Virtuate

Update and Transition

Thanks for dropping by.

You may be wondering where I went and why content on this page has been thin and infrequent.

There are several reasons for this.

When I started this site I did so with high hopes of building a place to read about healthcare technology.  At the same time, however I also started the Mobile Strategy Blog … At the beginning it was difficult to concentrate on both sites and keep customers happy.  Then I started my assignment at the Ministry of Health which later turned into an assignment at eHealth Ontario.  Due to my work with the government and the media attention that eHealth Ontario had this year I thought it would be in everybody’s best interest to not update these pages and to not write about eHealth in Ontario.  Which I didn’t.  So I concentrated on my project with the government and wrote on mobile strategy (in the other blog).

Today I am no longer at eHealth Ontario.  Yet at the same time I have lost my appetite to write about the topic and have actually even bit somewhat disillusioned (both as a taxpayer and as an internal consultant) at the what has happened.

In the next few weeks I will be decommissioning this site and if it does come back – which I certainly hope it will – the topics will be much closer to my areas of expertise inside healthcare: operational performance, process optimization and change management.  I have also managed to build my network inside healthcare to include other specialists in these areas which will come in handy if we do launch something here.

So that is it.

If you need me or would like to connect with me please do so at the links below:

Here is another goodie from the Mobile Strategy Blog … go ahead subscribe…

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eHealth Ontario releases Request For Qualifications (RFQ) to Develop a Chronic Disease Management System

Press Release issued yesterday July 17, 2009:

TORONTO – eHealth Ontario and Infrastructure Ontario released a request for qualifications (RFQ) today to identify qualified companies to develop a chronic disease management system that will be used initially to establish a Diabetes Registry for Ontarians and an eHealth Portal framework.

In July 2008, the Government of Ontario launched a four-year comprehensive Diabetes Management Strategy to prevent, manage and treat diabetes. The strategy includes the online Diabetes Registry.

It is estimated that more than 900,000 Ontarians have diabetes – a number that continues to grow rapidly. The Diabetes Registry is an interactive, real-time, information system designed to track how well all patients in Ontario with diabetes are cared for against evidence-based guidelines. It will track the dates of service and provide lab results to assist clinicians and patients living with diabetes to reduce complications related to the disease.

RFQ submissions will be evaluated to pre-qualify teams with the experience, the qualified personnel and the financial strength to deliver a health care information technology project of this size and complexity. Pre-qualified teams will then be invited to respond to a request for proposals (RFP), expected to be released this fall.

eHealth Ontario is a new organization that plays the leading role in harnessing technology and innovation to improve patient care, safety, and access in support of the government’s health strategy. eHealth Ontario published the first eHealth strategy for Ontario in March 2009, which is focused on providing a comprehensive, patient focused, secure and private electronic system. eHealth Ontario will drive the transformation of Ontario’s health care system, building toward an electronic health record for all Ontarians by 2015.

Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to managing some of the province’s larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects – ensuring they are delivered on time and on budget.

Visit www.infrastructureontario.ca or www.ehealthontario.on.ca for more information.

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Media Contacts:

Jennifer Sclisizzi
Infrastructure Ontario
416-325-7409

Heather Brown
eHealth Ontario
416-586-4238

Disponible en français

Mobile Medical Application Searches

Although I have largely ignored this blog due to time and scandals… I still check the site statistics almost on a daily basis.  What I am amazed at is how many visitors come here looking for Palm Pre medical or health applications.  Of course they are directed to this small post – No Medical Apps for the Palm Pre which directs them to the Mobile Health News article I quote.  It is not in the hundreds so please do not let me mislead you, however it is enough for me to notice that there is an opportunity out there and some demand starting to build up.

It may just be that I have written about this in the past (check out -More Physicians Use Mobile Technology in Clinical Care) and have not really dedicated that much time to iPhone medical applications or BlackBerry medical applications.  This being the case we don’t get much traffic for those searches since there are probably hundreds (if not thousands) of others who have written about these.

A good source for Palm Medical application information and discussion s is The PalmDoc Chronicles.

It is an interesting case, because even the clients that I am working with around mobile technology are not yet considering developing for the Palm Pre… however, due to Palm’s history with physicians I think developers and mobile health application vendors should not ignore the Pre and should start preparing their shops to develop for it in the near future.

How much access should patients have to their medical records?

Post and links at KevinMD.

Wireless Technologies for eHealth

Over at the VizEdu site you can find a picture that illustrates at a high level the impact of wireless technologies on eHealth.

Wireless Technologies have the potential to revolutionize Health Care.  With the massive adoption of Wireless Internet and Social Media – the empowered patient wants to be a partner in health care. West Wireless Health Institute aims to explore wireless technologies to advance human health and wellbeing.

Mobile Clinical References Credited in Preventing Medical Errors

You can find a press release from Epocrates from a few weeks back by the same title as this post – here.  The release reports on a survey carried out by Epocrates with some interesting numbers…

More than 60 percent of the 2,000 physicians surveyed reported avoiding at least one adverse drug event (ADE) per week by using Epocrates’ software on an iPhone™, Blackberry®, Palm® or Windows® device. With more than a third of U.S. physicians using Epocrates, this translates to more than a hundred thousand ADEs avoided weekly, and illustrates the importance of trusted point-of-care information.

And more …

The nationwide survey, which included respondents across eight medical specialties, revealed physicians using Epocrates software have a higher adoption of other healthcare information technologies than non-users. Representing more than one in three U.S. physicians, 50 percent of Epocrates subscribers report having an EMR in their practice. Cardiologists and gastroenterologists prove to be the most advanced, with 61 percent and 58 percent reporting the use of both technologies, respectively.

I wonder if the point below is also true of alerts on the mobile device…

Nearly 60 percent of respondents with access to an EMR system reveal they would be more likely to act on information they proactively looked up in a mobile clinical reference compared to a pop-up message in their EMR. The mobility and convenience of this content fully supports physicians’ workflow, as they may not always be in front of a computer.

Overall the surveyed physicians reported very good numbers:

With the Epocrates software close at hand, more than 40 percent of physicians believe it has helped avoid two or more medical errors per week. Primary care physicians (56 percent) and oncologists (45 percent) were among the respondents who saw the most value and potentially avoided eight or more ADEs per month.

…

When asked to evaluate five technologies on how well they help avoid medical errors and improve patient safety, respondents ranked the top three as:
Mobile clinical reference software (85 percent)
Electronic prescribing (71 percent)
Electronic medical record systems (65 percent)

All very interesting.

No Medical Apps for the Palm Pre

Oops!

Can’t say I would have called this myself.  But in the long run perhaps a good thing for both Apple and RIM.

From Mobile Health News:

Despite its long history in the medical industry, Palm has launched its latest device with no medical applications. We have written about Palm’s legacy as a platform of choice for doctors and other health workers who have depended on the company’s PDA for the last decade, but with the company’s new smartphone, the Pre, it seems Palm did not have them in mind.

Head over there for the rest of the story.

eHealth Ontario Distractions

As you may be aware there are some issues right now at eHealth Ontario… and I have chosen to stay away from the topic for several reasons.  If you know me personally you will know why.

I just hope the distractions will go away and we can get back to the business of electronic health in Ontario.  We shall  see how long I can stay out of this discussion.

Home Health Monitor Sends Wireless Data to Your Doctor

Interesting little device over at jkOnTheRun from a few months ago:

Take Tunstall’s RTX3371 Wireless Telehealth Monitor, for example. The device just cleared the U.S. FDA and uses a slower GPRS cellular radio to receive and send data.

Vital signs are wirelessly collected from other compatible devices like weight scales and blood pressure units; the stats can then be forwarded on to doctors or hospitals by using the integrated cellular radio. As if that weren’t enough, the RTX3371 offers voice functionality for questionnaires on how a patient is feeling.

I still want to see this done by just one device… my smartphone.

Healthcare IT Primer

John Halamka (profile on his blog here) has a piece over at the Health Care Blog on the fundamentals of healthcare IT.  He calls it A Healthcare IT Primer and presents in 10 common questions and answers.   I have listed the questions below… but for the answers you must go to the original post here.

1. Can you define EHR, EMR, PHR and PM in simple terms?
2. How large is the unserved market for HIT?
3. How many companies are currently competing in the small practice/ ambulatory EHR market? Are there any clear leaders in terms of client base or innovation?
4. What does “meaningful use” really mean? Do you think physicians currently feel compelled to wait for clearer language from the government on the interoperability standards before investing?
5. What other details about meaningful use are listed in the bill?
6. Will Healthcare Smart Cards replace PHRs?
7. Will clinicians be able to migrate easily from one EHR to another?
8. What is the roadmap for interoperability?
9. “After standards are adopted in 2009, the National Coordinator shall make available at a nominal fee an electronic health record, unless the Secretary determines that the needs and demands of providers are being substantially and adequately met by the marketplace. Nothing in the legislation requires that entities adopt or use the technology made available through this provision.” -from HITECH Act. Do you see this as a viable solution for small practices who want to wait it out and go with a cheaper software product?
10. Do you see PHR’s and EHR’s as separate markets currently and what about in the future?