Health IT End of Year Loose Ends

In that random scrap heap I refer to as my memory, I’ve compiled several items not worthy of a full post, but that keep nagging me for a mention. Here are the ones that’ve surfaced:

Patient Matching. Ideally, your doc should be able to pull your records from another system like pulling cash from an ATM. The hang up is doing patient matching, which is record sharing’s last mile problem. Patients don’t have a unique identifier, which means to make sure your records are really yours your doctor’s practice has to use several cumbersome workarounds.

The 21st Century Cures Act calls for GAO to study ONC’s approach to patient matching and determine if there’s a need for a standard set of data elements, etc. With luck, GAO will cut to the chase and address the need for a national patient ID.

fEMR. In 2014, I noted Team fEMR, which developed an open source EHR for medical teams working on short term – often crises — projects. I’m pleased to report the project and its leaders Sarah Diane Draugelis and Kevin Zurek are going strong and recently got a grant from the Pollination Project. Bravo.

What’s What. I live in DC, read the Washington Post daily etc., but if I want to know what’s up with HIT in Congress, etc., my first source is Politico’s Morning EHealth. Recommended.

Practice Fusion. Five years ago, I wrote a post that was my note to PF about why I couldn’t be one of their consultants anymore. Since then the post has garnered almost 30,000 hits and just keeps going. As pleased as I am at its longevity, I think it’s only fair to say that it’s pretty long in the tooth, so read it with that in mind.

Ancestry Health. A year ago September, I wrote about Ancestry.com’s beta site Ancestry Health. It lets families document your parents, grandparents, etc., and your medical histories, which can be quite helpful. It also promised to use your family’s depersonalized data for medical research. As an example, I set up King Agamemnon family’s tree. The site is still in beta, which I assume means it’s not going anywhere. Too bad. It’s a thoughtful and useful idea. I also do enjoy getting their occasional “Dear Agamemnon” emails.

Jibo. I’d love to see an AI personal assistant for PCPs, etc., to bring up related information during exams, capture new data, make appointments and prepare scripts. One AI solution that looked promising was Jibo. The bad news is that it keeps missing its beta ship date. However, investors are closing in on $100 million. Stay tuned.

 

About the author

Carl Bergman

When Carl Bergman isn't rooting for the Washington Nationals or searching for a Steeler bar, he’s Managing Partner of EHRSelector.com.For the last dozen years, he’s concentrated on EHR consulting and writing. He spent the 80s and 90s as an itinerant project manager doing his small part for the dot com bubble. Prior to that, Bergman served a ten year stretch in the District of Columbia government as a policy and fiscal analyst, a role he recently repeated for a Council member.

   

Categories