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The Rise Of mHealth And EHR Use, And The World Of Telehealth – Around Healthcare Scene

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mHealth is on the rise, and it looks like usage of smart phones among physicians is following that same trend. A recent study shows that usage rose about nine percent in 2012, which shows that it is becoming more accepted in the medical world. It will be interesting to see if it increases even more this year (I have a feeling it might.)

Similar to the increase in doctors using smartphones, there has been a jump in EMR and HIE use as well. A survey from Accenture found that over 90 percent of doctors are using an EMR in either their practice or at a hospital, and over 50 percent are using an HIE. This increase was highest among doctors in the United States. Be sure to read more of the interesting facts this survey found about EMR and HIE use in the U.S., and around the world.

Even though 90 percent of doctors are using an EMR at one point or another, only about 55 percent have actually adopted an EHR into their practice. It can be nerve-racking trying to find the perfect EHR. If you are finding yourself at that crossroad, be sure to read these five tips from ADP AdvancedMD on how to have a successful EHR implementation.

Still, some of you may be hesitant to implement an EHR. You may ask, is it worth it? Does it takeaway from healthcare? There is debate from both sides, each with compelling arguments. John believes that technology is overall positive in any industry, and discusses his thoughts, and some of the challenges that faces the industry.

Telehealth and medicine is so huge, it can be hard to digest. Neil Versel recently attended the American Telemedicine Association’s annual conference in Austin, Texas, and saw just how huge this market was. Be sure to check out this video he created from his experience, and to perhaps get a better idea about the many types of telehealth. Similar to the increase in doctors using smartphones, there has been a jump in EMR and HIE use as well. A survey from Accenture found that over 90 percent of doctors are using an EMR in either their practice or at a hospital, and over 50 percent are using an HIE. This increase was highest among doctors in the United States. Be sure to read more of the interesting facts this survey found about EMR and HIE use in the U.S., and around the world.

With summer quickly approaching, it’s more important than ever to stay hydrated. But if you need a little reminder, be sure to look into the Jomi Band.  It gives you warnings when you might be on the brink of dehydration, and makes it easy to keep track of how much water you’ve consumed in a day’s time.

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May 12, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  EHR Benefits  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Selection  EMR Technology  Healthcare  Healthcare Communication  Healthcare Devices  HealthCare IT  Hospitals  Medical Privacy  Patients  Personal Musings
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User-friendly EMRs, Meaningful Use Fraud, and DietBet – Around Healthcare Scene

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Many are concerned with the user experience in Health IT – particularly regarding the user-friendliness of EMRs. While it is easy to be overwhelmed by the negative reports, there are businesses and providers working hard to resolve these issues. McKesson is one of those companies, and they were recently recognized for their work at HIMSS13. Will more companies start making efforts like this? 

One step toward making EMRs more user-friendly is, well, making them accessible to patients. Unfortunately, according to a recent Accenture study, 65 percent of doctors believe patients should only have limited access to their health records, and 4 percent believe records should be totally closed. Reasons range from self-consciousness of what a doctor says in a record, to being uncomfortable with using digital records. Allowing patient-access may very well be a huge cultural shift for doctors everywhere.

In order to pass Meaningful Use stage 1, one must indicate which EMR was adopted. But, according to BuildYourEMR.com’s CEO, Mike Jensen, 74 percent of the providers who stated they were using his EMR…weren’t. If this is similar across the board, around 5.4 billion dollars were paid in error for incentives. While this isn’t likely to be the case, it’s pretty sad the lengths people will go to in order to get some extra money. EMR vendors need to start going over their CMS data in order to help prevent this fraudulent behavior.

If money was at stake for you to lose weight, would that motivate you? For most people, it probably would. DietBet takes the desire people have to lose weight and pairs it with the innate desire to have money, and creates a weight-loss game. If you lose 4 percent of your body weight in four weeks, you get part of the money pot for the group you are in. If you don’t, you lose the amount you paid to participate in the first place.

John recently had the opportunity to go to TEDMED as a guest of the Breakaway Group (A Xerox company)
. It was a great experience for him, and highlights can be found @ehrandhit or searching #simplehealth on Twitter. John recounts some of key takeaways from TEDMED, and suggests some of the major themes that will likely be seen in healthcare.

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April 21, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  EHR Benefits  EHR Stimulus  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Consulting  EMR Technology  Healthcare  Healthcare Devices  Healthcare Social Media  Hospitals  Meaningful Use
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Traditional Marketing, Drug Companies, and Behavioral Scientists – #HITsm Chat Highlights

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Topic One: @bjfogg behavior model has become well known in tech around engagement. How is this or other models applicable to patient care?

Topic Two: Outside #healthcare, “engagement” is largely about marketing. What can traditional marketing teach us about patients?

Topic Three: Engagement is closely tied to influence and by who you are trying to influence. What are biggest drivers of influence in hc?

Topic Four: Drug companies are masters of influence, how can we improve the influence of engagement?

Topic Five: @nationalehealth and @ONC_HIT work with top behavioral scientists. When does a nudge toward behavior change become a shove?

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April 20, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  Healthcare  HealthCare IT  Hospital EHR  Hospitals
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EHR Debates and The Growth of mHealth – Around Healthcare Scene

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With the dissatisfaction that many have felt from EMR, providers and patients alike, outside healthcare companies are coming up with new ideas on how to help. Healthpons, a healthcare version of Groupon, recently launched and aims to help people find affordable care, and allow providers to market themselves. Is this “cash for care” model a trickle down effect of EMR Dissatisfaction?

Among the debates related to EHRs, one of the biggest is about purging data. On one side, people believe that all data from a person’s life in order to give the best care possible. Another camp believes that keeping EHR data opens up the door for the institution being held liable. What do you think?

Hospitals are implementing EMRs left and right. However, who is it that pays for it? Some argue that it’s the consumer, others sometimes even say it’s the insurance companies. In the end, it’s the hospitals themselves.

How do you measure the quality of a doctor? In same ways, it’s impossible. Ideally, there would be a way to determine whether the quality of care a doctor provides is worth the cost they charge. However, there are risks involved in this, and really, it’s hard.  Don’t we all want the best doctor possible, for the lowest price? How can we keep doctor’s accountable for the care they provide?

If you have a hard time deciding the quality of a doctor, why not take matters into your own hands? Most people know that Google contains a plethora of health information, and that smartphones have a variety of health-related apps. The digital health market is growing at a fast rate and more technology is being released each day. What do you think the future holds for mHealth?

The past few weeks, some well-known names in health IT have lost dear family members. Remember these people in your thoughts.

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April 7, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Technology  Healthcare  HealthCare IT  Hospitals  Meaningful Use
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Communication With Providers, Patient Alert Fatigue, and #HealthIT — #HITsm Chat Highlights

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#HITsm T1: How do you WANT to communicate with your healthcare provider? How does it differ from what’s available?

 

#HITsm T2: How can we avoid patient alert fatigue as we move toward engaged care and #mHealth acceptance?

 

#HITsm T3: Will the shortage of qualified #healthIT professionals to fill openings force a delay in meeting Meaningful Use requirements?

 

#HITsm T4: Open Forum> What #healthIT topic has interested you most this week?

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April 6, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  EMR  HealthCare IT  HITECH  Hospitals
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Around Healthcare Scene: EMRs and Health Technology Talk

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EMRs are supposed to increase efficiency and patient care. However, because of the amount of data they contain, sometimes the opposite happens. Anne Zieger discusses a recent report in Modern Healthcare, which talks about how nearly 30 percent of PCPs claim that they missed notifications of test results, leading to a delay in care, thanks to the over-abundance of information the EMR collects.

Would the use of mHealth technology such as tablets and smart phones cause harm like this as well? We’re sure to find out soon with mobile technology advancing among providers. Research shows that some providers are “gradually shifting their use of smart mobile devices from business functions like e-mail and scheduling to a much wider range of activities. Be sure to read some of Anne’s thoughts on the matter, and find out if this growth will continue at this pace.

And speaking of tablets, around 4,000 home care staff will be receiving a brand new Android tablet. Bayada, a national home care agency has recently sent out Samsung Galaxy Tabs to therapists, medical social workers and other home health professionals. Considering the fact that iPads are often the tablet of choice, this was an interesting move. The workers can document information while at a patient’s home, as well pull up data before going to the house. Will more healthcare providers be taking on the Android tablets, because of their lower cost? Chime in over at Hospital EMR and EHR.

There’s always some kind of new app being created to help people keep track of their health. Now, people can use uChek, an at-home urinanalysis, to keep their health in check. The mobile app, along with the uChek kits, allow people to test their urine for a variety of different markers. While it shouldn’t be used to replace a necessary visit to the doctor’s office, it could help prevent certain issues from getting worse by catching them early on.

With all this talk of technology in the healthcare world, one might wonder how it affects patient engagement. We recently switched pediatricians for my house, and while the last office was very tech savvy, this new office doesn’t have a computer in the offices, they give out paper prescriptions, and they have paper files. And to be honest, I love this office way more because of how personal the visit was, with no technology to distract the doctor. At our old office, the doctor stood far away from us, only looked at the computer the majority of the time, and it just wasn’t personal. However, because a lot of the mHealth technology does a lot of good, Dr. West over at the Happy EMR Doctor has some suggestions. He has created a list of 7 tips to help improve EHR etiquette, and this is definitely something all healthcare providers should follow. Just because there’s technology, doesn’t mean the importance of patient engagement should disappear as well.

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March 10, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  Healthcare  Healthcare Devices  HealthCare IT
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EHR and Mobile Health News Around the Country

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It may come as a surprise to some, but according to a study by eClinicalWorks, the majority of physicians like EMR-connected apps, and mHealth apps in general. 2,291 healthcare professionals were surveyed, and 649 were physicians. Over 90 percent of physicians feel it’s valuable to have their EMR connected to an app. The study also revealed other interesting things concerning physicians and medical apps.

And EHR vendors may want to consider this when developing and updating their EHR. From the Black Book Rankings, here is a list of top EHR vendors among hospitals. I bet some of these ones definitely have.

On a similar topic, there was a recent study about physican EMR use in the United States. Apparently, they are behind other countries. While usage has definitely increased recently, with 69 percent of doctors using some type of EMR in 2012, it’s still well-below the rates in the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, the U.K, Australia, and Sweden, all that have EMR usage rates above 88 percent.

For anyone that is interested, there is quite a bit of legislation on telemedicine this year across the United States. This chart shows all that’s going on in three different categories — legislated mandate for private coverage, legislated medicaid coverage (primarily interactive video,) and other proposed bills affecting medicaid coverage.

There’s always a lot going on in the mHealth world. Have you heard of FilmArray? It’s a device that was developed by a company in Utah. So what does it do? Well, it can detect 20 respiratory diseases in less than an hour. This will definitely make it easier for people to get their illnesses diagnosed quickly. In other news, HealthTap has released a new program called TipTaps. The program sends tips, created by health professionals, and personalized for a person’s lifestyle.

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February 24, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Selection  EMR Technology  Health IT Startups  HealthCare IT  Hospital EHR  Hospitals  mHealth
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#HIMSS14 Speakers, Healthcare in 2013, and More — #HITsm Chat Highlights

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This weeks topics were suggested by Dan Munro, a contributor at Forbes.

Topic One: Head of ONC Farzad Mostashari calls and asks you what his top 2 priorities should be. What do you say? @Farzad_ONC

Topic Two: Biz Stone was HIMSS12 Keynote and Clinton will Keynote #HIMSS13. Who should Keynote HIMSS14?

Topic Three: Fill in the blank> Healthcare’s End-of-Year Headline for 2013 will be _______.

Topic Four: Among early stage healthcare startups – who’s your favorite? #mHealth

Topic Five: Should we skip over #ICD10? #healthIT

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February 23, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Health IT Startups  Healthcare  HealthCare IT
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The Next Generation of Doctors – #HITsm Chat Highlights

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The theme for today’s chat was “The Next Generation of Doctors.” When I read this, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It definitely sounded like an interesting topic, and it proved to be one. Here are the questions that were asked, and some of my favorite responses:

Topic One: Who are the emerging leaders you admire for their ideas in shaping the future of medicine? Why? Share resources!

 

 

 

Topic Two: Do you think new ways of learning will attract different types of personalities to the field of medicine?

 

 

Topic Three: How can the next generation of doctors learn from patients who are active through social media?

 

 

 

Topic Four: What does the next generation of doctors think of Quantified Self? How will the role of hte docotr change because of #OS?

 

Topic Five: What is your big idea or dream for the future of medicine.

 

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January 27, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  EMR  EMR Technology  Healthcare  HealthCare IT  Healthcare Social Media  HITECH
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An Example of EHR as Database of Healthcare

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One of my favorite interviews at mHealth Summit was with Alan Portela, CEO of AirStrip Technologies. I’d definitely heard good things about AirStrip, but I must admit that before our meeting I didn’t have a very good understanding of what AirStrip was really all about. I was pleased to learn that they are well deserving of the hype. I believe AirStrip will do wonderful things to help make healthcare data mobile and AirStrip is lucky to have Alan Portela leading the company. Alan is unique when it comes to healthcare IT leaders in that he understands the healthcare culture, but also has a unique vision for how healthcare can embrace the future.

The core of what AirStrip has done to date has been in OB and Cardiology. In fact, each of those areas is worthy of their own post and look into how they’ve changed the game in both of those areas. The OB side speaks to me since we recently had our fourth child. I can imagine how much better the workflow would have been had my wife’s OB had access to the fetal waveforms (CTGs) on her mobile device. Instead, it was left to the nurse to interpret the recordings and communicate them to the OB. There’s real power for an OB to have the data in the palm of their hand.

Similar concepts can be applied to cardiology. Timing is so huge when it comes to the heart and there’s little doubt that mobile access to healthcare data for a cardiologists can save a lot of time from when the data is collected to when the cardiologist interprets the results.

The real question is why did it take so long for someone like AirStrip to make this data mobile. The answer has many complexities, but it turns out that ensuring that the data displays to clinical grade quality is not as easy as one might think. An ECG waveform needs to be much more precise than a graph of steps taken.

While both of these areas are quite interesting, since I’m so embedded in the EHR world I was particularly interested in AirStrip’s move into making EHR data mobile. They’ve started with Meaningful Use Tracker, but based on my conversation with Alan Portela this is just the beginning. AirStrip wants to make your important clinical information mobile.

I pushed Alan on how he’ll be able to do this since so many EHR companies have created big barriers to being able to access their data. Turns out that Alan seems to share my view that EHR is the Database of Healthcare. This idea means that instead of the EHR doing everything for everyone, a whole ecosystem of companies are going to build amazingly advanced functionality on the back of the EHR data and functions.

In AirStrip’s case, they want to take EHR data and make it mobile. They don’t want to store the data. They don’t want to do the advanced clinical decision support. Instead, they want to leverage the EHR data and EHR functionality on a mobile device.

One key to this approach is that AirStrip wants to be able to do this for an organization regardless of which EHR you use on the backend. In fact, Alan argues that most hospital organizations are going to have multiple EHR systems under their purview. As hospitals continue to consolidate you can easily see how one organization is going to have a couple hospitals on Epic, a couple on Cerner, a couple on Meditech, etc. If AirStrip can be the consistent mobile front end for all of the major EHR companies, that’s a powerful value proposition for any hospital organization.

Of course, we’ll see if AirStrip gets that far. Right now they’re taking a smart approach to mobilizing specific clinical data elements. Although, don’t be surprised when they work to mobilize all of an organization’s healthcare data.

AirStrip is just one example of a company that’s using EHR as their database of healthcare data. I’m sure we’re going to see hundreds and thousands of companies who build powerful applications on the back of EHR data.

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December 13, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT  Hospital EHR  Hospitals  mHealth
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