Cisco, UnitedHealth to build national network for virtual doctor visits
Cisco Systems Inc. and health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. plan to build a national network that allows virtual doctor visits between healthcare providers and patients from distant locations such as retail stores and offices. The Connected Care program will one day enable real-time connectivity among doctors, nurses, and health system professionals for activities ranging from check-ups to clinician-to-clinician consultation on specific cases, according to Dr. Jim Woodburn, UnitedHealth Group’s vice president and medical director of telehealth. The system is first being targeted at the under-served in rural and urban areas, but could eventually offer any patient access to remote screening and acute illness evaluations, Woodburn said. “The gold standard for a patient experience in the past has been a face-to-face encounter with a doctor,” said Frances Dare, director of healthcare consulting for Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group. “That may well change with some of these technologies. If the new gold standard is that media-rich interaction using telepresence and other technologies, it completely redefines how I get care, when I get care, and who provides my care.” http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2009/prod_071509b.html

Telemedicine techniques prepare physicians for medical emergencies in space
Researchers on an Arctic island are testing telemedicine techniques designed to help earthbound doctors deal with medical emergencies in outer space. Their primary tool: a robotic patient that makes the perfect model of someone who is extremely sick. The McMasters University graduate students are spending 10 days at the Haughton-Mars Project Research Base on Nunavut’s frozen Devon Island, running a series of simulated medical emergencies and testing telecommunications systems that will link them up with doctors thousands of miles away. According to program director Dave Musson, the students will receive guidance from physicians in various locations around the globe. A typical scenario: a severely traumatized “Sim Man” involving multiple limb amputation after a simulated polar bear attack. “Miraculously, we were able to save him,” Musson said. The immediate goal of the project, funded by the Canadian Space Agency, is to prove the concept can work in isolated locales. The longer-term goal is providing medical help for space mission crews, according to Musson.   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...

Senate, House approve record $3.3 billion budget for VA health IT projects
The House and Senate Appropriations committees have approved a record $3.3 billion information technology budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal 2010, a 30 percent increase from the agency’s 2009 IT budget. Under the spending authorization bill, $800 million will go toward new program development, including electronic health record projects. Another $360 million will be used on the HealtheVet system, which is designed to replace the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture system by 2018. In a report accompanying the bill, the committee said effective healthcare delivery in the 21st century “requires robust and modern IT systems, and remains strongly dedicated to providing the VA with the resources it needs to accomplish this modernization.” However, $1.1 billion of the funds will not be allocated until Senate Appropriations Committee Chief Information Officer Roger Baker completes a review of the VA’s existing IT systems. Baker began reviewing more than 280 VA projects in June and has identified 48 thus far that are more than 50 percent over budget or at least a year behind schedule.  http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090710_8195.php

Scotland goes live with national electronic prescription service; becomes UK’s first
Scotland has become the first country in the United Kingdom with a complete electronic prescription service, with more than 90 percent of prescriptions now submitted electronically, according to Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon. The electronic Acute Medication Service (eAMS) was the first national system of its kind to go live in the UK and is now enabled in 99 percent of Scottish general practitioner offices and pharmacies, Sturgeon said. The eAMS reduces the risk of errors between GPs and pharmacists, delivers improvements such as use of universal codes for nearly all medicines, and improved efficiency, Sturgeon added. Patients will continue to receive traditional paper prescriptions in addition to the electronic version until the eAMS is fully established, Sturgeon said. http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/5022/scotland_delivers_e-prescription_service

Boston Scientific’s remote cardiac monitor approved for marketing in Europe
Medical device manufacturer Boston Scientific Corp. has received European approval for continent-wide marketing of LATITUDE^®, a remote monitoring program for heart-failure devices and defibrillators, the company announced. The CE-mark approval gives Boston Scientific entry into a $1.5 billion [USD] European cardiac rhythm management (CRM) market that thus far has had limited exposure to products such as LATITUDE^® , according to Boston Scientific CRM President Fred Colen. Boston Scientific, along with other major CRM players such as Medtronic Inc. and St. Jude Medical Inc., has been expanding in the U.S. for some time. “This is where therapy is going,” Colen said. “Remote monitoring for any patients, for any condition, is on the rise.” LATITUDE^®, which enables physicians to see changes in their patients’ cardiac health sooner than regularly scheduled office visits, will be released in a phased manner starting this month. http://bostonscientific.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=847

White House council report projects strong gain in health IT jobs through 2016
Demand for healthcare jobs – including information technology workers – is expected to grow by 48 percent from 2010 to 2016, according to a report by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). The projections, which do not account for President Obama’s plans to revamp the healthcare system, also expect huge needs for doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, and physical therapists. The healthcare sector is expected to grow at a faster rate than the economy overall, “creating opportunities in a variety of white collar and blue collar occupations,” the report notes. Nonetheless, “more (job) losses are expected before the economy reaches bottom and employment growth returns.” CEA’s predictions were partly based on 2007 Labor Department data generated before the economic crisis hit. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/Jobs-of-the-Future/

Ontario hospitals complete switch to electronically stored X-rays and MRIs
All 148 hospitals in Ontario are now able to produce and share filmless diagnostic images including x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs within their facilities using picture archiving and communications technology, according to the province’s Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. The province-wide switch to digital scanning marks a first for Ontario and means 12 million images, produced annually in hospitals, will be stored electronically instead of needing to be printed out and kept in a patient’s file, according to health minister David Caplan. What once took 48 to 60 hours can now be accessed by a radiologist in any location in an hour or less. eHealth Ontario, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the various hospitals are jointly funding the $250 million [USD] diagnostic imaging initiative. The initiative builds towards the province’s goal of having an electronic health record for all Ontarians by 2015, Caplan added. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2009/15/c6408.html

LSU, GE Healthcare enter $12.5 million agreement for new university EHR system
The Louisiana State University Health System has signed a $12.5 million contract with GE Healthcare for deployment of a new electronic health record (EHR) system, the first step in the school’s five-year, $116 million effort toward implementing a fully electronic system for medical and billing records. GE will create a filmless and paperless central database and radiology image repository for securely sharing patient imaging data among LSU’s 10 public hospitals and more than 500 clinics statewide, according to Dr. Fred Cerise, LSU vice president for health affairs and medical education. Implementation of GE’s Centricity RIS/PACS system is expected to take about a year and should get underway this August, he said. LSU is also procuring software for the next phase of development, which is scheduled for completion by March 2010 and includes selection of a single vendor for the EHR. The entire project is expected to be fully operational by December 2015. http://www.lsusystem.edu/news/?action=view&id=78

Britain’s Essex County Council makes telecare free to persons over age 85
In an effort to “deliver the best quality of life in Britain,” the Essex County Council is offering free telehealth services to more than 8,000 seniors older than 85, allowing them to continue to receive medical care within their homes. According to Lord Hanningfield, leader of Essex County Council, the group will invest $6.6 million [USD] in telecare systems and support supplied by Tunstall Healthcare. The systems include a base unit and wireless pendant that alert trained operators at 24-hour monitoring centers of any problems. Additional safety devices such as carbon monoxide, fall, and smoke detectors will be assigned as needed. “Our customers have spoken of the huge impact that telecare has had on their quality of life,” Hanningfield said. “[And], it is also cost efficient – enabling customers to stay in their own homes saves public money that can be reinvested in other important front line services.” http://www.publictechnology.net/modules...

Social networking tools gain appeal in nation’s nursing and medical schools
Social networking tools such as blogs, wikis, videocasts, and podcasts are becoming the communication platforms of choice for nursing and medical school students, according to a survey by researchers at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. The study, published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association, reveals that 53 percent of nursing schools and 45 percent of medical schools use Web 2.0 tools in their curricula. In addition, 55 percent of medical school students and 37 percent of those at nursing schools use the networking tools for personal matters. And, 58 percent of nursing schools and half of all medical schools plan to implement Web 2.0 tools in their curricula during the upcoming year, according to the survey. The study’s authors add that if the popularity of social networking tools transfers into the fields of medical and nursing education, medical librarians will have a chance to train faculty, students and practitioners in the use of these tools. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2605032

Rwanda to bring health IT to rural areas with new telecenter buses
Mobile information and communication technology is making its debut in Rwanda, with the government announcing introduction of ICT buses throughout the tiny East African nation. According to Wilson Muyenzi, coordinator of the eRwanda Project, an ICT bus will act as a mobile telecenter that will “help bridge the digital divide affecting the rural population of Rwanda.” Each bus has a file server, personal computers, and other services that “will seek to take information closer to the ordinary citizen,” Muyenzi said. The buses, which will travel to different rural areas of the country, will connect with stationary telecenters in each of Rwanda’s 30 districts. Twelve of these districts are fully functional; 18 larger ones are expected to become operational by the end of this month. The ICT bus project follows up a pilot telemedicine project that enables doctors from two rural hospitals to link with specialists at the national hospital in the capital city of Kigali. http://www.independent.co.ug/index.php/news/regional-news/...

FamiliLink launches site with easy to use Web-based services for seniors
FamiliLink, a new company supplying low-cost Internet services to the elderly, has officially launched and is offering free programs to its first 2,000 customers. Unlike other Web sites and software that focus primarily on caregiving resources and support, FamiliLink’s purpose is to “improve communication between the family and their aging loved ones, while making it possible to engage the care recipient in the process,” FamiliLink Chief Executive Officer Laura Nuhaan said. The site at www.famililink.com also does not require users to become part of a social network or join another family group site, or change their regular online behavior in order to stay connected and remain a part of the digital lives of friends and family, Nuhaan added. And, the site’s user-friendly interface helps keep seniors in the digital loop, she said. http://www.prweb.com/releases/FamiliLink_Care/...   http://www.famililink.com/about_us.html