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Public Health & Technology Conference at Harvard next week

Here’s the announcement: The Public Health & Technology (PHAT) Forum at the Harvard School of Public Health is proud to announce the first Public Health & Technology Conference, co-sponsored by the Department of Health Policy & Management and the Social Entrepreneurs In Health Student Group. Despite health IT’s promise of better, faster, and cheaper health care, adoption of electronic health records in the US remains low. This conference brings together many of the leaders in the field to explore the potential to use health IT to improve health delivery, the challenges of health information exchange and the impact of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on health IT.

Shahid N. Shah

Markle Foundation presenting “Getting Health IT Right Under the ARRA” at Newseum in DC on Thursday

As we all know, the terms “meaningful use” and “certified” will be defined through (hopefully) a new healthcare collaborative and not legacy vendors process this year. The Markle Foundation, which is a philanthropic organization that advises the government on various matters, is presenting their view on what “meaningful use” should mean and how that definition should drive the “certified” terminology debate. I got an early look at what they’re presenting and I like what they have to say.

Shahid N. Shah

NCVHS Executive Subcommittee Hearing Defining “Meaningful Use” to be held April 28th and 29th in DC

Yesterday the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) announced that it’s holding a public hearing to define the ARRA’s “Meaningful Use” of EMRs concept. NCVHS is of course one of the oldest public boards that advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Here’s their introduction: The NCVHS Executive Subcommittee will hold a public meeting on April 28-29, 2009 to help define and clarify the term “Meaningful Use,” a term used in the HITECH Act (part ofthe American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ARRAA).

Shahid N. Shah

Are medication alerts useless since most clinicians override them anyway?

A February 2009 internal medicine study entitled “Overrides of Medication Alerts in Ambulatory Care” concludes the following: Clinicians override most medication alerts, suggesting that current medication safety alerts may be inadequate to protect patient safety. In my work I have certainly seen many alerts constantly being overridden but I didn’t realize how big an issue it was until I read this article. Here’s what else they said: Background Electronic prescribing systems with decision support may improve patient safety in ambulatory care by offering drug allergy and drug interaction alerts.

Shahid N. Shah

Physicians are not technology averse

As a thought leader in the healthcare IT space I get a lot of emails that blame physicians for not changing their behavior and not more more easily accepting information technology. The IT solutions folks and vendors often complain “if only physicians would just accept our system the hospital would benefit, the government would get data, insurance claims would be processed faster, etc.” Because physicians don’t jump to change their behavior and adopt IT immediately they are pegged as being technology averse.

Shahid N. Shah

HIMSS Discussion Drafts on Meaningful Use Open until April 17

In case you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to review the HIMSS Discussion Drafts on Meaningful Use site. Here’s the purpose of the site; I think they’re trying to be transparent and we need to help them out: Welcome to the HIMSS discussion forum on the definitions of meaningful use of certified EHR technology. As identified in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, hospitals and physicians have the opportunity to earn Medicare incentive payments for a specific time period – if they meet the definition.

Shahid N. Shah

Guest Article: What will make healthcare software usable?

Last month I posted several entries about how difficult most healthcare software is to use – those articles garnered lots of “yes, you’re right” type of comments along with a number of emails asking for help on how to improve usability. Usability describes the “ability to use” something — the goal for a usable system is to make it easy to use. Given how hard it is to actually make something easy to use (yes, ironic), I invited an expert in this field — Paul Nuschke, a usability specialist at Electronic Ink – to write about what it takes to make software usable, with emphasis on healthcare IT systems.

Shahid N. Shah

Guest Article: Leveraging Technology to Drive Patient Centered Medical Home Initiatives

Of all major healthcare technology strategies, patient centered medical home (PCMH) initiatives, while still in their infancy, have the potential of significantly improving outcomes. I’ve been following the medical home concept and technology surrounding the initiatives for some time now and am excited to hear consumer electronics companies, traditional IT firms, and finally existing healthcare technology providers finally getting into the fray. To explain the medical home concept I invited Ned Moore, CEO, Co-founder & Chairman of Portico Systems, to explain what the medical home is all about.

Shahid N. Shah

What consumers think about online health resources, PHRs, EHRs, and other important topics

I’m a big fan of evidence over eminence when it comes to making decisions around healthcare IT. Deloitte does some great research and this morning I saw this 2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers. As the website says: The 2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers, conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, is Deloitte’s second annual study of health care consumers’ attitudes, behaviors and unmet needs. It offers health care industry leaders and policymakers a comprehensive and timely perspective about how Americans approach their health, health care and health insurance.

Shahid N. Shah
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