The Next Big Wave is m-Health: Smart Phones in Healthcare

Peter Waegemann forecasts the role of cell phones in healthcare in the August edition of MRI's eNewsletter. He says that, "the new cell phone-based applications (also known as mobile health or m-Health) have the potential to become the single most effective driver for the health IT industry."

Before this can happen, Waegemann states that six conditions must be met:

1. A universal platform must be available that allows all kinds of cell phones to be used.
2. Such a platform has to work with all telecommunications carriers
3. There must be consensus on the data set
4. Storage and communication has to be safe and secure
5. Phones and systems must be user friendly (think of elderly people requiring special phones with large buttons, for example)
6. Consumers, patients, physicians, healthcare professionals must see the benefits of these applications, trust the systems, and like using the healthcare applications.
7. Software developers must provide an attractive, beneficial range of specific applications for cell phones.

How important do you think cell phones will be in the future of healthcare?

[read the full article here]

Incorporating HIT into Physician Practices

Dr. Eugenia Marcus shared her thoughts on health IT in physician practices in the August edition of our eNewsletter. Dr. Marcus has been a practicing pediatrician for more than 30 years. She is chair of the information Technology Committee for Massachusetts Medical Society, vice-chair of the Council on Clinical Information Technology of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and co-chair of the Child Health workgroup of CCHIT.

From the interview:

We installed an EMR in our office in 1996. Because of the installation, our office runs efficiently and we are improving our operations regularly with the increasing features of the EMR. We have less staffing. We can access the EMR from anywhere. No more lost charts. School and camp forms are generated at the click of a button.

Share you thoughts/questions/experiences on physician EMR/EHR implementations.

[read the full interview here]

Wrong National Strategy for EMRs?

In MRI's first eNewsletter, CEO Peter Waegemann questions the current national strategy for EMRs. He cites the following 5 issues as the key areas that need to be corrected:

-Cost
-Information Capture
-Legality
-Information Exchange
-Continuity of Care

According to Waegemann, "It is time for all the committees, associations, and others who are touting EMRs to confront this dismal picture of health IT implementation and the reasons behind it."

[read the full article here]

What are your thoughts?

Using Smartphones & PDAs in Emergency Medicine

In MRI's first eNewsletter, we interviewed John Pringle, program manager for electronic documentation for the city of San Diego Fire and Rescue department. Pringle has played an integral role in the development of TapChart, San Diego's PDA-based information capture system, which has been used by EMS responders in the city for the past decade. John spoke on this topic at TEPR 2008 and will be doing an update at TEPR+ 2009 as well as organizing presentations there on EMS implementations of electronic medical records.

From the interview:

Until 1997, EMS responders [in San Diego] recorded all patient encounter information on paper Scantron “bubble” forms, which were often lost, incomplete, or illegible. In response to these problems, the San Diego Medical Services Enterprise (SDMSE) – a public/private partnership formed between the city of San Diego Fire Rescue and Rural/Metro Ambulance – developed TapChart, software that allows responders to collect 9-1-1 emergency patient information electronically on handheld Palm smartphones. By transferring documentation to handheld devices, reports became more accurate, legible, faster and easier to complete.

The [development of TapChart] has proven that smartphones and PDAs can be very effective cost saving tools for emergency workers. After witnessing SDMSE’s success, many other San Diego area agencies have gone the route of implementing PDA based patient reports. TapChart has been so vital to SDMSE’s financial success that it has proven to be a necessary business practice for any future paramedic ambulance service in San Diego.

Does your community use a similar technology? Do you see greater benefits in the San Diego system? What questions do you have for John Pringle about TapChart's development and the pros and cons of its implementation?

[read the full interview here]

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.