Edition Thirty-One (10/28/09)

Electronic Medical Records Not Seen as a Cure-All
Washington Post, 10/25/09
In a health care debate characterized by partisan bickering, most lawmakers agree on one thing: American medicine needs to go digital. When Obama designated $19.5 billion to expand the use of EMRs, former House speaker Newt Gingrich said it was one of only "two good things" in the stimulus package.

HHS Asked to Repeal a Rule on Notifying Consumers When There is a Breach of Medical Records
The Medical News, 10/23/09
Consumer Watchdog said the HHS regulation violated the intent of Congress when it charged the department with writing the rules requiring notification if EMRs are breached. ARRA requires notification if there is an unauthorized acquisition, access, use, or disclosure of protected health information, which compromises the security, or privacy of such information.

Government Agencies to Spend $15 Billion on Health I.T. by 2014
Federal Computer Week, 10/23/09
Federal, state, and local governments will spend $15 billion on I.T. systems to support their public health and health insurance programs in 2014, a $3 billion increase from 2009 levels. Public agencies spend money to promote public health, provide care, buy health care supplies, and pay insurance premiums and the government health I.T. systems support those activities.

Standards Panel Explores Patient Access to EHRs
Government Health IT, 10/22/09
A federal advisory panel has begun to explore how patients might access health information from their physicians and what data should be included in their PHR. To probe the issue, participants in a Health I.T. Standards Committee meeting examined the experience of providers who already share clinical information with their patients.

Physicians Encounter Barriers in Exchanging Lab Results Electronically
Healthcare IT News, 10/21/09
The HIT Policy Advisory Committee's information exchange workgroup learned how difficult it's going to be for doctors to exchange electronic lab results to qualify for federal "meaningful use" bonuses. One of the problems is state laws regulate the exchange of electronic laboratory results, and standards don't exist to allow this information to flow easily between labs and physician offices.

NCI to Standardize Cancer Research Data
Government Health IT, 10/21/09
The National Cancer Institute plans to standardize data elements used in imaging technology and informatics reporting so federal researchers can better share their work across the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG). Researchers from a variety of cancer subject areas at the NCI and throughout the National Institutes for Health use similar standards, but they differ enough to be unable to directly exchange information.

Move Toward Certifying Electronic Health Records Must Include Long-Term Care
McKnights, 10/21/09
One of the greatest health care challenges is coordinating care for patients treated in long-term and post-acute care settings. This new world demands our industry create a person-centric, integrated EHR using HIT, which meets the need for functionality, privacy of patients' information, and the ability for information to be exchanged between multiple health care organizations.

Survey: Senior Management Lacks Resources for Patient Privacy
Healthcare IT News, 10/20/09
A new survey conducted by Ponemon Institute shows I.T. practitioners believe their organizations are lacking when it comes to protecting patient information. According to the study, 61 percent of practitioners believe their organizations don't have enough resources to meet privacy and data security requirements, and 70 percent think senior management doesn't consider it a priority.

e-Health Records: Privacy Diagnosis Poor
eWeek, 10/20/09
A new survey by LogLogic and the Ponemon Institute shows 80 percent of health care organizations reported a data breach within the last year. Perhaps even more disturbing, I.T. professionals claim management support to protect patient privacy as a priority is lacking.

David Blumenthal, Health I.T.'s Billion-Dollar Man
Technology Review, 10/20/09
The federal government has ambitious plans to create a network in which patient information is shared electronically among medical institutions. David Blumenthal is writing the rules under which the federal government will spend more than $21 billion in stimulus funds to get the job done. Blumenthal, previously a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, recently spoke with David Talbot, Technology Review's chief correspondent.

Federal Advisors to Consider Meaningful Use
Health Data Management, 10/19/09
The HIT Policy Committee will meet to take testimony on how recommended meaningful use measures affect specialists, non-physician practitioners, safety net providers, and small physician practices and community hospitals. Most of the initial recommended meaningful use measures—which federal officials have not yet adopted—focus on primary care providers.

EMR Alerts Can Signal Abnormal Tests, But Some Doctors Don't Use Them
American Medical News, 10/19/09
An Archives of Internal Medicine study found 7.7 percent of the time, office-based physicians using an EMR failed to take action on clinically meaningful abnormal results within a month. More than a quarter of the tests, which initially were overlooked, resulted in a new disease diagnosis, with 42 percent of those being a cancer diagnosis.

Vermont Moving Toward Electronic Prescriptions
Brattleboro Reformer, 10/19/09
More doctors will be making the change to electronic prescriptions after Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, announced the state would be receiving a $1 million federal grant to support the change. The funds will be used to provide electronic technology and technical assistance to physicians, and also for financial incentives to Vermont independent retail pharmacies to join the electronic network.

ONC Revisits Linking Consumer Preferences to EHRs
Government Health IT, 10/18/09
ONC is weighing proposed requirements for how consumers’ preferences about their health care and personal health information could be made inseparable from their EHR. According to a consumer preferences draft document, standards built around the requirements would enable patient preferences about the use of their health information to be interoperable.

Baucus Bill Champions Health Care Technology
InformationWeek, 9/16/09
Encouraging more rapid adoption and use of health I.T. systems will improve health care quality and make our health care system more efficient. Automating the collection of clinical data will also be a vital component of better quality performance measurement and reporting. The Baucus plan provides Federal-level leadership to spur the modernization necessary to support a truly patient-centered delivery system.

The Meaning of Meaningful: Worrisome Trends on Road Already Traveled
iHealthbeat, 10/16/09
David Blumenthal sent a public message outlining progress toward defining "meaningful use" as it relates to health care providers qualifying for the financial incentives outlined in HITECH Act. He says ONC and CMS have conducted a series of listening sessions to solicit feedback from more than 200 representatives of various constituent groups and an open comment period where over 800 public comments were submitted and reviewed.

Kolodner to Focus on Sharing Open-Source Ideas
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 10/16/09
Kolodner revealed earlier this week he will be working as chief health information officer for Open Health Tools, a not-for-profit organization developing an open-source platform for health care I.T. Kolodner said he will be retained under a contract with the Office of Health Information at the Veterans Affairs Department, focusing on opportunities in open-source development and in the not-for-profit realm.

Fuzzy Math? Rising Costs in Government's Digital Health Stimulus
Huffington Post, 10/15/09
Creating digital medical records for every American within the next five years—a key provision of President Obama’s stimulus package—could cost more than twice the $19.5 billion figure, which has been cited by federal officials. Federal budget documents show actual spending for the plan, which will use stimulus money to help doctors and hospitals defray the cost of installing high-tech records systems, could hit nearly $47 billion.

Computerized Health Records
The New York Times, 10/15/09
 “CBS News Sunday Morning” recently aired David Pogue's report on the President’s plan to computerize the nation’s health records. Pogue had the opportunity to interview Dr. David Blumenthal, the President’s medical records czar on computerized health records.

Blumenthal Puts Quality Reporting at Apex of Meaningful Use
Government Health IT, 10/15/09
David Blumenthal emphasized the ability of clinicians to amass, analyze, and report health care quality measures lays at the heart of his office’s strategy for using I.T. to transform the U.S. health care system. The aim is to take existing quality measures and convert them into metrics, which can be incorporated into EHRs in a standard form so they can be compared across practices and geography. 

Chopra Seeks Outside Advice on Health I.T. Standards
Government Health IT, 10/14/09
Aneesh Chopra, the White House’s chief technology officer and chairman of the panel’s newly formed standards implementation group, wants to mine the lessons of other industries in using information handling standards successfully, and then apply them broadly to health care. Dr. David Blumenthal cautioned against confusing the adoption of standards with the adoption of EHR technologies.

Web-Based Health Insurance Portals Get Senate Committee Nod
Federal Computer Week, 10/14/09
The Senate Finance Committee has approved a health care reform bill which includes several HIT provisions: It would create Web-based health insurance exchanges, create incentives for EHR, and increase the use of quality measures, which typically require aggregate data. The measure would create incentives for health care providers to use EHRs.

Blumenthal: Standards Development Key to Health Care Reform
Healthcare IT News, 10/14/09
Standards development is at the heart of health care reform, according to David Blumenthal. Blumenthal said the National Health Information Network, designed to allow providers to share information for the efficient care of patients, is in the spotlight as Congress moves forward with health reform legislation. The NHIN has developed a reputation of being a project of only a select group of interests and large private providers–who are often pioneers of health care I.T.

Biosurveillance Tracking for H1N1 through EHR Utilization
Examiner.com, 9/13/09
While some EHRs have been connected directly to federal, state, and local public health agencies, HIEs and the NHIN present perhaps the most efficient opportunity to collect biosurveillance data from large geographic regions. The use of health I.T., as well as privacy and security, have been focal points of pending legislation and presidential discussion.

Ready or Not? Probably Not, Says MGMA
Healthcare IT News, 10/13/09
The Medical Group Management Association's point man in Washington, D.C., says most of the groups the MGMA represents would not be eligible for government incentives for adopting and using an EHR by 2011. There are too many issues to resolve in too short a time, said Robert Tennant, the association's senior policy adviser. Tennant focuses on federal legislative and regulatory HIT issues.



Indiana HIEs Team for Stimulus Grants
Health Data Management, 10/19/09
Five HIEs in Indiana and four state organizations have jointly applied for HIE funding under ARRA, anticipating to receive $8-10 million in grant funding. The HIEs have formed a new governance organization, Indiana Health Information Technology Inc., to promote alliances and innovation among the exchanges.

Collaboration Uses Data to Enable Care Coordination
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 10/19/09
As policymakers continue to attempt to assemble a health care reform package, another group of providers is moving forward with its own plans to restructure payment policies and improve patient care. Two systems based in Minneapolis, HealthPartners and Allina Hospitals & Clinics, announced a collaboration in the northwest area of the Twin Cities market through which they will implement payment agreements, care coordination, and information-sharing.

UCF Takes Step to Help Doctors Go Paperless
Orlando Sentinel, 10/13/09
After years of efforts to establish a regional EMR system where local doctors could share patients' medical histories or pull up test results at the touch of a button, the University of Central Florida is one step closer to building such a network. UCF's College of Medicine has received preliminary approval from HHS to establish a "regional extension center," which would help local doctors get wired into HIT.

Three Colorado Medical Centers Named Test Sites for 'Connected Care' Project
Denver Business Journal, 10/13/09
Three Colorado medical centers have been named as pilot locations for a project designed to give patients in rural areas access to physicians and specialists through sophisticated video hookups. The "Connected Care" program is intended to give rural residents a virtual link to physicians and medical specialists when in-person visits are not possible.

Grant Funds Disease Research: Virginia Tech Gets $27.7 Million to Fund an Infectious Disease Database
Roanoke Times, 10/13/09
U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, announced the largest one-time federal research grant ever awarded to Virginia Tech. The $27.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will support continued development of a global infectious diseases database, called the Pathogen Portal.



Physicians Have Doubled Their Time On-line Since 2004
Healthcare IT News, 10/22/09
Nine in ten U.S. physicians surveyed now agree the Internet is essential to their practice. Seventy-five percent now go on-line daily for work. Two-thirds of doctors carry a smart phone—with some of the growth credited to the launch of the iPhone in 2007. Manhattan Research forecasts the physician adoption rate of smart phones will reach 81 percent by 2012.

Comparative Effectiveness Research About to Hit Prime Time
iHealthBeat, 10/21/09
An obscure acronym has edged a little closer to the mainstream as part of the federal stimulus debate. Now, with Congress about to dive into health reform legislation in a big way, CER may move firmly into the cultural crosshairs. Comparative effectiveness research is not new—health care providers, drug companies and FDA have been doing it for decades.

From HealthLeaders Media '09: Never-ending Quality Improvement
HealthLeaders, 10/19/09
In the ideal hospital of the future, quality improvement will be hard-wired into the culture of the organization. Outcomes data will not only drive macro-level hospital changes, but also individual physician-patient interactions. Quality will extend beyond hospital walls into patient communities and include preventive health improvement and management, rather than only reactive treatment.

Human Resources: HIT or Miss
HealthLeaders, 10/13/09
It's not clear how many people will be needed to make HIT run effectively. Some studies have estimated between 10,000 and 15,000 new HIT workers will be needed, but those estimates were made before the federal government committed nearly $20 billion to HIT implementation in the stimulus package.

Archives