I’m not one to go to a lot of conferences. Although, I’ve been going to one all day today and tomorrow and it’s been quite interesting. Although, the best part has definitely been the in depth discussions about EHR that I’ve had with numerous attendees at the conference. More on that subject coming soon.

I’m also hoping to go to HIMSS 11 in Orlando. I had a great time at HIMSS 10 and I’d be remiss to not go to HIMSS 11. Let’s hope that I can find some sponsors for my coverage of HIMSS 11 to help offset the cost of the trip (any takers?). Here’s some links to find my coverage of HIMSS 11 on EMR and HIPAA and HIMSS 11 on EMR and EHR.

HIMSS just announced a couple of the keynote speakers for HIMSS 11. These are the 2 keynote speakers don’t necessarily specifically tie to healthcare in the traditional way:

Michael J. Fox – Popular actor and author Michael J. Fox shares his experiences as a patient and patient advocate.

Richard Boyd – Richard Boyd, expert in simulations for computer gaming, defense and film industries, will share his experiences with technologies used in the film “Avatar’ and their importance for the healthcare industry.

I must admit that I think Michael J. Fox will be a fascinating speaker. I’ll definitely be staying for that one. I don’t know Richard Boyd at all so we’ll see what happens with that one.

I’m definitely planning on approaching HIMSS in a very different way than I did last year. I had FAR too much scheduled time last year and tried to do too much. I’ll be freeing up my schedule this year to just discover new things and to have more quality time with great people than less time with more people. At least that’s the plan.

I know it’s early, but who’s planning on HIMSS 11?

I recently was contacted by a guy named Matt from Poland who had built a simple web application that tracked Blood Pressure called Blood Pressure Chart. If you want to really see what he’s created in action, you can see his own Blood Pressure records, chart and statistics.

I really like the simple implementation of such a niche item such as Blood Pressure. It seems like niche applications for things like Blood Pressure or even blood sugar levels for diabetes could be very useful. I think that many people are just overwhelmed by the idea of using a full PHR software system, but they would be likely to use a simple application like this to track a specific health problem they’re trying to track.

Some work and thought still needs to go into how the doctor and patient will access and document a website like this, but it’s interesting to see the application of technology into such a tight niche problem area. Maybe the focus of an all encompassing PHR product is the wrong direction and instead the focus should be tighter niche products that don’t overwhelm the patient.

I find it interesting that I was sent another EMR YouTube video. No doubt YouTube can be a great tool for getting the word out, but so far the views on EMR videos are pretty low. However, I must admit that this video by GE Healthcare is much more interesting than the previous meaningful use video I posted. Plus, they focus on physicians number 1 concern: productivity and reimbursement. Take a look for yourself.

We’re getting more and more meaningful use details each day. No one should say that there isn’t a lot of information out there about meaningful use. Yet, I’m guessing there are still a LOT of physicians who still know little about meaningful use. McKesson’s even created this YouTube video explaining the Meaningful Use Final Rule. I can think of a few million YouTube videos I’d rather watch, but if you prefer video to reading, this video does give a general overview of many of the meaningful use final rule details:

UPDATE: Check out another meaningful use video that is definitely more exciting than the previous video (albeit with a little less content). However, it’s under 3 minutes and has music to keep it light and interesting. Thanks for sharing it Michelle. Although, I do wish I could embed the video on here.

A recent Information Week article on EHR adoption had the following quote:

“I think the number one driver [of ambulatory EHR adoption] is the change in reimbursement, the fact that it is becoming so complicated to document the process of care to get paid by the government as well as commercial payers,” said Nancy Fabozzi, a senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan and the report’s author. “Everybody thinks that fee-for-service is doomed and we have to have a new system of reimbursing physicians for the quality of care instead of the quantity of care because costs are exploding.”

In an interview with InformationWeek, Fabozzi said another reason for the adoption of ambulatory EHRs is that many providers have practice management systems that are old and need to be updated as they move to ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010 requirements.

It won’t be news to most of you that it’s not government incentive that is driving adoption of EHR software. The market forces are much stronger than any sort of stimulus. Although, the retarding forces of an unknown stimulus are starting to wear off and we should see EHR adoption pick up again soon.