In February, IBM supercomputer Watson won Jeopardy! against its two human opponents, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.Watson’s victory rests on its power in speech recognition and the ability to understand colloquial human language used in game shows like Jeopardy!. The most interesting development of this story is that after Watson’s celebrated win on national television, IBM will partner with Nuance Communications to explore how Watson could help with medical diagnosis ...
Tech
How to hire an IT director for your medical practice
About 8 years ago or so, our practice decided to move from paper records to electronic records. The decision was helped along by the fact that we were literally running out of space for our paper charts. I had been looking at electronic medical records systems (EMRs) for years prior to this but could not justify the cost to my partners – apart from the “gee-whiz” factor – until we ...
Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle, or the Nook for medical students
The e-reader battles are clearly heating up, with the Apple iPad, the aggressive marketing of the Kindle
Evolution of tablet devices for the hospital
When working in the hospital, I intentionally minimize the time I spend on my iPhone because I don’t want people to assume that I’m just checking Facebook or playing Angry Birds.Even though medical apps and the vast depths of the internet are at my fingertips, it’s just too easy to appear distracted. This represents a subtle, yet meaningful, glimpse of just one reason why I eagerly await the continued evolution ...
Electronic medical records and usability affect implementation
by Mark HendricksonOne sport that really bothers me is Major League Baseball. Why? It seems as though the hard-headed people calling the shots, and games for that matter, would rather keep their pride than make the right call.Instant replay is no secret. It isn’t a new, untested technology—its been around since the mid 50’s and every professional sports league uses it with game-changing results, except the ...
Why this doctor loves electronic medical records
A recent post in the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog noted that a study found electronic medical records don't improve outpatient quality. The authors of the Archives of Internal Medicine article, Electronic Health Records and Clinical Decision Support Systems, correctly points out that we should be skeptical and "doubt [the] argument that the use of EHRs is a "magic bullet" for health care quality improvement, as some advocates ...
Health records need to be online to improve health and save money
I exchange thoughts with healthcare IT people on a daily basis over at Twitter. So many of them seem perplexed at why we patients look at putting our medical records on the internet with trepidation.Then along comes this video from Elizabeth Cohen at CNN. In a matter of minutes, she was able to pull up one of her CNN colleague’s medical records, his kids’ ...
Should the FDA regulate medical apps?
by Chad HyettThere’s a storm brewing around the regulation of medical apps. The FDA has been skirting the issue for too long and it’s having detrimental effects on the potential for such apps. Recent FDA hearings have revealed that the agency is watching the apps stores for potential alarms and that they are drafting guidance. Whatever that means.The FDA needs to make a decision quickly if ...
Build EMR functionality into the exam room
In 2003 our practice had a rare opportunity to build EMR functionality into the floor plan of our new office. I thought I had the perfect design for the EMR-based exam room.The spring-loaded, cantilevered arms used to hold monitors and keyboards in ICU rooms would be perfect. Fitting a touch screen monitor to a standard PC would allow the provider to work without a mouse. I could turn the screen ...
Online tools to help shop for the most affordable health care
by Ray CarlsonTwo recent articles posted here at KevinMD.com regarding the inclusion of discussions about the cost of health care services between doctor and patient highlighted the growing emphasis on not only the quality of care but the cost of that care to the patient as well. The first article was written by Dr. Leslie Ramirez, who advocated for a more proactive stance by doctors regarding the subject ...
Physicians love a CIO who lets them focus on patients, not technology
by Donald Burt, MDMany hospital CIOs face an uphill battle winning the hearts, minds and fingers of physicians. It’s not because doctors are technology phobic. Quite the opposite: physicians are some of the most ravenous consumers of new information technology. Smartphones and tablets are becoming as ubiquitous as stethoscopes at many hospitals.The truth is doctors are happy to make screen touches, mouse clicks and keyboard strokes if the application is ...
iPhone medical apps for patients with migraine headaches
by Diana E. LeeSome are free, others are not, but there are some great, off the beaten path apps on this list that are well worth downloading to your iPhone.1. iHeadache (free version, with ads).This app isn't bad, but I did find some features less than ideal. You're limited to their list of symptoms, which may not include all of your symptoms. It didn't include all of mine, ...
EHR implementation in the ambulatory or hospital setting
Adoption of electronic health records (EHR) systems remains a challenge, both for hospitals as well as for physicians in ambulatory practice. The process of adoption, implementation, and meaningful use of EHRs (let us keep in mind) is actually quite different between those two setting.Much has been written concerning EHR adoption within hospitals. Much of the experience in computerized physician order entry (CPOE) comes from hospital EHR adoption, and many of ...
EHR data is currently ill suited for clinical research
One of the most promising uses of Electronic Health Records (EHR) is research.As EHRs become more and more widespread and the clinical data previously held in silos of paper charts becomes fluid, exchangeable and duly collected, large clinical repositories should emerge and be made available to those engaged in research, presumably medical research. The results of such research are expected to help us identify cost effective therapies, health care trends ...
Who benefits from computerization of patient-specific clinical information?
Electronic health record (EHR) systems are big news (and big money) these days.Our government is pushing adoption and “meaningful use” of EHR systems because computerizing patient-specific clinical information can benefit our nation’s health care system. The primary focus has been on the benefit to the care of individual patients, but computerizing patient-specific clinical information can also benefit other parties in the health care system.I believe that there are 6 major ...
How to improve patient satisfaction with electronic records
by John RossheimTo many physicians, it may appear self-evident that electronic records will improve the patient experience. After all, the doctor has speedier access to notes, labs and other patient data, and that’s got to increase the patient’s confidence in the doctor’s understanding of his health status.But whether patient records are confined to a private-practice EMR or live in an EHR system, the usefulness of ...
A modest proposal for a truly useful EMR
I love computers. Really, I do. Despite my oft-repeated claims about the shortcomings of electronic medical records in their current form, I do believe that information technology has the potential to be of great help to me and other physicians in providing quality care to Americans.Stop laughing. I really mean it.I do not believe, however, that IT best serves the medical needs of our patients when ...
Explore information technology and safely digitize medicine
We have an intuitive sense of what is meant by those urging medicine to "go digital." It seems to refer to modernizing, becoming more flexible, and basically following the path of modern computing and information technology.Is it useful to think more rigorously than this hazy conception, without necessarily reading a special report from The Economist?Digital information is special because it can be transmitted to and instantiated within any number of ...
ACP: Clinical decision support – is it time?
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.by John Tooker, MD, MBA, MACP
The recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, 2009) and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, 2010) contain provisions that, if implemented, will fundamentally change the way that medicine will be practiced in the future.As I indicated in a prior ...
How an iPad is replacing medical textbooks
by Kal ShahKal Shah, a first year medical student at the University of California Irvine who recieved his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley in Bioengineering, has given iMedicalApps the scoop on how the iPad is being used by himself and classmates.He highlights how medical textbooks are being utilized, along with an app he feels is better at note taking than the popular iAnnotate. ...
