Atlassian’s San Francisco Health Hack (and More)

Coming up soon:  Atlassian’s San Francisco Health Hack in partnership with Health 2.0 Silicon Valley

Volunteers needed

Volunteers are needed to support the Hack. If you are interested in helping out, email Kevin atkwu@atlassian.com

Connie Kwan, Product Manager at Atlassian took the stage at the July 2014 Health 2.0 Silicon Valley Meet-up to tell the audience about the first ever Atlassian Health Hack scheduled for September 27, 2014 in San Francisco. She says Atlassian is uniquely suited to partner with the Health 2.0 community to do a hackathon because the company makes products for software development teams

There are more than enough software projects for developers in the health niche.  The past decade seems to have spawned many proprietary electronic health record vendors.  The next evolving stage  seems to be a 'developer's paradise'.   Thousands of health mobile apps have appeared in the consumer market.  

HEALTH 2.0 EIGHTH ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE   Sept 21-24, 2014.

  

Aug. 27th Twitter Chat to examine social media in healthcare | HIMSS Future Care

Aug. 27th Twitter Chat to examine social media in healthcare | HIMSS Future Care

Jeff Rowe, Editor, Future Care

Jeff Rowe is the editor of Future Care and a veteran healthcare journalist and blogger who has reported extensively on initiatives to improve the healthcare system at the local, regional and national level.

Do you tweet?

Not so long ago, such a question would likely have resulted in people backing slowly away from the questioner, but that was in another era, long before the explosion of what we know as "social media."

Virtually unknown just a few years ago, social media can be found in pretty much every corner of society, including, of course, the healthcare sector.  In response to recent surveys, nearly half of consumers say social media tools influence their choice of hospital or physician, while more than half of surveyed physicians say that social media enable them to care for patients more effectively.  In addition, over 40% of large hospitals report using social media.  

But despite the wildfire spread of social media across healthcare, the exact value of it is still difficult to determine. As a result, many healthcare stakeholders are still uncertain as to how much time, energy and resources they should dedicate to building and sustaining a social media program.

On August 27th, at 12:00 PM EST, HIMSS Future Care and the Center for Connected Medicine, based at UPMC, will be hosting a Twitter chat, organized under #futurecare, that will take a look at, among other things, the evolving role of social media in healthcare, how "connected medicine" lends itself to social media and how social media can be leveraged to engage patients in meaningful dialogue.

Set your hashtag to #futurecare..See you then @glevin1

Let's Hear it for Google Glass !

Indian physicians are often on the 'cutting' edge' of developing technology. Especially surgeons (no pun intended)  

OK, Glass, say docs at city hospital’s operation theatre

One of our social media gurus #kathibrowne of Health Talk Community group on Google + while visiting India had a glass glimpse of how surgeons are adapting Glass. Formal training sessions with Glass and  Doctors in Bangalore will soon make wearable technology a permanent feature of their surgical attire — several surgeons at Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences at Whitefield are being trained to perform surgeries wearing Google Glass.

Will this new technology be integrated into medical training here in the United States?  Like most innovations in surgical technique a few brave doctors will begin using Glass.  If it proves to be effective, reduce operating room time, improve outcomes, and yes maybe even save money, the early adopters will begin formal 'skills' courses at national meetings.

Kathi Browne, a healthcare-focused social media consultant from the United States who helped co-ordinate the Google Hangout on Air for the three-day ASEF project in Bangalore, said hundreds of doctors were trained by representatives of the Google Glass community for healthcare, thereby turning them into Google Glass 'explorers'. 

Kathi, who specialises in using Google Glass and other contemporary tools in healthcare, told Bangalore Mirror, "In addition to recording a live operation, Google Glass also helps to access medical records online or through the intranet. In case of a doubt one can stop the procedure and take advice and consultancy from other physicians during a surgery." 

Google glass eventually will become a main stay in many industries for education, training and archiving events. 

The next application may very well be in law enforcement, adding to the 'dash cam'.

Why some docs will 'just say no' to MU

'This disruptive need to fulfill meaningful use criteria interfered with my ability to care for my patients'

August 8, 2014

Thousands of eligible providers are working diligently toward EHR incentive payments, but some practices are choosing a different route: abandoning meaningful use altogether in favor of their own solutions, and finding ways to make up for the penalties they’ll incur down the road.

Some 6 percent of physicians, in fact, will be “abandoning meaningful use after meeting it in previous years,” according to the Medscape report on EHR use in 2014. In surveying nearly 20,000 doctors, Medscape found another 16 percent admitting that they would never be attesting to meaningful use in any capacity. 

And although those numbers may seem small now, chances are they won’t stay that way for long as MU requirements become progressively more stringent, said Art Gross, CEO of HIPAA Secure Now.

Technophobia isn't the issue

Providers pushing back against the MU system aren't your typical renegades. They don't have an overall disdain for regulatory expectations and they aren’t opposed to the technologies and ideals fueling MU requirements. What they do have is a concern that patient service may be compromised by the demands of the mandate.

"This disruptive need to fulfill meaningful use criteria interfered with my ability to care for my patients, and despite the consequences, I stopped (attesting)," said James Legan, MD, a Montana-based physician who has opted to pay MU penalties.  

Legan said the decision has opened up his practice to a whole host of opportunities that would have been overlooked otherwise.

"By not being encumbered with the process of MU, I decided to try out new technology to improve efficiency to offset the significant cost of the penalty," Legan said.

These technologies included patient portals and a Chromebook workaround that enables EHR projection and presentation, which have both contributed to "a significant improvement in workflow and patient satisfaction."

"I have had the time and freedom to do two extremely transforming paradigm shifting maneuvers in the office, which make the meaningful use incentive and penalty meaningless because, first and foremost, I was able to cater to what was best for my patient and, as a result, it has been very productive," Legan explained.

Not for everyone, but definitely for some

But while Legan has been able to find value without meaningful use by integrating individual technologies such as the Chromebook front-end and a faxing/portal solution, he admits that the penalty route may not be for everyone.

"Unfortunately, unless you are in a small office setting and call your own shots, this solution may be difficult to mimic," Legan said. "Nonetheless, I am practicing at a level I never imagined possible just a few years ago when taking the blind leap into the realm of the electronic record."

Whereas Legan’s approach may look like trailblazing at the small practice level today, Gross expects that others will follow suit in due time.

Early indicators from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services suggest he could be proven right. On Wednesday, CMSrevealed the latest attestation rates for Stage 2 of meaningful use and while the 1,898 eligible professionals and 78 eligible hospitals that have attested to Stage 2 as of July’s end are up slightly since last month’s paltry numbers, they do trigger questions about when we may start to see attrition away from meaningful use.

"I don’t think we’ll see the big push in dropouts until next year or the following year," Gross said, "because it does get harder and harder."

Topics: Meaningful use, Electronic Health Record (EHR), Workforce Management, Patient portals, Medicare, Medicaid,Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)