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August 15, 2008

Shortage of primary care physicians means greater need for telemedicine
Telemedicine is poised to become an even more valuable option for physicians as the demand for their services continues to climb in the next 10 years, according to a report by Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC). "Access Transformed: Building a Primary Care Workforce for the 21st Century" notes that community healthcare centers currently have a shortage of more than 3,200 primary care providers and nurses. An additional 60,000 primary care professionals and nearly 45,000 more nurses will be needed to care for an incoming patient load by 2015. "Provider locations and career choices don't match up to the need," said Dan Hawkins, NACHC senior vice president and the study's co-author. "If we want to fix our health care system, we need to be having the right conversation." http://www.nachc.com/pressrelease-... and http://www.nachc.com/client/documents...

Canadian electronic health record projects rise 300 percent since 2004
Canada's electronic health record (EHR) projects have quadrupled since 2004, according to Richard Alvarez, president of Toronto-based Canada Health Infoway, the country's non-profit, government-backed EHR program investor. The country had $311.5 million in new projects from 2007 to 2008, a 12 percent increase, and has invested almost $1.46 billion since 2004. The total number of projects underway has risen from 53 to 254 during that time. "Canadians want their medical information available electronically to the clinicians who care for them," said Alvarez. "And that's starting to happen in communities across Canada." Collaboration among governments is at an all-time high, Alvarez added. With continued federal funding, "the government is well on its way to implementing a national EHR system by 2016," he said. http://www.newswire.ca/en/...

New Massachusetts law grants $25 million for physician EHR-keeping systems
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has signed legislation providing $25 million for promotion of electronic medical record-keeping in doctors' offices. The new law establishes an institute to award grants to doctors and hospitals that want to increase their use of computer technology. The legislation, designed to increase healthcare safety and curb rising healthcare costs, also requires pharmaceutical and medical device-making firms to publicly disclose gifts worth more than $50, requires the University of Massachusetts Medical School to graduate more primary care doctors, and gives regulators the power to hold hearings when health insurers want to raise premiums. "We have to make sure that people have access to high quality care, that we are being efficient in the way we pay for that care, and that we are paying for the right things," Human Services Secretary JudyAnn Bigby said. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/...

Stanford-Kaiser Cardiovascular receives $3.9 million EMR-driven research grant
A new heart research center run by Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Stanford University Medical Center (SUMC) has been awarded $3.89 million over the next four years by the American Heart Association. The grant was given to help the Stanford-Kaiser Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Center investigate treatments for heart disease through use of Kaiser's 3.3 million member Northern California electronic medical records database. This will be the first time the center has made such an effort, according to Mark Hlatky, MD, professor of health research and policy and of cardiovascular medicine, and principal investigator for SUMC. "Our goal is to identify a representative population of patients who have coronary disease or heart failure and document which treatments they are getting, and how well those treatments are working," Hlatky said. Heart disease is the leading cause of death among Americans. http://med.stanford.edu/mcr/2008/heart-grant-0806.html

Tired of RHIO delays, local hospitals create their own health information networks
Tiring of waiting for regional health information organizations (RHIOs) to develop medical data networks, a growing number of hospitals and integrated delivery systems are building their own hospital-centric networks to share data with area physicians. Most activity involves hospitals linking with referring physicians instead of RHIOs, according to Health Industry Insights Program Director Mark Holland. Many hospitals are serving as application service providers to area physicians, giving them remote access to outpatient electronic records systems via the Internet to help jump-start clinics' automation efforts. These hospitals' ASP efforts are designed to pave the way for eventual clinical data exchange, according to Holland. http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/...

Kanter and eHealth foundations to study effectiveness of medical treatments
The Washington, D.C.-based Joseph H. Kanter Family Foundation and the eHealth Initiative Foundation are launching an 18-month effort to create an electronic research network to help doctors and patients determine which treatments work best for specific diseases. The Partnership for Connecting Research on Outcomes and Effectiveness project will use electronic information from multiple data sources to offer "unbiased, evidence-based guidance" than can improve quality and safety, and drive down healthcare costs, according to Kanter Family Chairperson Joseph Kanter. Research will include a summary and analysis of current treatment methods, an assessment of the different data types available for research, a prototype electronic health information network, and recommendations to support effective outcomes, according to Kanter. http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/news/2008-08-11.mspx

Australia proposes Information Age-based update to federal Privacy Act
Australia's Law Reform Commission is proposing a major update to privacy laws that would impose new restrictions on business and government - including the use of electronic health and medical records - to protect the privacy of individuals and bring the 20-year-old Privacy Act into the Information Age. The nearly 300 changes, outlined in a 2,700-page report, have the support of clinicians and state healthcare providers. The revisions could help maintain patient confidence in confidentiality of their records - thus keeping it likely that they will continue to disclose important medical information to healthcare providers, according to Peter Garcia-Webb, chairperson of the Australian Medical Association's e-health committee. The proposed changes could also resolve legal ambiguities about how confidential information is distributed across multiple jurisdictions. The Australian Council of Governments could begin reviewing the plan in October. http://www.misaustralia.com/... and http://www.alrc.gov.au/media/2008/mr1108.html

Automation to increase among drug discovery and research labs over next few years
In an effort to contend with reductions in reimbursement rates and a shrinking labor pool, clinical laboratories will increasingly turn to automated lab systems, according to a report by New York City-based life sciences research firm Kalorama Information. The report "Lab Automation Markets Worldwide" projects a 6 percent to 9 percent market growth rate over the next few years, with those companies that are able to connect to competing platforms doing the best. New technologies based on manufacturing automation have been transforming hospital clinical and corporate drug development laboratories since the early 1980s, but manufacturers are reaching the limits of improvements on current technologies, according to Kalorama Publisher Bruce Carlson. Smaller flexible systems will offer a choice of powerful targeted solutions with the greatest advantages but without the huge financial investment, Carlson said. http://www.marketwire.com/press-release...

E-health program can lower company premiums, raise employee care
Providing employees with personal electronic healthcare records (EHRs) increases worker productivity, reduces the number of doctor visits and cuts healthcare costs, according to a study by San Jose, CA-based networking equipment supplier Cisco Systems Inc. Results of the company's three-year pilot study with Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) showed that it saved $4 for every $1 that it invested in employees' healthcare once workers became involved with their EHRs, according to PAMF Chief Medical Officer Paul Tang. Employees spent 87 percent less time away from work; 72 percent said they went to the doctor less often; and 61 percent preferred online contact with their physician. "We are saving far more than the $36,000 we are putting in," said Sharon Gibson, Cisco's director of health care practice for the Internet Business Solutions Group. "It pays for itself." http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/...

Private e-mails, Internet use and other e-data might not stay private in UK
Health authorities and other public bodies in the United Kingdom could be given access to details of everyone's personal text messages, e-mails and Internet use under a new series of home office proposals. The proposals, outlined in a British government consultation paper, includes making mandatory 12-month logs of all telephone calls and Internet usage. These will only be accessed for investigations into crime or other threats to public safety, according to the paper. The data will be made available to public investigators across Europe. Details of personal Internet and text traffic, but not the content, will have to be made available by telecommunications companies to public sector officials investigating crime, or to "protect the public." It will also cover voice over Internet protocol calls, such as those made on Skype. http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/4057/... and http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/...

British university Web site tracks college students' drinking habits
Researchers at the University of Leeds in Leeds, England have developed a Web site that helps students keep track of their drinking. The Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (LIHS)' "Unitcheck" site at www.unitcheck.co.uk encourages young people to check how much they are drinking, how this affects their health and how their drinking compare to that of their peers, according to LIHS researcher Bridgette Bewick. Thus far, people who have used the site drank approximately one unit less on each occasion they drank, and the lower alcohol consumption has persisted for more than three months. "Many of the young people surveyed did not realize how many units they were consuming on an average occasion," Bewick said. "The heaviest drinkers were surprised to find that the majority of their peers stay within sensible weekly limits." Unitcheck is now being rolled out to four other universities. Leeds Primary Care Trust and the Institute of Health Sciences are also looking at how it can be modified and promoted to other groups. http://www.ehealtheurope.net/news/... and http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lihs/psychiatry/...

TeleHealth acquires hospital interactive patient system line from Pathware
Raleigh, N.C.-based healthcare communications services provider TeleHealth Services has acquired all assets of Peoria, IL-based Pathware Inc.'s Instant HealthLine® (IHL) product. IHL is an on-demand video system that delivers education, entertainment and other patient-oriented information to bedside televisions and computers in hospitals. TeleHealth will assume support and service duties for HealthLine's customers as of Aug. 11, according to TeleHealth President George Fleming. "We approached [Pathware] following the company's decision in June to exit the business," Fleming said. "By providing ongoing support to IHL's interactive patient education systems, the hospitals can keep moving forward with their facilities' quality initiatives and increasing patient satisfaction." With the addition of Pathware's customers, TeleHealth will support more than 400 patient interactive education systems in U.S. hospitals. http://www.telehealth.com/inner.asp?id=434&category=10

In the Current Issue of the peer reviewed publication Telemedicine and e-Health

Optometric Referrals to Retina Specialists: Evaluation and Triage via Teleophthalmology
Chris Hanson, Matthew T.S. Tennant, Chris J. Rudnisky
Telemedicine and e-Health. June 2008, 14(5): 441-445.
A teleophthalmology program linked Canadian optometrists to retina specialists for 171 patients and 190 consultations. In this carefully described study, 21/25 patients who required treatment condensed their visit to the specialist to a single day by having diagnostics done by telemedicine. Office visits to the specialist were reduced by 48%. Full Article

Published 10 times a year in print and online, Telemedicine and e-health covers all aspects of clinical telemedicine practice, technical advances, enabling technologies, education, health policy and regulation and biomedical and health services research dealing with clinical effectiveness, efficacy and safety of telemedicine and its effects on quality, cost and accessibility of care, medical records and transmission of same.

Telemedicine and e-Health is the Official journal of the American Telemedicine Association.
To learn more, click here.

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