Beyond Medical Informatics

Here’s a list of news, links and articles about Medical Informatics, Healthcare and IT that I found interesting this past week (May 17 – 23, 2009) .

AMIA Podcasts and Media
Podcasts and materials may not be so new but I just found out about this online resource this past week. It’s from the American Medical Informatics Association Website.

 Quest, Microsoft platform allows shared lab results
The 2 companies “created an infrastructure allowing patients and doctors to share diagnostic lab test results online”. I know some local laboratories have been doing this for some time now. They allow patients to create user profiles so they can access their results online. In the US, they have to adhere to HIPAA laws. Here in the Philippines, we don’t have any local HIPAA counterpart. Should there be one? I personally have my hesitations.

VA plans EMR-based project to study treatment effectiveness
The real value of electronic medical records is in improving clinical outcomes. However, the process of getting clinical outcomes involves comprehensive data capture, storage and analysis that only computerization can provide. Sometimes it can be a chicken-and-egg thing. That’s why buy-in from hospital management can be difficult if computerization is still in its early stages. Good thing there are studies—done and ongoing—that can help provide evidence. I’m excited to see the results of this one.

Patients willing to forgo some health IT privacy for availability
It’s always give-and-take. Here in the Philippines, unless one is a public figure, patients are not so concerned about privacy issues. I guess in a country where the basic delivery of primary care is still an ongoing challenge, healthcare IT privacy is the least of our concerns.

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Is there an interesting Healthcare IT-related link you’d like to share? Please post them below. Thanks!

Here’s a list of news, links and articles about Medical Informatics, Healthcare and IT that I found interesting this past week.

I found 2 new online resources for Healthcare IT :

• FierceMobileHealthcare (c/o a post from Neil Versel’s Healthcare IT Blog)
• FierceHealthIT (after following the link above)

Other interesting links:

• Health Technology Watch List for 2009: A list by ECRI, ‘electronic medical records’ still remain at No. 1. Interestingly, in the light of the Swine Flu Pandemic, No. 10 is ‘rapid tests for deadly infections’.
• GE plans new health care initiative: Still another technology vendor going into the Electronic Medical Record space. There’s plenty of room, including room for improvement! Here’s another article on GE’s plan: GE to Invest $6B in Health Care Initiatives.
• AHIMA Identifies Measures for Widespread EHR Adoption: A list of items to consider for EHR adoption. Will have to comment on each item in succeeding posts.
• Philippines urged to adopt int’l telehealth standards: An InfoWorld/ComputerWorld article on the potential action items after the eHealth 2009 conference.

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Is there an interesting Healthcare IT-related link you’d like to share? Please post them below. Thanks!

Here’s a short list of Healthcare IT news and articles that caught my attention this week (April 17, 2009).

• CMIO Magazine is a new magazine targeted for Chief Medical Information Officers (or similar positions, e.g. Medical Informatics Consultant). It’s still on its first issue. I hope it’s good. I look forward to an information resource that’s more focused on issues, topics and applications for hospital enterprises and healthcare institutions.

Many software and technology vendors are riding the Healthcare IT wave.

• Sun Software Key to Electronic Medical Records Network: Sun is working with US Federal agencies to work on the National Healthcare Information Network (NHIN).
• Intel, GE Invest $250 Million in Health IT Partnership: Two big powers joining forces to tackle Healthcare IT challenges.

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Is there an interesting Healthcare IT-related link you’d like to share? Please post them below. Thanks!