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HIE

Will ACO IT Models Be Walled Gardens or Open Platforms?

Will ACO (accountable care organization) IT models be walled gardens or open platforms?  i.e., will ACO IT platforms focus on exchanging information within the provider network of the ACO, or will they also be able to exchange information with providers outside the ACO network? (If the question still isn’t clear, click here for a further explanation.).

MGH Medicare Disease/Care Management Demo Shows Home Run Results!

Medicare has (finally) recently released a report showing home run results for a disease/care management demonstration project!

Evaluation of Medicare Care Management for High Cost Beneficiaries (CMHCB) Demonstration: Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGH)

Remind Me Again About the CMHCB Medicare Demo…

The CMHCB started in 2005. My recollection is that the demo requirements were extremely similar to the Medicare Health Support (MHS) project, with a few exceptions: 1) Applicants had to include direct care providers (delivery systems, physicians) in their program design, 2) patient populations […]

Is Physician EHR Adoption Getting Past the Penguin Problem?

Remember the penguin problem described by economists?

No one moves unless everyone moves, so no one moves. 

Overcoming the penguin problem has a lot to do with creating expectations. A recent writing by Dr. James O’Connor in Physician Practice expresses a voice from the physician community that I’ve never heard before.  His essay is entitled “Meaningful Use — Doctors Have No Choice”.

Testing Technology vs. Enabling a System of Chronic Care – Results of the NIH Tele-HF Trial

by Randy Williams, MD FACC, CEO of Pharos Innovations

The results from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored Tele-HF trial are in, and the findings are worth considering . The results are counter to most of the findings of other studies examining telemonitoring for heart failure and at face value are disappointing to us, and the industry. Upon closer examination, however, this study offers us an excellent opportunity for further innovation, refinement of solutions and continuous improvement. It also provides a snapshot […]

Walled Gardens vs. the Open Web: A Central Debate in Tech Finally Coming to Healthcare

The September issue of Wired magazine and an article in last Sunday’s New York Times illustrate a central debate in technology circles. The debate is not new — it’s being going on for two decades — but it has newfound vibrancy. The essence of the debate is about competing tech/business models: walled gardens vs. the open world wide web (web).

 

vs.

 

The debate is highly controversial and nuanced. There are “experts” on both sides.

My point today is not to take sides […]

Six First-Take Reactions to Surescripts Network Expansion

Yesterday Surescripts announced their new Clinical Interoperability Services:

Extended Network Connectivity – As a network of networks, Surescripts will support and enable the exchange of all types of clinical messages between EHRs, HIEs and health systems that, today, are not connected with each other.
Net2Net Connect – Allows health systems and technology vendors that already support clinical information sharing within their network to connect to Surescripts in order to receive and send clinical information outside their network (December 2010).
Message Stream – Secure messaging […]

Webinar: Beacon Communities Reshaping Landscape for HIT and Population Health

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time — Presented by the Care Continuum Alliance

Federally supported “Beacon Communities” are at work now defining how health information technology will support accountable, evidence-based care in communities – especially for care of chronic conditions. Backed by $235 million in federal grants, 15 communities across the country are serving as Beacon Community pilots for eventual wide-scale, performance-based use of technology to improve our health care delivery system.

The goal of the webinar is to address

The fundamental nature […]

Healthcare IT News Highlights Mobile Health Expo Presentation

Mike Miliard did a great job in capturing highlights and key points of my presentation at the Mobile Health Expo conference earlier this week. You can read his story here.

Please write me at vincek@bhtinfo.com in you’d like a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.

Update:  Neil Versel of FierceEMR also wrote up the presentation.  Here’s a link to his concise, on-target article “HIE, mobility, open platforms start to knock down ‘walled gardens’ of proprietary EMRs.”

Status Report: HITPC and Workgroup Activities on HITECH Stages 2 & 3

 

OK, let me be the first to admit that today’s “just-the-facts-ma’am” post might be a little dry…but trust me, its really important stuff to know in understanding the process of how the Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) and its workgroups are approaching formulating recommendations for HITECH Stages 2 and 3.

At this point at least two different workgroups are involved in developing recommendations for HITECH Stages 2 and 3.

A newly formed Quality Measures Workgroup. This group will “produce initial recommendations on […]

Overview: Here Come Stages 2 and 3 of HITECH!

 

We’ve spent the past year creating the MU (meaningful use) requirements for Stage 1 of the HITECH act.  As shown by the diagram above, Stage 1 focuses on Data Capture and Sharing. Now it’s time to begin to focus on Stage 2 (Advanced Clinical Processes) and Stage 3 (Improved Outcomes).

The current generation of EMRs (electronic medical records) were designed primarily to assist care providers with clinical documentation, billing, and maximizing revenues. They were not designed to enable care coordination and […]