An initiative designed to boost physician access in medically underserved areas rolled into Tampa.
UnitedHealth Group and Cisco said they are partnering to build a national telehealth network to give patients access to physicians and specialists when in-person visits are not possible.
The program, Connected Care, combines audio and video technology and health resources to expand physicians’ reach into rural, urban and other underserved areas, a release said.
Connected Care is built on an open network that integrates multiple vendors’ technologies with electronic health records and other IT platforms, the release said. To showcase the technology, UnitedHealthcare created an 18-wheel Connected Care mobile clinic that was in Tampa Wednesday.
Connected Care will make clinics available in the workplace, as well as in rural and retail locations.
There are an estimated 300 to 400 companies in the United States peddling electronic medical records (EMR) systems to the nation's hospitals, medical clinics and solo practitioners. While some, such as GE Healthcare and NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, are part of corporate behemoths, the vast majority are small, privately held firms like eClinicalWorks.
As the EMR field heats up, thanks in part to a big push from the federal government, analysts expect a frenzy of spending -- and consolidation. From a field of hundreds, a few victors will emerge. The question is, will the little guys get bulldozed by giants, or will smaller and nimbler players outmaneuver the Goliaths?
The natural cycle of the tech industry favors agile startups in a technology's primordial days, which this still is for the electronic records industry.
"I see the market expanding into interesting approaches, instead of shrinking and becoming dominated by a few monolithic players," says John Halamka, CIO and dean of technology at Harvard Medical School. "There are so many heterogeneous things out there now, from large systems to iPhone apps."
But once a few killer apps emerge, expect the big companies to gobble them up.
Wal-Mart plans to open an outlet of its membership-based retail warehouse chain Sam's Club in Qingdao, Shandong province, Qingdao Economical Daily reported March 3. To date, Wal-Mart has opened four Sam's Clubs in China, in Shenzhou, Fuzhou, Beijing and Guangzhou, the report said.
Wal-Mart and Intime Department Store announced in November plans to invest RMB 130 million and RMB 1.1 billion, respectively, on store openings in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.
Wal-Mart plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary and open shopping centers in Qingdao, in addition to the planned Sam's Club, Qingdao Daily reported citing company Senior Director Liao Honghui.
Despite generous financial incentives from the government, small physician practices continue to resist the gospel of health information technology.
One reason is that most small practices lack the resources and the technical knowledge to implement these complex systems. Software companies offer training and support, but it’s often inadequate for doctors who aren’t computer-savvy. Moreover, hardware and software vendors don’t have the “boots on the street” to ramp up the thousands of physicians who are expected to vie for the federal subsidies that will be handed out next year.
To address this problem, the federal government is creating health IT regional extension centers, or HITRECs, to help small primary-care practices choose and implement electronic medical records. These are roughly analogous to USDA’s agricultural extension service, which was created a century ago to spread modern farming techniques to the nation’s scattered small farmers.
The government has allocated nearly $600 million for this purpose, and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will award 60 HITREC grants by the end of March. But specialized technicians are still in short supply, and it will take a while to get these extension centers up and running.
Some large healthcare systems, motivated by competitive concerns and the desire to meet “meaningful use” criteria for federal incentives, are also trying to help their physicians computerize. But this has proved more difficult than many expected, because of the magnitude of the effort required to install digital records in small practices.
One company that sees a market opportunity in this area is Dell Perot Systems Healthcare Services, which is working with hospitals to accelerate the rollout of digital record systems to their affiliated physicians. For example, one large southwestern healthcare system has been subsidizing electronic health records for staff physicians for the past year and a half. But to date, only about 100 practices have implemented them because the organization’s IT staff has been unable to keep up with the demand, according to Jamie Coffin, vice president of Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences.
Dell Perot has stepped into the gap, offering the system’s affiliated physicians access to and help installing digital-record systems from eClinicalWorks, NextGen and Allscripts. The company will host all three programs on its remote servers — a “cloud-based” method of delivering software and data over the Web that reduces the upfront cost for practices.
Dell Perot has also struck a deal with the American Medical Association to support AMA members who want to install electronic medical-record systems. The AMA is planning to launch a web portal that will give physicians the ability to prescribe and order lab tests electronically, along with access to electronic patient records. Dell Perot will host the initial record system from Ingenix (a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary) and will help physicians implement the software and computer systems. Pricing has not yet been worked out, Coffin says, but economies of scale should keep it fairly low.
That still begs the question of how Dell Perot can provide the same kind of consulting services to small practices that large groups and hospital systems pay big bucks for. Coffin notes that Dell has had a lot of experience in computerizing small businesses. Both Dell and Perot, before and after their merger, have also worked with many hospitals, including most of the 2,000 facilities that use Meditech information systems. The trick to bringing small practices up to speed, Coffin suggests, is to “get into the practice with a brief touch when we implement the EHR [electronic health record] and offer them online training after that.”
Coffin claims that that has worked for physicians in big healthcare systems like Memorial Hermann. What remains to be seen is whether it will succeed in small, unaffiliated practices that need a lot of hands-on assistance in change management–the hardest part of the process.
UnitedHealthcare is helping improve access to health care by putting its vast network of doctors, clinics, hospitals and other health care services on a new app just introduced on Apple's iPhone.
The new DocGPS App for Apple Inc.'s popular mobile device enables users to tailor their search to their specific health plan and locate nearby doctors, clinics and hospitals within the UnitedHealthcare network using the GPS functionality of iPhone 3G and 3GS. The app can make searches on 23 types of health care facilities and 58 types of physician specialties.
After locating a doctor or hospital, the application can then show the office location on a map, provide detailed directions, and enable the user to call the medical professional or facility with a single tap on the search result.
DocGPS is ideal for individuals on the road who are not familiar with health care providers in their area, such as families traveling on vacation or professionals on business trips.
DocGPS also works with first-generation iPhones running 2.0 software or higher, enabling users to search UnitedHealthcare's health plan networks by zip code, or city and state. The application is available for download free of charge from the App Store on iPhone or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
"We are putting a powerful tool in the hands of consumers so they can make more informed health care decisions whether they are at home, at work or on the run," said Dawn Owens, CEO of OptumHealth, a UnitedHealth Group company and lead developer of the new technology for UnitedHealthcare customers. "The new DocGPS App reinforces UnitedHealth Group's ability to deliver innovative technologies that help make it easier for millions of Americans to understand and access health care."
DocGPS is UnitedHealthcare's latest consumer-friendly innovation to modernize, simplify and make transparent health care information. An October 2009 study by CTIA-The Wireless Association showed nearly eight in 10 Americans (78 percent) said they are interested in receiving health care services via their mobile devices.
There is yet another player in the mobile iPhone EMR market. And it is a big one. At the now concluded HIMSS09 conference, Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc., based in Chicago, has just introduced an iPhone application for its EMR system.
Here's how the company describes the benefits of its mobile system:
Allscripts Remote™ for the Apple® iPhone™ or iPod® Touch enables providers to remotely control their Allscripts Enterprise EHR or Allscripts Professional EHR from any location. In a matter of seconds, providers can access the power of their practice’s EHR through a mobile, multi-touch device.
With Allscripts Remote, difficult medical decisions that need to be made while out of the office, at the hospital, on call or on personal time can be made more effectively – thus helping providers take control of their time. And with Allscripts Remote, these decisions and actions are recorded in the Allscripts EHR for an immediate, complete and accurate patient record.
Compatible with Enterprise EHR v11 and Professional EHR v. 8.1, update 1, Allscripts Remote is offered at no cost to Allscripts physician clients prior to purchase for a free one month trial.
Patients also benefit from Allscripts Remote because the solution improves continuity of care with a medical summary faxed to the ER and annotated with the provider's instructions, and provides safer medications with accurate medication and allergy lists combined with drug interaction checking.
As the Obama administration begins investing billions in health information technology, Wal-Mart plans to use its unrivaled size to bring high-tech medical records to U.S. physicians.
In recent years Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has used its buying power to move into health care markets, negotiating steep discounts for prescription drugs and eye care products.
With the government providing $17 billion of stimulus funding to encourage use of electronic medical records, the company sees an opportunity to serve as a low-cost, one-stop option for single doctors and small practices.
A Wal-Mart spokesperson said Wednesday the company is partnering with computer giant Dell Inc. and software maker eClinicalWorks to launch a bundled electronic health records package for doctors, including installation and maintenance.
The program will be offered through the company's Sam's Club discount-warehouse division, which caters to small businesses. A formal launch is expected this spring.
"Because of our volume, our size and our relationships we can leverage what we do for our members every day into this service," said spokesperson Susan Koehler, in a telephone interview from the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters.
Improving the nation's health information technology has been a rallying cry in Washington for years. Advocates say replacing paper files could reduce costly medical errors and duplicative testing. But after nearly a decade of promotion, there have been few gains to show for the technology.
Less than 20 percent of the U.S. physicians use electronic medical records, and many complain about the upfront costs of going digital and the daunting technological hurdles for small businesses.
Consulting group Avalere Health said this week it would cost about $124,000 for a single doctor to upgrade to electronic health records over five years.
Wal-Mart believes it could shave somewhere between 30 and 50 percent off that figure, putting the price closer to $44,000, the maximum in incentive payments available to single-practice physicians.
"We will streamline the process and be a single point of contact for them," Koehler said
Under the plan, Dell will provide computers and other hardware while eClinicalWorks will provide and install the software. Wal-Mart's role will be to coordinate the process.
The Obama stimulus package will pay out $17 billion in incentives beginning in fiscal 2011 to spur adoption of electronic medical records by doctors and hospitals. Those payments will gradually taper off through 2015 and then become penalties for those not using the technology.
Investor's expectations for the plan have lifted shares of companies like Cerner Corp., the leader in hospital-installed electronic records, in recent months. Other companies poised to benefit include McKesson Eclipsys Corp. and Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc.
UnitedHealth Group, headquartered in Minneapolis, said in the release that it has committed “tens of millions of dollars” toward the new initiative.
PHOENIX – UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company, and IBM are collaborating with select primary care physician practices in Arizona to launch the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model.
UnitedHealthcare will provide selected primary care practices with technology, infrastructure support and care coordination, with the goal of leveraging improved information systems to enhance patient access to care, the quality and safety of the care experience and patient satisfaction with healthcare providers.
Secure and Interoperable System Poised to Deliver High-Quality Healthcare for Consumers, Clinicians and Move the Nation Toward Electronic Health Records
ARMONK, NY and WASHINGTON, DC --IBM today unveiled its technology foundation for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) that enables secure access to healthcare data and real time information sharing and exchange of healthcare data among physicians, patients, hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies, regardless of where the medical data is located.
Under contract to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), IBM has developed a standards-based system, based on a service oriented architecture (SOA) to connect information, that allows for a secure nationwide healthcare information exchange across widely dispersed healthcare communities.
The IBM solution brings patients and clinicians one step closer to electronic medical records and a more efficient, flexible and cost effective healthcare delivery system. Additionally, the IBM NHIN solution also provides a future, flexible roadmap for insurance companies, governmental regulatory agencies and other healthcare related organizations and researchers to have the ability to access and exchange pertinent health information.
IBM's NHIN prototype is installed and operational in three healthcare marketplaces which allows seven hospitals and 24 physicians located in Research Triangle/Pinehurst, N.C.; Guilford and Rockingham Counties, N.C./Danville, VA. and Mid-Hudson Valley, New York to securely access and exchange medical and personal health data, regardless of underlying applications and locations of data. Participating hospitals within the respective regions include Duke University Health System, FirstHealth of the Carolinas; Morehead Memorial Hospital, Moses Cone Health System; and Vassar Brothers Medical Center, Kingston Hospital and St. Francis Hospital.
"The ability to access, share and review health information electronically, including lab data and medication history, across different regions, represents a true milestone for patients and physicians," said W. Holt Anderson, Executive Director, North Carolina Healthcare Information & Communications Alliance (NCHICA). "Working with IBM on this prototype opportunity is helping to transform the healthcare delivery system in our region and has the potential to bring new levels of efficiency and quality care to our communities."
Central to the IBM NHIN prototype effort is the use of important interoperability standards for healthcare published by the Health Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), key SOA interoperability principles and advanced data management algorithms developed by IBM scientists. In addition, IBM software and IBM's Health Information Exchange, used to collect and share health data electronically from an exchange platform, will help physicians access and view a patient's electronic medical records even if those records originate from disparate systems in multiple locations. Also, the use of the IHE Framework (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) sponsored by the Electronic Records Vendors Association and the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) played a major factor in allowing participants to support this initiative.
IBM continues to demonstrate its commitment to foster innovation and collaboration in the healthcare and life sciences industries by working with a variety of business partners and other organizations during development of the NHIN Prototype Architecture who contributed specific applications and technology around key components including:
-- EMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Index) : In order to help accurately match and identify patient records across communities and scale to handle large quantities of patient data in the NHIN, IBM worked with Initiate Systems and its Initiate Identity Hub ™ software. -- Electronic Medical Records: Allscripts "Touchworks," GE Healthcare Centricity®, HealthVision, McKesson "HorizonWP® Physician Portal," MEDITECH, openEMR and Duke University's Clinical Data Repository were used in the EMR component of NHIN. -- Personal Health Records: IBM worked with CapMed, a Division of Bio- Imaging Technologies, Inc. who designed a personal health management solution for the NHIN prototype to address patient privacy concerns. -- Pharmacy Network: IBM teamed with SureScripts, operators of the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange ™ that facilitates the electronic transmission of prescription information between physicians and pharmacists and provides access to life-saving information about patients during emergencies or routine care. In addition, IBM worked with CTIS, Inc. to host the prototype environments for some of the healthcare marketplaces and to provide managed services.
IBM will demonstrate its prototype NHIN Architecture during The Third Nationwide Health Information Network forum to be held Jan. 25 - 26 in Washington D.C. This demonstration will show the first significant live data sharing between and across both the local health care markets and major vendor products. The demonstration will show how patients can create and share their personal health information through use of a personal health record; how physicians and clinicians may access and exchange patient and lab data electronically; and how public health monitoring may be streamlined through the use of de-identified data.
Starting this fall, UnitedHealthcare's SecureHorizons Medicare managed-care plans will be marketed in more than 700 Wal-Mart stores in 30 states just before the Nov. 15 start of the seven-week open enrollment period for Medicare managed-care and prescription-drug plans.
Humana also has a marketing partnership with the giant retailer. Wal-Mart helped Humana sell 3.5 million drug plans -- second only to UnitedHealth's 4.5 million -- and double enrollment in its Medicare Advantage managed-care plans. Humana markets both its drug plan and Medicare Advantage Plan.
The deal gives Wal-Mart partnerships with the two largest Medicare Advantage providers. UnitedHealth has more than 1.4 million people in those plans, and Humana about 1 million.
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