“No aspect of health IT entails as much uncertainty as the magnitude of its potential benefits.”
A few years into the Meaningful Use program, it seems this quote from a 2008 Congressional Budget Office report entitled "Evidence on the Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology" may have been written with the assistance of a crystal ball.
Fast forward to 2013.
“Just from reading a week’s worth of news, ...
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Most clinical providers are aware of the more common capacities of EHRs. However, there are many capacities that are being underused that can be of great assistance in providing safe care that avoids waste and identifies best practices. Electronic communication with providers outside of one’s clinical setting, clinical decision support and improving the body of knowledge of best practices are three of ...
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I would like now to delve into what I consider critical elements of patient-centric care. They all involve technology to various extents.
1. There must be buy-in from providers. I am including payers, healthcare systems as well as clinical providers in this category. While I realize that much of healthcare is devoted to satisfying legal and regulatory mandates, there is great opportunity to improve the care experience (and dare I say ...
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If I were asked “Why should a clinician prescribe an app?” I would answer as follows: Because it’s likely to help the patient reach his or her most important health goals, and is a good fit within an over-arching medical management plan. In other words, if the goal is to provide sensible medical assistance to patients and families, the use of an app should be likely to:
At some point, this gets to be ridiculous. Online, I can buy any item from anywhere at any price, pay any bill, watch any movie, listen to any song, order dinner, schedule car repair or read about any subject on Wikipedia. I can determine the weather in Rio, sport scores of Barcelona, Parisian traffic or by GPS the location of my kids, just down the block.
However, I absolutely cannot learn ...
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Pierre arrives at the construction site, has his morning coffee and croissant, then ascends the scaffold to begin his work. He felt a little woozy this morning but ignored it. Becoming more dizzy, he loses his balance and falls two stories fracturing his femur and pelvis. On arrival the paramedics find his health smart card in his wallet, scan it, and instantly have his medical records including medications, allergies and ...
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As defined in Wikipedia, remote patient monitoring (RPM) is: “a technology to enable monitoring of patients outside of conventional clinical settings (e.g. in the home), which may increase access to care and decrease healthcare delivery costs.”
I was a pioneer adopter of RPM as a beta site for Medtronic’s Carelink wireless system which monitors implantable cardiac rhythm devices (defibrillators and pacemakers). RPM has gained significant attention because of recently mandated penalties ...
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It feels like part of me is dying. I am losing something that has been a part of me for nearly 20 years.
I bought in to the idea of electronic records in the early 90′s and was enthusiastic enough to implement in my practice in 1996. My initial motivation was selfish: I am not an organized person by nature (distractible, in case you forgot), and computers do much of the ...
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The ICU hummed as the tech guy waltzed in at two in the morning. A key designer of the EMR himself, the night shift nurses had his mobile and were not afraid to use it. There was a problem reconciling Mr. Jones med list after his emergency bypass surgery that evening. Patients first.
The next one in the door was the young CEO ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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