Mobile

The Pediatric Heart Transplant Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital is launching a one-year program that will use a text messaging platform to increase medication adherence in its teenage heart transplant patients.

The technology underlying the electronic health record and the electronic medical record seems to be significantly driven by sales to a perceived market. That market is controlled by parameters designed to report data to regulatory agencies and insurance companies, rather than to increasing the interactivity and effectiveness of actual professional medical care decision making for individual patients. The importance of interoperability, portability and other standards of data collection and use cannot be overemphasized. The infusion of national quality medical standards is laudable, as long as they keep pace with reality and are dynamic and accurate. However, the fly in the ointment is the tremendous importance of direct medical evaluation of the patient, assessment of findings that require action tailored to the individual problem list, and to the evolution of the individual plan of treatment. It is ironic that for example, MUMPS the program that evolved out of the context of research attempts to invent a healthcare computer language, that in my opinion, was originally designed to enhance some of these functions, is now, according to Wikipedia, “...currently used in electronic health record systems as well as by multiple banking networks and online”. Indeed, either banking networks have become closely aligned to health record systems or vice versa. In any event it is clear that the level and length of training that physicians need to treat and manage the complexity of human biological function and dysfunction cannot be equated to “multiple banking networks” data processing. As someone who supervised the computerization of an occupational health system over some twelve years ago, I recognized that it was essential to develop what I call Physician computer subset decision interfaces. These interfaces are not only where the value of the intense medical training and intellectual competence required of physicians, coupled with the computational capacity of the software and hardware, are realized, but also where they meet interactively to solve medical problems in fluid clinical contexts. This involves focused human contact, rather than only treatment of the isolated “medical chart’. If software design is concentrated only on profitable sales which are driven by healthcare data collection, and which are heavily constrained by bureaucratic demands, the efficacy of this massive investment in healthcare IT is fraught with failure.

The benefits of the National Demonstration Project on the patient-centered medical home, an initiative by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and its subsidiary TransforMED, are still being realized two years after the project ended.

Anyone who's ever languished on hold or plunged into a labyrinth of ever-expanding touchtone message options while trying to get an answer to a simple question about coverage or eligibility will appreciate the new invention from Aetna. Her name is Ann.

Healthcare system takes on $1.5 billion project in 18 states

How childbearing women are using social media is one of the topics that will be touched on in a breakout session at Health 2.0, which kicks off today in the nation's capital.

Intuit Inc., the Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, will acquire Medfusion, of Cary, N.C., which makes front-office and back-office software designed to improve patient-to-provider communications. The deal is valued at about $91 million.

Technology is always promising something and the iPad is no exception with some seeing it as a “game changer” for healthcare, and physicians in particular.

The American Telemedicine Association’s 15th Annual Meeting and Exposition kicked off May 16 with an expansive attitude, as ATA officials welcomed more than 3,000 registrants representing at least 35 countries to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Outdated hospital communications systems -- based on blaring PAs and multiple, often incompatible mobile devices -- are causing confusion, reducing efficiency, wasting money, and helping contribute to serious staffing shortages.