implies those “capabilities” are fully evolved and the systems are effective. In that they’re at best half-baked, and that HIT is largely difficult to use and often mission hostile to busy clinicians, it would be more accurate to say:
“Very few hospitals are using electronic health records, which are difficult to use and not yet highly effective.”
Bell also wrote: “But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go forward.”
Indeed. It’s just that the definition of “going forward” has varied meanings. To me, “going forward” means following the National Research Council recommendations on “accelerating interdisciplinary research in biomedical informatics, computer science, social science, and health care engineering”, not throwing money at the current products and ill conceived IT leadership structures in those hospitals to enrich the HIT vendors at clinicians’ and patients’ expense.
Who has serious plans to move forward with IHE XDS and XDS-i implementations?
“Medversant may be crass in using the Fort Hood shootings in its PR pitch, but it still has an interesting idea — continuous credentialing, where provider licenses are constantly checked against OIG and DEA records, **but also against general Web information such as social networking sites, articles, and blogs.**
Holy cow. Imagine all the fun this could generate when a clinician loses their credentials or comes under scrutiny due to some malicious or defamatory material posted by a disgruntled patient, administrator, or estranged or disturbed relative/former boyfriend/girlfriend.
AllScripts does an exceedingly good job at PR – they obviously are working with a top notch firm to get such positive reviews of their iPhone app, which in my limited testing of it I found it to be nothing special. As for NYT’s Pogue’s vote for it, have not been impressed with his selections of iPhone apps lately. The top ten list he presented at TEDMED as the creme of the crop of iPhone health/med apps had some gems ~30% but the rest were mediocre.
I doubt anyone would lose their license strictly because of questionable findings in articles or blogs, although it might initiate an investigation – which seems appropriate given that we’re talking about highly trusted healthcare providers who work with us and our children in the most critical, sensitive and influential ways. I think it’s just where we are in our desire to better police certain professionals because the damage that could be done to so many trusting people.
I am not a critic but believe that the HIT industry and its trade groups, including CCHIT, have conspired to prove value of their products for patient care, when, thus far, the only value is going to their bottom lines and their executives.
The accountability of the industry is lacking.
The study confirms the absence of any efficacy of these systems, and it did not even venture to the matter of safety breaches.
JustSaying Says:
“I doubt anyone would lose their license strictly because of questionable findings in articles or blogs, although it might initiate an investigation – which seems appropriate…”
Appropriate, for the Soviet Union perhaps, Comrade.
Oh wait…that country didn’t work out so well…
Anyway, до свидания, камрад …
S. Silverstein: Employers and police and regular citizens commonly use the internet to see if undesireable things appear for people they hire or live with, etc. Have you never searched on a name looking for what might be there? If you did, and you found a blog that accused one of your healthcare employees of gross misconduct (say child or elderly abuse) would you just ignore it because you felt it was “spying”? Or if the newly hired nurse at your local children’s clinic wrote in her blog about the merits of some pedophilic society she belongs to, wouldn’t you want that looked into? Besides, social networks, blogs, and articles are open to the public, so it’s all a part of our life now – pretty much like newspapers.
This is nothing like the Soviets who had no guaranteed rights, and were guilty until proven innocent – or just guilty because the police said so. No valid comparison to Soviets.
Mark Leavitt, CCHIT Chair, should disclose what he has received all these years from HIMSS as part of his “total compensation package” from 2005 to 2010. This should include his “retirement” package that the tax payers will be paying for in 2010, which will probably include HIMSS employer-paid health insurance coverage, since Leavitt is too young to apply for Medicare.
If Leavitt fails to disclose this, we should be able to pull the new IRS 990 form in a few months and disclose it for him! Leavitt had the chance to “set the record straight” on HIStalk, but Leavitt has declined to be interviewed.
This should be done before Leavitt goes back to HIMSS as CMO …the position HIMSS has been holding for Leavitt since Leavitt “left” in 2005 to Chair the CCHIT.
Perhaps Leavitt will go back to CCHIT as a consultant, receiving a lucrative, independent contract. Notice Leavitt said he was retiring as “Chair” of CCHIT.
Just Saying,
The problems with the Army Base physician shooter had little to do with nobody checking the web about him.
Employers in fact do check the web regarding recruits, recent stats I heard where that over 40% do; I don’t know about onlging surveillance though.
My concern is the the web is inherently unreliable doue to the actors who use it, and protection of employee (and clinician) rights must take high precedence when something untoward or bizarre comes up. If done properly, no problem. If done improperly, then big problem.
Hospital management already are known to engage in the practice of “sham peer review” (see wikipedia and my prior links on the topic) on doctors they just don’t like. So I hope you can understand the concerns of clinicians about Web interrogations.
The worst thing about me on the web, I believe, is when one of my former postdoc students who I helped select for the program an treated most kindly called me a “horse’s ass, and a pariah beyond rehabilitation” after I criticized his former boss.
So, you see, one must consider the source when it’s on the web.
— SS
p.s. the Soviet stuff was parody.
” I personally side with Masspro’s Dr. Karen Bell, who believes the findings highlight the need to focus on helping physicians, hospitals, and the public health system use technology more effectively.”
Why would you side with her? Why are you and she denying reality that these devices do not convey any efficay, while simultaneously, they are not safe. Would you want a pacemaker implanted that was not proven to be safe and efficacious?