March 27, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
blog
In a recent webinar about payer trends in HIT, I found the Gary Austin’s perspectives to be very refreshing. Not only did he urge payers to embrace technology for their consumer initiatives, but he also advocated they underwrite health information exchanges (HIEs), which many in the industry have been saying for a while now.
March 23, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
During an eHealth Initiative webinar, “The Use of Telemedicine within an HIE for Chronic Disease Management,” on Feb. 29, much was said about what was holding telemedicine back and what could push it forward. One sign of encouragement that was voiced was that grant-funded telehealth networks could help build the backbone of health information exchange throughout the country.
March 22, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
Fairview Health Services, a 10-hospital, 42-clinic health system based in Minneapolis, has implemented a cloud-based communications platform that, among other things, allows its physicians to conduct virtual video “visits” with their patients, and schedule follow-up video visits.
January 5, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
With all of the attention being given to healthcare reform, meaningful use and looming deadlines for ICD-10, hospital CIOs have more than enough on their plates already. But I think secure messaging, particularly between physicians and their patients, is worthy of attention.
June 20, 2011 Mark Hagland
article
At the 20-hospital University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) integrated health system in western Pennsylvania, clinician leaders are moving forward on multiple fronts to make leading-edge telemedicine a reality.
May 26, 2011 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
To extend its geographic reach to enable patient tele-visits and physician tele-consults, the five-surgeon Dallas Neurosurgical and Spine Associates (DNS) recently implemented a communication platform, Lync (from the Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft). DNS, which has five office locations, is preparing to offer consultations to patients in rural areas around Dallas-Fort Worth, and to as far away as Saudi Arabia and Peru. Adding a new communication layer is just one step in this practice’s IT journey, as it recently moved to an electronic practice management system and will soon adopt an EMR.
May 20, 2011 By John DeGaspari
blog
Earlier this month the 20-hospital University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) announced that it signed an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent to develop a telemedicine platform and suite of applications that will enable patients to receive care outside the walls of hospitals and doctors’ offices. The solution, which is expected to go live in early 2013, will offer secure and real-time clinical encounters in a virtual exam room that is designed to fit the workflow of healthcare providers and the mobility of patients, according to UPMC.
March 29, 2011 Sharon Canner, Sr. Director of Advocacy
article
The Health IT Policy Committee’s Meaningful Use Workgroup discussed various options for the Stage 2 Timeline. Providers and vendors have urged a delay in Stage 2 implementation, while consumers, purchasers, and health plans have advocated for the current timeline. Also, at a time when Congress is seeking to cut spending on health programs, the budget neutral bipartisan “Fostering Independence Through Technology (FITT) Act” would create a pilot program to provide incentives for home health agencies across the country to use home monitoring and communications technologies, giving seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries greater access to care while enabling them to stay in their homes.
March 22, 2011 Mark Hagland
article
Leaders of patient care organizations nationwide are beginning to facilitate online communications between physicians and their patients for common, non-urgent medical matters and ailments. One organization that is doing so is the 20-hospital, integrated University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) health system in western Pennsylvania. Through the recently established e-visit program called HealthTrak, in which a patient engages with her or his provider online, eligible patients can have questions answered, conditions analyzed, and prescriptions written, without leaving home.
February 21, 2011 David Raths
article
One focal point of healthcare reform involves improving transitions in care settings, particularly to the home. Alternative reimbursement and care delivery models such as accountable care organizations are expected to require more patient self-management tools and remote monitoring devices. Meanwhile, Stage 2 of meaningful use is expected to raise the bar considerably in terms of how and when hospitals and physician groups must make patient data available.
February 21, 2011 Mark Hagland
article
Late last fall, researchers at the Orem, Utah-based KLAS Research released a new report, “Teleradiology Study 2010: A Detailed Read.” It was the first time KLAS's team of research professionals had surveyed healthcare leaders on teleradiology read services, what is becoming a rapidly growing field. These services, still sometimes informally referred to as “nighthawk” services, after the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based NightHawk Teleradiology (which last year merged with the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Virtual Radiologic), one of the earliest companies in the field, have become highly popular among numerous stakeholder groups in healthcare-and certainly are no longer limited just to the nighttime and weekend filling of gaps of available on-call radiologists.
December 2, 2010 David Raths
article
One of the focal points of health reform is improving transitions in care settings, particularly to the home. Alternative reimbursement and care delivery models such as accountable care organizations will require more patient self-management tools and remote monitoring devices. In a Nov. 30 webinar, Lynne Dunbrack, program director for research firm IDC Health Insights Framingham, Mass., described how the legislative impact of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is combining with other market drivers such as the increase in the incidence of chronic disease and provider staffing shortages to create new opportunities for efforts at home monitoring, e-visits and telemedicine.
