Carrying medical history in our pockets - Card will give doctors round-the-clock access
If this scenario were to happen in the future, the Delaware Health Information Network would warn emergency room doctors not to perform a CAT scan. Delaware will get $700,000 in federal money to start an electronic patient-information system for health care workers to use.

Computer Entry a Leading Cause of Medication Errors in U.S. Health Systems -- Percentage of Reported Errors Steadily Increased from 1999 to 2003
The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) reported today that despite the perception that technology is the panacea that will improve patient safety and reduce medication errors, nearly 20 percent of hospital and health system medication errors reported to USP’s MEDMARX SM program in 2003 involved computerization or automation. However, facilities that have implemented computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) reported fewer harmful errors. According to the 2003 data, automated dispensing devices (ADDs) were implicated in almost 9,000 medication error events with 1.3 percent of those errors leading to patient harm.

Cerner wants lead in new info sharing - Regional effort targets care, savings
Although neither Missouri nor Kansas received government financing for RHIO development, Cerner is poised to proceed. The RHIO might be financed on a subscription basis, in which either providers or insurers pay a per-patient fee of a few dollars a year. Although the network will start with a "thin" medical record -- limited data about some of the region's residents -- it will be a starting point for many physicians who are reluctant to embrace health care IT.

Shrinking Technology - Shrinking Privacy?
Most of us assume that we have at least the "privacy of anonymity" when we're out and about - after all, if we're not movie stars or (especially now) politicians, who would really care about taking our pictures? But new technologies make one's privacy less and less real...

The Future of Family Medicine: A Collaborative Project of the Family Medicine Community
The proposed New Model of practice has the following characteristics: a patient-centered team approach; elimination of barriers to access; advanced information systems, including an electronic health record; redesigned, more functional offices; a focus on quality and outcomes; and enhanced practice finance.

JCAHO Principles for the Construct of Pay-for-Performance Programs
Incentive programs should support an interconnected health care system and the implementation of “interoperable” standards for collecting, transmitting and reporting information.

Virtual Knee Surgery : Take on the role of the Surgeon throughout a total knee replacement surgery
An interesting web-based tutorial on knee replacement surgery for kids of all ages. Resources like this could be useful in helping patients understand what they are going to be experiencing.