Healthcare IT News - July 2008 - (Page 17)

www.HealthcareITNews.com July 2008 ■ Healthcare IT News 17 NEWSBRIEFS ACP hElPS mEmBERS PuRChASE ANd INStAll EhRS The American College of Physicians has established a new program to help practicing physicians purchase and install electronic health record systems. The EHR Partners Program, offered exclusively to ACP members, offers assistance in selecting and implementing practice-based EHRs. The program is a collaborative effort between ACP and participating CCHIT-certified EHR partner companies. California centers switch to digital Staff planning, training for shared electronic health system was intensive. By rICHard PIzzI, Associate Editor GUERNEVILLE, CA dEtRoIt doCS SElECt oNlINE PRACtICE mANAgEmENt Wayne State University’s Physician Group will adopt a centrally hosted practice management and billing service for its network of over 400 providers in Detroit. The medical group has signed a contract with athenahealth, Inc., to implement the company’s athenaCollector software. WSUPG physicians deliver care in some of the area’s major medical institutions, including the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Kresge Eye Institute, and the hospital and clinical systems associated with the Detroit Medical Center. – West County Health Centers, Inc. is live with electronic health records at the Russian River Health Center. It is the first of the CHC’s three northern California sites that will use a shared EHR system. The center rolled out its EHR last month. West County Health Centers is the first of 10 health centers in the Redwood seismic change for healthCommunity Health Coalition thE NEWS: Three care in America,” said Jason to adopt a shared EHR system. ➔ clinics to roll out EHRs. Cunningham, MD, a WCHC RCHC plans to implement techphysician. “As a provider and a nology from Westborough, Mass.- ➔ WhAt It mEANS: Doctors will shift focus champion of community health based vendor eClinicalWorks at from treatment to centers it is very exciting to be 18 healthcare sites in Sonoma, prevention. involved in a project that furMarin, Napa and Yolo counties ther reduces the disparity in over the next three years at a total healthcare services between the rich and the cost of $12 million. Staff at West County Health Centers poor. It is my passion to provide the same planned intensively for over a year and quality of healthcare to my patients regardtrained employees for the last three months less if they are a CEO or a homeless person and having access to an electronic health to prepare for the EHR rollout. “Electronic health records represent a sWITCH see page 19 Medicare EHR demo begins By BernIe MonegaIn, Editor WASHINGTON South tExAS PRACtICES to ShARE PAtIENt dAtA Quality Infusion Care, Inc., a health system and provider of home infusion therapies, intends to implement electronic medical record software to link its community physician practices across southern Texas. Quality will host Misys EMR software from Raleigh, N.C.-based Misys Healthcare Systems. Quality is currently adding new physician practices to its system, and as its network grows, the health system plans to provide new network physicians with practice management and EMR software so that physicians can immediately begin exchanging patient data. – U.S. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Tevi Troy traveled to Maine last month to congratulate the state as one of 12 sites that had been selected to participate in a Medicare electronic health record demonstration project. While in Maine, Troy praised the efforts of Josh Cutler and the Maine Quality Forum for having done an excellent job of coordinating Maine’s application. Cutler, a physician, is director of the Maine Quality Forum. A collaborative attitude is the common thread that unites the 12 communities selected to participate in a national Medicare Electronic Health Record demonstration project, according to Health and Human Services aMDIS docs to talk It in California By rICHard PIzzI, Associate Editor LAKE ALMANOR, CA PHOTO COURTESy Of THE SUN JOURNAL, LEWISTON, MAINE Larry Hopperstead, MD, stands amid the paper files at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Me. Maine is one of 12 sites selected for a Medicare EHR pilot project. Secretary Michael Leavitt, who traveled to Louisiana to congratulate that state for having been selected. “This HHS award to the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum is a huge accomplishment for our state,” said Governor Bobby Jindal. “This federal funding will allow the Forum to provide financial incentives to Louisiana physicians who use electronic health records to improve the deMo see page 18 – The Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems hosts its 17th annual Physician-Computer Connection Symposium this month, and the timing is auspicious, say AMDIS officials. “This is going to be a landmark Symposium for our organization William Bria, MD because there’s been a crescendo of interest in applied medical informatics,” said William Bria, MD, chairman of the AMDIS board of advisors and chief medical information officer at aMdIs see page 18 Web site offers ‘virtual doctors’ lounge’ The concept behind Ozmosis is simple: The collective wisdom of many physicians, from multiple VIENNA, VA – When Jason Bhan, MD, first got the idea for a social networking Web site strictly for specialties, can help improve patient care. Bhan also thinks the practice of medicine can be isolatphysicians, he was ahead of the curve. The Health 2.0 movement had only begun to ing to doctors who aren’t able to exchange information with colleagues as often as they did gather steam when Bhan founded Ozmosis in medical school or during residency. in 2006. The company’s Web site – Ozmosis. “We want the site to be communitycom – is an online “medical knowledge exchange,” where physicians – and physidriven and community-policed,” Bhan said. cians only – can post questions and share “Ozmosis is not simply a discussion board, information on clinical, practice managebut a platform for sharing evidence-based ment, and general health policy issues. It is information.” currently in beta testing, but the company Jason Bhan, MD “Physicians on Ozmosis can learn about plans a full launch later this summer. innovative products or medical devices directly Bhan claims the “physician-exclusive” aspect of from their peers,” said Scott Strayer, MD, associate the site is what makes Ozmosis uniquely valuable. professor of family medicine and public health at “What differentiates Ozmosis is that it engen- the University of Virginia. ders trust by verifying physicians’ status when they Ozmosis.com has some similarities to Cambridge, join,” Bhan said. ozMosIs see page 18 By rICHard PIzzI, assoCIaTe edITor CoNSumER oPINIoN oF NuRSE PRACtItIoNERS,PAS joIN E-PRESCRIBINg EFFoRt The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the American Academy of Physician Assistants are participating in a program designed to help more of the nation’s prescribers begin sending prescriptions to pharmacies electronically. The “Get Connected” program aims to help thousands of prescribers comply with new Medicare rules scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2009. The rules require all computer-generated prescriptions covered by the Medicare Part D program to be transmitted electronically. The focal point of the program is an online portal. More at AdhERENCE to EvIdENCE-BASEd StANdARdS as a basis for physician payment HealthcareITnews.com e ●Connect: PHYSICIaNS 0708 e ● Connect: GraPHS 0708 SOURCE: 2008 DELOITTE LLP http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITnews.com http://Ozmosis.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9556

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Healthcare IT News - July 2008 Contents IT’s Financial Link eRx Power SOA Q&A Bent on Wireless Digital Switch IT Legacy Change Agent Panasonic 'Book' Taking a Shift Computer Types

Healthcare IT News - July 2008

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