GE Healthcare, Intel move ahead with health guide promotion
After a head start in the United States, GE Healthcare and Intel are taking promotion of the Intel Health Guide to an international level. The home health and computer technology giants plan to heavily market the telehealth product in the United Kingdom beginning this spring, according to Intel Digital Health Group Sales and Marketing Director Mariah Scott. The U.K. Department of Health estimates that up to 17.5 million adults in Great Britain could now be living with chronic disease, and the incidence among those over 65 is expected to double by 2030. The Intel Health Guide is a care management tool designed for healthcare professionals who manage patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and heart failure. In 2009, GE Healthcare and Intel launched a five-year, $267.3 million [USD] campaign to market and develop home-based health technologies that will help older people live independently and patients with chronic conditions to manage their care from home. http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/20100105corp.htm

New FDA site to modify, improve medical device problem codes
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched a Web site with updates on problem codes used to report adverse events on medical devices and patient diagnoses. The site at www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/ReportaProblem/EventProblemCodes/default.htm will modify problem codes available to all entities that must report adverse events and will fully describe the codes. According to information on the Web site, the FDA is now updating problem codes and will reject all inactivated or retired codes submitted after April 2, 2010. Various classes of problem codes associated with the reporting process include those on medical devices that have caused serious injury or death, as well as diagnoses issues involving patient illnesses. The FDA is also collaborating on a project with the National Cancer Institute to make improvements in the problem code and reporting processes. http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/Safety/ReportaProblem/EventProblemCodes/default.htm

2010 may be year of patient-physician television video calling
Television video calling may be the next big medical communication breakthrough, and it’s attracting the attention of major players such as Cisco and Skype, according to a report by Lispole, Ireland-based online medical advice provider 3G Doctor. David Doherty, 3G’s director of business development, notes that both companies are preparing products that will make video calls far less expensive and simpler than ever before. Although tailored primarily for personal communication, there is no reason the telepresence-based products could not be used for patient-physician services, according to Doherty. Cisco, in particular, plans to begin trials of its living room video chat system on the Verizon network in spring and later this year in France for users of France Telecom. Henry Dewing, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, MA, said the projects will take advantage of “a very big greenfield for broadband in the consumer world.” http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/06/telepresence...

Vignet launches cross-platform program for mobile health devices
Vignet Inc. has launched a person-centered platform that allows mobile health device users to use any wired or wireless interface to capture, analyze, and share data. According to Vignet Chief Executive Officer Praduman Jain, the company’s Connected Health Services (CHS) platform enables convergence of health information across multiple medical devices, mobile phones, PHRs, EMRs, and eHealth and social media platforms. CHS works with most mobile phones, PCs, and gateways to provide connectivity for patients and medical professionals without the need for dedicated hardware, Jain said. Vignet is collaborating with IBM, Nonin Medical, and A&D Medical in development of the product.   http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/...

CVS Caremark, Allscripts strike e-prescription deal
Woonsocket, RI-based CVS Caremark Corp. is discontinuing its iScribe prescription tool and will begin switching clients to products made by Chicago electronic health record system maker Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc. According to Troyen Brennan M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer at CVS, the change will allow thousands of customers to qualify for up to $64,000 in federal economic stimulus funding starting in 2011. The agreement also allows CVS the ability to reach prescribers beyond that provided by investment in a single clinical tool, Brennan said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. CVS, the nation’s largest provider of prescriptions, runs more than 7,000 drugstores, along with the Caremark pharmacy benefits management business, which handles drug benefits for plans sponsors and beneficiaries. http://info.cvscaremark.com/newsroom/press-releases...

Cardioscan software okayed for marketing in Canada
Stamford, CT-based Zargis Medical Corp. has received clearance from Health Canada to market its Cardioscan device in Canada, the company announced. The Cardioscan heart sound analysis software connects wirelessly to a Bluetooth‐enabled electronic stethoscope and is designed to help physicians analyze cardiac sounds for identification of suspected heart murmurs. The product made Zargis Medical a co‐recipient of Popular Science magazine’s 2009 “Innovation of the Year” award. According to Zargis Chief Executive Officer John Kallassy, Cardioscan’s optional telemedicine capabilities are ideal for the Canadian healthcare system, which has “embraced telemedicine as a core initiative.” The introduction of Cardioscan into the Canadian market will allow healthcare providers to extend use of auscultation to situations and environments where face‐to‐face encounters are not always feasible, Kallassy said. http://www.zargis.com/index-5.php?press_id=48

Ingenix Inc. to offer doctors no-interest loans for EHRs
In an effort to stimulate installation and use of electronic health record (EHR) systems, UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Ingenix Inc. in Eden Prairie, MN, is offering zero-interest loans to doctors’ practices that choose its CareTracker product. According to Ingenix Executive Vice President of Healthcare Delivery Bill Miller, the program will be targeted at smaller doctors’ offices, which typically can’t afford to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in an EHR system. Loans will be offered through another UHG subsidiary, OptumHealth Bank. Other EHR providers nationwide have recently begun offering low-interest loans to help physician practices implement the systems. The federal government is offering incentive payments to EHR users starting in 2011; Minnesota requires all healthcare providers and doctors to have the systems in place by 2015. http://www.ingenix.com/News/Article/127/

Web site improves infection control at Washington hospitals
Washington state hospitals have scaled up their infection control efforts as a result of a new state Department of Health Web site publicizing acquired-infection rates at those hospitals. The Washington DoH collected hospital data on central-line infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia from July 2008 through June 2009; two of the state’s more-respected hospitals had the highest rates of central-line infections, according to the site. However, the findings appear to have accomplished the site’s goal, as both hospitals achieved significant improvements in their infection rates after reporting the data. According to David Birnbaum, manager for the state’s healthcare-associated infections program, development of the Web site became state law in 2007, and although the site has gone online, it is still fairly incomplete. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/413941_infection07.html

Britain considers $1.6 billion ‘super-fast broadband’ plan
Britain’s government is considering a plan to invest $1.6 billion [USD] to help bring “super-fast broadband” to 90 percent of the country by 2017. The Next Generation Fund is aimed primarily at rural households and businesses that might otherwise be left out of “Digital Britain,” according to Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson. The investment will be funded directly by British taxpayers as a continuation of the government’s “Universal Service Commitment” announced last year, which calls for delivery of broadband speeds of 2Mbps to the whole country by 2012. Proponents note the benefits the fund will bring to telemedicine and teleworking efforts nationwide, while critics point out that the current proposal does not actually define what “super fast” broadband actually is. A consultation will now be held with “stakeholders across the telecommunications and internet provider industry” on how best to raise and spend the fund, Mandelson said. http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.aspx...   http://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/page54155.html

Telemedicine’s growth being hindered by physician resistance
Physician resistance is preventing telemedicine from becoming as popular a concept as it should be, according to a report in The New York Times. Columnist Pauline Chen notes that “deeply entrenched resistance on the part of providers” has kept telemedicine from taking hold in the way that other newer technologies have. “For many doctors, telemedicine seems to depersonalize the [patient-physician] relationship and sabotage trust,” Chen said. She notes that physician shortages will make telemedicine a key way to improve the quality of patient care, but “it will only work if all of us, doctors and patients, accept care from a clinician working in conjunction with a team of providers, each of whom is deeply engaged and committed to the patient, and some of whom, on occasion, may not be anywhere near the patient’s bedside, city or state.”  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/...    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/health/07chen.html

RxConnect prescription drug importation program to end
Minnesota is ending its six-year-old online international prescription drug importation program due to declining demand, the state’s Department of Human Services announced. The RxConnect program ends March 1, Minnesota Human Services Commissioner Cal Ludeman said. In 2004, Minnesota was the first state to sponsor a plan to help residents buy low-cost prescription drugs from Canada. RxConnect allows Minnesota residents to purchase prescription drugs from three state-inspected Canadian pharmacies; in 2006, the program was expanded to include prescription drugs from Great Britain that were sold through Canadian pharmacies. Several other states launched their own prescription drug import Web sites modeled after the Minnesota program. But in December 2009, residents ordered a mere 50 prescriptions worth about $7,000 through the site. Ludeman said a new Medicare program offering subsidized prescription drug insurance contributed to the decline in demand. In addition, more doctors now prescribe less-expensive generic drugs. 
http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/idcplg?IdcService...

Perceived benefits of using EMRs vs. reality are different
The perceived degree to which commercial ambulatory electronic medical records (EMRs) improve patient care coordination and the experiences of doctors using such systems are very different, according to a study by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). The study found that current commercial ambulatory care EMRs make information available at the point of care – as expected – but are less helpful for exchanging information across physician practices and care settings. EMRs also emphasize design for support of billing documentation rather than clinical management. The study was published online in The Journal of General Internal Medicine. http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/1103/