January 13, 2009

Obama sets five-year deadline for implementation of EHRs for all Americans
Echoing the words of the President he is about to replace, President-elect Barack Obama said in a speech at George Mason University last week that all Americans must have electronic health records (EHRs) by 2014 in order to save dollars and lives. Obama said computerizing records will “cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests.” During his first State of the Union address in 2004, now outgoing President George Bush called for use of EHRs by 2014. Only 17 percent of physicians currently use EHRs, according to a study by Harvard Medical School – but corporations and medical groups such as Microsoft, the American Heart Association, the Cleveland Clinic and Kaiser have begun laying an infrastructure for others to build upon. Obama did not indicate how much support the government will give to help providers automate medical records, but he previously pledged to commit $50 billion over five years to support adoption of a national health information network. http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/dramatic_action/

VA awards $22 million to expand healthcare services to veterans in rural locations
The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded $21.7 million in funding to nearly two dozen regional healthcare systems that specialize in providing care for veterans in rural areas. Awards for the 23 facilities in 21 states ranged from $250,000 to $1.5 million, with funding based on the population of rural veterans within a given area, according to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake. The new monies will be used to increase each healthcare system’s available number of mobile clinics, establish new outpatient clinics, expand fee-based care, explore collaborations with federal and community partners, accelerate the use of telemedicine deployment, and fund innovative pilot programs. http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1642

AHIC 2.0 advisory group gives way to new name: National eHealth Collaborative
The non-profit successor to the federal advisory group American Health Information Community (AHIC) has officially been launched under a new name: the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC). AHIC’s replacement – often referred to as “AHIC 2.0,” “AHIC Successor” or “A2” – is a nonprofit organization formed in mid-2008 to carry on the duties of President Bush’s health information technology interoperability unit, which in 2008 began transitioning from federal to private-sector status. NeHC’s membership includes federal and state agencies, health systems, payers, health professionals, medical centers, community hospitals, patient advocates, major employers, non-profit health organizations, and commercial technology providers committed to adoption of an interoperable health system. John Tooker, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of the American College of Physicians, will serve as NeHC’s Chairperson. Kevin Hutchison, Chief Executive of Prematics Inc. will be Vice Chair. http://www.nationalehealth.org/ShowContent.aspx?id=61

Health IT, e-prescribing predicted to weather economic downturn in 2009
Despite the economic downturn, healthcare information technology is expected to be one of the strongest health industries during 2009, and electronic prescribing will also show significant growth, according to Health Industry Insights’ annual list of top 10 predictions for the coming year. The recession will also resuscitate retail clinics and remote patient monitoring, HII predicts. And, healthcare IT in general will continue to go “green,” with companies looking for an environmentally friendly approach to everything they do. “In 2009, we expect U.S. providers to see a new urgency when it comes to aligning services with national goals for efficiency, access, and quality,” said Scott Lundstrom, Vice President of Research for HII. “These goals will create new policies and initiatives that drive demand for enabling information technology solutions.” http://www.healthindustry-insights.com/HII/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS21615009

Combining robotic therapy and virtual reality means faster rehab for stroke victims
Stroke victims rehabilitated by using a robot to navigate virtual reality environments walked faster and for a greater distance than those trained with the robot alone, according to a study by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The report is believed to be the first to demonstrate a rehabilitative difference between robotic therapy, and combined robotics and virtual reality, according to Judith E. Deutsch, Ph.D., the study’s co-author. “A robot alone only gives you a mechanism for doing the exercise,” Deutsch said. “There is lots of repetition, which is a really big part of getting better, but the argument is you have to do the exercise for a purpose.” In the study, patients used their feet to manipulate a gaming joystick to navigate a plane and a boat in their virtual environments through various targets. The next step is to find out who are the right patients for this type of rehabilitation, Deutsch said. http://www.umdnj.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/quinnaj/newsroom.cgi?month=01&day...

NY Health grants $2.7 million to research handling diabetes with text messaging
A $2.7 million grant has been awarded to Albany, NY-based Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Services to help the facility continue research on using text messaging to manage patients with diabetes. The three-year grant from the New York Health Department will allow physicians to text 275 diabetic patients with the results of their blood work and radiology exams, and appointment reminders, according to Whitney Young President James Sinkhoff. Patients can also send messages with their latest blood levels taken at home. “We are very excited,” Sinkhoff said. “If we are successful, this will have much broader implications across the nation.” http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=757738&category=REGION

Defense Department puts out call for Web application that creates virtual ghosts
Call it “Night of the Living Dad” – the Department of Defense wants to develop interactive, virtual versions of parents or spouses to comfort loved ones when the real McCoy is away on active duty. The DoD’s Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury is soliciting proposals for a “highly interactive PC or Web-based application” that can “produce compelling interactive dialogue between a service member and their families” using video footage or high-resolution 3-D rendering. Such a device should be able to carry out a simulated conversation about everyday topics. “For instance, a child may get a response by saying ‘I love you,’ ‘I miss you,’ or ‘Good night, mommy/daddy,’” according to the solicitation proposal posted on the department’s Small Business Innovation Research Web site at www.dodsbir.net. Critics call the concept “creepy” and “dystopian,” but note that a more-advanced version could have a place as a medical- or foreign language-instructor. http://www.dodsbir.net/sitis/display_topic.asp?Bookmark=34653

CDT paper attempts to debunk common health privacy myths
A great deal of misunderstanding persists about the current federal privacy law, due in part to the public’s “substantial lack of trust” in health information systems, according to report by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). According to CDT, “HIPAA and Health Privacy: Myths and Facts” attempts to correct long-standing myths about the right to privacy, patient consent and rights, enforcement of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) provisions, Internet-based health services, and the interaction between HIPAA and state laws, information disclosures, marketing and de-identified data. “We cannot have a meaningful dialogue about how to improve HIPAA and build a more comprehensive privacy framework until we have a shared and clear understanding of what protections exist in current law – and where the law falls short,” CDT said. http://www.cdt.org/headlines/1180

Health IT approaches insufficient, possibly detrimental to healthcare development
Current efforts aimed at the nationwide deployment of health care information technology will not be sufficient to achieve medical leaders’ vision of healthcare in the 21st century and may even set back the cause, according to a report from the National Research Council. The study, based on site visits to eight prominent U.S. medical centers in the field of healthcare IT, concludes that greater emphasis is needed on information technology that provides healthcare workers and patients with cognitive support, such as assistance in decision-making and problem-solving. The report describes difficulties with data sharing and integration, deployment of new IT capabilities, and large-scale data management. Clinicians “spend a great deal of time sifting through large amounts of raw data – such as lab and other test results – and integrating it with their medical knowledge to form a whole picture of the patient.” http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12572

VA Secretary gives thumbs-up to findings in TMJ home healthcare article
A report in the December 2008 issue of Telemedicine and e-Health on how home healthcare technology can improve veterans’ access to care has generated quite a bit of interest among the medical community and the federal government, including the Department of Veterans Affairs. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake said the report, “The Systematic Implementation of Health Informatics, Home Telehealth, and Disease Management to Support the Care of Veteran Patients with Chronic Conditions,” demonstrates how easy it is for people to use home telehealth. “A real plus is that this approach to care can be sustained because it’s so cost-effective and more veteran-centric,” Peake said. “Patients in rural areas are increasingly finding that telehealth improves their access to health care and promotes their ongoing relationship with our healthcare system.” The study, written by VA national telehealth staff members, found a 25 percent reduction in the average number of days hospitalized and a 19 percent reduction in hospitalizations for patients using home telehealth. http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1637

‘iPatients’ taking precedence over flesh-and-blood brethren among new doctors
Patient care may be taking a back seat to technology with the advent of computerized medical records and easy availability of diagnostic tests, which have primarily younger doctors diagnosing and treating the “iPatient” before they meet the flesh-and-blood version. Stanford University physician Abraham Verghese, M.D. warns that technology-enamored doctors should not forget that patients still require good bedside skills. “The iPatient’s blood counts and emanations are tracked and trended like a Dow Jones Index,” said Verghese, who is board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases, and infectious diseases. “The real patients keep the beds warm and ensure that the folders bearing their names stay alive on the computer.” The hands-on approach of the traditional doctor also inspires patient confidence in physicians. “There’s a reason people seek out alternative medicine in droves,” Verghese said. “Those people put hands on a patient.” http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2009/january/verghese.html

Healthcare products and services to stay in high demand by doctors, patients in ’09
Despite a general “gloom and doom” forecast for the overall economy in 2009, physicians and patients will continue to use the healthcare products and services they rely upon for medical care, according to a white paper by New York City-based Manhattan Research. As a result, e-health marketing companies will still need to find ways to effectively reach their target audiences. According to “Pharma Brand Manager New Year’s Resolutions,” search engines will remain the primary gateway for those seeking health information online, staying ahead of online video and social networking. Web sites should also be tailored with customer service in mind. And mobile marketing will be a hotbed of activity among physicians: more than half of all doctors own a PDA or Smartphone with drug reference databases, dosage calculators and other applications that support physician decisions “on the go and at the point of care.”http://www.manhattanresearch.com/newsroom/Press_Releases/pharma-brand-manager-resolutions.aspx