NHS Digitization To Save Taxpayers Millions

The shift towards digital patient records could save the British taxpayer millions of dollars through efficiency gains, according to an article in ComputerWorld.

The digitization of patient records has been mandatory in the NHS since 2000, and GPs nationwide are now creating electronic data for each of their patients.

But within these same surgeries remain the old-style ‘Lloyd George’ patient medical records, which must still be stored and shared physically should a patient wish to change doctor.

Lloyd George records were paper-based and stored in envelopes, making them an administrative burden for the health service. Under the present system, these records still need to be sent off to a processing center for redistribution to the patient’s new healthcare provider.

Don't miss the Mobile Device Roundtable on March 16

From the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC):

The Mobile Device Roundtable is free and open to the public and will focus on safeguarding health information and provide participants with real world usages and real world privacy and security practices.

Friday, March 16, 2012
8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT

The purpose of the roundtable is to gather leading individuals in health and technology to bring about awareness and understanding to those in the clinical sector regarding securing and protecting health information while using mobile devices. The roundtable will cover a wide variety of initiatives, including:

· The current privacy and security legal framework for mobile devices accessing, storing and/or transmitting health information.
· Everyday usage of mobile devices by providers and other health care delivery professionals to understand their expectations, attitudes, challenges and needs.
· Gathering input from providers and other health care delivery professionals regarding the information (and format) they want and need to help them safeguard health information on their mobile devices, as well as input on existing and emerging privacy and security good practices, strategies and technologies.

The Mobile Device Roundtable will take place in Washington, DC and will include three panels of federal agency representatives, practicing providers and representatives of research, provider and industry organizations. You and your readers are welcome to attend in person or via webcast.

For more information, please visit the Mobile Device Roundtable webpage.

The popHealth Tool Development Challenge

Want to create an app and enter a contest by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology? Build something for popHealth.

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, eligible health care professionals and hospitals can qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments when they adopt certified EHR technology and use it to achieve specified objectives. These "Meaningful Use" objectives include measureable benchmarks providers must meet to qualify for the incentive payments. popHealth is an open source software service developed under the guidance of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) that automates the reporting of the Stage 1 Meaningful Use clinical quality measures. popHealth integrates with a healthcare provider’s electronic health record (EHR) system using continuity of care records. It streamlines the automated generation of summary quality measure reports on the provider’s patient population.

Top mobile apps for health IT students and professionals

Healthcare IT News has a story about the top mobile apps for health IT students and professionals. They interviewed Hertencia Bowe, the national health information management program coordinator for Rasmussen College about mobile apps that can help health IT professionals be "more knowledgeable, prepared and organized when they're on the job."

Here are the top 10 apps that she recommends for health IT students and professionals:

1. Drug Flashcards
2. New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
3. Awesome Note
4. ToodleDo
5. Living Medical Textbooks
6. Dragon Medical Search
7. mSecure Password Manager
8. Google Fusion Tables and health data
9. ICD 9
10. Skyscape Medical Resources 

To read the entire story on Healthcare IT News, click here.

Personally, I think this is a fair list, but it doesn't include some of the most popular medical apps like Epocrates or Medscape. Then again, health IT students and professionals may not need to access clinical apps as frequently as medical professionals. However, if you're doing to include apps like NEJM and Skyscape in this list, then we shouldn't forget about others like Epocrates, Medscape, Unbound Medicine, PEPID, etc. I realize that it's difficult to limit a list of "top apps" to 10 apps when some of these apps also overlap in terms of content and functionality. 

I was also a bit surprised that Healthcare IT News published this story and this list of apps when it doesn't even include their own Healthcare IT News app! (I suppose they didn't want the story to appear to be too self-promoting. You could include the Fierce Markets app to provide some fair balance).

STATworkUP for iPhone and iPad

Clinical decision support or CDS is a popular phrase these days. Physicians are implementing electronic health records and using computers in their clinical practice. They have access to a wealth of clinical data through the Internet, so they should be making better clinical decisions if they're tapping into this wealth of information, right? Those who are applying the latest evidence are treating patients using true evidence-based principles.

STATworkUP is a clinical decision support tool that's available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Here's some information about this app:

• Designed exclusively for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch to bring an exceptional user experience to health care providers and students.
• STATworkUP integrates Problems, Tests, Disorders and Remedies to help evaluate complex issues.
• This application contains a collection of evidence-based facts and associations that may be useful for quick review of many details that can help to guide problem assessments.

You can learn about STATworkUP  here: http://www.iatrocom.org/

Epic releases iPhone app called Haiku (Electronic Health Record)

According to this story on Healthcare IT News:

Electronic health record vendor Epic has just released Haiku, an iPhone application that provides authorized users with secure access to schedules, patient lists, health summaries, test results and notes.

The app is a free download on iTunes, but the user must belong to an organization that licenses Haiku and is currently on Epic's Summer 2009, according the the product description on iTunes.

What other Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendor has an iPhone app?

• Allscripts has one. 
• NextGen will be releasing an EHR Mobile app for the iPhone. 
• eClinicalWorks will be coming out with eClinicalMobile 2.0, an iPhone app. 

I'm sure we'll see other EHR/EMR vendors come out with iPhone apps in 2010. Where are the Android apps? 

Medical smartphone use in other countries

How are smartphones used by medical professionals in other countries? The U.S. is reacting to a major push by President Obama to incorporate electronic health records (EHRs) and to leverage computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems. As a result, we've seen a surge of medical applications for smartphones, especially the Apple iPhone. Several EHR vendors are providing iPhone apps for their EHR platform. I expect we will see many more as health information technology (health IT, HIT, HITECH) becomes the cornerstone to healthcare reform in this country.

So what about other countries? What about places where technology has deeply penetrated the entire market? I think about Asia. In metropolitan areas like Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul, we see mobile phones used everywhere - even underground. Are doctors in Asian countries using smartphones for many medical applications? Or, are they mainly using them like ordinary consumers?

So what about other non-Asian nations? Are physicians leveraging the wealth of smartphone clinical support tools as they treat patients at the point of care? President Obama is using health IT to push healthcare reform efforts. If other countries also need to reform their healthcare system, should they follow the same model and leverage health IT resources?