HHS awards $267 million for new health IT extension centers
In a boost to health information technology, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded more than $267 million to 28 non-profit organizations for creation of Health IT Regional Extension Centers. According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the centers will help develop thousands of jobs in health IT, ranging from nurses and pharmacy techs, to IT technicians and trainers. This funding “represents our ongoing commitment to make sure that health providers have the necessary support within their communities to maximize the use of health IT to improve the care they provide to their patients,” Sebelius said. This round of awards follows up $375 million in funding for 32 other extension centers awarded in February. All 60 recipient groups are eligible for another $25 million in supplemental awards. Full Article

Pacemakers, other wireless devices could be targets of hackers
Wireless medical devices such as pacemakers or insulin pumps could one day be targeted by computer hackers, resulting in a major risk to human health, according to a report by researchers at the Cardiovascular Institute of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Although no such incidents have occurred, report co-author Dr. Tadayoshi Kohno said the U.S. Food and Drug administration needs to regulate and work with medical device manufacturers to stop potential security breaches in the devices, which are effectively small computers with wireless capabilities that can run software – the perfect targets for hackers. “The last thing we want, in 5 or 10 years, is to think, ‘Oops, we should have thought about security,’” Kohno said. The study appears in the April 2010 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Full Article    Further Information

Ascom Wireless to add VoIP to hospital patient monitoring system
Swiss communications services provider Ascom Wireless Solutions plans to introduce Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to their teleCARE IP program used by hospitals and other healthcare providers. According to Ascom Product Manager Jan Ringenier, the new VoIP system will deliver practical functions “direct to those who need them most.” The program’s Direct Call In, Acoustic Monitoring and Listen-In features will allow nurses to discreetly monitor and talk to their patients, while teleCARE’s new voice functionality will allow communication to be maintained without the nurse physically visiting a room, or a patient leaving his or her bed. teleCARE IP also allows for reuse of existing infrastructure, reducing the client’s investment burden and contributing to creation of a leaner, more cost-effective working environment at the healthcare facility, Ringenier said.Full Article

Hybrid 3-D breast cancer imager may be world’s most accurate
Researchers at the University of Virginia Cancer Center in Charlottesville have developed a hybrid 3-D breast imaging device that they say is the most accurate breast cancer detector in existence. According to UV Associate Professor of Radiology Mark B. Williams, PhD, the device combines 3-D anatomical (structural) imaging and 3-D biological (functional) imaging to create a scanner capable of pinpoint detection of the exact location of breast masses. More importantly, the scanner can more accurately distinguish between cancerous and harmless lesions. Currently, only 1 in 4 biopsied breast lesions are actually cancerous, meaning there is “lots of room for improvement,” Williams said. Results of a pilot study involving the device appear in the April 2010 issue of Radiology. Full Article

Field of EHR vendors gets more crowded with providers
As they prepare to comply with federal electronic health record (EHR) implementation guidelines, healthcare providers are starting to consider a wider variety of EHR system vendors than in the past, according to a survey by the Orem, UT-based research firm KLAS.  “Ambulatory EMR Buying: A Roller Coaster Ride in 2010” notes that the “Big Three” EHR makers – Allscripts, NextGen and eClinicalWorks – are still dominant, covering about one third of the market. But recently, a slew of smaller providers have become popular considerations for the smallest practices, those with five or fewer physicians. Seventy-two percent of those groups say they’re considering going with a lesser-known EHR maker, in part because of a perceived better fit of the product with their companies, and also out of recognition that both are small businesses trying to make a living. Full Article

Telehealth, home monitoring to lead move to personal health management
The next phase of health reform in the United States will reflect a concerted effort to keep people out of the hospital and more actively engaged in managing their own health through use of home health monitoring and telehealth, according to New York City-based research group PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). “HealthCast: The customization of diagnosis, care and cure” notes that healthcare’s ability to adopt innovations and trends in consumerism will be enabled by technology and the convergence of multiple devices such as smart phones, emergency medical record databases, home health monitoring, and telehealth, as well as wireless communication, social media and other Internet innovations. The report also notes that 97 percent of the 600 government and health leaders interviewed worldwide believe that patients should have some responsibility for managing their chronic conditions such as obesity, asthma, diabetes and heart disease. Lack of willpower was cited as the biggest barrier keeping individuals from managing their own health.  Full Article    Further Information

VA, DoD to expand Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program
The Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DoD) plan to expand their Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) pilot program, which is designed to share military and veteran health records with private hospitals. According to Dr. Steve Ondra, VA senior policy adviser for health affairs at the VA, the first pilot demonstration launched in 2009 between San Diego-area VA and DoD offices and Kaiser Permanente proved that secure health data exchange can work. Next up is a VLER pilot involving new patients and providers in Hampton Roads/Tidewater, VA area, with the pilot scheduled for operation by July 31, Ondra said. VLER operates through the Health and Human Services Department’s Nationwide Health Information Exchange, a system of protocols and standards that allows for secure data exchange over the Internet. Full Article

Greater health IT use does not mean better knowledge of drug costs
Although 4 out of 5 physicians in Hawaii regularly use some form of health information technology to learn about their patients during their clinical practice, it’s not perfect. For example, only 1 in 4 doctors know how much their patients are paying for their electronic prescriptions, according to a study by the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu. The study of 247 Hawaii-based primary care physicians conducted in 2007 revealed that 80 percent of those surveyed regularly use IT features such as the Internet, electronic prescribing tools, electronic health records or PDAs in clinical care. Sixty-two percent of doctors regularly use two forms. But use of IT did not translate into better knowledge on drug costs, a finding that study author Chien-Wen Tseng considers surprising. The report should help policymakers, doctors and healthcare insurers re-evaluate the use of IT tools that provide cost information to physicians, Tseng said. Full Article

Mandatory telemedicine coverage law takes effect in Virginia
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has signed legislation requiring health insurers to cover telemedicine services. The legislation, Senate Bill 675, requires coverage for medical services provided through interactive audio, video or other media for diagnosis, consultation or treatment. Prior to the bill’s unanimous passage by the state senate and signing into law, insurers and health maintenance organizations could exclude a service if it was not performed in face-to-face fashion, according to Senate Bill author Sen. William Wampler (R-Bristol). The new law “brings the best doctors into every clinic and hospital at the click of a mouse,” McDonnell said. Virginia is the 12th state to implement such a law. Full Article    Further Information

HHS awards colleges $5.4 million for medical e-record training classes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $5.4 million to a California community college district and 14 colleges in California, Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada for a job training program to help medical offices convert from paper records to electronic ones. According to Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA), Sacramento’s Los Rios Community College District will oversee implementation of the program, which will cross-train people in medical and information technology fields. The program must be designed so that students can complete it in six months or less, and it must be in place by Sept. 30, 2010. Participating schools must enroll at least 150 students per year, and must also link those who complete the program with job opportunities. If extended a second year as expected, the district and colleges will receive another $5.3 million, Los Rios Vice Chancellor of Resource Development Sandy Kirschenmann said.     Full Article

‘Alarm fatigue’ could become national patient safety issue
“Alarm fatigue” could be a new, patient-deadly challenge for healthcare workers to contend with, according to a report in the Boston Globe . The medical syndrome, in which nurses, doctors and other staff effectively tune out the sounds of alarms, beeps and other warnings due to constant exposure, contributed to the death of an elderly man at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital last January, according to federal investigators. Ten nurses on duty the day of the man’s death could not recall hearing the beeps at their station or seeing the scrolling tickertape messages on three hallway signs that would have alerted them to the patient’s failing heart rate. The situation at Massachusetts General is not unique: in other cases, medical staff turn the volume of alerts down or completely off because they find the noise aggravating, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesperson Rosanne Pawelec said. Full Article

Reed named president, CEO of eHealth Ontario
Former McKinsey & Co. consulting firm strategist Greg A. Reed has been named as the new president and chief executive officer at eHealth Ontario (eHO), Canada’s embattled electronic health record (EHR) implementation agency. According to Ray Hession, chairperson of eHealth Ontario’s board of directors, Reed replaces former CEO Sarah Kramer, who resigned in June 2009 after an investigation revealed she awarded untendered contracts related to the agency’s national EHR project. Kramer’s boss, Health Minister David Caplan, resigned shortly thereafter. Reed said his first goals are to transform the agency into one that is “transparent and fair” for all Ontario residents, and help eHO meet its EHR implementation deadline of 2015. Full Article

Carl A. Gunter, with the Department of Computer Science and ITI at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was awarded a $15 million research award by HHS to develop the SHARPS Center for Health Information Privacy and Security…William Cameron Powell, president and chief medical officer of AirStrip Technologies™ (San Antonio, TX), discusses the company's telemedicine product for the iPhone with Dr. Kimberly Loar, obstetrician at St. David’s Women’s Center (Austin, TX) in the Austin Statesman…Dr. Allan Korn, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and Dr. Daniel W. Saylak, president of the American Osteopathic Association of Medical Informatics, announced their rollout of two new Personal Health Record Quick Reference Guides…Nirav Desai, vice president of business development and marketing for REACH Call, a web-based portal for telemedicine services, announced it is accelerating the growth of its network, as well as developing partnerships with NeuroCall and GlobalMedia… Hala Helm, vice president and chief compliance and privacy officer of John Muir Health announced that due to stolen laptops, 5,450 patients were notified of a possible breach of their personal and health information…Debra Berlyn, executive director of Project GOAL, announced their plans to extend broadband benefits to older U.S. residents, including telemedicine… Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group (New Delhi, India), announced the hospitals will be creating Telemedicine Consultation Centers to expand their telemedicine offerings…Graeme Smith, project director for the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital (Aberdeen, Scotland) announced plans for a ₤110 million emergency care center that will include telemedicine facilities…Please send us your news on Movers and Shakers in the field.

IMPORTANT! Make sure you receive your chosen Mary Ann Liebert e-Newsletters, alerts and news updates. Add telemed@liebertpub.com to your Address Book or Safe Senders List. It's easy! View instructions HERE.

Forward Alert to a Colleague

For advertising
Contact us to maximize your print and/or online opportunities


This email was sent by: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
140 Huguenot Street, 3rd Floor, New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215, USA
Phone: 914-740-2100 or 1-800-M-LIEBERT    Fax: 914-740-2101    Email: info@liebertpub.com