Cleveland Clinic launched its pilot partnership with Microsoft HealthVault to provide personal health records for 150,000 patients.
CMS selected four companies to pilot its personal health record program: Google, HealthTrio, NoMoreClipboard, and Passport MD. Beginning in January, Medicare beneficiaries will have their claims data automatically added to their PHRs.
Google launched Flu Tracker, a program to help CDC track disease outbreaks in real time by looking for regional trends in search terms.
MedSphere announced a $9.7 million contract with the federal Indian Health Service (IHS) to develop the agency’s EHR system.
Intel unveiled its new telehealth home monitoring technology. According to Health Data Management, "The home computers can be linked to medical devices, including blood pressure
monitors, glucose meters and pulse oximeters, to transmit encrypted data to a
secure server via the Internet. They also can display patient reminders, offer
access to educational content, and accommodate e-mail between caregivers and
patients."
Analysts say deCODE Genetics is headed for bankruptcy.
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As a third-year medical student, I have recently been introduced to the world of EMRs, and I must say, I am sorely disappointed. It seems to me that with some of the nation’s top nerd firms working in this field, there should be a heck of a lot more creativity and originality than I have seen. The program I use (nameless) lacks customizability, accessibility and is a pain in the butt even for someone who knows their way around a computer to navigate. It doesn’t even seem like anyone bothered to ask a physician what’s important in MRs while they developed software to handle them.
And as far as some vendors claiming to allow for live access to patient info from home, I am skeptical. I tend to think hospital legal and IT departments don’t yet trust software companies enough to allow anyone access from outside their network firewall. The concept is nice, but it’ll be interesting to see if it ever gets implemented.
I dream of a day when PHRs are widely used and they do away for the need for multiple providers involved in a patient’s care to have to obtain the same history from the patient. There’s currently a lot of wasted resources in that area, and each provider is getting paid to do this, with only minor variations.