Posts Tagged “HIT”
ShowHide 3rd Party PapersMcKinsey Quarterly: A provider that creates a best-practice IT platform can generate significant operating efficiencies.
RAND Europe: Exploring business models for the implementation of value-creating and sustainable eHealth systems in Europe
Canadian Family Physician: New study looks at wheter computer use in patient-physician encounters influence patient satisfaction?
Milbank Quarterly: Electronic Patient Record Research: A Systematic Literature Review Using the Meta-narrative Method
ShowHide Commentary
More on EHR Benefits
by Kevin Roche on Monday, August 23, 2010
New research adds more caution to the promotion of great benefits from electronic medical records. The researchers found that in hospitals, costs actually increased and quality worsened by some measures, although improving by others.
NASCIO Report on Health Exchanges
by Kevin Roche on Friday, August 20, 2010
Another recent report looks at HIEs, which are part of the critical infrastructure for reform. The status of each state’s efforts and progress are detailed, as well as some general observations on lessons learned to date.
Tags: health information exchange, HIT
2010 Potpourri XXIX
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, August 14, 2010
Another Saturday, another Potpourri, featuring the acquisition of a hospital medical necessity company, Americans’ online health usage, analysis of prescriptions, California workers’ compensation, home monitoring of elderly parents, remote psychiatric evaluations and telemedicine to treat depression.
Tags: Care Management, Drugs, Elder Care, HIT, HomeCare, Medicare, Monitoring, Telemedicine, Workers Compensation
2010 Potpourri XXVII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, July 31, 2010
A lot of great items in this week’s potpourri, covering the acquisition of HealthGrades, what encourages men to get screenings, potential cheating on pay-for-performance schemes, the problems of a multi-payer system, improving heart failure care, Canada’s experience with EHRs and autonomous robot surgery.
Tags: HIT, M&A, Medicaid, Medical Care, Pay For Performance, Payor, Wellness and Prevention
More Misleading Tripe on Health Insurance Profits
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 29, 2010
Trashing insurance companies is popular and one of the most frequent complaints is about their premium increases and profits. A NEJM perspective uses misleading information to continue dumping on health plans.
Tags: Health Care Reform, HIT
Health Literacy
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A key premise of the consumer-directed health movement and a number of other health reform concepts is that patients can understand health information and choices and make good decisions. An AHRQ report gives reason to question that notion.
2010 Potpourri XXIV
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, July 10, 2010
Sitting indoors seeking relief from the summer heat? Here’s a montage of cool and refreshing health care items, including CPOE systems, accountable care organizations, Massachusetts’ reform experience, reducing imaging, and medical management trends.
Tags: Care Management, Government, Health Care Reform, HIT, Hospital, Medical Care
2010 Potpourri XXIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, June 26, 2010
Once more into the breach with the Saturday health care roundup, including medication adherence, monitoring patients’ health status in their homes, Massachusetts’ reform update and insurance costs, hospitals’ economic contribution, hospital cost shifting and consumers’ views on use of health IT.
Tags: Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, HomeCare, Hospital, Monitoring, Telemedicine
Medical Innovation and the American Economy
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Council for American Medical Innovation has released a report about the value of medical innovation to the United States’ economy. Concern is expressed about maintaining a vigorous medical product industry in the face of funding, reimbursement and regulatory challenges.
Tags: Devices, Health Care Costs, HIT
2010 Potpourri XXI
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, June 12, 2010
Another potpourri of health care items, including telemedicine, mergers and acquisitions, unnecessary medical care, Massachusetts struggle with health insurance rates and health costs, e-visits, and a different suggestion for reforming the system.
Tags: Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, M&A, Telemedicine
2010 Potpourri XX
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, June 5, 2010
More health care nuggets for the weekend, including personalized medicine, health reform, health insurance premiums, telemedicine, and community health centers.
Tags: Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, Medicaid, Medical Care, Personalized Medicine, Telemedicine
Virtual Physician Visits
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, June 3, 2010
One emerging trend in health care is a patient’s ability to interact electronically with physicians, including by video-conference, from a variety of locations. A study suggests that both physicians and patients find these video visits to be acceptable.
Tags: HIT, Physicians, Telemedicine
New Research on Telemedicine
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Telemedicine has been cited for its potential to improve access and lower costs for patients and providers. Several new articles discuss telemedicine use for various health needs.
Tags: HIT, Telemedicine
2010 Potpourri XIX
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, May 29, 2010
Summer is starting and you are just laying around at the beach or the lake, eager to get a few missed health care tidbits. Here they are! Telemedicine, health reform, employer provided health insurance, computers providing health care and a nice merger.
Tags: aquisitions, Health Care Quality, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance, HIT, Telemedicine
Chronic Disease Patients’ Use of the Internet
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, May 27, 2010
There is a lot of buzz about how the internet will affect health care and ultimately health. Research, including surveys, help keep us grounded with facts. As part of the research base, the Pew Research Center released a survey on chronic disease patients’ use of the internet.
Tags: Chronic Disease, HIT
2010 Potpourri XVIII
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, May 22, 2010
Yet another in our long series of weekend catchup on miscellaneous health care items that we missed in earlier commentaries, including telemedicine, smoking bans, engagement in wellness efforts, the cost of high-risk pools, telemedicine and getting results in health improvement programs.
Tags: Consumers, Health Care Reform, HIT, Telemedicine, Wellness and Prevention
Survey of Consumers and HIT
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The California HealthCare Foundation surveys consumers to ascertain attitudes toward health information technology. The results suggest that there is a high level of interest in using HIT but that few people either have access to core applications or have taken advantage of what is available.
Telehealth, EHRs & HIEs
by Kevin Roche on Monday, May 17, 2010
One of the regional telehealth resource centers has published a white paper on the inter-relationship between the growth of telehealth, electronic medical records and health information exchanges, particularly as they affect rural areas.
Tags: HIT, Telemedicine
Using Technology to Limit Medication Mistakes
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Errors in medication are far more common than might be imagined and cause serious adverse events. A NEJM article reports on efforts to use technology to limit such errors in hospitals.
2010 Potpourri XVI
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, May 8, 2010
No mother’s day would be complete without some health care news to ruminate on. This week’s include psychiatric drugs, the cost of the SGR fix, home health care costs, telemedicine and using computers to aid in diagnosis.
Tags: Drugs, Health Care Costs, Health Care Reform, HIT, Medicare, Telemedicine
Misleading VA Health Information System Numbers
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, April 22, 2010
EMRs are posited to provide enormous benefits to the health system. The Veteran’s Administration has one of the most comprehensive large EMR installations. An article in Health Affairs provides a very misleading picture of the supposed cost benefits of the system.
Tags: Health Care Costs, HIT
EMRs and Physician/Patient Communication
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Electronic medical records are touted as the solution to many health system problems, including improving information sharing. A Center for Studying Health System Change Issue Brief discusses potential benefits and challenges of EMRs in regard to patient/physician communication.
Tags: HIT, Physicians
EHRs and Diagnostic Errors
by Kevin Roche on Friday, April 2, 2010
A variety of benefits from expanded use of electronic medical or health records have been advanced by advocates. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine explores whether such electronic records can help limit the number of diagnostic mistakes by physicians and other health professionals.
Tags: HIT, Malpractice, Physicians
Physician Profiling Reliability
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Because physicians ultimately control so much of health care spending, understanding variations in their patterns of practice is important. A NEJM article examines the reliability and accuracy of physician profiling methods.
Tags: HIT, Physicians
EHRs, EHRs, EHRs
by Kevin Roche on Friday, March 19, 2010
With the stimulus money and Medicare incentives, electronic health record vendors are riding high. But many, many questions remain regarding the implementation, use and value of these systems in reducing cost and improving quality.
Tags: HIT
2010 Potpourri IX
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, March 13, 2010
One more sampling of health care news, covering provider reaction to the EHR meaningful use rule, telemedicine, people’s perceptions of their health status and insurance coverage and hospital costs and prices.
Tags: Health Care Costs, Health Insurance, HIT, Hospital
2010 Potpourri VI
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, February 20, 2010
Select from this menu of topics on health improvement incentives, genetic testing for cancer treatment, health plan collaboration on use of IT for administration, value-based insurance design and comparative effectiveness research.
Tags: Comparative Effectiveness, Health Insurance, HIT, Personalized Medicine
2010 Potpourri V
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, February 13, 2010
One more Saturday….morning. And another potpourri of health care news. This one includes health information technology, consumer directed health plans, guidelines, support group functioning, end-of-life care and telemedicine.
Tags: Consumer Directed Health, Consumers, End-of-Life Care, HIT, Pay For Performance, Telemedicine
Telemedicine and HIT In Developing Nations
by Kevin Roche on Monday, February 8, 2010
The current issue of Health Affairs has several articles focusing on the use of telemedicine and HIT to solve health problems in the developing world. The articles describe some success stories, challenges and opportunities for use of wireless and health information technologies to provide desperately needed improvement for persons in these areas.
Tags: HIT, Telemedicine
Quality Reporting Programs Impose Costs on Physician Practices
by Kevin Roche on Monday, January 25, 2010
Quality measurement and pay-for-performance programs continue to spread, in the belief that they will improve health care quality. A new study looks at the costs these programs impose on physician practices, finding that any financial incentives are usually lower than the costs.
Tags: Health Care Reform, HIT, Pay For Performance, Physicians
2010 Potpourri III
by Kevin Roche on Saturday, January 23, 2010
Healthy health care snacks–concierge medicine, personalized medicine, health care hiring, electronic medical records, Medicaid, disease management–all for your reading pleasure on the weekend.
Tags: Care Management, Chronic Disease, Disease Management, HIT, Medical Care, Personalized Medicine, Physician Practice Models, Physicians
Health Information Technology Acquisition Binge
by Kevin Roche on Monday, January 11, 2010
Lawson Software announced yet another health information technology acquisition. Much of this activity is driven by stimulus money and the related CMS incentives and penalties for use of EHRs and other health care software. Not all these acquisitions will end well.
Tags: HIT
Surveys Question EHR Value
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, January 7, 2010
In the midst of the “meaningful use” proposed rule release comes more research questioning some of the value attributed to implementation of EHRs. The first survey of physicians found that while they view EHRs as useful for billing documentation, the doctors don’t find them particularly helpful in care coordination. The second shows a range of rankings of value from specific vendors.
Tags: HIT
Meaningful Use Rules Draft Issued
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, January 5, 2010
HHS released its draft version of the rules relating to meaningful use of electronic health information systems and the criteria for which providers will receive incentive payments. Provider organizations did not react in an entirely favorable manner.
Tags: HIT
More EHR Reality
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, December 22, 2009
An article published in the Milbank Quarterly looked at the results of numerous studies of electronic health or medical record implementations, finding a mismatch between assumptions or beliefs about their value and what really occurred, particularly in regard to clinical improvement.
Tags: HIT
Study Says Hospital EMRs Don’t Save Money
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Researchers from Harvard University find that hospitals with more extensive use of electronic records have neither lower costs or better quality, but caution should be used as these researchers have a specific reform viewpoint.
International Survey of Primary Care Doctors
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Commonwealth Fund supported a survey of primary care physicians in several countries to compare their use of health IT, the availability of incentives, patient payment issues and other matters. The United States lags other developed nations in many areas.
Tags: HIT, International, Physicians
AMGA EHR Survey
by Kevin Roche on Monday, November 9, 2009
The American Medical Group Association conducts a survey on EHR usage by physician groups, revealing the difficulty in implementation, and high expectations in value, which tended to be met only after several years.
Tags: HIT
Net Neutrality and Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 30, 2009
Net neutrality sounds good to some but a Brookings commentary indicates it may cause problems for health care users.
Tags: Government, HIT, Telemedicine
Harris Poll on Mobile Health Care
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
A Harris poll looks at Americans’ attitudes toward mobile healthcare and finds that those who use health care the most are also the most disengaged from these new technologies.
Tags: Consumers, HIT, Medical Care, Telemedicine
EHRs and Quality
by Kevin Roche on Friday, October 23, 2009
A study finds a modest link between fully functional EHRs and performance on HEDIS quality measures by Massachusetts physicians.
Tags: Health Care Quality, HIT, Medical Care
Consumers’ View of Electronic Health Records
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, October 14, 2009
AHRQ has released a survey of consumer attitudes about electronic health records and health IT. The people in these focus groups were less enthusiastic about the subject than many experts are.
Humedica Raises $30 Million
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Health information is hot, particularly since the stimulus bill devoted $20 billion to its expansion.
Tags: Financings, HIT
Another IT Cautionary Tale
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 26, 2009
A Financial Times article details the British National Health Service’s struggles to implement a new health information system.
Tags: HIT
Patients Asked to Pay More
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, August 6, 2009
Patients are responsible for an increasing share of their medical expenses, which has increased provider bad debt and collection expense. In response, providers are asking to be paid at the time of service.
Wireless Explosion
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, August 5, 2009
A number of companies are working on use of wireless technologies to improve health care.
Tags: Care Management, Devices, HIT
Kaiser EMR Saga Is Instructive
by Kevin Roche on Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Kaiser has a well-regarded health information system but it wasn’t easy getting there.
Tags: HIT
UHG, Cisco Plan TeleHealth Venture
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
UnitedHealth Group and Cisco plan to create a large telemedicine venture.
Tags: Health Insurance, HIT, Telemedicine
VA has IT Woes
by Kevin Roche on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Often lauded for its health information systems, the VA apparently has significant problems getting projects done on time and on budget.
Tags: HIT, Medical Care
HIT and Privacy Laws
by Kevin Roche on Thursday, July 16, 2009
Health information technology is being pushed as one of the key methods to improve health care and reduce costs, but government itself has created barriers to its adoption and utility.
Tags: HIT, Medical Care, Regulation
ShowHide Headlines
Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc. agreed to buy Eclipsys Corp. for $1.3 billion in stock