health information technology
ALSO NOTED: Siemens Medical Systems to let go 2,500; Mass legislature overrides Romney Plan B veto; and much more...
> Siemens announced plans to let 2,4000 workers go this morning. The impact of the restructuring on Siemens Medical Systems is uncertain. Story
> The Massachusetts legislature overrode a veto by Gov. Mitt Romney and passed a law making it easier for women to obtain the contraceptive Plan B. …
... Read more...Study: Mature health IT system could save $162B annually
The September/October issue of Health Affairs spotlights health information technology, offering two studies by the RAND Corporation which assess the potential impact of a mature national technology infrastructure. In one study, the research group projects that the healthcare system as a whole could save as much as $162 billion per year if electronic medical records were implemented widely and doctors and hospitals used systems capable of communicating with each other.
An …
... Read more...Med students complain of poor training
A survey of American medical students released this week finds most think they aren't being taught many of the things they need to know to keep up with a rapidly changing field and get ahead in their profession. Thirty-five percent of medical students say they they are not offered courses in medical ethics, 47 percent say their medical schools offer no training in the business of medicine and a further 35 percent say they are not being given a chance to study the latest technological …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: King/Drew gets new CEO; More on Aetna's pricing transparency; and much more...
> Austin, Texas, becomes the first municipality in the nation to make it illegal for pharmacists to refuse to dispense prescription drugs in "conscience cases." Story
> Chutes & Ladders: Troubled King/Drew in Los Angeles gets a new CEO: Antoinette Smith Epps arrives from Birmingham, Alabama's Baptist Health. …
... Read more...HIT: Gates urges investment in health IT, biotech
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates told the National Conference of State Legislatures that one of the keys to keeping expanding healthcare costs is investing in technology. In a keynote speech to state lawmakers, Gates said advances in biotechnology and health information technology are likely to revolutionize healthcare. Gates said state investment will help that transformation, making a national health infrastructure financially attainable. As it stands, Gates said, "the overhead of this …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: SC moving to HSAs for Medicaid; Protesters rally to support King/Drew; and much more...
> HIT: A recent study published in the journal Medicine, which relied on data gathered exclusively over the Internet, demonstrates the increasing acceptance of the medium in the mainstream scientific community. Story
> The Houston Chronicle reports that closing arguments are scheduled to begin today in Ernst v. Merck, the first civil …
... Read more...IT: Senate committee cuts health IT funding
Despite all of the recent interest in Washington in promoting information technology in healthcare, that enthusiasm is clearly not universal. The Senate Appropriations Committee created waves on Friday when it proposed cutting funding for the Office for the National Coordinator of Information Technology. The Bush administration has asked for $75 million for David Brailer's office. The committee said it is willing to part with $45 million. Dr. Brailer's budget woes are becoming a …
... Read more...Editor's Corner
This week the Clinton/Frist (or should it be Frist/Clinton?) legislation got on breakfast time TV, and Brailer's office announced that it was going to be starting the first few pilots towards interoperability with some $60 million available. A more ambitious $4 billion bill was introduced, too, although that won't go anywhere unless someone adds the words "Terror" or "Iraq" to the …
ALSO NOTED: DOJ HIPAA opinion online; NY lawmakers likely to pass infection reporting law; and much more...
> You can now read the text of the Department of Justice's opinion on HIPAA, which says the government can't prosecute provider employees who break privacy laws. Story (pdf)
> There are strong indications from Albany that New York lawmakers will pass an infection reporting law. Story
> St. Vincent's Medical Center said it …
... Read more...IT: High prescription error rates at wired hospital
The conventional wisdom in health IT is that e-prescribing cuts down on preventable medical errors. A study done at the Salt Lake City VA Hospital appears to cast some doubt on that conclusion. A joint team from the University of Utah and the Veterans Administration looked at adverse drug events and found a much higher than expected number of ordering errors.
The authors conclude that decision-support software is needed to help physicians make better use of CPOE systems. The study …
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