Microsoft, Surgeon General link online personal record tools
The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General is linking its Family Health History Initiative online tool to Microsoft’s HealthVault Personal Health Record online application. According to U.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin, consumers will be able to record their family health history and integrate the information stored in their My Family Health Portrait profile into a personal HealthVault account. Connected healthcare providers, meanwhile, will be easily able to access the data. David Cerino, general manager of Microsoft Health Solutions Group, added that family history can play a pivotal role in an individual’s current and future healthcare needs. By building a complete profile of their personal health information and then working with their healthcare professionals and connected Web sites, consumers can make more informed decisions about their health and wellness, Cerino said. Full Story

Catholic Healthcare West to spend $1 billion on EHR program
San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) announced plans to increase its system-wide budget for electronic health records (EHRs) to more than $1 billion over the next year, the company announced. According to Lloyd Dean, president and chief executive officer of CHW, the decision comes after a successful introduction of EHRs in eight of the system’s 41 hospitals. CHW in 2009 originally pledged $590 million to roll out the program, and is adding almost $420 million more this year to bring the program to hospital-based and community physicians company-wide. The EHRs will include new patient tools and safety applications, including medication bar coding systems, Dean said. The trial rollout will also enable the company to now spend less per hospital on the system because CHW is more experienced in its use, CHW Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Ben Williams added. Full Story

ONC launches ‘lightweight’ version of health IT network for doctors
The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology has launched a “lightweight” version of its Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) to make it easier for small practice physicians to exchange medical information securely over the Internet. According to Doug Fridsma, a senior ONC adviser and acting director of ONC’s Office of Interoperability and Standards, providers could use NHIN Direct for the exchange of test results from the lab to the provider, medication reconciliation and summary of care record and transition of care referral between providers. It will also supply the foundation services and standards to support patient engagement and public health. ONC hopes that will also help broaden participation in the NHIN in order to meet meaningful use requirements for electronic health records, Fridsma said. Full Story

Carestream Health named 2009 Medical Imaging Company of Year
Mountain View, CA-based Carestream Health Inc. has received the 2010 North American Medical Imaging Company of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan, Senior Industry Analyst Nadim Daher announced. According to Daher, Carestream Health achieved the honor after capturing 14 percent of the highly competitive U.S. medical imaging market in 2009. Much of that success was due to the timely introduction of the DRX-1 detector panel, which provides a cost-effective and rapid upgrade path to DR, without the cost of replacing an x-ray room, Daher said. After less than a year on the market, the DRX-1 already has caused a significant increase in productivity for the current users of analog X-Ray and CR. The company followed this up with the launch of a series of integrated equipment, the DRX-Evolution product line. Full Story

Virtual simulator uses flight concepts to train doctors in surgery 
Researchers at the University of Buffalo School of Engineering and the Center for Robotic Surgery (CRS) at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo are developing a simulator that trains doctors to perform surgeries in a manner similar to how pilots learn to fly planes. According to CRS director Dr. Khurshid Guru, the Robotic Surgical Simulator (RoSS) approximates the feel of the da Vinci Surgical System, in which a physician controls a robotic surgical tool through use of a console instead of a scalpel. The system takes some getting used to – about 150 virtual surgeries or so – but it eventually allows the user to perform clean surgeries on virtual patients. A spin-off company, Simulated Surgical Systems in Amherst, NY is testing five units nationwide for possible commercial sale by 2011, Guru said.    Full Story

LifeBot, Plain Healthcare go on ‘Odyssey’ with teletriage software 
Tempe, AZ-based LifeBot has signed an agreement with Conwy, United Kingdom-based Plain Healthcare to distribute its teletriage software, Odyssey, to improve the efficiency of clinical resources, reduce risk and ultimately save companies money, LifeBot founder R. Lee Heath announced. Heath said LifeBot tracks whether a 911 call requires “immediate,” “urgent,” or “no special urgency” response. The system “enables rapid accurate decisions in just minutes and intelligently guides encounters while enforcing standards of care.” Early studies indicate a 20 percent to 30 percent decrease in non-emergency calls being routed to EMTs, the company reports. LifeBot is the first and only EMS/ED teletriage telemedicine communications workstation that manages both teletriage and ALS calls, allowing transitions from one powerful system, even with voice and video recording capabilities, Heath added. Full Story

E-health smart cards to be introduced to Bulgarian military
Bulgarian e-health specialist KIM-2000 has entered an agreement with Amsterdam-headquartered security products firm Gemalto Inc. for deployment of smart cards that provide secure access to personal health records (PHRs) for Bulgaria’s military personnel and their families. According to Ari Bouzbib, senior vice president of identity and government programs at Gemalto, the smart card allows healthcare professionals to view or modify a patient’s medical file, which is stored on a highly secure IT infrastructure. Patients can also view their personal data online, using the smart card reader and a card to authenticate themselves. The PHR enables healthcare professionals to immediately access patients’ medical data and therefore make more accurate decisions, especially in emergency situations, for which there is a special section in the electronic health record, containing the most important information, Bouzbib said. Full Story    Further Information

TeleHealth Services, Alegent Health enter patient monitoring agreement
Raleigh, NC-based patient monitoring services provider TeleHealth Services has announced an “extended partnership” with Omaha, NE-based hospital system Alegent Health. According to Duane Carbullido, Alegent’s operations director for information technology services, the agreement calls for TeleHealth to supply Alegent’s six hospitals with patient monitoring and educational services as part of the chain’s “Generation Patient” enhancement initiative. The services will “provide our patients and staff with on-demand access to condition-specific education at the bedside,” Carbullido said. The partnership includes upgrading all patient rooms and guest areas with state-of-the-art healthcare and commercial grade LCD televisions and digital services, he added. Full Story

Almost half of Americans lack quick medical care for strokes
Nearly half of all Americans live more than an hour away from care that could save their lives during a stroke, according to a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. The report, led by senior author Brendan G. Carr, MD, MS, an assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and Biostatistics and Epidemiology at UPenn, notes that 45 percent of Americans – approximately 135 million people – do not have timely access to the type of care that they would need to save their life or minimize damage from a stroke. Only 22 percent are within 30 minutes of such care, Carr said. Air transport, as well as lower-cost solutions such as telemedical technology, were suggested as ways to extend the net of optimal care to a greater number of patients across the nation. Full Story

Patient medical care improved by use of HDEs, GAO finds
Health data exchanges (HDEs) can improve the quality and delivery of patient medical care, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the report, developed from findings at HDEs conducted between May 2009 and February 2010, the exchanges resulted in improved early detection of disease outbreak, reduced delays in receiving test results, and lowered misuse of the healthcare system by patients. The exchanges reviewed are also following government-sanctioned patient and data privacy guidelines, the report noted. GAO conducts periodic reviews of HDEs as required under the federal economic stimulus act. Full Story

Use of Wii gaming system leads to more-effective stroke rehab
Use of the popular Nintendo home gaming system Wii can actually help patients recover from strokes faster, according to a study by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital at the University of Toronto. Study lead author Dr. Gustavo Saposnik said the finding suggests that the enormously popular virtual reality games could move beyond simply being fun and become a key part of physical rehabilitation. The Wii gaming system allows players to interact with on-screen images and environments through use of wireless controllers that require physical motion replication. The school’s pilot study found that use of the system among patients recovering from mild strokes showed 30 percent greater improvement than those treated under conventional methods. “We wanted to see if this was doable, safe and more effective than routine therapy, and it was,” Saposnik said. Nintendo did not fund the study, Saposnik adds. Full Story

E-health struggles to get off ground in Europe, too
Despite having more-accessible healthcare, residents of European nations are not flocking to information technology due to a series of unexpected obstacles, according to a report by the European Commission. Various nations are dealing with legal, political, cultural and market-related factors as they try to implement e-health programs, the report notes. There is also an interoperability problem with various systems in different countries, and privacy concerns by residents – something that the U.S. is currently dealing with as it tries to implement its own e-health programs. Finances are another matter, as many nations that planned to spend millions on e-health are finding that infeasible now due to the world financial crisis, officials note. Full Story

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced that Illinois will receive $18.8 million in federal monies to develop a statewide Health Information Exchange…Governor Bob Riley, of Alabama, announced that his state had received $10.5 million in federal funding to build an electronic health information system to be used by public and private healthcare providers…Dr. Mason Stevenson, president of the Australian Medical Association Queensland (AMAQ) proposes shifting a portion of current funding into telemedicine applications to help decrease surgery cancellations…Dr. Yulun Wang, chairman and chief executive officer of InTouch Health, announced that the robotics technology company has performed more than 100,000 clinical sessions through its Remote Presence telemedicine network…Seidu Mohammed, Director General of The National Space Research and Development Agency in Nigeria, promoted telemedicine at a recent conference at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan titled, “Telemedicine: Future and Challenges in Nigeria.”…Jay Myers, president of Interactive Solutions, Inc. (ISI) pushes telemedicine as a solution for Healthcare Reform, citing that telemedicine is growing faster than any other technology in the U.S. with almost 200 networks linking more than 3,500 medical centers across the U.S…California state Senator Alex Padilla and Marianne Haver Hill, president and chief executive of MEND, Tim McCallion, Verizon West region president, Dr. Paul Glassman, professor of dental practice, University of the Pacific, and Dr. Lindsey Robinson, chair of the CDA Foundation Board of Directors, announced a dental telemedicine pilot project that will expand access to dental services to San Fernando Valley school children in underserved areas…Dr. Mar Domingo, collaborator of the Heart Failure Unit of the German Trias I Pujol Hospital of Badalona (Catalonian Health Service), presented a study that showed significant benefits in the management of certain chronic diseases using telemedicine applications at the Spanish Congress of Chronically Ill Patients Care meeting…Ray Shingler, vice president of support services and chief information officer at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, and Tom Jennings, principal of NXT, jointly announced the first successful demonstration of standards-based clinical data exchange linking a personal health record with a mock-up federal medical facility…Please send us your news on Movers and Shakers in the field.