Patients & Caregivers Willing To Buy Health Monitoring Devices

Posted by AMS at 28 JUN 8:34 am

Nearly 8 of out 10 Americans are willing to pay up to $100 for a medical device that monitors their vital signs, according to an IBM survey that tracks trends in the use of mobile devices in healthcare. Fewer than 10% of respondents are paying out-of-pocket charges for such devices today, but more than one-third expect to do so within the next two years.

The report, entitled: The future of connected health devices, relied on interviews with 1,300 individuals (80% have a chronic condition and 20% are caregivers) who are users of software enabled medical devices that sense, monitor, and measure blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, weight, or other readings that are accessed by PCs, laptops, smartphones or tablets.

“Using technology to encourage wellness has lots of promise. They can improve patients’ lives and in some instance possibly avoid the high costs of emergency room visits. They can add real-time data about patients’ vital signs to electronic health records,” Heather Fraser, global life sciences lead at the IBM Institute for Business Value, told InformationWeek Healthcare.

The report’s findings, released Monday, also reveal that health devices have been targeted toward healthy and fitness conscious individuals or patients suffering from chronic conditions who need to be constantly monitored. However, a third market segment dubbed “Information Seekers” has gone untapped. These people are relatively healthy, but could use a mobile device and the health apps that run on them as an incentive to manage a health-related challenge.

“Among the most promising markets are motivational devices that could help people follow a diet, stay on an exercise program, or quit smoking or drinking,” Fraser said. “Online support groups can be connected to help people share information about diseases and encourage each other to eat more vegetables or stay away from drugs. Millions of people have downloaded calorie-counting apps from their iPhones and Android phones.”

Other survey results showed that:
— Preventive uses are gaining importance. Within two years, 30% more respondents expect to be using devices to encourage physical activity, and twice as many will depend on devices to inform others of someone’s changing health condition.

– Everyone is looking for simplicity. Ninety six percent of respondents said ease-of-use is the top factor in selecting one device over another; price is a clear second (76%), well ahead of range of features (54%), customer support (42%), warranties (23%), and stylish design (9%).

– Users of mobile devices say privacy is the top data requirement, with 77% saying privacy of health data is a minimum requirement for consumers to use these products. That said, respondents said they want to have their data transmitted and shared with their health providers. Sixty three percent of respondents said their health data can be shared with multiple health professionals.

– Seventy one percent say they rely more on healthcare provider recommendations than on their own familiarity with a brand. Endorsements from healthcare provider associations (64%) carry more weight than those made by insurers (50%), regulatory agencies (49%), and consumer advocacy groups (43%).

– Respondents want their health professionals to incorporate data from health devices into diagnosis and treatment decisions. When asked about getting feedback related to health device data, more than three-quarters rate feedback from healthcare professionals–whether online or in a subsequent office visit–as important or very important.

– More than half of all respondents could not recall the brand of their current device–even though many of them use it every day.

Source: www.informationweek.com

More Missouri Hospitals Use Electronic Health Records

Posted by AMS at 21 JUN 7:53 am

Almost all Missouri hospitals are using some form of electronic health record to track patient care, representing a big jump in public adoption of the technology, according to a new study.

The Missouri Hospital Association said that 90 percent of 145 hospitals responding to its survey indicated they were using the electronic records for at least one of 24 functions in their operations. That was up from 84 percent in 2009.

In the St. Louis area, of the 36 hospitals that responded, the average attainment so far is 12 of the 24 electronic records functions.

Statewide, of those using an EHR system, almost 60 percent said that their software was certified as meeting federal requirements and that they plan to apply for federal incentives during the next two years.

The association said the results were mixed as to how the EHRs were used within four main areas — clinical documentation, results viewing, provider order entry and decision support.

It said more than 80 percent of hospitals are documenting patient demographics and other information at the clinical level with EHRs.

Seventy-seven percent can view patient lab reports and X-rays online; fewer use EHRs to let doctors order tests or communicate patient information electronically with other providers.

“Many hospitals were investing in EHRs before the federal incentives,” MHA CEO Herb Kuhn said in a release. “These hospitals and health systems have a running start at many of the internal functions of documentation and results viewing. The slower integration of computerized provider order entry and clinical information exchange systems represent the challenges of adopting systems to integrate a historically fragmented records system.”
Still, the state’s hospitals made headway — 44 percent of respondents reported implementing at least 13 of 24 basic EHR functions, up from 30 percent in 2009.

The average number of functions increased from 8.9 in 2009 to 10.7 last year.

As expected, large hospitals, which have more resources with which to buy and install EHR systems, are doing better — almost half of hospitals with 250 beds or more have implemented at least 19 EHR functions. Almost half of hospitals with fewer than 100 beds said they had implemented fewer than seven.

Greater Patient Access to Records Proposed

Posted by AMS at 14 JUN 7:43 am

A proposed federal rule would require hospitals, doctors’ offices and health insurers to tell patients of anyone who has accessed their electronic medical records, if asked.

Under the rule proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), health-care-related businesses must list everyone in their firms — from doctors to data-entry clerks — who has accessed a patient’s electronic records and when.

“It is important to protect a person’s right to know how their health information has been used or disclosed,” said Rachel Seeger, spokeswoman for HHS’s Office of Civil Rights.

For example, in 2008, the UCLA Medical Center fired several employees who looked at Britney Spears’ medical records without being directly involved in her care. Under the new rule, Spears could see who accessed her records.

Other cases where a person might want to know who has seen their electronic records involve identity theft and divorce battles.

Adam Greene, who was the primary author of the proposed rule before leaving Health and Human Services for a private law firm, said the department began hearing anecdotically that people wanted answers: Has my ex-husband, who works at the hospital but wasn’t part of my care team, seen my medical records? Has my neighbor, the community gossip who works at an insurance company, taken a peek?

“This was the information people were most interested in, so it should be tracked correctly,” Greene said.

Since 2005, health companies directly involved in a patient’s care, such as hospitals, have had to keep an internal log of who accesses electronic records.

Providing the report to patients could prove difficult. If a patient makes the request of a large hospital for the past year, the report could include records from several departments and include dozens of people.

“The burden could be significant,” Greene said, though a patient could ask if a specific person has viewed a record or who has looked during the past month.

The federal government asked 90 large health organizations how many patients have asked for such records, and found it was fewer than 20 requests at each since early 2003, he said.

Greene said the low number may be because people did not know that they could ask.

HHS listed the proposed rule on the Federal Registry for public comment by Aug. 1. If approved, the rule would go into effect in January 2013.

If someone has violated the privacy law, then people can file a complaint with the health organization or HHS’s Office of Civil Rights, which could lead to a fine or a criminal charge with the Justice Department.

Source: www.abcnews.go.com

Pediatric EMRs Getting Their Fair Share of the HIT Spotlight

Posted by AMS at 7 JUN 7:47 am

I was pleasantly surprised a few weeks ago when I walked into the office of my daughter’s pediatrician and saw a computer monitor and keyboard ready to be unwrapped and plugged in – presumably to an electronic medical record. Perhaps by our next visit, the doctor would already be familiar with my daughter’s trip to the emergency room in another town, and the results of a visit to a specialist a few weeks later.
 
It seems that pediatrics is getting more and more of the healthcare IT spotlight, as a number of recent articles and studies can attest. In a recent issue of its journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for advances in health informatics, specifically advocating the use of electronic medical records (EMRs).
 
The association also emphasized the important role EMRs could play in pediatric medical homes:

•    timely and continuous management and tracking of health data and services over a patient’s lifetime for all providers, patients, families, and guardians
•    comprehensive organization and secure transfer of health data during patient-care transitions between providers, institutions, and practices
•    establishment and maintenance of central coordination of a patient’s health information among multiple repositories (including personal health records and information exchanges)
•    translation of evidence into actionable clinical decision support
•    reuse of archived clinical data for continuous quality improvement

This type of technology would be beneficial, for example, during those long nights of monitoring a child’s illness in between nurse calls. Inputting symptom and at-home treatment descriptions, such as temperature and dosage, into a pediatric health record at regular intervals throughout the night would the next morning provide a pediatrician a better overall picture of a child’s illness.
 
Pre-configured alerts based on a combination of age, weight, temperature and other symptoms would also be beneficial, as they could indicate the caregiver needs to call a nurse line or take the child to the emergency room. The child’s pediatrician or on-call nurse could receive a similar alert, letting them know a new action has been taken on the part of the caregiver.
 
And wouldn’t it be nice to somehow send your child’s immunization forms from a personal health record directly and securely to the daycare or school that needs them? A parent can dream, can’t they?

Source: Jennifer Dennard, www.healthcareitnews.com