Florida budget restraints have slowed development of an electronic system, leaving regional organizations to fend for themselves. After a push to offer grants totaling $9 million was killed, Rep. Denise Grimsley returned with a bill providing matching grants and no-interest loans to help develop a statewide health information exchange. The bill was approved 109-0 by the House, but it has not been funded.
Two researchers warn that the entry of big companies like Microsoft and Google into the field of personal health records could alter the practice of clinical research and raise new challenges to the privacy of patient information. The authors are longtime proponents of the benefits of electronic patient records, but their concern is that the medical profession and policy makers have not begun to grapple with the implications of large companies becoming the hosts for vast stores of patient information. The arrival of corporate entrants into health records promises to bring "a seismic change" in the control and stewardship of patient information, according to their research.
Over the next three years, SSM Healthcare-St. Louis will spend $330 million to connect all of its hospitals, physician clinics and patients through one information technology platform in an effort to ease administrative duties and improve patient safety. With the new system, physicians can access patients' information from home through a secure Web-based portal, through their office computers or in the hospital. Each hospital will choose the hardware nurses, doctors and other staff will use at the facility.
Medical information such as Social Security numbers, pharmacy records and other personal health data from about 130,000 WellPoint Inc. patients may have been accessed via the Internet. WellPoint said customers in several states had information exposed in the last year because two computer servers maintained by a third-party vendor "were not properly secured for a period of time." WellPoint has been notifying customers via letters.
Cerner Corp. will market a full suite of blood management software from Wyndgate Technologies along with its Millennium laboratory information system. Wyndgate is owned by Denver-based Global Med Technologies Inc., which offers several blood management products for hospitals and blood centers.
Joe D'Iorio, manager of healthcare services at Tandberg—a global provider of high-definition videoconferencing and mobile video—received the American Telemedicine Association Industry Council Award for Leadership in the Advancement of Telemedicine at the 13th Annual ATA Meeting & Exposition, held in Seattle, WA. The annual award recognized D'Iorio for his leadership in promoting telemedicine and e-health.