Healthcare IT News - December 2007 - (Page 3)

www.HealthcareITNews.com industry news December 2007 ■ Healthcare IT News industry By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor news Healthcare IT News posts original news stories on its Web site daily. Here are recent top stories, as selected by Healthcare IT News editors. CINCINNATI indiana hospitals to get help with diagnoses The Indiana State Department of Health has deployed visual clinical decision support systems that will be installed in 53 sites across the state to improve diagnoses and emergency preparedness in hospitals and clinics. The pilot program will distribute technology called VisualDx, throughout 42 hospitals and 11 local health departments and clinics in Indiana. The software system provides access to more than 14,000 images that can help diagnose more than 800 visually identifiable diseases, drug reactions or infections. Date: 11/20/07 ing performance in the second year of the – The Department of Health demo and for improving quality of care in and Human Services will undertake a five- the third year. year demonstration project Leavitt said HHS hopes “our vision is aimed private payers will choose that rewards doctors who at solving adoption, adopt electronic health to follow the agency’s lead records. HHS will recruit interoperability and a to reward doctors in a sim1,200 doctors – 100 in each ilar manner. sustainable business of 12 communities across “Our vision is aimed at model for small the country. solving adoption, interopTogether, the physiphysician practices.” erability and a sustaincians care for 3.6 million able business model for – Michael Leavitt patients. small physician practices,” HHS Secretar y Michael Leavitt Leavitt said. announced the initiative last month at the Currently, 5 percent of doctors in small Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. practices have EHRs, Leavitt said. “We have Leavitt did not give dollar amounts every reason to believe this will be a red-letfor the incentives, but said that doctors ter day,” he said. would be rewarded within the first year Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services they adopt certified EHRs. Participating Acting Administrator Kerry Weems said physicians will be rewarded for report- recruitment for the demo would begin in hhS pledges to pay docs to use EhRs the government says it will pay physicians to automate their medical records, but it has not yet revealed how much. late winter 2008. Weems said CMS hopes the demo will hit “the sweet spot” of reaching small practices of three to five physicians who are, to date, the smallest percentage of doctors adopting EHRs. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: eHrS 1207 ● onC names deputy to healthCare it Czar The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has named Charles Friedman deputy national coordinator. Friedman began his appointment Nov. 11 and will serve under ONC chief Robert Kolodner, MD. Friedman filled a vacant deputy position and was serving as senior adviser to Kolodner before the appointment. According to a statement by ONC, Friedman’s role as deputy national coordinator will include managing operations for ONC’s healthcare IT initiatives and strategic planning for nationwide interoperable healthcare IT adoption. Date: 11/19/07 Give that man a glass DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor Brown university to Create long-term Care dataBase The National Institute on Aging has awarded Brown University’s Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research a $10 million grant over five years to create the first research database aimed at improving the nation’s long-term care system. John Haaga, deputy director of the Behavioral and Social Research Program at the National Institute on Aging, a component of the National Institutes of Health, said when Brown’s database is complete in 2012, it will be the first to track nursing home performance and policy on a state level for all 50 states. Date: 11/19/07 the Department of Defense is testing a wristwatch developed by charlottesville, Va.-based Empirical technologies. the device records a continuous measure of a patient’s heart rate. Prototypes of the watch are being tested on volunteers at the Naval hospital Research center in San Diego. also, the military is evaluating another Empirical technology called caretaker at Walter Reed army hospital, the army Institute of Surgery and the Naval health Research center. Piezoelectric technology (similar to that used in fireplace lighters and gas stoves) is used in caretaker to record pulse measurements from the cuff. the data is sent to a nearby computer, where blood pressure information is extracted. Beat by beat at the DoD hhS proposes e-prescribing standards By DIaNa MaNos, Senior Editor u.s. healthCare payers to limit it investments in 2008 Although top U.S. healthcare payers reported pricing transparency initiatives in 2007, they face challenges in 2008 that will limit information technology investments in this area. A study conducted by Health Industry Insights in June surveyed 79 of the largest and most active of U.S. healthcare payers in both business and technology innovation and investment. The study examined investment and execution priorities, strategies, barriers and likely future trends through 2009. Date: 11/16/07 More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: WeBBrIeFS 1207 ● - Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has proposed new standards for electronic prescribing. The standards will be optional for physicians and pharmacies, but Medicare will require drug plans participating in the Medicare Part D program to abide by them if they choose to send or receive prescriptions electronically. The standards, to be administered by CMS, will allow providers to see electronically what drugs are reimbursable under Medicare and will allow for an electronic history of a patient’s prescription transactions. If some members of an HHS advisory WASHINGTON panel have their way, however, the government will force doctors to e-prescribe. Leavitt’s proposal followed a meeting last month of the American Health Information Community, where members discussed the likelihood of widespread e-prescribing adoption by physicians and some members called for the government to force e-prescribing. Kevin hutchinson Kevin Hutchinson, panel member and CEO of SureScripts, said 40,000 of 55,000 pharmacies are standing by ready to e-prescribe. “Yet still, we’re not up and running,” he said. Thirty percent epresCrIBe see page 6 – With the holidays approaching, many think of parties and therefore glasses. There were many figurative half-full or halfempty glasses lifted in Washington this past month over healthcare IT, depending on how one chooses to look at things. For example, members of the Senate who hoped to “hotline,” or pass without debate, the Wired for Health Care Quality Act before Thanksgiving recess didn’t succeed. Among those lifting a half-full glass is Deborah Peel, MD, founder of washington Patient Privacy Rights who says the bill lacks adequate patient protection. Meanwhile, a new study by the American Academy of Nursing found that healthcare IT often falls short of the mark for use by nurses. Surveyors identified 812 healthcare IT processes needing improvement and recommended 1,214 potential solutions. This may be halfempty now for the nurses but half-full for the vendors who answer that call. Taking the glass-full-to-the-brim outlook, Mark Leavitt, chairman of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, recently announced that healthcare IT certification is advancing about 15 percent faster than it did last year at this time. He credits the success, in part, to market acceptance of certification. Critics on Capital Hill MaNos see page 4 WASHINGTON Watch http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8179 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8182

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Healthcare IT News - December 2007 Contents Paying Docs Seal of Approval Key to Success Stage 4 Stark Payoff New Kids on the Block Real-time Trend On the Block Picture Perfect Head of the Class

Healthcare IT News - December 2007

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