DISQUS

benjaminwright · 2 months ago

Sean: As the healthcare industry makes greater use of electronic data, the new HITECH legislation (enacted by Congress February 2009), is requiring strong privacy controls. HITECH will motivate healthcare entities to maintain robust logs and audit trails recording access to all electronic patient data, whether the data be in email, qualified e-patient records, treatment equipment or otherwise. Compliance will not be easy or cheap. Detailed analysis: http://legal-beagle.typepad.com/wrights_legal_b... --Ben

john · 2 months ago

Agreed. A massive technology upgrade is a must have for any health care reform.

The attached article outlines the problem from the doctor's perspective:

http://www.easthamptonstar.com/dnn/Home/News/DI......

However, electronic medical records still a "must have" high priority item for a variety of reasons (less mistakes, cost savings, portability, accessibility, etc.) but huge tech hurdles particularly relating to interoperability and compatibility.

I think this should be a high priority for the gov't, along with insurance reform, tort reform, improved safety net and proper incentives for healthcare consumers.

DossyDomo · 2 months ago

Oh wow, now that sounds like fun dude, I like it!

RT
www.privacy-web.pro.tc

billlappen · 2 months ago

But privacy is still important and I worry about trusting a computer system with my information. Computers can be hacked. How about anonymous data? www.AMCC.me is a site that seems to be doing that and I don't think they can figure out who I am. Any thoughts on that?

trevor · 2 months ago

I see technology as a large jump in the future for surgery and many other contributes but it is the future and there is nothing much anyone can do about it so jump on board while you can. he only problem i see is the protection of personal information, which is always a problem even today the laws need o become more involved in punishing and catching criminals in order to resolve this issue more and then i think we would be ready to step forward.

John in California · 2 months ago

Sean, The costs associated with Kaiser system you mentioned are often overlooked (and tangible benefits overstated). If one were to use the costs from KPHealthConnect and then extrapolate to the rest of the US physician population, the expected cost is alarming (and makes the ARRA's $19B seem like a drop in the bucket) :

KP HealthConnect cost: $6B
Number of Kaiser physicians: 14,600

KP HealthConnect cost per Kaiser doctor: $410,959.90

Total number of physicians in US: 850,000

Projected cost of KP HealthConnect if extended to all physicians in US: $349,315,065,000

MedicalQuack · 2 months ago

Nice write up from Sean Nolan. I have been a HealthVault advocate from day one and use it for myself and family, works good. What happens if your physician dies as I recently posted, and all your records are shredded? Something to think about. By the way I have an entire section on my blog along with a permanent link to get started with HealthVault on my blog. There are a lot of "how to'" and images on what you can do with HealthVault.

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/search/label/Per...

website · 2 months ago

There is a very good reason why IT in healthcare is in the stone ages. Everyone is paranoid about patient health information being abused. There are very, very strict privacy laws that make it extremely problematic for companies to set up easily accessible systems. The reason why one hospital doesnt have another hospitals patient records is exactly because of these privacy laws. Do you know what kind of hassle getting someones paperwork from another hospital is? You and the patient have to sign information release forms, and there currently is no way of knowing which hospital has what records, other than by asking the patient.

The reason why IT hasnt taken off has nothing to do with lack of motivation or technology, and everything to do with strict privacy laws and (justified) paranoia. (Thank you insurance companies for making everyone paranoid about rescission)

John in California · 2 months ago

I agree about being being paranoid about rescission but believe that the lack of sharing between hospitals goes far beyond privacy laws. In my experience, many healthcare institutions consider your health record to be their property. By their having the only copy of your record (or a large portion of your record) you are much more likely to return to that specific institution. In addition, I know for a fact that hospitals and physician practices often review your chart and "scrub" it prior to delivering it to you, another provider, or an attorney. I can imagine that consumers would howl if banks were to have a similar practice.

Finally, I also agree about healthcare IT being in the stone ages. The aforementioned "KP HealthConnect" expense did not include even basic integration with medical devices. For example, when a patient goes in to see the doctor and the assistant measures their vital signs (using Welch Allyn and GE Dynamap devices) they need to manually type this information into the $6B medical record.

pixpol · 2 months ago

Even in terms of just providing better education and information to patients, hospitals can turn to social media technology like Twitter and virtual worlds. Places like the Mayo Clinic are doing so already. We were so shocked we actually had to put a feature up on the blog: http://www.pixelsandpolicy.com/pixels_and_polic...