Global market for hospital information systems to top $35 billion by 2015
Increased promotion and acceptance of electronic medical records and healthcare information technology is expected to turn the global hospital information systems network into a $35 billion market by 2015, with Asia and the United States leading the way, according to a report by research firm Global Industry Analysts Inc. The San Jose, CA-based company’s report, “Hospital Information Systems: A Global Strategic Business Report,” notes that the United States will remain the world’s largest clinical information systems market over the next six years, with a 7.2 percent annual growth rate. The Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, will be the fastest growing, with am 11.5 percent growth rate, largely due to the emergence of health IT in developing nations such as India, China, Thailand and Malaysia. The report analyzes developments and strategic actions of major technology and medical industry players such as Cerner, Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, GE Healthcare and iSoft Group. http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/...

MA eHealth Collaborative unveils for-profit subsidiary to push health IT adoption
The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), a nonprofit group that helped implement use of electronic health records (EHRs) in the state over the past several years, has created a for-profit subsidiary to help commercial healthcare companies and providers adopt the technology. The new unit, MAeHC Professional Services Corp. (PSC), will provide fee-based consulting services related to EHR deployment, health information exchange, and data warehousing, according to MAeHC President and Chief Executive Officer Micky Tripathi. PSC has already begun working for several commercial companies, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Profits generated from the new unit will be used to fund the collaborative’s not-for-profit work of “improving quality, safety and efficiency of care through the adoption of EHRs and health information exchange,” Tripathi said. http://www.maehc.org/documents/...

European Commission to double health IT research funding to $210 million by 2011
The European Commission plans to double its health information technology research funding to $210 million [USD] over the next two years to boost efforts to modernize medical technology throughout Europe. According to Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Europe’s current economic challenges “make it clearer than ever that we need to continue on an e-health action plan.” The current European economic recovery plan commits $1.3 billion to make broadband universally available. Another $210 million “would provide a vital spur to e-health,” she said. http://ehealtheurope.net/news/4591/...

Foundations join forces to promote use of mobile technology in developing nations
Three leading nonprofit groups – the Rockefeller, Vodafone and United Nations Foundations – are forming the Mobile Health Alliance (mHealth) to help businesses learn to efficiently use mobile technology. According to Claire Thwaites, head of the United Nations and Vodafone Technology Partnership, mobile phone technology has too many health applications to pass up, from the ability to send text messages on HIV/AIDS prevention, to public health data collection campaigns. Such a system can also help deal with an ongoing cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, she adds. “We’re seeing penetration reach 2.2 billion customers in emerging markets,” Thwaites said. “[And when] we look at the level of personal computers penetration, that’s at 305 million PCs in the developing world.” mHealth hopes to host a large conference by the end of the year, at which it will invite the private and public sector to join the effort. http://www.voanews.com/english/...

California plans launch of state HIE at 23 emergency departments by summer
California officials are set to test-run a statewide health information exchange system by launching it at 23 emergency departments in Orange County by July. The health information exchange (HIE) initiative is a collaboration between the California Regional Health Information Organization (CalRHIO) and the Orange County Partnership Regional Health Information Organization. The exchange will give emergency department physicians access to medical record information on 360,000 southern California patients enrolled in CalOptima, which provides coverage for people in Medi-Cal, Medicare, and Healthy Kids. The new system also augments information currently available to Orange County emergency department physicians who care for the county’s indigent population. According to CalRHIO chairperson Molly Coye, M.D., the CalRHIO system will also provide additional data to emergency physicians including medical history, laboratory data, and clinical claims data for patients with commercial insurance, by early 2010. http://www.calrhio.org/crweb-files/press/...

European Union to form group for alignment of national e-health systems
European Union healthcare state secretaries have agreed to form a new organization designed to align national e-health systems and help facilitate cross-border care for European citizens, as well as establish data protection standards among the incorporated systems. The formal body will serve as an umbrella organization to provide a communications platform for e-health interoperability, and will include representatives from all EU member states, according to Marek Snajdr, the first Deputy Minister of Health for the Czech Republic. The body will also address “strong resistance at the national level” to the implementation of various e-health solutions. “We would like the body to create a political arena and environment to convince stakeholders that e-health is beneficial,” Snajdr said. “It might help implementations at national level if all stakeholders see that there is international coordination.” EU state secretaries plan to discuss the matter further at a June meeting of the ministerial council. http://www.healthtechwire.com/The-Industry...

Most hospitals bypass administering of powerful stroke drug to Medicare patients
The failure of most U.S. hospitals to provide a powerful stroke treatment drug to Medicare patients has made use of telemedicine even more important to ensure patients have rapid access to acute stroke care, according to research by the American Stroke Association (ASA). Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a thrombolytic, or clot-busting agent, is the only drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the acute treatment of ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke. But most U.S. hospitals did not give the drug to any Medicare patients between 2005 and 2007, and a large portion of the general population does not have ready access to a hospital that provides the treatment to Medicare patients, according to ASA. University of Cincinnati researchers reviewed 4,750 hospitals in the Medicare database, which included 495,186 ischemic stroke admissions. Between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2007, only 2.4 percent of the stroke patients received tPA treatment. “We found, unfortunately, that about 64 percent of U.S. hospitals did not give tPA to Medicare patients within the two-year study period,” said UC stroke neurologist Dawn Kleindorfer, M.D., the study’s lead author. http://www.sciencecodex.com/most_us_...

Scotland NHS begins offering patients medical advice by e-mail
Scotland’s National Health Service has begun providing patients with medical advice by e-mail to increase medical care coverage and reduce delays at the country’s emergency medical hotline. The hotline, NHS24, was launched in 2002 to take over the after-hours service previously provided by general practitioners. But the service soon ran into trouble as demand overwhelmed available staff and patients faced long delays in having calls answered, according to NHS24 Chief Executive John Turner. The e-mail service, accessed through the NHS24 Web site, allows patients with non-urgent health worries to send in their questions and receive written responses by nurses. Thus far, hundreds of inquiries have been submitted on everything from sexual health to NHS services, Turner said. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/...

Nations urged to ‘embrace telemedicine,’ remove barriers to implementation
Europe’s largest medical technology association and cardiac care group are urging nations throughout the continent to embrace telemedicine as the way to save time and money for doctors, and help save patients’ lives. Eucomed, which represents makers and vendors of equipment used to treat or prevent disease and disability, and the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) say various challenges hampering healthcare, such as lack of confidence in telemedicine services, and technical issues related to market development, can be overcome if nations “break down the existing barriers to telemedicine.” A Eucomed study notes that use of medical checks using remote implantable devices reduced physicians’ time by up to 70 percent and cut medical costs by up to 60 percent. “Remote device monitoring is as safe and as clinically effective as in-office device follow ups,” said Markus Siebert, chairperson of Eucomed’s Cardiac Rhythm Management Telemonitoring Group. “Unfortunately, barriers from lack of funding and reimbursement of the technology and the medical procedure are still standing in the way of full patient access, preventing this potential from being fully embraced.” http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/...

Economic stimulus act sets up uncertain future for National eHealth Collaborative
The National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC), the recently formed successor to the American Health Information Community (AHIC), may have been legislated out of existence, courtesy of the new economic stimulus act. NeHC, a private, nonprofit organization designed to carry out the information technology and advisory duties once performed by AHIC until the Department of Health and Human Services disbanded it in 2008, is in a bit of a quandary: the new stimulus law creates two HHS advisory committees with roles that overlap the NeHC’s, potentially making it obsolete. NeHC has the option of changing its membership, charter, duties and other characteristics and basically become one of the two government committees, but such a change would be difficult, as it has already begun admitting dues-paying members. NeHC Chairperson Dr. John Tooker said no decision has been made about what business model the organization will follow, nor has it received any direction from HHS. http://govhealthit.com/articles/2009/02/...

Telemedicine services to debut in the Caribbean on the Virgin Islands in April
The first telemedicine services in the Caribbean should be online by mid-April, according to officials at Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Patients using the service at Myrah Keating will be able to make an appointment with doctors at the Cleveland Clinic’s Weston, FL or Cleveland, OH facilities, according to Myrah Keating administrator Harold Wallace. Patients can receive consultations in ophthalmology, podiatry, nutrition, endocrinology and orthopedics. The St. John hospital and Cleveland Clinic have a three-year, $100,000 contract, funded primarily by a local St. John businessperson, according to Wallace.  http://www.onepaper.com/stjohnvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1223615328

Strategic Healthcare wins 2009 Growth Enabling Award from Frost & Sullivan
Santa Barbara, CA-based Strategic Healthcare Programs (SHP) has received the 2009 North American Frost & Sullivan Growth Enabling Technology Award for its efforts in providing a Web-based, real-time performance data service for patient monitoring, designed to improve profit margins and patient outcomes for home healthcare agencies and hospices. According to Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Zachary Bujnoch, remote monitoring in the home healthcare market remains stifled because of lack of validation. SHP’s service helps bring that validation and should be of great benefit to the industry. “In the end, all components seem to be focused around one common goal – optimizing the business and clinical performance for the home healthcare industry – and despite the daunting undertaking this goal represents, SHP seems to be well on its way toward this task,” Bujnoch said. Frost & Sullivan gives the award each year to the company that has demonstrated excellence in new product development within its industry. http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/press-release.pag?docid=159209515