Internet house calls in Hawaii
Clearly the most innovative move made so far in this very young year by a health plan has to been the decision of the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the state's Blue Cross-Blue Shield licensee, to make the Internet version of the house call available to everyone in the state. American Well, a Web service that puts patients face-to-face with doctors online, will be introduced in Hawaii on Jan 15.
Our EMR Forum has discussed this, including how to get paid for it.
Doctors moving from PDAs to smartphones, more apps on the way
The verdict is in: Smartphone technology is on the rise amongst physicians. Those who had previously adopted PDAs are finding it a small step up to a Smartphone with greater functionality and a decent display for text, video and image files. Expect to see many more Smartphone healthcare applications in the coming years. The following article published January 5, 2009 in American Medical News highlights this phenomenon. While the article speaks to adoption by American physicians, similar changes are taking place in Canada.
A very small step to being a doctor truly "on call".
Open source vxVistA released by DSS, Inc.
JUNO BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DSS, Inc. (www.dssinc.com) the leading developer of enhancements to VistA, the VA's award winning electronic health record, announced it will open source the code for its vxVistA® an enhanced version of VistA designed for the commercial market. In this major development, DSS, Inc. has effectively removed the greatest obstacle to collaboration in the VistA community by providing their enhanced version of VistA under a commercially friendly open source license that can be used to unite the VistA community.
We are always discussing this topic in the Forum. See: http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/p/17841/92683.aspx#92683
The 8 principals of privacy for EHRs
The new guidelines set out eight principals, desigend to facilitate the adoption of electronic health records by providing a consistent approach to questions of privacy and defining the responsibilities of those who have access to them. The principles address issues of patient access; correction of records; openness and transparency; patient choice; limitations to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal health information; data integrity; safeguards; and clear accountability arrangements.
Very good, now we are getting somewhere in this critical-to-adoption issue of privacy.
Part 2 of video debate on who owns the information in EHRs
Town Hall panelists continue the conversation about the ownership of health information. George Scriban of Microsoft, John Hammarlund of CMS, Dr. Joe Scherger of Lumetra, and Dr. Jim Schibanoff of the Milliman Care Guidelines field the question.
Yesterday I posted the link for Part 1, very good, all should see this vid.
EMR Services of Canada Blog: PHR in Primary Care
Personal health records are important in improving the quality and patient-centeredness of care and, are an essential step to create an effective medical home. However, the informatics need of the primary care setting creates challenges to integrate a PHR into daily practice and also generate new opportunities.
One of the best articles on the basic concepts of PHR, does not depend on the use of EMR.
In the lab: How Viagra protects the heart
After inducing high blood pressure in mice, researchers observed half the hearts that lacked RGS2 failed whereas all the hearts with the protein survived. More tests showed treating the mice carrying RGS2 with sildenafil reduced hypertrophy, led to stronger heart muscle contraction and relaxation, and reduced stress-related enzyme activity by as much as 10 times. The drug had no effect on mice that lacked RGS2.
Interesting how certain drugs are so multi-functional.
Posted
Jan 08 2009, 08:23 AM
by
Robert Gleeman