April 2009

Public Health & Technology Conference at Harvard next week

Here’s the announcement: The Public Health & Technology (PHAT) Forum at the Harvard School of Public Health is proud to announce the first Public Health & Technology Conference, co-sponsored by the Department of Health Policy & Management and the Social Entrepreneurs In Health Student Group. Despite health IT’s promise of better, faster, and cheaper health [...]

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Markle Foundation presenting “Getting Health IT Right Under the ARRA” at Newseum in DC on Thursday

As we all know, the terms “meaningful use” and “certified” will be defined through (hopefully) a new healthcare collaborative and not legacy vendors process this year. The Markle Foundation, which is a philanthropic organization that advises the government on various matters, is presenting their view on what “meaningful use” should mean and how that definition [...]

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NCVHS Executive Subcommittee Hearing Defining "Meaningful Use" to be held April 28th and 29th in DC

Yesterday the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) announced that it’s holding a public hearing to define the ARRA’s “Meaningful Use” of EMRs concept. NCVHS is of course one of the oldest public boards that advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Here’s their introduction: The NCVHS Executive Subcommittee will hold [...]

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Are medication alerts useless since most clinicians override them anyway?

A February 2009 internal medicine study entitled “Overrides of Medication Alerts in Ambulatory Care” concludes the following: Clinicians override most medication alerts, suggesting that current medication safety alerts may be inadequate to protect patient safety. In my work I have certainly seen many alerts constantly being overridden but I didn’t realize how big an issue [...]

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Physicians are not technology averse

As a thought leader in the healthcare IT space I get a lot of emails that blame physicians for not changing their behavior and not more more easily accepting information technology. The IT solutions folks and vendors often complain "if only physicians would just accept our system the hospital would benefit, the government would get [...]

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ManageMyPractice.com: Technology, Information & Resources for the Medical Practice Manager

I ran across this interesting blog today. Found some well written postings that are IT related: Open Your Mind: 29 Uses of Twitter for Medical Practices Quick Reference for Acronyms and Buzzwords of ARRA and HITECH The 5 IT Skillsets Every Physician Practice Manager Needs to Succeed in 2009 and Beyond Listservs vs Twitter: Are [...]

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HIMSS Discussion Drafts on Meaningful Use Open until April 17

In case you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to review the HIMSS Discussion Drafts on Meaningful Use site. Here’s the purpose of the site; I think they’re trying to be transparent and we need to help them out: Welcome to the HIMSS discussion forum on the definitions of meaningful use of certified [...]

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Guest Article: What will make healthcare software usable?

Last month I posted several entries about how difficult most healthcare software is to use – those articles garnered lots of “yes, you’re right” type of comments along with a number of emails asking for help on how to improve usability. Usability describes the "ability to use" something — the goal for a usable system [...]

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Guest Article: Leveraging Technology to Drive Patient Centered Medical Home Initiatives

Of all major healthcare technology strategies, patient centered medical home (PCMH) initiatives, while still in their infancy, have the potential of significantly improving outcomes. I’ve been following the medical home concept and technology surrounding the initiatives for some time now and am excited to hear consumer electronics companies, traditional IT firms, and finally existing healthcare [...]

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What consumers think about online health resources, PHRs, EHRs, and other important topics

I’m a big fan of evidence over eminence when it comes to making decisions around healthcare IT. Deloitte does some great research and this morning I saw this 2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers. As the website says: The 2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers, conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, is Deloitte’s [...]

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