Free EMR Newsletter Want to receive the latest news on EMR, Meaningful Use, ARRA and Healthcare IT sent straight to your email? Join thousands of healthcare pros who subscribe to EMR and HIPAA for FREE!
    Email Address:
We never sell or give out your contact information. We respect our readers' privacy.

March 25, 2012

The Disappearing EMR, Patient Built EMR, EMR Competes with Paper, and Healthcare and Data

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


You should know the drill by now. Each weekend, I go through and list some of the interesting, insightful, entertaining, news-worthy or otherwise notable tweets that I find covering my favorite topics of EMR, EHR and healthcare IT.

I have a feeling a few of these tweets will drive some interesting discussion around EHR. I hope they do since I do enjoy a nice discussion.

First up is a tweet that’s pretty profound to consider when we think about EMR:


I think the EMR has disappeared for a number of clinicians, but not enough. Maybe this supports my comment in a previous post that we hear a lot of stories of failed EMR implementations, but we don’t hear the stories of as many successful EMR implementations. Is that because those EMR that are so successful basically disappear. Reminds me of life where you start to take for granted something that at first was such a game changer.


My first gut reaction to this tweet was the need to link my really old post, “Develop Your Own EMR, Are You Crazy?” Although, this seems like a little bit different situation. I do wonder how many people developing EHR software end up seeing doctors who use that same software. I wonder if they’d have different priorities and/or if they’d take different approaches if their healthcare was the only motivator behind the EHR software they developed.


This one’s a little self congratulatory I admit, but I always love to see people tweeting my posts. Plus, I love to see how they frame what I’ve written. I prefer to look at that post as a look at ways that EHR can still improve, not as an ode to paper or even worse an excuse for doctors to still use paper. If you liked that post, look forward to another post this week in the “Healthcare Spoiled” series.


This is very true. We’re not ready to handle all the healthcare data that’s being produced today, let alone the tsunami of healthcare data that will come. I’m not too concerned though. It means there’s a tremendous opportunity on the horizon for an entrepreneur to do something amazing.

Tags: • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (2)

March 16, 2012

Paper Has Healthcare Spoiled

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


As I was thinking about the radical invention of something called paper, I realized that we’re really quite spoiled by paper and its amazing benefits. Let me just list a few of the radical benefits that paper provides a doctor using a paper chart.

* Immediate response to pen – Yes, tablets and styluses are getting better, but there’s nothing like the instant satisfaction of putting pen to paper and seeing the ink spread across the page. Sure, the pen runs out every once in a while, but that’s generally pretty rare. A nice pen just flat out works with an immediate response in the exact location you want something written. There’s no calibration needed. You just pick it up and start using it. It’s beautiful.

* Never a delay when flipping pages – Think about the beauty of paper’s ability to flip between pages. When I turn a page I get an immediate response to that flip and see the desired result (a new page) immediately. I’ve never seen an hour glass when flipping between pieces of paper. I’ve never had a page partially load and need to refresh. Paper has the unique ability to flip pages with instant display of the next page.

* Instant On – Speaking of instant, paper charts are the true epitome of “Instant On” technology. Computers are getting better at making boot times fast and computers turning on quickly. However, anyone who regularly uses a computer knows all the screens you have to see as your computer boots up. A paper chart is beautiful in its ability to immediately be available for you to work. It has true Instant On capabilities.

* No training needed – Ok, maybe this is a stretch of a title. There is no training needed for paper, because since elementary school we’ve been taught how to write with pen and paper. The ability to write is near universal thanks to training in doing so since we were children. You hand a new doctor some pen and paper and they can start documenting their visit. No login or password required. No needing to know how to access Citrix so you can open the chart. Just hand them the chart and a pen and they start charting.

* Multiple page view – The display area of paper is so expandable. If you need a dual monitor dual page view of the paper you just slide it open. If you need a quad page view, you’re only limited by the amount of desk space you have or you could even move to the floor if needed. This easy to manage multi page view is powerful since it’s quite often that you want to see multiple pages at the same time.

* Fast page switching – Take a paper chart and watch how fast you can switch back and forth between pages of the chart. I call this “thumb in chart mode.” With 5 fingers you can even instantly “bookmark” up to 5 locations in the chart which you can switch to and back very quickly with zero load time.

* Flexible to an infinite number of documentation methods – Does paper support the SOAP format? Yes! Does it support every specialty? Yes! Paper has the ability to morph to every medical specialty’s documentation needs. In fact, it can easily be adapted to a different documentation method for every doctor within every specialty. It’s designed so flexibly that there really are an infinite number of documentation methods it can support.

* Easily supports text and graphic input – Oh the beauty of paper. In the same input area you can easily add text or graphics. In fact you can easily link the text and graphics in whatever way you see fit. Some might prefer to write male or others might prefer to draw the universal symbol for male. It’s completely extensible to text or graphics in every area of the page.

I’m sure there are other areas where paper spoils us that I’ve missed, but this is a good start. Hopefully you’ll add any areas I’ve missed in the comments.

Watch for future posts in my “Healthcare Spoiled” series.

Tags: • • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (23)

March 11, 2012

A Ring Around the EHR and Health IT Twittersphere

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


One challenge that many bloggers face is creating good titles for all of their posts. I usually don’t have too much problem creating one. Although, I have to admit that when I do my weekend Twitter round ups, I often do have a problem coming up with a title. I don’t like them all to be essentially the same. Maybe I’ll just do the top two stories in the title in the future and then say and more… I mostly mention that because of the creative title above.

Ok, enough discussion of blog titles. Let’s get to the meat of the tweets that I found. A number of these are really substantial pieces of news. So, take a look and enjoy.


I’m sure many might be wondering why this is in an EMR and health IT roundup. The EMR mentioned in the tweet is not electronic medical record. However, if you love tech, you’ll be amazed at that post. It’s such a great illustration of how what Amazon is doing with EC2 and their other “cloud” services is going to continue lowering the costs for so many internet services.

I like to think about it this way. How many servers are running at maximum capacity all the time? The answer is none of them. In fact, many of them often use some small percentage of what that server could process. So, that means there’s a lot of wasted processing power on servers. I think services like Amazon EC2 create such an interesting model since they have so many fewer wasted resources.


Yes, this is a survey by CDW healthcare, but that’s a pretty strong number regardless of who is doing the survey.


I’ve become more and more annoyed by the way our current payment system causes so many perverse incentives. It really makes me want to find ways to change the system.


It could be the most overlooked. Although, the question we should be asking is why is it overlooked? I think the answer is that it’s not an easy thing to understand during the selection process.


Nice job by Neil of covering Epocrates selling their EHR software. This is BIG news. Sure we could argue that Epocrates didn’t have the DNA in their company to build and sell EHR. However, this should be a cautionary tale for other EHR vendors trying to enter the market. Of course, entrepreneurs will ignore this caution and enter anyway. That’s why I love entrepreneurship.


This story was passed around on Twitter all week this last week. It probably deserves more than a tweet at the end of a Twitter round up. This is a great story about an iPad EMR saving a life, but it’s also a great story about patient information being available in emergent situations. I’ve met a number of companies that are working on this problem (including My Crisis Records who advertises on one of my sites). I think over the next 5 years we’re going to see a really dramatic change in how an emergency responder addresses a medical situation. I look forward to that day. I believe information is power and I think we can do a lot better getting them the information that will make them more powerful.

Tags: • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (1)

March 9, 2012

Meet the Bloggers Panel Video and Dell Healthcare Think Tank at HIMSS12

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


Meet the Bloggers Panel at HIMSS12
As many of you know, I was on a Meet the Bloggers panel at HIMSS 2012. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Charles Webster, MD (@EHRworkflow) was sitting on the front row filming us the whole time from a video camera he had attached to his hat #hatcam. I think some good information was shared for those interested in using blogging and/or social media in healthcare.

The moderator of the panel was Brian Ahier and the panelist were Healthcare Scene contributor Jennifer Dennard, Neil Versel from Meaningful Health IT News and Carissa Caramanis O’Brien of Aetna.

Neil was gracious enough to do all the work of embedding each video clips into a Meet the Bloggers at HIMSS post. So, instead, of embedding them all here, head over to his site to enjoy them. I will just embed one video of me talking about healthcare social media below:

One thing became abundantly clear at HIMSS. I love social media and know a little something about it. One of my favorite meetings was with a health IT vendor who wanted to tell me about them and talk about blogging/social media. They started asking questions about blogging/social media first and an hour later we were out of time. That interaction made me wonder if I should put together some one or two day social media training/strategy sessions for vendors. I think one key to social media is authenticity which means I think it’s hard to outsource it.

Dell Healthcare Think Tank
I didn’t participate in the Dell Healthcare Think Tank that happened at HIMSS, but two writers for Healthcare Scene did: Jennifer Dennard and Neil Versel. They posted the whole video for the event and I’ll embed it below. I was able to watch a good portion of it and found a number of the comments quite interesting. I find it really intriguing that Dell would hold an event like this. In many ways, this is how I get the knowledge and insight that I post on this blog. I spend time with many of the people that attended the think tank and we talk about the healthcare IT world.

Tags: • • • • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (2)

February 29, 2012

ACO Model Risks and Rewards

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


I haven’t heard a single person say that the ACO (Accountable Care Organization) model is not here to stay. In fact, everyone that I’ve talked to is completely confident that healthcare is heading down the tracks of some sort of quality care model and away from our current fee for service model. The only real question is what form these ACOs are going to take.

With this as background, let’s consider something about ACOs that I haven’t really heard many (if any) people talking about: the risks and reward profiles of being an ACO (or part of an ACO).

I’ll save the detailed list of risks and rewards for a future post, but instead want to highlight how the risks and rewards of an ACO are quite different from our current fee for service model. In our current model, when you provide a service to a patient you have a pretty good idea of what the reward for that service is going to be. Sure, there are intricacies of insurance billing, but for the most part you know what you’re going to be paid for the services you rendered. There’s not very much risk associated with providing that service since the fee for that service is known. We could argue about whether the reward is worth it or not, but in the current model the reward is pretty solidly defined. You don’t get paid more for doing a better knee surgery than someone else. The payment is the same.

The opposite turns out to be the case in a true ACO world. Providers that are caring for a community of people will be rewarded based on the quality of care that they provide that community (at least that’s the idea). That means that providers and ACOs are taking on the risk associated with the care they provide. Bad care = less reimbursement. Better care = more reimbursement. While the associated risk is higher for providers under an ACO, so are the rewards. A provider that provides better care for their community has the possibility of making more money for the care they provided.

As an entrepreneur I must admit that the idea of getting paid more for doing something better than someone else is beautiful. This is even more true in healthcare where I love the idea of a doctor getting paid to really improve my health as opposed to getting paid for services that I may or may not need. Although, I can understand how many doctors might not feel the same way I do. Many doctors aren’t entrepreneurs. They just love medicine and patients. What are these types of doctors to do with this new and evolving ACO model for reimbursement?

I think there is a clear option for doctors that just want to practice medicine without the risk or rewards associated with the ACO model. The way they’ll get around this is likely working for someone else. There’s little doubt that there will be many organizations happy to take on the risk and rewards of the ACO model while paying a physician a salary for their work.

One thing seems clear to me: Providers take on a greater portion of risk in an ACO, but they also have the opportunity to take home a significantly higher net reimbursement.

Tags: • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (6)

February 26, 2012

Weekend Twitter Roundup – #HIMSS12 Closing Keynote Edition

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


I partially understand why many choose to go home from HIMSS early. There’s certainly plenty that can be captured at HIMSS in the first couple days. Add in that coming to HIMSS for many is a job. Although, I must admit that each year on the final day of HIMSS I always feel like so many people miss out on some of the best keynote speakers they have speak at HIMSS.

This year was no exception with Donna Brazile and Dana Perino entertaining and informing. Dan Buettner was also surprisingly good with so many nuggets to think about. I admit going into it I wondered what he’d really be able to say, but it was a really interesting experience full of many points to consider.

For those that missed Dan Buettner’s keynote on Blue Zones, here are the tweets I found interesting:

Tags: • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (0)

February 14, 2012

NoMoreClipboard and iMPak Join Forces as PHR Meets ACO and Patient Centered Medical Home

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


I’ve long been fascinated by NoMoreClipboard ever since I learned at HIMSS a few years back that Jeff Donnell, President of NoMoreClipboard, was the creative genius behind the always entertaining Extormity EHR parody. So, I guess I should have expected Jeff to continue the trend of creativity in where he’d take PHR vendor NoMoreClipboard in the future.

While many are writing off the PHR after Google Health was shut down, NoMoreClipboard seems to be doubling down (a great reference before HIMSS Las Vegas) on PHR and extending it to capture two healthcare mega trends: patient centered medical homes (PCMH) and accountable care organizations (ACOs).

In an effort to learn more about this move I did the following interview with Jeff Donnell, President of NoMoreClipboard, and Sandra Elliott, Director of Consumer Technology and Service Development at Meridian Health, a not-for-profit health system in New Jersey that helped to create iMPak.

Tell me about what seems to be a shift of NoMoreClipboard from PHR to focus more on the patient centered medical home (PCMH) and facilitating ACOs.

Jeff: Our focus at NoMoreClipboard has always been on providing value to consumers and clinicians – looking for ways to connect patients with providers to facilitate meaningful information exchange, dialog and care coordination. This is not a shift away from PHR. Rather, we are elated that the concept of patient engagement is not only gaining traction, but taking off like a rocket. One of the reasons is the shift toward concepts like PCMH and ACO – where provider organizations have incentives to manage patient populations more carefully. Doing so at scale requires the use of technology to streamline communication, gather and analyze electronic data, and identify those patients who require more aggressive intervention. The PHR can be very valuable as the electronic management and communication tool for patients and their family members. We are adding provider-facing tools to help clinicians manage the patient populations who can benefit most from technology. And the collaboration with iMPak provides patients with easy-to-use, affordable and very powerful medical devices.

ACOs are quite nebulous at this point, so what ACO trends do you think are most promising?

Jeff: While no one is certain what form ACOs will ultimately take, the concept is generating not only interest, but activity. Hospitals, health systems, health plans and employers are making plans, piloting concepts and taking the steps necessary to form or become part of an ACO.

Sandra: The most profound change is the recognition that the care relationship with the patient now extends beyond the hospital doors upon discharge. There is no doubt that more incentives will continue to be placed on reducing readmissions and reducing the overall costs of care no matter what form ACOs will take in the future. The priority of better management of patients once they return home is and will continue to get significant attention.

This new partnership moves NoMoreClipboard into the patient centered medical home.  What do you see as the leading drivers of the medical home?

Jeff: As incentives shift, so must the orientation of the provider community. This is especially true for primary care providers who will assume greater responsibility for managing those with chronic conditions – providing them with a medical home where care plans are developed, deployed and carefully managed. As more hospitals and health systems acquire primary care practices, those practices become more than a source of hospital referrals – they serve as the front line in managing the care of patients who are discharged from the hospital to ensure quality and guideline adherence. This role is not only critical to improving outcomes and reducing cost, it also improves the real and perceived value of PCPs. Technology is no longer a barrier to enabling medical homes at reasonable costs.

You’ve focused on ease of use for patients.  Tell me some ways you’ve made this simple for users.

Jeff: One of the benefits of working with iMPak is their health system connection – Meridian Health in New Jersey is one of the owners. Meridian has experienced how difficult it can be to get certain patient populations to use electronic tools – be it a computer, a smartphone or an electronic medical device. Rather than throw in the towel on collecting electronic data from these patients, iMPak has developed simple devices that require little or no training and are ideal for those patients who say “I will never, ever use a computer.”

Sandra: iMPak health journals are used to collect subjective information using a push button journal – “smart” paper stock with an embedded chip that collects and stores patient responses to condition-specific questions. iMPak is also developing screening devices that are the size of a credit card and collect objective data with minimal patient effort. Both health journals and screening devices use touch and post technology so that when the device is placed on a Near Field Communications (NFC) reader, data is automatically downloaded safely and securely.

There are a lot of different medical home devices on the market.  What differentiates the iMPak product from the competition?

Sandra: The biggest differentiator is the form factor. These devices were designed with the technology-averse in mind. There are millions of people who simply will not use a computer, download an app or place an electronic home monitoring center on their kitchen counter. A significant percentage of these individuals have chronic conditions and can really benefit from sharing electronic data with a health coach or care manager. iMPak has cracked the code for these patients with devices that collect electronic data in a way that is simple, elegant and not at all intimidating.

The other major difference is the time and cost required to develop and deploy these solutions. Unlike complex medical devices that usually take years and millions of dollars to develop, iMPak journals and screening tools can be customized rapidly and affordably.

These differentiators are attracting the attention of organizations interested in partnering with us to develop and deploy purpose-built solutions for a wide variety of use cases ranging from chronic disease management to improving medication therapy.

What are the top 3 benefits someone will glean from using iMPak with NoMoreClipboard?

Sandra: Patients who either lack access to information technology or avoid its use now have an easy, anywhere way to share health information with family members and clinicians who are providing them with care.

Jeff: Family members helping take care of loved ones can now access a complete health picture through a PHR – from the latest in subjective and objective data reported by the patient to a comprehensive health record.

Clinicians, health coaches and other care advocates now have a solution designed to manage patient populations that tend to be difficult to manage – those with serious conditions who are technology averse or lack technology access. Clinical staff can now collect electronic data from these patients, and are provided with up-to-date reporting and alerts that identify those patients who require intervention much earlier.

What’s the biggest barrier to adoption of medical devices in the home?

Jeff: That depends on the home and the people using them. We are focused on homes where the adoption of high-tech, complex medical devices is extremely unlikely for any number of reasons. That does not mean these patients are not candidates for using medical devices. It does mean the devices must be carefully selected to fit the technical capabilities of the target population.

Sandra: Many devices in the home are overwhelming for the great majority of people so they were not being used. iMPak Health has designed its devices in an easy-to-use, intuitive form to overcome some of these intimidation factors

In what ways is a doctor involved in this medical home model?

Sandra: iMPak and NoMoreClipboard are collaborating to provide end-to-end solutions that connect physicians, patients and family members – giving each individual in the care equation a valuable tool to communicate and share information.

The iMPak devices are designed to help patients collect and share electronic health information in a user-friendly form factor. Captured data is then available to patients and their family members via NoMoreClipboard.

Jeff: This same data is also directed to a clinical portal that a doctor, case manager or other care advocate can use to manage a patient population. Collected data populates the portal, giving clinicians a dashboard view of patient status. Data is compared against a rules engine, and alerts identify at-risk patients who require more aggressive intervention.

The doctor seems to be an incredibly important part of medical home models.  What has been doctor’s reaction to this product?  How do you plan to get more doctors to accept this new and evolving model of care?

Jeff: Most physicians we talk to support the use of patient-facing technology, but they are quick to point out how many of their patients are not tech-savvy – senior citizens, rural patients, safety net patients, etc. When we put an iMPak device in the hands of these doctors, their reaction is amazing to watch – you can almost see the light bulbs go on.

As physicians learn that we can provide a complete solution that includes an easy-to-use clinical portal with a rules engine, reporting capability and visible identification of those patients who require additional intervention, we expect interest in this new model of care will grow.

Is it essential that the patient have their medical record in NoMoreClipboard?  What value is gleaned from the data the device provides together with the medical record?

Jeff: The iMPak device data alone is incredibly valuable – subjective and objective data collected from a patient as they experience symptoms or engage in therapy. Adding medications, allergies, conditions, medical history and family history to that data paints a more comprehensive picture. If a clinician can easily see in a combined view what medication form and strength a patient is taking along with the patient’s reported response to that medication, it is that much easier to make rapid and informed clinical decisions.

Do you plan to integrate more devices with NoMoreClipboard?  Will they all be from iMPak or will you work with other medical device manufacturers?

Sandra: NoMoreClipboard and iMPak are working on a complete line of devices, with an initial focus on pulmonary and cardiovascular conditions, as well as health and wellness applications. We are also talking with a number of potential partners about developing purpose-built solutions to support specific use cases. iMPak and NoMoreClipboard also have flexibility to work with other organizations as it makes sense. If a NoMoreClipboard client wants us to integrate with other devices, we can certainly do so. If a hospital system wants to integrate iMPak data with existing healthcare IT applications, they have that freedom.

Currently this product seems focused on the senior population. Do you see this or other related products eventually reaching the wider population?

Sandra: While seniors are a natural fit, any patient population on the wrong side of the digital divide is an ideal candidate for iMPak solutions. This includes underserved populations in urban or rural areas without regular access to technology. These devices are affordable, they are portable, and they are easy to use. We believe these devices can help overcome disparities in care.

This seems like the first step in addressing the patient centered medical home and facilitating ACOs.  Where do you see this going in the next couple years?

Jeff: As we talk to patients with chronic conditions, what keeps them up at night is the difficulty of gathering, organizing and managing all their health information, and making sure that all their doctors have the latest information and are talking with one another about what it means and how to proceed. When we talk to physicians, they describe the challenge of managing transitions in care, gaining access to all the information they know is out there somewhere, and working with patients, families and fellow clinicians to develop a coordinated plan of action.

It is pretty clear that incentives will migrate from fee-for-service to paying for a focus on wellness, prevention, and more thoughtful management of chronic conditions. While the care models (and their labels) that support this will evolve, we believe there will be increased effort to connect patients, family members and clinical teams. Electronic tools will play an important role in fostering dialog, facilitating care coordination and keeping everyone up-to-date based on their role in the care continuum. Significant value can be realized by developing “care networking” tools that combine the power of healthcare IT and social networking on an integrated platform.

John’s Note: NoMoreClipboard, in collaboration with iMPak Health, will launch and demo this new comprehensive solution for achieving a successful medical home or accountable care organization at HIMSS Booth #7902.

Full Disclosure: NoMoreClipboard is an advertiser on this site.

Tags: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (1)

February 5, 2012

eCollaboration at HIMSS12, MU Stage 2, Healthcare Social Media, Tablets and Accessible Patient Data

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


I’m sure many of you are recovering from the Super Bowl right now. I got exactly what I wanted from the Super Bowl: a great game. I didn’t care too much either way, but I am glad that I predicted the Giants to be the winners. Too bad I’m not a betting man. Although, I guess that’s the trick with betting….but I digress.

Time for my regular weekend round up of interesting things happening in the healthcare IT and EMR twittersphere. We’ve got some really interesting tweets this week. Here we go.


When I created and posted my list of HIMSS 12 sessions, they hadn’t created the agenda for the eCollaboration Forum at HIMSS and so I couldn’t add any sessions. However, the eCollaboration Forum at HIMSS 12 agenda is up now, so check it out. I know there are a number of sessions I’m going to add from the forum. I also love that they have the online option linked in this tweet for those not attending HIMSS 2012.


This is really important news. I think a lot of us are REALLY interested to see the final meaningful use stage 2 details. Good find by Neil Versel.


I’m sure we’re going to continue seeing the trend of more and more doctors gleaning value from engaging in social media. At a minimum doctors are going to start finding more and more new patients using social media including things like physician blogging. A well done practice website and social media effort is going to be really valuable for the doctor of the future.


Yes, blogging will also help hospitals in a number of ways too. Social media can benefit hospitals, doctors, practices, etc.


I was fascinated by this tweet. First because I wonder what changes will make tablets more than just great for content consumption. Second, the idea of PCs being more intellectually flexible.


I know there are reasons why financial data is more portable and accessible than healthcare data, but it still irks me that we haven’t overcome those reasons…yet!

Tags: • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (0)

January 24, 2012

Patients Medical Record Posted to Facebook – HIPAA Violation

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


I’ve generally been writing more about the EMR side of EMR and HIPAA lately. For the most part, it seems readers are more interested in EMR and EHR than they are in the details of HIPAA. Although, one of my top posts ever is from back in 2006 about HIPAA Privacy Examples and HIPAA Lawsuits. It seems that people are most interested in HIPAA when it has something to do with a HIPAA violation or lawsuit.

Today’s HIPAA violation could very likely become a HIPAA lawsuit. Plus, it is a word of caution to those about training your staff on HIPAA requirements and also on proper use of social media in healthcare.

Anne Steciw posted about the violation on Search Health IT. Here’s an excerpt from her post:

Details of the health data breach provided by the Los Angeles Daily News indicate that the employee, who was provided by a staffing agency, shared a photo on his Facebook page of a medical record displaying a patient’s full name and date of admission. The employee appeared to be completely ignorant of HIPAA laws.

I’m sure every hospital and healthcare administrator is cringing at this. I’m sure many could share stories of HIPAA issues related with staffing agencies as well. Although, it’s really hard for me to understand how someone even from a staffing agency could be so ignorant to the HIPAA laws. I’m not overstating how ignorant this person was in this situation. The above article explains something even more outrageous and unbelievable:

Even after being told by other posters that he was violating the patient’s privacy, the employee argued: “People, it’s just Facebook…Not reality. Hello? Again…It’s just a name out of millions and millions of names. If some people can’t appreciate my humor than tough. And if you don’t like it too bad because it’s my wall and I’ll post what I want to. Cheers!”

To me this is totally mind boggling. I’m sure many will argue that this person was exhibiting many of the characteristics of the Facebook generation of users. That’s a cop out and an excuse, but does make a larger point that many of the next generation have these outlandish views of what’s theirs and what’s ok and reasonable. Sadly, far too many people think when it’s humor it’s ok to do anything. It’s not and I’m sure those dealing with HIPAA violations won’t find it a reasonable excuse either.

One thing I really hate about stories like this is that they give a bad name to use of social media in healthcare. Social media is like most things which can be used for good or bad. It’s a shame if incidents like this discourage people from accessing the benefits of social media.

This is another good example of how our biggest HIPAA privacy vulnerability is people.

Tags: • • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (6)

January 19, 2012

Healthcare IT at CES

Written by:
Filed under: Permalink
add to del.icio.us


While I definitely had quite a bit of excitement over this year’s CES and Digital Health Summit, I have to admit that I ended up leaving CES a bit disappointed. I’m trying to decide if it being the fifth year I’ve attended CES is making me immune to the hype that surrounds the event or if I’ve just been going to too many conferences in general and so I’ve already heard much of the hype. At the end of the day, I describe this year’s CES as incremental versus trans formative.

There were a few exceptions of things that caught my eye while navigating the CES circus that are worth mentioning.

Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer
Probably the most amazing thing I saw for healthcare was the Life Technologies Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer. Plus, I’m not alone with this feeling. Dan Costa of PC Mag called it “The Coolest Thing I Saw at CES 2012.” To be quite frank, it is pretty amazing. It’s part of the amazing movement happening in bringing genomic data to healthcare.

The Ion Proton Genetic Sequencer (they need a better name) is awesome cause you can do a full genome in a day on a machine that costs about the same as an MRI machine. Plus, I personally think they’re just getting started on optimizing the technology. As they continue to improve the technology the cost of the machine and the time and cost to do the analysis will continue to drop. We still don’t know exactly how to use the genomic data in healthcare, but machines like this are going to make it possible for us to find new ways to use this data for good.

I still can’t help but imagine an EHR having all of our genomic data available to it.

Liquipel
Probably the coolest general technology and innovation that I saw at CES was called Liquipel. Liquipel is a technology that makes your device repel water using a nano coating. The best way to understand how it works is to check out some of the Liquipel videos and I’ll embed one below that gives a nice overview.

Of course, they have the disclaimer that it should never be submerged in water, but it was amazing to see it repel the water and still work. Plus, probably the coolest demonstration they did was with a Kleenex. They’d applied the nano-coating to a Kleenex and then they placed it in water. You’d think it would shrivel up and absorb the water. Nothing. I then asked if I could touch the Kleenex to see if I could feel the coating. Nothing. It felt like a Kleenex.

Many health IT people would love this technology. Then, it wouldn’t be such a concern to put your iPad next to the sink in the exam room. I wonder if the nano technology can do anything with infection control with devices. I imagine it doesn’t solve that issue.

I’m sure many are wondering how they can get their device treated with Liquipel. Right now they said you have to drop it by their office in California to get it done over a lunch or something. However, they’re working with phone manufacturers to get their technology in every phone. Pretty amazing stuff.

John Sculley
Another highlight of CES for me was the chance to hear John Sculley talk at the Digital Health Summit. I can’t say he said anything too groundbreaking. Although, he did say that health IT companies should stop focusing their revenue model on corporate health programs. I found that interesting. The most interesting comment came from colleague Dan Munro after John Sculley’s talk. He commented how interesting it was that so many of these older ex-CIO’s of major tech companies are getting into healthcare. I carried the thought through for Dan that as you age, you start to care about healthcare a lot more than you did when you were younger and healthier. I wonder if we’ll see this trend continue as more tech people get older and start to care more about healthcare.

Tags: • • • • • • • • • • •

Get the Free EMR and HIPAA Email Newsletter:
Email Address:
Post a comment (2)