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.

Is Google Android or the iPhone the future of mobile smartphones?

Kevin

Health Technology

February 23, 2010

by Felasfa Wodajo, MD

Over the last few months, a great deal of time has been expended on the “hot competition” between Apple and Google in relation to smart phones.

Much of this interest probably had to do with a partially imagined story of a once close friendship between Apple and Google, founded on their mutual enmity of Microsoft, now fractured on the rocks of competition and greed. While the truth probably …

What doctors need to know about Google Android and Nexus One

Satish Misra, MD

Health Technology

February 2, 2010

The momentum and enthusiasm in the mobile technology world is, these days, clearly with Google.

The question for many people is whether to go with the reigning champion of the mobile device world (arguably Apple) or to take a chance on the challenger. The Nexus One, the flagship of the Android family of mobile devices, was unveiled to much fanfare in …

10 ways an Apple iPad can help doctors improve patient care

Joseph Kim, MD, MPH

Health Technology

February 2, 2010

The current (first generation) Apple iPad probably won’t run a robust electronic health record (EHR).

However, it may run some iPhone/iPod touch EHR/EMR apps. I think most physicians will prefer to use a standard tablet PC instead of the iPad. However, given that a large percentage of physicians are not using the tablet in the outpatient office setting, perhaps …

EMRs can slow medical charting by requiring too much information

Edwin Leap, MD

Health Technology

February 1, 2010

We have a new EMR system. I like it because I type well. I’m facile at using a keyboard and touch-screen. Not everyone in my group is so blessed, and we’ve had some difficulties using the voice-transcription software. Nevertheless, my gut tells me that in a month or two more, we’ll be getting along with our new system swimmingly. It’s the sort of thing I have wanted for a while, …

5 reasons why Apple’s iPad will have trouble in health care

Kevin

Health Technology

January 30, 2010

Originally published in HCPLive.com

by Colin Crawford

The Steve Jobs iPad Tablet media show held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco was always going to have a hard time living up to the ridiculous pre-launch hype that’s been circulating around the Web.

Steve’s presentation was more moderate than at previous product launches as he tried to manage expectations positioning …

Why health IT won’t help with medical risk management

Satish Misra, MD and Iltifat Husain, MD

Health Technology

January 28, 2010

The march is on across the American healthcare landscape to implement electronic health records that also function as decision-support systems.

These “advanced” electronic health records will both provide centralized records and assist providers in making care decisions such as implementing therapy and utilizing evidence-based practice on the individual patient level. And anyone that has had the opportunity to work with some of the systems out there knows that they can be …

Why there needs to be a national healthcare information database

Edward Pullen, MD

Health Technology

January 24, 2010

The majority of Americans have a great deal of personal health information in their physician’s medical record. Many of these physicians have an electronic healthcare record (EHR) to store this information.

Unless you are in an integrated healthcare system, and most Americans are not, this information is just not available to you or any physician seeing you who does not belong to the same physician group as your primary physician. Even …

Why touchscreen computers are the future for electronic medical records

Dr. Martin Young

Health Technology

January 23, 2010

As I explore the latest EMR offerings, and read all the blogs and media releases for and against EMRs, I am forced to wonder, “Has anybody ever asked us doctors what we either want or need?”

Too often it seems the requirements of EMR’s are more suited to organizations, systems, and number-crunchers than to either doctors or our patients. I understand that the data is important, but why should the adaptation …

iPhone medical apps for your iPod Touch

Iltifat Husain, MD

Health Technology

January 22, 2010

We’ve gotten some questions from our readers on iMedicalApps.com asking if medical applications in the App Store will work just as well on the iPod touch as they do on the iPhone.

The short answer to this question is, yes, they will. The long answer is you should know some key differences.

Of the approximately 60 million total iPhone and …

Read more…

iPhone medical apps for your iPod Touch

Did the government get it right on EHR certification?

Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD

Health Technology

January 22, 2010

Last week, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released criteria that will be used to certify EHRs as appropriate support tools for providers who want to qualify for Bonanza Days.

The criteria are subject to a 60-day comment period before being finalized.

I congratulate ONC on its elegant piece of rule making. Its so-called Interim Final Rule (IFR) provides a foundation that can support years of progress …

Why physician practices find it difficult to upgrade their computers to Windows 7

Kevin

Health Technology

January 13, 2010

Originally published in HCPLive.com

by Jonathan Bertman, MD

I recently talked about Microsoft’s newest desktop operating system, Windows 7, and outlined several reasons why you might want to purchase it when it comes out this year. Windows 7 will include some really cool features—like multi-touch technology and usability improvements—that can benefit medical practitioners and their office staff.

Because it is in Microsoft’s best interest …

Protecting the security of electronic patient data

David Harlow

Health Technology

January 12, 2010

Originally published on HCPLive.com

If your patient records aren’t already stored digitally, they are likely to be digitized soon. There is a tremendous push by the federal government—as well as by some private payors and self-insured employers—to get all healthcare providers wired in the near future, in order to better coordinate patient care, improve outcomes, and “bend the cost curve” all at the same time. There are some financial incentives in …

How health IT can bankrupt healthcare

Kevin

Health Technology

December 8, 2009

Originally published in HCPLive.com

by Alberto Borges, MD

For those interested in health information technology, there is now an excellent, new, powerful article about this topic entitled, “Can Cleveland Clinic Be a Model for Digital Medicine?” where they discuss how this hospital system has failed to recoup their $100 million investment to date.

Here is my take on the Cleveland Clinic story, beyond the …

Read more…

How health IT can bankrupt healthcare

iPhone medical apps can be improved by Google Android

Kevin

Health Technology

December 3, 2009

by Felasfa Wodajo, MD

In a recent post, entitled, Why doctors should choose Google Android over the iPhone for medical apps, the author seems to have gone out of his way to make a series of increasingly hyperbolic arguments declaring Motorola Droid superior to the iPhone.

The long trail of negative comments on the site demonstrate that perhaps not all readers were swayed …

iPhone radiology app to diagnose appendicitis

Kevin

Health Technology

December 2, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today

by Kristina Fiore, MedPage Today Staff Writer

For years, the pager and cell phone have summoned on-call radiologists to the emergency room. Now this leap in technology: an iPhone App that lets radiologists diagnose a patient remotely, wherever they may be.

Using a $20 iPhone application called OsiriX, radiologists made correct diagnoses of appendicitis in 124 of …

The billions spent on electronic health records, and why there’s no way to know if EHRs will save money

Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD

Health Technology

November 30, 2009

Barack Obama is certain that electronic health records (EHRs) can improve the quality of care and the efficiency with which it is delivered. How certain? Certain enough to have bet billions on a program that pays providers to adopt and meaningfully use EHRs.

Of course there are many ways to improve quality and efficiency. The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) for example, publishes outcomes data for the states’ 172 …

The privacy and security risks of electronic health records

Kevin

Health Technology

November 30, 2009

Originally published in HCPLive.com

by Anthony Niehaus

As part of the 2009 HITECH Act, a national health information technology infrastructure (NHITI) is required for access and use of electronic health records resulting in a more “effective marketplace, greater competition… [and] increased consumer choice (HITECH Act, Section 3001(b)).”

Such a system is not only necessary, but it is cardinal to improving delivery and reducing costs …

How to choose the right electronic health record (EHR) consultant

Kevin

Health Technology

November 19, 2009

Originally published in HCPLive.com

by Jonathan Bertman, MD

You may have seen advertisements, or may already have been contacted by people who’ve promised to help you figure it all out so you can get your share of the stimulus money. Be wary. The truth is that the Obama administration is still defining many essential elements of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), and full details about the …

Implementing an EMR or health IT system is harder than it looks

Robert Wachter, MD

Health Technology

October 31, 2009

In 2001, when my colleagues and I ranked nearly 100 patient safety practices on the strength of their supporting evidence (for an AHRQ report), healthcare IT didn’t make the top 25. We took a lot of heat for, as one prominent patient safety advocate chided me, “slowing down the momentum.” Some called us Luddites.

Although we hated to be skunks at the IT party, we felt that the facts spoke for …

Google Android versus the iPhone for medical apps

Kevin

Health Technology

October 20, 2009

by Jeff Brandt

Verizon, Motorola, and Google, along with 9 other cell phone manufactures and countless world carriers, have teamed up to provide a smartphone with the power to deliver useful applications for medicine: the Verizon “Droid” smartphone, based on the Google Android operating system (OS).

The Droid’s processor is the same processor that powers the iPhone. The main reasons this …