Google, Microsoft health records programs highlighted at health-technology conference.

The Washington Post (3/11, H1, Stoltz) reports that "[p]ersonal health records, or PHRs, were all the buzz at last week's health-tech conference in San Diego -- especially recent entries by Google and Microsoft that have the rest of the industry energized, focused, and at least a little bit frightened." Moreover, a number of other "companies presented online products designed to make U.S. healthcare smarter, stronger, and better looking," including a "plan to offer online doctor consults at $1.99 per minute, a provider search tool pitched as 'the match.com of healthcare,' and an electronic medical record that made you want to bask in the sheer beauty of ear infection data." But Bill Reid, director of Microsoft's HealthVault program, wondered if "the effort to integrate information technology into personal healthcare" would be a "long journey," and an exercise in complexity. The Post notes that "[b]ased on the conference...it may be both."

Aetna to unveil online patient health record service.

The New York Times (3/12, C4, Freudenheim) reports, "Aetna plans to announce Wednesday a new service that draws upon a patient's own medical history to help answer questions about symptoms and treatments." The new SmartSource service, which "has been tested by the company's 35,000 employees," will be offered free of charge to Aetna enrollees. The insurer "hopes the service can help it recruit and retain employer-customers worried about the costs of care." Currently, other offerings by WebMD, Google, and Microsoft also "let consumers link electronic medical records and online research." However, with all of the services, a main difficulty has been "widespread reluctance to share health information that might fall into the wrong hands or be abused, affecting job opportunities and insurance premiums." Health technology analyst Mike Davis said, "The underlying challenge is -- 'Do you trust the insurance companies?'"

EHR adoption still low among physicians, hospitals.

The Baltimore Sun (3/2, Kohn) reported that over the past twenty years, "electronic health records (EHRs) have been the Next Big Thing in healthcare: a way to simultaneously improve care and reduce waste in a system clogged with paper and manila folders." To date, however, "90 percent of U.S. doctors and more than two-thirds of U.S. hospitals still use paper for patient records." According to David Merritt, director of the Center for Health Transformation, a think tank based in Washington, "Healthcare is at least a generation behind the rest of society in terms of technology." While "almost everyone agrees that moving from paper to bits will improve healthcare," progress in this area has been hampered by "a colossal, inertia-filled health care system, a paucity of good software, no incentives to adopt new technology, and a lack of government leadership." In addition, there is concern that patients' personal data may be vulnerable to hackers.

Despite these concerns and drawbacks, Government Health IT (2/29, Moore) reported that "New York City officials said a two-year-old project to deliver electronic health records (EHRs) now has 200,000 participating patients, and aims to reach more than one million people this year." According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I), "200 providers have signed on to use the EHRs, and more than 1,000 are expected to join by the end of 2008." Should New York City meet that target, the city will have the "largest community network of EHRs" in the U.S., Mayor Bloomberg noted.

Florida high court widens patients' access to records.

Modern Healthcare (3/7, Evans) reported, "Florida's Legislature wrongly denied patients' access to medical-error and incident records made available after voters amended the state's constitution in 2004," according to a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court. The ruling stated that "[p]atients may access records created prior to Nov. 2, 2004, when the amendment became effective." In the court's 4-to-3 ruling, the justices "cited a lower court judge's conclusion that the constitutional amendment: 'heralds a change in the public policy of this state to lift the shroud of privilege and confidentiality in order to foster disclosure of information that will allow patients to better determine from whom they should seek healthcare, evaluate the quality and fitness of healthcare providers currently rendering service to them, and allow them access to information gathered through the self-policing process during the discovery period of litigation filed by injured patients or the estates of deceased patients against their healthcare providers.'"

Study suggests trauma patients treated in EDs may be exposed to enough radiation to boost cancer risk.

Reuters (3/4) reports, "Trauma patients treated in U.S. emergency" departments (EDs) "on average are exposed to radiation equivalent to 1,005 chest X-rays each, enough to raise their risk of cancer," according to a study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. Dr. James Winslow, of Wake Forest University in North Carolina, and colleagues looked at the "records of 86 patients who came to a level one trauma center over a three-month period." The researchers found that while the "average person living in the United States receives about three millisieverts of background radiation" annually, the patients in the study received an average of 40 millisieverts.

New York City announces plan to help doctors use electronic medical records.

The New York Times (2/26, B3, Santora) reports, "After two years of planning and a public investment of more than $60 million, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) said on Monday that New York City was ready to equip doctors with computer software that can track patients' medical records in order to provide better preventive care." The new "software package [was] developed with $30 million from the city and roughly $30 million from the state and federal governments, [and] would let doctors do much more than is possible with paper charts by integrating a patient's medical history, lab results and current medications into one electronic interface." According to city officials, "the system will give up-to-date information to doctors through a series of alerts, like overdue dates on prescriptions or cholesterol checks," and will also "share data with other doctors and provide information about the current best practices for treating illnesses." The goal is "to have 1,000 doctors with one million patients using it by the end of the year."

Georgia seeks to be one of 12 regions to test electronic medical record system.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2/21, Hendrick) reports, "Georgia is seeking to be one of 12 'demo sites' for a $150 million pilot federal program to provide money to some physicians to set up electronic health records systems." On Wednesday, Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) appeared with Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, "who came to Georgia to explain the program." According to Leavitt, the government is seeking to "'make healthcare lower cost, better quality and less [of a hassle]' and that making health records universal and accessible would accomplish those goals." He added that "the federal government will decide which 12 regions get grants by this fall," and every region "selected will get between $12 million and $15 million" to use for the electronic record system. The Bush administration "has called for a universal electronic medical system to be in place by 2014, a timetable many analysts say is unrealistic."

Links:

Transforming Health Care: The President’s Health Information Technology Plan