Health IT

Why doctors are getting their asses kicked by technology

Physician
June 29, 2022

Physicians have terrible technology, but they refuse to recognize high-tech as a medical specialty. They must integrate technology as they do laboratory science.

Physicians are certainly suffering from poorly-designed electronic medical records (EHR), but they are also guilty of wilful blindness in abdicating responsibility for technology in medicine. This must change.

Physicians have a higher suicide rate than post-combat troops in the military. A lot of this is due …

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The “wonder years” of health care

Physician
June 28, 2022

In the wake of medical home certification, meaningful use, the Cures Act, and the pandemic, it’s clear that virtually all health care is now built on a digital foundation. EHRs are pervasive in the delivery system and are increasingly connected to practice management software, virtual visit, mobile capabilities, health information exchanges, and population health platforms. As we consider the criticality of interoperability throughout this evolving digital ecosystem, I’m moved to …

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3 reasons practices should implement patient-initiated collaborative texting

Tech
June 12, 2022

Medical care continues to advance at a frenetic pace, with new diagnostics, treatments, and therapies arriving monthly. So why are medical communications still stuck in the 20th century?

Despite the ubiquitous presence of smartphones among consumers of all ages, medical practices still use one-to-one telephone calls as the primary communications vehicle. While some communications have moved to patient portals, responses often take hours — or days — if they are answered …

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How the EHR is like a growing blob

Physician
June 11, 2022

I’m not sure about you, but May 27 cannot come soon enough for me. Finally, after three years, we will get the next installment of Stranger Things and another round of monsters, friendships, and 80s memories.

For those of us Gen X-ers who grew up when all that retro fashion and music wasn’t retro, it’s a return to simpler days. Thankfully we didn’t have to worry about demogorgons IRL back then.

Now …

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To scribe or not to scribe? That is the question.

Physician
May 29, 2022

By this title, I mean whether it is a good idea or not to hire a scribe to enter data into the electronic medical record (EMR) system.

I favor having a scribe. I came of age with paper charts, and I found the transition to EMR tricky and time-consuming.

My chief argument favoring scribes is that scribes can save doctors a lot of time. And by saving time, scribes can also help …

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How AI-based technology can help improve hospital capacity management

Tech
May 19, 2022

The events of the past two years have irrevocably shifted hospital capacity management practices. From new COVID-19 variants and unpredictable surges to downstream impacts like delayed procedures and the great reshuffling and resignation of hospital staff, hospitals have never been more critical to adopt solutions that optimally manage their capacity.

Still, too often in the inpatient space, nursing managers and directors are forced to rely on manual data, intuition, and past …

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Why clinician buy-in is key to digital health transformation

Tech
May 18, 2022

It was a summer day seven years ago. We had closed our first U.S. hospital customer for my digital health company, which enables health systems to deliver digital care journeys for patients (e.g., surgery, oncology, chronic care, etc.).

I was ecstatic! Unfortunately, our excitement was short-lived.

We “implemented” our solution, but patient enrollment was going poorly. When we went on-site to investigate, we learned that surgeons were pushing back against patients getting …

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Patient platforms should be intuitive in design and execution

Tech
May 15, 2022

Patients need access to their health care data and health care consumers need access to their health care information. Data and information are not the same. Data is akin to the ingredients for a meal, while information is more like the meal. Imagine ordering a meal in a restaurant. The wait staff brings the ingredients to your table. You still need a chef to prepare the dinner. This is much …

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Your doctors don’t keep track of what they’re doing

Tech
May 12, 2022

A little-known fact about doctors that most patients would find horrifying is that physicians don’t keep track of their results.

If I botch a knee surgery so badly that my patient requires five repairs by a different specialist, I might never find out. As a result, I will continue to use a flawed technique on patient after patient. The fact that I never hear from any of them again will be …

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How much time do physicians spend in the EHR?

Physician
April 10, 2022

Doctors often find the electronic health record (EHR) time-consuming and annoying. However, quantitative estimates of physicians’ time on EHR tasks are sparse and not collated. We assembled evidence on hours dedicated to the EHR each day by physicians. The result is impressive – 4.5 hours.

A little background: EHR systems started in the late 1960s. The federal government implemented VistA in the 1970s in the Department of Veteran …

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A critique of interoperability, big data, and AI in medicine

Tech
March 27, 2022

Today medical records are developed for a single encounter (an outpatient visit or hospital stay). The medical records for an encounter are signed off at the end of the encounter and cannot be changed. An addendum medical record can be added later to correct misinformation in the encounter medical records, but this is seldom done.

This process enables medical documents to be legal recordings of what happened during each encounter. But …

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5 ways that health IT can improve health equity

Tech
March 23, 2022

On March 10, I had the distinct privilege of presenting to the ONC Health IT Advisory Committee at their meeting titled “Health Equity by Design.” The presentation highlighted five areas of focus for health IT in reducing health disparities: health equity data collection, actionable analysis of the data, integration of health care and social service providers, the special role that health information exchanges (HIEs) can play, and access to health …

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The myth of physician resistance

Tech
March 21, 2022

I’m an RN and clinical informaticist. When I was studying health care informatics, I learned about physician resistance. The idea is that physicians are uniquely resistant to EHRs and health care information technology (HIT) apps. If only they went to more training or spent more of their limited time customizing their preferences, they would get the benefits of the EHR. For years, I believed this to be true.

Yet, I had …

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How an AI bot transformed my EHR experience

Tech
March 19, 2022

What is it about the documentation of patient encounters that is so aggravating? I was ecstatic to be part of the generation that entered the computer age in medicine. The first day I opened a chart on a pull-down menu within a pixelated screen I felt like I was ushering in the future. We would be able to mine charts for clinical gold!

As a clinician, I value the …

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3 ways interoperability will improve health care

Tech
March 7, 2022

In health information technology circles, interoperability has become quite the buzzword. A Google search for “Interoperability in Healthcare” yielded 28 million results. Given its pervasiveness, it’s not surprising that the precise meaning of the term is often obscured. The 21st Century Cures Act defined three key components of interoperability: “(A)… the secure exchange of electronic health information with, and use of electronic health information from, other health …

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Human nature will help patients better than any algorithm or AI

Tech
March 4, 2022

Tapping into the mindset of one of the most villainous cinematic computers, the HAL 9000 of 2001 A Space Odyssey, may provide introspection to save us from the same paranoid meltdown that led HAL (spoiler alert) to embark on a murderous rampage. Homicidal activity should not be a lurking risk in any of us, but burnout is.

Briefly, in case you are unfamiliar with Stanly Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi …

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The artistic side of a broken pot: a story about Oracle and Cerner

Tech
March 4, 2022

I recently had an opportunity to assist a hospital organization with its electronic health records implementation in Las Vegas. I’m usually working non-stop during implementations, but I was ecstatic when I could get a break from work to sightseeing. I arranged with a tour bus to explore the Grand Canyon (I’m not much into gambling).

I reported to the tour bus at 6 a.m. and was ushered inside the remarkably comfortable …

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Want to improve telehealth? Ask people with disabilities.

Policy
March 4, 2022

Telehealth is the best option for millions of Americans, but more Americans need to be included.

Three-hundred-and-thirty U.S. health organizations have called on Congress to act swiftly in renewing waivers that allow for the provision of telehealth services and to consider permanently allowing virtual health services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has established that telehealth and technology-delivered services — like apps — are here to stay and benefit …

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Break the rules of health care with technology

Tech
February 23, 2022

In the 21st century, all but one U.S. industry has used information technology (IT) to cut costs, increase access to products and services, and improve quality.

Health care is the lone exception. For decades, medical costs have risen faster than inflation — with spending now above $4 trillion annually. For patients, accessing medical care is both time-consuming and burdensome. Meanwhile, U.S. health …

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