SMARTMD Monthly Newsletter- A Timely Summary of Your IT News

Survey on Smart Phones and Healthcare Released!

According to well known Manhattan Research, more than 80 percent of U.S. physicians will have Smart Phones by 2012--up from 64 percent in 2009--and half of that group will use their phones for patient care, administrative functions like charge capture and even continuing medical education, according to a new report from Manhattan Research that drills deeper into data first released last fall. "Handheld devices are becoming more and more useful to physicians, partly because of the boom in physician-oriented apps and portable content," report author Monique Levy. Her summary also states that the BlackBerry still dominates among physicians and healthcare application developers, though the iPhone and Google Android are closing the gap quickly, thanks to their touch-screen functionality.

ONC Releases New Certification Rule

This past week at HIMSS10 in Atlanta, with snow on the outside (yes, SNOW!), it was quite warm inside with David Blumenthal, MD, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, surprising a room packed with physicians, hospital administrators and more listening to him announce the release of the last in a series of three rules mandated under the HITECH Act, part of last February's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which explain how providers and hospitals can qualify for incentive checks for the use of certified healthcare IT.

Interesting to note is that the rule will allow additional organizations to apply for temporary or permanent authorization to become certification bodies. Looks like there will be more than one federally approved company certifying things. The ONC is proposing the temporary certification to speed up things because of the upcoming timelines for these incentive checks and the incoming traffic of approving things for physicians and EHR vendors, too.

Some Interesting Survey Results, You Be The Judge!

According to www.ihealthbeat.org forty-seven percent of health care professionals surveyed said their organization would be eligible for federal stimulus package incentive payments for the "meaningful use" of electronic health records by fiscal year 2011, according to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's 21st Annual Leadership Survey. Thirty-two percent of survey respondents said their organization would be eligible for meaningful use incentive payments by FY 2012 and 13% of respondents said their organization would qualify for incentive payments by FY 2013. Meanwhile, 3% of survey respondents said their organizations would not be eligible for meaningful use incentive payments until FY 2014, and another 3% said their organization would not be eligible for incentive payments until FY 2015. Two percent of survey respondents said they did not know when their organization would be eligible for meaningful use incentive payments and another 2% said their organization does not qualify for the incentive payments. Results are based on a Web-based survey of 398 health care professions conducted between Dec. 14, 2009, and Jan. 29, 2010.

HIMSS10, Did Someone Say PHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Not sure how many of you attended HIMSS10 this past week, but if you did, there was no way for you not to have visually seen or heard the topic of PHRs (Personal Health Records). The big guns were out in full force promoting their own services. Google was promoting its Google Health and Microsoft demonstrated a variety of PHR options in their Microsoft Amalga, Health Vault and Community Connects products. All had their senior product managers and engineer on the exhibit hall floor for non-stop interaction with attendees. It is becoming obvious that there is only going to be one successful PHR platform and that is one where the patient has complete control over their own records. Regardless of the approach, the goal should be to make PHR's truly patient - centric -for the patient, managed by the patient, and containing the patients medical information.

WebMD.com Announces New Social Networking

On March 9, 2010, WebMD Health Corp. announced the launch of WebMD Health Exchange, a new health social networking platform that provides a unique way for consumers to get health and wellness support from the world's largest community of online health-informed consumers. WebMD Health Exchange gives consumers the ability to connect with world-class health experts and other WebMD members to exchange real experiences, discuss personal challenges, and receive direct answers and support. Expert Health Exchange communities will take advantage of the knowledge and credibility of leading specialists from renowned health and medical organizations and patient advocacy groups. Physicians from Duke Medicine will provide expertise for communities ranging from asthma to rheumatoid arthritis.

Experts from the National Health Council, National Osteoporosis Foundation, American Gastroenterological Association, North American Menopause Society, and the American Veterinary Medical Association will lead related community discussions, as will Dr. Pamela Peeke on diet, Dr. David Colbert on skin and beauty, Dr. Robert Harrington on heart disease, Dr. Susan Evans on skin problems and treatments and bestselling author Richard M. Cohen on living with health issues. To create your own community or to join an existing community, please visit www.webmd.com and search "Exchange" or go to http://exchange.webmd.com

Even the White House is going EHR nuts!

According to a recent article written my Government Health IT's Paul McCloskey, the Military Health System has set up a version of its electronic health record system for use in the White House. The system, which was set up in just two months, is based on AHLTA Theater, the Defense department's electronic health records system designed for rugged uses in war zones.

In more news from Washington, D.C., Health and Human Services has teamed with Microsoft on Personal Health Application

The Department of Health and Human Services is reaching out to third-party personal health record applications to extend its Internet-based family history health tool.
According to a recent news piece in www.governmentit.com the relationship is with Microsoft's HealthVault.

My Family Health Portrait lets users create family health history profiles, which users store on their own computers. The Microsoft arrangement will let consumers integrate the health history information stored in their profiles into a personal Health Vault account, according to HHS. That information can then be shared with healthcare providers that link to HealthVault.

Lot's of Physicians Plunging into EHR's and with Lot's of Help!

It is safe to say that a very small percentile of physician offices nationwide, especially the smaller group practices have fully functional EHR's working. But thanks to the incentive check momentum and timelines necessary to begin receiving these cash offers, now more physicians are wishing vendors to deploy faster and the entire EHR, not later, but now. A recent survey of 1,000 physicians showed the following according to Accenture and Harris Interactive:

Approximately 15% of 1000 respondents were users of EHRs and 85% were non-users. The survey was conducted for business with less than 10 practitioners. Of non-EHR users, 58% say they intend to purchase an EHR system within the next two years. Of those physicians under the age of 55, 80% plan to make a purchase within two years. Some other additional findings:

• Three-quarters of non-users are intrigued by the idea of purchasing an EHR system from a local hospital-if the purchase is at least partially subsidized by the hospital.
• On average, non-users would expect a hospital/health network to subsidize about half the cost of an EHR system.
• The key driver of EHR adoption is federal legislation-61% cited federal penalties for non-adoption and 51% cited federal incentives.
• Non-users underestimate the cost and time requirements to implement an EHR system, but also have an exaggerated perception of difficulties in using EHR systems, compared to the actual experiences of EHR users. More physicians than originally expected are planning on adopting EHRs and they are less likely to have experience with the technology, but their expectations are higher than those of early adopters. They want IT vendors to make the install seamless, and they want highly functional systems
• 67% expect the EHR to "improve the ease and accuracy of billing"
• 62% expect the EHR to make it "easier to order and view imaging and test results"
• 61% expect the EHR to make them paperless
• 59% expect the EHR to "improve medication management"
• 57% expect the EHR to allow the practice to "connect and communicate directly with EHR systems in other practices and hospitals"
• 55% expect the EHR to "improve care coordination with other providers"
• 51% expect the EHR to "improve patient care"