With a brief interruption for holiday cheer I will continue my review of the ‘best’.
If anyone has a particular fondness of other posts please tweet me @oculogyric.
The List:
Some Funny, some sad, some Ridiculous
This should give you something to read this week
Many of you are implementing EMRs using laptops and now even iPad or a form-factor such as Apple’s hot new selling addition to the hardware market. This form factor is a natural human-machine interface.
Several precautionary notes can be gleaned from other industries about these ‘hot’ items.
The iPad is going to have a higher theft rate than Honda automobiles.
P.S. I can get you a real good deal on an iPad.
Mention the name ‘Don Berwick’ and some physicians have a gut-wrenching feeling about him. He is the focal point and lightening rod as head of CMS due to his statements about the American Health System.
There is another side to this man’s achievements. I think you will find this video interesting.
Most physicians who know Dr. Berwick will offer the opinion that he is getting a ‘bad rap’. This is most likely due to his acceptance of the massive responsibility running CMS, and his famous speech in the U.K. washing out our ‘dirty laundry’ for the world to see.
It remains to be seen if Dr. Berwick will make an impression on our health care financing bureaucracy.
In 1964 when Medicare started governmental intrusion in health care financing was limited to public health and insurance regulatory agencies. Now its’ Dr. Sam instead of Uncle Sam. Benevolence or malevolence? You decide.
eWeek.com today has a story about the true cost of EMR installation in the first year of acquisition.
Training of physicians on EHR platforms during the adoption period will lead to a 10 percent average loss in patient appointments in the first year of use, but then productivity should pick up, CDW reports in its survey of 200 physician practices over a six-month period.
By using EHRs to speed up their workflow, physicians will be able to see 15 percent more patients and gain about $150,000 in annual revenue when EHR platforms are fully implemented, according to CDW.
Although 66 percent of respondents mentioned hardware and software costs as their main concerns in EHR adoption, these areas comprise only 12 percent of total EHR adoption costs. A more significant cost factor was a loss in revenue due a workflow slowdown.
On average, physicians in the survey expected a 10 percent loss in workflow during the first year, but 40 percent of respondents predicted that patient visits would fall by 25 percent or more in year one.
To minimize the potential reduction in productivity during the transition to EHRs, Karl advises that physician practices invest heavily in training. "Move as quickly as possible to bring your staff up to speed," he said. "The longer you take to adopt, the longer your productivity suffers and the greater the cost over time," he explained.
In the Dec. 13 report, CDW also highlighted the potential benefits of cloud computing in EHR implementation. Of the respondents, 38 percent were considering cloud computing, which would cut $4,400 from the costs of hardware, software, services, telecom and data center environment (power and cooling) per physician.
Placing this in the framework of the promised incentive of up to 44,000 per physician for meaningful use of an EMR still nets out a significant loss to physician business’ bottom line.
And here are the winners !! Some of this is my bizarre sense of humor.
September 12,2010 A Gem on HIT, even if I say so myself, a moment of inspiration !
I will be posting Part II in the next blog post.
Perhaps I am foolish to even try to predict 2011, and even more so for the coming decade.
However, I have found a reasonably credible business source for these predictions.
The Crystal Ball
The effects of information technology will increase not only in healthcare, but for the rest of the economy and the percentage of the GDP to which it will contribute.
Gartner Consulting of Stamford, CT prognosticates
By 2015, a G20 nation's critical infrastructure will be disrupted and damaged by online sabotage.
By 2015, new revenue generated each year by IT will determine the annual compensation of most new Global 2000 CIOs.
By 2015, information-smart businesses will increase recognized IT spending per head by 60 percent.
By 2015, tools and automation will eliminate 25 percent of labor hours associated with IT services.
By 2015, 20 percent of non-IT Global 500 companies will be cloud service providers.
By 2014, 90 percent of organizations will support corporate applications on personal devices.
By 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets.
By 2015, 10 percent of your online "friends" will be nonhuman.
1. Thermo stabile vaccines and Nano particle enhancements
The first attaches vaccines to nanoparticles that can be absorbed by the skin inside the nostrils. Dr. James R. Baker Jr., director of the University of Michigan’s nanotechnology institute, said it works with hepatitis B and flu vaccine. He won a new grant to test the respiratory syncytial virus, which causes pneumonia.
The particles are in what Dr. Baker described as a “proprietary formulation of mayonnaise” based on soybean oil. The vaccine ends up inside the oil particles, which protect it from temperature changes and microbes. The immune system is “made to eat oil droplets,” Dr. Baker said, because it targets viruses, which are essentially time bombs of genetic instructions inside casings of fats. The “mayonnaise” is so safe, he said, that rats fed the equivalent of two quarts a day had only one side effect — weight gain. The emulsion by itself cures viral lesions like cold sores, he said; its surfactants harmlessly penetrate the skin but break up the herpes virus inside.
The second thermo stabilized vaccine the foundation is still backing is a complex one against malaria. It fuses the genes for parasite proteins onto a “genetic backbone” from vaccines against smallpox and a chimpanzee virus.
Rather than being bottled, the vaccine can be dried onto a bit of filter paper.
2. Alzheimer’s Disease is now a public health challenge. Over the past quarter of a century and with the relative success dealing with infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, longevity has produced CNS deterioration as a major social and public health issue. Much research and clinical trial resources are now focused on Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Howard Fillet, also a geriatrician and executive director of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, said this week that more than 150 clinical trials worldwide are testing dozens of drugs that may be the answer to combating the disease itself, and not just the symptoms. (Seattle Times) . Clinical Trials.go lists 861 studies in progress or completed.
3. The Intraoperative MRI For Brain Tumors
4. Advances in Oncology The use of targeted monoclonal antibodies has gained wide acceptance as the SOC. The use of anti-vascular growth factor also has become SOC.
5. Advances in Urology Two major advances over the past decade have markedly reduced human suffering; alpha agonists for the almost elimination of urinary retention from BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy) and the pharmacologic treatment of male impotence with the use of Viagra (Sildenafil), Cialis (Tadafil) and others
6. The advent of Robotic Surgery as well as the use of Endoscopic Surgery has revolutionized many surgical specialties It has had multiple applications: (Wikipedia)
There are many more, these are just the highlights and ‘Gee Whiz” items.
8. Regenerative Medicine or the use of stem cell biology for treatments of degenerative or traumatic injuries as well as many other applications. (Regenerative Medicine.net)
9.Finally, the use of Health Information Technology has and will create a tsunami of events, improving patient care, easing clinicians access to medical records, imaging, learning and CME experience as well as telemedicine and communication with colleagues.
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