Health IT Audiocasts offered by MRI

Medical Records Institute is introducing a series of online educational programs for 2008. These programs offer quality and breadth of information featured at our traditional shows, but with the convenience of an online course. Programs have been designed to be topical—covering the range of topics currently affecting healthcare IT—and to target a range of professions, from physicians and office managers interested in purchasing their first EMR to health IT professional curious about current industry trends.

Each one-hour program is aired live and will be accessible to registrants on our website after the live-air date. Conference listings (at right) contain program descriptions, speaker backgrounds, and targeted audience information. Visit our website for more information or to register.

The following topics will be offered:

• EMR Boot Camp (8/21/08)
  
• EMR/EHR/PHR and Beyond (8/28/08)
  
• Cell Phones in Healthcare (9/24/08)
  
• How to Select and EMR (10/1/08)
  
• Is your EMR System Legal? (10/21/08)
  
• Road to Electronic Healthcare (10/30/08)
  
• The Next Generation of PHR Systems (11/13/08)
  
• Consumer Health Movement (12/17/08)
  
• The 2009 Revolution in HIT (1/15/08)

MRI Introduces TEPR+

Introducing TEPR+
Innovation. Vision. Growth.

Through 25 years of TEPR, Medical Records Institute has played a guiding role in the progression towards electronic health records and just as healthcare IT grown through these years, so has our vision for TEPR. In 2009 Medical Records Institute (MRI) will introduce TEPR+, the evolution of the Towards the Electronic Patient Record Conference.

TEPR+ promises the innovative thinking, new technologies, and practical ideas that you’ve come to expect from TEPR, but with a wider focus on the range of healthcare IT solutions both currently available and developing. We’ll provide more programming on the difficulties that arise with the incorporation of IT and discuss the cutting-edge technologies that will change the way we understand health IT today. TEPR+ – the evolution of TEPR and the future of health IT.

New TEPR Award for EMRs Best Meeting Medicolegal Requirements

Standards and requirements for electronic health records systems remain in active development through the continuing efforts of multiple organizations including ASTM, HL7, and HITSP. Currently, though, the burden of proof (and risk) that a given EMR meets comprehensive requirements remains entirely on the purchaser. Furthermore, there are few resources for those who do take the time to execute a more robust due-diligence effort in comparing and contrasting higher level attributes as part of their selection process.

The Medical Records Institute, in association with recognized experts in EMR functional assessments, have developed a new initiative to highlight key attributes of EMRs to support fundamental medical-legal requirements of medical records as business records. This initiative grew out of concerns about purchaser and user awareness of medical-legal gaps in health IT, including assuring that an EMR can meet basic requirements such as retention of the original version of an altered record as required by medical records best practices and standards such as the American National Standard ASTM Designation: E 2017 – 99 (Reapproved 2005) Standard Guide for Amendments to Health Information. EMR developers note that such requirements are often absent from purchaser/user demands.

While undoubtedly requirements will become increasingly robust over time, the push to implement EMRs, especially in the United States, has made these basic medical-legal gaps all the more risk-laden for those who may not fully evaluate systems they are buying, and who may not fully mitigate gaps in their current systems’ abilities to support such basic medical records functions.

By highlighting the existence of EMRs that are well-designed in their support of these attributes, it is hoped to improve market transparency for medical-legal requirements as a core requirement for EMRs, thereby facilitating both improved selection and implementation of EMRs and speeding the uptake of systems by reducing their potential medical-legal risk.

This new TEPR Award is the first major effort to challenge EMR vendors to demonstrate that their products meet a range of EMR medicolegal requirements, including identity and authentication, document version management, signature events, data integrity and document event auditing functions.

Candidates for the award (who must be TEPR exhibitors) will complete a questionnaire designed by a team of independent attorneys, legal experts, and EMR and health information management professionals. For more information about TEPR and the TEPR awards see www.TEPR.com or contact Claudia Tessier: Claudia@medrecinst.com. Vendors seeking information about TEPR exhibits should contact Michael Lawrence at 617-964-3923 x217 or Michael@medrecinst.com.

TEPR Program Online

The 2008 TEPR expanded online program is now available! Click here to view the full program, read session descriptions, speaker biographies, and more! We'll be updating it daily so check regularly for the most up-to-date information.

Electronic Health Records: The Benefits of Digitalized Treatment.

Peter Waegemann, MRI's CEO was interviewed for this article on EMRs published by Columbia University: Electronic Health Records: The Benefits of Digitalized Treatment.

Open Source Technologies Sessions at TEPR 2008

Interested in Learning about Open Source Technologies and the Future of Health IT?

The 2008 TEPR Conference will explore whether the future will bring a switch from proprietary software to scalable open source solutions. Among TEPR 2008 offerings are several sessions showcasing open source technologies— the hot topic for hospitals and practices alike. The disruptive nature of these collaboratively developed healthcare information technology solutions is changing how organizations think about future health IT systems. This is just one of the fresh ideas TEPR addresses in depth.

TEPR 2008 is bigger and better than ever, offering you the most relevant Health IT conference among many. Our comprehensive educational programming will expose you to different perspectives and new ideas on how to address the complex issues affecting healthcare technology.

With TEPR 2008 just 9 weeks away, plan your trip to Ft. Lauderdale today! Opening its doors on May 19, 2008 in upscale Fort Lauderdale, TEPR anticipates up to 5,000 attendees, with over 400 speakers. Brochures are in the mail and will arrive shortly. But don’t wait: For more information and online registration, see www.tepr.com.

Interested in exploring Open Source Technologies at TEPR? Be sure not to miss these sessions:

Open Source Systems, Learned about available open source systems; as for the pros and cons of using open source software (8L, Wed, May 21, 2008, 8:00-9:30 am) Open Source Systems continued (9L, Wed, May 21, 2008, 10:30-12:00 pm)

Open Source Systems, Lost Opportunities (10LL, Wed, May 21, 2008, 2:00-5:00 pm)

MedSphere, Military, The VA Vista System (9C, Wed, May 21, 2008, 10:30-12:00 pm)

Open Source Vista Systems (10C, Wed, May 21, 2008, 2:00-5:00 pm)

Open Source: Disruptive Healthcare Improvement Technology (4Z, Tues, May 20, 2008, 8:00-9:30 am) Open Source: Disruptive Healthcare Improvement Technology, continued (5Q, Tues., May 20, 2008, 10:15-12:00 pm)

Road Shows Cancelled

MRI has canceled its current EMR Road Show programs until further notice. We will be re-evaluating the programming, its goals, and the evolving needs of our target audience to offer new programs in the future. More information will follow in the fall of 2008. Please contact us with any questions: 617-964-3923