Practice Technology

Author recalls the "go-live" day for his practice's electronic health records system.

The Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) says that its 2011 annual meeting--held February 20 to 24 in Orlando, Florida--drew a record 31,225 attendees, including 14,639 professionals who registered.

Confirming what you already may have suspected, results of the 22nd annual Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Leadership Survey suggest that federal government initiatives are the driving force behind current healthcare information technology (IT) spending.

Learn how real-time data access, auditing, and reporting can help you quickly assess the health of your patients with diabetes by reading how Southeast Texas Medical Associates (SETMA) used an electronic health record system toward this end.

Only 14% of patients get their medical records electronically from their physician?s offices, and 30% don?t know why they would need to do so, finds a new report by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Health Research Institute. The finding has implications for you and your peers in practices and organizations that hope to reap federal stimulus payments.

How do your top concerns related to health information technology compare with the priorities identified by the ?Call for Action? for 2011/2012 recently released the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)?

Your patients who have diabetes ultimately may benefit from research to be undertaken at five U.S. institutions as they share $1.3 million in grants as part of the McKesson Foundation?s Mobilizing for Health initiative. The investigators will study ways in which the use of mobile phone technology can improve diabetes care and management in underserved populations.

The author's first step into beginning the journey into the new world of the electronic health record was to buy Windows for Dummies.

More than 21,000 providers registered for the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record incentive programs in January, and four states reported initial Medicaid incentive payments totaling $20.4 million.

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.