In The Know - MEDSEEK News and Expert Opinion on the eHealth Industry

The Information Age has passed the healthcare industry by… but not for long

If you read the preamble as described in  “Meaningful Use: A Definition - Recommendations from the Meaningful Use Workgroup to the Health IT Policy Committee” created June 16, 2009, it states,

 

“In 2008, the National Priorities Partnership, convened by the National Quality Forum (NQF), released a report entitled ‘National Priorities and Goals’ which identified a set of national priorities to help focus performance improvement efforts. Among these priorities were patient engagement, reduction of racial disparities, improved safety, increased efficiency, coordination of care, and improved population health. These priorities were used to create the framework for ‘meaningful use’ of an electronic health record. An additional area related to privacy and security has also been included to emphasize the importance of preserving patient protections and ensuring patient trust in the use of electronic health records.”

 

The patient in today’s Internet connected world has become an ePatient. While the health industry struggled with the concept of a virtual consumer, other industries did not. Hospital executives and physicians have grown accustomed to using Web portals, participating in social networking sites, paying bills online, scheduling flights and appointments and registering for events and services. More than likely, they now use a debit card more frequently than cash. Yet, some executives report that they do not use their own hospital Web site for scheduling an appointment online because it is too difficult or isn’t convenient.

Guess what?

Their current and future patients are saying the same thing.

 

‘Meaningful Use’ has changed all of this. Information technology, specifically eHealth online services, will soon become “the norm.” The sooner the industry begins to provide convenience and access to health services utilizing online tools (what almost every other industry has done) - the better we all will be.

 

To illustrate what is happening and willhappen, read the insightful article in this month’s issue of HealthLeaders.

To read the complete article follow the link.

 

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/238742/page/1/topic/WS_HLM2_MAG/The-Patient-of-the-Future.html

You Won’t Go In To See The Doctor

“I love the Internet and so do you,” says Dr. Jay Parkinson, a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, on his Web site www.jayparkinsonmd.com.

Don’t expect to find a traditional physician website, in fact don’t expect to find a traditional physician. As Dr. Parkinson notes, “I’m Dr. Jay Parkinson and I’m a new kind of physician. I mix the old with the new. I believe in truly knowing your doctor. I also believe in the Internet. Why not mix the two to keep you as healthy as possible?” He has found a way to use traditional methods of practicing medicine while also incorporating the power of the Internet into his practice.

Recently CNN highlighted how the Internet has changed the way we bank, travel, reserve movie tickets, and make restaurant reservations. Now the Internet is beginning to transform the way we do health care. This article and corresponding video highlight ways in which some eHealth pioneers now leverage the Internet to meet consumer’s expectations for transactions related to their health care needs.

Click hereto check out ways the Internet is reinventing healthcare and see the latest on virtual clinics and health information sites.

What do Patients Want?

The Commonwealth Fund has released the results of its 2008 Survey of Public Views of the U.S. Health Care System, conducted by Harris Interactive. According to a telephone survey of 1,004 random U.S. adults, 80 percent of respondents believe that the healthcare system needs either fundamental change or complete rebuilding.

Rep. Stark Seeks Faster EMR Adoption with New Health IT Bill with Incentives

From Fierce Healthcare -  http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/press-releases/stark-introduces-health-e-information-technology-act

Stark introduces Health-e Information Technology Act

September 22, 2008

reThinking eHealth Webinar Announced: Give the Providers What They Want

Birmingham, Ala.– July 21, 2008 –MEDSEEK, the leading provider of enterprise portal connectivity solutions, announced today that Dr. Asim Masood of William Osler Health Centre and Dr. Jay Wallin of Mount Carmel Health System will present a Webinar in the monthly educational series reThinking eHealth. The session, titled “Give the Providers What They What: Two physicians share ways their facilities have improved provider satisfaction,” will take place on Wednesday August 27th at 2pm EDT, 11am PDT.

MEDSEEK Unveils New Educational Webinar Series: reThinking eHealth

Birmingham, Ala.– July 15, 2008 –MEDSEEK, the leading provider of enterprise portal connectivity solutions, announced today that it will present a monthly webinar series focused on the unique challenges facing the healthcare industry in the “Age of Consumerism.”

One million health consumers and counting

Not all RHIOs are fading.  Just look north for clinical connectivity and interoperability success.  William Osler Health Centre, with partners AGFA Healthcare and MEDSEEK, is delivering real clinical value to their physicians and community.

Here's a quote from Judy Middleton, CIO at William Osler, published in a recent article in The Brampton Guardian regarding Osler's successful adoption of MEDSEEK's Clinical Portal and it's expansion to the entire LHIN.   

clipped from www.northpeel.com "This makes us trailblazers," said Judy Middleton, Chief Information Officer for WOHC. "If a physician has a patient at Osler, and the patient says 'I've been at Oakville or I've been at Credit Valley', then all the information from their visits will be accessible by the physician. So in terms of expediting treatment and care, you have much more information (at your disposal)."

Where are RHIOs and clinical connectivity initiatives heading?

While the news about the ongoing viability of RHIOs continues to be questioned, MEDSEEK is one of the few vendors creating a broad reaching connectivity platform to exchange clinical information between hospital and physician practice systems. While we're proud of our track record, it's gratifying  when other people recognize our contributions. Take a look at a recent post to the HISTalk blog by Art Vandelay (an obvious alias):

“Re: RHIO failures. I attended a set of meetings for our local health information exchanges (HIE). The first stumbling blocks were the politics and the leveling of the data competitive advantage a few organizations experienced. These issues weren’t resolved before the lack of a sustainable business model and funds for initial investment seem to have really impacted the project. We never really got around to the privacy concerns. Without a government mandate or a realignment of incentives, this just isn’t going to happen soon. I see this concept coming-back in about 5-10 years, once the vast majority of the country has baseline clinical data repositories installed and functioning and the standards committees have had time to meet and align. Very localized initiatives where hospitals exchange data with their affiliated physicians’ computerized medical records are likely to start springing-up in the place of HIEs. This scope can be managed. Vendors to watch include Novo Innovations, Medicity, MedSeek and dBMotion. The technologies and services of these vendors seem to set them apart from others in the pack.”

We have experienced what Art (Seinfeld fan perhaps) describes first hand. One such customer is working with us to develop connectivity with community physicians, as part of a broader patient portal and clinical portal initiative. Most recently we achieved a major milestone that moved beyond our eConnect application's ability to push/pull clinical data between the medial center's information system and physician EMRs from GE Healthcare and Cerner. With support from GE and Cerner (after customer encouragement), MEDSEEK delivered the ability to "post" the hospital encounter data directly into the physician's EMR. While this is not rocket science, it does illustrate the evolution of data connectivity between systems, from real-time access/viewing to sharing and transfer of ownership.

For more on our clinical connectivity projects (an example of a successful regional RHIO) read our case study on the Western North Carolina Health Network and its DataLink initiative. Their story was also picked up by Health Management Technology magazine.

Clinical Portal expands its REACH

More physicians gain access to the REACH (Rapid Electronic Access to Clinical Health information) Portal. Physicians at Credit Valley Hospital can now participant in the collaborative care initiative between six hospitals in Peel and Halton regions. Read the full story.

This is an exciting development for MEDSEEK as more physicians and hospitals share information with each other through the REACH clinical portal. While the physician portal has been live for some time, physician adoption continues.

"Integrating our system with William Osler Health Centre and Halton Healthcare Services will reduce the duplication of tests and by doing so, reduce healthcare costs." says Dan Germain, Credit Valley vice president and e-Health lead for the Mississauga Halton Local Health Integration Network. "What's most important is the benefit to patients, especially in emergency situations when access to comprehensive patient information is critical."

The REACH web portal provides access to over 90,000 inpatient stays and 1,050,000 outpatient visits for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007. Patient stays and visits from all three hospitals are consolidated into one web portal view for use by authorized clinicians.

Preparing for Your Portal Journey

Anthony Chipelo, Vice President of Portal Development, MEDSEEK

Healthcare delivery systems are being urged to make fundamental changes in the way healthcare is delivered to the public sector. Many executives are faced with the task of finding ways in which to close the quality gap that exists between rapidly advancing medical science and technology, and the inability of health care delivery systems to provide a consistent level of high-quality care. Today, pressure from organizations such as the LeapFrog Group and the Patient Safety Institute, formed to support initiatives relative to improved patient satisfaction and quality of care, are foremost on the minds of executives as they struggle to maintain market competitiveness, while responding to industry and public demands.