Vanderbilt Pediatric Patients Get Their Own iPad Task Application

Young patients at Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital will be able to check a new iPad app developed just for them...The app, called MyRoutine, allows parents and providers to create visual stories to let children know what to expect during their daily schedule, helping to reduce anxieties and provide structure. More

Wireless Monitoring Arrives in Acute Care

Wrist-worn monitoring device enables nurses to keep tabs on patients vital signs remotely.  The monitor itself is similar to a large sports watch in size and weight (approximately 4 oz.), and comes with a color touch-screen to continuously measure and display heart rate/ECG, blood oxygen saturation, respiration rate, non-invasive blood pressure and skin temperature.  More

Questionnaire helps nurses direct phone conversations with patients

A questionnaire was developed to aid the nurses in directing the conversation with patients when phone calls were placed. The questionnaire included five questions aimed at gauging:

• how well the patient understood their medications;
• how the catheterization site looked;
• if the patient understood the signs and symptoms of a heart attack;
• if the patient knew when to call 911: and
• if the patient had scheduled their follow-up appointment with their healthcare provider.

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2 ways VA is optimizing mHealth

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has officially launched mHealth pilot projects to test the technology prior to national release and to "ensure that the veteran experience is optimized," according to an announcement from the VA.

The two pilots are the Family Caregiver Pilot and the Veteran Appointment Request Web App Pilot. For the Family Caregiver Pilot, VA has begun to distribute iPads to more than 1,000 caregivers of seriously injured post-9/11 veterans enrolled in the VA's Family Caregiver Program. The iPads feature a suite of apps that allow veterans and caregivers to access and share information about their health conditions and treatment options. The apps also include information about lifestyle tips and the ability to monitor their own health, states the announcement.

Related Articles:
VA blazing its own trail when it comes to government mHealth
VA will use $983K grant to expand telehealth to vets

Sprint brings captioning service to hearing-impaired iOS device users

Sprint has announced that Wireless CapTel is now available for all iOS devices. CapTel gives customers real-time captions of the phone conversation they're currently having. While Sprint offers landline phones and a web service specifically for CapTel, the wireless version of the service makes use of a smartphone app, which displays captions just as the hardware and web products do.

• Free - Download Now

ONC Unveils Progress Report on Health IT Strategic Plan

Last week, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT posted online a progress report outlining its efforts related to the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan: 2011-2015, Government Health IT reports (Sullivan, Government Health IT, 7/22).

Telehealth, Blue Button boost VA to “Most Wired” list

ehrintelligence.com

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has joined the ranks of the nation’s “Most Wired” hospitals for the first time this year, scooping a spot on the Hospitals & Health Networks’ honor roll due to its telehealth, mHealth, and patient engagement...More

Digital Health Records’ Risks Emerge as Deaths Blamed on Systems

bloomberg.com

“Any time you computerize a process, it can create new problems, and it typically does,” said David Bates, a doctor and chief quality officer at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who has studied errors associated with electronic records. More

Free TeamSTEPPS® training opportunities

Free training opportunities are available using TeamSTEPPS® (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety), a set of evidence-based, practical tools that helps hospitals and other health care providers strengthen teamwork with the goal of improving patient safety. AHRQ and the Department of Defense designed the TeamSTEPPS® program for health care providers for use in a variety of care settings.
About the TeamSTEPPS Logo 

 

Want to know more about TeamSTEPPS? Call (312) 422-2609 or E-mail AHRQTeamSTEPPS@aha.org

Canada subsidizes iPads for speech therapy

In order to access the discount, families need to visit one of the 26 Assistive Devices Program clinics in Ontario to take an assessment. If after the assessment, the clinic recommends using TalkRocket Go as the right communication aid, a professional can help complete paperwork to purchase the app and device at a 75 percent discount.

TalkRocket Go, normally $99 in the iTunes App Store, uses voice synthesis technology to provide verbal communication for people with conditions such as Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Aphasia, Parkinson’s disease. The app is designed with big buttons and high-contrast text for people of all ages.

As an example of the reimbursement process in the United States, Princeton, New Jersey-based Lingraphica makes apps and dedicated devices for the treatment of aphasia, but users can only get reimbursement from Medicare, of up to 80 percent, for the dedicated devices 
 

VA launches caregiver pilot with 10 new apps

The Department of Veterans Affairs has fully launched its pilot, announced last year, in which it’s distributing 1,000 iPads to family caregivers of veterans loaded with 10 specially-created apps.

President Obama’s new favorite mobile health use case and release of Data Sets & Tools

Data and Tools

• 184,251 datasets
• 349 citizen-developed apps
• 137 mobile apps
• 174 agencies and subagencies
• 87 galleries
• 295 Government APIs
• Suggest a dataset

“It’s about connecting every part of America to the digital age. It’s about a rural community in Iowa or Alabama where farmers and small business owners will be able to sell their products all over the world. It’s about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building onto a handheld device; a student who can take classes with a digital textbook; or a patient who can have face-to-face video chats with her doctor.”

“For the first time in history we have opened up huge amounts of government data to the American people and put it on the internet for free,” he said. “At data.gov you can search through and download more than 75,000 data sets. 

High-Touch Health

A national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that patients and caregivers increasingly use the Internet to find information about symptoms, treatments, and support.

Read more: http://www.chcf.org/publications/2013/01/pew-survey-online-health#ixzz2ZR5M8m82
Caregiving has evolved from feeding and bathing assistance to complex medical management. Learn how family members have responded by using the Internet for information and support.  iHealthBeat

Study: wireless devices improve blood pressure tracking, adherence

A study conducted by the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, showed wireless mobile technologies positively impact patient engagement and can be more effective than modem-based devices. The study was published in the Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology in May, 2013.

Mo. Gov. Signs Telehealth Coverage Law, Ky. Expands Telehealth

Mo. Gov. Signs Telehealth Coverage Law, Ky. Expands Telehealth

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has signed into law a bill that will require health insurers to cover telehealth services. Meanwhile, recent changes to Kentucky's regulations have expanded telehealth access for Medicaid beneficiaries. Kansas City Business Journal, Public News Service. 

New Kentucky Regulations Expand Telehealth Access

In related news, recent changes to Kentucky's telehealth regulations have boosted Medicaid beneficiaries' access to health care services via telehealth, Public News Service reports.
Rob Sprang -- director of Kentucky TeleCare -- said the new regulations expanded the type of health care providers who can treat Medicaid beneficiaries via telehealth technology to include social workers, speech pathologists, physical therapists and other providers.
In addition, the new rules ended limitations on the number and types of health care services that can be provided through telehealth, he said (Stotelmyer, Public News Service, 7/8).

H&HN Releases List of 'Most Wired' Hospitals for 2013

 

Nearly 300 hospitals were recognized as the "Most Wired" in the nation by Hospitals & Health Networks. H&HN also designated 25 hospitals as "Most Improved" and 25 hospitals as "Most Wired -- Small and Rural" and named three 2013 Innovator Award winners. Healthcare IT News, Hospitals & Health Networks.

Caregivers & Online Health-Related Activities?

The report is based on a nationwide telephone survey of 3,014 U.S. adults.
Source: Pew Research Center/California HealthCare Foundation, "Family Caregivers are Wired for Health" http://www.ihealthbeat.org/picture-of-health/2013/what-percentage-of-caregivers-conduct-the-following-online-healthrelated-activities

Top HIT Usability Myths

Nancy Staggers, RN, a professor of informatics at the University of Maryland, talks about the top health care I.T. usability myths. Click here

Kaiser EHR Success Tip: Listen to Nurses

Kaiser Permanente knows a thing or two about electronic records. And while having visionaries at the top who champion I.T. is an important part of the program, listening to clinicians in the trenches--particularly nurses--is critical ...Read more

Online Disease Management System Supports Improvement of Patients with Diabetes

Diabetes patients that were provided with a Web-based intervention that supported case management and dietary counseling were more likely to improve blood sugar levels over time, suggests a study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “Online disease management of diabetes: Engaging and Motivating Patients Online With Enhanced Resources-Diabetes (EMPOWER-D), a randomized controlled trial” appeared in the November edition of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 

A group of 415 patients participated in the study; when compared with the control group that received standard diabetes management from a primary care provider, patients that were provided with online support from a nurse-led multidisciplinary team achieved greater improvement in their A1C levels.

To access the abstract select: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23171659.

Docs must adopt health IT more quickly

In part one of this exclusive interview, Topol talked about the importance of using digital tools, and gave his take on the progress of genome sequencing. Here, he discusses the future of hospitals, social media and accountability in healthcare.

Eric Topol: Medical technology revolution needs validation to move forward

Thanks to advances in remote monitoring, hospital of the future will only provide intensive care, he says

This is the second in a two-part interview with cardiologist Eric Topol (pictured), a professor of genomics at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego and author of "The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care." Topol is slated to give the Tuesday, March 5 keynote address at HIMSS13 in New Orleans.  Read more: 

Low-Income Patients Interested in Digital Health Communication

A study by University of California-San Francisco researchers finds that many lower-income patients would like to communicate electronically with their health care providers. However, the safety-net clinics where many lower-income patients receive care often lack the patient portals and secure messaging tools necessary to support such communication. Medical News Today, KPCC's "OnCentral."

What informatics is and isn't

The term informatics is currently enveloped in chaos. One way to clarify the meaning of informatics is to identify the competencies associated with training in the field..... More

Computerized Provider Order Entry Reduces Medication Errors in Hospitals

Processing a prescription through an electronic ordering system can reduce the likelihood of a drug error by half and potentially avoid more than 17 million such incidents in U.S. hospitals in one year alone, according to a new study supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The authors evaluated published evidence on the impact of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) on hospital drug errors and combined this information with data on the adoption of CPOE and the volume of medication orders processed annually. The results estimated the reduction in drug errors for one year, finding that widespread adoption of CPOE could substantially reduce drug errors. 

“Reduction in medication errors in hospitals due to adoption of computerized provider order entry systems” appears online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

To access the abstract, select: http://jamia.bmj.com/content/early/2013/01/27/amiajnl-2012-001241.full.

Effectiveness of PhysioDirect telephone assessment and advice services for patients with musculoskeletal problems: pragmatic randomised controlled trial. BMJ

PhysioDirect services invited patients to telephone a physiotherapist for initial assessment and advice, followed by face-to-face physiotherapy if necessary. Usual care involved patients joining a waiting list for face-to-face treatment.

Physiotherapy as a field is making remarkable effort to develop evidence for practice, with well-designed studies, alone and in combination with other modes of therapy as often applies in real-world clinical practice. This is a particularly well-written original research report of a well-designed study. Click here for more

Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2013

Patient care research firm ECRI Institute recently published its sixth annual list of the Top 10 health care technology hazards, including several related to information technology. The comprehensive report explains the hazards and gives multiple recommendations for each, as well as links to additional resources. More

Walmart, Sam's Club To Deploy 2,500 Self-Service Health Kiosks

Next month, Walmart and Sam's Club are scheduled to debut 2,500 self-service kiosks that provide a variety of no-cost health care screenings and advise consumers on several health topics. However, some consumer advocates warn that the devices could pose significant privacy risks. Kaiser Health News. More

Health IT Could Help Reduce Disparities in Care

A report released at a White House summit today states that health IT could help reduce disparities in care among ethnic and racial minorities. According to the report, health IT systems could help facilitate the collection and analysis of demographic data, and electronic enrollment portals could help improve participation in public health programs. Healthcare IT News, Consumers Union release. More

Cybercitizen Health US survey

For its Cybercitizen Health US survey the research firm polled almost 9,000 US adults via landlines, mobiles, and the internet during the third quarter. “Growing ownership of connected devices and the access to digital health tools and information they provide is helping to drive the broader shift from intermittent to continuous care,” Monique Levy, Vice President of Research at Manhattan Research, stated. “This trend shows vast potential for changing key dynamics of healthcare delivery, including patient engagement, provider involvement, and how preventive care is incentivized.” More on the survey over at Manhattan’s website here.

iPad-equipped medical school class scores 23 percent higher on exams

104 medical students in the class of 2014 received an iPad from the school when they started in 2010. Now the evidence is starting to come in that tablets as an educational tool really make a difference in the medical setting. UC Irvine reported this week that the first class to receive the iPads scored an average of 23 percent higher on national exams than previous classes, even though their incoming GPA and MCAT scores were comparable. Read more