Will the DoD create another Frankenstein EHR monster? Don't trick us with dead data, treat us with middleware connectivity, Dr. Donald Voltz writes.
While many children will trick or treat, the DoD Healthcare Management System Modernization closes its bidding process today to replace their current EHR for active-duty personal and their families. The current system, the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) will be replaced with a commercial system and the
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Like Scorpions, Closed EHR Systems Cause Paralysis
Take a step back from the challenges that surround health information technology (HIT) interoperability and you will recognize that market forces and a desperately fragmented health care system make hospitals and vendors act the way we do.
It calls to mind the fable of the scorpion and the frog, which is worth revisiting.
Wanting to cross a river, a scorpion spies a frog in the water and asks for a ride to the other side. Naturally afraid of being stung and killed, the frog hesitates, but is
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5 Steps to Building Successful Digital Health Solutions
Dr. Saif Abed describes five key steps to building digital health solutions.
At times it might seem like the relationship between healthcare and technology is so broad that it’s beyond definition. Certainly, that’s a challenge for many of the different supporters of IT in healthcare as they have to contend with all the different tags and titles whether it’s digital health, mHealth or the more traditional health IT.
The thing is it doesn’t really matter. Whatever your flavor of technology in
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TechCrunch Disrupt Europe Takes Digital Health Startups Seriously
Written by Ben Heubl, edited by Susan Williams
This year’s TechCrunch Disrupt Europe Conference in London presented the audience with more digital health innovation than ever before. Mike Butcher, Editor At Large at TechCrunch Europe expressed excitement at the increased tech startups emerging from Europe. The conference had a massive health angle, and as always, TechCrunch hackathons stimulated fantastic creativity towards building digital health solutions. Without further ado, behold these
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Ebola Pushing EHRs in New Direction
Dr. Donald Voltz discusses how infectious diseases such as Ebola, enterovirus D68, and flu is pushing EHRs into the job of a central communications hub.
The recent spate of infectious diseases identified in the US-whether Ebola, enterovirus D68 or just the beginning of the plain old flu season, healthcare has become increasing complex. It involves more players in terms of patients, providers, administration, insurance , governmental bodies and now CDC screeners at airports. This leaves
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The Critical Role of Health IT in the Ebola Outbreak
A recent article by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker describes the level of preparedness at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, as it encountered the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the U.S. The emergency department was as prepared as anyplace, and had rehearsed the scenarios, and reviewed the CDC checklist for Ebola preparedness. They had asked about fever in people who had traveled from the region of West Africa beset by Ebola, per the protocol. In fact, the triage nurse in the
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mHealth: The Most Underutilized Force in Patient Engagement?
When was the last time you touched your cell phone? Did you just look at it sitting next to you or feel for it in your pocket? Maybe you're already reading this article right now on your phone.
The latest craze over the release of the iPhone 6 has just proven again how much people love their phones. Hundreds of people waited in lines for hours or even slept overnight trying to be one of the first to get their hands on Apple's latest design. More than 10 million phones were sold over the debut
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Are Health Wearables Evangelists Fools?
Have the skeptics won?
Late last month, TechnologyAdvice released an interesting study looking at whether most people want to use health wearables such as fitness trackers and other tools for health purposes.
Here are the top-line results of this study:
- 75 percent of U.S. adults do not track their weight, diet, or exercise using a health tracking apps or devices
- 43.7 percent had no specific reason for not tracking their fitness
- 27.2 percent won't use these devices
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Why My Digital Health Startup Failed
Jeff Novich provides a rare and honest introspective look into why his digital health startup Patient Communicator, a patient portal CRM for doctors ultimately failed.
Editors’ Note: This article was originally published in January 2013 and has been republished with permission by the author.
My father is a primary care doctor. In 2009 he asked me to help build a product that would enable his patients to access him online rather than through the phone. Patient Communicator was basically a
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EHR Design and Dissatisfaction: EHRs Should Create Time for Patients
Dr. Edmund Billings shares his insights on the growing trend of dissatisfaction with EHR design.
As reported last year at HIMSS and by many online news and opinion sources since, physician dissatisfaction with EHRs is growing. Indeed, while this article does not focus on the broader picture, general physician career dissatisfaction is disconcertingly high.
The breakneck push for more and better EHR use as a component of regular medical care is a significant part of that malaise, but it is
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