February 29, 2008

AT&T to develop nation's first statewide HIE
AT&T Inc. is partnering with the state of Tennessee to create the country's first statewide health information exchange. When complete, the Tennessee Information Infrastructure eHealth Exchange Zone should improve quality of care for the state's 6 million residents in 95 counties, according to the San Antonio-based communications holding company. Plans call for eHealth applications to be phased in as participation by healthcare providers grows. Those applications include ePrescribing, sharing of high-density images such as X-rays, MRIs and CT scans, accessing Tennessee Department of Health applications, including the immunization registry and disease registries, and accessing other healthcare applications, including laboratory systems. AT&T has spent more than $3 billion on wireless and wired networks in Tennessee since 1998.
For details, visit visit http://www.att.com/gen/press...

EHRs, security among top priorities of HC leadership
Investments in electronic medical record (EMR) technology will be the top IT priority among healthcare professionals during the next two years, according to a survey released at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's conference in Orlando, FL. Security is also a top concern, with roughly 25 percent of the 307 survey respondents indicating that they experienced a security breach within the past two years. Overall, more than 75 percent of survey takers noted that they were pleased with the IT products and services that are available. But the survey, sponsored by Cisco, also indicated that Medicare cutbacks and managed care fee reductions are creating uncertainty about the ability to fund such investments.
For details, visit http://www.himss.org/ASP/...

Bell Canada consolidates telehealth services
Bell Canada, the country's largest telephone and telecommunications company, has consolidated many of its key healthcare IT resources and launched the Bell Canada Centre for Healthcare Innovation (BCCHI). Based in Toronto but with satellite offices throughout Canada, BCCHI will specialize in data infrastructure, repositories, security and privacy, telehealth and mobile communications. Through numerous partners, it also addresses the delivery of actual healthcare applications - such as electronic health records, workflow and patient flow improvements. Those partners include Bell Alliant and Bell University Labs, according to John Anders, BCCHI's senior director of business and development. "We're one big, happy family now," Anders said. "It should make our goal of bringing a centralized vision and strategy to healthcare that much easier."
For details, visit http://www.canhealth.com/News776.html

CHFT awarded $350,000 grant from Blue Shield
The California Health Foundation and Trust will receive a $350,000 grant for expansion of its telemedicine program from the Blue Shield of California Foundation. The funding will be used to increase The California Telemedicine and eHealth Center (CTHC)'s number of telemedicine providers and offer additional technical assistance to those in the field. CTHC is a statewide resource center focused on developing the telemedicine and eHealth technological expertise of health care organizations and providers. The grant was part of a record $13.1 million given to nonprofit organizations and programs by BSCF during its first quarter of 2008, nearly half of which went toward the foundation's program to reduce hospital-acquired infections. BSCF is one of the largest healthcare grant making organizations in California.
For details, visit http://www.blueshieldcafoundation.org/news...

New York City EHR plan well underway, mayor says
New York City is well on its way toward meeting its goal of equipping more than 1,000 local health care providers - many of them practicing in the city's poorest and sickest neighborhoods - with secure electronic health record (EHR) systems by the end of the year, according to the city's mayor. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said more than 1 million patients will benefit from the technology, resulting in the nation's largest community-based EHR network. The system was created with $30 million from the city and $30 million from state and federal governments and will include patient medical histories, lab results and prescription drug plans. Thus far, 200 physicians with 200,000 patients have committed to the using the system.
For details, visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2008/mr064-08.shtml

Interstate physician licensure system needed
The State Alliance for e-Health, a division of the National Governors Association (NGA), says states must create a pro-telemedicine physician licensure system that allows interaction of physicians and patients across state boundaries. The Alliance, which plans to make the recommendation to U.S. governors within a few weeks, is calling for an NGA-run convention of the state and territorial medical boards to decide how to create the system. Such a licensure system should be based on agreements and information-sharing, enabling coordinated action, but should not be considered a national license. The model should be used to promote e-health, including telemedicine, but it may "serve as a model for other forms of medical practice," according to the Alliance.
For details, visit http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/nga/080222/

UK short message service plan makes medical world smaller
The UK National Health Service (NHS) has launched a program allowing cell phone users to track health services nearest to them through a simple short message service (SMS) or text message. NHS Direct began the text messaging search program at its Web site late last year, but has begun targeting mobile phone users through the agency's free-view digital TV service, according to Ronnette Lucraft, NHS commercial director. By simply sending a text message with the name of the service required - such as "pharmacy"- and their postal code to the NHS Direct number, service users will receive an instant reply with the details of the requested service, including address, telephone number and distance from the postcode area.
For details, visit http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=2167 and http://www.epractice.eu/document/4405

High costs drive online prescribing push
As medical costs continue to rise, officials in the public and private sectors are urging physicians to go electronic with their prescription writing, saying it will save the industry billions of dollars, reduce medication errors and even entice doctors to prescribe less-expensive drugs. Younger doctors already use the technology in medical school, according to Surescripts. But older physicians are reluctant to go paperless, citing that they would have to pay the upfront costs while immediate savings go to pharmacy benefit managers. Most pharmacies are equipped to receive electronic prescriptions, but only 6 percent of physicians actually own the software, Surescripts notes. Healthcare expenses will account for 20 percent of all public expenditures in the U.S. by 2018; $29 billion could be saved over 10 years by a widespread shift to e-prescribing.
For details, visit http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/...

Telemedicine may offset geographic healthcare issues
Telemedicine applications can reduce geographical and time-related effects of a given region upon a patient, according to a new study from Internet-based Leonardo Energy. With the increasing need for new hospitals, doctors and medical staff as Europe's population ages, urban planning for telemedicine will become a major issue, according to "Interreg IIIC Telemedicine Project Concluded," a study conducted from 2003 to 2007 in seven cities within The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. "As telemedicine affects the daily life of people (patients and careers), there is a direct influence on the daily routine, on transport requirements, on the planning of housing and accommodation and on the planning of healthcare services," study author Guy Kasler noted. "Politicians and policy-makers must provide the necessary resources to explore telemedicine applications properly."
For details, visit http://www.leonardo-energy.org/drupal/node/2680

BTE offers new physician performance assessments
To speed up, simplify and standardize a national physician performance assessment process, Bridges to Excellence (BTE), the nation's largest effort to reward doctors for delivery of high quality care, is creating a series of real-time pilots with independent performance assessment organizations using electronic medical record (EMR) data. The pilots will leverage work done at local levels by groups such as MassPRO in MA and the Community Measurement Collaborative in MN to give health plans credible data on which to base their local and national pay for performance (P4P) programs, according to Francois de Brantes, BTE chief executive officer. BTE will determine the importance of rapid performance feedback tied to incentives in getting physicians to continuously improve the quality of their care, Brantes said.
For details, visit http://www.bridgestoexcellence.org/...

India rural healthcare gets less rural
Medical students in India are bringing telemedicine to three of the nation's rural - and specialized - facilities. The MKCG Medical College and Hospital at Berhampur, KIIT School of Rural Management (KIITSCRM) at Bhubaneswar and National Institute of Mental Health (NIHM) at Secunderabad will soon be using telehealth services to provide healthcare to rural villages in the region. Simply titled "The e-Health and Telemedicine Program," the service will enable people in rural areas to access city-based experts and specialist doctors, and gain appropriate advice, without having to move away from the villages, according to Lalita Ranjan Manik, team leader. Manik and five other final-year students from MKCG, KIITSCRM and NIHM plan to launch a pilot program by August. They hope to extend the program to other areas shortly thereafter.
For details, visit http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems...

Agfa, ICW and Sun Micro create Open eHealth Foundation
Agfa HealthCare, eHealth specialist InterComponentWare (ICW) and Sun Microsystems Inc. have established the Open eHealth Foundation (OeHF), an organization that will provide software components under an open-source license to "boost the open standards-based exchange of medical information." According to an OeHF release, the foundation wants to "create a worldwide community-driven software development platform to speed up the digitization of the healthcare industry." OeHF is looking for additional members; three different levels of membership are available. Membership negotiations with leading healthcare IT providers are underway.
For details, visit http://www.openehealth.wikispaces.net/...