IT for Healthcare

For The Record

Calyx — 2007-05-30T10:12:42-04:00

We were included in a nice article on EMR consulting and it's impact on adoption.

Waldren says it often becomes a quandary for physicians because they don’t have the financial resources or desire to pay for expert advice, but they are reluctant to start the process of EMR adoption due to fears that the wrong decisions will be made. “You need to show value, and you need to build trust. Those are the two things consultants have to answer for,” Waldren emphasizes. “I do see some uptake [with EMR consultants], but I also see that they have a difficult marketing challenge ahead of them [with physicians].”

That pretty much encapsulates both the article and our feelings on the subject. But do click through so you can read my quotes!

Sermo - Physician Community for Physicians, by Physicians

Calyx — 2007-03-16T12:39:43-04:00

Buzz is growing for Sermo, an online information sharing community "developed by physicians, for physicians." Check it out.

Welcome to the only online community where physicians around the nation exchange the latest medical insights with each other and improve patient outcomes - 24/7.

Link

Practice Fusion Links Up with Google

Calyx — 2007-03-16T12:36:29-04:00

We've posted on Practice Fusion before here and the feedback we've heard was that using "de-identified" patient data to subsidize a free EHR was going to be a serious problem. Practice Fusion just announced a partnership with Google wherein the web-based application will still be delivered for free but now it will be subsidized by advertisements that come up based on keywords in the patients' records. No word as to whether the initial model has been scrapped or if this new concept is complementary. One thing's for certain, it still raises the hackles of privacy advocates.

"It still comes down to the fact the company is using people's sensitive, personal information for profit," said Allison Knight, staff attorney for the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.

Link

Security an Ongoing Task

Calyx — 2007-03-15T09:49:17-04:00

We've seen much debate in the past on security and patient privacy. Here's a brief reminder that (as we've argued) security is an ongoing process and not a one time fix.

“There’s nothing in security that you can do once,” says Kate Borten, president of the Marblehead Group, a consulting firm in Marblehead, Mass. “Risk assessment never stops. This is supposed to be ongoing.”

Everyone benefits when organizations focus on putting policies in place that make it more difficult to steal (or lose) sensitive data.

Pay-for-Performance Gets Another Punch in the Face

Calyx — 2007-03-14T11:04:26-04:00

FierceHealthcare.com posts on a recent survey of "550 randomly chosen general internists" that suggests that primary care physicians agree in principle that physicians should be rewarded for a high level of care but are not happy with the current P4P schemes.

While most PCPs felt that physicians should be rewarded for providing high quality care--provided that the measurements were accurate--less than one-third felt that current measures would do the trick. A majority (66 percent) felt that health plans and the government were unlikely to exert the effort to make such measures accurate. Roughly eight out of ten worried that pay for performance schemes would force doctors to avoid high-risk patients--or even kick such patients out of their practices.

Link

MedTab Reviewed

Calyx — 2007-03-14T10:45:54-04:00

Tim Gee at Medical Connectivity Consulting reviews the latest entry on the medical tablet scene.

Did I mention it has a 12 hour battery life? Wow, I'm impressed. We have yet to reach perfection, but this device comes close for a clinician carried use model. This is a very, dare I say, sexy device.

Unfortunately the target market is physicians. There are several large institutions that could spring for a device like this, but nothing like a majority of the hospital market. Another bit of a miss is targeting EMR applications - actual EMR adoption is quite a bit behind all the hype - although the early adopters will probably be the large institutions who might actually buy something like this for their physicians (places like Kaiser, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo and large university teaching hospitals come to mind).

Link

Should Insurance Company CEO Salaries Be Regulated?

Calyx — 2007-03-07T20:41:36-05:00

Not a big fan of folks that make $125 million in a single year while others have no access to healthcare due to high costs, but Jason Shafrin at Healthcare Economist makes a sound point.

On its website, UnitedHealth Group states that it “serves more than 50 million Americans.” Thus the amount of cost savings per person enrolled in UnitedHealth Group would be less than $3.

Link

The Big Move

Calyx — 2007-03-02T10:11:27-05:00

No posts all week because we just moved our offices and it was a bit hectic around here. It's a very exciting time here at Calyx. From a tiny office in Lakewood to over 4000 sq ft in Midtown Cleveland - it's quite a step up for us. Here's a photo to give you an idea of what we're looking at:

It doesn't give much perspective on the overall space but we've even been too busy to snap many pictures. I'll have more later - we're definitely looking forward to showing off our new digs!

Cincinnati Hospitals in Feud Over Health Alliance

Calyx — 2007-02-22T10:08:01-05:00

Two Cincinnati-area hospitals, St. Luke and Christ, are engaged in a dispute with regional healthcare group, Health Alliance. The two member hospitals are arguing that the group's leadership have made decisions that endanger their charitable mission to uninsured and indigent in the neighborhoods they serve. In a bit of inspired hyperbole, an Alliance attorney likened the decision to withdraw to "dropping the nuclear bomb." Presumably without the mushroom cloud, firestorms, and massive amounts of radioactive fallout.

Federal Investigators Warn of Privacy Issues with US NHIN

Calyx — 2007-02-20T15:32:39-05:00

This NYT article is getting a lot of looks recently. The GAO is chiding the Bush Administration for pushing for EHR and interoperability without a firm and realistic security plan in place:

The Bush administration has no clear strategy to protect the privacy of patients as it promotes the use of electronic medical records throughout the nation’s health care system, federal investigators say in a new report.

This topic is in the news more and more these days and is clearly on the minds of many. One interesting point I'd like to see clarified:

Several members of Congress have drafted legislation to clarify consumers’ control over such data. One proposal, by Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, both Republicans, would establish health data banks in which people could store electronic copies of their medical records. Under the bill, a consumer would “maintain ownership over the entire health record” and could control access to it.

By contrast, under existing federal rules, hospitals and other health care providers generally do not have to obtain a patient’s consent to use or disclose information for “treatment, payment or health care operations.”

There's no mention of the logistics of the Brownback-Ryan proposal. One wonders if they have any idea how that would work, what strictures it would impose on the healthcare industry, whether it's at all feasible, etc. . . . For instance, if the "consumer" had control of what was in the "bank" there would still be data at the doctor's office. Would the bill address the individual locations and how they protect patient data? Would it be realistic to expect that the patient-controlled record could be used as an accurate, reliable record for doctors to work with? We've already seen protestations against PHR that allow patients to "edit" their records.

Is this even something that Congress can be trusted to deal with? Should the market be allowed to work out these issues? Is it too early to answer any of these questions??? Any ideas?