Healthcare IT News - April 2009 - (Page 3) www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news April 2009 ■ Healthcare IT News industry Healthcare IT News posts original news stories on its Web site daily. Here are recent top stories, as selected the editors. news act now on stimulus, say It experts recovery act is ‘gamechanging’ for healthcare it The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, may be the driver for connecting HIEs to P4P, said Janet Marchibroda, chief healthcare officer for IBM. Marchibroda spoke March 10 at the Fourth National Pay-for-Performance Summit in San Francisco. She was a member of a panel that discussed the role of health information exchanges, or HIEs, in pay-for-performance, or P4P, programs. ARRA is “game changing in ways we quite don’t know yet,” she said. Date: 3/17/09 will require capturing certain data. experts from the healthcare IT industry Garets expects that healthcare orgastrongly urge providers to act quickly nizations will adopt healthcare IT “with when it comes to EHR adoption. a vengeance” in 2009. He and other Michael Paddock, CEO of Grants HIMSS leaders are concerned there Office, LLC, and a speaker at a fiveBy DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor are “precious few” change managepart HIMSS seminar on the WashINGtON—President Obama ment experts to help providers make stimulus package, said providsigned the $787 billion economic David Garets the complicated transition to healthers “need to have a plan soon.” stimulus package into law Feb. 18, According to Dave Garets, president care IT by 2011. which includes $20 billion for healthGarets said it’s not as simple as hiring a and CEO Healthcare Information and care IT advancement. Medicare Management and Systems Society’s software technician to make the transition. and Medicaid providers who adopt HIMSS Analytics, 94 percent of hospi- There is a need for qualified people who healthcare IT can cash in on an tals currently don’t have enough health- know how to help with workflow adaptation expected $30 billion in net bonuses John halmaka, MD care IT in place to meet the stipulations and how to implement software packages over the next 10 years. Even though bonuses for using electronic required to receive bonuses. Under the new so they work for the organization. “These worKFLow see page 4 health records (EHR) won’t start until 2011, law, they must prove “meaningful use,” which Only small percentage of hospitals qualify to receive bonuses under the plan. dod to deploy diagnostic decision support The Department of Defense Military Health System is planning to deploy a diagnostic decision support system across 75 major military hospitals and 461 clinics worldwide. The technology will be used to train military medical staff to better recognize numerous diseases, including SARS, avian influenza and other infectious diseases brought on by chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapon exposure. Rochester, N.Y.-based Logical Images will provide the DOD with its diagnostic decision support system, called VisualDx. Date: 3/16/09 Healthcare IT ‘rocket ride’ By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor h rochester rhio automates patient image sharing The Rochester RHIO, the New York area’s regional health information organization, has automated access to patient images for participating healthcare institutions. Using Rochester-based eHealth Global Technologies’ HealthConnect Image Exchange service, in conjunction with the Axolotl Corp.’s Elysium health information exchange, the RHIO will provide eight radiology providers with access to PACS imaging services. Date: 3/13/09 Engineers sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the basement of the chicago hyatt Regency. their mission: Put interoperability claims to the test. the group put 170 profiles through the paces. Connectathon hits its stride By JoHN aNDrews, Contributing Editor chIcaGO – After 10 years, the North American dennis Quaid talks about medical errors on oprah Actor Dennis Quaid, who is slated as one of the keynote speakers at HIMSS09, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” March 10 to talk about medical errors. Oprah joined Quaid after he returned from Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where in November 2007 his 12-day-old twin babies, Thomas and Zoe, developed a staph infection and had to be hospitalized. The babies were mistakenly given an overdose (a thousand times the recommended dose) of heparin, a blood thinner. Date: 3/10/09 More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: webbriefs 0409 ● Connectathon is hitting an impressive stride, Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise organizers say. As the size of the IHE interoperability demonstration continues to grow, this year’s participants won the admiration of event leaders because they were “confident, well-prepared and cooperative.” The 2009 Connectathon Conference, held in Chicago on Feb. 24, featured 350 engineers and technical support staff from 72 vendors and three universities sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at long tables in a basement show hall of the Chicago Hyatt Regency. The interoperability demonstration tested more than 170 profiles, compared to just one the first year and 12 in 2003. “The vendors were better prepared this year – this group hit the ground running,” observed Stephen Moore, demonstration coordinator and research assistant professor with the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis. “In previous years they had more questions about the network than the applications and that wasn’t the case this year.” To be sure, “there is more confidence” this year, agreed Charles Parisot, manager of architecture and standards for GE Healthcare and board member for the Electronic Health Records Vendor Association. “Tremendous progress has been made and it will only accelerate,” he said. “This is the real coming of age for interoperability, the result of a lot of hard work.” IHE co-chairs Elliot Sloane and David Mendelson, MD, oversaw the proceedings. Sloane, assistant professor with the Villanova School of Business, used a cruise ship analogy to compare the Connectathon and the Interoperability Showcase at HIMSS09, April 4-8s in Chicago. “The Connectathon is the ‘coal room’ tour while the Interoperability Showcase is the ‘leisure deck,’” he said. More than half of the participating vendors - 49 - will take part in the Interoperability Showcase. Among the things that have impressed Sloane the most about the Connectathon’s progress is how the profiles have expanded to include medical devices such as infusion pumps and anesthesia monitors, along with what he calls “a spirit of cooperation” among CoNNeCT see page 4 a rocket ride under the new stimulus package Never has there been a time when healthcare IT has garnered this much attention from Washington, this much money from the federal government and this much opportunity to advance. In a recent meeting, Certification Commission for Health Information Technology Chair Mark Leavitt aptly called it “a rocket ride.” If you haven’t delved into the depths of the 407-page stimulus package, you might be missing out on some vital details. If nothing else, experts w a shi ngton from all quarters say, do not wait to adopt healthcare IT. There is $19 billion to be had, and you will need time to get your system up and running, collecting data in a meaningful way before the 2011 deadline. You will also need as much time as possible to do the very difficult work of adapting workflow prior to implementing new technology. The stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 is not only kicking up adoption activity, it is calling for new advisory committees, and laying down stipulations about adoption, many of which still need to be determined when the new Department of Health and Human Services secretary is confirmed for the Obama administration. There is more beyond ARRA. President Obama has challenged Congress to get healthcare reform into law by the end of 2009. Recently, Senate MaNos see page 4 ealthcare It Is Watch http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.