Patient engagement: Check me out in ‘US News’
I’ve just had my first story published in a major national magazine, or at least the online version of one, namely US News and World Report. It’s about patient engagement strategies for hospitals and medical practices in the context of EHRs, for the magazine’s “Hospital of Tomorrow” feature, and I’m getting good feedback so far. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited. Check it out here.
Also, I’ll be presenting on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. EDT at the American Telemedicine Association’s Fall Forum in the non-American (but very North American) city of Toronto. It’s there b...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - September 7, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: consumerism EMR/EHR health reform Healthcare IT hospitals media mobile patient safety personal notes PHR Telehealth American Telemedicine Association ARRA Canada Inova Healthcare System meaningful use patient engagement p Source Type: blogs
Great news for Health eVillages
As a board member of Health eVillages, a program that provides mobile health tools to help extend the reach and knowledge of health workers in remote and underserved parts of the world, I am thrilled to hear that the organization has raised $58,000 this month.
Most of the money, $38,000, came from the first-ever “Apps Save Lives” golf tournament, held Aug. 16 at Royce Brook Golf Club in Hillsborough Township, N.J. The other $20,000 was in the form of a grant from the Vodafone Americas Foundation, announced Aug. 11.
From Physicians Interactive, which established and provides administrative support to Health eVil...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 29, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: mobile philanthropy Donato Trumato Health eVillages Physicians Interactive RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights Source Type: blogs
Another incentive to do the wrong thing
I found this in my Twitter stream this morning (and I apologize for the language, which is not mine, not that we aren’t all adults here anyway):
I f.ing kid you not. #SinaiHospitalBaltimore #PatientSafety pic.twitter.com/kB2hKA4F7F
— Rachel Amanda RN, MS (@Nurse_Rachel_) August 27, 2013
What’s apparently going on here is that Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, part of the not-for-profit LifeBridge Health organization, is that nurses are being given a financial incentive, albeit a small one, to make sure that as many patients as possible are discharged by noon each day. Each unit “must be at 20% di...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 27, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: patient safety quality LifeBridge Health nursing Sinai Hospital of Baltimore Source Type: blogs
I sense a delay in MU2
I have no evidence to back this up, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the feds are giving serious thought to delaying some of the timelines in Stage 2 of Meaningful Use.
The pushback has been building for some time, and advanced in the past couple of weeks with the opinions of three important industry associations.
The American Association of Family Physicians called for a one-year delay and proposed separating providers into “three distinct cohorts,” depending on what year they first met Meaningful Use standards. HIMSS wants the attestation period for the first year of MU2 extended to April 2015 for hospita...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 23, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil VerselNeil Versel Tags: ARRA EMR/EHR health IT Healthcare IT HHS meaningful use ONC AAFP Farzad Mostashari HIMSS MGMA Source Type: blogs
Things change pretty fast in health IT, don’t they?
Yes, things do change pretty fast in health IT. I realized this over the past couple of weeks when I updated my database of contacts by scanning and categorizing about 300 business cards I’ve collected over the past 2½ years. (I really let things pile up this time. Now that my desk is reasonably clean, I hope I never do that again. I can claim extraordinary circumstances in 2012, but that only accounts for one year.)
What really struck me, in addition to the amount of time I let this slide, is the number of new categories I had to create in the database and the number I had to modify. My contacts go back to when I s...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 16, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: accelerators Accountable Care Organizations CIOs data mining Innovation mobile personal notes philanthropy remote monitoring RHIO analytics ASP Health information exchange healthcare costs home monitoring Rock Health Source Type: blogs
‘Dilbert’ takes on wireless health
Perhaps I’m getting loopy, or just distracted, but I’ve been reading the funnies again. (Hey, we all need a laugh from time to time, right?) But here goes my second consecutive post involving a comic strip, this time a certain one called “Dilbert.” Today, Scott Adams, who spoke at HIMSS in 2005, addresses digital health, specifically wearable sensors and how unscrupulous employers like Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss might exploit all the new health data being generated.
Dilbert, ©2013 Scott Adams
All of our bosses can’t be so intrusive, can they?
Related posts:
An EMR in ‘...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 15, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: humor mobile remote monitoring Dilbert wearable sensors wireless Source Type: blogs
A new HIT comic, and perhaps a Google fail?
Healthcare Technology Online reports this week that there is a new comic strip online called Hacking N’ Healthcare. “Hacking N’ Healthcare is a comic strip that takes a humorous look at the challenges often associated with implementing health information technology,” the magazine says. Here’s what appears to be the first edition, taking a swing at user experience design, but also, perhaps inadvertently, mocking personal health records and gamification in healthcare. (The timing is interesting. In a MobiHealthNews column that should be published Friday, I take the most measured, hopeful look at PHR...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 8, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: gaming humor media PHR vendors Google Health Technology Online Pathfinder Software usability Source Type: blogs
RIP, Mitochon Systems?
I’m not sure if this got reported anywhere, because I couldn’t find anything online, but the following message is on the home page of free EHR vendor Mitochon Systems:
The company hasn’t posted any news releases online since March 4, which was during HIMSS13. No tweets have been posted since Feb. 11, which is also the last time the company updated its little-used Facebook page. I guess we can safely say the winnowing of the ambulatory EHR market has begun.
Related posts:
Big health systems to promote connectivity
Maybe Topol and Agus are rock stars after all?
AdvancedMD sale to ADP shows n...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 6, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: EMR/EHR health IT Healthcare IT vendors Mitochon Systems Source Type: blogs
Breaking news: Mostashari to leave ONC
National health IT coordinator Dr. Farzad Mostashari will leave the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at an unspecified time this fall.
From Twitter:
It’s true “@Cascadia: New era coming as @Farzad_ONC announces he is leaving @ONC_HealthIT”
— Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_ONC) August 6, 2013
Government Health IT reports this morning that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius broke the news in a letter to agency staff.
“During this time of great accomplishment, Farzad has been an important advisor to me and many of us across the Department. His expertise, enthusiasm and commitment to...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - August 6, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: EMR/EHR health IT Healthcare IT HHS ONC Farzad Mostashari Kathleen Sebelius New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene primary care Source Type: blogs
Surprising results in the HIT100 list
The third annual HIT100 list, ostensibly listing the 100 most influential Twitter accounts in health IT, has been published at Healthcare IT News, and I’m more surprised than flattered to be at No. 44, named 14 times by tweets carrying the #HIT100 hashtag. More accurately, I am in a five-way tie for No. 41, with the likes of: “social venture entrepreneur” Sherry Reynolds (9,000 Twitter followers); Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO and health IT rock star Dr. John Halamka (10,600 followers); health IT product strategist Lisa Crymes (2,200 followers); and pre-eminent health IT social media researcher...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - July 25, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: health IT Healthcare IT Innovation social media Chilmark Research Dave deBronkart Eric Topol Health 2.0 Healthcare Scene HIT100 John Halamka Kevin Pho Linked Pew Internet & American Life Regina Holliday Todd Park Twitter Source Type: blogs
‘Bitter Pill’ only tells half the story
I finally got around to finishing “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” the 24,000-word special report about healthcare costs that took up the entire feature section of the Feb. 20 edition of Time magazine. I was expecting to agree with most if not all of Steven Brill’s supposedly epic investigative piece. Instead, I was underwhelmed and quite disappointed that Brill, the founder of CourtTV (R.I.P., reincarnated as TruTV in Turner Broadcasting’s quest for more “reality” programming) and of American Lawyer magazine, only told half the story about all that ails the U.S. health...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - July 23, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: Accountable Care Organizations CMS consumerism EMR/EHR Finance health reform interoperability media medical errors Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act patient safety quality Bitter Pill chargemaster healthcare costs in Source Type: blogs
Say it with me: clinical decision support
I just read one of the worst articles I’ve ever seen about the quality of American healthcare, and it illustrates just how badly some reporters who don’t regularly cover healthcare can misunderstand this sector that accounts for more than one-sixth of the U.S. economy.
I give you this Motley Fool story entitled, “The 5 Most Misdiagnosed Diseases,” written by Sean Williams. (His profile says he has experience investing in healthcare. Investing in companies is one thing. Figuring out how to fix a broken industry is another. And really, from a financial standpoint, plenty of people are getting rich off...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - July 21, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: clinical decision support Finance health information exchange health IT Healthcare IT Innovation media medical errors patient safety diagnostic medicine Internet Journal of Family Practice investment misdiagnosis Motley Fool Source Type: blogs
More on Blue Button Plus and MU2
My last post, based on comments from Frost & Sullivan health IT analyst Nancy Fabozzi at last week’s Healthcare Unbound conference, has generated a bit of controversy. Fabozzi said that “Blue Button Plus is totally disruptive,” possibly eliminating the need for some providers to get full-fledged patient portals in order to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2 standards.
In the comments under that post, David Smith of HealthInsight.org, a health improvement consortium in three Western states, correctly pointed out that MU2 requires not just that providers give 50 percent of patients electronic access to their r...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - July 17, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: Blue Button certification consumerism EMR/EHR health information exchange HIPAA interoperability meaningful use ONC security standards Blue Button Plus Deborah Peel Direct Project Frost & Sullivan GE Healthcare Healthcare U Source Type: blogs
‘Blue Button Plus is totally disruptive’
AURORA, Colo.—”Blue Button Plus is totally disruptive,” Frost & Sullivan health IT analyst Nancy Fabozzi just told me at the Healthcare Unbound conference. Why? Because the enhanced Blue Button Plus format can eliminate the need for healthcare providers to invest in patient portals in order to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2.
I tend to agree. The Stage 2 rules don’t require a portal, just the ability to transmit records securely from provider to patient. Providers, whether they be hospitals, clinics or even small physician practices, can just put a Blue Button widget on their Web site and give patients ...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - July 12, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: consumerism Continuity of Care Document Continuity of Care Record EMR/EHR health IT Healthcare IT hospitals interoperability meaningful use Blue Button Blue Button Plus consumer health information Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Unbo Source Type: blogs
See you at Healthcare Unbound
DISCUSSION: WHAT’S NEXT FOR mHEALTH?
The market for mobile health (mHealth) products and services is an important area which can be a catalyst for healthcare’s evolution, dramatically altering healthcare delivery and the patient experience. In the health system of the future, patient care will be greatly enhanced by a connected and seamless information flow between patients and other stakeholders, with mobility being a core need for all users of health information. With a growing ocean of mHealth applications, scalability, sustainability, security, interoperability are some of many points which will continue to be vit...
Source: Neil Versel's Healthcare IT Blog - July 5, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Neil Versel Tags: health IT Healthcare IT mobile conferences Healthcare Unbound Source Type: blogs
