Connected Care: Technology-enabled Care at Home
The U.S. health care system is facing a perfect storm: Increased demand for health care services to support an aging, unhealthy population will require additional investments in acute hospitals and specialty care, spur the need for post-acute patient monitoring to avoid complications and readmissions, and exacerbate primary care (nurse and physician) labor shortages. Innovations such as technology-enabled connected care (Figure 2) can stem the tide of rising health care costs and demand by using in-home monitoring devices in tandem with care management programs to enhance self-care of chronic disease management and postacute discharge monitoring.

EHR Decisions: Certification Commission offers new resource for physicians
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology recently announced its latest resource, EHR Decisions. The informational site, managed by CCHIT, is designed to help physicians better determine their readiness for moving to electronic health records, get started on the selection process, and be wiser in the actual purchase and contract negotiations. There will also be advice on how to derive the full potential benefits from an EHR, from both a business and clinical standpoint. The site will provide physician readers with a direct pipeline to Certification Commission leadership and other experts, who will post regularly.

Outcomes assessment of clinical information system implementation: A practical guide
The purpose of this article is to provide clinicians and frontline informaticians with a practical guide to assess these outcomes, focusing on outcome variables, assessment methods, and timing of assessment. Based on in-depth literature reviews and their empirical experiences, the authors identified 3 frequently used outcomes: user satisfaction, clinical outcomes, and financial impact.

Nova Scotia to fix medical-records software glitch
A consultant’s report on the problem verified that a software error caused duplicate records, or charts, to be issued for the same patient. Among other things, the report recommends improving monitoring procedures and putting the system on a separate computer server by the summer.

Radio show featuring: Electronic Medical Records
Digital technology has changed the way we communicate, shop, and work. But when it comes to our medical records, digital technology is the exception, not the rule. Big companies like Google and Microsoft are now trying to bring your doctor's office into the twenty-first century -- but not without sparking concerns from privacy advocates. Join Kojo for a Tech Tuesday look at the promise and peril of electronic medical records.

Another Caution About Online Health Records
Storing our personal health data online has obvious appeal in giving us more convenience, control, and comprehension. But making the move to online records raises concerns, not the least of which is privacy. Another is stability. Just who's in this for the long run? Handymedical.com says it's going out of business as of March 21. The site says it will delete all files after that date. Consumers are urged to print them out in the meanwhile, but there's no option for transferring them electronically to another service.

Facebook Is Extending Its Network to Blood Donations
A program to be officially introduced on Monday by a New York-area nonprofit organization called Takes All Types aims to better coordinate where and when people donate blood in response to shortages and crises while encouraging broader donation over all. For those who opt in, the system will send out alerts through Facebook — as well as by phone, fax, e-mail and text message — when their blood type is needed in their area.

Preparing for the Unexpected
Hospitals should establish a process to ensure the system is being used as intended and to maximize its usefulness. Proactive alert monitoring and management, aggressive surveillance for order-entry errors coupled with event-decomposition teams to determine root causes, use of computer-based triggers to count and monitor adverse drug events and medication errors (rather than self-reporting), and adoption of emerging metrics for the health of a CPOE implementation are all critical strategies to help take advantage of the best outcomes that the technology has to offer.

Electronic Medical Records in a Virtual Hospital: Interview!
The Ann Myers Medical Center is a hospital in Second Life, the virtual world where we organize medical exercises and simulations. John Norris is more than interested in medical informatics and the opportunities provided by Second Life in medical education. That’s all you should know before reading the next interview with John Norris about his recent experiments to implement electronic medical records into the virtual hospital.

Medicine 2.0 (un)conference - How Social Networking and Web 2.0 Changes: Health, Health Care, and Biomedical Research
Medicine 2.0 (http://www.medicine20congress.com/) is an international conference on Web 2.0 applications in health and medicine, organized and co-sponsored by the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the International Medical Informatics Association, and the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, CHIRAD, It takes place at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto/Canada, Sept 4th-5th, 2008.

Mathematics 30mg b i d; Refill As Needed
David Eddy speaks about Archimedes, a complex mathematical model of diabetes at a recent high-level meeting focused on new proposals for reform and examples of innovation and collaborative efforts to achieve real improvements in the health system at large.