Tampa Bay plans to become nation’s first fully wired EHR-based city by 2011
Tampa Bay has launched a campaign to become the first city in the U.S. to be completely paper-free when it comes to medical records. Over the next two years, city leaders plan to train all 8,000 physicians within a 10-county area to use electronic prescribing, hoping to have 60 percent of all eligible prescriptions by TampaBay doctors written on a computer instead of a prescription pad by 2011. The “Paperfree Tampa” initiative also aims to digitize the entire medical record-keeping process, from patient charts to lab results. The effort, if successful, will bring much-needed and well-paying healthcare and information technology jobs to the region, according to Congresswoman Kathy Castor (D-Tampa). Castor said the city of Tampa and the University of South Florida (USF) are logical places to start e-prescribing, given the school’s prevalent colleges of medicine, nursing and public health, and its shared campus with the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. USF is also across the street from the James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital, one of the busiest VA facilities in the nation. http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/now/?p=4192

Kaiser to maintain management of EHR system under $500 million deal with IBM
IBM and Kaiser Permanente have signed a seven-year, $500 million service contract that calls for IBM to oversee operations at all of the healthcare provider’s data centers but leave management of the electronic health record (EHR) system as Kaiser’s responsibility. The deal also eliminates 700 employees in Kaiser’s information technology department over the next six months, according to Kaiser Chief Information Officer Phil Fasano. Up to 40 percent of these employees could be rehired by IBM during the transition period, Fasano said. Another 160 IT positions are being eliminated as part of a cost-cutting measure by Kaiser, and will affect 30 locations in the company’s eight service areas nationwide, the CIO added. “IBM sees information-based medicine as helping to propel healthcare from its currently unconnected local and regional sectors, into a borderless industry that spans the globe,” said Chris Nicoletti, vice president of IBM’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry. “IBM is pleased to work closely with Kaiser Permanente in efforts to make healthcare more interconnected, more instrumented and more intelligent.” http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/pressreleases/... and http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter/opexcellence/...

Public consensus on Medicare’s virtual colonoscopy ban: Change your mind, please
Members of three major medical and information technology associations and members of Congress are asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reverse a decision to end Medicare coverage for virtual colonoscopies (CT colonographies). The Colon Cancer Alliance, Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance, and AmericanCollege of Radiology Board of Chancellors maintain that Medicare coverage for CT colonographies could increase screening rates for colon cancer by up to 70 percent. In February, CMS said it would no longer cover the cost of such procedures, on grounds that there is no evidence the screenings result in improved health of Medicare beneficiaries. The procedure “would not just encourage more patients to undergo screening, but it would potentially close the gap in colorectal cancer screening between whites and minority populations,” the associations note. CMS spokesperson Don McLeod said the agency takes such comments “very seriously,” and will respond to the groups accordingly. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/opinion/...

Sci-tech department to bring telemedicine workstations online in rural South Africa
Rural hospitals in South Africa will soon use telecommunication technologies to deliver medical information and services to remote patients, according to the nation’s Department of Science and Technology (DST). DST Deputy Minister Derek Hanekom said four primary healthcare telemedicine workstations will help provide medical care to indigenous groups throughout the nation. The telemedicine workstations were developed by the local University of Stellenbosch and the South African Medical Research Council. They will be funded by DST’s Innovation Fund, and cellular network operator MTN has committed to meeting the project’s bandwidth requirements. “We need to look at alternative ways to provide specialist care and other medical interventions closer to the homes of patients by bringing the doctor closer to the patient,” Hanekom said. http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/...

Washington state unveils three PHR pilots as precursor to statewide program
The Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) has launched pilot projects in Bellingham, Cashmere and Spokane to test the feasibility of health record banks for an eventual statewide program, according to WHCA project manager Juan Alaniz. The $1.7 million project calls for pilots to be hosted by St. Joseph Hospital Foundation and the Critical Junctures Institute in Bellingham, Community Choice Healthcare Network in Cashmere, and Inland Northwest Health Services in Spokane, according to Alaniz. Participants will use personal health records from Google Health and Microsoft Health Vault to access data, add information and share health records. Preliminary results are expected by the end of June. Depending on results, a statewide version could be launched by 2011, Alaniz added. http://www.hca.wa.gov/press_release/online-health-record-projects.html

Wyoming makes push to expand telemedicine services beyond state lines
Wyoming medical officials are attempting to expand use of telemedicine outside state borders to increase overall popularity and effectiveness of the technique with physicians. Most of Wyoming’s state hospitals already use telehealth to some degree, due in large part to a $500,000 videoconferencing program enacted in 2007, according to Rex Gantenbein, director of the Center for Rural Health Research and Education at the University of Wyoming in Casper. Twenty four of the state’s 26 acute care hospitals currently have telemedicine capability; the next step would be to treat patients remotely on a wider scale, including across state lines. To that effort, Wyoming Department of Health Medicaid Medical Director Dr. James Bush hopes that medical officials in all states will eventually agree to accept other states’ licenses to some degree. “We could have access to super specialists around the country who would otherwise need to get licenses in 50 different states,” Bush said. http://casperstartribune.net/articles/2009/03/18...

Information therapy through EHRs becomes key tool in patient well-being
Electronic health record systems are becoming a tool of choice in helping large managed care groups such as Group Health Cooperative and Kaiser Permanente encourage patients to take better care of themselves through a technique known as information therapy. Information therapy involves delivering reliable health information directly to patients to help them make their own treatment choices, according to Paul Wallace, Kaiser’s medical director of health and productivity management programs. The process can “bridge the transition from doctors doing things to and for people, to helping them become active participants in their own care,” said Wallace, who is also director of the nonprofit Center for Information Therapy, which promotes providing patients with information as part of the process of medical care. Doctors, long worried that patients surfing the Internet for medical information fail to find reliable data, are pushing for increased use of information therapy, a movement healthcare providers are steadily embracing. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123733342732563543.html

India grants special economic status to $300 million bio-hospital project
India’s first bio-hospital project, Frontier Mediville in Chennai, has been accorded the status of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by the national ministry of commerce and industry for its proposed nanotechnology and neuro-IT sciences, according to local project sponsor FrontierLifelineHospital. The bio-hospital, one of only 18 such facilities proposed around the world, would be a hub for research and training, and develop treatment methodologies on regenerative medicine and biosciences involving micro-level concepts such as nanotechnology and genetic application, and biotechnology, according to Frontier Lifeline Chairperson Dr. K.M. Cherian. The bio-hospital would also provide state-of-the-art tertiary care in all sub-specialties of medicine supported by modern basic sciences such as stem cell technology and tissue engineering. The SEZ status offers the hospital and its surrounding region more liberal economic laws than other parts of India in an effort to attract foreign investment in the project, which is estimated to cost $300 million [USD], according to Frontier Lifeline. http://www.financialexpress.com/news/f...

Now is not the time to invest in health IT, Harvard and Alberta professors say
President Barack Obama’s proposed $50 billion to promote health information technology over the next five years is “the wrong investment to make at this time” because there is little evidence that existing computerized systems will improve care, according to professors from Harvard Medical School and the University of Alberta’s Department of Medicine. Stephen B. Soumerai, Professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard, and Sumit R. Majumdar, Associate Professor at Alberta, argue that the benefits of health IT “have been greatly exaggerated.” Studies in the U.S. and Britainon use of electronic records with computerized decision support did not result in improvement in care for patients with chronic conditions such as asthma and heart disease, they note. And, health IT has not been proven to save money. The $50 billion in funding, the doctors argue, “are needed elsewhere,” such as toward programs that provide patients with affordable health insurance and drug coverage. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031602618.html

HIMSS Analytics honors Kaiser, NorthShore hospitals with best practice awards
Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics has chosen 15 hospitals as recipients of its Stage 7 Award for making a transition to electronic health records adoption. The hospitals – belonging to the Kaiser Permanente and NorthShore University HealthSystem networks – have reached the highest stage of HIMSS Analytics’ EMR Adoption Model, according to the Chicago-based company. Stage 7 hospitals deliver patient care without use of paper charts, share patient information by sending standardized summary record transactions to other care providers, use databases to improve care delivery, and are “best practice examples of how to implement sophisticated EMR environments that fully engage their clinicians,” HIMSS Analytics noted. http://www.himssanalytics.org/general/pr_03102009.asp

Proposals sought for creation of broad community of European e-health procurers
The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Policy Support Program is accepting proposals for e-health solutions designed to protect personal data, promote interoperability and use existing standards involving health records in Europe. Proposals may come from healthcare providers, private entities or hospital managers, particularly those from hospitals and healthcare centers at the regional and local levels. Deadline is June 2. For more information, visit http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/... and http://www.ehealthnews.eu/index.php?option=com...

American TeleCare, Veterans Health Administration renew purchasing agreements
Minneapolis-based telehealth monitoring system manufacturer American TeleCare Inc. (ATI) has renewed agreements with the Veterans Health Administration that allow the company to provide telemedicine programs to the federal agency through 2013, according to ATI Chairperson Randy Moore. As part of the new agreements, including preferred pricing for any U.S. federal agency on a Federal Service Schedule (FSS), ATI solutions and services are now available via GSA Advantage!® The General Service Administration’s one-stop, online shopping resource, GSA Advantage, allows any U.S. federal agency anywhere in the world to find, compare and purchase products and services, including information technology and medical equipment. http://www.ibtimes.com/prnews/20090311/...