Microsoft kicks off PHR initiative

Microsoft launched a free PHR last week, working in cooperation with a wide variety of partners whose role it will be to help populate the record with useful medical data. The move puts Microsoft into competition for mindshare in an increasingly hot industry sector already peopled by technology rivals like Google and the massive employer-backed PHR effort Dossia. However, in lining up clinical partners, Microsoft is arguably ahead of its competitors, who are still largely at the talking stage in their efforts.

Partners in the PHR effort, HealthVault, include the American Heart Association, Johnson & Johnson LifeScan, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the Mayo Clinic and MedStar Health. Rather than waiting for consumers to enter their own health information, Microsoft is counting on these partners to provide at least some of the content. For example, New York-Presbyterian has agreed to begin populating HealthVault PHRs automatically with basic patient data. Johnson & Johnson LifeScan, for its part, wants to enable its blood glucose monitors to feed readings into HealthVault accounts.

Google, Microsoft Question Government's Health IT Plans

On Thursday, Google and Microsoft executives urged Obama administration officials to consider Web-based technologies as they work to promote electronic health record adoption, Nextgov.com reports. The executives expressed their views during a meeting of the recently founded President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST. At the meeting, Google Chair and CEO Eric Schmidt said the administration's current health IT plans encourage medical professionals to use outdated health IT systems that could hinder innovation. Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, suggested that health IT objectives should emphasize medical data management (Brewin, Nextgov.com, 8/6).

PCAST Details

The new White House council features leading scientists and engineers from around the country. Some of PCAST's members include:

• David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT;
• Aneesh Chopra, President Obama's chief technology officer; and
• John Glaser, adviser to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

The group will provide Obama with guidance and policy recommendations on issues related to innovation, science and technology

Electronic Health Record Links Care Givers And Cardiac Patients

Electronic health records of patients helped them stay healthy even two years after they left the program by keeping them in touch with their care givers electronically, according to a study. The program at Kaiser Permanente, which reduced cardiac deaths by 73 percent, linkedcoronary artery disease patients and teams of pharmacists, nurses, primary care doctors, and cardiologists via the electronic health record system. The researchers said that the study was the first randomized study to evaluate a follow-up system for patients discharged from a cardiovascular risk reduction service. The ClinicalPharmacy

Cardiac Risk Service at Kaiser Permanente Colorado combines Kaiser Permanente's industry-leading electronic health record, Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, with proactive patient outreach, education, lifestyle adjustments, and effective medication management. The two-year randomised trial of 421 patients found that patients discharged from the program kept their lipid and blood pressure levels at controlled, healthy levels by receiving electronic reminder letters. "Because lack of adherence to medications and failure to maintain treatment goals are so high among heart disease patients, we wanted to find out what would happen to the patients after they were discharged from the program but remained in contact with the health care system through our electronic health record," said the study's lead author, Kari L. Olson. He added: "The takeaway message here is that we can help support patients in maintaining treatment goals and medication adherence, which is often a challenge with most chronic conditions. Using technology and integrated systems already in place, we can help keep patients healthy for longer and deliver continuity of care in a cost efficient manner."

For the study, 421 patients in the program with well-controlled blood pressure and cholesterol levels were randomized so that 214 continued in the program to receive intensive direct counseling from the care team. The other 207 patients were discharged from the program back to their primary care physician. The patients who were discharged from the program had electronic reminders in their chart to ensure their lipid panels were ordered annually, with the results sent directly to their primary care physician. The discharged patients also received reminder letters generated by KP HealthConnect, indicating they were due for a lab test.

The most important finding of the study was that the patients discharged from the program maintained control of their risk factors with the help of electronic reminder letters. The EHR intervention was as effective at keeping cholesterol and blood pressure in check, compared to the more intensive counseling approach offered to those patients who stayed enrolled in the program. After going through the program, the patients were found to have an 88 percent reduced risk of dying of a cardiac-related cause when enrolled within 90 days of a heart attack, compared to those not in the program. The number of patients meeting their cholesterol goal went from 26 percent to 73 percent, and the number of patients screened for cholesterol went from 55 percent to 97 percent. The coordinated, evidence-based care, enabled by KP HealthConnect and an electronic care registry, increased the survival rate dramatically among patients enrolled in the service. It is estimated that more than 135 deaths and 260 costly emergency interventions were prevented annually as a result of improved care.

CDC turns to social, mobile media for swine flu updates

The outbreak of swine flu, otherwise known as the H1N1 virus, has pushed government agencies, particularly the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to embrace all kinds of social media and mobile technologies for disseminating information and attempting to quell fear. YouTube, Twitter, RSS feeds, podcasts, embeddable widgets and informational e-cards are all parts of the strategy.

In fact, the CDC is getting record traffic to its swine flu site, and has had twice the number of people sign up for email alerts than for the peanut recall earlier this year.

"Public health agencies are our largest sector of clients," Scott Burns, CEO of technology contractor GovDelivery, tells Government Computer News. "CDC and the state health agencies do the best job of this type of communication. I think they would make the private sector jealous."

Healthcare workers catching swine flu on the job

It's not surprising, given the ongoing problems healthcare providers face with infection control, but still worth noting: A new bulletin from the CDC says that some healthcare workers are picking up the H1N1 virus on the job.

Right now, the number is modest, with a known 81 U.S. healthcare workers having laboratory-confirmed swine flu. What worries authorities, however, is that about half seem to have gotten infected on the job, a stat that could have serious implications for the future of the pandemic. If the virus spreads further, and follows this pattern, it could disable enough healthcare workers to slow the health system down substantially.

To help address the spread of H1N1, the CDC recommends that potential swine flu patients be identified "at the front door" to allow hospital personnel to institute special infection precautions like masks, isolation and increased hand hygiene. It's also recommending that healthcare workers get Tamiflu in personnel who've been exposed to swine flu.

iPhone app for swine flu is on its way

Swine flu has been in the American consciousness for about a week now, and, as the iPhone commercials say, "there's an app for that." Almost.

QxMD Software, which specializes in applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry, has submitted "H1N1 Update for Mobile Professionals" to Apple for approval. The app includes worldwide news feeds on the H1N1 virus, Twitter updates from the CDC and links to patient and clinician educational material from clinical information service UpToDate.

QxMD is soliciting additional information sources from public health agencies and news services.

N M Wadia Institue of Cardiology goes for a makeover with HIMS

After intense evaluation process of evaluating vendors of implementing Hospital Information solution, N. M. Wadia Institute of Cardiology decided to implement HIMS solution from a Pune based provider along with Cardiac Information system.

The N. M. Wadia Institute of Cardiology was the first non-government sector hospital in India to start a Coronary Care Unit and the first in Pune to pioneer cardiac Catheterization and Angiography, Angioplasty, Stenting, open heart surgery and closed heart surgery which are now all routine activities.

The software provider is said to have a decade long experience in the field of Cardiology and that has helped them win the deal from the competition. Heart Care Plus – Their Cardiac Information system is a proven solution over a decade and is being used in number of hospitals in India as well as abroad. The overall implementation will be done in phased manner spanning 3-6 months