Influential

Guest Article: In a world of cloud services, are HL7 interface engines dead? | The Healthcare IT Guy

HITSphere.com — Tue, 8 May 2012 6:57:03 +0000

I spend a good deal of time with clients these days who are trying to connect web services, implement service oriented architecture (SOA), and moving to the cloud. All these requirements are focused on integration of multiple, sometimes legacy sometimes modern, systems but most of them still require lots of HL7 interfacing. Some of my clients start their integration efforts hoping that there is something better or more modern than HL7 but the truth is that HL7 and interfacing remains the backbone of health system integration. Choosing an integration tool is time consuming so I reached out to Craig Cunic, the Product Director of Interface Engine Team at Iatric Systems, to get some advice on how to choose an interfacing engine. Iatric has been solving complex health IT problems for a while so it’s worth following’s Craig’s advice on the Dos and Don’ts for Interface Engine Consideration. Here’s what he said:

It has been suggested that due to the advent of web services, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and cloud computing, interface engines no longer serve as the proper tool for system integration. Is the interface engine dead? Yes, it is, if the interface engine does not have the necessary feature-set to support the growing number of data standards and if it can’t exchange data with today’s diverse healthcare systems and devices.

Today’s interface engine is an advanced integration engine.

The interface engine is not dead. Today’s interface engine is alive and well…and it is one with advanced features that turn it into a mighty integration engine. It is one that has extensive security and privacy features and the scalability to grow with your increased interface needs. Today’s interface engine also integrates clinical portals and medical devices, achieves other complex integration situations and supports Meaningful Use mandates. And, an advanced integration engine is easy on your IT budget: it helps control the budget because there are no ongoing interface costs.

If you are considering upgrading your current interface engine to an advanced integration engine or want to move away from point-to-point interfaces, here are the dos and don’ts to consider when researching and evaluating different integration engines:

Do consider engines built on modern platforms such as .NET or J2EE. These will have a leg up on the competition in terms of being able to fulfill many of the requirements mentioned above.
Don’t overlook the potential barriers in data sharing. Look for an engine that can simplify these types of communications: direct to database (ADBC, OLE, DB, Oracle and SQL), transfer types MLLP, TCP/IP, folder shares FTP (SFTP and FTPS) and SOAP.
Don’t select any engine that is built on outdated technology. Look for engines built on advanced architectures to ensure scalability and extensibility and to support new formats and new demands as they arise.
Do look beyond the engine’s interface capabilities – look into its ability to monitor all activity in real time and deliver exception notifications automatically. Engines using a visual IDE are best. Monitoring performance and sending problem alerts are critical for minimizing downtime, which has a negative effect on healthcare.
Do analyze the vendor that is offering the solution and evaluate the level of customization that the vendor provides to meet your specific security needs. Also look at how much support the vendor provides in terms of minimizing IT effort at your organization.
Do make sure the engine supports all major standard messaging data formats (delimited, fixed length, HL7 2.x and XML).
Do consider the time that must be dedicated to set up each interface, train users, record updates and generate useful reports.
Don’t forget that modern systems need to integrate using scripting languages such as PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Python. While .NET and J2EE are kinds of the enterprise world, scripting and glue languages are the yeoman of the integration world.

Interface engines are a core element in today’s healthcare environment, and are a requirement to achieve interoperability and meet Meaningful Use. The interface engine you choose should not only streamline your healthcare organization’s ability to share medical data with providers, patients and the community, but also minimize the IT efforts necessary to accomplish this sharing.

Doctor, or Druggist? Washington Post Asks | EMR Medical Software Information and Resources

HITSphere.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 1:55:41 +0000

Today's edition of the Washington Post examines the growing trend of physicians who dispense prescription medications at the point of care. We thought our readers would want to read the story, since we recently highlighted a national study that found most Americans would prefer to receive their medications directly from their doctors instead of the local pharmacy. The story is thorough, but it doesn't exactly discuss the role of technology in safely dispensing drugs to patients.

Read the story and let us know what you think about this practice.

Former FDA Commissioner Andrew Von Eschenbach Joins Another Board–Banyan Biomarkers | The Medical Quack

HITSphere.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 3:10:01 +0000

Banyan Biomarkers provides analytical services to pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies and investigators at academic research institutes. The company has a focus on traumatic brain injury and developing assays to qualify biomarkers. BD

Former FDA leader von Eschenbach Named to Viamet Board of Directors

Former FDA Commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach Finds a Home on the Board of HistoSonics

Former FDA Chief Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach Appointed to the Board of Directors For BioTime and OncoCyte

ALACHUA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Banyan Biomarkers, Inc. today announced that Andrew von Eschenbach, MD, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and former Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), was elected to its Board of Directors.

“Banyan Biomarkers is developing a technology that would revolutionize how we diagnose and evaluate the traumatic brain injuries that are taking a devastating toll on soldiers, athletes, and accident victims. I am eager to contribute to Banyan Biomarkers’ efforts to rapidly bring such hope for a better outcome to so many in desperate need,” stated Dr. von Eschenbach.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120509005103/en/Banyan-Biomarkers-Announces-Andrew-Von-Eschenbach-Joins

Imaging Software syngo.via Helps Save Time without Compromising Accuracy | eHealthNews.EU Portal / All News

HITSphere.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 5:00:01 +0000

Siemens Healthcare conducted a study with six customers in Germany, Austria and Spain to quantitatively and qualitatively measure the efficiency of the software syngo.via compared to a conventional Advanced Visualization workstation.

Stage 2 Meaningful Use Standards Could be Challenging for Providers | EHR Outlook

HITSphere.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Healthcare providers may have trouble meeting Stage 2 of meaningful use requirements, even though the federal government hasn’t released what those requirements will be yet, according to a new survey. As of Dec. 31, 2011, 61 percent of hospitals and 33 percent of eligible healthcare providers had...

AHIMA Weighs in on ICD-10 Delay as Deadline to Submit Comments Approaches | ADVANCE Perspective: HIM

HITSphere.com — Thu, 10 May 2012 2:00:00 +0000

The proposed rule to delay the compliance date for ICD-10 from Oct. 1, 2013 to Oct. 1, 2014 is posted to the Federal Register, and there is only 1 week left in the 30-day comment period. When proposing the delay to ICD-10, HHS took into consideration...(read more)

Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. | Healthcare Technology News

HITSphere.com — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:25:00 +0000

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A new article is posted at Healthcare Technology News.

WVHCA Issues Policy Statement for Public Witnesses | Health Care Law Blog

HITSphere.com — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:24:32 +0000

On April 11, 2012, the West Virginia Health Care Authority announced a new policy regarding the testimony for witnesses from the public before the Authority at certificate of need and rate hearings. The policy statement issued by James L. Pitrolo, Jr. Chairman, is effective from April 11, 2012 and states as follows:

I. PURPOSE
To establish procedures and guidelines governing the testimony for witnesses
from the public.

II. CANCELLATION
This policy cancels and supersedes all prior memoranda regarding testimony for
witnesses from the public.

III. POLICY
In order to ensure an orderly public hearing, all witnesses from the public
shall register in person during the first day of the hearing. If a witness fails to
register during the first day of the hearing, the witness will not be allowed to
testify during the hearing. If multiple witnesses are present on behalf of one
party, the group can elect up to three representatives. The representative's
comments will be limited to five minutes each up to a maximum of 15 minutes.
Individual comments will be limited to five minutes each. Further, a witness in the
hearing that has provided testimony shall not testify as a witness from the public
in the same hearing.

Health Law 2.0 Session at Health 2.0 Spring Fling - Boston | HealthBlawg

HITSphere.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:18:44 +0000

David Harlow
The Harlow Group LLC
Health Care Law and Consulting

Tech Medicine Signing Off | Tech Medicine

HITSphere.com — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 2:34:20 +0000

I'll be taking a break from Tech Medicine as Healthline redesigns its Health Experts Network. If you're interested in more musings on technology and medicine, here's how to find me:Blog: Info-SnacksTwitter: JoshuaSchwimmerNephrology and Internal Medicine: www.kidneydoctor.us

At Last, It’s Here: 2012 HIE Market Report | Chilmark Research

HITSphere.com — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:20:38 +0000

This morning we announced the release of our latest report: 2012 HIE Market Report: Analysis and Trends of the Health information Exchange Market. As we found in last year’s report, the HIE Market and the vendors that serve it continues to be a very dynamic.

In little over a year we have seen several vendors exit the market, several others enter and the acquisitions of Carefx by Harris and MobileMD by Siemens. We also saw Microsoft pull completely out of the clinical market by turning over all its HIT assets (except HealthVault) to the new joint venture with GE, Caradigm.

Yet in spite of all this turmoil, the market continues to see spectacular growth in excess of 40% in 2011. The big news with all this growth is that only a small portion of it is coming via the HITECH Act and the various statewide HIE contracts that were awarded. No, the big market that literally all HIE vendors are now targeting is the private, “enterprise” market. Healthcare organizations (HCO) of all sizes are now looking to deploy HIE technology to not only meet Meaningful Use requirements, but respond to the pending changes in reimbursement, moving from a fee for service model to one that is based on outcomes.

To be successful under these new payment models, HCOs must better manage operations and the complete care cycle of a patient across care settings. In a community of heterogeneous EHRs, HCOs are adopting HIE technology at an accelerated rate to unlock the data silos of EHRs across the community to enable higher quality of care.

Arguably, the 2012 HIE Market Report’s most significant finding is…

The healthcare sector is rapidly moving to the post-EHR era. The value of patient data is not in the data silos of EHRs but in the network that an HIE supports.

The report provides the most comprehensive overview of the market and what are the significant trends that are driving this market forward. The report also provides a deep dive review of 22 leading HIE vendors, including product capability assessment and market presence. This information, compiled through in-depth research and countless interviews, provides all HIE stakeholders with the most accurate view of the market today.

It is our sincere hope that the information contained in this report will contribute to furthering the success of HIE deployments in the future as we strongly believe that only through health information exchange (the verb) can we improve the quality of health delivered within a community and ultimately, the nation.

OpenEMR Support | GNU/Linux And Open Source Medical Software News

HITSphere.com — Thu, 17 May 2012 6:05:09 +0000

ViSolve Healthcare IT offers OpenEMR consulting, customization, implementation, training and support. OpenEMR is one of the most popular open source EMR/EHR that is ONC-ATB Ambulatory EHR 2011-2012 certified. ViSolve Healthcare IT team has extensive experience with OpenEMR. As a prominent member of OpenEMR Board, ViSolve team has contributed significantly towards Meaningful Use Compliance and helped attain ONC Certification successfully.

Drummond Group Gains ACLASS Accreditation | Drummond Group EHR Blog

HITSphere.com — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:31:48 +0000

Drummond Group was recently accredited by ACLASS for our electronic health records (EHR) test lab. Using the international standard of ISO 17025, ACLASS reviewed the quality system of our EHR test lab and confirmed it met the stringent requirements of this specification. ISO 17025 requires testing laboratories to implement and utilize procedures and policies, such as standardized training methods, consistent test procedures and the employment of competent technical personnel, to perform their test services. This accreditation ensures our test lab is performing high quality testing work within our EHR testing.

This accreditation is separate from the ONC requirements of accreditation by NVLAP in order to be a testing laboratory within the ONC Permanent Testing Program. Drummond Group submitted an application to NVLAP in early January 2012 for accreditation for the ONC Permanent Testing Program, and we will be in the first round of on-site accreditation assessments.

Drummond Group chose to pursue 17025 accreditation from ACLASS because of our commitment to producing the highest quality work in the area of health IT testing. We do not view accreditation as simply an extra exercise to complete and then move forward. We recognize it is an excellent means to validate our quality systems in our efforts for continuous improvement.

A 17025 accreditation involves submitting a quality manual along with associated documentation to an accreditor. The accreditor then makes an on-site visit to ask questions, review past testing records and observe actual testing events. Any deficiencies or non-conformities are documented and must be successfully addressed before the accreditor reconvenes and makes a final assessment.

Frankly, it was not an easy process due to the detail of documentation necessary, but we ultimately found it a very beneficial endeavor. Drummond Group will continue moving forward toward maintaining a high quality test laboratory, working with NVLAP to receive our accreditation and becoming a part of the ONC Permanent Program.

Video Introducing eResearch | eHealth

HITSphere.com — Wed, 9 May 2012 10:35:43 +0000

Having written a chapter on eResearch for a book on Health Informatics, I decided to make a video which will be used by the editor, Bob Hoyt, in an eBook edition to come out soon. Both the video and the chapter emphasize the progress that has been made in informatics tools to support every phase of clinical research.

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What does Web 2.0 mean to you? | Health Informatics Blog

HITSphere.com — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 3:46:35 +0000

Web 2.0 was coined as a cool name for a conference about the state of the internet back in 2004. Kind of a play on the fact that software is released in ‘versions’ (1.1, 1.4, 1.2.3.1.2, etc, etc) whereas the web is clearly evolving and branching in a way that defies this kind of classification.

Web 2.0 draws an arbitrary line that says the current state of the web is significantly different now from how it was a few years ago.

There’s been a lot of talk about what Web 2.0 really means and what it doesn’t (here’s the official line from Tim O’Reilly who coined the term).

Here’s an anthropological take on Web 2.0:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) needs your help | Open Health IT Exchange

HITSphere.com — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 12:08:02 +0000

NIST would like suggestions from the public regarding how federal agencies should be involved in the standardization system. Standardization areas include but are not limited to: smart grid, health information technology, cybersecurity, emergency communications interoperability, radioactivity detector and radiation monitors. Public comments are due by February 7, 2011.

Read the full story:
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/nist-seeks-input-government-involvement-standardization

Cost versus worth of technology in healthcare | HealthBlog

HITSphere.com — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:40:03 +0000

Two articles caught my attention this week amid of the flurry of news about jobs, the market and the economy. The first, Not retiring at 65: Physician goes from anti-EHR to pro-ACO , was about a 65 year old physician in Tucson who is not only delaying...(read more)