In June 2011, CareSpark's board of directors voted unanimously to terminate the nonprofit regional health information organization, which serves 17 counties in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia. "It was very devastating," said Jerry Miller, MD, founder and president of Holston Medical Group and board chairman of CareSpark, of the decision, which was announced last week. The RHIO was burdened with legacy debt and ultimately, he said, "We did not have a sustainable plan." The RHIO was unable to transition from a grant- and contract-based business model to a subscription-based model. CareSpark's message of health information exchange contributing to better outcomes and a healthier population, and reduced errors, duplicative tests and overall cost resonated with the community, but Miller rhetorically asked: "Where does the money come from to do this?" Timing, state and national politics, and the complexities of the broken healthcare system contributed to CareSpark's demise, according to Miller.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is notifying more than 2,000 patients that some of their personal information may have been stolen from a hospital computer. The hospital said yesterday that an unnamed computer service vendor had failed to restore proper security settings on a computer after performing maintenance on it. The machine was later found to be infected with a virus, which transmitted data files to an unknown location. The computer contained medical record numbers, names, genders, and birthdates of 2,021 patients, as well as the names and dates of radiology procedures they had undergone. But the computer did not contain the patients' financial data or their Social Security numbers.
Houston pediatric doctors have begun treating difficult epilepsy cases with laser surgery, a safer, less invasive alternative to opening the skull and cutting out brain lesions that cause the disease. Neurosurgeons at Texas Children's Hospital on Monday described their use of MRI-guided laser technology to destroy lesions in hard-to-access regions of the brain in six patients, all seizure-free since. They said Texas Children's is the world's first hospital to employ the technique for epilepsy. "This should open a door to curative, complication-free epilepsy surgery for both children and adults," said Daniel Curry, MD, the Texas Children's neurosurgeon who performed the surgeries. "The reduced risk and invasiveness while providing instant therapeutic effect should tip the balance in favor of laser surgery." Curry said laser surgery, already used in brain cancer patients, ultimately could become a treatment of choice for many of the nearly 1 million epileptics in the U.S. who continue to have seizures despite use of medication.
A local doctor has developed a chip that can be implanted in artificial knees, hips or other prosthetics that will relay medical information about the patient. Lee Berger, MD, an orthopedic surgeon, developed the technology after frequent experiences with patients who did not remember the information needed to get proper follow-up care. "Ortho-Tag" is a wireless chip imbedded in the prosthetic that contains information about a patient, implant, and procedure. A handheld receiver allows physicians to access information about their patient. "A patient could just have all information necessary for care available in their implant," said Berger, who has been affiliated with St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center for 25 years and The Valley Hospital for 15 in addition to having his own private practice in Fair Lawn. The Ortho-tag still has to be approved by the FDA. "We hope to have it out between six months to a year," said Berger.
If robotic surgery is the future of medicine, many in the healthcare industry would like you to know that the future is already here. In 2010, an estimated 220,000 U.S. procedures were assisted by a robotic device called the da Vinci surgical system. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration 11 years ago, da Vinci is the only equipment of its kind on the market, with more than 1,300 systems installed across the country. A surgeon operating the system sits at a console several feet away from the patient, and with the aid of a TV-like 3-D visualizer and joystick-style controls, uses the robot's arms to maneuever instruments through small incisions. It's a major change from traditional, or open, surgery, in which large incisions are made to access various parts of the body. The company that makes the system says it yields less scarring, pain and blood loss, among other benefits. And surgeons say that with its dexterity and precision, the robot's performance may be better than minimally invasive procedures done by human hand.
When an ailing heart can't move blood on its own, an implanted pump can help keep it flowing smoothly. But there's a major drawback: the power supply is large, must be housed outside the body, and is usually connected to the pump via an electric cord that runs through the abdominal wall—a source of constant irritation and potential infection. Researchers have now demonstrated a prototype wireless heart pump that eliminates the need for the cord altogether. And unlike some wireless implants, it is reliable and efficient over a range of distances, from a few centimeters to a meter or more. The pump was developed by Josh Smith, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Washington, and Pramod Bonde, a heart surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and presented at the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs' annual meeting in Washington, DC, last month.