http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GabbquOwIo
Redesigning business processes before implementing EMR's are essential - if you follow the link above you will see an editorial I wrote on this topic for the Medscape Journal of Medicine last year.
Monday, March 30, 2009
EHR implementation and the Federal Stimulus package
http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/get-ready-for-ehr-failures-but-dont-blame-the-software-2031209/
It is worth having a look at the above post - a good article on electronic medical record implementation, in the light of the stimulus package. We know that most implementations take twice as long to undertake and cost twice as much as planned - and that a key issue is re-engineering the business process before choosing an application. This article makes the very valid points that the EHR subsidy will stimulate demand for EHR's, but may not lead to very effective implementation because of the need to make practice changes and pay for training. Unfortunately I think they are right, but I would be interested in anybody's views.
It is worth having a look at the above post - a good article on electronic medical record implementation, in the light of the stimulus package. We know that most implementations take twice as long to undertake and cost twice as much as planned - and that a key issue is re-engineering the business process before choosing an application. This article makes the very valid points that the EHR subsidy will stimulate demand for EHR's, but may not lead to very effective implementation because of the need to make practice changes and pay for training. Unfortunately I think they are right, but I would be interested in anybody's views.
Friday, March 27, 2009
A baby-boomers guide to better and cheaper health
Baby Boomers are the generation that organizes and pays for most healthcare in this country. Women of this generation bear the bulk of the caring load, and tend to have responsibility for not only their own, and their husbands health, but also for their children and their parents. Frequently they also care for other members of extended families, their grandparents or grandchildren, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, and sometimes even nieces and nephews. This is often a very time-consuming and complicated task that may lead to women giving up work and becoming full time family carers. The bottom line is that caring for families is not only an increasingly time-consuming issue for the baby-boomer generation, but also an expensive one.
Everyone talks about how expensive healthcare is, yet few people have started to really look at how it could be cheaper for patients. Many of the costs of healthcare are the result of inefficient practices that arise from a system that has not been focused on patients, and has just assumed that patients will travel from one clinic to the next, from one lab to another, and from home to hospital. Most doctors practices and health systems try and save money for themselves, but not for patients, and often they actually make more money by being inefficient because patients end up having more consultations and repeat tests than are really necessary, and paying for them. There are now many ways that the internet can be used to improve your health, and at the same time to save both time and money, and to therefore ultimately make healthcare cheaper for everyone. This is something that every baby-boomer needs to think about.
As a practicing physician I often advise my patients on a number of ways that they can use the Internet to improve their own healthcare, while at the same time working more closely with their usual doctor.
Broadly these approaches can be described in four simple steps. In brief they are:
1. Learn about how to use the internet for your healthcare. Read about the many different ways that the internet is now changing the practice of healthcare, from the implementation of electronic records and e-prescribing, to emailing your doctor and getting your lab results online.
2. Check out your doctor, and any other health providers, to make sure that they are appropriately expert and qualified to provide your care - and that they can do this using the internet
3. Learn to work collaboratively with your doctor using internet based healthcare. Find out which of the many internet health possibilities can be used by you and your doctor, and use them. You will save a lot of time and money by obtaining your healthcare more efficiently and easily - often at the click of a mouse.
4. Check out your current treatment, and compare it with best practices and health guidelines that you can find on the internet. Learn how to search the internet for health information and how to work out which information is helpful and accurate, and which is not. Then consult with your doctor, and discuss any areas where you think improvements can be made.
It is important that people improve their health by working collaboratively online and face to face with their doctors, by learning how to search effectively for good quality health information, and by comparing their own current treatment with best practice guidelines available on the internet. The baby-boomers have always been a generation that leads change, and it is now time for them to start changing healthcare by insisting that doctors use the many different options for healthcare that the internet has opened up.
This article is based on excerpts from the recently published book “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Available at http://http://www.informationagehealth.com/ and most online bookstores. A shortened version of the book, available as an e-Book for download to iPhones, Blackberry's, PDA's and other mobile devices called "4 simple steps to better health - an insiders look" is available at Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1271
Everyone talks about how expensive healthcare is, yet few people have started to really look at how it could be cheaper for patients. Many of the costs of healthcare are the result of inefficient practices that arise from a system that has not been focused on patients, and has just assumed that patients will travel from one clinic to the next, from one lab to another, and from home to hospital. Most doctors practices and health systems try and save money for themselves, but not for patients, and often they actually make more money by being inefficient because patients end up having more consultations and repeat tests than are really necessary, and paying for them. There are now many ways that the internet can be used to improve your health, and at the same time to save both time and money, and to therefore ultimately make healthcare cheaper for everyone. This is something that every baby-boomer needs to think about.
As a practicing physician I often advise my patients on a number of ways that they can use the Internet to improve their own healthcare, while at the same time working more closely with their usual doctor.
Broadly these approaches can be described in four simple steps. In brief they are:
1. Learn about how to use the internet for your healthcare. Read about the many different ways that the internet is now changing the practice of healthcare, from the implementation of electronic records and e-prescribing, to emailing your doctor and getting your lab results online.
2. Check out your doctor, and any other health providers, to make sure that they are appropriately expert and qualified to provide your care - and that they can do this using the internet
3. Learn to work collaboratively with your doctor using internet based healthcare. Find out which of the many internet health possibilities can be used by you and your doctor, and use them. You will save a lot of time and money by obtaining your healthcare more efficiently and easily - often at the click of a mouse.
4. Check out your current treatment, and compare it with best practices and health guidelines that you can find on the internet. Learn how to search the internet for health information and how to work out which information is helpful and accurate, and which is not. Then consult with your doctor, and discuss any areas where you think improvements can be made.
It is important that people improve their health by working collaboratively online and face to face with their doctors, by learning how to search effectively for good quality health information, and by comparing their own current treatment with best practice guidelines available on the internet. The baby-boomers have always been a generation that leads change, and it is now time for them to start changing healthcare by insisting that doctors use the many different options for healthcare that the internet has opened up.
This article is based on excerpts from the recently published book “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Available at http://http://www.informationagehealth.com/ and most online bookstores. A shortened version of the book, available as an e-Book for download to iPhones, Blackberry's, PDA's and other mobile devices called "4 simple steps to better health - an insiders look" is available at Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1271
Monday, March 16, 2009
Save time and money using the internet for healthcare
Everyone talks about how expensive healthcare is, yet few people have started to really look at how it could be cheaper for patients. Many of the costs of healthcare are the result of inefficient practices that arise from a system that has not been focused on patients, and has just assumed that patients will travel from one clinic to the next, from one lab to another, and from home to hospital. Most doctors practices and health systems try and save money for themselves, but not for patients, and often they actually make more money by being inefficient because patients end up having more consultations and repeat tests than are really necessary, and paying for them. There are now many ways that the internet can be used to save both time and money, and to therefore ultimately make healthcare cheaper for everyone.
As a practicing physician, here are my suggestions:
1. Try to travel less for your healthcare.
If you can reduce the number of face to face consultations you have you will not only save the cost of those consultations, but will also save the time and travel costs they involved. Ask your doctor if they use email – often a quick email response saying that your results are normal can save a whole consultation for you. Or sign up for a personal health record that you can share with your doctor, and see all your own results online. Many health systems have shared electronic records. Think about using telemedicine for your consultations, if your primary care doctor has access, and avoid traveling long distances to see specialists for consultations in dermatology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, pediatrics and endocrinology, to name a few.
2. Make sure you are getting the best, and most up to date, treatment?
Check out information on treatment guidelines and clinical trials on the internet, and make sure you are getting the best and most up to date treatment, so that you get better and back to work as quickly as possible. Nothing is more expensive than being off sick when you don’t need to be.
3. Ensure you are receiving electronic prescriptions?
Learn about your medications and ask your doctor if they e-prescribe. If they don’t then ask why not. Once your doctor e-prescribes you should be able to have your prescriptions sent automatically to the pharmacy of your choice – either the one closest to where you live, so that you can pick up your prescriptions in no time, or to a cheaper pharmacy, locally or by mail, that you have researched on the internet. Drug prices in the US are extremely high, and you can often save a lot of money by carefully comparing prices.
4. Get the most appropriate health insurance for yourself.
Do some homework on the internet, compare health insurance programs, look at your needs, and choose the best value most comprehensive program you can find. Remember that the cheapest program is not necessarily the best, and you may find yourself paying large amounts of co-payments if you are not careful.
5. Find the best doctor for you and your family.
Check out your doctor’s expertise, their qualifications and their experience. Go to the State Medical Board website and you will often be able to find out if they have ever had any claims against them. Many doctors now detail how many surgeries they have performed, what their infection rates are, and how many patients they have treated for a particular disorder. Choose experienced doctors whose patients are least likely to have expensive and time consuming complications – a huge potential waste of time and money for you, never mind the extra pain and sickness. See which hospitals your doctor works at if you need an inpatient admission, and check out the quality of those hospitals on the many “scorecards” that are becoming available.
The bottom line is that you can save lots of time and money by using the internet for your healthcare. Make sure you do as much research as possible before you see your doctor – let’s face it you don't go and see your accountant to do your taxes without collecting information beforehand. Do the same with your doctor. The Internet is the easiest source of information to use. So use it.
This article is based on excerpts from the recently published book “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Available at http://www.InformationAgeHealth.com and most online bookstores.
As a practicing physician, here are my suggestions:
1. Try to travel less for your healthcare.
If you can reduce the number of face to face consultations you have you will not only save the cost of those consultations, but will also save the time and travel costs they involved. Ask your doctor if they use email – often a quick email response saying that your results are normal can save a whole consultation for you. Or sign up for a personal health record that you can share with your doctor, and see all your own results online. Many health systems have shared electronic records. Think about using telemedicine for your consultations, if your primary care doctor has access, and avoid traveling long distances to see specialists for consultations in dermatology, ophthalmology, psychiatry, pediatrics and endocrinology, to name a few.
2. Make sure you are getting the best, and most up to date, treatment?
Check out information on treatment guidelines and clinical trials on the internet, and make sure you are getting the best and most up to date treatment, so that you get better and back to work as quickly as possible. Nothing is more expensive than being off sick when you don’t need to be.
3. Ensure you are receiving electronic prescriptions?
Learn about your medications and ask your doctor if they e-prescribe. If they don’t then ask why not. Once your doctor e-prescribes you should be able to have your prescriptions sent automatically to the pharmacy of your choice – either the one closest to where you live, so that you can pick up your prescriptions in no time, or to a cheaper pharmacy, locally or by mail, that you have researched on the internet. Drug prices in the US are extremely high, and you can often save a lot of money by carefully comparing prices.
4. Get the most appropriate health insurance for yourself.
Do some homework on the internet, compare health insurance programs, look at your needs, and choose the best value most comprehensive program you can find. Remember that the cheapest program is not necessarily the best, and you may find yourself paying large amounts of co-payments if you are not careful.
5. Find the best doctor for you and your family.
Check out your doctor’s expertise, their qualifications and their experience. Go to the State Medical Board website and you will often be able to find out if they have ever had any claims against them. Many doctors now detail how many surgeries they have performed, what their infection rates are, and how many patients they have treated for a particular disorder. Choose experienced doctors whose patients are least likely to have expensive and time consuming complications – a huge potential waste of time and money for you, never mind the extra pain and sickness. See which hospitals your doctor works at if you need an inpatient admission, and check out the quality of those hospitals on the many “scorecards” that are becoming available.
The bottom line is that you can save lots of time and money by using the internet for your healthcare. Make sure you do as much research as possible before you see your doctor – let’s face it you don't go and see your accountant to do your taxes without collecting information beforehand. Do the same with your doctor. The Internet is the easiest source of information to use. So use it.
This article is based on excerpts from the recently published book “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Available at http://www.InformationAgeHealth.com and most online bookstores.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
10 questions to check out your doctor
Most people don’t check on the level of competence of their doctor. Instead they typically see someone through a referral or recommendation from a friend, colleague, or often from another doctor who is suggesting a specialist referral. Or they are frequently given a list of “accredited providers” by an insurer. Sometimes they go on the internet and do some investigations – after all most doctors now have websites or at least have some information available about them on the web, but how much? And is it the right information that really lets you judge their competence, qualifications and experience?
There are ten types of questions you should ask. No doctor should be offended by any of these questions, and they should all be able to respond easily, although you won’t tend to find all the answers to most of these on many medical websites.
Talk to your doctor about these questions, or find the answers from his or her administrative staff before you make an appointment. Remember to be friendly, businesslike, and don’t take “no” for an answer. You are paying for the consultation. As the patient you are the customer. It is good to think of yourself as a customer in this situation, and make sure you check out the product, the doctor and their treatment, you are thinking of buying properly. You must be satisfied with both the consultation and the consultant. These rules apply equally for any type of health professional, whether you are seeing them face to face, or electronically on the internet or by telemedicine.
Ask:
· What are your qualifications and credentials? This includes the MD qualification and Board Certification for specialist expertise
· What experience do you have in offering face-to-face? Many surgeons will, for instance, advertise their infection rates and the numbers of operations they have performed.
· Are you registered to practice in your own state or country, and do you have appropriate malpractice insurance? You can often go to the State Medical Board website and find out if the doctor has ever been in trouble.
· Do you adhere to a documented code of ethics? Which one?
· What clinical and administrative guidelines for practice do you use? Check them out.
· What areas do you have expertise in, and what evidence in the form of professional recognition, publications or lectures do you have to confirm this? What hospitals or health systems have accredited the doctor to allow them to admit and treat patients?
· Do you communicate with colleagues for continuing medical education, professional supervision and self-development?
· Do you provide face to face and online treatment for patients if required? How do you communicate electronically with your patients?
· What are your billing procedures?
· Do you record consultations electronically in any way and, if so, what are your consent and confidentiality procedures for this. How do you keep your clinical records, and is it possible for patients to share in accessing these?
The practice of medicine is changing rapidly and doctors are becoming much more consumer centric. None of the questions above should cause offence. Doctors are increasingly being trained to communicate well with their patients, and to give sufficient information so that patients can make well informed decisions about their care. Seeking out information about your doctor is part of that decision making process, and will allow you to have more trust in the doctor that you choose for yourself and your family.
This article is taken from “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Information and links from the book are at www.informationagehealth.com. The book can be bought from Amazon and most online bookstores.
There are ten types of questions you should ask. No doctor should be offended by any of these questions, and they should all be able to respond easily, although you won’t tend to find all the answers to most of these on many medical websites.
Talk to your doctor about these questions, or find the answers from his or her administrative staff before you make an appointment. Remember to be friendly, businesslike, and don’t take “no” for an answer. You are paying for the consultation. As the patient you are the customer. It is good to think of yourself as a customer in this situation, and make sure you check out the product, the doctor and their treatment, you are thinking of buying properly. You must be satisfied with both the consultation and the consultant. These rules apply equally for any type of health professional, whether you are seeing them face to face, or electronically on the internet or by telemedicine.
Ask:
· What are your qualifications and credentials? This includes the MD qualification and Board Certification for specialist expertise
· What experience do you have in offering face-to-face? Many surgeons will, for instance, advertise their infection rates and the numbers of operations they have performed.
· Are you registered to practice in your own state or country, and do you have appropriate malpractice insurance? You can often go to the State Medical Board website and find out if the doctor has ever been in trouble.
· Do you adhere to a documented code of ethics? Which one?
· What clinical and administrative guidelines for practice do you use? Check them out.
· What areas do you have expertise in, and what evidence in the form of professional recognition, publications or lectures do you have to confirm this? What hospitals or health systems have accredited the doctor to allow them to admit and treat patients?
· Do you communicate with colleagues for continuing medical education, professional supervision and self-development?
· Do you provide face to face and online treatment for patients if required? How do you communicate electronically with your patients?
· What are your billing procedures?
· Do you record consultations electronically in any way and, if so, what are your consent and confidentiality procedures for this. How do you keep your clinical records, and is it possible for patients to share in accessing these?
The practice of medicine is changing rapidly and doctors are becoming much more consumer centric. None of the questions above should cause offence. Doctors are increasingly being trained to communicate well with their patients, and to give sufficient information so that patients can make well informed decisions about their care. Seeking out information about your doctor is part of that decision making process, and will allow you to have more trust in the doctor that you choose for yourself and your family.
This article is taken from “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Information and links from the book are at www.informationagehealth.com. The book can be bought from Amazon and most online bookstores.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
5 healthcare tips for digital moms
Moms are the healthcare experts in most families. They need to look after the health of themselves, their children, their spouses and often their parents. Digital moms are able to take advantage of their internet expertise to make their health caring roles much easier. But it is still difficult to find good quality reliable health information on the web, and many moms end up being confused by seemingly conflicting health opinions.
As a practicing physician I have long been recommending certain websites and internet search strategies to my patients. Digital moms have a huge advantage here because of their expertise on the web. Here is a rational search strategy for anyone to find good quality health information.
1. Quick and dirty search.
For a quick simple search there is nothing wrong with doing rapid searches at Google or Yahoo, and at least scan the first 20 or so results. Just remember that Google displays two types of results, sites ranked by a commercially secret algorithmically derived measure of popularity, which is what most people look at first, and sponsored paid links. The second quick and dirty approach to undertake routinely is to go to a couple of quality information sites as your first stop beyond the search engines. I recommend Wikipedia, the amazing open source encyclopedia with great breadth and depth, but a level of inaccuracy, and MedlinePlus which is a Government run site and is, in my opinion, the best overall consumer health site on the Internet.
Many digital moms will want to go beyond this level of search however, so I would suggest the following strategies;
2 Professional journal searching
There are several free programs on the Internet which allow you to search professional peer-reviewed scientific papers from the health and medical journals. The two main professional databases are: “Medline” (also called “Pubmed”) at the National Institutes for Health and “Psycinfo” at the American Psychological Association.
3 Search evaluated Internet health gateways
The beauty of Internet searches is that you can pick up useful reliable information which hasn’t always been published in peer-reviewed journals, but which has been checked for accuracy by teams of medical reviewers. The gateways I use are Healthfinder in the US, or Intute or NHSDirect in the UK. It is well worth looking at Guideline.gov where there is a large collection of peer-reviewed “best practice” treatment guidelines which you can use to compare with your own treatment regime. I also frequently recommend eMedicine which is emerging as the “wikipedia of healthcare”.
4 General Web searches
Now we move to the open areas of the Internet that you will find via search engines. Here you will have to start questioning the quality of the information you retrieve much more critically as most of it will not have been subjected to any real quality review mechanism, and much will have a commercial bias. Try and focus on mainstream sites run by government agencies or universities.
5 Discussion lists and newsgroups
This is where you can waste most time, and where information is least reliable - but it can be fun, and is sometimes helpful, particularly if you want to communicate with others who have similar needs. You may even be lucky and join a group where there is a real expert. There are many groups on the Internet – just put in a search string with the word group, as well as whatever topic you are researching. The largest number of health related ones seem to currently be at Google groups.
Once you have undertaken your searches the most important next step is to discuss your findings with your doctor. The role of many doctors in gradually changing, and they are increasingly becoming “information analysts” helping patients find good quality health information that will lead to good healthcare decisions. Don’t be afraid to ask your doctor questions, and find out what information sources they recommend.
This article is based on excerpts from “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD available from Amazon and most online bookstores. All websites mentioned in this article are linked from www.InformationAgeHealth.com where digital moms will also find more useful health information.
As a practicing physician I have long been recommending certain websites and internet search strategies to my patients. Digital moms have a huge advantage here because of their expertise on the web. Here is a rational search strategy for anyone to find good quality health information.
1. Quick and dirty search.
For a quick simple search there is nothing wrong with doing rapid searches at Google or Yahoo, and at least scan the first 20 or so results. Just remember that Google displays two types of results, sites ranked by a commercially secret algorithmically derived measure of popularity, which is what most people look at first, and sponsored paid links. The second quick and dirty approach to undertake routinely is to go to a couple of quality information sites as your first stop beyond the search engines. I recommend Wikipedia, the amazing open source encyclopedia with great breadth and depth, but a level of inaccuracy, and MedlinePlus which is a Government run site and is, in my opinion, the best overall consumer health site on the Internet.
Many digital moms will want to go beyond this level of search however, so I would suggest the following strategies;
2 Professional journal searching
There are several free programs on the Internet which allow you to search professional peer-reviewed scientific papers from the health and medical journals. The two main professional databases are: “Medline” (also called “Pubmed”) at the National Institutes for Health and “Psycinfo” at the American Psychological Association.
3 Search evaluated Internet health gateways
The beauty of Internet searches is that you can pick up useful reliable information which hasn’t always been published in peer-reviewed journals, but which has been checked for accuracy by teams of medical reviewers. The gateways I use are Healthfinder in the US, or Intute or NHSDirect in the UK. It is well worth looking at Guideline.gov where there is a large collection of peer-reviewed “best practice” treatment guidelines which you can use to compare with your own treatment regime. I also frequently recommend eMedicine which is emerging as the “wikipedia of healthcare”.
4 General Web searches
Now we move to the open areas of the Internet that you will find via search engines. Here you will have to start questioning the quality of the information you retrieve much more critically as most of it will not have been subjected to any real quality review mechanism, and much will have a commercial bias. Try and focus on mainstream sites run by government agencies or universities.
5 Discussion lists and newsgroups
This is where you can waste most time, and where information is least reliable - but it can be fun, and is sometimes helpful, particularly if you want to communicate with others who have similar needs. You may even be lucky and join a group where there is a real expert. There are many groups on the Internet – just put in a search string with the word group, as well as whatever topic you are researching. The largest number of health related ones seem to currently be at Google groups.
Once you have undertaken your searches the most important next step is to discuss your findings with your doctor. The role of many doctors in gradually changing, and they are increasingly becoming “information analysts” helping patients find good quality health information that will lead to good healthcare decisions. Don’t be afraid to ask your doctor questions, and find out what information sources they recommend.
This article is based on excerpts from “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD available from Amazon and most online bookstores. All websites mentioned in this article are linked from www.InformationAgeHealth.com where digital moms will also find more useful health information.
Monday, March 2, 2009
5 Goals for the Obama Health Summit
President Obama is holding an important Health Summit at the White House to workshop his plans and ideas for health reform with a wide range of influential stakeholders. Hopefully he will keep his blackberry switched on because this is now one of the emerging new tools commonly used to deliver healthcare. President Obama, with his promotion of information technology, broadband networks and electronic health records, is poised to accelerate many positive changes in healthcare, so what goals should be identified for this Summit?
Let’s look first at some of the current forces for change.
The business of eHealth on the Internet is expanding rapidly. Two recent reports from the Pew Foundation and Harris Interactive have confirmed that 75-80 per cent of United States Internet users utilize the Internet for health information and healthcare – that is around 140 million people per year. This is over 65% of the entire adult population of the USA – an average of 8 million people every day. Not surprisingly those individuals who are carers, who have chronic illnesses, who have recently been diagnosed with a medical condition or who have broadband Internet connections use the Internet for healthcare more commonly than other Internet users, and their searches for health information are becoming a regular habit, often several times per month.
Business sees the healthcare sector as a particularly attractive industry that will benefit from web-based technologies because of its enormous size, inefficiency and information intensity, and companies like Google, Microsoft, Intel and Cisco, as well as the telecommunications giants like ATT and Verizon, all have major health plans. Moreover, the healthcare industry is particularly fragmented with a large number of participants, including general practitioners and primary care clinicians, specialists, institutions (public and private hospitals and diagnostic companies), health funds, pharmaceutical companies, retail pharmacies and, of course, patients.
Our population is ageing with "baby-boomers" demanding better quality healthcare. They are also determined to have home-based health care, and will pay to avoid going into nursing homes. At the same time employers are trying to reduce the escalating cost of health care. Everyone recognizes that the use of electronic medical records is a way of improving the quality of care and making patient information more available where it counts, at the time of the doctor-patient consultation. There is a widespread understanding that we need to shift the center of gravity of care away from expensive hospitals and clinics, and back to the home. It is not only cheaper to treat people at home and online, with less hospital bills at thousands of dollars per day, but patients can also become more involved in their own care. With a single keystroke patient, primary physician, specialist and home health nurse can be brought together.
Many homes in the US have broadband Internet, or cable TV, both of which can be used to deliver electronic home care in future. The core infrastructure for healthcare is shifting from bricks and mortar to bits and bytes. Companies such as Intel are already developing technologies to be used in the home for the elderly in particular – for the baby boomers. These involve multiple health monitoring options – not only to collect obvious health data such as blood pressure, weight or pulse rates for patients with heart conditions, but to monitor patients with Alzheimer’s as they move throughout their home, undertake survey responses from family members via television, and as alarm systems for any medical emergency. Telecommunications and cable television companies are the likely future infrastructure providers of tomorrow’s health environment as they replace hospital beds with homecare accessibility.
So what goals should the summit consider?
1. All patients should have access to their electronic records and their health information in a secure and privacy protected manner, most likely involving a unique healthcare identifier
2. High quality Internet based healthcare systems and networks should be further developed, with the Internet being recognized as core health infrastructure
3. All health providers must move into the Information Age, and be supported and trained to use electronic systems for clinical work
4. Electronically mediated homecare, as well as healthcare prevention and monitoring must receive more focus
5. Healthcare must become a more collaborative industry, with major players from the Information Technology world being recognized as core partners and infrastructure providers
This is an exciting time for the health industry, and a time when the right decisions can create very positive health reform to help current and future generations of Americans.
This article is based on excerpts from the recently published book “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Available at http://www.InformationAgeHealth.com and most online bookstores.
Let’s look first at some of the current forces for change.
The business of eHealth on the Internet is expanding rapidly. Two recent reports from the Pew Foundation and Harris Interactive have confirmed that 75-80 per cent of United States Internet users utilize the Internet for health information and healthcare – that is around 140 million people per year. This is over 65% of the entire adult population of the USA – an average of 8 million people every day. Not surprisingly those individuals who are carers, who have chronic illnesses, who have recently been diagnosed with a medical condition or who have broadband Internet connections use the Internet for healthcare more commonly than other Internet users, and their searches for health information are becoming a regular habit, often several times per month.
Business sees the healthcare sector as a particularly attractive industry that will benefit from web-based technologies because of its enormous size, inefficiency and information intensity, and companies like Google, Microsoft, Intel and Cisco, as well as the telecommunications giants like ATT and Verizon, all have major health plans. Moreover, the healthcare industry is particularly fragmented with a large number of participants, including general practitioners and primary care clinicians, specialists, institutions (public and private hospitals and diagnostic companies), health funds, pharmaceutical companies, retail pharmacies and, of course, patients.
Our population is ageing with "baby-boomers" demanding better quality healthcare. They are also determined to have home-based health care, and will pay to avoid going into nursing homes. At the same time employers are trying to reduce the escalating cost of health care. Everyone recognizes that the use of electronic medical records is a way of improving the quality of care and making patient information more available where it counts, at the time of the doctor-patient consultation. There is a widespread understanding that we need to shift the center of gravity of care away from expensive hospitals and clinics, and back to the home. It is not only cheaper to treat people at home and online, with less hospital bills at thousands of dollars per day, but patients can also become more involved in their own care. With a single keystroke patient, primary physician, specialist and home health nurse can be brought together.
Many homes in the US have broadband Internet, or cable TV, both of which can be used to deliver electronic home care in future. The core infrastructure for healthcare is shifting from bricks and mortar to bits and bytes. Companies such as Intel are already developing technologies to be used in the home for the elderly in particular – for the baby boomers. These involve multiple health monitoring options – not only to collect obvious health data such as blood pressure, weight or pulse rates for patients with heart conditions, but to monitor patients with Alzheimer’s as they move throughout their home, undertake survey responses from family members via television, and as alarm systems for any medical emergency. Telecommunications and cable television companies are the likely future infrastructure providers of tomorrow’s health environment as they replace hospital beds with homecare accessibility.
So what goals should the summit consider?
1. All patients should have access to their electronic records and their health information in a secure and privacy protected manner, most likely involving a unique healthcare identifier
2. High quality Internet based healthcare systems and networks should be further developed, with the Internet being recognized as core health infrastructure
3. All health providers must move into the Information Age, and be supported and trained to use electronic systems for clinical work
4. Electronically mediated homecare, as well as healthcare prevention and monitoring must receive more focus
5. Healthcare must become a more collaborative industry, with major players from the Information Technology world being recognized as core partners and infrastructure providers
This is an exciting time for the health industry, and a time when the right decisions can create very positive health reform to help current and future generations of Americans.
This article is based on excerpts from the recently published book “Your Health in the Information Age – how you and your doctor can use the Internet to work together” by Peter Yellowlees MD. Available at http://www.InformationAgeHealth.com and most online bookstores.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)