So you’ve been hearing all about the recent EHR buzz and decided to give it a try.
Whether you are convinced that electronic records are the way to go, or you have reached a point where you are willing to give it a try, the first thing to do is buy one of those EHRs. You may be staring at a glossy brochure or website featuring a distinguished silver-haired doctor …
How shopping for an EHR is like buying a car
Recently, I took a Megabus from Philadelphia to Hunter College in New York City to attend Man-Made Minds: Living With Thinking Machines, a World Science Festival program.
Rodney Brooks, who until recently was Panasonic Professor of Robotics at MIT and who now is Chief Technology Officer at Heartland Robotics, was the first expert to speak, and he emphasized a very practical approach that was not too concerned with any negative consequences …
How robots will teach us who we are as humans
The transition from paper to EHR is a major policy decision that can have repercussions on patient service, your operations and even your medical professional liability (MPL).
Unfortunately, many practices are not taking the time to analyze their options and responsibilities from a patient care and compliance standpoint. In order to set the correct framework for your effort, you should think …
Questions to ask before moving from a paper chart to an EHR
The VA isn’t perfect, but definitely is better than other health care systems I have worked in so far. It embraces the idea of patient-centered medical home, where a primary care physician coordinates and takes responsibility for a patient’s care … the old-school definition of good medical care that has recently become popular again, …
How the VA looks at population level data to analyze outcomes
Felasfa Wodajo, MD has written a post for iMedicalApps on the iPad’s future role in healthcare institutions. The title says it all: Why Locked Android Tablets Will Beat the iPad for Hospital Use.
The gist of his argument is that Android’s “openness” and hardware-agnosticism will make it more ubiquitous in the market in general, and a more robust and …
Will an Android or iPad platform dominate hospitals?
As if medical practices don’t have enough to worry about with EMR implementation, now they have to decide what kind of EMR system to get: a client-server-based system or a web-based system. The former is the kind that most of us are familiar with. You purchase a computer server, buy a license for the EMR software, install said software on your server, …
Pros and cons of cloud based or web based EMR systems
by Felasfa Wodajo, MD
The iPad has received a significant amount of attention in the health care arena since its introduction last year.
The attraction is fairly obvious; it is a portable, lightweight, powerful computing device with an intui-tive interface and a large library of built-in applications. In fact, major medical schools such as Read more…
How to use an iPad in the OR during surgery
The 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) authorized incentive payments, potentially totaling some $27 billion over ten years, to clinicians and hospitals when they implement electronic health records in such a way as to achieve “meaningful use,” in terms of advances in health care processes and outcomes.
But, are EHRs really “meaningfully useful” or are …
Why quality did not improve with hospital EHR implementation
A reader, Dr. Scott Monteith, a psychiatrist, shared his thoughts on government-mandated ‘Meaningful Use’ of Electronic Medical Records (‘MU’) with me after reading a number of my EHR posts, and asked if he could share his thoughts via Health Care Renewal.
Dr. Monteith is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Michigan State University where he was chief resident.
He is a board certified psychiatrist, clinical assistant professor in the departments …
Doctors find incentives elusive for meaningful use of electronic records
Glory be. There’s good news tonight in American healthcare.
It did not come from laws, regulations, or government edict, although there has been much government activity in the field; it did not come from the behemoths of information technology like Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Cisco, although much hard work in IT did precede it; it did not come from the for-profit healthcare industry giants like GE, Big Pharma, United Healthcare, or …
Organizations that link their IT systems to share electronic health records
I read an interesting link via Reuters about how students have developed a smart phone application with a microscope attachment to diagnose malaria.
The article shows a picture of a child at risk somewhere in Africa.
This is a great idea, and one that can go a long way to help people who really need it. But the last word from the project’s software engineer in the article was the one that was …
When money gets involved, good medical ideas suffer
by Graham Walker, MD
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Babel Fish was a fish you stuck in your ear that allowed you to understand any language spoken to you. We’re not far off.
Google recently released a new version of their (free!) Google Translate app for Android phones, featuring conversation mode, which allows you to have a back and forth …
Using Google Translate in medicine
I’m often asked how healthcare reform will impact IT planning and implementation over the next few years.
First, some background. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) and Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HR 4872) were passed to address several problems with healthcare in the US. We’re spending 17% of our …
Top IT implications of healthcare reform
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by W. Gregory Feero, MD, PhD
Articles in several major journals (Nature, Science, etc.) have noted that genomics research has entered an era of data measured in petabytes.
For readers who are not used to thinking on the scale of Avogadro’s number, peta refers to a number with 15 zeros tagging along. A petabyte is a lot of data—think 250,000 four-gigabyte thumb drives. Now, are you ready …
Data overload and the pace of genomic science
“See me, feel me.”
Yes, that’s right, the title of a song played at Woodstock by The Who—at sunrise of the third day, no less—is the title of my post. The song begins with those very words sung in dramatic refrain, followed by four more: Touch Me/Heal Me.
The same four imperatives succinctly describe the essence of what patients want from their doctors. But in the age of the EHR (Read more…
How an EMR emotionally disengages physicians from their patients
I think I may have a problem, but it’s not clear exactly what it is, or if it even truly is a concern.
I’m not a “techie” so to speak. I have trouble figuring out how to enter the code for my garage door opener without making some fundamental mistake, due to a deficit embedded in my cerebral cortex at some level. But that is not coupled with an associated lack …
Is health care ready for the iPad and other new technology?
A fair amount has been written on EMR for the individual physician facing retirement.
But I have come across a more complicated variation of the question. What if a multi-physician group has one physician approaching retirement who is the “lone hold-out,” opposing EMR while the rest of the docs in the group are ready to take the plunge?
The older physician has a …
Should older doctors be allowed to opt out of EMR?
by Janet Dillione
Are we ready to deliberate on how artificial intelligence will be used in healthcare? While the future role of innovation as part of healthcare is certain, it’s critical that we first focus on achieving what is possible and absolutely necessary today.
There’s been tremendous attention on IBM’s work with Nuance to bring Watson (supercomputer) to healthcare, and rightfully so, it’s a fascinating application of technology. However, …
Artificial intelligence and capturing quality information into your EHR
Let me start by confessing I’m something of a gadget freak. I was an early Palm Pilot adopter, loved the iPod from the get-go, and need to avoid CNET, Engadget, Gizmodo, and David Pogue’s columns for the New York Times when deadlines loom.
Not surprisingly, I embraced the shift to electronic medical records (EMRs) enthusiastically. While I acknowledge that sometimes EMRs …
How an EMR can be shockingly inconvenient for prescription refills
Every major industry is now computerized with one glaring exception; health care delivery. Thirty years after Steve Jobs began selling personal computers out of his garage, far less than 50% of physician practices and hospitals have converted to any form of electronic medical record.
The vast majority of medical documentation is still done via paper and writing utensil just as it …
Why some EMR programmers think physicians are stupid
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