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@ShahidNShah

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A collection of 155  Posts

Physician Office Usage of Electronic Healthcare Records Software

SK&A recently surveyed 180,000 medical sites as to their current usage of EHR. That’s one of the largest national surveys I’ve seen — the numbers are about what we expect but it’s great to see that someone actually spent the time doing real research instead of just quoting other smaller surveys. Seems like the SK&A guys are serious about healthcare data. Nice work.

Shahid N. Shah

Guest Article: Human Centering in Healthcare IT

I’ve been spending a lot of time on human-computer interactions in healthcare technology these days (both hardware and software). It’s a very hard problem to solve, especially with complex systems like EMRs. To help talk more about how to better design patient-centric healthcare technology, I’ve reached out to Steven Deal, Vice President and systems engineer for Deal Corp, a Dayton-area engineering research firm that specializes in this kind of work. Steven is also volunteer secretary for the Center for Innovation in Family and Community Health, a non-profit organization in the Dayton area so he knows about healthcare technology. Here’s what Steven had to say about human centering of healthcare IT: One approach to reining in healthcare spending is the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH). The PCMH model is intended to reinvigorate primary care by focusing on patient needs and desires. Primary care reduces costs by systematizing healthcare delivery; it counters the piece parts (specialist-driven) approach that results in redundant, costly, and often unnecessary, procedures. The PCMH delivery system is said to be patient centered, but just what does it mean to be “centered?” Requirements for centering preferentially address the needs of one or more of a system’s stakeholders. Alternately, a system could be centered on a particular enabling technology. For example, personal computer systems were built around the enabling technology of microprocessors. So if you are patient centered, you are first and foremost addressing the needs of patients. This approach seems like a no-brainer, since healthcare, or more correctly medical care, is all about addressing patient needs? What else would you center it on? There are actually many options and a lot of them are being implemented today. For example, healthcare could be centered on doctors, on payers, on medical schools, on hospitals, on the government healthcare systems (Medicare, Medicaid), on insurance companies, on research, on pharmaceuticals, or on information technology. If you look closely at the principles of PCMH, it’s not too hard to see that it is really partially doctor centered and partially payer centered. The tug-of-war that is the Washington healthcare-reform debate is really about which stakeholder will come out on top.

Shahid N. Shah

Meet the bloggers (and other New Media personalities) at HIMSS

I’m hoping to see many of my friends at HIMSS this year and I’m working with great folks like John Lynn to setup several unofficial meetups at HIMSS for those of us reading or writing blogs or other New Media tech like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Our previous HIMSS meetups have been fun and productive at the same time (they’re great networking events). I say unofficial meetup because HIMSS has some official sessions with bloggers which are a bit more formal (and equally valuable).

Shahid N. Shah

Report: How to get your hands on $900 Million in Federal Health IT and $70 Billion in Health Tech

Here’s a new report you’ll like if you’re interested in getting your contractor hands on federal healthcare tech dollars (including health IT). Here’s the introduction from the report: The U.S. Federal government will spend more than $385 billion on healthcare – not including Medicare spending – in GFY2010. Nearly $70 billion of that will go to government contractors in the area of healthcare technology. Note that $70 billion will be spent on healthcare technology, not simply health IT.

Shahid N. Shah

$99 Wii Balance Board Outperforms $17,885 Medical Device

I love these kinds of stories. Last week Gizmodo posted In Early Tests, $99 Wii Balance Board Outperforms $17,885 Medical Rig which was initially reported in New Scientist’s Wii board helps physios strike a balance after strokes. Basically, the story revolves around a paper published by Ross Clark in which Clark’s team compared a $99 Wii Balance Board (used in gaming and exercising while connected to the Wii console) to an almost $18,000 force platform.

Shahid N. Shah

Beware EMR bullies quoting federal stimulus rules

I’ve been hearing a lot of stories these days about EMR companies telling potential physician customers that they need to buy a sophisticated or “full blown” EMR right now in order to get any stimulus funds. Some of my readers have asked whether this is true or not so let me set the record straight. Yes, it’s true that the ARRA HITECH Act clearly states (in section 4101, page 353) that the government shall provide “incentives for adoption and meaningful use of certified EHR technology.

Shahid N. Shah

Social networking 101 for physicians

Massachusetts Medical Law Report’s Social networking 101 for physicians is a great summary for physicians who are looking to get into social networking or have already been participating for some time. It’s got some great tips that sound obvious but should be heeded carefully: Be mindful of patient confidentiality. Remember that your patients are not your ‘friends.’ Monitor your web presence regularly. Take advice from online doctors’ forums with a grain of salt.

Shahid N. Shah

Markle gives sound advice on “Meaningful Use of Health IT” to policy makers (again)

The Markle Foundation has been giving some very reasonable advice on the use of IT and technology in general for the healthcare industry. Their most important advice, if heeded by lawmakers, would put to effective use the billions of dollars that have been earmarked for healthcare IT in the ARRA stimulus bill. I loved what they said in their letter to Frizzera (CMS), Blumenthal (ONCHIT), and Orszag (OMB). On page 3:

Shahid N. Shah
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