Practice Technology

Bernd Wollschlaeger, MD, has always sought a unique path in life; the same holds true for his career path in medicine.

How can you prepare your practice for meaningful use of electronic health records?

The real healthcare reform revolution is happening under the radar of media and politics.

If the emails we receive are any indication, many physicians will say they don't need a study to tell them that the benefits of digital technology designed to improve the quality and safety of healthcare have yet to be proven by empirical evidence, but that's exactly what research published in PLoS Medicine, an online open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science, has found.

If your patients use the Web, they probably spend at least part of that time looking for health information. Such activity, undertaken by 80% of those using the Web, is the third most popular online pursuit, after email and search engine usage, among all those pursuits tracked by the Pew Web Project. So found a national telephone survey conducted by the Pew Web Project and the California HealthCare Foundation.

Chances are, you agree with your patients on key requirements for information technology (IT) to increase the quality, safety, and cost-efficiency of care, as well as core privacy protections, according to results of a national survey released by the Markle Foundation. Agreement between physicians and patients was strongest on requirements to ensure that new federal health IT incentives will be well spent.

Do you practice in a rural area, or are you a male physician? If either or both of these descriptions apply you to, you belong to a group(s) more willing to use electronic personal health records (PHRs) compared with your urban, suburban, and female colleagues, according to research published in the February issue of Health Affairs.

By 2012, you may have access to an easy-to-use Internet-based tool that can replace mail and fax transmissions of patient data with secure, efficient electronic health information exchange (HIE), thanks in part to physicians and other healthcare providers now testing HIE using specifications developed by the Direct Project.

After two years on the job, David Blumenthal, MD, announced his resignation as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, effective in the spring.

Does your practice have a busy signal problem?

The not-for-profit Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has established a new initiative to focus on the health information technology needs of the rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino market, including increasing the rate of adoption, implementation, and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs).

The non-profit Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) has adopted new program criteria for 2011 for the following programs:

Those in the healthcare system will need to focus on quality control and coordinated implementation to realize the potential of electronic health records (EHRs) and clinical decision support (CDS) software to improve clinical care, according to the authors of research published online by the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Forty-one percent of office-based physicians plan to achieve meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) and apply for incentive payments from the government, according to a survey by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and discussed by David Blumental, MD, MPP, national coordinator for health information technology (HIT), in a posting on his blog.

Electronic health records (EHRs) will have a positive effect on patient care, according to 39% of doctors participating in the 2011 Thomson Reuters - HCPlexus National Physicians Survey. The survey included responses from 2,958 doctors of varying specialties and practice types, from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Looking into the future, the author sees storm clouds and tsunami waves ahead on the ocean of healthcare.

Research firm KLAS has released its 2010 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software and Professional Services report.

Family Practice Associates in Delaware got a phone call back in 2007 that most practices never expect to receive.

Common characteristics of better-performing medical practices include comparing individual performance to internal and external peers, employing midlevels, and ensuring efficient patient flow through the practice, according to an MGMA report.

Letters discuss human side of patients, doctor-patient relationships, long-term care insurance, and electronic health records.

Users of AT&T's portfolio of mobile health (mHealth), cloud-based, and telehealth products?ForHealth?now will have the ability to automatically transmit readings from retail health monitors to electronic health records and review and manage collected data remotely from any location with Internet connectivity now that the portfolio includes two products from MedApps (HealthPAL and Health COM, respectively).

The Healthcare Information and Management System Society (HIMSS) is now accepting applications for the 2011 HIMSS Davies Awards of Excellence. The awards program honors independent physician practices, public health and community health organizations, and hospitals and health systems that have successfully achieved value from electronic health record systems to improve healthcare delivery.

When it comes to helping patients refrain from smoking, a treatment strategy that includes both the Internet and the telephone is more successful than treatment that includes only the Internet or includes the Internet with tailored content and social support, according to the results of research published in the January 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The Healthcare Information and Management System Society (HIMSS) has launched Meaningful Use OneSource, an online repository of hundreds of documents, tools, and links to other knowledge available online.

Eighty-six percent of patients do not access their medical records electronically despite vast investments in electronic health records (EHR) systems and high hopes that consumers will use EHRs to participate in shared medical decision-making, according to research conducted by PwC's Health Research Institute in conjunction with its "Top Health Industry Issues of 2011" report. PwC surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers about their points of view on reform-related issues.