Healthcare IT News - December 2008 - (Page 4)

Healthcare IT News ■ December 2008 industry news www.HealthcareITNews.com health management services through its CareEngine system. Aside from the obvious benefits to those with diabetes, he points out, management programs reduce the time and money spent on avoidable critical-care issues – helping physicians, nurses, family members, employers and health plans. “You want to make an impact on their lifestyles Lonny Reisman, before an emergency occurs,” MD he adds. “I think, as a culture, we’re going to have to overcome seeing our healthcare system as an urgent system as opposed to a care system,” said Chris Boue, president and CEO of C.H. Mack, a provider of case management software. He says diagnostic software is used not only to manage people with diabetes, but also to identify trends toward diabetes, such as abnormal blood sugar readings, reduced pancreatic activity and weight issues. “It’s about interfacing the systems out there to connect the patterns,” adds Martine Mollet, the company’s subject matter expert. “It’s all about transparency.” Monitoring may mean It boost CEO of MedPlus, the healthcare IT subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics, points out that chronic care management could propel the development of interoperable electronic medical records by physicians, which now stands at a woeful 13 percent nationwide. Mahoney says physicians are wary of EMRs because they require a change in workflows and take time away from clinical duties. The development of IT tools, he says, needs ICk MAHONey, DIaBeTes Continued from page 1 d to focus on interoperability – bringing in not only the physicians, but also the patients, the health plans, the hospitals and the physicians’ staff – to develop a complete medical picture. This would improve the patient’s treatment plan, the physician’s workload and the health plan’s bottom line. “A driver of most of the cost of health plans is the failure to do a good job in managing chronic diseases,” he said. ‘This needs to be an economically driven imperative.” 3:53 PM Page 1 office and into the patient’s home.” identifying and managing According to MyCareTeam statistics, the nation spends approximately $13,243 per year on each person with diabetes, while someone without the disease costs roughly $2,560 in healthcare costs. “The importance of properly managing a chronic disease like diabetes can’t be overlooked,” says Lonny Reisman, MD, chairman of ActiveHealth Management, a provider of DS-5000 ad-analog-HITN.qxd:OLY 9/12/08 inVesting in it According to the Dallas-based research firm Parks Associates, new IT-enabled monitoring solutions and services are expected to pump $1.4 billion in product and service revenues into the diabetic care market by 2013. “The addressable market for continuous glucose monitoring devices and other noninvasive monitoring solutions will continue to expand as the technologies mature and become more economical,” said Harry Wang, director of health and mobile product research for Parks Associates. “At the same time, the emphasis on lifestyle changes and close monitoring and coaching has introduced new care models and industry players, speeding the adoption of new technologies that will allow patients to better manage their conditions while being active and proactive.” cOsts Of nOn-cOmpliance In the nation’s capital, Howard University Hospital is working with NoMoreClipboard. com, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based online PHR provider, to offer PHRs to diabetic patients. “Reported costs to treat a compliant diabetic are $1,500 annually, but those costs escalate quickly to $20,000 per year for patients who are out of compliance,” said William Cast, MD, NoMoreClipboard.com’s CEO. “With NoMoreClipboard.com, these diabetic patients can share their health records with physicians, clinics, emergency rooms and other places they seek treatment – improving the coordination of care, reducing duplicate tests and giving everyone involved a more complete and accurate clinical picture.” Orion Health of Santa Monica, Calif., meanwhile, is using its Concerto Physician Portal and cResults Viewer to power chronic disease management registries for 22 primary care networks in the Canadian province of Alberta. “This registry … can help physicians access patient records and quickly determine patients with high risk indicators and make recommendations for treatment,” said Michael Craig, Orion’s vice president of sales for Canada. “The registry enables medical staff to intervene before the patient has a serious problem that could result in hospitalization.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: DIaBeteS 1208 Magnetic tape is history. Get over it. It was great while it lasted, but magnetic tape’s time has passed. Digital dominates and there’s just no getting around that. Give up your ancient microcassette recorder and pick up the Olympus DS-5000 Digital Voice Recorder. It has an amazingly responsive slide switch that won’t clip any words. Get clear, high-quality sound with our new DSS Pro format. Easy-to-use software lets you manage your work more productively than ever. The DS-5000. Capture it all. getolympus.com/audio ● e ● Connect: oLYMPUS 1208 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.NoMoreClipboard.com?s http://www.NoMoreClipboard.com http://www.getolympus.com/audio http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10489 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=10547

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - December 2008

Healthcare IT News - December 2008 Contents AHIC 2.0 Debuts See How It Works Monitored to Health Right Decisions Neurologist Needed HiMSS Insider: Four to the Board Heartened Generation Next Clinical Toolkit: Inpatient EMRs Management Solutions: Asset Tracking

Healthcare IT News - December 2008

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