e-CareManagement blog

Chronic Disease Management • Technology • Strategy • Issues and Trends

Electronic Health Information Exchange — Way More Complicated Than Getting Money from an ATM

“If banks can exchange funds electronically through the ATM system, why can’t my doctor and hospital exchange information electronically?” Keith Boone’s concise article “A Doctor is Not a Bank” explains why this conclusion about healthcare interoperability is overly-simplistic. …and Keith’s article reminded me of an even deeper explanation presented in the National Academies’ Frontiers of Engineering [...]

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Top 20 iPhone Medical Apps: No Connection to EHRs…Yet

iMedicalApps recently published its list of Top 20 Free iPhone Medical Apps for Healthcare Professionals. What struck me about the list is that the state-of-the-art is stand alone applications — I didn’t see any that had any connection to an EHR (electronic health record).  Here’s the top 5 to give you a flavor of what’s [...]

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Doctors Love iPads. What Does it Mean? What Does it Mean?

After attending the largest annual health IT conference of the year — HIMSS 11 –  John Moore reported that “nearly every EHR vendor has an iPad App for the EHR [electronic health record], or will be releasing such this year.” Doctors love iPads…not surprising? But, how might you explain this? There are at least two different [...]

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Is Economic Credentialing A Tool for Primary Care to Lead ACOs?

Is economic credentialing — the use of economic factors such as loyalty and utilization rates in the physician credentialing process — a potential tool for primary care physicians to lead ACOs?   and reestablish the vitality of primary care in American health care? Keith Wright and Gregory Drutchas’ incisive article Economic Credentialing: A Prescription To Secure Shared [...]

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Getting DIRECTly to the Point: The Role of the Direct Project in Fast-Tracking Health IT Interoperability

By Rich Elmore and Arien Malec. Rich Elmore is the Direct Project Communication Workgroup leader and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at Allscripts.  Arien Malec is ONC’s Coordinator, Direct Project and Coordinator, S&I Framework. A patient’s health records are no longer confined to a doctor’s office, shelved inside a dusty file cabinet. With the advent of the [...]

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Complimentary Webinar — An Impending Marriage: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Care Management Software

Webinar Title: An Impending Marriage: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Care Management Software The presentation will be geared at practicing clinical case managers in health plans, hospitals, disease management companies, and similar organizations: Describe market forces driving integration of EHRs and care management software.  Review care management software survey data and stimulus funding for EHR adoption.  [...]

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Comments to ONC: PCAST HIT Report Becomes a Political Piñata

The PCAST Report on Health IT has become a political piñata.  Early Feedback on PCAST  Like many of my colleagues, I was taken aback by the release of the Report in early December 2010 — I didn’t know quite what to make of it. Response in the first week of release was:  Limited. The first commentaries were primarily by technical and/or clinical [...]

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Updates on Proposed Stage 2 and 3 Meaningful Use Criteria

The Health IT Policy Committee has published proposed Stage 2 and 3 Meaningful Use Recommendations and they’re open for public comment until February 25. I’ll share a couple of particularly useful and well written analyses and commentaries by colleagues. Health IT guru and thought leader Dr. John Halamka writes about The Proposed Stage 2 and 3 [...]

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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 [...]

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