It’s been a week stuffed with acronyms and insights on how health IT can improve patient safety while making patient medical records more easily accessible. As you wind down from the excitement and stress of National Health IT week chill out with a glass of wine and comfy chair and peruse some of the musings from health IT thought leaders collected by Brian Ahier, highlighting the value of health IT.
Jonathan Handler, CMIO of M*Modal: Recycling Automation Back into HIT
“Waste management companies use recycling technologies because more consumer convenience and environmental friendliness means more money. Rather than using diagnosis codes to determine reimbursement, what if we had a fee-for-value model where quality of care and improvements in health drove provider revenue? Then provider and payer incentives would align rather than conflict, and HIT automation would be seen as desirable rather than deceitful. EHRs would no longer be used to reassign tasks from support staff to clinicians, because distracting clinicians from direct patient care would hurt revenue more than it would cut costs. By healing healthcare reimbursement, HIT will be increasingly able to help heal us.”
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Russell P. Branzell, CHIME CEO: HIT Capabilities: They are personally important to me
Branzell refers to his family’s experience when his son was diagnosed four years ago with Landerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a rare cancer-like blood disorder.
“With the ability to transport radiology, lab, and chemotherapy data electronically from Fort Collins to Denver, my son was one of the first non-adult chemotherapy patients treated and managed remotely by the experts at Children’s Hospital. Because of the technical capabilities of our organization and Children’s Hospital, getting treatment for his condition required a drive of only a few minutes to get to our local hospital, rather than long treks to Denver, which would have meant entire afternoons away from school and family.”
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
“Providers are at-risk of further eroding the trusted doctor-patient relationship if they don’t engage in the new consumer demand for transparency. In the case of health IT, that means fully opening up the digital health kimono — electronic health records — and for patients who seek even greater details, embracing Open Notes.”
Hans J. Buitendijk is a Senior Key Expert in health services with Siemens Healthcare
“One size will not fit all. C-CDA will not solve all interoperability problems. V2 messages work well for some use cases, but are woefully inadequate for others. Implementation guides need to harmonize the many interpretations that the underlying standards allow. Provider directories need to be robust enough to reliably address a communication. In short, lots of work still ahead of us! The library of standards and guides promoted through MU2 represents the beginning of what we need to be successful.”
“The good news is that cardiology is leading the pack in qualifying for incentive payments as part of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, also known as “Meaningful Use.” Since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began making payments to eligible professionals in May 2011, the number of cardiologists receiving Meaningful Use incentive payments has climbed substantially to a total of 12,948 as of March 2013, representing nearly 50 percent of the estimated 26,000 practicing cardiologists in the country. Cardiologists comprise 2.5 – 3.0 percent of all physicians in the U.S., but the 12,948 cardiologists reported in March 2013 represent 7.5 percent of all providers receiving payments, and the total amount awarded to these cardiologists represents 7.6 percent of $2.9 billion awarded to date.”
