Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh are training a computer to decode the human mind. Their computer program can read a person's brain scan and figure out what noun he or she is thinking. The goal is to perfect the program so that it can help autistic, schizophrenic or paralyzed people. The work expands on a separate study the same scientists published showing that people's brains activate similarly when they think about the same word.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced it will give a dozen research teams up to $200,000 each for projects that will measure the effects of playing video games on the young and old. For example, researchers at Cornell University will study how a mobile phone game rewarding healthy eating and exercise will influence children's behavior, and researchers at the University of Florida will monitor how playing Playstation 2's "Crazy Taxi" affects perception in the elderly.
Earlier this year, some leading chief information officers gathered for an event that was touted by its sponsor, IT vendor Picis, as "Forward Thinking CIOs Debate Hot Issues Facing Hospitals in 2008." However, there was actually little debate—the panelists quickly reached consensus on any number of issues. They represented a diverse group of facilities, yet struck on multiple common themes.
The event showed the modern hospital CIO role as one requiring equal planting in operations and strategy. Representing San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare, Bill Spooner observed that demonstrating value to expensive IT systems would be one of his most pressing challenges in the near future. "We ought to take it as a personal challenge," he said. In the next breath, Spooner went on to note that the industry will be challenged by a new president and must cope with the growth of consumer-driven care. "If healthcare continues to consume more and more of our GDP, and our costs continue to go up, having consumers in charge of healthcare is not going to be wonderful for us."
Later, the discussion turned to the topic of system interoperability, the very cornerstone of deriving value from IT. Again, Spooner led the charge, expressing dismay that few vendors have adopted the continuity of care standard from HL7. Fellow panelist Richard McKnight, representing North Carolina-based Novant Health, echoed Spooner. "If somebody out there gets it right, we will probably crush them with new business because that is exactly what we are looking for." McKnight noted that although individual buyers lack adequate clout to compel IT vendors to adopt common standards, CIO user groups, acting collectively, could drive change. "If we continue to talk about it individually, it will take a much, much longer time, and the result will be less satisfactory."
Do I hear a call for government action in the making? Well, to be realistic, it's a long way from a CIO panel to Washington, DC. A more likely scenario might be that IT vendors listen up and act on the concerns of their customers. But even that scenario, as Spooner noted, is taking time to play out. Of course, the prospects of the "crush of new business" might get some attention in the software vendor corporate suites. Consensus has a way of making itself known.
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After three years of waiting for the IRS to approve its mechanism for disbursing millions in grants to Pittsburgh-area physicians to help them upgrade their electronic record-keeping capabilities, Highmark has announced it is tweaking the plan to get around the need for IRS clearance. In 2005, Highmark announced plans to establish a $26.5 million fund that would have distributed grants of up to $7,000. Physicians were to use the money to invest in electronic record-keeping technology. But because the money was funneled through the eHealth Collaborative before reaching the doctors, the collaborative needed to obtain tax-exempt, charitable status from the IRS.
At UMass Memorial Medical Center, an effort is underway to trim costs by using radio frequency identification, or RFID. Proponents say it might save lives and money by preventing medical mistakes and speeding the recall of defective products.
Kaiser Permanente is endorsing the drive toward consumer-controlled personal health records in a partnership with Microsoft. The partnership will begin with a pilot project open to Kaiser's 156,000 employees, which will run until November. If successful, the product linking Kaiser's patient information with Microsoft's Health Vault personal health-record service will be offered to Kaiser's 8.7 million members.