Morning Headlines 9/3/13

Utilization, Benefits, and Impact of an e-Consultation Service Across Diverse Specialties and Primary Care Providers

In Canada, a virtual consultation service was established for PCPs to discuss patient care with specialists. After a year, providers enrolled in the program were surveyed, with 90 percent reporting that the service was highly beneficial to both providers and patients. Specialists reported that the actual consultations usually took less than 15 minutes to complete, and almost half of the requests submitted would have required a face-to-face office visit if the service had not been available.

Launch of New Electronic Medical Record System Scheduled for September 4

A local paper covers 152-bed Sonora Regional Medical Center (CA) as staff prepares for a September 4 Cerner go-live across all of its outpatient clinics.

Pre-Pregnancy Hormone Testing May Indicate Gestational Diabetes Risk

A retrospective study conducted by searching Kaiser Permanente’s EHR dataset finds that overweight women with low levels of the hormone adiponectin prior to pregnancy are nearly seven times more likely to develop gestational diabetes.