Learning
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
I have been in this stock several years but you & others on this board know & follow XsunX closer than I. I don't understand what is taking so long on the patent approval. I am in another company (medical field) and they were just issued their 10th patent here for the US not to mention the 15 to 20 countries they have patents in.
ohmy, what is it that gives you this feeling?
Telehealth pilot a hit with patients at HHC
January 24, 2014 | By Ashley Gold
With 11 acute care hospitals, six diagnostic treatment hospitals and four long-term treatment facilities, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation is a busy and dynamic place. That can be rewarding, but size and volume present challenges, too.
Technology can play a real role in improving the quality and efficiency of care, Louis Capponi, M.D., chief medical informatics officer for HHC, told FierceHealthIT in an exclusive interview.
The demand for adolescent psychiatry services has been outpacing available doctors at the right hospitals, so recently, a pilot performed at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, part of HHC, proved using telehealth for adolescent psychiatry consultations to be useful, cost-efficient and comfortable for the patient, Capponi (right) said.
"It was very much successful and satisfactory, to the patients, the patients' families and clinicians," Capponi said. "It resulted in the avoidance of several hospitalizations, multiplied across our whole system. Only one in 10 patients wound up getting hospitalized [after the telehealth consultation]."
Added Capponi: "The impact was very profound in terms of the number of patients that were able to discharged safely."
Much more information can be gathered about a patient's condition by speaking directly with them on video, Capponi said.
While Capponi believes that telehealth tools enable "much more information" to be gathered on patients over time, he said that he and his colleagues still were surprised by the success rates achieved.
"We were pleased by how happy the patients were with the interactions and treatment," he said. "If we can get them connected, we can avoid having patients transfer hospitals."
HHC, Capponi said, is looking into expanding the service past the pilot stage, specifically, for patients who come in through the prison system. According to Capponi, there's a large population with undetected or untreated disease in prison, which makes treating the inmates a very expensive endeavor. Telehealth can help to streamline that process, he said.
He added that he's excited for 2014 and increased opportunities to engage patients through technology.
"We have an enormous amount of work coming our way, which is exciting, because it's foundational," Capponi said. "With Meaningful Use, we've made stage one and finished attesting to stage one, year two, and we've got a significant amount of incentive funding for Stage 2. That's gonna bring some future opportunities around patient engagement that we're really excited about. We're still on our way."
http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/telehealth-pilot-hit-patients-hhc/2014-01-24?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
From MMRGlobal FB page 23 minutes ago.
More good news on the MMRGlobal biotech front.
MMRGlobal (OTC:MMRF) Receives Additional Patent in Korea for Cancer Fighting Antibodies Details To Follow.
Software to Software Interoperability and Software to Device Interoperability
We’ve been having the discussion for a long time about interoperability of healthcare data. Although, maybe I should say the discussion has been around lack of interoperability of healthcare data. However, I think we sometimes get confused in the discussion because there are a lot of different ways to share healthcare data. From the hospital point of view this becomes even more complex. Here’s a look at some of the various ways that we could and in many cases should share data.
Software to Software – When someone is talking about healthcare interoperability, they are usually talking about software to software data sharing. Some of the most common examples in healthcare include EHR to HIE, EHR to EHR, or even within modules of the same EHR or HIS system. You can also expand this to include Lab to EHR, Radiology to EHR, ED to EHR, Pharmacy to EHR, etc. In all of these cases, it’s one piece of software sharing data with another piece of software.
One of the biggest challenges with this sharing of data is that even when these software systems are the same software it can be hard to share the information in a ways that’s useful for the receiving system. Sure, we could just transfer some PDF files which are easily viewable and can be easily digested by the receiving system. The sending system and receiving system both understand the PDF format and can easily create, send and receive the file in a way that both know.
Unfortunately, a PDF file listing your drug history isn’t nearly as useful as an XML or other data driven file that contains each of the elements of your drug history including things like drug name, strength, date prescribed, data filled, etc etc etc. The challenge is not creating a file like this. That’s quite academic. The pain point is communicating to the new system the format of the file that you created so that the receiving system can ingest that file into that software in a proper manner.
There are plenty of more points on why software to software exchange is a challenge. However, we’re going to see more and more software to software exchange in healthcare going forward. We’re literally just at the beginning of this revolution.
Device to Software – Another common place for healthcare data exchange is from a medical device to software. Some of the most common examples are the blood pressure cuff and thermometers that are connected directly to an EHR software. Things like EKG’s are also becoming more and more common. In the hospital there are an amazing number of high end clinical devices that also integrate their data with software.
From my experience, these device to software integrations are pretty straightforward. The device manufacturers set the standard and there are relatively few medical device manufacturers out there. Usually it’s a one (device) to many (EHR and HIS software) which makes things easier. Although, we’ll see how this changes as more and more medical devices are built on top of various smart phones and tablets like the iPhone and iPad.
Software to Device – The exchange of data from software to a device is less common. Yes, I am excluding devices like a smart phone which to me are just an extension of the software. A better example is something like Cisco’s unified messaging system where you can have data from your EHR or HIS system sent to your Cisco VoIP phone. It’s pretty amazing technology and I hope we get to see more and more Software to Device integrations in healthcare.
Device to Device – I actually can’t think of any device to device connections that I know of today. I imagine there are some out there, but I can’t think of any that are really popular. With that said, I can see the day where devices are talking to devices. A simple example could be a medical device talking with your Smart TV. Your device could know it’s time to take another reading and so it could display that to you on your Smart TV. You could have the option to respond on the TV and the TV could talk to the device.
In some implementations, we already have a device talking to your smart phone. This will become even more common once we have things like near field communication (NFC) in all smart phones. Depending on how this is implemented, it could be considered a device to software connection, but could also land in the device to device.
Theses examples might not be a good description of what type of device to device integration we could see going forward in healthcare. I’m confident that creative minds will come up with some really fantastic device to device integrations in the future.
http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2012/03/26/software-to-software-interoperability-and-software-to-device-interoperability/
Let's Hear It For Faxes
eFax in Hospitals
Jan 23, 2014 04:44 pm | By: John
Over the years, I’ve had the chance to interact with basically all of the major eFax services out there. I’ve even had a number of them as advertisers. This largely makes sense since healthcare it still the haven for fax. I won’t go into all the reasons why fax is still so popular in healthcare, but it’s still the most trusted form of interoperability in healthcare. As an eFax vendor pointed out to me, fax is great because it produces an unalterable document. Sure, it’s not impossible to alter, but it’s pretty difficult.
I am hopeful that fax will one day be replaced by true interoperability in healthcare. Although, I’m more hopeful that Direct Project will get us there even sooner. Fore those not familiar with Direct Project, it’s like fax, but with meta data attached to it and securely sent over the internet. Both true interoperability of data and Direct Project still have a long ways to go though. So, don’t hold your breathe on those taking out fax….yet.
A trend I have seen happening is organization replacing their current fax solution with some sort of eFax option. In many cases this shift has been driven by issues with fax when you’re in a VoIP environment. Yes, I know that many of the VoIP environments can support fax, but it takes work. In fact, it takes just as much work getting it to function as it is to just implement some sort of eFax solution.
The other real benefit I’ve seen many consider when looking at eFax is the cost structure of eFax. Instead of having to invest in faxing hardware all up front, many organizations like that the eFax can be bought on a pay as you go or usage based plan. If indeed faxing is starting to go away in favor of some other electronic transfer of data, then your organization can save money on faxing as your fax load is reduced.
There are a few trends I’ve seen with eFax in healthcare. What trends have you been seeing in your organization?
http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2014/01/23/efax-in-hospitals/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HospitalEMRandEHR+%28Hospital+EMR+and+EHR%29
Related posts:
1. Software to Software Interoperability and Software to Device Interoperability
2. We Have an HIE – The Internet
3. 2013 Hospital EHR and Health IT Trends
ONC seeks new leader for MU certification program
The ONC is seeking a new deputy national coordinator for programs and policies at the Office of Certification and is looking both outside and inside the agency to fill the position. The new deputy will work to oversee the certification program for stage 3 of the meaningful use program, which is deemed to be the most complex phase of the federal EHR incentive effort. Healthcare IT News (1/22)Read more....
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/wanted-ehr-certification-guru
Former Apple CEO backs virtual doctor’s office to create the ‘consumer era’ of medicine
For the past decade, former Apple chief executive John Sculley has been taking on the problem of reforming health care through new technologies.
And now that the Obamacare rollout is in full effect, Sculley is betting on the Sunrise, Fla.-based MDLive to bring the practice of medicine into the modern area.
The rise of telemedicine — connecting doctors and patients via a secure video line — is a field investors perceive as one of the hottest opportunities in health care. It’s one of the few areas in the sector that has garnered widespread support across the U.S. as a potential means to lower health costs.
One of the fastest-growing telemedicine startups is MDLive, founded by serial entrepreneur Randy Parker and financially backed by Sculley. On MDLive, patients can register in a matter of minutes to speak with a board certified physician by email, on the phone, or in a video call.
Parker believes MDLive is poised to bring telemedicine to a new market of patients. Today, the company announced $23.6 million in venture financing led by Heritage Group and Sutter Health.
“The Affordable Care Act is creating a huge opportunity,” said Sculley in a phone interview with VentureBeat. “We’re realizing that the majority of people’s appointments with doctors are for things that could be done online.”
According to Sculley and Parker, physicians are eager to sign up, as it offers them flexible work. The system detects when a doctor has logged into MDLive on a tablet device or laptop and connects them with patients in need of a consultation. These physicians will inform patients when they should schedule an in-person follow-up visit.
Another recent shift is the support from both Democrats and Republicans for telehealth.
“Telemedicine is a hot topic [in Washington, D.C.] and is supported by both sides of the aisle,” said Lauren Fifield, a senior policy strategist at Practice Fusion, who divides her time between San Francisco and D.C. In July, New Jersey, Kentucky, and Missouri introduced bills to expand telehealth coverage for patients, as did Congress.
Twenty states now have mandates that favor reimbursement, so patients won’t have to pay out of pocket to chat with a doctor online. “Reimbursement within the private-payer world and the self-insured world is really accelerating,” said Parker in a phone conversation with VentureBeat.
That said, MDLive is designed to be affordable for patients who are paying out of pocket. Individuals pay $14.95 per month for a plan, and families are charged $24.95 monthly. Rival telehealth service Doctor on Demand charges a flat rate of $40 for a video call — but unlike MDLive, it isn’t available in all 50 states.
What’s the future of telehealth?
For MDLive, secure video conferencing technology is the first step. The company also sells cloud-based services, including billing software and a medical record. Parker refers to MDLive as a “virtual medical office.”
With its new round of funding, MDLive plans to build out its cloud services, including a feature that helps patients connect with physicians for second opinions. It’s a smart move, given that San Francisco startup Grand Rounds Health (formerly ConsultingMD) has made a business out of virtually connecting patients with medical experts.
MDLive is essentially trying to do it all: Cloud tools, electronic health records, and telemedicine.
“We are seeing the consumer era of health,” said Sculley. “It’s becoming clear to a lot of people that health care won’t be solved in Washington, D.C.; it will be solved in the home.”
Unlike many of its competitors, MDLive offers a broad spectrum of services, including nutrition advice and mental health. Patients can opt to chat with a therapist on the platform. In this regard, the company competes with Regroup Therapy and Breakthrough, startups that are solely focused on bringing the shrink’s couch online.
With a fresh round of capital, MDLive is rapidly hiring, and it expects to overtake its competitors in the space in the next few years.
“The capital we’re raised will help us expand our enterprise infrastructure for 2015 and beyond,” said Parker. “Pioneers get all the arrows and settlers get all the land. We have received our share of arrows, and now we’re in the best position in the telehealth space to capture a chunk of land.”
VentureBeat is creating an index of the top online health services for consumers. Take a look at our initial suggestions and complete the survey to help us build a definitive index. We’ll publish the official index in the weeks to come, and for those who fill out they survey, we’ll send you an expanded report free of charge. Speak with the analyst who put this survey together to get more in-depth information, inquire within.
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/22/former-apple-ceo-backs-virtual-doctors-office-to-create-the-consumer-era-of-medicine/
Though I do not follow this stock very closely I will say everything is down today. Last I checked the DOW was way down. If this company can do what it claims it has great potential. Didn't they recently land a new contract or something? I thought I read that somewhere. Thanks!
Hey you sent me a PM saying
Member mark exchange? # 7 for you :)
I can not do PM's & don't have a clue what the hell you're saying.
From the MMRGlobal FB page
MMRGlobal Shareholder Update on MMR vs. Walgreens Litigation
MyMedicalRecords Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MMRGlobal, Inc. (OTCQB: MMRF), (collectively, “MMR”), today announced that based on court filings, MMR and Walgreen Co. are engaged in continuing settlement discussions pertaining to a “potential settlement or early resolution” to the patent infringement complaints filed by MMR against Walgreens related to MMR’s U.S. Patent No. 8,301,466 & U.S. Patent No. 8,498,883 (the “883 Patent”).
As a result, Walgreens filed a joint stipulation requesting an extension of time for Walgreens to respond to a complaint involving the ‘883 Patent, also referred to as United States District Court, Central District of California Case No.: CV-13-9214-ODW (SHx). The document filed in the court on January 21, 2014 states, amongst other things, that:
- “the parties are continuing discussions regarding a potential settlement or early resolution of this matter.” and
- “the parties have agreed to extend Walgreens’ time to respond to the complaint by fourteen (14) days to February 6, 2014.”
Additional Information can be found at:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-irhome
There is a chart I am not showing... go check it out.
Which Health IT Is Poised For Hospital Growth?
Jan 21, 2014 11:45 am | By: Anne Zieger
Wondering which hospital applications are likely to be popular in the near future? According to HIMSS Analytics, contenders include patient portals, clinical data warehousing/mining, and radiology bar coding software are poised for faster uptake in hospitals.
To gather this information, HIMSS Analytics did an analysis of the current market penetration and projected five-year sales trajectory each application considered in its Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) report. Researchers found that first-time purchases of these advanced EMR applications should grow dramatically in hospitals across the U.S.
According to Healthcare Informatics, there are good reasons why each of these three technology should be on the upswing in hospitals. For example, the patient portal market is growing because it’s tied to Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements.
Expected growth in sales of clinical data warehousing/mining technology is tied to the need to leverage data held in EMRs, and it’s that that sales increases in and radiology bar coding are probably associated with patient safety initiatives.
Meanwhile, the report also noted that several basic applications which have already saturated the hospital market will be responsible for a high-volume IT replacement sales, including laboratory bar coding, pharmacy management systems and information systems for radiology and laboratory departments.
The report from HIMSS seemingly doesn’t take mobile applications and systems into account — I’d argue because they are not yet seen as enterprise-level tools — but I think hospitals will be spending more on mobile technology than anticipate over the next few years, as tablets and smartphones become a permanent part of their infrastructure. Just how fast that will happen remains to be seen, but it will happen.
http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2014/01/21/which-health-it-is-poised-for-hospital-growth/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HospitalEMRandEHR+%28Hospital+EMR+and+EHR%29
Related posts:
1. Hospital Patient Flow Software
2. Video Demo of Metro’s Point-of-Care Technologies at HIMSS13
3. Why “Top 10? Hospital EMR Lists Are Bad News
From MMRGlobal FB page
MyMedicalRecords Awarded 10th U.S. Health IT Patent
Connecting Patients to Physicians Using Wireless Devices
News Alert for January 21, 2014 From http://MMRGlobal.com/ (OTCQB: MMRF). MMRGlobal through its wholly owned subsidiary MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (collectively, “MMR”), today announced that MMR is being awarded its 10th U.S. patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. Patent No. 8,645,161 entitled “Method and System for Providing Online Records.” MMRGlobal is a practicing entity and a leading provider of Personal Health Records (“PHRs”) and MMRPro document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals. MMRGlobal is a practicing entity and a leading provider of Personal Health Records (“PHRs”) and MMRPro document management and imaging systems for healthcare professionals....more to follow at Investor Relations http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=178404&p=irol-irhome
D.C. leads list of least-prepared for MU stage 2, study says
A study by EHR vendor Practice Fusion showed the District of Columbia and eight states had the lowest percentages of hospitals that are prepared to attest to stage 2 meaningful use. Leading the list is the district, followed by Alaska and Rhode Island. BeckersHospitalReview.com
Read More....
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/9-states-least-prepared-for-mu2.html
Providers and patients increasingly relying on home-based monitoring
Retirees Raymond and Janice White are some of the most wired patients in America, thanks to the iCare Primary Care pilot program launched six months ago by Phoenix-based Banner Health and Philips Healthcare.
Janice, 77, and Raymond, 83, moved to a Phoenix-area retirement community 10 years ago after Janice was diagnosed with a chronic lung condition. Since last June, Janice has sent data to Banner from an array of wireless home health devices—a scale, pulse oximeter, breath flow monitor and blood pressure cuff—all via an Android-based tablet. “You just enter that you've taken care of everything every day and tell them how you feel,” she said.
Raymond, who is diabetic, monitors his blood pressure and blood sugar data and answers questions from his Banner providers about how he's feeling that day. “They monitor everything,” he said. “If your blood pressure or your blood sugar is off, or if Janice is really off on her weight, they call. They assign you a coach, also. We have a very nice lady. She's very concerned about us, and answers any questions.”
Janice said she's talked up the home-monitoring program with the ladies at her quilting club. “I recommended it to two of them.”
Experts say an explosive growth in the volume of patient-generated health data is inevitable, with patient demand being a key driver. According to Pew Foundation researchers, 21% of Americans already are tracking their health on some kind of an electronic device. A survey by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics last year found there were more than 150 mobile apps on the market that could track or capture user-entered data.
In addition, government policies will drive the use of such data. The healthcare reform law is promoting new delivery and payment models such as accountable care organizations that will use home-based health monitoring to reduce hospital readmissions and improve wellness and outcomes measures. The federal Stage 2 meaningful-use criteria for electronic health records encourage the adoption of personal health records and Web-based portals for patient-reported data. Early work on Stage 3 criteria indicates the government may require participating healthcare providers to collect patient-generated data by 2016. Patient-generated data likely will feed into big clinical data bases that will be used to guide the delivery of care.
A recent issue brief from HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology defined patient-generated health data to include information on health history, symptoms, biometric data, treatment history, lifestyle choices and other information that is created, recorded, gathered or inferred by or from patients or their designees to help address a health concern. The ONC report identified data provenance—the origin of the data when they were first created—as a weak link in patient home data collection and transmission systems. The ability to accurately track provenance “is critical to provider trust in data received from patients,” according to the ONC.
Experts disagreed on how soon patient-generated health data will gain critical mass. Dr. Walter Sujansky, president of Sujansky & Associates, a San Mateo, Calif., IT consultancy, predicted it will happen within five years, particularly for weight, blood pressure and blood glucose. But Derek Kosiorek, a principal in the healthcare consulting group at the Medical Group Management Association, said the flood of data will hit within the next two years. “It's mind-boggling how fast this stuff is changing,” he said.
What is clear is that patients want to be empowered and physicians want to be in touch. “You're learning how to take care of yourself, and I like it,” said Apolonia Barrera of Hanover Park, Ill.
Barrera is diabetic. In between providing a monthly blood sample to the clinic, she takes her blood glucose readings at home every day on a battery- powered device, then types in and transmits a reading “only if it's high,” using her smartphone, iPad or personal computer. Through the portal, lab results from her clinic visits pop up in two days. “It tells you what is the normal range for a diabetic, so you can be monitoring yourself,” she said.
“This is a revolutionary change to medicine,” said Barrera's physician, Dr. Jairo Mejia of the Access Community Health Network, a federally qualified community health center based in Chicago. “I've been in practice for 25 years and this is the first time we've had a close and real interaction with patients frequently. In some ways, it's like having a doctor not only in your house but in your pocket.”
At the beginning, like many physicians, Mejia was apprehensive about being deluged by patient electronic communications. It turned out that most patients were considerate of his time. He handles only about four patient messages a day. With his only overly chatty patient, he sat the man down and explained that “it's not a chat or a blog or Facebook; we're only communicating what's needed.”
Mejia said he's observed clear clinical benefits. “I've seen patients with chronic conditions gaining more control,” he said. “In the past, we had to wait three or four months for an interaction. With this system, I can do adjustments within those three or four months.”
Access launched its patient portal in 2011 and the mobile app last August. Data collection through the portal is based on the patient's individual care plan. All data transmission tools must integrate with the clinic's electronic health-record system from Epic Systems Corp.
Julie Bonello, chief information officer for Access, said, “When it's integrated with the EHR, we can determine the correct communication workflows within the record should abnormal results appear. It may go to a queue for nurse triage or it may go to a primary-care provider's work basket. But it makes sure we follow up.”
Bonello said that staff and patients need training in how to use the patient-generated data system to optimize care, but that electronic communications aren't for all patients. “Some patients will do great with these tools right away and others won't, and that's potentially fine.”
This is their lifeline
At Banner in Phoenix, 120 patients are in the pilot program for patient-generated data, said Dr. Hargobind Khurana, the program's medical director. Data from patients pour into Banner's NexGen Healthcare ambulatory EHRs.
Banner plans to have 500 patients enrolled by spring. Khurana said it's too early for either clinical or financial performance results from the pilot, but it's clear from anecdotal evidence that patients say this is their lifeline. “Now we're understanding the value of daily blood pressure management,” he said.
Dr. Brian Rosenfeld, chief medical officer at Philips Healthcare, said home monitoring is “the final frontier” in leveraging technology to improve healthcare productivity. “Right now, a home health nurse might be able to look at 30 or 40 patients, (but) we need that person to look at 300 to 400 patients.” He said Philips plans to sell its patient-generated data model to providers and health plans on a per- member, per-month basis.
Dr. Wayne Guerra, chief medical officer and cofounder of iTriage, a Denver-based developer of a mobile medical application that's part of Aetna's Healthagen division, said a big challenge is helping providers sort out salient data for each patient, and that requires effective algorithms based on a large clinical database. An example, he said, is for a diabetic patient's care manager to see only the patient's glucose readings when they are out of line. Guerra said it's key to make the system easy for busy providers. “They just need to say, 'Set them up with home congestive heart failure monitoring,' and then it's done.”
Applying big data analytics is essential for triaging the patient-generated data stream, identifying what's clinically important and routing it to the appropriate provider, said Dr. Jason Mitchell, director of the Center for Health Information Technology at the American Academy of Family Physicians. “We hope EHRs are going to help,” Mitchell said.
Carl Dvorak, president of Epic, said EHR systems will indeed perform triage. “We can use our standard decision-support engine to separate it,” he said.
The Veterans Health Administration has been a pioneer in electronic health monitoring at home. In 2003, it launched a systemwide program using an Internet-linked Health Buddy data communications device connected to the VA's VistA EHR, said Dr. Adam Darkins, the VA's chief consultant for telehealth services.
In fiscal 2013, more than 144,000 high-risk veterans were monitored for chronic conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, weight management, substance-abuse disorder and spinal cord injuries.
Robust EHR systems
In 2008, Darkins published a study of 17,000 of the VA's early home-monitoring program participants. It showed a 25% reduction for them in hospital bed days and a 19% reduction in admissions, with an 86% mean patient-satisfaction score. Today the program operates with a ratio of one care coordinator, typically a nurse or social worker, for 150 monitored veterans.
Darkins attributed the effectiveness of the VA program to the strong tie-in to a robust EHR system; algorithms to help identify patients who are faltering; messaging and rapid response to those alerts; consistent implementation of the programs at VA centers across the country; and economies of scale from operating a large healthcare system.
Maribel Molina, another patient of Mejia's at Access, testified to the benefits of home monitoring. She and her husband, both diabetics, run a metal refinishing business from their home in Glendale Heights, Ill. Given how busy they are, they prefer sending messages to Mejia about their blood glucose readings via their desktop computer or mobile devices. They try not to go over 6.3 in their sugar levels.
“We are very busy, and sometimes with a (doctor's) appointment, you have to wait 45 minutes,” she said. By messaging her doctor with their readings, they don't have to take the time to go to the doctor's office and interrupt their work. When they have to speak with Mejia, they contact him through the clinic's Web-based portal and get a quick response. “If I think of something in the middle of the night, I can send him a message and he'll answer in the morning,” she said.
The regular reporting of their blood sugar levels has helped. “I just look at the numbers and I can compare every three months,” she said. “I can see my ups and downs, and it's helping me maintain my sugar. It's a great tool if you have diabetes.”
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140118/MAGAZINE/301189929/staying-connected?AllowView=VXQ0UnpwZTVDL1dXL1I3TkErT1lBajNja0U4VUMrZFZFQk1DRFE9PQ==#
Scania4 nice post, do you know anything further?
I believe the game clock has the double 00 on it & game is over.
Food for thought, with what has happened to Target why in the world would anyone want their info hanging in the Cloud. The cloud may be good for software use but I do not see it for personal storage.
CHIME Time: Patient engagement through the patient portal
By Donna Roach
Posted: January 10, 2014 - 1:15 pm ET
Tags: Ambulatory Care, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Information Technology, Meaningful Use, Patient Care
For providers who want to involve patients in their own care and form closer ties with consumers, now might be the best time in years to implement this strategy.
The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project recently reported that 69% of U.S. adults track a health indicator for themselves or a loved one. The California HealthCare Foundation reported that, “Patients pay more attention and become more engaged in their health and medical care when they have easy access to their health information online.”
Although there is clear data supporting the need for providers to offer effective and user-engaging patient portals, many systems launched to date have fallen short of meeting patients' needs. Providers have made a commitment to discovering why this is the case, driven by pressures to meet the expectations of patients and communities.
A patient portal is a secure online website that offers consumers convenient 24-hour access to personal health information and medical records through an Internet connection. A portal should be a starting point for other sites, provide the capability to usher in new applications and technology and streamline processes. A patient portal should also engage the users and encourage them to regularly access their information.
So why aren't patient portals more common?
Other consumer-friendly portals provide ready examples of how to facilitate interactions and engage users. For example, Pinterest is the fastest-growing social network, accessed by 15% of American Internet users. Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that enables users to create and manage their own image collections or events, interests and hobbies. Each “pin” posted to the site serves as a portal into a personal web collection or other themed sites.
On the other hand, Facebook and Twitter provide more up-to-date content and real news information than most standard news sites. And ESPN.com provides access to a variety of sports portals for up-to-date content. These sites have one thing in common—users interact with the sites many times a day, returning multiple times to access new content.
This type of engagement should be the ultimate goal for patient portals.
To achieve that goal, patient portals must include secure messaging linking patients and the provider, prescription refills, lab results and online bill payment. In my organization, we offer a patient portal that is directly integrated with the enterprise electronic health record. Additional features include appointment requests and verification; demographic information updates; laboratory results and patient education materials; clinical record summaries; continuity of care document downloads; discharge information and online bill payment.
We introduced the portal in March 2013, and it now has 13,000 active users. That growth was driven by efforts to increase awareness of the portal's benefits among our patients and community, and their realization that the portal's benefits go far beyond general convenience. The portal is helping to alleviate follow-up phone calls to physician offices. In the past year, we also introduced the portal to inpatients, offering them access to discharge information and follow-up patient care instructions. As the portal evolves, we're planning improvements and upgrades.
The portal also has served as a successful measurement for meaningful use Stage 1. Stage 2 also sets objectives for patient engagement for which portals could prove effective. Overall, the most significant benefit of the portal has been the opportunity to offer an accessible, effective engagement tool to patients and the community.
Our patient portal is much more than just an online tool; it supports a strategy focused on enhancing patient engagement within our community and with our providers. As the industry becomes more focused on ambulatory care, the portal is another way to strengthen our ambulatory presence and reach more individuals beyond hospital walls. The patient portal can also be an efficient and effective method of communicating with patients outside of the office. The most pronounced portal benefit, however, is the improvement in healthcare quality it encourages, stemming from patients' active engagement in their health and healthcare.
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140110/NEWS/301109956?AllowView=VDl3UXk1TzRDL1NCbkJiYkY0M3hlMEtvajBVZEQrQT0=&utm_source=link-20140110-NEWS-301109956&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hits&utm_name=bottom
Donna Roach
chief information officer
Borgess Health/Ascension Health Information Services
Kalamazoo, Mich
Has Meaningful Use Made EHR a Commodity?
I had a really interested discussion today that had me asking the question of whether meaningful use was a commodity. The standards of meaningful use are the same and in the hospital environment we’re talking about a half dozen major EHR systems (only 2 in the top environment).
Per wikipedia, a commodity is “a class of goods for which their is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market.”
There’s no doubt there’s now a demand for EHRs thanks to the EHR incentive money. The real question is whether there is a qualitative differentiation across a market. When it comes to meaningful use, there is very little differentiation. All of the top hospital EHR vendors meet meaningful use requirements.
I bet if we asked hospital CIOs what their goals were with their EHR implementation they’d almost unanimously say “meet meaningful use.” Sure, if we dug in some more we could probably find some bigger picture ideals, but the harsh operational reality is that hospital CIOs are implementing EHR to meet meaningful use.
Based on that concept, EHR certainly starts to feel like a commodity to me. We could dig into which EHR will get you to meaningful use quicker. The problem is that they are all hard and take work. I’m not seeing enough differentiation on that front and even if there is differentiation, I’m not sure how you’d measure it in any quantifiable manner.
What do you think? Is EHR now a commodity? What does it mean if it is a commodity?
http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2014/01/08/has-meaningful-use-made-ehr-a-commodity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HospitalEMRandEHR+%28Hospital+EMR+and+EHR%29
maddawg2020, thank you for getting back to me.
Health IT Growing Rapidly Through 2017
Meaningful Use regulations among the factors that will drive 7.4% annual growth rate in North America, says new research report.
The North American health IT market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4% to reach a total value of $31.3 billion in 2017, compared to $21.9 billion in 2012, the research firm Markets and Markets predicted in a new report.
The value of the US market, which accounts for nearly three quarters of North American HIT revenue, will rise to $22.6 billion in 2017 from $15.9 billion in 2012, according to the report.
Included in this market forecast are clinical information systems, provider financial systems, and payer systems, including hardware, software, and services. In 2012, the clinical information system with the biggest market value was electronic health records, followed by picture archive communications systems (PACS), computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems, radiology information systems (RIS), and clinical decision support systems (CDSS).
Financial support for health IT from the US and Canadian governments will be only one of the drivers of growth in the next few years, the report said. Other factors include "growing pressure to cut healthcare costs, growing demand to integrate healthcare systems, and high rate of return on investment while using healthcare systems." An aging population, a rising demand for CPOE adoption, and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases will also increase the size of the market.
Jordan Battani, a managing director of consulting firm CSC, agrees that the health IT market will continue to grow at a robust rate, even after the US government concludes its Meaningful Use payments. One reason is that many healthcare providers "have conducted EHR implementations to meet deadlines rather than through a thoughtful process. Achieving Meaningful Use doesn't mean you're using the system in a thoughtful way. So much more needs to be done."
For example, she said, "as organizations mature in their use of EHRs, they come up with new ways of using them to optimize workflow." This can be more painful than software upgrades, she noted, but is not necessarily about customization. She cited the Epic EHR, which offers numerous ways to configure systems to fit workflow.
At the same time, she pointed out, the EHR incentive program has created demand for other kinds of health IT applications that can help healthcare providers take advantage of the data they're now creating. "For organizations to realize the value of the investments they've already made, they have to do other things."
Those things include population health management and care coordination, for which there are numerous applications from a wide array of vendors. In addition, she noted, there will be major growth in the areas of information exchange and interoperability. Mobile applications, big data, fraud and abuse issues, and security measures will all contribute to market growth as well, she said.
Among the non-clinical systems mentioned in the Markets and Markets report are payroll, accounts payable, patient billing, claims management, revenue cycle management, and cost accounting. Battani doesn't think that many providers will rip out and replace their financial systems in the next few years, but she argued that "there is going to be a lot of work around those systems, because they're all optimized for fee-for-service medicine." As value-based reimbursement becomes more important, she noted, revenue cycle requirements will change, although it's not clear yet exactly how they'll be defined.
Because EHR systems are so costly to operate and maintain, Battani said, there will be an increased emphasis on cloud-based systems and shared services, and there will also be more outsourcing of health IT. One reason for outsourcing, of course, is the shortage of trained IT staff. "It's difficult to recruit and train these people at a price that organizations can afford," said Battani.
Overall IT costs will continue to increase as providers invest more in new applications so they can achieve a return on their original investment, she said. And, because not every community hospital and physician practice can sink more money into IT, there will be a widening gap in technological capabilities between large and small healthcare organizations.
This is one of the drivers behind the growing consolidation of hospitals and their acquisitions of physician practices, she said. "Organizations that can't afford to make these kinds of investments become more and more likely targets for acquisition."
Ken Terry is a freelance healthcare writer specializing in health IT. A former technology editor of Medical Economics Magazine, he also is the author of the book Rx For Healthcare Reform.
Though the online exchange of medical records is central to the government's Meaningful Use program, the effort to make such transactions routine has just begun. Also in the Barriers to Health Information Exchange issue of InformationWeek Healthcare: why cloud startups favor Direct Protocol as a simpler alternative to centralized HIEs. (Free registration required.)
http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/policy-and-regulation/health-it-growing-rapidly-through-2017/d/d-id/1113320
What ever came of the US Navy yard they were presenting to a year or 2 back?
Some here are right here, it is time for results. We do not need stock pumpers, we need answers & results.
Well thank you for your impute. Now that it has been explained to me, no I'm not eat-in the vitamin. But I did hear from BL tonight, his response…
This is great article thank you
Now figure out what he was speaking of.
PS. Till next August the Chiefs have PMO.
Using online patient portal to refill medications boosts care of diabetes patients
A study by researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, Medical School and Kaiser Permanente found that ordering refills for cholesterol-lowering medications through an online patient portal enhances cholesterol control and medication adherence in patients with diabetes. "This research is an important step in understanding the benefits of portals beyond convenience. Given the clear connection between medication adherence and improved health outcomes, this study provides insight into how online portals may improve health outcomes," said lead author Dr. Urmimala Sarkar, an assistant professor at UCSF. Healthcare Informatics online (1/6)
http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/news-item/diabetics-benefit-online-patient-portal
AMA IDs issues for doctors, patients to watch in 2014
An opinion piece by American Medical Association President Dr. Ardis Dee Hoven identified the top five issues that may potentially affect physicians and patients in 2014, including the ICD-10 transition, health care law implementation and the repeal of the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula. She added that the group will continue its efforts to make the criteria for stage 2 of EHR meaningful use more reasonable. PhysiciansBriefing.com/HealthDay News (1/6)
http://www.physiciansbriefing.com/Article.asp?AID=683567
It was a news letter the company sent out this morning.
Research Finds Portals Aid in Medication Adherence
A study of Kaiser Permanente patients with diabetes over four years finds those using a patient portal to refill medications had higher adherence rates and improved cholesterol levels.
The study, published in the journal Medical Care, followed 17,760 diabetic patients receiving care in Kaiser’s Northern California division between January 2006 and December 2010. All the patients were registered users of the My Health Manager patient portal within Kaiser’s electronic health records suite of software, and had been prescribed medications to lower cholesterol.
Patients in the study were divided into three groups: a control group that never used the portal to order refills, a group that used it occasionally or at least once, and a group that exclusively used the portal for refills. The average age of patients was 62 years and 40 percent were non-white minorities. The studied patients had an average of more than six chronically used medications and 11 outpatient visits annually, according to the published study. “Medication non-adherence and poorly controlled cholesterol declined by six percent among exclusive users of the online refill function, compared to occasional users or non-users.”
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/research-finds-portals-aid-in-medication-adherence-47071-1.html?ET=healthdatamanagement:e4220:3743167a:&st=email&utm_source=editorial&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HDM_DAILY_010714_010614
Maybe MMRF should be trying to team up with this new company?
Startup insurer hopes high-tech, service will trump incumbents
An upstart insurance company offering health plans on New York's exchange is promising customers they can consult a doctor about medical concerns any time of day or night. But there's a catch. (MODERN HEALTHCARE) FULL STORY »
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140104/MAGAZINE/301049983/1135?AllowView=VXQ0UnpwZTVDL1NhL1I3TkErT1lBajNja0U4VUMrWlpFQk1JQnc9PQ==
I'm feeling good Mortimer just read BSB post & need to edit this 1 before you all see it.
was still trying to understand the 200 + likes on yesterdays FB post.
As for that vitamin regiment... that happens when you speak back to your elders. I have taken them several times. It was routine 2013.
Outlook 2014: For health IT, Stage 2 meaningful use and ICD-10 loom ahead
Hospital leaders and office-based physicians will face daunting IT stress tests in 2014. Beginning Jan. 1, physicians and other professionals eligible for the EHR-incentive program must meet 90 consecutive days of meaningful use at the Stage 2 level within their respective years. But an even bigger test will come Oct. 1 with the federally mandated nationwide conversion to the ICD-10 diagnostic and procedural codes. Read more...
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20140104/MAGAZINE/301049946/1138?AllowView=VXQ0UnpwZTVDL1NhL1I3TkErT1lBajNja0U4VUMrWlpFQk1FQWc9PQ==
MU3 Expected to Have Increased Patient-Generated Data Requirements
Written by Helen Gregg (Twitter | Google+) | December 31, 2013
ONC's Health IT Policy Committee has announced its intentions to include expanded requirements for hospitals and health systems to collect and use patient-generated data in meaningful use stage 3 objectives.
The Committee adopted recommendations on patient-generated health data from its Consumer Empowerment Workgroup, stating that patients' ability to electronically submit health information should be a part of meaningful use stage 3.
The Committee is still working on methods of submission, which could include structured or semi-structured questionnaires, secure messaging or mobile transmissions.
The Committee's complete meaningful use stage 3 recommendations are expected February 2014.
http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/mu3-expected-to-have-increased-patient-generated-data-requirements.html
More Articles on Meaningful Use:
Clinical Executives' Crucial Role in Health IT Implementation
The Meaning Behind Meaningful Use
Preparing for MU2? 3 Mistakes to Avoid
Does anyone know if MMRF is making a showing at the consumer electronic show?
Well you & SMF may be on to something. They look young. A couple on that list are mutual friends of BL.
It does look like several of them are from the Philippines, Thailand etc. Just check out a few of their FB pages.
Morning RM, I'd like to know if MMRF (the sales force) is trying to work with these vendors.
Are Vendors Buckling Under the Meaningful Use Pressure?
Today, I’m going to tell you about a legal dispute between the hospital EMR vendor NextGen Healthcare Information Systems. It’s not pretty but it’s not so spectacular that deserves a lot of publicity by itself. But the dispute does say something about the capacity of vendors to keep up with the next round of certifications and support for Meaningful Use Stage 2 and beyond.
The dispute involves two parties, the Mountainview Medical Center of White Sulfur Springs, Mt. and NextGen. According to documents filed in US District Court last week, the Medical Center had hired NextGen to install a certified EMR by June 1, 2013 for a price of $441,000. When NextGen couldn’t meet the deadline, the Medical Center gave it an extension until October 1 of this past year.
Here is where things get ugly. According to the MMC, it found out that NextGen not only failed to meet the deadline, but didn’t have a solution that complied with Meaningful Use. At that point, it seems, MMC basically threw its hands in the air and said “it’s time to fight back.” MMC now wants the $441,000 it spent to prepare for the NextGen installation.
I’m sure there’s more to this story. As you can imagine, NextGen has said that they believe the case is without merit and will defend against it. Plus, it seems that NextGen Inpatient Clinicals EHR 2.6 is 2014 Certified as a modular EHR. So, was the issue with NextGen not having enough resources to install the EHR? No doubt NextGen was certified.
My question is this: if a vendor in the size of NextGen can’t meet the meaningful use deadlines for its users, are its larger brethren at risk as well? Can we expect to see Cerner, Meditech or even Epic get so overwhelmed managing existing installations (which is what I imagine is happening with NextGen) that it will temporarily or permanently drop out of the Meaningful Use program?
Maybe your first reaction is “no way — this is just a blip on the map to successful installation and certifications for all major vendors.” But maybe not. I find myself wondering whether we’re seeing beginning of a showdown, in which, at minimum, large vendors focus on customers they’ve got already in place and lack development resources to speed the development of a certified EMR that will meet upcoming criteria.
I say, keep your vendor on a short leash. If you can’t afford to have your Meaningful Use implementation dates shift, you may need to keep close eye on even the largest and best funded vendors.
http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2014/01/03/are-vendors-buckling-under-the-meaningful-use-pressure/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HospitalEMRandEHR+%28Hospital+EMR+and+EHR%29
Health IT vendor to unveil EHR platform at HIMSS convention
An ICD-10-ready and meaningful use-certified EHR platform will be presented by iPatientCare at the HIMSS health care event in February. The firm will also launch other products including RegistryPlus, which doctors can use to transmit health records to different registries, and Meaningful Use-MUPlus. eWeek (12/27)
http://www.eweek.com/it-management/ipatientcare-to-demonstrate-ehr-platform-at-himss.html
Hello Sakata7, welcome back & Happy New Year to you & all the boardees.............