Health Technology

Physicians writing on KevinMD about the technology in the exam room: the electronic record and what it did to the visit, meaningful use, alert fatigue, pajama time, human and AI scribes and whether they give time back, ambient documentation, telemedicine, and what AI can do in clinical practice now and who is responsible when it is wrong. Two maintained records draw on this archive: The electronic health record: what physicians say, in their own words and Artificial intelligence: what physicians say, in their own words.

Innovative technologies can markedly enhance safety

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

Health Technology

January 23, 2012

“To Err Is Human” is the title of the now famous book from the Institute of Medicine on patient safety published about a decade ago. From it we learned that anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 individuals die each year of preventable medical errors (and other sources suggest the number might even be much higher). In this continuing series of posts on disruptive and transformational technologies, there are some that can …

Google knows more about certain diseases than physicians ever will

Lukas Zinnagl, MD

Health Technology

January 21, 2012

Professor Gunter Dueck, is a calm and eloquent german mathematician who’s also the CTO of IBM Germany. He studied mathematics and philosophy and eventually turned out to be a great writer and speaker. Unfortunately he only does so in German, which is why it doesn’t make much sense to post a video of him here.

In a recent talk he gave (German only), he talks about whether a connected and …

Robotics can revolutionize the delivery of medical care

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

Health Technology

January 16, 2012

Robotics has the potential to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare. It can help extend the delivery of information, expertise and clinical care across time and geographical space barriers. Robotics offers the opportunity to enhance quality of care through extension of clinical expertise and leveraging of integrated datasets and best practices. It can be used across the continuum–from the hospital setting (e.g. OR, ER, etc.) into primary care offices and even …

A guide for entrepreneurs to get a doctor’s attention

Rebecca Coelius

Health Technology

January 12, 2012

I’ve had the luck to attend medical school in the city of San Francisco during what will be looked back on as the start of transformational change in our health care system. My growing interest in technology and new business models as the disruptive forces behind this change, as well as marriage to a technology entrepreneur, has me frequently rubbing elbows with movers and shakers in the digital health space. …

Distance medicine will transform medical practice

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

Health Technology

January 6, 2012

Distance medicine technologies can be disruptive in the way physicians and other care givers interact with patients and with each other and can fundamentally change how patients are able to interact with the entire health care system. This is of increasing relevance as medicine gravitates toward chronic illnesses where diagnosis and treatment are complex and require multi-specialist teams. It also has potential to alleviate some of the effects of the …

Designing a friendly patient portal for consumers

Dave Chase

Health Technology

January 5, 2012

More and more providers see the value of providing patient portals. In an attempt to be responsive, EMR vendors are providing patient portals that have some limited capabilities (get lab results, email your doctor and possibly fill out a form requesting an appointment). However, just as the ability to design an airplane cockpit is radically different from a car dashboard, so to is designing an EMR geared towards medical professionals …

Solving information overload in the EHR

Neil Mehta, MD

Health Technology

December 28, 2011

I have been using electronic health records now for over 10 years. Like most physicians who have used EHRs, I would not ever go back to a paper-based medical record.

Having said that, it is important to recognize some of the potential problems created by some EHR products. One potential pitfall of some EHRs is the number of steps it takes to find information that is in the system. Yes, it …

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Solving information overload in the EHR

Why your EHR note may not be accurate

Ron Sterling

Health Technology

December 28, 2011

With paper exam notes, the doctor and staff record information and the note reflects what they recorded. Unfortunately, EHR based notes may not be as direct.

Many EHR systems store the information that you enter in one way, and offer a variety of presentation and reporting options. The ability of the EHR to offer multiple presentation options is a powerful tool. For example,

You may generate an exam note, referral form, and a …

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Why your EHR note may not be accurate

Mobile health and the globalization of medicine

David Lee Scher, MD

Health Technology

December 14, 2011

The term globalization loosely refers to the increasing unification of order. It has been traditionally applied to the economic sector. As the world is progressively intertwined from financial and cultural perspectives, it is not surprising that it is occurring in the medical arena. There have been international professional medical societies for many decades, and the medical device and pharmaceutical industries have consolidated on a global scale.

However, the way medicine is …

Technological advances can solve our current healthcare crisis

Hiep Nguyen, MD

Health Technology

December 7, 2011

It can’t be ignored that dramatic transformation in our healthcare system is imminent. The economy, market forces and increasing political demands will soon force physicians and healthcare professionals to change how we take care of our patients. Just as the days of housecalls are gone, so is our current system of delivering care.

The rising cost of healthcare now has the government and insurance companies placing more emphasis on controlling costs, …

Health IT has problems, but is worth the price

George Lundberg, MD

Health Technology

November 29, 2011

I started working with computers in medicine in 1963. I was a Captain in the United States Army Medical Corps in San Francisco when a Lieutenant Colonel told me to “automate the California Tumor Tissue Registry.”

I said, “Yes, Sir. How would I do that?” He told me to walk across the Presidio parking lot and go into a building that had a big machine in it that is called a …

5 reasons why physicians will love mobile health

David Lee Scher, MD

Health Technology

November 28, 2011

1. Mobile health technology will increase patient engagement. Most patients do not take the responsibility they should for their own health. They are likely preoccupied with all the stresses of everyday life and might therefore take the ‘I feel good, so I must be’ approach. They possibly mutter these words after wiping their faces, hurriedly walking out of McDonald’s for lunch. Or is it because of mistrust of their physician …

EHR adopters give advice to those considering electronic medical records

Peter J. Polack, MD

Health Technology

November 21, 2011

Our practice went live with our own EMR system in late 2008. For the most part, this was uneventful. The reason for this was mainly due to proper planning. And credit for our implementation plan goes primarily to our administrator, our IT director, and staff members of our appointed EMR committee. Although some of the physicians were an integral part of the committee, we tried our best not to micromanage …

How mobile health can help child abuse victims

David Lee Scher, MD

Health Technology

November 19, 2011

There has not been a more horrific scandal in the world of sports that I can remember than the child abuse scandal surrounding Pennsylvania State University.

Let it be said that I am very impressed with the reaction of much of the student body which is one of shock and disdain for the administration charged with covering up alleged abuses of children by a former assistant football coach. According to the …

Give meaningful use value for physicians

Matthew Mintz, MD

Health Technology

November 14, 2011

Before I took over one of the classes that now teach at the medical school, I asked students why the value of that class was so low. One of the reasons they gave was that it was so hard to do well in the class, and there were so many other things to study, students only put in enough effort to pass. In other words, incentives are only good if …

Why Steve Jobs was the ultimate physician

Jeff Tangney

Health Technology

November 11, 2011

The release of Steve Jobs’s biography launched a second round of well-considered articles about Jobs and his legacy. It has launched a rich, detailed, almost “too soon” debate about Jobs as a man and how we have come to define genius in this day and age. Here at Doximity (an Apple fanboy shop if there ever were one), our head of design has already joked that after reading Isaacson’s biography, …

Tips for a seamless EHR transition

Rosemarie Nelson

Health Technology

November 4, 2011

Technology adoption is iterative. Here are some suggestions that can help you adopt and morph EHR techniques and processes to fit into your own practice’s workflow.

When it comes right down to it, some are basic learning techniques that can apply to any new situation in the office.

And remember, everyone has something to learn.

Don’t get stuck in your own routine, if a physician finds a work-around that improves a system function …

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Tips for a seamless EHR transition

3 reasons why doctors will miss Steve Jobs

Iltifat Husain, MD

Health Technology

November 1, 2011

Doctors love their Apple Products. Just walk into any hospital ward, and see the types of mobile devices we are using. At weekly Grand Rounds conferences, you see plenty of iPads in use. At physician meetings, the laptop of choice is often the Macbook Pro. The data backs these anecdotal examples as well.

Doctors love their Apple Products – and Steve Jobs was obviously an extension of these …

How a medical student uses an iPad for patient care and education

Alex Chamessian

Health Technology

October 23, 2011

iPads have been introduced into medical education mostly during the pre-clinical years. I’d like to share my experience using an iPad during my clinical year. I’ve found it to be exceedingly useful and versatile.

I have an entire medical library in my pocket. With the touch of a button I can pull up essential texts such as Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine or William’s Endocrinology. I get these books and …

How Steve Jobs mentored a physician and changed health care

Davis Liu, MD

Health Technology

October 6, 2011

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I’ve been reading A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring written by famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. Wooden spends half of his book thanking the people who had a powerful influence on his life, coaching, philosophy, and outlook on life. Important people included his father, coaches, President Abraham Lincoln, and Mother Theresa.