Case studies show how health IT fits in today
Filed under: Health care reform, Health data, Hospitals, Hot Health Headline
Writing for content, document and knowledge management publication KMWorld, David Raths evaluates applications of health information technology, or HIT, in a set of case studies which he wraps up into a handy overview of the utility and potential of HIT and electronic medical records. Raths breaks HIT up into specific applications because, he writes, the very thing that loads HIT with so much potential – the byzantine complexity and built-in inefficiency of the American health care system – also serves as its biggest obstacle.
“The sheer complexity of the healthcare setting is off-putting,” says Alan Pelz-Sharpe, a principal at CMS Watch covering enterprise content management technologies. “Joining up the clinical and administrative, not to mention the insurance part, is a spectacular challenge.”
A hospital has many small departments and people don’t tend to think outside their department, he says. Deploying enterprise content management solutions is difficult when there are so many interlinking elements in the healthcare chain, and nobody really owns the overall process from beginning to end. “There is usually not one unifying solution,” Pelz-Sharpe says, “but lots of departmental solutions.”
A few of the solutions Raths explores:
- Systems to integrate the paper, which will inevitably be part of any system, with EMR systems. Other systems will help integrate existing paper archives with EMRs.
- Systems that speed up the decision-making process and collaboration between physicians while better recording exactly why decisions were made.
- Administrative-side systems used by hospitals to navigate through health care’s financial maze.
- Cloud-based systems that envision health IT as a service.
The Economist tackles ‘Health 2.0′
An extensive special report in the April 16 edition of The Economist examines the ways technology is changing approaches to health care. The package covers everything from fancy new technologies to the public health potential of mobile phones in the developing world.
It is easy to be sceptical about such online communities. A fatal illness will not be cured by Twittering about it. And for many people nothing will replace the personal relationship between a patient and his doctor. But it seems clear that patients are going online to get more information on their illness, to see what other consumers think of new medications and to get emotional support from fellow sufferers.
The Economist also discovers significant shifts in the way consumers access and respond to health information.
The most influential health blogs on the web, he finds, are those that offer people with chronic illnesses medically relevant and accurate information. One post from a trusted surgeon blogger, he says, now has a far more immediate impact on improving surgical care globally than a peer-reviewed trial published in a prestigious journal.
Articles in the special report include:
- Medicine goes digital: Speculation that, as they begins to converge with the field of engineering, biology and medicine are transitioning into industries based on information, rather than discovery
- Health and information technology: The growth and future of electronic medical records
- Digital medicine: “…health-care providers and drug companies must shift to a culture of continuous improvement of the sort that made Toyota famous”
- Personalised medicine: The promises and pitfalls of widely available, cheap personal genome sequencing
- Developing countries and health: “Developing countries are using mobile phones to leapfrog to personalised medicine”
- Micro-technology and health: How micro-technology is driving advances in surgery, diagnostics and doctor-patient interactions
Doctors present new technologies to investors
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Hot Health Headline
AHCJ member Tinker Ready, on Boston Health News, writes that research institutions and companies presented their inventions to investors at Harvard Medical School on Monday.
An illuminated catheter, an artificial retina, a system to shrink tonsils and a device to deliver drugs to the brain were among the products at the “Early-Stage Life Sciences Technology Conference.”
Ready points out that the “the debate over the growing overlap between academia and industry remains unresolved,” with some seeing the effort as a threat to academic integrity.
Obama highlights technology in reform efforts
President Barack Obama has said that improving health care and access to health care in this country will be a priority in his administration. As The Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog and Scientific American point out, he mentioned health care twice in his inaugural address, including a vow to “wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.”
However, an article in ModernHealthcare reports on a survey that found 60 percent of Americans think that “when considering the federal budget, the incoming president and Congress should keep spending on health IT the same.” The Kaiser Family Foundation has an explanation of “How Changes in Medical Technology Affect Health Care Costs” from March 2007.
Obama
Computerworld says an electronic health records system could save the nation $300 billion a year, but that Obama faces some daunting hurdles in implementing such a system.
Froma Harrop, on Real Clear Politics, writes that foes of Obama’s proposed health care reforms are trying to defeat it by using unflattering labels, such as “socialized medicine” and “government takeover of health care.” But, she writes that, this time, “a national health plan may survive the bad rap.”
There certainly is no shortage of ideas about how to reform the system. The “inaugural edition” of Grand Rounds - a weekly summary of medical blogs - at MedPageToday is dedicated to health care reform, offering suggestions from the medical blogosphere. In the Jan. 26 issue of The New Yorker, Atul Gawande, M.D., writes about moving toward a national health care plan and looks at how other countries have undertaken the process. The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer recently ran three stories about some of the health care challenges that President-elect Obama and Congress are facing.
A Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey asked experts about priorities for the incoming administration and found a strong mandate for major elements of Obama’s health care reform proposal unveiled during the campaign.
Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is optimistic that Obama can reform health care and hopes funding for cancer research will increase under the new administration.
Update: Scientific American examines whether Obama is right that technology can lower health care costs.
Note: AHCJ is gathering resources to track Obama’s plans for health care reform, as well as related topics in the new administration, such as appointments to surgeon general, HHS and FDA. Recent articles examine why previous health reform efforts have failed, key players in health care reform and steps to increase the efficiency of the health care system. A tip sheet has links to previous coverage as well as contact information for some important sources.
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Health Journalism 2010, AHCJ's annual conference, features a world-class program with story ideas, sources, stronger reporting skills, chances to meet newsmakers and network with other journalists.
- Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats
- Reporting on the business of health care
- Health reporting resources for journalists on state and local government beats
- Shortened Lives: How location, lifestyle affect health
- Covering a complex story for the long haul
- Aging in the 21st Century: Presentations and tip sheets
- AHCJ calls for better information from Joint Commission Web site
