Health Informatics

The latest ‘doc fix’ bill, H.R. 1470, was introduced last week. Though it has quite a ways to go before it’s sent to conference or passed, the bill has some pretty nice language for telemedicine and care coordination enthusiasts. Though it’s probably less than I would like, Section 4 (Encouraging Care Management for Individuals with Chronic Care Needs) is a great start. The telehealth language is pretty general but I like how it is making sure that telemedicine isn’t precluded from being reimbursed. ...

Our vision of providing a series of packed one day events focused on practical, relevant, and actionable health IT advice were very well received in Houston, NYC, and Santa Monica earlier this year. Our next event is in Chicago and we’re going to continue to eschew canned PowerPoint decks which limit conversations and instead deliver on the implications of major trends and operationalizable advice about where to successfully apply IT in healthcare settings. ...

I’ve been getting many questions these days about big data tools and solutions, especially their role in healthcare analytics. I think that unless you’re doing large scale analysis of biomedical data such as genomics, it’s probably best to stick with traditional tried and true analytics tools. Online Analytics Processing (OLAP) can be invaluable for medical facilities to use when interpreting data and health informatics because most of that data is in relational, key-value, or hiearchical databases (such as MUMPS). ...

The push towards shifting the patient’s role from a passive recipient of care to an active member of the care-team looks set to gain further legislative backing. Earlier this year, the Health IT Standards Committee, along with The Joint Commission and ONC, laid out recommendations for integrating patient generated health data (PGHD) into Stage 3 Meaningful Use requirements. To see what this might mean to health IT and med tech vendors, I reached out to Zach Watson of TechnologyAdvice, who covers EHR related news, along with business intelligence, and other topics. ...

Events such as the annual HIMSS Conference take months to plan and properly execute which means that some topics and subject areas that are being covered at the conference might not be as timely as they could be. Also, event planners and selection committees choosing topics for keynotes and presentations do a pretty good job at picking the sessions they think will be the most widely applicable to a large audience. ...

These days I’ve been getting an increasing number of questions from some very smart readers of this blog about whether or not graduate degrees or technical (HIT-specific or otherwise) certifications are worth the effort. I’ve written a few posts recently on similar topics and those are worth reviewing: Check out these videos if you’re looking for healthcare IT jobs The realities of getting a job in healthcare IT How to get a job in healthcare IT when you don’t have specific experience My view on HIT (or other technical) certifications The last post in the list above goes into specific detail about what I think about certifications but I didn’t talk much about graduate degrees so I’ll elaborate a bit more on that here. ...