Senate bill proposes $2 billion annual tax on medical device makers
A bill proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) would impose a collective $2 billion per year tax on medical device makers, including those in the telemedicine industry. There is good news, bad news here: the Senate bill total is roughly half the amount of an earlier Senate proposal. But the tax on any medical devices that retail for $100 or more begins in 2010, compared to a 2013 start in the House bill. Medical industry leaders such as Medtronic Chief Executive Officer Bill Hawkins praised the progress made in reducing the tax, but notes that it will still “impact our investment decisions on new therapy development, jobs and global competitiveness.” http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091119-715861.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

VA appropriations bill includes record $3.3 billion for IT
A fiscal year 2010 Veterans Affairs appropriations bill approved unanimously by the Senate last week includes $3.3 billion for information technology, the largest allocation in the VA’s history. The approval, the latest in a series of major budget increases designed to provide medical care for veterans, reflects a 9 percent gain over the $2.5 billion in funding allocated for fiscal 2009. The 100-0 vote is also a rarity, with even the most ardent foes of congressional spending giving their approval. The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill allocates $1.6 billion for existing projects, $800.5 million for new programs, and $938.9 million for staff salaries and expenses. The House version of the bill passed in July; the two versions now go to a House-Senate conference for consolidation.    http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov...    http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news....

Dell mobile system gives doctors in-hospital roaming capability
Computer giant Dell has introduced a mobile, virtual computing system that gives clinicians sign-on and session roaming capabilities for any device they are authorized to use in a facility. According to James Coffin, vice president of Dell Healthcare and Life Services, the Dell Mobile Clinical Computing system saves clinicians the time they would spend every day making rounds to patient rooms and searching for workstations that are equipped with applications they need to use. Instead of hunting down and logging on and off various computing devices, clinicians can roam and maintain applications sessions on any device within a facility, by swiping an ID badge to log back in. Clinicians at Dell’s first customer, Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet, IL, estimate they are each saving one hour per day with the system.   http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/press-releases/2009-11-18-mcc-healthcare.aspx

Medtronic, Vital Images release 3D vein imaging system
Device maker Medtronic Inc. and software firm Vital Images have unveiled a service that provides three-dimensional images of veins, helping surgeons treat aortic aneurysms. The service, 3D Recon, converts two-dimensional computed tomography images to three-dimensional ones while removing bone and anatomy from the images, according to Medtronic Endovascular Innovations division general manager Tony Semedo. The service will help surgeons better visualize the inside of a patient’s veins before an operation, and gain a better view of an implanted stent graft after an operation. The product has been cleared for marketing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Aortic aneurysms affect more than 1 million people in the United States and can be fatal if left untreated. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=108290&p=irol-newsArticle_print&ID=1357442&highlight=

iPhone software to help screen infants for eye diseases
An eye hospital in Bangalore, India is piloting software that allows doctors to take retinal images and send them for diagnosis via their iPhones. The software will initially be used to help screen rural and semi-urban infants for the potentially blinding condition known as retinopathy of prematurity (RoP). Of 27 million live births in India each year, 8 percent are premature and up to 20 percent of infants could go blind due to RoP if not screened and treated within 48 hours, according to Dr. Anand Vinekar, project coordinator and pediatric retinal surgeon at the Narayana Nethralaya Postgraduate Institute of Ophthalmology. Vinekar said the software will link doctors from other hospitals at different places, who can also download the application to their iPhones, and collaborate in the diagnosis. http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/News.aspx?NewsId=15038

Daily text message reminders increase sunscreen use
Text messaging can help remind people to use sunscreen and reduce the risk of skin cancer, according to a study by researchers in Sacramento, California and Boston, Massachusetts. For six weeks, lead researcher April Armstrong, M.D. and colleagues assessed the effectiveness of receiving daily text message reminders to wear sunscreen. Those receiving the messages had a 56 percent daily adherence rate, compared to 30 percent for those who were not reminded. Sixty-nine percent of participants said they would continue to use the reminders after the study, and 89 percent would recommend the system to others. The study appears in the November issue of Archives of Dermatology. http://archderm.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/145/11/1230?home

Queen’s University students invent mobile e-health tool
Two students from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, have won first place in the Agfa HealthCare eHealth Innovation Competition for a mobile e-health tool designed to help expectant mothers keep aware of changes to their condition during their pregnancy. The proposed tool by third-year commerce students Kayleigh Roberts and Ben Richards serves as a central repository of data compiled from electronic health records (EHRs) and from the patient to create a customized dashboard of medical information. When the patient makes daily inputs of data into the system about her physical condition, the measurements are compared against her normal levels as determined by her e-health data. When the system detects an abnormal level, a notification is sent to the healthcare technology provider, whose medical staff then notifies the patient’s doctor. Roberts and Richards hope the creation will help patients embrace the concept of EHRs. http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/11/18/4489814.htm

Telemedicine becomes psychiatric lifeline for children
Hospitals in the Canadian province of Ontario are using videoconferencing and virtual medicine to help treat children with mental illnesses. According to Dr. Ed Brown, chief executive officer of the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN), nearly 20 percent of people under age 18 in the province are affected by a mental illness or disorder, but only 1 in 6 of these will actually receive the mental health services they require. In response, OTN is offering the Virtual Emergency Room, a program that allows young patients with an urgent mental health problem that require specialist intervention to be assessed within 72 hours. Participating psychiatrists are able to link to these youngsters using OTN’s network. The system also helps counter a geographic problem, in which patients are spread throughout the province but can obtain care from a very limited number of clinicians, Brown said. http://behavioralhealthcentral.com/index.php/20091119136531/Clinical-News/telemedicine-provides-psychiatric-lifeline-for-kids-in-crisis.html

House approves bill offering EHR loans to healthcare provider
The House of Representatives has passed a bill designed to help healthcare providers obtain loans to purchase electronic health record (EHR) systems and other health information technology tools. The Small Business Health IT Financing Act (H.R. 3014) by Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA) authorizes the Small Business Administration to oversee a loan program for healthcare providers seeking to purchase health IT systems. Two weeks ago, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) introduced a similar bill (S. 2765) in the Senate. Kerry’s bill allows physicians to use SBA loans to purchase hardware, software and other equipment for EHRs and electronic prescribing systems. Dahlkemper’s bill now moves to the Senate for consideration. http://gordon.house.gov/apps/list/press/tn06_gordon/111809_SmallBizBills.shtml

Alzheimer’s Association introduces patient monitoring
In an effort to help caregivers keep track of Alzheimer’s patients, the Alzheimer’s Association has begun testing technology originally developed for monitoring prisoners. According to Beth Kallmyer, the association’s director of client and information services, nearly 60 percent of Alzheimer’s patients will begin “wandering” as their disease progresses, leading to more intense supervision to keep them safe. The Comfort Zone program uses an Internet-based mapping service that tracks an Alzheimer’s patient’s whereabouts and alerts caregivers if the patient exceeds pre-set boundaries. Families can also check where their loved one is at any given time, and track the person’s movements every two minutes until they are recovered. Available versions of the transmitter are pocket-sized and in-car versions, while wristwatch and in-shoe versions are under consideration. The transmitters cost about $200 and the monthly monitoring plans range from $43 to $80, far less expensive than the cost of a daily care program, Kallmyer said. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/11/16/national/w121625S70.DTL

Internet is No. 1 resource for online Europeans
In 2009, 85 percent of online Europeans in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain have used the Internet and other technologies for health and prescription drug information, according to a report by healthcare data firm Manhattan Research. According to Manhattan Research President Mark Bard, the “Cybercitizen Health Europe v9.0” study also reveals that Wikipedia is again the No. 1 online health resource for consumers in all countries surveyed. Bard adds that the 2009 findings show that it’s more critical than ever for healthcare and pharmaceutical companies across Europe to gain a strong understanding of how their target audiences use the Internet, as an increasing number of consumers are going online for health data. http://www.manhattanresearch.com/newsroom/Press_Releases/online-europeans-use-internet-for-health.aspx

EHRs do not cut hospital operating costs, Harvard study claims
There is no conclusive evidence that electronic health record (EHR) systems reduce operating costs in U.S. hospitals, according to a report by researchers at Harvard University. The study, which examined 4,000 EHR-using hospitals over a four-year period, actually found the opposite: hospital administrative costs increased slightly, from 24.4 percent in 2003, to 24.9 percent in 2007. The increases were most likely due to EHR installation, maintenance, and staff costs, the report notes. Researchers also found that hospitals with the fastest EHR adoption rates saw the biggest jump in administrative costs. The findings appear in the Nov. 20 issue of The American Journal of Medicine. http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/november/projections-of-savings-from-health-it-are-baseless-harvard-researchers-say