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Top Tech Innovators Poised to Make Big Impact on Healthcare

I had the pleasure of attending my second Georgia Technology Summit earlier this month, an annual event presented by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) that brings together the state’s up and coming companies, offers established businesses great networking opportunities, and presents everyone with great insight from some really A-level keynoters. (My husband, a fan of philosophy, was extremely jealous that I got to attend an event featuring Ray Kurzweil.)

As with last year’s event, healthcare IT dominated many of the presentations and exhibitor presentations. During the summit, TAG offers the top 10 in its list of Top 40 Innovative Technology Companies a chance to present, and so I thought I’d highlight those in the top 10 poised to make a big impact on healthcare.

Buzzy4shots.com
As you can tell from the image above, Buzzy4shots had a fun booth that demonstrated the kid-friendliness of their product. They also had the most kid-friendly giveaway – bright yellow kazoos, which I quickly snatched up. According to their website, their product purports to provide natural injection pain relief via “gate control,” which “works by confusing the body’s own nerves and distracting attention away from the poke, thereby dulling or eliminating sharp pain from shots, itching or burning from medications.”

While I don’t think this product is going to gain quite the level of buzz that more consumer-friendly mobile health apps have attained, I think it’s got a great business model. There will always be a need for injections, and people will likely always have a fear of needles, so I predict Buzzy4shots.com will do well if they can market themselves to the right business partners.

Catavolt
It wasn’t until I saw their stage presentation that I realized Catavolt is making a play in the healthcare vertical. According to its website, the company’s flagship product, Catavolt Extender, is a “software service that connects to your existing enterprise systems, giving you secure access to all enterprise data anywhere at any time, through tablets, smartphones and desktops. Using an online control panel you can create, customize and manage mobile and web applications without any programming.”

A Catavolt rep talked me through some of the work the company is doing with the Defense Health Information Management System EHR (AHLTA) via its partnership with SAIC. You can read more on that here.

SoloHealth
This company seems to be Atlanta’s HIT darling at the moment. Bart Foster and his team are doing a great job of strategically marketing the company, and developing partnerships that position SoloHealth for even bigger impact. You may already know that the company “provides a free healthcare access point for consumers via its nationwide network of SoloHealth Stations that offer screenings for vision, blood pressure, weight and body mass index; a symptom checker; and an overall health assessment free of charge.

As more folks become accustomed to the idea that they will ultimately need to drive their own healthcare, consumer-friendly technologies like these kiosks will start popping up more and more. Foster announced on the GTS stage that its kiosks are already in 2,500 retail locations across the U.S., with another 1,500 likely by 2014.

AirWatch
If you’re a CIO worried about BYOD, then you’ve likely had a conversation with or at least heard of AirWatch and its mobile device management solutions for healthcare. Their booth at HIMSS was hard to miss and always busy, reflecting the fact that their solutions – no matter what industry you’re in – are here to stay with good reason.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the other healthcare-related innovators within TAG’s Top 40:

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March 28, 2013 I Written By

As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.

Filed Under: EMR  Healthcare  Healthcare IT
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Health Data Hacking, Population Health Help, and Childhood Obesity — Around Healthcare Scene

EMR and HIPAA

Health Data Hacking Likely To Increase

One aspect of EMRs and medical technology many people — physicians and patients alike — are nervous about, are security breeches. Unfortunately, it seems as if this fear is justified, and will continue to be for the time being. Redspin, an IT security firm, gathered data about security and data incidents since 2009, and it has only increased since then. Some of the other findings are rather frightening as well.

Can The Benefits of Hospitals Acquiring Practices Be Achieved By Other Means?

There is a current trend of hospitals acquiring practices. Is there any way for groups of physicians to achieve these results other ways? This post goes into the details of this situation, and different loopholes involved.

Hospital EMR and EHR

Mostashari Asks EHR Vendors to Do What’s “Moral and Right”

Farzad Mostashari, ONC National Coordinator, recently made comments at the Health IT Policy Committee. He didn’t cut any corners when it came to talking about what he is seeing in the EMR world, and encouraged EHR vendors to do the moral and right thing. This post highlights some of his statements.

ACOs Need Population Health Help From EMRs

EMRs, in large part, don’t assist with ACOs and population health help. This is unfortunate, because they definitely need the help. In the future, EMR vendors need to be aware of this, and tweek their EMRs to offer tools to help.

Meaningful Health IT News

My HIMSS Will Be All About Quality And Patient Safety

Because of his experiences in 2012, Neil Versel has a new focus for 2013. He is now dedicated to “bringing news about efforts to improve patient safety and reduce medical errors.” Read this post for more about his goals, and how you can get involved.

Smart Phone HC

Health IT Positively Affects Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is on the rise, and the big question is — how can we prevent it? While many experts may be quick to weigh in on the situation, a recent study published in Pediatrics has suggested that Health IT may prove to have a positive affect on the problem. There are many companies and websites working to create ways for children to get involved and proactive about their health, and this post highlights a few of them.

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February 17, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: EHR  EHR Market  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  Health IT Jobs  Healthcare
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Breaking up with Your EMR is Hard to Do

In light of this week’s “holiday,” I thought I’d take a look at the current love/hate relationship the healthcare industry seems to have with electronic medical records and Meaningful Use.

EMRtweet2

Thanks are due to @mdrache and @EHRworkflow for their inspiration for the title of this week’s post: EMRtweet1

EMRtweet3

The nay sayers seem to have become especially vocal lately, which may be due in large part to the passing of time. Those that have implementations under their belt now feel qualified to talk about the efficacy of the solutions they selected. Negative EMR press may also have bubbled up to the service in light of the recent RAND report, which backpedaled on previous predictions of cost-savings associated with healthcare IT adoption. That study broke the ice, so to speak, and perhaps made providers more comfortable with voicing their discontent.

In any case, if current healthcare IT press is any indication, EMR technology currently on the market has often left providers dissatisfied for a number of reasons. No doubt this dissatisfaction will be a subject of many show-floor conversations at HIMSS in a few weeks. I wonder how EMR vendors are preparing their responses. What will be their top three talking points when it comes to EMR benefits? It seems Meaningful Use incentives have lost their luster, and in fact have left many providers disenchanted with healthcare IT in general.

John Lynn posted a very telling reader comment over at EMRandHIPAA.com from a provider who used his Meaningful Use malaise to create a new independent practice business model. Is this an indication that more providers may “revolt” against Meaningful Use and the trend towards hospital employment? If so, what will the private practice landscape look like in three to five years?

Just how easy is it for providers to truly “break up” with their EMRs? We’ve all read the multi-million-dollar rip-and-replace horror stories – talk about a bad breakup. And then there are the providers that stay in dysfunctional relationships with their EMRs because they can’t afford a new one, instead developing copious amounts of workarounds potentially at the expense of clinical care and accurate reimbursement.

As of last summer, KLAS reported that a whopping 50% of providers were looking to replace their ambulatory EMRs, compared to 30% in 2011. A recent Health Data Management webinar noted more than 30% of ALL new EMR purchases are made to replace an existing EMR.

To me, these numbers beg a number of questions. Were first- and perhaps even second-generation EMRs just not mature enough for providers’ needs? Did providers simply not do enough due diligence before making their purchases? Will these impending replacement EMR purchases stick? If you have updated EMR breakup statistics or a crystal ball, please send them my way.

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February 13, 2013 I Written By

As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.

Filed Under: Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Adoption  EMR Technology  Healthcare  Healthcare IT  Meaningful Use
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Health IT in 2013 – #HITsm Chat Highlights

Topic One:  How can apps help people keep their health resolutions?

Topic Two:  What health app do you use today, and how has it helped you become more engaged in your health?

Topic Three: Speaking of engaged, if you could tell the ONC to do one thing in 2013, what would it be, and what result would it produce?

Topic Four: Who will have the biggest impact in #healthIT in 2013 – hospitals, vendors, consultants, government, trade associations, others?

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January 5, 2013 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Healthcare  Healthcare IT  Healthcare IT Market  Hospitals  Medical Devices  mHealth  Outcomes
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“Fat Finger Syndrome” Not Just a Google Problem

In trying to keep things light this week, I’ve taken inspiration from two very different sources – NPR and Homer Simpson. A recent Morning Edition piece on “Fat Fingers Blamed for Mobile Ad Clicks” highlights the problem many smart phone users face -  large fingers on a small screen usually result in the occasional misspelling, accidental click on a field or image, or unintended dial.

The story concentrated on “Google’s launch of a new type of mobile ad that aims to combat the ‘fat finger’ problem. As the smart phone market grows, mobile ads have become more important to the tech giant, which makes most of its revenue through advertising.”

homeriphone

Listening to the piece, which started off with a hilarious sound bite from the Simpsons, made me wonder if EMR developers face this same type of problem when developing their software for mobile devices. What sort of consequences do providers face as a result of unintended clicks or incorrect data entry?

I polled a few friends who work in healthcare IT user experience (coincidentally, a topic that I heard come up quite often during the fall conference season), and they brought up numerous cases – some with dire consequences – of mistaken medication administration because of very similar patient names.

I also came across the ubiquitous drawback of using tablets in healthcare: “The iPad is difficult to type on, [one provider] complains, and his “fat fingers” struggle to navigate the screen,” according to a Kaiser Health News story last year.

But, providers, as they so often do, are creating workarounds. One family practice in particular has “introduced a stylus since some people occasionally suffer from ‘fat finger syndrome’ (some people just have an innate ability to miss the buttons in the questionnaire when they use their fingers).”

How have you, your practice or your colleagues dealt with pleasantly plump pads of the finger? Please share your anecdotes in the comments section below.

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December 19, 2012 I Written By

As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.

Filed Under: EMR  Healthcare  Healthcare IT
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New Healthcare Facility Experiences IT Growing Pains

Well, dear readers, if it’s not one thing it’s another. Our family has been plagued by broken bones (documented in a recent blog), as well as the sinusitis and bronchitis that have plagued so many other families as of late. Like a typical mother, I put off going to the doctor in the hopes that the malady would run its course, as my colds typically do. But after four weeks (one spent on holiday in the Virgin Islands), I woke up with new, more intense symptoms, and so decided to seek professional help. (I’ll leave it to you to determine if the copious amounts of rum punch and lengthy amount of time spent getting to and from Tortola in any way impacted my condition.)

I was faced with several options: try to get seen by my primary care physician, who, since my move, is now inconveniently located. (Note to self: seek new PCP closer to home.) Try my luck at the Walgreens clinic nearby. Or, go to the urgent care center down the street.

I bypassed Walgreens because I’ve had insurance issues there in the past. (As I drove past, I noticed they are excitedly welcoming back Blue Cross Blue Shield customers.) I faced the same problem at the urgent care center, so decided to try my luck at a previously unconsidered option – the new WellStar Acworth Health Park.

Larger than a typical medical office, but smaller than a typical WellStar hospital, the health park offers a variety of services – urgent care; pediatrics; a variety of specialists; pharmacy; and family, internal and OB/GYN medicine, among other services. I was pleasantly surprised to find that its café offers Starbucks coffee.

Just a few months old, its interior and exterior are pristine – open, airy spaces, fountains and lots of glass accents are certainly a nice change from the typical, closed-in feel of most phsyicians’ offices I’ve visited. The staff was welcoming, sympathetic and accepting of my insurance, much to my relief.

It even had a concierge/upscale feel. Complimentary single-serve coffee was available in the urgent care waiting room, as were a variety of cold beverages. A good portion of the waiting area was given over to kids’ amusements, which I hope my girls will never have to amuse themselves with! I definitely appreciated the wifi throughout the facility. These little perks are so nice when a long wait is in front of you and you’re well enough to take advantage of them.

Being that it is a new facility, it is still experiencing growing pains, most noticeably in the need for additional physicians. Fortunately, I didn’t arrive on a day where patients were wrapped around the building waiting for the doors to open, as the pharmacist told me has happened before. Nevertheless, I did wait a considerable amount of time on the single physician on staff that day. Even he mentioned the need for additional MDs in the face of great community need.

He was cheerful and paid attention to my concerns, even apologizing for the paper prescriptions. Turns out WellStar plans to transition from NextGen to Epic early next year, and is waiting for that process to start in order to bring the health park on board with new, system-wide electronic medical records and e-prescribing. He was very enthusiastic about the conveniences afforded by healthcare IT, which makes me think perhaps I should consider a WellStar physician in my search for a PCP closer to home.

The pharmacy was experiencing its own growing pains, most notably with its consumer-facing payment system, and phone lines. But, the staff’s smiling faces, good attitudes and a fresh cup of coffee helped allay any frustration on my part.

Coincidentally, I came across a press release later that day detailing WellStar’s just-announced partnership with Piedmont Healthcare. They’ve teamed up to form the Georgia Health Collaborative, which, according to Piedmont’s press release, will enable the two “to share intellectual knowledge concerning clinical care and seek cost reductions through economies of scale.”

I’m all for economies of scale, but hope my family won’t have to experience them via unexpected or put-off illness anytime soon.

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November 15, 2012 I Written By

As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.

Filed Under: Electronic Medical Record  EMR  Healthcare  Healthcare IT
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Super Storms, Clouds and CollarBones – My HIT Week in Review

“Sandy” is a nickname I attribute to my mother-in-law – a sweet, caring woman who also goes by the name of “Nana” and loves to scrapbook. Her demeanor (even when riled up) is a far cry from the meteorological phenomenon forecasters have dubbed “Super Storm Sandy,” which, as of this posting, has caused 50 deaths and power outages in 17 states affecting a minimum of 8 million customers, according to a Good Morning America report.

Sandy hasn’t impacted my environs much, other than to ensure that trick-or-treating will be a bit colder than usual this far south. While it hasn’t impacted me physically (other than offering a respite from ‘round-the-clock election coverage), I have, of course, seen a flurry of healthcare IT media around disaster preparedness, ensuring security measures when natural disasters strike, and the unfortunate lessons learned when hospitals don’t think to upgrade backup generator systems before super storms strike.

Amidst the news stories that have crossed my desk in the past few days was one concerning the orthopedic center where my husband is receiving treatment for his broken collarbone. The practice – the largest of its kind in Georgia – has decided to implement Merge Healthcare’s cloud-based Merge Honeycomb Archive to “store patient images and provide a long-term disaster recovery solution.” (Their words, not mine.)

Merge Healthcare’s CEO mentions in the press announcement that “imaging accounts for up to 90% of all data stored in electronic health records. Add in privacy rules that require storage of electronic health data, including digital images, and you see how the need to securely store and share medical images has grown – specifically in the cloud.”

I suppose when natural disaster strikes, a statistic like this takes on more importance, though I’m actually surprised that imaging-related data takes up that much space. Digging through Google led me to press releases from 2005 announcing the practice had decided to implement Allscripts TouchWorks EHR, but I’m not sure how valid that information is at this point, considering its age and the absolute maze of information I found myself in regarding subsequent Allscripts product acquisitions, mergers and shut downs.

In any case, I was happy to find that my husband’s physician has access to healthcare IT tools, and his information is up in the cloud somewhere should we ever need it, which makes me feel just a little bit better about his recovery.

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November 1, 2012 I Written By

As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Healthcare  Healthcare IT
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Highlights From Dr. David J. Brailer at 2012 NYeC Digital Health Conference

While not everyone can make it to the NYeC 2012 Digital Health Conference, John is making sure everyone can enjoy parts of the conference from home. Dr. David J. Brailer, former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and current Chairman of Health Evolution Partners, is a keynote speaker at this week’s conference, and spoke today on HIT.

Throughout the presentation, John live tweeted some highlights, as well as his own thoughts. Here are some of his tweets — if you want to see more, be sure to follow @EHRandHIT on Twitter.

If you present at the conference, what were some favorite insights from Dr. Brailer?

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October 15, 2012 I Written By

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

Filed Under: Healthcare  Healthcare IT  Healthcare IT Market  Healthcare Social Media  HIE  Meaningful Use  mHealth
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AT&T/IBM Deal Pushes Cloud Back into the Healthcare Spotlight

I remember 2010 as if it were yesterday. I was somewhat new to the healthcare industry, attending my first Healthcare IT Summit, and trying to make sense of all the buzzwords flying around as a result of the HITECH Act being passed the year before. Cloud computing was definitely a hot topic – one that seems to have stood the test of time in the intervening years. Granted, I think its popularity has been somewhat superceded by phrases like mobile health, accountable care, patient engagement and electronic medical records (of course) over the last 18 months, but a recent flurry of cloud-related headlines may forecast a resurgence.

A report released earlier this year from MarketsandMarkets predicts that conditions are ripe for cloud computing to grow at an annual rate of 20.5 percent from this 2012 to 2017. (Bloomberg Businessweek puts the current market for cloud services at $14 billion.) The forecast makes a lot of sense when you look at it from the healthcare angle of Meaningful Use and EMRs. Providers, despite a few legislators’ recent objections, will likely continue to implement and attest during the next few years, leaving healthcare IT vendors – including those who put their EHRs in the cloud (Allscripts, NextGen and athenahealth are just a few that come to mind) – with no shortage of business opportunity.

And there are even more vendors behind those – the infrastructure folks like Verizon (See their recently announced HIPAA compliant cloud service) and Dell that provide the cloud’s backbone, so to speak. You may by now have seen headlines announcing that AT&T has partnered with IBM to offer a new model whereby “IBM … will provide the data-storage facilities and services, and AT&T will … offer the global network that clients will use to retrieve the data,” according to the Bloomberg write up. It is the closest relationship IBM has ever had with a phone carrier.

Undoubtedly, this new model will be tapped for healthcare purposes, but it’s still speculation as to just how it will be adopted for secure exchange of patient health information. I sent out a few feelers via my social networks to see if anyone related to either IBM or AT&T could provide more detail, and got back this statement from an IBM representative: “I would assume that there will be a HIPAA compliant component. It goes without saying that the healthcare industry is a HUGE segment for IBM.”

“Huge” just might be an understatement, as IBM has stated it wants to attain $7 billion in cloud revenue by 2015. In today’s terms, that’s just one vendor making up the current market value for cloud services.

I’ll be interested to see how this plays out, especially as previously lower profile (at least in the healthcare space) technology companies like Dell and IBM, and companies like AT&T and Verizon that are more widely known in the consumer market, continue to make healthcare IT headlines.

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October 10, 2012 I Written By

As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.

Filed Under: Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Adoption  Healthcare  Healthcare IT  Meaningful Use
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