Thursday, June 17, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Survey: Privacy compliance has declined

Posted: 14 May 2006 01:56 AM PDT

Three years after federal rules governing the privacy of patients' medical records went into effect, compliance seems to have declined for 6 percent, according to an annual survey conducted by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Read more about this at here.

E-book: Making E-Health Work

Posted: 14 May 2006 01:53 AM PDT

E-Health has become an integral part of present-day healthcare delivery. With healthcare consumers, increasingly the focus of most health systems, the widespread implementation of health information and communications technologies offers cost-effective opportunities to meet their increasingly sophisticated healthcare needs.Bankix Systems Ltd has released its latest e-book. It is a 200-page in-depth analysis of the issues involved in "Making E-Health Work," the e-book's title. Read more about this e-book at here.

Consumer tools: UCompareHealthCare Offers Free Reports on Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Physicians

Posted: 11 Mar 2006 01:01 AM PST

"UCompareHealthCare has just unveiled its Web site, ucomparehealthcare.com, which features free reports on the nation's nursing homes, hospitals and physicians to help consumers make informed healthcare decisions. I checked the web site and found it very informative for health consumers to help them make informed decision about their choices of doctors, hospitals and others." Read more about this at UCompareHealthCare

Articles: Direct to Consumer: Women are a powerful, but untapped, audience

Posted: 03 Feb 2006 12:04 AM PST

"Women influence many family decisions—from choosing what's for dinner to selecting the medications their children take. In fact, nearly two-thirds of women are responsible for family healthcare decisions, according to a 2004 national survey conducted by Plan for Your Health. Many women also assume the care-giving role outside their nuclear families. Today's middle-aged woman may also look after her parents and in-laws too, often determining how long they can live on their own and how to best care for them. In addition, she often influences the important health decisions of grandchildren, co-workers, and friends." Read more at PharmExec.

Consumer tools: Really Personal PHRs

Posted: 27 Jan 2006 01:05 AM PST

"If we're committed to fostering the adoption of personal health records, we should take a page out of the consumer marketing textbooks — not the primers of health IT marketers. This was my conclusion after attending a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Markle Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Quality Research and Quality. " Read more about this at iHealthBeat .

Consumer trends: Manhattan Predicts Online Health Trends

Posted: 27 Jan 2006 12:06 AM PST

"US healthcare specialist Manhattan Research has published a summary of the major trends for health and pharmaceutical marketers to consider in 2006. The trends chart the increased use of the web and other new technologies as a health information and communication tool for both patients and physicians." Read more at Daily Research News Online.

News: Wall Street Journal Looks at Tools That Identify Low-Cost Care Options

Posted: 26 Jan 2006 01:07 AM PST

"The Wall Street Journal on Thursday looked at efforts by insurers to provide patients with tools - including a cell phone Web browsing service - to help them find low-cost treatment options. Lumenos, a unit of WellPoint, in February will launch the cell phone service, which lets patients type drug names into their cell phones' Web browsers and get lists of lower-cost alternatives. The program is designed so that patients can ask their physicians about cost-effective alternatives while they still are at their appointments." Read more at iHealthBeat.

Consumer tools: Consumer Health Complete Now Available from EBSCO Publishing

Posted: 25 Jan 2006 12:09 AM PST

"In continuing with the company's goal of providing the most comprehensive collection of online health and wellness resources, EBSCO Publishing has announced the release of Consumer Health Complete (CHC). This full text database is designed to support consumer and patients' information needs as well as foster an overall
understanding of health-related topics." Read more at Managing Information News.

FDA Announces Adverse-Event Website

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 07:46 AM PDT

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration  (FDA) has unveiled a new website that will serve as a source of information for patients and health care professionals on the safety of recently approved drugs and biologics. Summaries of FDA safety analyses on recently approved products will now be periodically prepared and posted on the website. Included in the summaries may be information on potentially serious, previously unidentified risks, if any are found during the review, as well as known adverse events that occur more often than they did during clinical studies. The summaries will also include a brief discussion of any steps FDA may be taking to address these safety issues. Under Section 915 of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, FDA is required to prepare safety summaries within 18 month after a product’s approval or after it has been used by 10,000 patients, whichever comes later. Initial summary reports will contain information on drugs and biologics approved since September 2007, including several drugs for infections, hypertension, depression and other conditions.

Sebelius Announces $250M for Primary Care

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 07:11 AM PDT

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services  Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the allocation of $250 million to increase the number of healthcare providers and strengthen the primary care workforce. The investments make up the first half of the new $500 million Prevention and Public Health fund for fiscal year 2010, created by the Affordable Care Act. The investments are being made in response to a projected shortage of primary care providers in the near future—The Association of American Medical Colleges has estimated a deficiency of approximately 21,000 in 2015—and are built on earlier funding made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Affordable Care Act. They will support the training and development of more than 16,000 new primary care providers over the next five years. Sebelius was joined for the announcement by U.S. Representative Lois Capps, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Administrator Dr. Mary Wakefield, and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard K. Koh.

Employer Healthcare Costs Expected to Rise 9% in 2011

Posted: 16 Jun 2010 08:04 AM PDT

According to the annual Behind the Numbers report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) Health Research Institute, the nation’s employers can expect medical costs to increase by 9% in 2011, a decrease of 0.5% from the 2010 growth rate. The biggest inflators of the medical trend in 2011 will be hospital and physician costs, which make up 81% of premium costs. One main contributor to these costs is the investment of billions of dollars in certified electronic health record systems, spurred by stimulus funding that begins in 2011 and Medicare penalties that begin in 2015. While many hospital systems had plans to implement EHRs in the near future, the government's new regulations condensed their timelines to invest in technology, IT staff, training and process redesign. Healthcare CIOs surveyed by PwC said they will make their largest investments to meet the new EHR regulations in 2011. Other contributors to rising costs include hospitals shifting costs from Medicare to private payers and employers, and the increase of provider consolidation, expected to strengthen their bargaining power. The report also outlines three primary deflators that will help employers hold down medical costs in 2011, including the movement toward pre-managed care benefit design by increasing deductibles and replacing co-pays with co-insurance, drug costs being tempered by generics, and that COBRA costs are expected to return to normal levels.

HIMSS EHR Association Elects New Chair, Vice Chair

Posted: 16 Jun 2010 07:47 AM PDT

The HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association , a trade association of 44 companies that supply the vast majority of electronic health records currently being used by U.S. hospitals and physicians practices, has announced its new chair and vice chair, Carl Dvorak and Charles Jarvis, respectively. The Association also announced the Executive Committee election results based on voting that took place in May and June. New Chairman Carl Dvorak is the Executive Vice President of Epic Systems, and a founding member of the Association, now in its fifth year. He served on the Executive Committee from 2004 to 2006 and was re-elected in 2009. Vice Chairman Charles Jarvis is Vice President of Healthcare Services and Government Relations for NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, was first elected to the Executive Committee in 2007 and also served as Chair of the Communications Workgroup, the Government Initiatives Workgroup and the Ambulatory Special Interest Group. Both will begin one-year terms on July 1 this year. Dvorak succeeds Justin Barnes, Vice President of Marketing, Corporate Development and Government Affairs for Greenway Medical Technologies; and Jarvis succeeds Mark Segal, Ph.D., Vice President, Government and Industry Affairs, GE Healthcare IT. The HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association provides a forum for EHR software providers to voice their concerns and opinions with regards to standards development, EHR certification, interoperability, and other EHR issues that are increasingly subject to government, insurance and provider-driven initiatives. The Association is a partner of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.

Continua, Vignet to Develop Open Source Mobile Code

Posted: 15 Jun 2010 08:33 AM PDT

Continua Health Alliance , an international organization of healthcare and technology companies based in Beaverton, Ore., will partner with Austin, Texas-based Vignet , a provider of person-centric connected health platforms and solutions, to develop an interoperable source code software library for mobile platforms dubbed the Continua Enabling Source Library (mCESL). The mCESL code is planned to be available to Continua Health Alliance members later this year, and with it the capability to connect a variety of interoperable personal health devices using every day smart phones and health records. The program will grant Continua membership access to a reference library, using remote devices that provide mobile access to care. At the completion of the Continua-Vignet project, Continua has set forth plans to work with platform developers on a formal rollout of the mCESL program within the open source community.

EHNAC Announces Phase 2 of Public Review

Posted: 15 Jun 2010 08:00 AM PDT

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission  (EHNAC), a non-profit standards development organization and accrediting body, will begin the second stage of public review and comment for its Health Information Exchange (HIE) Accreditation Program. The second phase will explicitly address HIE-specific policies as developed by the HIE Advisory Board. The review period will last from June 10, 2010 to August 13, 2010. At the period’s end, the Criteria Committee and HIE Advisory Board will incorporate public comments and revisions for commission review and approval. Final HIE Accreditation Program criteria is scheduled to be available for release to the public on September 23, 2010. The first phase of EHNAC’s public review, which began in February, focused on privacy and security, technical performance, business practices and organizational resources.

'Tiger Team' Tackles HISP Security

Posted: 15 Jun 2010 07:39 AM PDT

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has organized a workgroup under the  HIT Policy Committee to address a range of privacy and security issues. Dubbed the Privacy and Security “Tiger Team,” the group is comprised of members from the HIT Policy Committee as well as the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics , and will work over the next few months to address the requirements of HITECH and the needs of organizations created under that law. The team, co-chaired by Deven McGraw of the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Paul Egerman, held a public meeting June 10th to discuss health information services providers (HISPs), such as regional networks, and whether employees should be allowed to look at records transferred from one healthcare provider to another. Other issues discussed included how patients could be informed if computers or employees of HISPs were allowed to review patient records, and how long a HISP could keep the record in its possession. ONC has stated that they expect the team’s work to be completed by late fall.
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