We know that the use of electronic health records (EHR) is not as pervasive as it could be, especially for outpatient facilities. The folks at Software Advice have endeavored to come up with some sense of EHR market share (both adoption and specific systems in use). You’ll find their full analysis here.
Some interesting stories emerging.
Here’s one to ponder: How is the electronic health record (EHR) system used by the Department of Veterans Affairs similar to a fighter jet? This article from Federal Computer Week plays out the comparison:
Dr. Steve Ondra, senior policy adviser for health affairs at the VA, was talking about the development and modernization of legacy electronic health record systems at the department, including VistA, and how those systems eventually will synchronize with new record programs, such as the VA/Defense Department Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record.
He compared the evolution of VistA to the VLER, as being comparable to the evolution of World War II-era planes into modern fighter jets. The comparison became more complex as it went along.
To illustrate his point, Ondra said the VA started out with electronic record systems comparable to a P-51 Mustang, a World War II-era fighter plane, and to a Sabre Jet, which dates from the Korean War.
“The Sabre is a good jet, but a little dated,” Ondra said, apparently still talking about the VA’s legacy systems such as VistA.
The next step, which includes creating the VLER, aims to be upgrade the legacy VA systems to make them comparable to an F-15 or F-22 modern fighter jet, Ondra added.
Singapore is known for its central planning. So how is the island nation doing with their electronic health record implementation? Here are details from Today Online:
By April next year, all key medical information – including patient demographics, allergies, clinical diagnoses, medication history, X-rays, laboratory investigations and discharge summaries – will be fully available on the new National Electronic Health Record (NEHR).
The full savings potential of electronic health records (EHR), or lack thereof, is not entirely clear. But there may be certain instances where EHR can lead to savings. A new article in Forbes examines a few such instances. Here is an excerpt:
The Milliman Group did two studies on so called “multi-payer” portals that work with multiple insurers and found that portals such as NaviNet save doctors an average of $20 per patient, per visit. The savings for an insurance plan covering 500,000 people is estimated between $14.5 million and $15 million a year.
Now extrapolate that out to the entire population of the United States. We’re talking more than $9 billion in annual savings.
We blogged earlier this week about the role of the tablet computer as an EHR tool. Now comes the news that Microsoft is finding ways to connect its personal health record, Health Vault, with various hardware systems. How might this work? Here’s a perspective from ZDNet:
The XBox, for instance, is a computer, and costs less than a PC. The main XBox site advertises systems starting at $199.
Why not put it in hospital rooms and connect it to the hospital’s electronic medical record system? That way a doctor could show a patient his scans at their bedside, and the hospital could create entertaining follow-up programs. Young patients would also have something to do.
The company is also working hard to match the Nintendo Wii with a gesture interface dubbed Project Natal. Placing the XBox in hospitals as well as homes would allow those undergoing rehabilitation the chance to do the needed work at home, creating valuable new applications and application markets.
Or a mobile phone could be used to collect data points like blood pressure, blood sugar, exercise statistics and food diaries, which could help patients stay on track and create a data stream for doctors.
The consumer product world recently shuddered with the launch of the iPad. Tablet computing promises to become big business in the very near future, and it has video gamers excited.
What are the implications for healthcare? A survey conducted by Medical Software Advice offers this perspective on the future of tablets in healthcare.
[The iPad] lacks a large number of features that healthcare professionals deemed important, such as resistance to dust and hospital fluids and disinfectants (the iPad does not have sealed ports); fingerprint access to the system (HIPAA compliance); barcode scanning (patient safety); and an integrated camera (documenting diagnosis). In fact, you could argue that the iPad’s difficulty in being disinfected or kept clean of hospital fluids is a deal breaker for healthcare workers.
Peripherals, such as an RFID reader and barcode scanner, may be available in the future. But because they’re not native to the iPad, they’re just more cables and cords a busy healthcare worker has to lug around. That’s another negative mark for the iPad.
Also, as we mentioned before, the iPad does not have a wide selection of medical software because of interoperability issues with it’s operating system. A wide selection of medical software was voted as a must-have feature by 70% of our respondents. Most medical software on the market, EMR software especially, will only operate in a Windows-based environment. This presents a huge problem for the iPad in healthcare.
The software problem may be the easiest to address. The iPhone has motivated widespread application development and the developers are already lining up to work on iPad apps.
CMS has released long-awaited detail about the ”meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHR). This notion was first introduced in last year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The plan has already generated some concern.
In other EHR news:
Lots of reading to catch up on:
We have looked before at the healthcare system in the UK. That system made news over the weekend with the announcement that its ambitious health IT project–“the world’s biggest civilian IT project”–may face delays for budgetary reasons. Not everyone is happy about it. Interesting to see the larger conversation over the value of health IT in an entirely different context.
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