One of the most asked for features in today’s electronic medical record (EMR) technology is a secure built-in messaging system. This is an important feature and many providers are integrating this feature. One project aims to make that easier, Direct Project.

When today’s health-care providers exchange information, they're likely sending paper through the mail or fax. But, a growing number of patients are asking for electronic communication, mainly email. Many clinics are happy to oblige, however, secure communications is important, because Meaningful Use Stage 2 requires a HIPAA-compliant secure messaging - HIPAA is the standard for protecting secure information in the health industry.

Yet, currently, many physicians who want to use secure messaging to communicate with patients may have to purchase a third-party vendor’s software to do so. This involves an additional service agreement as well as monthly fees. There is an option that your existing vendor may be able to use.

That option is the Direct Project. While not the only one out there, this is an interesting program. Its concept is simple: In the projects' own words, “Direct Project specifies a simple, secure, stable, standards-based way for participants to send authenticated, encrypted information directly to known, trusted recipients over the Internet.”

Essentially, each provider has a direct address that he or she can use to send and receive messages. Because these messages are secure, they can be used to send patient information to colleagues who need it for care.

A number of existing products already support the Direct Project specifications and allow for the secure delivery of messages. Visit Who’s Fueling Direct? to see if your vendor is one of them.

More information is available here.

Here’s one more reason to consider implementing a clinical decision- support system with interactive alerts: It improves outcomes for HIV patients, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

In the study, researchers from Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital divided 1,011 patients at a large outpatient clinic based on receipt of two types of alerts (for virologic failure, evidence of suboptimal followup and abnormal laboratory results). For the control group of patients, alerts appeared only on the patient's electronic medical records (EMR) page.

For the intervention group of patients, alerts appeared on the health-care provider's home page and in biweekly emails, and linked to previous appointments and lab results.

When the yearlong study was complete, researchers found that the intervention group showed significant improvement in the count of CD4-positive T cells during the year-long study.

The new alerts were so successful that more than 90 percent of participating providers supported making them part of the clinic's standard care.

Busy medical professionals often struggle to stay on top of it all: managing the business and handling billing often cuts into patient-care time. One solution: Get help from someone who can guide you through the process of using your technology the right way.

It’s one thing to have the technology you need; it’s another to maximize it. An information technology (IT) professional or firm should be able to work with you to provide tangible solutions to your technological challenges. They can speak with you and your staff, try to understand the issues, then make suggestions. That might involve achieving meaningful use. It might involve increasing efficiencies. It might involve cutting costs. Whatever the case, however, you’ll maximize your revenue potential.

Looking for technological assistance? We can provide that service. We will help ensure you’re using your electronic medical record (EMR) and other technology effectively; will work to understand what challenges you’re encountering and inspire you with new ideas to improve your practice's operations; in some cases, we can even help you keep abreast of regulatory trends and guidelines.

Cloud computing is still a relatively new information technology concept, but it's already beginning to be relevant in health care - because it utilizes economies of scale to provide massive computing power and storage to users who sign up for the service. Here are five ways cloud competing is transforming health care.

Easy access - Cloud-based service providers have pushed open formats - any one can access and edit the code or format - instead of closed formats - only qualified experts can access and edit the code or format -, which makes adopting a cloud system as a replacement for a localized one easy and cheap. This is mainly because most cloud services can support multiple formats, which means you likely won't have to convert documents, images, files or folders.

Resiliency - Economies of scale allow cloud-based service providers to build large redundant data centers that emphasize backup and uptime for lower costs. This means your data will be available as long as you have an Internet connection.

Privacy - The level of security the cloud offers is much higher than what you see in a local IT department. Security in a hospital's server room may be as simple as keeping the door locked, usually with a lock that can be picked or hacked with relative ease. Data on many cloud servers is an encrypted blob of bits that most cloud providers don't have access to.

Innovation - Cloud-based service providers can improve their services rapidly, cheaply and with minimal interruption to service. The upside to this is that it frees up local IT staff for value-added tasks.

Mobility - By storing all computing power and data and in the cloud, health-care providers can provide staff access to that information anywhere, anytime - and that’s a boon for mobile applications.

If you're interested in learning more about how cloud services can help make your organization more efficient, please contact us.

Doctors, it’s time to catch up: consumers are increasingly willing to interact with health information technology, according to a new survey.

The survey, conducted by Optum Institute and Harris Interactive, polled 4,270 physicians, patients and hospital executives.

According to the survey, patients are ready to use technology with health care: eighty-four percent would like online prescription refills; 75 percent would like to receive test results and access their medical records online; and 60 percent want to communicate with their doctors via email.

And that’s the case not just for younger generations, but for older ones as well. More than half of seniors surveyed are willing to go online to communicate with their physicians and manage their medical records.

Unfortunately, technology already in place and used by doctors lags behind a bit. While 70 percent of physicians have basic electronic medical records (EMRs), only 40 percent of physicians can engage with patients via email or provide patients with access to their health records.

Email has been widespread for nearly two decades, yet most patients still can’t reach out to their physicians through email. This shows that physicians should look into using email to communicate with patients.

“This research underlines the need for health information systems that can talk to each other, and that allow patients to access their own health information,” says Simon Stevens, chairman of the Optum Institute.

The proliferation of mobile medical devices means providers are collecting more data than ever before—but how do you leverage it to improve your practice?

With health-care reform making clinical outcomes more vital, payers and providers alike will likely come to see the value in collecting and analyzing data in order to affect future decision-making. Payers can use it to justify healthcare expenses and drive preventive health-care programs, while providers can use it to improve clinical outcomes.

Despite its value, the use of such “business intelligence,” as it’s called, is rare in medical practices. Lynn Dunbrack, program director for IDC Health Insights, noted, “The recent surveys show about 44 percent of providers see the value in analytics, yet only 26 percent have a business intelligence program in place.”

Electronic medical records are making date a collection easier. More and more, we’re seeing data in consistent formats. Down the road, we may even see vendors begin integrating analytics applications into workflows.

For now, if you’d like to implement a business intelligence plan of your own, remember, it’s not just about collecting the data; it’s about engaging in a conversation about it. "The problem is to take this incredible technical capability and match it with the appropriate insight," says Thomas Payne, MD, medical director of IT services for UW Medicine.

Despite the popularity of mobile devices and software, 75 percent of physicians still use their desktops for practice management, according to a recent survey. Here’s why.

There aren't enough specific apps. Physicians love their mobile devices, however their concern is that when it comes to health related software, there are only a small number of solutions that meet their specific needs. While there are fewer physician oriented apps and solutions than other professions, there are still some great quality apps available with more being produced as demand increases.

Physicians don’t have time to understand the offerings. Even when apps are available, physicians often don’t have the time to take to understand how to use the more advanced features of some offerings. Educating physicians about current mobile offerings can really get them interested in making the switch from a desktop to a mobile device.

Physicians need to see the value. To get physicians to use mobile devices instead of desktops, you have to show them what they can do better on a mobile device then a desktop. Speech recognition is a good starting point. Physicians often use cell phones to document charts; if an app on that cell phone recognizes speech, it’s a win-win.

Usability has improved—but physicians don’t know it. In the past, health-care apps were often cumbersome, but now they’ve improved and some, not all, physicians are starting to give it another go. To ensure the widest amount of buy-in, CIOs should focus on working with physicians who had a prior bad experience with mobile devices and apps.

A hybrid option isn’t available. It doesn’t have to be either-or. One of the biggest mistakes a CIO can make implementing a mobile strategy is requiring physicians to use only mobile devices. A more effective strategy is combining multiple devices. For example, physicians might dictate notes on a mobile device, but sign in and review those notes on a desktop.

Physician practices using electronic medical records (EMRs) saw a reduction in malpractice claims, according to a recent study.

The study titled "The Relationship Between Electronic Health Records and Malpractice Claims”—conducted by Harvard Medical School researchers was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine—tracked groups of Massachusetts physicians who had previously been surveyed in 2005 and 2007.

Physicians were insured for different durations and used EMRs different amounts of time. Thus, the number of insured years was calculated for each physician before and after EMR adoption. The researchers then used Poisson regression to determine whether EMR use was associated with malpractice claims, modeling the rate of malpractice claims per year in periods with and without EMRs.

Of the 189 doctors surveyed in both 2005 and 2007, 27 were named in at least one malpractice claim. In sum, 33 of the 275 physicians who responded in 2005 and/or 2007 incurred a total of 51 unique claims. Forty-nine of those claims were related to events occurring before EMR adoption; two were related to events occurring after EMR adoption.

The results suggested that the “implementation of [EMRs] may reduce malpractice claims and, at the least, appears not to increase claims,” according to the study’s authors.

From new technology to the use of social media, the industry press is abuzz with ideas. Below are five of the best articles we read in 2011.

1. iPad 2 looks even better for docs. The iPad 2 gives doctors at the point-of-care the tools they need at the exact moment they can make a difference.

2. Social media sites help patients make health-care decisions. One in five Americans uses social media Web sites to receive health care information.

3. Americans not ready to use social media to talk to their docs. Although Americans look to social media for information, they don’t use social media to contact physicians.

4. Five ways health IT will reduce the cost of care. Improved standards of care and increased patient involvement and collaboration are just some of the ways.

5. Five keys to EMR usability. The requirements include supportiveness, flexibility and efficiency, among others.

The key to patient-centered care - a concept that continues to evolve - is the relationship between physician and patient. Finding the balance between patient engagement and information technology, however, can be challenging.

IT has benefited healthcare practices in many ways. For example, it allows patients to service themselves when it comes to transactional exchanges, such as scheduling appointments and reviewing bills.

There are fears, however, that IT can also create distance between the practitioner and patient, reducing face-to-face contact. Here are three tips to ensure that doesn’t happen:

1. Accept that patient-centered IT initiatives help the physician. Small practices need to adopt the same features as their competitors, including large practices as well as low-cost primary care providers such as CVS and Walgreens.

2. Determine your needs. Patient-centered IT practices vary. Some practices use patient portals to optimize patient input. Others use email, text, video and mobile apps to create an impact across a broader spectrum of their patients' health. You’ll need to find what works best for your patient. Younger patients, for example, might prefer text messaging; older patients might prefer email.

3. Reconsider your reimbursement model. IT advancements have patients emailing, text messaging and video conferencing their doctors without payment. That puts pressure on the physician to do more for less. This is a problem with your business model, not your IT. You can't offer services that eradicate half of your service visits or you'll bankrupt your practice.

For details, please see “Five Keys to IT and the Physician-Patient Relationship.”