BEI HIT Blog
EHR Watch, May 15, 2012
BEI Commentary: If you have an EHR you need an IT support company, or you need internal staff to support your network and hardware. Most ambulatory practices will either partially or totally outsource their IT. It is a good idea to work with a company that understands the healthcare vertical and its rules and regulations (shameless plug: BEI is one such company). Business Associates Agreements are one of the reasons why.
So you’ve been working hard to firm up your IT security protocols and systems, and you’re feeling good about the progress you’ve made.
Now, how about your myriad partners who also have access to your patients’ health information?
As this observer points out, for many providers that’s a different story altogether. He says that “while the HIPAA rules have been around for a while — the Security Rule’s compliance date goes back to 2005 — hospitals and other health care providers have not consistently devoted a significant amount of time to business associate security.” Read More
EHRWatch, January 30, 2012
BEI Commentary: Allscripts is the second major ambulatory vendor to partner with M* Modal. Greenway has done so already. With these new capabilities, physicians will be able to dictate into an EHR and have the note transcribed as well as abstracted, saving a lot of pointing and clicking. This should be a major productivity enhancement for clinical staff, when fully implemented.
One of the ongoing hurdles for providers moving to EHRs is the convenience, or lack thereof, of inputting data during patient visits.
One evolving solution to that hurdle is the development of voice recognition and recording technology.
On that front, M*Modal Inc., a provider of clinical narrative capture services, recently announced that it has entered into a strategic reseller and development relationship with Allscripts for its speech and language understanding technology, which will be available for Allscripts clients across all ambulatory and acute-care platforms. The relationship will provide capabilities to create content-rich, voice-driven narrative patient documentation within Allscripts electronic health record (EHR) systems. Read More
EHR Watch, January 26, 2012
BEI Commentary: Wouldn’t it be great to know how patients are doing in between office visits? If data could be collected in real-time, patients could be seen when needed, for instance, when remote monitoring equipment indicates there might be a problem. A new technology from a company called Biotronik, allows continuous, automatic, wireless remote monitoring of patient and implantable cardiac device status with daily updates—all independent from any patient interaction. With immediate access to patient information, physicians can remotely monitor and assess patient device data and determine the level of care needed.
There’s more news coming out of the recent IHE Connectathon in Chicago.
Biotronik, a German manufacturer of cardiac medical devices and remote patient management solutions, has announced it has successfully completed its final interoperability testing process for an Internet-based system for patient and implantable cardiac device information.
At the event, the company tested its implantable device cardiac observation (IDCO) profile and demonstrated its ability to connect to third-party EHR systems and cardiovascular data management systems using defined industry standards. The connecting technology from the BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring® system to the EHRs is called BIOTRONIK EHR DataSync®. Read More
EHRWatch.com, October 13, 2011
BEI Commentary: Consumer interest in accessing their medical information on EHRs is increasing as expected.
Results of a new study from Manhattan Research reveal that an estimated 56 million U.S. consumers have accessed their medical information on an EHR system maintained by their physician. An additional 41 million consumers are interested in accessing such information, according to the pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company’s Cybercitizen Health U.S. 2011 study of consumer digital health trends.
The findings come from an online and phone survey of 8,745 U.S. adults (age 18 and over) conducted during the third quarter of 2011.
Additionally, the company’s Taking the Pulse study of U.S. physicians concludes that EHR adoption is rising among doctors, and “will likely accelerate as iPads and other tablets facilitate EHR access for doctors on the move throughout the workday.” Read More
