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Awarepoint to Showcase Industry-Leading Real-time Location System at AONE Meeting

By Lionel on May 17th, 2011

Awarepoint to Showcase Industry-Leading Real-time Location System (RTLS) at AONE Annual MeetingLive demo to highlight how to achieve positive clinical and financial outcomes
SAN DIEGO ? April 11, 2011 ? Awarepoint Corporation announced today that it will showcase its Enterprise Awareness and Real-time Location System (RTLS) at Booth #901 during the American Organization of Nurse Executives? (AONE) 44th Annual Meeting and Exposition, which will be held from April 13-16 at the San Diego Convention Center. Awarepoint?s live demo will highlight how nurses can spend more time with patients and enhance patient safety and quality of care, while achieving positive clinical and financial outcomes.

Awarepoint will offer hands-on demonstrations of how hospitals:
? track assets in real-time
? monitor hand-washing workflow
? streamline patient-clinician interactions

Awarepoint?s Enterprise and RTLS solutions enable hospitals and health systems to track equipment, patients, and personnel to enhance workflow, operational efficiency, patient safety, and outcomes.

?Our solutions are making a critical difference every day in healthcare by ensuring the right equipment, the right patient, and the right staff are in the right place at the right time,? said Jay Deady, Awarepoint?s CEO. ?AONE provides the ideal opportunity to increase industry awareness of the key role Awarepoint plays in driving greater clinical and operational efficiencies while improving patient care and safety, the hallmarks of healthcare reform and accountable care organizations (ACOs).?

About Awarepoint Corporation San Diego-based Awarepoint is the world?s leading supplier of real-time location systems (RTLS) that hospitals use to track, monitor, and optimize the utilization and workflow of personnel, patients, and equipment. These proven solutions with 93 hospital client sites, 150,627 asset tags under management, and 47,015,515 square feet of RLS network coverage in US hospitals, enable clinicians and administrators to improve quality of care, efficiency, productivity, and processes more easily and cost effectively. For more information, visit www.awarepoint.com/.

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AMA health IT platform available nationwide

By Lionel on May 16th, 2011

Amagine, Inc., a subsidiary of the American Medical Association, has announced the nationwide availability of its health IT solutions platform with the same name. That platform offers physicians more than 20 different products, ranging from e-prescribing software to electronic health records and consulting resources. Amagine will provide consultants to help physicians assess their readiness for the digital plunge and choose the best products for their practices.

Judging by the pricing mentioned in the announcement, AMAGINE has the potential to shake up the EHR market. Web-based EHRs from NextGen, UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Ingenix, and MedPlus–part of Quest Diagnostics–will all be available for $300 per physician, per month or less, according to the release. That’s substantially less than the cost of most fully functional, cloud-based EHRs.

At the other end of the scale, AMAGINE will supply e-prescribing solutions from DrFirst, MedPlus Care 360, and Allscripts at prices starting from $20 per doctor per month–a reasonable charge for an e-prescriber that comes with a Surescripts connection and other services.

Patient registries from WellCentive, DocSite and DrFirst also are included in the offering. There are other solutions for lab ordering and reporting, revenue cycle management, and clinical decision support.

In collaboration with the Michigan State Medical Society, the AMA has been field-testing the Amagine platform in that state since 2009. Last month, the AMA announced that Amagine had teamed up with Covisint, a technology company, and my1HIE, a health information exchange operated by several IPAs, to offer Michigan physicians the same menu that’s now being served up nationwide.

To learn more:
- read the Amagine press release

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Access Announces e-Signature V. 7, Enabling Patients to Securely Authorize e-Forms

By Lionel on May 16th, 2011

Default Access Announces e-Signature V. 7, Enabling Patients to Securely Authorize e-Forms New product release from the world?s leading electronic forms management, automation & workflow provider enables hospitals to create paperless patient registration & bedside consent processes.

Hundreds of hospitals worldwide have eliminated the financial, productivity and environmental costs of managing paper forms with Access Enterprise Forms Management (EFM). To help deliver even greater efficiency, Access has redeveloped its e-Signature product to offer greater functionality, simplicity and ease of administration.

With Access e-Signature, patients securely authorize electronic forms (e-forms) using an LCD signature pad, tablet PC or e-clipboard. When used in conjunction with Access Image Portal, which sends forms directly into the enterprise content/document management (ECM/EDM) system and auto-indexes them, Access e-Signature enables facilities to transform paper-heavy patient registration and bedside consent processes into paperless workflows.

?We re-architected Access e-Signature to create the most user-friendly, easy to administrate product of its kind on the market,? said Tim Elliott, Access founder and CEO. ?Whether hospitals select e-Signature as part of the Access EFM suite or as a standalone module, it will greatly improve their electronic forms management initiative.?

Benefits of the forthcoming Access e-Signature v.7 include:

> Server-based application, for even easier central administration
> Ability to accept annotations, highlighting and comments on tablet PCs and to add text to LCD signature pads to match the forms being signed
> Expanded functionality to enable continuity if the patient review/signature process is interrupted
> Server-based storage and retrieval of completed documents for those customers who do not yet have an enterprise content/document management (ECM/EDM) system
> New security architecture provides distinct storage locations for biometric documents, captured images and signature documents for ease of retrieval for internal use, audits and e-Discovery
> Enhanced compliance with FTC Red Flag process and ARRA EHR Meaningful Use requirements
> Ability to define specific indexing and unique parameters on a per document basis – enabling native porting of electronic documents into multiple ECM/EDM systems
> Proprietary signature engine that is non-dependent on third party applications
> New user interface that leverages Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to create a unique, personalized and streamlined user experience
> Enhanced security capture model built on the latest .Net platform

About Access
Access is the world?s leading electronic forms (e-forms) management, automation and workflow software provider. Our solutions transform any paper-intensive forms process into a paperless, collaborative workflow. Hundreds of hospitals worldwide are using Access solutions to improve patient care and safety, cut costs and enhance electronic health records (EHR), patient safety and downtime planning initiatives. Learn more at www.accessefm.com

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Medicity Announces Broad Support of Federal Direct Project

By Lionel on May 11th, 2011

Medicity Announces Broad Support of Federal Direct Project, Enables Customers to Offer HISP ServicesUsing Medicity’s technology, Colorado and Ohio will be among the first statewide HIEs to offer HISP services to facilitate the goal of a nationwide interconnected health system

SALT LAKE CITY, MAY 5, 2011–Medicity, the industry standard for health information exchange (HIE), today announced broad-based support for the Office of the National Coordinator?s Direct Project specifications, enabling the more than 125,000 physicians using Medicity technology to securely exchange clinical documentation with any other provider using Direct-compliant technology. This support also allows Medicity customers operating health information networks to offer Health Information Service Provider (HISP) services to their communities.

?By equipping our national client base of heath information networks to fill the HISP role, we hope to extend Direct Project participation to a significant segment of providers nationwide,? said Brent Dover, Medicity?s president. ?Enhancing our entire product portfolio to support communication using the Direct specifications furthers our clients? and the federal government?s objective of improving electronic care collaboration among providers.?

The Direct Project is a federal government standard designed to enable simple, secure, email-based exchange of clinical documentation between providers. As HISPs, Medicity customers can assign and administer a health domain address (similar to an email address) for each provider in their network. With a secure health domain address, a provider can exchange clinical documentation with providers or patients registered with a HISP anywhere in the United States.

Colorado and Ohio are just two of the states that will take advantage of Medicity?s Direct Project support. Medicity?s approach supplements the simple messaging capabilities of the Direct Project with guaranteed delivery, advanced security and encryption, built-in HIE connectivity, access to cross-organizational provider directories, and direct integration with EMRs.

?Our partnership with Medicity will enable CORHIO to offer Colorado-based health care providers HISP services including health domain addresses for secure message exchange,? said Carrie Mast, chief information officer with CORHIO, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization. ?Colorado health care providers will greatly benefit from Medicity?s support of the Direct Project?s messaging specifications, as well as other, more robust HIE services offered by the Medicity technology platform.?

Fred Richards, the chief information officer and chief operating officer of the Ohio Health Information Partnership, the state-designated entity charged with creating a health information exchange in Ohio, said Medicity?s support of the Direct Project will allow his organization to reach out to physicians and healthcare professionals who might not yet have advanced technology.

?The simple direct message protocol allows additional stakeholders to participate in Ohio?s statewide health information exchange who might not be using more sophisticated protocols,? Richards said. ?The Ohio Health Information Partnership is excited to be able to act as a HISP and offer the Direct protocols to improve access to clinical messages.?

?Our mission is to provide every clinician in the state of Ohio a way to securely and easily move clinical information to enhance patient care,? added Dan Paoletti, acting chief executive officer of the Ohio Health Information Partnership. ?The strategic partnership with Medicity ? along with their commitment to assist us in meeting ONC?s goals ? creates an exciting opportunity for Ohio providers to expand the meaningful exchange of health information to improve patient outcomes and efficiency of patient care.?

About Medicity
Medicity, the industry standard for health information exchange (HIE), is the leading innovator and largest provider of HIE technology ? with more than 750 hospitals, 125,000 physicians and 250,000 end users in its connected ecosystem. Medicity?s solutions empower hospitals, physicians and HIEs with secure access to and exchange of health information ? improving the quality and efficiency of patient care locally, regionally and nationally. For more information, please visit www.medicity.com or follow us on twitter.com/Medicity.

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WSJ: Google Health might get less support under new CEO

By Lionel on May 11th, 2011

Interesting news this morning from the Wall Street Journal:

Some managers believe Mr. Page will eliminate or downgrade projects he doesn’t believe are worthwhile, freeing up employees to work on more important initiatives, these people said. One project expected to get less support is Google Health, which lets people store medical records and other health data on Google’s servers, said people familiar with the matter.

The statement above comes from WSJ’s article “At Google, Page Aims to Clear Red Tape” in which the reporter, Amir Efrati, lays out the case that Larry Page (the CEO that will take over April 4) is looking to streamline Google to act a bit more like a startup than the 24,000 person behemoth that it is.

I’ve always felt that Google Health was technically a reasonable product but the strategy was unclear for its growth and ecosystem support. If you’re depending on Google Health for your CCR / CCD or MU strategy you should keep an eye out on this type of news.

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Patients show positive response to EHRs

By Lionel on May 10th, 2011

Patients felt even more comfortable than physicians when it came to using an electronic health record (EHR) system–and also felt that the information contained in the record was more accurate when they physically saw it being entered electronically, according to a survey by Tampa-based Sage Healthcare Division. Overall, the study found that more than 81 percent of patients and 62 percent of physicians had a positive perception of electronic documentation. –Read the full article at FierceEMR

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Personalized treatment protocols can be developed with EHR data

By Lionel on May 10th, 2011

Individualized treatment guidelines can help doctors prevent more heart attacks and strokes than they can by using population-based protocols, according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers found that doctors can develop these guidelines for their patients by using computerized risk calculators integrated with their electronic health records.

The study compared the effectiveness and the costs of the individualized guidelines vs. the national consensus protocols for treating hypertension. By applying their approach to data from a long-term study of 15,800 U.S. residents–of whom 2,700 were eligible for this study–the researchers estimated that individualized treatment could prevent 43 percent more heart attacks and strokes than the national recommendations at the same cost.

The cardiovascular guidelines calculator requires the same data that’s used in everyday management of hypertension. If a particular patient’s data were entered into a device as simple and as widespread as a personal digital assistant, a physician could calculate the patient’s individualized guideline, according to the paper.

“However,” the study adds, “implementing individualized guidelines is most efficient in systems that have data warehouses or EHRs to automatically feed the required information to the calculator and display the results. Individualized guidelines are an example of a meaningful use of EHRs, and systems that have EHRs can implement these guidelines more rapidly than those that do not.”

David Eddy, MD, the study’s lead researcher, estimated that the total savings to the U.S. healthcare system of using this approach to hypertension treatment could exceed $100 billion a year.

Eddy, a highly respected guideline expert, heads Archimedes, the healthcare mathematical modeling company that conducted the study.

To learn more:
- here’s the Annals of Internal Medicine abstract
- read the Reuters article

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Image transfers to PACS reduces repetitive testing to ED patients

By Lionel on May 10th, 2011

Researchers at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston showed that when CDs of radiology images were imported from outside emergency departments into the hospital’s picture archiving and communications system (PACS), fewer repetitive studies were performed on patients transferred into the hospital.

The study involved 1,487 patients transferred to Brigham & Women’s from Feb. 1, 2009 through Aug. 31, 2009. The radiological images of those patients were stored on CDs and imported to the hospital’s PACS. The control group consisted of 254 patients who were transferred to Brigham & Women’s between August 2007 and January 2008, before the CD import system was adopted.

Images were successfully imported into the PACS for 1,161 patients in the study group. Sixty-eight percent of those images were CT scans. The researchers found that physicians ordered 17 percent fewer diagnostic imaging tests–and 16 percent fewer CT scans–for the successful-import group than for the failed-import group. Focusing only on CT scans in the ED, the successful-import group had 29 percent fewer CT scans than the historical control patients.

This research has implications for all institutions that use PACS, seeing as there are 2.2 million ED transfer patients per year. The researchers calculated that if the difference between the successful and failed-import groups were extrapolated to the whole population, 484,000 CT scans a year could be avoided in the U.S.

To learn more:
- read the CMIO article
- check out the study abstract

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Join me for a free webinar on “Understanding the Escalating Data Challenges of Meaningful Use” on Thursday, April 7th

By Lionel on May 10th, 2011

I’ve been doing a good deal of coaching and consulting on what Meaningful Use really means to technology professionals lately so I was pleased to accept an invitation by Informatica to lead a webinar on that subject for a data management audience.

Data management professionals and the executives that they report to have now had enough time to learn how difficult meeting the escalating requirements for MU actually is; most are reporting that it’s been more work than they thought. Gone are the days when health systems thought they could just install a certified EHR and they would be able to meet the MU goals. Everyone now understands that even if they’re able to collect the measures required in the first phase of MU, the escalating data challenges of later phases will be more difficult.

Join me next Thursday at 2:00p EDT to learn about the real impacts of meaningful use and why it’s clear now that simply installing an EHR will not be enough. Learn what clinicians, executive management, and healthcare data management professionals need to know about achieving HITECH meaningful use and certification beyond the obvious list of MU requirements.

In this one hour webinar, you’ll learn:

How technical personnel such as data architects, DBAs and developers are being affected by MUThe best ways to determine the MU gaps that might be found in existing systems and how a data integration strategy might work to fill themWhat skill gaps you will need to fill in your staff to be successfulAddressing data challenges even when MU-certified EHR is already installedHow legacy systems can hinder success of their EHR implementationCase study examples of organizations who tackled these data challenges and are on the path to demonstrating meaningful use and driving value beyond.

Learn how a comprehensive and planned approach towards data management will position your organization to innovate and optimize patient care delivery and experience while streamlining operations. It’s free to attend and you’ll receive a companion white paper I wrote as well, register for it here.

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Health IT – Getting it right!

Navigating the maze of Health Information Technology

Awarepoint to Showcase Industry-Leading Real-time Location System at AONE Meeting

AMA health IT platform available nationwide

Access Announces e-Signature V. 7, Enabling Patients to Securely Authorize e-Forms

Medicity Announces Broad Support of Federal Direct Project

WSJ: Google Health might get less support under new CEO

Patients show positive response to EHRs

Personalized treatment protocols can be developed with EHR data

Image transfers to PACS reduces repetitive testing to ED patients

Join me for a free webinar on “Understanding the Escalating Data Challenges of Meaningful Use” on Thursday, April 7th

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