Archive
93% believe EHR-connected mHealth apps benefit patient care | EHRintelligence.com
More than ninety percent of the 650 physicians polled believe that mHealth apps have the potential to improve patient outcomes, and an equal amount would like to see apps give patients the ability to upload data into their personal EHR file. Eighty-nine percent would recommend an app to a patient in the future. The ability to send patients reminders and alerts topped the mHealth wish list for respondents, followed by allowing patients to access their PHI from mobile devices, making it easier for patients to conduct administrative tasks like appointment scheduling, and getting more accurate self-reported data from patients on a regular basis. Preventative care, diabetes monitoring, weight management, and medication adherence were all areas of opportunity for mHealth apps to address.
See on ehrintelligence.com
“Functional cure” of HIV reported in 14 patients
More evidence suggests a “functional cure” of HIV is possible if the disease is treated early.
A study of 14 patients who were treated with antiviral HIV medications within weeks of infection now have now have no disease activities years after stopping medication. The research comes weeks after news spread that a Mississippi baby who was born with HIV and received immediate treatment was now disease-free at two and a half years old.
The study’s authors warn their findings may not be the norm for all patients with HIV, though they estimated up to 15 percent of patients may be able to keep the disease at bay without the help of medication, which means they are functionally cured.
See on www.cbsnews.com
Physicians Who e-prescribe Choose Cheaper Drugs, Report Says
Surveyed U.S. endocrinologists and primary care physicians (PCPs) said they use e-prescribing for 76 percent of their Medicare patients and 79 percent of their non-Medicare patients, figures that are expected to grow in the next year, according to a report from research and advisory firm Decision Resources. The report, which surveyed 70 endocrinologists and 70 PCPs as well as 25 managed-care organization (MCO) pharmacy directors also found that approximately 80 percent of PCPs and endocrinologists say they would prescribe a less expensive DPP-IV inhibitor to their patients with Type 2 diabetes or hypertension, reflecting high cost-sensitivity.
Match Day: More medical graduates entering primary care
The number of medical students committing to primary care rather than specialties increased for the fourth straight year in the largest ‘match program” in history.
[The success of healthcare reform depends on primary care physicians, and there is a shortage. Hopefully, this trend continues.]
See on www.usatoday.com
Overcoming Obstacles to Better Health Care
Transforming the American health care system could include offering safe harbor from malpractice suits for doctors who demonstrate high-quality care. See on www.nytimes.com
Meaningful healthcare reform needs tort reform so that healthcare providers can spend less time (and less insurer’s money) on defensive medicine and more time (and arguably less insurer’s money) on preventive medicine and thereby achieve more accountable medicine.
Actually, Mr. Brill, Fixing Healthcare Is Kinda Simple | Wired Science | Wired.com
When you need health care, you enter not a market but a con game in which you’re first a guarantor and source of profit, and second a patient. Wired Science blogger David Dobbs explains why the government needs to step up. See on www.wired.com
Patients have no clout in so-called market driven healthcare because of its fragmented delivery and billing systems. Having insurance further mystifies the process and hides the information necessary to make market decisions. Something like a patients union is needed to equalize the playing field. For now, Obamacare is all that patients have to give them some protection against the two Titans in healthcare who have all the market power.
Christensen, Flier and Vijayaraghavan: The Coming Failure of ‘Accountable Care’
In The Wall Street Journal, Clayton Christensen, Jeffrey Flier and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan say that the Affordable Care Act’s updated versions of HMOs are based on flawed assumptions about doctor and patient behavior. See on online.wsj.com
Beware the nay sayers. ACOs and other accountable care measures can only succeed if there IS a change in physician behavior. Changing the way healthcare is done in this country is the basis (and only workable basis) for meaningful improvement in healthcare while controlling costs at the same time. No one ever thought it would be easy or quick.
Primary care doctors becoming more involved in mental health care
Don’t be surprised if your family doctor seems as interested in your brain as in your body. (RT @BeneficentGuild: Primary care doctors becoming more involved in mental health care – The Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y. See on www.uticaod.com
This is not a new situation. The AMA reported on this trend in 2010, as resulting largely from increased focus on depressions and other mental health issues and the lack of psychiatrists for treatment.
Can we learn something from America – Accountable Care Organisations
It has become de rigueur on the left to regard the US healthcare system as the very incarnation of evil and therefore a country from which nothing of value can be learned for improving our NHS. This might be about to change. There is now growing interest in the notion of the ‘Accountable Care Organisation’ (ACO) – or as it is tending to be termed over here, the Accountable Integrated Care System.
The Accountable Care Organisation concept is gathering pace in the US following the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which included a pilot programme to explore ACO structures and processes. Under the new law, an ACO would agree to manage all of the healthcare needs of a minimum of 5,000 Medicare beneficiaries for at least three years. The ACO can gain extra money through sharing savings (with Medicare) resulting from collaborative efforts to provide care cost-effectively. Stringent governance conditions must be met, along with transparency and quality performance – Medicare ACOs will report on 33 different quality metrics.
In his recent ‘Green Paper’ speech on future Labour Party health policy, Andy Burnham spoke of the need for “one service co-ordinating all of one person’s needs“, with the district general hospital “evolving over time into an integrated care provider from home to hospital“. Indeed, he went on to say:
“If we look to the US the best providers are working on that highly integrated basis, co-ordinating physical, mental and social care from home to hospital. We have got to take the best of that approach and universalise it here.” See on www.sochealth.co.uk
From the Socialist Health Association of Scotland. I don’t want to think about the ramifications of having an important part of Obamacare endorsed by a socialist health organization. However, labels aside the ability to provide coordination of care in a private setting is a good thing, which is why ACOs are so critical to meaningful healthcare reform.
Your EHR needs a population health management system
Office-based medical practice is changing fast. The government is providing incentives to those practices that use electronic prescribing and electronic records systems and will soon penalize those that don’t. Health reform will shortly deliver many newly insured patients to your office. A host of new patient care models aimed at making healthcare more team-based are emerging. Reimbursement tied to outcomes will demand a greater level of patient management and engagement in the care process.
Often, though, an EHR alone cannot provide the functionality necessary to manage a specific population of patients.
There are many reasons a practice may need to identify and proactively work with a defined group of patients. Primarily, it’s to insure they are receiving care according to the evidenced-based standards agreed upon by the practice. See on www.kevinmd.com
Many physicians are re-evaluating their first choice of EHR and are changing to others as they learn how they work and what is needed for their medical practices. This is just one more instanceof making saure your EHR is robust enough to add new important components as the need develops.
Joseph Rugg's Health Law Blog 