When doctors-in-training at the University of Chicago were given iPad tablet computers to use on their rounds, they found that using the device helped them be more efficient at ordering tests and procedures for their patients. The study from the university program, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, tracked 115 residents who received devices purchased by the hospital. Most residents said they cut about an hour per day off their workload. Researchers also found that the internal medicine trainees tended to put in orders for patient procedures earlier.
"The changes in the health system are rocket fuel for entrepreneurs," says venture capitalist Bob Kocher. Kocher is eyeing businesses that do things like help hospitals prevent readmissions. The opportunities within complex health care ecosystems are in things as mundane as billing. Investors in Silicon Valley understand that hospitals don't want space-age solutions for tomorrow as much as they want cheap, pragmatic products that can solve basic problems.
Computerized patient records are unlikely to cut healthcare costs and may actually encourage doctors to order expensive tests more often, a study published on Monday concludes. Research in the journal Health Affairs found that doctors using computers to track tests, like X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging, ordered far more tests than doctors relying on paper records. The study showed there was a 40 percent higher rate of image testing by doctors using electronic technology instead of paper records. The gap was even greater—a 70 percent higher rate—for more advanced and expensive image tests.
Tuesday is presidential primary day in Arizona, and while the candidates may all be elsewhere, The Grand Canyon State has its share of healthcare logjams. Indeed, last year the state legislature reduced the budget for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment Systems (AHCCCS) by $500 million, which subsequently meant foregoing nearly $1 billion in Medicaid matches, such that the total hit was $1.5 billion. And then there are "the 204 people" – as in Proposition 204. That essentially cuts childless adults who previously qualified for Medicaid.
The Cleveland Clinic is taking the next step in developing its electronic medical records system by allowing its doctors to see X-rays, laboratory tissue samples, photographs and any other image related to a patient's care. Eventually, all Clinic doctors will have systemwide access to this centralized visual repository. At MetroHealth Medical Center, patients' electronic health records provide doctors access to radiological images, such as X-rays, CT and MRI scans, and to written reports—but not images—of trauma and pathology tissues. The ongoing project at the Clinic started about six years ago with radiology, said Lannum, and it has grown to include 20 departments and a 650-terabyte disk data center.
A California company is borrowing principles of video gaming and consumer marketing to help healthcare organizations collect better data from patients. The Athena Breast Health Network is just one of the first early adopters exploring whether fun in the waiting room can translate into more thorough, more accurate patient information. The UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases has also agreed to try Tonic Health's system, and the firm is in talks with a number of "large enterprise health systems" on the East Coast and in the Midwest that are interested in jazzing up their data collection capabilities.