Tech companies hit road, launch e-tour to teach doctors about stimulus plan and EHRs
A coalition of healthcare information technology vendors has launched a national “EHR Stimulus Tour” designed to educate more than 500,000 physicians about the merits of health IT provisions in the economic stimulus package. The tour will include executive briefings, roundtable discussions, trade show presentations, Webcasts and other local meetings. Thus far, 22 dates have been scheduled through July 14, with a complete list available at www.ehrstimulustour.com/tour.html . Partners in the campaign include Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc., Cisco, Citrix Systems Inc., Dell, Intel’s Digital Health Group, Intuit, Microsoft and Nuance Healthcare. According to Dr. James Coffin, vice president and general manager of Dell Healthcare and Life Sciences, many physicians are familiar with the basic tenets of the federal incentive program but do not know in-depth details, including how much money they are eligible to receive, when it will be allocated, how they can qualify, or the cost of implementing an EHR system. Allscripts Chief Executive Officer Glen Tullman said the tour will help these doctors “understand their options for entering the electronic healthcare highway.” http://investor.allscripts.com/phoenix.... and http://www.ehrstimulustour.com/

Senate bill promotes use of telemedicine to address shortage of critical care doctors
A new bill by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) would authorize millions of dollars to support the optimized delivery of critical care, including greater use of telemedicine technology at rural facilities. The Patient-Focused Critical Care Enhancement Act (S. 1020) would allow the annual spending of $5 million from 2010 to 2015 to expand use of telemedicine, enabling clinicians in rural locations to remotely consult with critical care specialists. Critical care doctors provide treatment to critically ill or injured patients who require the undivided attention of an attending physician. The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that 4,300 critical care doctors are needed to meet demand nationwide, but only 2,300 are currently available.“Access to critical care can mean the difference between life and death for many patients suffering from severe conditions,” Whitehouse said. http://whitehouse.senate.gov/newsroom/...

GlobalMedia, NeuroCall™ partner to offer remote stroke and neurology services
Telemedicine video imaging manufacturer GlobalMedia and emergency neurological assistance provider NeuroCall™ Inc. are joining in an effort to offer remote neurology services worldwide and help deal with a global shortage of stroke specialists, the companies announced. Scottsdale, AZ-based GlobalMedia will supply its EasyShare video conferencing software and mobile cart system, allowing acute stroke and neurology patients to be treated remotely and more quickly, increasing their chances of survival, according to GlobalMedia Managing Director Joel E. Barthelemy. More than 700,000 stroke cases are reported annually, with only 2 percent to 3 percent treated by a specialist, according to the American Stroke Association. “Being an ex-[emergency room] doc myself, I know how the lack of a neurological specialist’s presence in the hospital can affect decision making,” said Dr. Ricardo Garcia-Rivera, NeuroCall’s founder and chief medical director. “This technology will provide that service remotely, effectively and efficiently.” http://www.emailwire.com/release/...

IT vendors offer loan programs to smaller practices to spur EHR adoption
With upfront costs cited as a major barrier to health information technology adoption by smaller hospitals and private practices, some technology vendors have begun offering their own financing and payment plans to help stimulate product sales. Vendors such as GE Healthcare Information Technology are offering, through their own financing departments, delayed payment plans that require no money for the first few months, then monthly payments of a few hundred dollars per physician per month, rising incrementally over two to three years. Like many traditional loans, interest rates would be set according to the practice’s credit history. Although physicians typically are hesitant to take on loans that they are not certain they can repay, vendors are banking on doctors paying back the loans with the federal stimulus dollars they will receive for implementing electronic medical record systems, according to GE Healthcare Information Technology President Vishal Wanchoo. Stimulus package incentives could mean about $44,000 per physician, paid out over four years, starting in 2011, which makes for a “good comfort level,” Wanchoo said. http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/...

University of NE Med Center plans to provide psychiatric care to Air Force via telehealth
The U.S. Air Force and University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) are partnering in an effort to offer virtual mental health resources to air troops involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Air Force Lt. Col. Timothy Lacy, M.D., UNMC has sought congressional funds to start the program and is optimistic that it will have the support of Congress. “There is a serious need for psychiatric care,” Lacy said. “We just don’t have the capacity to meet the need, and UNMC has a long history of telemedicine success.” Telepsychiatry services will initially be offered regionally to service personnel on Air Force bases in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Wyoming, and on bases in Korea and Japan. Troops in need of treatment have emotional problems dealing from post-traumatic stress disorder, to depression and substance abuse, according to Ben Boedeker, M.D., Ph.D., director of UNMC’s Center for Advanced Technology and Telemedicine in Omaha, NE. UNMC and the Air Force are also developing portable devices, as small as a Blackberry, that can enable psychiatrists in Nebraska to provide services to people in remote locations, Boedeker said. http://app1.unmc.edu/publicaffairs/...

IBM to establish global healthcare telemedicine center in France
Later this year, IBM will open a telehealth center in La Gaude, France to expand global research on telemedicine, electronic health records, telematics and mobile applications, the company announced. The Global Healthcare Centre of Excellence will host various solution showcases that illustrate healthcare scenarios in home, general practitioner clinic, hospital and emergency response center environments, according to IBM Global Healthcare & Life Sciences Vice President Sean Hogan. With the centre, the company will be able to use the expertise of more than 4,000 IBM healthcare IT experts worldwide. “Not only can we showcase healthcare best practice capabilities that we observe around the world, but we can also create a collaborative environment in which to work with clients to create new insights and innovations that improve the value that our health systems provide to citizens,” Hogan said. An exact date of opening has not been announced, according to IBM officials. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/...

World Health Imaging Alliance, vendors bring digital diagnostics to developing world
The World Health Imaging Alliance (WHIA) wants to bring digital imaging technology to up to 1 billion people worldwide by deploying more than 20,000 low-cost diagnostic X-ray machines in developing nations through partner relationships with key vendors. Although many of today’s providers can bring low-cost solutions to developing countries, most have been ineffective at creating sustainability, according to Mladen Poluta, director of the University of Cape Town’s healthcare technology management  program. As a result, less than half of the 1,500 World Health Organization-approved X-ray systems installed a few years ago are in use today. Many of these earlier solutions also lack capabilities such as clinical site needs assessment, teleradiology and remote monitoring. The WHIA has since partnered with vendors such as Sedecal, a global manufacturer of X-ray units, Carestream Health, which provides medical and dental imaging systems, and Merge Health, a medical imaging solutions company. “The availability of even just a few high-quality imaging systems can help improve the health of thousands of people in impoverished regions of the world,” Carestream Health Digital Medical Solutions President Diana Nole said. http://www.healthtechwire.com/The-Industry-s-New...

Healthcare IT industry could be investors’ key emphasis over next 10 years
The healthcare information technology market is “primed for investment” and is poised to help establish a new medical economy within the next 10 years – meaning the industry could receive hundreds of millions in new investment dollars by 2019, according to a report by The Psilos Group. The New York City-based healthcare venture capitalist firm’s first-ever forecast on the industry’s long-term investment potential notes that health IT is overdue to catch investors’ eyes, given President Obama’s emphasis on spending for IT projects. According to the report, as little as $195 million of the $28.3 billion invested by venture firms in 2008 went to healthcare services – less than one percent – but that will change due to the explosion in America’s aging population over the next two decades. Experts also estimate that roughly one-third of all medical care delivered in the United States is wasted or in error, suggesting there is “ample room for improvement,” the report notes.
http://www.psilos.com/annualoutlook/...

VA to allow pooling of veteran EMRs for improved research on stress and infection
The Department of Veterans Affairs is unlocking electronic medical records of thousands of veterans to help researchers search for better ways to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and drug-resistant staph infections. The Consortium for Healthcare Informatics Research, a $10 million, four-year project, will give physicians from the Salt Lake Veterans Medical Center a chance to pool information and make the data “talk” in a deeper way than it ever has, according to Dr. Matthew Samore, Professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah and chief of the Division of Clinical Epidemiology. “It used to be that if you wanted to know something like how many patients in your hospital were treated with penicillin, you couldn’t find out,” Samore said. “Those electronic records were designed to take care of one patient at a time.” Now, the consortium will take information warehousing to a new level, providing details such as outpatient pharmacy records; lab reports; family history; physician orders; vital sign measurements; and other previously inaccessible factors, according to Samore. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...

U.S. Department of Defense introduces dental electronic health records
The Department of Defense’s Health Information Management System (DHIMS) has begun rolling out the military’s first integrated dental and medical electronic health records (EHRs). Scheduled to continue through December 2010, the department’s AHLTA EHR dental system has thus far been deployed at 22 of 375 Air Force, Navy and Army dental clinics, according to Air Force Col. Page McNall, the DHIMS chief dental officer. Approximately 1.5 million active-duty personnel currently receive dental care in military facilities, McNall said. Medical providers and dental professionals may now “share information relevant to patient treatment,” McNall noted.   http://govhealthit.com/articles/2009/05/13/... and http://www.health.mil/ahlta/default.cfm